A Goan Village circa 1961 : Pride, Prejudice, the Truth, or Selective Blindness  in 2006?

Three tales ...Three viewpoints

When TGF first saw the Antonio Menezes article, there were three disparate feelings: (1) This is a positive man who sees the glass half full rather than half empty (2) This Antonio Menezes really does not have a clue of the struggle the poor and old in Goa have to go through, in order to make it (3) It must be OK to compare apples with oranges like Antonio Menezes seeks  to compare Goa 2006 with Goa 1961 while ignoring the immense filth that has overcome Navelim (one of the villages in the Antonio Menezes article). 

To give a wider flavour to the situation in Goa Circa 2006, TGF thought that it would examine three different articles about Goa Circa 2006

(1) Antonio Menezes on GoaNet Jan 21,  2006

Today, let us have a good look at one typical Goan village, say Navelim or Chinchinim . It is served by , at least, one good main road together with other minor roads which give access to the bazaar area or the church. Telecommunication facilities like local and overseas phone calls are available. There are many private cars, motor cycles and scooters; piped water supply to almost all households, electricity though sometimes erratic, cable TV where one can see English /Hindi movies as well as European football matches live, cooking gas cylinders are delivered home ( yes, I am still talking about village life ) . Drainage facilities like septic tanks are a must for any village home. Houses are a mixture of concrete and laterite stones, the floors are often of marble and modern furniture go by.

There is , at least , one high school with English language as medium of instruction. general physicians , pharmacies, shops in the bazaar stock almost everything so that there is no need to go to either Mapusa or Margao. Fish, beef, chicken, fruits, vegetables, and bakery products are in plentiful supply . There are bars, restaurants and ice cream parlours.

And yet, one sees modern buses full of mainly of womenfolk traveling to towns , bedecked with gold ornaments. Why ? Simple, they are a bored folk who frequent Udupi restaurants in towns to regale themselves with idlis, dosas, bhaji puris, wadas with sambar/chutney etc. and above all to watch what other women are wearing. They also take annually a direct train to Potah in Kerala to attend the retreats. Konkanei plays are staged at regular intervals.

And so what one does think made all this possible in a village. Freedom and democracy and its representatives like panchayat members, MLA s and MPs who tried to provide the infrastructure.

Now a question to all those Goanetters who had lived in a Goan village during the Portuguese regime in the late forties and fifties. Do you remember what village life was like and if so, compare it with today's bustling life of any Goan village.

[TGF:  There are three possible answers to the Why in the above Antonio Menezes article : (1) Goa in 2006 is offering such top paying jobs to the men of Navelim and Chinchinim that the bored women folk from those two villages are just able to travel on these modern buses to towns, bedecked with gold ornaments  (2) Mr. (or is it, conveniently, Shri, now?)   Antonio Menezes met these well employed and highly paid Navelim and Chinchinim women folk on their day off, et (3) There are no paying jobs for the Navelcars ani Chichonncars in Goa, so they are struggling in the hot sun of the inhospitable Arabian Gulf while their wives are busy with  "folga" traveling to towns in modern luxury buses , bedecked with gold ornaments frequenting Udupi restaurants in towns to regale themselves with idlis, dosas, bhaji puris, wadas with sambar/chutney etc. and above all to watch what other women are wearing. ]

(2) Vivek Menezes in the Panjim Herald Jan 21,  2006

There is trouble brewing for our landscape, and the grotesque concrete footprint of unchecked, unplanned, urbanization is spilling out from our towns right into our previously undisturbed heartland. The rumblings are ominous and incessant; 60,000 square metres of agricultural land illegally converted in Siridao, the ancient Baga hill has been sold to unscrupulous developers, all those once-pristine high lands from Betim past Reis Magos have already been parceled out to eager speculators. There is much more, and it is all happening out of the public eye and at a dramatically accelerated pace.

The pressure on the land is inevitable, in a democratic India that's boiling with money (to use a Salman Rushdie phrase). The demand for Goa is quite understandable; we top the charts for every meaningful quality of life index and have developed into India's only genuinely international tourism hotspot.

 From the hillside behind my house, the view is clear, we either rally to stop the mindless (and totally irresponsible and illegal) construction mania now, or we start to say good-bye to everything that remains timeless and invaluable to us as a people.

[ The only comment TGF offers to the above,  is one of appreciation for the tremendous flair that Vivek Menezes (VM) has for writing in the English language. May many more beautifully constructed sentences flow from his pen (or keyboard).  Hopefully, VM will compile his most recent writings and publish them in book form.  They are pure pleasure to read]

(2) Floriano Lobo on GoaNet Jan 25,  2006

Goa has had 450 years of Portuguese rule sans corruption, sans manipulations, sans the race towards building vote banks. Goa's liberation saw the Indian so called democratic rule aka self-governance for the last 45 years. This Indian /self-governance rule has outdone the good that was built for the last 450 years in just 45 years.

To stop this, which will inevitably destroy Goa completely by making it another Bihar or Gujarat, the helm of Goa's governance must be held in firm hands of Goans, not by Goans dictated to by the national parties like the Congress, the BJP, the NCP or the Janata Party etc. I am talking about Goa's own regional party.

The concept of Goa for Goans must be forgotten once and for all.

Goa must be made secure under Goa's rule so that outsiders feel really secure to settle down in Goa and prosper, fully knowing that they will enjoy total harmony and peace through the emergence of the RULE OF LAW.

In other words, Goa does not need the Portuguese, but needs the Portuguese type disciplined Rule like never before with real Goans in its command and not Goan chamchas of the national parties.

It cannot be Goa for Goans. It must be GOANS FIRST.

[ Ah Floriano Lobo, well said!! You have expressed a view long held by TGF. We Goans must make ALL people welcome to our motherland....but not under the terms of corruption, bullying, land grabbing, cheating and degradation of the environment which is perpetrated by the Goan politicians acting as pawns for the Delhi based power players with NO interest in Goa except to use it. Wonder whether Antonio Menezes lives in the same Goa as Vivek Menezes or Floriano Lobo - unless there has been a dramatic shift of Goa Circa January 2006! ]

TGF
26 Feb 2006