Discussions & Rants
 

O.K. lets leave to-day's papers, and if we want to rant about fashion, holiday moans, immigration, social benefits, riots etc.

Let the fireworks begin.:rofl:

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

What difference does the thread title make Noni? Is the Goan Expat Forum really the place for posters to frequently express their obsessions regarding UK 'immigration', 'benefits', 'foreigners' etc. I think we all know each others opinions by now, and such posts are made by a very small minority of Goan Expats as a whole.

My rant: where are the rest of you Goan Expats? Join the Forum, lets have some discussion about India, Goa and at least some positive thoughts.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

I think we have exhausted the ~BHI thread, although a short response was posted earlier this week. All is quiet on the Buyer Beware, and Visa. Quite a few of our old members have sold up, and others who rented have left Goa for good.

All the BE threads over the world have posts not appertaining to their country.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

What about the ridiculous Travel Tax on tickets that is now standing at over £100 for long haul tickets. If the airports are privately owned by share holders then what is the tax for other than to fleece travelers out of their money.I know b****y Labour brought it in under Gorgeous George Brown but what was the reason for bringing it in the first place ? Global warming ? Do any other European countries have this tax on the books ? I mean having to pay a tax to leave the country....what next a tax to enter maybe ? I wish Ryan Air or Easy Jet would go intercontinental because i for one would gladly like to pay cheep prices if it meant not having to sit through another c**p airline meal or watch some of the rubbish rom-coms that dominate in flight viewing.The lies that we are supposed to swallow in the UK around prices and inflation.Its supposed to be 4.75% currently but i have ideas its actually around 6 to 7% and climbing.The Tories are even bigger lairs than Labour under Archbishop Blair.

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The rest of the Goan expats quietly get on with their lives in Goa!

And I hate to say it but us Goan expats dread the return of the "SEASON" and our beautiful green quiet Goa being spoilt
with tourists everywhere!
A week of domestic tourists about for Ganesh was bad enough.
Many have tried to join in on this forum but have left for obvious reasons as you well understand Bipat.;)

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Well there are 8 members on at the moment and 12 peepers. Everybody is very welcome to join in on any subject anytime.

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But virtually non of them are ex pats. When I check -in on expats on Goa time when Europe is till sleeping I`m usually on my own.

Yes of course everyone is welcome - but I see so many new faces try to join in and for some reason or other they are slammed down and disappear!

from an outsiders point of view this forum reads like a private clique most of the time!

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

I don't agree with that statement, it is up to YOU to join in, everybody has their own points of view, people get offended if you don't agree.

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Obviously I agree with msj5, having left the forum twice.
I think it is more a case of the few making the so very frequent negative posts about 'immigrants'/ Moslems/foreigners/India /Goa/ everything is cr** or sh** do not accept any other opinion as valid or it is 'spoiling the forum'.
Any protests at near racist posts are 'slapped' down even when supported by Mitzy. Naturally those connected to the above will be offended and as msj5 has said will leave or post rarely.

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Nothing wrong with Immigrants, bring them into the UK on work visas, no work out, any police convictions etc out,, if they dont pay into the system they cant take anything out I.E medical etc.
If it sounds harsh, i worked in the Gulf for 7 years, and yes i was on a work visa.
Ive also lived abroad for many years, in and out of Europe, and no money no honey.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

So we'll just strike family-based immigration......or what?

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If you insist...some of the higher managment had married contracts.

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You can't really formulate a realistic cure for the ills you perceive in immigration when your plan fails to consider the largest chunk of it.

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, im being polite, dont worry oldbean.

I was a working immigrant in the Gulf (the only sort they have), and to earn more money than i could in my own country and to better my lifestyle, i behaved, if not out.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

OR WHAT???, NOT ON THIS FORUM..

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Are you campaigning for a Gulf-style gastarbeiter system in the UK, then?

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Not up to me, i saw the writing on the wall, got my arse out years ago, but the Gulf system works very well, you work or you are out, you misbehave you are out, if you dont put in, you cant take out, just common sense really, if you can think of a better way to manage our immigration problem, please do tell, or if you dont think we have a problem, try living at street level as i did and have done in the past.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Had my discussion and rant, now im out for a bottle or two of vino, i earnt my money invested wisely, never scrounged a penny.
I can now live a decent lifestyle, and hold my head up high, the way it should be.:thumbsup:

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Dear Bipat, you keep on protesting about racism, I am sorry we don't accept that, we are at liberty to discuss immigrants, benefits etc. etc. but you take everything so personally and that is not anyones intention.

Msj5, you have a different agenda, for making the comments you have made.

Steve enjoy your night out

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

"Keep on" how many times? I think you have proved my point.
On the 'UK riots thread' 6 people including Mitzy thought a particular poster's post was racist, their views were dismissed.
On the 'Visa's Tourists etc'. thread post no.64 Mitzy posted that the posts were verging on racism, you yourself considered them just another opinion.
Yes I have previously joined with others in their protest they then left the Forum.
It is not necessary to take an opinion personally to disagree with it, I am not an immigrant, foreign or 'Indian looking' why would it be personal?
For that matter I think Goan expats take the Indian Government's policy on property purchase by foreigners very personally, and I can empathise with that although not personally involved.
I think some of the recent newcomers on the 'UK riot thread' put the case against racism very clearly, they were more-or-less asked to leave.

Just made a quick search, the word 'racism' has apparently been used many, many times on the Forum and not by myself. Mostly concerning Indians or Goans.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Can you elaborate on what you mean by your opinion, as above? It is ambiguous.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

I see what you mean, apologies. I meant expats in Goa --reversed it into Goan expats i.e. I meant British Expats in Goa.
Wouldn't dare call them 'Goan' now that would be an insult wouldn't it.:o

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

As was pointed out on the Money Program last week; only about £15 of that is actual tax, the rest is just airport/ airline/ fuel charges that in any other business are just overheads included in the price.

AndyD 8-0#

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

I think we're all 'Wanna Be'' ex-pats but for varying reasons don't want to spend extended periods of time out of the country; in my case grand children! I had planned 3 months in Goa after Xmas, but now I'm not so sure, my grandson (aged 6) was absolutely distraught at the idea. Yes I know perhaps I should be thinking more of myself but I adore my grand kids; it makes it very very difficult.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

I really don't think such a system would work in the UK. I'm all for looking how others tackle the problem to find the best solution, but the Gulf and the UK are too chalk and cheese.

I don't have a magic wand, I'm afraid. One of the problems with industrialized economies are that they stopped producing their own offspring, and they will need immigrants to finance the old.

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I take your post as tongue in cheek, as I think it was intended.

However, I fail to understand why there's always that snide - possibly Devil's Advocate - sting in the tail in some of your posts, but such is human nature and maybe you are merely flexing/exercising your inalieable human rights, in which case am I expected to go "ouch"? I don't think so, and I don't.

The impossibility of being considered a "Goan" is a generational and familial dispute unlikely to be resolved in eternity by you or I, and that is amongst "Goans" themselves who still argue who is a true "Goan". It gets you through the monsoon ; argument, matka, argument, feni, gossip, family disputes, births, marriages, bikes breaking down, argument, marriages breaking down.....

In truth, there are no bona fide British expats in Goa, only persons who afford themselves (and are afforded) extended stays within the ever changing visa rules (with some very few PIO marriage exceptions, etc.).

Neither are there the same business opportunities for an immigrant to India to try and be entrepreneurial as there are in the UK with the added safety net of already domiciled families, the Welfare State, NHS, Education, Translation Services, etc...

If given the liberty to live in India without harrassment and to conduct legitimate business in Goa, I doubt there would be a massive flaunting of Indian law resulting in overwhelming immigration relative to India's geography and resources (such as is happening in the UK); eg. a parallel nationwide rolling out of bogus 'university/college' courses to ostensibly learn Hindi or any of the other 19 languages (at last check) within India as just one example.

To be called a "Goan" is not an insult by any definition, even if for many in the UK there is the reality of lakhs of people after generations calling themselves a 'British Citizen of Goan Origin" and there are the multitude of Goan Associations which keep alive a memory of a Goa which only still exists largely as uninformed nostalgia.

Point is ; India/Goa has a protectionist policy which will never (not in my lifetime) allow even a modest number of foreigners to impinge on their fragile sense of 'nation', even if they believe they are now nearing supremacy as global economic and cultural imperialists.

I have no ambition or expectation to ever be designated a "Goan" if such a thing were possible, and I do not wish to be a "Goan of British Origin", even if I marry a Goan when the current 'Ms. afaiknow' and I have outrun our mutual interests (It might get me a PIO card, but would she still respect me in the morning?).

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Best news iv'e heard, the UK immigrant offspring will finance us, in our old age.:thumbsup:

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, YOU WOULD GET SICK OF FISH CURRY RICE.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Absolutely agree with you. We are usually home for Christmas but this year will be in India for a family event. Although going throught the process of happily making bookings etc. I really do not want to be away from the grandchildren. It's just 2 days but --- anyway I am dreading it.
The family event is the marriage of the eldest grandnephew so can't be missed.
One problem of being a 'partial' expat, is the wish to be where you are not!!

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

So at least 75% of the Tax A-F-D is a levy, pure and simple.Just to raise revenue with no added benefit to the traveler at all.I mean of all the airports i have visited in my travels, Heathrow has to be one of the worst in design and operation and difficult to get to in the rush hours AM and PM.Gatwick is OK and so is Stanstead.Luton should be demolished as its a complete mess and waste of time.As an aside to this thread why all the noise and hot air on Immigration into the UK by people who dont actually live in the UK full time ? Me, i would rather live next door to immigrants, which i do, than say blue nosed shire based hypocritical Tories whose only contact with immigrants is when they work in their kitchens, or clean their offices in the city and deliver food to their tables when they dine out.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Full respect for the Immigrants who work in the kitchens or clean the offices, deliver food to the tables, at least you are not scrounging.
I did live in a multi racial area of London with Immigrants next door, and almost everyhouse on the street, i just got sick of what i saw, families not working living on the state, also the smell of rotting garbage thrown into the street along with old fridges, houshold waiste etc, it felt like a suburb of Lahore, i could of moved to a hypocritical Tory area in the Shires!!!! to escape the filth, but i decided to leave the UK before the unrest and riots started, thank god i did, yes we have Immigrants in Spain and Italy but not the handouts for life like the UK, and the sad thing, i still pay tax in the UK at the moment, so i think i have a right to express my thoughts and knowledge of what ive witnessed first hand, not only what ive read in the papers.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Funny very funny, when i lived in this multi racial part of London, i got a letter from the council, WARNING me about throwing rotting garbage into the alley i shared with Immigrant families.
I would like to have known if my Immigrant nieghbours got the same letter, if they did it was ignored!!.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

If it wasn't printed in at least 5 different languages, like our local Council do, then they wouldn't understand, would they?

You were being singled out mate, no doubt about it!:sneaky::D

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

..... and not one of those languages is French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish..... funny old world, innit!

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Just for interest I wonder if you speak and read fluent Konkani, if you do congratulations as it is not easy and Goan Konkani dialect is different from other Konkani areas.
I seem to remember other posters complaining about road signs in Marathi script in North Goa.

Personal rant:
Some years the government changed boundaries and forced Karwar into Karnataka state they then made the official language kannada, moved in Kannada speaking officers and all official documents same. (local people speak mostly Konkani and Marathi (and English). Now any translation has to be paid for and any mistakes in documents you pay to be corrected and pay again for re-translation. Of course now the schools teach Kannada along with English.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Hi all,
I was born and brought up in goa begining 80s. my parents first came driving overland from europe in 1968!! yes alot has changed since then!!:):) I speak and write fluent konkani and hindi,did my schooling here too!!
I have been a silent visitor to this forum for a long time now... I find theres alot of useful info here,specially for starters,and most of the users are welcoming and helpful....
But I also think that as a forum,some members take some posts too personally,and hence lots of misunderstanding and argumemts...
Lets try not to put oneanother down....its a forum afterall...

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Really interesting, are your parents Indian origin or British origin ? Where do you live now UK or Goa? I also came first in 1969, with toddler and baby but they were at school in UK (they understand a good bit of non-goan Konkani but do not speak any!!)

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

HI Goa50, Weclome to BE. please stop being a silent visitor and join in with us. I am sure you have so much to offer the forum having been brought up in Goa.

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Hi Bipat!
No,my parents are from sweden and not indian origin! Im and have been living in goa since birth,just the last few summers visiting my sisters and relatives in europe...but that too,only for a month or 2..

Re: Discussions & Rants
 

Thanks Noni!! I like reading all your jokes...keep them coming!