Sorry, was a bit tied up and couldn't respond to recent events in Collomb, and more specifically the two patently ridiculous arrests Seby and John reported, and the recent postings by Samir and Venantius. I'm in touch with Venantius on this mining issue and more about this as and when it happens, although I am terribly surprised that Samir, given all the information I mailed him still seems to carry an element of doubt in him. I am happy that he asks for the Goa Foundation's Goa Sweet Land of Mine. He can see the pdf file on www.goafoundation.org/
I wonder sometimes, why the Goa Foundation hasn't tried harder in popularizing that book within Goa, or for that matter, trying to introduce it as a text (together with their Goa Fish Curry and Rice) in schools and colleges. At the Save The Western Ghats meeting in Goa, Claude and several other speakers chided themselves for not having done enough to involve young people in schools and colleges. I sincerely hope that that self-criticism has translated into some sort of action plan to rope in young voices in protest. Lest we forget, just a few weeks back, Venita in one of her columns eloquently asked the same question: Why aren't our young people not getting involved? That's something we need to think about, especially when it comes to the environment. Generation Next in school and college is actually one of the brightest generation the world has ever had, their potential is huge. We need to tap them, and the onus is on us, those above the age of forty to challenge them and engage with them on issues pertaining to their own future. Concern for the environment is a great way to catch them it seems to me, although I shall leave this aside for another posting... To come back to Collomb. I don't know from which side Samir drove there, perhaps via Rivona. He should have gone back to Margao via Maina, Kawrem and Ambaulim, and seen for himself how barely fifty meteres away from a government school, a large canyon is being carved out by the rogue mining companies hiding behind the guise of legality: stretching from Kawrem and almost totally encircling Maina, and soon to ruin for all time the beautiful Curca, younger sister to the Kushawati that they have already desecrated near Collomb. I am a little shocked frankly that Samir still thinks the water tables will not be affected by mining. There are moves afoot to revive an UNESCO proposal to declare the Western Ghats a Heritage Site. Nothing short of that goal will save either us or our future, and more about this as and when it happens. Samir you still want more information on the devastation to the environment and people, just send me a mail. I have a large reservoir of information that I have been sending out far and wide... Cheers, Hartman