This was first published in the Daily News on June 3, 2010, exactly 6 years ago. It was written just after Israsel attacked a flotilla of aid ships bound for the Gaza strip, killing 10 people in the pre-dawn attack on May 31, 2010). The world was outraged, but the expression of outrage was as always filtered through the politics of propriety. Human rights have colours and so do their violations. Read on...
I seldom go to sleep before midnight. Most days I sleep around 1 pm. I know some people subscribe to the early to
bed and early to rise style of sleeping.
Some like a ‘power nap’. Some are
veritable Kubakarnas; they sleep for
decades, it seems. Some sleep like logs.
Some are restless; they toss and turn.
Some sleep-walk, some walk-sleep.
Some have sweet dreams and some nightmares. We are all made differently and so there’s
nothing surprising in there being lots of possible sleep-ways.
My friend Priyantha Wickramasinghe, as an undergraduate, was
almost impossible to wake up. He would
vow to study all night after getting back to the hostel but would invariably
beg us to wake him in 10 minutes. After
10 minutes, he would be woken up and told that his time was up. He would beg
for another 10, then 15, then an hour.
This would go on until the ‘wakers’ tired of the game and went to
bed. Priyantha would literally fall
asleep with a book in his hand. He would be on his side, book held up and from
certain angles one might think he was deeply engrossed in it. The book, I mean. He was engrossed. In slumber.
People have strange sleeping habits and I have not had reason
to lose any sleep over this issue. This
morning, however, I wondered. I really,
really, really, really wondered about how some people sleep. I am thinking about a man called Ban
Ki-moon. I am thinking of a woman called
Navi Pillai. And another called Louise
Arbour. A man called Chris Patten. In happier times I might have wondered about
Gordon Brown and David Miliband, but these poor gentlemen have lost too much
sleep in the past few months for me to wonder about possible
shuteye-pattern.
I wonder because I heard that Israsel attacked a flotilla of
aid ships bound for the Gaza
strip early Monday morning, and that 10 people had been killed in this pre-dawn
attack. Ban Ki-moon has woken up from a
stupor. He’s outraged. He’s called for an investigation. I love this man. He’s called for investigations in Sri Lanka. He’s
thrown the book at Israel.
I am checking the internet every few minutes, waiting for a statement from Navi
Pillai, the woman who loves to hate Sri Lanka and who got her knickers
so twisted by listening to Tiger propaganda that she would fight a war to get
things un-twisted.
This is what she has said: ‘I am shocked
by reports that humanitarian aid was met with violence early this morning
reportedly causing death and injury as the boat convoy approached the Gaza coast.’
Shocked? Just
‘shocked’? What’s the lady done with her
moral high horse? Sold it to Ehud Barak,
the Israeli Defense Minister? I am
surprised she didn’t get on the phone with Chris Patten and draft a letter for
the International Crisis Group to release to the world, demanding that Barak
and his Prime Minister drop their pants, bend down and be caned for being
naughty.
Was she sleeping, this lady, when those 10 people died? Did
someone wake her up? Does she have on
her computer several word templates, one for each country; one for ‘shock’, one
when she’s ‘appalled’, another for ‘investigations’, and so on?
Chris Patten. Where was he? Why is he so silent? We are not talking about a ‘first’ here.
Isreal, Palestine, Gaza, West Bank…these are not place names we are hearing for
the first time. We heard them all long before we knew that Ban was the first
name of a man whose surname was Ki-moon, long before Navi Pillai started
sucking up to terrorists and started believing anything and everything that
they said, and long before Chris Patten had to leave Hong Kong.
Forget Gaza.
How about Abu Ghraib? Guantanamo
Bay? How about investigations in and of these
places? Does Ki-moon fall asleep
automatically when such names are mentioned?
Does Pillai? And Patten? Louise
Arbour…what does that lady have to say?
We are talking here about elaborately planned and precisely executed
crimes against humanity, ladies and gentlemen. Not once in a blue moon. Frequent attacks. For decades. We are talking about repeated and
in-your-face violation of UN Resolutions by the State of Israel.
I am imagining Chris Patten waking up to this bit of news
from Gaza. I don’t know what he would say or think, but
since he’s said and done nothing, I would like to put some words into his mouth
and some action into his hands.
‘Gaza? What’s Gaza? Some kind of sweet, some Turkish
Delight? Who is the aggressor? Israel? Nooooooooooooooo…….can’t
be. They don’t do
crimes-against-humanity. They are our
people.’
Chris Patten then does some ‘doing’. He gets on the phone to
the British PM and says, ‘You may have heard about some Zionists chewing some
Turkish Delight, but that’s all baloney. Didn’t happen. Will not happen. If you are pushed, say “concerned” and
nothing more.’
Chris Patten then has breakfast and calls his pals in the
International Crisis Group and briefs them: ‘Palestine is not a country, and is therefore
not our concern. Israel is a
Holy Cow. Don’t touch it. It’s Sri Lanka. Get it? Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka. Gaza
Smaasha. Israel
Smeashrael. Palestine Shalestine. All bunkum.
Let me repeat. There are things
we can chew and things we cannot. And
things we will not even if we could.’
Something was murdered yet once again on Monday
morning. Integrity. Pillai must sleep well. So too Ki-moon. And of course Arbour and Patten. All good and
healthy sleepers. I am sure they have
differences, but in this they are similar: sauce for the goose, according to them,
is not sauce for the gander.
Sleep tight ladies and gentlemen. There’s a bug that’s biting you. Take a few pills called Sri Lanka and
you will sleep well. All through the night. And, if necessary, through the day
as well.
Malinda Seneviratne is
a freelance writer who can be reached at malinsene@gmail.com
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