Mohit writes: >The worst part about democracy and freedom of speech is that it popularizing something small can cause stupid issues >to be magnified in an obscene manner.
Mohit, first of all, let me thank you for the response and for raising some very interesting points. I believe that we should discuss these points whether we come to an agreement on them or not, because these points have much larger implications. Your contention is that it is okay to break the law in the larger interest of jobs; I will even leave the profit angle here. My big question is --- do you understand the implications of what you are saying ? Basically, what you are implying is that tomorrow we can have all five star hotels lined up on all our beaches provided they give jobs to people (I will leave aside the fact that the jobs might be very low paying and that of cooks.) Not just that, any illegality can be justified as far as some jobs are created. I think Soter has argued this nicely --- why ban drugs, they create jobs for drug-dealers. It is another matter that Baina which created jobs for 500 prostitutes was still levelled off. I wonder what your thoughts are on that. By your logic, shouldnt matka be made legal ? In fact, why have courts or laws at all ? Let us give full reign to illegality as long as jobs are created. That apart, there are other bigger concerns, and Cidade is just an example. The same Fomento group is devastating and destroying Goa by selling its earth to China and Japan. This is btw legal stuff, but this has destroyed the water table of Goa, temperatures in Goa have soared, and there have been other environmental bad effects. In a few years if this continues, Goa may not even remain a hot tourist destination, and even hotels which give jobs will go empty. But Timblo's coffers will be full by then, and what does he care ? He can always move to another tourist destination of the world, and let the poor cooks, whom he has suddenly developed great affection for, die then. In other words, the businesses that he is in, at least mining, is an inherently unsustainable one and a destructive one that is out to finish Goa. You may say what does it have to do with current illegality. What I am trying to point out here is that profits above everything else seems to be the motive of the Fomento group, and this fig leaf of keeping jobs is just to cover his main motive of profits above everything else. For instance, did Fomento not know he was committing an illegality when he first built the hotel ? In other words, what I am trying to say is that there are much bigger issues involved here than just 500 meters of a beach. Another issue is that this ordinance opens a door to legalizing huge number of illegalities. In other words, if one does not have an elementary sense of respect for the supreme court whatever be the reason, I see a very dangerous trend here. Not all things in life are hunky-dory. Sometimes, one has to take some pain in the larger interest. Goa is at cross roads today, and definitely we need jobs for people. But we should also remember that Goa has tremendous strengths in its unique culture and in the beauty of its land. If for short term reasons like 500 jobs for cooks (which I believe is just a fig-leaf of a reason) we start destroying Goa, even the good things that are coming to Goa right now in terms of tourist revenue are going to be gone very soon. Then, we will turn into a Dubai or another desert. The other issue is about the idiotic and corrupt policies of the government. There are tremendous number of sustainable businesses that are being started in India. Fomento group could have easily diversified. Retail, telecom, logistics are some of the businesses into which many other family owned businesses and other groups have gone into. After all, tourism or mining is not an option for a group based in Mumbai. The govt. too could have done a lot in terms of training people in high-skiled areas so that they could take up jobs in these areas. Our misfortune is that we have short-term, greedy people who are ruling us, who are out to screw our motherland. This will not be tolerated. As I said, Cidade regularization is just the tip of the icberg but it is such a blatant one that it shows the greedy people in their rabid form. regards, Samir