oscar rebelo if you hadnt noticed there are three distinct agitations gripping goa at the moment like all things goan all agitations are being fought with passion with heart and with a ferocity uniquely goan the three issues at hand are the moi issue the mining conundrumspecially from the truckers perspective and the endless battle for rp 2021 of course remo is an issue but only for my amigo aires rodrigues and the rector of the se cathedral lets dissect them one by one1 the moi issue i will not get into the merits of pedagogy or the preservation of culture whatever that is and the merits or demerits of primary education in the mother tongue nor will i touch upon the horrifying and appalling vitriol poured by doyens of goan society like aravind bhatikar uday bhembre and nagesh karmali on the christian community i am more interested in the dynamics thats keeping force led by the redoubtable savio lopes sniping at the heels of this flat footed government they are tenaciously demanding that their position on moi be understood and considered into law there is only one driver that is pushing savio and his army of parents and sadly for the bigots it is not the much reviled catholic church in one word that driver is democracy savios argument is simple convincing and very persuasive indeed the cornerstone of democracy any where in the world what is good for the goosemust be good for the gander if affluent parents of kids like mine can have a choice to educate their kids in english at the primary level culture patriotism nationalism and akhand bharat be damned then all non affluent parents are saying give us that choice too since i savio pay my taxes as much as a bhatikar or bhembre do to the government i have as much of a right on grants for my childs welfare as anyone else does they are clearly not frightened of governments or polarising attempts of abuse or arm twisting they simply want their rights the first example of the democratic beast now at the gates2 the mining issue the truckers are not lying down and dying after all all the mining giants now in a giant makeover are demonstrating to this genuflecting government that they are doing a giant favour to all the midgets in goa by restarting mining and that the insolent naughty wayward truckers are putting a giant spoke in the economic engine just when it was chugging into the warm embrace of mother china is completely unacceptable to the giants i am not bothered about the merits of the dollar to ore price or how low or high grade the ore is nor am i arguing about how mining families may go hungry if the industry doesnt kick start again i am only interested in the mind set of the truck drivers wanting their pound of flesh in one word the sentiment is about our familiar friend democracy again