Category: Uncategorized

Whenever I meet Goans whose kids have just completed either high school or graduation, and ask about what they hoped to do now, the response is pretty standard: a government job would be best, but who can afford it? We don’t have the money to pay for a government job. (more…)

Some years ago, while crafting the curatorial note for an exhibition of the works of Goan artists put together by the Goan printmaker Viiraj Naik, and amazed by the breadth of works represented, I was inspired to title the note, and thereby the exhibition, “Goa não é um país pequeno” (Goa is not a small place). The title was derived from the slogan coined by the Portuguese Estado Novo in the face of the anti-imperial nationalist movements that were breaking out throughout the pluri-continental Portuguese State to assert that Portugal was not simply continental Portugal, but all of the Portuguese territories spread throughout the world. The wildly decolonising world did not buy the argument then, but a curious incident about a month or so ago recently revived the memory of the Estado Novo slogan, my reuse in the Goan context, and what it could mean for the Goan’s place in the world. (more…)