Histeria Colectiva

It's just another day in paradise when everyone gets worked up over *something* again. I mean, really. They say life on this island is chilled out but we need something to be collectively indignant at every now and then right? So I've decided to come up with a helpful list of things people are butthurt about and how to be less butthurt about these things. Yay!

The Sinhala Buddhists

Oh my. You guys are my favourites, maybe because I'm supposed to be one of you? You're 70% of the population, have held power since the "great revolution of 1956", but still have to put up with bad roads, bad education, contaminated medicine, corrupt politicians, and your daughters getting groped on the bus.

Butthurt Claim #1: Nobody Respects Meeeee!

This has been circulating over email recently too. If you ever find out a blog carrying said email, please link in the comments. Email is titled "Sinhalayage Hinamanaya" and is supposed to written by the JHU's Udaya Gammanpila. It is spot on in many regards.

The Sinhalese don't respect their culture, their language or their heritage. No, getting worked up when someone invades your cave temples isn't real respect. Girls think it's cool to speak in broken, accented Sinhala. Say a few words of English and you're the man. Are we really this bankrupt?

See, we used to have a lively, beautiful cultural scene going on. Then the JVP and the Government death mobs colluded to kill and destroy everyone and everything. Sinhala cinema is dead. Our greatest authors and songwriters are dead. Will there ever be another Premakeerthi De Alwis? Highly doubt it. Why?

Butthurt Claim #2: Our Education System Sucks!

Who runs your education system again? Oh right, the most incompetent government ever! Well done.

See, when Ceylon was still a colony, the Brits introduced missionary education to Sri Lanka. To get somewhere in life, and enter for example the prestigious civil service, one had to pass through one of these centres of Christian learning. This left the Sinhalese Buddhists out of good schools and good jobs. A lot of kids entering these institutions were pretty much forced to embrace Christianity.

And then a Buddhist revival of sorts happened. Henry Steel Olcott (the less I speak of his influences on Buddhism, the better) founded a number of Buddhist centres of education: Ananda, Mahinda, Dharmaraja etc. Piriven (institutes for monastic education for monks) such as Vidyodya and Vidyalankara flourished.

Then independence happened, the Sinhalese Buddhists had their people in government, and decided that the government was going to look after these institutions. And we know how that goes, right? Today Vidyodya and Vidyalankara are normal civilian universities and monks often follow normal degree programmes. This has led to a deterioration of the monastic standards of this country. The prestigious Buddhist schools are often battlegrounds between old boys seeking to preserve their status and traditions, and government appointed Principles and other administrative officers trying to enforce their will. Who stands to lose from this other than the Sinhalese Buddhist?

Butthurt Claim #3: We're Losing Our Majority

When half your kids are in Melbourne and don't intend on returning: of course you are. Fix your damn country!

Butthurt Claim #4:  They're RAPING MY DAUGHTER!

From Sinfest

There was a saying in old times that a girl dressed in ornaments and carrying a large gemstone in her hands could walk from one corner of the island to the other in the middle of the night and just arrive at the destination safely.

I mentioned Olcott up there. Look, the importation of puritan Victorian values has fucked up our moral compass. It didn't matter how long a girl's dress was, or even if she was topless.

"Still Not Asking For It"

The birth of a girl was celebrated. Unmarried girls had a share of their parents' inheritance equal to what a boy would get. Women were not property. Women *held* property. What happened?

Butthurt Claim #5: I'm Offended 

From Akon, to Buddha Bar, to tattoos. You guys are indignant at the slightest of things. It's like you're trying to emulate somebod... oh wait.

Look, nobody is obligated to tiptoe around your religious beliefs so as not to offend you. That's NOT how the world works. To quote Rowan Atkinson (widely known here for playing Mr. Bean):

To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.

If the Buddha flipped out every time someone tried to offend him, he would never have gotten around to preaching the Dhamma. Similarly, if you flip out every time someone "offends" your beliefs, you will never have time to practice the Dhamma. If you want to reply, reply with respect and loving kindness. Or just plain ignore it if they're just taunting you. Your actions in self-restraint and kindness speak more for the Dhamma than your words of defence ever will.

Think about it. What's more insulting to Buddhism? A tattoo of the Buddha or this:

Image from here

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So, I think I'm done here. I could go on and on and on, but Ain't Nobody Got Time For That. Originally planned to cover the Muslims as well, but yeah. No. So for balance I'll finish with a joke:

A Muslim DIDN'T randomly get offended over something. 

There. Pitchforks are in the first room on the left. You can light up your torches in the kitchen. :P

:(

Releasing this picture of Kella to the public domain. Looking for ways to protest the plans by the Ministry of Health to reinstate the culling of stray dogs. :(

You can sign the petition against the cull here.

Guilt tripping the cricket fans

This post is not really about cricket. But for the record I'll just state that I enjoyed the match and as one of my friends said, "It was a game befitting of a final, unlike 2007". How very true.

But I have to instead talk about a duller and murkier topic than run rates, field placements and Poonam Pandey's knickers. There are a few people who've been suggesting that supporting the Sri Lankan cricket team equals supporting the Government of Sri Lanka and its policies. (The word 'genocide' is thrown around liberally by these people.) While its not untrue to say that a majority of Sri Lanka's 20 million people support the regime, the support for the cricket team transcends any petty political, ethnic or religious lines. They were watching the match in the south, in the north, the west, the east and up in the hills. Cricket is the glue that held us together during the most difficult periods of our history.

For me, I support the team because they represent me, and my 20 million countrymen. Not because of politics, not because waving a lion flag (something I've never done, to be honest) gives me a feeling of superiority or whatever the critics say it's supposed to do.

To all the haters, I say: Go fly a kite. We love our boys, and nothing is ever going to change that.

Akon and the Buddha

I copied this off The Book Baker's blog. A good lesson to all those people who are going insane over Akon's alleged insult to Buddhism. Learn about the peaceful philosophy that you claim to represent before you go doing stuff that bring disgrace to it!

From the Akkosa Sutta:

Once the Blessed One was staying at Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove near the Squirrels' Feeding Place. Now the brahman Akkosa Bharadvaja heard this: "The brahman Bharadvaja, it seems, has become a monk under the Great Monk Gotama." Angry and unhappy, he went to where the Blessed One was. Having approached the Blessed One, he abused and criticized the Blessed One in foul and harsh words.

Thus reviled, the Blessed One spoke to the brahman Akkosa Bharadvaja: 'Well, brahman, do friends, confidants, relatives, kinsmen and guests visit you?"

"Yes, Gotama, sometimes friends, confidants, relatives, kinsmen and guests do visit me."

"Well, brahman, do you not offer them snacks or food or tidbits?"

"Yes, Gotama, sometimes I do offer them snacks or food or tidbits."

"But if, brahman, they do not accept it, who gets it?"

"If Gotama, they do not accept it, I get it back."

"Even so, brahman, you are abusing us who do not abuse, you are angry with us who do not get angry, you are quarreling with us who do not quarrel. All this of yours we don't accept. You alone, brahman, get it back; all this, brahman, belongs to you."

"When, brahman, one abuses back when abused, repays anger in kind, and quarrels back when quarreled with, this is called, brahman, associating with each other and exchanging mutually. This association and mutual exchange we do not engage in. Therefore you alone, brahman, get it back; all this, brahman, belongs to you."

"People, including the king, know the Venerable Gotama thus: 'The Monk Gotama is the Worthy One.' When does the Venerable Gotama become angry?"

Said the Buddha:

"Where is anger for one freed from anger, Who is subdued and lives perfectly equanimous, Who truly knowing is wholly freed, Supremely tranquil and equipoised? He who repays an angry man in kind Is worse than the angry man; Who does not repay anger in kind, He alone wins the battle hard to win. He promotes the weal of both, His own, as well as of the other. Knowing that the other man is angry, He mindfully maintains his peace And endures the anger of both, His own, as well as of the other, Even if the people ignorant of true wisdom Consider him a fool thereby."

When the Lord proclaimed this, the brahman Akkosa Bharadvaja said this to the Blessed One: "Wonderful, indeed, O Venerable Gotama! Herewith I go to the Venerable Gotama for refuge, to his Teaching and to his Holy Order of Monks. Most venerable sir, may I have the privilege to receive at the hands of the revered Lord Gotama the initial monastic ordination and also the higher ordination of a bhikkhu."

And the brahman Akkosa Bharadvaja received at the hands of the Blessed One the initial monastic ordination and he also received the higher ordination of a bhikkhu. And within a short time of his ordination, the Venerable Akkosa Bharadvaja, living alone, secluded, diligent, zealous and unrelenting, reached that incomparable consummation of holiness for which sons of noble families, having totally abandoned the household life, take to the life of homelessness. With direct knowledge he realized the ultimate, then and there, and lived having access to it. He saw with his supernormal vision: "Ceased is rebirth, lived is the holy life, completed is the spiritual task and henceforth there is nothing higher to be achieved."

The Venerable Akkosa Bharadvaja, indeed, became one of the Arahats.

On Police brutality

This post is not about the Trincomalee incident. Details of that are still hazy and we will have to wait to find out what really happened. The editor of the Divaina yesterday had a hard hitting editorial in which he said something along the lines of "While man came out of the jungle years ago and attempted to shed his animalistic instincts to become a more civilized creature, the police is on a course which has taken them back to the jungle clad in grass skirts, and they have proceeded to remove those skirts and live in the nude" - Ouch! He went on to warn that "...If police brutality continues to grow onto a point that the general public cannot take it silently anymore, we will see the public taking up arms to protect itself, and therein lies a great danger". He also paints a picture of a dark future where law and order have broken down and armed gangs (with public support) and police will be engaged in a civil war. A bit over the top, but based on what we see today, it is entirely possible that something of this nature could happen.

The Tibetan-Sri Lankan monk and poet S. Mahinda thero was a freedom fighter involved in Sri Lanka's struggle to gain independence from British rule. His poetry aimed to awaken our sleeping nation and create a virtuous and just society. To quote one of his poems:

උස් තැන් දැක හැකිලෙන්නෙ
මිටි තැන් දැක පුප්පන්නෙ
නිවටුන් බව සිතමින්නෙ
මගෙ පුතා නැලවෙන්නෙ

...which roughly translates to "My son thinks that those who become meek before the powerful, and those who become aggressive before the powerless, are indeed cowards". Isn't the Sri Lankan police force a good example of that? Do they not attack the weakest segments of our society in the most unjust ways? School kids, mental patients and the disabled and elderly have all been victims of police brutality. And is the police force helpless when it comes to fighting the real criminals, who also happen to be powerful? Don't they become meek when they see the drug lords, thugs, Mafia bosses and Politicians and their families?

If the Police force isn't reformed, and the public's faith in the criminal justice system is restored, the bleak days predicted in the Divaina editorial might not be far off...

The worst kind of hypocrite...

...is the so-called committed socialist who stirs up all sorts of shit in our universities and ruin those kids' lives and their future, while sending off their own kids to good universities abroad and affording them the best possible education. Makes me sick to even think how some people can be so evil! :/

P.S. Thankfully this post has nothing to do with me, but it's rather something that I heard and wanted to share...

Night Rant? Oui!

MTV! If not for them showing Fox News (yes, I'm not a liberal pinhead, deal with it!), I'd just erase them off my TV channels forever! I mean, any little kid would know that the 6PM - 9PM belt is a very lucrative time period for any TV channel... and what do these guys show? Some Hindi baila! I mean, nothing against Hindi music, but a bloody English channel (one of only 3 that we have!) showing Hindi stuff during primetime?! I mean, can't they show repeats of the late night tucked away stuff atleast? Maybe I'll get to catch a few episodes of Jake in Progress or House... Is that too much to ask? :/

ETV is beyond redemption, I mean when there's no American Idol these guys just show the same bullshit every freaking week! and ARTtv seems to think that it's bloody CNN, showing all business programs and stuff...

Meh, this all started with these buggers and their stupid levy on foreign TV shows... has that stopped Mahagedara? Ah? Has it??!

If you told me 4 years ago that this was going to happen to English language channels, I would've laughed my ____ off!

I guess I'd start watching that stupid Swarnavahini-mahagedara-ripoff from tomorrow...

The World Through CS:

What happened 2 weeks ago:

What's going on now:

West tries to go anal on Sri Lanka

I, for one, am disgusted at the West's repeated attempts to poke their noses into Sri Lanka's internal issues. They should instead try to help maybe?

* promised myself that I won't go into politics in this blog when I started, but what's happening now just disgusts me to the point that it warrants a blog post... not that it'll make any difference I guess... :(

Goings on

This morning, noticed to my horror that a gecko had been totally flattened by the door. Idiot that I am, told Ammi. We had a big argument as to who was going to clean up. Both of us refused to budge, which automatically meant that I was there 2 minutes later, with pan and brush in hand. The corpse fell after a bit, but the tail refused to budge, even after multiple strokes with the brush! It was so spectacular that I would've posted pics, IF I hadn't almost thrown up... (thankfully I had an empty stomach at the moment, my kidneys still hurt from the experience)

Stupid geckos!

Ummm... During my time away from blogging, time I spent mostly at Computer class getting ready for the practical exam, I drank something for the first time, and it:

1. It tasted god-awful (well actually worse than I thought it'd be... lol)
2. It didn't give me the desired effect, won't ever BUY it! (just like dragonfruit, so!)
3. Mom would've been furious if she knew I drank that... *shivers in fear*
4. Made me go all hyperactive (think insanely throwing paperballs right in front of sir's face) and made me say the f-word out loud (in the middle of a class mind you!) four times after I drank it! :S

wanna guess what it was?

Little did I know that a week later my computer sir would accuse me of "confusing everybody else" because all the other retards had decided to use MY database for their exams. of course, non of them had the guts to stand up and say that they had taken the database from me (with my consent, but that doesn't really matter does it?) and were simply asking me for technical assistance. So poor old me ended up "nakadi pusi"... My friend told me that he had never seen sir meltdown like that, he was pretty much shouting at me at the top of his voice for a good 15 minutes. I still have my doubts that it all had something to do with the paperball incident... lol! :D

This post is kinda retarded because it's 3 useless posts abridged into 1 useless post. The first part happened today, I'm still feeling all puke-y! :(