---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Hartman de Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 7:50 AM Subject: Fwd: [Goanet] Take a look... To: [email protected]
Mario Goveia, George Pinto, Rajan P. Parrikar, if you honourable gentlemen are ever in Pune please look me up and I will cook you guys the meal of your choice. The beer, I assure you guys will not come out of you-know-who's breweries! Attached duly, the other side of you know who's violations. Interesting slide show and even signed/endorsed by him... Here too, following below the text that accompanied the slide show as it was forwarded to me then: *Subject:* the "re-"colonisation of Goa The "Re-"colonisation of Goa Rajiv Desai It's a lazy Sunday afternoon in Ucassaim. We are sitting in the garden with our friends, Wendell and Jerome. It is surprisingly cool and a gentle breeze is swaying the coconut palms; another bucolic day in our charming little village. Wendell is holding forth on the Delhi invasion of Goa. "I welcome them if they buy old houses and restore them with their money," he says. "But I draw the line when they make marble and granite palaces in the garish style of Greater Kailash (a South Delhi suburb known for its kitschy homes)." More and more people in this idyllic state are beginning to feel like Wendell.The nearby village of Assegao, for example, has been virtually annexed by Delhi's high fliers, who have renovated old homes into luxury dwellings. At the other end of the spectrum, blocks of Mumbai-style apartments have sprouted. The "re-"colonisation of Goa is underway. What is emerging has little to do with the place itself and its unique culture. In the upper reaches, it is beginning to resemble the Bahamas, while the apartments and resorts for the middle classes are sleazy Thailand-style developments. The "re-"colonisation of Goa is a problem, because it ignores the local traditions and culture. So the apartment dwellers live their Mumbai lives and the wealthy in Assegao and Dona Paula import their own little designer existence. Which is worse? The common indictment is that at both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, everyone seems to want to live in Goa. But they want no contact with the local culture, except as service providers: real estate agents, drivers, gardeners, electricians, waiters, caretakers. For settlers at the lower end, Goa is about booze, babes and beaches; at the higher end, it is about the tacky Kingfisher Villa and being invited to one of Vijay Mallya's frothy parties. Everyone wants a house in Goa. It's like owning a BMW or a Maruti: a statement they have arrived. They may own designer houses or concrete apartments. But they don't seem to have a home. Whether it's high end villas or cramped apartments, the settlers come and go, wrapped in their own little cocoons: some with Louis Vuitton luggage; others with plastic Samsonite bags. People from all over the country and the world flock to this idyllic place. While most Goans make them feel welcome; some are beginning to ask questions. Visitors and settlers alike form their own little ghettos in which local people are not included. Among the most insular are Europeans, followed by the Page 3 set. We had an experience in a kitschy place called Panchavati, owned by a Belgian woman called Loulou near the beautiful village of Aldona. It is a resort billed as a 'guest house retreat' that does not welcome any others than Europeans and rich and famous Indians. Similarly, at a European-owned shack at Arambhol beach, we waited patiently. No waiter came to take our order; frustrated and angry, we finally left. Never mind Belgians, Germans, Russians and Israelis, even Indians from Delhi and Bombay are setting up enclaves that block out the local culture. They build real and virtual walls; as such, they go against the grain of the inclusive local culture of this wonderful haven. These are the people we didn't see at the Black and Red Dance in Panjim on the last night of the Carnival. This is a traditional Goan event of celebration in advance of Lent, the 40-day period of abstinence before Easter. The bands were superb; the evening was cool. From nine in the evening to two in the morning, we were suffused with camaraderie. We ate, drank and danced with abandon…in the streets of Goa's capital city. What could be more community-minded than a Conga line at the street dance in Panjim, where strangers, men and women alike, held hands and swayed to the music? No drunken lewdness, no fights, no sexual harassment; only fun and dance and occasional shouts of "Viva Goa!" Rajiv Desai Okay, back to me again, and my offer of a meal in Pune and why... The truth of the matter is that the man is a pirate out and out. It is more than just ironic that his violations are close to those of the other villain in the piece's River Princess. That's not all though: The Majorda Beach Resort continues to screw the beach to the left facing the sea while they encroach on the beach in front of their property. Dempo's just come out with an advertisement announcing that they have environmental clearances to rape the earth for God knows how many more years. The Salgaoncars, as everyone knows, broke every rule in the book for their showpiece, The Marriot. The Timblos, in spite of a court ruling against them, continue to put a chain across the public access to the Beach in front of their Cidade de Goa...quietly and tactfully they have made the public beach their own. Sad though it is, people now tell me that the CEO of a well known TV Channel broke a few rules himself putting up his bungalow on the beach...Candolim?? One part of me, seeing the reflections of the three gentlemen I've invited for a meal, feels very good that there's such sharp articulations taking place. The other part of me, aging-Marxist-like, feels one cannot really avoid the rapid commodification of life and leisure, and what this means for us, and what's it mean for those who build their bungalows... One of the many Timblos has apparently bought a prime location to build his mansion. He answered protests that he was planning to build a hotel there by insisting he was building a mansion for himself. At the offices of the Goa State Pollution Control Board of all places, I heard the nicest take on this Timblo and his mansion. Told to me by an elderly, retired gentleman also visiting the office. "He is within his rights to build his mansion there," the man said, "but it would be better for his public image if he built his mansion in one of his mines!" How true... The point is right now, they seem cocksure that they can get away with * anything*! Can we hit them hard where it really hurts? Can we, using the net, start a campaign asking tourists to boycott The Marriot and Cidade de Goa? Can we tell football fans throughout the country that two football teams admired and respected by them are actually owned by mining companies that have been consistently screwing the natural bounty and beauty of Goa? Cheers! (*Not* his beer!) Hartman
