CARMEN et al
I CALL FOR A 100,000 + GOAN MARCH FROM THE MANDOVI TO THE CAMPAL GROUNDS
ON A SIGNIFICANT DAY LIKE 26 JANUARY . Could be carnival come early!!!
Placards T-shirts palm leaves etc with full coverage by Press, local
and national and international TV ...
Guests of Honour... Diggu Kamat and his 40 thieves
This is not an original as you can tell....hastily adapted by ME
Lets go for it !!!!
MY KEY NOTE SPEECH WILL BE AS FOLLOWS !!!!!
WE HAVE A DREAM !!!!
We are all happy to join with each other today in what will go down in
history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our
state.
Five decades ago, the decency, truth and justice was cruelly taken away
from us under the false pretext of a new freedom which paved the way for
the mess that we are now in this once beautiful pristine state....The
PEARL of the Orient.!!!! This momentous march and coming together of
decent Goans should serve as a great beacon light of hope to millions of
Goans here and the world over who had been seared in the flames of
withering injustice. It comes as a joyous daybreak to end the long days
and nights of their captivity.
But fifty years later the Goan still is not free. Fifty years later, the
life of the Goan is still sadly crippled by the manacles of corruption,
crime, murders, drugs, environmental damage, land grabbing, personal
attacks and the chains of discrimination on lines of caste and creed.
Fifty years later, the Goan lives on a lonely island of poverty in the
midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Fifty years later, the
Goan is still languished in the corners of Indian society and finds
himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to
dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our state's capital to cash a check. When the
architects of our state wrote the illusory words of the freedom from
decent Portuguese rule and the Declaration of Statehood, they were
signing a promissory note to which every Goan was to fall heir. This
note was a promise that all people, yes, Catholics, Hindus and Muslims,
MLAs, and regardless of occupation, caste or background would be
guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty, Justice, and the
pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that Goa has defaulted on
this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of are concerned. Instead
of honoring this sacred obligation, Goan politicians in recent years
have given the Goan people a bad check, a check which has come back
marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse
to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of
opportunity of this state. And so, we've come to cash this check, a
check that will give us upon demand the riches of true freedom and the
security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind Goa and India of the
fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of
cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of susegadism. Now is the
time to make real the promises of real and true democracy. Now is the
time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of corruption and greed
and murder and drugs to the sunlit path of equality, justice, fair play
for jobs respect for other peoples properties and the wishes of the
people of this great state . Now is the time to lift our state from the
quicksands of corruption and injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children in
Goa and the diaspora.
It would be fatal for the state and the country to overlook the urgency
of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Goan's legitimate
discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of
freedom and equality. Two thousand and Eleven is not an end, but a fresh
new beginning unlike 1961. And those who hope that the Goan needed to
blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the
state and the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be
neither rest nor tranquility in Goa until the Goan is granted his
citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the
foundations of our state and nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to our people, who stand on the
warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of
gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds like
the MLAs, Police and Courts that we seek to rectify . Let us not seek to
satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness
and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of
dignity and discipline and integrity and decency. We must not allow our
creative protest to degenerate into physical violence like the Goondas
do. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting
physical force with soul force and people power.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Goan cnyommunity must
not lead us to a distrust of all politicians police courts etc, for many
of them, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to
realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have
come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our new freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of justice and decency,
"When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the
Goan is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality,
Political corruption, Land grabbing and building of illegal structures
by politicians and their Goondas, Drug trafficking and murders and their
cover-ups and environmental damage. We can never be satisfied as long
as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in
the hotels of the highways and the hotels of the towns in and around
Panjim. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Goan's basic mobility is
from a smaller vaddo to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long
as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their
dignity by signs stating: ''No jobs without a backhander for 10 lakhs or
more " We cannot be satisfied as long as a Goan in Goa cannot vote
without receiving a backhander or a gift from corrupt candidates or out
of fear for candidates Goondas or where a Goan in every constituency
believes he has nothing for which to vote as no candidate can be
trusted. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied
until "justice rolls down like the waters of Dudhsagar, and
righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials
and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells and
out of fear from the very people we seek to convert. And some of you
have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you
battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of
police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to your villages in the South, the North and to every vaddo in
Goa and beyond and to the diaspora in every country of the world,
knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, we
still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Goan dream.
We have a dream that one day this state will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal and are entitled to justice and self
respect of themselves and their property and religion."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills and soil of Goa, the sons
and daughters of people of all creeds, political parties and occupations
will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood fighting
in a common cause and UNITY for a better tomorrow.
We have a dream that one day even this state of Goa, a state sweltering
with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will
be transformed into an oasis of true freedom and justice and decency.
We have a dream that our children will one day live in a state and
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their Rupee notes
but by the content of their character.
We have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, even in the Secretariat in Porvorim , with
its vicious corrupt legislators, with its Chief Minister and the forty
thieves his lips dripping with the words of corruption and injustice
will one day soon see the light and be able to join hands with the very
people, the poor, the oppressed, the social activists, the NGOs, the
decent Goan who toils all day to make ends meet, those that are accused
of squealing like pigs when they stand up for their rights as sisters
and brothers.
We have a dream today!
We have a dream that one day every valley and vaddo shall be exalted,
and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that we go back to our villages
with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a
stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the
jangling discords of our state into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to
struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom
together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's
children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My state 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty and justice, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the tourists pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if Goa and India is to be a great state and nation, this must become
true.
And so let freedom and justice ring from the waterfalls of DudhSagar.
Let freedom and justice ring from the hills of Goa.
Let freedom and justice ring from the sweet waters of the Mandovi.
Let freedom and justice ring from the world acclaimed sea shore and
beaches of our great state.
Let freedom and justice ring from the curvaceous slopes of Bambolim.
But not only that:
Let Truth and Justice and Decency ring from Canacona and Betul in the
South to Arambol in the North
Let Truth, Justice and Decency ring from the Secretariat in Porvorim.
Let freedom and justice ring from every hill, molehill and ant hill of Goa.
From every police station and every Court, from every Govt office and
every neighbour
And when this happens, when we allow TRUTH, JUSTICE and DECENCY to ring
, when we let it ring from every village and every vaddo, from every
court and every police station and every MLA's office and Panchayat
office, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children
of Goan origin, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims irrespective of caste or
financial or occupational status, will be able to join hands and sing in
the words of the old spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last! Free from the yoke of nearly 50 years of
Corruption, theft, murders, back stabbing, false witness, drug
trafficking and abuse of Power !!!
Thank God Almighty, we are free and safe at last !
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Now available in Toronto, a few copies of *Into The Diaspora Wilderness* by
Selma Carvalho. Contact Bosco D'Mello
[email protected] (416) 803-7264
http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/
