The Goan, a Councillor in Melbourne, Australia has cut an impressive figure in the Land Down Under, yet, his focus is closer to home, where he fears that things are perhaps getting a tad out of hand.
Lobo finds that the need of the hour is ensuring that the identity of the local is preserved. Reflecting on history, he states “It has been said that Nehru remarked, ‘Ajeeb hai yeh Goa ke log’. Perhaps he failed to understand the culture of the local people. However, that was no reason to not deny a state that was unique in its own right, the Special Status that it rightly deserved. Many years have passed since 1961, and much talk and little action has happened since.”
Trying to do his bit in his part of the world, Lobo speaks of his development of Goan community gatherings in Australia, saying “There is much to be said for large scale events that can bring communities together. For instance, the Annual World Goa Day event in Melbourne sees people come from across states in Australia to join in celebrating Goa. In the past, we have even had people from Brisbane, Roxby Downs (which is 600 kilometres from Adelaide) as well as visitors from the Middle East. Yet, while this is great in itself, I think that there is much more to the building of the Goa connect than merely this. We have greater possibilities than those that we choose to explore.”
On his last visit to Goa in 2012, Lobo met with Dilip Parulekar, Minister for Tourism where he put forth certain views about how Goans from all corners of the world could contribute to the local sphere. However, he feels that much of these thoughts were dismissed at the time. Asked to elaborate further, Lobo questions “As immigrants from Goa, many of us have established ourselves across the world, in various places that we love and call home. Many of us have had the good fortune and the ability to travel overseas and as such, we contribute to the prosperity of our adoptive country. Yet, why can’t we do this for our own home? I’m sure that many people would love to return home and take back Goa for its natives, as the indigenous people of the area. But will there be opportunities awaiting them if they choose to do so? That is the question.”
The point of view that Goa deserves Special Status is something that Lobo feels is a sentiment echoed by the Goan community the world over. Dwelling on this point surrounding the emotional ties that people of Goan origin share, Lobo adds “While we are intrinsically Goan and doubtlessly and genetically people of Goan origin, the question that remains is ‘how much do we love Goa and in what way’? Is it a love for the way we remember it when we left, and do we love it for what it is now? Are we in some way living in the past or are we willing to deal with the way things are presently? I believe that the need of the hour is in many ways to light the candle instead of cursing the darkness! This can only be achieved if the land of the people is preserved for the people, for the future. And the only way to do that I believe, is by granting the stat Special Status.”
Speaking on his experiences with Goans abroad in the locale that he deals with, Oscar appeals to people abroad from the Goan community, to not turn a blind eye to how things in Goa affect the residents of their homeland. “We might go about our lives in peace and harmony in Australia, or for that matter in other parts of the world, by integrating with mainstream locals and various friends in multicultural areas. Yet, it is necessary to remember there are several thousand others who continue to live in Goa, where sometimes the wheels of justice just spin without taking one forward,” he says. He has, in fact experienced much strife first-hand, through matters such as the tenancy act ensuring that while he has been in Australia and other parts of the world before, much of what he owned has been encroached upon and lost. In similar vein, he laments the plight of other Goans that reside in other parts of the world.
Lobo signs off on a poignant and nostalgic note, while making a reference to local lore and music, saying “I think that the manner in which things currently stand, is appropriately reflected in one of our popular folk songs through the lines, ‘Maka saiba vatt dakoi, maka saiba vatu kolona’. But rather than lamenting not knowing the path, we should find our way home and fight for change.”
