Claiming the Right to Say No-30 Nov 09-EQUATIONS - Equitable ...

Claiming the Right to Say No
customers’ mind thereby reducing his sale. This made him to lose his
patience and to engage in a fight. “Israelis are beggars, mischievous, etc,
etc.” these were the common comments I could hear from day one to day
five.
The intensity of tourists’ activities was average during the day and below
average at night. I was a bit dissatisfied, because at night there were
hardly any major activities and the entire coast, leaving one discotheque
pub, was like a graveyard. The reason that later I inferred, was the high
prices for huts and for other consumer goods. So, most of them shifted
from south to north to places like Arambol and other enamouring beaches
where it was much cheaper compared to Palolem. The two important
nights for tourists, here in Palolem, are the 24 th night and the 31 st night of
December. There is a huge crowd and huge night parties are being
organised. Locals also speak that drugs is huge in these parties.
By now, I was all set in recognising Israeli tourists and their dwelling
places and their language “Hebrew”. In Palolem, as I mentioned earlier,
the rental price for a hut is expensive (around Rs.1500-1000/- a hut per
day). So, these tourists shift to north which is much less expensive.
For first two days, I couldn’t hit upon a single Israeli tourist. So, I went to
the adjacent beach (towards north) called “Pattnem”. And to my delight, I
met a group of Israelis: Ganib, a female computer teacher, Alore and
Elone (males). They were residing in a hut at Palolem. In my tête-à-tête
with them, I felt they were cultured folks. They were referring to their not
so good political situation between Israel and Palestine. These people
are not in good terms with their neighbours and see Palestinians as
refugees and terrorists. Since, the population is less, all the citizens have
to render military service (boys for 3 years and girls for 2 years). After
the completion of their term, the government offers them reasonable
incentives which they pay for holidays. Economically, they think there is a
yawning distance between Goa (India) and Israel. For them, Goa is much
cheaper than their home place.
60