Migrants and Misinformation The newspaper Heralds star letter, titled Evils of migrants written by Croydon Medeira on 8th March 2006 is on the evils of migrants when they settle down in Goa. He suggests stopping the influx of migrants from other states and countries into Goa. So Mr. Medeira, if the suggestions in your letter holds good, well send all the migrants out of Goa. To balance it all, well have to call all Goans working out of Goa back home. All our Uncles and Aunties settled in Canada, USA, UK, Africa and elsewhere be deported back to Goa, they are all migrants after all arent they? And its ironic that you be deported to Goa too, since you signed in your location as UAE.
Here in India, nobody can, not even our politicians decide that the steady stream of migrants should be stopped. As citizens of India, you are allowed to settle wherever you want. According to many Goans, its migrants that cause most of the states problems. But migrants would be defined as anybody that comes into the state, including well spending tourists, lecturers to colleges and universities, government servants on transfer orders, celebrities, and industrialists that set up industries here. The poorest of the poor migrants that make in here in Goa, are filling up jobs that most Goans shy away from. Who is the servant in your house? Who are the persons working at construction sites and built your own home? Who is it the builds and repairs roads? Who sweeps the streets? Who is it that clears away the garbage and cleans the sewers and open drains? Chances are that most of them are migrants? Are these people also undesirable and troublesome? If so, why arent we taking up those jobs? Change your mindset, have dignity of labour, whatever the job. We should have efficient law and order force, we should focus on problems like squatters that set up homes on private and government lands, establishing slums which are unhealthy for the rest of society besides themselves. The residents in these slums arent just migrants, nor they only from the Muslim community. How do we know that the Muslim community is the majority of all the migrants coming into Goa? Do we have any data or anybody monitoring check posts to verify unchallenged political statements and rumors? Its easy to blame the migrants for everything. Instead, we should worry, be aware and work on solutions to solve the serious problem about the communal angle that has bee brought upon us by one set of corrupt politicians that choose to ignore the situation and pretend everything is fine and another set that tries to gain cheap publicity by misinformation and spreading of communal hatred. Clinton Vaz, Benaulim [EMAIL PROTECTED] --
