January 31, 2009 at 1:49 pm (General, International, Personal, Sports)
Tags: Australia, Botha, Cricket, Duminy, Harris, Murali, Nadal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tennis
Australian Cricket team has just lost their number one ranking in One Day Internationals. They lost the One Day series 1-4 which came on the back of a painful 1-2 defeat in the Test series at the hand of the South Africans. Their bowlers looked toothless and batsmen were not in the best of form. More than that South Africans were on top of their game and outplayed their opponents in all departments. How can the Aussies bounce back from this dreadful defeat?
I think they should immediately set up a series with Sri Lanka. It should contain at least 3 Test matches and 5 One-Dayers. We have been at the receiving end of so many lashings by the Aussies over the years and it would provide their batsmen a chance to score a few hundreds and their bowlers to find their rhythm. No matter how well we perform against the rest of the world, when it comes to the best in the world our bowlers and batsmen have equally struggled.
I have seen some average spin bowlers of the caliber of Paul Harris and Johan Botha getting handful of wickets in Aussie tracks. Aussies sometimes struggled with the gentle spin of rookie J-P Duminy. I just can’t believe why our champion and ace spinner can’t do the same. He has taken wickets everywhere else but struggled against the best of the world. It should be more of a mental issue rather than the talent.
During the breathtaking semifinal of the Australian Open last night, one commentator asked what if Rafael Nadal thinks why things are not going his way after making so much of effort. Reply from the other commentator was that Nadal would never doubt his talent. Nadal would not think about what’s gone by and think ahead, the commentator said. That is exactly what happened and after more than 5 hours of thrilling play, Nadal won the game.
It gave me the answer for why Murali fails to get wickets in Aussie tracks. I guess it’s about not believing in his immense talent and worrying about external factors.
Leave a Comment
January 25, 2009 at 7:30 am (General, Patriots, Personal, Political, War)
Tags: alternative, attack, flee, government, journalists, Media Freedom, Opposition, War
Today’s Lakbima (25th January 2009) revealed a shocking list of media persons and activists who have fled the country fearing for their lives. Some of these people are well renowned and reputed columnists who have taken the hearts of the readers by their immense ability of writing. They were my favorites too. I don’t think they categorically criticized the government, but even if they did so, that’s their own right because this is, as they say, a democratic country. Funniest thing is, amidst all this controversy, even the people who do the shopping for the government are also getting hammered under the mid day sun.
So this is the five star media freedom under the most media-friendly head of the state, eh? If must be so for the bunch of guys who attend the monthly meeting over the breakfast with him to listen to the same old story, ask the same old questions, get the same old answers, nod their heads in same old way, taste a royal meal and go back home. Well, at least that is also some level of freedom for a media person to be able to sit next to the head of the state and bite a hot egg hopper, isn’t it?
However the bottom line is this government, its allies and their supporters do not like criticism nor do they mature enough to cope up with it. All they say is, in the name of this patriotic holy war; everyone should keep their mouths shut. According to them, this government is doing the war right, so everything else is insignificant. In a recent newspaper interview, an opposition MP gave 100% marks to the government for its conduct of the war but 0% marks to everything else including good governance, media freedom, economy, international relations… etc.
But what he (and the most of the public) has forgotten is that the government is hiding nicely behind the curtain of war to cover all its failures, inabilities, corruptions and malpractices. So how come you give 100% to the conduct of war when it is being used as a shield to cover everything else? If you are supposed to shut your mouth and stay away only because the government is doing the war right, how can that war be right at the first place? I don’t understand.
As I can see, every single thing in our society is now linked with the war mentality in one way or the other. If someone looms against you, thinks against you, talks against you or acts against you, the answer is to use the force, attack and somehow get rid of that person. People are no longer ready to discuss, exchange views in a decent manner, listen to what others say, bear alternative thoughts or anything like that. Example set from the helm is to attack and finish. I think we are yet to see the real consequences of the war.
1 Comment
January 22, 2009 at 7:30 am (Extremes, General, Personal, Political, Religious, War)
Tags: Buddhists, Chinthana, Mahinda, Prabhakaran, President, War
Army commander has said that Prabhakaran would not commit suicide since he loves his life and his food. Everyone including Prabhakaran, the army commander, you and me love our lives and food, don’t we? I know that most of the Sri Lankans want Prabhakaran to be killed on the spot without letting him live a single extra second. He has brought so much damage to this country and how the general public feel about him is understandable. But I think he should not be killed if the armed forces get a chance to do so.
Not only because I am personally against any kind of killing, be it my biggest enemy, not only because it’s human to err and divine to forgive, not only because if Prabhakaran deserves the capital punishment, his former 2nd in command (who now is an obedient puppy on the Chinthana lap) also deserves the same, not only because his death is not going to bring back the lives lost by his brutal acts, not only because as Buddhists we believe that hatred cannot be cured by hatred, but there are so many other reasons why Prabhakaran should live another day.
He should live to see and realize the destruction his organization has brought to this country and also to his community. He should see in his very own eyes the grieving mothers who lost their innocent children and children who lost their beloved parents because of his brutal acts. He should be given a chance to feel himself how painful it is to lose his loved ones for reasons they never know of. He should live another day to reflect on what his struggle was all about and how he could have won it through non-violence and without wasting a single bullet. He should live to figure out that not only his community but the entire country has been crumbled, ill-treated, corrupted and devastated by the stupid politicians of South. So taking arms against them and killing one by one is not going to do any good to anyone; purely because their replacements are never going to be any better.
He should live so that he can leisurely read the Mahinda Chinthana while watching his community enjoy the peace, prosperity and five-star democracy offered by it. When he reads that masterpiece, he wouldn’t regret the fact that he forced his people to boycott the Presidential Elections. When he hears the man call him ‘malli’ or ‘thambi’ he would be over the moon, but soon will realize it’s the way every Tom, Dick and Harry being called. He should live so that people could realize the power of executive Presidency when he’s being granted a Presidential pardon overruling the court orders. For now, they believe it does not have the powers of even a district court judge. Few weeks later he will get a chance to fly to the UK with a forged but diplomatic passport carrying a fancy name like “Kokila Gunawardena”, pretending to attend an environmental summit. Even if he will be jailed there, his good behavior would see him released ahead of the schedule.
Upon his return to the country, he can extend his unconditional support to His Excellency to strengthen his arms and eventually be named as a member of the Parliament when the next JVP member resigns to contest the Northern Provincial Council election. Being a person who battled with five executive Presidents and unknown number of army commanders, doesn’t he deserve to be the Defense Minister of this country? The speaker of the house will assign him a seat next to his former second-in-command so that they can share their happy memories. Then he can ask his former colleague why he broke away from their rebel organization. He would learn that it’s neither the Cease Fire Agreement nor Thai brothels that changed his mind but some other alien reason.
He also can visit the temple of tooth relic in a clean white national suite and claim his innocence on the attack. He could probably tell the Mahanayaka Thero’s that it was Osama Bin Laden who planned the attack, but not him. Nobody will say a word about it afterwards. The soldiers who made a massive effort to capture him alive would now be guarding him around the clock, without letting even a random fly to reach him. I’m not sure whether those who lost their lives in that effort would be spinning in their graves by then.
Eventually when the inevitable judgment day comes, thousands of innocents who lost their lives because of him will be grinning at him from up above and he will be left with one single thought. “Why didn’t I live my life not to regret this moment?” It will be too late by then.
5 Comments
January 19, 2009 at 6:21 am (Extremes, General, Personal, Political, Religious, War)
Let me start this by saying that I know very little about Buddhism. As little as I know and as far as I believe, Buddhism is more of a philosophy rather than a religion. Different people may have different takes on that. It doesn’t have any rules, restrictions or regulations. But it gives you certain guidelines to make your life better and eventually lead you to terminate the vicious cycle of life and reach the supreme bliss of Nirvana. It doesn’t tell you to do this and don’t do that. Instead, it would tell you what the aftermath of doing “this and that” is. It’s all up to you to decide whether you do it or not.
For an example, nowhere in Buddhism tells you not to kill any living creature. But it tells you what the consequences of killing a living creature are. So people who are smart enough would realize what to do and what not to do in their lives. (Obviously we haven’t been that smart and that’s why we are still hovering around in this Sansara.) Anyway, this wonderful feature of not having rules or regulations in Buddhism gives the freedom for any abiththaya or chakrawarthi to redefine it the way they want.
Once, the famous political chakrawarthi redefined the way you commit sin by killing someone to justify their cry for the war. According to him, people who are actually involved in the war with arms or people who guide them do not commit sin by killing their enemies. He obviously knows a thing or two than I do, so I’m not going to argue with it. But that doesn’t mean I agree with him and I have written about it before. Now, this chakrawarthi’s abiththaya comes in front of media and says Buddha has never preached a thing against war. This is in reply to a question from a journalist on how they can push for war while claiming to be a political party based on Buddhist fundamentals.
As little as I know, Buddha was the most non-violent of all philosophers (or religious leaders) and has clearly mentioned the destruction a war can bring for the human being, for the society and for a country. If the history we have read and studied is correct, Buddha has directly involved in stopping a few wars and explained to them how to solve their problems without fighting each other. If this abiththaya has read the Buddhism text book of the 5th grade, he should have realized what kind of a character Buddha was. But it is not to be.
Adding more to his stupid justification of war, the abiththaya further went on to say that Buddha never visited this country. So in his theory, thousands of devotees who climb the Sri Pada every year must be just idiots. People who come from all corners of island to worship Kelaniya temple must be fools. This is the quality of abiththayas who did the biggest damage to the Buddhists in this country by pushing some well reputed and respected monks into the shit pit of politics. On the other hand, those monks were not toddlers not to realize what they were up to. Not having had enough, they go on to issue character certificates to Buddha and redefine his noble preaching.
Like for everything else on this earth, Buddhism also has a lifetime. These political chakrawarthi’s and abiththayas are certainly going to make it shorter.
1 Comment
January 14, 2009 at 5:38 am (General, Personal)
Tags: Call centre, Customer Service, India, Spoken English
If you would like to know how good you are in spoken English, try scolding someone for 1 minute without using any of those bad words (they are going to consume a considerable amount of time). If you do not find yourself stranded without words in the middle or make a mockery of what you have to say, you must be pretty good in your English.
I had no doubts about my inability of spoken English but it was proved once again when I bumped into this customer service representative who made a mess of my complain and kept on saying the same old story over and over again. I was complaining about a problem which was caused by their negligence and instead of accepting that and acting on it, she tried to explain how their system works and all that. I hung up, knowing that it’s useless to talk to them. It was the 3rd or 4th time I contacted them on the same matter. Later I found that it was some poor soul in a call centre at some corner of India.
Anyway I learnt my lesson and a good one too. At least now I know how to measure my competence in spoken English.
1 Comment
