LOCAL DAILY NEWS HAMMERED THE LAST NAIL IN GOA'S COFFIN by Nisser Dias

Last week one of the highest selling news daily in Goa created ripples not only in Goa but all over the world with irresponsible, inaccurate caption that 45 percent of Goans are alcoholics. Several requests to the editor to issue a corrigendum fell on deaf ears; furthermore the issue was further muddled with an editorial which said that 45 percent of Goans consume alcohol.

Now whom do we believe the reporter who has actually filed the news item or the sub-editor who captioned the story or the editor. This is yet to be clarified by the newspaper but still today this news daily is keeping its readers and Goans all over the globe that check the online edition in suspense. This is irresponsible reporting that Dr. Joe D’souza had recently written about in his article titled, “The crisis of scientific reporting in Goa.”

The incident occurred with some personalities associated with Alcoholic Annonymous (AA) issuing a press-note as a run-up of its worldwide convention in Goa, wherein it was stated that, “approximately more than 45 percent of Goans consume legal alcohol – way ahead of the Indian average of 25 percent for other states. It is estimated that there might be about a lakh of alcoholics in Goa.” The reporter seems to have filed the news item as per the press-note without verifying the facts or maybe to quantify his daily stories.

Firstly the personalities who issued the press-note had to be questioned on the veracity of the facts and figures, secondly the reporter should have had knowledge that AA is not allowed to provide percentages or figures as they do not gather statistics. The reporter miserably failed to adhere to the basic norms of journalism that is to verify and confirm facts and figure placed before him by somebody else.

Secondly the sub-editor in-charge of the front page acted in most the irresponsible manner while giving the caption that screamed, “45% Goans are alcoholics” It is very evident that the careless journalist read only the first two sentences of the news item and did not understand those two lines also but went ahead with the caption.

If one pauses for a minute and ponders the caption sounds ridiculous because such a high percentage roughly adds to around six lakhs out of the total 14 lakh population. This means seeing a Goan fallen by the roadside or in a gutter would be common sight. The rate of domestic violence would have been higher, unemployment should have been much higher. Then we have a vibrant economy, tourism is thriving with lakhs of youth have a stake in it, young entrepreneurs have become prosperous and more are in the making. But this simple logic or thoughts did not seem to have struck the sub-editor while giving the title.

Now coming to the second aspect of the news item that states, “there might be about a lakh of alcoholics in Goa.” The sub-editor should have taken a note of this as for one lakh does not add to 45 percent. At the same time the usage of term ‘might be’ should have sparked a light in the reporter’s as well as the sub-editor’s head, it is an irony that it did not. Worse still the report appeared on the front page of the news daily which indicates that it also had the sanction of the chief sub editor and the news editor but nothing was done to rectify the underlying damage such an irresponsible report would do to Goans all over the globe. It is a height of incompetency.

Taking the argument further that there are one lakh alcoholics in Goa. This is including migrant population like night loaders, day coolies, construction workers, daily wage workers, factory workers. And more importantly those alcoholics who have attained sobriety are also included in this bracket. So what is the correct percent of Goans being alcoholics.

I am not saying that alcoholism is not prevalent in Goa, it is very much present but given Goan scenario like our life style, brewing two types of feni’s in thousands of homes, enjoying Urrak during summers in almost every household in Goa besides easy availability of other alcohol across lakhs of counters, in taverns, bars and restaurants and shacks the percentage of alcoholism is comparatively low. By this I surely mean that we cannot lie back and relax, we have to arrest the growing menace of alcoholism among the youth.

Alcoholic Anonymous is doing a great among the alcoholics but the state government should set mechanism in place to educate youth about the ill-effects of the consuming alcohol. Then there should be stringent punishment to those who sell and serve alcohol to youth below the age of 18 years. Of course that is another aspect of alcoholism.

But this news daily which is widely sold in south Goa has done is unknowingly joined hands with the Bollywood, which have been portraying Goans as drunkards or boozards for time immemorial. In recent times the national news channels and print media has termed Goa as the rape capital of India, even though the rate of rapes in other parts of the country is much higher, but some incidents of rape of a foreign tourists in Goa tantamount to being termed as rape capital and that too when police investigation and CBI investigation in the murder of Scarlett Keeling has revealed that the victim was not rape. And now our own local news daily with a huge following on the online edition has hammered the last nail in the coffin by smearing the image of almost half the population of Goans as alcoholics.

God save Goa and Goans from the politicians, builders, mine owners and now irresponsible journalists.