The growing degoanisation of every service in Goa is simply disgusting. Leave aside the private sector, one expects to see some traces of goanness in the government and semi-government undertakings. But if you are exclusively konkani speaking and trying to access some Goa government service you may well be made to feel like a migrant. The security at the Goa Medical College ensures that you feel like in a hospital at Mumbai and Bangaluroo. The security at the entrance of Goa Government Secretariat makes you feel as if you are before the gates of Vidhana Saudha in Karnataka. Walk into a goan restaurant and try conversing in konkani with the waiter and all you will get is a blank stare. Raise your vocie a little and he will take off to call the supervisor. The menu card says goan food but the cook is Nepali. The other day I was shocked to see the number of U.P. drivers behind the wheels of our taxis. It is difficult to spot a goan barber in a goan hair cutting saloon. Now Healt h Minister claims there are no anaesthesists and doctors in the PHCs. How can there ever be, when every post is auctioned to the highest bidder and a scoundrel politician breathes down your neck for non-productive favours? Standard argument is that there is no local labour available. How can there be local labour when the basic labour laws and wage scales are flouted? Which employer will want local labour if he can get extra profits from bonded labour with providing low wages and sub-human living conditions?
-Soter * * * The book people are already talking about: Goanetter Selma Carvalho's *Into the Diaspora Wilderness*. Launch on July 25, 2010 at the UK Goan Festival [http://goafest.itpsworld.net] Goa launch next month. See http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/ Buy at Broadway's, Panjim [Ph 9822488564] at Rs 295 in Goa. Overseas, postage extra. * * *
