Teach the tourists some manners

Ethel da Costa
courtesy: Insight O Heraldo, Goa

submitted by the author to TGF on January 12, 2002

Dear Mr Parrikar,

Happy New Year and all that jazz. Let’s start the year with a clean slate, so let me begin all over again.

I have been told that you are a very sensitive politician. I appreciate this quality about you. I’m not thoroughly thick-skinned myself, so permit me to voice out a few concerns that have been playing on my mind.

I can see that Goa has had a very busy New Year. In fact, there are more people from outside the state in Goa, than people from within.  Very fine, all these domestic tourists.

Good money too to make at the year-ender. The boat cruises are packed, the hotels are doing so-so, people are eating, shopping, so local entrepreneurs need not crib too much. I have also seen umpteen number of cars with out-of-state registration plates. So, the petrol pumps are doing fine too. Your khaki clad chelas are parked with their empty barrels across roads at various places in Goa, to keep an eye on who’s seen where and with whom (at night), I presume.

What I do not know is that despite all the road manning and manic running that is going around, have your boys been able to keep a tap on how many cars are coming into the state, the kind of people getting in, who they are and what are they doing once they are in Goa?

In other words, do you have a mechanism to find out a potential law-breaker lurking around in the guise of a tourist having a good time in Goa? Meaning, how do you ensure that all those money-lined dehatis coming into town are behaving themselves like proper guests, and not abusing the freedom of their hosts?

I understand Goa is sold as fun-loving, but are its people for sale too?

I am serious. Quiet recently, I have myself seen a car loaded with faltus, a few nights back, harassing female citizens on a relatively safe road (11.30 pm or so) on their way home after a night coffee. The car wore a AP registration plate, and its occupants in a highly intoxicated state. Not only were there snide remarks, but downright obscene behaviour too. And I am told, these gauntis have been doing the same road for sometime too.

I am outraged, naturally. That we should be made to feel unsafe, in our own town, in our own backyard, in our own city, because we are generally a laid-back people perpetually high in a festive mood. Right?

Oh, and by the way, thanks to your promotional gimmicks, we are also supposed to keep silent, and stay locked inside our houses!! Because if somebody had made noise, these drunks would have been cooling their hangover behind a slammer.

Sorry, Mr Parrikar, to sound like a wet blanket, but I have been told that I have a certain way with words. As a lay citizen, I do not accept the fact that women cannot move around at will, because we are so busy being hospitable believing that the guest is always right!! Wrong.

It is in your hands to ensure that the people and property of the state that you govern, are safe and secure, by sending out a clear message that NOT EVERYTHING Is OK in Goa. And this one does, when one is clear cut with what constitutes the law, its implementation and the commitment of people employed to ensure that the law of the land is understood by all. Police and tourists included.

If our men did what men from outside the state think they can get away with, they would be chopped, packed and sent back home with a` thank you’ card. Like how it is done abroad.

And that’s precisely why their crime rates are so low, despite a multitude of people coming from all over the world. I mean, it is not just enough adopting the sophisticated uniforms of Singapore for our police folks, when the government’s attitude is still 18th century. You agree?

When we are at it, let’s also talk about building adequate support systems for those wanting to come down to Goa. Meaning, Goans settled abroad and wishing to return to their motherland. It’s bad enough that foreign tourists are quietly displacing us away from our own land, buying up houses under benami names, starting professions and generally enjoying all the facilities of the state.

Goans, in the bargain, are made to run from post to pillar, to get a telephone connection, pay an overdue electricity bill or worse, even apply for a license to start a business.

In the same breath we are talking about luring NRIs to back to Goa, so that they can invest their hard-earned money to uplift the economy of the state.

I beg to differ.

I am a product of NRI parents, and I have seen my father struggle to start his own venture, because everybody was interested in making a fast buck off him with more and more impediments to block his intentions. Yes, government folks too included.

It is my personally experience that as second citizens in a foreign land, life is much easier, hassle free and prompt. Simply because the presence of a proper system ensures quality of life.  I have personally seen Goans who have spent a good part of their working lives abroad, come back home and living with dejection. There is no miserable feeling than the feeling that your motherland has no use of you. We have to change this. We have to change the way we have been tolerating the governing of our state. We have to change our pessimism before we lose not only our land to outsiders, but also the dignity to voice our opinion. Or worse lose the right to live the way our forefathers lived – in respect, in dignity, in complete faith of the system that existed before chaos took over.

As a young politician with a vision, it would be my ardent request to you to ensure that the sons and daughters of this soil have enough opportunities to seek skills in the state, then to live our homes to find a living elsewhere.

Goa is the butt of jokes – more often because of our failing political systems, than because of its people. Blessed with honey and milk, we were destined to be prosperous, until God cursed us with politicians.

You know very well as I, that only proper planning, consciousness workers, and a system can ensure that the resources of the state are utilised for the benefit of its people and land. We have seen benefits alright. All accumulating into the pockets of our lofty men of parliament. And Oh yes, we have been mutely watching all this, so I don’t entirely blame your kind.

Another seasoned politician who I met at a party recently told me that Goa needed young blood to change her course. He was convinced that only the young could rectify the grave errors made by the older generation, yes, him included. (For example, that gas cylinder holding court at the centre of a junction is atrocious. Whoever thought of this ridiculous idea? Please, Mr Parrikar, grant us a sense of better taste!!).

Of course, I promptly pointed out that the young were shooed away from elections because money and muscle powers were the determining factors. Not commitment or idealism. Your brother in politics, of course, agreed. The bottom line being that we are only talking. We have no intention of carrying out what we preach. Oh, I am not disillusioned yet.

Writers are blessed with infinite patience and an overdose of idealism. Some last, some wither. Others just give up and join the other corrupt lot. You have stayed longer. Perhaps, it is time to turn back the clock and inject our sossegado way of life with some enthusiasm. I understand it is a marathon changing people to your way of thinking. But maybe, you should be looking at the young more for answers than falling back on your old cronies who no longer care for the good of this state.

You know where to find me.

Ethel da Costa
January 12, 2002
 

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