elena Richards who was down for Christmas with her Indian boyfriend tells us how through her trip she was posting a lot of photos of Goa on Instagram with the hastag #Goa. And immediately there were random cyber stalkers sending her personal chats of hi baby, can I tour you through Goa, hi wan me to take you to anjuna, Come with me to Palolem.
“ Some of these were genuine messages asking me on a date and I now feel that had I in a way accepted those proposals, I would probably go down like Danielle, explains Selena Richards who’s safe and sound back in Auckland but felt awkward to be stalked in Goa.
Goans find it very hard to move on from something that’s left them disturbed. The conversation over lunch with friends across the table is still how the young Irish backpacker Danielle McLaughlin was murdered in Goa.
Goans maybe irked that the BJP government pulled a heist and formed a government but they’ve left that behind in their grumble and Goans globally are only talking about the murder and how safe is Goa.
“This not the Goa that I was brought up in,” was a quick reaction by Condrad Barreto, a Goan techie who lives in Bangalore.
While Goans in the UK on goanvoice.org.uk have completely ignored the new Brexit laws and everybody is only discussing this gruesome murder.
“Every month there’s a foreigner dead in Goa. An accident, an assault by taxi drivers, some fights, drug abuse, crime or murder. The numbers are increasing. Nobody overseas will forget the Scarlett Keeling murder and now this. Feels like Goa are not all that safe anymore,” asserted Chadwic Smith who talks on social media how he’s been to Goa five time in the last decade but he feels a sense of insecurity in Goa.
While on VK, the social media hit in Russia has complaints of tourist being sexually assaulted, breasts being groped in public at parties, eve-teasers and men are staring at them on the beaches.
“When you interact with the trustworthy older Goans, they make you understand the whole concept of rising migrants in Goa who seem like the ones that make the beaches unsafe explains Swetlana Su on the same social media forum.
But also the younger generation of Goans also indulge in social media stalking, taking random videos and pictures of foreign tourist.
While Tania Xecxia on a Goa travel forum has put out guidelines like do not share a meal with a local Goan, do not indulge I sex with Goans, do not accept free drinks in Goa, avoid hanging out and going for meals with Goan taxi drivers, do not befriend local vendors at Calangute. It’s very obvious that there is a sense of insecurity amongst tourist in Goa. Despite the large number of tourist visiting Goa.
Sadly it’s not just rape and murder. Tourist have been looted and robbed at knife point or gun point, something familiar with African nations.
“It’s shocking now after this incident when you sit at a shack and hear the expats grumble of the harassment on them and how tourist instead of having a good time are living in constant fear of being robbed, drugged, beaten, raped,” explains Jerry who makes his way to Goa from the USA after a long time.
While the tourist feel the cops are ineffective in Goa and don’t really step in to help tourists but rather look at them as bribe machines.
