Carnival parade with a message
Despite the pandemic, the government is going ahead with the Carnival celebrations in the state. The King Momo float parade will be held in capital city Panjim and the commercial capital Margao.
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According to local tradition, during Carnival, King Momo presides over the festival during the 4-day span. King Momo traditionally proclaims the Konkani message “Kha, piye aani majja kar” which means “Eat, drink and make merry”. We are in the midst of a pandemic and the appropriate thing to do for the government would have been to cancel the official Carnival festivities. But this is not to be. This carnival should serve as a means to send a message to the general public regarding the protocol to be followed during the time of the pandemic.
For a start King Momo could be seen wearing a mask. Besides protecting himself, it will send a message to a wider audience on the need to wear a mask. Members of the King Momo entourage need to maintain social distance on top of the truck. The King Momo’s message could also be rephrased to “Eat Drink and Make Merry, But wear a Mask”.
It is pertinent to note that the Margao Carnival Committee has sent out a stern message to the revelers to either come to watch the floats by wearing a mask or they will be denied entry. The same criteria needs to be followed for the Carnival parade in Panjim.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Uttarakhand tragedy, sequel in Goa?
Goa and other states, which are witnessing extensive ‘development ‘ would be well advised to draw lessons from the tragedy at Uttarakhand and stop being insensitive to the protection and preservation of the environment. Massive deforestation in the name of development gave rise to a similar tragedy in Kerala and Canacona district in 2009, the government is yet hell bent on pushing through the three linear projects and the Mopa airport without any proper environmental impact assessment being conducted; leave aside the wishes of an unwilling people. Maybe that Rs 300 crore windfall provisioned for in the budget is to buy the silence of the Goan people, who is to say.
Rampant hill cutting by the real estate mafia and the degradation/ pollution of our natural water systems like lakes, rivers , aquifers and springs, denudation of green cover, converting agricultural land into building zones is already playing havoc with the ecology and climate of Goa. Unsustainable development is making the state witness lesser rainfall and record temperatures during summers. Sea levels are rising steadily and Goa might suffer the fate of small islands in the Maldives which have all but gone underwater. Add to this the political apathy and ministers being in cahoots with big business to ravish the land and you have a recipe for disaster.
A case in point: casinos are discharging untreated sewage into the Mhadei but they are awarded a clean chit by the state pollution control board, undoubtedly at the directions of a minister who grandly concluded after giving the issue much thought that the gambling establishments are not the problem, but the parking woes they give rise to are. This after publicly vowing to get rid of the casinos from the river within 100 days if elected to power. Rapacious business mafia with financial resources with the blessings and protection of their political Godfathers with muscle power, a weak CM, a predatory won’t-listen-to-anything Centre are surely leading Goa down the path of progress-ive annihilation.
CM should show some spine and realise that Goa being a small land scarce state should not be allowed to be plundered by these sharks. He should stand up and be counted to save our environment, our biodiversity, our culture, our unique identity for these are far more important than destructive development. We don’t want a Paschima-khand tragedy here, incidentally the word ‘ khand’ denotes cleaving and there is a lot of that being done to Goa’s heart and lungs.Wake up and smell the coffee gentleman.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Taming the Corona crisis
On the Coronavirus front, India has fared well when compared with the other developed nations who are still battling in containing the dreaded virus. All evidence points out to the fact that India has flattened the corona curve by developing antibodies while the European countries are caught in a cleft stick to combat the ubiquitous pandemic.
This has been achieved without enforcing draconian lockdowns apart from the initial two months of April and May 2020 where Indians strictly adhered to the lockdown protocols announced by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This has reaped dividends which resulted in the opening up of cinema theatres, industries, shops and establishments, schools and colleges at higher levels and resumption of domestic/international flights, without the help of vaccines and things are getting closer to pre-COVID levels.
Now with the vaccination drive in progress, the impact of the pandemic will be further decelerated, hopefully making India the first country to be Coronavirus free.
It is time the world acknowledges India’s achievement in dramatically lowering the impact of COVID on its 1.4 billion people..
Everette Assis Telles, Margao
A new political trend
It is really shocking that such a massive welcome was extended to Sashikala who was returning from jail after spending four years of sentence by the courts for amassing wealth disproportionate to her income.
Isn’t it a real shame that people have turned sycophants to adore someone who went to jail not for any social cause but for corruption charges? Is it not a reflection on the society we are also part of?
She was found to be taking some vows in the samadhi of Jayalalithaa, her bosom friend before she was whisked away by the police to be put in jail. We understand that she has informed the crowd that came to welcome her that she would definitely wreck vengeance against her betrayers who have stabbed her from behind. We know whom she means. Under the circumstances, Tamil Nadu politics is definitely going to witness some fireworks in the days to come.
However, her entry in politics is definitely going to create problem for the present AIADMK government in the ensuing elections. It would only ensure a landslide victory for the DMK party which even otherwise is tipped to get a massive mandate to form the next government in Tamilnadu.
Tharcius S. Fernando, Chennai
Listen to farmers
The new farm laws are discriminatory in nature with the farmers from across the country agitating to agrarian reforms and a direct attack on the peasants who have sufficient grounds to demand repeal of farm laws. Farmers are the backbone of society, and they provide us the access to food. Haven’t they been suffering for too long? The government should have consulted the farmers “representatives” before the bills were passed in Parliament.
Yes, agriculture has to be modernised. But it should not be done in the manner agriculturists want. The Center should know that agriculture is a state subject, and it should have consulted all the state governments before bulldozing this bills through and blocking the lucrative source of income of farmers. Who better than a farmer know where and how to sell his produce.
Farmers cannot be left to die in this manner in the harsh winter over farm bills. The Union government should listen to the farmers demands and fulfill them at the earliest.
Diomedes Pereira, Corlim
