Super glue is dripped into the eyes of the man they think is the culprit.

Pseudo-charitable youth activists sit to talk about problems and argue with their prosthetic ideals.

Hymns flood the air as the attrition-ists talk to a deity they don’t see and perform their gyrating rituals.

The jaded artist types bruise their jaws yawning at the new modern art gallery’s exhibition.

Monks snort cocaine and beat-off to Jenna Jameson, pleased at the fact that their philosophy ends with no perdition.

Teenagers fornicate their eardrums with the voices of other teenagers ‘singing’ about which dress to wear.

Reality time lapses in fast forward and I just stop and stare.

Moments are born, aborted, lost and forgotten.

Life is just the name of a magazine nourishing the human soul with a detailed dissertation on the Duchess of York’s wedding hat.

The world is fan-fucking-tastic.

The Gold Digger
A more expensive lease

The Perfect Wife
(In there is one) Home

Most, rebels, with no causes, just trippin’ away the time
Burning the days, fillin’ up on tequila, salt and lime

My heroes all died young, I just hear their immortal echoes
The only ‘heroes’ they know, is the show on their TiVos’

Is or was our lifestlye different? Or like their’s, just another social cancer
So many questions, but never the answer

We tapped our toes to Bad Comany’s Rock n Roll Fantasy
They gyrate to cacophonic tunes in clubs and pop ecstasy

They will never know Bob Dylan and Like a Rolling Stone
Instead just laugh about a meme, called ‘Forever Alone’

And so I wonder

Do the generations before, say the same about mine
And as I write here on Facebook, write in their journals
Where did it all start to decline?

Sitting in 2011 and looking back over the history books, it’s apparent this ‘zero-hero-tyrant-martyr/dead dictator’ trend has become one of modern society’s unpleasant clichés, recurring every few decades when the demographic pyramid’s youth fraction swells and unemployment looms. I suppose in this most recent spate, we see why polygamy and the religion related ban on contraception is a bad thing. But Libya’s revolution is somewhat different from the other Arab countries that are now ‘liberated’. It is something that the Western powers have been hoping for, praying for and influencing for quite some time now. And who would blame them, no big guy likes it when a small guy makes a stand and doesn’t comply with that the bigger voice states as norm or law.

The Lockerbie Bombings will forever be shrouded in conspiracy and for those who believe it was Libya’s doing will now feel at ease knowing that Gaddafi, the face of the country behind it, has now joined those who perished that fateful day in 1998, gone to rest just like the PLO who were also suspected to have a hand in it. Final nail in the coffin there. But coming to what made me write about is this is that fact that on paper, statistics-wise, Gaddafi era Libya seemed a great place to live where everyone was taken care of by the state in some way. Of course I haven’t lived in Libya to know what it was like, but was supposed to visit Tripoli to write its first guidebook, at least until NATO initiated the metal rain. It’s an obvious fact that the western powers would never fight something for the fight itself or for the direct cause of the people, instead would only engage a conflict if it was a conflict of interest for them. In Libya’s case it was the oil, that and the defiant dictator who didn’t give rat’s ass about them.

Barack Obama himself once said “We will fight to protect the liberty of everyone,” but where were they when the uprising in Bahrain was quelled with the use of joint military strength from the rest of the Arab region. So where were the “protectors of liberty” when all that was going on? Prudently keeping quiet of course, considering the island is a main naval operations base in the Middle East. Anyway, let bygones be bygones, the glorious Pearl Roundabout in Manama is no more and so too the lives of many.

Social Media of late has been quite the window to reality these days and the videos of Gaddafi’s capture and subsequent death were massively viral around the world, and just this morning the picture and attached details on what Gaddafi did for his country were making the rounds on the Facebook share front and objectively speaking, they were impressive in terms of state sponsored social welfare. So just going by that, what happened to him seems unfair, but then again, I don’t think that’s for a Sri Lankan who hasn’t lived in Libya to judge. I mean sure Gaddafi did liberate his country when it needed it and then ruled it in the way he saw fit, and yes there was nepotism and even corruption and state manipulation of power to be in power, etc, which of course draws many parallels to our own little paradise here. But ungratefulness is a most human trait, not that I sympathize with Gaddafi, nor empathize with the Libyans, they fought for what they thought was right but in a way didn’t need to, but that’s just my opinion.

So yeah, the post Gaddafi era is here and that’s their problem, but what still bothers me and still makes me want to write this is the western stance on involvement in the problems of others. Needless to say, I don’t believe in the UN and think it should be abolished and sent to push daisies with the League of Nations, and actually agree with Gaddafi regarding his stance on the UN; FUCK EM’. Sitting here in the “Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka” and having received education on history and world affairs according to Cambridge in the UK, it looks to me that the western powers think they have the perfect democracies and anyone not in line with that and any other form of governance is unacceptable. Who again are they to make that call? Have they forgotten that when the system was drawn up and the word democracy first coined and implemented, women and slaves weren’t allowed to be a part of it, so much for egalitarianism.

Oh well, these words won’t change the world and probably might not be read, but I wish the world and its people would first examine something properly before following their emotions which have no basis and cheering the death of a man they didn’t know and vice versa. But then again I suppose that’s what the world has become, take what comes, no questions asked. Take what the media gives you. Then again, who could blame the masses, no one has the time to examine and think. Thinking: a fleeting capability of mankind. Devolution I suppose, or even evolution maybe, a matter of perspective in the end. Ah well, in all, the Arab Spring was refreshing yet saddening, born in its sands, the Middle East will always have a special place in my heart and soul. I can’t wait for a western spring, I’m sure a notion the better part of the world’s almost 7billion inhabitants share.

By accepted definition, a secessionist is a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea. While this is what early Tamil leaders would have been, the ‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam’ were far from secessionists. I’m not sure blowing up innocent people is the same as ‘pleading a cause’.

The introduction in the video talks about how both sides committed war crimes, so why are the known funders of the LTTE (everyone knows the majority are the diaspora in Canada and the UK) not accused of the same for fueling the crimes? 2 minutes in, they talk about Sri Lanka hosting matches of the Cricket World Cup of which England played Sri Lanka in one, of course there is no mention of the result of that match, but a minor detail I suppose. England getting its ass kicked in a one – day’r is nothing special.

3 minutes in, they begin to speak about the Government offensive which began in 2008 without mentioning LTTE provocations or breaches of the CFA which led to that move, like the Kebithigollewa massacre in 2006. And as dramatic and sympathy invoking as that girl’s face at 5:29 may seem, the same sad sombre face was seen at the funeral’s of those who died in bus bombs.

The video then goes into the capture of Kilinochchi and the no fire zone, and shelling in it. But it was widely publicized and known that the LTTE had assimilated into the civilian population and in fact had positioned weapons next to hospitals. I think in every war there is collateral damage and it is unfortunate for those held up in these areas, just as it is unfortunate for those who died in the suicide bombs. Which is why I suppose everyone has to be grateful for every day of life they had during those 3 decades. Having almost died in one of the attacks in Nugegoda and watching the arms of innocent girls going to buy dresses rain down on High Level Road, I know I was thankful for everyday something like that didn’t happen. I suppose the same is happening in Tripoli now as NATO is butchering innocent people; will the UN accuse them of war crimes? Pfft

And also the ‘G-man’ (Half Life reference) who appears in the video is kinda dodgy as well. Odd coincidence isn’t it? This guy arrives at every hospital that’s been ‘attacked’, and what’s to prove that was filmed in an actual hospital and not doctored by the Tigers? And it’s quite the peculiar accent the Tamil girl has, British, which I suppose would take a year in university to latch onto, but her grammar is bad, which means she couldn’t have spent 4 years in the UK studying whatever she did.

Towards the end of it, when they show the, ‘current’ state of the North, it’s clear to see for the many of us Sri Lankan’s, who’ve gone to the North even as early as December the year the war ended, it didn’t look that bad, and in fact peace, at least on the surface, is prevalent. Life is back to normal, kids in Jaffna get some of the highest marks in the island. True that war has left its wounds, any war, conflict or scuttle will leave scars, but what doesn’t help is the needless and unfair opening of those wounds.

I think 48:33 says it best when they say the international community failed the Tamil community. First up I don’t think the international community is represents everyone in the globe other than Sri Lanka, and secondly, I don’t see why after fleeing, they continue to damage and hinder the country’s reconciliation process.

I’m no patriot, nor a big fan of this government’s workings, but I am grateful to the government for putting an end to the conflict. I have seen it from the outside having lived abroad, and seen it from the ground here, and I share both sides of the story being half Tamil and half Sinhalese. But I’m sure everyone on the ground here is thankful the war is over, no man has to get up with the fear of uncertainty.

Rajiva Wijesinghe says it best during his short interview on Al Jazeera. ’nuff said.

1. Ameena Hussein is a lovely person.

2. Sam Perera can be annoying when on the defense but quite the gentleman otherwise.

3. Ashok Ferry is a better entertainer than a writer. In fact, Rajpal Abeynayake is funnier than Ferry.

4. Sivamohan Sumathy is an arrogant bitch with an acute inferiority complex.

5. Liyanage Amarakeerthi is one of the best Sinhala poets I’ve had the privilege to hear.

6. Vihanga Perera is like Luke Skywalker, too good for his own good.

7. Malinda Seneviratne needs to get over the colonials for stealing his loot and making his great great grandfather cut sugar cane.

8. Marlon Ariyasinghe was the best upcoming poet, someone to watch out for!

9. Shehan Karunathilaka, though not there in person, was awesome.

10. Juliet Coombe kicks arse!

Sleepless nights. My eyes dance behind their lids

Pantomime flashes across my mind

Stranded in limbo between sleep and life

The memory makes my muscles tense

Every cell screams in agonizing anguish

After a long time of peace

Turmoil visits me, welcome change I suppose

Makes me see things differently

Compels me to appreciate the colors of this world

Admire the relationships and different entities

All sharing a moment in time

Do I want to? Do I have to? Do I need to?

Let go.

Can I? Will I? Should I?

Must I let go of something that makes me happy?

I don’t want to find an answer to that

‎’Cause nothin’ lasts forever Even cold November rain

And see hers, into which I’m falling

Clasped hands pulse with hope

Fervently watching the phone for answers

No! for THE answer

The clock hand’s every tick, Like a pulled trigger’s click

Heart pounding with every tassle laden arterial flick

Muscles tense

Nerves on the verge, tendons revving to dance

The Wait isn’t fun

Like staring at the black hole sun, being all alone after school, forgotten to be picked up

Solitude among a hundred chairs in a sultry classroom devoid of life

Drawing lines through the dust on the window, while ominous winds howl outside

Not knowing when or where or if that three letter word will come

Anxiety wraps a wall around my senses, crouched in silent hysteria

There is more here, beyond us, come whatever may

Avalanche into the abyss of depression, or elevator to happiness and Her

Waiting Waiting Waiting……..

Like a sugar cube in a whirlpool of stirring tea

The tremors and rumbles began within

Surging currents of acid effervesce

Eerie creaks like a galleon sailing a stormy sea

Journey to the center of the kitchen

Seeking something to stop the gastric blitzkrieg

The fridge, just as empty as my stomach

Disappointed, starved, broken

Why to a day like this have I awoken

The blade whispers for blood

Turn on the TV and watch for a food ad

Pseudo impulse cerebral deception

Burning for what I see, but in no way to get it

Just thankful for having a TV for

the synaptic betrayal

In the silence hear the time turning

Listen closely to your heart pounding

Against a nervous frame anxious

Patiently waiting for answers

No! for THE answer

The clock hand’s every tick

Like a pulled trigger’s click

Muscles tense

Breathing dense

Questions Doubts

Melted moments and nervous bouts

The Wait isn’t fun

Like staring at the black hole sun

Pressed against a rising wall of anxiety

Never knowing what awaits on the other side

Sheer drop to depression or elevator to ecstasy

Waiting Waiting Waiting