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I have before me today's edtion of all three English newspapers published in Goa. The bottom half of two newspapers is identical: the title is 'GOA CALLS THE SHOTS', the subject is iffi and the bottom-line is MONEY. The sponsor list ranges from Kingfisher and Bacardi to Pepsi;Hyundai to Indian Airlines and Taj to Marriott. If you don't get the message through Idea, even State Bank of India is chipping in. IFFI has come a full circle....and 360 degrees is the official event manager to boot. In the top half of the page, Navhind Times and oHeraldo find space for the Reliance row and mundane things like death of 12 youth in Bhopal or 7 CRPF jawans in Kashmir. Ironically, the GT has devoted the entire page 1 to IFFI...all at its own cost. It has to make do with a quarter page B/W ad from the Corporation of City of Panaji [CCP] in praise of Parrikar. In contrast the oHeraldo has a half page colour ad from Goa Govt and a quarter page colour ad from INOX on the last page[ effectively one and a quarter of its coverpages are IFFI related colour ads.]. It also has the CCP ad. The NT has the INOX and Idea ads in colour on page 3 and the CCP ad to boot. The IFFI is happening. All rough edges have been temporarily smoothened out. There were some protests , as protests always help to underline the importance of an event. No one protested against the poor show put up by the agencies that conducted the Lak-lustre float parade. Most people had a look and walke away saying it was a damp squib. The romta-mel had no punch in it, the ghode-modni could well have been a puppet show and the carnival neither had Goan flavour nor that of Brazil. The floats had as much taste as a mink coat made of candy floss or a celebrity gown made on a middle-class budget. In fact, I am told that finance given for the parade was the major constraint. The deadline of wrapping up a special edition of the combined PLUS tabloid for the feast of St.Francis Xavier kept me away from the round of the venues. [ I had no invite for the inauguration,anyway. I was in good company. Many senior accredited journos and GUJ executive members and national journos were in the same boat. ;-( ]. Those who were lucky to be in will tell us about it tomorrow. A peek into it will be provided by Anisa Beig of NDTV "Night Out" later tonight. Log on to www.ndtv.com and check out] Till then, your guess is as good as mine. Viva Goa. Miguel
