Bad or good... the most influential BY DR OSCAR REBELLO docosca...@rediffmail.com
I was asked by the Goan Observer to put up my personal choices of the ten most influential set of people who influenced the decade. Some did so positively, some did so negatively, and some were there with a huge potential but stumbled on the way and fell. Of course, the list contains all my personal biases, which hopefully every human being can have. If 2000-2009 was the 'decadus horribilis' for Goa, we can only hope and pray that the next will be a 'Decadus Mirabbilis', but if wishes were horses, pigs would fly. MANOHAR PARRIKAR: Easily the most influential person of the decade. He divided Goa into two poles, those who loathed him passionately due to his ideology and arrogance and those who loved him blindly for his integrity and administrative brilliance. Pity there weren't enough folks to dissect him in a neutral profile, and even sadder that he chose NOT to listen to his well-meaning critics. At the end of the day, his own worst enemy. SANDESH PRABHUDESAI: As editor of Sunaparant, he blazed a trail for Konkani and issues, but it's in his avatar as editor-in-chief of Prudent Media that he has brilliantly shone. Using the powerful image of TV, he has exposed many a scandal and taken tough positions on burning issues regarding Goa. As they say, you can take an editor out of an activist, but you can never taken an activist out of an editor. SABINA MARTINS, AUDA VIEGAS, ALBERTINA ALMEIDA, PRAMOD SALGAOCAR: Women-power with maximum impact. To get casino owners, rapists, molesters and all other epithets men are usually conferred with to quaver in their pants is no mean task. Sometimes perceived as anti-men, their visible service to womankind in Goa is truly phenomenal. FR MAVERICK FERNANDES: The Church's visible symbol of Lamb and Lion. The man who put the principles of social justice and peace -- the bedrock of Christian teaching -- into actual practice. You may disagree with his anti-capitalist ideology, but you can never deny his single-minded devotion to galvanising, mobilising and encouraging the poor of the State to find their voice, irrespective of the community they belong to. CLAUDE ALVARES: His detractors call him 'Fraud' Alvares. For me, he is most emphatically 'God' Alvares. The original Big Daddy of environment issues in Goa before Al Gore and Obama even knew to pronounce 'climate change'. His yeoman work and, especially over the last decade, his humongous legal battles, is the stuff legends are made of. And oh yes, by the way, he is a Mangalorean (a 'bhailo'). DR NANDKUMAR KAMAT: Never has Goa produced such a dazzling luminary of knowledge, erudition and scientific brilliance as him. Eccentric and unapproachable at most times, his painstaking research into all aspects of Goan life -- past, present and future -- is more valuable than the Kohinoor for us. MATANHY SALDANHA: Indefatigable, tenacious, pugnacious. The old war horse, true to his ideals, has articulated thousands of Goan issues with a singular passion. Can be obstinate at times and does miss the wood for the trees in a post-liberalised, youthful era of politics. VISHWAJIT RANE: The de facto lambi race ka ghoda. Doesn't have the regal aloofness of his illustrious father. Mingles with the hoi polloi easily but also in the same way does not share his father's early innings' reputation as CM and vision for Goa. Sadly believes that the colour of money wins elections -- not integrity, ideology or innovation. BABUSH MONSERRATE: The bad boy of Goan politics. Steam rolls past any opposition or law books and then bankrolls huge political battles. His constituency worship shim for the generous benevolence and monetary goodies he bestows on them. But at what cost? The cost of Goa itself! THE PEOPLE OF SALELI, KUNDAIM AND KERI: Way back before agitations against RP2011, SEZ, mega projects and illegal mining became the flavour of the decade and a toast of the nation, it was these humble villagers who rose in revolt against the abuse of authority and power and who blazed the path for us to achieve -- maybe a not so perfect but -- greener and saner tomorrow. SATURDAY NIGHT CLUB OF MARGAO: Comprising of stalwarts like Datta Naik, Dr Francisco Colaco, Shridhar Kamat, Prashant Naik and many others. This is the nerve centre in the forefront in the battle to keep Goa secular and free from communal strife. These guys have put their lives and reputations on the line in this battle. What one wishes, in the present circumstances, is for them to pressure their friendly neighbourhood MLA -- who incidentally happens to be the Chief Minister -- to wake up and smell the coffee with the disintegration and moral decay of Goa continuing on his watch. [First published in the Goan Observer, Panjim Jan 2-8, 2010]