GOAN CATHOLICS ARE PATRIOTIC.

This is to thank Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas for openly voicing out the hardships Catholic community is facing in Goa, on 3^rd of this month at Old Goa feast while delivering his sermon. In the past no Catholic Leader of the Goa Church gathered courage to preach like this. My compliments to Bishop Mascharenhas. Our Church since te invasion of Goa by Bharat on 19.12.61 is living in fear of the majority community because our Church leaders have no trust in Indian SECULARISM though it is constitutional.  Secondly, many in the majority community are become communal.  Any humiliation, any hardship and any discomfort to Catholics in Goa are silently absorbed by the Catholic Church leadership in Goa without even a murmur openly. When Catholics were put into inconvenience, leader of Catholicism in Philippines revolted against the government of Ferdinand Marcos.  So did Fr. Torres in South America. So much so, Fr. Torres turned like a Terrorist against government machinery there to protect his Christian duty to serve the downtrodden.

Bishop Mascarenhas said “Catholic Church  and  its community is a faithful and a peace loving community involved in nation building”. Moreover, Catholic community is a strong patriotic community not only in Goa but also in India.  If not then General Francis Sunit Rodrigues a Goan would not have been elevated to the position of Army Chief of India and the other Christians namely Admirals Ronnie Pereira and Stan Dawson would not serve as chiefs of the naval staff and Air Chief Marshall Denis de la Fontaine as chief of air staff.  The greatest patriots among Goans who fought for Goa’s freedom from colonial rule were Goan Catholics like Pintos & Abe Faria from Candolim and Parliamentarian Francis Luis Gomes from Navelim.  Moreover, the Pintos were Catholic Priests who indicated greatest patriotism for Goa than for their vocation.

   

Our Church authority is afraid that its protest over unfair treatment to Catholics may be misunderstood because those who put fear in Catholics in Goa feel they are more Indians and Christians are less. Unfortunately, in Goa there is no leader from our community to fight for us openly but rightly.   Even the late Mathanay Saldanha the Cabinet Minister on whom we were counting so much remained a silent spectator when Parricar dismantled Christian holidays. And regretfully, currently there is not a single MLA in BJP group on whom Christians can count on their open support. They look so slavish that to please Parsencar and Parricar they would condescend to any level.

I admire Bishop Mascarenhas for being open and vocal in putting forth our grievances. It is time for Christians now to be assertive of their rights forcefully and peacefully. By opening our mouth if  our Church authority feels it is useless then by closing our mouth it is any better?   

Goan Christians are great patriots, their patriotism and their contributions in the development of Goa and India should be highlighted in the Church sermons regularly and also taught in the Diocesan schools so that they are known for what they did for Goa. The new and young generation of Goans are not well aware of what our  elder Christians have done for the cause of Goa.

 A.Veronica Fernandes.

 

                

NEW AUDIO CD "GOLMAAL" OF FRANCIS DE TUEM.

Currently the most popular Tiatrist and the topmost political singer and script writer/director Francis de Tuem,  last week released his 12^th new Konkani Audio CD consisting of 13 songs. All these 13 songs are composed by Francis de Tuem and the musical score was beautifully provided by Maestro Joaquim D’Souza and his troupe.  It is very pleasing to the ears that give an extra booster to this Album. From these 13 songs 9 excellent solos are excellently rendered by Francis de Tuem on different topics mainly political.  The remaining songs namely Duo, Trio and Quarter rendered by the currently best singers of Konkani Stage, namely Bushka, Lawry Travasso, Marcus Vaz and Xavier Gomes besides Comedian Selvy and Baba Levi.  Qualitatively this CD is much higher than the others available in the market at the moment and precisely because of this its sale is going very well.

Bushka rendered one very interesting solo in a serene voice on the topic that one husband in India recently carried the dead body of his wife on his shoulders in the absence of Ambulance in the hospital. It described the very pathetic situation existing in some parts of India. This news highlighted by the national media put India into shame especially Parricar who ironically rates India higher than Pakistan when India does not even care for the dead body. 

Xavier Gomes sang one solo on the ill effect of “Smart Phone” on Children which is very philosophical while Lawry Travasso rendered his solo on Life Enjoyment,  meaning: we must enjoy life when we are young.  One beautiful and meaningful Duo “Maim” on the greatness of one’s real mother was rendered by Francis de Tuem and Baba Levi while another Duo “Madd” on Coconut converted into Grass was rendered by Francis de Tuem and Selvy.  It is a hard hitting song against government. The trio on “F.C. Goa” in particular and football in general is an excellent one and it was rendered by Francis de Tuem-Marcus Vaz-Lawry Travasso which contained lot of important information on origin and original place of football, contribution of Arpora School in Goan soccer under its founder and founder Principal Fr. Lyons etc. This was composed after a thorough study of this subject.  It is historical and informative as well.

The title song “Golmaal” rendered by Franca de Tuem with a chorus sarcastically descrbes the mess government made in Goa. It is a perfect mockery of the chicanery of BJP government in Goa.  One of the all time best songs in this CD is “Sant Antonio” rendered by Francis de Tuem.  Its composition is great and historical as well and its musical score is fantastic, Violin steals the whole show. It mentions miraculous St. Antonio Church at Siolim.  This song should be a great gift of Francis de Tuem to the people of Siolim and also to the devotees of St.Antonio.   It tells that He was “Portugalchea  Lisboa ghanvant to zolmolo, Italia Padua ghanvant ontorlo, moron ekach vorsa bhitor Sant zalo”.

 

The Trio “Dettol se Dho” is very piercing against Government, rendered by Francis de Tuem-Lawry Travasso-Marcus Vaz. It describes many ugly incidents committed by the BJP government.  It is worth listening and it exposes certain hidden incidents committed by the BJP government.

“Question Mark” is yet another very interesting song rendered by  Francis de Tuem which resembles Kid Boxer’s songs full of “Mhonneo, Ghoddneo ani Vopari”. It is very rich in “Vopari, Mhonneo and natural Ghoddneo”. Examples: “Kombo poilo ou Tantem poilem, Question mark”.  Sogleam sukneank ami postat pun Kanvleak kiteak possinant, question mark”.  Sogleo pikleleo vostu zoddtat pun Khadd kiteak zoddonant”. “Chani xempddi aloun kiteak roddta, question mark”. I enjoyed it very much.

Another very interesting solo rendered by Francis de Tuem is “Radie TV Fodda” in which the singer hits very hard those who came to hit him at Margao when the RoseFerns Tiatro was in progress. In this song the singer directly blames Mickey Mouse saying those goondas, (te goonda Mickey Mouse-an daddleat mhonn  koule”, te Mickey Mouse-ache munis civildad naslole), came to hit him.  It is very powerful and daring song. It also discloses the incident where his wife was involved in confrontation on the Stage and because of this he openly apologized.     

BRICS is another powerful solo by Francis de Tuem on the recently held international Meet  in South Goa because of which some development took place especially of Roads. He also compares this Meet with CHOGM eldin Goa at Snquerim TAJ some years back.

“Goenchi Douot” is the last but very beautiful song Francis de Tuem sings describing how the mining wealth of Goa is controlled by a few businessmen instead of sharing it with all Goans.  It is very informative solo which gives you details of how Goa’s wealth is looted by the very few.

A.Veronica Fernandes.

INDIA - PAKISTAN WAR CLOUDS.

These days, BJP government at the Centre is creating artificial clouds of war against Pakistan giving an impression that war is the only solution to stop Pakistan from waging a proxy war against India thru the terrorists who are constantly creating problems for India especially in Kashmir.

First of all, let me say openly that I strongly condemn Pakistan for helping the terrorists to create problems in India by killing Indian soldiers and even innocent civilians. In no way these heinous acts are acceptable.  But will the war against Pakistan solve the problem? Somebody the other day suggested an all out war against Pakistan till the entire Pakistan comes under the possession of India.  This is like dreaming.

If India wants to wage a war against Pakistan, do we have now a professional and a competent Defense Minister like Israeli Moshe Dayan or American Dick Cheney? We have at the helm of our defence affairs an immature and ignorant in military affairs defence minister Manohar Parricar.  He may be an expert and qualified in some other field but surely not in defence. If by relying on his Zero knowledge of defence system and war techniques, go to war against Pakistan, I am afraid we may fall in further problems and end in a way we ended in 1962 War with China whence India was totally destroyed, our soldiers were butchered and hundreds of acres of our land grabbed by China.   This happened because our the then defence minister Krishna Menon was ignorant of War games.  Though he was sacked from the Cabinet immediately after that war but because of his lack of knowledge on this subject India suffered a humiliating defeat and that was the only defeat independent India suffered from our neighbours.

India under BJP is in a mess, nothing is moving well, people are disgusted with the government machinery.  BJP came to power by openly declaring that they will do something good, better than Congress but with the naked eyes one can see nothing but clouds looming with fascism and RSS-ism.  BJP is proving now that it wants to implement its hidden agenda of turning India into a Theocratic State. All the BJP leaders are having a mindset of parochial and sectarian thoughts.  They will never develop India, on the contrary they will take India back to the Stone Age.

India is blaming Pakistan for sending terrorists to India.  I don’t know how far this is hundred percent true but one thing is certain, in Pakistan its own people and government are also suffering from terrorism perpetrated by the indigenous Pakistani terrorists only.  Their aim is not only to hit India but also Pakistan and it is a pity that Pakistan officially is incapable to control these terrorists.  Secondly, Pakistan being an enemy of India, we cannot expect Pakistan to kiss us.  They are our worst enemies and wherever possible they will surely hit us.  In view of this, is it not our duty to lock our doors properly and man them with efficient guards instead of keeping our doors open and vulnerable for our enemies to enter?  When Mumbai attack took place, where were our Coast guards? Sleeping.  Indian officials are on record to sell even atomic secrets to our enemies for a Whiskey bottle.  In view of this how can we rely on such people to protect India?  Indians are known to be the best bribeabe commodities and greater the rank greater is degree of bribe.    

Once again I condemn Pakistani backed terrorists infiltration on Indian soil but the solution for this is not war but diplomatic negotiation and discussion, if necessary to involve third party closer to Pakistan.  India got good diplomatic ties with al the Muslim, Arab and Western countries. Their good offices must be sought to enlighten Pakistan instead of counting on war.  War will never solve this problem because both the neighbours are nuclear powers but India is too decent, too matured and too advanced nation compared to Pakistan that is ready to do any amount of sacrifice to destroy India, fully or partially.  I came across Pakistanis in Kuwait who are ready to go into extinction but will be happy to see India should disappear partially at least. They have inborn anger against India for dismembering Pakistan and creating Bangladesh out of one unified Pakistan.  They will forgive anything to India but never and NEVER the war against Pakistan to create independent Bangladesh.  

Pakistan is a hurt nation and I disagree with those Indian statements saying India should bring Pakistan under its banner thru a fierce war.  Those who think in these terms are day dreamers and idiots. Even if I get Pakistan free of charge, I will never accept that part of the subcontinent.  Qualitatively that part is backward and cruel and also militant compared to India and it will be impossible for Indian administrators to control them. In this case, they will do more harm to India and Indian interest though India may have such ambitions because of its hegeomonistic lust that prompted India to annex militarily so many neighbouring territories including Hyderabad, Kashmir and Goa.   Because of India’s hegeomonistic ambition, Zulficar Ali Bhutto first gave a call to manufacture an Atomic weapon to deter India from further dismembering Pakistan after the birth of Bangladesh.  Said Bhutto in his masterpiece “If I am Assassinated” written in the prison cell where he was confined after sentencing him to the gallows:  “We will rather eat grass but will definitely produce an Atom Bomb”.     

A.Veronica Fernandes.