The Accidental Activist - The Other Accidental Activists
By Venita Coelho
The editor of a reputed paper wrote a column the other day disparaging the
'protest
industry' and claiming that activists earned money off it and simply protested
for
the sake of protesting. I'd like to introduce you to some of the other
accidental
activists that I have got to know and respect. And I'd like you to judge if
they are
honourable citizens with Goa's interests at heart or canny mercenaries as the
attempt to label them claims.
When I wandered into the GBA offices indignant over the Regional Plan 2012 and
offering my help to fight it, the first person I bumped into was Dean D'Cruz.
Dean
is a well known architect. He was well aware that opposing the regional plan
would
bring him up against the builders lobby - from who he earned his living. In the
months after GBA was launched, Dean lost client after client. He chose to smile
and
make awful puns about the situation. For a year we camped at Deans office,
drank his
tea, used his computers and printers, and made his staff run around on activist
work. We're still there. Dean himself put in endless time, turning down work,
bringing his profession to a virtual standstill while he helped us understand
the
maps and the issues at stake.
Ritu Prasad is a colleague of Dean's and an architect. She is one of the most
passionate activists that I know. She put all her work on hold for more than a
year,
managing god knows how, while she hit the streets to explain the RP2012. Her
daughter has grown up on the fight, Ritu explaining things at child's eye view
to
her. When it was finally revoked, she asked 'Mama have we won against the bad
guys?'
Unfortunately all we naive idiots were to learn that the fight is never over.
It
goes on and on and on. You end up putting your time, your money and your life
into
it.
Reboni Saha is an industrial designer. To her we owe the booklet that explained
the
RP2021 to villages and showed them how to respond. As secretary to the GBA
Reboni
struggled with varied viewpoints, and tried her best to manage assorted egos. A
completely thankless task. There was no way that you could keep everyone happy.
And
yet she kept going even when she was made the target of a vicious personal
attck in
the papers. I have seen her stay at her desk working till ten and eleven every
night
endlessly.
Sabina Martins is a teacher. She runs harassed between teaching, Bailancho Saad
and
the GBA. When each of us burnt out in turn and quit for a bit, it was Sabina
who
just kept going on. She single handedly got down a team of experts from Kerala
to
teach us socio economic planning. She herself headed down to Kerala to learn
more.
An average week for her includes burning effigies outside the Casinos,
attending GBA
meetings, organizing workshops and correcting exam papers.
Patricia Pinto is soft spoken and gentle. And yet when she stood in front of a
rain
tree to protect it, she sparked the movement that was to end in the formation
of the
GBA. She and Ritu sat in the library going through all the Gazettes,
painstakingly
tracing land conversions and pinning down questionable ones. I mean ALL. They
covered every single government gazette since the time Goa was declared a
state. A
Herculean task that went unacknowledged like most activist work does.
Closer home in Moira, Vizilia D'Sa is another single mother with two sons. I
have
seen her write reams of applications to the BDO and the Mamlatdar, while
juggling
tutoring children, and managing her house. And yet she finds time to help any
villager who goes to her for advice.
These are just a very few of the many many colleagues on whose effort the
activist
movement in Goa has kept going. Miguel is a horticulturist. Annand is a
businessman.
Aaron is a college student. Oscar is a doctor. Just ordinary people driven to
protest the destruction of what they hold dear. We would all of us love to know
exactly where the money that runs this so called 'protest industry' lies. We
could
all do with reimbursement for all that we have paid out of pocket. Not least
for the
time that everyone has put in unstintingly. As for protesting just for the sake
of
protesting - next no doubt we can expect a column praising the wonderful things
mining is doing for Goa. Or will it be a PR piece for the building lobby
extolling
the wonderful job they are doing converting the countryside to concrete? Hmm -
one
suspects that there is indeed money in the protest industry, but not on the
activist
side of it. (ENDS)
===
The above article appeared in the September 8, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
