Fomento and Corporate Social Responsibity .. ...

This article was circulated on GoaNet on 19 February 2009.

Fomento and Corporate Social Responsibilty? No need for guessing the gentleman behind this public relations exercise to show how concerned and caring the Timblos are about Goa's garbage?

They'd be interested to know that the online petition currently doing the rounds has well over a thousand signatures (and growing in number through the days), and, more importantly, each affixed to comments that strongly condemn Fomento and their other friends in the mining industry for being anything but socially responsible.

They'd be surprised how many people know what they they have been doing to destroy the Western Ghats for their own growth and prosperity. And lest it be forgotten, then their other 'public relations exercise' - slapping a defamation suit against Seby, for consistently exposing their machinations in the Mandgoa blog.

One wonders why people who consider themselves 'industrialists' by sheer virtue of their assets and holdings, are not able to see the writing on the wall. The Essar Group, keen on putting up a steel mill in North Caxton Bay in Trinidad, have been brought to their knees by Rhea Mungal, a Seby kind of character, who, armed with a computer and befriended by a radical academic in the University of the West Indies put out an online petition, and posted material on several international sites . Their world wide campaign has stirred environmentalists and the general public and brought pressure on the Jindals to put their tails between their legs and run. The Jindals are also getting it in the neck in Bolivia and right here in our backyard, in Tamil Nadu, where an activist in Salem, Piyush Manush, has mobilized entire villages to chase them away.

The online petition against open cast mining in Goa, giving links to sites showing the devastation caused by mining in Goa (Seby's blog for which he is being sued, and Kurush Canteenwalla's documentary film) is now doing the rounds in four continents. Even as this is being written, other moves are already underway to get visitors from the West coming to Goa to boycott the Marriot and Cidade de Goa because of their business ties to mining companies destrying Goa's rich bio-diversity. Goan students studying in Mumbai and college students in Kolakata have been contacted for their help in a la Greepeace style to placard matches involving Dempo and Salgaoncar teams.

Dempos have already begun operation in Coastal Maharashtra in the ghats between Sawantwadi and Ambolim, and Maharashtrians are not happy about it. It is just a question of time before people come out on the roads as they have done in Tamil Nadu to chase away the Jindals.

One still wonders, somewhat bemused, why these so-called Goan 'industrialists' never bothered to diversify. What stopped them getting into the more environment-friendly software industry, and gradually letting go of their mining interests?

Just plain greedy I guess...if it's there for the taking, why not just take it?

Anju Timblo has been steering with distinction the Cidade de Goa hotel. She comes from a distinguished family in Delhi, known for its adherence to the law, and indeed, for practising it in court. Wouldn't 'corporate social responsibility' for the Timblos begin with not encroaching on a public beach and, insidiously, attempting to privatise it? Then, in true spirit of the constitution admitting their fault as shown in the Supreme Court verdict that went against them?

Wouldn't 'corporate social responsibity' entail seeing how the land can be regenerated, even as one attempts to throughtlessly rape it for the ore beneath? Wouldn't 'corporate social responsibility' mean that one attempts to deal with Goa's garbage problem proactively, well before it became a 'public' issue to be mined for its 'Public Relations' potential?

Would the Timblos and Salgaoncars grant us full access to the hotel and to their mines to film exactly where they have broken the law and where they continue to break the law?

Are they willing to put up for public scrutiny the environment-assessment reports on which basis they got their so-called 'environment clearances' from the MOEF? The mining companies should know that these reports prepared on a template provided by a lab in Hyderabad were sent to the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, and lest the mining companies bump off a few of us, they have all been photocopied and distributed world-wide. It is an open secret that just last year a politician in Goa made several trips to Delhi on behalf of the mining companies, ferrying money, if you please. Thirty crore by one estimate. All this will surface at the opportune moment, and things made so hot, the shit will definitely hit the ceiling

Thankfully, the discourse surrounding issues that threaten Goa, like mining, SEZs, dirty real estate deals, has broadened in a way that our largely illiterate politicians and their business associates and cronies just don't seem to realize.

Yes, they can get their goons to bump off a few, frighten off a few more, buy a handful off here and there, but the discourse surrounding these burning issues grows exponentially. There are people not frightened of saving the foothills of the Western Ghats, and this the mining companies must realize before it is too late, before, courtesy the internet, they are exposed to the entire world. They can try to kill one, but there will be two more in her place. To protect the forest and water, believe me, there are people who will join the fray...

The mining in Kawrem and Maina contnues unabated. On phone just now from Margao, Cheryl D'Souza who farms in the area tells me that 2000 trucks have been registered in Quepem, and at least 1,500 drive through every day, from 5 am in the morning till 9 pm at night. Sales to China apparently have picked up. A new mining site has just begun just after Maina across the Curca river. East of this the mining companies have already finished a large area adjacent to the Kushawati.

The story from Maina is anything but happy, which is why one views with disgust the reprehensible attempt by the Timblos to even hint at social responsibilty. Claude Alvares, Cheryl tells me, recently told Father Mathias and Rama Velip from Sulcorna and Collomb respectively, that they should go on the roads and prepare for a final fight. That's easier said than done Cheryl tells me, because at the end of the day, she is alone there.

But that's not really true. I believe her when she says that when the mining machines come up the hill towards her farm, minister or no minister owning the company, she and her daughter Aki will block their way. I believe her because I do not know too many Goans today who would have refused the astronomical sum she was offered to stay behind and do battle for her large farm, the forests around it, the water and the wild life.

I know she won't be alone. Courtesy the mobile, media in Mumbai and Delhi will be instantly alerted if she comes under attack as she daily expects to, given the greed of some of our politicians and the arrogance they have that they can actually get away with murder in this day and age. Courtesy the alternative media we have at our disposal, within days we can alert organizations throughout the world working on issues pertaining to the environment, and get them to spread the word within their countries, the nature and dealings and the petty profit that lures leading Goan 'Industrialists' to rape their own earth, and terrorize its inhabitants.

When we start doing this, it is known as Peoples' Social Responsibility. We don't even have to pay someone like Sujay Gupta to do this, it's free...

Be the change Timblo, be the change. I am even tempted to ask you to send me your email ID. At a substantial consultative fee, I'll put together a think tank to help you and your mining friends to diversify your business interests, show you how you can regenerate what you have destroyed while yet understanding the true nature of investment and the requisite patience needed, substantively ease your mining activities, and. lest we forget, make money for yourself and others who work for you. But, more importantly, also show you how to allow for the Timblo name to be recorded for the good it did beyond raping the earth. If you understand this, you understand the true nature of being an 'Industrialist' who strives in this difficult age we live in, to actually be the change we all want. You will also understand what 'corporate social responsibility' really is.

Hartman de Souza