Act for Goa gets Felicitated
Posted on 08/12/2022[totaldonations]
Interview with CECILLE LEE RODRIGUES by Crystal
I’m a fun, carefree, strong headed woman who loves music and loves to dance. I am not a trained dancer but I can dance the whole night.
Thanks to my online stalker, who troubled me for the last seven years, which I opened up about, on 23rd June 2019. It went viral, 300 women came forward and said even they were being harassed. That’s what led me into filing a case against him.
That’s how it started for me, and has continued, me taking an interest in these issues.
Well, on my birthday in February last year, I was charged 15,000 for car repairs, my shock absorbers were gone. So that was an initial thing which ticked me off about the govt.
What followed is when I was doing my stage shows in Margao, for a Konkani drama.
I used to travel for two and a half weeks back and forth every day from Talegaon to Margao. The roads were so horrible during the rains when we used to travel for the shoots. I used to get so frustrated and fed up so I started to write the song.
We had gone for a karaoke night to Firefly in Benaulim after our show, and when coming back, I had sung “Bebdo” at karaoke night. So that song was still stuck in my head. That’s when I thought why not do a song which will connect with the Goans. One of the most famous songs, change it and make something that will inspire a connection.
That’s why I thought of this song, “Bebdo” by Lorna, and when I started writing the lyrics, I wrote it down with my simple Konkani.
I don’t speak a lot of Konkani but simple Konkani. I wrote the song down and I tagged it as Rosto. So Bebdo, Rosto kind of synched with the lyrics. When I wrote down this song, I expressed as much as possible about how I felt.
That’s why when you hear the song, you can literally feel my frustrations.
The following issues are the ones I have been taking up:
1. While doing the Rosto campaign, when travelling on the roads, I could see a lot of garbage being dumped on the roadside.
2. Trees being cut down, branches being cut. For example, there were these trees that have been cut behind my building. Ten trees were cut and the permission was given by the forest department. So I spoke up about that.
3. Keeping our beach clean after the cyclone happened. Trying to motivate the people to come to the beaches and collect garbage, because its not only the responsibility of the government, but also our responsibility to clean up.
4. Also basically coming together, trying to reach out through different groups, and what they are doing with their campaigns.
5. Stray cattle on the roadside.
I do my best to highlight issues I come across. For eg, if I see a children’s park not being maintained, I speak about it. I try to get people to notice what is happening around and to bring it to light. To make people aware of what is happening.
I do beach cleanups and cleaning the environment. I support groups, whenever I can make time to be with them.
It is important to help to educate people on a daily basis. It is not a one day job or a one month job. It might take a year to educate people to keep our area clean, to segregate waste, to avoid using single use plastic, or to recycle their plastic to wash it and use it again.
Plastic is strong, it can be used again if it is washed. So it’s how we look at it, not just dump it cause we know that there is somebody to take care of it.
Our wet waste, we have to try and see what can be done. If we have a house, then we can do it in our backyard itself. If not, plan something out better with the government. Try to educate people.
We have to tell the government to have more shelters for the stray animals.
Through our markets, we can support the stray animals with a lot of vegetable waste, and wet waste.
What I would like to see is basically people coming together to fight for a better Goa
And to elect better educated leaders, which is very important; to get educated leaders to stand and fight for Goa. It is a five year term, so what matters is what you can give in those five years, what difference and impact you can have.
It is very important that we take care of our environment, seeing the heat level which is increasing. The ice that is melting, the water levels that are rising.
Our future doesn’t seem to be very good, with all the trees being cut around, and the sea that is being troubled, with the plastic pollution.
Somewhere we have played a very negative role, that is our generation, in polluting Mother Nature, and now it is being thrown back at us.
Even Mother Earth is angry with us, and we can see lot of destruction that is happening – earthquakes, cyclones, tornados. It’s a sign that we need to step up, and we need to protect our land before it’s too late.
So we need to come forward, join groups, bring awareness, plant trees & saplings. It is for our children’s future.
My son is going to be 9. I want a better future for him. His generation has to be involved to protect the earth, so when they grow up, they already have the inclination to protect nature.
When we were growing up, the environment was not given a lot of importance. But now, they are being taught in schools, how to take care of the environment.
It has to start with the little ones, and we as parents, need to educate the little ones.
All I can say is – if we don’t fight today and our Goa is lost tomorrow, or our country India is lost tomorrow. So whatever awareness we do, it has to be in different languages, so that it can reach all over India .
Youth participation is very important, because it is for their future. Educating parents is very important, so we can educate our children.
Educating children at the school level, educating the youth to get involved in activities. There should be a subject directly for safety of environment, where children are planting trees, taking care of the environment. It should be a subject now, as much as history or science. If there is not going to be an earth tomorrow, it doesn’t make sense.
We should have a subject on saving the environment, where children are on the ground, doing a hands on job – being taken to certain areas, being made to watch videos, being made to do activities – hands on job in saving the environment.
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