TWO GOANS ON QUEEN'S HONOURS LIST, FOR SERVICE TO COMMUNITY, SURGERY

By Frederick Noronha

PANJIM: Two Goans have been listed on the Queen's Birthday
Honours list, according to reports reaching here from the
expatriate community. Mrs Annie Vincent (nee Fernandes),  who was
born in Nakuru in Kenya, and hails from Cortalim, was awarded an MBE.  

She got this award for services to "H.M. Board of Inland Revenue
and the community". Also awarded with an OBE (Order of the
British Empire) was Aires Angelo Barnabe Barros D'Sa (ex-Nairobi)  
consultant vascular surgeon, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast,  
for services to vascular surgery.

Meanwhile, the GoaNet-UK, an Internet-based mailing list of news
on the expat community, announced that Lou da Silva of London
was scheduled to be presenting a paper entitled "Language and
Religion in Goa, India" at the Seventh International Conference
on Language and Social Psychology,  University of Cardiff , 30th
June-4th July, 2000.

Some prominent community celebrations in the UK include the
Pilerne Association feast (June 24), visit by Mombasa Goan
Association chairman Ivan Fernandes (June 24), and the GoaNet-
UK's first birthday. Some of these events were held at the Palms
of Goa Restaurant, at London's Meard Street.

Other events celebrated include Benaulim feast (June 25), Aldona
St Thomas feast (July 2), Calangute feast (July 9), Guirim-
Sangolda BBQ (July 23), Goan Overseas Association Annual Goan
Festival (July 30), among others.

Meanwhile, Tivim Social is due on July 23 at Bishop Thomas Grant
School Hall. Bastora Union feast is also due later (Aug 13, South
Wimbledon). Goa International (GI) had its Nairobi Millennium
Reunion at Bishop Thomas Grant School in London on June 11.
Siolim Union observed its 20th anniversary on June 18 at the same
venue.

Campaigns have also been stepped up to seek justice for Edgar
Fernandes, the Goan expat murdered while holidaying in Turkey.

Karl Lewkowicz <acid.pop@virgin.net> wrote via email: "If you
still care about and want justice for Edgar, then this is the
time to send your letters to Malta. The family leaves for Malta
on the 26th June. The Website address for JBMA/Edgar is now
http://www.geocities.com/jbmanet "

Meanwhile, the second edition of Goa Handbook by Robert & Roma
Bradnock (Footprint) has just been published.  Considered one of
the best guides to Goa, it is priced at UKP 9.99.  Robert
Bradnock is Head of the Dept. of Geography at the School of
Oriental & African Studies, University of London.  His wife is
Bengali and a Librarian.

Ex-students of the Catholic Parochial and St Teresa's Boys and
Girls School, in Nairobi also held their re-union at the
Wandsworth Town Hall in London.

London's South East Goans recently travelled to France on a
holiday.

GoaNet-UK said the prominent British paper 'The Telegraph' has
also announced plans to stage an opera, If I Were King, a classic
French comic opera set in Goa by Adolphe Adam (1803-1856), better
known as the composer of Giselle.

Expats in the UK also took note of the recent report in the
prestigious Time newsmagazine, Asia edition titled 'Everyone's a
star.com'

This story said:  "Remo Fernandes, one of India's best-known pop
singers, offered Cyber Viber exclusively on the Net via MP3.
Fernandes released the song on Fabmart.com, an online music
store. Within a month, listeners had downloaded 16,000 copies.
Remo, who lives in the rural elegance of Goa, says he loves the
flexibility of the Net."  

GoaNet-UK also quoted reports from Goa saying that T F D'Costa of  
Addington, UK, complained of the shabby treatment he and his
family received following his complaint of theft to the Colva
hotel he was staying at.

There were reports coming in also of Goans in the UK who were
hurt when a swordsman ran berserk in a church service.

In its report dated June 3, the British newspaper 'The
Independent' titled its story: Samurai Attack: Swordsman Must
Stay In Secure Hospital.  It may be recalled that these attacks
on Goans abroad took place in Britain's St. Andrew's Church,
Thornton Heath in November last year.

It said that Gregory Fernandez, 69, was the next victim, hit
across the face, neck and shoulders. He lost the tips of two
fingers. His friend Joseph Fernandez, 55, managed to duck as the
crazed swordsman swung at his neck.

Earlier, in mid-March soprano Patricia Rozario, whose roots are
in Goa, staged a performance in Wigmore Hall, London of songs and
chamber music by Schubert and Brahms.

Jason Rebello's performance with the Sting at the Royal Albert
Hall was appreciated by the Sunday Telegraph, which said: "Jason
Rebello -- the latest in a long line of world-class keyboard
players employed by Sting -- delivered a cracking solo."

Des Fernandes, Lecturer at  De Montfort University exhibited some
of his paintings  at the Leighton Buzzard Library Gallery,  Lake
Street, Leighton Buzzard.

On May 1, the Uganda Reunion Social was held at the Wandsworth
Town Hall in London. GoaNet-UK also noted that Dr Satyajit B
Naique, a young Goan Orthopaedic surgeon based at  Charing Cross
Hospital, London has been elected a Fellow of the Royal College
of Surgeons, Edinburgh.