Dear Joao Barros Pereira, Yes it’s true even your beautiful coastal village of Cansaulim and the adjoining Salcette villages have now come under the eyes of these so called builders and their hench-men – the Politicians who are all out to earn a quick buck and stash their ill-gotten wealth by selling Goa and Goans down the river. Before you know this idyllic village and the others will be destroyed and go the route of the Calangutes and Benaulims. As the Cansaulim villagers recall your wife held an exhibition some time back of the beautiful old houses amidst the coconut palm trees which captures the beauty of your village. Perhaps it’s time to share those paintings on Goanet as a memory of what we stand to loose? The recent Gram Sabha meeting in Cansaulim saw how certain members tried to pull a fast one taking a mega-housing project right at the heart of the village in Cottar Vaddo past the centuries old Cosme Damiao Chapel (just behind the sports complex) to the Town and Country Planning and the villagers are not even being shown the plans. Vested parties who stand to gain are trying to pressurize their own brothers and sisters from their village and silence them and push projects like these through the back door without any concern about the damage it will do. We need the support of voices like yours sons of this village and all our Goan brothers and sisters (you too have written on these issues to the Goan newspapers) to speak out and be heard. Our good friend JoeGoaUK who knows this village of Cansaulim well and the surrounding Salcette villages well should capture photographs of these beautiful villages before they are turned into concrete jungles. That’s all we will be left with at the end. The damage is also evident when you drive down from the airport to Velsao evident by the concrete constructions that have come up damaging one of the most beautiful views we had of the coastal skyline with the idyllic greenery. Now it’s spreading down into the very heart of the villages whether it’s Velsao, Cansaulim, Utorda, Majorda, Sernabatim, Colva etc. There is a crying need to consolidate the efforts and expose the rot that has set in and put a stop to it. The villagers who have lived here for generations in these villages going back in time should be the ones to decide what kind of development they want and preserve the coastal ecology which is so important - otherwise what we are seeing in terms of weather changes, soil erosion, tsunamis, floodings even in November in Goa which were never heard of will be the order of the day. Consolidated efforts to rally and support the villagers so that no project is passed through without checking the damages to this delicate coastal ecology. All like-minded Goan Voices like Arwin Misquita, Sebastian Rodrigues, Frederick Noronha, Goa Suraj and yourself should all join hands to support what essentially is the heart of Goa –it’s villages, it’s people and their Goan way of life that will be destroyed due to the unending greed of a few. The Church and other religious groups too need to speak out on behalf of the Goan people and not shy away from the leadership role they need to play to support the Goan villagers. …Otherwise all that will be left will be memories captured through paintings and photographs of a way of life, of our Goan pople and of Goa lost forever. If we stand up and fight together now for what is rightfully ours we will be able save it for the future generations and the world or else it wil be too late.
Message: 8 Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:07:32 +0900 From: Joao Barros-Pereira [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [Goanet] Tyranny of Mega Housing Projects effecting Goans (appeared in Herald) Message-ID: [email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 *Tyranny of Mega Housing Projects effecting Goans (appeared in Herald)* > *Tue Nov 24 21:18:50 PST 2009* Tyranny of Mega-Housing ProjectsGated communities are foreign to our culture. They are creating a new class system, says PETER FERNANDES Joao observes: Good article. I hope to see a few more like this one. The message is clear: we want your land, preferably facing the sea on the hillsides. We want Gated communities: we don't want to see Goans, let alone rub shoulders with them. All communicated without using any offensive language - Goanese or any other! Actually, the biggest insults are always unsaid. They can, of course, always rely on us Goans to continually fight one another - that's what we do best! Not completely pessimistic, yours Joao The elected representatives are making a mockery of our civilisation. These leaders are nurturing a culture that dehumanises our citizenry, making them nonentities and dashing helpless people against brick walls of stupidity. This is clear, as the amendment to the Panchayati Raj Act 1994 is approved. What an irony! ?Mega-Housing Projects? are determined to rule our villages and towns. This monster is very powerful, as money is flowing from every quarter to silence the voice and slaughter the will of the people. Still worse is the demise of our beautiful and sublime environment. Nature at the moment is silently absorbing the wrath of greed and muscle power. However, the natural world ultimately will have the last laugh; only it will be too late for the majority of people to laugh with nature. At the very outset, we must grasp the nature of gated communities. They are foreign to our culture, and appendices to our civilisation. They create a sense of elitism, and those within keep apart from the rest of the society. They are creating a new class system. Let history be our teacher at this crucial juncture, to reinforce a valuable lesson. Never forget the great generations who lived before us, who fought and gave their lives to emancipate the oppressed and to abolish segregation, in order to establish an egalitarian society. Why are we reversing the vision of our forefathers? Perhaps they were ?fools? to envision such a concept, of building a just and happy society for all to live in as neighbours. Gated communities dismiss whatever happens outside their walls. For them, it is of no consequence. More often than not, they _________________________________________________________________ Keep your friends updated—even when you’re not signed in. http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/windows/windowslive/see-it-in-action/social-network-basics.aspx?ocid=PID23461::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-xm:SI_SB_5:092010
