Walk like an Egyptian!
Ever so often these days, I get accosted by my friends and this is what they say, “It is time to launch a massive movement by all of us Goans, like the Egyptians”, As if all movements are as easy as a bowel movement. Talk they say, is cheap. Sadly, Democracy is even cheaper.
Like a scintillating, searing magnum opus that even Holly wood could not dream of, we are proud to witness one of the most epoch making periods in our planets contemporary history. The entire Arab world is ablaze with the feverish emotion of revolt.
Tunisia and Egypt have fallen. Libya, Bahrain and Yemen are creaking at the gates of paradise. Blood has been spilled, sacrifices made, and we are almost an integral part of these country’s histories via live TV and the internet. Their struggle for freedom and democracy is forever ours.
So, where’s the difference??? Can’t we get rid of our home grown despots – The little men who have set this little land of ours down a suicidal path of disaster? A press of the voting button is so much easier. No? Than pressing a trigger? So, why can’t the change occur?
And therein lies our collective tragedy, if not farce.
Whereas Mubarak and Gadaffi kept their ill gotten wealth restricted to family and a coterie, our family concerns that rule us; the Alemaos, the Monserates, the Ranes and the Dhavlikars spread the largesse like a generous dose of butter to almost everyone in their constituencies.
All of us are welcome to the party, in true carnival style, to partake of the feast which consists of exotic, wonderful delicacies, even if laced with arsenic. So why bother about democracy, accountability and transparency? That is for tireless (and thankfully tiresome) activists and journalists and thinking citizens to fret about.
Today, we are drunk silly, all at the cost of our earth and our trees, our rivers and our hills. The booze just does not seem to stop. So why grumble? But someday, the hangover will have to set in and the unsustainable bubble will have to burst.
And then, the monstrous Marie Antoinettes and Louis XVI that we ourselves have created will exclaim. “They don’t have water??? Really? Why don’t they drink alcohol instead? And the French connection would seem complete.
The subtle yet humungous difference between the Arabs and us therefore is this; the Arabs are waging a spectacular, gutsy and winning battle against wealthy ensconced tyrants addicted to oil and power.
We, the brilliant people of Goa and India, are hell bent on jeopardising and squandering the glorious fruits of democracy that our founding fathers, created for us selflessly, spectacularly and seamlessly.
By bartering our votes, and our conscience as well, for thirty pieces of silver, we are slowly but surely nurturing feudal lords and dangerous tyrants addicted to mines and real estate, who will then crush us relentlessly to keep their grip on power for a eons to come. Democracy be damned!
The gale storm is approaching! Without doubt!!!
My guess is that it will take our grand children to overthrow these kings and their progeny, in an Egyptian style revolution, 80 years down the line when the cauldron finally comes to a boil.
Hence let us celebrate as the Arab world marches forward, and mourn while we stubbornly refuse to see the writing on the wall, and determinedly march backwards, a cocky smile on our faces and our eyes wide shut. Vive La Revolucion!
Dr Oscar Rebello has Goa in his heart and wears it on his sleeve. He needs no introduction!
