Applying Old Sayings To New Sri Lanka

By Emil van der Poorten -December 1, 2012

Emil van der Poorten

I must confess to having used the title of this week’s column previously when I invoked the memory of a father who was very fond of aphorisms of many kinds. Even though my friends and I, in our callow youth, used to make fun of such “old-fashioned stuff,” over the years, I have found that those sayings had lasted through the years for very good reason: they expressed, to use that hackneyed term, the eternal verities.

But to business! When I wrote the first piece which took as its jumping off point this aphorism, I referred to a slew of countries and governments the association with whom gave our government a particular complexion, even if “only” by virtue of association.

Among this lot was Myanmar/Burma (before the recent attempt at democratization began and the release ofAung San Suu Kyi from house arrest), Libya prior to Gaddafi’s overthrow, China, Iran and Russia.

I do recall quite vividly the head of the Myanmarese/Burmese government of the day being accorded the singular honour of a special exposition of the Tooth Relic while on a state visit to Sri Lanka and the gift of a baby elephant to that country during the same period of its suppression of democracy and killing of demonstrators for democracy, including monks.

Gaddafi had already achieved pariah status in the world generally, primarily thanks to his erratic behavior and extreme violence directed at anything resembling dissent before state visits to Tripoli by “those who matter” from our shores. A commonality held by both parties to this dialogue in North Africa at the time could well have been the fact that both male parents were convinced of the “sporting genius” of their progeny. In Gaddafi’s case this extended into an effort to get one of his sons on to the team roster of a top European club and, failing there, an attempt to BUY that club! As a coda to that son’s fading sporting ambitions, I recall Ben Johnson the Canadian athlete (remember him winning at the Seoul Olympics only to be stripped of his medal for doping?) being hired as a personal trainer by the North African despot to take care of the “athletic progress” of his son! Of course we’ve had our own “personal trainers” to our Royalty but I do not recall any of them doping themselves up to achieve “excellence” though their violent behavior after rugger matches is certainly reminiscent of that of users of cocaine or crystal meth!

Since the fall of Gaddafi, the silence of our regime about that nation and the need to cultivate relations with its new regime has been nothing short of deafening! Read More