Thinking long term

I’ve got offered a full time job next season here in Palolem. The people organising the parties I’m helping out with decided that when they expand next season they need experienced, good staff to help them out and apparently I fit the bill. Nice bit of stroking my ego, that one.

If I don’t get into the uni of my choice, it might actually be interesting. I’d go back to Holland for six months, stick away a whole heap of cash in a bank account and then come out here, miss the European winter and make yet more cash. Yes, obviously I would be making more cash if I stayed in Europe the entire year around, but how often do you get to work fulltime at a cool job in a place that is absolutely beautiful?

I wouldn’t just be in charge of promotion anymore, either. My job would expand to include organisation, PR, media and so forth. You see, they’re trying to expand the entire concept to become much larger and Goa wide and the most integral part of expanding any business is finding the right people to help you expand.

That can be quite a challenge in India, largely because the Indians have just such a different work culture from the Europeans; especially on the beach. The people out here in the beach villages are, unfortunately, not terribly educated and quite short sighted as a result. They’re more than happy staying exactly where they are, as long as nobody around them manages to improve their lot either. They’d often rather sabotage others than work harder themselves.

For example, some people tried to organise a party in the jungle at one point and they hired busses to cart people back and forth from Palolem to the party (as it was some distance away). The rickshaw drivers would have none of it, however, as they weren’t making any money out of it. So they slashed the tires of the busses.

None of them considered the extra people the party had brought in. None of them considered that the reputation of Palolem might be damaged by something like this, which would bring fewer tourists. No, all they cared about was that on that night somebody else was making money while they weren’t and they had to be stopped.

Another good one was when the restaurants and bars on the beach were angry at the Silent Noise parties, because the cops weren’t telling them to turn the music off at ten; instead letting them go on till eleven. They paid the cops, the cops came in early and the Silent Noise crew switched over to headphones (no real problem).

The unexpected consequence was that the cops felt that it was now their duty to close down all the parties for the next week, so as to appear even handed. As a result all the restaurants and bars on the beach were closed down at 10. They, of course, didn’t have headphones and had to continue the evening music free. That one came right back to bite them in the ass.

The question I often ponder over is ‘will they ever learn?’ I guess they might, but it would require a better education and I don’t see any chance of that happening any time soon.