Often, we hear our Goans make a call for Unity. Just why do our fellow Goans feel the need to call for such unity is a mystery to me. Is it a valid request?
In truth, I have always struggled with the use of this word by people when they talk about our culture or being a Goan. As far as I can remember, our Goans have never really been united... ever. Supportive, yes, but being united is something that many call for but is something that is rarely practised. In my view, we should stop using the word "unite" and encourage all to be "supportive."
To unite, there should be a cause for people to join forces to get behind.
Typically, these would be causes like the eradication of malaria or to meet a target of some kind that certainly can benefit from all being united on. A call to unite with others over a brawl in a nightclub is hardly going to get us Goans to come forward and unite. And what will one unite behind in this case? Flying bottles and smashing up of a nightclub? Would it not be better if we asked our Goans to be supportive of one another? Taking that one particular example in the nightclub, if our Goans were supportive of each other, the first thing they could have done jointly was to vacate the premises as soon as trouble flared up, and do so as safely as possible. But even to contemplate asking that we should unite against non-Goans, or anybody else, is simply not acceptable. That is not correct under any circumstances whatsoever as it is never known when two wrongs ever made a right.
Like me, do you fail to recollect when our Goans united over anything? Right from the time of the liberation of Goa and to this day, and perhaps long before that, I am not aware of any so-called "unity" amongst our Goans. We have always been a divided lot, with many of us having been involved in some seriously divisive actions over time. We all like to think that we are leaders, but when something goes awry, we first blame others and then call for unity as the ultimate solution to the mess.
To say that we are proud to be Goans because we are united is folly. But let's just say that we are united. This assumption dies a quick death when we ask ourselves to name those occasions when we were all united. Many of us often think that we come from a Goan village that is better than our neighbouring villages. In the UK, people have come from Mumbai, Dubai, Kenya, Uganda, directly from Goa, etc., and we all think that we not only know it all, but that we know it best. We have divisions across the whole spectrum of our culture and family lives. In truth, I am certain that there is very little so-called unity in the UK between our Goans who came from East Africa and those who have come on Portuguese passports. At best, we will be fooling ourselves if we think that we can be united, whatever that means to our Goans. At worst, we will be misleading others into thinking that unity is possible and that being disunited are the reasons for all our failures.
To me, the success of an event or activity, whatever that might be, does need support from our fellow Goans. It is high time our folks rally for "support" rather than "unity." The latter has very little chance of success among our Goans, has never materialised, and is a near-pointless request, while the former has a better chance of ending in a positive outcome.
