48TH MADDO FESTIVAL IN GOA.

The first day of the 48^th edition of Manddo Festival was held yesterday at Kala Academy Hall, Panjim, starting at 5.20 pm.  It was organized by Goa Cultural  and  Social Centre in collaboration with Dept. of Art and Culture and Kala Academy Goa.

 

Total number of Manddes from different groups of Goa yesterday participated were 19 and this programme lasted almost for 4 long hours.  The entire proceedings were compered by Dr. Bikaji Ghanekar, Agnel de Borim, Ms Nifa de Silva and Ms Shakira S.  Dr. Bikaji Ghanekar has been compeering since the time of inception year of Manddo Festival 48 years back and still going strong though ageing physically while his other three colleagues also brought extra colours to this function.

 

Dance category

 

Yesterday’s proceedings devided into the Children Category, Teenagers, Adults and Senior Citizens.

 

The groups that  participated were from Carmona, Porvorim, Velim, Chinchinnim, Cortalim, Mapusa, Taleigao, Aquem, St. Xaviers College – Mapusa, Verna,  Little Flower of Jesus School Calangute and Siolim. 

 

 

Siolim Manddo was among the best yesterday and Mr. Carvalho the lead singer sang extremely well.  He is the son of legendary Siolim based musician the late Joazinho Carvalho who was the leader of the then famous Goan Band, Johnson and His Jolly Boys. Joaozinho  also played Violin for Congottchim Lahram and Candolimchim Kirna and many times received first prizes for his beautiful musical score. Siolim has got unique distinction of producing the  great musicians of Goa including the great late Anthony D’Souza. Siolim was  also the home of one the greatest Mandoists of Goa,  the late Cruz Noronha whose Manddos are priceless now.

 

Guests with the organisers 

In the youngsters category, Little Flower students of Calangute performed well to maintain the high tradition laid down by the then Congottchim Lahram under the leadership of the late great Mnddo promoter Fausto Andrade who had in his group the majestic singer and  Mandoist, the late Souza Giao.

 

The dance category Manddo performed by Aquem group deserved compliments for dishing out a wonderful performance. 

 Senior Citizens from Carmona

Costumewise yesterday’s performers maintained the rich tradition of Manddo Festivals but performancewise the quality was nowhere what it was in sixties and seventies though every group gave its  best to maintain the high standard.

Attendancewise, the response was not encouraging as it was in earlier days when one could not see any empty chair in the Hall. 

Siolim Group. Mr. Carvalho at extreme left

 

It was very heartening to see the females mainly the youngsters playing musical instruments, namely Violin and Guitar with lot of enthusiasm.

 

The Chief Guest yesterday was Parsenkar the Chief Minister of Goa and his cabinet collegue Nilesh Cabral was the guest of honour.

In his brief speech the Chief Minister applauded the tremendous efforts put in by the organizers to organize this festival and assured his government’s assistance in future.

 

A. Veronica Fernandes,

Candolim - Goa.

Tel: 7507394349.

 

 

CANDOLIM GRAM SABAH.

By Special Correspondent.

On Sunday, 07^th of this month, a special Gram Sabah was held in Candolim in the morning, attended by around one hundred villagers.  Against  the logic of the necessity of the presence of the required quorum of one third of the total number of voters, the Meet started without even giving the grace time. At starting point only A. Veronica Fernandes fired a salvo by asking the Chair “how and who authorized Agnel Fernandes the defeated MLA of Calangute constituency hailing from Candolim,  to occupy the seat at the dais along with the other Panch Members?  What was his role at the dais when he has no authority to be among the Panch Members when he is nobody in the Panchayat and who authorized him to sit there?”  This question came because A. Veronica found Agnel Fernandes occupying the Seat at the dais among the Panch Members. Stunned with a total silence in the Hall for a few moments, the Sarpanch Ms Sandra got up and replied thus: “ Along with Agnel Fernandes, the Panchayat has also requested other ex Sarpanchas for this important meeting" and one of them was Tomazinho Cardoso who addressed the Meet on the request of the Panchayat.

Though the agenda of the Meeting was PDA that is whether the Candolim villagers want PDA or Not, yet the other topics were also raised by the attendees.  Jose Marie Vaz raised the issue of the inefficiency of the Sarpanch to handle the grievances of the villagers and instead she 5 times sent him to Agnel Fernandes when Agnel is nobody in the Panchayat.  From here it looks Sarpanch and other Panchas are impotent making Agnel Fernandes to control the affairs of the Panchayat thru remote control.  This system had to be stopped and Agnel  must accept the fact that officially he is nobody in the village, he does not represent the villagers in anything.  

Tomazinho Cardoso surprisingly re-surfacing in the Panchayat almost after 2 decades  spoke in favour of retaining Panchayat as it is.  He said he finds something fishy in bringing only the two villages Candolim and Calangute under the umbrella of PDA while leaving intact the other costal and surrounding villages. He said builders lobby will take control of the village land if Candolim is brought under the control of PDA.  In fact, all the illegal and rampant constructios in Candolim started when Tomazinho Cardoso ruled the village and later on when he handed over his Baton to his successor to do more damage to the village under the Congress Umbrella.  Who is responsible for the creation of Ghanttianchi Araddy for the sake of their Votes?  Who is responsible to license the top builders to construct buildings even in the fields as it is being done in Saipem and elsewhere?   Is it not by the current Panchayat authority remotely controlled by its Godfather?  If Candolim is to be saved from the gulp of non-Goans, Ghanttis and Migrant workers then all the guilty politicians should be kicked out of their power. They know only to harass the locals on flimsy ground.

Without even proper approach roads and infrastructure as per the law, the Candolim Panchayat has issued licences for big builders to build their empires.  Candolim Panchayat without any proper planning issued licences to build Settlements of Migrants thereby upsetting the demographic structure not only of  Candolim but also of Goa.  With the blessing of the Panchayat, Candolim village is becoming like Judaism in Palestine. The nuisance of big Hotel in Candolim at Pintos Vaddo, next to the Holy Cross Mandd,  because of the loud music it plays, disturbs the peace in the whole area thereby denying peace to the students to do their studies, sleep to the aged people at Azilo and commotion on the main road next to this Hotel.  This commotion on the main public road happens because of the parking of the Hotel  vehicles there.  It was the duty of the Panchayat to check on this before giving license to construct this Hotel.  But Panchayat failed in this matter thus putting the local interest into jeopardy. Those who voted this Panchayat must be aware that they made a big mistake by electing this Panchayat that gives priority for the big Hoteliers’ interest.

When voted, the resolution was passed in favour of retaining Panchayat.  Panchayat brought Tomazino Cardoso in a fishy manner to speak in favour of  Panchayat  but Panchayat failed to bring somebody to speak on good effects of PDA.  When one of the attendees Mickey Fernandes asked the Panchayat to describe and elaborate the functions of the PDA, surprisingly there was no answer.  When Mickey at one point of time asked the Panch Member Fermino to stop answering to the audience when Sarpanch is there, the Sarpanch said that she authorized Fermino to do so.  Is it not ridiculous for the Sarpanch to abdicate her responsibility when she is present in the House?  If she is incapable to handle her responsibility then she must resign gracefully.   However, as per the law, if any villager feels to oppose this resolution on sound ground, he can file his complaint with the director of Panchayat within 30 days.  

The way in an unplanned manner with scant respect for ecology, rules and regulations the constructions are allowed in Candolim by local Panchayat, the PDA if existed would never have allowed.   

    

THE EXPOSITION AND GOENCHO SAIB.

On 3^rd of this of this month I went to Old Goa for the Feast of Goencho Saib and attended the Mass at 5.00 pm.  After the Mass I went around to see how things are working there.  I was very much surprised to see with my own eyes how some of the anti-Christians are selling their goods by invoking the name of Goencho Saib.  One of them was telling “Baba Chonne Gheiat, Goencho Saib tumkam borem magtolo, etc”.  However this same man a non-Christian was acting like a hard core anti-Christian fanatic against Christians in Goa some time back. This type of people wants Goencho Saib and Christian festivals only to make money for them by marketing their goods during the Christian Feasts and thus make money for them.  Otherwise they don’t want Christians and Christianity in Goa.  These non-Chrsitians are traitors and for the sake of money they will do anything even they will sell their wives and daughters as many of them did during the Portuguese rule in Goa and thus got franchises for them to start and develop their business empires.

It is a wrong notion that during the Portuguese rule in Goa Christians were dominating in trade and commerce, but in reality it was just the opposite.  Almost the entire commercial activities were monopolized by the non-Chrsitians, even the employment in government sector was in greater number manned by the non-Christians. The majority of Christians remained only for “Beber – Comer & Dansar”.  Good that foreign shores opened their doors for Goans otherwise Goan Christians in Goa would never develop financially. Our show is only external.

One of the reasons for Goan Christians to remain backward was the weak leadership given to the faithful by our Goa Church.  Our Church is not encouraging and guiding the faithful in right direction to make a headway economically for this reason almost the entire commercial sector is owned by the non-Chrsitians. We need a Sayedna of Bohras at Altinho Panjim and not a Ferrao.  The financial might of the Catholics in Goa is only of cosmetic nature.   Though some of the financially mighty Goans are Christians who collected huge finance not thru legal hard work but thru "goondagir" and thru illicit manner.   

During my stay in Kuwait for a long period I helped many Goan priests for fund raising for their projects in Goa but none of the visiting priests encouraged and advised Kuwait Goans  to involve in commerce in Goa.  Instead they encouraged us in Kuwait to help them financially todevelop their business ventures.  The more money they get from the faithful the more they want.  Most of them are only interested in filling their coffers and live the life of Maharajas with sin, filth and vulgarity.  Priesthood for many of them is a very good vocation to live the life of pomp and sin.  It is these people who are disgracing the fair image of Christ.  

The way the commercial and financial activities going on at Old Goa in the name of Exposition of Goencho Saib it looks that the sole purpose of this Exposition is of making money.  Church is also making money but non-Christians are minting money.  There at Old Goa now a days it looks there is no reverence and respect for Goencho Saib but reverence and greed for money only thus demoting the holiness of Goencho Saib.  For many of the non-Goans,  Old Goa is like a place of Tamasha and Goencho Saib is somebody like a “Jadugar” or Actor not meant to pay reverence and adoration.  Their behavior is like an insult not only to Goencho Saib but alsso to the Catholicims in Goa.

I feel this system of Exposition in every ten years should come to an end and instead the relics of St. Francis Xavier should be kept open permanently.  Otherwise, the way things are going on at Old Goa, the value of Goencho Saib will be abig joke.

A.     Veronica Fernandes,

Candolim, Goa.

Tel. 7507394349.