Soon after, I received an email notification that someone had left this anonymous comment ::
This kind of incestuous-apartheid is rampant in India.
You will find some Indians bending over backwards to serve the white-skinned ones, while shooing away their own brown-skinned Indian bretheren.
The Kovalam beach, just like many other tourist destinations or restaurants, theatres, etc. in India, is being run by the local mafia, who would not hesitate to beat up any Indian bold enough to venture into the areas that the beach-mafia has illegally captured for the foreigners.
What you CAN do to end this incestuous-apartheid is to stop being the Enabler for the Mafia.
You can be a part of the solution, rather than being part of the problem.
Whenever you become aware that you are being treated differently and better off than the locals are, cross over to the less-privileged local-section (provided there is no threat or danger in these local-sections), paying the same rates as the locals do.
Make all your tourist-travel arrangments with the Government Tourism Development Corporations (of each state, such as the MTDC in Maharastra), which are safe, reliable and offer insane value-for-money, rather than with riffraff private tourism-agencies, that serve only foreigners.
That will help put an end to the activities of the Mafia, and to their odious apartheid
This comment was not published.
There are several reasons for this and I felt an explanation deserved a post.
#1 - If you post anonymously, please do me the favor of leaving your name within the comment that you leave. I know that technology doesn't always cooperate, thus requiring the anonymous comment. I love comments ... and hope you keep leaving them!!
Most often, I am not able to respond to commenters because I don't know their email addresses. I am debating doing what is so common, and responding to your thoughts by leaving a comment of my own here on the blog. Anyone have an opinion on that?
#2 - My blog is not a forum for political banter. Maybe the above is NOT political banter, but it hit me wrong.
I want to encourage discussion about what I experience, but the key thing I want to point out is that this blog is ... first and foremost ... about MY experience. I try not to sugar coat, mislead or post only about the happy days. I also try not to be negative about my experiences, and write from the perspective of this life I'm living.
#3 - I moderate all comments. I get a fair share of dumb ads left in the way of comments (annoying) ... and want to have control over the words (other than my own) that are left here. I will exercise due diligence when hitting the "reject" button. I won't arbitrarily reject comments that may promote a healthy discussion, but if I feel it is not serving the readers of this blog, know that I will hit 'delete' ...
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On a lighter note, previously I had mentioned wanting to share my music with you. I've been messing around with how to best do this. I tried out Playlist but it doesn't allow folks in India to listen. For now, there's a VERY awkward list on the right hand side ... and if anyone has suggestions on what I can use, feel free to holler!
I've also shared my new Project 365 : 2010 with you. I aim to post a photo for each day in 2010 .... wish me luck! What a great way to capture our life in photos! So far the photos are mostly rough pics from my phone ... am looking forward to getting some 'better' shots with my Nikon!
