Let Them Eat Hate
Mmm, frosting. On dirt. The Mahinda campaign rests on a series of wedge issues like Sinhala chauvinism and Buddhist supremecy. Like abortion or gay marriage, these issues affect like 1% of the population. However, they get people really excited. On real issues like cost of living or peace process, they have no comment. All they have to offer is hate – hating Christians, hating the West, hating Tamils, etc. On this website there are a few commenters going crazy over Christian Conversion. Conversions A) don’t really exist and B) aren’t an electoral issue. 1.5% of people in this poll rate ‘protecting my religion’ as a high priority, but that doesn’t stop this Australian guy from posting like 30 times a day. Like the abortion debate, people will go to the wall for these wedge issues, but they don’t really matter to the electorate at large.
What matter is Cost of Living and the Ethnic Conflict. On both counts Ranil has a record of delivering. Inflation dropped dramatically when he was PM and growth rose. He also created jobs and encourage investment. Here’s a leetle Flash presentation on the economic gains under Ranil. Click to go to the next slide.
On the ethnic issue he also signed the Cease-Fire Agreement and brought peace to Sri Lanka. He hobbled the LTTE to the point that they’ve now lost their hold in the East and peace alone led to a boom in Sri Lanka. Mahinda, however, has no record and no vision besides his own reflection. The JVP will point the way – to failed states like Burma and North Korea. These are the issues that matter to Sri Lankans, but a vocal minority will continue to rant and rave about non-existent Christian Conversions and getting Tamils and Muslims to eat it in a Sinhala/Buddhist state. However, the majority of Sri Lankans don’t care about these issues. They just want peace and prosperity. The Mahinda campaign doesn’t have answers on these issues, and neither do a lot of commenters on this blog. Real Sri Lankans suffer under the burden of poverty and war. All they can say is ‘Let them eat hate’.
Solid, man, solid. We’re all crossing our fingers over in the other hemisphere.
solid indeed!
james aka coward with many deaths.:
whatever the christian fundamentalists are causing is nothing in comparison to what you are doing to make buddhists ashamed of their religion.
‘james’ is the same person as Names, as Vissa, as 3PO, and the same person who impersonated my friend Dilshan. He’s a bit obsessive. I think I deleted the comment you were referring to because it was offensive and off-topic. And because, whaddya know, it’s my blog.
Indi why are you deleting everything? Afraid of being exposed?
Perhaps if you didn’t run around like a little twat trying to delete comments, ban people and act like a facist, one could stick to ONE NAME.
Are you that afraid of having your thoughts pushed?
I mean really Indi? You’ve been on a deleting spree.
dude, my blog, I can moderate it as I please. I’m not deleting your comments, the filter flags them as Spam. You’re obsessive enough to post at least 30 times a day, so if you want free speech go to blogsome of blogger and get your own blog. This is my private property and you’re here at my leisure.
You’re the one who deletes everything and adds things to the spam list. You are the reason I have to choose another name from time to time, so stop pretending as if it’s a big revelation when you reveal to the world about the various names I have been FORCED (by your facism) to use, because you already know it and smart people can figure out similar writing styles.
You’re nothing but a facist when you censor free speech. And here you are screaming and wailing at others about being “undemocratic.” Do you know the world “hypocrite”? If not, check out a dictionary. If you’re afraid of free speech and discussion then close down your comments sections. Otherwise you are inviting comments on your rantings and ravings.
If you can’t hack people exposing your bald, pathetic arguments and showing off all the holes, then why not turn off the comments section?
And there you go again…. deleting and banning yet AGAIN.
Should have remembered this from the start, but everybody, don’t feed the troll.
Trolls here, trolls there, trolls everywhere. Reminds me of the problem I had a while back. Best thing is to totally ignore all responses from that IP range. Man, people need to find things to do, seriously. As they say, anonymity makes you feel strong.
right you are too. :-D
[...] Indi.ca seems to think that an opinion poll reflects that people are more caught in “wedge issues” than the ones that affect more of them. [...]
Indi, I tell you one again, this guys got his heart and ass set on you!
The fundamental problem with Mahinda, as with CBK in 1994, is lack of experience on the larger platform.
MR has organisational and administrative skills which are useful as an MP but he lacks a wider vision. Like CBK in 1994, he probably comes in with good intentions, but his thinking is narrow and parochial and he has no grasp of either economics or the wider political environment.
On his own, he would be merely incompetent, which is bad enough given the fragile state of the country. With the JVP pushing a communist agenda and the JHU pushing an isolationist one he becomes positively dangerous.
Driven by desparation, fearing a lack of support within his own party, he has cobbled togther an alliance, made promises thatare either impossible or contradictory.
If he does get elected, the whole thing is goingto dissolve into one sticky mess. My greatest fear is that the JVP, a scurvy band of opportunists, will exploit this for their own ends.
jack point is right
a weak and incompetent government is jvp ‘s aim. if you read unbiased histories of so called socialist revolutions you will see that most are in fact sort of coups, not by the military (military on those cases at least initially do nothing because of low morale and even less loyalty to government) but by a small armed group. that is certainly what happed in 1917 october on russia, the more or less democratically elected government that came to power after february 1917 was dependent on socialist parties (bolsheviks were not even the largest socialist party) for survival thus weak and incompetent.
let us hope nothing similar happens here.
Great post, and a very nice site. (Also, moderate away — otherwise threads like this turn into a whole lot of noise very quickly.)
I am often quite amazed and plainly shocked at the fanatical zeal shown by these Christian evangelists, who wish to convert the entire world to Christianity through whatever means necessary. Entire organizations, or more correctly enterprises, have been set up with the sole purpose of “harvesting souls for God,” and there are many individuals whose job in life is to convert non-Christians to Christianity, and they are paid handsomely to do it. No expense is spared in this task of trying to bring every single person on planet earth to the “light of Jesus Christ,” and no thought whatsoever is given to the religious and cultural diversity that makes this world such a wonderful place.
For these extremists, the sooner all the non-Christian “pagan” and “Satan-inspired” religions perish or are annihilated, the better the world will be; a rather fanatical, nazi-esque position if there ever was one. By sending evangelist teams around the world and setting up shop in non-Christian majority countries, these evangelist organisations work to destroy the pillars of religious coexistence and tolerance and erect their own pillars of religious supremacy and intolerance in those countries. And Sri Lanka is just another one of their many targets – yet another country “infested with evil pagans” who need to be brought to the “light of Jesus Christ.”
With the kind of mentality explained above, these evangelists have no qualms about using whatever means necessary to gain converts. As they have invaded countries that may not be wealthy, and as is the case in Sri Lanka, they use material inducements to convert the poor and destitute non-Christians to Christianity. For them, buying souls for their God is not an issue, but the tally of supposedly “saved souls” is. Conversion today has become a big business with big bucks behind it, and, unfortunately, the world we live in appears a battle ground for the Christian evangelists where the competitors are not only the non-Christian religions but rival Christian sects as well.
And to them, all is fair in war. Encouraging new converts to smash statues of the Buddha and Hindu gods and godesses, burn pictures of the Buddha and Hindu gods and godesses, burn Dharma books and renounce “pagan” cultural activities are all considered suitable methods of propagating Christanity. Giving potential child converts biscuits fashioned in the shape of a Buddha image, and encouraging the kids to eat them while preaching Christianity do not strike the evangelists as insensitive and indecent. And following in the footsepts of the colonials in Sri Lanka, these cash-rich evangelists offer food, money and employment to convince poor Sri Lankans to convert to Christianity, asserting that it is the Christian God that is the harbinger of prosperity and that it is the “Satan-inspired” Buddhist/Hindu/Muslim traditions that continue to keep them in poverty.
It is no wonder that many Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and moderate Christians are simply apalled at the way the evangelists carry out their proselytism, and are extremely worried about the impact it will have on religious harmony in this country. It can already be seen that the provocative activities of Christian evangelists have led to the destabilsation of peace and harmony among the various religious communities, and if these evangelists continue with their unethical and iconoclastic methods of proselytism the situation is bound to get worse. Sri Lanka could very well do without these people who are hell-bent on creating a religious imbroglio in this beautiful island.
Sorry this has got something to do with the post???
Well personally i dont really like evangelists myself…but christianity in its own right is not a bad thing.
See this ! SNAD Analysis
Latest Popularity Analysis by SNAD
The Winner is Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa
This is a graphical representation of popularity Analysis. The sample inlcluded were mainly done from day to day commuters. Each person was given two to three question depeding on their their choice to select the preference between Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe.
http://www.mahinda4srilanka.org
some ppl seems to trust snad (whatever that is) than the actual election. no wonder, since ltte elected the buffalo.
Whats SNAD anyway?
That flash presentation is really good. Who did it?
I would suggest that it be slightly updated to be accurate after the election, and put on this site in PowerPoint Show format. I’d like to download it and email it around to people, it’s a very good way to educate people about the economics of electing Mahinda.
Is that possible?
My friend did it, but I dunno if the PowerPoint is cleared for release. Could email to you.