Dr Joe D’Souza
In last week’s article, we have seen various reasons for the destruction of the Goan economy. I continue here, highlighting some more of these. Our ancestors used to strenuously work in the fields and after a season of good harvest, our wise forefathers danced to the tunes of Mando. Today, we symbolically perform harvest dances in cities to entertain tourists, while the Kunbi culture is now long dead.
Some weeks ago the President of Clube Vasco da Gama (where I am a member), Francisco Noronha, organised a series of social events which included a gala dinner and the “Harvest Dance.” Hundreds of Panjimites danced and drank, oblivious to the fact that this year most of the crops were washed away due to the heavy, long-lasting monsoon, which flooded fields much to the detriment of the farming community.
President Francis Noronha, who was once a school teacher, was implored upon by me that we have to now pull up our socks and undertake related environmental activities in our urban centres like Panaji directed towards awakening our elite class from their slumber to the gross social degradation and massive environmental destruction seen all around us. The green ambience of Goa is slowly being transformed into grey.
While Goans specialise in the festive lifestyle of drinking and dancing, look at the ground reality. Today, the river Mandovi waters are polluted with sewage and hazardous heavy-metal pollutants.
However, when well-meaning activists and NGOs call the urban residents for a meaningful protest march before the relevant authorities in the government, we see just four individuals taking on the challenge to fight pollution, garbage and water shortage issues afflicting the urban society.
However, when it comes to merrymaking at Carnival and Shigmo festivities and events sponsored by the liquor barons and breweries, the halls and street dances are full to capacity by the revellers dwelling in the city.
Drinking beyond capacity on pavements, roads and on our beaches is a common disgusting occurrence in Goa. Drunken behaviour is considered as a part of Goan culture by our ill-informed visitors from the neighbouring states. No one is ever penalised for this public nuisance and other crimes follow as a consequence. Today Goans, especially in urban centres, have shed their traditional lifestyles. For so long our forefathers conserved and preserved our heritage in its original form. However, our youth today excel themselves as real estate agents buying and selling Goa to the highest bidder.
Once again I reinforce that we have totally ignored our primary sector and are relying more on the unstable tertiary activities, including tourism, to boost the economy. It is also a matter of utter shame and disgrace that we as the parasitic or saprophytic Goans, are actively and passively allowing the sale of tiny Goa to the real-estate lobby totally against the will of many Goans.
There are other questions that come to mind. Do we, the people of Goa, really require seven engineering institutions for a population of 16 lakh? Do we also think that by constructing two international airports by indulging in deforestation, depleting water resources and degrading our agriculture will ever help strengthen our economy? Look at our hospitality sector. Every item necessary and manpower for the sector are imported.
We have ruined the primary and secondary sectors of our economy. We have sold Goa for a song. We have polluted our air, water and soil by allowing coal and power-guzzling units to function without adhering to environmental norms.
Paradoxically, we are losing our money to gambling dens. By selling whatever is left behind by our ancestors and also properties we inherited or were bestowed upon us, we are writing a dangerous script.
Goan youth instead of looking at skilled professions are hankering after government employment or either migrate abroad to do menial jobs. They fail to qualify in competitive written exams, and in the other all-India tests. The IQ and the general knowledge among Goan youth are abysmally low. The Chairman of Goa Public Service Commission Jose Manuel Noronha has gone on record to lament about the poor performances of Goan youth at the GPSC written exams. That majority of them fail to clear such tests may sound shocking, but that is what our education system has become “ rote learning, and studying theoretical concepts, with no practical exposure.
We tolerate a government which makes us live in chaos and confusion. Potholes on our roads, coal dust in our houses, mining rejects in our fields, sewage in our groundwater. All in all, we Goans are living a degenerated and a degraded lifestyle which is unhealthy for us as a society.
Those who are supposed to serve us as the people in a democracy are looked upon us as “supreme”. Today, in Goa have a debt of Rs 20,000 crore and it is counting upwards each day. If we as people are accepting our servants as our bosses and giving them the powers to loot and plunder our little paradise would be doomed for eternity.
In reality, we have to blame ourselves for this festering status of our state. We have allowed Goa and Goans to be betrayed, through misgovernance and misrule. If we are unable to pull up our socks for “Mother Goa” now, we would have to be prepared to die as poisoned rats of economic, political and
social degradation.
