Goa, the Hippie Mecca in the late 1960's and early 1970's, gave rise to a musical culture that embedded with the spiritual culture of India to give us Goa trance.

Goa Trance is essentially music with the original goal being to assist the dancers in experiencing a collective state of bodily transcendence, similar to that of ancient shamanic dancing rituals, through hypnotic, pulsing melodies and rhythms.

But if this is what you know Goa for, she houses dancers no more, Goa has been raped along with the murder and sexual assault of foreign tourists and the recent case of a 15-year old Scarlett Keeling. For those who do not know, Scarlett's body was washed upon the shore of Anjuna Beach, the place which is coincidentally the epicenter of the peace and love culture, and its night-long parties.

Her murder was covered up by the police, they said it was suicide, when her mother got a second autopsy done, there were more than fifty bruises and cuts on her body. Apparently after their first cover up the police have managed to find the murderer over night, which Fiona MacKeown her mother thinks is a possible frame up. The only witness a British fellow, has fled the state to save his own life, I do hope he has the courage to open up when he gets back home.

Where is Goa now? With the Russian mafia using it as their hideout to launder billions of dollars, do arms deals, run prostitution rackets, real estate deals and things we may not possibly incur in our day-to-day life. Paedophiles seem to be everywhere with poor families from neighbouring states selling their children to tourists, ominous signs in hotel lobbies warn clients not to take children up to their rooms.

The place were thousands of ravers from all around the world come to celebrate the new year to rekindle that lost vibe, that they may still hope to find, does it still exist apart from our minds and souls? While some of them come to Goa with the notion that its a "cool thing to do" may understand that as Raja Ram said in the documentary, Liquid Crystal Vision, "Goa is gone, its moved to some other part of the world, travel and find it."

Are the Goans happy with the last draft regional plan announced more than a year ago proposing to open 80% of agricultural and forest land for commercial exploitation. Apparently not, the current scenarios have given birth to websites like Save Goa. Fueling the Goans fury is that the police and politicians that are frequently accused of abetting crime and receiving money.

Oh wake up Goa, wake up, from being the creator of spirituality for lost souls around the world, to become the taker of souls, who would have seen. With corruption and greed fueling your streets and murdered bodies lying on your beach.

Resources:

Man arrested over British girl's murder in Goa

Rapists, paedophiles, traffickers at large

Russian mafia's building it up in Goa

Goa closes in on foreign land ‘mafia’

Russian and Israeli Mafia in Goa