Hi, Adding my words of appreciation to Ashley - for all the hard work he continuously puts in for the good of the village and its people. Also to Austin. Having been his classmate in LCHS way back when....I have first hand experience of his booming voice, which used to actually scare me a little! But it's great that he puts it to good use, when required!! Good job, Austie - in this, and in every other activity that you are involved in (including the church matters) We need you!!! Also, many and sincere thanks to Eric Cordeiro (whom I know as a good man), and Dominic (unfortunately, I cannot recall who he is - but he sounds like an excellent team member, too.) To all these dedicated Saligaokars, our sincere appreciation. The least we can do especially when we are so far away from the land we love, is to express our appreciation to those who are doing their best to save it from unscrupulous sharks, of which there are many. It only takes a few minutes to express one's appreciation to those who give selflessly of themselves and their time, but that small word of thanks goes such a long way. On the other hand, there are those who take more pleasure in throwing brickbats rather than bouquets, and that really is unfortunate....but as I always say, we cannot change the world!!!
Thanks Sanjeev, for setting in motion this "vote of thanks" to those greatly deserving of it!! Patricia ________________________________ From: ANNETTE D'SOUZA <[email protected]> To: Saligaon Foxy news <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 8:23:10 AM Subject: [SALIGAONET] Re: Saligao RP Sorry! was going to second Sanjeev's sentiments but now I am late & will just join Sanjeev & Maurice in showing my appreciation. I think I have already in one of my postings, thanked Ashley before or recognised & appreciated the part he plays but if not, then - once again, thanks Ashley. Hope your health is ok by now. And as Sanjeev mentioned others too in his posting, I fully agree with him as had first hand experience with regard to the roles of Austin & Eric Cordeiro during the time of the Church Roof repairs meeting ....though there was not much of a "storm" then except of course the rains were expected so Austin didnt have to use the booming voice I guess, & there were no "fireworks" either but there just might have been if Eric hadnt stepped in & patted down ruffled feathers & at the same time ensured that information was made available. Sanjeev, in answer to your question about the gramsabhas vis-a-vis violent, acrimonious, confrontational..... huh! I think they were before too.... I remember Dad getting home (way back in 1970's) even after a Panchayat meeting & describing what took place & the language used........ so things have not changed for the better but I dont recall that anybody came to blows or made threats... the latter belongs to the 21st Century... sad to say! even though we are more educated, more knowledgeable, more global minded or should be..... but we still cant maintain peace. So once again, kudos to one & all. All the best! Annette ________________________________ Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 03:54:42 -0700 From: [email protected] Subject: [SALIGAONET] Re: Saligao RP To: [email protected] Well said Sanjeeve, I would only like to add that Ashley has done an awesome job and these guys are now trying to oust him because he wont cow down to their illegal demands.The whole committee has been very diligent in this exercise. If the village doesn't pull together on this and come out in force for the continuation of the Gram Sabha on Sunday we cannot ever complain about what is happening to our village. The whole plan is being hijacked by some of these individuals for their own interests and we have to resist this with everything we have. We need everyone to rally around the passing of this plan to ensure that we have set in place a basic foundation for Saligao, after which we can move ahead with planned, sustainable growth in the village. --- On Wed, 4/1/09, Sanjeev Trivedi <[email protected]> wrote: From: Sanjeev Trivedi <[email protected]> Subject: [SALIGAONET] Saligao RP To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 2:57 AM Dear Saligaokars, I wish you put on record my appreciation towards the "unstinting" and "selfless" efforts put in by Ashley Delaney on making of the maps etc for the Saligao Village Plan , and perform the duties of a convener over the past 2 months. His resilience in taking undeserved flack, brick-bats (very few bouquets) and even physical threats , and yet go on playing an important role in the preparation of the Village Plan, deserves to be acknowledged and formally appreciated. I don't think there is anyone else in Saligao who has the ability to get all these things done on a computer, run around everyday, call people , collect information, put it together and despite all this, be called a manipulator. It was quite shameful that Ashley was being accused at the Gramsabha, when in fact he deserved a vote of thanks. But he swallowed these insinuations, and is back on his feet. Austy too deserves compliments for being the moderator. Without his booming voice, personality and respectable standing with the people, the Gramsabha would have become a free-for-all event !! Austy - could you please take this role in all the gramsabhas , and navigate proceedings to cover more than just 'land conversions'. Maybe even convene a pre-gramsabha meeting with the panchayat and other members interested to bring everyone on the same page on the panchayat day. Do the gramsabhas always need to be violent / acrimonious and confrontational ? Dominic from Bairo Alto and Eric Cordeiro were the other notable speakers who help calm down tempers and bring discussions back on track. It is very unfortunate that 99% of discussions in the last gramsabha were hovering around real estate , construction and land conversions, while very important issues such as Garbage, Sewage, water, health, education and electricity remained unattended (besides the motion to earmark a land for garbage sorting). The virulent and even physically violent reactions got from Panch members and those involved in real estate was uncivilised and indicative that the only concern in the gramsabha was land conversion. This was recorded and published by most Goan newspapers. Illegal encroachment and make-shift unaccounted migrant camps are reaching malignant levels. Despite requests in the past gramsabhas, no statistics or figures are brought out ! Large projects with swimming pools are mushrooming all over without any mention or discussion in the gramsabha, even though these would have a permanent impact on Saligao. In the gramsabha some of the members suggested that additional land needs to be converted to settlement to help the poor people of Saligao build a home. By all means , we should help the local citizens , but is there any mechanism by which is "additional settlement" actually goes towards the welfare of the poor people and is prevented from going on to the open market ?? Most of the recent legal and illegal conversions are auctioned to the highest bidder these days. Forget the poor, not even the well to do Saligaokars would afford Rs. 10,000 / sq. mt bids for land. Can we propose a special cell be made to facilitate settlement of the locals / poor etc ? This cell would ensure that the land "actually" goes to the poor / needy. What is the sense in converting more land, and inviting resource intensive construction projects in Saligao , when there are not enough resources for the existing populace !!?? Are we trying to make a "difficult" problem, "impossible" to solve ? With a handful of part-time do gooders faced against a powerful real estate lobby that has town planners, law enforcers and panchayat on their side , the chances of saving Saligao are bleak. What might save us is - fearless participation by more and more people from the village- regularly - insistence on punitive action - identification and demolition of recent illegalities (which will slow down new ones from coming up) - close interaction and followup with the panchayat - towards real "progress" and "development" (as opposed to "building / construction") Pen used to be mightier than the sword. Unfortunately, these days written words are read in haste and forgotten in a few minutes having been overwhelmed by the myriad things happening all around us. May I make a personal plea to all contributors on the saligaonet to please think of going one step further in aiding this fight to save Saligao. Let us focus on a short common agenda and not allow differences to upset the team effort. Let us draw inspiration from the quote - "Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working." Sanjeev Trivedi Nigvaddo, Saligao. More than mail–Windows Live™ goes way beyond your inbox. More than messages __________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ This message comes via the Google Groups "Saligao-Net" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net?hl=en Please post regularly to keep the e-village active! -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
