By Chris Fernandes
To each child of Goa, the proverbial El Dorado.
We love you
We need you
There is no one like you
We are fighting for you
--Excerpt from Candide, by Voltaire
Candide was not yet tired of interrogating the good old man;
he wanted to know in what manner they prayed to God in El
Dorado.
"We do not pray to Him," said the worthy sage. "We have
nothing to ask of Him. He has given us all we need, and we
return Him thanks without ceasing."
Candide, curious to see the priests, asked where they were.
The good old man smiled. "My friend," said he, "we are all
priests. The King and all the heads of families sing solemn
canticles of thanksgiving every morning, accompanied by five
or six thousand musicians."
* * *
1 Four teenagers materialized out of the dusty alley, bumped
fists and grinned at each other in the flickering moonlight.
They stealthily made their way up the stairway of Wing 5,
Rosary Apartment, and into the refuge of the terrace that
linked the residential complex. The suffocating Goan summer
had only just begun its three month reign of pain and the
city-fathers' perverse penchant for digging roads didn't
help.
The boys had grown up together in a suburb of Panjim, the
genteel 24-carat riverside jewel, that had served as the
capital of Goa since colonial times. Irfan a.k.a Bob and his
brother Ehsaan, Bjorn and Dominic sat down in a circle and
put down their offerings: a grand total of seven cigarettes.
After a long day of loafing with their respective pool
parlour cliques/delinquent gangs, this little bounty was a
testament to childhood camaraderie.
Dom had first encountered the brothers when he was
ten and was accosted (repeatedly) by the ferocious
twosome while taking a shortcut through their
apartment complex. After dodging them didn't work,
he tried smiling at them and said a cheery `hey
buddy', which worked wonders. The Nirbhan
brothers' countenance changed, they echoed his
Americanised greeting, stopped hitting him and the
three of them had been thick as thieves ever since.
Bjorn joined them a while later. His family had fled back to
Goa after the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait and the three
firebrands had spotted him sitting sadly on his first floor
balcony. They bellowed at him to come and join them for a
game of soccer and discovered that, despite his height, he
was both a gifted goalie and talented impressionist.
The terrace tradition they had developed was simple. A
single cigarette was lit, each took a drag and passed it
right, the cardinal rule being that no one was allowed to
flick the ash. The person who did drop the precipitous pile
was obliged to forego his puff the next round. Ehsaan,
endeared for his clumsiness, always burst out into his
riotous chuckle when someone made a face or cracked a joke.
Tonight was no different. He kept getting knocked out of
their smokey Russian roulette but, as always, good naturedly
took it in stride. The night was young and the boys had
hours to kill.
"The test results of the three boys who died at Sunbeam
finally came out," drawled Bjorn as he handed the cigarette
to Bob. "After almost a year, the lab didn't find any
evidence of drugs. Three healthy young men just somehow
managed to get heart attacks, together, while waiting in
queue for an edm. Like large crowds are rare in India!"
Bob shook his head in disgust, "That's crap and you know it.
The guys od'd and the government lied. The drug mafia and
the tourism minister are in bed together, his son hosted the
Sunbeam after-party at his nightclub, which is why his dad,
`Mr. Thirty Percent Commission', allowed the festival to
continue after the first death on day one. Bastards!"
"The show must go on," rasped his brother, mimicking the
feckless tourism minister's trademark monotone and the exact
phrase he used to write off the first death on Day One of the
notorious electronic dance music festival.
"It's not just the tourism minister, all the forty thieves
are in on the scam," sighed Dom. "The Ports Minister's
driver was arrested recently for buying commercial quantities
of skunk on the dark web using Bitcoin. I'm sure he wasn't
acting alone."
Bjorn grimaced as he added, "Yeah, his patrão's competition
calls him Pablo Escobar, which is hilarious. When he was mla
of Calangute, he ran Paradiso (an illegal rave) that was held
on a government-owned property. The prick is just pissed off
now because he's out of business."
Bob snickered and added, "Paradiso wasn't that bad,
what about the ketamine factory the DRI raided a
few years ago? That godown belonged to the Goa
government too and was leased to the
secretary-general of the ruling party, who
illegally sublet it to killers and international
drug dealers. The DRI found a hundred kilos of
ketamine at the factory and the man didn't spend a
day in jail. It's good to have low friends in high
places!"
They cursed in unison. The sleuths of the Central
Government-based Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had
shocked everyone with a covert op that uncovered a pan-India
drug manufacturing nexus. The officers had conducted the
raid without getting help from local law enforcement, fearing
they would leak the information to the culprits.
"They brought back Bhau from the cancer ward at AIIMS to put
that fire out," recalled Dom wistfully as he gingerly passed
the cigarette butt with its entire ash-skeleton to Ehsaan.
"He pulled off a masterpiece of a heist, called in his
contacts at the Center and somehow managed to sweep the whole
mess under the carpet. Bhau even had the balls to say the
drugs weren't for local consumption, but were for export
purposes only! No harm, no foul."
"Well, he suffered more than enough for his mistakes," said
Ehsaan, thinking of the former politician's painful tryst
with pancreatic cancer and subsequent demise.
"What about the rest of the lives lost to drugs? What about
Sarah, Joselyn, Leo?" Bjorn spat out. The rest of them fell
silent, thinking of the Portuguese-blooded fifteen year old
with her pixie ears and lilting giggle, who now lay paralyzed
in a coma after falling from her balcony. The ecstasy Sarah
had popped kicked in while climbing down from her bedroom to
get to a rave. She never regained consciousness after the
fall and her mother nearly clawed the doctor's eyes out when
he suggested taking her off the ventilator.
Then there was Joselyn, the six-foot-four muscle-bound
Spartan of a youth who had died of a cardiac arrest brought
on by his cocaine habit. Urban legend had it that his last
stash was laced with powdered glass to settle a feud and his
lungs burst when he snorted his line. Either way, he was
history, much before his time.
Leo's fate was arguably worse than death. To deal with a
broken heart, he had candy flipped; that is, popped both mdma
and lsd at one go. He had the mother of all bad trips and
wound up battling a vicious case of bipolar disorder. It was
a cruel fall from grace for him and all four remembered his
prowess on the football field.
The boys had borne witness to Goa's endemic moral
landmines. Dirt cheap alcohol, doorstep delivery
of every psychotropic drug imaginable,
institutionalised corruption and a meek, almost
castrated citizenry all made for a very sound
recipe for `youth-anasia'. Like the forty odd kids
from their neighborhood, they too had been
conscripted into the army of drug addicts but were
lucky to be taken hostage by grace, breaking the
habit before it drop kicked them in the teeth.
They had seen their friends die in road mishaps, sent off to
jail for murder, one ended up getting killed by a ninth
grader, another took his own life, a few had their futures
upended and were being bled dry by lawyers, undoing a moment
of youthful indiscretion.
After the ketamine factory debacle, the gloves were off. The
boys knew that the cartels and the ministers were one happy
crime family, with the Right-wing government sympathizers
following the Naxalite formula: make your own contraband and
use the stupendous proceeds to bankroll your activities.
* * *
2 After the secretary-general (North Goa) was literally
handed a get-out-of-jail free card, Dominic Mascarenhas and
his team went on the warpath. Naively, they had emailed the
DRI asking why a violation of the NDPS Act on that massive a
scale (100 kilos) was yet unpunished but got no response.
Further research into the case revealed that the peddlers
arrested in the Goa leg of the raid were a ragtag bunch of
nris convicted of murder and drug dealing in Canada and the
uk. Their ringleader was a brutal Burmese national who was
wanted by the rcmp for the murder of a Canadian.
Dom then emailed the British High Commission and informed
them (with links to various state and national newspapers) of
the dangers their citizens might face while on their
pilgrimages to Goa's golden sands. The gruesome rape-murders
of British teenager Scarlett Keeling and the globe-trotting
Irishwoman Danielle McLaughlin were linked to locals warped
into sociopathy after habitual chemical drug use. Dom asked
the English authorities to advise their countrymen (and their
daughters) to be wary of befriending strangers in Goa. On a
whim, he had dashed off an email to the Prime Minister of
Canada too. Using a publicly listed email address, Dom
intimated him of the Goa government's heinous acts, the link
to the errant Canadian nationals, and asked him to use his
considerable international clout to pressurize the Indian
government into action. Amazingly, the office of Mr.
Trudeau had emailed him back and said that they were handing
the matter over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; but
Dom's joy was short-lived. The hon'ble minister in charge of
the rcmp wrote back and, mincing no words, said the issue was
India's alone and no further correspondence was to be
directed his way.
Unfazed, they contacted the parish priests of Goan churches
and implored them to advise their congregations of the risks
associated with the state-sponsored Ketamine trend. Apart
from being a party favorite, Ketamine was also used as a date
rape drug. Local girls could end up in dire straits if they
left their drinks unsupervised at nightclubs. The blitzkrieg
of the awareness drive went viral on social media and a
vigilant environmental watchdog group asked Dom to join them.
The NGO was packed with lawyers, renowned activists,
professionals and musicians making up its core.
The sheer volume of issues the activists were dealing with
was stupendous. Mother Goa was on life support yet her
elected Shylocks were not only demanding their pound of flesh
but were amending the rulebook to legislate the draining of
her lifeblood. Back to back exposés by local newspapers
revealed how millionaire mlas were claiming 100%
reimbursement for medical bills, almost all had availed of
stout home and car loans, were involved with multiple frauds
or criminal activities that would have earned lesser mortals
jail time for sure. Their `accomplishments' ranged from
allegations of smuggling, extortion, murder, illegal gambling
right upto facilitating state losses to the tune of Rs.35,000
crore. Then, there was the matter of actual chargesheets of
statutory rape, assault, land-grabbing, being part of a mob
that attacked a police station, culpability for
crater-riddled roads which had resulted in Goa having the
nation's worst fatality rate and a tonne more. The vigilante
legal eagles in the group were fighting them in the courts,
up to the highest level, with their own resources, while the
mlas and their ilk had unlimited funds and used the police to
do their bidding. Various sections of draconian laws were
slapped on civilians who dared rock the boat or point out
glaring discrepancies in government dealings. The late cm
had once tried to transfer Goa's many environmental cases
from the National Green Tribunal in neighbouring Pune to
distant New Delhi. He heartlessly rationalised the same by
saying the capital had quarters for government appointed
lawyers to bunk. This revelation was made a week after he
had won a bye-election in his stronghold, Panjim. The
activists were livid as they used to drive down to Pune,
attend the case hearings and make it back for work as soon as
humanly possible.
Dom was overwhelmed by the star-studded veterans who had been
in the thick of Goa's war against corruption for decades. He
got over the initial awe when he realised they were all too
human and had to juggle families, jobs, court dates and
getting actual boots on the ground for protests. They were
always playing defense and repeatedly fell for a barrage of
red herrings that the government tossed in to distract,
deceive and, ultimately, get away scot free. The ingenuity
of the political class was undeniable. They got away with
murder with their choreographed cocktail of ineptitude, red
tapism, feigned ignorance and blamed all Goa's woes on past
regimes. The so-called opponents however, showed remarkable
unity when the entire House met at midnight to welcome twelve
defectors, making Goa the laughing stock of the entire
country. While Goans faced serious problems like garbage
management, coal dust pollution, chronic potable water
shortages, coastal erosion, river pollution, youth
unemployment and snowballing debt, the mlas voted to weaken
the anti-graft Lokayukta Act, thereby giving corruption a
resounding filip. The grand old man of the house, arguably
the architect of Goa's patented threadbare governance, had
mooted the construction of a hostel for mlas! A place for
filthy rich legislators to spend the night when they rarely
convened to decide honest taxpayers' futures. The current
head of the pwd had once recommended importing bitumen from
the Arab Emirates, as Goa's death-roads seemed to come apart
at the seams with the local variety.
Dom would seethe when he saw them flitter from issue to
issue, some completely removed from Goa's bleeding shores
until he watched a video that shook him to his core.
* * *
3 A member of the group had posted a clip by the prime
minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. On being hailed for
her work to include empathy in governance, her crisp words
had stopped him in his tracks: "I try to view it from the
lens of children, of people and the most basic concept and
idea of fairness. As a minister, if you want to spend money,
you have to prove how you're going to use it to improve
intergenerational well-being. We're hoping to embed what the
public is actually asking for: how to improve societal
well-being and not just our economic problem."
Serendipity lobbed another insightful article his way. It
extolled the groundbreaking system of state management that
was making waves and Ardern was in the limelight yet again.
WEGo, or `Well-being Economy Governance' countries had fared
exceedingly well during the covid 19 pandemic, and as such
their model had caught the attention of the world.
The latest member to this little club was Finland, which had
been on Dom's radar for some time after he had learnt of
their stellar universal, empathy-based learning construct.
The Finns had prudently joined Iceland, Wales, Scotland and
New Zealand to best prepare for any future pandemics,
untoward climate-change attributed events, while other
nations focused on getting back to rapacious `business as
usual'.
The economy of wellbeing emphasises the balance between the
three dimensions of sustainable development — social,
economic and environmental sustainability. In the economy of
wellbeing, public resources are allocated for improving
people's wellbeing. In the long run, the sustainability and
stability of society will improve.
The informal WEGo members could track their progress
according to certain established guidelines and these were
concepts completely alien in Goa. True, local experts had
come up with `Goa: Vision 2035', a socio-economic roadmap
prepared on the lines of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness
model; but the plan was shelved. In its stead, the
government machinations diluted coastal zone laws to expedite
Denmark's Blue Flag certification for beaches, tried to
bulldoze a path through a unesco protected wildlife sanctuary
(complete with a tiger corridor) and pushed for double
tracking for coal transportation, in an age when coal-fired
power plants are being phased out. The casino lobby was
given a Rs.277 crore break to help the sin-industry ride out
the pandemic storm, while Rs.13 crores was allegedly pinched
by the government honchos. The money was from a fund
specially set aside by the building lobby to help daily wage
construction workers in times such as the pandemic, but that
issue was temporarily silenced when the upright Lokayukta
retired. The office remains vacant as of the time of
writing.
The casino industry, legalized by only two ethically-bankrupt
state governments in India, was poised to deal Goans a death
blow. Generations of kids in this twice-blessed oasis had
grown up thinking that drugs and alcohol were a part of their
`culture' and now the politicians were about to add deadly
gangland activities to that mix. Post-Liberation, after
1961, marijuana had piggybacked its way into Goan coastal
villages with warm and fuzzy backpackers, who were welcomed
by locals. As with all people who had been freed from
centuries of oppression, Goans too gave in to the lure of
hedonism, abusing freedom with transient satisfaction. Hard
work like farming and fishing was soon phased out, making way
for get-rich-quick businesses like shacks and guest houses.
Heady hippies brought in psychotropics and the northern
coastal belt even renamed a cove in their honour: Spaghetti
Beach, after the string bikini-clad. The naked sunbathers,
booze and drugs drew in hordes of local tourists, who seemed
to think Goa was India's sleazy item number, where
traditional family values could be kicked aside. The local
princes of the coast suffered greatly, giving up education,
sports, an honest day's work and gleefully took to drug
peddling and related criminal acts.
The land that bears the footprints of saints and pious
ancestors was weeping tears of blood.
* * *
4 Dom, doggedly researching the issue of the six
floating casinos docked in Panjim's stretch of the
sacred Mandovi river, was stunned to find crime at
international casinos making the news nearly every
day.
In Australia, serious allegations of money laundering were
being investigated that had kept a billionaire casino
magnate's project on ice. Canada had found out too late that
junkets from China had brought in drug money and enforcement
authorities were afraid to raid mafiosi-run establishments.
Thailand was suffering because of illegal junta-run gambling
parlours, where drugs, prostitution and pedophilia were all
on the menu. The story behind New Jersey legalizing gambling
was a sickening odyssey of betrayals by senators, corrupt
judges and police officers. Cambodia had gone all in,
allowing legalized gambling to spread its tentacles and their
sepsis-ridden storyline was very similar to Goa's.
Once a backpackers' haven, Cambodia had welcomed the casino
concept with open arms. Gambling was banned in China but
casinos in Cambodia were almost exclusively owned by Chinese
tycoons. Like Goa, locals were banned from gambling but bore
the brunt of its fallout. Violent crime rates had
skyrocketed, with loan sharks and kidnappers terrorizing
locals and tourists alike. The world's most feared crime
syndicate, the Chinese Triads, had swooped in to provide
protection for wealthy gamblers. The lure of easy money drew
underage Cambodian girls to work as croupiérs, they reported
being solicited for sex by patrons. Industry experts openly
admitted the casinos were a front for money laundering, after
Macau had been reined in following its handover to China.
The IMF and World Bank had taken cognizance of the same and
issued advisories. us law enforcement agencies had been
tracking a notorious Asian ganglord turned businessman, who
was diversifying his drug-money or prostitution-fuelled
portfolio with casinos, road and rail construction
businesses. The UK, where betting has been a national
institution for centuries, realised the harm done and had
formulated a set of laws to prevent young citizens from
developing addictions, losing their life savings and
resorting to suicide.
A gratuitous PDF uploaded by the British government listed
their measures to tackle the scourge and Dom read it with
dismay. Customer Due Diligence (cdd) checks were mandatory
for all casinos to discourage criminal elements and much
worse, potential terrorists. Counter Terrorism Funding (ctf)
and Politically Exposed Persons (pep) awareness programmes
were conducted regularly, keeping casino employees on their
toes. There were countries whose nationals were blacklisted
and barred from entering gaming establishments due to their
corrupt politicians' track record. The bulk of these
countries were, unsurprisingly, from the Third World.
Ironically, the UK frowned on dealing with blood money and
monitored any and all potential white collar crimes; the list
of scams pulled off by resourceful con artists was extensive.
Drug dealers used the elderly and groups of tourists to
launder proceeds of crime, roping in jewellery stores and car
dealerships to avoid paper trails. Dom recalled the latest
update on casino news in Goa, where the lobby had carte
blanche and was hailed as a benevolent job provider. The
ministers had delayed the formation of a proper oversight
committee, citing preoccupation with more `pressing' matters.
The city council, stooges of an MLA with an ongoing posco
(Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) case, said
they couldn't bow to vox populi to cancel their trade
licenses because they feared legal action.
Unlike Las Vegas that had devised a system which funneled a
fixed percentage of casino revenue into Corporate Social
Responsibility, the Goa government had done nothing of the
sort. To add insult to injury, the powers-that-be had mooted
growing medical marijuana in-house, ostensibly to aid the
pharmaceutical industry. The furore that followed was
unprecedented, with the press screaming that Goa was already
infamous as a narco-tourism destination.
But the usual suspects still kept up appearances. Goa's
newborn were once again lined up to be collateral damage
while Indians glutted on sacrilege.
* * *
5 One of the member countries of the WEGo initiative is
Wales, which boasts of having the world's only Future
Generations Commissioner. Sophie Howe, a mum of six, is
tasked with keeping all Welsh political parties on the
straight and narrow. The eventual winner, as mandated by the
Future Generations Act, has to govern while ensuring that
protection of the environment, intergenerational equity and
kids' futures are always at the forefront.
With an eye on the potential changes heading mankind's way,
Ms. Howe's predominantly-women team is enacting an arsenal
of measures to surf over tsunamis of challenges, tame them
and convert it all into profits, while lesser prepared lands
flounder. Using surplus public funds, they are taking
initiatives to preempt crime by providing low-income housing
neighborhoods with parks and green spaces every few hundred
meters, instead of punishing delinquent behaviour. Dom
couldn't believe how different the WEGo roadmap was from
Goa's horrendous model, where the future of kids wasn't even
remotely considered. This wasn't about the `grass being
greener', it was a matter of ending a saprophytic feudal
system that was feasting whilst defenceless youngsters were
lulled into an alcohol-narcotics induced haze, and early
graves. Armed with back-to-back reports of an rti activist
being burned alive in his car for opposing a builder, and a
viral video of a man being chased and ruthlessly beaten
outside a casino, Dom wrote to the Enforcement Directorate,
who worked on the orders of the Union Home ministry, hoping
against hope that integrity would somehow prevail.
Sir/Madam
I am a resident of Goa and am writing to you as a
law abiding citizen of India. I had recently
watched a video of a vicious beating outside one of
Goa's floating casinos in my hometown, the capital
city Panjim. This created fears that the casino
industry, which is notorious worldwide for being
synonymous with organised crime syndicates, money
laundering, terrorism financing, prostitution and
drug peddling, has the potential to do Goans
serious harm.
Goa and Sikkim are the only two states in India that have
legal gambling establishments and as the sin industry has a
history of encouraging white collar crime, shouldn't our
states be protected with redundant `Customer Due Diligence'
checks?
Every person coming to gamble in Goa should be vetted to
ensure they are not a threat to national security, or are
drug dealers, or `politically exposed persons', or have links
to organized crime syndicates (both local and international)
and above all, are not using casinos to route finances for
terrorism.
Biometric scans, photographs and antecedents of all
gamblers should be mandatory, details collected,
verified and logs maintained, to ensure law
enforcement agencies can preempt any untoward
instances and crime, white collar or otherwise.
Despite vehement opposition from locals, the state
has expressed concern that any attempts to deny the
six floating casinos the renewal of their trade
licenses could invite legal action; the authorities
are quite lax about implementation of checks and
balances to protect citizens, our way of life, or
even to collect csr. As per my information, a
gambling commission is yet to be appointed and
recently, the government waived off casino dues of
Rs.277 crores, citing losses incurred due to the
pandemic lockdown.
Goa is a sacred pilgrimage site with devotees coming from
many faiths and children here are already at risk from cheap
alcohol, easy availability of all kinds of psychotropic drugs
and gambling opens new avenues of addiction, crime and
delinquency.
Any and all efforts on your part to help eradicate this
western import, or at the very least, keep it on an extremely
tight leash by mandating kyc or Customer Due Diligence, will
be appreciated.
Attaching a few international links that prove without a
doubt that the gambling industry is not as innocent and
lucrative as it appears.
[
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13545-australian-authorities-find-junket-tour-industry-a-haven-for-organized-crime||Australian
Authorities Find Junket Tour Industry a Haven for Organized
Crime
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13545-australian-authorities-find-junket-tour-industry-a-haven-for-organized-crime
]
[
https://ipolitics.ca/2020/12/03/why-money-launderers-love-canada-the-price-we-pay-for-foot-dragging/||Why
money launderers love Canada: The price we pay for foot
dragging
https://ipolitics.ca/2020/12/03/why-money-launderers-love-canada-the-price-we-pay-for-foot-dragging/
]
[
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/07/asia/laos-ban-mom-port-zhao-wei-intl-hnk-dst/index.html||Is
an alleged drug kingpin from China investing millions in a
port in Laos?
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/07/asia/laos-ban-mom-port-zhao-wei-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
]
[
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/regulators-still-in-the-dark-on-crown-casinos-criminal-ties/12929312||How
gambling authorities missed Crown's criminal ties
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/regulators-still-in-the-dark-on-crown-casinos-criminal-ties/12929312
]
[
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/regulators-still-in-the-dark-on-crown-casinos-criminal-ties/12929312||How
gambling authorities missed Crown's criminal ties
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/regulators-still-in-the-dark-on-crown-casinos-criminal-ties/12929312
]
[
https://www.casino.org/news/macau-triad-leader-broken-tooth-wan-kuok-koi-sanctioned-by-us/||
Macau Triad Leader 'Broken Tooth' Wan Kuok-koi Sanctioned by
US Government for Expanding Criminal Empire
https://www.casino.org/news/macau-triad-leader-broken-tooth-wan-kuok-koi-sanctioned-by-us/
]
[
https://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/10286192-project-targets-cash-tied-to-child-exploitation/||Project
targets cash tied to child exploitation OurWindsor.ca
https://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/10286192-project-targets-cash-tied-to-child-exploitation/
]
[
http://globalnews.ca/news/7497621/rcmp-commander-warned-organized-crime-casinos-impunity/||RCMP
unit commander warned B.C. government that organized crime
would run casinos with impunity
http://globalnews.ca/news/7497621/rcmp-commander-warned-organized-crime-casinos-impunity/
]
[
https://igamingbusiness.com/caesars-commits-67m-to-communities-in-csr-drive/||Caesars
commits $67m to communities in CSR drive
https://igamingbusiness.com/caesars-commits-67m-to-communities-in-csr-drive/
]
[
https://www.casino.org/news/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal/||Quebec
to Investigate 'Mafia VIP' Claims at Casino de Montreal
https://www.casino.org/news/quebec-to-investigate-mafia-vip-claims-at-casino-de-montreal/
]
[
https://casinobeats.com/2020/12/02/ncpg-aiming-to-educate-about-the-risks-of-underage-lottery-play/||NCPG
aiming to educate about the risks of underage lottery play
https://casinobeats.com/2020/12/02/ncpg-aiming-to-educate-about-the-risks-of-underage-lottery-play/
]
[
https://calvinayre.com/2020/11/30/casino/quebec-independent-audit-casino-mafia-allegations/||Quebec
orders independent audit of casino-mafia allegations
https://calvinayre.com/2020/11/30/casino/quebec-independent-audit-casino-mafia-allegations/
]
[
https://www.inventiva.co.in/stories/hc-asks-gujarat-govt-to-deal-with-online-gambling-as-per-law/||HC
asks Gujarat govt to deal with online gambling as per law
https://www.inventiva.co.in/stories/hc-asks-gujarat-govt-to-deal-with-online-gambling-as-per-law/
]
[
https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/cambodia-passes-law-to-regulate-exploding-gambling-sector/||Cambodia
Passes Law to Regulate Exploding Gambling Sector
https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/cambodia-passes-law-to-regulate-exploding-gambling-sector/
]
[https://youtu.be/6ubscmDpZJc||Cambodia's Casino Gamble | 101
East on YouTube.com https://youtu.be/6ubscmDpZJc]
* * *
6 Dom intuitively felt that trust and uprightness (humility +
integrity) were the answer. Goa's only shot was a team who
had the oratory skills, exemplary administrative track
record, could work pro bono and appealed to a chunk of
taxpayers who were sick of choosing the lesser of the
thieves. He knew of only one group who could get the job
done, and against his better judgement, his heavy heart wrote
to the masses.
To whomsoever this reaches, please forward it to the relevant
authorities.
Respected clergy,
Best wishes on the joyous feast of St. Francis Xavier.
In his homily yesterday, the Archbishop of Goa
spoke about the need to protect the environment and
embed on well-being by ensuring continuity of
intergenerational equity; but all I heard was the
familiar drone of hollow political statements. The
Church in Goa has the resources -- viz. droves of
upright priests with vision, education, with their
finger on Mai Goa's faint pulse and a thorough
knowledge of the solutions available worldwide that
will save her. Sadly, dated norms of religious
'etiquette' are keeping these warriors from
stepping up and doing the needful.
Goa is not just an environmental oasis, she is a sacred
beacon to the world, an energetic vortex of creativity,
self-discovery and, above all, redemption. Her children are
missionaries, world leaders, teachers, artists, farmers,
entertainers, athletes, doting parents and saints; some
renowned but there are innumerable others who have returned
to the Light unrecognised, leaving their undying saintly
message in the breeze. After decades of following the
destructive political roadmap laid down by morally bankrupt
'men', Goans meekly accept crumbs instead of demanding their
rights as a democracy.
The late great U.S. Senator, Rep. John Lewis, refused to
accept the lopsided status quo of his day, demanding the same
rights accorded to other Americans. With the Fourth
Industrial Revolution breathing down our necks, access to the
knowledge of not just benefits available to other
well-governed democracies, but their universal life-saving
potential, is available to any discerning global citizen.
The problem is that the veil of confusion, hopelessness,
addiction and wasteful pursuits keeps most Goans in
submission.
The true definition of Faith is confused with
fledgling belief, Truth is mistaken for fickle fact
and trust in Almighty God is almost unheard of;
this is, in itself, unacceptable but allowing the
lives of innocent children to be sacrificed goes
against the very foundations of Christianity.
Faith is not just a good prayer life and attending a pleasing
Mass service: it is the assured hope of things unseen,
rejoicing in promises made and recorded in written scripture,
the living Word of the Creator of the universe. Goans are
not facing the ruthless Communist Party which slaughtered
student protestors in Tiananmen Square. Instead, we are
drowning in knee-deep water because we prostrate before
career criminals who toss so much illegality at us that we
don't know where to begin fighting!
The casino scourge will soon change all that. The sin
industry, which is synonymous worldwide with organised crime,
money laundering, loan sharking, prostitution,
terrorism-funding and pedophilia, will give Goans a real
reason to fear. Scripture warns us how civilisations that
tolerated such wickedness were punished quickly and in many
cases, irremediably. Blessings of verdant fields, sweet
water, peace, prosperity and long lives were withdrawn to be
replaced with curses of the exact opposites.
St. Francis Xavier came to teach the heathen the way to
eternal life using the spiritual weapons at his disposal.
Each of us is bound to embed on his mission, with the arsenal
of peace available after years of following Christ, His love
and harvesting His (and our) Father's promises.
We have Catholic priests who are visionaries, conscientious
managers, highly educated and experienced teachers,
counselors, scientists and above all, farmers. What's
stopping the Archbishop from excusing a few of them from
their duties to parishes for five years? It only takes a
spark to start a fire and uprightness needs to engulf Goa
before the flood of masterfully choreographed ineptitude
drowns us all. In one term, a Catholic priest-only party can
institute, and mandate into perpetuity, oversight committees
for runaway loss-makers (like the US), streamline
e-governance (like Estonia), focus on intergenerational
equity like soil health, protection of the khazans, rivers,
stem coastal erosion by scientific afforestation (like
Bhutan, Chile, Wales, New Zealand), put the ex-Lokayukta's
recommendations into practice (like all the Nordic
countries), ensure csr from the sin industry is funneled into
youth development activities (like Las Vegas, Macau,
Colorado), enact legislation that ensures criminals, repeat
offenders and even good individuals never get the chance to
serve as mlas for more than two terms (which enabled current
fiefdoms) and perhaps most importantly, ensuring the
ground-breaking National Education Policy is duly
implemented, with associated student-building complements
like wholesome diet, value education, road safety (like the
Japanese, Dutch, Singaporeans have done).
From the age of sixteen, I lost seven of my friends
to road accidents. A close friend visited me
before he took his own life. A childhood friend
and neighbour killed a man when a robbery went
wrong; he was forced into this vile act when his
dad lost his job and his family was facing
eviction. I visited him thrice when he was housed
at Panjim police station's judicial custody and
twice when he was shifted to Aguada. I gave up on
him after that, choosing my former lifestyle of
drugs and alcohol rather than empathy. After the
close of a San João party, I witnessed the
management fish out the body of a local youth who
had drowned in the muddy resort pool. I stared in
shock as they tried to administer cpr wrongly and I
stepped up and gave him chest compression the right
way. I stopped short of giving him mouth to mouth
resuscitation because I was afraid.
I read the youth's obituary the next day and realised the
deadly price of fear. I learned years later that St. John
the Baptist was an ascetic teetotaler, he had never touched
alcohol in his short life. I kept quiet when my best friend
was dismissed from school after failing to submit a doctor's
certificate for his absence; he had battled a bout of
malaria, alone, in ninth grade, because his alcoholic father
had left him for months on end. Forty of us got into drugs,
booze and gangs because of this same friend's apartment.
After years of delinquency, hedonistic living, addiction and
violent behaviour, I cleaned up my act and joined Agnel
Polytechnic, Verna. In my first semester, I developed a
slight limp that worsened steadily into a debilitating
stagger. In 2013, I had an encounter with a man, who I
fervently believe is the archangel Raphael, was introduced to
the Word, and was taken hostage by Grace.
I've made tons of mistakes of both omission and commission in
my life and I refuse to be silent now.
Goa needs to launch a proactive counterattack against the
immortal, rabid enemy of Goodness; upright boots on the
ground in the battlefield of politics are vital now.
With regards and much respect
Dom Mascarenhas
To live in freedom and not oppose slavery, is to profiteer
—Orson Welles
--
Chris Fernandes, 38, is a Libra, and writes that he 'recently
discovered I'm pretty much the universe's stenographer.' Goa
is his home, his first muse, his life, and, as he puts it, 'I
cannot believe we allow the slaughter of this sacred oasis on
an hourly basis.' He sees writing as his only concrete
contribution to critically endangered Goa's conservation
'with the chance of putting us on par with fiercely protected
Bhutan.' This was written for his niece (who's ten now and
way too big for her boots). He is based at La Campala
Residential Colony, Miramar. 9921643914
This is an excerpt from All Those Tales
(Nellie Velho Pereira & FN, Eds.).
Goa,1556 ISBN 978-93-95795-65-4.
2024. Pp242. Rs500 (in Goa).
See cover here: http://t.ly/kan08
If you'd like to join the Tell
Your Story group that offers
mentoring in writing, click on the
WhatsApp link below
https://chat.whatsapp.com/C5ge87N4WeJAW54oUXqnBO
