Hi, I have read this news about Cheryl and how the Alemao clan can give a hard time to anyone specially GOANS and yet they have the gullible face to say that they will do anything to protect the right of Goans???? What are these people.... are they giving pep talk to their grand children????
I have attended two tiatrs in Dubai the latest being Mother's Day on 29th Sept wherein one of the singing performances had the ministers to be blamed for allowing 'Ramanijingas/ghuntis' into our territory and they had bill-boards showing the 'bhajiawala' digging his nose while doing the samosas; one using the water jug to serve water to the clients and using the same jug to do his services in some open area while the 3rd guy had his hands into his pants kneading his privates before kneading the dough... of course looking at these pictures we feel nauseated and a few of us who believe in hygiene will stop eating the roadside stuff - what about the illiterate/unable to afford good food ... people in Goa do??? You know what that gigantic Churchill Alemao does when he is asked to say a few words after giving away some cheap mementos to the organizing committee besides the theatrical members??? He says 'tiatr' cannot go on well unless the Ministers are insulted and people enjoy this but we have not asked you to buy bhajias and samosas from these roadside hawkers and he laughs his usual self like a pathetic gorilla. He did not grasp the concept that the song written was meant for the ministers to do something to preserve Goa and get rid of these hawkers and ramanijingas from our state and perhaps develop some security for the Goans by ensuring that these 'so-called tourists' do not overstay and encroach properties in Goa?? Anyways, he did not have his muscle-troupe with him to make him understand the concept rather make a fool of himself on stage just because he sponsored the tiatr with his under-the-table cash. Yet he decided to give Dhs.500/- to the singers of that particular song and the organizer had to shun him on stage as it is against UAE law to give money, which was a pitiful, disgusting sight! The previous occasion, he insulted one opposition party on stage asking him to confront him there - pathetic way of using a platform for his political issues - no class absolutely! Perhaps they need Cheryl's property for the mining activities and getting more ramanijingas so that the women folk at their residence can be entertained by these men while they are plotting and discriminating Goans, huh? I hope the Tourism Minister reads this column if published and uses this wake-up call to clean out these Ramanijingas once and for all just the way they have made rules for foreigners to stay off! Best regards, MARIA DO CEU P.O. Box 2246, Dubai, U.A.E. Tel: 00971 4 6085422 -----Original Message----- From: goanet-news-boun...@lists.goanet.org [mailto:goanet-news-boun...@lists.goanet.org] On Behalf Of Goanet News Service Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 3:50 PM To: goa...@goanet.org Subject: [Goanet-News] She cremated her hubby on her land to thwart Goa's miners She cremated her hubby on her land to thwart Goa's miners Raman Kirpal Sep 28, 2011 Goa's illegal miners have been challenged by scores of intrepid citizens. This is the story of Cheryl D'Souza, who has sustained a fight against illegal miners, including a minister in the Digambar Kamat government, for several years now. Cheryl is a 43-year-old widow in village Maina in south Goa. Eighteen years ago, when she was 25, she had bought a huge tract of land (seven lakh sq metres) to live a rural life. Married to Anthony Sanfrancisco ("Tony" to friends), they made their money in a furniture export business. They lived an ideal rural life till the politicians started coveting their iron-ore-rich land. As long as Tony was alive, the miners did not harass them, but in 2006 he was electrocuted in an accident. The harassment began soon after. "When Tony died, it just came full in my face. I had never seen people like these. When good words (to get me to sell the land) didn't work, the threats started. Joaquim Alemao (Minister for Urban Development) bought two-lakh square metres of land bordering my land from a farmer at throwaway prices. And then he put pressure on me to buy my land." But Cheryl refused and faced veiled threats. "When I refused, he turned around and told neighbours: 'Is this woman mad? I don't want to do anything to her. She is sitting there with the kid.'" Cheryl, who lives with her 85-year-old mother Dora and 11-year-old school-going daughter Aki, keeps dogs, including two Rottweilers, to defend her land from attack by the miners. But her strongest act was her decision to cremate her husband in 2006 close to their farmhouse! "They (Joaquim Alemao and other miners) did not expect that I would virtually sit (over my husband's body) and say cremate. First, I am Catholic. Second, people are so scared of having this (cremation) done on their own ground. I had taken permission from the Bishop. I categorically asked Joaquim Alemao's cronies: 'My husband's grave is here. My daughter is here. Do you want me to run away?'" So what did they say to that? "They promised that they would make a beautiful temple on my husband's grave after I sell my farmhouse to them. And they offered Rs 40 crore for my land!" Cheryl was stunned by the price offer. But then hers is the last bit of green left in her village. "I got several calls threatening gang-rape of my daughter and to kill me. It's easy for me to take Rs 40 crore and go, but I can't take away this farmhouse from my daughter. She has associated her father with the farm. She was six when he died. You can't take away her father and her home," says Cheryl. When Joaquim Alemao began cutting down the trees nearby, Cheryl went from government office to office. Alemao had no permission to cut trees. She managed to stop him. Then came another miner - Tarcar. His mine is a stone's throw from Cheryl's house. She protested along with her mother. Both of them were put in jail on charges of carrying arms. They spent one day in jail. The judge, however, took one look at Cheryl's 83-year-old mother (in 2008) and mockingly asked the police 'what terrorist are you talking of?' Cheryl's furniture export business ended with her husband's death. She is now into a private job. She doesn't know how it is going to end. Her daughter is 11 and she may be pushed around for the rest of her life. "They (the miners) are greedy. They will never give up. But I don't have a choice," Cheryl says. She has constructed a 4.5 km long wall around her farmhouse. "These miners call this wall my folly. But I have conveyed to them that we do not sell out our `dead' cheap,'' says Cheryl. http://www.firstpost.com/business/she-cremated-her-hubby-on-her-land-to-thwa rt-goa%E2%80%99s-miners-94384.html#en