Camillo Fernandes <[email protected]> Wrote: Comments in response to Selma's below mail :
I had a hearty laugh when I read Selma's below mail but like to say that all Indians are not dirty but the majority are. Indians in India treat their country as an open air toilet and think it is their right to spit, urinate and answer the call of nature anywhere. However the same Indians are totally different Indians anywhere abroad . They will stretch backwards to dispose of garbage in the right way and not discard it anywhere. I have seen the same Indians in Gulf carrying their garbage in sacks to dispose it in the right place which they would not do in India. The same is the story of Indians in Europe where they know they cant dispose and throw away their garbage anywhere as they often do in India but have to discard it in a proper manner where garbage bags are collected from their houses. LIke their fellow residents abroad, they are forced to have civic sense. Often Indians believe in keeping their own homes very clean but outside their homes it is not their responsibility and they are not concerned. The reasons are mainly the strict penalty, the strict standards of hygiene and follow the other residents who too make it a point to keep their surroundings clean and green. When in India the same Indians forget their civic sense and by and large follow what the majority do i.e. behave like they are living in slums (atleast in slums they live in poverty and are mostly illiterate). In Mumbai too I have seen even when we live in flats with literate neighbours living in the building often many residents keep their homes very c lean but take the easy way out and throw/discard garbage out of their windows below in the compound. They are not concerned about their colony/surroundings and feel as long as their homes are clean, it is fine. They will have discipline in forming queues everywhere abroad but discard it when in India, Selma's post : Response: Some months ago, Tony D'Sa was furious with me because I said Indians were dirty. Then what do I find? Apparently one day, Tony had to go to the toilets in Panjim, maybe a bit too much of choriz pao the day before. He was so furious, he came straight back home, sat infront of his PC and dashed off a letter to Herald to complain about how dirty the toilets were. So the moral of Tony's story is, if you don't squat in Goa (pardon the pun here), you have no right to say anything let alone do anything to "Save Goa. COMMENT: It appears that we both agree that Selma's generalized observation that Indians are dirty is universally untrue. To generalize that Indians are dirty would mean by implication she herself (along with you and me) is dirty providing she has no Caucasian, Mongoloid, Negroid nor any other ancestry. I certainly strongly and vehemently object to being called dirty. Remember, Sir, that the word 'dirty' has more than one connotation. I object to being called dirty in any of its senses but I cannot speak for you or Selma or for that matter any of the Goans who write on this forum and the lurkers who merely read the posts and have hearty laughs some times. It is my argument that if you do not have the basic necessities of life, viz food, water, shelter and clothing, then your scramble for these has first priority in your book of things and then the niceties of civilization - such as sanitation. Do you imagine that when the WASP's first settled in USA and Canada or Australia, they were overly concerned with hygiene? It was only after they had food security and shelter over their heads and prosperity that the standards of civic life were enforced and observed - to ridiculous extents some times with people chasing their little doggies with poop bags! Europe is no exception. In medieval times little boys went round from man to man collecting piss in a portable pissoir! What I was trying to point out when I aired my grouse about the one public toilet in Panjim is the loot by the organization and or the employees of the group maintaining the toilets - the Sulabh Organization which merely puts up amenities and then neglects them after some time. It is not that these services are free! Selma's reply in this thread again was not in response to my intervention in the topic under discussion. If you go back to the original post you will find that I had expressed hope that the new Save Goa Campaign would not take the gullible Goans (who are looked up on by some NRGs as country hicks sometimes) for a ride like its predecessor the Save Goa Movement! And Selma, my need for the loo was not as an after math of overly indulging in chourico. Notice that I have not responded to your post out of courtesy for the fairer sex and more than that because hell hath no fury like a woman riled up. -- "Tony de Sa" < tonydesa at gmail dot com>
