"Not a single entry came in from Goa," Osama Manzar told me, after we had finished our job in a hot, humid but determined ICT4D network. Many different information and communication technology projects came up for judging for their e-content, in the basement of this South Delhi locality. [See details at 1.] You can imagine how humid it got when the power failed -- once for three hours at a stretch -- when you're cooped in for the better part of two days.
"And, you also promised to follow it up for us," Osama added, making my discomfort even more acute. Well, I did nominate some projects from Goa (anyone can nominate a project). Probably there wasn't a response! But what made me feel really asinine was not doing being more focussed in scouting around the Free Software world, where so much is actually happening! Or, managing to convince techies to launch socially-usefully projects. On Friday, it was Dabolim once again. Goa must be one of the few airports in the world which lacks decent public transport to its airport. Either you add further to pollution levels, or opt for the slow-moving bus. Like other airports across the country (including Delhi), Goa's seems to be in a perpetual state of renovation. Is this a good sign? Is it a mark that our expansion plans are all so short-sighted, and it's the contractors who gain the most with this perpetual break-and-rebuild policy? Is air travel really booming, now with the (somewhat) low-cost players coming in? Even if this is true, what happens to global warming? Can Indians, South Asians and Chinese ever dream to begin consuming like North Americans and West Europeans? Wouldn't that send the planet on a tail-spin, as they say? Thanks to the Navy dominance of Dabolim, there's no early morning flight to Delhi. That means going a day earlier. And returning a day later! At Dabolim, one gets a chance to scan papers from diverse parts of the country. The planes keep making hops between Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and elsewhere, meaning that diverse perspectives from across the Indian region of South Asia flow here. Hindustan Times (Mumbai, June 30, 2006) had this story on its front page, about how farmers in the suicide-prone agri districts of Maharashtra were being tutored to meet up with visiting prime minister Manmohan Singh. As readers would know, farmers committing suicides in India is a serious issue. The paper (owned by the Birlas, one of India's long dominant empires, with a hold over Zuari Agro Chemicals and BITS-Pilani Goa centre) had a fascinating story of how the official-politician nexus was getting villagers to ask the PM loaded questions like "When will we get a factory? When will we get a dam? When will the youth get jobs?" Instead, the HT pointed out, they should have been asking questions such as "When will we get cheaper loans? When will cotton rates match sots? When will you really fix this (agricultural) crisis?" It so reminded me of Goa, where politicians and lobbies manage to stoke up issues to suit their own interests -- we've seen these in many a controversy over mega-projects here. Whether its Mopa, the Konkan Railway, Tillari, Salaulim dam, and more. There was this ad which spoke about New Delhi's national safety award for mines, 2004. In Goa, we should probably start with risk and unsafety awards, what with all those barges just sinking in our waterways with hundreds of tonnes of ore sinking to the bottom... not to speak of the lives of workers under hazard. Another report (June 30, 2006, Business Standard) quoted mines minister Sis Ram Ole as having "shot down speculation about a ban on export of iron ore in the new mining policy due to be announced shortly". Of course, the mystery of how private interests in Goa managed to lobby against any private exports of ore over the years (calling it "low grade ore") remains just that: a mystery. In the Hindustan Times (Delhi edition), there was this story of a descendent of Spaniard (Basque?) SFrancis Xavier -- the "first Christian missionary in Japan" -- who was paying tribute to the sixteenth century priest by crossing Asia on a jet-ski. AFP the French agency said Alvaro de Marichalar became "the first person to jet-ski 5320 km from China to Japan. Says the report: "'Spanish missionaries were romantic men who deserve a little respect,' said the fervently Catholic aristocrat, clad in a fluorescent yellow jumpsuit." It also adds, with the slip-ups obvious: "In 1549, Francis Xavier became the first Christian missionary to land in Japan, sailing into the main southern island of Kyushu. He was later declared a saint and is buried in Goa, which remains nearly one-third Catholic. But the missionaries had far less impact in Japan, where today only one per cent of the population is Christian." Apparently, the Spanish "nobleman" is the brother-in-law of Infanta Elena, the eldest daughter of SPanish King Juan Carlos. He "insisted he was not on a new quest to convert Japan." Getting closer to Delhi, one noticed an advert for Edupath 2006 "Delhi's biggest educational fair". Right upfront, and mentioned as a "special attraction" was the one-to-one interactions and career counselling by Usha Albuquerque (from Careers Smart). See a link to Ms Albuquerque at [2]. Old time Goanetters might remember her as the sister of Porvorim-based Joseph 'Boogie' Viegas, who has since shifted to Canada. It was fascinating to look at what people and groups across India are trying to do with the power of ICT (information and communication technology). Not just computers. Even with radio, Check this interesting story [3] about the power of radio in the agricultural heartland of Baramati, which one encountered some time back. So I left Delhi with a head full of ideas. But can we implement any? The challenge is to make them work, not crib incessantly or live in the past as we in Goa, from Goa are prone to do. And, horror of horrors, I realised that there was a stop-over in a Mumbai that was flooded with the rains! Global warming, here we come? Just notice how extremities of weather seem to be getting worse by the year. But apartt from being a couple of hours later, all was fine. A Siolim family from California was returning back for a family occasion. As we grew talking, the lady asked me, "So how often do you come to Goa?" "Oh," I said sheepishly, "I live here." Maybe my cyber-existence is getting more unreal :-) [1] http://southasiaict4d.wordpress.com/ [2] http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/AuthorLounge/AuthorDetail.asp?aid=27 [3] http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/cr-india/2006-March/002476.html -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha http://fn.goa-india.org | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ---------------------------------------------------------- 2248 copylefted photos from Goa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
