Mathematically challenged priests and other tidbits

That empty glass

When a glass that can contain 50 ml of water contains 25 ml, you can say it's half full or half empty.  That's the difference between negative and positive.  But what if there's say 60 ml or even more and someone says 'it's empty'?  Sri Lanka is not a glass that's empty.  Heck, a few years ago some might have claimed that there was no glass to fill in the first place.  But we do have a glass and it's filling up.  With water, not blood.  That should mean something.  But no, the 'nay-sayers' deny any water.  Is it because water is transparent and glass is colorless?  Or is it something to do with eyes that cannot see or rather will not see?  

Jehan Perera's monologs

Jehan Perera didn't like the LLRC.  One could say he was terrified of the LLRC.  He didn't have the guts that the ordinary Tamil living in former conflict zones had. He didn't make representations, perhaps because he was scared about questions that might have been put to him. Anyway, now he wants the LLRC recommendations implemented.  He wants, as the Commissioners recommended, 'dialog'.  Dialog between parties.  When is Jehan going to tell his friends in the TNA that dialog cannot happen if they don't want to talk?  Or is it that the TNA is like Jehan; terrified of any kind of conversation because they might be asked to substantiate their claims?  It's known after all that Tamil nationalists were high on claim but pretty thin on fact.

Mathematically challenged priests

Priests know about doctrine.  Doctrine related to the particular faith. Ask them what the fundamental tenets of the faith are and they will respond with an answer that will get a perfect score.  Ask them about other things and they might be off the mark. Sometimes they are way off the mark. Like Fr. Rayappu Joseph.  The good father says that 145,000 civilians were killed in the last days of the war.  He based this figure on the 1981 Census.  That's rich!  It's as though nothing happened between 1981 and 2009.  No one died, no one was born, no one was killed and no one fled the area.  

An open invitation to submit information regarding disappeared persons has yielded a few thousand submissions.  Some are known to have been LTTE cadres.  Some are known to have fled.  What happened to the 'tens of thousands'?  If the security forces got rid of over 100,000 bodies without anyone seeing or taking pictures of mass burials or cremation in this age of mobile phone cameras and satellites, then something must be wrong.  Yes, a simple explanation:  pothakarukku kanakku varaathu [the good father is poor at arithmetic!].

Doosras at Sajith, Thalatha

It is reported that the Leadership Council of the UNP has appointed a 12-member nomination board to select candidates for the upcoming provincial council elections.  Among the persons appointed are Sajith Premadasa and Thalatha Athukorala.  Here's the rub.  Now they can accept the posts or reject them. If they reject then those loyal to them seeking nomination will get sidelined.  If they accept, they will also be acknowledging the legitimacy of the Leadership Council.  If the Buddha, while traveling with his agraupasthayaka the Most Venerable Ananda Thero saw this move, the Enlightened One might very well have said Ananda, dutuveda sarpaya [Did you notice the snake, Ananda]?

THAT investigation and THIS investigation

British PM David Cameron has ordered an investigation into an MP's claim that the Thatcher government "colluded" with India on the deadly raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.  Ok folks, implied in this is that Cameron is convinced that a 'deadly raid on the Golden Temple' was carried out by the Congress Party Government of that time.  If not, why even go into the question of whether or not Thatcher's government 'colluded' with India?  So then, David, are you going to get together with your master across the Atlantic to bring a resolution of censure against India?  Isn't that important for 'reconciliation' between Hindus and Sikhs?  Isn't that a prerequisite for 'closure'?  

We can't wait David.  Come on, don't be chicken now.  Go ahead, call up Manmohan Singh and say 'Hey Man, we are gonna rip you apart in Geneva!'