Dwarfed by the giants?

On Friday the 13th, Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat, held a press conference at his official Altinho residence to announce ex-gratia for the missing fishermen. At this press conference, Diggubab was flanked by the 'giant' trawler owners and ex-trawler owners from his cabinet -- Churchill Alemao, his brother Joaquim Alemao and Jose Philip D'Souza. Also present, with the tattoos on his forearms prominently visible, was St Andre MLA, Francis Silveira, who jointly with his family members, reportedly owns some half-a-dozen trawlers.

More than announcing the ex-gratia for the missing fishermen was this press conference meant to assure the trawler-owner politicos that the government would consider converting the Phyan losses into gains? Diggu said at this press conference that he has asked both the district collectors to assess the losses of all the trawler owners and submit the report to him so that he can forward it to the Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, for seeking assistance. This said, the journos at the press conference were treated to some cacophonic laments from the trawler-owner politicos of how Phyan had destroyed the nets on their trawlers. By the way, the cost of nets on each trawler, could add up to Rs one-crore depending on the size of the trawlers!

Phyan: Mammoth disaster for Goa

When at Christmas in 2004 the tsunami drowned a multitude, the role of the Met department came into sharp focus. Governments and everybody and sundry devoted their time and energies to discuss how more should be invested into advance warning mechanisms to alert humanity of such tragedies in the nick of time. Half a decade later, there seems to be no progress. The Met office warned us of cyclone Phyan much after we began to feel its effect, and the result? Well, disaster!

Goa hasn't seen a worse tragedy strike it in decades. Sixty-odd fishermen are still missing and are presumably dead. Yet, there's no feel that disaster has struck us. On day one, 'No major damage, few vessels missing' said the headline of one major daily in rather bad taste. In hindsight, it perhaps echoed the general response of Goans to this tragedy -- Oh, nothing much, just a few vessels missing and some non-Goan workers on them lost.

Non-Goan. That's the key-word. Is it because those 60-odd missing men are 'ghantis' as we Goans generally call these 'non-Goans', that this tragedy hasn't stirred our hearts enough?

The shabby treatment given at the Goa Medical College to some Tamil fishermen who survived the cyclone and landed at the Malim jetty wounded, is another shocking example of this inhuman trait in us Goans, especially in our dealings with these 'ghantis'. The three wounded men were ignored for six whole hours, simply because they were 'non-Goans' and admitted only at 2 am when they had knocked the hospital's doors at 7.30 pm. Florence Nightingale must be frowning in her tomb.

Churchill, Mickky still on warpath?

The much talked of backroom truce between Tourism Minister, Francisco Mickky Pacheco, and his colleagues in the cabinet, the Alemao brothers, has seemingly not percolated down to the battleground. At the most it seems to have thawed the ties between Mickky and the junior Alemao -- Joaquim.

As for Churchill, he seems to have not forgotten the humiliation he suffered at Mickky's hands of being defeated in the assembly election from Benaulim in 2002. The hostilities between the supporters of the Senior Alemao and those of Mickky on ground zero meanwhile keep raging. In fact, recently the two sides even knocked the doors of the High Court on the contentious Shack Allocation Policy, devised by the department headed by Mickky to please his supporters who run the Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS). Churchill supporters who run The Goa Traditional Shack Owners Association (TGTSOA) weren’t pleased. SOWS chief, Cruz Cardozo, is from Cavelossim and a known Mickky supporter. As for TGTSOA, Kennedy Afonso, is its pointsman and there's no doubt he's a Churchill man. He in fact is the man who filed the plea in Delhi High Court challenging the Election Commission's grant of legitimacy to the Save Goa Front faction led by Antonio Gauncar on which hinges Mickky’s petition before Speaker Pratapsing Rane, seeking Churchill's and Reginald's disqualification. Meanwhile, round I of the shack war has gone to Churchill faction with the High Court scrapping Tourism Department's policy tailor-made to suit Mickky's supporters. But the war hasn't ended. News is that Cruz Cardozo is in Delhi, scouting for a good Supreme Court lawyer!