http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=210538&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22
Gulf Times, Wednesday, 2 April, 2008, Hope of justice for Gujarat riot victims AKB Krishnan <snip> Clean up Goa FOUR decades after catapulting to the world’s tourism map for its palm-fringed beaches, whitewashed churches, brown-tiled, low-slung homes, clean villages and easy availability of drugs, Goa is now getting all the attention for all the wrong reasons. British teenager Scarlett Keeling, flower-child of a flower-parent, was found dead recently, reportedly after an extended trip of substance abuse and rape at Anjuna beach of Goa. And the world has now come to Goa to inspect this tiny, pretty state’s seedy, seething underbelly. While such crime could have happened anywhere, it is unfortunate that it occurred in Goa, better known as one of the more women-friendly states in India. Goa with a population larger than that of Chandigarh reported far less number of crimes against women than the Union territory had three years in a row. The place is no less safe from many other places in the world frequented by hippies and freaks. The widely publicised incidents like the one involving the British teenager certainly do take the sheen off campaigns like ‘Incredible India’. But, obviously the murder or the rising notoriety of beaches like Anjuna, is not expected to represent an alarming trend to affect the annual level of tourist inflows to Goa, thanks to its cheap and cheerful charms. And Goa would not have much to worry even if the foreigners shy away as Indian tourists, eager to explore the ‘idea’ of being in a ‘free’ state, free from the restrictions of middle-class attitudes, regularly outnumber and outspend their foreign counterparts. Only a fifth of the tourists who visit the state each year are foreigners, most of them looking for a cheap holiday. With its rich cultural and religious traditions, Goa offers a heady mix of the old and the new. However, over the years, it has also become an attractive hang-out for socially dysfunctional people. Easy availability of drugs and its reputation as a tourist paradise seem to have perpetuated its image as a permissive haven, away from the rough and tumble of the outside world. The idyll is shattered when something goes horribly wrong as it did with 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling, on holiday with her family from Britain. Credible sources in the police, administration, media and even the all-knowing tourist trade have often been portraying Goa today as a party zone drawn into specific lines of control by vested interests, foreign as well as native. There are beaches to the north and south where Goans, let alone other Indians, are reportedly unwelcome. Certainly, the Scarlett case has raised key questions about law and order in Goa, and also the drug-dealing and crime going unchecked on its beaches. But to vaguely blame “seedy hippies” for fostering lawless zone on beaches is to evade more pressing questions about Goa’s own policing failures. The safety of tourists who visit India is vital. The growth and spread of a drug mafia that might well include members of the police force, locals and some foreigners, is cause for action. Our law and order situation is abysmal and Scarlett’s may not be the last such case. Goa needs an anti-drug crusade that grows out of community concern, supported by NGOs and government agencies. The people of the region should come together to clean up their home. -- Question everything -- Karl Marx