Getting what we don’t want

Frederick Noronha A friend and colleague, commenting via Facebook recently, raked up some strong views when he wrote: “Problem with Goa is it knows what it doesn’t want.
But this argument is actually just another variant of the view that ‘Goa protests everything’ logic.
To be fair, this is either a misunderstanding of the local reality, or a distortion of the same.
In order to make it sound convincing, a long list of protests by citizens is pointed out.
We need to remind ourselves that he was a man who rose so high in politics, at the very end of his career, but only after struggling and facing ridicule for being involved with people’s issues, concerns and protests for much of his life.
Nobody protests the social infrastructure, especially if they seem to benefit from it, or projects that would help the population to get ahead and get on with life, successfully.
When it comes to huge educational projects, the questions being raised are of cost-benefit and also the land resources being allocated to the same.
People-friendly, human-sized growth, which would have benefitted those who need it most, could have made a real difference to Goa.
What we don’t realise is that while passengers get a raw deal, our current taxi system isn’t benefitting most taxi owners or drivers-cum-owners.
Their fight over passengers reflects their desperation, if anything.

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