--- "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just wait till they get to know of all the *hidden* > costs. Corruption > being one of those. Collapsing infrastructure is > another. The health > fallouts are a third (malaria, SARS, jaundice, > dengue... at least some of > these are not wholly unconnected with urbanisation > and/or the tourism > book, check the malaria belt of Candolim-Calangute). --> Not really. Much of this is the result of improper planning in general rather than tourism per se. Many of the non-tourist regions of Goa also suffer from the above problems. The poor planning and the low standards of living are the result of the relatively low levels/low quality of education in Indian society as a whole. There are many other countries/regions that have far higher concentrations of tourism as part of their economies, but which do not suffer similar problems. In a typical year, there are maybe around 200-250,000 foreign tourists that come to Goa. There has in fact been a stagnation if not a decline in the number of foreign tourists coming into Goa over the last decade. The number of domestic tourists coming to Goa is around 6-8x the foreign figure. I dont think most of us would equate Indian tourism with neo-colonialism (unless you are Xac of course!)
> Actually, this further reinforces the point Miguel > has been making. > > Holidayers are (often) lured in by the promise of > "cheap holidays" and/or > having a cheap stay in a place like Goa. It is the > average Goan, who > finds his/her fish getting scarce, roads > increasingly congested, > beachsides getting unrecognised, water being sold by > the tankerful for a > few paisa a litre (come to Saligao, Sangolda, > Guirim, Pilerne and > elsewhere) ... who ends up feeling that s/he is > probably subsidising the > holidays of the visitor. On the other hand, there is > a class of Goans > (and people from other states) who have specialised > in exploiting the > situation to their own benefit. --- The price of any commodity is determined by supply and demand. The seller of the commodity should be allowed to sell it for the best price he or she can get for it, or are we saying for example that our goan fisher folk should be forced to sell at lower prices in order to subsidise the middle class goans. So as Fred states below, the sword definately cuts different people differently! If the price of water is so low, it is primarily the result of the government's policy of subsidizing this commodity (as with many other things) to the public at large. Subsidies be it in water, electricity and even food need to be be scaled back so that they do not distort market prices. If rich and middle class goan individuals are allowed to take advantage of subsidies, why cant industry do the same? > But let us remind ourselves that this sword cuts > different people > differently. For a majority of the citizens of the > Third World, the > erosion of access to resources due to tourism is > real ... and most of the > people there haven't even heard of what a holiday > really is. Can we > dismiss this by saying that their productivity is > lower? -FN --> The sad fact is yes, an average worker in India is less productive than an average worker in say Korea who in turn is less productive than the US. While there are many workers in India who have the capacity to be more productive than a typical worker in the US, the average Indian worker does not have the skills to perform effectively in the 21st century - let alone the last century. Most goanetters from Goa represent the upper crust of Indian society in terms of their educational or social backgrounds. The sad fact is that around 50% of our country folk cannot read nor write. Until we fix this issue, we should forget about blaming foreigners for our problems. Marlon ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
