Ho Greed! Thy Name Is Folly!
Holding on to power is the mantra of the day, it doesn’t look idiotic says FREDDY AGNELO FERNANDES
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The numerous scams, the fall of bridges, the mosquitoes and the illnesses they spread, missing the deadlines, lack of hygiene, the Commonwealth Games and the joys and pride associated with it is mingled with an aura of being typically Indian in nature. Everything fell into place at the last minute, and the nation pulled it off spectacularly. My best wishes and hurrahs go out to all the Indian athletes.
Now with the fires of wild celebration having slowly died down, the scavengers are being put to sift over the remnants. It is, indeed, good to know that all the investigating agencies are involved in investigation along with the Shunglu Committee. We are all aware of how far and how high the conduits of corruption have reached. This surely isn’t easy. Will the obdurate and corrupt government machinery allow the investigation to move smoothly while putting their own necks in the noose? The chances are minimal, but I do hope this investigation does not die a premature death like those of the past.
People’s fury on the massive corruption scandal of the CWG had hardly died, when another infamous scam in the form of Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society was unearthed. Purportedly meant for the widows of Kargil’s martyrs, the prime land ended up being a discretionary largesse of our ever charming ‘Netas’ and their stooges, with a veritable who’s who in politics, defence and bureaucratic establishments, from ex-service chiefs to top politicians, babus and their kin.
Corruption is a monstrous evil that’s embedded in our political and eco-social sphere, where a plethora of procedures and laws are violated and transgressed with very little thought or no thought at all. In the past, no action has been taken and the guilty have been vindicated and allowed to abuse their political power and patronage. The rot has been systematic and the remedy must be more than just finding a scapegoat.
The nexus between the politicians, servicemen, promoters and builders is very much evident. Security aspects were apparently not adhered to. The scale of corruption and the involvement of senior services personnel are frightening. The lacunae in laws should be plugged and the guilty punished. Those responsible should be invariably taken to task and made an example of, to deter a repeat of such fiascos.
We all know that scams in India and more so in Goa, are nothing new. I won’t be wrong in saying that they are fast becoming a way of life. Needless to say, it now is part of the corrupt’s daily life. Land scams in Goa have become daily occurrences in every part of Goa, examples like the security number plate, the earlier and the not-so-long ago ticket gate scams, automatically comes to mind. One wonders what happened to the earlier ticket gate fiasco? It’s beyond any one’s imagination why such scamsters are still holding such elite posts. It’s a real pity that sports and development has been left in the hands of such unworthy and corrupt people.
SEZs and CRZs are the other big scams, the resurrected RP 2021 is still in hibernation even after a good number of assurances by Ali Baba and the Forty thieves. Even then, we do nothing but elect the same rotten, incompetent, shameless, corrupt and distorted politicians over and over again, even while they have been selling Goa to the highest bidder.
Now on to the scam called Municipal elections.
Our corrupt politicians continue to amass and increase their already inflated personal fortunes and try to assert their power in municipal and panchayat elections. The Panchayati Raj and the municipal governance was established for the participation at grass-root level as independent bodies without any interference or involvement of the local and the central government, but the good old doctrine of self governance has been hijacked by our “Neta babus” who made it their own play cum parking ground, for their own political and financial gains. These elections only serve to reinforce the money power of the entrenched corrupt elites. There has been an endemic corruption in political and bureaucratic circles in Goa
Political parties should not be bickering over the panchayats and the municipalities and casting their corrupt ideologies over them, these grass-root civic bodies should be run the way they were meant to be run, independent of political manipulators. The involvement of politicians at grass-root politics raises more questions than answers. We are, indeed, an indifferent electorate, and that’s why our politicians foist their litter on us.
Even the municipal and panchayat elections are getting increasingly delinquent and dangerous, with some of our ministers and ex-ministers resorting to ‘goondagiri’. The soaring eagles of fame can so easily turn into vultures, and while strong arm tactics were used, money and goodies were distributed like sweets during a festive season. Looking at the very strong security presence on a high alert, it looked like there was a communal flare-up all over Goa. We have been having elections in Goa for nearly forty years, apart from the opinion polls and there was no problem. Now for the municipality elections, we have top notch security. Where is Goa heading to? Is it a dawn of a new era?
Greed for power and money can bring the worst out into the open. Reading about the power sharing amalgamation formed in the different municipalities has bemused me no end. The Alemao brothers seem to have become conductors of the symphonies called Sanguem and Cuncolim municipalities.
Hold on to power by all means is the mantra of the day. It doesn’t matter how idiotic it looks. Every Tom, Dick and Harry, working through a coterie, is looking and hoping for the chief’s edifice, behaving like petulant kids, typifying the rot within and making loyalty an imbecile’s begging bowl. Troubled by past dalliances, trust has been abandoned with impunity, there will always be inconsistency and incessant squabbling, but they are willing to cohabit with anybody and everybody, as long as it suits them and with the lure of future extramarital romances, it is advisable to negotiate divorce terms well in advance, without the door being shut on the option of a remarriage. This impasse would be suicidal for all. That’s why it is called prudent politics.
All this only goes to show, just how greedy our politicians are for power and money. Oh greed, thy name is folly!
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Love is ……..
By Ervell E Menezes
When in high school and on holiday in Goa I heard a 30ish woman speak of love. Being on the periphery of the talk, one had to almost eavesdrop. “What is love,” she said knowingly.
“Put a man and a woman in a room and that’s love,” she went on authoritatively.
It was only later on that one realised her misnomer. She had mistaken love for sex which are two separate issues. Even filmmaker Luis Bunuel thought that they generally do not go together. So borrowing from that poem “The Blind Boy” one may say “Oh say what is that thing called love?”
The more one tries to define it the more distant one seems to get. In our salad days, when the word love itself was like an elixir we thought “the heart has reasons, reason knows not why ?” It seemed romantic and profound enough. But after idealism makes way to cynicism, it rings a different tune.
“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds” makes way for “when poverty knocks at the door, love flies out of the window.” If the earlier generation believed that love was forever the newer one knows that sweet thought scarcely holds water enough to quench a thirsty Arab in the Sahara.
The old songs had it in large measure and called it the many-splendoured thing and asked the beloved to wait until he came back “into her arms again.” What bliss, this ! Not today. The lyrics are diametrically opposite. More pragmatic. Realistic. Take Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan or the others who clearly know that times are a-changing. That you can love one person at a time. Sometimes two ! So, what is it then ?
Is it a feeling? Something inside is on fire. Is it like a fever? May be it is as difficult to define as it is to learn the complex structure of a woman. With women’s lib celebrating its golden jubilee soon, they have well and truly arrived. And don’t ever call them the weaker sex.
My English professor Menezes-Fernandes would stamp his foot hard on the floor in Lecture Room 14 of St Xaviers College, Mumbai in the 1960s and say “My foot, don’t believe that. Ask me.” Poor old man, what would he say today? May be it is child-bearing that makes them so strong. They are able to endure more, physically, mentally and even psychologically. But quite often they simulate helplessness and vulnerability as a defence mechanism. They are crafty enough to indulge in this deception.
Which still leaves us guessing as to what the true meaning of love is? It may be what is known as the higher love or the complete rapport when the physical and mental merge in a magic amalgam. Until then, your guess is as good as mine. To date, however, it is just another four-letter word.
