*** FROM GOA: Goanet News Bytes * Feb 16, 2006 * Cabinet okays voting rights for non-resident Indian citizens ... Guitar festival in Goa... Bill Clinton coming visiting
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] / d8 Founded in e88~88e e88~-_/~~~8e 888-~88e e88~~8e _d88__ 1994 by 888 888 d888 i 88b 888 888 d888 88b 888 Herman 88_88 | e88~-888 888 888 __888 888 Carneiro / Y888 ' C888 888 888 888 Y888, 888 Cb 88_-~ 88_-888 888 888 88___/ 88_/ Y Y88D http://www.goanet.org -GOANET NEWS BYTES * FEBRUARY 16, 2006 * DATELINE GOA--- NON-RESIDENTS TO GET VOTING RIGHTS: Cabinet has decided to grant voting rights to non-resident Indians, by amending the country's electoral laws. The amendment will amplify the definition of an Indian ordinarily resident in the country in the Representation of the People's Act. This will enable NRIs who have absented from their place of their ordinary residence in India, owing to their employment, education or otherwise to get themselves enrolled in the electoral rolls and exercise their voting rights. The amendment will entitle eligible citizens of India to cast their votes in parliamentary and assembly elections WHEN THEY ARE in their constituency and thus fully participate in the democratic process of nation building... (IANS) o Chief minister Rane hints at probe into Tuesday's protest march (morcha) by the BJP which caused inconvenience to thousands of commuters. (NT) o BJP seeks inquiry into traffic chaos. (NT) o BJP's Arlekar blames police for commotion in city. (H) o Sonia Gandhi to arrive in Goa on Feb 22 for 2-day visit.(NT) o Congressmen hand-in-glove with BJP over Mopa: Churchill.(NT) o Govt to augment Salaulim water works by 25 million litres/day. o Govt urged to expedite Dhargalim industrial estate. (NT) o Margao-Quepem road blocked for 2 hours, by residents demanding repairs of road. (NT) o Goa Building Controll Bill introduced in state assembly. (NT) o Demand made for a Special Economic Zone in Pernem. (H) o River Sal dredging plans kept on hold. (H) o PWD minister Dhavlikar criticised for S Goa water shortage. (H) o IT sleuths raid GKB Opthalmics. (GT) o No street lights in some parts of Caranzalem. (GT) o Free text books for SC/ST, girl children next year on. (GT) o Science Fiesta 2006 begins at Goa Science Centre today. (GT) o Vasco plastic ban helps municipal wastes treatment plant. (GT) GUITAR GUILD GOA'S Guitar Festival is being held from February 19 to 23 at the Kala Academy. US former President Bill Clinton to arrive in Goa on Feb 17 on a two-day visit, with a delegation of the Bill Clinton Foundation. He will be in Goa on behalf of his foundation's HIV/AIDS initiative, partnered with the Indian government's National AIDS Control Organisation. Clinton will visit the Cipla drug manufacturing plant in Verna, and meet patients and health officials as well. (Herald) Bill provides relief to landlords: As per the Goa Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control (Amendment) Bill 2006, the landlord will be entitled to evict his tenant from the dwelling house if the latter has a residence within five kilometres from the disputed dwelling. (Herald) Marinex and boat show. Over 100 companies now in Goa. The ports, boats, sports, maritime, shipping, sailing, yatching, fishing and tourism event. February 17-19, 2006. Kala Academy 11 am to 7 pm. Also: alternative energy and electech 06 business expo at Kala Academy Feb 17-19. PANJIM POLLS: Parrikar, Willy, Mummy, Zuwarkar to take on Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate in the battle for control of the Corporation of the City of Panjim. (GT) -- FEBRUARY 15, 2006 -- o BJP holds morcha (protest march), thousands stranded around city. Commuters to and from Panjim were stranded for over two hours. Navhind Times says the city was held to ransom. Gomantak Times puts it thus: Hold-up at high noon. BJP rally strangulates Panjim. o Goa needs Mopa airport, says Chief Minister Rane. But adds that the state must think of Dabolim too. (H) o Margao-Mangalore express train flagged off. (NT) o Parrikar lashes out at Rane govt for failure on all fronts.NT o Two of family of four in Valentine Day suicide pact on Miramar. They are from Kozhikode and Ernakulam, resports said. o Theft at Bansai temple, near Curchorem. (NT) o Figures show govt spent huge sums on IFFI delegates. (H) o Canacona needs full-fledged market. (GT) FACTOID: Nearly 1.135 million square metres of government land has been encroached allegedly by mining companies, for the dumping of ore rejects at various sites in Goa. (Herald, quoting a Goa assembly reply). Ingo Grill, the
*** GoanetReader: The First Goan President (V M de Malar)
The First Goan President by V. M. de Malar vmingoa at gmail.com Toni Morrison was wrong. In a famous 1998 essay in the New Yorker magazine, the Nobel Prize-winning African-American writer declared about Bill Clinton; white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. She wrote at the end of a long, hot, summer of intrigue and skullduggery in Washington D.C, when the beleaguered second-term President stood vulnerable, at a time when the Arkansas-born outsider to elite politics was most isolated and vulnerable. Her insight was precise; Clinton's nose was quite obviously being rubbed in the dirt as a kind of punishment, less for minor peccadilloes than for being uppity. He threatened a part of the establishment; it retaliated with no holds barred. But Morrison was wrong, because it's amply clear to all true Goans that Bill Clinton is one of us, a regular rice-and-fish-curry guy with a penchant for siestas, a sax-playing, visibly sincere, churchgoer with a helpless eye for the ladies, a man who looks like he'd fit quite suitably on a roaring Enfield Bullet as ferryside motorcycle pilot. That garrulousness is so familiar with the accompanying twinkle in the eye, that touching neediness, that community- minded solicitousness, that urge to sing loudest in the choir, and then also the inability to say no, the eagerness to please and charm, and the comfort with people of all ages. We've heard all about Hope, Arkansas, we know about Georgetown, Yale, Oxford, and the governor's mansion in Little Rock. We're not naive; we've registered Chappaqua and Harlem and tracked the Iowa polls for Hillary in 2008. Still, we Goans recognize one of our own and we've known it ever since he burst onstage with a saxophone, he is clearly the first Goan President. And so we're busting out the real home-made stuff from the backwoods for today's toasts; it's a triumphant weekend homecoming to Goa for amcho Bill Clinton. Look at him, it's a wonder we didn't figure it out earlier. Is he unashamedly gluttonous in our typical manner? Check. Does he look like he takes siestas every time he gets the chance, like he can't wait to hit the pillow again? Does he, in fact, have the manner of your retired uncle ,who hasn't worn a belt for twelve years, and whose remaining life goal is to never change out of his pyjamas? Check, check. Does he look like the most sincere guy during prayers, even if he's been carousing all night before, all closed-eyes ecstasy and ostentatious singing? Check. Ladies man, check. Affinity for urrak? We'll have to check. Amcho Bill is in the same rough mould as Goa's home-grown politicians, who display plenty of what we euphemistically call character, even as they lack Clinton's unstinting work-ethic, ambition, marvellous erudition and world- class education, drive, empathy, spellbinding and stem-winding oratory skills, once-in-a-generation charisma, sheer policy genius, profound analytical powers and superb political instincts. Okay, we did say rough mould, our guys are no- hit wonders and he's Elvis, the King, but let's not get distracted from the point we're trying to make. Goans have always loved larger-than-life figures, wherever they're from. Long before Clinton, for example, we loved Kennedy with a kind of passion that would shock Americans if they ever understood it, more intense than other places because of our peculiar and uniquely lengthy history of profound cultural exchange with the West. President Clinton might be amused to learn that the brother of one of our very senior politicians is named Kennedy, that there are literally dozens of Kennedys running around in our small state. There's Reagans too, this is a bi-partisan phenomenon (plus Hitlers and Mussolinis and Stalins, we'll not mention those to the Yanks). And there are Clintons, a whole passel of little Clintons scurrying around our small state. It's red meat to the Republicans if you think about it, scores of kids bearing that name, just imagine what that vast right wing conspiracy would have done with the info in those days of Kenneth Starr's ridiculously overblown witch- hunt. Like then, its lots of smoke with no fire, the kiddies are evidence only that we loved the forty-second President of the USA. A hearty welcome to Goa, Bill Clinton, we hope you have a great weekend here. (ENDS) More articles at: http://www.goanet.org/modules.php?op=modloadname=Newsfile=indexcatid=9 --- ABOUT THE AUTHOR: VM is an early Goanetter, who put his money where his mouth is and returned to settle-down in Goa in late 2004, while in his thirties. VM regularly writes for the Goa and Mumbai media. GOANET READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the growing readership of Goanet and it's
*** GoanetReader: Da Cunha in Absurdistan (V M de Malar)
Da Cunha in Absurdistan by V. M. de Malar vmingoa at gmail.com Imagine that you've won a prestigious national prize from the government, but no one notifies you or returns your letters or pays any attention to your inquiries. Imagine having to pose a question in Parliament in order to get official notification, or filing suit in court just to finally get your hands on it. It's an absurd scenario, right? It's Goa's own Gerard da Cunha's reality; he protested the indignities and ridiculous delay by wearing a child's cartoonish mask while posing for photographs with the Minister for Urban Development when the prize was finally awarded last week, an unconscionable six years too late. The great G. K. Chesterton wrote, in a world where everything is ridiculous, nothing can be ridiculed. And so we must start by noting that India's urban planning is scandalously incoherent across the board; our urban spaces are notoriously among the worst in the world. Even as India's economy surges unstoppably, as architects and developers become ever more grandiose, we find our cities in a terrible mess. India is not handling urbanization well, there is precious little we can point to with pride in terms of urban planning and design. So, this award is, on paper, an excellent idea. The plan was to provide a national spotlight to large scale projects, to reward innovative architects and provide incentive for more good work, to create a culture of peer-reviewed excellence in urban design. The trouble came, as it so often does, when this fine idea was dropped into the lap of the babus and the stultifying bureaucracy that lives off patronage and crude power equations. And so da Cunha's surreal experience, which started with his team's eager application in the Implemented Urban Planning and Design Projects category of the 1998 ?99 Prime Minister's National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design for their project in Bellary for Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Limited. The whole process was already late; competition was opened only in 2001, the high-profile jury met at the end of 2002. There were inexplicable shenanigans from the then-Minister of Urban Development, Ananth Kumar, from the beginning; he wanted his crony to get the award and refused to properly endorse the unanimous declaration awarding da Cunha the prize. Then the nonsense began in earnest, the file for this prestigious national prize stopped dead. It took an official question in Parliament from Goa's then Rajya Sabha member, Eduardo Faleiro, to get some movement. One day before the question had to be answered, on 15th March, 2003, the bureaucracy was forced to release the results. But a scheduled ceremony in Delhi was cancelled, and sheer inertia took over again. Finally, the now-irate architect filed suit in a Panjim court. It required a response by 10th February of this year, but this final embarrassment was averted by a hasty ceremony last week, where the proceedings were enlivened by the architect's silent, whimsical, protest (check the photo at www.goanet.org). There's a well-developed theatre tradition of absurdism, into which our architect's subversive mask fits quite suitably, that's been carefully delineated by greats like Stoppard and Beckett, following the much older Commedia dell'Arte. The Theatre of the Absurd offers its audience an existentialist view of the outside world and forces them to consider the meaning of their existence when there appears to be no true order or meaning. It's a form of expose, you understand far more about life when you highlight the ridiculousness to which we're regularly subjected. In India, says da Cunha, where our towns and cities are deteriorating at such a rapid rate, an award of this sort makes good sense, creating role models which others can follow. It is the duty of the Ministry to be fair and give the award on time. He continues, the award was presented after a delay of six years. I felt it was my duty to protest. In doing so, he artfully turned a commonplace photo opportunity into something far more interesting, he imbibed the shabby last-minute event with unexpected meaning. Chesterton, rather inscrutably, said you cannot unmask a mask, but that's just what the man wearing the Tigger mask did last week. Congratulations on the award, Gerard da Cunha, and good show at the ceremony. (ENDS) More articles at: http://www.goanet.org/modules.php?op=modloadname=Newsfile=indexcatid=9 --- ABOUT THE AUTHOR: VM is an early Goanetter, who put his money where his mouth is and returned to settle-down in Goa in late 2004, while in his thirties. VM regularly writes for the Goa and Mumbai media. GOANET READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the growing
