By Augusto Pinto pinto...@gmail.com Consistent with Hartman De Souza's background in theatre, Eat Dust* is a very dramatic book about the devastations that mining has caused in Goa. It reads like a documentary in print, for his descriptions of landscapes before and after mining; and encounters with people feel like a camera is recording what he is doing. At the same time, his style is full of adjectives and metaphors that aim to persuade you to think his way.
For us in Goa the basic story of the degradation caused by mining is quite familiar, but Hartman adds a personal touch to it as he weaves his sister Cheryl's fight against five powerful mine-owners who wanted to devastate her farm in Cawrem, Sanguem taluka, into the narrative. Along with this are struggles of other mining activists with the governments who were totally bought out by the mining lobby. Although I get the feeling that the audience for *Eat Dust* are Indians outside Goa, the book is a great primer to the people of Goa because it does not just focus on mining but on the social and political and historical context in which the mining is carried out. Hartman is pretty bitter about the role of the elite in Goa and about the way they have remained silent spectators. To understand this Hartman points his fingers at not just mining and the infrastructure and the tourism and real estate lobbies but he regards the greatest danger of all to be "consumerism". What that means is all of us who are hooked on to the good things of life all of which cost money, money which has to be got somehow or the other to feed our greed. The poor who sell their land to mine-owners for a pittance become part of the problem because to survive they then buy trucks to transport ore for a livelihood and now have a stake in the destruction of the environment. The middle classes don't have the time to care much one way or the other. So what Hartman is saying is that while the demoniacal greed of the mine-owners is definitely deadly, the common people also have no clue as to what they are doing while the intellectual class (you and I) who may be able to see what is happening have all also let Goa down. The author is quite bitter with the approach taken by NGOs such as Goa Foundation of Claude Alvares who have used the legal route to stop the illegalities of mining. By the end of the book he seems to be accusing Claude to have sold out by abandoning the ideal of stopping mining and of being willing to accept that mining is okay if regulated and if the money goes into the State's coffers. I think this is a bit unfair as the Shah Commission which the author praises for its role in stopping mining for a while would never have been appointed without the ground work done by Goa Foundation. Among the institutions which are seen to be playing a dubious role in the rape of Goa is the Catholic Church. It does not raise its considerable voice and allows the Gavdes who are the ones most directly affected by mining to suffer. And nobody seems to care about the long term loss of a basic necessity of man through mining: water. But what is done? Hartman advocates force. Hartman's family who bravely try to display the courage of their convictions by literally putting their bodies on the line by for instance chaining themselves to the gate of a mine in Cawrem discover that such attempts are too feeble to work. His octogenarian mother Dora participated in this incredibly crazy protest. However the problem was that this was not properly prepared and neither was it widely known thanks to the stranglehold the mining lobby have over the media. Maybe Hartman has a point but unless there is a huge mass opposing mining such physical displays are easy to get rid of. And there are lots of Right wing actors who will be happy to disrupt mass mining protests. At the end of the day this is a book that needs to be distributed read and discussed widely in Goa. Right now mining may not resume at the ruinous rate it was formerly used to, because the demand for the low grade ore of Goa has gone down and so have the prices for this commodity. But there is no saying that it won't resume in future -- and then what? -- Eat Dust: Mining and Greed in Goa Hartman de Souza Pp 288. Rs 350 HarperCollinsIndia -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Goanet annual year-end meet in Goa: if you're reading this, you're eligible to join us! Dec 28, 2015 @ 11 am Fundacao Oriente, Panjim Confirm your participation with a short email to goa...@goanet.org -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.