Goa is seized with many critical issues, but the CM is going to Dubai and Muscat for a cultural extravaganza. The political show in Goa is like a "non-stop tiatr" with most of the ministers and MLAs as principal actors. These elected representatives keep the Goans amused, yes "fun and fiesta" for 365 days of the year. There is no death of entertainment in Dubai, I believe. iI there no football tournaments, there are tiatrs. The tiatr season, I am told, starts after Easter. And then during the Ramadan will start the football season. I am aware that Goans sweat it out in Dubai and Muscat to keep their families economically happy at home in Goa, as many of those working in Dubai leave their near and dear ones back home. I am informed that the politicians themselves fund the tiatrs to convert "black" money into "white". The Babush foreign currency fiasco is too fresh in out minds. I can understand Churchill coming here, as he has often done, to be honoured or to be a chief guest. But why the CM who portrays himself as "Mr. Clean." With the NRIs having got the right to vote in local elections, are these politicians coming to woo the Goans in Dubai and Muscat? I don't know how many will heed the call from people like Arwin and Cedric to boycott the show. For most Goans, entertainment comes first. So, the tag we have earned as "fun-loving people" is not wrong. If tomorrow a movie depicting Goans having "just fun" comes out would it be right for Goan organizations protest that Goans have been shown in a negative light? We carry the burden of being called "laidback". I now see different definitions of the word "sussegad". We are trying to hide behind a cloak that has holes for the outside world to see. let's face it and as say loudly, in the same vein that the VHP exhorts fanatical Hindus to shout, Say With Pride We Are Hindus", "We Are Fun-Loving Goans."
Eugene Correia
