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We've been trying to elicit people's views on colonisation in Goa. One perspective from a personwho identified as a Christian was that if it wasn't for the Portuguese, Indians would still be eating off the floor, eating with their hands, and 'you know, backward'. This seemed like a very Westernor Occidental narrative of the Orient.
Whilst it appeared around us that there was a lot of tolerance in Goa (for example a small street stall showed one poster with three images one of Mecca, then Jesus and the Hindu Om), the undertones indicated a complexity. Laxman our taxi driver wholeheartedly believed the Miracle of St Francis Xavier and recalled it for us with zeal.At the same time when he showed us Old Goa he described the pain of knowing how the Portuguese conquest resulted in the destruction of many Hindu Temples. This, he said, still hurt. Nevertheless he was still in awe of the history.
The discourse that 'we were all Hindus' was invoked by both Christians and Hindus. However, there was little in the way of recognising the Muslim conquests and other historical influences in Goa.
Modern day Goa is..... crazy. The landlady of the hotel we were in, who owned several houses and a plantation, described how people are no longer interested in agriculture and how difficult it was to find good labour in Goa. Most of the skills come from neighbouring areas but such labour is drying up because of modernisation and people wanting different and better paid jobs, she said. She told us how she had given over free housing to a family she expected to take care of the land and house. She found the workers, mostly Hindus, were not pulling their weight and took advantage of her good nature. She said they did not seem interested in the potential yield of the land and they did not work hard unless they were constantly supervised; unfortunately she did not have time to do this. Sundeep obviously discussed with her participation, governance and setting up a cooperative in which ownership and yield were shared. She was non committal about this and in the end it felt like she was saying 'you just can't get the help these days'.
Whilst here and as we were leaving Goa for Mangalore we've been pursued by a story of political andsocial corruption. The Goa Education Minister's son has been accused of sexually assaulting a German child. As of yet he has not been arrested. A political/social activist lawyer, Rodriguez Aires, working on behalf of the German family was attacked and lost two fingers. The German Embassy has written in with their concerns. The India Times has published letters from residents saying that political corruption must come to an end and the minister's son should be brought to justice as well as asking for the minister's resignation. There is a local pressure group being formed by NGOs (non governmental organisations) who are fighting for a just society against corruption, power, greed and political self interest.
As per usual the young woman/child's integrity has been called into question as well as her mother's whose mobile 'phone was apparently used to lure her to the site of the attack. Reports suggest she has not turned up to give her account and this means she is 'untrustworthy' despite the knowledge that this is a common response to being sexually assaulted and then further assaulted by an unsympathetic legal system. The education minister's perspective is that his family are being targeted to oust him from his position. Scandal has followed this minister however it appears, from what the papers say, that he is the best candidate out of the choice. The suggestion is that at least he was the strongest candidate to stop the seat going to the BJP who locals do not appear to support.
There was a lot of detailed coverage in the newspaper. Generally, there seems to be a drive to end the corruption, which from the reports, is endemic to Goa. There has been a suggestion that the police are being made ineffectual by the power yielded by politicians or that they are indeed corrupt (we might be inclined this way given our experience in Goa).
As well as this there were two other stories of people being attacked; especially tourists. One Australian holidaymaker was killed by some bar staff when he demanded they pour his beer correctly at eight o clock in the morning. It all sounded a bit odd. So modern day Goa seems to be a hotbed of scandal and corruption if you believe the paper.
We've also being trying to do the crossword and puzzles in the paper which we appear to be still rubbish at! Our next blog will be about our reactions to Mangalore. Toodle pip....
Col and Sundeep
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