Although I can quite understand why there is cause for concern here, I just can't get a grip of what all the hysteria is about. I mean we got nothing in the variety of nuclear weapons or anything similar, that would push Yanks to bomb us or something like that.... Or am I missing something here? A few days ago, the whole army was put on red-alert, and only thing that happened was you woke up to find that fuel prices have matched those in UK! Not quite the threat to national security someone would be thinking..... A ha, I can now see the danger we are in as a nation, the Yanks and the West are after our oil reserves. But I am feeling more confident now as the monks had assured us on telly that they would not let those Western forces opposing us to exploit us. I am much thankful to them for their assurance so we have little reason to panic over here as the guardians are right at our doorstep. Now how many of you could have said that! Just look at the Iranians. With their oil and all, the mullah clan there had been soooo not forthcoming, but here it's a different story.
Coming to think of it, siding with those elements who actually kill them or deny themselves humanity is an ingrained trait among Sri Lankans (I am on about the NGO urged elements at NW areas here, OK). Long time before I had different views, but one particular incident had permanently altered my take on the issue.
There is a girl's school here called Musaeus College, which is run by a trust and is also partly governmental. Its named after a certain Mary Musaeus Higgins, who had initiated it for the sole purpose of uplifting the educational aspects of Sinhala Buddhist girls. Its situated on a small street called Rosmead Place in Colombo 7, which is the uber-posh postcode in Sri Lanka. So this Rosmead Pl. is named after some long forgotten British governor of colonial Ceylon (Hercules George Robert Robinson to be precise, Rosmead being his titular name, just like Prince of Wales), who accordingly to some, was a very cruel and ruthless man. Now, I have never had the (mis?)fortune of meeting the fellow in person, so I do not know if he were that bad or not, but that's beyond the point here.
Anyways, some people sometime ago wanted to remove this governor's name and rename the street as Musaeus Place, or Mary Musaeus Place. Now this is not uncommon as many streets are named after some famous landmarks there, Post Office St. , Harbour View Rd. , etc. being some obvious examples. The renaming movement had put forth many arguments for their case, including it being more relevant to present day, perceived antics of the late governor, there not being any street name to honour Mrs Higgins, and so forth. But the most forceful being that all the other fine street names which had ANY merit had already being replaced with those (names) of wonderful politicians of the present-day. No sane mind can counter THAT argument!
However, the renaming movement failed to gather sufficient momentum and had suffered a natural death. But the sad thing was that many people here had actively resisted naming the street after someone who had actually done something for them. Instead, they chose to keep the name of the person who tortured and killed their ancestors! Now just wait for second here. Imagine having a street called Adolf Hitler Avenue in Israel, or Osama bin Ladin Drive in NY city. Unthinkable? Well, we just did that!
A civilised nation is certainly unlikely to pick or keep a name of someone who ruthlessly hurt their ancestors as a street name, but here it is quite OK to do that. Just pause for a sec and give it some thought. As for the school itself, I propose to change its name too! Because Sinhala Buddhist anything is the last thing it has in its core values. An utterly Westernised institution turning out female Golly-Wogs, whatever that Mrs Higgins originally hoped for is long forgotten, and many affiliated personnels are reluctant to bring up the very purpose it was established. I mean, its just not posh enough for them to be grouped with so called Sinhala values and all.
Yes, we live in a place where we hero worship people who kill us. I do not know if governor Rosmead ever killed protesters with live ammunition or not, neither do I know if his cohorts habitually killed pedestrians with their fast moving escorts, nor do I know if he spent a lavish lifestyle at the expense of our forefathers, or if people were pushed off public roads to make way for him. No I seriously do not know if he ever did anything of the sort. Also I am yet to come across historical data of him pardoning a rapist, a murderer, a narcotics dealer, and an absconder of public funds. Most of all, as far as I know, he had not named a street or anything after himself while he was here. Rosmead Pl. was named AFTER he left here.
But I am told he was a ruthless and bad person and I believe it. I mean he was a Westerner, wasn't he, they are all bad and are out to get us. And I also support keeping his name on that street, because we hero worship our own nemesis like no other nation does. Oh there is one more thing, since we do not hold true to Mrs Musaeus's views, we ought to change the name of that school too, perhaps into that of someone who killed enough people during his term times. Any suggestions?
Taking everything into account, I have formed myself a serious philosophical question: If there is a karmic law out there that dictates you get what you deserve, can one verify that law through a cursory look into psyche of the people here?
Now, if anyone who reads this can resolve that theorem, he gets a price of LKR1,000 from me.
