Editor,
Why is MTDF taking advantage of the sad death of an IIM student to put forward its feelings regarding tourism in Meghalaya? Making statements like ‘has asked all tour operators to accord top priority to the safety and wellbeing of tourists’, raises the question as to whether the student was on a tour with a tour operator or was he an individual visiting a spot in Meghalaya? Most of the points made by MTDF are not related to the death of this or other individuals in drowning incidents. The death of Christina Reed also was no fault of anybody here other than recklessness on the part of the person who passed away. In fact according to my understanding she and her partner were advised not to go swimming. Some accidents are just accidents. If MTDF wants to make a point and prioritize areas of tourism they ought to do it in a manner befitting its needs not in incidents that are not part of it. The death should be more in relation to prioritizing water safety for all people, especially locals, not in relationship to tourism. Each year we have deaths of individuals and often two or three at a time, not because they are tourists and have not been advised, but because they are individuals who do not know the norms of water safety, like never to go in after a drowning person without knowledge of water safety. The strength of a drowning person can pull many down with him or her. This entire incident should not be taken advantage of by groups like MTDF to flaunt their general inaction throughout the year, and use only hype in the promotion of tourism. Tourism is a slow, steady process that must be thought deeply about, for both its good and its bad consequences.
Yours etc.,
James Perry,
Cultural Pursuits,
Via email
Gold card of honour
Editor,
Way back in the sixties, our school, St Edmund’s had a system of grading the performance of the class students where the performance was matched by the colour of the card – a student who had done excellent work got a gold card while one whose work was good got a blue card. A pink card was for a fair performance and a yellow card, the lowest of the order, meant that the student had done very poorly. In relating this reward of cards to the performance of our chief minister in the last two years I would have probably given him a blue card but passing a weak Lokayukta Bill and a not very effective one related to Mining, non performance on controlling influx and not having done enough to bring the guilty party to book on the teacher appointment scam has denied him the gold card. We, the people of Meghalaya, will be monitoring the performance of this new government and, in due course, would be happy to hand out a gold card but that, of course, would depend entirely on it’s performance and also on how it tackles the above controversial issues.
Yours etc.,
DM Pariat,
Shillong.
Great reading!
Editor,
It’s been a refreshing and rejuvenating “Canvas” circulated on the 17th March 2013. It goes to show that ST can come up with life-inspiring articles: “The good teacher….” We have a rich heritage of values and work culture as depicted in the life of (L) Theodore Cajee. There is much more to life than the Gates and Zuckerbergs of the modern days. I encourage you to kindly come up with a book on previous articles by I M Simon, Tarun Bhattacharya (if I’m not mistaken) and so many brilliant writers as showcased in your newspaper from time to time. I strongly believe it will serve as a beautiful work of art, reminding younger generations the wisdom and the hard toil of the previous generation.
Yours etc.,
MB Pyngrope,
Via email
About wine stores
Editor,
This is in reference to the report published in your paper (ST March 18, 2013) where the Sohra Legislator urged the government to limit the issue of licenses of Wine Stores in the State. I had earlier clearly defined that “Wine Store is not a correct term” to be used for a retail shop which sells mostly hard liquor. One cannot put Wine in the same category with whisky, rum, vodka etc… Wine is a drink fermented from grapes and it has very less alcohol content when compared with the rest of the spirits. In many countries Wine is considered part of a meal and it’s not classed with any liquor. They have separate tax structures whereas in India it is taxed at par with liquors which is totally wrong. So I would like to inform the policy makers that terming a retail outlet /outlets where mostly liquor and spirits are sold as ‘WINE STORE’ is completely incorrect and misleading. Please do not misuse the term WINE. WINE is a healthy drink and it should not be confused with other hard liquors which are obtained from distillation process and generally have a very high alcohol content.
Yours, etc.,
Rajesh Swarnakar, AIWS
Via email