{"id":233908,"date":"2023-09-12T17:14:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T11:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=233908"},"modified":"2023-09-24T18:39:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T13:09:41","slug":"a-story-of-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-story-of-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"A Story Of Shadows \u00a0 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarath de Alwis<\/a> –<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Sarath de Alwis<\/p><\/div>\n

There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.\u201d ~ <\/i><\/b>\u201c1984\u201d – George Orwell<\/b><\/p>\n

The purpose of language is to inform, clarify and explain. Impacting public perception is the purpose of a media release.\u00a0<\/span>Laborious language is used to obfuscate and mislead. None knew this better than George Orwell \u2013 the genius who invented those classic expressions \u2013 \u2018newspeak\u2019 \u2018doublespeak\u2019 and \u2018Ministry of Truth\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before he wrote his famed \u201cNineteen Eighty-Four\u201d he published a brilliant essay – \u201cPolitics and the English Language\u201d.<\/p>\n

In that essay he traced how warped minds of the power elite resort to bloated and vacuous language to serve their own purposes.<\/p>\n

This brief essay is about my effort to reach a Comprehensive Understanding of a Rebuttal of Reprehensible Allegations<\/b>. In the process I am desperate to avoid going bonkers. \"\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday 9th<\/sup><\/span> September the Ministry of Defense issued a media release<\/a><\/span> captioned \u201cOfficial Rebuttal to Chanel 4\u2019s Reprehensible Allegations Regarding the Easter Sunday Attack<\/a><\/span>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The next day Sunday 10th<\/sup><\/span> September the Presidential Media Division issued a press release<\/a><\/span> \u201cPresident to conduct a comprehensive analysis of all open information correlated to the Easter attack\u201d. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defense Press Release is bluntly decisive and stubbornly conclusive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Defense hereby categorically refutes these false allegations and reiterates the government’s unwavering commitment to the truth, justice and the well-being of the Nation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The Presidential Media Division release offers an assurance, a pledge and infuses a sense of gravitas. It undertakes or commits to a \u201ccomprehensive<\/i><\/b> approach aimed at providing lawmakers with a comprehensive understanding of the situation, paving the way for well informed and decisive action.<\/i><\/b>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We are in truly troubling times. The process of recovery from going broke has taught us the terms debt optimization, governance audit and asset quality review.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The language relied on by the Defense ministry and the Presidential Media Division recalls the superlatively astute essay by George Orwell. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Post \u2018Channel 4 dispatches<\/a><\/span>\u2019 has taken us to another highpoint. Now we must undertake a comprehensive understanding of a rebuttal of a reprehensible allegation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Orwell told us that insincerity is the greatest enemy of clear lucid language. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is a gap between one\u2019s real and one\u2019s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Some years back, while on holiday in Indonesia, I watched Indonesia\u2019s\u2019 famed shadow puppetry which is called \u2018Wayang Kulit\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a mesmeric experience. A single person holds your attention. He is called the \u2018Dhalang\u2019 which means master puppeteer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The master puppeteer is both narrator and manipulator. The puppets are made of buffalo hide. You don\u2019t watch the puppets, You watch their shadows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All puppets are on strings held by the master puppeteer. His right-hand counters his left hand. The story is about good and evil. The Shadows of souls perform on the illuminated screen which is supposed to be \u2018heaven\u2019 . \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The puppet master manipulated the puppets to dance, walk, laugh, and cry with his deft finger movements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Master Puppeteer bellows out loud and angry sounding words and soft soothing words. Most stories are either from Maha Bharatha or the Ramayana. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This ancient art form is an integral part of Indonesian culture and is traced to its Hindu-Buddhist period.\u00a0<\/span>UNESCO in 2003 declared this art of Wayang\u00a0Kulit as a masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is all about manipulating light against darkness. Light reveals a story of shadows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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