Not Fair Andrew Pereira, TOI Crest 3 October 2009, 01:56pm IST
Yes ?" A group of waiters surrounds a man with dark skin, an Indian certainly, and possibly a local Goan. They block the entrance to the beachside restaurant in Calangute and imperceptibly nudge him out into the darkness. A show of politeness is maintained, but the disdain on their faces is unmistakable. Through the gaps between their bodies, the brown man gets a quick glimpse of the scene inside . A group of raucous diners are dancing the night away. All are foreigners, mostly white. Racial discrimination has been one of Goa's worst kept secrets. The funny thing, though, is that almost everyone in Goa seems to be guilty - Goans keep Goans and Indians out, Gujarati businessmen drive away large families of fellow Gujaratis, and Bihari chefs despise desi clients, both local residents and tourists from India. Incidentally, almost 90 per cent of the staff employed by beach shacks and coastal restaurants is non-Goan , drawn from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, the North-East and Nepal. "Indian tourists drink themselves silly and don't know how to behave when they see white women,'' says a restaurant manager by way of defence. "They ogle, make passes, and even attempt to molest and proposition them. It is a disgrace and an embarrassment ." Others are more aggressive in their contempt for the Indian customer. "Indians lack manners and harass our white guests who want a peaceful holiday. We call them behind the shack and our staff thrash them up in the alley," says Subhash Deep, a chef from Bihar who has a Finnish girlfriend and boasts he can conjure up the best chicken dish on Baga beach. Dormant resentment against years of racial discrimination flared up recently when a Goa University professor claimed he was treated shabbily in a wellknown restaurant at Calangute beach. "We were physically stopped by two persons at the entrance. We wanted to sit inside but were told to sit on the porch despite there being empty tables inside. Foreigners who arrived after us were welcomed with open arms," the professor said, not wishing to be named. There are loud and angry echoes of this sentiment everywhere. "Goans have been getting second-class treatment in restaurants," says Bush Miranda, managing director, Cicerone Air Transport, and member of Goa Travel and Tourism Association. Not that the ugly Indian hasn't played a part in the increasingly unpleasant saga of what many are calling 'in-house apartheid' . In August, a foreigner was at a restaurant at Miramar with his family when a dozen tourists from Maharashtra at a nearby table began to make lewd comments directed at his daughter. The foreigner confronted them. He was beaten up by nine tourists, who broke beer bottles on his head and left him bleeding. A few weeks ago, the Taj Vivanta at Panaji had a stand-up comedian perform at a sold-out show at one of its restaurants. Barely ten minutes into the performance , when the comic made a few cracks about gays and lesbians, a loud voice from among the audience asked him to watch his language. An Indian family was objecting to the content, and soon, they and their friends turned the place into a wrestling ring. Such behaviour, say many in the tourism business , has led to unwritten laws that give silent sanction to racial discrimination. Moreover, say restaurateurs , it is not just about colour but also money. "Often , waiters decide who can enter and who cannot," a restaurateur said. "Some of them have become arrogant after making a killing from tips that foreign guests lavish on them. We don't know what's happening because we're not always on the premises." Other proprietors candidly say they encourage such behaviour. "Foreigners give us stable business. A foreigner is here for at least two weeks and may even stay for months. It makes business sense to protect them," an Anjuna shack owner says. The government has now decided to wade in with a law that threatens to turn the issue into a political hot potato. Goa's tourism department will add a new clause to its 'shack policy' for the coming season, stating that racial profiling of customers is reason enough to warrant the cancellation of a licence. "Such cases have now started to come out in the open," tourism director Swapnil Naik says. But Fritzie Moraes Lobo, president of the Citizen's Rapid Action Committee, says the racial discrimination cases that get reported are just the tip of the iceberg . "In Palolem, there are places run by Irish, British and Russian nationals who don't allow us in," says Lobo. "If they don't allow Indians to enter, the government should shut them down. They are running them in our country. Even decent local families who go there are told to leave." On certain beaches, there are clear lines that Indians cannot cross. "I was chased away by a Gujarati restaurant owner from a corner of Baga beach," says Anoop Nair, an IT manager from Bangalore. "He said it was private property and meant only for whites." Vincent Fernandes, a guest house owner at Chapora-Anjuna , has the last word on this. "The code is clear. Your skin should be white. It doesn't matter whether you sell vegetables in Europe for a living." Michael Jackson would have been disappointed. In Goa, it does matter whether you are black or white. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5083772,prtpage-1.cms VIVA GOA __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
