Re: Mario, Muriel bag Malvina Athaide Award

Dear Saligaonettekars,

Thanks for the cyber solidarity!  

We can assure you that your prayers, good wishes, solidarity and 
those who have supported the movement finiancially too have 
helped greatly in keeping all of us motivated and active in 
Saligao.

We appeal for your continued support to the Saligao Civic & 
Consumer Cell and the Salmona Pariyavaran Manch that is still 
fighting to save the Salmona Spring.

In a common mission.

M&M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Below is our reply to the award:

Muriel & Mario's reply to the
Malvina Athaide Award For Social Justice,
at the Caritas Holiday Home Hall, Panjim,
on 17 December 2005.


When we first heard that we were being singled out for this award 
our question was, "What for?  There are many, more deserving 
people who could be chosen.  Besides, our names and faces have 
been out there for a  while and we thought that the contribution 
of someone newer on the circuit should be recognised."

And then we were given the reasons that Alina just mentioned...

So we are happy to accept this award because it is linked to 
Malvina and our work with her.  We are accepting it because she 
led from the front much of what we did during those initial 
years and helped to inspire much of what we did after she left.

We thank her husband Dileep for choosing us and are accepting it 
because for the last 18 years, we have worked in her village of 
Saligao.  We are accepting it because we spent all this time 
doing a lot that she herself longed to do, back home.

We are also accepting this award because it captures our 
involvement in Goa over the last 26 years.

One drawback of awards like these is that only one or two people 
can be chosen to give them to.  In reality, they are tributes to 
many more people whose names and faces are not in the public 
eye.  What we would like to record this afternoon is that this 
award is a tribute to many, many movements, groups, and 
individuals who have worked and inspired us over the last 
quarter of a century.  This award is a tribute to their work and 
struggle too.

It is a tribute to the original group started off by Malvina in 
1979 - her sister Merlyn, Alina and Susan are here with us this 
afternoon.

It is a tribute to that most feared and wanted group, the 
Progressive Students Union (PSU).  Many of you may never have 
heard of them, but since liberation never has the Government of 
Goa feared any group as much.  Student leaders like Sandesh and 
Prashanti, Prashant, Roland and Carol, Sabina were young people 
from whom we learnt a lot.  Only Roland is here this afternoon 
to represent them.

You will have to excuse the emotion, because those young people 
inspired us by putting their lives at stake. In what was then a 
police state, they faced the lathis, bullets and jails of state 
power, yes, the institutional terror of this gentle, beautiful 
Goa, one of the richest, most educated and developed states in 
the country.

This award is a tribute to the Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fouz - Sergio, 
Roland and Carol again, along side whom we fought the juggernaut 
of Modern Mass Tourism.

It is a tribute to Goa Desc and Goa Can together with Lillian and 
Roland who struggle to keep democracy alive at the grassroots, 
and who arguably are the only activist initiative organising 
people at village level.

It is a tribute to the women's movement in the state - Albertina, 
Carol and Auda from Bailancho Saad, Bailancho Manch and 
Bailancho Ekvott respectively.

It is tribute to our local village action groups like the Saligao 
Nagrik Kriti Samiti and the Saligao Civic and Consumer Cell in 
which we are now active.

And in more recent times, this award is specially a tribute to 
the Salmona Pariyavaran Manch along with whom we are struggling 
to save our Salmona Spring.  The convenor of the Manch, Arun 
Sawant is here.  Arun, this award is as much for you and the 
others at Salmona who have spent sleepless nights struggling to 
save the spring.

As much as this is a tribute to the groups and people we have 
worked with, we would also like to share this money with some of 
them.  These people and groups are totally unfunded.  They do 
not have any big foundation funding them and certainly no 
foreign funding agency.  We know how the struggle is carried on, 
most often reaching into their own pockets to keep the movement 
going.

This award is also a tribute to many, behind-the-scenes people 
like our parents and family members who have held fort at home, 
contributed to our activity financially and supported us 
emotionally when times were hard and activity was at its peak.

It is a tribute to our children who have not had us at times when 
they felt they needed us most.  In recent times, except for the 
Salmona Spring struggle, we are not on the streets as much as 
before.  We do not play frontline roles as much.  That is 
because we are now trying to practice what we have been shouting 
about all these years - looking after our aging parents and two 
adopted children.  But the movement is alive within our family 
and in the village.

This award is also a tribute to one of the most 
behind-the-scenes-people in our lives.  It is someone you are 
not going to guess - Fr. Desmond D'Souza himself - the person 
who started all this trouble for us many, many years ago!

For me (Muriel) he turned my cozy, conventional nursing world 
upside down in 1979 when he challenged me to take alternate 
health care to Goa's villages instead of being confined to the 
Asilo hospital.  It was he who made a barefoot nurse out of me!

For me (Mario), 37 years ago in Bangalore it was he who first 
introduced me to the concepts of social justice and option for 
the poor.  And if it were not for him, both of us may not have 
been walking the path of social concern and justice together.

And finally, this award is a tribute to everyone in this hall who 
are involved in social justice and rights issues.  While most 
people lament that Goa has gone to the dogs, and that we are 
finished, it is the social-worker, the NGOs and the activists 
who put their money where their mouth is.  Who put their jobs 
and their careers at the service of change.  Who put their lives 
on the line.  Who talk, as talk they must, but who also walk the 
talk! 

Thank you.

(ends)  
-- 
PS: Kindly note our new e-ddress: 
Muriel & Mario <anothergoa-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  
and make the change in your e-ddress book. - M&M.
.................................................
there *is* anOTHERgoa - the destruction 
of Salmona Spring, for instance!
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
muriel & mario,
4/4 tabravaddo, 
opp. st. anne's chapel, saligao.  
bardez.  goa.  403511.
tel: 0832-2278276 / 2409999
<anothergoa-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
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