THE LAST RITES -- ADIEU ABREU

Hi guys… looks like a lot of our readers have already carved out fancy tombstones for us in our absense. But these guys will have to hold on to these slabs yet... We are not done just yet chaps... A few days chums, we were just easing ourselves out for a few days. But a lot has happened since we last pecked at our key board na.
Like a lot of you guys have said, Herald editor Robin Abreu is indeed in bad shape and it’s nothing to do with Christmas sweet-meats. Robin has indeed been asked to ‘handle’ Herald's mysterious Belgaum edition.
This Belgaum edition (among other notorious open-range transfers) which Herald is notorious for, is quite like the Auschwitz of Goan journalism. If you do go to there, you disappear. If you don’t, you disappear anyway.
This is how.
Remember when former Herald deputy chief reporter Ashley Do Rosario was dispatched to the ‘newly opened’ Canacona bureau (for the uninitiated, that’s one of the southernmost region on Goa. For us Goans, Antarctica is just a few miles off Canacona) the intention was to make sure the bugger quits out of frustration. They tried it again with Agnelo Periera.
This time, it was Robin who used the ruse to target Agnelo, showing him the way to Belgaum and the mysterious bureau.
Now his own medicine appears to have turned against Robin. As he seems to be faced with the same proposition of either making an embarrassing shift to Belgaum or quit the organisation.
There’s another bit of information here. There are reports that another of Robin’s chums, Joseph Zuzarte who was in charge of the Herald Cable News has been shown the door too. In Zuzarte’s case, the reason for his ouster is a bit serious and we would not like to mention it here, until we get some sort of documentary evidence to prove it. And of course former Gomantak Times editor Ashwin Tombat is already a few days in the organisation ‘acclimatising’ to it.
Ashwin surely has his task cut out.
a) Get hold of a good pest control guy get rid of em pests.
b) Studiously ignore the owner Raul and shun his idiotic ideas.
c) Cleanse Herald of the superfluous Filipinos.
d) Lay down a hierarchy (which was completely destroyed by Robin) and fix responsibility at each level.
In the meantime at our office… folks are trying to adjust… The deputy news editor Joel Afonso is conspicuous by his absence. Joel is the sort of guy, you’d always find around whenever there’s an upheaval around. The farthest distance between Joel’s mouth and the managing director’s ear is 5 milimeters in times such as these.
And Melvyn the bureau in-charge… poor chaps doing what he can best. Robin’s baldish idol is off his altar and its been substituted by a Tombat Totem. He didn’t waste time making the switch… not a whit.
One thing we’d like to clarify guys. If Robin is finally ousted from the Herald (the newspaper still carries his name on the printline) we don't aim to notch out guns here. Raul is too insensitive and callous a guy to oust his editor for crimes like 'mere' sale of editorials (he’ll probably pin a medal on him for this one) or say... plagiarism.
What we suspect is that Robin ruffled some Filipino feathers in the Herald. One of those who were reportedly upset by Robin, was Raul’s Filipino girlfriend who is one of those at the helm of affairs in the Herald, while Raul is busy with his furniture…. Oh… furnitiure business i.e. hehe.