Goans must wake up to realities of our wayward lifestyles or else we will be victims of our unhealthy way of living, full of ill-gotten wealth but extremely poor in health
DR. JOE D’SOUZA
It is sad and shocking that Goans have strayed drastically from their traditional lifestyles. Instead of considering health as wealth, Goans have lost their way. They have concentrated on acquiring wealth through the rape of environment, plunder of Goan ecosystem and adapting the easy lifestyle. Slowly, it is their unhealthy lifestyle that is their undoing, leading to lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart problems, kidney, liver ailments and cancer.
There is an old saying, ‘appearances are often deceptive and all that glitters is not gold’. Sadly, mankind in general and we Goans in particular have either forgotten or ignored the wisdom in these traditional sayings.
As a now senior citizen, I can proudly declare, if I have so far lived a fairly healthy life, it is because I have realized to the fullest the richness of the traditional wisdom and the salubrity in the way of living of our forefathers. We have also forgotten the saying that ‘success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration’. In the world of today we want to be rich overnight.
All around us we see exploitation, deceit and survival through manipulation. Let me explain: We all like to see and eat what appears fresh, appealing and colourful. So when we go to the market we tend to buy red tomatoes, green vegetables and peas, brightly yellow and shining dals or pulses. We also avoid eating bitter gourds and detest fruits which seem wrinkled or showing signs of decay.
But are we truly getting the right and healthy food which our forefathers enjoyed, fresh from the gardens? We have forgotten the rich farming practices. Some amongst us have purchased 10 trucks and abandoned our fields, because we find it profitable giving trucks on hire or transport - be it even for fruits and vegetables.
Agriculture and farming practices are dying in Goa as dealing in drugs gets fast bucks. We like rich red apples from Himachal Pradesh or Australia as we now have purchasing power. However, to keep it, fresh looking and bright, colours need to be added.
Take any food items that we consume. Green peas and vegetables are dyed with Malachite green, pulses with magenta yellow and other yellow pigments prepared synthetically. We have to import what we do not grow and to transport even from Belgaum to Goa. So what the traders do is kill two birds in one stroke.
We must realize that even bacteria, insects and other pests are instinctively clever. These preservatives are also toxic and harmful to these insects. Thus they avoid touching these toxified bright looking fruits and vegetables.
But we end up consuming food laced with poison.
Why Goans don’t even realize the fact that if an insect (be it even an ant), avoids and ignores to taste and consume a fruit, with chemicals added on, why should we eat a toxic fruit, just because it seems fresh and appears bright over a longer period of time?
Let us not be carried away by banning or restricting entry or export of food by the government.
Though banning could make us feel that contaminated items would be barred from entering Goa, in realty such bans encourage illicit and illegal smuggling and kill the society unwillingly.
Look at how spurious alcohol is killing Gujaratis in that “Prohibition State”.
We Goans now have a long way to go before we acquire “Healthy-Living and Livelihood” for our people. Casinos, boat cruises and tourism in general is a tertiary industry unlike farming and fishing. We are killing farming and building concretised hotels, we are killing fishing by polluting our rivers and encouraging disease and pestilence. Should we be surprised that our Chief Minister too is a victim of cancer?
Goans have a long way to go to make our lives healthy. We have to realize the potentials of solar energy. We must realize too that fruits and other perishable foods carried over long distances unless done under refrigerated and properly stored conditions are bound to decay and deteriorate. We know that traders are artificially ripening and colouring food stuffs. To avoid and detect is an onerous task and a challenging one too.
Thus the best way forward is to sustain our traditions by encouraging agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and deriving value added products therefrom. For example, preserved canned foods, biscuits or cookies from coconuts, etc.
When we rely on tourism we must not ignore cultivation. Now that Goans realize that oncogenesis is growing in Goa, we have to be alert and careful. Paradoxically, we have in Goa an oncologist, who being a doctor tells Goans that formalin does not cause cancer when consumed as food. This statement as well as beliefs that coal transportation is vital for Goan economy or casinos are the back bone of Goan economy are disastrous utterances. Goans must wake up to realities of our wayward lifestyles or else we will be victims of our unhealthy way of living, full of ill-gotten wealth but extremely poor in health.
