seeni sambol

it's been ( not so) gently pointed out to me that the elephants who charge are those in musk. sadly, i fail to quite get the point. for instance, the beast which charged the vehicle we were traveling in last friday at udawalawe, was quite clearly enraged and not in any manner enamored. this too, it has been ( not so) gently said, is only passing strange. however, it is acknowledged, the fact that the tracker held up the palm of his hand, muttered a mantram and stopped the beast in his tracks, is deemed worthy of note. but only it seems in the context of a metaphor for politics and the impending presidential elections in sri lanka.

the president after spending more than a decade of pounding the leader of the opposition ( now running for president) has suddenly found him to be an excellent son of the soil. the prime minister ( also panting for the presidency) has indicated that he ( if elected) will abrogate the agreement with the ltte for distribution of aid in the north and the east, which please note was signed by his president and party head. the jvp promptly indicated that they will support his presidential bid. for good measure so did the jhu ( the party run by the buddhist monks). talk about elephants running amok and good old sri lankan sambol.

but, that is not all.

the government and the ltte have been trying to find agreeable locales for talks on the peace process. they checked out kilinochchi, colombo, delhi, oslo and other cities none of which were good enough. finally, they have settled on the katunayake international airport as a neutral venue. i kid you not.

go figure.

do i need to say that it's been raining in colombo again?