Aloha,
Somewhere in the late eighties (if I remember well), two of the original
initiators of Ruigoord, Amsterdam's squatted 'artists village' (now
'legalized' as 'cultural incubator' ;-) Hans Plomp and Gerben Hellinga
wrote the book(let) 'Uit je Bol' (something like 'go bananas'), intended
to give, especially to young people, a complete and unbiased overview
of drugs - their nature, components and effects and also something of
their usage and the 'scene' around them.
One of these 'scenes' is/was, of course Goa. Here's is the mini-chapter
about Goa, after a passage thru the Deepl.com translator (better than
G-translate, if u ask me).
The book itself, which saw a re-edition in 2009, from which the excerpt
is taken:
http://uitjebol.net/
http://uitjebol.net/goa.html
has never been translated - afaik.
Cheerio, I hope you enjoy it
p+7D!
-------- Original Message --------
04- GOA: WHERE EAST MEETS WEST
In the 1960s, a great interest in non-Western cultures began to emerge.
Thousands of young people moved to Morocco, Afghanistan, Mexico and
India. The great examples of this generation were beat writers such as
Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, who travelled the
world in search of the magical means of other peoples. When popular
musicians, in those days a kind of prophets of a New Age, also fell
under the influence of the East, it was the fence of the dam [Dutch loc.
means 'went out of control']. Tens of thousands of drop-outs took
Professor Thimothy Leary's slogan "Turn on, Tune in and Drop Out" to
heart and travelled to the Far East. They had had enough of Western
consumer society and wanted to absorb the wisdom of other cultures.
In India, with its thousand-year-old Shiva Shakti religion, hashish,
opium and the space-milkshake Bhang were on sale in state stores
everywhere and in many temples respected, pious men smoked a hash-filled
CHILLUM as a sacrifice to Shiva. In that timeless India, many westerners
found a different life. Not an easy life by the way. The climate is
often harsh, diseases are lurking and the visitor's comprehension is
tested by everything he sees and experiences. That is why many Indian
visitors [i.e. to India] were looking for a suitable place to stay
longer in the tropics. That became Goa, at that time still a Portuguese
colony on India's west coast.
[afaik, 'visitors' came only after the Portuguese 'had left' in 1961.
The Salazar regime
would have made short thrifts of 'hippies' in any case, and in Portugal
those entering were subjected to a 'regimental' haircut by the border
police ...]
It was a truly forgotten paradise, where you found peace and freedom.
The Catholic urban population, strongly oriented towards Portugal,
welcomed the visitors as fellow Europeans, while the fishermen of the
ancient tribe of the Ramponkars, who lived along the beaches, also
warmly welcomed the travellers. They did not take offence at the free
behaviour of the young Westerners. On the contrary, they rented cabins
and houses, started restaurants and shops, and so a close bond was
formed. Many travelers built their own huts in the woods or just camped
out in the open air on the beach.
In the course of the seventies Goa developed into the meeting point of a
cultural avant-garde of freaks and world travelers. Beneath the palms, a
series of villages with a new culture emerged, where people experimented
in every possible way, including by entheogenic means [i.e.:
'substances']. Goa became known as an ideal place to spend some time,
meet kindred spirits and hear the latest news from friends all over the
world. A solid core of a few hundred inhabitants braved the monsoon
rains in summer, but in winter many thousands stayed here for short or
long periods of time. A lively market grew up in the most exotic things
from far and wide.
Until well into the eighties Goa remained a stronghold of Western
subculture. Then a number of things happened that spoiled paradise: in
India, under pressure from the United States, a new drug law came into
force banning hashish and opium. The Goa police began to see the
Westerners as prey that could be extorted and started to spoil their
lives with roadblocks and house searches. If they found 'stuff' [Dutch
word for hashish, it is the same word as for erasing gum, which gave
rise to a lot of jokes], you could buy your way out. At the same time an
enormous amount of heroin entered India, originating from the Afghan
war.
Among the western Indians were also junkies, so the trade also came to
Goa. Over the years a number of Goaan youths became addicted as a
result. The Catholic Church blamed the Westerners for this. Goa was the
first place in the world where techno music was played on a large scale,
during full moon parties, combined with ecstasy. The sounds of sitar and
bongo were replaced by electronic violence. The authorities became more
and more difficult and finally all festive gatherings were brutally
disrupted by the corrupt police. In addition, more and more hotels were
built by property developers and soon the tourists flocked in with
charter planes. A development that did not benefit paradise.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
