Bernado Colaco wrote: -The post below makes funni reading. Because one has democracy one can fire any crap. I have not seen the movie but I wonder how much art form is being portrayed besides being insulting and derogatory to Goans. BC --------------------------------- Response: Why does that not surprise me? BC afterall has made it his national pastime to comment on books without reading them and films without viewing them. Insulting and derogatory to Goans? Says who? If I were to make a list of the movies which portray Bombay as a hub for smuggling, it would take me the whole day. If I were to make a list of the variation of the line "here liquor is cheap and the women are cheaper" it would probably take me two days. Its just a filmy glib line which would suit any hick town or metropolis in India. The Goa Government seems to care a lot about a film which might destroy their tourist revenue but they don't care enough to have the drug nexus investigated by the CBI. They seem to care a lot about the portrayal of women in movies and yet when women are raped in Goa, the government immediately blames women (remember the famous line "we have never seen women like this" by our Tourism Department official?) and enacts laws which further trample on their individual freedoms. Incidentally, while the bikini is banned in Goa, reportedly, it is worn by the women (one Russian amongst them) hired to do a tourism industry promo for Goa. So whatever happened to protecting women's modesty? This is hypocrisy of the worst sorts. You can't have it both ways. Cry freedom of speech when the RSS and Shiv Shena want to trample on our rights and insist on censoring the art and literary world, and then demand censorship when something bothers us. Democracy demands of us that we uphold its principlse even when it is odious to do so.
We as Goans don't have the luxury of being adolescents in perpetuity. We had better grow up and grow up fast if we are to truly create a democracy. Otherwise, we are wandering in the dark, demanding change in others and unwilling to change ourselves. Best, Selma