Click Here
Click Here Again
By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
Hathras is far away. I didn’t even know there was a place by that name until the recent headlines. Then I wanted to know about the place and its people. And so much from the Hathras incident resonated with Goa. (more…)
By AMITA KANEKAR
Crimes in Goa tend to attract a standard public response. It may begin with a lament for a mostly fictitious and long-lost Goa where crime was unknown. But it surely continues into an abuse of our favourite scapegoats – the bhaile. And, as has been explained in this column before, although the word bhaile actually means outsiders, it is usually used pejoratively for only non-Goan labourers, not all non-Goans. (more…)
By DALE LUIS MENEZES
All the worst predictions about COVID-19 have, thus far, been proven true. Whether it was the rise of infection in a particular month, or the fact that the Government would clear “projects” in the absence of any opposition, or the increase in poverty and unemployment, the COVID-19 crises have deepened existing inequalities in accessing basic resources for sustenance, and technological ones such as internet and smart phones. With India’s GDP diminishing to about 23 percent in the first quarter, these technological inequalities will deepen further. (more…)
By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
To feel citizenship is to feel belonged, to be able to take part in the decision making processes that shape that society. It means one should be able to leave and return to the country/ies of citizenship. From this lens of citizenship, if one looks at how the Government of Goa has treated its citizenry through actions taken statedly to address the COVID 19 pandemic, then it has left in its trail much to be desired. The pandemic struck, shortly after the people of Goa (and India as a whole) were up in arms against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens (CAA-NPR-NRC). (more…)
By AMITA KANEKAR
India’s third National Education Policy (NEP) has been described as making ‘sweeping changes’ in the education system of the country, causing excitement, surprise and dismay in various quarters, and animated discussions in the media. But, announced at a time when schools and colleges across the country are closed, and education has gone online only to fail miserably for the majority of students, the first sense one gets is of a government bizarrely out of touch with reality. A closer look reveals that there is actually little that is new in this new NEP, and nothing at all that addresses the big problems of Indian education. (more…)
By DALE LUIS MENEZES
How should we read A. K. Priolkar in 2020? Or, more importantly, how should we understand ‘his’ interpretation of Christianity and the Inquisition in Goa? Two important aspects of Priolkar’s methodology need to be borne in mind: the ideological context of the mid twentieth century when he wrote, and his reliance on a sparse collection of facts. (more…)
By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
On August 5, 2019, exactly a year ago, Government of India effectively abrogated Article 370, in the name of expediting development and ending militancy. Kashmir was subjected to a lockdown which included blockage of communications. One felt concerned, and definitely angry at the fact that the Indian State had stomped all over Kashmir, worsening an already bad situation, and without giving the people of Kashmir a voice in the determination of their future. One may say that these two, Goa and Kashmir, cannot be compared. True, they can’t be compared, in that, in the one, it was a forced and heavily militarised lockdown meant to gag, but introduced in the name of checking terrorism, and in the other, the police-enforced lockdown was said to be meant as a safety measure to prevent spread of COVID 19. (more…)
By AMITA KANEKAR
The widespread protests that have rocked the US and other places, following the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, have given the world a lot to think about. Disbanding and de-arming of the police, and even replacing them by citizens’ forces, are issues that are being seriously considered in the US today. Not just racist violence, but everyday racism is also being called out, as also racism in all kinds of popular culture, including the continued celebration of well-known slave-owners and slavery-supporters in public statues, with the consequent result of great many of them literally losing their pedestals. (more…)
By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
There is the oft repeated saying popularized by Mark Twain, that there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. And that is what comes to mind as one tries to grapple with the basis on which the COVID 19 statistics, that are released each day to the press, are computed. Reliance is said to be placed by the Government on tests conducted. Fair enough, there had to be an yardstick by which an designation of someone being COVID 19 positive qualified to be entered as a statistic. So one would assume that it is after testing positive that a number would be entered in the statistical records. (more…)
By DALE LUIS MENEZES
If there is one thing that unites all in Goa, it is misinformation about the Inquisition. The extent of this misinformation was recently demonstrated on the Goanet listserv by the author, Alan Machado when he pointed out the falsehood, or “fiction,” that is passed off as historical facts. Catholics are misinformed because any attempt to confront this most shameful chapter of history is met with right-wing abuse and the ire of secular liberal ideologues. Hindus are also misinformed because this right-wing propaganda is the main vehicle through which they receive information about the Inquisition. The result is suspicion and animosity amongst the two communities—the end goal of right-wing politics. Such a politicization of this history eerily reminds us of the communalization of the ‘Muslim invasions.’ (more…)