SHAMELESS NRI AWARDEES.
At an outset, let me answer my own question lest it is misunderstood and misinterpreted. Who are these “Shameless Awardees”? Yes, they are the ones who undeservingly received these NRI awards recently in Goa. I am referring to them. Those who deservingly accepted these awards I congratulate them and feel proud that their efforts in the service of the community cause have been rightly recognized even though there is nothing extra ordinary in these awards because these awards giving organization headed by Eduardo Faleiro is the most shameless organization among all the organizations in Goa. This organization is simply frittering away the tax payers’ money by organizing such useless functions in doling undeserving awards to some stupid NRI’s. Last year this organization spent lakhs of rupees in doling these awards to unworthy Goykars whose contribution in the service of Goa and Goans was known only to Eduardo Faleiro. As per my information, this year’s selection was done on the basis of the “chamchageri” done by some of the recipients during the last visit of NRI forum’s personnel in the Gulf. Some of those who sprinted to welcome Eduardo Faleiro and his delegation with bouquets of flowers were the ones who got selected first without scrutinizing their work in the community cause. Some of the others who were selected were on the basis of the expensive gifts doled to NRI forum personnel; this is what people are talking here.
The other opinion of the people here is this that even sex was exchanged to please the awarders and this I believe because I know some of our people very well what is their character. Overwhelming majority of our people is from lower strata of Goan society who were deprived of prominence in life in Goa. Only in the Gulf most of them got identity and prominence. Because of ancestral inferiority and deficiency these people craved for honour. Once in late seventies when I was regularly contributing reviews of our soccer in Kuwait to both the local English Dailies, one person told me directly, “Veronica, I can leave my wife with you, for you, if you publish my photo as a main organizer of the soccer team”. When I asked him “will your wife agree?” He retorted, “don’t worry, by all means she loves to see her husband’s photo in the newspaper as somebody”. I felt shy and silently withdrew from him. Why this type of servility? It is only because of fake and empty and of course undeserving honours our people are craving for.
A few years back I was chosen by the prestigious Writers Guild to receive the award of best writer/orator/promoter of the Guild. But immediately I went to the Chairman and declined this award saying “I don’t deserve this honour because in our Guild there are much better members than myself for this award”. In fact there were gigantic persons in our Guild, males and females, Europeans, Americans, Pakistanis, Indians, South East Asians and other nationalities. I was the only Goan and was playing the second fiddle role in the Guild assisting the Chairman in the organizational field. The Chairman was reluctant to accept my version but I insisted because I did not want to take away for me which belonged to somebody and of course “deservingly to somebody” and not deservingly to me. Accepting this honour undeservingly would put me into the category of robbers, cheats and cheap persons. I don’t care for awards and honours. Receiving awards I have been accustomed from the very early age of course thru the medium of sports namely soccer and athletics. However, later on Writers Guild deservingly conferred on me an award of Best Organiser.
A few months back I was honoured and awarded by Konkani Kullvar Kuwait – a Mangalorean Konkani organization, for my outstanding work in Konkani field from Kuwait for the cause of Konkani. When its Chairman Lancy Pinto Nayak first told me of my selection, I outrightly declined to accept it on the grounds that there may be better persons than me and asked Lancy to check first whether I really qualify for this honour. He answered saying that there is nobody in Kuwait whose contribution in the promotion of Konkani is better than that of mine. Only after long deliberations I condescended and that too only when Lancy a great Konkani literary figure and Konkani Academy Award winner convinced me that I am the right choice, I accepted this honour.
Coming back to NRI awards, most of the awardees in the Gulf are undeserving as per the peoples reaction. In Abu Dhabi Mr. Jerry Call from Calangute has done wonderful job for the promotion of Goan causes from the time of fund collection for Goa Cancer Hospital. He was instrumental in gaining awakening for Konkani movement, Konkani Martyrs Fund, spreading the Tiatro in UAE, providing employment for many Goans and many such activities. In mid eighties I toured UAE on my own for campaigning for the cause of Konkani. He along with his wife Theresa from The British Bank of the Middle East made excellent arrangement for the big meeting held at India Social Centre in Abu Dhabi. Why Jerry was not selected when he did so much for the cause of Konkani and Goa from Abu Dhabi? If Konkani movement got success, it is mainly because of the Gulf Goans like me, Jerry Call, Young Fernandes in Dubai and many more in other parts of the Gulf. And because of the success of the Konkani movement, Goa got statehood and was saved from the clutches of Maharasta. Those who worked for Konkani have worked for the real cause of Goa and they are the real patriots of Goa. They have liberated Goa from the invasion of Maharastra that invaded Goa thru MGP of Bandodkar. It is they who deserve all the instituted awards for the greater cause and greater glory of Goa and not those shameless undeserving awardees who have prostituted the credibility of these awards.
According to one source, Eduardo Faleiro selected Goans for this year’s awards mostly whom he encountered only recently, mainly during his last visit to the Gulf. Some of them used their “Muska Polish” to get them in better books with Faleiro because he is totally ignorant of the real standings of the people in the Gulf, especially in Kuwait otherwise he would not give these awards to undeserving Goans. One of the Kuwait awardees was a member of Kuwait Goan Evacuees Society. This Society printed huge quantity of big posters for the election campaign of Eduardo Faleiro in Goa during the invasion of Kuwait. This Society collected huge funds from Kuwait Evacuees with the promise to send them back to Kuwait after the liberation of Kuwait. But, instead, this huge amount was used to print the posters of Eduardo Faleiro. Hence, possibly, in order to please him, Eduardo Faleiro doled him one of the Kuwait’s awards?
Otherwise how can a person involved in asking Sex from young girls in exchange of job qualify for this NRI award? Otherwise how can a person taking almost a crore of Indian rupees from the community organization and deposit it in his name in partnership with two other colleagues of his? There is totally a foul play in selecting these awardees. Moreover, these awardees have no shame even to accept these awards when they don’t deserve the same. Just to give this award to any Altu-Faltu person whose contributions for the community cause is much lower than that of others is a crime. Just to give this award to any “kalcho porcho potto” in Kuwait is like making a joke of this award and only jokers can give such awards to such Goans and only jokers can accept them selfishly and shamelessly as some of them have accepted. And as far as Kuwait is concerned, none of them deserve these awards. If at all they got them, they should know that this is a charity Eduado Faleiro has done for them or as Bokxis given to them by Eduardo Faleiro.
Everybody knows recently how Goan singer Remo Fernandes rejected the prestigious Goa State Award. Remo Fernandes refused to accept this award from the corrupt Goa Government. By doing so Remo Fernandes proved to be the real son of his real father. You require courage to do this and high principle. NRI Forum in Goa headed by Eduardo Faleiro is a corrupt forum wasting crores of rupees from Goan tax payers on this frivolous extravaganza. NRI Forum according to my information is created by Goa Congress Government to feed and provide public platform for Eduardo Faleiro. Can any of our awardees like Remo Fernandes reject these awards from the corrupt NRI Forum? From last year itself we came to know that this NRI Forum is a corrupt organization when it doled these awards to unworthy Goans. This is enough proof to qualify this NRI Forum into a corrupt organization.
NRI awards is a good concept and it should be encouraged but its should be done in a right way. How can by sleeping in Goa Eduardo Faleiro and his team knows who is deserving and who is not? Many of the things Eduardo Faleiro does not know from his own village Raia and how he will know what is actually happening in Kuwait and other parts of the Gulf? This NRI forum in Goa and its activities are financed by the Goa Government. Goa Government runs its activities from the tax payers’ money. This money should not be unnecessarily wasted foolishly by making ill use of it. As tax payers the public got all the rights to question Eduardo Faleiro and the activities of NRI Forum. I don’t know why opposition parties and its leaders are keeping their silence over this in Goa. In a separate mail, I have written to Sonia Gandhi and to other top officials in Delhi to make them aware how Congress Government in Goa is doing nonsense thru Eduardo Faleiro whose capacity to deliver goods in right direction has already been exhausted. It is time for him to retire from public life. If he does this earlier the better it is.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
