Kudos to Herald for awakening Goans and the authorities to the real threat that the people in the state face from the deadly Ebola disease (Herald Oct. 11). The Government needs to sensitize the people on how the disease is spread, what are the symptoms and what precaution one needs to take and the treatment in case of a person being infected by the virus.
Ebola spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids.
The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. The current outbreak in West Africa, (first cases notified in March 2014), is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, to Nigeria and Senegal. Hence it takes only one visitor infected by the Ebola virus entering the state to spread the disease. Thus there is all the more reason for the Goa government to take every precaution while screening the visitors to the state. Prevention is better than cure. But then we also need to be prepared for any eventuality.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
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Nobel Peace prize
Hearty Congratulations to Nobel laureates Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for their fight for children’s rights in India, Pakistan and all around the world.
Although most of us had never heard of Kailash Satyarthi, the award has highlighted his hard work to free 80,000 children from employment from various states in the country. There are many children who are still working in Goa as domestic helps and also in hotels and restaurants. I hope that those who employ these children will help them to return back to their homes and to schools where they belong.
Matias Lobo, Oman
Alina accountable
I quite agree with Reginaldo Lourenco when he said Environment minister Alina Saldanha must resign on Mopa issue. As an MLA she should be accountable to the people who have elected her, and she must go the people and check what is their viewpoint. Instead, she is pandering to the whims and fancies of chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who is hell-bent on pursuing his dream of building the Greenfield airport at Mopa. Some other MLAs are also silent on the issue. Parrikar should follow a democratic norm on the issue.
Placid Edmunds, Mapusa
Honour Nobel winners
Child rights activists, Kailash Satyarthi of India and Malala Yousafzai of Pakastan were honored with the 2014 Nobel Prize for Peace for championing the rights of children who are out of school for various reasons. Significantly, the award comes at a time of heightened aggression across our borders targeting children and unarmed civilians.
Malala has invited the leaders of India and Pakistan, PM Narendra Modi and Nawaz Saharif respectively , to be present at the award giving ceremony in December. The leaders should accept the invitation and honour the two Nobel laureates by signing a ‘No belligerence pact against targeting of children and their families across the borders.
Prof Robert Castellino, Calangute
BSNL woes
Thank you very much for highlighting the sorry plight of thousands of BSNL subscribers using its land lines, internet and broadband connections, through your editorial column “BSNL’s Broadband Services are perhaps the worst in the Industry“ on 10-10-2014. Herald as usual has been always in the forefront to publicly exposing the problems faced by Goans in various areas affecting their daily lives. Indeed the service provided by BSNL, inspite of its tall claims can be described as irresponsible, inefficient and totally lacking accountability. The so called helpline nunbers provided by BSNL are either always busy, if not, no one seems to be there to answer the calls.
Let us hope that the higher-ups at the BSNL organization will get the message conveyed by your editorial, about their erratic and unreliable quality of service and above all “care-a-damn attitude” of its staff serving the consumers and will strive to take urgent measures to remedy the situation and put to an end the anxiety and frustration experienced by the subscribers at the earliest.
Antonio Diniz, Fatorda
Tiatr deserves applause
I refer to the wonderful article by Daniel D’Souza titled Every Tiatr deserves applause where he has highlighted the efforts and pains taken into making of a Tiatr and has clearly explained why the same tiatrs which get awards during competitions have no or very few viewers when played on commercial stage. One such tiatr I would like to really give an applause to is the one staged recently at Kala Academy ‘ Poltodcho Saib ‘ concepted beautifully by Fr Victor Ferrao and scripted by Agnelo de Borim. It’s about Goans acquiring Portuguese passports , forgetting their cultural roots , migrating around the globe leaving the land of their ancestors to be looked after by our Goans who prefer staying back and protecting and fighting for their lands inspite of all odds and sacrifices to do so and sometimes are in for a shock when some greedy persons who had never been to Goa all their lives suddenly appear out of the blue claiming to be related asking for a share of the land which sometimes doesn’t even belong to them! Hope to see more such tiatrs in future!
Allwyn N D’Souza, Saligao
