http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/murder-in-goa-shakes-tourist-paradise/?_r=0#more-70801

“Oh, you have moved to Goa! You must be having so much fun.” This is the
first reaction from most of my friends, who instantly picture me sitting on
a beach and sipping beer in my home state.

This laid-back image is what draws Indians and foreigners alike to this
coastal holiday destination 600 kilometers (370 miles) south of Mumbai. But
the casual “live and let live” attitude of the state is being tested as
Goa’s popularity with outsiders outstrips the patience of locals.

On Oct. 31, Obodo Uzoma Simeon, a Nigerian national, was found dead in the
village of Parra in north Goa. The very same day, over 200 Nigerians took
over NH-17 Highway near Porvorim, overturning vehicles, damaging the police
van carrying the body to a government hospital and refusing to let the
police constables take the body for an autopsy. The Nigerians contended
that their countryman had been murdered by a local gang and were demanding
that the autopsy be performed in the presence of the Nigerian ambassador in
India.

Their protest tied up traffic for hours on the busy highway, which passes
through the state. The Goan police stood among the bystanders watching the
foreigners vent their anger.

Goa’s chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, said Mr. Simeon was a casualty of a
war between two drug gangs and announced plans for a crackdown on the
Nigerian nationals who are living in the state illegally. In response, the
consular attaché of Nigeria in Delhi warned that Indians living in Nigeria
would be “thrown out on the streets” if Nigerians were asked to leave their
rented accommodations in Goa.

This kind of negative publicity is not welcome by any tourist-dependent
state, especially with the holiday season in full swing, but state tourism
officials are confident that it won’t scare off visitors. According to the
state’s tourism department, this year will see more charter flights to Goa
from the Middle Eastern and European markets than in the previous years.
The first charter flight from Russia landed on Oct. 10 with 235 tourists.
State officials expect 1,400 charter flights in total, with Russian flights
making up 600 of them.

“The event at Parra will not affect tourism in the state in any way,” said
Ralph De Souza, spokesman of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa. “We
normally have an inquiry or cancellations from tour operators overseas, if
there is a state of unrest. But there has been no such incident.”

Though foreigners may not be put off by recent events, Goans are getting
fed up with the violence associated with the drug business in their state,
which is not restricted to trendy hot spots on Goa’s busy coastline.
“Villages like Diwar, Siolim, Aldona, where there are no beaches, see a lot
of drug dealings. It is an open secret,” Vivek Garca Pinto, a real estate
consultant from Bardez in north Goa. “The peddlers target school children,
and even use them to sell more drugs.”

A Nov. 8 
editorial<http://www.oheraldo.in/newpage.php?month=11&day=8&year=2013&catid=275>in
the Goan newspaper O Heraldo, said, “We have seen Americans, British,
Germans, Italians, Israelis and of late, the Russians and Nigerians.
Foreigners come and go but the narcotics trade continues unabated. This is
primarily because the major drug barons are local Goans and not the
foreigners.”

Yet foreigners are often the subject of increased scrutiny in the former
Portuguese colony when the drug violence spills out into the street. Local
panchayats, or unelected village councils, recently instructed landlords to
check for valid visas and passports of their foreign tenants.

According to a Times of India report,, over 500 Nigerians live in Goa, but only
19<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/Indian-Youth-Congress-Goa-president-Valanka-Alemao-has-demanded-the-resignation-of-Manohar-Parrikar-as-home-minister-for-his-failure-to-control-the-law-and-order-situation-arising-from-the-blockade-of-NH17-by-Nigerians-on-Thursday-Addressing-a-press-conference-Alemao-expressed-surprise-that-only-19-Nigerians-are-registered-with-the-authorities-even-though-it-is-now-learnt-that-about-500-of-them-are-actually-living-in-Goa-/articleshow/25071608.cms?>are
registered with the Foreigner Regional Registration Office. Out of the
52 Nigerians arrested in connection with the killing in Porvorim, only
14<http://www.navhindtimes.in/goa-news/most-arrested-nigerians-fail-produce-their-passports>submitted
identification in the form of residential permits, original
passports or a copy of a passport.

Since the death of Mr. Simeon and the protests by Nigerians, state
government officials have been quick to denounce the presence of Nigerians
in Goa. “Nigerians are like cancer,” said the state’s art and culture
minister, Dayanand Mandrekar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.,
which governs Goa. He later apologized for the remark.

Comments like these have led to accusations on social media networks and in
local<http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/left-right-centre/nigerians-targeted-in-goa-are-we-racist/297158>and
international<http://www.ibtimes.com/murder-nigerian-goa-uncovers-ugly-racialist-attitudes-indians-against-black-africans-1458578>media
that Goans are racist. Mr. Parrikar, speaking to the press on the
sidelines of a soft launch of the newly extended Dabolim International
Airport, defended the anti-Nigerian sentiment. “It is not racism,” he said.
“If you see earlier history, you will see that more Nigerians are involved
in drugs. So people are seeing it that way.”

Augusto Pinto, associate professor of English at the S.S. Dempo College of
Commerce & Economics in Panjim, said racism wasn’t behind the anger of
Goans at Nigerians. “Commuters were stranded for hours and were
infuriated,” he said. “They were shouting asking the police to take some
action. This reaction from a Goan would have ensued had it been Russians or
Israelis or Indians who had gone on the run riot, disrupting the state
capital.”

Fueling Goans’ resentment of outsiders is the transformation of large
swathes of the state into foreign strongholds — Mandrem and Morjim are well
known as Russian localities and Arambol is home to Israelis.

“There are restaurants and whole parts of beaches where locals cannot walk
in,” said Vivek Pinto, the real estate agent. “Little has been done to
assuage this feeling of helplessness.”

The present B.J.P.-led state government keeps pointing fingers at its
predecessors, alleging that the previous administration had ties to the
drug gangs – a charge that former administration officials deny.

In addition to battling the drug nuisance and fending off accusations that
it is racist, Goa now has to deal with an unprecedented level of tourist
arrivals in January that could tax the state’s creaking infrastructure and
shoddy waste-management to its fullest.

In January, Goa will be host to the Lusofonia Games, an international
multisport event organized by the Association of the Portuguese Speaking
Olympic Committees. In addition to the host, participating countries are
Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea- Bissau,
Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Principe and Sri Lanka. About
1500 athletes from 12 countries are expected to attend the 11-day event.

The state had won the bid for hosting the third edition of the games back
in 2009, but found itself floundering with the preparations. The games were
initially scheduled to be held in the first week of November but had to be
postponed after the state government missed the deadlines for completion of
the infrastructural work.

An association meeting was held Sept. 22 in Macau to review whether Goa
could indeed host the games this year. At this meeting, the Lusofonia
Organizing Committee of Goa managed to convince the association that Goa
would be ready soon. It asked for the games to be scheduled for Jan. 18-29,
which the association approved.

As for waste management, the state still hasn’t figured out how to deal
with the trash on the beaches and streets that is generated by the regular
influx of tourists and by a population of 1.5 million. On Nov. 7, a team of
38 Legislative Assembly members were sent on a nine-day tour to study
methods of garbage treatment used in Austria, Germany and Italy, even
though the government has said its budget has been pinched as mining
activity has come to a standstill since September 2012.

With the higher number of tourists expected this year, and the Lusofonia
games in their home state, residents hope that the state can manage some
law and order.

“Traffic will be a nuisance; we hope the roads will be better managed,”
said Annie Colaco, a resident of Fatorda, in south Goa. “We hope it doesn’t
get worse with the ‘foreign’ teams. Everyone will go to watch football,
especially when Brazil is playing.”

*Sharon Fernandes is a journalist based in Goa.*

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Augusto Pinto
40, Novo Portugal
Moira, Bardez
Goa, India
E pinto...@gmail.com
P 0832-2470336
M 9881126350

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