the elements of our lives

it's a depressing saturday morning in colombo. heavy quilted black clouds hang low over the city, from rim to rim. it's rains in gusts. the air is oppressive and you expect that at any time unspeakable things will emerge from gaps in the ether to wage vile devastation on the land. a stray mangy dog covers wet and trembling, tail between legs, in the shuttered door way of a kade.

yesterday, there was an email doing the rounds ( i even got a copy from oz) quoting the defense ministry web site that our forces are on the verge of victory in the north. a second e mail spoke of islamic radicals being trained in terrorism on the eastern coast. the day earlier, the e mails spoke of the mayhem the ltte was planning in the west and south of the country. the front pages of the papers speak of various people ( even women and kids) being abducted from homes in colombo. petrol shot up by 30 bucks a week ago, inflation is around 30%, rice is not freely available and prices of food items are sky high. and so it goes.

strangely though, people seem resigned to matters which seem out of their control and there has been largely no significant grumblings or protests.

today's daily mirror has an interesting article by corydon ireland of the harvard news office. he talks of louise richarson, an expert on terrorism. as dean of the radcliffe institute for advanced study, she has made radcliffe the center for a number of interesting discussions on the origins, nature and answers to terrorism. she had even managed to get former ltte carders and retired sri lankan forces personnel to talk to each other at these discussions. richardson says that terrorism can be defined as the deliberate and violent targeting of civilians for political purposes. it requires a violent cocktail - a disaffected individual, an enabling community and a legitimizing ideology. any terrorist wants three immediate objectives, what she calls the three "rs" - revenge, renown and reaction. she acknowledges that not all attacks can be prevented but democratic governments can temper and control their reactions.

one major finding to emerge from the discussions at radcliffe is that the longer a conflict goes on, the more reformists are marginalized, and the more ruthless, tough and intractable the leaders of resistance become. according to the lady, fighting terrorism requires having a defensible and achievable goal - and "eliminating terror" is neither. fighting terrorism requires living by democratic principals, knowing your enemy, finding allies, maintaining perspective, and separating terrorists from their communities.

which brings me to the hetti. the bugger terrorized the mendis' and moi at the ch last week. we had retired to that watering hole to meditate on the st peters royal rugby encounter which the later won convincingly. the hetti was of course in his element - all gracious and superior - at our expense. we had a good jaw, retired to rr for some hoppers, beef curry and katta sambol - and solved a few more problems. it was a good night, rugby apart. ( as a connected story i am happy to report that st peters beat isipathana yesterday 8 - 7 and there was not a peep out of the hetti).