Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter, 3 Feb. 2013, at www.goanvoice.org.uk
Full text: One would have thought that middle class people in India in general and Goa in particular would be a happy lot. They have reaped the benefits of the rising economy and salaries that have gone through the roof. No doubt the good has been accompanied by a corresponding inflation rate that often touches 10 per cent annually (compare that to Canada's less than 2) but even so, they are able to afford a style of living that was unknown to their parents. A family car, a luxury that was enjoyed by only a very few once, is now taken for granted. The value of apartments and homes has increased ten to fifteen times over the past decade and half and while that is disadvantageous to new home buyers, it is a huge future asset to those owning already, whether by appreciation or generational transfer. However, people are still yearning to settle abroad despite knowing that with the current weak economies in the developed world, likelihood of employment has become more challenging. Almost every young person in a large Indian city dreams of nothing but going to Australia, Canada, England and Europe. Almost everybody in Goa who is entitled to Portuguese naturalization and those who are not, has either got the passport, applied for one or is considering the quickest way to get it issued by hook or by crook, money no bar. The Indian law against dual citizenship is flouted every which way, to an extent that the Goa government doesn't quite know what to do about it. That works out fine for everybody. The lawbreakers are allowed to get away with it by hush money and enforcement gets to make the ubiquitous extra buck as in every other avenue they find for themselves. Don't be fooled with the talk you get when you are on a visit. People will run you down saying that they have no reason to go abroad, that we in the Diaspora are treated like second class citizens (a continuous myth perpetrated for many years and born of sour grapes) and why should they wash their own bathrooms when they have someone to do it for them. I even had a friend proudly tell me that his briefcase is carried by his chauffeur from home to the car in the garage below. The latter argument is slowly wearing thin ever since it is news that domestic workers are harder to find then as ever, or are becoming unaffordable even to rich people. I have learnt long ago not to ask anyone if they intend to emigrate, but even if I ask when they intend to "make a trip" to Canada they become all defensive and ask me why should they think of immigrating, while I only meant to ask them about a holiday. That itself I ask as a quid pro quo to their asking when I intend to come to India. Little knowing that once one no longer has relatives to dutifully visit, India is about the lowest option on a holiday list to someone born there. Why are people pushing to immigrate to the western world when India an emerging country has long been an attraction to foreign investment and a beneficiary of new jobs and higher than ever salaries? Exponential increase in population is the reason. It causes ever more and more people chasing not enough higher education, infrastructure and facilities. Quality therefore is the first casualty. Add to that the worst government in any democracy. Add to that the history of acceptance of the way things are. Add to that a crumbling and ineffective justice system and the whole deck just collapses. Though not to them, only to us. When I left Bombay in 1976 it had a population of 6 million souls. Now it has 21 million or more - all within more or less the same boundaries. The city like many others, is growing upwards to questionable building codes but doesn't have the life support for it. One major disaster and havoc will prevail. Nonetheless the city has a record of putting back its shoes, tying its laces and carrying on as if nothing has happened. That is a good thing except no lessons will be learned for the future. The value of life has always been quite low. =====================================