SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Farming a good option for jobless
It is learnt that the coronavirus pandemic has made a farmer out of a successful musician hailing from Chandor. Several musicians and those having small businesses as well as employees who have become jobless because of the pandemic have resorted to other means to earn their daily bread.
It must be said that during the monsoon, farming could be the best option to make a living for those going through difficult times. What is needed is a piece of land and the person should possess a green thumb. Several youngsters across the globe have given up lucrative jobs to take up farming in a big way. They now earn several times more than they would have if they had to continue with their white-collard jobs. Farming can be a very lucrative profession if one has a vast piece of barren land. Fruits, vegetables and cash crops can be grown. If not, a kitchen garden in the backyard can be used for growing vegetables during the monsoon season as there is no need of watering the plants. Indeed farming, at whatever scale, can be a vital option for those youth who are looking for a way to earn a few bucks instead of sitting idle due to the pandemic.
The agriculture department needs to provide these youth who have taken up farming the technical knowhow so that they get a good yield of the crop.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Govt job bonanza
This has reference to the news ‘Govt takes employment express to elections 2022….. Job Bonanza’ (Herald, June 17). Employment ban lifted, Job Bonanza - wow! That sounds like some piece of good news for people of Goa. The government has lifted the almost five year ban on employment recruitment in the state. However, are we missing the timing?
Election times are most appropriate for such announcements, so we might as well expect such promises. As the Editorial also observes, the government is struggling to keep its promise made at the time of the earlier elections to make Goa 'unemployment free'. The Editorial is also aptly titled, 'Job Bonanza speeds up election engine'.
Promises are made to be broken of course. Like, the people are still awaiting the 2 crore jobs & the Rs 15 lakh promised at the time of the 2014 General elections. Will the people of our country continue to get fooled by our politicians, irrespective of which party they may belong to?
Melville X. D'Souza, Mumbai
Frontline warriors, our pride
We are amidst the pandemic for almost a year and half now and I suppose not one frontline warrior has given an excuse to sit back safe at home. Every soul has fought and is still combating the pandemic. However, the frontline warriors have put their lives at stake, away from their loved ones and are aiding and assisting common masses combat the virus.
The world has lost numerous such brave warriors and noble souls during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Regretfully there are among the masses some educated people spreading their own rumours and assumptions humiliating the frontline warriors. Is this is humanity? Where is gratitude towards the frontline workers and their continuous service?
Educated people should use their education as a tool and through their service should nurture minds towards the right direction and to make one aim fruitful thoughts.
However, there are good Samaritans existing amidst the masses and have done good deeds fvaouring humanity, to appreciate and take care of several frontline warriors during their service, without being asked to do so. In fact, this really restores humanity.
Lisa Fernandes, Quepem
Time is of the essence!
The Covid virus waits for no doctor. To control the former requires quick thinking and execution. The knowledge is out there: we should not hesitate to ask for help.
The Goa Govt. has not exhibited any such alacrity; they prefer to ‘hope’ things get better. First it was the acute lack of oxygen which they hoped was a temporary phase. Doctors take a patients signature (or his relatives) even if they have to execute a minor operation. Yet, when it came to their decision to ‘ration’ oxygen knowing fully well that the patient would succumb, they did not inform the patients.
Now, the GMC Dean says that the medical waste sent to the GMC was 2.5 times the handling capacity. Yet he just waited for things to normalise. He instead preferred to burn the same. Why?
The PWD Engineer ‘preferred’ to clandestinely discharge untreated sewage water into the fields. For how long did he hope to do this?
The question is: ‘Why’? It is very clear the answer is because of absolute authority and the suppression of the media and law departments. In short: a muzzled democracy. This cannot work when those in power are lacking in decisiveness and mental acumen. Such forms of Govts. cannot tackle a ‘war’ on the whole country like the covid war. They can only wage a war on the public for a limited time. A war like the Covid one is a matter of life and death for everyone including the judiciary which was forced to react.
Yet, things have since reverted to the former state. Where is the oxygen audit? The 3rd wave cannot be tackled in this manner. Once again, the authorities are living in hope.
What is amazing is that people are able to forget the horrors of the second wave, their origin, and the condoning of the wrong decisions.
R Fernandes, Margao
Football Goa’s State sport
The ongoing Euro 2020 Football championship has brought some mental relief to the football crazy Goans to stray away from the usual depressing news of deaths still occurring due to Covid-19 in various hospitals around the State.
The 3-0 win of Portugal in the European Championship had droves of fans in Goa watching the game as they are the defending Champions. The football fever of watching these football matches increases whenever Portugal plays as there exists still a deep-rooted connection of Football mania due to the earlier Portuguese influence in popularizing the sport in colonial Goa.
However, it was heart rendering to read in the Herald dated June 17 instant that that the main infrastructure body of the Government, the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) has dropped to reconstruct the Dayanand Bandodkar football stadium located before the scenic flowing Mandovi River in Campal, Panjim.
I can fairly recollect that along with some school friends we have seen games played here including some visiting foreign teams by paying a mere entrance fee of 50 paise only with the twin Colaco body builder brothers guarding the main gate.
The erstwhile Parrikar Government had assured Panjim football lovers of reconstructing this old stadium with concrete stands without chairs on appeal made to the authorities when we had approached them, since the same was demolished for providing parking space for the first IFFI.
The stadium could be reconstructed as the IFFI was shifted from the old venue in Panjim. It is reminded that the stadium was built in Campal due to the special initiative of the Sports Lover first Chief Minister of Goa Dayanand Bandodkar.
Since the Parrikar Government had declared Football Goa’s State Sport it is imperative to have a Football stadium in Panjim besides his Samadhi being constructed next to Dayanand Bandodkar Samadhi in Miramar. Thus, it seems a distant proposal of the Smart City project as the Union Ministry of Urban Development does not consist of the projects for playground but just another election promise.
Can the Goa Football Association whose office is also located in Panjim , kindly intervene with the Government to build a new international football stadium in Panjim.
Rui Ferreira, Panjim
