NEW If you receive this more than once, please bear with me. I am understaffed and underpaid, that’s why.
*New: Goanspirit: October 7-13, 2013* *Dirty Dancing - 1* *A soft state that’s a lure for CSE* For long, Goa has been viewed as a soft state and one manifestation of that was the recent mujra performance leading to the arrest of a Samajwadi Party legislator not in some obscure hotel/bar/shack/ house in the coastal hub, but Panjim’s Campal area. Arun Pandey, director, ARZ (Anyay Rahit Zindagi), which was conceived in 1997 and is committed to combating trafficking for sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in Goa, says that the mujra performance at a hotel on August 27 by six girls coming from places as far off as Delhi, Ghaziabad, towns in Punjab and Jharkhand/Chattisgarh, is a new trend. The man who had “supplied” the girls went absconding. Read Full Story: http://www.goanspirit.com/index.php/lead/398-dirty-dancing-1 *Bits and Bytes* Hey Ram It’s no secret that the RSS thinks the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi is a hero. So with the BJP ruling the State and with a CM who took his first political steps in the RSS crucible, is it any wonder that Ravindra Bhavan, which has ex-BJP legislator Damodar Naik as chairman, thought of staging “Mee Nathuram Godse Bolto” - which justifies why he shot Gandhi – on Gandhi Jayanti *Hot News* *Put your money where your mouth is* The poder is celebrated as one of Goa’s icons. Reams are written, poems are composed, lavish praise is rained down on one of Goa’s remaining traditional vignettes. However, no one is willing to put their money where the mouth is. Least of all the government, whose promised subsidy scheme that was launched on June 24 this year by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, has been mere lip service. And before that, no government did anything for them. Read Full Story: http://www.goanspirit.com/index.php/letters/396-put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is *Thekkady takes us by surprise* The best thing about Thekkady in Kerala is that the base town of Kumily has one liquor store (government run) and one bar so you seriously don’t get those turned around baseball cap wearing machos or the bandana boys whose machoism is directly proportional to the number of pegs they down and worse. That means no beer cans, coke cans and broken bottles either. You get instead handsome looking Sedan-driving Malayali couples in their mid-40’s max two kids in tow, no tantrums either, with a sprinkling of Tamilians, equally well behaved, cash to spend and all things nice. Read Full Story: http://www.goanspirit.com/index.php/travel/397-thekkady-takes-us-by-surprise Footprint India *Breaking Bad* Late last month a 28-year-old Delhi businessman was arrested in Anjuna for possession of 1.8 kg of charas. He had been living in Goa for the past six months and intended to start his own restaurant. The building he stayed in was taken on lease. The Goa Police true to form did not reveal his name, their excuse being that it would help their investigation further notwithstanding the fact they had gladly announced his arrest to the media. The words we believe they used were “because of the sensitivity of the case”. There is more than one thing that is true to form in this; the man’s age for one, that he is a north Indian, that he was arrested in Anjuna, and that he wanted to set up a restaurant in Goa. Read Full Story: http://www.goanspirit.com/index.php/footprint-india *Lion Roars – 25* Fleecing the taxpayer Are the middle class being fleeced as tax payers? I certainly am. Not only is the central and state governments fleecing us, the banks too have joined hands. Only in the case of the latter, we remain oblivious to their shenanigans, because few of us bother to access our banks statements to see exactly how. On my last broadband bill of Rs 1,038.21, the tax component was Rs 114.21. To make matters worse BSNL rounded off the figure to Rs 1,039. The decent thing would be to make that Rs 1,038. Read Full Story: http://www.goanspirit.com/index.php/lion-roars/lion-roars-2013/392-lion-roars-25 *The Week That Was* *Shooting from D’Souza’s shoulder* If Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had taken on loose cannon Vishnu Wagh who is the vice-chairman of the Entertainment Society of Goa, it would not have been effective because he himself shoots his mouth off. But getting the low-profile, reticent Deputy CM Francis D’Souza to do his dirty work was a masterstroke. Read Full Story: http://www.goanspirit.com/index.php/twt/395-shooting-from-d-souza-s-shoulder -- Lionel Messias Editor, *Goan Spirit*, *Goa's Spirited Online Weekly Magazine.* ** Website:www.goanspirit.com Worked for the best: Goa Today, Gomantak Times, Herald, Mid-Day, The Pioneer, Indian Express (Bangalore), Economic Times (Chennai, Hyderabad), Newstime (Hyderabad), Gulf News (Hyderabad) 125-E, Bellem, Velsao, P.O. Cansaulim, Goa 403712 Tel: 0832-2884484 Mob:9822152164