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In light of the latest reports on the danger to tourists in Goa and a family’s fight for justice to find out the truth about their daughter Scarlett Keeling’s death or as they suspect murder is going to be tough. Ok when I first heard that she had been left with an Indian tour guide whilst her mother and other siblings toured another part of India I thought that was irresponsible. The problem is that Goa is sold as this idyllic, cheap getaway with friendly people. As tourists very often the ’safeguards’ you would have at home you suddenly forget when you’re abroad ‘in paradise’. However, to have your daughter taken from you in such a way deserves justice and publicity.
This story is just one of many British tourists who have ‘died’ in India. It seems that there is a seedy side of Goa that is run by the ‘criminal underworld’ who target tourists there. I know that ‘nasty’ things happen there as a friend of mine was drugged whilst having an afternoon drink on a beach bar and raped in Goa… not something you really bargain for from a holiday!
Unfortunately, scantily clad liberated holiday makers are easy prey for rapists/murderers who want to exploit them especially if the justice system is hard to negotiate and full of corruption. The widespread image of hippies and drug fuelled beach parties in paradise make it easy for the police to dismiss any tourist deaths as suicide and not investigate them properly.
There was a time when I wanted to visit Goa but not any more!
Comments
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Peter Quinn
Fair enough: just two point here. My heart goes out to Scarlett Keeling’s mother, but I’m just wondering what kind of mother lets her 15-year-old daughter go out partying on her own in a foreign country. Would you do this in NY? In London? Anywhere?
Second point: tourists anywhere in the world need to be culturally sensitive. In Agra recently, a Japanese tourist was raped after she went out drinking with two male tour guides. Nothing justifies rape, but I wouldn’t go out drinking with two strange men anywhere in the world.
Of course there’s a seedy side to Goa, as there is to Bali, Phuket and any other tourist ‘paradise’. My sincere advice: please do not abandon the usual precautions for women travelling anywhere in the world, just because you are in a beach ‘paradise’.
Exactly Namita be aware at all times wherever you may be, but especially in countries where there is an obvious cultural difference and mindset from your own.
Its always sad to see people go on holiday and leave their brains at home. Americans and Britons seem to specialise in it; but you seeing from other people as well.
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An interesting point. I presume the parents likely would not have assented had she asked permission to party unescorted at Daytona Beach; why, therefore, Goa?
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