Это классика = Брилиантовая рука .
"Вы обьявление читали? Во вторник Ваша лекция "Нью–Йорк — город контрастов".
"Я не был в Нью–Йорке. Я был в Марселе, Стамбуле…"
"Ну, хорошо, Стамбул — город контрастов, какая разница. 
Доктор прочтет нам лекцию 
неа....
Лекций не буду читать, надоели, мне в последнее время рассказки нравятся... Сейчас вот одну написал, переплетающуюся с темой "Экология в Краматорске" на вечную тему, что дороже- металл или вода... Она по английски для одного журнала, но, у нас, как и в Индии, все больше по английски народу понимать и говорить стало, так?
Если конспективно, то, "Как из рисового поля сделать Кривой Рог и что из этого получится" или "можно ли есть железо?"
Goa: the death land of destruction..I am Ukrainian and Finnish citizen, was born in the USSR. I lived in Finland for almost twenty years, graduated as a medical doctor and practised medicine, concentrating on psychiatry and internal medicine. I saw a lot, travelled all around the world, doing different businesses or doing nothing, although I had never been to India before. Fortunately, my older daughter was not only politically motivated but, surprisingly to me, between her many social events, also was studious and courageous enough to win a very tough competition for a scholarship to the International Baccalaureate United World College. She placed Mahindra United World College of India (MUWCI) as her first choice and, to my surprise and delight, she was granted admission to MUWCI. I felt uneasy at the time, for as a typical European, I had heard about India's friendly people and rich ancient culture, but had also heard quite a few negative rumours about India, particularly regarding issues such as public sanitation and tropical diseases.
But what could I do, my kid (former kid, now stunning young lady, but always a kid to Daddy) made a decision, which I had to respect.. She had been studying for almost two years and she had become increasingly excited about India... Finally I decided to go and see this exciting place for myself. We medical doctors are a lazy bunch, so I had three weeks vacation from my hospital, which I would use to see India thoroughly. I wanted to see India as it is, but my wife is not into backpacking, so she informed me that, although she was very keen to see India, she had no intention of staying with mosquitoes in a bamboo hut and would rather stay in Goa's famous 4-5 star hotels! We got two weeks tour for her and my younger daughter from the Finnish travel agency, but I arrived in Goa ten days before they did, just to enjoy the freedom of the backpacker life!
My elder daughter met me at the Goa airport and we continued to Palolem beach.. Of course, it was paradise. The fresh sea air, relaxed people, scenery surrounded with ever green palms, sea eagles circling calmly in the skies, evening music and the undeniable feeling of freedom... This paradise lasted two days, when my daughter's friend invited us to their family farm close to Quepem, where I was going to meet her father.. She told me that her farther was working on some mining problem.. I had never heard before of such a problem, and I was on my holiday, so I initially saw this as an additional tourist attraction..
However, closer to Quepem, sitting in a taxi, just few kilometres off the coast, we entered a Land of Red Dust. Trucks everywhere, although very colourful trucks, painted in different ways, proudly saying that this is a ”Goods carrier” and that ”sounding a horn” would be ”please OK”. The surrounding landscape, for the first time after my arrival to India, was not so optimistic... Green fields suddenly ended, red dust covered the trees, and trucks were everywhere. We escaped quickly from this place, taking some side roads and we arrived at a paradise island, which belonged to the sister of a friend of mine, and which she refused to sell to the local mining barons, regardless of the hefty sums offered.
I could tell that iron ore was everywhere under our feet as much as I can recognise iron ore.. But the ground was covered with life! Green trees surrounded the place, and its flowers, exotic fruits, and green fields captivated me.. And the water! Beautiful, clean water, flowing as a river between the trees, streaming through the irrigation channel, and ending in a peaceful lagoon, where I took a swim after a demanding trip across the big farm. It was an amazing time!
You can not stand in paradise for long, however much you may need the experience, so next day I was headed inland to Hospet and Hampi. My friend also asked me to visit Bellary, if I would have the time and desire to understand his point of view better. Hampi was simply beautiful.. In addition to its holy places, it also possesses huge tourism potential, which could bring a substantial amount of wealth to the local people . However, tourism in Hampi would diminish quickly if the ecological disaster around this old capital of South India continues unabated. Mines have been built too close to the holy places. After I enjoyed the beauties of the Holy and Royal places and witnessed a stunning sunset on a rocky hill over Hampi, I set off to Bellary through Hospet. Never I will do it again.. My first mistake (or advantage) was a decision to take a rickshaw... I just wanted to be closer to a nature... I wish I had not done that, as my life span was probably been cut short by several days thanks to the impact of dust and depression I felt during the trip... Passing busy Hospet, we slowly entered a Hell on earth. The Dangerous experience, which I had after visiting Quepem was nothing in comparison to what I saw approaching Bellary... Hundreds of huge trucks, roaring and belching smoke in every direction! There was no fresh air to breathe anymore, red dust covered me, entering my lungs, covering everything still barely alive in a read coat of death. Hills were largely gone.... I did not see a single green tree for kilometres... Neither water.. Just Mines, trucks and awful looking places for metal repair work... Any trace of happy local people disappeared.. Those whom I saw could not be counted as people. They were creatures, slowly dying in a red dust.
We did not even make it to Bellary. I felt so suff that I ordered my driver to turn back. It is going without saying that a ”road” was not a road anymore, it was only a direction, destroyed at every corner by heavy overloaded trucks. And worse, this was the only road between Hospet and Bellary, which local people were obliged to use, if they have to go, for example, to Hospet for a market shopping.. No way.. Trucks were everywhere, the queues were huge. The best clothes, which people wore for their trip, became dirty and dusty red immediately and more with each passing truck.
As a doctor, I would say, that people in the vicinity of this ecological hell would not last long.. They would just die slowly from a lung and cardiovascular diseases. If somebody want to investigate that “scientifically”, we would save a lot of money just sending him to sit at that place in person to decide with his own lungs whether that place is suitable for breathing at all... After a relatively short drive for about an hour in such environment, I started to feel that I would need air.. My lungs asked for mercy. We turned back, although my rickshaw driver was very brave. We just could not breathe in that waterless red desert.
Coming back to Goa by bus, I saw some poor landscape, but, mainly, I saw bloody trucks.. Many-many trucks again!! Thousands of them obscured the road... I started to understand the scale of the ecological disaster unfolding before me. I quickly swam in a beautiful ocean in Palolem, and was continuing my “tourist trip “ again, now along Western Ghats.. All was well and beautiful initially. We passed fantastic green hills, saturated with sun. We saw birds, we saw “Save water, save life” signs near the roadside... And than we arrived at the first mining area.. Regardless of whether this ming was “legal” or “illegal” in Indian law - destruction of nature of such huge scale in the formerly green Goa, would in any developed country not only be proclaimed completely illegal, it would be deemed a criminal act. The red hell began again... One can even predict what happened than. We entered the world of trucks and dust, the decimated areas that were their handiwork.. I can't describe it anymore, for more epithets one can refer to the recent article of Mr. Hartman de Souza, describing the area.
First I thought, that we have to save Western Ghats . But, after the trip, inspecting satellite views of the devastation from Google Maps, I would say that there is nothing to save anymore, at least in Goa. Except for the sliver of coastline, the state of Goa is suffocated by the ring of destroyed land.. Red wounds cover all Goa and I barely recognised remaining tiny pieces of “Nature parks”, which would probably also soon become “unprotected” by order of hungry mining barons and their crooked political partners.
Enough was enough, we drove all day long to Maharashtra to see untouched forests and agricultural fields to see them still alive, but not for long, as we found out they have already been placed on the execution list of mining companies. I can´t say, how I loved this place. The tiny village of Asniye is again described better in Hartman´s article.. Green fields, stunning forests, happy people, living their full and healthy life in a beautiful environment. And water was everywhere!! They have 86 springs in that area alone! The villagers carefully distribute water all over the farms to grow sugar canes, cashews, mangoes, rice, you name it!!
It was a beautiful village, struggling for the right to survive. There is a joke, called Ecological Impact Assessment, which miming companies have to provide before going for destruction (actually, as realized in The Times of India of 27 March, they don't even do this much!).. Practically speaking, there is no ecology anymore in Western Ghats of Goa, so the impact is quite clear – every open mine lease, given by supportive authorities in Western Ghats, named as one of just ten Biodiversity Hotspot on Earth, is a criminal act. For any reason - the bureaucrat was corrupted, mining companies would go outside of its “legal” boundaries, whatever.. The natural environment will be destroyed, the water will dry up, and people will die.. To get this EIA for a lease larger than 25 ha (and why only 25? Mining people want 50 ha! 100 ha!! No public hearings!) the public hearings should be done.. Of course, its just a formality for the executioners.. Of course, mining would go on, even if the public hearings would be negative.. .
Hundreds of local villagers came to the public hearing in Asniey, which was officially “postponed”. However, the hasty work of one bureaucrat did not stop the local people. They just said “NO” to mining in their area.. For some mystic reason they just want to live in peace, with water and in green world! On another site of the hill, coming back home, we saw again, what happened, if the people lose their battle for life. The red wound of a just started mine already covered part of the hills. Like a cancer, it had just started to consume the healthy body.. It was only recently started, so we saw only a couple of initial cancer cells – trucks, carrying first “goods” along the beautiful clean villages.. but we knew exactly what would happen in just one year.. The road will be blocked by trucks, and the small shops and hotels, the cafeterias and houses will be covered by dust and closed. Happy faces will disappear.
And this and not even for all people's satisfaction.. The entire budget of the State of Goa, from all government taxes, activities, and State owned enterprises..is only 400 million euros.. One single mine can bring about 45 BILLION dollars to its wealthy owner.. The mines in Goa presently number a few hundred. Where has all the money gone? Well, It has gone to the owners' pockets, which do not contribute to the economy or welfare of Goa. They don't even consistently pay the royalty as obliged to in their agreements with the state. The money is just funnelled out of Goa, and even outside of India.. If so, we can not talk about “economical development” anymore, we are talking about economical DESTRUCTION of excavated land, hiding behind the empty slogan of “progress”..
In one village, a local woman told us that the water had gone completely, and that the mining company now brings them water in tanks...One day, the mining company will not bring them their water, once fresh water would cost more than iron. Then more Goan people will die. Well, forget about tourism in Goa, a mass grave is not much of a tourism attraction
PS
thanks to John Kneeland and Fong Tien Miao of the Palolem community for help with fine-tuning the English.
