World Class Goans needed

By Mr. Plastino D'Costa

Arguably the best time to be in Goa, the weather is great during this time of the year, non residents Goans return to Goa for holiday, family reunions and to meet up with friends. The mood is festive, and most Goans are in the holiday spirit, after working the whole year, probably we all need that well deserved break, to spend time with family and friends. After all most part of the successful western world, takes time-out during this part of the year.

Now let’s ask this question to ourselves. Can we afford to take such a holiday break? Most Goans are always on a break 365 days of the year. We have so many excuses to take number of breaks, that when Goans actually work should be considered as a break from enjoyment. The fun of this festive season is actually deprived the thrill of a holiday, because we have not worked hard or smart the entire year and produced results.

Most Goans want lifestyles like the Europeans, Americans who take this time of the year very seriously to be with their families. Because most part of the year, they have put hours of hard work, so when this season comes they look forward to relax with their families. If Goans can’t work or think or create like them, can we have lifestyles like them?

No country can afford to enjoy 365 days a year. France, considered a rich country, makes a near monopoly product, commercial airplanes, world airlines have little choice when it comes to buying planes for their fleet, its either Airbus or Boeing (USA). Along with planes, they make world class wine, world class fashion. They sell all this to the world, and because they make so much money out of this, nobody complains when they almost shut down the country and take time out during this part of the year. Having said this, the recent arson proves that even the French cannot afford to be complacent and have to figure out a way to keep all of their citizens satisfied.

France is just one example and we could go on and on as most European countries have specialized in world class products they manufacture so well, that the company that makes this product indirectly drives their economy. Same might not be true for USA as it is a big country and have so many world class products to show off. How did they manage to make these products, they respect innovation, ideas, hard work, research and zero tolerance to corruption. Surely they did not succeed at the first attempt, but they take failures as a challenge to improve further and eventually that is what makes them successful.

If Goans want lifestyle like the Europeans, we should find out if Goa can offer World class products. We had one example of innovation, i.e. the Skybus project, one mishap and Goans gunned down this innovative idea. Everybody at that time was an expert to voice technical opinions against the project. Imagine if USA had to shutdown NASA after Challenger blew out in front of live television, inspite of such a big setback; imagine the courage and motivation to go on.


Is our Tourism World Class?. Goa depends upon tourism and everything the public and government does is tourist centric, but is Goa really a world class destination, do we have world class infrastructure, so we can command a higher price, or is Goa for tourists who can’t afford Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Switzerland, Nice, London, etc. If this industry is making enough money, why are Goan youth forced to look beyond this industry to make a career. Salaries of some qualified personnel in this industry are lower then call center workers in Bombay or Bangalore. It means after spending time and resources to develop this industry, it has not shown any results to their employees leave alone the Goan community. Or maybe the owners of these hotels don’t want to share their wealth with their employees, and why should they, they don’t have any examples to follow in Goa, there are no Murthy’s, Premji’s or Ambani’s in Goa who have shared wealth with their employees and changed the destiny of India.

Is our music world class? Most of us patronize the so called ‘Shows’ during this time of the year and yet most Goans are actually dancing at other people tunes, music composed thousands of miles away from Goa. Goan music composers with few exceptions have never tried to make their own music, something original, that will make the world dance to Goan tunes. Probably we don’t believe we can make world class music. We have set benchmarks so low that the ultimate goal, at least in the English language, is to be the best COPYCAT. Most Music Bands spend time to perfect a copy of a song. Nothing original comes out even in the Konkani language. Goans still depend on Konkani songs which were composed in the narrow, crowded, uncomfortable streets of Bombay, and that too composed some two decades ago. Surely we have not justified our music talent. By now we should have at least one world class Ricky Martin. Even the Hindi Pop music after such late entry, has moved way ahead.

Music and Tourism was just an example the writer used to prove a point. It could be in anything you do. If you don’t set your goals high enough, then the rewards will also be just mediocre. Even when you spend times with friends, think of innovation, creation, invention, something which the whole world wants. Yahoo, Google were all conceived on university campuses, young guys who had fun at work, offered something the world wanted, and in the process built world class companies. Our own INFOSYS, would not be what they are, if they had to think only of their state or country as their market, they thought beyond these boundaries.

Next generation Goans must think beyond their villages, beyond Goa, beyond India. Don’t be too sentimental and attached to your village, if you don’t find a suitable place to build or buy a house in your village, move out of your village.

Think OUT OF THE BOX. We might actually end up making something BIG, which makes a difference to the world, a world class company perhaps, which actually changes the destiny of Goa, which tourism or music has failed to do so far.

All this can happen only if you THINK BIG. Then maybe, just maybe we will actually be able to afford to shut down Goa and have a BALL during this time of the year. Happy Holiday!!

Above Article first appeared in Herald - Goa on 26th December 2005