Goa has recently celebrated the so-called fifty six golden years of Liberation. A thought comes to my mind, has Goa gained, lost or miserably lost in this fifty six years of liberation? On this great day, our elected leaders speak about Swach Bharat,Nitoll Goem when they themselves have created mountains of garbage in this one time garbage-free Goa. They speak about tree plantation, they will distribute free samplings and some of us receive them, praise them by forgetting that thousands of coconut trees were cut to make way for a beer factory when Goa had sufficient beer. They even went to the extent of passing a bill to get rid of these sacred trees. Fortunately the tree got back its status but what about the killing of those thousands of trees? Anyway, they who played with the sacred tree will face the consequences one day, someday.
The destructors razed hundreds of old-aged beautiful trees on the Verna-Cortalim stretch just before the Zuari bridge to make way for another bridge and what not. I am personally not against the bridges, motorways or the express ways but is this worth by destructing the natural beauty gifted by the creator? People in power failed to understand the simple difference between development and destruction. When a poor farmer tries to erect a decent shelter over his family, the poor fellow has to run from pillar to post to get the paper work done but acres of agricultural land has been converted within a night, the rich and powerful are busy erecting buildings on the orchid land and nothing happens. The rich and the powerful have got their own rules and laws.
There was a time when people from all around the world were coming to see Goa, the land of sun, sea, sand, football, definitely not forgetting the feni and today unfortunately the same old golden land of mine is very well-known to the world for sex, drugs and all sort of ugly activities. The sun today has turned out to be very hot, the sea changed her behavior and as we all know where we stand when it comes to football and feni? My Goa been used as a brand name with regard to Football and Feni with no Goan flavour existing in both of them. If one goes by the Police records, there were times when not even a murder was reported in a year but today thing have changed. They should have changed from good to best but sadly they are changing for bad to worst.
Our elected governments have always turned out to be the worst enemy for Goa and Niz Goemkars since Liberation. The first elected government had plans to sell Goa to Maharashtra but few daring sons of mai Goa fought from the heart as a result of which our identity is still alive. It’s only we as Goemkars can save what little good is remaining to carry our identity forward and together we can do it and if we cannot, then our generations who are yet to come in this world will curse us and our souls will never ever rest in peace.
To all my lovely susegadd brothers and sisters it’s time to wake up from the siesta. Together we can move a mountain and let’s do it.
