So, could that carol go something like this: I’m dreaming of a quiet Christmas, just like the ones we used to know, where there was lots of caroling and little of quarrelling, when we sang at our neighbour’s door. I’m dreaming of a green Christmas, not like the one we may get to know, but where the trees stay standing and children play gladly with no coal dust on the floor. One could go on, but the message that such a carol wants to give should have reached with just these stanzas.
The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that are in place may actually give Goans the rare opportunity of having a quiet Christmas, with more family time and less dashing thru and fro that a very consumerist society has brought about. The parish churches are cutting down on the Christmas activities, the social clubs have closed their doors to gatherings, the entertainment sector has no permission for dances, and it is only the hospitality industry that this year is offering some Christmas lunches and dinners. Even the children will have to make do without the thrilling Santa Claus parties that they wait for anxiously the whole year round. Oh yes, it is going to be a quiet Christmas, a lot like it used to be before the market forces found in the festival a cash cow, that they could easily milk.
But will it, by any chance, be a green Christmas? This year, yes, we will still have it green and can revel in this. But can this be guaranteed to remain the same in the years to come? Will the Goa that we have inherited be one day left as a legacy for the generations to come? Or will a very different Goa pass on to the hands of the future generations? Will that what the people, and now a representative section of the Goan youth are fighting for, be met before the calendars are turned over to signify a New Year? Such are the musings on Christmas Day, over which the shadow of COVID-19 had already been cast.
The past weeks had seen continuous awareness sessions, almost on a daily basis, on the three linear projects passing through the Mollem forests, as well as a few agitations in various villages. There is now a lull, almost like a Christmas break, but this does not signify that the issues has been set aside or forgotten. A vigilant section of Goans will not allow it to be erased from memory. The attempts to keep Goa green will continue.
So, this Christmas day, we can always dream of future Christmases that will be green. Nobody can stop that from happening. And currently, there are these dreamers who have been campaigning for a Goa that they hope to one day see, that they hope to one day bequeath to the generations that will come. The movement is all about the handling and transportation of coal and the pollution that it is causing. This has to end at some time. If the movement of coal via Goa can be stopped, then so too will the resultant pollution. The focus has to be on coal transportation and how to stop it. Herein lies the trick for more green Chirstmases.
