While I might not have blogged in a while, I have been through several instances during which I’d think to myself ‘I have to blog about this’! I might even go as far as to write a draft post. But there it remains. Doomed to dwell in the dark and dingy cell of my ‘Drafts’ box for all of eternity. Or at least till I click the ‘delete all’ button.
Some of these posts were about the 18th amendment. The last hastily abandoned post being something that is now untimely, but relevant nonetheless in the sense of Sri Lankan attitude. And so I’ll include it in this post…
The 18th amendment having ruffled my feathers; I was zealously making my soapbox oration in the office. It was to the effect that we should enlighten the people of how the 18th amendment would be the monkey on the back of Sri Lanka for the rest of our miserable lives! That the people who were indifferent to it being passed, were obviously those who were unaware of how it would be a bane to the future of Sri Lanka. And those who are ardent Mahinda supporters (‘cause he saw Sri Lanka finally clamber out of the barbarous war), the damage it would cause once their ‘dear leader’ kicks the bucket- if they didn’t like the next president there’d be no way to drive him out while he hauled the country to down into firey depths.
While my friends at work agreed with me and aired their concerns, when I suggested we be proactive and do something such as passing out flyers, I was met with little (actually no) enthusiasm. They said there was no point. The people just didn’t care.
That prompted me to ask—what if everyone felt the same way about everyone else, and so did nothing about it. Aren’t we to blame for where we are now, in that case?
Another issue I wanted to blog about was whole Miss Sri Lanka Youtube furore. If you took the time to watch the other contestants’ interviews, you’d realise they didn’t have better responses. Why? Because they were ridiculous questions! Not to mention demeaning! Comments that followed their videos, echoed comments posted about our contestants video. The most popular question on most of the videos being- ‘Don’t we have anyone better to represent our country?’
It’s the pageant that is to be blamed. Couldn’t they ask the girls intelligent questions? It’s plain to see, the Miss Universe pageant, is shackling women to the school of thought in which women are inferior. Dress them up and make them look pretty- packaged and sold to the world like some sort of commodity. The Pageant projects women as unintelligent, nothing more than eye-candy. We should all just boycott the pageant. To hell with Donald Trump.
‘Draft box’ posts aside, I’ve gone through and all time low, up again and now I’m sinking again. How I wish I could return to being an emotionless robot… Life seems so pointless.
And totally random- I stumbled on a French band called Noir Desir (Black Desire)… Un Jour en France (A day in France) is pretty good.
I know it’s cruel but I love watching the Ms. World and Ms. Universe question and answer sessions just for laughs
Let’s face it, young women in their teens or just out of their teens can’t be expected to be very knowledgeable, witty and wise. There are exceptions of course but they are the ones that prove the rule.
But especially young women who take part in beauty pageants, who spend their entire time focused on their clothes, make up. skin, teeth, hair etc… I am sorry if this sounds prejudiced (I know it does) BUT how on earth can one expect them to say anything sensible??? I mean really!
And you are right – the questions are also pretty stupid! The fact of the matter is , these girls also undergo a lot of training beforehand in order to sound intelligent and give witty answers but when taken by surprise by some question that doesn’t conform to the norm, they burble nonsense.
A case in point is the much made of answer given by Ms. Philippines, Venus Raj.
Rajpal Abeynayake devoted quite a bit of column space to this in his paper.
Admittedly she sounded extremely silly – that was the bubbly and supposedly witty way in which she tried to answer that did her in – but ultimately the essence of what she said wasn’t so very stupid. She was lynched for saying that at 22, she had not committed any major wrong that needed righting. What was wrong with that?
The problem is that the questions themselves try to sound intelligent but the general answer should be something along the lines of ‘World Peace’! Profound Stuff
As for the monkey on the backs of the Sri Lankan ppl, well it has been there for quite some time now. We’ve just handed it a stick as well. I agree with your other friends – fliers are no good at this point. Let’s see if we get some sense driven into our heads after being beaten about for some time!
@ Tulie- I suggested being proactive before the 18th amendment was passed.
Yeah, I agree with Tulie, we don’t want a white van to pass you by and then find you missing
Interesting thoughts
Cheers!
I don’t really care about the 18th coz the man on the street isn’t concerned. It’s not that he’s uneducated, it’s just that we’ve been going down this long road towards authoritarianism ever since Sirimavo’s constitution of 1972 (and J.R. made it much worse in ’77) and nobody ever criticised those did they?
I don’t really care about democracy (I find it shocking myself that I just said that) as long as there’s food on the table and no bombs blowing up.
On the matter of the monkey and stick I agree with all your points. It would naive to expect the Sri Lankan public to the right thing or in this case even the smart thing. I am ardent believer of the principle that larger the size of group the lesser the collective intelligence and it applies better to sri lanka than most places.
The only option is of course for individuals who genuinely care to take proactive action allowed within a democratic framework (the one that is going extinct in SL). That of course means that you will have to run the risk of encountering one of those white vans like Me-Shak said
.
@Me-Shak- Yeah but we have to speak out or who will?
@Chavie- There is no democracy… So it might be a bit late but we can still try, right? And is it enough that you’re needs are satisfied on a very immediate level? About the future? What about a couple of decades from now when you’re 40 years old? What about you’re kids? Wouldn’t you want them to have the same peaceful life?
@Danaja- Too true. But as long as there are people who are willing to be proactive whatever the cost, there’s still hope.
Oh excellent post on both points! I understand the frustration of wanting to do something round the 18th amendment, but feeling like our hands are tied! Apathy is apathy, be it the man on the street or a very influential person with some potential say and anyone and everyone in between. Frankly speaking, there are countries worse off than Sri Lanka, in deep seated monarchies and anarchies and dictatorships in which the layman person had managed to stand up and change history, and you are right, as Sri Lankans we are just not even attempting to attempt to try!!!
And as for Ms Universe, well we need to understand the very reason why women – young girls are obsessed with looks and beauty, which is perpetuated by the media WE watch and the social norms WE dictate and the pressures WE put on them (and ourselves really) – when we talk about them we are talking about ourselves as women and girls so ur right about Donald Trump – to hell with him and the very system thats allowing him and other to do it!
Cheers
@frangipaniii- Yeah, Sri Lankan attitude is to assume that everyone else is apathetic so why bother, which isn’t the way to go. Though I don’t suppose bringing about change in this popular culture when it comes to ‘looks and beauty’ is going to be easy…