ROAD SHOW ON GOA @60 FOR AHMEDABAD

COME TO GOA, COME TO GOA!  Information & Publicity Director Dipak Bandekar inaugurated a road show promoting Goa at a function in Ahmedabad on September 9, 2022. These Goa@60 are to take place in six cities beginning with Ahmedabad where it will be till Sept 11; after that moving on to Udaipur, Varanasi, Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram and Mysore at later dates. Present on the occasion are Tourism Deputy Director Kuldeep Arolkar, GTDC Deputy General Manager Ninfa Da Silva, GTDC Manager Marketing Harish Satelkar, Assistant Tourist Officer Pradeep Binnar, Information Assistant (DIP)  Sanghmitra Faldessai and others, here they are seen at the inaugural event with Goan folk artistes. Goa@60 will showcase holiday state’s rich history and culture, development and achievements in the last six decades since Liberation from Portuguese in 1961.  To quote Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, this presentation of Goa  is also to attract investors and investments in Goa so that Goa may shine on the global map in the near future, especially now that Mopa airport has become functional to serve various sectors of industry. 

TCP MOST CORRUPT DEPT!

GOA is enveloped in sheer administrative chaos. The all-important Town & Country Planning department can be adjudged today as the most corrupt. It is now better known as the nucleus of Town & Country Destruction. It is little wonder that over the years it is one of the ministerial portfolios fought keenly for by  MLAs. 

From Pernem to Canacona the entire state is has witnessed rampant, unauthorized hill cutting, illegal land filling and land use violations. The land mafia is having the last laugh with some of them ironically, being advisors to the government! We now have a lot of serial hill cutters, land fillers and land use violators.

The future of is bleak. As T&C Planning department has thrown in the towel and  opted to be a mere spectator to the earmarked organized devastation  and destruction of what remains of Goa. An environmental and ecological catastrophe is on the cards with the silent or active blessing of officials of the TCP department. 

We need a TCP Department which can take on the land mafia, take its statutory and advisory role seriously and transparently — to protect our land and people’s needs ahead of the land sharks. 

Wendell Berry, a respected environmental activist warned, “Our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is flinging God’s gifts into his face, as if they were of no worth beyond that assigned to them by our destruction of them.”

–Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar

 

CHILDHOOD CANCER

SEPTEMBER is childhood cancer awareness month. WHO, in collaboration with IARC-International Agency for Research on Cancer, will publish, month long, on its social media networks their works relating to the same. The American Childhood Cancer Organization also encourages everyone to spread awareness for the cause by wearing a gold ribbon.

Childhood cancer is devastating to growth and development in children and devastating to their families and friends. At a time when young people should be focusing on school, play and socialising, if they have cancer, their focus can be on medication, operations, and what life they have left.

Yet, childhood cancer is very much curable when detected in time: hence the awareness month. In India, sadly, early detection is very less.

How many know this month’s significance? Why so less? Because the Health Minister and the government only interested in new projects; a new Cancer Building is proposed. They appear to be deliberately looking for “customers.” Month is young: hope Caritas gets its act going

–R Fernandes, Margao

CASINO MAJESTIC EVERYWHERE!

I HAVE been watching how from Dona Paula to Miramar new posters are being installed on electric poles for advertising Casino Majestic. Fully loaded vehicles are going around fixing the posters from September 8, 2022 late evening. Is this an indication that new smart city Panaji is now fully turned into a Las Vegas (with all thrills and chills to dazzle Goans about how successful this government has been in controlling killings, murders, rapes, needless deaths, suicides, etc)?

–Stephen Dias, Dona Paula

GOING BANGALORE WAY!

FRIENDS! Bangalore reminds us that floods are man-made. Bangalore has ceased to be an investible opportunity and now in fact will see a mass exodus of potential investment, capital and talent that would otherwise been employed in the city in the decades to come. To prevent Goa following Bangalore or Bengaleru’s example, can civil society members in the environmental space, please share maps, showing the danger to each village and constituency separately? And what the specific actions to be taken by local key influencers and authorities in order to secure village and constituency from environmental collapse?

Also who area the local authorities, industry  trustee, experts, entrepreneurs and stakeholders who must come together to execute the Region Specific Environmental Governance Plan, Strategy & Communication? Ground Zero is not a good place for Goa to be.

–Mallan Kurien, Goa

(Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch and favourite queen, passed away on Friday morning (September 7, 2022) at her Scottish Highlands  Balmoral Estate at the age of 96. She reigned for 70 years.  Some of the fan and not so fan mail we have put together to mark the end of an exciting era in the world!)

A QUEEN’S POEM

A poem for a queen believed to be written by Joanne Boyle, being presented on social media, this one shared by Clare Seeley, thought-provoking…

Philip came to me today,

And said it was time to go.

I looked at him and smiled,

As I whispered that “I know”

I then turned and looked behind me,

And seen I was asleep.

All my family were around me,

And I could hear them weep.

I gently touched each shoulder,

With Phillip by my side.

Then I turned away and walked,

With My Angel guide.

Phillip held my hand,

As he led the way,

To a world where kings and queens

Are monarchs every day.

I was given a crown to wear

Or a halo known by some.

The difference is up here,

They are worn by everyone.

I felt a sense of peace,

My reign had seen its end.

70 years I had served my country,

As the people’s friend.

Thank you for the years,

For all your time and love.

Now I am one of two again,

In our palace up above.

—

QUEEN ELIZABETH PASSES ON

ON Friday morning one I woke up to news of Queen of England Queen Elizabeth II passing on. A queen whose name almost every English speaking country and people are familiar with. Especially, in the erstwhile British colonies from the USA to Australia, to South Africa, India (often described as “the jewel in the crown of England”).

Much has already been said about the food fortune and bad fortune of being a one-time British colony. To be fair Queen Elizabeth lived a life and lifestyle of rare propriety and grace even as members of her family gave her pleasure or much grief.

After the colonial break-ups one by one she visited all the Commonwealth countries and was never fazed with queries polite or impolite. Seventy years is a long time for a queen to survive in bad times and good times – but we have a woman, a monarch, undoubtedly one of the richest women in the world, who won love, respect and admirations throughou her reign. As head of her royal household she set the standards regardless of who maintained them or not.

The Queen of England led by example on the subject of behaviour and etiquette in private and public, and she was known for her  discrete sense of humor, a love for gardening at favourite retreat of Windsor Castle and dressing with impeccable taste for the occasion — neither flamboyantly to raise traditional British eyebrows nor too conservatively.

She died with her family around her including son and heir to the British throne Charles, the Prince of Wales. It is left to be seen if a not so loved King Charles will win the hearts of the British people’s heart, considering his eye-opening relationships and later breakup with  his wife Princess Diana, leaving two children to grow up with considerable stress in their royal lives after their mother died in a controversial car accident in France.

Many say the monarchy has outlived its usefulness and is a drain on the economy modern-day Britain. Perhaps her son King Charles will now preside over its winding up to free UK from royalty expenses and revert to merely khaas aadmi status instead of blue-blooded nonsense. That would be making history in a changing world and many are looking forward to it! 

–Pankajbala R Patel, Panaji