Dear Mr Tony de Sa Regarding your reply to Venantius questions:
Re[1] This is a very moot point. IMHO A physical i.e. paper petition is worth much more than an electronic one. When a physical petition is sent, there is acknowledgment by the receiver/ receiver's office. This gives the petition a reasonable chance of being seen by the addressee. As a rule I do not generally sign an email petition because the collection of email ids generated by the petition would make a spammer's day. Re: [2] In Goa at least this was not done. Like everyone else Mr de Sa, you are entitled to your opinion about this petition. However, I would like to point out that we are now living in a Global Village, and this is the era of internet technology and communication. The electronic petition is a modern way to tackle petitions and in our case was the only way to also give an opportunity to goans all over the world who are very concerned and distressed about what is going on in Goa to express their feelings and get involved. As it happens the Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh is a modern minister using the modern technology of communications all the time, and is someone who we happen to know reads e-mails and responds to people who try to communicate with him. If at all necessary we can also send him a print out of the petition, but that would be a waste of paper. I myself participate in many such international petitions which have proved to be very efective. I don't get any spam as a result of participating in such international efforts. Finally, when was the last time you tried to get a goan in Goa to go from door to door, or stand in places of worship and public places trying to get signatures for a petition? You can't even get them to sign this petition which does not require any physical effort and time! We did actually try to get paper signatures in Goa for your information and failed. Carmen Miranda
