------------------------------------------------------------------------ * G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rajan, In your rush to pass the buck you forget that, the fellow from Andhra is tending to a fishing net of a Goan owned trawler and the Kashmiri rents from a Goan landlord. If you had to spend sometime in Anjuna and Vagator(Goa's main drug belt) you would see that all the small time drug dealers are Goans. Your views are from the perspective of the urban upper class Goan. You would be well advised to ask the stake holders i.e. the coastal people on what they think "tourism" has brought them. The beaches are not only meant for the upper classes or castes to enjoy. The ramponkars are not there to provide you with a better scenery. If a thesis needs to be written it should be based on how tourism has enabled the erstwhile backward castes to break through the social barrier. Tourism has not only dismantled traditional Goan occupations but has effectively dismantled the caste discrimination that was based on these occupations. I however share your frustration with the situation Goa is currently in, but the believe the blame is entirely ours. All the issues you mention are linked. Polticians(All Goans) convert land(owned by Goans) for Big Builders(mostly Goan) who then need cheap labour(Kannadigas, Tullus, etc) to construct mega projects to sell to mostly, rich non-Goans. Why blame the construction workers or appartment buyers. Does the Goan government legislate on the working conditions the construction companies need to provide their labourers with? Where are they supposed to go after the days work is done? Is the Government controling the land use patterns for real estate? If there were no appartments to buy we wouldn't have the louts from Delhi or hooligans from Manchester crowding the coast. You have to consider that well educated and travelled people such as yourself form a small minority of the total voting Goan population. A vast majority of Goans will vote for the Politician who will get illegal things done for them whether it is building an illegal compound wall or sanctioning a multi-crore project. However they are firm in the belief that illegalities should only be commited by residents of the village/vaddo and not anyone else. Is there any chance that someone like Dayanand Narvekar won't get relected? His(and all the rests') strategy is simple. Allow all residents of your constituency to commit gross illegalities for free(so that they re-elect you time and again) and then rake in money by taking bribes for projects in the rest of Goa. e.g. trying to sell of the G.M.C. to his cousin, forcing the Chairman of the Goa Board to manipulate the marksheets of his nephew and my classmate(never an outstanding student) in full public view to make sure he(and his brother) got into GMC, selling plots in Dona Paula IT park to his brother-in-law, the Socorro IT Park land scam, etc. Parrikar would be a good CM if he had absolute powers(like JFR Jacob during presidents rule). The fact of the matter is even he will compromise on his priciples when it comes to grabbing the CM's chair. I won't be surprised in Somnath Zuwarkar(a proven corrupt Congressman) stands on the BJP's Taleigao ticket against Babush(whom Parrkiar made a minister in the first place). Goans fully deserve what they are getting. Regards Sunith Velho I haven't yet said a word above on the deluge from the other segments of the economic spectrum. That is another big looming story which only the blind would deny. The penetration of Goa from this end is startling. There are now UPwallahs, Biharis, Oriyas in remote villages. Fellows from Andhra are now tending to the fishing nets in places you least expect them. Then the drugdealing Kashmiri rats who have bought into property along coastal areas around Candolim & Calangute (by colluding with the local politicos) with their phony front stores. the Tibetans, the Lamanis - oh brother, Goa is getting it from every conceivable orifice. You wanted "tourism" - here it is. (There's a good PhD thesis waiting to be written how tourism has dismantled traditional Goan occupations within a generation.)