Author: Albertina Almeida

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The Influence of Alito Siqueira

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

From the late 1980’s onwards, I have been involved in the struggle condemning tourism as it was foisted on the Goan people. Alito was involved at the time with a few others in the University in carrying out a study on tourism and its implications for the people of Goa.  While interviewing me, he asked: “Why should those working on the farms oppose tourism, given the measly wages they are paid by the landlords and the better income they get from tourism?” The question has stayed with me ever since. (more…)

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Of Big Daddies, Sugar Daddies, and Just Daddies

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

Of late, all kinds of ‘Daddies’ are in the news. I want to state here that I had a loving and caring father, who has been with me through all the times that I have endured. This caring did not mean pampering and he did not fail to reprimand when it was called for. I wouldn’t have exchanged him for anything in the world. He was a father who taught me the value of hard work and not to yield to any pressures. He would recount anecdotes with such gusto that even when he repeated them, one still listened as if to new stories. He wasn’t tall, dark and handsome. He didn’t flaunt his hairy chest. He and my mother cooked jointly. Not that he was without his faults, but this is an attempt to highlight certain positive traits that are not usually attributed to men. (more…)

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Corporate Social Responsibility or Actual Corporate Irresponsibility?

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

A recent cycle tour sponsored by Adani ostensibly for health under the cover of Corporate Social Responsibility, a citizens’ protest against these double standards, and police protection for the cycle tour, makes us all ponder about what this Corporate Social Responsibility is all about. Indeed, cycling is good for health, but carrying out such as CSR exercise in today’s Vasco is akin to planting a handful saplings while axing thousands of trees.

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Chowkidar? Protecting Who from Whom?

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

Chowkidars, as we understand, are watchmen, whose services are hired by people who need protection. And, of course, different people need protection for different reasons. But what kind of protection must the head of the country provide, and to who, and from whom? The Constitution of India proclaims that we, the people of India, have solemnly constituted ourselves into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic Republic. So clearly, the Constitutional imperative is for those in governance to protect people from want, starvation, violations of bodily integrity, targeting as a community, discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, sex, sexual orientation, ableism, ageism, or any other axis, violation of freedom of speech and expression, among other things.

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The ‘Gilded Cage’ of Progress

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

There was a time when the oppressive situation that women were in was brazenly obvious- patriarchal laws, distinctly patriarchal local self-governance bodies (like khap panchayats), courts with not a single woman judge (in Goa, for instance), all male bank managers, non-equitable situations for women where they had to fight for their share of the pie despite being all in a disadvantaged situation. The list could go on and on.

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Zero Caste-based Discrimination in Law, Please!

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

Today is Zero Discrimination Day. While we would all agree that every day should be Zero Discrimination Day, such commemoration allows us  to foreground the existing discrimination so that it ends. The focus, this year is on the urgent need to take action against discriminatory laws. Discrimination can be actively perpetrated by individuals and the State in the way they conduct themselves with those who are marginalized, and it can also be actively perpetuated by not doing what the State is duty bound to do.

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So what are Goans aspiring for?

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

 

Our lifestyles are already at stake, they are further threatened. The cultural setting, to which the outmigrating Goans hope to return to in their old age, will be erased. Goans will be a museum piece like Native Americans are in the United States, to dance ‘hanv saiba poltodi vetam’ on the tourist boats. Reduced in numbers, robbed of lands, relocated, governed by governing systems that are not in conformity with their way of being. Sometimes through the propping up of sold-out individuals who claim to ‘represent’ the same communities.

 

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Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas? (Progress of All with All?)

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

 

Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas is a poll slogan apparently coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which, according to his website, translates as Collective Efforts Inclusive Growth, and is supposed to be at the core of the functioning of the present Government. However, if one were to assess how Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas is being applied, one would need to look at two factors: one, whether bland unity or bland equality measures, can succeed in contexts that are ridden with power imbalance; and two, to consider if the State’s vision of progress is a progress that is accessible to the marginalized sections of society.

 

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