Doing us a favour? Really!!!

Conversantly anti-Goan

Seriously, have you noticed how one in ten persons Goan or, living in Goa is either an author with several prefixes you read about in the local dailies, the most popular being ‘eminent’ because local journos think a linguistic element has to be attached to said word ‘author’ or; is a social worker. Despite there being little or no evidence (visible at least) of their track record, the social worker outnumbers ten-to-one the author. And it has been said brutally that one of these authors has been stridently anti-Goan, though I must confess that I have not read his particular book or books. And though I swear there is no co-relation between that and what comes next; why are so many long-term resident Brits and far too many long-term Non-resident Indians so vociferously anti-Goan?

Proof of ‘their’ Pudding

In fact I am getting quite tired of Brits telling me or rather as they put it, ‘reminding’ me of the way Goa’s tourism industry is heading: ‘for disaster, mind ya.’ Grrrrrr. And here’s their indictment –well, at least the Brits think so, ‘because the Brits are coming in lesser numbers.’ I am also quite tired of hearing of Brits claiming to be experts on tourism, that they have answers, not one, but many, for every problem afflicting the tourism industry. Some of course make it look as if only they have the magic potion, the universal remedy as it were, they claim has been effective the world over. Ahh yes, they always point out to some world tourist destination and yet they live in Goa. To them I say each time: (1) “You don’t like the place, just leave. Why suffer Goa?” Or I slam this gem on home, it’s a real whammer. (2) Why don’t you try Hong Kong where the roads are kosher, the queues work wonderfully, the road discipline is brilliant, you don’t have Goans maids and the tourism minister won’t insult your sensibilities every now and then?” Then I drive in the knife, a double whammy, if you like: “Point is, can you afford HK?” See now, why it works.

Buggers and Beggars

But this pisses me off the most like 10 on the Richter scale which is all (this time) long-term Non-resident Indians and most (this time) long-term resident Brits think they are doing Goa a huge favour ‘by sustaining Goa’s economy with our presence and the money we spend.’ Blah, blah, blah. Poor buggers, they think we are beggars (BTW, I saw an Indian who lives abroad buying an item in Margao’s biggest department store and forking over money and telling the girl “to keep the change”.) There never is a discussion on how terribly boring the English Premier League is, more particular the hit and run play of Liverpool. There will never be a debate on whether Gordon Brown was really a bully as was alleged in the past week. Or, for that matter that murders per capita makes Britain the most dangerous country in Europe, not Estonia? But then it is always going to be Scarlett and the recent rape cases.

Lies broken down

Look around you, 70 per cent of the 3-5 Star hotels are owned by non-Goans who take away all of their profits. Yes, I know it’s so easy for NRI’s in particular to say: “So, why don’t you build your own hotels?” Yeah right, if it were so easy, why don’t you then, huh, huh? Let’s not even get into how many Goans are employed by the industry, which is why a trade union forum is currently discussing the issue of demanding that a 10 per cent service tax be made mandatory and that this be given to hotel employees. That I am told will hike a waiter’s salary to Rs 13,000 and that Mr/Mrs. NRI will make Goans want to work as waiters and not go abroad. I won’t discuss what else makes Goans not want to work in the tourism industry because that has been done many times in the past in this column and I don’t like repeating myself like they do. But here’s food for thought. The less glamorous mining industry, the Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association tells me, if you consider employment including in the vast spread of allied industries like truck transport, the barge industry, barge repair industry, other ancillaries like truck tyres, spare parts and even the used tyre replacement business (these are used to protect the sides of barges); its work force far exceeds that of the tourism industry. And if you think mining pollutes and it does, the garbage generated by the tourism industry is of greater proportions and affects greater areas in Goa than mining does. There is more to this. GMOEA says the tourism industry could possibly argue that the money generated directly by the industry (which apart from the taxi trade has less allied industries, and an even lesser number based in Goa) matches that generated directly by the mining industry, but GMOEA says if the money generated by the many allied industries is added up, this combined figure is a great deal more.
GMOEA says forex generated is in excess of Rs 10,000 cr annually which means the multiplier effect for each tonne of ore would probably amount to four times more that is generated within Goa in Indian currency. It says the mining industry pays the government an annual royalty of Rs 250 cr. Then there is corporate tax and individual salary tax, service tax, excise and VAT and export duty. I rest my case.


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