Musings on Two International Events

Elections in Sri Lanka
Mahinda Rajapakse has got another mandate to rule that beautiful country.
He, alongwith his brother and Defence Minister, Gottabaya seem to have
carried out human rights violation and used all the dirty tricks to eliminate
the LTTE (incidentally, they too never played by the books) which was talked about in the runup to the elections. But not much heat was generated in analysis. Gen Sarath
Fonseca, the united opposition candidate did not give him that big a fight going by reports. Was he a serious contender at all? I was personally rooting for his victory on two counts:-
(a) He had successfully led his armed forces, which were a disenchanted lot
due to earlier reverses, to victory against the LTTE beating them at their own game.
(b) He had come back after two years of intense medical management from
injuries due to an LTTE suicide attack and hence, was the common man’s hero.

But what seems to have tipped the scales was the strong Sinhalese support for
the incumbent egged on by the influential Buddhist clergy. Whatever said and
done, Sri Lanka’s woes can only be removed by statesmanlike actions by giving
equal status to the Tamilians as the Sinhalese, by bringing about an amendment
to their constitution.

Obama’s Congressional Address.
A sizable number of Indians feel let down by what Obama told his Congress,
especially the aspect on outsourcing of jobs. My question to all such fellow
men is simple, do you really expect a US President to formulate policies to
benefit India? Why do we require American endorsement in all that we do?
I’ve this feeling that this habit of looking over our shoulders for their
support, stems from our weakness for white skin and the exaggerated
qualities that we assume them to possess for assuming global leadership. It’s
a well known fact that in relationships between nations, there’s no permanent
friendship but what remains is permanent interest. And the Americans know
this only too well and anyways, his speech is pure rhetoric to play upto the
gallery against the backdrop of his plummeting popularity ratings. The actual
market forces will work otherwise!


PS.
1. ‘Rann’ and ‘Ishquia’ have opened to rave reviews today. Both, of course,
have nothing new to say and merely endorse things that we already knew. But the
picturisation seem to be the strongest element about both. Will endeavour to see them as and when time permits.

2. The weather in Delhi seems to have changed suddenly. The biting cold has
given way to warmer climes and the thermocot inners/ heavy woolens seem to
be horribly out of place. Even the fog seems to have bade us goodbye!