Here are a few past events running through my mind showing some sort of similarities which I present before my readers.
Archimedes shouted with joy, “Eureka! Eureka! Eureka! (I have found it)” on descovering the law of buoyancy. His theories are still in use today. Iva Fernandes turned sad; sadder; saddest; when she found that the fish brought to Goa from other States had the presence of formalin. As it is not possible to test all the fish in trucks that stand in a queue on Goa borders, the formalin-fear hangs up even today.
There is no ban of fish brought from outside our State because authorities assert that the imported fish are tested and free from formalin. It looks that the government wants the public to abandon the right reason and accept their wrong conclusion that imported fish is formalin free. Therefore, majority of people’s attitude is “Mhaka kiteak poddlam”; which works out as: “It is not our duty to check formalin in fish; ours is to believe our rulers and eat fish with or without formalin and die.”
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, due to bread shortage uttered, “let them eat cake”; which was interpreted by the public like this: “no bread, eat cake.” Her statement went to show how out of touch she was with her subjects.
Similarly, our government’s action not to stop trucks from outside the State indirectly seems to say: “stop eating fish” which was taken to mean by the public like this: “if there is formalin in fish, stop eating fish; eat ‘baji’ and drink ‘canji’.” In other words, government’s statement shows that health of the public is not so important to authorities.
Galileo asserted that the Earth orbits round the Sun, and not the other way round; but as the Church had decided the idea that the Sun moved around the Earth was not to be disputed. Galileo’s statement was taken as a heresy, because his discovery threatened the domination of the Catholic Church. But Gallieo did not have such menacing intentions. He said, “I don’t think that God who has given us sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” Nevertheless, Galileo was punished. He was not only excommunicated but also ostracised by the Church. Galileo agreed and took back his theory that the Earth moves around the Sun.
Similarly, neither Iva had any purpose to break the rules of the FDA dept; she only stated the fact that formalin is harmful for humans. But likewise, this woman officer of Goa’s FDA department, alleges harassment by the State govt after her tests confirmed the presence of formalin in fish imported in Goa.
It took more than 300 years for the Church to clear Galileo’s name of heresy and admit that Galileo was right. We do not know how long it will take our authorities to admit that Iva was right and when that “achhe din”, will come with the hi-tech testing lab for checking the formalin in fish. The govt has to permanently ban imported fish to win people’s trust. Let us live on fresh air and fresh fish from our Goan fisher folks. May God give the authorities the grace to take appropriate action in this ‘formalin’ case ‘within permissible limit’?
