{"id":119781,"date":"2014-02-09T01:01:26","date_gmt":"2014-02-08T19:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=119781"},"modified":"2014-02-16T17:34:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-16T12:04:13","slug":"from-euphoria-to-hysteria-and-everything-in-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/from-euphoria-to-hysteria-and-everything-in-between\/","title":{"rendered":"From Euphoria To Hysteria And Everything In Between!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Emil van der Poorten<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Emil<\/a>

Emil van der Poorten<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/strong>My wait for yet another filthy, abusive SMS, from a member of the ersatz Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> diplomatic corps from \u201cdown under,\u201d having proved futile, I am compelled to address what is our \u201crural reality\u201d once more!\u00a0 Not as exciting, I have to admit, but one that certainly needs some attention!<\/p>\n

The shouting of commands at the Independence Day celebrations in Kegalle<\/span><\/a>, was a precursor to the incongruity of a President greeting a now-disgraced Prime Minister, both pretending that container loads of hard drugs only exist in the minds of \u201cthe enemies of the state.\u201d then oodles of top-end luxury limos disgorging their contents were followed by outriders in pith hats reminiscent of the times of the British Raj.<\/p>\n

The \u201ckeynote address<\/span><\/a>\u201d at the celebration, was the now-tiresome one reminding everyone watching or listening-in that there were only two kinds of Sri Lankans \u2013 those supporting the government and those opposing its behavior.\u00a0 With each passing year and each mouthing of this shibboleth, it attains an even more chilling tone, particularly given the recent fate of Mel Gunasekera<\/span><\/a>, a business journalist, representing a foreign news agency whose bread and butter would, inevitably, have been journalism commonly described as \u201cinvestigative.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 It is interesting that Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema<\/span><\/a> was also working on a business-related story at the time her home was invaded, Frederica Jansz had provoked the ire of our current rulers by headlining a tale of significant financial loss, resulting in her having to bolt to the US and her predecessor, Lasantha Wickremetunga, was best known for his exposes of financial malfeasance which could have contributed to his (still-unsolved) killing with weapons normally reserved for the abattoir.<\/p>\n

The weight that pronouncement \u2013 \u201cthose who are not for us are against the nation\u201d \u2013 carries increases with the use of violence to suppress dissent.\u00a0 This began with the killing at the Free Trade Zone demonstration against the attempt to hijack employees\u2019 EPF contributions, through the killing of a fisherman protesting at the steep increase in the price of the fuel he needed to capture his quarry and the Weliweriya<\/span><\/a> killing of unarmed (Sinhala) villagers asking for clean water and getting, instead, \u201chot lead.\u201d\u00a0 Most recently in that procession of iniquity, there were the \u201cSix-gun Sam\u201d shootings at Matara by a Sri Lankan Wyatt Earp, closely connected to the highest echelons of the government.<\/p>\n

On every one of these occasions, the result has been the confirmation that the current government will do anything and everything it has to show that nobody and nothing is going to stand in the way of it or its friends.<\/p>\n

Chilling? Yes, but one needs to face facts.<\/p>\n

Employed in the imposition of the endless barrage of propaganda about the entire (white) world conspiring against a pristine Sri Lanka, the last bastion of Buddhism in the world is one of the largest armed forces in the world.\u00a0 Many who disagree with the Government of Sri Lanka and the path down which it is (successfully) taking a whole nation do not seem to acknowledge what a very successful campaign this is proving to be. It caters unashamedly to its vote bank among the dominant Sinhala Buddhist community comprised, primarily, of relatively unsophisticated rural folk.\u00a0 How else could one explain the issue of a blue thousand rupee note with the visage of an euphoric Mahinda Rajapaksa on one side and an unbelievably derivative depiction on the other?\u00a0 I speak here of the plagiarisation of the iconic picture of US Marines raising the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima during World War II – probably the most famous battle picture of all time.\u00a0 In this case, barely \u201cphotoshopped,\u201d the place depicted is Toppigala, in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, with Sri Lankan troops raising the Lion Flag.\u00a0 In most jurisdictions, this effort would have been greeted with gales of derision.\u00a0 Not, however, in Sri Lanka where 90% of the population knew not where Toppigala was for starters and certainly wouldn\u2019t have recognized Iwo Jima even if it happened to be the stray canine that bit them in the behind!<\/p>\n

Unethical and crass propaganda in poor taste? Perhaps, but there is no denying its effectiveness.<\/p>\n

That is but a small piece of the larger picture of building up the myth of the Master Race (and its Masters).<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the head of state prostrating himself to kiss the earth of his motherland on arrival from overseas also had a much better- and internationally-known precedent when the Pope of the day did precisely that several decades ago.<\/p>\n

You might well ask why the relatively-urbane and sophisticated middle-class of this country is either completely supportive of this lot or simply \u201cstands and stares\u201d while both the national treasury and the vault of democracy are being looted.\u00a0 Simple my friends.\u00a0 They\u2019ve either never heard what Pastor Niemoller<\/span><\/a> had to say about living under the Third Reich, or, more likely, choose to turn a Nelsonian eye on that reality while indulging their need to improve their own bank balances, justifying it with the old chestnut that \u201cin the long run, we\u2019ll all be dead, so we\u2019d better make hay while the sun shines!\u201d<\/p>\n

The never-ending rants against the \u201cinternational community,\u201d aka the practicing democracies, has two successful outcomes \u2013 creating a national paranoia about a pending invasion akin to that of the Portuguese in the 16th<\/sup> Century and the Dutch and British thereafter and reinforcing the line that the Sinhala Buddhists are the master race and hence are generating this reaction from lesser humans.<\/p>\n

There are also more gentle, though hardly less subtle, attempts to generate euphoria and even love.<\/p>\n

The periodic Dansalas held wherever the President happens to be in residence are a source of amusement to those who figured they are too sophisticated to be bribed with food.\u00a0 However, every time there is proof that there is, in fact, a \u201cfree lunch,\u201d literally and metaphorically, the rural (and urban) multitudes flock to the caterers of the ruling clan.\u00a0 Recently, one of our longest-serving employees could hardly constrain herself before bursting out with the news that the President had actually touched her son!<\/p>\n

It seems that that young man\u2019s brother-in-law was one of a group of medical support personnel at an army hospital who had been invited to Temple Trees<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0This man had smuggled in his brother-in-law, of impressionable age and, when the President \u201cwent walk-about\u201d he engaged those around him in conversation and \u201claid hands\u201d on our young friend.\u00a0 I use the term \u201claid hands\u201d in all seriousness because this seemed to be what the young man had experienced complete with the \u201cshivers\u201d associated with such an act. That the whole family was \u201cover the moon\u201d about this occurrence was evident enough as was the distinct impression that rural Sri Lanka is not merely ready for the middle ages, it is already there!<\/p>\n

Now that same family is bound for Jaffna where they will be given a conducted tour of what were, less than five years ago, the sites of the final battles against \u201cthe invaders.\u201d\u00a0 You want to bet that our \u201cNormandy\u201d will be shown as well as all the new Buddhist temples complete with pristine white dagobas which will be described as replacements for the religious buildings that were there before \u201cthe Tamils were brought to Jaffna to hoe the tobacco fields of the Dutch?\u201d<\/p>\n

That unsophisticated rural folk are given to sometimes irrational hero-worship is more than understandable.\u00a0 However, the hosannas that our urban intelligentsia keep shouting ad nauseam at every mention of walking paths on which they don\u2019t risk turning an ankle are a little less easy to fathom, particularly when the inter-locking stones come at the expense of essential health care and education systems.<\/p>\n

Oh, well, the \u201ctotal package\u201d promises to establish violent and corrupt people in the seats of power for a very long time to come, unless, like the proverbial frog, their puffery leads to their exploding!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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