Sunday, November 22, 2009

sunday post: a scene from "children of a lesser god"

i love this movie, watched it again last night. while the plot outline is a bit formulaic, the characters and the acting make it exceptional, resulting in memorable scenes like the one below.

marlee matlin deserved her best actress oscar (on her debut film and she is the youngest ever to win) . william hurt, piper laurie were also great.



this scene was uploaded by one disclem. thanks.


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Saturday, November 21, 2009

still no explanation or retraction from dinidu de alwis

have never blogged about dinidu de alwis here before (bc he never has anything interesting or original to say), but since he attacked me in a blog post today while leaving out most of the facts, here is the full story for anyone interested (why?) and for any future reference.

in the last blog post in his old blog he falsely attributed a quotation on me. i asked for an explanation and a retraction.

he provided neither (so typical of certain kind of person).
just as tellingly, while attacking me today, he never refers to my demand.

anyway to continue,
he also deleted his old blog (which notoriously celebrated the terrorist air attacks) the same day i asked for an explanation. when asked why he deleted the old blog, he said in an email that his employment contract prevented him from blogging under his name. he has given other explanations to others. furthermore his new blog is linked to his twitter which is in his name. ( btw in spite of all that, i am not linking to his new blog bc of what he said in email, but interested readers can easily find his blog by a simple search and two clicks using his own links)

as everyone who read this blog knows, i don't give up when i am falsely attacked (unlike him it seems; he goes to a doctor! but then, he is never attacked falsely and probably never had anything of worth to defend )

so once in a while when he blogs, esp ( but not necessarily) when he assumes an air of objectivity or moral superiority, i do post comments asking him not to be a liar. he of course censors them (as he has a right to do in his blog). but his patience ran out and he decided to publish my comment yesterday and turned bitchy (with some help from padashow blog. oh my!).

i replied accordingly (guess how nice i would be when padashow is involved!) . he published some of the replies and posted a blog post, attacking me (lol), and basically asking to be left alone in his (public!) blog. he says he will censor my comments, when he has already done that all along. (as he has a right to do, as i said before)

btw he in his attacks perhaps unwittingly (though given that he stoops to borrow even from padashow blog, i doubt that) almost repeats what morquendi said in his last attacks on me in 2006. look what that did to morquendi! i am still here, blogging, he is where?

that's the whole story.

i am still demanding and waiting for an explanation and a retraction.

btw no 'hugs' until then. :-)



ps
he calls me an anonymous blogger. in fact my real name is on display here (in non text format) . and i give (and have given) it to anyone who asks for it. why i don't want it displayed in text format, i have explained where it is displayed.

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Friday, November 13, 2009

sarath fonseka's biggest political problem


i think this image/cartoon by lanakarising blog point to what will be general sarath fonseka's biggest problem if and when he tries to contest and win elections. and why he will lose.

sarath fonseka will be at the mercy of ppl pictured and their ilk. not exactly ppl who who did anything to free sri lanka from terrorism or stand up for human rights, democracy, justice, or freedom. in fact most of them were active appeasers and/or supporters of the tamil tiger terrorist pussies during the time they were killing us sri lankans. they also denigrated the effort to defeat terrorists. most of them are on record doing all that.

voters will know and will react appropriately.

-
juxtaposition and attempted conjunction of what general so far stood for, with its exact opposite on political stage, sure would make for some exceptional political cartoons.

here are some not so exceptional ideas of my own for cartoons.
  • general getting his hands smeared with blood of his own former soldiers while shaking hands with mano ganeshan
  • ranil wickremesinghe hand puppeteering the general from behind (hopefully this will not be censored ).
  • general dressed in red drag shouting inane marxist slogans with tilvin silva.

if general tries to win elections with support of ppl like those he will deserve derision and will lose.

on the other hand, he does not have an independent political organization of his own, purged of these jokers. it will take time create one from scratch or to take over unp and get rid of stinking baggage. that is why i expected him to take his time, but he seems to be in a hurry (though of course he has not confirmed he will run for office, as yet.)

too bad for him that old proverb "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush" is still valid.


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Sunday, November 08, 2009

sarath fonseka fantasy of unp and real reasons behind it

sunday times headline reads "opposition’s common candidate: gen. fonseka; consensus reached among unf parties; jvp support also sought". that heading will certainly sell lots of papers (good for a paper) and create false impressions (not so good) .problem- general (who is still chief of defence staff) has not committed.

sole evidence to support the story; general has not given a straight answer when questioned by an "english daily " (which? when?). btw to be "common candidate" jvp must be in agreement not just being "sought".
(island has more balanced and grounded story on the same issue. it is clear which paper to choose when you want real news)

commonsense would deem controversy as a bit premature; no general, no jvp, and even no election.

the date for presidential election has not been set as yet and full term only ends in 2011 december.

so why would a paper owned by opposition leader's uncle positively proclaim that general fonseka not ranil wickremesinghe is the next common opposition presidential candidate on rather flimsy grounds?

i will contend that real reason is yet another attempt at spin by unp leader in order project some(any!) hope of winning before possible elections to revive grassroots and prevent further potential pre election defections. all spin, no (or meagre) substance.

politics in sri lanka, real story
to understand this, you have to know how politics in sri lanka works and how the mind of opposition leader works.

sri lankan politics do not run on ideology (except when it comes to fringe parties) but on patronage relationships.

grassroots of a political party or a local politician works for it/him hoping for a return (jobs, contracts, protection, etc. etc.). what i am referring to here is not general election promises to general public made in manifestos of political campaigns, but specific promises and commitments to specific individuals or groups, most of them not made public.

politician and party is expected to deliver once in power. this is also why we see lots of crossovers (almost all from opposition to government) between elections, as politicians try to get access to means of dispensing patronage. even democratic minority community parties operate on same principles (that is why they always join government if they can) .

if the party or politician fails to get power and so fail to deliver patronage his stock with grassroots decreases. decrease will accelerate with each actual and potential failure. only way to keep grassroots committed and prevent crossovers is to create a credible hope that one will win the next election.

unp now
united national party (unp) will get walloped in the presidential election held in the near future (with the usual loser as candidate). unp must also face the possibility that parliamentary elections (due by march 2010) will be held before presidential elections. unp facing a walloping there as well.

they know that ppl in general know this. they know that their possible grassroots supporters know this. a grassroots activist for unp must necessarily face a life of great personal sacrifice way in to the future with zero payback, if he remains loyal. predictably there aren't many (unp organization in recent provincial council elections was so pathetic that main upfa candidates almost completely ignored them in some electorates and concentrated on fighting among themselves).

so ranil must create hope out of thin air to get grassroots to commit, get political donors to risk money, etc etc .

that is where general comes in.

general outlook
general sarath fonseka who is very popular, obviously has political ambitions. and as such a very good candidate. this is a good thing.

but i would be surprised if he commits to politics now (though it is not impossible), given the risks involved; running against a currently popular incumbent president, running with no control over ones' own campaign, losing, and ruining his chances forever; when he can wait and win.

his best course of action is to force upfa into absorbing him with future possibility of being its presidential candidate after mahinda rajapaksa.

barring that, to remain independent and wait out mahinda's popularity and enter politics few years down in opposition side on his own terms through a party he controls instead of under a party controlled by a different person. he should be able to either gain control of unp after ranil loses again or create a different coalition and then force ranil out of unp.

either way he has a very good chance of replacing mihanda buffalo if he waits.

i personally think he doing just that; waiting and elbowing to position himself in both upfa and opposition for future (rather than for an election in the near future).

i could of course be wrong, but in that case it would be the general himself who will lose in the long term.

ranil's game
on the other hand ranil cannot wait. he has to do something now, so he is trying his best to rope in fonseka or at least create the illusion of getting him (in which his uncle's newspapers are aiding).

using fonseka (+ an absurd coalition of marxist jvp and right of center unp bc of fonseka) he hopes to get unp grassroots to show some life and prevent crossovers before the next presidential and/or parliamentary elections will be announced.

in addition,
he probably hopes to make mahinda rajapakse delay the elections (bc of expected more robust contest with fonseka as opposed to a walkover over ranil). buffalo is unlikely to fall for this. if he waits till end of full term, it will be for different reasons.

ranil also hopes to spin that mihinda backed down from presidential election due to fear of losing, if only parliamentary elections are announced as they must be before march 2010.

this last is probably his main expectation. by creating the illusion that fonseka is on unp side (even if he has made no commitment) the possibility of him contesting in 2011, will be enough to give some hope of a payback for those supporting unp parliamentary candidates and for preventing some crossovers before the elections.

let me be clear, ranil does not expect fonseka to win if he is the opposition presidential candidate.

he is just fighting for his own political survival as unp leader in case of elections. he wants to revive the unp grassroots for parliamentary elections to prevent another dismal showing, and then hope to remain in control of unp after fonseka loses (or if there is no presidential election )

that is his game. very short term and very selfish (as he has a right to be)

but others have a right to realize and act based on what he is up to, in order to advance their own agendas.

results
if fonseka falls for ranil's trap, unp will revive in the short term and get better than expected results in parliamentary elections (though not win).

but as ranil expects, general will lose the presidential election, making the general damaged goods with no political party for cover. (btw if a real possibility of sarath foseka winning emerges once election campaign gets underway, expect to see ranil's uncle and other of same ilk working against fonseka as the same ppl did against gamini dissanayake when he was the unp candidate in 1994). ranil will remain head of unp for another six years in opposition.

that is why general should wait and position himself both within upfa and outside instead of falling for the trap.


--
some political commentators are fond of describing ranil as a master of political tactics but that is not supported by evidence
ranil's previous attempts at short sighted manipulation of political expectations to advance his own ambitions were dismal failures (in 1994 and 2004) when both gamini dissanayake and chandrika kumaratunga outplayed him.

let's see whether buffalo and general follow in their footsteps.


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Monday, November 02, 2009

difference a few words make! arrested for internet threats or offensive remarks? + sanjana hattotuwa's silly spin on this

a person named gayan rajapakse was arrested by police for threatening mahinda buffalo yesterday. note the word "threat".

however some ppl chose to report the cause of arrest as "offensive and defamatory comments regarding the president and the secretary of defense". same newspaper (mirror) website in another report filed shortly after, which gave more details like name and hiding place of the person arrested, reported "arrested on charges of having used the internet to threaten president mahinda rajapaksa and defence secretary gotabhaya rajapaksa". also note that the suspect was produced before matale magistrate, who remanded him till 6th .

first storysecond story

i am including the screen captures (click to enlarge) in case the story disappears from mirror website.


i personally think it is rather stupid to arrest all ppl who threaten the president. though there is nothing wrong in police investigating all threats of violence.

given we don't know the exact details of the case and severity of the threat, all we can wish for is that the correct legal process is followed. and that seems to be happening.



what happens when obama is threatened
meanwhile it is worthwhile to to note how ppl who "threaten" the president of usa are treated.
these stories pop up almost every other week. i am just posting a few (most recent and some connected to internet and absurd) .

-
now how do you think terrorist parroting former peacenik ngo crowd is spinning this?
well most of them were enjoying the sunday peacefully. they will no doubt do their paid spin job today or tomorrow (today being poya)

but sanjana hathutuwa treats his hack job on behalf of racists who support tamil tiger terrorists with a passion and ignores holidays. he will not let any opportunity to smear and slander sri lanka pass. so here is a screengrab (click to enlarge) of what he wrote in ict4peace blog which like the racist hate mongering groundviews blog is run by himand a comment thereof course anyone with sense can see what he deliberately but stupidly left out. (btw notice how he comments on his own post. lol). he is as always ignoring the facts that does not suit his agenda.

i posted a comment pointing out his "cleverness" in not clarifying it was a threat not just offensive remarks that caused the arrest. but i doubt given his past intolerance of opposing views whether it will pass the censorship this time.


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Sunday, November 01, 2009

sunday post : litany of the saints

today is all saints' day, hence this youtube video.
i tweeted another video of litany of the saints (litania sanctorum) earlier today but this one ( uploaded by one coilette3004 on october 30, 2009) is imo better. both recorded during funeral of john paul II.






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