[Goanet] About this and that
--- Sign the Petition requesting The Honble Minister of State for Environment and Forests (I/C) to maintain the moratorium on issuing further environmental clearances for mining activities in Goa http://goanvoice.org.uk/miningpetition.php --- Folks, They are calling him a war criminal for persuading Mr Bush (43rd P) to take the US to war against Iraq. To be fair, I think I have more respect for Mr Bush than this slim-ball Republican. Now he is touring the US to sell his story. You interested? http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/30/rove.protest/index.html?hpt=Sbin And here is a more balanced view of what the recently passed health care law was about. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/30/pol.health.care/index.html?hpt=Sbin Personally, I do support the Afghan war - but not the Iraq war. Jim F New York.
Re: [Goanet] About This and That
--- http://www.GOANET.org --- Support growing the reading habit among Goa's next generation of achievers Bookworm Library and Magazine Bluebelle, Tamba Colony, St Inez, Goa Contacts: Tel: +91 9823222665 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- If Manoharbab Parrikar was ruling Goa, I'm sure the impression that would have been created was that "Goa (is) shining" :-) Okay, just a flame-bait. But not entirely untrue. Having said that, as a member of the media myself, I am fully aware that our 'zoom in' style of our reporting and photography often gives a misleading picture of the place. There are 1.4 million people leading perfectly normal, hard-working and productive lives... and yet we focus on two murderers, four rapists, and one hill-cutter in the news each day. Anyone reading the newspapers in the morning would get a very pessimistic start to the day's life in Goa. If only the media could send out a message that contained a greater vision of home. Sometimes, when I look back, I regret my own earlier mostly-negative style reporting. Today, when I try to look around for more-positive news stories, one realises that the world isn't such a bad place after all; and most people are, surprise of surprises, actually quite nice and likeable! Of course, there are powerful lobbies always trying to subvert the system; but do we have enough faith in people working for positive change? On the other hand, who's to be blamed? Obviously we ourselves. Bad news is good news, right? Or so say the gate-keepers in our media machine (I have been one too, at times). (This is not to suggest that Goa doesn't have its problems... but we have survived 500 years of invasions, or should one say 1500 years? And we will survive more. Commonfolk can be resilient and innovative in coping with the problems they face.) Roland, it was nice to meet you, and to hear your first-person report on Goa. The challenge is to report things in proportion; not being alarmist or all doom-and-gloom in our vision, and also at the same time, not glossing over the reality. It's very tough to talk about slow processes that are changing society. They say the worldwide death toll of poverty is the equivalent of a hundred jumbo jets crashing each day! Likewise, we never hear about the impact of malnutrition on Goan children, or anemia on Goan women in all these alarmist reports we read. Wonder why! Nice to see Dr Oscar Rebello put over-consumption and the stranglehold of the superaffluent on the economy (rather than scapegoating the migrant poor). FN On 11/10/2007, Roland Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Goa of 2007 is a Goa I had not expected. From all the posts I had > read, I expected people to be defecating on Panjim roads, the rape of > the hillsides as so vividly described by Rajan Parrikar in his photo > galleries and umpteen other things that would promise to weigh > themselves heavily on my Goan heart. > > Instead, I had a most pleasant stay in the land of my forefathers. If > there were all those ugly scars that had to be seen, I did not see > them either because they were not there or because there was a > conspiracy in heaven to let the aging Canadian see something else in > their place > > have seen such hillside homes and they beautify nature - man and green > coexisting. If there has been rape, the rapist has gladly married the > bride and the bride has not been unhappy. More buildings will come, > more hills will be dug, but if it continues like thus far than it will > be a grace, not a travesty. With looking at green unblemished hills > you can admire nature from afar. When you actually live among such > hills, you co-habit with it. As long as you nurture it and not despoil > it with human garbage. The people who live in such fine homes know > better than to spoil their own surroundings. > > price. On the surrounding hillsides I saw temples, complexes and > large homes. Rajan's photos can give one impression but I got quite > another -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490 List of Indian e-lists http://wikiwikiweb.de/MailingListsInIndia
[Goanet] About This and That
--- http://www.GOANET.org --- Support growing the reading habit among Goa's next generation of achievers Bookworm Library and Magazine Bluebelle, Tamba Colony, St Inez, Goa Contacts: Tel: +91 9823222665 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- The Goa of 2007 is a Goa I had not expected. From all the posts I had read, I expected people to be defecating on Panjim roads, the rape of the hillsides as so vividly described by Rajan Parrikar in his photo galleries and umpteen other things that would promise to weigh themselves heavily on my Goan heart. Instead, I had a most pleasant stay in the land of my forefathers. If there were all those ugly scars that had to be seen, I did not see them either because they were not there or because there was a conspiracy in heaven to let the aging Canadian see something else in their place. After 1961, whenever I visited Goa and took the first ride from Dabolim to Margao and beyond, I felt a sadness or call it an emptiness of an environment that no longer had the rural charm of the Portuguese days. But this time the ghosts of that sorrow had been dispelled. There was a liveliness along the stretch of that road, of new houses, new businesses and a new landscape that indicated a thriving heartbeat. There was life, and there was hope in the air that reached out and grabbed me. Goa is seeking itself and transforming itself like a gangly young adult. In a few years it will be another Goa you may not recognize but right now when you see it, you recognize it. The features are quickly changing and soon you will see a mustache where just yesterday there was no hair. Houses and structures where there were only ditches and fields. People from lands far away you would not have imagined had come all that distance to call this land their home. The hillsides of Bardez and Ilhas are dotted with homes completed and to be completed. They have cleared trees to accommodate them, but they do not look like intrusions. In many places in Europe and Canada I have seen such hillside homes and they beautify nature - man and green coexisting. If there has been rape, the rapist has gladly married the bride and the bride has not been unhappy. More buildings will come, more hills will be dug, but if it continues like thus far than it will be a grace, not a travesty. With looking at green unblemished hills you can admire nature from afar. When you actually live among such hills, you co-habit with it. As long as you nurture it and not despoil it with human garbage. The people who live in such fine homes know better than to spoil their own surroundings. I sat in the bungalow of a good friend on one such hillside in Sangolda and there was breathless beauty all around me as far as the eye could see. On one side of the veranda where I was standing I could see the hills of Mapuca, on the other the lush plains of Saligao. My host had his ancestral house on the ground but chose to abandon it in favor of this split level cottage which he had tastefully built and even more tastefully decorated. The communidade it seems had made plots on the hillside and given them to zoncars at a very nominal price. On the surrounding hillsides I saw temples, complexes and large homes. Rajan's photos can give one impression but I got quite another. Roland. -- Roland Francis 1-416-453-3371
