Re: [Goanet] How would this play in Goa - re migration
--- Philip Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Had it not been for the Punjabis, the Marwaris, the > Biharis and the > purbiyas, Mumbai would have remained the fishing > community that it was. The > migrant nature of the city is what gives it the > luster and sheen. It creates > a kind of positive energy that marks immigrant > nations like the US or > Canada. - Dear Philip, As much as I would love to blame Modi for all the ills that ail India, the author is being disingenuous here. We don't have to wonder, how this will play out in Goa, it is already playing out exactly as it is in Mumbai and will become more amplified as the years go on. The truth is, human beings cannot be expected to live in cramped quarters, struggling for resources spread thin and then watch benevolently as further cannibalisation of limited resources takes place by new entrants. It is barely tolerable in places like America and Canada, where populations are relatively limited and even here the same debate is a serious election issue. Mumbai has a population of over 18 million people, making it the fourth largest populated city in the world, with the largest slum in south-east Asia to its dishonour. The author fails to mention that half this population, which would mean approx. 9 million people live in desperate poverty. The idea that everyone in Mumbai makes money is optimistic at best. Almost all of India's problems can be attributed to its population problem. India's most pressing and urgent need of the hour, is to figure out how to shift resources from urban centers into rural areas, thereby restricting a shift of labour from dire rural poverty to equally undesirable urban poverty. The second most important thing is to contain the populations of Bihar and the Pradeshis of India. Let us not forget for one minute, that it is infact big industry that deliberately enjoys the fruits of the unorganised labour, as it effectively means they don't have to contract them, don't have to pay a minimum wage, don't have to ensure their health, sanitation or safety and can make them work in abysmal conditions. Simultaneously, municipalities who are hand-in-glove, will then turn a blind eye as slums sprout in conditions not fit for even animals to survive in, and every other activity and malaise from prostitution, gambling, crime and disease runs rampant. So while big industry enjoys subsidised labour, the city rots. There is no use in constantly asking people to do, that which they are simply incapable of doing. Being gracious in the face of despair and that unfortunately is what Mumbaikars are feeling. selma Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
[Goanet] How would this play in Goa?
A classic example of "turning-the-clock-backasswards", while throwing the baby of Indianness out with the bathwater of its many known ills.
[Goanet] How would this play in Goa?
Modi's successful election campaign in Gujarat was reportedly based on the "twin mantras of development and ['robust'] Hindutva". (INDIA TODAY, Jan 7, 2008). Hindutva, in turn, had a strong "anti-terror" (or security) element coupled with jingoistic nationalism. This has been dubbed by some as "Moditva" as outlined in the foregoing excerpt. Here we focus on the development plank. Modi's development model (INDIA TODAY Dc 17, 2007) consists of the following: Power supply to all 18,000 villages combined with the slapping of law suits against farmers indulging in power theft. The latter move has turned the state's power set-up from a loss of Rs 2200 crores to a surplus of Rs 200 crores in 2006. Meanwhile, the state has registered a CAGR of 10.6% during the first four years of the 10th FYP vs 7.2% for the country as a whole. The state has leveraged its strength in petrochemicals by laying a gas grid of 1400 km (target 2200 km). This is expected to boost industrial production as gas is cheaper than naphtha which is currently in use. Investment proposals in the pipeline total Rs 76,000 crores, exceeding that of three top states put together. The urban development drive to upgrade small municipal towns sent tax collection soaring because people were motivated to pay taxes. The state's finances as a whole have become revenue surplus (from revenue deficits for 15 years). State PSUs have become profit making. The government doesn't believe in too many populist sops to the people while emphasizing strict accountability. But special schemes have targeted girls' education, the prevention of female foeticide and agricultural extension activities. INDIA TODAY (Jan 7, 2008) explicitly shows the link between "development" and "electoral strategy". It is clear that much of it has to do with using government machinery for political purposes. "Credit must be given to his planning and to the many Government sponsored schemes and meetings that were converted into political rallies. By October 10 he had already completed the first round of his campaigning at the government's expense by holding 50 public meetings and directly addressing 40 lakh people from his target vote bank. In these meetings he gave them a run down of his development achievements.. The rallies which were organized with Government support effectively neutralized anti-incumbency at the grass-roots level. His ministers visited 4000 villages in a span of just 40 days on the pretext of inaugurating development work already completed.[Finally based on a pre-electoral survey], while distributing tickets Modi replaced around 38 sitting MLAs apart from the 11 rebels who had left the party." INDIA TODAY concludes that "it was the success of his development work that turned the tide". This is not at all self-evident as Gujarat-specific development has to be disentangled from national and global economic development factors before attributng credit. For all practical purposes, the jury is still out. INDIA TODAY does not underline the potential illegality of using government machinery for political purposes. Maybe this applies only to the period (from the announcement of election dates) in which the Code of Conduct is in force. But the spirit of this norm has apparently been violated with impunity. In any event, Modi has declared that next on his government's agenda is improving the state's ranking on the human development index (on which Gujarat ranks 6th among Indian states while the country as a whole ranks 128th in the world). Is Modi's brand of "development strategy" replicable in Goa, whether by BJP or by Congress? If so, why? If not, why not?
Re: [Goanet] How would this play in Goa?
To Goanet - I received this email in late December 2007. The author had requested that his identity not be disclosed. I am reproducing excerpts: Dear Mr. Parrikar I occassionally browse thru issues on [Goanet]... . . Mr Parrikar, I am a member of a group that is fighting a losing battle against SEZ on the Island of Mumbai - Gorai-Utan Belt along the coastline. (the last remaining bastion of the local East Indian Population of Mumbai - the one time "sons of the soil") Most Goanetters are blissfully unaware of what SEZ is and what it would mean to their lives in the long term. I know you must be familiar with the SEZ Rules and the Act, but for academic value and sharing, I am listing below informative links about SEZ. My humble suggestion is that you suggest your readers take time to browse these links, only then they will see clearly.. They do not know what is befalling them. (do not mention my name on your forum), I am a native of the island of Bombay (Mumbai) Once Landlords, today landless and so bad economically, socially and culturally that we have been declared an OBC (Other Backward Class). We are a miniscule minority in our own land. We have been overrun by the countless cultures that have descended upon us. The Government took our lands our fields, our homes, all in the name of "public utilities"..Today there are sprawling slums that have proliferated on these lands as the Govt is unable to maintain what they grabbed for us. These slums have become vote banks for politicians. On the cultural front we have had to abandon and discard our lifestyle, culture, customs, mores and tradditions to accommodate the migrants in Bombay.. God forbid this should happen to Beautiful Goa ! * Regards, r Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Re: [Goanet] How would this play in Goa?
To Goanet - >Modisation of Mumbai >-by Sanjeev Chouhan Wednesday, February 06, 2008 >What is happening in Mumbai today is just an echo of what happened in >Gujarat in the not too distant past. Don't forget the distant past. 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs were also exterminated by Modi. >Mumbai would not have been the affluent and vibrant metropolis it is today, >without the contribution of the migrants from the other parts of the >country. > >Had it not been for the Punjabis, the Marwaris, the Biharis and the >purbiyas, Mumbai would have remained the fishing community that it was. The >migrant nature of the city is what gives it the luster and sheen. Take that, fellow Goans. You have been blind all along to the lustre and sheen wrought by the ghati slums of Indiranagar, Zuarinagar, Monte Dongor, Betim, Vasco etc etc. Only an uncultivated mind would fail to take note of the sublime incandescence bequeathed to the Panjim river promenade and the Panjim jardims by the loitering, urinating and defecating migrants. The fragrance of migrant droppings you complain about - what would Yves Saint Laurent and Calvin Klein not give for a patent on that one, eh? It is the migrants and the Dilliwallahs, dear Goans, who give your otherwise dull and boring land its vibrance and affluence. It is these ghatis who have lifted you casti-clad kharvi bums out of your lazy stupor. And forget not the pearls of wisdom dropped by our Comrades: the migrants bring "nuance" and "interconnectedness" to your simple, staid lives. Seriously: only the obscurantist would eulogize the unlivable, noxious hellhole that is Mumbai (or any other Indian city for that matter). This romanticizing of Mumbai as some kind of a didactic beehive of human experience is pure hogwash, peddled by either the Marxists or by some middle-class residents of Mumbai who want to earnestly believe in the delusion as a palliative from the day-to-day pain that is the city. On virtually every index of the quality of life that you can conceive, these Indian cities flop, and flop miserably. Goa is (still, but not for long) the last refuge of the good life in India. I submit that we Goans must do whatever it takes to keep it that way. The aversion to Bihari and UP fellows is not the exclusive preserve of the Raj Thackerayites. Thackeray is only exploiting the already stretched patience of the Mumbaikars. Even the south Indians - the initial target of the Sena's ire, mind you - and other relatively civilized communities in Mumbai hold these waves from up North washing up on the Mumbai shores in contempt. Why, even in the North they are loathed. Check out what the Lt Governor of Delhi said the other day. Ask Sheila Dixit, the Kangress Chief Minister of Delhi, about what the huge influx from UP and Bihar is doing to the capital city. We Goans ignore the warning signals in our midst at our own peril. I can see it all now: in 10 years Goa will be turned into an appalling, squalid swamp by the unchecked influx of ghatis at one end and the rich Indians at the other. Goans - by then, 10% of the 60 lakhs total population of Goa - finally wake up and launch sporadic (impotent) protests. Enter the Marxists, who spin another turgid tract titled "Reinventing Goa," where they tell us that Goa was always full of migrants, that it is the migrants who have made Goa what it is, and that these motley crew of Goan hangovers are fantasizing about a past beautiful, serene and civilized Goa that never existed in the first place. Warm regards, r Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
[Goanet] How would this play in Goa?
Modisation of Mumbai -by Sanjeev Chouhan Wednesday, February 06, 2008 What is happening in Mumbai today is just an echo of what happened in Gujarat in the not too distant past. Narendra Modi has shown the power hungry politicians the way to electoral success. Create insecurity in the majority group by blaming and hammering up the minority group and emerge as the sole leader, well wisher and protector of the majority. What happened in the aftermath of Godhra, in Gujrat, is being replayed in Mumbai by Mr. Raj Thackeray the latest practitioner of the "ModiSchool of politics". Indiscriminate killing of Muslims in Gujarat had created a deep fear psychosis in the mind of the majority Hindus. Playing upon this fear and insecurity he was successful in creating a permanent and a massive vote bank by projecting himself as the sole protector and the only leader to execute an agenda to benefit one while discriminating the other. Envying Mr. Modi's success, Mr. Thackeray is following on the same footsteps. Creating a sense of despair and insecurity in the minds of the Marathi community in Mumbai against the migrants from North India, he is creating his own vote bank of wholesale and everlasting voters. First Mumbai, then Maharashtra and finally India. Mayawati is playing a similar politics in UP, however, the originator of this style of politics was Bala Saheb Thackeray in the seventies and the eighties, but credit goes to Mr. Modi for honing it into a discipline and a successful strategy. Mumbai would not have been the affluent and vibrant metropolis it is today, without the contribution of the migrants from the other parts of the country. Had it not been for the Punjabis, the Marwaris, the Biharis and the purbiyas, Mumbai would have remained the fishing community that it was. The migrant nature of the city is what gives it the luster and sheen. It creates a kind of positive energy that marks immigrant nations like the US or Canada. Mumbai being the financial capital of India compels companies from all over the country to have their corporate offices here. Mumbai is also the hub of arts and entertainment industry. It is the city of dreams. Every one comes here to make money, whether by selling 'paani puris' at Juhu or by delivering lunch boxes to offices all over the city. Everyone in Mumbai is a Mumbaikar. The migrants are eager to learn and pick up the Marathi language while the local Marathis can be seen speaking Tamil or Bengali. The local Mumbaikar or the native Marathis have no problems with these migrants, only the kinds of Mr. Raj Thackeray do. After all 'yeh hai Bombay meri jaan'. http://content.msn.co.in/Contribute/News/UCStory5689.htm
