A few days from now, we will prepare to wrap up another year and get ready for the new one. While doing so, all that will change are the dates and nothing much. So, as we prepare for the New Year, everyone must be wondering what awaits us in 2024.
If that’s what you are anxious about, don’t fret too much – nothing much will change, at least this is what I feel, unless, yes, you want it to change. And what is this change? That change will have to be centred on Goa because all that we are today is due to its graciousness.
Good comes from good and bad from bad. Sounds simple, but that’s the way of life. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction and, this coming year, we will have to hold ourselves accountable for our actions. So each one of us – from our political leaders to us – will have to introspect on the path forward and reconcile with the fact that we did many things wrong.
Or else, how do we explain the hills cut in vain, garbage strewn on every corner of our beautiful State and no end in sight to the waste menace? Garbage has become a normal part of our existence, the one when thrown out is out of sight and also out of mind. My dirt is not for my backyard, but someone else’s.
I see 2023 as the year that took us a step backward despite bigger and wider roads.
We consider our home as everything, but not our surroundings – so much for our sense of belonging. It’s time we consider our surroundings as part of our extended home and do everything to keep it clean or else you may see that festering garbage at your doorstep.
As I look back, I see 2023 as the year that took us a step backward despite bigger and wider roads. These wide roads brought us no relief. Why? We all know that these big roads were proportionate to the high number of deaths that could have been avoided.
Some of you may have lost a near and dear one on these wide roads in the name of development, and it surely is the most painful thing to have occurred. Reach out to the souls of those who died in vain and ponder: What good are the wide roads if our brothers and sisters are not safe while driving, riding and walking on them?
Bigger roads also meant more vehicles. These roads, which promised to give us relief are instead giving us pain. Surely, we need better driving sense – the one that impresses upon us to think of others, and to be genuinely considerate and careful.
Our leaders will have to realise that development is not proportionate to happiness.
Our leaders will have to realise that development is not proportionate to happiness. Where are we on this happiness index? Nowhere? It’s a stressful life out there or how do we explain the rising number of diabetic people in Goa? Diabetes is a disease, which not only affects physical health but also impacts the social and mental well-being of people, so how can we have happiness around?
Our politicians will have to come to an understanding that politics is a vocation and not business. This may be too much to expect from today’s leaders who are consumed by greed of all kinds.
If our leaders have failed, it means we have failed. Why? It is because we put them up there, but they had their own agendas to fulfil, and they succeeded. In the coming year, let them not fool you with their rhetoric of false assurances and promises. Hold them accountable for every word they say.
In 2024, let us connect with our real selves and not get carried away by false promises of better days. If the air around you is getting polluted, it is not progress, it is a lie that we will have to live with for the rest of our lives. Let 2024 bring a change and be not just a number.
