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| Sunday, 02 April 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Politics unpacked Independence day?
The Chair made some caustic comments concerning this no-show. Apparently, the man who refused to show up had cited his "independence" This got the goat of the organisers, and the Chairman. Said he even before the show had got on the road that "this is a hell of a kind of independence." It's a brittle independence, this must be', he intoned. 'What kind of independence is it that prevents a person from speaking on behalf of a cause he believes in?' The proof of it? They living proof was the man who did turn up, S. L. Gunasekera, the lawyer, who has, we are told, built up a solid reputation for being independent. Mayor-nnaise? This edition on the newspaper will hit the streets after local government stakes have been decided. But yet, before the verdict was in, there was so much uncertainty about Mayoral stakes in Dehiwela Mount Lavinia for instance, that the common sight was to see three or four candidates from the same party claming they will he His/Her worship, come April. One acquaintance said it in the most succinct manner. He deadpanned ''I am also aspiring for the job?'' Couldn't get shorter or sweeter than that, a grab for power? No bottl-ism
But, there are others who are livid in their own right. When President Mahinda Rajapakse toured the tea-plantation areas together with CWC leader Thondaman, he spoke to several female tea plantation workers who cited rampant alcoholism among the men as one of their biggest headaches. The President said he understood and vowed to flush out the bootleggers in the area. Ladies were heard to say that here is a man who can carry out an anti liquor campaign with a conscience. He is not known for a liquor habit which is not something that can be said about some previous holders of the same office, huh?? Word is that he has eschewed liquor in the last three years not having touched a bottle really, on the road to the Presidency and now, even beyond it. With friends like this...
Sunil was doing his 'I duno why' number, delivered in his usual politician thrashing style. He veered to the part in the lyrics where Ministers are whacked thumped vilified, at which point Sunil was looking around the audience for a real politician to have some fun with. Eyes settled on the only guy who could be at the receiving end of Sunil's snide delivery that day avi Karu, who wouldn't miss a concert even if he had to give up his seat in parliament for it. And what did he have to pay for being so musically minded? Being ribbed by Sunil, dyed in wool UNPer, from onstage, for being an ex-Minister. Off with the weight
His wish, said one editorialist, was to have no garlands when he gets back. If they were ignoring him, its helps, he said, if they are consistent in that tendency. But when he got back, the orchids almost suffocated him. One big man in a spot of trouble was heard to sigh "a big weight off my shoulders." Talk of lifting weights. Drinks anyone? Who turns up at the party thrown by Speaker Weejamu Lokubandara for fellow SAARC Speakers? The big green chief, with wife Maithree, who were so extremely relaxed that it would have been difficult guessing this is a man who got a drubbing that day, electoraly speaking. He had the ear of the Indian High Commissioner for a long time, and enjoyed listening to some crooners sounding as if they have suddenly turned classical music on its head. When one man asked for a drink though Ravi K, always with a glint in his eye said 'don't even think about it here, if you want a pint you can be transported to my place and back.'' Jolly good sport what, even in defeat? |
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| Produced by Lake House |
When
the patriots styling themselves the National Patriotic Movement met to
generally lambaste Norway for its facilitator role, there was some
unexpected dissonance. One speaker, they said - an ex man-of-the-cloth
refused to turn up. 
Teetotalism
is not exactly back in vogue. The liquor lobby has sworn to finish off the
new private member's motion that hopes to regulate the liquor industry. 
They
have got themselves a curse, these guys from the United National Party, have
they? Seems they are unable to stop being clumsy, even if they do not mean
to?? Sunil the Gypsy whose party allegiances do not have to be especially
advertised, performed at a recent celebration for a well known Lankan diva
of a somewhat recent past. 
The
weightlifter is back, and they were seen breaking an arm and a leg to fete
him. This was definitely in marked contract to what happened in Melbourne
when he received the medal somewhat unhonoured and unsung. 
