Is Goa still a pearl of the world? (oHeraldo Insight, August 13 ) made wonderful reading. Wishing all Goans happy future based on Goa’s heritage, simplicity and innocence, the pearl of the world has suffered enough due to mindless modernisation and insensitivity and must endeavour to restore the good of the past with best of the present. Not a plea towards retrogression but towards a meaningful advance, Goa’s young and old have much to contribute in equal measure.
Mother Nature has given so many bounties to Goa. Mountains, forests, rivers, seas, waterways and ports. Man-made Selaulim Dam (South Goa), Tillari Dam (North Goa), Anjunem irrigation project have capabilities to irrigate large hectares of land for yields and profit making.
Agriculture, fishing, tourism and mining are occupations. Cashew has potential in Sattari, Bicholim and Bardez talukas, toddy business and Goa’s prestige product Feni has flourished, arecanut in Ponda region, much forgotten Kumeri cultivation brought in a (millet and pulses) traditional diet of poorer sections were just wonders.
Life was simple, there was barter between fish and food products, all classes lived with ease and harmony. Strange may it seem today no household used to be locked while going outdoors by members, no crimes.
Tourists from abroad and from other parts of our country came to Goa, enjoyed stays and called the State beautiful.
Now Goa has been radically transformed, thanks to market philosophy and ersatz modernisation. Tall buildings, mega projects, malls built alongside too much commercialisation and search for more money at the expense of everything good and noble. More crimes have come in, frequency, speed and rapaciousness mark today’s Goa overturning sanity and goodness.
Beaches once peaceful, today glimpses of horror. Once noted for respect of all religions and beliefs, today hotheads have cultivated divisions and hatred between different communities. The Bhumiputra Bill has the potential to wreck whatever pristine and stable in Goa’s ethos and community left, extreme care required not to create unnecessary tensions and conflicts.
The Goan’s reactions to your paper insights are illuminating and brings hope in darkness. Young Minds are fresh, radiant about what is to done and their agenda to make the elections 2022 eventful and meaningful. They have heard about their State from their parents and forefathers leaving memories on them, their present conditions in front of them. They must be the torchbearers of a just and new society, the real agents of change what they feel strongly about.
All changes become sensible when the established system is moribund. Goa will sing and dance if a dispensation is new. And this newness and freshness must enable the Goans to respect lives and livelihood, religious freedom and catholicity, heritage and convictions upon which Goa was built and respected as a magnificent place and people to be remembered. Not the Goa of greed, manipulation, religious fundamentalism, casinos and trade of human flesh and crimes.
