Politics Unpacked

Tiger burning bright

How about all these Tamil Tiger pubic servants who now say that discrimination against them was so bad that they had to join he LTTE? Shiva Pashupathi former Attorney General is now a LTTE advisor.

Says a man who is not prone to taking these theories lying down, that Shiva Pashupathi's rationale for joining the Tigers needs to be brought under scrutiny.

If Pashupathi felt that things were amiss even by a jot when he was AG -- why did he continue enjoying the plums of office at that time? He had no complaints when he was AG? So -- here it is then. Discrimination started when Shiva Pashupathi left the Attorney General's department, after several successful years as AG of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. We shall call it peevishness under pension.

News bust

Some people got peeved over the 1st (we blow our own trumpet..) channel being called biased and anti state. They said ''how's that?'' Well, this is when we have to turn the pages of history.

Industry analysts said recently that it was the UNP that produced the horizontal TV channel, and its sister, the Blow-Our-Own-Trumpet channel.

Lottery advertisements were transferred from state run Rupavahini - - and given with lot of buckshee dangling -- over to the new channel. Horizontal, with this and other support was undoubtedly a straightforward creation of the UNP. In contrast, new channels that have come up nowadays find it hard to secure a single state advertisement.

With this kind of backdrop to its creation, how can they be anything but what they are now -- displaying a sneaky bias, while advertising their straightness and their horizontalness?? If we were talking gender here, we would have said these guys are closet gays. But since we are talking politics, let's just say they are closet UNPers.

Yours, mine and ours

The Singaporeans invited MPs from both sides of the political divide and it was as if there was one from each camp that was shadowing the other. At least in a manner of speaking...

There was Fowzie, Tyronne Fernando, Boggolegama and Mahinda Samarasinghe from the ruling party, as opposed to GL Peiris, Tissa Attanayake, Rajitha Senaratne etc., from the UNP. Counting everybody of course, there were more UNPers -- sorry -- UNPers plus has-been UNPers, in that gathering. Did that mean that the Singaporeans courted more UNPers to begin with? No no, we are just joking...

Water without the gate

One thing that has to be granted to the British, is that though colonialism was an exploitative adventure - the rulers thought of all of the possible permutations and combinations when they ran this country in those more spacious days. Said a rubber owner that they not only secured the catchment in Kalatuwawa and Labugama, the two reservoirs that supply water to the city -- they also mandated the growth of rubber plantations in the areas surrounding and above the catchment. When it fell on the Ceylonese to run the country's affairs, the rubber plantations -- guess what -- were slowly denuded.

Now, the lament is that rubber should be re-grown in these areas, to augment the catchment, and to prevent desertification and erosion. Plus, says the nostalgic, there is one other small detail -- the price of natural rubber is going any way but down...

Non-event

A song and a dance had been made about the fact that certain newspapers reported the passing of Thamilchelvan in their own ways. Some said he had been assassinated in a bomb blast, some didn't talk about it -- and this occasioned a certain media watcher to go into apoplexy analysing all of this until the cows came home.

What happened in short however, was that there was no reason for any undue loss of sleep. Most newspapers had ignored this rumour anyway -- barring a couple which wrote about it in with a bit of tongue in a bit of cheek. Talk about a storm in a teacup...

Stories and more...

On the subject of tall tales, its amazing the ones that are heard about Tiger numero uno, V. Prabhakaran.

Among the more bizarre ones that I have heard are these: The man suffers from diabetes and has a few years to live (....ever heard of insulin, whoever invented that?), that he walks everyday to a room that has thousand computers installed in it (...what does he do, play with the computer mice?) and that he loves turtle flesh.

Dig this turtle-tattle anyway?

Aussie foot in the mouth

Dean Jones is now back in Australia, after having been heard calling Hashim Amla a terrorist. What is unfortunate is the stereo typing that is done where anyone balding with long flowing beard and Middle Eastern features is looked upon as beyond the pale.

Needless to say Dean packed up and left the commentary box, leaving the South African Cricket Board red-faced and the Aussie Cricket Board none too pleased. Colourful rather than listless and colourless, commentators must be, we admit But, before going live on air "think before you spout"?? Or is it "another day, another dollar??" Those in the commentary box giving out descriptions on the day's play are handsomely rewarded, and so the long and the short of it is Dean maybe back...

What a load of cobblers

Cobblers or codswallop is a pithy way the London East-ender dismisses something out of the ordinary with contempt. We say this in light of Tony Blair's recent honouring of Margaret Thatcher by way of baronetcy. But now, he is being mealy mouthed in stating that he as Premier would veto an attempt to offer the lady a state funeral.

We say this, because there is something somewhere in the world now that beats Sri Lankan politics in terms of meanness coupled with absurdity.