Thecla Pereira
Get up and join in raising your valuable voice and save Goa. Sussegad Goenkar is fine, as a personality trait, but it is not the right frame of mind if you want to win revolutions. You have to step out, if you want your Goa. Every day could be another day on the calendar or beginning of a historic period of a Goan awakening. We have a million reasons to be angry about; we have another million to demand justice. The answer lies in stepping out and bringing the truths to the streets. It is great to see it happening as GACRZ reiterates objection to draft CRZ Notification 2018.
Learn to recognise the symptoms of a sick beach. Every beach is different, has different threats, a different history and needs to be treated differently. Almost all the threats to our beaches come from human activities.
The Draft proposes to replace the existing 2011 Coastal Regulation Zone Notification (‘2011 CRZ Notification’) is no improvement of the former. Rather it will alter whatever little is left of diverse coastal landscape there are strings of reasons that should shake us up! The damage doesn’t end with the construction of tourist infrastructure and opening for port led development and mega projects.
Recreational activities also have a huge impact. For example, careless boating, diving, snorkelling, and fishing have substantially damaged coral reefs in many parts of the world, through people touching reefs, stirring up sediment, and dropping anchors.
Revolution is buried or ingrained deep within the Goan/Goenkar whichever way you look at it. Today, when those who trample upon the rights of villages to decide their fate in gram sabhas, those who allow the brazen usurpation of community lands; those who seek new plans to carry on non-traditional activities in CRZ areas, people with no love for the land and people of Goa.
But hey! Don’t feel helpless, get up, and take a step, be a leader. All that is going wrong should remind us that we live a million mutinies and nurture a million revolutions every day. Fight against a tyrannical Goa Government that comes up with scores of scams and Draconian orders every day ranging from hounding activists to flagging illegalities in the name of development to robbing the state of its image of a friendly, safe and content state.
Goa is a beautiful land of different cultures and varied heritage. And this culture is moving on its way to become like just a dream. I wrap up these thoughts, as I hail various civil society groups and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) that staged a protest demanding the immediate scrapping of the draft CRZ notification 2018.
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa.
