Whenever an Arts, Literary or Intellectual festival is held in Goa, almost like a knee-jerk reaction there are some people who will begin to scream that it should be banned.
One such knee-jerk artist is one Stephen Dias from Dona Paula who screams in capital letters on Goanet: "IFFI NEEDS TO BE ABANDONED FROM NEXT YEAR ONWARDS (Stephen Dias)" If one reads his letter it consists of much hysteria and little sense. Apparently simply falaring the Konkani saying, "MANDRI POUN PAEM SODPACHEM" justilfies his moral panic. This means incidentally 'One should stretch one's feet according to the length of the blanket' The logic beats me. There are others who scream at Think Fest organized by Tehelka. One of those is a bunch appropriately named Kractivist: see http://www.kractivist.org/press-release-tehelka-not-welcome-in-goa/ This year unfortunately for them, the misdemeanors committed by ThinkFest organizer Tarun Tejpal this year have become a convenient peg to hammer ThinkFest into the ground. I honestly feel that these hysterics are not a little, but completely misguided. It is clear by now that tourism is going to be a backbone of our economy. For years we have been worrying that the tourists we get are all the wrong class and that we should be seeking a better class of tourists to boost our economy. Obviously the people come for events like IFFI and ThinkFest are all middle and upper class tourists - and even the film students who come for IFFI are one day going to be intellectual leaders who will influence others as to whether they should visit Goa or not. Why are we trying to cheese them off? So although we do spend public money on IFFI the returns we get indirectly through what the delegates spend is high. And so too is the image boost we get from hosting such an event. Then think of the work experience which all those college students get by becoming volunteers at the event. And how could all the people interested in cinema in Goa have ever got the exposure to world cinema which they get at IFFI? I see people like Damodar Mauzo, Ramesh Veluskar, Pundalik Naik, Maria Aurora Couto, Rajendra Talak, Dnyaneshwar Moghe not to mention a host of others including many many simple Goans who just love movies and who easily get the IFFI passes for just Rs 300/. And as regards Think Fest I don't think any public money is spent as such - but just see the prestige we earn by getting celebrities of the order of Robert De Niro, Garry Kasparov, Nandan and Rohini Nilekani, Yogendra Yadav, Medha Patkar, Amitabh Bachchan among others here in Goa. True the organizers hype the event up to make out as if they will change the world but nobody in their senses really buys this argument: basically they are coming for a nice intellectually charged holiday. Next I expect that the upcoming Goa Arts and Literary Festival is going to be the new target because Govt puts some money into it. For the love of me I don't understand why do we want to chase away these upmarket people who really are the kind of tourists we should be inviting to Goa. Frankly I feel the likes of Stephen Dias of Dona Paula and the Kracktivists just like to see their names in print which is why they make all this fuss. Let them be invited to any of these events and we shall see how their tones change Regards Augusto (Disclaimer: I'm a regular at IFFI, but I wouldn't go to Think Fest even if invited as I'm simply not interested) -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal Moira, Bardez Goa, India E pinto...@gmail.com P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350