G'BYE GOA: GREED & NEMESIS By Valmiki Faleiro Societies evolve, people change. Some for the better, with better standards of living, their morals and culture intact. We've seen how Goa changed from emigration and consequent in-migration. "Those with a strong and dynamic culture absorb migrants and get enriched by them; weak ones get drowned under a changing demography," runs an epistle from Lisbon- based Portuguese friend, Antonio Palinha Machado. Goa's positive cultural attributes were more or less intact until Dec-1961. After that, gradually, they got snowed under. Not under migrants, but with a change from within. The age of materialism dawned upon us. We changed. Goa changed, is still changing. Unremittingly. Our values and our "Goemkarponn" of barely half a century ago changed. We have all but lost them. "Goans," I wrote earlier, "were a devout and docile people, honest and hardworking." Is that description valid today? Greed is now a downplayed hallmark of the "Goan Identity." Old values were forsaken for a new one: money. In the race to make as much, as fast, with the least possible effort, cash replaced character. Laxmi (goddess of wealth) ousted Saraswati (goddess of learning.) Greed replaced virtue. We are no more a simple, pious and contended people. Greed now leads both the leaders and the led. It ushered an array of change, from politics to demographics, which will soon reduce the pre-1961 Goan to a glorified anthropological museum specimen. For that metamorphosis, we have only ourselves to blame. We first cooked our goose, and now bray for the blood of migrants. If not for us, our land wouldn't go into the hands of "outsiders." If not for us, our space would not be swamped with squatters. If not for us - first, chiefly and last - we wouldn't have elected politicians of the calibre that catalyzed most of Goa's ills of today. Goan greed is reflected in election results. It is greed that makes us sell our souls at elections, and repeatedly elect politicos hell-bent on destroying Goa. Don't blame the Dilliwallahs and the land sharks. Or even politicians. We elected them. We brought the ills on ourselves, by the power of our own vote. In the course of this column close to four years now, I've repeatedly implied that blame primarily rests with the Goan voter . now, alas, substantially diluted by migrants, soon to be irretrievably lost. Like the rich Goan who generally does not vote. Like the middle- class that largely votes but gets carried away not by merit of candidates in the fray but by their religion, caste and party label. Like the less privileged, both Goan and migrant, that largely sells its vote. In a newspaper interview a couple of years ago, industrialist Avdhoot Timblo suggested the term "Goan Identity" was relative. Saying that Goans could only be "relatively pure" (40, 50, 80 percent .), he held a book whose cover showed a Kunnbi woman and said, "This was 100 percent Goan." Evolution of the "Goan Identity" was inevitable. The need, he said, was to steer which way we want to go. Perfectly true, but who will do that steering, Avdhootbab? If you read 'Gomantak Times' (25 Sept. 2009, Page 2), a political party openly wailed of "financial inadequacy" in the portfolios allotted to that party's ministers in the current cabinet. Are such men capable of steering anything other than public money into their own pockets? Gabe Menezes, a friend who lives in Wimbledon-London (he's native of Navelim- Salcete) recently wrote, "As for Goans in Goa, within 50 years, surnames will survive but all will be totally integrated into the vastness of India ... now eat your hearts out, mates!" Our post-1961 road to nemesis was paved with greed. For under 30 pieces of silver, we sold our souls. What's the point in now crying hoarse about loss of the "Goan Identity," blaming migrants and politicians, when we must blame ourselves first? It is we, Goans, onshore or offshore, who are responsible for our own doom. Let's reflect a bit more on that reality in the last paragraph of the concluding piece of this rather long series next Sunday. NARAKASURA BLUES: An accidental blast in Margao and explosives found at Sancoale, both during Narakasura processions, may yield clues to the mindless spate of Hindu idol desecrations across Goa in the recent past. This one's unbeatable. A 15-feet Narakasura effigy was reported stolen at Sada-Vasco, in broad daylight. Forget the gods, even demons are not safe in today's Goa! (ENDS) ============================================================ The above article appeared in the Herald, Goa, edition of October 25, 2009
