Those elephants and these elephants

Let’s have an uncommon candidate

Ven Medagama Dhammananda got it right.  He is opposed to the idea of the opposition putting forward a ‘common candidate’ to contest the presidential election.  We have had enough ‘common candidates’.  They are a dime a dozen.  No sweat finding one.  And even in the unlikely event of this ‘common candidate’ winning the election, we can’t expect anything uncommon or extraordinary from him/her.   What is needed is an uncommon candidate.  An extraordinary one.  Someone who is unlike anyone

Those elephants and these elephants   

 In Kalamediriya, Bandaragama an elephant is reported to have gone berserk.  This was no wild beast.  It was a tame creature that had got upset with its mahout.  The elephant is reported to have made its way to the mahout’s house. Not finding the man at home, the jumbo had caused damage to the house. There are, then, tame elephants and tame elephants.  Shouldn’t Ranil Wickremesinghe be pleased? 

Ethnic groups

Sunil Handunetti of the JVP claims that the Chinese are the latest ethnic group in Sri Lanka.  True, many Chinese have come to Sri Lanka of late.  Handunetti obviously has a problem with the support this government gets from China.  He would not, however, be less disappointed if it was the USA that was backing the regime now would he?  After all he is a rathu sahodaraya.   Anyway, it is strange, is it not, that Handunnetti has not objected to that other ‘ethnic group’, the White, Anglo-Saxons, who have set up operations here in Sri Lanka as Obama’s veritable fifth column as advisors, experts, media personnel and NGO operators? 

Handunetti’s memory

The man says that the JVP has never ever, not once, done anything wrong.   Two questions. First, did some nutcases calling themselves ‘The JVP’ that went around slitting throats, filling chests and heads with bullets etc etc way back in 1988-89?  Secondly, were they using toy guns and therefore no one really died?  Perhaps no one died.  Perhaps that’s also a story.  There’s a third story: when is this man Handunetti getting the Nobel Prize for literature? 

The President’s call

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told the youth of this country, ‘don’t subvert country for others’.  He adds, ‘put country before self’.  There are many ways to subvert a country.  Opening the doors of the country to poisons is one.  Giving a wide berth to those who profit from selling alcohol and tobacco to the young is another.  Maybe the youth of the country can come to an agreement with the President. Something like, ‘We will do as you say, but please Mr President, for your part, do the same; you have the numbers, the power and the vision, after all.’