TRIBUTE TO A TRUE GOAN
By Valmiki Faleiro
Hoary Hospicio, South Goa’s major public hospital, opened on December 13, 1867,
in a
thatched hut. Yes, a single thatched hut. A saintly Catholic priest, Antonio
Joao Miranda,
a Margaoite who lived on the same street as I am now privileged to, started it
at a time
when the town reeled under an epidemic of the dreaded small pox. Dozens were
dying.
Disposing the dead was difficult: people feared the contagion.
In tattered cassock and ragged leather chappals, Pe. Miranda, after whom
Margao’s
main entry thoroughfare is today named, not only tended the sick and buried the
dead,
but went door to door beseeching the wealthy Margao gentry for alms for his
‘Hospicio
do Sagrado Coração de Maria.’ Like his ‘Gaudi’ patients, he lived on ‘ambil’
and frugal
meals. The institution, under a Trust, received funding from the colonial
regime much
after the Padre had demised. Such were pioneers.
Let us pan to the present. Hospicio was nationalized in the late 1960s. It is
since
begging for both official attention and facilities. Money was well spent in the
1980s, on a
new block behind the old, now heritage, structure. The present morgue was added.
Times still were when ministers inaugurated only major public projects, not
urinals and,
as we shall see, compound walls. Then Health Minister, Dr. Wilfred de Souza,
caused a
flutter when he insisted on ‘inaugurating’ the morgue. He didn’t do it the way
Margao’s
irrepressible stormy petrel, late Jyoti Sarmalkar, wanted him to. Dr. Willie
cut a ribbon
and spoke about caring for the dead, even if he forgot that those still alive
in the by-now
notorious public hospital, where one went in vertically but emerged
horizontally, also
cried for care.
Goa’s current Health Minister is a young man in a tearing hurry. Watch how he
left all
other ministers way behind with a rapid-fire major policy decision to hand over
public
land in the GMC for a super speciality private enclave. More on PPP (Public
Private
Participation), Goa style, another day. Given the speed at which the young Rane
wants
to spend public money, I have no doubt the proposed District Hospital in Margao
will
soon be a reality. And the hoary Hospicio, history.
I have an honest suggestion to my friend, Digu, the Chief Minister. When the new
hospital is ready, pay a fitting tribute to the old Hospicio premises. In the
heritage part,
house a South Goa branch of the Dept. of Archives and Archaeology, an urgent
need.
Old civil registration records, re-shifted in mixed wisdom from the erstwhile
Psychiatry
Hospital at Altinho-Panjim, need better handling than what they receive at the
crammed
Sub-Registrar offices in South Goa. The impression that these records,
pertaining
largely to Goa’s Christian minority, are systematically being destroyed, must
be allayed.
Margao also needs a sub-Central Library. House one in the new block of the
Hospicio.
Pretty certain Pe. Miranda would be pleased.
UZGATTAN: One has heard of public projects, big, small and insignificant --
from a
wayside bus shelter to a public WC block -- being inaugurated by our worthy
ministers.
But, "inaugurate" a compound wall?
The North Goa Member of Parliament, Sripad Naik, not long ago "inaugurated" a
compound wall built around a college campus at Mapusa. The wall was funded from
his
‘Local Area Development’ kitty. Pray, how does one "inaugurate" a compound wall?
Simple, fix a plaque to the wall and unveil it!
Even routine repair work of old public utilities like roads, are now being
"inaugurated" by
our worthies. The trend, I believe, was started by Luizinho Faleiro, a past
master at
appropriating credit to himself, even if none was due. But then, I guess, that
singular skill
-- of appropriating or misappropriating -- is the true hallmark of today’s
authentic politico.
DROWNING DEATHS: We entice people from India’s hinterland to our land of beaches
and booze. A fatal combination for those who have never seen an ocean, and
liquor so
cheap. A handful of untrained and underpaid lifeguards -- however gallant their
individual
rescues -- could have never stemmed the alarming tide of sea drowning deaths.
Goa
Tourism Development Corporation and its ex-chairperson, Fatima de Sa, did well
to
recruit and train a hundred lifeguards. That would have earned them accolades
anyway.
But the GTDC did not stop there. It went overboard with a series of large
newspaper ads
with macabre titles. Was that necessary? Have our Babus lost all sense of
proportion
and sensitivity?
DEMOCRACY: In the tailpiece last Sunday, I had spoken of low voter turnout for
the Oct
31 poll. We must thank the migrants; else, the figure wouldn’t have crossed 20
percent.
Time Digu started work, and not only for the migrant Aam Aadmi. Even if
decisions for
the good of Goa cost him the chair. After all, as he rightly said, CMs are not
permanent.
(ENDS)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330
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The above article appeared in the September 16, 2007 edition of the Herald, Goa
