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| Thursday, 18 December 2003 |
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Language manipulation and the survival game By Afreeha Jawad Justifying pronouncements to suit personal agendas is not a Sri Lankan monopoly. One look at the English language - and there you are, the English are Sri Lankans' partners in such enterprise - this time with parity of status unlike in the colonial days. When one is kind, he is said to be foolish and when not so he is wicked. Good men are termed 'good-hearted fools' and the bad as 'hard-hearted idiots'. If one is quick to believe - there you are, he is gullible and when in doubt and suspicious - a skeptic and cynic. One who spends least is tight-fisted and miserly, otherwise a lavish man. When one is kind to others' children it is said, "She has children and therefore is kind to others' children". In the same vein, wickedness meted out to another's child is again attributed to not having children of one's own. Should one write the truth and that truth happens to be on the Tamils' side as a result of majoritarianism, then one is branded a Tiger propagandist. Being critical of the British and exposing their exploitation warrants a remark such as, "Oh! you hold much against the British". Talk of women's rights and you could be assured of 'sex bias'. Try rising against the system - one is branded revolutionary, terrorist, deviant and insurgent - depending on system's preference. A woman is sexually harassed at a party but her work organisation slams the door on her face calling it a purely private matter - the irony is its continual function as international saviour on women's rights. Initiators of a gender-based socialization process that denies women their rights even as early as childhood years later adorn the 'cloak of justice' crying out for egalitarianism. The very initiators of democracy also introduce majority rule. Come minority marginalization, these very same initiators lash out on human rights violation. Heavy politicization results in irregular appointees that do not know the difference between an A and a B, while "not", "pot" and "got" are pronounced as in 'O'. Others do the work while such defuncts get the credit. Not too bad - shining on others' feathers. Still better is Jawaharlal Nehru's expression - "There are two types of people in the world. Those that work and others that get the credit". Try crossing the road on those yellow stripes - legally all your's - a road hog would race past you even staring daggers as though you've done something wrong. If you've got no intellectual stamina - not to worry, you could still be a workplace climber. Simply resort to extra administrative opportunities. Women are at vantage point with all their biological possessions and garments neatly done to enable adequate display of such. All is not lost for the men as well - mutual patronising following the ancient Greek custom wold suffice and meteoric rise to stardom will not be that distant. You can go to church, fervently pray "love thy neighbour" - and once you've come back, let the dog out to do the dirty in front of the neighbour's house. To temple we go, offer flowers reflect on impermanence. Get home and enhance the acquisitive routine. To mosque we must go and display community cohesion but be cautious in letting out trade secrets lest one's kinsmen take the lead. Lament ye not if you don't have a 'doctorate'. Who said you've got to go to university to get a 'Phd'. You still could get it provided you know how to. All the above observations have much to do with my pet subject - Sociology and it's grand labelling theory not to forget symbolic interaction as well. Yes, people do interact with symbols. It is no longer the person but what power he wields that matters - a necessary follow up to the structured societal lay out. Modern man not only uses symbols but interacts with them as well for in them is a greater degree of manipulation for 'self' propagation. |
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