To dear jc who says, "I often "ask" the following questions of the Govt: Have you met the basic needs of the population in terms of Proper Roads and Drinking Water (mentioned by Stephen in his post)? Are the public Hospitals reasonably clean and equipped with certain basics eg bed sheets? How is the garbage situation? Do you have enough trained personnel to handle the drug-crime situation? The new buildings having been noted, do the populace of Goa receive timely and satisfactory responses and service from civil servants? etc etc."
My dear jc, I'm sure you realize that IFFI is a festival which has to be held annually by India, for if they do not want to host it now, then they will have to do this at the risk of losing the prestige that is associated with it. Given this fact where should it be held? Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Gujurat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal - or where? Mind you many of these states would with eager hands grab at the chance of hosting IFFI. But would they be suitable venues? Maybe, maybe not. However ask any delegate, and the vast majority of them will agree that Goa is the best place for IFFI. One thing is clear to my mind: if any state deserves to hold this high-end cultural festival, it is Goa, the state which has one of the highest per capita incomes and the highest development indicators in the country. If arguments about bijli, sadak, pani, haspatal, and kachra are to be used against Goa hosting IFFI, then which state can claim to have a better claim than us, on these very same parameters? And besides, every time IFFI is held, I notice that Panjim and its surroundings are given a face-lift and this includes its roads. Isn't this one of the boons of IFFI for residents in and around the capital city? This is besides the indirect revenue earned by the State and its people through the increased tourist inflows? Let us not unnecessarily condemn a revenue generating festival with the fact that more money needs to be put into development of infrastructure. IFFI generates revenue which will ultimately go into this kind of development. And as for Goans getting to benefit from exposure to the films in this festival, I just wish the organizers would give a break up of the number of delegates per state. I am willing to bet anything that Goans will be among the top of the pile. And as for further benefits of the festival - whereas during the first IFFI Goa used to get flak for not having a 'film culture' - this year there is a section of 7 Goan films all of which are getting full houses. No one any longer says that Goa is ignorant about films. We are now counted among the cognoscenti. To conclude, think jc, think, and don't shoot your mouth off in this silly fashion just for the sake of settling old scores with me. Augusto On Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 6:11 PM, Jose Colaco <[email protected]> wrote: > On Nov 24, 2013, at 4:40 AM, augusto pinto <[email protected]> wrote: > "*Internet bullies spring up by the minute and they think they can get > away with anything. The latest kid on the block is one Stephen Dias from > Dona Paula, whose address suggests he is a rich and privileged kid indeed! * > > Comment: > > Having read Stephen's various posts wrt the woes of the residents of Dona > Paula, I believe that Stephen has a reasonable point wrt IFFI. > > When I consider how Govts generally utilize money and manpower, I often > "ask" the following questions of the Govt: Have you met the basic needs of > the population in terms of Proper Roads and Drinking Water (mentioned by > Stephen in his post)? Are the public Hospitals reasonably clean and > equipped with certain basics eg bed sheets? How is the garbage situation? > Do you have enough trained personnel to handle the drug-crime situation? > The new buildings having been noted, do the populace of Goa receive timely > and satisfactory responses and service from civil servants? etc etc. > > Additionally, I believe that anything which adds to the traffic in Miramar > also adds to the inconvenience to the already bottle-necked Caranzalem-Dona > Paula area. > > Even if all of the above issues were being handled par excellence and > Stephen (the retired NIO scientist) was indeed a 'rich and privileged kid', > does he not have a right to raise what appear (to me at least) to be > reasonable objections (some of which are often also raised in many > developing nations)? > > I wonder: Could the argument pro IFFI-continuing have been made without > getting too personal against the person who placed an argument contra > IFFI-continuing? > > I believe so. > > jc -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal Moira, Bardez Goa, India E [email protected] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
