Thank you Rajan Parrikar for giving us your perspective wrt the Pinto-Kamat-Morad meeting concerning the Aldeia project and other matters. You have been our eyes and ears and our consciousness. There is no Goan alive who does not shudder at what is happening. I must only protest against your tirades against the common Bhailo. If he violates the law, he only does what the politicos and the b'crats ignore or allow him to get away with. We are all perpetrators at heart. It is the law that must be enforced.
I agree wholeheartedly with George Pinto's reaction and Vidyadhar Gadgil's post. You cannot play with the politicians at their own game. And how many mass public protestations can you organize? There are far too many vulgar and downright evil transgressions against the aam aadmi and the beautiful land of Goa that needs go unprotested due to the sheer volume of such events. What can we Goans far away do? The time for action has come or we risk witnessing Goa's last hurrah. I suggest that the only viable and effective thing we can do is to internationalize all the scandals of the Goa Government. We must bring to light - and a bright halogen light it must be - the horrendous abdication of democracy that is taking place in that little part of India. If democracy is about giving people a voice than our diaspora voices must be heard for the good of Goa or else we will have acquiesced in all that is happening there and people will say that what is happening must be taking place with the consent of the majority of Goans. What we can do from far away is not as limited as one might think. In the Gulf: Every visit of every politician whether he is from Goa, Kerala or Bengal must be marked with a group highlighting the madness of the Goa Govt. Every social occasion whether a dance or a tiatr must be introduced with a plea to the attendees to be aware of the decay in their home. In the Western Countries: Petitions must be presented to local politicians, to provincial and state administrations and even to the Federal Govts. This must be done at opportune times and in civilized ways. Goan associations are always asking prominent figures to send their wishes on brochures and to come as Chief Guests. The bowing and scraping must be accompanied by rupture of the comfort zones - both theirs and ours. In Canada: In addition to the above, we Canadian Goans must align ourselves with the powerful Indian-Punjabi lobby. They have a powerful voice and strong civic and political representation and we Goans who have a significant community with an ineffective voice, must get them to mouth our concerns. The petition writing is important. This must be done by Goans in Goa who have better facts than we do and even more powerful sentiments than we. They, after all are smelling the turds, seeing the monstrosities and experiencing the effects of what is happening. Groups of Goans must stage their "stings" and take their results to Tehelka and to us. Photographs are a great accompaniment. Either we do whatever we can now, or we must forever hold our peace. There is unfortunately no time left. Roland Toronto 416-453-3371 On 11/13/07, Vidyadhar Gadgil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Also, GBA's approach is a little too 'middle-class' -- all this > endless meetings and discussions, in which they can keep you > occupied for ever. It is time once again for a demonstration of > people's power, like the 18th December Azad Maidan binge. Rajan's > suggestion of using the inaugural of IFFI is very good. Make a > mess of it, have a massive morcha and paralyse Panjim. This is the > showcase event for the government, there is going to be lots of > media here, let the world see that there is a problem in Goa, > which the people are no longer going to take lying down. > > It is necessary in all this to steer clear of politicians. They > are ALL the same. Whoever is in opposition now will support this > as a matter of convenience, at least tacitly as they did last > year, only to turn around and do exactly the same once they are in > power. Let us not forget that it was Manohar Parrikar who pushed > SEZs, the regional plan, and many of our more horrible projects > when he was in power. On this matter, there is no difference > between any of the politicians, and we should avoid them all.
