View from Ritigala

[September 22, 2013]

Elections:sallima thamai!

It is reported that in Kurunegala a filthy rich candidate, or rather his father, is literally tossing away goodies of value running into hundreds of millions.  No one knows where the money comes from.  Perhaps it's 'investment-money' from those who need his approval for various business ventures. Perhaps it is 'insurance', just in case wrongdoing gets found out.  We don't know. What we know is that three-wheel drivers are getting free wheels and free fuel. We know that mobile phones are being given away free.  Indeed, the people in that district don't need to buy lottery tickets any more. Neither do they need to listen to various radio stations that promise bags of goodies, including cash, if they make a visit and find you've turned into the 'right' station.  Elections are about money.  Sallima Thamai.  Maybe we should have elections every six months. That would go a long way in alleviating poverty.

Wigneswaran the fisherman

While fellow TNA stalwart Sumanthiran, lawyer-turned-politician-turned-economist, waxes eloquent about solving the problems of Sri Lankan Tamil fisherman, Ex-Judge and Chief Ministerial hopeful, Wigneswaran has been quietly indulging in a bit of fishing himself. 

Wigneswaran, who was unceremoniously rapped on his knuckles by the TNA leadership for his candid comments on Tamil Nadu politicians, has been baiting the voter by appealing to the lowest, most communal and chauvinistic sentiments.

The judge, then, has judged himself.  Incompetent. Irrelevant. Irregular.  A fisherman who is an affront to fisherman, an insult to the vocation of fishing.    

Banned drugs from India

Four Indian generic pharmaceutical firms have been banned and blacklisted in Sri Lanka for selling substandard drugs it is reported. Anything substandard, drugs or otherwise, from India or elsewhere, needs to be banned.  What is interesting here is that for some people ‘India’ is a drug (and a substandard one too!).  There are people who act as though they will drop dead if they don’t salute India every other second.  At one time they called India ‘Bhoo Deshapalana Yatharthaya’ (Geopolitical Reality).  They have consistently tried to convince people that Sri Lanka has to do what India wants.  It looks like they’ve had an overdose of India, Substandard India that is; not the India of history, culture, philosophy and art, but the Regional-Thug India, the India that wants to be a South Asian Uncle Sam.  It is not a drug that can be ‘banned’ of course, but it can be blacklisted!

Vigneswaran's vocabulary

The ex-judge, one would think, knows words.  He's spent many decades using them.  He's listened to millions of words.  Still, one cannot expect him to know all the words in the English language.  But then again, there's one word which has been used so much and which he has heart so many times while delivering judgment that it is strange he doesn't know its meaning.  The word, ladies and gentlemen, is 'terrorist'.  Here's a quick 'brush-up'.

ter·ror·ist /ˈterərist:  A terrorist is a person who uses terrorism in the pursuit of political aims. 

That takes us to 'terrorism'.  Here's what the dictionary says.

ter·ror·ism /ˈterəˌrizəm: The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

We hope the good ex-judge is now appropriately edified. 

The Colombianization of Jaffna

It is reported that the family of the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, shot dead in 1993 is trying to register his name as a brand.  The TNA has not done that of course, but all signs indicate that this party would love to register the name 'Velupillai Prabhakaran' as a brand.  Given the derision that 'thambi' had for the 'annais' in the TNA, this is poetic justice, even though we cannot imagine that people like Appapillai Amirthalingam, Neelan Thiruchelvam and other TULF leaders slain by Thambi are exactly rolling in their graves and laughing.  Brands are useful to piggy-back to fame or rather tiger-back in this case.  Escobar did drugs, Prabhakaran did weapons.  Both are brand-material for the vile.  They are not icons.  Like Che, for instance.