ssdd!
gentlemen (and ladies)!
well now, this is all nice and comfy. a new home always is. having said that, amitha for one is not too thrilled with the new arrangement. however, to paraphrase jfk, you cannot please ‘em all.
in sri lanka though, the politicians do try. to pleasure us all, that is. that, of course, is a polite phrase for it. this is after all an on line bulletin now. the president’s term of office ends late next year, we think. in parliament her government which is a coalition with the jvp has a one seat majority. the jvp will not allow her ( they say) to sign a joint mechanism with the ltte to handle tsunami reconstruction work in the north and the east. the jvp says they will pull out of government if she does sign thereby collapsing government. in the meantime the weekend papers say that she is promoting her brother as the next president sidelining her prime minister who had ambitions for the position. the opposition unp say they will not support a minority government. all sides are wooing individual parliamentarians. and, at times like these, the banks do excellent business.
in the meantime the country muddles on and nothing much is happening on the ground by way of tsunami reconstruction or otherwise. over the past 10 years or so it is as if we have all been in siesta. look at what india has achieved in 10 short years. nay, look at the maldives tsunami and all. of course there has been the war. but that particular excuse has not existed for the past 3 or 4 years.
to put it another way, ssdd.
what is it about us sri lankans? is it that we really believe the politicians and expect as a god ( there’s a politically incorrect word in sri lanka) given right all the freebies offered at election time? do we really believe that we can sit back in our little shack and have everything handed over to us by the politician we voted for? do we really believe that ethnic minorities or majorities should have no rights or voices?
in trincomalee there is this big hullabaloo over the covert construction of the statue of the buddha in the middle of the town (lets not go down the road of whether statues are ok for buddhism). people have died this past few weeks because of it. and yet, all over the town the hindu’s and the christians have erected various other statues / shrines which are equally without authority (lets not go down the road of whether statues are ok for hinduism and christianity). so what’s the fuss about? even bala cannot answer that one.
“but this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs.
In the long run we are all dead. “
- john maynard keynes
and, in reality, that’s the only pure pleasure available to us sri lankans.
well now, this is all nice and comfy. a new home always is. having said that, amitha for one is not too thrilled with the new arrangement. however, to paraphrase jfk, you cannot please ‘em all.
in sri lanka though, the politicians do try. to pleasure us all, that is. that, of course, is a polite phrase for it. this is after all an on line bulletin now. the president’s term of office ends late next year, we think. in parliament her government which is a coalition with the jvp has a one seat majority. the jvp will not allow her ( they say) to sign a joint mechanism with the ltte to handle tsunami reconstruction work in the north and the east. the jvp says they will pull out of government if she does sign thereby collapsing government. in the meantime the weekend papers say that she is promoting her brother as the next president sidelining her prime minister who had ambitions for the position. the opposition unp say they will not support a minority government. all sides are wooing individual parliamentarians. and, at times like these, the banks do excellent business.
in the meantime the country muddles on and nothing much is happening on the ground by way of tsunami reconstruction or otherwise. over the past 10 years or so it is as if we have all been in siesta. look at what india has achieved in 10 short years. nay, look at the maldives tsunami and all. of course there has been the war. but that particular excuse has not existed for the past 3 or 4 years.
to put it another way, ssdd.
what is it about us sri lankans? is it that we really believe the politicians and expect as a god ( there’s a politically incorrect word in sri lanka) given right all the freebies offered at election time? do we really believe that we can sit back in our little shack and have everything handed over to us by the politician we voted for? do we really believe that ethnic minorities or majorities should have no rights or voices?
in trincomalee there is this big hullabaloo over the covert construction of the statue of the buddha in the middle of the town (lets not go down the road of whether statues are ok for buddhism). people have died this past few weeks because of it. and yet, all over the town the hindu’s and the christians have erected various other statues / shrines which are equally without authority (lets not go down the road of whether statues are ok for hinduism and christianity). so what’s the fuss about? even bala cannot answer that one.
“but this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs.
In the long run we are all dead. “
- john maynard keynes
and, in reality, that’s the only pure pleasure available to us sri lankans.
posted by the scribe at 8:52 AM
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