Dear Filomena Giese, It was interesting to read your article and the responses on this forum.
The part on Slums in Goa seems quite poorly written and ill researched. First of all it is wrong to compare Bangladeshi migrants in Assam(most of whom are illegal) to Indians who reside in the areas of Margao you mention. Also it is extremely elitist to oppose slums because they detract from scenic beauty. Please note that the issue/menace that needs to be addressed is poverty. These slum dwellers are fellow Indians and human beings and please consider them as so. If they are willing to live in such appaling conditions in slums, can you imagine the conditions in their home villages? Have you ever spoken to any of these "menaces"? If you had to build a house or open a labour intensive business here do you think you would fnd any Goans wiling to work?? Are the Goans who employ migrant labour making any provisions for their stay?? Furthermore, issues like road safety, garbage disposal, heritage preservation have much more to do with civic awareness than they have to do with "public accountability". In other words we(the people) are the ones responsible for running over pedestrians, littering and destroying heritage. Blaming politicians and the system is the easy way out. On a more positive note, the level of civic awareness among youngsters in areas like Panjim is increasing very promisingly. You now see many school students(and corporation as well!) getting involved in traffic and cleanliness drives. Infact, as a long time resident of Panjim I would say we are on an upward spiral towards improvement. Regards Sunith Velho _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
