History Likely To Repeat Itself As Tragedy, Not Farce

By Emil van der Poorten -May 25, 2014

Emil van der Poorten

I don’t know whether it was Karl Marx who said something about history repeating itself as farce, but the prospects for a young village entrepreneur of my acquaintance suggests the possibility of tragedy rather than farce.

I have in the past referred to the banditry that those who lease our durian trees for the fruiting season are subject to.  To recap the scenario: we lease our durian trees out to the highest bidder who then proceeds to erect a watch-hut (pela) and, with the assistance of family and, perhaps, a friend or two, depending on the crop yielding enough to pay them a retainer, try to ensure that the predators, both the biped and quadruped brands, are kept at bay, the fruit harvested and then, either, sold to a retailer or the fruit retailed by the lessee himself who takes them down to the A10 highway connecting Kurunegala with Kandy.

Raiders’ “Durian-harvesting tool”

What is seemingly a simple enough equation has ended up quite violently with major tragedy – loss of life – being avoided more by simple luck than any kind of planning on the part of the lessee.

For several years now, the successful bidder has been raided by drunken, armed thugs from a village several miles down the hill and, in fact, from the adjacent province.  Our attempts to seek the help of the local (Galagedera) police to either prevent these occurrences or to arrest those conducting the raids has not been successful.

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