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To Goanet -
Once again the wheel of deceit and fraud is set to
turn. After subjecting Goans to two year's worth
of Sturm und Drang, operators within GBA have
positioned themselves for yet another round
of bait-and-switch. They are hoping that Goans
have the memory of a cockroach. It goes without
saying that the same old cast of treacherous
lowlives are back at it.
We have gone through the cycle earlier. First it was
an ex-convener posturing as the savior of Goa, doing
nothing more than showing up for speeches and TV
appearances, proclaiming himself as 'apolitical'
while singing hymns in praise of Digambar Kamat.
In his other big hoo-ha, he claimed there is no
such thing as non-Goans which lead me to surmise
that he was desperately trying to impress bhaile
perhaps for some global citizen of the year award.
When I saw through his game and said so here on
Goanet, his gushing followers went into fits of
high dudgeon. Now that the Abel-tailored pants
have dropped and the belt has come off, it is a
completely different story. Let it be said once
again - the GBA was a fraud, a cruel flatulent
joke on the Goan people.
I have written on this subject before in some detail,
but a quick recap is in order: the biggest enemies of
Goa and Goans - even bigger than the politicians - are
the Goan 'activists.' There are so many of these
rotten scoundrels around that it becomes necessary
ply so wide a stroke of the brush. These activists
exist only to feather their own nest. Some of them
are outright extortionists, others are bottom-feeders.
Their true interest lies not in solving Goa's problems
but in keeping them on a boil, permanently. For
there is much pelf to be made out of Goa's misery.
Some questions I have asked earlier and
will ask again:
- Why are practicing architects at the forefront in
crafting Regional Plan policy, or in key leadership
positions within GBA? Does the phrase "conflict of
interest" sound familiar? Whose interests are
they serving?
- What is a prominent builder from Margao doing
on the committee drafting the Regional Plan when
he has active mega-projects in the villages
currently up in arms?
It should come as no surprise that no editor in
the Goan press has raised these issues. For
these fellows are cogs in the same corrupt
machine, shooting the breeze together over
feni and chicken cafreal..
Working solo, I was able to show through hundreds
and hundreds of photographs how Goa is being
laid to waste. Through RTI, I chased down documents
showing massive land conversion fraud perpetrated
in North and South Goa. But the activists in and
out of GBA could not be bothered with any of this
incriminating material!
Now that the Regional Plan is about to be dropped
on us, the pretenders are back like pigs lining up at
the trough waiting for the turd to drop. The Bhatikars,
the Kamats, the Rebellos and so on have resurfaced
as champions of the Goan cause. And let's
not forget - there will be those who will exploit the
legitimate campaign for Special Status to advance
their own political ambitions. Watch out.
The Goan politicians may be lower than whaleshit
on the moral scale but they have one virtue - they are
transparent about their nefarious activities. Monserrate,
Rane Jr and others - their byline is "Catch me if you can."
The extent of their turpitude is a matter of public
knowledge. The activists, on the other hand, are
not only moral cretins, they are backstabbing s-o-b's,
sticking it to Goa while pretending to be its saviours.
The question arises - what is to be done if all these
activists are corrupt? Is there no hope for Goa? I'm
afraid there are no simple answers. As putrid as the
Goan swamp is, there is the odd lotus still blooming
amid all the sludge. One such name is Soter D'Souza.
Now, Soter and I have had healthy differences
in opinion on matters of politics, issues and
people. But one thing can be said about him
emphatically and incontrovertibly: he is absolutely
incorruptible, probably the only example of its
kind right now in Goa. A truly dedicated soul
in service of Goa. There is not a sliver of personal
or self-serving agenda in the man; he lives to
do good by Goa, expecting nothing in return.
Men like him suggest hope for an outside chance
that Goa could be set right again. We have to
work with someone like Soter to recruit committed
workers to the cause. And new fresh leadership
has to emerge. All the current fogeys must be
sent packing into exile. That is the only way
ahead for Goa. But it is not easy, as I saw
for myself.
In June 2008, Soter and I, with input from
Dr Anil Desai of London/Keri, arranged for what
we hoped would become a common public platform
to bring together all the disparate groups within
Goa that were fighting against indiscriminate
construction, land conversion, and mining. We
called it the Goa People's Assembly. At the
outset we decided that we would exclude no
one, not even those whom we had
differences with. Things were on track until
2/3 days before the event when suddenly the
disrupters made their move. A flimsy
excuse was invented and a covert and
overt campaign initiated against us.
It was alleged that the event was a camouflage
for BJP and that I was acting at the behest of
Manohar Parrikar. Soter, they claimed, was
being cleverly manipulated by me. The
allegation was not just hysterical but downright
surreal. I had unsuccessfully spent an entire
month earlier trying to get Manohar Parrikar to
view my photo documentary "The Rape of Goa."
In any civilized democracy (and India is not a
civilized democracy), the material I had mined
would have been treated as manna by the
political opposition, but here the Leader
of the Opposition scarcely showed any interest!
It was unbelievable, M. Parrikar's apathy.
But never mind - the unthinking, loud foghorn
recruited by the disrupters went viral here
on Goanet and on other groups about how
I was in cahoots with Manohar Parrikar, that
Goa People's Assembly had a sinister agenda,
that Soter was being suckered bigtime.
Calls were made to our prospective speakers,
especially from the remote villages, poisoning
their minds and asking them to stay away.
Goa is a small enough place that any
self-important schmuck can be a successful
disruptive agent. Despite this last-minute
ambush, Soter and I were able to put together
a diverse roster of speakers who did show up.
But you can see why it is so hard to launch a
successful campaign in Goa - there are always
malign interests ready to shoot it down. Which
is why the GBA tragedy is doubly sad. GBA
had the people's back when it took off in
Dec 2006 but then its leadership betrayed
that trust and squandered a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity.
A coda to the Goa People's Assembly: who might
have had an interest in disrupting it and why? The
builders, of course! The prospect that this could
ramify into a grassroots campaign terrified them.
Enter "Satyawan Govekar" the fake ID seen on
Goanet some months ago, who, among other things,
made vile accusations against Dr Claude Alvares
from behind his fake identity. He was the answer
to the builders' prayers, the cunning Maharashtrian
who pretends to be both an 'activist' and a Niz Goenkar
when he is neither. Curiously, the priest leading
the Church's CSJP wing looks favourably on this
worthless leech but views Soter, one of the finest
examples of a Christian soul, with suspicion.
Figure that out.
The builders and their activist-moles quickly
realized that if this Goa People's Assembly
ever took off, it would spell trouble for them.
So "Satyawan Govekar" went into overdrive.
But we cannot here underestimate the stupidity
of our gullible Goans: at the same time "Satyawan
Govekar" was spreading canards about Goa
People's Assembly, he had whoppers sitting
on his front door: he has immediate family
in the construction business and he himself
is a recipient of money from the Mineral
Foundation of Goa, an organization
established and funded by the mining
companies!! Can you spell 'chutzpah'?
These are the dirty, rotten sewer rats
we are dealing with. He is your archetypal
'activist' - vested, and in it solely to push
his own self-interest.
In concert with this Maharastrian were other
naysayers in the equally corrupt Goan media.
See this pile of fetid garbage by Herald's
editor (scroll down for "GPA and GBA") -
http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=5530&cid=26
The choice of venue gives him piles. Let's see -
politicians looting public money, building a
centrally air-conditioned monstrosity in Porvorim
with plush personal offices and luxurious chambers,
all with people's money - that's perfectly fine. But
an event funded with honest & private penny, that's
a no-no! The aam aadmi must made to stew in
the stinking, splattered-with-faeces bathrooms
at Menezes Braganza. It is not the aam aadmi's
place to enjoy clean, cool surroundings in which
to deliberate on matters that most matter to him.
Note that "Satyawan Govekar" also raised a stink
about the "air-conditioned" Mandovi. This nexus
of 'activists', media, builders and politicos is
another feature of the treacherous Goan swamp.
The Herald editor then unloads more pap hiding
behind words like "presumably." Had he even
an iota of journalistic & personal integrity, he
would have simply asked me for my end of the
story. After all, we had exchanged email
before and I had even invited him to a press
screening of "The Rape of Goa." He did not
attend but somehow he found it alright to
peddle gossip & sarcasm about Goa People's
Assembly through third and fourth-hand
sources. This is the abysmal level of journos
in Goa. Where do they find these crappy
bhaile editors? Any fifth-rate outsider can
walk into Goa and walk all over us Goans
no questions asked (as witness L'affaire Sujoy).
Warm regards,
r
