The unheard of concept of discos viz-a-viz world famous authentic Goa open air dance gatherings that made Goa parties global, and a topic crashing the right-left ping pong political strategies which create blame game circles and hate, as the Grandmas (Omas in German) agree.

Somewhere after the gesprech (conversation) between two journalists in the second hour, when the journalist from Goa is asked to play music from Goa, a Goan listenning in will or may finally understand what his tiny state means to many others. Goa is a music genre, sometimes also referred to as  Goa party, where Goa music gets played. Play some music from Goa, and somehow this is not what we all refer with. Bottomline of psychadelic trance music definitely popularised in Goa, clarifies, that when one says Goa music, it is actually essentially psychadelic trance music. The popularity was such that this Goa party became so dear to many that they all wanted to re-create this Goa party in their own surroundings, even in cold countries, where there are sometimes systems of entertainment called 'discos'. 

 

Has anyone ever seen a disco n a village ? Most probably not simply since this indoor space is created due to demographic situations and urburnisation predominantly. The first 'discos' were only in the sixties which were dance focussed spaces; not to forget in places like Paris and Los Angelos, both cold places weather-wise, and hence requiring this system for their entertainment in their societies to complete the dots. Hence, the sheer mention of a disco in Goa, is quite funny, if not absurd, to many from all over the world - those like our Kurdish Journalist for who Goa is something else. Listen in to find out what Goa really means, at least the music.

 

For a referece, while this was clarified, what was also clarified is the situation of a fire breaking out in a disco in Goa, leading to fatalities. So breaking things down to first world citizens meant explaining how systems are yet to develop in certain places whereas some places have developed these systems already. The word, DIY, by the way means, DO IT YOURSELF. And places democratically represented like Goa, up untill now, work on a Do It Yourself basis. Things are progressed simply by conscious citizenry and not just by administrations, which lag behind in political will, naturally. So while the solutions are actually many, absolute mobilisation takes relative time, especially to put things in place before an udesired incident takes place.

 

For instance, a conscious Goa citizenry gathered in thousands to protest Coal. While 70% of India is run on coal due to stuborn crony capitalists, Goans protesting this already for a change is exactly where the world's opinion also meets - no more coal. More from this SAY NO TO COAL story here:

https://www.wueste-welle.de/redaktion/view/id/208/tab/weblog/article/103173/GOA_-amp-_THE_WORLD_COME_TOGETHER_AGAINST_COAL.html#topBlog

-------------------

Starting the second hour with understanding the background of the journalist from Goa, Ahmed, our Berlin based radio journalist went on to figure out that the two topics the Goan journalist was writing since before 2000 about had their starting letters with T, as the show unfolded stories about two  places starting with the alphabet G. 

What people from all over the world treat Goa to be - a tropical paradise, leads todays Newcomer News to reveal the story of the first two discotheque in Goa. Names apart, the gradual transition of a small joint on the sand dunes of a north Goa beach serving the staple diet of Goa - fish-curry-rice, to becoming the biggest club in Goa, is interesting for two main reasons. One was that this club played techno music and essentially not psy trance parties. Real parties were always outdoors in Goa, and club owners themselves shut their clubs and headed to outdoor psychadelic gatherings in Goa, as a routine thing. So this place was literally for a reference of a disco - an urban entertainment system. These were for the city folk, maybe from Mumbai, or Bangalore or other cities of the world where club culture was simply routinely popular. Given a choice, who would prefer four walls than our lovely tropical outdoor parties on the beach or some nice spot. Otherwise critiqued for not xcleaning up, incidentally Goa parties have been with beter clean ups, given the consciousness at such places. The next important thing was this first dance floor that came up while this place was still serving fish curry rice - a dance floor on the sand - a small wooden platform the size of 3 squae meters. What would one prefer - a wooden dance floor or simple sand. Yes, it would depend on one's shoes, and practically nothing else.

The fact that Goa tourism came from music tourism, and that this state of Goa was good with music was already known; but yet this trend of discos never realy picked up beyond this. So another disco in the south of Goa mainly to upgrade the hang out spots for locals and tourists to hang out for music, the always common factor. Things have changed with the idea of having discos with more settlers from cities and other parts of India and the world, for whom 'this must be it' - in the most typical Indian accent one can ever think of (even though truth is there is nothing called an Indian accent really, since we have around 22 official languages from different states each having its own mother tongue influence (MTI) on spoken English thus having many different Indian accents in this equation). 

The administration is not at fault. Coz they do nothing anyway, till public pressure. Not having a Tourism policy in place, and this being a state of affairs in lesser developed countries, the locals always made the best of open spaces and worked things out organically so-to-speak. So while the Goa gathering psy scene which started during the sixties, before the Portugese rule ended in 1961, before Goa tourism in the eighties, and put Goa on the international world map as a tourist destination, even till today, there is no clear Tourism policy, and hence its DIY all the way. But there has been no record of any fire at any outdoor location, much further from the potential for casualties outdoors anyways for all such Goa parties since the sixties. This means no fire or security guidelines were required. But then again, the 'more-tourist-more-business' as a strategy was the most foolish diretion ever chosen, if not short sighted clearly.  

Desiring quantity, we lost out on quality. But if the open air parties of Goa locals (beat shows as they are called) and the international locals which put Goa on the global map, were to be honed, we may have understood that science considers dance and msic as healing and hence it is nice to have it within social structures. Then again academics confirm change in routine behaviour when going out of comfort zones into newer spaces, like travels or pilgrimage. The administration however seems to have a non-inclusive approach when it comes to Goa psychadelic parties. This means, this time spent by any tourist here, is the most oppurtune time to intorduce them to a lifestyle or geh the visiotrs used to a type of lifestlye, that not only promtes music, but also sustainable lifestyle adaptations through our tourism experience - somewhere where we like many others, do not spoil the public with luxuries. Goa is not the first on the list when it comes to luxory lifestyles definitely; the world can offer much more maybe. So honestly, if one were to go to a disco, no one would really want to come to Goa. The point of Goa was outdoor, and the core of Goa tourism was its simplicity. Ironically enough, while the media in Goa reports only negatively about such gatherings, bringing the context of drugs and loud music, a solution of zones for music so residents are not disturbed is only being pushed away due to haphazard demographic changes un-regulated by the state administration. To accomodate more housing, spaces for music and entertainment are left unprotected and unplanned. 

'WE want tourists with money - we want money - not these hippies' were once the words of an arrogant Goa Chief Minister in a popular documentary film about Goa from 2000 called, 'The Last HIppie Standing'. Well, having reached the most monied and fancied tourists, we lost our soul, may we say ? BUt since we can always choose a meaningful ethical direction even now onwards, not really. Even though this is a huge point, we actually have a long way ahead of us, as we understand from the status on the situation of discos in a place like Goa that still lacks a Tourism policy. Now that we understand this, maybe we know what it takes, before also making judgements about a place, activity or people from another lifestyle. The nirvana here can only be reached by understanding as mentioned in one of the lines in this show at radio Wueste Welle called, 'From Goa With Love'.

The topic, which should be opened to curb the hate, before the action, is the topic about the Omas. With no disrespect, a conversation with this seven year old group, 'Omas gegen rechts' confirmed their disagrement with their own title - Omas gegen rechts. How difficult can the situation become when people start hating a bunch of people, instead of the idea popularised by a bunch of people. While the world and many here thought we had already understood this hating-the-idea-not-the-people concept, there are some naturally not on the same page. Ahmed went ahead and publicly invited this group from Tübingen to keep to their words of keeping the doors of dialogue always open. What the Omas also agreed on was that finally extremism is the enemy, irrespective of who does it - right or left. By the perspective of singling out just the right, we can only keep going in circles. When will we grow out of this childish ping pong ? The Omas also agreed that the divide of left and right doesn't really help democracy - and hence the also displayed a placard talking about coming together, just to make sure. The reason mentioned for not being able to politically correct the name of their organisation was that it was already registered since seven years. These were Omas claiming to be against right extremism, who agreed fully that they need not hate and target the people, just the ideology. So they wanted to change the ideology of someone, but will not or are helpless to change the words that represent them as their title. When agreeing that this can be misleading, and people may end up hating people with the interpretation of 'Omas gegen rechts', this agreement can simply not be manifested until now, say the Omas. But they seem open for the future with change for the better for us all. 

Ahmed tried reciting poetry over Goa psychadelic trance music feeling the dept in the baseline and the lyrics of the poem possibly. But his idea of Goa music was clear. Yes, we danced in the studio.

Download (82,38 MB)