New Year, New Fears

[ NOTE: All previous posts expressing sentiments contrary to this one now stand invalid. ]

I am back to the blogosphere, after three really hectic months spent in setting in motion actions aimed at furthering my career, education, and life.

During this time, I, or rather, my parents have shifted their home in Goem from Panaji to a semi-urban area, North of the river Mandovi. On my last visit (during Christmas), I realized that my homeland is well and truly facing peril.

The turn of the year brought with it the news of the execution of Saddam Hussein of Iraq. While the whole act reminded me of the execution of William Wallace by the invading forces of King Edward LongShanks, without getting too much into this I just want to say that I would rather that it would have been the individuals I'm gonna talk about in this post.

Goa is at present facing a threat to its very existence. The neighbouring state of Karnataka is illegally building a dam across the river Mhadei (as our Mandovi is known as in Karnataka), in violation of orders from the federal government and the supreme court of India. If it goes ahead, the destruction of the Mandovi would spell ecological and economic disaster for Goa as we depend on this river for agriculture, drinking water, fishing, .. life.

We goenkars as a race are increasingly being marginalized in our own land. Bhinknakars (a term used to refer to non-Konkani speaking Indians) are everywhere, some of them, e.g. Vijay Mallya, in cahoots with our politicians, have even bought vast swathes of our land and are actively involved in propagating an incorrect image of our land and culture. Uncontrolled tourism is bringing about tremendous hardships to the local ethnic-goenkar population. It’s not just the uneducated labourers who are brought in from other states, but the bigger danger is from the rich bhinknakars who come to Goa to make money, often by cheating and brow-beating us.

I regret to mention that you can hear hindi and kannada, and not Konkani, being spoken even in the building where my parents reside.

The Government of Goa stinks. Period.

Instead of protecting us and our state from hostile elements like these, far from it, these sons-of-b*tches are actually selling of our state and our culture to these very inimical entities.

Monster-rat (thats close to his actual name) is a money-lender cum extortionist cum gangster cum minister recently proposed the by now infamous "Regional Plan 2011" which effectively is a blue print to sell of Goa to the builder-hotelier-tourism-polluting industries lobby, purely with the intention of filling his pocket and that of his big boss in the congress party.

Who can forget the government apathy and corrupt interests, accompanied by police brutality, that sold Goa to the Konkan Railway Corporation, the Meta-Strips company, and other companies who have absolutely no regard for the local population.

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So, mogall goenkar bhavva-bhoinniannon, we must rise above our internal differences like religion, and ensure the defeat of Pratapsingh Rane and his government at this year's elections. It is the need of the hour to promote our Konkani language and enforce discrimination against those who live in Goa, who do not speak it.

Foot-note: You may argue that I am following double standards by emigrating to Karnataka to work, and complaining about bhinknakars settling in Goa. Well, Kannadigas are a few millions in number, and their state is as large as an average COUNTRY in Europe. We are less than a million in number, and our state is just about the size of Kosovo. I AM in favour of an exchange of immigrant populations, though.