India is poorer today than it was 20 years ago. It has more poor people than
the
whole of Africa combined. It doesn't reduce its poverty; it just redistributes
it. If you are a relatively prosperous state, rest assured in 50 years time,
you
will become another slum of India. Then we will have movies
and documentaries made telling us how fulfilling slum life is and how organic
living in one of these human sewers can be.
If anyone thinks I am joking and that it won't happen to Goa, I urge them to
visit Mangor hill of Vasco. What was once the abode of proud Vasco Gaunkaris is
now a slum. In the morning, one can wake up to the delicious smell of human
sewage wafting through the air as one makes their way to white-washed Church
and
children filtering in to schools, holding on to the last vestiage of a
civilised
life. Our home is now on the pheriphery of slumville. Beyond our home lies
acres
and acres of usurped communidade land turned into shanties. Proper Vascoites
cannot afford to buy land. They move out of Vasco and into some tiny flat.
This is what India contributes.
Best,
Selma
