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by Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham

Have we heard decisions made by the Government stating that Sri Lanka will cut back on its number of annual holidays? Wasn't there a whole shuffling of who gets what holidays, and verdicts that we can't all get holidays all the time? Well, such decisions seem up in the air and quite quickly forgotten.

It seems that for an entire 10 days Sri Lanka went on vacation. It forgot about continuing business as people migrated temporarily to the hills, to the beaches, abroad and anywhere else they could. This year, our shopaholics may have been disappointed for the shopping capitals of the world were more or less out of bounds, what with such inconveniences like SARS and all. Only the hotel-trade benefited with locals filling them to full-occupancy. Even the sick went on vacation and the hospitals were deserted.

Yet, there is no need to fear for next month we can catch up on our shopping if all goes well and SARS is under control. In May, we have nearly a week off again. Actually, the month begins with a holiday, and then we have the Prophet's birthday, and two days of Vesak. Holidaying and as once 'Pravada' stated Carnival time is around again.

In that particular issue, 'Pravada' asks some pertinent questions regarding the meaning of such elongated holidays. After all we normally follow the Lunar calendar in which January is the beginning of the year. Suddenly, in April we forget this and want to celebrate Sinhala/Tamil New year as well. We want the best of both worlds it seems.

We revel, drink to our maximum capacity, spend time talking about the changes in our cricket team, and who will win the next match. As Ashis Nandy so aptly pointed out about South Asians, we spend half our time playing cricket and the other half talking about it.

Of course, this is probably only true for South Asian men. For the women, it is probably another round of cooking sweets for the new year (though more and more in the cities people prefer to buy cake), more hassle of visiting relatives, making endless cups of tea etc.

While we may indulge in such forms of revelry and feasting, all is not well. After fashion shows of a colonial calibre in Nuwara Eliya, we may have come home to the rude shock of 'no more peace talks.' While we do not know the details sufficiently, the LTTE has categorically stated it is displeased with the nature of the talks and with the Government's incapacity to deliver the goods.

While we were feasting, there was further violence in Muttur among Muslims and Tamils. This may be partly related to the LTTE's reluctance to join the next session of peace talks? So, after revelry, it seems disaster is on the way.

What's more, often violence and trouble in Sri Lanka occur during the period between May and July. Some would argue that the nationalistic fervour ignited by all these festivals is to blame.

We seem to have given up our responses to the Iraq war with the ongoing festivities. One wonders why a more balanced reportage of opposition to war from around the world was not being done here. Furthermore, critical perspectives offered through a petition signed by a 100 academics and 18 women's groups in Sri Lanka were largely ignored.

The war is not simply over in the Middle-East, and all is not well. The US is still on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. When Blix agreed to go back to Iraq to continue his search, the US refused his offer and stated it would have its own people on the case.

In Athens last week there was an EU meeting at which point protests against the war continued out on the streets, but were sadly forgotten at the meeting proper. It seems that the general opinion of the delegates was to let bygones be bygones and to get on with reconstruction. It seems the EU is now happy as long as the UN plays a role in reconstruction rather than being the key player therein.

Finally, in Iraq people are still protesting against the US occupation of Iraq. Some 20, 000 people took to the streets in Baghdad after last Friday's prayers to demand that the coalition forces leave Iraq alone. In Mosul, the US opened fire on protestors killing 10 of them. In the Northern suburbs of Baghdad approximately 50, 000 people filled the streets of the city to condemn US occupation.

People there are not saying that the US have saved them, but prefer to be left to run their own country. They decry the violence and the looting that has come about as a consequence of US attacks. They are not fooled by the coalition forces' humanitarian efforts where they now try to save the lives of people they themselves have injured and maimed.

Holidays are indeed important, and celebrating a spring festival is symbolically related to hope, harvesting and other positive changes. However, the extent to which we indulge in such revelry ignoring the realties of our time is quite disconcerting.

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