Oath of Hypocrites
The Hippocratic Oath generally spelt out how doctors should ethically practice their trade. But, you should know that I intentionally avoided using the word medicine. That was in another millennium. Times have changed. There is a new ‘oath’ that offers doctors commissions that incredibly a Margao-based hospital published, without a care in the world, which is how I have a copy. If Hippocrates were to come alive out of the blue, my diagnosis tells me he would have gone prostrate equally swiftly and would have to be wheeled swiftly into the ICU. The commissions this private hospital offers speaks for itself.
Laparoscopic surgery
Gall stones surgery -cost Rs 25,000, doctors commission Rs 3,500; laparoscopic appendix Rs 12,000, Rs 1,500; laparoscopic hernia Rs 15,000, Rs 2,500.
Cancer
Ca breast surgery -cost Rs 20,000, doctors commission Rs 2,500; thyroid Rs 20,000, Rs 3,000, Ca colon stomach Rs 25,000, Rs 3,500.
Urology
PCNL (kidney stone) surgery -cost Rs 25,000, doctors commission Rs 3,500; URS (ureteric stones) Rs 15,000, Rs 2,500; TRUP (prostate) Rs 20,000, Rs 3,000; bladder stone Rs 10,000, Rs 1,500.
Gyneacology
LAP hysterectomy(hyst) surgery -cost Rs 30,000, doctors commission Rs 3,000; Lap myomectomy Rs 30,000, Rs 3,000; Diag hyst + lap for infertility Rs 10,000; Rs 1,000; open hyst Rs 20,000, Rs 2,500; open myomectomy Rs 20,000, Rs 2,000; LAP for cyst, ectopic pregnancy, adhesiolysis Rs 20,000, Rs 2,000; hysteroscopic procedures fibroid Rs 15,000, Rs 1,500.
Physician heal they self
So far, the central government’s efforts to curb bribing doctors have been like giving the fox the job of guarding the henhouse, despite the fact that more than a quarter of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) account for 70% of the drug market in India and who are subsidiaries of companies that have been penalised in the US for illegally promoting various drugs through inducement. Recently, Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion in one of the biggest healthcare fraud settlements. It wined and dined doctors sending them on exotic trips. Eli Lilly was fined $1.42. Glaxosmithkline (GSK) has reserved $400 million to settle charges of promoting unapproved use of drugs and of kickbacks to doctors related to several products. Bristol-Myers Squibb was fined $515 million in 2007. There’s more to this.
The huge profit margins on drugs big pharma companies make, to all intents and purposes, allow them to effectively bribe doctors. In fact, small-scale manufacturers of drugs have always maintained that drug prices can easily be brought down 50 per cent. But if big pharmas did that, would they have the money to bribe doctors, which includes sending them on holidays abroad and in India?
Healing or self-healing
A doctor told me a rep of a Chennai-based pharmaceutical company (name withheld) whom he described as ‘paan chewing and looking more like a thug’ offered him free encyclopaedias to begin with (he was starting out his practice) and a laptop next. The rep’s complaint was that pharmacies in his jurisdiction in Tiswadi were not prescribing his company’s drugs. A representative of an ethical pharma company said he received complaints from doctors of bribes being offered. Pharmaceutical companies pressurize pharmacies to sell their drugs, even if a doctor prescribes another drug; which is precisely why you never seem to get the drug you were prescribed. Which is why, often what should be a quick visit to the family doctor turns into a merry-go-round if you dare insist on every letter of the word on your prescription.
‘Vitamin M’ is also administered by a certain hospital into the veins of your traffic cops and the 108 ambulance service, to ‘induce’ them to rush trauma patients to the hospital. Breaking the Hippocratic Oath in Calangute and the coastal tourist belt extends to bribing hotel staff and taxi drivers to become ‘inclined’ towards certain private clinics, especially one near Mapusa, and particularly dental clinics.
A friend who got an attack of gastritis in the night at a resort in Anjuna had to shell out Rs 800 as doctors’ fees. The irony was that the resort owner was a friend whose friend the doctor was! This particular doctor makes a killing (quite literally) by preying on foreign tourists at resorts!
Government in intensive care
Sent there by the mushrooming of private hospitals, the government sees to it that all the major hospicios, including the health centres, are virtually redundant. The common refrain of doctors is ‘we are short of drugs and consumables.’ The Corlim health centre, built in a remote part of the village, is as a result, barely accessible.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Cock and Bull stories
‘Pay parking is the need of the hour, since parking is free everybody brings four wheelers to the cities, mostly shopkeepers and businessmen, who park their vehicles for the whole day,’ said Arvind Gawas, SP to Herald. Let’s not even bother to dissect the absurdity of his argument, because a mere Rs 5 per hour isn’t going to convince car owners to pass up Panjim nor is the per hour rate going to deter traders who will simply pass it on to the unwitting consumer. But really, what Gawas needs to do expeditiously is to ban vehicles including mobile food vendors entering 18th June Road and instead convert it into a shoppers’ promenade (pedestrian only street) which has successfully been done the world over. I am sure our touring montris and babus have had the pleasure (courtesy your tax money of course) of seeing them on several occasions. In March this year shoppers and non-shoppers overwhelmingly voted in a survey to make Bangalore’s hugely popular Commercial Street a pedestrian zone. It’s not been done yet, but Bangalore is getting there. But for baloney, Gawas gets the month’s Emmy for outstanding gibberish beating the transport and river navigation minister’s rubbish on introducing a Ro-Ro ferry service between Agassaim and Cortalim on a build-operate basis. The other contender is this hair-brained idea of a link between Dona Paula and Mormugao port. This, like the Mopa airport, will never happen, but here’s a hint to the officials who went on a junket and returned awed by the Rs 1,600 cr Bandra-Worli sea link.
Saved! 20 minutes
Autocar recently tested the Sea Link and the traditional Mahim-Prabhadevi route in two Maruti Swifts. Their drivers took off from the domestic airport at 9.30 am sharp, joining the rush hour traffic heading to the Trident Hotel at Nariman Point. One Swift took the Sea Link and the other the Mahim-Prabhadevi route. The magazine’s verdict: the Sea Link proved to be longer and cost Rs 50 one way in toll, and it only saved 20 minutes in time. Not even India Inc starts board meetings on time. Mumbai, a metro bigger in size than Goa and with several times more vehicles than Goa’s population, might have decongested a fraction of its traffic congestion (In March 2007 it had 1,21,70,991 vehicles of which 85,73,679 were two wheelers, 7,00,356were trucks, 64,357 were buses, 1,33,309 were taxis 5,55,118 were autorickshaws.) But, what’s in it for Goa? Also, any Mumbaite will tell you that the Worli exit hits the sea face road at a right angle and is the only bottleneck in an otherwise smooth drive. Shift to Dona Paula which is already a bottleneck –that’s why I said hare-brained. Shift to Mormugao/Vasco where the almost the entire shore line belongs to the Mormugao Port Trust, Goa Shipyard and the Indian Navy … well, even more hare- brained. Aah yes, but then, our politicians do tend to rush off like the hare that nature bestowed very little brain power to.
Don’t rock the boat
As for the Ro-Ro idea, I foresee every industrial estate within miles and industry body protesting the idea for the simple reason that it will up transportation costs, leave alone the fact that there are several unknown entities like; river draft conditions, profitability break even per trip and whether a long vessel of this kind fits into the scheme of things.
Hares and hounds
The hares and hounds race, the game of chase in which one group of players, the hounds, follows a trail of scraps of paper left by another group, the hares, and tries to catch them before they reach a designated point. This is what it has been like chasing the hounds (those who waste our tax money) all these years. Or, do you feel like the hare sometimes, chasing the scraps thrown at you? Nuff said. Your montris (including Subodh Kantak, the government’s attorney general) spent Rs 1,35,778 between April and June 2009 living in hotels in New Delhi. But, what was Luizinho Faleiro, a non-montri, doing at Hotel Shangri la (expenditure: Rs 25,781) between June 8-10. Yeah, who cares? The austerity mantra is not for our montris. You can’t stop the juggernaut on wheels.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
‘Pay parking is the need of the hour, since parking is free everybody brings four wheelers to the cities, mostly shopkeepers and businessmen, who park their vehicles for the whole day,’ said Arvind Gawas, SP to Herald. Let’s not even bother to dissect the absurdity of his argument, because a mere Rs 5 per hour isn’t going to convince car owners to pass up Panjim nor is the per hour rate going to deter traders who will simply pass it on to the unwitting consumer. But really, what Gawas needs to do expeditiously is to ban vehicles including mobile food vendors entering 18th June Road and instead convert it into a shoppers’ promenade (pedestrian only street) which has successfully been done the world over. I am sure our touring montris and babus have had the pleasure (courtesy your tax money of course) of seeing them on several occasions. In March this year shoppers and non-shoppers overwhelmingly voted in a survey to make Bangalore’s hugely popular Commercial Street a pedestrian zone. It’s not been done yet, but Bangalore is getting there. But for baloney, Gawas gets the month’s Emmy for outstanding gibberish beating the transport and river navigation minister’s rubbish on introducing a Ro-Ro ferry service between Agassaim and Cortalim on a build-operate basis. The other contender is this hair-brained idea of a link between Dona Paula and Mormugao port. This, like the Mopa airport, will never happen, but here’s a hint to the officials who went on a junket and returned awed by the Rs 1,600 cr Bandra-Worli sea link.
Saved! 20 minutes
Autocar recently tested the Sea Link and the traditional Mahim-Prabhadevi route in two Maruti Swifts. Their drivers took off from the domestic airport at 9.30 am sharp, joining the rush hour traffic heading to the Trident Hotel at Nariman Point. One Swift took the Sea Link and the other the Mahim-Prabhadevi route. The magazine’s verdict: the Sea Link proved to be longer and cost Rs 50 one way in toll, and it only saved 20 minutes in time. Not even India Inc starts board meetings on time. Mumbai, a metro bigger in size than Goa and with several times more vehicles than Goa’s population, might have decongested a fraction of its traffic congestion (In March 2007 it had 1,21,70,991 vehicles of which 85,73,679 were two wheelers, 7,00,356were trucks, 64,357 were buses, 1,33,309 were taxis 5,55,118 were autorickshaws.) But, what’s in it for Goa? Also, any Mumbaite will tell you that the Worli exit hits the sea face road at a right angle and is the only bottleneck in an otherwise smooth drive. Shift to Dona Paula which is already a bottleneck –that’s why I said hare-brained. Shift to Mormugao/Vasco where the almost the entire shore line belongs to the Mormugao Port Trust, Goa Shipyard and the Indian Navy … well, even more hare- brained. Aah yes, but then, our politicians do tend to rush off like the hare that nature bestowed very little brain power to.
Don’t rock the boat
As for the Ro-Ro idea, I foresee every industrial estate within miles and industry body protesting the idea for the simple reason that it will up transportation costs, leave alone the fact that there are several unknown entities like; river draft conditions, profitability break even per trip and whether a long vessel of this kind fits into the scheme of things.
Hares and hounds
The hares and hounds race, the game of chase in which one group of players, the hounds, follows a trail of scraps of paper left by another group, the hares, and tries to catch them before they reach a designated point. This is what it has been like chasing the hounds (those who waste our tax money) all these years. Or, do you feel like the hare sometimes, chasing the scraps thrown at you? Nuff said. Your montris (including Subodh Kantak, the government’s attorney general) spent Rs 1,35,778 between April and June 2009 living in hotels in New Delhi. But, what was Luizinho Faleiro, a non-montri, doing at Hotel Shangri la (expenditure: Rs 25,781) between June 8-10. Yeah, who cares? The austerity mantra is not for our montris. You can’t stop the juggernaut on wheels.
(Feedback 2280935, 9822152164 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Friday, October 16, 2009
Walk the talk
Last Friday morning, they had to be the most resilient lot in Goa, because you can’t be more hardy than the Friday Mapusa market vendors, who, braving the punishing, pouring rain, covered their wares, and waited, glumly for the more foolhardy buyer like me to come wading along. Even the woman selling rock salt was there, so were some of the plant sellers, who perhaps lost more plants to the flooding waters, than they sold. Truly, it was a wretched Friday, and made me want to call up the editors of magazines who have serially voted Goa as the best and most trendy place to be in. My point, you ask? Our montris need to walk along this path too, literally. They live in glass houses, pretending to be concerned about people’s welfare, and waiting to pounce like vipers on opportunities that come their way. And, it’s not always about making money. It is also about the opportunity to stay in power for another term. Like the issue Mr. Atanasio Monserrate a.k.a ‘Babush’ picked, that is, he said the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat could reoccupy its home in Dona Paula if the ‘B’ Company boys at the Taleigao panchayat were to get a one-time ‘compensation’ of Rs 2 crore; and all the house tax accrued from the parked be parked in the panchayat. So, screw the sentiments of the people of Taleigao (the rest of Goa included) who fought hard to stop, what can accurately be called a hoax of ‘concrete’ proportions, if you get my drift. What next Mr. Monserrate? Tax Goans for setting their eyes on what is left of the tambdi bhaji fields before they join the rest of the concrete jungle that was once beautiful Caranzalem?
But, not this way
Remember all the tax money spent to perk up the already stately homes of our montris, Dayanand Narvekar included, despite the fact he was struck of the privileged list, albeit temporarily. Here’s more on our nawabs and their princely perks, which brings me to a point I should have made a long time ago in this column. Pandurang Madkaikar, the Prince of Cumburjua, is the only one I know who when in power, hasn’t been lavish with your tax money. And, that’s saying a lot these days. This week it’s the turn of Ramkrishna Dhavlikar, who spent just Rs 28,924.65 of your tax money perking up his official bungalow. Dhavlikar, among one half of the Band of Brothers) is the man with the thing for vanishing high security number plates that cost a bomb, and I still wonder why you protest so much. Never mind the cost dumbo, your registration plate car just turned stealth with his help. The Indian Navy has stealth warships, and you have a stealth car now that evades police radar. Go get it. You won’t regret it.
Mr. Ravi Naik, the home minister, spent Rs 1,44,399.13 to do up his official bungalow and it went like this. Rs 7,900 on a steel cupboard, Rs 23,000 on a washing machine. For the rest, read on.
Movers and packers
Apparently spartan in the luxury area, Mr. Naik however showed a huge preference for handy items and splurged your tax money on exactly 86 categories of items. And, I make this point again. What the heck happened to all replaced items? I mean who takes away old refrigerators, washing machines and cooking stoves every time new ones are bought? And then, Mr. Naik decides to change residence. So, what does he do? He simply goes shopping again. Remember, the man who strangely as home minister licensed all the floating casinos on the Mandovi, had earlier spent Rs 5,25,185 of your tax bucks to paint another bungalow where he also installed a FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin costing Rs 1,07,342, but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
Unhealthy trend
This Tuesday, health minister Vishwajeet Rane came calling to Divar after the islanders demanded a public health centre. And were they surprised! Not by his visit silly, but by his insistence that Divar must provide suitable accomodation for the centre and its staff. So, the islanders are asking (in private of course) ‘why do we need you then. And, isn’t? your government the expert on acquiring huge land at the drop of a hat even if it is to build stadiums that none will use eventually?’ As they say, GOOD QUESTION.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Last Friday morning, they had to be the most resilient lot in Goa, because you can’t be more hardy than the Friday Mapusa market vendors, who, braving the punishing, pouring rain, covered their wares, and waited, glumly for the more foolhardy buyer like me to come wading along. Even the woman selling rock salt was there, so were some of the plant sellers, who perhaps lost more plants to the flooding waters, than they sold. Truly, it was a wretched Friday, and made me want to call up the editors of magazines who have serially voted Goa as the best and most trendy place to be in. My point, you ask? Our montris need to walk along this path too, literally. They live in glass houses, pretending to be concerned about people’s welfare, and waiting to pounce like vipers on opportunities that come their way. And, it’s not always about making money. It is also about the opportunity to stay in power for another term. Like the issue Mr. Atanasio Monserrate a.k.a ‘Babush’ picked, that is, he said the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat could reoccupy its home in Dona Paula if the ‘B’ Company boys at the Taleigao panchayat were to get a one-time ‘compensation’ of Rs 2 crore; and all the house tax accrued from the parked be parked in the panchayat. So, screw the sentiments of the people of Taleigao (the rest of Goa included) who fought hard to stop, what can accurately be called a hoax of ‘concrete’ proportions, if you get my drift. What next Mr. Monserrate? Tax Goans for setting their eyes on what is left of the tambdi bhaji fields before they join the rest of the concrete jungle that was once beautiful Caranzalem?
But, not this way
Remember all the tax money spent to perk up the already stately homes of our montris, Dayanand Narvekar included, despite the fact he was struck of the privileged list, albeit temporarily. Here’s more on our nawabs and their princely perks, which brings me to a point I should have made a long time ago in this column. Pandurang Madkaikar, the Prince of Cumburjua, is the only one I know who when in power, hasn’t been lavish with your tax money. And, that’s saying a lot these days. This week it’s the turn of Ramkrishna Dhavlikar, who spent just Rs 28,924.65 of your tax money perking up his official bungalow. Dhavlikar, among one half of the Band of Brothers) is the man with the thing for vanishing high security number plates that cost a bomb, and I still wonder why you protest so much. Never mind the cost dumbo, your registration plate car just turned stealth with his help. The Indian Navy has stealth warships, and you have a stealth car now that evades police radar. Go get it. You won’t regret it.
Mr. Ravi Naik, the home minister, spent Rs 1,44,399.13 to do up his official bungalow and it went like this. Rs 7,900 on a steel cupboard, Rs 23,000 on a washing machine. For the rest, read on.
Movers and packers
Apparently spartan in the luxury area, Mr. Naik however showed a huge preference for handy items and splurged your tax money on exactly 86 categories of items. And, I make this point again. What the heck happened to all replaced items? I mean who takes away old refrigerators, washing machines and cooking stoves every time new ones are bought? And then, Mr. Naik decides to change residence. So, what does he do? He simply goes shopping again. Remember, the man who strangely as home minister licensed all the floating casinos on the Mandovi, had earlier spent Rs 5,25,185 of your tax bucks to paint another bungalow where he also installed a FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin costing Rs 1,07,342, but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
Unhealthy trend
This Tuesday, health minister Vishwajeet Rane came calling to Divar after the islanders demanded a public health centre. And were they surprised! Not by his visit silly, but by his insistence that Divar must provide suitable accomodation for the centre and its staff. So, the islanders are asking (in private of course) ‘why do we need you then. And, isn’t? your government the expert on acquiring huge land at the drop of a hat even if it is to build stadiums that none will use eventually?’ As they say, GOOD QUESTION.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
The real thing
I was traveling last week to Pondichery and as a result had to miss out, albeit temporarily, on how your montris think your tax money collection is their personal ‘piggy bank’. Fortunately for me and writing this column, it matters little where in India you are, to be reminded about the misfortune we endure having our 42 elected peoples’ representatives working for us. More exactly, when you are in Chennai, where for instance, you can feel how Information Technology was made to work for the people. Whereas, in Goa it took a single MLA to make IT work for him, and for his pockets only. I am talking about the Rajiv Gandhi IT Park in posh Dona Paula where real estate sharks were encouraged to park themselves.
Two more universities in Tamil Nadu, I read in the newspapers, are working micro-satellites for a possible launch by end-2009. I am told they were encouraged by ANUSAT, India’s first ever micro satellite built by Anna University, Chennai, and launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) last April from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The project’s team operated from the College of Engineering, Guindy and MIT, Chromepet, both in Chennai. Contrast this with the miserable performance of our own engineering colleges and the government’s attempt not too long ago to acquire land belonging to the Goa University, and no guesses on whom this high value land would have been sold to for mere peanuts.
Besides this, a group of students from engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad is working on an 850 gm pico satellite under ISRO guidance. Bottomline: Whereas, IT in Goa means real estate in the three southern States it means inventing the more difficult-to-make micro satellites which requires miniature technology. Just to make you squirm a bit more, do be informed that I booked my Volvo AC BUS travel to Pondicherry from Chennai online, which meant I had to make only a single trip to the bus station (to actually catch the bus). Compare this to the rumbunctious behaviour of the touts operating at Patto in Panjim, or KTC’s sleepy counters in Margao and Panjim. Or, be really crushed by this September 19 headline “First heart transplant at GH”. The story was about the Chennai Government General Hospital’s first ever heart transplant! In Goa, the last eye-catching headlines (from GMC) were about dirty linen and falling ceiling fans. I’ll say we have a long way to go, baby!
The other man’s grass is always green
But this is not to say everything is hunky dory outside. In fact, as in Goa, so too in Pondicherry (btw, official name is Puducherry), it’s a foreign takeover when it comes to business. And therefore, for instance, tourism in Pondy has made even its juice and bread cost an arm and a leg and the perpetrators of this fraud are some locals but mostly foreigners who run cafes, restaurants and are even real estate agents. I ran into this helpful young American girl who has moved to Pondy some months ago and runs a diner in rue Labordanais, serving breakfast and juice. After tramping around the Latin Quarter of Pondy – which, incidentally, is mostly clean but for some piles of garbage in certain streets – I was thirsty and parked myself in her diner and ordered a mango juice. Visions of a thirst-quenching fresh fruit juice filled my mind but imagine my shock when she returned in a jiffy with a glass of tinned mango juice!! I was awed – outraged is more like it – when she charged me Rs 60. The con job was repeated on another thirsty idiot – Rs 60 for a glass of orange juice that came from a tetrapack, the kind you see crammed in super-market shelves. Was she charging for the “ambience” which basically consisted of some easy chairs, some ethnic cushions against a glass frontage from where you could see the world go by? Or did she perchance think dollar rates were okay considering most of her clients are foreigners?
Talk of hype…
Then there is Satsangha, which is on the map of any tourist brochure on Pondy. As you walk in, there is a menu (which is fairly common like restaurants in France) with a picture of the French chef). First of, with all that tall grass hiding hordes of mosquitoes, I spent the evening scratching or slapping at my legs and arms to deal with these winged insects which carry all kinds of diseases. Second, I ordered pasta and got spaghetti. Did the French owner (who was not there) think I, an Indian, would not know the difference? Or did his Indian chef – who was supposed to show up at my table and do some PR but did not come (come on, that was not a tall order considering only two tables were occupied) – did not know the difference? Anyway, again a whopping bill for a fraud.
While India has no angels in the real estate industry – how many times have you encountered a sleazy broker in the booming real estate market in Goa? –the ones I met in Pondy took the cake. Firstly, it’s a segment cornered by some foreign women who obviously are high maintenance. So while you are used to brokers charging two per cent as a commission, in Pondy, one of them told me she charged a jaw-dropping 15 per cent! So, the poor sods who go to them looking for a long stay apartment fork out commissions that obviously pay for these women’s lifestyles.
Poetic Justice
But having said this, I must say I was floored by a bakery (they call it boulangerie in French) on the road to Auroville which had an array of mouth-watering confections for prices that can be called a steal. A big piece of pizza came for just Rs 31(yes, it’s true or c’est vrai as the French would say) and – hold your breath – true blue brown bread for just Rs 18. The irony is that a bakery in town called Baker Street (which is highly recommended in all tourist brochures) sold brown bread for Rs 90. Even a Frenchman was startled when he handed over a C note and got just Rs 10 back. Incidentally this bakery is run by a local. Talk of poetic justice!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
I was traveling last week to Pondichery and as a result had to miss out, albeit temporarily, on how your montris think your tax money collection is their personal ‘piggy bank’. Fortunately for me and writing this column, it matters little where in India you are, to be reminded about the misfortune we endure having our 42 elected peoples’ representatives working for us. More exactly, when you are in Chennai, where for instance, you can feel how Information Technology was made to work for the people. Whereas, in Goa it took a single MLA to make IT work for him, and for his pockets only. I am talking about the Rajiv Gandhi IT Park in posh Dona Paula where real estate sharks were encouraged to park themselves.
Two more universities in Tamil Nadu, I read in the newspapers, are working micro-satellites for a possible launch by end-2009. I am told they were encouraged by ANUSAT, India’s first ever micro satellite built by Anna University, Chennai, and launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) last April from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The project’s team operated from the College of Engineering, Guindy and MIT, Chromepet, both in Chennai. Contrast this with the miserable performance of our own engineering colleges and the government’s attempt not too long ago to acquire land belonging to the Goa University, and no guesses on whom this high value land would have been sold to for mere peanuts.
Besides this, a group of students from engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad is working on an 850 gm pico satellite under ISRO guidance. Bottomline: Whereas, IT in Goa means real estate in the three southern States it means inventing the more difficult-to-make micro satellites which requires miniature technology. Just to make you squirm a bit more, do be informed that I booked my Volvo AC BUS travel to Pondicherry from Chennai online, which meant I had to make only a single trip to the bus station (to actually catch the bus). Compare this to the rumbunctious behaviour of the touts operating at Patto in Panjim, or KTC’s sleepy counters in Margao and Panjim. Or, be really crushed by this September 19 headline “First heart transplant at GH”. The story was about the Chennai Government General Hospital’s first ever heart transplant! In Goa, the last eye-catching headlines (from GMC) were about dirty linen and falling ceiling fans. I’ll say we have a long way to go, baby!
The other man’s grass is always green
But this is not to say everything is hunky dory outside. In fact, as in Goa, so too in Pondicherry (btw, official name is Puducherry), it’s a foreign takeover when it comes to business. And therefore, for instance, tourism in Pondy has made even its juice and bread cost an arm and a leg and the perpetrators of this fraud are some locals but mostly foreigners who run cafes, restaurants and are even real estate agents. I ran into this helpful young American girl who has moved to Pondy some months ago and runs a diner in rue Labordanais, serving breakfast and juice. After tramping around the Latin Quarter of Pondy – which, incidentally, is mostly clean but for some piles of garbage in certain streets – I was thirsty and parked myself in her diner and ordered a mango juice. Visions of a thirst-quenching fresh fruit juice filled my mind but imagine my shock when she returned in a jiffy with a glass of tinned mango juice!! I was awed – outraged is more like it – when she charged me Rs 60. The con job was repeated on another thirsty idiot – Rs 60 for a glass of orange juice that came from a tetrapack, the kind you see crammed in super-market shelves. Was she charging for the “ambience” which basically consisted of some easy chairs, some ethnic cushions against a glass frontage from where you could see the world go by? Or did she perchance think dollar rates were okay considering most of her clients are foreigners?
Talk of hype…
Then there is Satsangha, which is on the map of any tourist brochure on Pondy. As you walk in, there is a menu (which is fairly common like restaurants in France) with a picture of the French chef). First of, with all that tall grass hiding hordes of mosquitoes, I spent the evening scratching or slapping at my legs and arms to deal with these winged insects which carry all kinds of diseases. Second, I ordered pasta and got spaghetti. Did the French owner (who was not there) think I, an Indian, would not know the difference? Or did his Indian chef – who was supposed to show up at my table and do some PR but did not come (come on, that was not a tall order considering only two tables were occupied) – did not know the difference? Anyway, again a whopping bill for a fraud.
While India has no angels in the real estate industry – how many times have you encountered a sleazy broker in the booming real estate market in Goa? –the ones I met in Pondy took the cake. Firstly, it’s a segment cornered by some foreign women who obviously are high maintenance. So while you are used to brokers charging two per cent as a commission, in Pondy, one of them told me she charged a jaw-dropping 15 per cent! So, the poor sods who go to them looking for a long stay apartment fork out commissions that obviously pay for these women’s lifestyles.
Poetic Justice
But having said this, I must say I was floored by a bakery (they call it boulangerie in French) on the road to Auroville which had an array of mouth-watering confections for prices that can be called a steal. A big piece of pizza came for just Rs 31(yes, it’s true or c’est vrai as the French would say) and – hold your breath – true blue brown bread for just Rs 18. The irony is that a bakery in town called Baker Street (which is highly recommended in all tourist brochures) sold brown bread for Rs 90. Even a Frenchman was startled when he handed over a C note and got just Rs 10 back. Incidentally this bakery is run by a local. Talk of poetic justice!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Privy purse
Third dimensional
At least someone wrote in to say she was in agreement with what I said last week … that a good many anti-building activists raising a ruckus are those who own small plots of land but with their homes already built. The lady from Orlim however wrote in adding a third dimension. She says ‘many activists are ex-Mumbaites who have benefited from the builders lobby by selling their small flats for exorbitant prices and are now returning to their motherland to make trouble for their humbler cousins who have been busy toiling to keep their homes going.’ My, my, this truly enhances the quality of the street level activist. Talk of double standards. She goes on to say: ‘In our village too activists only tried to sabotage the regional plan committees’ work and gained popularity with endless articles in the press which was ever obliging and never bothered with facts.” Amen to that.
What’s it going to take?
What will it take for us drivers to get the Ribandar stretch of the road to Panjim, repaired? The islanders of Divar have put up with the pathetic state of the roads on the island for years. While the island’s arterial roads were tarred some months ago, the stretch from Bainginium got from bad to worse. And at Ribandar the less said about the state of the road, the better. At nights, a herd of cattle parked opposite the Sao Pedro chapel confront drivers with an altogether different nightmare. So, what’s it going to take? Bigger vehicle maintenance bills, or some biker killing himself by colliding with the cattle?
Privy purse?
It’s got to be that or, they are the ‘chosen ones’. ‘Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people’ (Exodus 19:5-6). What more can one say of our montris. The week before last I wrote that Rs 18,13,926 of your, by now very expendable, tax money was spent renovating the official residence of Digambar Kamat between June 8, 2007 and now. To do up the official residence of the Home Minister, Ravi Naik, Rs 5,25,185 was spent. It went like this: Rs 4,17,843 went to paint the bungalow; add some repair costs to that. Installing an FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin cost Rs 1,07,342. Now, why on earth do you think he would need that? As a swine flu shelter, you think? Rs 2,49,202 was spent to paint the bungalow (F-0-1) of the Health Minister, Vishwajeet Rane. Chosen ones? Indeed. In actual fact, Naik ordered the bungalow to be painted internally and externally but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
The Color of Money
That was the motion picture about a young pool hustler learning the tricks of the trade from an old pro, based on the novel by Walter Tevis. Paul Newman earned an Academy Award for his performance as the aging pool shark Eddie in this film, which was released in 1986. Where’s the connection? That’s not hard to figure out, but for the moment let’s say this is how you get hustled out of your tax money. Rs 1,03,779 was spent to paint (externally only) and to carry out ‘urgent repairs’ to F-0-2, the official bungalow of the Public Works Department Minister, Churchill Alemao. Rs 9,36,450 was incurred to carry out ‘various repairs’. Replacing a chandelier and a wall fitting in the hall cost Rs 24,817. A horizontal (!) water heater cost Rs 19,690. Rs 30,650 was spent to fit an air conditioner in a ‘separately constructed room’ in the (his) chamber at the Government Secretariat at Porvorim. That amounts to a whopping Rs 1,11,5,386.
Gory details
Now, this is the really, really frustrating part. Rs 4,97,292 of your tax bucks was spent to buy precisely 82 items for the official bungalow of Digambar Kamat. But what boggles the mind, are items like the two TVs (Rs 19,000+Rs 90,000) a refrigerator, folding ladder, and several wall clocks. So, who took away the earlier ones then? What happened to the original curtains also, because new curtains were bought for Rs 1,32,231. And, for crying out loud, why buy four wall paintings for Rs 76,000. I can understand our montris not wanting to use their predecessor’s towels and linen, but it does seem strange when you have to replace every single conceivable kitchenware, cookware, crockery and cutlery or, do they want to start with a clean slate, so to speak. Because, when you need a rice strainer (Rs 360), it does prove they start from the beginning. All one can is when someone else is being suckered, our montris become fastidious!
All this reminds me of the furore in Dilli over External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor staying in five-star hotels for the last three months. They both defended themselves saying they were picking up the tab. But even if one overlooks Shashi Tharoor (he did declare assets of nearly Rs 30 crores as a candidate from Thiruvanathapuram) and chalk it down to his earnings from his career as a diplomat with the UN and from his books, what was Krishna’s source of income considering he has been a career politician? To think he could afford Rs one lakh per day on the presidential suite at Hotel Ashoka for the last three months!! Am I giving our montris ideas? God forbid!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
At least someone wrote in to say she was in agreement with what I said last week … that a good many anti-building activists raising a ruckus are those who own small plots of land but with their homes already built. The lady from Orlim however wrote in adding a third dimension. She says ‘many activists are ex-Mumbaites who have benefited from the builders lobby by selling their small flats for exorbitant prices and are now returning to their motherland to make trouble for their humbler cousins who have been busy toiling to keep their homes going.’ My, my, this truly enhances the quality of the street level activist. Talk of double standards. She goes on to say: ‘In our village too activists only tried to sabotage the regional plan committees’ work and gained popularity with endless articles in the press which was ever obliging and never bothered with facts.” Amen to that.
What’s it going to take?
What will it take for us drivers to get the Ribandar stretch of the road to Panjim, repaired? The islanders of Divar have put up with the pathetic state of the roads on the island for years. While the island’s arterial roads were tarred some months ago, the stretch from Bainginium got from bad to worse. And at Ribandar the less said about the state of the road, the better. At nights, a herd of cattle parked opposite the Sao Pedro chapel confront drivers with an altogether different nightmare. So, what’s it going to take? Bigger vehicle maintenance bills, or some biker killing himself by colliding with the cattle?
Privy purse?
It’s got to be that or, they are the ‘chosen ones’. ‘Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people’ (Exodus 19:5-6). What more can one say of our montris. The week before last I wrote that Rs 18,13,926 of your, by now very expendable, tax money was spent renovating the official residence of Digambar Kamat between June 8, 2007 and now. To do up the official residence of the Home Minister, Ravi Naik, Rs 5,25,185 was spent. It went like this: Rs 4,17,843 went to paint the bungalow; add some repair costs to that. Installing an FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) cabin cost Rs 1,07,342. Now, why on earth do you think he would need that? As a swine flu shelter, you think? Rs 2,49,202 was spent to paint the bungalow (F-0-1) of the Health Minister, Vishwajeet Rane. Chosen ones? Indeed. In actual fact, Naik ordered the bungalow to be painted internally and externally but then shifted residence on October 21, 2007 to the bungalow called ‘Herambh’.
The Color of Money
That was the motion picture about a young pool hustler learning the tricks of the trade from an old pro, based on the novel by Walter Tevis. Paul Newman earned an Academy Award for his performance as the aging pool shark Eddie in this film, which was released in 1986. Where’s the connection? That’s not hard to figure out, but for the moment let’s say this is how you get hustled out of your tax money. Rs 1,03,779 was spent to paint (externally only) and to carry out ‘urgent repairs’ to F-0-2, the official bungalow of the Public Works Department Minister, Churchill Alemao. Rs 9,36,450 was incurred to carry out ‘various repairs’. Replacing a chandelier and a wall fitting in the hall cost Rs 24,817. A horizontal (!) water heater cost Rs 19,690. Rs 30,650 was spent to fit an air conditioner in a ‘separately constructed room’ in the (his) chamber at the Government Secretariat at Porvorim. That amounts to a whopping Rs 1,11,5,386.
Gory details
Now, this is the really, really frustrating part. Rs 4,97,292 of your tax bucks was spent to buy precisely 82 items for the official bungalow of Digambar Kamat. But what boggles the mind, are items like the two TVs (Rs 19,000+Rs 90,000) a refrigerator, folding ladder, and several wall clocks. So, who took away the earlier ones then? What happened to the original curtains also, because new curtains were bought for Rs 1,32,231. And, for crying out loud, why buy four wall paintings for Rs 76,000. I can understand our montris not wanting to use their predecessor’s towels and linen, but it does seem strange when you have to replace every single conceivable kitchenware, cookware, crockery and cutlery or, do they want to start with a clean slate, so to speak. Because, when you need a rice strainer (Rs 360), it does prove they start from the beginning. All one can is when someone else is being suckered, our montris become fastidious!
All this reminds me of the furore in Dilli over External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor staying in five-star hotels for the last three months. They both defended themselves saying they were picking up the tab. But even if one overlooks Shashi Tharoor (he did declare assets of nearly Rs 30 crores as a candidate from Thiruvanathapuram) and chalk it down to his earnings from his career as a diplomat with the UN and from his books, what was Krishna’s source of income considering he has been a career politician? To think he could afford Rs one lakh per day on the presidential suite at Hotel Ashoka for the last three months!! Am I giving our montris ideas? God forbid!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Sound and fury
Finger pointing
If you have been reading the Herald, you would have read of the allegations, finger pointing etcetera etcetera leveled by Sheila Gracias and Dr. Marconi Correia at the Cansaulim-Arrosim-Cuelim-Village Panchayat Gram Sabha meeting on August 16, and at a few more gatherings before this meeting. Is there a connection here and a happening trend? It’s possible, because people have been telling me that a good percentage of villagers who are raising a hue and cry are those who do not own properties (apart from their small homes) and also, sadly bhatkars. Foot loose and fancy free now and very rich too having sold huge properties, they hang out with villagers pretending to be activists. And please, there is absolutely no inference here to anyone in these three villages. But it’s happening, and the Varca taxi drivers would be my ‘Exhibit A’ submission in a debate on this.
The other side
And as a coin has two sides, this one does too. And this is the version of Blanche Pereira, the Sarpanch, who says that at an extraordinary meeting of the Gram Sabha on April 11, to discuss the Regional Plan (RP) 2021, attended by 81 members; she asked them if they wanted to reserve parts of the land as open spaces for the village of Cansaulim. According to her, none voiced their opinion and two resolutions to this effect were passed (no. 13 and 14). According to her, Mathany Saldanha and Marconi Correia were present.
In fact according to Blanche Pereira, this meeting was specifically held because at an earlier Gram Sabha on March 29, 2009, Sheila Gracias had alleged that the meeting was futile since in the kit, the 2001 map concerning the RP was not provided. According to the Sarpanch, kits were officially provided to the VP as early as December 2008 and were available for public scrutiny.
In addition, she says, coloured maps were printed and distributed to the ward committee members. Also, the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department had invited a list of architects on a voluntary basis and the VP body chose Nilesh Salkar of Vasco da Gama, who suggested that the ward committees make their plans and submit them to the TCP in Panjim. According to Blanche, Sheila Gracias had, on the contrary, suggested the name of another architect, Carlos Gracias. He with the other ward committee members went to the wards (according to Blanche Pereira, not all the wards) and identified only the sand dunes, ponds, and lakes. They did not survey the Cansaulim and Arossim beach roads, the existing village roads, and the main district road to the village, the Cansaulim railway station, government schools, and hospitals, which as a result were omitted in the ward plans.
What orchard zone?
On the day of the special Gram Sabha on April 11, she says, the committee members submitted their ward-wise plans duly signed to the VP in the presence of a town planner from Vasco. “There was no discussion on the plans that were submitted. However, Sheila Gracias stood up and said that the beach area should be declared an orchard zone. In reality, the notion of an orchard zone is against the land use laws as recommended by the Centre for land between the 200 m and 500 m High Tide Line. A panch, Ferwin Saldanha then asked everyone present if they wanted to keep their properties as open spaces under the orchard zone which meant no development would be allowed. No one responded. ”
Blanche says that after incorporating the ward level plans into the main plan she invited Carlos Gracias to quote the resolution that said there must be an orchard zone. He could not, and refused to sign the maps. “The resolution of the meeting was approved by all the members present and therefore, accusing me now of not reserving an orchard zone, is baseless. All the plans can be obtained from the TCP under the RTI, if anybody wants to verify what I have said.” She says also that during scrutiny of the combined map by Carlos Gracias, villagers, including all the panchas, gave in writing their objections to the orchard zone.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
If you have been reading the Herald, you would have read of the allegations, finger pointing etcetera etcetera leveled by Sheila Gracias and Dr. Marconi Correia at the Cansaulim-Arrosim-Cuelim-Village Panchayat Gram Sabha meeting on August 16, and at a few more gatherings before this meeting. Is there a connection here and a happening trend? It’s possible, because people have been telling me that a good percentage of villagers who are raising a hue and cry are those who do not own properties (apart from their small homes) and also, sadly bhatkars. Foot loose and fancy free now and very rich too having sold huge properties, they hang out with villagers pretending to be activists. And please, there is absolutely no inference here to anyone in these three villages. But it’s happening, and the Varca taxi drivers would be my ‘Exhibit A’ submission in a debate on this.
The other side
And as a coin has two sides, this one does too. And this is the version of Blanche Pereira, the Sarpanch, who says that at an extraordinary meeting of the Gram Sabha on April 11, to discuss the Regional Plan (RP) 2021, attended by 81 members; she asked them if they wanted to reserve parts of the land as open spaces for the village of Cansaulim. According to her, none voiced their opinion and two resolutions to this effect were passed (no. 13 and 14). According to her, Mathany Saldanha and Marconi Correia were present.
In fact according to Blanche Pereira, this meeting was specifically held because at an earlier Gram Sabha on March 29, 2009, Sheila Gracias had alleged that the meeting was futile since in the kit, the 2001 map concerning the RP was not provided. According to the Sarpanch, kits were officially provided to the VP as early as December 2008 and were available for public scrutiny.
In addition, she says, coloured maps were printed and distributed to the ward committee members. Also, the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department had invited a list of architects on a voluntary basis and the VP body chose Nilesh Salkar of Vasco da Gama, who suggested that the ward committees make their plans and submit them to the TCP in Panjim. According to Blanche, Sheila Gracias had, on the contrary, suggested the name of another architect, Carlos Gracias. He with the other ward committee members went to the wards (according to Blanche Pereira, not all the wards) and identified only the sand dunes, ponds, and lakes. They did not survey the Cansaulim and Arossim beach roads, the existing village roads, and the main district road to the village, the Cansaulim railway station, government schools, and hospitals, which as a result were omitted in the ward plans.
What orchard zone?
On the day of the special Gram Sabha on April 11, she says, the committee members submitted their ward-wise plans duly signed to the VP in the presence of a town planner from Vasco. “There was no discussion on the plans that were submitted. However, Sheila Gracias stood up and said that the beach area should be declared an orchard zone. In reality, the notion of an orchard zone is against the land use laws as recommended by the Centre for land between the 200 m and 500 m High Tide Line. A panch, Ferwin Saldanha then asked everyone present if they wanted to keep their properties as open spaces under the orchard zone which meant no development would be allowed. No one responded. ”
Blanche says that after incorporating the ward level plans into the main plan she invited Carlos Gracias to quote the resolution that said there must be an orchard zone. He could not, and refused to sign the maps. “The resolution of the meeting was approved by all the members present and therefore, accusing me now of not reserving an orchard zone, is baseless. All the plans can be obtained from the TCP under the RTI, if anybody wants to verify what I have said.” She says also that during scrutiny of the combined map by Carlos Gracias, villagers, including all the panchas, gave in writing their objections to the orchard zone.
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Talk of being helpful
Faleiro’s ‘One small step for Goa, one giant leap for Goans’
Jai Ho Taiwan! Eduardo Faleiro, Commissioner for NRI Affairs, could be off to Taiwan in October on the off chance, he said so himself, he might bump into some Goans there. Good luck to him. To the best of my knowledge there are two Goans in Tokyo, one of them I know, and is married to a Japanese lady. There’s opportunity there, Boss. Ditto for the Cayman Islands, where I have just discovered there are a bunch of Goans. And as for Goans in Kenya, there are just 2,000 of them according to my sources there. Since they are all Kenyan citizens, I really don’t see how the Indian embassy in Nairobi could be of use to them except to create further obstacles, if for some vague reason it were asked to help. When I travelled to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 2001, I was informed there that are only four Goan families left in Kisumu, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria on the Kenyan side. In Unguja, the main island of Zanzibar, I could trace and meet one Goan who had a travel agency there. The rest had all migrated. Now, my sources tell me there are barely 1,000 Goans in Tanzania and 200 in Uganda.
These Goans abroad do not need to be reminded about their Goan roots, simply because they will never forget. Their endless supply of Goan sausages, masalas and feni is testimony to their nostalgia for Goa and everything Goan. As for Goans living in Canada and the U.S. for that matter, the cost of a flight to Goa is simply daunting, and so most Goans there prefer to travel to the U.K. and Europe where they have a network of Goans. It’s simply a question of logistics and cost effectiveness. In fact if you are a regular reader of herald2day, you will have noticed that Goan themed restaurants or restaurants serving Goan food are only opened in the U.S. I can’t recall a Goan restaurant being opened in the U.K. I guess for all the obvious reasons.
Another time, another place
I recall writing a special report for Mumbai’s Mid-Day during Kuwait’s invasion by Iraq between August 1990 and January 1991 and to my surprise every Goan returnee I interviewed had a horror tale to tell of the sheer insensitivity of Indian embassies to all Indians wherever their help was sought.
Faleiro went there too, at least he stationed himself in a neighbouring country (I can’t remember which), to help. Apparently, his presence did not help one bit. Faleiro was there as a representative of Rajiv Gandhi’s opposition Congress (VP Singh was the Prime Minister at the time) and along with the then Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral even met Iraq’s President Saddam Hussain. In an interview later, Faleiro was quoted as saying, “I must say I was given special treatment in meeting President Hussein. I suppose this was because his Baath Party had fraternal relations with the Congress.” But, sadly, accounts of fleeing Goans indicated they were not given special treatment.
Wasted Effort
My point is Indian embassies are as a rule uncooperative and not accommodating. And for this, I can vouch. When I lost my passport in Bejing in August 2007, I discovered to my everlasting disappointment that the Chinese police, authorities and my travel guide were overeager to help, but not the Indian embassy, then headed by Nirupama Rao, now India’s foreign secretary. The attitude I encountered was typically desi, every Indian at the embassy felt (and showed it) they were doing me a huge favour in issuing me a duplicate passport. In contrast a female Chinese police officer spent more time trying to explain to me the procedures in China, the job that should have been done by someone in the embassy. Fed up, I called up every senior journalist friend I knew in Delhi. Hey presto, it finally worked, and my passport was ready, but not before the laminating machine was purposely made to malfunction because my calling up ‘friends’ made me the most hated Indian in Beijing. In fact, when I went across to say thank you, one graceless official said –“Whatever.”
Adding to taxpayer's burden
If our montris are not going on their version of the Starship Enterprise missions abroad to sell Goa’s tourism industry or to save Goans abroad, they are preoccupied doing up their homes. Between June 8, 2007 and now, Rs 4,85,338 was spent on various repairs to the official home of Digambar Kamat, who apart from flying economy, would have you believe that he goes home to Margao for rest and recreation. But during that time Rs 5,40,612.63 was also spent painting up his Altinho residence. I don’t know who sits on his chairs, can’t be Churchill Alemao –he’s too busy doing his own thing like kickboxing; but Rs 7,75,973 was spent on ‘urgent’ repairs to the office furniture at his official residence. Add to that the lighting in the living room that cost you Rs 12,033. Now, all that adds up to an official Rs 18,13,926.63. When the officials get going, the going gets official!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
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Jai Ho Taiwan! Eduardo Faleiro, Commissioner for NRI Affairs, could be off to Taiwan in October on the off chance, he said so himself, he might bump into some Goans there. Good luck to him. To the best of my knowledge there are two Goans in Tokyo, one of them I know, and is married to a Japanese lady. There’s opportunity there, Boss. Ditto for the Cayman Islands, where I have just discovered there are a bunch of Goans. And as for Goans in Kenya, there are just 2,000 of them according to my sources there. Since they are all Kenyan citizens, I really don’t see how the Indian embassy in Nairobi could be of use to them except to create further obstacles, if for some vague reason it were asked to help. When I travelled to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 2001, I was informed there that are only four Goan families left in Kisumu, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria on the Kenyan side. In Unguja, the main island of Zanzibar, I could trace and meet one Goan who had a travel agency there. The rest had all migrated. Now, my sources tell me there are barely 1,000 Goans in Tanzania and 200 in Uganda.
These Goans abroad do not need to be reminded about their Goan roots, simply because they will never forget. Their endless supply of Goan sausages, masalas and feni is testimony to their nostalgia for Goa and everything Goan. As for Goans living in Canada and the U.S. for that matter, the cost of a flight to Goa is simply daunting, and so most Goans there prefer to travel to the U.K. and Europe where they have a network of Goans. It’s simply a question of logistics and cost effectiveness. In fact if you are a regular reader of herald2day, you will have noticed that Goan themed restaurants or restaurants serving Goan food are only opened in the U.S. I can’t recall a Goan restaurant being opened in the U.K. I guess for all the obvious reasons.
Another time, another place
I recall writing a special report for Mumbai’s Mid-Day during Kuwait’s invasion by Iraq between August 1990 and January 1991 and to my surprise every Goan returnee I interviewed had a horror tale to tell of the sheer insensitivity of Indian embassies to all Indians wherever their help was sought.
Faleiro went there too, at least he stationed himself in a neighbouring country (I can’t remember which), to help. Apparently, his presence did not help one bit. Faleiro was there as a representative of Rajiv Gandhi’s opposition Congress (VP Singh was the Prime Minister at the time) and along with the then Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral even met Iraq’s President Saddam Hussain. In an interview later, Faleiro was quoted as saying, “I must say I was given special treatment in meeting President Hussein. I suppose this was because his Baath Party had fraternal relations with the Congress.” But, sadly, accounts of fleeing Goans indicated they were not given special treatment.
Wasted Effort
My point is Indian embassies are as a rule uncooperative and not accommodating. And for this, I can vouch. When I lost my passport in Bejing in August 2007, I discovered to my everlasting disappointment that the Chinese police, authorities and my travel guide were overeager to help, but not the Indian embassy, then headed by Nirupama Rao, now India’s foreign secretary. The attitude I encountered was typically desi, every Indian at the embassy felt (and showed it) they were doing me a huge favour in issuing me a duplicate passport. In contrast a female Chinese police officer spent more time trying to explain to me the procedures in China, the job that should have been done by someone in the embassy. Fed up, I called up every senior journalist friend I knew in Delhi. Hey presto, it finally worked, and my passport was ready, but not before the laminating machine was purposely made to malfunction because my calling up ‘friends’ made me the most hated Indian in Beijing. In fact, when I went across to say thank you, one graceless official said –“Whatever.”
Adding to taxpayer's burden
If our montris are not going on their version of the Starship Enterprise missions abroad to sell Goa’s tourism industry or to save Goans abroad, they are preoccupied doing up their homes. Between June 8, 2007 and now, Rs 4,85,338 was spent on various repairs to the official home of Digambar Kamat, who apart from flying economy, would have you believe that he goes home to Margao for rest and recreation. But during that time Rs 5,40,612.63 was also spent painting up his Altinho residence. I don’t know who sits on his chairs, can’t be Churchill Alemao –he’s too busy doing his own thing like kickboxing; but Rs 7,75,973 was spent on ‘urgent’ repairs to the office furniture at his official residence. Add to that the lighting in the living room that cost you Rs 12,033. Now, all that adds up to an official Rs 18,13,926.63. When the officials get going, the going gets official!
(Feedback 6658606, 9763718501 lionroars.goa@gmail.com)
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