George, it is unfair to compare the rape and murder of Scarlett Keeling in Goa to that of the racial beating and death of Gregory Fernandes in the UK.
Justice was immediately served in the case of Gregory. No one denied that he was an innocent victim, least of all the authorities. Prosecution was fair and speedy. In the case of Scarlett, besides being a minor, everyone including her mother let her down. Anyone with a teenaged daughter knows how vulnerable they can be and need the protection of parents and of society. It takes they say, a village to raise a child and Goa her village at that time of her life has badly let her down in life as well as in death. Of course there are a hundred Indian girls for every Scarlett that suffer the same fate, minus the drugs. However, it is a sad commentary of the value of life in India that the press, the authorities and even the general populace do not raise the same stink that the British press did, and that it is not the latter's fault. There are many perpetrators of the crime against Scarlett's and you know that most of them will go unprosecuted. Every person who supplied drugs to her. Every man who had sexual relations with her, even if consensual (statutory rape). Every police official who obstructed the course of justice. Any one who conspired or aided or abetted in the final violent rape and murder. It is the measure of the kind of prevailing thinking that allowed the CM to make a comment that foreign women tourists should dress modestly. I ask of him: Is the way Scarlett was dressed and used drugs and slept around, a justification for rape and murder? Who is to blame here. Scarlett or the drugees you allow to flourish on beaches. Her mother or your police who sink to a level of extortion to profit from the very lawlessness they are supposed to prevent. Any culpability that her mother incurred by letting her stay in Goa alone is offset by her desire to get justice for her child. She could have very well taken the "advice" of the police and transported the body back to England to avoid every bit of her daughter's lifestyle becoming common knowledge. She stayed back, faced the music and thereby redeemed herself. One should not forget she has lost a child here. Roland. On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 1:13 AM, George Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- Renco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The death of Scarlet on our prime beaches of Goa has sent ripples the world > > over. > What happened to Scarlet is tragic and justice must be served. But where were > the "ripples the > world over" when a young Goan sailor (Gregory Fernandes) was beaten to death > by some racist thugs > in the UK? > Are whites more important than browns? How come there was not a similar > outcry? > Regards, > George