Well, JoeGoaUK has given the news that Gomantak is online. The site looks clean and the paper is well laidout. I have no idea if GT has lot of "investigative journalism", as Aires wants us to believe. I have seen Aires is frequently on its opinion pages and so one must take his take on the paper with a pinch of salt. If Aires says anything one must realize that he something to do with it, either as a supporter or on the opposite side. His opinion is clouded and, as we know, he knows how to play his cards. He is with Parrikar, who he calls a "friend", one day and the other he goes hammer and tongs against him. It's for journalists who are doing their jobs in newspapers to tell us if the "journalist fraternity in Goa have become a mouthpiece of the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar." Maybe, some newspaper owners and some journalists are on the CM's side, so was Aires in good old days. If he can switch sides in a twinkling of an eye, there's no reason to believe that newspaper barons can side with the government of the day. Some newspapers are ideologically against the government in power. And so it goes. What Aires is going with the RTI is good enough to harass the government. As a lawyer he can do these things and also because he loves doing these things. Some good obviously comes from such actions. But, by and large, Aires has earned himself a dubious recognition for his rush to judgement on many issues. I can personally say that Aires doesn't practice what he preaches. For a journalist like me he gave a tough time in Toronto. Despite my willingness to meet him, having refused many calls from him, after meeting him at the Panjim Pavilion, which was put up in the past by Goan Overseas Association (GOA), in the company of Churchill Alemao, and after after I wrote about Churchill in teh GOA's newsletter, I came to know this man was polishing the boots of Churchill. It's another matter that Churchill and Aires fell out. He even tried to throw me out of GOA but couldn't secure the required number of signatures to call a Special General Meeting. Mind you, Aires had become a member of GOA only short while before he went to town on showing me how not to write anything against a former CM. The article wasn't defamtory but for the only reason he instigated Churchill against me for saying in the piece that Churchill was president of Goa fishing trawlers association, thereby implying to Churchill that I had called him a "kharvi." Parrikar is no exception he wants a favourable press. Many politicians do that, and even Bandodkar had his problems with newspaper editors. Advices us journalist "never to taking sides." Who's talking, now that Aires is a columnist too. As such he too has one foot in the journalism field. Aires can exercise his freedom through RTI, and so be it. But, for heaven's sake, keep the advice to himself, dear Aires. You need it more than us journalists who make a living writing news and many of us following politics without allegiance to political parties or politicians. Like politicians, Aires must follow his own 'bhasan' so that his standing in the eyes of the people isn't diminished.
Eugene Correia
