{"id":192785,"date":"2018-08-14T15:06:52","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T09:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=192785"},"modified":"2018-08-19T11:48:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T06:18:02","slug":"hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Thimibirivela Ranarala<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello Amnesia my old friend
\nWhat\u2019s that you said again?
\nAnd what on earth is your name?<\/i><\/p>\n

Tisaranee Gunasekera\u2019s article (Politics in Make-Believe Realities<\/a>),\u00a0makes one truly wonder what reality such journalists\u00a0inhabit.<\/p>\n

Ms. G decries \u201ctotal amnesia, forgetting everything one has said and done\u201d, and then suggests that this ‘thug-life’ was invented by a single recent politico, Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps such forgetful writers can explain their role during the beeshanaya of the 1980s, and that of these current purveyors of good governance? Perhaps there were very very ‘good’ reasons to justify the hacking, garrotting, stripping, impaling with barbed wire, beheading, burying alive and burning on\u00a0imported tires that transpired in the tens of thousands?<\/p>\n

Now some only seem to remember rich Colombo boys, like Lasantha or Wasim. Perhaps such mercantile accountants can only count up to 10, and thereby erase the at-least 60,000 country folk!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Does Ms. G know history or is history, for her, what she remembers or chooses to remember?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So let us ask again, who pulled those bones apart,<\/i><\/p>\n

Was it a Bonaparte? And if we don\u2019t want heroes or zeroes,\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Tell us how many white vans fit into those pajeros?<\/i><\/p>\n

Ms. G seeks spiritual uplift by quoting, of all people, former US-President Obama, to tell us \u201chumanity is at a crossroads\u201d; that Trump signals the winds of authoritarianism.\u00a0Really? Since when? Since Obama and Clinton murdered Colonel Gaddafi and returned Libya to a slave market? Since creating terrorist \u2018rebels\u2019 and turning Syria and Yemen into living hells? From Korea to the Congo, from Vietnam to Iraq, to Afghanistan, from Palestine to Yemen, what winds have too long blown over us?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And what white cynicism allowed a war criminal like Obama to even enter South African airspace, let alone deliver a lecture about Mandela! Had they even seen or read how Mandela\u00a0celebrated Gaddafi, as a leader who stood by the African struggle, while Obama\u2019s US and its poodle England were nuclear-arming apartheid?\u00a0Mandela\u2019s grave could now be renamed Robben Kanatte, for caged he is again!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Sri Lanka has been run over over and over again at \u201cthe crossroads of history\u201d, at least since Lourenco D\u2019Almeida blew in and introduced Iberian mass murder to our shores.<\/p>\n

Then she insists that most monks do not know world history! Where does most of any profession know \u2018world\u2019 history?\u201d History has lasted a long time as will the future, and\u00a0covers the entire cosmos. Besides, there are sparkling examples of monks knowing more about our world and history than English journalists. It is said that Bhikkus scared the gay\u00a0English governor Frederick North by telling him that the mountainous redoubts of Sinhale knew England was at war with France, the Dutch and the Marathas, and were eagerly awaiting the\u00a0arrival of a Jacobin French fleet in eastern waters!<\/p>\n

Gunasekera also attacks railways workers for going on strike. Yet the yahapalanists she adores had reneged on open promises to those rail workers, and now calls them ‘terrorists’? Her selective attacks will enable these ‘good governors’ to privatize the railroads, another public asset.<\/p>\n

Does she forget that her father Sena Gunasekera, along with Jeanne Moonesinghe, were sacked because of their trade union membership in the Ceylon Mercantile Union, by the private owners of the Lake House, the relatives of these good governors so currently adored?<\/p>\n

And speaking of journalists, since she loves Ambrose Bierce\u2019s\u00a0The Devil\u2019s Dictionary<\/i>\u00a0so much: Bierce also said, journalists have \u201cestablished ink baths which some persons\u00a0pay money to get into, others to get out of. Not infrequently it occurs that a person who has paid to get in pays twice as much to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n

So can anyone tell us how much these good governors have paid to get out of such malodorous ink baths as this?<\/p>\n

The article also adds Jack the Ripper to Hitler and Caligula and other epithets reserved exclusively for a certain family but not for the ‘uncles and nephews’. These scribes have clearly been reduced to Tourette\u2019s syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by the compulsive utterance of obscenities. Indeed, Jack the Ripper was perhaps England\u2019s almost-King Prince Albert \u2013 once a welcome guest in Ceylon, who added to\u00a0English mass murder here, of not just people but of elephants too.<\/p>\n

Ms. G then expresses horror over the GMOA recording who their friends and enemies are? Really? Does not every good editor have a list, provided by their owners, of who their organ will\u00a0publish, omit, praise and vilify? Don\u2019t the pharmaceutical companies have lists of the doctors they bribe to prescribe? Didn\u2019t that ruling dispensation she served in the 1980s have lists to hand over to death squads? Did not the US embassy provide a lists of their local enemies to be killed in the 1980s?<\/p>\n

Playing the populist card, the article hits out at the corruption of politicians. Are they the only corrupt? What of journalists, and other professions? And who corrupts them? Why not\u00a0give us a list of the top corporations that pay bribes in this country? How does Unilever and Standard Chartered Bank and Caltex retain its power? Is it just soap and\u00a0superstars? Petrol and rugger balls and literary awards?<\/p>\n

Remember 1978, when 400 thugs of the ruling party union, which soon became the largest union in the country, threatened and drove section heads off the premises of the Thulhiriya Textile Mills. And therein lies the tale of how the Left really left us? And guess who owns Thulhiriya now? Apparently vegetarians who abhor their mini-mas!<\/p>\n

A famous politician when asked how much, once declared, \u201cYou know the rates!\u201d So what are the rates? Why won\u2019t our hallowed journalists let us know?<\/p>\n

The article claims doctors are denying service to the suffering and dying. But the people are dying for information that the media constantly deny us, to let us make rational decisions.<\/p>\n

We are dying for the power to transform this colony into a modern society too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How ironic then that those involved in such imbroglios became leading spokespeople for human rights and good governance. Perhaps like in mafia funerals, where assassins are the first to wail and offer condolences\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":167367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nHello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-14T09:36:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-19T06:18:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thimibirivela Ranarala\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thimibirivela Ranarala\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/\",\"name\":\"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-14T09:36:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-19T06:18:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7dafcd843da8baf3c9cac9c61aa5a385\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg\",\"width\":150,\"height\":150,\"caption\":\"\u0dbb\u0db1\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0dca \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0db8\u0dc3\u0dd2\u0d82\u0dc4\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7dafcd843da8baf3c9cac9c61aa5a385\",\"name\":\"Thimibirivela Ranarala\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9543089105beb81d143104846ae60a7e2d3b2f5881f1fc39bda1294db32ca1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9543089105beb81d143104846ae60a7e2d3b2f5881f1fc39bda1294db32ca1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Thimibirivela Ranarala\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/thimibirivelaranarala\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2018-08-14T09:36:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-08-19T06:18:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":150,"height":150,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Thimibirivela Ranarala","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thimibirivela Ranarala","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/","name":"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg","datePublished":"2018-08-14T09:36:52+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-19T06:18:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7dafcd843da8baf3c9cac9c61aa5a385"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"caption":"\u0dbb\u0db1\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0dca \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0db8\u0dc3\u0dd2\u0d82\u0dc4"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/hello-amnesia-my-old-friend-riposte-to-tisaranee-gunasekera\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hello Amnesia My Old Friend! Riposte To Tisaranee Gunasekera"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7dafcd843da8baf3c9cac9c61aa5a385","name":"Thimibirivela Ranarala","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9543089105beb81d143104846ae60a7e2d3b2f5881f1fc39bda1294db32ca1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9543089105beb81d143104846ae60a7e2d3b2f5881f1fc39bda1294db32ca1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Thimibirivela Ranarala"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/thimibirivelaranarala\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Ranil-W.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192785"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192790,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192785\/revisions\/192790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}