Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:50:32 +0100 From: Carmen Miranda <carmitamira...@gmail.com>
Rice fields and wells are being destroyed and dried up systematically, forests are being cut, precious water tables are being polluted and emptied by the irresponsible mining process ....and I could go on, and on, and on.....we are witnessing the real destruction of Goa at an INDUSTRIAL scale....and you are worried that a few Brits are buying land in Goa? At least that land will not fall under the bulldozers of the mining industry, and you might have a few trees still standing in Goa if you are lucky! I hope more people buy the land to keep it green and look after it. We also need to make sure the miners follow the laws of the country and rehabilitate the land they destroyed (that is the law that no one respects). Mario responds: Carmen, You are absolutely correct. The Brits and other foreigners buying houses that the locals cannot afford to buy and maintain are surely not interested in destroying either their own property or property around them because this will diminish the value of their investment if nothing else. Besides, their investment in hard assets is not very easy to run away from, and the sovereign authority, in this case Goa, has the ultimate control of the property and thereby the investment. Finally, the infusion of money certainly helps the sellers of the property. The xenophobia in India against foreign investment ever since Independence boggles the mind given all that India needs to do to improve the lot of so many poor people. In my opinion they should be encouraging investments from wherever they can get it. When a foreigner invests in another country it is a sign of respect for that country, is it not, and a sign of confidence in it as well? Why else would they risk their money? Besides, anyone can see that those who have been defacing Goa over the last few decades are not foreigners but Goans and other Indians from inside and outside Goa. I did not know the laws in Goa included rehabilitating the land used for mining after it has been depleted of ore. I had made this suggestion several months ago and no one in Goa mentioned that it was already the law in Goa. This is what open pit miners are required to do in north America. If these laws were enforced in Goa it would go a long way towards restoring the land over a period of time, though it will never be pristine. But that's the kind of trade off that a teeming developing country needs to make. The goal should be to benefit most of the people most of the time. India wasted 50 years after Independence following the siren song of mindless socialism and xenophobia, along with China and Russia whose communism was even worse. Now that they have realized this, it's time to move on and catch up with the western economies. As Caterpillar Tractor Company used to say about business, "There are no easy decisions, only intelligent choices."
