Shake off your masks - coward Goans

Sun, 10/18/2009 - 19:30 Shake off your masks - coward Goans by Soter D'Souza There are some Goans, some of whom are reputed journalists, who exhort everyone to be optimistic while analysing the progress in Goa. Those who keep reflecting the shameful and horrific events are branded as negative. After the recent murders of 4 women, 2 children and one man in Goa, and after the bomb explosion in Margao on the eve of Diwali that took the lives of two of the accused, can Goans still continue to deny that nothing is seriously wrong in Goa and there is a lot to be still proud about and marketed to the outside world? Mahanand managed to extinguish the lives of 16 women over the last ten years without being detected and the hundreds of thefts like snatching women's mangalsutras, house burglaries, murders and what not are reported almost everyday in the local newspapers. Yet, should we continue to sing praises, make music and dance in front of the Art and Culture department or the NRI Commission about how Goa is progressing? To add insult, this cruel game of pa inting a rosy picture about a speedily deteriorating society gets endorsed as a matter of perception. Do we have something called a conscience or are we Goans filled with just dollars and rupees in its place. We Goans are driven into spending endless hours debating church properties and casteist agendas. We spend hours together on discourses about how religions contribute to disturbance of peace. We spend hours together listing out and circulating the upcoming art and cultural events around us. We publicise about the history books being published by vagabond Goans who come to Goa for holidays and publicity. We go around town screaming on how the upper castes are taking the others for a ride, hardly any conversation is free of such useless arguments. We have enough time to promote free computer software and government schemes. But we have absolutely no time to talk about the endless number of young Goan girls and boys abusing alcohol, drugs and involved in prostitution and crime. We have no time to take up our pen and write to the Government questioning it's anti-people policies. We have no time to document the number of Goans employed in industrial estates and their miserable pay- scales and working conditions. We have no time to write about how the fertile lands are being transfered to builders and industrialists depriving the Goan tribal people of their right to livelihood. We circle around harmless institutions and frivolous events which will not threaten our cosy and comfortable life and economic means. We take cover by calling this cowardice as a positive and progressive mindset. The use of the term 'ghatti' may arouse the condemnation by some. But the open defiance and challenges to law and order enforcing agencies by migrants breathes just silence from these progressive Goans. Babush Monserate will get condemned for stoning the police station but the migrants blocking traditional pathways at Moti dongor or defecating by the road side all around Goa will receive compassion. Migrant rights are extremely sacred whereas as Goan rights can be violated and tramples upon. Wake up you Goan cowards and report and popularise the factual day to day incidents if you have the guts and are sincere about changing society for the better. Rise up Goan cowards and teach people how to defend their rights and stand besides them in their battles against the oppressive government policies. Stop, you Goan cowards, from beating around the bush about church properties and brahminical conspiracies while the fertile lands of the tribal people get grabbed by migrants and builders. Shake off your masks Goan cowards and factually report the social and cultural state of present day Goa and not earn your bucks by dwelling in and selling the history of our past. Dare, you Goan cowards to stand side by side the oppressed sections of Goans fighting that they may survive. -Soter D'Souza http://www.heartbeatgoa.com/?q=node/312