------------------------------------------------------------------ Domnic Fernandes continues (Part III) his reminiscence of Mapusa of the 1950s
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sidB6 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Fred, You are raising the guns versus butter argument, which has been used by many peaceniks over the centuries, and debated ad nauseam. i.e how many hospitals and schools can be built for the cost of a modern stealth submarine costing 600 million dollars. I am all for ploughing most of our GDP to uplift our poor masses. That does not mean we should not spend 3% of our GDP for the nations defence, which we are doing. If you make statements about defence expenditure, maybe you would like to quantify as to how much we should spend for external security, or are you in any way suggesting that we should disband the armed forces and plough back the 79,000 crores in this years budget to feed our 250 million people who live below the poverty line? You are welcome to your opinion, but I will not sit under my coconut tree, and listen to someone say that the sacrifices of our thousands of dead servicemen over 3 wars and many skirmishes over the past 50 years have been in vain, or because no or little external threat exists today. As far as the arrests in the Navy War room case are concerned, let the law take its course, but please do not try and link the professional conduct and honesty of 80,000 other navy guys with the greed of 5 ex naval officers who have been arrested, 3 of which have already been punished with dismissal from service. I would request you to have some balance, unlike some of your colleagues from the media, who sometimes see ghosts when none exist. Your biggest error is to think that the Armed Forces of a nation are a *luxury* . It is true that every nation should be mindful of defence expenditure, because it is *unproductive * expenditure. Therefore, most nations have spent historically about 3% of their GDP annually on defence, which we do. I agree that this level should be adjusted marginally depending on the threat perceptions,reviewed from time to time, but unfortunately, more than 50% of it is spent on pays(of serving personnel) and pensions(of poor guys like me) regards, Gilbert Menezes > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 00:48:25 +0530 > From: "Frederick Noronha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Goanet] Re: indo-french exercises > To: goanet@goanet.org > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Hi Gilbert Menezes, I read your paens of praise to the Navy. > > > Why do I write this? Three reasons-firstly, our Navy is the most > > powerful in the region, and one which is admired worldwide as being > > thoroughly professional. Secondly, we could never dream of seeing > > foreign fighter aircraft overflying our territory--we are now getting > > truly globalised, and India is taking its rightful place among the > > comity of nations. Lastly, as a Goan, Im proud that Goa is an > > important cog in our nations defence. > > regards, Gilbert Menezes. > > As someone who has long been convinced that poverty, illiteracy, > _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)