Sri Lankan Third Reich with no war nor natural disasters striking?

Who or what is striking Sri Lanka? Except highly incensed trade unions joined by civil organisations and civil society. They have reason to be angered and we Ordinaries are a-feared.

No earthquake or intrusive army has struck or invaded us. Then who is attacking us? Our own government which will go vote with the President on any country-injurious plan purely for retaining their parliamentary seats and positions of power. We watch on TV the utter suffering of people in Turkey and Syria where the death toll from the 7.8 earthquake that struck early morning three days ago, killing as of Wednesday 8000 people. The count will rise sharply. Ukraine is invaded under Putin’s orders for reasons which we cannot really comprehend.

So our basic question is why is Ranil, people’s unelected President, is being so obstinate against the people’s strong disapproval. He went ahead with the celebrations on February 4. Now he is determined to pass the 13 th Amendment fully. Cassandra cannot comment on this latter matter. However, many erudite persons knowing full well all about it have commented and said, at least do not hurry it through.

We at least know that LG elections must go on. It is obvious that the SLPP-UNP now in almost illegal power are determined to scuttle it by unfair means as there are no fair means to not hold elections. Again absolute selfishness and letting the country go to destruction as long as the government retains its power and almost all of them in Parliament retaining their seats.

The plain appeal is that the economy of the country be stabilised as far as possible, and people do not die of starvation and children of malnutrition. The Editor of The Island on Wednesday encapsulated much more than what I have touched on with his usual succinct and sharp editorial style. I borrow the title of my article from him.

The Chinese in Sri Lanka

I received an article written by that excellent writer/commentator Tisaranee Guasekera on the Chinese roping in the Maha Sangha, not juniors but very senior monks, from the Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters, no less. The Chinese are being generous but why include Buddhist monks in their charitable distribution of goods? They know full well the Rajapaksas, whom they took on spending sprees indebting the country enormously, are now unpopular, nay hated; so they have turned to persons respected by the general public, or rather by the racial and religious majority. I hope Tissaranee does not mind being mentioned; her article was in the public domain and she is one outspoken, brave journalist. I saw video clips of these charitable forays in villages in our country.

Please read the article by Victoria Nuland – Under Secretary for the US on political affairs – who is on a visit to SL. The article is by Harim Peiris, who served as Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2116. His article is in The Island of Wednesday February 8. She says: “That credible standard of debt relief did not seem to be forthcoming from the Chinese.” That is stating the matter diplomatically. Even idiots know what financial assistance was needed to get us out of bankruptcy and save our economy mired down to the depths of difficulty. Plenty aid came from India, Japan, the US and the Paris Club, to name but a few who came to our aid. Critics of these countries, mostly Western, may intone deep strings underpinned their generosity. Cass strongly feels otherwise. You decide after reading the article.

Genuine charity

Let’s get on to pleasanter talk. We are so downcast that we cling to any straw that promises us hope and more encouraging matters. Such we hear of or read with gratitude, a fine quality to encourage.

We have in our country of plundering politicians hundreds of people who are very generous with not only money but with food and dry goods and more importantly, helping people improve their condition in life. It is a dire time of despair and depression. One such absolutely fine organisation is CandleAid by Capt Elmo and his wife Dil. This organisation’s help is multipronged ranging from helping in education to distributing dry ration packets. Directed by them, I chat over the phone with a young woman who wants to improve her spoken English. She is in a temporary job of field officer; a graduate from the Peradeniya Uni having entered it at the first attempt from a remote, almost rural school. She lives with her ailing grandmother and paralysed grandfather. She cooks for them and herself before she leaves for work, some distance away. Her family of accident-injured father, rubber tapper mother and four siblings live in the same compound. She is the main breadwinner; her brother earning a paltry amount. Our MPs and others who live in luxury and drive gas guzzling limos should meet people like this who are so keen to advance, mostly to help their families.

I am sure they watch Gammeda programmes of women carrying infants and school kids crossing logs placed across streams, and undergoing other terrible hardships. My young friend who converses with me has the dream of becoming a teacher – the aim unreachable now with no recruitments due to lack of money to pay salaries.

That too was a sad story. Let’s get onto something cheerier.

My Australian friend who keeps me supplied with foreign articles, sent me this from the journal History Today about a UK family that publicly apologised to the people of the Caribbean island Granada. Their ancestors had more than 1,000 slaves in the 19th century. They are the aristocratic Trevelyn family who owned six sugar plantations in Grenada. The descendants, living in Britain. went to the island and paid the now generation compensation. This was made known by a family member – Laura Trevelyn – BBC reporter in New York. She visited Granada in 2022 and was shocked that the UK government compensated her ancestors when slavery was abolished in 1833, by paying the equivalent of dollars 3 m. The freed slaves got nothing. A BBC documentary was filmed and her remark was: “It was really horrific… I saw for myself instruments of torture used to restrain the slaves. I felt ashamed and also felt that it was my duty. You cannot repair the past – but you can acknowledge the pain.” She and seven members of her family travelled later to Grenada, issued a public apology and donated pounds 100,000 to establish a community fund for economic development. She further stated that their donation was inadequate. “But I hope we’re setting an example by apologising for what our ancestors did.” A series of American racial killings influenced her to go to Grenada.

Over here

In fairly recent times, we know not of formal slavery. There may have been slavery of sorts in the past apart from the European colonisers bringing even Africans as workers and mercenaries. Slave labour has been present, of course, in tea estates, near-aristocratic demesnes. However, there has been positive slavery in some homes that employed child servants. Cass knows of a girl branded by the furious lady of the home, hit on the forehead by a thrown tin of fish, and deprived of proper food. Servants had to prepare separate, and of course, lesser meals for themselves. Labour laws mercifully prevented those under 14 of working as domestics in homes and helpers in boutiques. Were they compensated or just dismissed or allowed to depart when poor families needed them at home?

Cass also feels that politicians mostly, who raped our resources, are slave drivers of sorts; us – the general public – being the slaves.