THE construction of an international cruise terminal by the Mormugoa Port Trust (MPT) authorities to boost tourism coincides with the rise of dengue and cholera cases in Goa. Ironically, six fish workers died at the Cutbona fish jetty in south Goa very recently and it was in the newspapers.
Mining, agriculture and tourism form the triad which earns revenue for this tiny state, but it comes at a heavy price. For one thing, gawking tourists who relieve themselves and knock at all hours on the doors of Fontainhas residents in Panjim, have roused a lot of ire in recent times. Goans in the Latin quarters of capital city Panjim want their afternoon siesta and do not take kindly to gawking tourists, who knock on their doors asking to be allowed inside so they can “look around” their 100-year-old homes.
There is no doubt that we have seen a 40 per cent rise in cruise vessels docking at the MPT terminals to disgorge thousands of tourists from Europe and Asia. They want to stroll around Fontainhas and Old Goa to take in the architectural marvels of old here. Five hundred year old churches in Goa Velhas which are crumbling cannot be shut to these gawking tourists, but private homes are strictly out of bounds.

DOMESTIC TOURISTS
SOME of our domestic tourists urinate on the walls of these old houses in Fontainhas and soon residents cease to be happy and no longer feel like being hospitable and welcoming – as a plethora of tourists brochures of Goa Tourism make out.
The Manohar Parrikar international airport already has increased its capacity for flights to land in Goa so that tourist footfalls have risen dramatically. Baina in Vasco da Gama was already a filthy slum some decades ago, so that all the ills of neighboring states like prostitution and drug dealing entered through Vasco da Gama. Tourism does have its flip side, you see.
Also, at least 74 domestic flights received hoax bomb threats in October and created a scare at the Goa International Airport at Dabolim and the still growing Manohar International Airport at Mopa. These threats originated on X (formerly Twitter) where a user going by the name @AdamLanza222 claimed to have put a bomb on several aircraft. Coupled with the threats issued by Gurpanant Singh Pannun who is based in the USA against travelers boarding Air India flights between November 1 and 19, this has created fear psychosis amongst Goa, Goans and tourists.
If one had to choose between tourism and health, Goans would undoubtedly opt for the latter which would prove more beneficial to Goans, than gawking tourists who come here around the year. This is why the dehydration and deaths of the six fish workers at Cutbona fish jetty in south Goa is alarming.
Goa’s health infrastructure is not as good as its tourism infrastructure. As charity begins at home, Goans need more primary health centers and hospitals — than an international cruise terminal at MPT which does not impact their lives all that much!

POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS
ALTHOUGH it appears unrelated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reaching out to Chinese Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in Russia appears to be another example of the long-dead Hindi Chini bhai bhai disaster of the 1960s. The brave soldiers who laid down their lives to thwart the Chinese from entering Indian territory in the mountains of the Himalaya appears to have achieved little. As I have said in several of my articles, China can never be a friend of India. Its expansionist and hegemonic designs relegate India to the status of a third-rate country which has to forever appease its giant neighbor, China, which will forever make inroads into Indian territory to nibble away at its borders.
But what has the Chinese threat got to do with Goa given that China is far away from Goa borders? The naval base at Karwar called “Seabird” where submarines and destroyers are retrofitted and made seaworthy, is the most modern and state-of-the-art equipped naval base which the Indian Navy possesses. The Indian Navy was never allowed to take part in the 1948 and 1964 wars with Pakistan and the 1962 war with China. It made its debut in 1971 but lost the INS Khukri which was torpedoed by a Pakistani submarine.

CHINESE NAVY
THE Indian mainland is surrounded by a “garland of pearls” built by China around India. This means the Chinese Navy has built missile silos, nuclear warheads and everything else needed to intimidate Modi and the Indian defense forces from declaring war against China. Chinese submarines also patrol in the international waters not far off the Goa coast. This is why we need to upgrade out Indian Naval base and build a few nuclear warheads aimed at the Chinese mainland. This is called the theory of mutual deterrence.
This is where Goa comes in because it has a long coastline; a small portion of this coast can be cordoned off to form a subsidiary base with the Karwar naval base. We already have the Dabolim airport which was initially built by the Portuguese to serve as a landing strip for their airplanes. It was gradually upgraded to a civilian airport from its initial launching as a military airport.
Modi may not admit it, but he and his defense minister, Rajnath Singh, are scared of declaring war on China by making capitulating noises, thereby confirming the Chinese assertion that India will dare not take on the Chinese armed forces by declaring an outright war.
So, there you have it. What we need is better health infrastructure for Goans and upgraded naval facilities to take on the Chinese without compromising on the nation’s sovereignty. Nationalism and sovereignty do not always go hand-in-hand.