THE LOSS OF FC GOA IN ISL SOCCER.

With regret I write this piece expressing my feelings on the humiliating defeat FC Goa suffered  on 13th of this month at Chennai, from Chennaiyin. When Goa lost in the penultimate encounter in Madras in the Santosh Trophy for the first time after the invasion  of Goa by Bharat, the national Press commented thus, “though Goa lost yet Indian soccer has to learn a lot from Goa that displayed totally different brand of soccer”.  During that time Goa had great stalwarts in its team of which type we don’t see any more now. Can we get another right outer like Vassu? Can we see another goal-keeper like Benzinho? Can we get another deep defender like Menino Figueredo? Can we ever again get another Andrew? Today Goa hardly have a few players worthy of admiration and because of this now FC  Goa plays with more non Goans who it looks are least bothered to give their best for their temporarily adopted place, they looked like playing only for the sake of money. In fact today it is money that plays foot-ball. The non-Goan players have  already crossed their prime and since most of them looks rejected in their countries and regions, they came to Goa.  

Besides Mandar nobody seen giving his life for FC Goa that was totally outplayed by the host in every department of the game.  All the three goals  of the host were wonderful but the first scored by Jeje had class in itself, it was a world class header. Goa’s passing was slow and erratic; in the beginning they controlled the ball  in the midfield only.  However, both the Goan defenders standing in between Jeje are to be blamed for not doing serious attempt  to jump first only to head the ball away.  Neither the custodian of Goa came out to jump and punch the ball for safety.

The defense of Goa was slow and vulnerable, their marking was poor, it was neither zonal nor man to man.  I don’t know who selected the outstation players and on what basis? The owner of FC Goa it looks like interested only in promoting thru FC Goa his Casino business and wooing Goans towards his Casinos.  Because of this FC Goa soccer team the owner of the Casino who run the FC Goa succeeded in brainwashing the Goans in general to accept the sinful money making venture.  The owner of FC Goa wants nothing except the acceptance of Casinos in Goa by the Goans and that is what he does precisely. He is not interested in the promotion of Goan soccer by creating proper infrastructure and base for producing talented Goan players. Even during those days Portuguese promoted Goans but now under the Indian domination Goans are neglected. Non Goan persons like him must know that they are using the name of Goa which has great tradition of displaying finest soccer and this image of Goa should not be altered.

It is a shame that FC Goa is represented by very few Goans, even during Portuguese time Goa was represented with more players inspite of having exceptionally talented Portuese players.  The overall quality of the non-Goan players playing for FC Goa is low, I am sure if properly searched there would be better players in Goa to play for Goan outfit than many of the currently donning the clours of FC Goa, from outside Goa.

A.Veronica Fernandes

SAD DEMISE OF EX-KUWAITCAR XAVIER MENDES

With my heart crying, I write this piece  with deep sorrow and chagrin on the sad demise of our friend, colleague and strong supporter of Goan causes including that of Konkani language. Xavier Mendes yesterday at GMC Bambolim, Goa. Xavier Mendes came to Kuwait somewhere in 1979 after his younger brother Derick and  later on their elder brother Felix too joined them in late seventies. When they all the three brothers came to Kuwait, they started taking part in our Tiatros organized in Kuwait mainly in the Church Hall and Keefan Hall. When I established my contact with all the three brothers who were staying together as a very well knit family with strong  bond of which type nowadays one rarely sees,  I disclosed my idea to all the Mendes brothers of financing from Kuwait the starting of peoples daily in Konkani that was christened as ‘NOVEM GOEM”. Xavier Mendes along with his other two brothers younger Derick and the elder Felix gave me strong booster to go ahead. Then I said we will organize 1 or 2 Tiatros to raise fund for this daily and I told them every artiste will have to act free of charge, for this proposal they immediately agreed and not only they but even all others acted free except Musicians who were very adamant and arrogant towards the Konkani cause. Finally we organized two Tiatros for this cause without paying a paisa to the artistes, for both these Tiatros Xavier Mendes along with his other 2 bothers shouldered major responsibility to make these Tiatros successful.

Xavier Mendes seen addressing a Meeting in Kuwait

After some years, Xavier Mendes stopped acting in Tiatros because he got himself involved very deeply in the Church affairs in different fields whence the era of Mendes Bros. came to a halt. By being involved in the Church circle he helped the Church in organizing Choir and other religious activities.  It was during this period he got married to his wife Theresa who is a very kind and loving person, they have two children, one son and a daughter.

Then after a long gap I requested  Xavier Mendes to take part in the Show we organize at Indian Embassy Auditorium in honour of Fr. Gabriel Dias as a farewell to him since he was leaving Kuwait after serving Kuwait about 7 years.  With Xavier Mendes saying ok, other two brothers also joined him to make this Show a great success. As a farewell gift to Fr. Gabriel, Xavier Mendes composed a beautiful song on Fr. Gabriel which was rendered by all the three brothers very beautifully. In fact  Xavier Mendes was very smart as far as singing part is concerned.  He was doing comedy role along with his younger brother Derrick and they both creating peals of laughter in the audience  while the elder brother Felix playing the role of a decent man which with his majestic personality he used to perform beautifully. 

Xavier Mendes’ besides Stage and Church roles, used to take part in many of the activities for the cause of Goa and Goans and as a matter of fact he was an asset for us while in Kuwait especially during the Konkani movement.  He was always a source of encouragement for me, almost in all the activities that we organized in Kuwait for the cause of Goa and Goans.

The Trio of Mendes Bros. Xavier in the middle

In Kuwait while doing comedy roles he used to perform cabaret dance so perfectly well that one was at a loss to recognise that he was the real Xavier Mendes.  With his empty mouth in the manner of whistling, he used to play Trumpet just like the original Trumpet. When he along with his other two brothers first time came on the Stage after his father’s death, the legendary comedian Anthony Mendes, he created sensation mainly because people noticed a lot of resemblance in him and his late father. He is by nature very innovative creating something or the other while playing his role.  He was perfect in doing the mimicry by imitating the voices of many persons.

      Seen extreme left is Xavier Mendes attending the public function in Kuwait.

Once he told me that their coming on to the Konkani Stage was because of the death of their father when they were young still in the school because their father was opposing them to become Tiatrists. During those days Tiatrists enjoyed no respect in the society, most of them were drunkards and womenisers and afflicted with other vices.  But if their father was alive now, he would be surprised to know that all his three sons maintaining  high profile and dignified discipline.  By moving with Xavier and his other brothers too, I found they are very decent, disciplined and of high character personalities. The way Xavier along with his other 2 brothers behaved in society, they don’t look like ordinary tiatrists but extra-ordinary human beings.    

A. Veronica Fernandes.

SICK PARRICAR MUST RESIGN IMMEDIATELY.

It is certain now that Parricar is not trusting anyone in his cabinet to be the acting CM during his medical treatment in USA. This shows that in his circle in the ruling segment there is not a singles  MLA nor a single Minister who is sincere, faithful and trustworthy.  The quality of some of them was exposed when they jumped from their original ranks to Parricar’s arms though earlier they were using all the dirty names against Parricar.  Because of power and money, these robbers will even sell their wives and daughters and that they are capable of committing such disgraceful acts was proved beyond any doubt when they embraced Parricar in the formation of the present Government. I call them robbers because some of them have robbed us of the trust we posed in them. We worked for them to get them elected but once they got elected they have bastardised their conscience by joining BJP. Not only this, they have even disgraced the so called high caste status of themselves. Because of them we created enemies for us and these enemies are laughing at us and we became like jokers.

 It is yet another evidence that in Goa there is not a single hospital where one can count on any emergency treatment for any serious case.  The hosannas sung on GMC Bambolim by the Ranes and Kamats and others whose assessment of Parricars and his BJP party was correct? I have my own doubts that it is the best hospital equipped with best of doctors and best of facilities to deal with any type of sickness, now turned out to be a hoax. There is nothing extra ordinary in Goan hospitals, neither in the Private nor Government to give good treatment for the patients otherwise, sick person like Parricar would not sprint to Mumbai and from there to USA which is a Christian country that does not discriminate on religious basis.  

That Parricar knew what his sickness was and yet he told the Goans in the beginning itself that it was a food poisoning case, is difficult to absorb. This sickness what he is having is not from yesterday but associated with him since some time now.  But why the Parricar government is afraid to toe the line of his extremist mentors !!  These extremists in the BJP are the big headache because they are not interested in the development of Goa but they are interested in spreading communal virus to discriminate against each other on the basis of religions and caste. It is a pity that Parricar belonged to the religious entity where it is full of obstacles based on Caste system. It is precisely because of these differences and obstacles where a full-fledged Indian is denied his full-freedom. This type of religion I will always refuse. 

Because of these differences and discriminations even in their Temples, Dr. Ambedcar fought against them and along with lakhs of people from his community rebelled against Hinduism and embraced BUDISM. The Congress Party is not to the BJP extent, BJP wants to create a fear complex into the minds of minority who are treated as second class citizens of Goa, the migrants and Ghantees are brought to one step ahead of Goans and precisely because of these discriminations there is not much development in our State. This development in Goa and elsewhere will never come because our current political leaders are parochial in their mindset that force them to think and act thus:  They are Christians – that means, deny them good facilities.   They are Muslims – treat them as terrorists. Hence our priority is not Development but communalism and casteism.  Unless we go all out for development we will never change ourselves.   

It is not correct of Parricar not to relinquish his job as CM and entrust the task to anyone from his Cabinet or colleagues. It is very risky to function as CM from USA and especially when we still don’t know whether he is mentally sound or not.  If Parricar thinks he is inevitable then he is sadly mistaken. Parsenkar proved earlier that things can move smoothly even without Parricar’s physical presence.

It is in his blood to exhibit his arrogance and pride with the intention of showing that he is omnipotent and others are unfit. That he is Godse-ian Bamon is a fact. In fact for such people to call themselves as Bamon and shamelessly take pride in their Bamonponn,  these bloody Bamonn are so cunning that their Bamonnponn is the curse on them because their Bamonnponn is equated with cunningness and chicanery.  These bloody  Bamonn should be never trusted because they are cunning, they have anger on minorities, they will marry with the girls form their own caste but shamelessly keep the concubines from Mahar or Kunbi caste.  This is the quality of these Bamonn. When there is Sex, they will sleep with the female from the lowest caste and for doing this sacrilegious act they will never feel afraid and never feel shy also to commit the acts of Satan because they are filled with Satanic power and influence. However,  the qualitative Brahmins will always act upright but where are they now? During my last so many years, with a lighted Lantern in my hand and exactly like the great Greek Philosopher Diogenes, when the Sun was directly overhead, I went all around to see whether I can get the qualitative Brahmins. They are coming to extinction.

As a Goan I feel sorry for Parricar for his decision to rule Goa from America, and as a Goan I have my fear that he will make all mess of Goa from USA and  as such he should resign immediately otherwise Governor must strip Parricar from the post of CM.  I am more interested in the health of Goa rather than that of Parricar.  Parricars may come and Parricars may go and by his going heaven will not fall but the health of Goa should remain perfect. Parricar sould not think Goa is his personal property. 

                           

 A.Veronica Fernandes,