WOMEN BOXERS WIN!
Women boxers took a bow at the 6th Elite Women’s Boxing Championship: Goa is on a winning spree! Say hello to Taniksha Chavan who won her second preliminary bout against host Madhya Pradesh’s Ayushi Awasthi in a split decision 3:2. Three girls from Goa, Shrisha jampula in 63-66kg weight category, Suman Yadav in 50-52kg weight category, and Prachi Kerkar in 81kg weight category are in the fray. Vaishnavi Prabhu and Shrisha Jampula advanced to the next round after winning their respective bouts. According to coach’s Priyanka D Khandeparkar and Santosh V Birmde, Shrisha will compete against Praveen from the All India Police Suman Yadav against Radha Patidar of Madhya Pradesh and Prachi Kerkar against Alisha Panigrahi of Odisha. Shrisha Jampala won bronze medal for Goa after a gap of 18 years! Goa is more hopeful about better boxing performances now!
USAGE OF
COMMON SI UNITS
IN 1960
the International System of Units (SI), French
Systéme Internationale d’Unités, was adopted by the 11th General
Conference on Weights and Measures. The SI is based on the metric system of
units and was globally implemented, so that people anywhere in the world could
understand the commonly used units for measurements and measures.
There are seven basic units from which others are
derived. These are length in metre, mass in kilogram, time in seconds, electric
currents in ampere, luminous intensity in candela, amount of substance in mole
and thermodynamic temperature in kelvin.
The SI is
not meant only for scientific purposes yet, countries like the UK and the USA
still prefer pounds for weight and inches, feet and yards for measurements.
Even the worldwide airline industries use feet for altitude. In the “National
Geographic” magazine, feet and pounds will be mentioned and within brackets
would be provided the equivalent metres and kilograms for non-Americans.
When people visit the UK and USA, their mental
mathematics (and now calculators in mobiles) come into to play to convert the
pounds (2.2 pounds = I kg), inches (1 inch = 2.54 cm) and feet (3.3 feet = 1 m)
when they buy clothes, foodstuffs, footwear and anything else that needs to be
bought based on weights and dimensions.
The SI
was universally agreed upon and formulated to remove the existing ambiguities
and confusions but the redundant units and terms are still in usage. How is
that all the countries are mum on this aspect and do not insist that the robust
and easy to remember SI units be mandated and practised?
–Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem, Goa
GOA IN A LIMBO
INSTEAD of focusing on issues concerning the people on a priority, the Goa government is desperately trying to keep us distracted and entertained with festivals, fests and exhibitions galore — while our financially bankrupt State is sinking by the day with the economy in doldrums. The BJP government is in fact running an event management wing, while feasting at the taxpayers’ expense treating every government function as a BJP event.
Goa is sadly enveloped in sheer administrative chaos with deep rooted rampant corruption, nepotism and sheer bad governance there for all to see. There has been confusion, contradiction and controversies galore with an unending string of U-turns and reneged promises. The sheer impotence displayed by the government in resolving basic public issues is alarming. They even goofed up in the naming of the Mopa Airport. What a crying shame!
While the government has miserably failed on all fronts the people of Goa are facing the brunt. We however need to resolutely find a way forward to rescue Goa from the current administrative mess and to restore our fading democratic values, while safeguarding for posterity what little remains of our once beautiful and tranquil Goa.
— Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
SUNBUN AGAIN!
GOA will host the controversial Sunburn soon, and in light of the EDM festival’s current rate of fatalities, precautions must be taken. The organizers and their enablers will once again be tasked with keeping psychotropics and illegal drugs off the venue, but more must be done.
News reports reveal an alarming number of overdoses due to fentanyl being added to party drugs and how a student-led NGO is handing out free testing kits to prevent death of first time and regular drug users. Women should be warned against leaving drinks unattended, date-rape drugs like ketamine are odourless and tasteless, and can leave women sterile for life.
Men should be just as careful; sadly Goa’s coastal belts are infested with youth warped into sociopaths after years of hard drug usage. There are stories of users insidiously being sold powdered glass or heart medication in the guise of cocaine.
The organizers or tourism department must foot the bill and provide fentanyl testing kits at the venue. The math shows one ticket holder will have a toe-tag when Sunburn and its after-party are done and dusted.
— Chris Fernandes, Miramar, Panaji
GMC DEATH TRAP
HOPE you can look into the long pending mess of GMC junction where lack of signage is the first challenge, especially for tourists and non-locals from other parts of Goa who do not know which roads are two- way and which are not.
The old road coming from Santa Cruz is a killer, next to the NEXA showroom where vehicles exit/enter the highway, besides go to GMC.
Encroachment, garages, restaurants, illegal parking, all reduce road width and contribute towards accidents.
Even Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had acknowledged that the design of the junction is faulty, but no rectification has been attempted.
Signage on road side as well as dividers on two-way roads can help to reduce accidents. Please do the needful as soon as possible for the sake of saving life!
— Immad Goankar, Goa