Why lament when we can still laugh?
 There are moves in Geneva, we hear. Documents authored by politically
compromised and intellectually inept people who lack integrity and have
horrendous writing skills have been tabled for discussion in forums
chaired by people who have axes to grind and suffer from partial myopia.
Al Jazeera interviewed me a short while ago, asking me for my thoughts.
My response could be summarized as ‘not surprised!’ The commissioning of
a panel, appointment of those appointed, scandalous refusal to recognize
the malice and incompetence evidenced in the report, and acceptance of
tall tales manufactured by politically motivated individuals and
organizations who have been as thick as thieves with terrorists all add
up to one thing: witch-hunt. It was not for purposes of securing
entertaining toilet-read, clearly.
Military coup
Around the same time, the Prime Minister of a Western monarchy called
for a boycott of the Commonwealth heads’ confab in Sri Lanka. Let’s
leave aside the fact that there was never a commonwealth but interested
only in passing around a common-welt. The same premier once claimed he
had no truck with dictators (re-claimed, I should say) but not too long
afterwards was making deals with the man who carried out a military coup
against a democratically elected leader in a Latin American country.
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Sri Lankans in Switzerland staged a
protest opposite the United Nation’s headquaters in Geneva
against the false allegations made through the Darusman
Report to defame the Sri Lankan government before the
international community. Picture by Sudath Silva |
This self-righteous premier stated ‘the kind of values (he and his
country) have in the world: freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule
of law’ and added, “those societies that promote those values tend to
share our interests, and those that do not tend to, on occasion, if not
frequently, become threats to us.”
My friend, who sent me these titbits observed wryly: ‘I wonder why we
get excited about this kinda news...as if we expect something
different...as if they can do anything different considering their way
of life.’
That’s what I had to tell Al Jazeera.
Never panic
So what do we do in this land called ‘damned if we do, damned if we
don’t’ that we are living in? Weep? Submit? I don’t know. I just laugh.
I can’t remember where I heard this first, but after some horrendous
right-wing crime, there was a slogan some radical had coined that stayed
with me: ‘don’t lament; organize!’
In the end, we need to be pragmatic. We need to have a decent
assessment of relative strengths. We need to factor in friend and enemy,
their relative strengths and the possible shifts in degrees of support.
I returned again and again to words penned by my father 27 years ago in
a boy scout souvenir: ‘...So, if it is not prudent to stand ramrod
straight in the face of storms beyond your strength, you must let them
pass over you. Stand firm if you can, retreat if you must; above all,
never panic!’
There is no need to lament. No need to get emotional. What is
required is sobriety. What is required is assessment of strength,
correction of flaw, enhancing overall abilities on all fronts,
respecting the enemy, treating things with equanimity, figuring out the
correct compassion-wisdom mix and doing the best we can without
compromising integrity.
Our foundation is strong and even if bombardment takes away the
walls, rebuilding will not be impossible. Time is longer than life.
Empires are born, thrive, decay and die. The flame burns brightest
before it goes out. I see a bright Western flame and I come to
conclusions. It is darkest before the dawn. I see darkness and I
anticipate light.
www.malindawords.blogspot.com
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