Much has been said about Goa's amazing music talent, nothing much has been done about it though. In fact a lot has been undone over the years for some strange reason. Every major event in Goa sidetracks local artistes for very often, mediocre to pathetic outstation acts that are paid astronomical amounts to dish out music that has absolutely no connection with Goa. The current Kingfisher Voice of Goa for example, pays Luck Ali an obscene amount to perform at the finals, while the 'un' lucky 'Voice of Goa' takes home a tiny fraction of that amount as the 'grand' prize. An absolutely ridiculous equation that insults local talent while claiming to promote it. Its the same with the IFFI, Literary festival, Think festival and just about any major event in Goa. Local artistes who are invited to perform are offered a tiny fraction of what their outstation counterparts are paid. Bad enough our country suffers from a colonial hangover where most of us Indians tend to worship foreigners, Goa has it fine tuned to an art form with its outstation fixation. Granted, Goans are the most warm and hospitable people on the planet with arms always wide open to welcome visitors, but stretching our arms wide while stomping on local talent has to stop.
