New Year
aspirations
We are at the threshold of 2023 New Year. It’s an annual event, year after year, to indulge into the revelry to welcome the year. Our aspirations are many, our hope rank high and expectations are numerous. But every New Year is the same if one should observe carefully. The sun will rise, the moon will glow, the stars will twinkle in the late evening and the birds will tweeter at dawn. Yes, every day we shall experience the goodness of nature without any change and in all its generosity. But what we make of New Year is within us. It’s our psychological mind that prompt us to say the year is good or bad. Looking back at the old year, 2022, in the beginning we have gone through the same scenario and most of us remark today at its end: 2022 wasn’t good. If so then we made it that way.
Here again in 2023 we shall not see much change should we not opt for it. With so much of development and the government talking hifi in bringing about changes we are likely to be where we are.
Today we talk of traffic jams, bad roads dangerous for travelling, erratic power supply and water scarcity; what life are we living in modern technological advancement. Our life, perhaps, is worse than ancestral time. They lived happily in peaceful living in the embrace of nature. Some ancestors recollect of days gone by and the happy times they spent comparatively with present days we are facing. Rightly so, with change of time changes are expected and life will be different. We must accept this change with a positive mind in the New Year 2023 and make it the best with positivity in our day to day doings and bid the year 2023 a grateful adeus when it phases out at its end from our midst.
Ayres Sequeira, Salvador do Mundo
Keep safe
and healthy
In my experiences and opinion, one can never plan the whole year on NY’s eve, guessing what it might bring to the table, especially with alarming event like the surge in Omicron during the same time since 2020. However, on a positive note you can decide the direction of your exploration this year and try once again. In 2023, improving your body, mind and soul is a great way to organize your long-term goals for this coming New Year.
Investing and focusing on your health and well-being doesn’t have to translate to starting a new diet or workout plan, though – but a good work or retired life balance is a must, keeping in mind that your directions should be very stable and very important to you and yours. Sudden discipline, change of nature is never to exist, should happen eventual. We wish or want to make improvement in self, but when it comes to making efforts for that, we take a step back, especially if we have burnt ourselves in the past. Some of us, take an unfeasible resolution which is very hard and impractical to achieve that may be time-bound, rather we need to resolve to keep in mind that being a human we can’t adapt to changes overnight as we need to undergo deep introspection for it.
I would recommend to start with small – This is the keystroke in life that breaks the goals in slots and then start fulfilling it and should develop a sense of accomplishment which in turn will motivate us to go ahead. Many of us believe in the theory to motivate ourselves, but this motivation remains for only a few moments as we get lazy or just forget about it. And there are some who are afraid to fail because they believe they can’t do it, so they never execute the Resolution and do not take it seriously. On the flip side, some take it seriously and it becomes a source of suffering or some kind of unexpected stress for them.
Let me conclude with famous quotes: “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing – Year is made up of seconds, and if you don’t make good use of every seconds, you won’t make good use of the New Year!” – Keep safe and healthy!
Gaston Dias, Sarzora
New law on
name change
It is learnt that the ‘Goa Change of Name and Surname (Amendment) Act, 2022’ has come into effect from December 25, 2022. The Act places restrictions on who can change their names in Goa. The legislation reportedly allows only those either born in Goa or having a parent or grandparents born in Goa to change their name or surname in the state.
Furthermore, only a person whose name and surname are already recorded in the birth register of Goa will be permitted to change their names. The decision to amend the Act was a result of an apprehension in the minds of Goans that benefits and amenities available to them may be usurped by persons from other states by changing and adopting Goan names and surnames.
Other reasons for amending the Act were increasing frauds in land deals, and revelations that non-Goans were adopting Goan surnames in a bid to seek Portuguese citizenship, a facility available to Goans. Under Portuguese law, those born in its erstwhile colonies before liberation can get the country’s citizenship, and this facility is available till the third generation. In the case of Goa, all those born in the state before 1961 and their descendants are eligible for Portuguese citizenship. The law was passed to streamline the process of name changes because people were found to be adopting Goan surnames completely unrelated to their original name. Obviously this amendment will safeguard the interest of Goans in the long run.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Vetting of caregivers,
caretakers & agencies
Several agencies and individuals have mushroomed to provide or be caregivers (CG)/ caretakers (CT) for people who are ill to varying degrees. This is a much-required service for those who are not able to take care of themselves if they are alone or by their family due to some reasons. The CG/CT advertise in newspapers and in hospitals, including the Goa Medical College. Some even have kiosks outside to provide information about their services and rates.
The CG/CT carry out wonderful and thankless tasks some of which even the close family members may shirk from doing. The charges vary from Rs 1,200 to more per day, excluding GST (the Finance Minister should do away with this GST for it is a humanitarian service), depending on the severity of the patient, paying capacity of the party, distance, day or night care, full day etc. Some even charge the clients for transport and food. The agencies/individuals do a good business but we will not grudge them on this point for it is not a social service.
The problematic and grey areas for the clients are: if the agencies and CG/CT are registered, have licence to operate, trained for medical services and emergencies, mental strength to see the suffering of the clients, able to handle special cases, are vetted by the employers and police etc. The CG/CT are dealing with vulnerable people and the authorities should see that there are no fly-by-night operators and agencies who might take undue advantage of the situations. The above factors are not to cast doubts but for the safety of the clients and their family and for the agencies and CG/CT to have their reputation intact to further their trade.
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
