In keeping with the spirit of the World Goa Day, we, the members of the Goenchem Prize committee are delighted to announce that the 2003 Goenchem Prize for the promotion of honesty, rationality and common sense is awarded to ROLAND MARTINS. We thank Mr. Martins for graciously accepting the award.
Roland Martins is a remarkable citizen of Goa, whose main occupation and preoccupation has been and continues to be social activism. He is the founder member of Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fouz (JGF), which, since 1980's, has spoken out against the reckless promotion of modern tourism industry in Goa, and heightened the awareness of this problem both locally and globally. His voice on issues of social justice has been very loud and uncompromising. In the last four years Mr. Martins has been working hard for the consumers movement of Goa in many of its villages, due to which, people are slowly learning to participate in the civic affairs of the village, keeping the local authorities in check, and promoting authentic development. The consumer and civic cells function autonomously under the inspiration and guidance of Mr. Martins. In 1995 Mr. Martins established GOADESC, a center which maintains a vast library of books, magazines, and other relevant materials, available to interested people. It organizes fortnightly the Friday Balcao - an interactive session on various Goan social issues. GOACAN is a rich information service provided by GOADESC to Internet users all over the world. It has raised the educational process to new heights, and facilitated liaison among all those committed to a progressive and well-developed Goa. Through all this, Roland Martins has kept himself apart from party politics, and dedicated all his energies and talents to the task of empowering the Goan people for democratic participation in the affairs of their communities. The choice of this year's Goenchem Prize winner was a difficult one because we had six outstanding nominees. The two finalists were Roland Martins and Yadneshwar Nigalye. Mr. Nigalye is the President of the Goa Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, an association for the eradication of superstitions. Among his many achievements are: the successful organization of a "Scientific Awareness" camp for 150 primary teachers from Ponda Taluka; effective assistance of law enforcement authorities in prosecuting godmen who exploit the public; organization of lecture/demonstrations in colleges and secondary schools to inculcate the scientific spirit, to debunk eclipse-related superstitions and provide scientific explanations for "miracles"; and holding of public meetings on pseudo-spiritualism and the constitutional imperative of adopting a scientific attitude in India. The other extraordinary nominees were: Floriano Lobo, a social activist par excellence; Deepa Murkunde, whose efforts to ensure the provision of clean public toilets have now become legendary; Somu Rao, a brave man on a mission to promote rationalism and scientific skepticism in Goa; and Stephen Fernandes, who courageously exposed a corrupt Parra Village Panchayat secretary. The Goenchem Prize award, consisting of a citation plaque and a cash amount of Rs. 13,666, will be presented to Roland Martins in December 2003. Sincerely, The Members of the Goenchem Prize Committee ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################