{"id":118711,"date":"2014-01-22T07:28:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T01:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=118711"},"modified":"2014-01-27T22:43:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T17:13:52","slug":"mathematically-challenged-priests-and-other-tidbits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mathematically-challenged-priests-and-other-tidbits\/","title":{"rendered":"Mathematically Challenged Priests And Other Tidbits"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/b>That empty glass<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>When a glass that can contain 50 ml of water contains 25 ml, you can say it’s half full or half empty.\u00a0 That’s the difference between negative and positive.\u00a0 But what if there’s say 60 ml or even more and someone says ‘it’s empty’?\u00a0 Sri Lanka is not a glass that’s empty.\u00a0 Heck, a few years ago some might have claimed that there was no glass to fill in the first place.\u00a0 But we do have a glass and it’s filling up.\u00a0 With water, not blood.\u00a0 That should mean something.\u00a0 But no, the ‘nay-sayers’ deny any water.\u00a0 Is it because water is transparent and glass is colorless?\u00a0 Or is it something to do with eyes that cannot see or rather will not see?<\/p>\n

Jehan Perera’s monologs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jehan Perera<\/span><\/a> didn’t like the LLRC<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 One could say he was terrified of the LLRC.\u00a0 He didn’t have the guts that the ordinary Tamil living in former conflict zones had. He didn’t make representations, perhaps because he was scared about questions that might have been put to him. Anyway, now he wants the LLRC recommendations implemented.\u00a0 He wants, as the Commissioners recommended, ‘dialog’.\u00a0 Dialog between parties.\u00a0 When is Jehan going to tell his friends in the TNA that dialog cannot happen if they don’t want to talk?\u00a0 Or is it that the TNA is like Jehan; terrified of any kind of conversation because they might be asked to substantiate their claims?\u00a0 It’s known after all that Tamil nationalists were high on claim but pretty thin on fact.<\/p>\n

Mathematically challenged priests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Priests know about doctrine.\u00a0 Doctrine related to the particular faith. Ask them what the fundamental tenets of the faith are and they will respond with an answer that will get a perfect score.\u00a0 Ask them about other things and they might be off the mark. Sometimes they are way off the mark. Like Fr. Rayappu Joseph<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 The good father says that 145,000 civilians were killed in the last days of the war.\u00a0 He based this figure on the 1981 Census.\u00a0 That’s rich!\u00a0 It’s as though nothing happened between 1981 and 2009.\u00a0 No one died, no one was born, no one was killed and no one fled the area.<\/p>\n

An open invitation to submit information regarding disappeared persons has yielded a few thousand submissions.\u00a0 Some are known to have been LTTE<\/span><\/a> cadres.\u00a0 Some are known to have fled.\u00a0 What happened to the ‘tens of thousands’?\u00a0 If the security forces got rid of over 100,000 bodies without anyone seeing or taking pictures of mass burials or cremation in this age of mobile phone cameras and satellites, then something must be wrong.\u00a0 Yes, a simple explanation:\u00a0 pothakarukku kanakku varaathu [the good father is poor at arithmetic!].<\/p>\n

Doosras at Sajith, Thalatha<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is reported that the Leadership Council of the UNP has appointed a 12-member nomination board to select candidates for the upcoming provincial council elections.\u00a0 Among the persons appointed are Sajith Premadasa<\/span><\/a> and Thalatha Athukorala.\u00a0 Here’s the rub.\u00a0 Now they can accept the posts or reject them. If they reject then those loyal to them seeking nomination will get sidelined.\u00a0 If they accept, they will also be acknowledging the legitimacy of the Leadership Council.\u00a0 If the Buddha, while traveling with his agraupasthayaka the Most Venerable Ananda Thero saw this move, the Enlightened One might very well have said Ananda, dutuveda sarpaya [Did you notice the snake, Ananda]?<\/p>\n

THAT investigation and THIS investigation<\/strong><\/p>\n

British PM David Cameron<\/span><\/a> has ordered an investigation into an MP’s claim that the Thatcher government “colluded” with India on the deadly raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.\u00a0 Ok folks, implied in this is that Cameron is convinced that a ‘deadly raid on the Golden Temple’ was carried out by the Congress Party Government of that time.\u00a0 If not, why even go into the question of whether or not Thatcher’s government ‘colluded’ with India?\u00a0 So then, David, are you going to get together with your master across the Atlantic to bring a resolution of censure against India?\u00a0 Isn’t that important for ‘reconciliation’ between Hindus and Sikhs?\u00a0 Isn’t that a prerequisite for ‘closure’?<\/p>\n

We can’t wait David.\u00a0 Come on, don’t be chicken now.\u00a0 Go ahead, call up Manmohan Singh<\/span><\/a> and say ‘Hey Man, we are gonna rip you apart in Geneva!’<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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