KYA KAREGA

The season ended before it has begun!

This is the constant lament of small business owners in Goa. Over the past decade the area has grown from a little known paradise along the Arabian Sea to a popular international tourist destination, but what used to be six months of high turnover and occupancy has been reduced to four months of mediocrity with more empty rooms at the many lodges than there are visitors; and more waiters at restaurants than there are diners.

This is what happens when a local economy becomes reliant on the whims of international travellers and government visa regulations that have effectively inhibited the short-lived tourist boom. Local property owners have built rooms and shops that are standing empty and the supposedly popular new Vagator Saturday night-market turned out to be a paltry handful of struggling stalls with nothing new on offer in an area that could easily accommodate more than ten-times as many traders.

I am not complaining because the reality is that the beaches are not too packed and there are always tables available at favourite eateries, but my attitude doesn’t ensure anyone’s livelihood. My drinks and meals and the odd purchases do not make any significant contribution to anyone’s bottom line or their continued survival either as a business or a family. My bartering for the best price doesn’t help any of the crafters to become more self-sufficient and my penchant for fresh seafood doesn’t improve the quality of life of a single fisherman.

The sad reality is that like elsewhere, there are a tiny handful of people who significantly benefit from tourism. The fact that a few more locals are employed to clean the beach or to clean up after guests should not be seen as being something positive because their wages are pathetic and to spend the day in the sun on the beach dressed up in a uniform with no hope of a quick dip to cool down, is quite frankly cruel. Often people speak of job creation as if it is an act of benevolence, but the truth is that we employ people to do menial shit for a pittance because we are too slovenly and lazy to do it ourselves and what makes it worse is that we do not see what they do as a valuable service.

 This kind of flawed reasoning is often employed by businesses who – for instance – have moved into a gentrified area like Woodstock. Fuck the fact that other small businesses had to close shop; fuck that families had been evicted; fuck the ongoing sukkel of everyone else in the neighbourhood because “I have created employment for two women!” or “I employ local people who would have been unemployed if it was not for me!”

Let’s set things straight once and for all! Businesses employ people because business owners cannot do everything themselves and whoever they employ has to contribute positively to the growth of profits: profits that pay off bank loans and mortgages and private school fees and flashy 4x4’s and holidays and insurance and doctors’ bills. Things that most people who are employed cannot even dream of because they simply do not earn enough: because they earn just enough to keep them coming back to work. And as for their dreams and the dreams of their children, well… Fuck them because it is not your problem that the poor are lazy and unmotivated!

Kya karega – what to do?