Note: Eddie Fernandes is on holiday 15-30 April inc. During this period please e-mail your contributions to: jjds@ican.net Alternatively contact Flavio Gracias in London Tel. 020-8723-1322, Fax 020-8578 7548 or e-mail remote-printer.Flavio_Gracias@441815787548.iddd.tpc.int

FORTHCOMING

30 Apr. 12:00-19:45. Cortalim Union Feast. White Hart Lane School, Wood Green, N 22. Mass followed by dance. Tickets: Rita, 0181- 800 5413; Manu, 0181-809 1128; Maria, 0181-803 5146 or Assumption, 0181-641 5995. Please book in advance.

1 May 13:00-19:30 Uganda Reunion Social. Wandsworth Town Hall, SW18. Open to all. Apply for tickets ASAP none will be sold at the door. Joe Mendes 020-8303 3974.

13 May 19:00-24:00 Xavierites Assoc. Annual Dinner Dance. Police Club, Aldenham Road, Bushey , Herts. Music by Velvet Touch. Members and Guests. £25.00 each. Cherie Martins, 020 8363 0086 or e-mail oscarmartins@compuserve.com ASAP

14 May 13:00- Annual Assolna, Velim, Cuncolim (AVC) Union Social. Bishop Thomas Grant School , Streatham, London SW16. Book early to avoid disappointment. Eunice Barros 0181 672 0807 or Nico Antao 0181 560 6559.

21 May. 13:45 - Asian Chaplaincy. Festival of Patron Saints. Mass followed by cultural programme. Tel. 020-8563 9102

27 May 18.30 - 22.00. BBC Music Live 2000. Merton Hall, 76 Kingston Road, Wimbledon. The Goan Musical Society ensemble is one of the 10 groups participating in the "Festival of Folk Music, Song and Dance from around the World". Adults £6, children £3. Ms Sabitri Ray 0208-648 0084

4 June. Wandsworth Town Hall Ex Students from Catholic Parochial and St Teresa's Boys and Girls School, Nairobi. Millennium Reunion. Norma Menezes 020-8771 4457 Menezrahim@aol.com or Tonyjo Fernandes 01895 259947.

6 -13 June. Asian Chaplaincy. Holy Land Pilgrimage. £599. Derek Gomes. 020-7263 5203 DEREKGOMES@compuserve.com

18 June. 12:00- Siolim Union. 20th anniversary & Feast of St. Anthony of Padua. Bishop Thomas Grant School, Beltrees Grove, Streatham, London SW16 Mass followed by Dance. Maz & Co. and Fantasy Disco. Members and guests welcome. Derrick Fernandes 020-8395 1084 or Eugene Fernandes 020-8240 0818

13 August. Bastora Union Feast. Holy mass followed by social at Merton Council Hall, 76 Kingston Road, South Wimbledon (nearest tube station South Wimbledon).

9 September 2000 - Help A Poor Child Charity 20th Anniversary Charity Gala Ball at Byron Hall, Harrow Leisure Centre, Christchurch Avenue, Harrow from 7pm to 3am. For further information telephone Bernie/Flavio Gracias on 020-8723 1322.

DEATHS

Goa - Head Constable BALARAM SHINDE, who was grievously injured on April 4 during the violence in the agitation against the setting up of Meta Strips Ltd, died on April 24, at the GMC hospital after being in a coma for 20 days. 54-year-old Shinde, attached to the Cortalim police outpost was brutally attacked a group of agitators, who set fire to the outpost after beating him up. He had served the police for 34 years, was due for retirement in two years' time and leaves behind his wife, a son and two daughters. (GT)

Nairobi - DARYLE PEREIRA passed away in April 23. Beloved husband of Sarah. Son of Marie Pereira, and the late Leslie Pereira. He leaves behind his three brothers, Denis Pereira of Sweden, Douglas Pereira of Nairobi and Donald Pereira of Toronto.

Funeral Notice
TOLLY BARRETO - Friday 28th April at 9 am at Church of Our Lady and St Christopher, High Street, Cranford, Middlesex followed by burial at West Drayton Cemetery. Thereafter at Our Lady and St Christopher Church Hall.

NEWS HEADLINES
( mainly from Joel D'Souza in Goa, courtesy of GOACOM, e-mail: goanow@sancharnet.in )

FIFTY YEARS OLD: On April 24, 1950, the first full length Konkani picture "Mogacho Anvddo" was released at the Dashrata Cinema in Mapusa. It was produced and directed by Al Jerry Braganza from Mapusa based on a novel "Mogachi Vhodd" by Dioguinho de Melo. The production was started on July 31, 1949, presided over by Macario Pereira. Speaking on AIR on June 21, 1966, Braganza, who also enacted the lead role, said that "people looked at us in great surprise as if we were aliens…they had never seen before a film shooting progress". (H)

CLEANER COLVALE: Since the government has failed totally to tackle the growing garbage menace in their village, people of Colvale in Bardez have decided to act on their own, to clean up the serene village by removing the litter of plastic bags, mineral water bottles, tetra packs and foil packs, thrown off the highway by the huge traffic which passes through the village. Well known designer Wendell Rodricks, who lives in Colvale, has supported the drive by Deputy Sarpanch Neelkanth Halarnkar, to plant trees along the highway and in areas of dust and noise pollution. (GT)

PRESERVING ARCHIVES: The State archives and the Archaeology department is working on a proposal with the Fundacao Oriente, for the preservation of invaluable documents numbering over 8 crore
pages and dating back to 400 years or more. The archives library founded by Diogo de Couto in 1595 is perhaps the oldest such institution in Asia and has over 90 per cent of the documents in Portuguese and some rare ones in Vietnamese, African languages, Persian, Modi, Marathi and other languages. (GT)

GOLD FOR GOAN DOC: Dr Sherine D'Souza Braganza of St John's Medical College in Bangalore, was awarded the gold medal for MS Opthalmology by Governor of Karnataka at the second convocation of the Rajiv Gandhi University. Dr Sherine is the wife of Dr Adrian Braganza and daughter-in-law of Capt Kevin and Winnie Braganza of Defence Colony in Porvorim. (GT)

"ADDAMBO ADDPONAM" is a rare Konkani saying, meaning incorrigible. After Easter the priest visits every house in the Goan parishes to bless the families with holy water. When our parish priest, with a group of small boys in tow, reached one of the houses, he was taken aback to find the compound gate wide open but the front door shut, and an embarrassed man beckoning him from the window…Because the "addambo" (a big wooden latch/bar used to close the doors of old Goan houses) refused to budge,
the door could not be opened. The elderly man pleaded with the bemused, young cleric to sprinkle the holy water through the window. His will was done…via the window.

DUMB FLICK: An unknown and seemingly dumb person approached Ms Janice Plavinkal Johan, an accountant with a financial company on April 23, and decamped with a mobile phone worth around Rs.7,000, while Janice had turned around to speak to a colleague. (H)

APRIL SHOWERS: It drizzled at some places last night (April 23) and at other places like Colva it was a heavy downpour. Of course, it wasn't the night to attend the midnight Easter mass in a suit in the prevailing heat but many gentlemen generally do so in Goa. And the girls and ladies were out…smart and pretty in their newly styled dresses. They must have had a tough time at places where the rain came down unexpectedly in the middle of the night. (GN)

Note: NT - Navhind Times; GT - Gomantak Times; H - The Herald

IN THE NEWS
(e-mail eddie@fernandes.u-net.com for the full text of items marked *) .

World's Richest Indians....
http://www.economictimes.com/richest/
Sit back and beleive. Azim Hashim Premji, the unassuming Chairman of Wipro group, became the third richest man on the planet. He is worth a cool 51 billion Dollars. “When the benefits of the knowledge era touches the life of common man, it unleashes a social transformation that will alter the quality at the grassroots,” said the unassuming man at a function in New Delhi soon after his new status was announced.

Farmers gear up for an early monsoon
From: Eustaquio Santimano
http://www.goacom.com/news/news2000/apr/msg00214.html

The Times of India News Service - 28 April 2000
PANAJI: With clear indications of an early monsoon in Goa, farmers have geared up their activities. The farming community, which is looking for an upward revision of its target of producing more paddy in an area of about 48,500 hectares this season, as against 48,245 hectares during the last season, under high yielding variety. The government has made arrangements to distribute 200 tonnes of H.Y.V. seed to the farmers at 25 per cent subsidised rate.

Goa - CUNCOLIM: PRIESTS CLAIM ABUSE IN EASTER SHOWDOWN
By Frederick Noronha
http://www.goacom.com/news/news2000/apr/msg00190.html

PANJIM, April 25: Age-old rivalries surfaced during the Easter weekend at the controversy-striken church of Cuncolim in Salcete, where caste-based disputes has got the parish and the archdiocese caught up in an embarassing and seemingly-intractable dispute. Priests from the church, expecting trouble, had sought police protections for the Good Friday-Easter weekend. Church sources admitted that the row -- among Catholics themselves -- had festered and resulted in "at least three incidents".

META STRIPS TRIES TO CONVINCE GREENPEACE: "DON'T GET MISGUIDED"
By Frederick Noronha
http://www.goacom.com/news/news2000/apr/msg00191.html
PANJIM, April 25: Meta Strips has charged the main group protesting against its plan, AMCAC, as misguiding and misinforming several agencies with "ulterior motives under the influence and money power from some hidden hands like religious institutions in getting huge funds from different countries".
In a letter written to Greenpeace, the company warned the international green campaign organisation which recently offered support to the campaign over the upcoming Sancoale plant that intends to recycle copper wastes from copperwires from abroad, and then again export its entire production.

Goa resort asked to demolish cabins to restore beach access
By Pamela D’Mello
Panaji, April 27
http://www.asianage.com/asianage/28042000/detind16.htm
The Goa bench of the Mumbai high court has ordered a five-star resort to demolish some nine structures at a beachside property and provide clear public access to a beach which it had almost blocked off.
The ruling comes in a petition filed by environmental NGO, Goa Foundation, which has dragged a number of other hotels to court over coastal zoning and other violations.
Two other private builders, one whose nearby development lacks access to the beach, also dragged the resort to court, including a landowner whose plot was acquired by government in 1983 and handed over to the resort on condition that it run sports activities for the public.
Resort owners, however, are likely to challenge the order in the Supreme Court.