The Taming of the Shrew a la Sri Lanka

A series of videos have been doing the rounds on the internet showing a so-called actress screaming her head off and venting her anger at series of people that included a journalist and a minister (as far as I could make out), I simply couldn’t handle decibels involved, not to mention the language! So, I didn’t listen for very long. I gather this was about attending a “forbidden” party during a lockdown and the repercussions thereof. From the tone, volume, and language of this diatribe, it seems to imply that this breaker of social discipline who violated rules in place to try and stop the current, raging pandemic in the country, was right and the criminal was the journalist and all others that the invective was directed at.

Could this happen ANYWHERE else in the whole universe except in this crazy misbegotten island that was once considered the pearl of the Indian ocean? The answer is a definite, unequivocal NO! Nowhere else in the world are criminals and lawbreakers given so much airtime and “followed” by so many people. Is it because the people are so damn foolish or because they have nothing else to spend their time on or divert their attention? More on that later, but right now to address the matter of giving attention to idiots, is it not up to us the general public not to propagate this rubbish? Don’t we understand that putting this on the internet, it serves to build an image of our country and our society? Are there no limits to indecency, vulgarity, and pure unadulterated thuggery in our country? A taming of that shrew and general education in civic responsibility to the majority of the country is long overdue.

Talking of diversions, is this simply a diversion by the rulers to change the focus and attention from the raging pandemic and sheer mind-numbing bungling that has gone on in handling those affected and the inoculation process? It seems that the PM is a wannabe actor, and he treats the whole situation unfurling around him as a teledrama enacted for the entertainment of the more crass-minded and moronic members of his vote base. A farce enacted with maximum dramatic effect to keep the rumblings of discontent at bay. After all, punishment has been meted out and even in the face of loud and dramatic protests, allowed, as in keeping with the pristine democratic ideals of our beloved peoples’ democratic republic, punishment has been meted out…as far as we know. After all, it was on the internet, therefore it HAS to be true.

More on diversions and perversion of justice, what about that ship that was brought into our waters when it had been rejected by a number of other countries? That could also be construed as a diversion that went horribly wrong. Or are there more sinister connotations involving huge sums of money in maritime insurance claims and salvage issues? The almost irrevocable damage to the environment will never be understood by the cretins who gave permission to allow this to happen. They will also never be held responsible, prosecuted, or even named! A century to reverse the damage is probably outweighed, in their demented judgment, by a percentage of the hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance claims and environment damage claims that may ensue, going into their pockets. I am told some of the personnel involved went to a very prestigious school in the suburbs of Colombo. Be thou forever, at least the environmental damage will!

I continue to follow the online conversation thread, put up by the unsung heroes among our doctors and other medical professionals who are fighting this pandemic from behind the scenes. Their trials and tribulations continue but may I take this opportunity to thank all those who responded with biscuits, cell phone reloads, and other incentives to the hard-working ambulance drivers, porters, and other “minor” staff of the Central Province hospitals. Please look at helping the other regions too as these people are vital cogs in our war against the pandemic.To go back to the medical professionals. Why do they continue to be ignored? Why do simple requests for the training of more personnel for testing purposes, basic equipment to facilitate more accurate and faster results continue to fall on deaf ears? Meanwhile, grandiose projects for highways costing billions of dollars are being put in front of the public. Who is going to use those roads should they ever materialise? The ruling families and their Lamborghinis? For the general populace may be all dead!

As for the Port City and its ramifications, I have not been able to really understand what the act passed in parliament entailed, simply because no newspaper or any other journal has cared to summarise what it means to the denizens of the Pearl. Are we really going to have a Chinese governed province in our country? Surely not? I wish some CREDIBLE person or organisation would deny that!

Finally, a heartfelt and sincere RIP to Laki Senanayake that uniquely talented individual with the courage and panache to live his life the way he chose to. I have watched him in awe and with a certain degree of shock (coming from a highly conservative background myself) right throughout my life. He was closely associated with my favourite aunt; Ena De Silva and I also ran away (at 6years old by catching a taxi!), once, from an art class he was teaching with Cora Abrahams! He once lived in my house in Kotte and no doubt created some of his masterpieces while living there. Laki, bare-bodied, batik-saronged and fluted, you will be sorely missed by your silent admirers’ and your loss will constitute another huge deficit in the pool of talent and intellect of our beloved Pearl.