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5th Annual Konkan Fruit Fest
Promenade, D B Bandodkar Road, Panaji, Goa
16-18, May 2008
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2008-May/073789.html
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2008/5/14 Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> There is this feeling that Goans in Goa cannot afford
> to buy property in their own land. Well, NRI Goans
> cannot afford to buy property in Goa either. Nor can I
> afford to buy property in New York or London or Paris.
I am not a foreigner in Goa, someone staying here to earn my living,
or someone who opted to migrate here for a higher salary. Nor am I
here to escape the unfriendly weather.
> This is the reality of my personal finances. That
> doesn't mean, I hold some hapless person responsible
> for it. Goans cannot afford fish either, does that
> mean we stop exporting fish?
Check the debate about fish in the 'sixties and 'seventies. When
fishing was mechanised (with help from Scandinavia, and to the
detriment and destruction of the traditional fishermen -- remember the
Ramponkar movement?) we were told interesting stories. For one, we
were told that the mechanisation of fishing would improve the protein
intake of the people of Goa.
Today, all one sees is refrigerated large trucks ferrying the catch to
Mangalore (for processing and onward transport mainly overseas). Or
hotel buyers which don't even wait for the catch to enter the market.
When a bureaucrat was telling us about the wonder-potential of shrimp
farming in Goa many years ago, he told us the price (in dollars) per
kilo. "Who can afford it here?" he said nonchalantly, when asked
whether it would be primarily for exports.
I suggest you see the shrimp-less-think-more campaign:
http://www.mangroveactionproject.org/issues/shrimp-farming/shrimp-farming
It touches Goa only tangentially, but gives a hint that the issues are
far more complex here.
And responding to another mail from Selma:
> a) How many Goans can afford Wendel's creations? Does
> this mean that Wendel must produce a designer line of
> Kapod and Kasti, at affordable rates for Goans?
Wendel doesn't take available cloth significantly out of the market,
promise to clad the slumdweller, or affect my other choices and
preferences in any significant way.
> b) How many Goans can Remo find to finance, produce
> and distribute his music? Does this mean he stop
> producing music or does he seek financing and
> distribution where he can?
We're confusing issues here. Remo is an entrepreneur in the world of
music, and he will find the necessary investment to put out his
products into the market. I believe he was even self-marketing his own
CDs, going around on his yellow scooter, in the 'eighties. How is this
relevant to the takeover of Goan land resources in a way which
alienates the people of the place?
> c) How many Goans can afford the lobsters that are
> sold at beach shacks for Rs600 a plate? Does this mean
> Goan fishermen supply to shacks only after every
> family in Goa has had a lobster on its plate?
Apart from lobsters, there are many other kinds of food available here
(though inflation across India is once again, speedily becoming an
issue, to the glee of the "India shining" BJP). Once land rates go
up, it goes up for all.
> Land is a resource and like any other resource it is
> in short supply. People all over the world are facing
> the same problem Goans are, which is why you elect
> governments that put in place, affordable interest
> rates, housing loan assistance, relieving the pressure
> on the housing market by building low-cost housing.
> These are some of the legitimate ways of doing it in a
> free-market democracy.
Laissez-faire economy? A corrupted system, where the land-sharks
themselves control governments, whichever party is in power?
> There are things that we have to come to terms with,
> and solutions that we have to seek within the
> framework of a just and equitable system. Just making
> laws as we go along, refusing to be part of a global
> community, placing blame where none belongs and
> embracing short-term solutions to long-term problems,
> is what is primarily wrong with Goa today.
India was part of the "global community" before 1947, and Goa was
pre-1961 too. The rules of the game were redrawn then, because these
were deemed to be unfair. Maybe that's the point voices from Goa are
making now too. Just because non-resident-Goans see their interests to
be similar to those of foreigners in this case, I don't think it's
fair to twist the debate out of context ... FN
