Wendell Rodrigues: A Second Liberation For Goa?
Copyright Terms & Conditions | Home | Michaelinum.
Dear Reader,
It was originally my intention to not publish this document, in order to avoid offence to certain of my fellow patriots who believe differently from me.
However, after consideration, I realized that my obligation to God and to the Truth, and to the salvation of souls is greater than my obligations to my compatriots, and that I am obliged to proclaim the truth without compromise so that souls may be saved from error and damnation.
Therefore, I have decided that this discussion is too important to be kept private or hidden from the public view, and I have therefore revised and updated it and am hereby publicizing it.
The chief reason, however, for publicising this discussion at this time, is in support of another and more recent, discussion: Goan Paganisation: The Cross & The Lotus.
Lúcio Mascarenhas, St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 2005.
Dear Senhor Francisco,
Thanks for your letter in response to my post on Wendell Rodrigues, and for the sentiments expressed in them. I will attempt to reply to them as succinctly as possible.
First of all, I need to state that I was in error when I claimed that the "Nilaya Hermitage" is owned or operated by Wendell Rodrigues. It is owned by a Eurasian couple, who also happen to be close friends of Wendell Rodrigues. The error is regretted.
I do not know what you mean by "the comments of known personalities like Remo, Chandrakant Keni and so on..." What comments of Remo and Keni are these? In the November Goa Today, Keni tells a lot of malicious lies about Goans and our origins as Christians... an article that is otherwise full of ignorant pontifications (Perspective: The Goan Heritage, pages 38 & 39). Keni simulates innocence and a lack of malice while he whitewashes the crimes of Hinduism and tars Christianity. Is it this vile article that you are referring to?
I reiterate that, as far as Wendell's article is concerned, I admire it greatly. However, there are grievous errors in it which should not be overlooked. Especially, one should not be carried away by uncritical enthusiasm.
The greatest contributions made by Wendell in this article, are:
- His public acknowledgement, given his stature in Indian circles, of the patent illegality and criminality of India's "acquisition" of Goa "by conquest";
- His raising the issue of the ecological and environmental rape of Goa, of the villages' common reserve or community property / communidade lands; and
- His raising the issue of mine revenues which India has been stealing from Goa ever since the occupation.
One of the main objections to Wendell's position was pointed out by the collaborationist Dr. Jose Colaço, which is why I had posted his reply to Wendell in the GoanCenter list. And that is that it is a public and evident fact, that the first offender against Goa and its rights, was NOT Indira Gandhi, but precisely her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, who hypocritically interfered in the internal affairs of Portugal, his neighbor, without just cause, and who hypocritically "promised" Goans self-determination, which he then, after occupying Goa, refused to permit. This fact is in the public domain, so that Wendell and every other Goan has no excuse to be "befuddled". Yet, it is also obvious that Wendell is NOT befuddled but has chosen to deliberately lie on this important matter! Whether by Wendell or anybody else, it is a lie. Do you doubt that this is nothing but a deliberate lie?
Look at this in another way: What would be the reaction of the Indians, if China should publicly assure the Assamese that they will be permitted to exercise self-determination? India would loudly protest and say that it is the internal affairs of India, and that China has no locus standi, and that it is usurping and pretending to an authority that is not its own. China can assure self-determination to its own territorial members, such as Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Hainan, Yunnan, Manchuria, etc., but not to territories of its neighbors. And yet this is precisely what India did in the case of Goa, an integral part of Portugal.
There was not, at any time, any just provocation for Goans to secede from Portugal. There was never a mass-based movement for secession from Portugal and for independence or anything else. Yet, Nehru gratuitously poked his nose into our affairs, which it was not at all his business to do! He was being thoroughly hypocritical. And this from a man who had joined up with other states to frame the "Panchashila", which none of them kept or had any sincere intention of ever keeping!
Again, this is not the only major problem with Wendell's position. Wendell himself admits that, in the words of the Indian Supreme Court, Goa has been "absorbed" as an "acquisition by conquest". Then Wendell goes on to state that, as a result: "Most importantly we became equal citizens." However did that come about? It is glaringly obvious that the two are mutually exclusive and contradictory!
In ancient days, states seized and subordinated to themselves territories, or bought and sold territories. Due to these actions, the peoples of these territories were also transferred from one loyalty to another, just as if they were cattle, not human beings. In the last century more than any other time, such barbarity and inhumanity has come to be rejected as unlawful by consensus among all mankind. Territories and peoples are not acquired by "acquisition by conquest" anymore; leastways, the world will not stand it.
What happens when a territory and its people are acquired by "acquisition by conquest"? When that happens, the people of that territory become the slaves, the possession, the property, even the chattels, of the conquerors. If it is true that India legitimately acquired Goa, as Wendell obviously alleges, then we DID NOT BECOME and COULD NOT BECOME "equal citizens" or even "citizens" (of India) by any kind of definition; we became slaves and chattels of India, by "acquisition by conquest"!
So, then, we are confronted with two clear instances of hypocrisy on the part of Wendell. That is why I warn against uncritical enthusiasm.
But let me go on. Goa has been occupied by India since 1961, which was a few years before I was born. Both in India and in Goa, we have been taught of the "Indian freedom struggle" against England. When the English boasted of the several advantages that English rule gave British India, the Indians rejected that argument and claimed that material progress cannot be used as a justification, since it could as much have been achieved under native rule as under foreign rule.
Why then does Wendell give India credit for "material progress" in Occupied Goa? Should France and Belgium and Netherlands and Denmark and Poland and other countries occupied by the Nazis give Hitler credit for the "material progress" that he achieved in these countries during his occupation of them?
Again, I strongly object to the the holding of the CHOGM in Goa, and therefore to giving its name to any Goan institution. CHOGM, or to give it its full name, is the "Commonwealth Heads-Of-Governments Meet", a gathering of heads-of-state of the British Commonwealth.
Now it is a fact that Goa was never under England, so that there is no rationale for holding a CHOGM session in Goa. But by holding the CHOGM in Goa, both India and the CHOGM sought to signal the superiority of Anglo-Saxonism over Lusitanism, and of the legitimacy of India's robbery and brigandage against Goa and Portugal. For me, as a patriot, it is "insult added to injury". If a session of the Lusophone Community had been held in some territory formerly ruled by England and occupied by a member of the Lusophone Community, England would have claimed an aggravated insult. Yet, this is exactly what they have done to us! To add insult even further, these vermin and criminals were conducted on a tour of Bom Jesu, and the relics of St. Francis Xavier, the Patron Saint of Goa, was brought down for the delectation of these mendacious vermin!
But all these objections are comparatively insignificant. Let us come to that what is really significant: Wendell's homosexuality and his participation in the New Age Movement, with Neo-Paganism.
Remo Fernandes, the singer, has publicly advocated that Christians worship the Ba'als and Molochs of the pagan Hindus, as a means of becoming fused with these pagans—the slaves of error and of the darkness of evil—in flagrant opposition to the teaching of God.
In the Bible, the Word of God, we are taught:
The Lord said to Moses: Command the children of Israel, and say to them: When you shall have passed over the Jordan, entering into the land of Chanaan, Destroy all the inhabitants of that land: Beat down their pillars, and break in pieces their statues, and waste all their high places, Cleansing the land, and dwelling in it. But if you will not kill the inhabitants of the land: they that remain, shall be unto you as nails in your eyes, and spears in your sides, and they shall be your adversaries in the land of your habitation. And whatsoever I had thought to do to them, I will do to you. —Numbers 33: 50-56.
And thou shalt know that the Lord thy God, he is a strong and faithful God, keeping his covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments, unto a thousand generations: And repaying forthwith them that hate him, so as to destroy them, without further delay immediately rendering to them what they deserve. Their graven things thou shalt burn with fire: thou shalt not covet the silver and gold of which they are made, neither shalt thou take to thee any thing thereof, lest thou offend, because it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. Neither shalt thou bring any thing of the idol into thy house, lest thou become an anathema, like it. Thou shalt detest it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is an anathema. —Deuteronomy 7: 9-10, 25-26.
When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which thou art going in to possess, and shall have destroyed many nations before thee, seven nations much more numerous than thou art, and stronger than thou: And the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no league with them, nor shew mercy to them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for thy son: For she will turn away thy son from following me, that he may rather serve strange gods, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled, and will quickly destroy thee. But thus rather shall you deal with them: Destroy their altars, and break their statues, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven things. Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be his peculiar people of all peoples that are upon the earth. Not because you surpass all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you, and hath chosen you, for you are the fewest of any people. —Deuteronomy 7: 1-7.
You shall not go after the strange gods of all the nations, that are round about you: Because the Lord thy God is a jealous God in the midst of thee: lest at any time the wrath of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and take thee away from the face of the earth. —Deuteronomy 6: 14-15.
Beware lest thou ever forget the covenant of the Lord thy God, which he hath made with thee: and make to thyself a graven likeness of those things which the Lord hath forbid to be made: Because the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. If you shall beget sons and grandsons, and abide in the land, and being deceived, make to yourselves any similitude, committing evil before the Lord your God, to provoke him to wrath: I call this day heaven and earth to witness, that you shall quickly perish out of the land, which, when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall possess. You shall not dwell therein long, but the Lord will destroy you, And scatter you among all nations, and you shall remain a few among the nations, to which the Lord shall lead you. And there you shall serve gods, that were framed with men's hands: wood and stone, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. And when thou shalt seek there the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him: yet so, if thou seek him with all thy heart, and all the affliction of thy soul. After all the things aforesaid shall find thee, in the latter time thou shalt return to the Lord thy God, and shalt hear his voice. —Deuteronomy 4: 23-29.God goes on to tell us:
Bear not the yoke with unbelievers.And then God tell us to flee from the "unclean thing" — idolatry, the grotesque and vile beliefs of the pagans:
For what participation hath justice with injustice?
Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?
And what agreement
Hath the temple of God with idols? —2 Corinthians 6: 14-16
Wherefore, saith the Lord:Lastly, God promises us, that if we obey Him:
Go out from among them
And be ye separate,
And touch not the unclean thing! —2 Corinthians 6: 17
And I will receive you.In keeping with his false and anti-Christian (and therefore, anti-Goan) principles, Remo has himself has taken the lead in participating in pagan ceremonies — and of corrupting other Christians into joining him in this worship of Satan!
And will be a Father to you:
And you shall be my sons and daughters,
Saith the Lord Almighty. —2 Corinthians 6: 18
[You can see the "news-report" on Remo's Festival of Satanism here: http://www.goacom.com/goanow/2002/jan/festivals.html].
According to one of the quislingist websites (Goacom.com), since some time, the pagans have been celebrating a large stone as their "god" in the community of Siolim, in the vaddo (hamlet or subdivision of a village) of Gudem; a festival called the Siolim Zagor ("Vigil of Siolim").
In the last many years, this has developed into the "Siolim Festival", in which even Christians participate, according to this website, excepting the actual "religious rituals", as the report informs us.
And Remo has taken upon himself the "duty" of initiating Christians into participating in this event — this festival of idolatry — to which the treasonable and spurious "Church" (Antichurch of Karol Wojtyla) in Goa has no objection to make — since it has not ever denounced either Remo or participation in this festival of satanism at any time over the past so many years!
It is impossible to contemplate either St. Francis Xavier, Fr. José Vas or Fr. Agnelo de Sousa looking on in silence on such doing and not condemn it publicly and vocally! It is a sign of how far we have fallen from their ideals into moral and intellectual corruption and turpitude that no Goan of this day, not even "priests" and "bishops", finds any of this objectionable! Goan Catholics make a big show of the cult of these three saints, but all of this is only emotionalist tiatr and hypocritical lip-service, while their true service is for Satan!
Indeed, if one is to follow Remo's teachings, Christians should not refrain from participating in the religious rituals but should participate in them! There is no logical reason for Christians to refrain from participating merely from the actual rite of worship yet participate in the "festivities"; this is pure hypocrisy, and in no way excuses them before God!
Therefore, this — Remo's Festival of Sheol-Darsanam — is apostasy, clear and unequivocally; a negation and rejection of the First Commandment and all that Christianity stands for!
You counter my opposition to Wendell and to Remo claiming that their personal lives and lifestyles ought not to be our concern. Your basic premises are false and misguided, in that they are not according to Christian norms, but according to the norms of Westernism, which is the substitute that apostates constructed in place of Christendom, and on the principles of immorality, libertinism, secularism, etc.
You must keep in mind two basic principles: "Actions have consequences", and "One is known by the company one keeps". Go to http://www.google.com, and do an image search under "Wendell Rodricks". Look at the pictures that turn up (See 1, 2), of women in various states of undress.
In the November 18, 2004 edition of the Bombay Times, supplement to the Times of India, on page 5, there is a large advertisement for the J.W. Marriott hotel, designed by the Artshack Agency: the "Mezzo Mezzo Italian Gourmet Festival". Alongside the advertisement, is a picture of a woman in provocative dress, provocatively lifting up the hem of her short dress. At the bottom of the model's picture appears Wendell's signature. It reads: "A few accessories to go along with Wendell Rodricks' 'Mezzo Mezzo Collection' — Pesto Sauce and a dash of oregano.... The dresses are in fact made of pasta...."
Since you seem to have been taken up by Wendell, I have scanned this advertisement [See picture at right] and furnish it here for you and all who adulate Wendell — this sodomite and apostate who has publicly "married" a Frenchman [See webpage: Goan Sodomite] — as further evidence of his "wholesomeness". Do you want to distribute this also outside the churches? Would you want your children to see and emulate this? If you are going to distribute Wendell's writings outside of churches after services, you ought also to contemplate consequences. By canonizing Wendell and introducing souls to him, one runs the risk that some, at least, will come to consider his immoralities legitimate, and do the same. Who will be responsible for the loss of their souls?
Take again Wendell's homosexuality. If it is okay with you, then it must mean that if your sons or grandsons or brothers or other male relatives entertain sodomites and be converted to Sodomism, you will have no objections. Is that correct?
Let me understand this: If you have no objection to the public immoralities of Wendell and Remo, then you must not have objections to other Goans doing the same and in public. Is this then what you want: A Goa that is free so that all of us Goan men can be Sodomites, and all our women prostitutes? A Goa free enough that we can spit on Christ and His Cross and use the Bible for toilet paper, as we join the pagans in worshipping their foul and obscene "deities"? Is this why you want a free Goa?
Sometime ago, Mrs. Teresa Benns sought to impress upon me that I spent too much time fighting for Goa and too little fighting for Christ. At that time I thought that she was mistaken: I consider that the fight for Goa is a subordinate part of the fight for Christianity. Now, unfortunately, you prove that she got it right—that I was putting too much emphasis on Goa and not enough on the faith!
Let me put things this way: We have our priorities all skewed up. We must put Christ and Christianity first. Without intending it, or rather while attempting to do the correct thing, I have ended up putting the cart (patriotism) before the horse (integrity of Christianity). Patriotism is a moral value, but on the scale of moral values, it is comparatively low down in the scale.
We have been created by God and placed on this earth, not that we may live here forever, but that we may merit His eternal company in heaven. We are to live only about 60-100 years on earth, but we are to spend eternity either in heaven or in hell.
Patriotism is therefore a relative value.
We call ourselves Patriots, because we seek to practise the virtue of Patriotism, not because we are practitioners of Patriolatry — the idolatry of one's country or homeland. And therefore, our slogan is always, "For God and Country!", in that order, and not merely, as say the pagans, "For Country!"; thus we subordinate the natural and divinely mandated love of family, nation and homeland to the supernatural love for God and His Law. Nor is the "God" we refer to, the pagan demons, caricature of the Divine Nature, or the heretic's corruption of the True God, but Yahweh-Elohim, the God of Adam, of Enoch, of Noah, of Shem and Japetha, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of Moses, of the Prophet Samuel, of King David, of the Prophets Elias, Eliseus, Jeremias, Isias, etc., who finally came incarnate as Christ Jesus.
Our fight for Goa is therefore predicated upon Christianity and Christian values. Excepting Christianity, there is nothing to differentiate us from the rest of the Subcontinent. Christianity has made us what we are.
Nor have we received the gift of the Faith only to sit on our fat backsides. Men from other lands came to us, sacrificing their chance to domestic happiness in order to bring us the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is our obligation to carry it further. Indeed, the very people who brought the Gospel to us, have been robbed of the Gospel, and it is our duty to restore it among them.
But how can we restore or give it to others, if we ourselves do not have it? Our faith itself is corrupted. And that is at the heart of the matter: God usually allows a people to be beset and persecuted when they fall away from Him, into heresy and schism.
The Modernist Apostasy dates officially from October 1958, but its seeds were sowed much before that. And in Goa, we have had a peculiar situation where, in Goa, the Pombaline Scission was aggravated under the reigns of the anti-Catholic and Protestant descendants (Casa de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) — Maria da Gloria, Pedro V, Luis I, Carlos I and Manoel II—of the traitor and usurper Pedro IV de Bragança (as against Kings Miguel I & II de Bragança), from 1828-1910, while across the border, the English protestant patrons of the traitor Peter IV ruled. Therefore, our faith was made so much the weaker, much earlier than other Catholic peoples.
Our fight for Goa cannot and will not succeed under any circumstance until and unless we set ourselves right with God, until we return unconditionally to the values of St. Francis Xavier, Apostle of Goa, repudiate the New Religion, and prove ourselves to be sincerely contrite and faithful. Let no one deceive himself on this point.
In the Bible, God tells us: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice...." (Matthew 6: 33)
How can we be obeying God when we publicly profess and boast of our indifference to Him and His Law, adulate those who blaspheme Him and sin publicly and flagrantly against Him?
Why should God, whom we insult and mock, come to our aid and relieve us?
St. Francis Xavier was a Basque, the son of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Navarre. Just as he was born, his country was conquered by Spain, of which it remains part till today. Since the last thirty to forty years, the Basques have been fighting a violent campaign to regain their independence. St. Francis never got involved in any attempt to regain Basque independence. He lived a comparatively worldly life in Paris, until the warning of St. Ignatius of Loyola awoke him to his peril. St. Ignatius asked him: "Francis, Francis, what shall it benefit you if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?" (Mark 8: 36; Luke 9: 25). This is the principle by which we Goans must be guided:
What use shall it be if we gain Goa's freedom and lose our souls?Indeed, the course you advocate, of indifference and of connivance with the immoral lifestyle of Wendell, and of Remo's campaign to subvert Goans into still deeper apostasy, is one that is designed to bring Goa certainly and surely to destruction. If this is what we want, why do we need political liberation?
Do we need this liberation so that Goa can substitute or augment Bangkok and Ceylon as the homosexual, paedophile and fornication capitals of the world? Is that what you want?
I think not. I rather hope that you were merely carried away by blind enthusiasm and that you are not yourself a votary of immorality and vice, such as Wendell or Remo are.
But, as I have said before, it is necessary for us to understand this primary fact, and to act according to it: God permitted the persecution and dismemberment of Portugal and of Goa at the hands of our enemies because we had drifted away from Him and His principles. Return sincerely to Him, and He will restore us. Try as much as we want, He will not permit us to flourish otherwise.
God tells us:
16Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for your souls. — Jeremias 6To return to the sempiternal, true Catholic principles, we must reject the new, false principles of Vatican II, of Roncalli and his Aggiornamento, and even more, of the Modernists. We must reject the protestantized Novus Ordo Missae, immodesty in dress, ecumenism and communicatio in sacris, the heresy of religious liberty, the heresy that men can be saved in any religion, etc. We must embrace all that Pope Pius IX commanded and reject all that he rejected. We must embrace all that Pope St. Pius X commanded and reject all that he rejected. This is the only way for us to attain to our ends. All other attempts will certainly end in failure.
If God is against us, who can be for us? If God is for us, who can be against us? Therefore, let us quit deceiving ourselves; let us quit this fool's paradise of our own making, and let us return to our Lord and God, to the God of Israel, the God of St. Francis Xavier. Only then can we expect the aid and assistance of our God, and of our special friends: St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Francis Xavier, Fr. José Vas and Fr. Agnelo de Sousa.
God promises us:
14 If my people, which are called by my name,Come let us return to the faith of our fathers!
Shall humble themselves
And pray
And seek my face,
And turn away from their wicked ways;
I will hear them from heaven,
And will forgive their sin,
And will heal their land. — Parallipomenon 7
Lúcio Mascarenhas
Post Script: In the Goa Today, November 2003, pages 25-27, appears Dr. Ivo da Conceição e Sousa's A Saint For All, wherein he says (pg. 26, para 1):
"He (i.e. St. Francis Xavier) was a victim of the belief that the unevangelized ("gentios") would perish unconditionally."This is just another specimen proof of the apostasy, of having fallen away from the Christian faith into the Modernist heresy. If St. Francis was in error on this crucial point, so was Christ Jesus, whose very sacrifice on the cross was meaningless, given that all religions deliver salvation! This is making a mockery of God and of His Word, and rubbishing the Bible!
Very evidently, it is not St. Francis who was a "victim", but it is the Goans of today, such as Dr. Ivo himself, who have departed from the truth into the heresies of the Modernist Heresiarchs and Antipopes John XXIV, Paul IV, John-Paul I and John-Paul II, who are "victims", and who, if they will persist in their errors, will make of themselves eternal victims of their vice in hell!
GoanCenter List Message #425
From: francesco barros
Date: Sat Nov 20, 2004 4:52 pm
Subject: Re: Wendell Rodricks
Hi Friends,
I want to say loudly and clearly that I too liked the article by Wendell Rodrigues, about Goa's Liberation 2.
We should keep a copy of it in our files and make a book of all the articles that would make a lot of difference, when we pass this information to the other Goans all around the world. Article by famous Goans do make lot of diffence and can have lot of impression, to come together for a Goan cause.
I remember during language issue, how Remo Fernandes took part even on the streets and hot it made lot of difference.
So save your personal comments on the personal life of these people who want to say and stand for a cause, which is one way or the other associated to our very own casue of liberation from the evils.
We should pass this copies to as many people as possible... that's the way to start somewhere and mind you the comments of known personalities like Remo, Wendell, Chandrakant Keni and so on... do make lot of difference.
So my dear friend, let us make as many copies of Wendell's article and pass it on to most of our Goans, in Goan as well as all around the world.
The best way is to pass in Goa is at, after the Mass gets over on Sundays.
So say Viva Goa... cause we will prevail to get the attention of India's illegal possession of Goa from 1961.
One step at a time.
Francesco BarrosGoanCenter List Message #422
From: Lucio Mascarenhas
Date: Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:35 pm
Subject: Wendell Rodricks
Dear Friends,
I liked Wendell Rodrigues' article very much. Originally, I avoided reading it, given his reputation, but after hearing folk mention it with enthusiasm, I decided to take a look. I like this so much now, that I have re-edited the article in Word, printing and distributing it. Already I have given one Goan family a copy, and they liked it very much.
There are however certain problems with the article, which I will address later. For now, I want to remind the reader of these reports on Wendell, and ask: What exactly is going on?
http://www.geocities.com/prakashjm45/goansodomite.html & http://www.geocities.com/prakashjm45/coprophagy3.html
Any suggestions?
LucioGoanCenter List Message #397
From: Bernado Colaço
Date: Sat Nov 13, 2004 6:44 pm
Subject: Liberation 2 by Wendell Rodricks
It is believed that Wendell was once a BJP fan and of bharat mata; this new article published in Goa Today shows a different Wendell—a famous Goan stylist. I hope his call will spread like wild fire across Goa.
Bernardo ColaçoA Second Liberation For Goa?
By Wendell Rodricks
This article appeared in the Goa Today, November 2004, page 35 & 36 under the title "Liberation 2".
Next month we will celebrate forty-three years since Indian forces moved into Goa and took it over as "acquisition by conquest". Those are not my words but those of the Supreme Court of India.
That Goa, since its "liberation" from Lisbon, has progressed in large strides since 1961, is unquestionable. In a span of a decade, villages moved from candlelight and pontis to electricity and fluorescent tubes. Villagers who slept at 9.00 p.m. each night now sleep at 11.00 p.m. or later. Cable television ensures that they rise even later in the morning. In 1993, I recall how the entire village of Colvale was up and about at 5.00 a.m. Now, even the ladies who kindled the wood fires slumber past 6.30 a.m. On Sundays, when the villages were socially active from 5.00 to 7.00 p.m., it was a joy to meet friends and relations. Oil lamps still went out at 9.00 p.m. Now, between the village church and temple, loudspeakers ensure that Sundays are ruined. Sleepy villages with dusty roads now have thundering national highways that cut through the heart of villages.
Let us not forget the good that came with being part of India. Most importantly we became equal citizens. Electricity, tarred roads and telephones everywhere. Also, piped water, cable television, better transport and trade, more jobs. Never mind that all these go on the blink with alarming regularity. Such alarming regularity that one wonders if it is a good thing to have them at all.
There is much to be done in Goa though. Due to governments that fall quicker than stock exchanges and the musical chairs of the Chief Ministers, we have lost out on progress. By, progress, I mean real, concrete progress. Not the stuff that gets done just because there is a CHOGM or IFFI.
I recall as early as 1987 the plan for a united Europe had begun. Poorer countries like Greece and Portugal went under the microscope. Problems and assets were identified by the central EU committee. Cities and villages followed a central plan. Work begun to provide health, finance, public areas, education, infrastructure for trade, etc. And most amazingly, rather spectacularly, the plans because a reality by the time the Euro was introduced in the European economy.
Look at Goa. Everyone said the CHOGM road would not be ready on time. It was! Which goes to prove that if we set a time and date, we can get things done.
So, why doesn't Goa come up with a plan for the next ten years? A plan that allows every village to have water, parks for the young and old, sports facilities for the young, industry for the village, parking areas, shopping areas, schools. We need these facilities in each village. Instead, we have more ugly houses and factories and no plans for these vital necessities. When a village or housing plan is set up for land in Canada, there are plans first for infrastructure: pavements, clinics, parks, walkways, etc. Here in Goa a housing board plan means taking prime hill land and making eight to ten 70's style buildings. No plans for the people who live in it nor respect for the village below.
The Goa Government has become a castrated eunuch by Delhi. Politicians play to the tune of Delhi bureaucrats. Budgets are a mess. Our hills are planned by Indians who do not care if Goa died or not. Our foreign exchange from mining does not even come to Goa.
Jawaharlal Nehru said that Goans should rule and decide the future of Goa. Unfortunately his power crazy and politically incompetent daughter set the country on a backward track into crazy Communist-inspired themes that did not work. After Mrs. Gandhi, it went further downhill in terms of how power in Delhi can corrupt, destroy and eventually annihilate Goa.
Sometimes I think of secession. First we had the noose from Lisbon. Now we have it from Delhi. Is it time to call for a new liberation? Can we make Goa a principality like Monaco is to France? Can we have back our communidade land that was tended so lovingly by our ancestors but now sold to factories? Can't we run our own state in true democratic style: For, of and by Goans? Can we please set a plan in motion that can save Goa and keep our Goan identity before bungling fools in Delhi overrun us completely!
I have spent sleepless nights, discussed endlessly with friends whether we should form an army like the Shiv Sena did in Maharashtra and give Goa back to the Goans. When I expressed my views to other Goans, they (not surprisingly) agreed.
If New Delhi and our wonderful Goan politicians want to maintain the status quo, I demand a ten-year plan that addresses the following:So Delhi and Goa, are you listening? One day soon, if a plan is not put in place, expect a second liberation to free Goa.
- Education — In ten years we will be stuck in the same education rut. Some schools are still in village homes with badly lit rooms, no computers, no power and no facility nor space for sport. The Goa University needs to be upgraded and stand alongside the best in the world (Forget about the best in India. We must look internationally).
- Finance — There is so much to be done here that I leave the CM to do the planning. But yes! Our foreign income from mines must come to Goa; not Delhi.
- Health — The trend is thus: If you fall sick, rush to Bangalore or Bombay. Considering we had Asia's first medical college set up, this is a scandal. The villages need 24 hours pharmacies and items such as anti-venom. The rural health needs should to be addressed; not some urban plans that work in Indian cities.
- Power — What power? It fails Goa everytime. Need we say more? And we expect industry to work?
- Labour — A plan to educate Goans in a manner that provides jobs, security and awareness. The migrant labour situation needs to be controlled and monitored. And while we speak of that, throw out those lazy central beaurocrats who treat Goa as a difficult posting and don't care for Goa.
- Communidades — Stop the stealing of commune lands. The centre has no right to destroy our hills in the name of so called progress.
- Law — A law plan that works for the common man and settles disputes. A law that empowers the wronged and not pamper criminals. A law that keeps Ministers, MLAs and administrators in check.
- Transport, Town planning, PWD — Systems for Goans, by Goans and of Goans. No plans by people in Delhi who don't know or care about basic problems that affect Goans. What works in other states cannot apply here.
- Water Resources — Plans to harvest and provide water. Control and maintain the ground water levels in every village.
- Culture and Art — This portfolio should not be planned and managed by SSC pass asses who become culture Ministers. It should be in the hands of the artists and people who hold up our Goan culture.
- Sports — Quite simply, sportspeople get the worst deals. They are controlled by manipulating people who look at the money in sports. And how can we expect star athletes unless we start young in school (like in China)?
- Tourism — This is our lifesaver. It cannot run alongside other industries. How can we expect tourists to come and sit on a beach or balcao and admire the polluting chimneys of factories. There are so many countries that make a successful economy work based only on tourism. With the famed Goan hospitality, culinary skills, warmth and cultural reservoir, we can do better... if we did a plan.
Wendell Rodricks
Lúcio Mascarenhas' Website: Home