Saturday 25 June 2016

First death anniversary of Bro. Philip Neri de Souza

Today is first death anniversary of Bro. Philip Neri de Souza. From 1999 till his death he worked tirelessly amongst various categories of people explaining evil effects of mining in Goa. With Sulcorna as his base, he moved from village to village, contacting people especially tribal people and offered help in various ways. He was instrumental in gathering data about mining in Goa and sharing with others like me. He moved various parts of India to network with people opposed to mining. He once traveled to Ranchi with me. 

He was full of energy and was highly enterprising. He was inspiration to move tribal people from Muscavrem to  visit Pissurlem mines in a special bus. He directly combated Radha Timblo operated mine in Rivona. 

On his first death anniversary lets pay our tribute. The way is to implement what he always told "get students involved. File complaints in writing. Build up pressure in the corrupt system gradually. One day we will succeed". We really need to get students involved as that was his dream. We have not successfully achieved this so far. This is an area we need to work and that will be our best tribute to Br. Philip Neri de Souza. 

Sebastian Rodrigues 
24.06.2016