Dear Cecil, I think you got the bull by the tail ;-)
The Telegraph Editor wrote: "Why, then, can West Bengal not share in the Goan idyll? It would require spreading development to the countryside — but surely that is what everyone wants. It would require Bengalis to speak English — why is English being taught to children if not to speak it? It wouldrequire beautifying West Bengal's countryside — and, in the longonths, when foreign tourists do not come, people who live in West Bengal can enjoy that beauty." And this is what I wrote to him: Thank you for acknowledging Goa's development model as worthy of emulating elsewhere in India. Our Governor, a native of strife-torn Nagaland, never tires of telling fellow Naga people to learn the peaceful ways of the Goans [I use this as an "inclusive" term for the people residing permanently in Goa, no mater where they were born or raised]. Goa is God's Own Abode and we thank our leaders for the sagacity to acknowledge this when reminded by the people..... when the leaders are tempoarily blinded by power and pelf. Those who do not come to their senses, we reject. They go not to hell but to a political purgatory or trishanku. Thank God, Digambar Kamat was, and is, not like that ....whatever other compulsions his opponents may impute on him. Warm regards, Miguel Braganza ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Cecil Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Jan 9, 2008 7:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] The editorial below appeared in The Telegraph - Calcutta on 7th January 2008. Cecil --------- Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080107/jsp/opinion/story_8746788.jsp GOA WAY Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, when faced with opposition to a special economic zone in Nandigram, sent policemen there. When the local people reacted unfavourably, columns of partymen went in. He addressed a meeting of those who survived and conquered, and announced there would be no SEZ. His counterpart in Goa, Digambar Kamat, when faced with similar opposition, did not bother to instil respect for the State in his people. As soon as a non-governmental organization raised a few flags, he cancelled all SEZs. He obviously does not care for the development of his state — the thousands of jobs SEZs would bring, and with them, the tall chimneys, glass-covered office buildings, rows of cars outside them, the entire paraphernalia of development. But perhaps Mr Kamat thinks of another kind of development — development in which rich foreigners frolic on the beach, stay in coconut-thatched huts, laze around and sip feni under sunshades. Except for good beaches, West Bengal has all that Goa has — beautiful landscape, lush vegetation, plenty of waterbodies — why did not its chief minister think of development in the terms that Goans do? Serving foreigners, making West Bengal beautiful, enjoying life — somehow it sounds shocking. But it is shocking only to communists who see virtue in toil, or to Protestants who make religion of work. But it is all in the mind; and if only the mindset changed, the path to development would be so much smoother, and its end so much more enjoyable. As the Goans would say, "Get a life, man". ========== -- -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Miguel Braganza, S1 Gracinda Apts, Rajvaddo, Mhapsa 403507 Goa Ph 9822982676 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. -- -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Miguel Braganza, S1 Gracinda Apts, Rajvaddo, Mhapsa 403507 Goa Ph 9822982676 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.