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South Asian Film Festival in Goa from Fri (June 27) to Mon (June 30)
At Kala Academy, and ESG, Panaji, Goa
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2008-June/076384.html
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----- Original Message -----
From: floriano
To: Navhind Times
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 4:59 PM
Subject: Response to 'Goa of Our Dreams: Living Within a China Wall'
Goa of Our Dreams: Living Within a China Wall
by Arun Sinha
I moved to Goa to join this paper 15 years ago. A large part of me moved to Goa
because of my professional passion but a little part also came for the beauty
of it. Out my office window I could enjoy a view of the sea-tickled Mandovi.
There were hardly any cars parked outside my office building, and very few cars
moved up and down the Bandodkar Marg edging the Mandovi promenade along which I
drove between home and office.
Today, everything has changed. Buildings have stolen my beloved Mandovi from
me. I can't find a place to park my car outside my office. I can't drive down
the Bandodkar Marg thinking of anything else but 'safety on road means safe tea
at home'.
My heart longs back to the Goa of the early nineties. I can only imagine how
heart must be wailing of those Goans who have seen the Goa of the eighties,
seventies, sixties and even before.
The browning of Goa is sickening. The overcrowding is unbearable. I have always
thought that there is something genetic from the time of evolution in the human
species that makes everyone of us; be we of whatever race, feel the happiest
and homeliest in an environment such as a river gently flowing by woooded
hills. However, I know that the Goans who have today risen to protect Goa are
not merely genetically outraged but also concerned about the survival of Goa
they knew of.
Goans feel estranged by present-day Goa, including me who was not born a Goan.
There are many of those, not born Goans, who have lived here for much longer
than me who must be feeling the same. I don't think this is only nostalgia. You
often hear old people-no matter of what race-telling you of all the good things
that existed in their times and which no more exist. Today's Goan cry is not
just such sentimental reminiscences of the good things past. It is a passionate
call to save Goa.
Although I am one with them with a banner in their procession-because my
Mandovi was robbed from me-I am still confused about what saving Goa means.
Does it mean freezing Goa, as it exists today? Does it mean stopping all human
activities that cause browning and overcrowding of Goa? No industry, no
commerce, no tourism, no airports, no flights, no railways, no highways-a
China-Walled island of sparse population and a great landscape?
I am yet to meet two people who have the same formula for saving Goa. And I am
yet to meet anyone who can tell me what to do after saving Goa.
Many, I know, won't be happy when I say saving Goa is a fuzzy dream. A misty,
woolly, hazy dream. I in my editorials and my reporters in their interviews
have often asked the saviours of Goa: "Can Goa grow without development
projects?" And their answer has been the same-misty, woolly, hazy-"See, we are
not against development." Beyond that, nothing. No blueprint. Nothing to guide
us what to do after saving Goa.
Sometimes I feel the NGOs are more populist than politicians. "Let the people
decide," the politician says. "Let the people decide," the NGO says. In
actuality, they both make the decisions they want to make. Look at how
decisions are made by the NGOs. Do they convene gram sabhas and ask them to
make the decisions? It is the committees and sub-committees of the NGOs-and in
many cases, the professional vigilantists who own NGOs as organizations of one
man or woman-who make the decisions. All in the name of the people. By the
people, for the people, of the people. Just as the politician does.
NGOs are today in Goa, I think, enjoying power. They are enjoying their status
as a superpower. They can veto any project. Government is scared of them. Now,
a vigilant civil society and a socially sensitive intelligentsia are what make
a good and responsible society. If they are not there, government will become
arbitrary. Parliamentary democracy will become parliamentary autocracy.
However, while making a responsible government and society, NGOs cannot remain
socially responsible themselves.
I am with NGOs on all their vetoes. But I have a reason to ask them: What next?
Where does Goa go from here? How does it progress? As far as I know, NGOs have
not rejected the capitalist model. All these years, in all their speeches and
writings, civil society activists and intellectuals have not provided an
alternative model of development. They have portrayed unscrupulous capitalists
as demons but not found anything fundamentally wrong with capitalism. Some
capitalists in their eyes represent the devil but capitalism is not rejected by
them as evil.
During conversations with many activists who are my friends I have noted one
passion common among them. They want to set the limits of development. Goa
should develop only this much, and no further. In other words, sustainable
development-who quarrels with them on this! But they are not clear how this
sustainable development will take place. They do not have any design for Goa's
future. They do not have a vision for Goa.
Nor do I claim to have a vision. The situation is terrifying. Politicians, I
may agree with the NGOs, are a gang of thieves who should be the last to be
expected to have a vision for Goa. But the NGOs have no vision, either. Goa can
only be adrift toward a fearfully uncertain destination in the absence of a
model. Goa's future looks to be unsafe both in government and non-government
hands. What do we do now?
As a journalist who has watched the Goa scene for many years, I can only draw
attention to one big piece of harsh reality. Goa cannot live on its own within
a China Wall. Goan economy has never been self-sufficient-not even during the
Portuguese or pre-Portuguese times. The Portuguese left Goa as an island of
poverty and illiteracy. Central government investments in infrastructure and
quantum growth in mining, industry and tourism and the satellite enterprises
contributed significantly to the high indices of income, literacy and health
that Goa today is famous for.
Let us look at history: The Portuguese put up a China Wall, but that could
provide Goans only a hand-to-mouth existence. The result was that for many
Goans, the greatest dream was escape. Many of the Goans who we find in Mumbai
or in many countries today are descendants of Portuguese China Wall-breakers.
When I see those fishermen and farm tenants in the tourist belt who were poor
and malnourished during the Portuguese times and have progressed to have a
better house and educated and healthy children; and when I see those middle
class Goans worming their way through the body-jammed Panaji Market for green
vegetables that come every day from Belgaum, I am the last to believe that
isolation is the best way to save Goa.
Goa was always dependent on other regions for food, other needs and employment.
Today we are many times more dependent. Larger and larger number of Goan youth
are seeking opportunities for employment and self-employment outside
agriculture and fishing. Where do they go? One of the major fears driving veto
on all projects is the phobia of migrants-both from poor and rich
classes-swamping the natives. The NGOs' strategy to choke the migrant flood is
to choke growth. No growth, no migrants. But no growth also means no growth for
Goan youth who are no more doing agriculture or fishing. Who s thinking about
them? If we don't, they will break the China Wall and fly.
COMMENTS:
Dear Mr. Arun Sinha,
Today, when I opened the NT, I took my time to go through your write-up twice
over which made up my mind to respond to this piece, as I normally do, when I
either like what you have to say or do not like it. In this case it was both.
You say "Buildings have stolen my beloved Mandovi from me".
I say to you that if you genuinly are what you make yourself to be in this very
surprising and interesting write-up, you should be, on the contrary, thankful
for these buildings for being there to block your view. Otherwise, you would
have grown terminal ulcers in your stomach looking at the eye sore that is the
TaTa Estate on the immaculate - green Betim hill.
You say "I can only imagine how heart must be wailing of those Goans who have
seen the Goa of the eighties, seventies, sixties and even before".
I say that I appreciate you saying that because here is a person who, as a kid
of 3, travelled on the 'gasolin' the term used for the now extinct motor ferry
launches running from the equally extinct 'Aldona Jetty' to Ribandar and to
Panjim, going to Old Goa during the feast of St. Francis Xavier and loving to
see the haystacks and the trees moving backwards on the banks of the Mandovi as
the ferry launch plowed ahead, and having seen Goa much before seventies and
sixtees and clearly remembering how the Portuguese white as well as black
(Angolan) troopers looked like.
You say "It is a passionate call to save Goa." You say "I am still confused
about what saving Goa means" with "No industry, no commerce, no tourism, no
airports, no flights, no railways, no highways-a China-Walled island of sparse
population and a great landscape?"
I too passionately say that Goa must be saved. But I am not in the least bit
confused about what it means to Save Goa. I say that we need industry,
commerce, tourism, 'n' number of airports if Goa can sustain them, a billion
flights, with railways galore and massive highways and speedways, not a
walled island like China but a veritable Singapore, with beautiful landscape
(of moving haystacks and trees). But I would be selective on the industries and
choose those that are non-polluting and non-labour intensive, for, Goa does
not have manual labour and will never have. And I would want the industries
that will need to dot Goa's landscape as 'Service Industries' like 'banking'
both on-shore and off-shore, insurance, retailing etc. And I would want Goa to
reflect the excellence of agriculture, horticulture and pisciculture, of being
a sporting and cultural haven rather than a manufacturing and exporting zombie.
And the most ideal par excellence industry for Goa would be the
'SEZ' industry as proposed by Dr. Pinheiro, the Principal of V M Salgaokar Law
College - The 'Special Education Zone', where Goa could be the educational hub
of the world in the likeness of Havard/Oxford/Yale/Cambridge/MIT/John
Hopkins/London School of Economics ..... to name a few.
You say "I am yet to meet two people who have the same formula for saving Goa".
Frankly speaking, I too am of the same opinion. but when you say "And I am yet
to meet anyone who can tell me what to do after saving Goa", you couldn't be
more wrong. As a matter of fact you have met such persons but have failed to
see them for what they are. They have handed to you, as if on a platter the
'Road Map for Goa' in the year 2005 prior to its release on August 20, 2005
of which a single page you must have hardly turned. Cannot blame you, as most
of the leading saviors of Goa haven't. And by now your copy must be lying in
some dusty corners of the Navhind Bhavan or have long been used by the local
'chonekar', if you know what I mean :-))
You say "Many, I know, won't be happy when I say saving Goa is a fuzzy dream".
Yes indeed. You are very much right. Because saving Goa is a bloody mess - the
one that is generated by guillotines at al.
You ask the question "Can Goa grow without development projects?"
All this while I had considered you to be a genuine 'Goa lover' of the sane
past. And to this question, I would have wanted to give a saner answer in the
negative, as in a bold 'NO'. But the give away is the word 'projects' that you
have used to make you a 'Goa lover' of the mad present. And my acutely maddish
answer to this is "YES', because more development projects mean more money in
the pockets of the ones who plan or sanction them - as in 30 to 40 per cent
commissions. And of late our enterprising politicians have come to realise that
bigger the projects, the bigger are the commissions. That is why we have the
'Japanese technology garbage scams', the 'IT scams' the 'Mopa airport' scams,
the 'Mega Housing Projects' scams, the 'SEZ' scams... not forgetting, the very
close to your home, the 'indiscriminate and catastrophic mining scams' which
not only rob Goa and Goans of their God given riches but also devastates its
ecology, its wild-life, its rivers, its ground wat
er resources, its agricultural fields and kills people with the acute dust
pollution......... I could go on and on. According to me and according to the
'Road Map for Goa' that I have helped put out, there is no need of any
development projects for Goa. What our Goa requires is the planning and spacing
out of a modern INFRASTRUCTURE for Goa such as 'good roads', stable water and
electricity supply, tightening of the Panchayat and the Municipality
administration, putting the police in its rightful place and according it the
due respect, putting a sensible public transport system in place, tightening
the hygiene and sanitation laws laws and closing of all the loopholes that the
crooks want to hide in and most importantly bringing in the Enforcement
Directorate [ED]to unearth the Ali Baba caves of hidden treasures by present
and past MLAs, ministers and chief ministers to fund such infrastructural
plans. And if this is done, then the development of Goa will take place automati
cally and at its own pace and leisure, not needing it to be forced as if Goa's
minister's behinds are on fire.
You say "Sometimes I feel the NGOs are more populist than politicians. Do they
convene gram sabhas and ask them to make the decisions?
All in the name of the people. By the people, for the people, of the people.
Just as the politician does. I am with NGOs on all their vetoes. But I have a
reason to ask them: What next? Where does Goa go from here? They want to set
the limits of development. Goa should develop only this much, and no further.
But they are not clear how this sustainable development will take place. They
do not have any design for Goa's future. They do not have a vision for Goa. But
the NGOs have no vision, either. Goa can only be adrift toward a fearfully
uncertain destination in the absence of a model. Goa's future looks to be
unsafe both in government and non-government hands"
According to me, you have said too much and I tend to agree with you one
hundred per cent that NGO's do not have a VISION, nor do they have a MODEL of
GOVERNANCE they want promoted. By the way, in 1997, I was forced to form a NGO
named GOA ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION GROUP. It still exists and in its time, it has
done laudable work on ' Loud music noise pollution" In short sentences, I shall
answer your above many questions. I am of the strong opinion that NGOs cannot
ever deliver what needs to be delivered. Only HARD-CORE POLITICS can. That is
why I have qualified the above NGO into a POLITICAL ENTITY called the GOA
SU-RAJ PARTY to fight 'Dirty Politics with 'Clean Politics', because I believe
that Politics need not always be DIRTY. It also can be CLEAN. You want to see
some VISION? Then I suggest you look at this Party's Constitution (Arts
34/37/38/40 & 41) and just browse through its 'ROAD MAP FOR GOA' and you will
have found plenty of it almost making you go blind. :-))
And I have a special theory about NGOs. I believe NGOs are a time-bound,
specific cause related entities which come into being, do what is required to
be done and then disbandon and those who are involved go back to do what they
like to do best ...... RELAX. In other words, the filth has been cleaned-out
and everything is nice and rosy/cosy again. But does that happen? No Sir! Our
NGOs, once formed, start gaining pounds, growing in girth with more office
staff, more members, more office space, more computers, more litigations, more
dharnas, more placard carrying prostests and morchas, more grants in the
pockets, more of being everywhere like in the case of the BJP wanting to float
500 NGOs in Goa. Why? Because the filth that should have stopped flowing down
never stops, but it is required to go on increasing instead. It is like NGOs
signing a pact with dirty politicians "YOU KEEP ON MANUFACTURING MORE AND MORE
FILTH SO WE GO ON CLEANING MAKING YOU HAPPY .and us RICH.
If NGOs cannot stop the filth from flowing down, then CLEAN politics must take
over and stop this filth from being generated so that the NGOs are put out of
work making it necessary for those that are living through NGOs to find some
worthwhile paying jobs to support themselves by other means rather than by
trying to clean the readily available filth generated by dirty politicians of
their choice.
You say "Central government investments in infrastructure and quantum growth in
mining, industry and tourism and the satellite enterprises contributed
significantly to the high indices of income, literacy and health that Goa today
is famous for".
I say that what you must realize is that the Central Government has drained
Goa's income to the tune of hundreds of thousands of crores and has handed out
a pittance for the maintenance of Goa. If onlly one half quarter of the same
was used on Goa, without it lining the pockets of the mine owners and dirty
politicians, Goa would be paved with 24 carat gold. The Portuguese had done
the same but they had given Goa the 'Law and Order' and had instilled in the
psyche of Goans a thing or two about being 'humane' and 'responsible' The
Portuguese had, in all those 450 years of rule, respected Goa's unique and
indegenous 'Agro-Institutions' called the COMUNIDADES. But the Indian
take-over took all that away in just one tenth of that time and instead brought
in the pestilence that we see prevailing in Goa, more specifically what you see
from your office window, today.
You say "Goa was always dependent on other regions for food, other needs and
employment".
I say that you do not know what you are saying in the first place. Goa was
self-sufficient by and large with agricultural produce and most of it used to
be sent out. No vegetables were coming from Belgaum then. All was being grown
at home. I know this because I was part of its growing and it was our family
sustenance. Come so called liberation of Goa, our Comunidade system was
bastardised by our very own Bandodkar Government and naturally too. That was
the beginning of the end of Goa's agricultural excellence. For all practical
purposes, our agriculture is rendered clinically dead, today, no matter what
the agricultural department may want to say. The politicians are content in
siphoning the crores. As far as employment goes, Goans had always been the
masters of the seas of the world and shall always follow in that profession.
You say "Larger and larger number of Goan youth are seeking opportunities for
employment and self-employment outside agriculture and fishing."
I say to you that you should look at the United States of America. Has it
allowed its agriculture and its fishing to go to dogs in the pursuit of
excellence in manufacturing superior arms and going to the moon? Its base and
its strenght comes from its innovative agricultural policies. We do not hear of
American farmers committing suicides. Do we? Rather we hear of American
farmers being billionaires and even Presidents. A food for thought for you, Mr.
Sinha. India has imported red wheat from Australia worth of millions of US
Dollars and allowed it all to rot in its godowns not having a clear
distribution policy. How about that??
You say "No growth, no migrants"
I say that this is the best policy that Goa must follow. No growth absolutely
so that we do not have no migrants. Only this situation will change the pattern
of our voting in the coming elections and all those dirty politicians who have
cultivated migrant vote banks will disappear along with the disappearing
migrants and GOA will, once again remain GOA of our dreams not needing the
crippling China wall of your immaginations. Then we Goans will prevail on the
Election Commission of India to make it mandatory for its chor electoral
officers in Goa to seek the cancellation of the names of those migrants who
have settled down in Goa over a period of time in the electoral rolls of their
own respective states before being allowed to vote in Goa's elections. Only
then we shall plan Goa's growth which will be Goa and Goans alone and not for
the CHOR POLITICIANS OF DELHI AND THEIR CHAMCHAS IN GOA.
And only then Goa will follow the Great Mahatma's revolution where no one will
be kept out, including the mine-owners, the industrialists, the Goan Birlas and
the Goan Tata of Goa because if Goa has to attain a revolutionary mode, it has
to take everyone in its embrace and forge ahead for a better future, in the
same manner that an invitation was extended to your dear boss to attend the
first meeting of Goan minds at the International Center, Dona Paula in the year
1999, the outcome of which was the VISIONARY GOA SU-RAJ PARTY.
In ending, I thank you for providing us the thought provoking article so that
we could express ourselves over it to find a balance that you have failed to
provide.
Sincerely,
Floriano
goasuraj
2470223/9890470896
Attached herewith please find the various comments pouring in from netters
world-wide for your kind information
