This is written for Montage magazine.
The government is broke. And Basil is one more mouth to feed. The people are broke, or homeless in the North and East. In Burma a 500% petrol hike moved noble monks into the street, non-violently resisting troops that shoot automatic weapons into the crowds. As a fellow Buddhist nation we should be proud that they are waving our flags in the name of non-violence. The Rajapakse family (which controls over 75% of government money) has announced higher taxes on mobiles, cars, petrol and more. And 17.5% inflation (September CCPI) taxes everybody. We should be enraged at the taxes. We should be ashamed at our abandoment of our cultural heritage. Of peace.
Death
Non-violence is a Buddhist value. Perhaps the greatest value that Therevada Buddhism preserves. Ahimsa is present in all the Indic strains – Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism. Peace is also a great value in the modern Islam and Christianity that populates this resplendant isle. Despite visible corruption on the surface, of our monks and the knowledge they preserve are priceless. But a minority of our monks stage oxymoronic satygrahas for war.
The JHU has flipped the traditional peace sign upside down. It’s now just the hood ornament on their Mercedez Benz. Mahinda has made war a family business and had promotions for every hill captured and convoy sunk. And they have the nerve to wave the Buddhist flag over soldiers coffins and preach to the United Nations. War is eternal, as is suffering. Buddhism is about the way out of both.
Sri Lanka is not pursuing a negotiated settlement to the war. The Defence Secretary Gotabaya has called for a military solution to the war. The Peace Process is dead. The CFA is over. Nobody declares war anymore, but make no mistake. We are at war.
And it feels good. It feels good to hit the LTTE. They are tyrants on the level of the Burmese junta. However, to contain 10,000 cadres, we have displaced over 300,000 of our own citizens. Meaning they don’t have homes. And please stop and think about that. You have a toilet you’re comfortable with a gate you can lock. Your children are safe. 300,000+ of our fellow citizens do not have that basic right.
Our government has signed the Cease Fire Agreement and they are – on paper – committed to a negotiated settlement. Until they tear up the CFA and fight an honest war, they are taking life and being deceptive. Not very Buddhist at all. Especially when the wages of Death is so much
Taxes
The government is broke. Inflation is at 17.5% this month. Meaning your money will buy less food for your family next month. The Rajapakse Brothers Circus is reaching for the HSBC credit card, regardless of the high interest rate. Because credit cards don’t ask any questions, and there are so many Rajapakse mouths to feed. They’re after the people’s money as well.
There are new taxes on phone calls, wheat, cars and more. The cops are out in the street, levying traffic fines. Dirty cops are complicit in kidnappings for ransom, according to their own boss Perera. This government is broke and they’re looking into your pockets. The Rajapakse brothers will try set up private shell airlines and banks, MIG jets to shoot flying bullock carts, try to sell SLT – anything for Bandaranaike money. And that’s just the proven stuff. The tsunami corruption investigation was closed by Mahinda and the LTTE bribery scandal was watered down by a Parliament on the take. This government is bloated, broke, occupied by a parasitic family of Rajapakses.
They have abandoned the peace process. They have looted the economy. But they cannot take away the beauty and wonder of Sri Lanka, and the latent integrity of our culture. Just take a trip out of Colombo and you’ll fall in love with this country all over again – brain drain be damned. Trinco still has fantastic seafood and stunning beaches. The war is temporary and this country still belongs to all of us. We are still a great country, with great cultural values. We are greater than the sum of our politicians. If only we had courage of our Burmese friends.
“the latent integrity of our culture”
An interesting concept. Where does it come from?
Given that the next meaningful elections will happen only in 2011 November, it seems that you are advocating street protests. Street protests must either lead to a People’s Power outcome as in the Philippines (but recall that the Army was the deciding factor in the Philippines) or blood on the streets (if the Army does not agree with the street). Guess which option will be chosen by Gota’s army?
Is it not better to focus on working within the Constitution and prevent the government from doing crazy things? Ranil showed how Parliament can be used effectively with the speech against the wacko school admissions policy. But he appears to be off track again, trying to rouse the street to get an election (Parliamentary) that will ensure (a) that MR will sit back and dissolve Parliament at the opportune moment as CBK did, and (b) that MR will run as the opposition candidate who still controls the Police and the elections machinery in 2011 and hand Ranil another defeat.
“If only we had courage of our Burmese friends.”
Courage? I don’t think what stops the people from pushing for change is fear. It’s apathy. Nobody can be bothered. Of course we’ll talk/write/blog about it with whoever will listen. But that’s about it.
Watch and see, even the Malaka story will be forgotten in a few months. It’s nothing more than a gossip topic for the people, nothing else.
Terrible!! and it appears the situation is about to get worse:
Link
Good luck with the budget in November!
Don’t forget they are stealing money from our banks too, They imposed a tax on every money transfer, even if we transfer from one account to another, its stealing money. Form what i remember UNP government introduced this TAX, Mahinda cried over it but the tax is still there. Our country is run by thieves, It was always like this.
Lately I’ve been sensing that you’re not overly keen on the Brothers Rajapakse…
Unfortunately I suspect that the majority of our people are not so haunted by death and taxes. They are getting increasingly irritated by all the hardship, but are not ready to give MR his marching orders just yet. Unlike you, they do not hold him responsible for the outbreak of war, and give him some credit for fighting it with relative success so far. They may well tire of him at some point, maybe sooner rather than later. But he’s looking pretty solid at the moment.
So we can vent our frustrations on the blogosphere. And it feels good. But don’t expect that it will inspire a general uprising. And don’t imagine that that would be a particularly desirable outcome. We still have a reasonable chance of toppling a regime at the polling booth rather than on the streets. The latter could lead us to anarchy. Or Burma.
And anyway, you want protests? Demonstrations? Well, there are demonstrations just about every other day. But we’re not comfortable with the parties that organize them, so we end up whining about the traffic jams they cause.
i have not been here a while but it seems indi( also known as the blogger padashow) is still jumping round like a monkey with its tail on fire.
thankfully he had been unable to set fire to anything at all. ( fact that his fire is fueled by his own you know what and has nothing substantial or real to back up probably helps to keep the damage to zero ) . nor is it likely he ever will do any .
it is not for such as him to set the world on fire .
but unfortunately given the laws against animal cruelty we cannot exhibit him as a circus attraction. contortions he gets into ( physical or logical ) is a sight to behold
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he thinks ‘peace’ is equivalent to ‘non violence’. he thinks our cultural heritage includes abandonment of millions to ltte terrorist oppression in the name of ‘peace’ . he think we should ‘honestly’ declare war on terrorists and not act to bring to justice a bunch of convicted criminals who regularly violate laws in various ways including murder ( fact that kitties don’t kill monkey probably has some thing to with that. ) .
he does absurd comparisons eg. “to contain 10,000 cadres, we have displaced over 300,000 of our own citizens”( btw what happened to his other 300000 bc he mentioned a figure of 600000 and tried to defend it using some billboard or other like a true monkey just a month ago) .
do i have to explain the absurdity of such a comparison, only a person who has lost all his humanity can make ? do i have to explain what those 10000 did to those millions under them under so called peace process, and are still doing in areas where they still have control ? do i have to explain the killing of children who refuse to be part of those 10000? do i have to explain the plight of ppl who were ethnically cleansed? do i have go through all the atrocities one by one ?
no to a hypocrite like indi padashow all those ppl do not exist , no matter how long we explain it to him. to them those ppl are just trash sacrificed in the name of ‘peace’.
to him anyone opposing such a ‘peace ‘ is a ‘warmonger’ . but what do you call indi who condones killing of children in the name of ‘peace’? what do you call indi who insults anyone ( including buddhist monks ) who stand up the for human rights and democracy of all sri lankans instead of limiting the enjoyment of those rights to indi, family and friends? is there a word that can express the contempt deserved by such a person like indi.padashow?
( btw didn’t his family run away during jvp terror ? leaving us sri lankans to fight it with our lives as he is leaving those in ne now? this genetically runaway coward presumes to instruct us on how to fight terror ? lol )
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he thinks sri lanka’s taxes are high when in fact tax intake ( as opposed to taxes on specific items he probably use a lot )
as a percentage of gdp is one of the lowest in the world. and while he repeats the figures taken from unp propaganda at second hand it is clear he has not looked at the budget even in passing . otherwise he would have realized that buffalo or his bros or anyone else for that matter ( thank god) has no real decision making power on where the spending goes and such figures as 75% of government spending is meaningless.
indi also thinks that sri lanaka borrowing from capital markets, as most countries do, is somehow corrupt. may be he takes the opposition leaders statments about defaulting on that loan seriously too ? what a idiot. probably his treatment at hsbc (who prudently did not like to extend credit to a monkey like hims without reference ) has more to do with it
this fellow who has lived far from reality clearly has no idea or belief in democracy, capitalism, or markets. at this rate he will be spouting marxist rubbish soon. may be he will repeat after ranil that chambers of commerce are full of ‘exploiters’ ‘?
he also has no problem about being dishonest or about attacking ppl bc of unsubstantiated hearsay. law and honesty only apply to everyone but himself or his family. he in other words can be hypocritical as much as he likes and his family and friends can be allegedly corrupt as much as they like , and no mention needs to be made. others who has allegedly done mush less on the other hand will get a lashing of expletives . he probably thinks that only members his family and friends should reap the benefits of an allegedly corrupt government.
what a hypocritical idiot !
So, you don’t like me personally, or my family. Got it. Hope the hate doesn’t cause you too much discomfort. May you be well, peaceful and happy.
sittingnut is back in da house!
please tell us how indi’s family/friends are allegedly corrupt? i haven’t heard the goss yet.
of course i don’t like padashow. who could ?
but is that all i said? then again you are free to ignore all else and focus on my dislike. :
in the same ( in fact in teh exact same way ) that some ppl in unp crossover camp are allegedly corrupt. first we will see whether he is more forthcoming with details about his allegations of corruption against them. ( i know he doesn’t use the word ‘allegedly’ but in fact all this is allegations on his part nothing more. however generally allegations with regards to ministers or officials current or former are well founded ) then we will show same allegations can be made from same sources about some ppl connected to him.
Well, I am Padashow. I’m also the VK Samaranayake blogger, Nicole Simpson’s killer and the Tooth Fairy.
well i don’t know about others, but you are padashow.
may you are a fairy too, a closeted one. lol . more hypocrisy anyone?
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btw i take it you don’t have anything to say about all the rest i said and want to focus on this ?
very entertaining!
funny how we have to read indi’s thoughts through someone else’s posts…. indi thinks this, indi thinks that….(obsession?)
ppl can read what he thinks thanks, don’t need interpreters…it’s his blog and ppl know what he thinks, u don’t like it? who gives a shit. u laso insult him calling him an idiot, who the fuck are you? i already told u to fuck off from my blog, why don’t u do the same from here? typical fascist warmonger, no arguments, only insults hu? just ban him or send him to live in thoppigala indi, the hill like no other, bruahhhaha!
lol
typical peacenik response by a typical peacenik. – ban everyone who does not agree with you. no wonder that they hate democracy and human rights and rather prefer to appease ltte terrorists , their soul mates in that attitude
indi.padashow is free to take his advice. after all it is his blog and property which nobody said it wasn’t .
u say: “lol”
why? don’t you think it’s a bit more serious than that? don’t you think it’s important? if so, pls answer on this. or are u in favour of laughing at seroius stuff? if so u must be a warmonger. pls answer instead of running away from reality.
“typical peacenik response by a typical peacenik”
pla give evidence on me being a peacenik. if u can find where i say i’m a peacenik, pls answer this. o are u a warmonger? or are u in favour of killings. plas answer this. u r free to do so, if u are a real facist warmonger, or are u a peacenik. if so u are also a terrorist friend, plas answer and don’t run away without arguments like a typical traitor of the republic.
“ban everyone who does not agree with you”
pls give EVIDENCE, not hearsay, when u make these allegations. or are u supporting the free allegations theory. plas answer.
“no wonder that they hate democracy and human rights ”
pls substantiate these further allegations. if u dont then u MSUT be an ingot worker, or are u a fascist? pls give evidence, otherwise u must be a rajapaksha.
“rather prefer to appease ltte terrorists “. really, then u also msut be financing them too, right. pls send copies of bank statements, if u dont, they dont exists. pls produce evidence.
“their soul mates ”
what is a soul mate? pls explain, what u mean. if not u dont have a soul. not even a mate on the web. give evidence that u have a mate. otherwise u r alone, as always. and that is evidence of not having a soul, right? if not u r ltte friend, right? pls reply, with EVIDENCE.
etc etc, bruahhahahhahah!!!!!!!
lol
yes lol. there isn’t any better answer to peaceniks’ comments than to laugh and poke at them. they are so ridiculous and absurd that one cannot resist :-D
galleblogger’s blog is more than enough evidence for his being a peacenik.
as i have repeated said before, i use the term peacenik to mean ppl who believe peace is worth any cost ( even cost of huamn rights, freedom, justice and democracy )
i certainly have no objection to killing armed terrorist criminals when they attack, fail to submit, and resist, the legitimate armed forces sri lanka. i have said that many times. :-)
in fact it is the duty of the gosl and its military to bring such convicted criminals and breakers of peace to justice, using violence if there is resistance. does any disagree?
does that make me a warmonger ? :-)
may be galleblogger thinks standing up for human rights, freedom, justice, and democracy, is fascist? (makes one wonder what he is teaching his pupils! )
btw who said ” just ban him ” here ? does anyone need more evidence?
ppl who advocate giving power to armed ltte to get “peace”, are appeasing terrorists. peaceniks do exactly that.
these appeasers don’t have a moral case, nor do they have a pragmatic case (any more than other other appeasers of fascists and terrorists throughout history )
ppl who accept and advocate acceptance of ltte sole representative status, who equate tamils with ltte, who want to give power to armed ltte, disregard and try to override the wishes of sri lankan public expressed at elections, etc etc .(all of which openly expressed by leading peaceniks) do hate democracy and human rights.
ppl who hate human right and democracy are soul mates of ltte.
to repeat, as for evidence of peacenik attitudes , look in galleblogger’s blog, groundviews, and statements of any peaceniks which are openly and regularly ( as they should be in any democracy ) published in press..
lol
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for some reason my earlier reply to this and next thread at the time did not get posted.and i did not visit til today . may be this will get posted .if so will look in to other thread later when i have some more free time
hahahhahahahhahahahhahah!
you actually replied to my last post?!!?!?!!??! i’m in stitches….really, haahahaahhahhhahhahhh, u didn’t even realize it was a piss-take/imitation of YOU and your garbage.
hahhahahhaahahahhhahahhhahhha!!!!!!
unbelievable.
well if it was an imitation, it was a sorry one, like you and peaceniks in general. :-)