Download - No Country for Ordinary People (and Ordinary Dogs)

8/13/2019 No Country for Ordinary People (and Ordinary Dogs)

1/4

No Country For Ordinary

People (And Ordinary Dogs)by Tisaranee Gunasekara

..luxury, opulence, and unjust extractions extorted by self-seeking corrupt individuals who scorn thedistress of the multitude and rarely attempt to ease their hardships.onathan !srael "#evolution of the $ind%" &ecember ', ()*+, olombo, ri anka Guardian% !mported pet food was one of a handful ofitems accorded a tax break by /resident $ahinda #ajapaksa in his ()*0 1udget.

The 2pposition is calling it a 3at4s and &og4s 1udget4. 5u contraire6 #ajapaksa benevolencedoes not extend to dogs7cats in general6 only to dogs7cats who belong to families wealthyenough to afford imported pet food. 8or normal ordinary ankan canines , the #ajapaksas haveneither consideration nor mercy, as is evident from the regime4s pitiless campaign againstolombo4s non-pedigreed and local street dogs . "The patriotic #ajapaksas seem inordinatelyfond of all things foreign and 9estern, including dogs, Gotabhaya #ajapaksa4s 3dog fromwit:erland4 saga being an excellent case in point .%

The #ajapaksa attitude to dogs is symbolic of #ajapaksa attitude to things in general. 8orthemselves and their kith and kin "including the family pets%, the #ajapaksas are generous sanslimits. !ndeed, 1udget ()*0 "like its predecessors% has made it easier for the rulers and theircoterie to buy designer products or to create lucrative monopolies.

5nd this in a country which is reduced to felling and selling trees to pay the ;/87;T8 dues ofsome of its workers This is the first time trees are
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/12/no-country-for-ordinary-people-and.htmlhttp://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/12/no-country-for-ordinary-people-and.htmlhttp://srilankaguardian.org/http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/12/no-country-for-ordinary-people-and.htmlhttp://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/12/no-country-for-ordinary-people-and.html


2/4


3/4

who want to keep elephant calves for prestige. Therefore there is a heavy demand for elephantcalves. 5 new ruling caste with a feudal mindset is using its unlimited power to ape some ofthe manners of pre-modern times. 5ccording to /rithiviraj 8ernando of the entre foronservation and #esearch, =!n the past elephants were owned by nobility and this has somebearing on the desire to keep elephants today as it has a connotation of higher socialstatus7prestige7wealth . /lus, the elephants can be leased for various functions for substantial

amounts. /restige and /rofitsH such are the rewards of power.

The wealth and resources of a nation are being used, consciously and deliberately, to subsidiseand enrich and a politico-economic upper-crust, to pamper their fragile egos and satiate theircarvings for prestige and glory. 5s the boundary lines which make a modern democratic stateevaporate, the ankan state is becoming the preserve and the instrument of the favoured few.

5 egregated &ystopia5ll over olombo, in this cold and rainy &ecember, homes of the poor are being destroyed.&espite grand declarations about providing alternative houses with better facilities, only a small

number of #ajapaksa foot-soldiers will be fortunate enough to get a roof over their heads. 8orthe absolute majority of olombo4s poor, there will be no alternative homes.

2ne of the most attractive features about olombo was that its rich diversity. !t was neversegregated, ethnically, religiously or economically. !n many parts of the city, the majority andthe minority communities, the rich and the poor lived cheek by jowl. The #ajapaksas aresteadily changing that diversity and turning olombo into a preserve of the rich and thepowerful. 5s /arliamentarian $angala amaraweera correctly pointed out, it is not just illegalresidents who are being forcibly evicted. 8amilies who have owned their land for decades arebeing thrown out of their homes. #ich Tamils7$uslims will not be evicted but the city will be

denuded of all non-rich Tamils and $uslims. 5 tiny minority of the inhala poor will be re-housed in the border areas of the city, mostly to furnish pro-#ajapaksa mobs in time of politicalneed .

9hat we are witnessing in olombo is a process of ethno-religious and class cleansing. Thisproject of demographic and social engineering is a critically important step in the broader#ajapaksa effort to transform ri anka into a paradise for the powerful and the politicallyconnected rich, but a country without security, freedom or justice for ordinary people.

#eferencesome of the oldest prehistoric dog skeletons were found in the Ailgala cave6 =dating from the$esolithic ear, about 0')) 1;, "these% suggest that 1alangoda /eople may have kept dogs fordriving game. The inhala Found is similar in appearance to the Iadar &og, the Aew Guinea&og and the &ingo. !t has been suggested that these could all derive from a common domesticstock httpH77en.wikipedia.org7wiki7/rehistoryJofJriJanka$ost of these dogs are inoculated and sterili:ed6 they also have regular feeders7care-givers, likethe marvelous &eepal who gave up a comfortable life to live his philosophy ofcompassion.httpsH77www.colombotelegraph.com7index.php7a-day-with-deepal7httpH77www.thesundayleader.lk7()*(7)E7)@7gota-goes-berserk7
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_of_Sri_Lankahttps://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-day-with-deepal/https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-day-with-deepal/http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/07/08/gota-goes-berserk/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_of_Sri_Lankahttps://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-day-with-deepal/http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/07/08/gota-goes-berserk/


4/4

httpH77www.economist.com7blogs7banyan7()*(7)E7press-freedom-sri-lankaThe unday Times K *.*(.()*+!bidhttpH77www.ft.lk7()*+7*)7(*7credible-capital-market-promotion7httpH77www.youth.lk7generalnews7election-meeting-at-kurunagala-yapahuwa7httpH77www.ft.lk7()*+7*(7)+7in-a-fortnight-govt-ups-()*0-budgets-debt-ceiling-by-rs-*E@-b7

httpH77news.mongabay.com7()*+7*()+-salisbury-sri-lankan-elephant-amnesty.html!bidThe name of the #ajapaksa housing scheme is indicative of its purpose K 3$ihindu en /ura4meaning 3The ity of $ahinda 5rmy4.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/07/press-freedom-sri-lankahttp://www.ft.lk/2013/10/21/credible-capital-market-promotion/http://www.youth.lk/generalnews/election-meeting-at-kurunagala-yapahuwa/http://www.ft.lk/2013/12/03/in-a-fortnight-govt-ups-2014-budgets-debt-ceiling-by-rs-178-b/http://news.mongabay.com/2013/1203-salisbury-sri-lankan-elephant-amnesty.htmlhttp://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/07/press-freedom-sri-lankahttp://www.ft.lk/2013/10/21/credible-capital-market-promotion/http://www.youth.lk/generalnews/election-meeting-at-kurunagala-yapahuwa/http://www.ft.lk/2013/12/03/in-a-fortnight-govt-ups-2014-budgets-debt-ceiling-by-rs-178-b/http://news.mongabay.com/2013/1203-salisbury-sri-lankan-elephant-amnesty.html

Download - No Country for Ordinary People (and Ordinary Dogs)

Top Related