Dear Mario & Muriel, Thanks for keeping us, in the Diaspora, informed about the issue of the Mobile Tower.
I want to congratulate you for organising this meeting albeit, at short notice. I am delighted to note that democracy in its nascent state is alive and well. The symbolic gesture is very telling of the solidarity of the people of Saligao. We hope that when all is settled in favour of the greater good of the greater number, goodwill will prevail. Best wishes always Albert Da Cruz. From: muriel&mario Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2012 2:23 AM To: SaligaoNet Subject: [SALIGAONET] 7a-Report On Saligao Mobile Tower: Over 250 Villagers Meet Their MLA On Site. Dear Saligaonettekara, When their busy MLA Dilip Parulekar said he had only one slot free to meet them - the very next day, at 8 at pm! - Saligaokars took the risk! It was a take-it-or-leave-it gamble. No other appointment was available. This meant several problems for the movement: no time to mobilise; an inconvenient time for people to leave their homes for a public meeting. Not to be tempted by an end-of-tired-day story, news hounds would be safely back in their kennels, piecing together investigations they had sniffed out during the day. And the light would not be sufficient for TV channels as well as for village amateurs to shoot good stills and video. The atmosphere at campaign HQ was depressing! :-( But it had to be done. So instead of "cursing the darkness", the community decided to brave it. Over 250 protesters from Grande Morod to Mollembhat and from Muddavaddo to Salmona, decided to "light a candle" and meet their MLA beneath a street lamp, just outside the Delaney residence. Just beside their tower site. The darkness turned out a blessing in disguise, because they decided to publicly screen the little video documentary made by Video Volunteers. The MLA came straight from another meeting and had just enough time only to be briefed about the problem. He said that he himself was against mobile phone towers in residential areas and would work towards getting the Delaney tower shifted out of Abreu Vaddo, to a safe place. The entire community of protesters watched the video documentary made by Video Volunteers' (VV) Community Correspondent, Sulochana Pednekar. Sulochana herself was there to witness how the community was using her work to create awareness and strengthen the resolve and solidarity of the people's movement. And yes, she was shooting again to document the use of her excellent little video. Watch this space tomorrow for the result her latest efforts. :-) Along with Sulochana, came a VV team led by Stalin K, their Director, Manish Kumar their Program Manager & Principal Trainer and others. The community thanked VV and especially Sulochana who had spent an entire day on her first film, walking around the village in the hot sun, interviewing people and shooting on site, the construction work of the massive RCC foundation, which was so cleverly back-filled, in such indecent haste. Despite the short notice and the very strange hour for such a 'meet-your-MLA-on-site' event, it was extremely encouraging to see such a large numbers. One can only imagine the crowds if the meeting was held at 5 pm, as originally planned! Not so long ago, the Delaneys maintained that the protest was from just 2 or 3 families around the tower who were "whipping up sentiment" in the community. When Ashley's dad Gerard Delaney met a neighbour the day before the dialogue with the community, last month on 15 February, he assured her that all this "temporary noise would soon die down and the tower would quickly come up after that." The struggle was just 15 days old then. An insightful villager also pointed out, that the next day, at the dialogue meeting with the community, Gerard asked permission to light a candle before their presentation could begin. Little did they know, that exactly a month later, the 2-3 vocal families were really voicing the sentiments and cries of an entire village. Little did they realise that 4 short weeks down the line, on one, sultry, dark March night, their lone candle would multiply itself 250 fold. Little did they imagine that those 250 little flames would cast an ominous glow on their treeless compound that still threatens to house Cyril DeMello's tower. Though it was a gentle, warm, surface glow (attachments 2&3), it was really symbolic of the blazing fires of community rage that are not so hidden any more. Attached are some pictures of this historic, 'after 8' event... Warm regards and solidarity. M&M. -- ................................................................ there *is* anOTHERgoa at <http://www.anothergoa.blogspot.com> & <http://www.youtube.com/anothergoa> ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' muriel & mario, c/o FULKAR, 6/22, sonarbhatt, saligao. bardez. goa. 403511. tel: 0832-2278276 / 2409999 <anothergoa AT gmail.com> '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -- Saligao-Net is at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net To post to this group, send email to saligao-net@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe email saligao-net-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -- Saligao-Net is at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net To post to this group, send email to saligao-net@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe email saligao-net-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
