EX KUWAIT GOAN SHEIKH AGNELO FERNANDES IS NO MORE.

 It is with deep grief and sorrow I got the sad news of the sudden death of our friend and colleague Agnelo Fernandes from Agacaim and who was popularly known as Sheikh Agnelo. He died early in the morning yesterday afternoon and he was interred at Agacaim Cemetry where most of he people who used to follow him everywhere in Kuwait were conspicuous by their absence. I was informed yesterday by one of my frinends at 2.30 pm yesterday saying the funeral will be at 4.30 PM. 0nIy in Kuwait we were well integrated in the acitivities we Goans used to do for the cause of Goans. He was the great Goan in terms of helping many Goans in many respects because he had very powerful influence in Kuwait even at moments more than well-known Kuwaitis had because he worked directly for the former Foreign Minister of Kuwait and a powerful Sheikh in the Sheikdom.

Seen the body of Sheikh Agnello

When Sheikh Agnelo came to Kuwait first time in the house of Sheikh and when the Sheikh came to know Agnelo is from Goa, the Sheikh sent for him, saw him from close angle and asked some questions, he appreciated Agnelo’s   sincere, truthfull and faithful nature.  Once Agnelo  was confirmed to work for the Sheikh, then there was no wait. 

People attending the Funeral Mass

Being an integral part of Goan and Konkani community, he  always involved in associating with any cause of Goans either in Kuwait or in Goa. He was one of the founders of their club where they had their soccer team that organised its annual memorial soccer tournament in the name of his late daughter Ida Ferns. Besides he did pivotal job for the cause of the formation of Kuwait Indian Foot-ball Federation (KIFF) and Kuwait Goan soccer.  He was also a founder member of IFRA (Indian Football Referees Association being its president too). For a short period he  was also a member of Kuwait Konknni Kendr.

In Kuwait among expatriates, his Club organised  soccer tournament was very popular and famous, for the final game, he used to invite topmost  residents in Kuwait from different communities and nationalities, it is thru his  efforts Goans and Goans’ acvtivities in Kuwait made known to the other communities and nationalities. The way he invites the Chief Guests no one else does because if any hurdle comes then he knows how to approach the Boss of of the Chief gest he wants to invite. Once he even invited as a Chief Guest, the head coach of Kuwait soccer team namely the Brazilian Carlos Lopes which created a big booster for Goans in Kuwait. It was a big honour for Goans to see such a mighty man from Brazilian soccer came as Chief Guest for the tournament organisied by Sheikh Agnelo Fernandes.  He helped a lot in organising our movement in Goa following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, under Goa-Kuwait Solidarity Center to support the liberation of Kuwait.

The great man of Goa, greater than all the Goans in Kuwait, Sheikh  Agnelo Fernandes  was a man of pure Goan heart, a man with 100% humility and also a very simple man having no pride nor arrogance. Such a man rarely comes in our midst. God has raised him to the pedestal only because of his sincerity and humiity.  May his soul rest in peace and may God give courage to his wife and son to bear this colossal loss.

With all my gratitude and thanks for doing so much for us in Kuwait, I am but before finishing I am totally disappointed and disgusted with so many of our Kuwait Goans who inspite of receiving so many favours from him, they bastardised themselves by not attending to his funeral, neither from close by nor  from distance.  This man Sheikh Agnelo was clean in his dealing never involved in creating mischief of financial collection where he was involved, he was never found at fault while most of the disgraceful Goans in Kuwait were invokved in financial irregularities.  Regarding the funeral attendance, somew time back yet one more popular Goan Vincente D'Souza who was very dynamic and founder of so many Goan movements and Goan associations in Kuwait thereby giving so many facilities to the Goans.  But when he died sometime back in Goa, hardly a few Goans attended to his funeral.  I fail to understand why Kuwait Goan is become so "Beiman" like a "Cheddiocho"?  Is he become so bankrupt intellectually that he does not know what is the sense of gratitude?

A.Veronica Fernandes.

WELL DONE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA.

 

This is in response to the latest news items in the local press upholding of the Bombay High Court judgement by the Supreme Court against the appeal by the Goa government.  This government is such a shameless Government that it blindly went ahead in filing the appeals by heeding the wrong advice given by the stupid and disgraceful advisers.  The expenses that Goa government does for anything are coming from the public pockets like mine, yours, his and   others and since this is the case the stupid  Goa government should have been very slow and very cautious sincc it is the money from the public who to earn this turns their Sweat into Blood and not the money collected by our Chor Montris thru extortion.  By filing appeals and court cases wrongly “chor” montris are not doing anything pinchy                 spending public money to fight this case in the apex court of India and as such  when the government in this matter suffered a tremendous defeat, who is responsible to fritter away the people’s money on challenging the High Court ruling? Besides the loss of money there is another loss which is greaer than the loss of money and that is the loss of self respect, the loss of  dignity and loss of prestige of the people of Goa who are not Ghanntis but real Goans having “civildad” of genuine Goans that they learnt from the most disciplined Europeans.  Goans are always considered as smart by nature but additionally if they are given sufficient coaching in any field then there is no limit.❤

Who will reimburse the kitty of government with the huge amount of money that was unnecessarily frittered away by the BJP government of Goa? Was the BJP Government of Goa advised to go for an appeal by its drunkard advisers or mentally deranged advisers?  I say “drunkards”  and “mentally deranged “ advisors because they acted   as such.  Otherwise they could give the proper advise to the Government of Goa by accepting the verdict of High Court. Secondly,  it might be in this way, that is the advisers must have given the Government proper advise but Government of Goa must have  rejected this advise and went on doing what it wanted.  In view of this,  I have lost my confidence not only on the advisers of Goa Government but more than that I have lost my confidence in the Goa Government headed by the feeble headed CM Sawant who if having any self respect would  resign from his Chair which he occupies as a gift of Parricar and not because of his efficiency.

       

While congratulating the Supreme Court of India on upholding the ruling of High Court at Goa, I feel now stronger knowing that at least our judiciary is upright and will do anything within its judicial boundaries to protect the rights of the citizens instead of acting as spokesman of the Government. I am sure there must have been tempting offers for the concerned judicial luminaries to tilt this judgment in favour of Goa government’s appeal but our great and just judiciary at this moment must have indicated to the  corrupt government machinery that such  frivolous offers  have no place with them.  Earlier once our judiciary have surprised everyone when the Alahabad High Court passed its verdict in the early seventies against the then Premier of india, Mrs.Indira Gandhi. This momentous judgememt was passed by the Chief Justice of Alahbad High Court, Justice Sinha as detailed by the renown Indian scribe Kuldip Nayar in his book THE JUDGEMENT”which was published immediately after Janata Party came to power at the Centre.  In the same book Kuldip Nayar describes how Justice Sinha was given tempting offers by Indira Ghandi thru her emissary but Justice Sinha   was not a Judge of the  type of “Ladru and Pedru” who have lowered the  prestige of our judiciary.

 

Such judgments as  indicated above give us strength to  fight for justice because Indian judiciary is not as bad as it was projected,

 

A.Veronica Fernandes,

ISL SOCCER AND ITS BENEFITS.

 Ultimately Goa has successfully organised the biggest soccer tournament on its soil by spending 4 months and this was done so successfully because of the three excellent grounds Goa has which are  of international standard.  Dayananda Bandodcar the first Chief Minister of Goa whom I hate like Lucifer who was responsible to sow the seed of destruction of Goa by openly indicating his wishes to turn Goa into  communal by siding openly and aggreesively to his own community thus indicating  his deslike for the Christian community but yet I admit his love for Goan soccer where he never applied his commmunaiism and trested every one as qual.  Discussing with the then big man of Indian soccer Mr. Ziauddin based in Bombay where he was running hias own school, Mr. Bandodcar while on the subject of soccer field and Ziauddin praising Bombay for having on its soil an excellent foot-ball ground at Cooperage which was the world class, said Bandodcar “you people will never develop the soccer in India because you are not capable to have enough of soccer fields to play soccer.  It is so many years now that you are having  one soccer gound in Bombay and on top of it you are not even thinking to increase its number.  Otherwise you go and see we have in such a small place Goa, three world class grounds and we can have any number of world class soxccer tournamnets.

 

After the gruelling 4 months of extra ordinary tournament where we witnessed the mode of modern  scientific soccer under the  indian Soccer League where a good number of foreign players holding   foreign nationality  were allowed to participate.  Though they were not ex World Cuppers yet according to their level one could make out that they were of reasonably high standard and by observing the mode of their game  our local boys especially the upcoming can learn a lot.  What these foreigners indicated on the football field while exhibiting their performance  our local boys would never get elsewhere.  See the Mourtada Fall a negro from black Africa inspite of having  short stature he could jump like an Olympian high jumper and because of this speciality he scored so many goals from the corner kicks taken by his colleagues.  Though he was hard hitter and robust tackler yet he was the most dependable defender and untiring player having abundant quantity of stamina stored in his body. Likewise so many other players holders of foreighn nationality who proved their worth and from whom we have to lesrn a lot.

 

When Diogo Armando Maradona whom we know only as Maradona when he was recruited by Napoli Club of Italy, Napoli was very much down on the Italian League ladder but with Maradona in their squad, singlehandkedly maradona changed the 0utlook of their game and acquired for Napoli the first time League championship.  Within a year of his joining the Napoli team, there was a total revolution in Italian soccer where the local boys started imitating and  playing at least in some way how Maradona played. Though it was impossible for any other player to play like Maradona but still in Italy very mny foitballers acquired his tactics and teckniques and  gave to  the Italian soccer a different outook by. Following  Maradona’s style in many respects.  It was during his peak form Maradona joined Napoli  and having no money in their kitty to pay Maradona, the Napoli Club produced artificial hair or Wigs depicting Maradona’s hair style whch were sold not only in Italy but even elsewhere too and youngsters were crazy after these Wigs.

 

Now in India we have not only millionaires but also billionaires who are madly in love with the soccer, they must be coaxed by the top ISL Clubs to sponsor at least one or two top rated players in the world for each team so that they help us to develop our soccer which is very backward compared to other nations in the world.  See  the standard of small small nations in the South America, inspite  of being so poor compared to  our nation they are gone so far ahead and we are still struggling to win a Trophy in our our own continent.  See the Oil rich Arab Countries in the Gulf, almost all the GCC States participated not only in the Olympics but also in the World Cup and we felt afraid and shy to accept the invitation without even having qualified  to  participte in one World Cup tournament in the fifties.

 

The final of this year’s edition of ISL tournament was played yesterday between Mumbai City and ATK Mohun Bagan at Fatorda Stadium which was built in record time under the strong supervision of ex Minister of Goa Monte Cruz.  The match started at 7.30 pm and the first half was well dominated by our neoighbours but due a goof in front of their goal by both their defenders Fall and Jahu, the ball went to  Williams of Mohun Bagan who released such a powerful right footer from inside the Box that the ball hit the back of the net in front of keeper of MUumbai City. Thereafter the Mumbi maintained the upper hnd of the play and managed to  equalise the score thru a self goal thru a mishead by one of their defendes.  But the one of the most wonderful goals of the tournament was the  winning goal by MumbaI Bipin Singh that gave no opportunity to Bagan keepr to stop it in the dying minutes of the game.  All said and done, the Mumbai City was the deservi9ng winner and I congratulate them and more to their Coach Sergio Labera who inspite of giving his best last season for Goa and iinspite of doing so much he was discarded by the Non-Goan  management of FC Goa.  Lobero proved finally his worth nnd those who were tying to side step him became big Zero.  Lobero has his own speciality and being a very good reader of the game like Argntinians Dr. Carlos Bilardo and Ceaser Menotti – both were world Cup winners and Brazilian Tele Santana, can cha nev the game to his advantage..  

 

One of the players who was outstanding not only in the final yesterday but throughout the tournament was Mohun Bagan’s Roy Kriishnan.  He is one of the peprfect players among all the players not only Indians but also outsiders.  His running skill is so good especially when he is sprinting that it looked he was running in the Olympics one humdred metres race completing 100 mmetres in 9.9 seconds.  If anybody with authority approaches him and inducts him in the Indian Athletics field training him for the next Olympic in Sprint by ignoring soccer for a few years, I feel he will get India a Gold Medal in sprinting.  He uses his brain very well by increasing his  pace and strides when required.  Physically also he is very fit like Ben Johnson.  Givn a proper coaoching, he can become a Gold Medal prospect for India.

 

Once again I must say the refereeing as poor and during the next eition ISL organiser must find a way to close all the loopholes inn this field.

 

A.Veronica Fernandes