18 Aug 2017 | 05:05am IST
letters to the editor
The movement against drugs existed in Goa even in the 80’s when the inmates of Asha Bhavan would visit schools and educate us with their live examples of how drugs have ruined their lives.
Now after more than three decades we still hear of deaths due to drugs in the coastal villages of Anjuna, which are famous for all night parties where the deadly cocktail of alcohol and drugs can take away the lives of innocent teenagers.
Let us ‘say no to drugs’ and instead dedicate our energies to work for our nation to remove greed, poverty, unemployment, communalism and hatred of the weaker communities.
As I heard the honorable prime minister on 15th August, it was difficult to understand, if it was a Independence Day speech or a election rally.
Rhetoric's, assurances and promises, just as it is done in an election rally.
The prime minister spoke about houses for all by 2022, also he said about farmers will double their income, youth and women will get ample
of opportunities, he said India will be free from casteism, terrorism and corruption, we have heard this many times please please show us the
road map, we trust you, you also said about violence in the name of astha will not be accepted, but still you have not done anything to those
hooligans who kill people in the name of gauraksha, you spoke about how demonetisation has bought in thousands of crores of rupees in less than
2 months, but sir it was your party which opposed vociferously when you were in the opposition,
We are not asking you the status of the Rs 15 lakhs which were to be deposited in everyone's personal account or the black money which you were supposed to get back from the foreign banks in just 100 days of coming to power as we now know it was election time and you didn't mean it.
Sorry sir, stop this rhetoric and please show us some seriousness on the issues you mentioned or else you would be just a big letdown.
There seems to be a lot of confusion among the consumer as far as the newly introduced Goods and Service Tax (GST) is concerned. The citizens may not be aware of how much GST they have to pay for the goods they purchase or whether they have to pay the tax at all. It seems that some traders too are not well versed with the GST regimen.
Several traders could probably be referring to the impact of GST every time a consumer questions the high price of the product. It would be in the fitness of things for the consumer to be in the know on the percentage of GST a particular product attracts. The traders could do their bit to educate the consumer on the GST by displaying, in their business premises, the rate of GST which has to be paid for products sold. The Goa government on it's part needs to educate the general public on GST by frequently holding symposiums in different parts of the state.
Technology is a mixed blessing. It brings new avenues of education and also entertainment. But nowadays most of the teenagers are on online for playing games. Recently it's a debated issue on the Blue Whale Challenge game which has been linked to teenage deaths from Russia to America.
The structure of this `game' is that over 50 days the victim is given around 50 self-harm tasks, designed to culminate in suicide. Slowly this danger of the games is spreading his wings in India and two cases are already detected one in Chennai and the other in Mumbai.
Recently a survey was done on teenagers and it came to the conclusion that pressure on young people is enormous, regarding their education and the same time parents are overstretched by stresses of modern life.
In this type of situation no parents are interested at what their children’s are doing or what they are up to online. The parents should take the initiatives to keep an eye on them, as well as talk to them, so that to make ensure that no harm will come for them, before it’s too late. Even India's IT ministry has given orders to Facebook and Google to remove all the links to online game but on internet such dangers will still lurk.
So the best thing is to keep an eye on the children by their parents.
Aurelio Viegas, Chinchinim
There is a game circulating on the Internet and in social media called ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ that has caused the suicide of some of its young players. The 50-day challenge game ends with a call for the player to kill himself/herself.
The extremely dangerous Blue Whale challenge game which has originated in Russia is finally being taken seriously after the number of teen suicides that has taken place across the entire country. The dangers of social media are highlighted through instances such as this. Parents, teachers and community members should be aware of a deadly new game targeted at children and youth.
I urge parents to monitor the activities of their children and dissuade them from falling prey to such challenges.
This is with reference to the report 'Lobo to submit list of cops involved in drugs after by-polls' on Herald dated August 17.
For years, drug lords have been operating freely and mostly in North Goa, in connivance with politicians and the cops. If our politicians had the will power to finish off this menace they would have acted on this long before.
I wonder why Lobo wants to submit the list after the by-polls, being in power for all these years with the ruling BJP Party. Also, for me it looks like Lobo never realised that there is a Police-Politician-Drug Lord Nexus running in the State, which makes drugs survive in Goa all these years.
Willie M. Severes, Majorda
Recent Gorakhpur tragedy is indeed a reminder that our healthcare has relegated to a very bad shape and it needs immediate attention.
It is alleged that callous attitude towards payment of bills to suppliers of life -supporting oxygen has made sick children breath their last in a key hospital in a major town of our country. Healthcare, education and employment are the very basic things that people need and these three essentials must get top priority in our policies. India should be like a garden for human development and not a laboratory for ideological experiments. And more importantly, electoral promises must not be degraded as perishable goods!
During the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup game played in Barcelona, the Spanish referee Ricardo de Burgos is alleged to have been very harsh on Real Madrid player Ronaldo who was shown a red card for some minor infringements like removing his shirt in celebration of a goal that he had scored and alleged diving in the penalty box.
It is possible that Spanish referees are usually very strict as far as Real Madrid players are concerned for the simple reason Real Madrid is not properly speaking a Spanish team.
It is more of an international football team that call the shots in La Liga of Spain. Only two players are of Spanish origin: Ramos and Carvajal, Benzema and Varane are from France, Marcello and Casemiro from Brazil, Ronaldo from Portugal, Bale from UK, Kroos from Germany, Modrich from Croatia and Navas from Costa Rica.
