Just saw Irinev Gonsalves’ new tiatr. Kanni nhoi Ghoddnni. Many things struck me as the tiatr unfolded but the ending gave me an insight into what is happening in society, particularly, what happened with Fr. Bolmax Periera. The ending tells the story of ants. It said when the two kinds of ants (red and black )are put in a glass, they remain in a calm equilibrium but if someone shakes the glass from outside, the ants begin to fight each other. Perhaps, this story of ants is not simply a Kanni. It is ghoddnni as Irineu would say. It is indeed a reality of our society. Someone is trying to shake the glass of our society and we are on the verge of losing our peace.
We have to stay wakeful of the invisible hand shaking the glass of our society and disturbing the fragile peace in our society. It is our responsibility as Goans with self-respect to let all our issues be solved with mutual respect and affection otherwise, we stand in danger of spilling the blood of our very own with whom we share relations of kinship down the centuries. For this very reason, we have the challenge to give reason a chance, otherwise, we stand in danger of losing ourselves to the emotional madness of bloodthirsty mobs preying on our differences. The time has come to resolve all issues on the table of dialogue.
We as Goans have an ethical imperative to forgive unconditionally when forgiveness is sought. Real forgiveness is forgiving the unforgivable otherwise there is no forgiveness. If we forgive with conditions attached it’s not true forgiveness. We as a society are peace-loving and our elders have always assisted us to make peace even on issues like opinion pool, Konkani Marathi agitation etc. At the height of communal flare Goans remain peaceful. We do have a resourceful past. Hence, it is up to us to reject mob-driven protests and seek calm and dialogical ways of reaching higher levels of understanding in our society. We can never solve our issues through violence. Let us as Goan revolve to give peace an opportunity in this precarious time. Maybe to let our work of peace be effective, we have to learn to make judicious use of smartphones and public addresses and demonstrations.
