They say that we are among the best in terms of literacy. They say we are at the very top in the Asian countries. How often do we see people rave about this fact to say that we are one of the most intelligent nations in the world? ….but are we really?
I used to say I’m proud about been Sri Lankan. Most people would still say so. I’m proud about the country of course, its history, its scenic beauty and every other lifeless subject I come across, but not about the people. There’s nothing to be proud about the people of our country. In fact, collectively, we are one of the stupidest nations in the world. Evidence is everywhere you see.
The people of this country have been the victims of cunning manipulation from two prominent groups over the years - the politicians and the private media. They know extremely well how stupid we are. As for the politics, the politicians know that we are dumb and that the people of this country are easily malleable. But on stage, they say that the voters in this country are extremely intelligent. The survival of a political party like the JVP for more than 15 years is itself evidence enough to how stupid we are as a nation.
In all my recent years with a discernible opinion of how the world operates no other word has detested me more than the word “politics”. No matter how hard you try to run away from that cursed word, it will always catch up with you in the end. You go to the grocer: politics. You turn on the TV: politics. You glance at the daily newspaper: filled with politics.
How badly dependant are we on this word itself? Most of you would say, ‘politics is in everything we do: we can’t escape it: Our lives are influenced by the very actions of those who “represent” us in the parliament’. Is it really?
I used to blog about politics. One of the stupidest decisions of my life. Though I was not an astute political analyzer, the idea of putting my two cents on the things I thought that mattered to the people seemed appealing at first. But only for a short time. A waste of time and a waste of words.
Our disposition to politics as a nation seems unparalleled. An abundance of examples will follow you wherever you go. The office trains are roaring with laudatory analysis of the yesterday’s parliament session. The lunch hours occupied with debates to justify the sudden change of political parties of a major politician. Organizers thanking the president according to the hierarchy in a speech in an opening of a public place of which the president had no idea about.
This is the lie we live in. They say politicians are jokers. What does that make us?
I say we stop. We stop depending on politics for everything in our lives.
Wanni made an e-village. Hell, I’m impressed. That’s the kind of people we want and that’s the kind of work we should all be trying to do. Make a difference in the small world you live in. That’s my idea of living and ‘May my graduation guide me there and show me the way to make my contribution matter the most’.
Then there is the media.
I was accidentally watching a chart show named “Diganthaya” in sirasa tv this morning and I was amazed to see how many people subscribed to the “love calculator” feature through sms during that hour. It is as stupid as it can get. You type in your name and your lovers name or the person you want your lover to be and send it to sirasa which costs you Rs.5/= per sms. I was amazed to see how people turned out in large numbers to make sirasa even richer. Yet another trick by sirasa to exploit the stupidity of our people. They distribute gold coins during “Ran Depeya”. They sneak in at night and distribute gas cookers. Oh… they are the best. It’ll take another millennium for the Sri Lankans to see the irreparable damage caused by sirasa.
I find that there are two measures we can use to measure the stupidity of our people. The number of people who say that sirasa is the best tv channel in
7 Comments:
Oh man i don't think people watch Ran depaya to get the gold coins or gas cookers. I don't think living a week in Sri Lanka is not enough to understand the sentiments of our people. They love those movies. Thats it. Whats wrong with it? Let them watch what they like. Not only in Sri Lanka. In other countries also they ask people to vote by sms or online for every stupid thing like selecting the ugliest celebrity dog. So whats wrong?
Sri Lanka Government Intelligentsia......
While visiting India, President Mahinda Rajapakse is invited to tea with President Abdul Kalam.
He asks President Kalam what his leadership philosophy is.
He says that, it is to surround himself with intelligent people.
Mahinda Rajapakse asks how he knows if they're intelligent.
"I do so by asking them the right questions," says President Kalam.
"Allow me to demonstrate."
Mahinda Rajapakse watches as President Kalam phones Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister and says,
"Mr. Prime Minister, please answer this question: your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or sister.
Who is it?"
Manmohan immediately responds,
"It's me, Sir !"
"Correct. Thank you and good-bye, sir," says Kalam.
He hangs up and says,
"Did you get that, Mr. Rajapakse?"
Mahinda nods:
"Yes Mr. President.
Thanks a lot. I'll definitely be using that!"
Mahinda Rajapakse, upon returning to Colombo , decides he'd better put his brother, Gothabaya to the test.
Mahinda summons him to Temple Trees and says,
"Gotha, I wonder if you can answer a question for me."
"Why, of course, Aiya. What's on your mind?"
Mahinda poses the question:
"Uhh, your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or your sister.
Who is it?"
Gothabaya was puzzled and finally asks,
"Can I think about it and get back to you?"
Mahinda agrees, and Gothabaya leaves.
Gothabaya immediately calls a meeting of the senior armed services & ministers of the cabinet, including his other brothers, Chamal & Basil and they puzzle over the question for several hours, but nobody can come up with an answer.
Finally, in desperation, Gothabaya calls Mangala Samaraweera and explains the problem.
"Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"
Mangala answers immediately,
"It's me, of course."
Much relieved, Gothabaya rushes back to Temple Trees, finds Mahinda Rajapakse, and exclaims,
"I know the answer, Aiya!
I know, who it is!
It's Mangala Samaraweera!"
And Mahinda replies in disgust,
"Wrong, its Manmohan Singh!"
Anonymous:
That's a good one. thanx for the smile.
rocky:
You gotta be kiddin me. You are not seriously suggesting that whatever sirasa does is anywhere near what tv channels in other countries do, are you?
Yes I admit, there are stupid features in almost every other tv channel, like sms voting etc, but the thing is that these are the only things that we see in sirasa. Obviously, entertainment should be a large part of any tv channel but it should not be all, there are a lot of things a tv channel can do for a society, and I’m sure that the tv channels you talked about in other countries have this aspect in their media along with entertainment. I should mention that the state of other tv channels in sri lanka have, unfortunately, followed the footsteps of sirasa but still no one has surpassed it. I’ve written a large number of posts on this topic but for ur sake I’ll take the trouble of repeating them here.
I believe you have seen ran depeya and know what you are talking about. Yes, many other countries have soaps too. But these two hindi dramas (maha gedara and praveena) and the two hindi-like Sinhalese dramas (wasuda and kavya) are far away from qualifying as soaps. Any decently intelligent person would discredit them to be a lame sequence of occurrences added one by one to keep the viewers glued in to the tv sets. I just don’t have words to express how lame they are. See for yourself. If you really must, take two hours of your valuable time to see what enjoyment you can extract from these.
I know what your argument is. This is a free land, any person should be able to choose what he/she wants to do or in this case which items to watch on television. But if the only free time a person has in today’s reckless timetable is occupied by several stupid, useless so called dramas, they are left with no other choice but to watch them (my mother’s excuse is that she loves the sarees she sees in mahagedara). And as niroshinie once mentioned, why do you think wasuda is wearing a “mangalasutra”? Makes no sense, does it? To be honest, I feel that most of the Sri Lankans are ignorant, or else their aesthetic tastes would have been much higher and would have disapproved these lame dramas the tv channels telecast.
Ok then, take sirasa news. What is in it? Their main news items are either one of the stories relating to maharaja group or a mud slang against the JVP (the crawling chameleon when wimal speaks). I don’t approve the JVP, but that’s a different story. Since recently, they have also monetized every news item and almost each news item is sponsored by some organization. There’s “Janapathi Dinapotha” sponsored by one org. then there was “Anurapurai poson sandai” on the poson poya day sponsored by another org. there’s crime watch sponsored by another. It just made me sick to listen to their news amidst all these interruptions. But may be that’s just me.
Take the music chart shows in sirasa. What sort of songs do they telecast? Is their a single song of our old artists in these charts? No. They may say that they telecast popular songs but they are popular songs only because these media channels made them so. And when people hear the same crap everyday they just get used to it. Please don’t get me started on the latest music culture. It sucks. I once saw this program called “looks like” and was amazed to see how a new “artist” who had made just one track (more like a haphazard collection of words plugged in to a computer generated tune and a shoddy video), take up greats like amaradewa and victor to suggest that it’s time for them to change.
The television is supposed to be a mechanism to serve the society. Entertainment is just one part of it. Even through a good drama a strong message can be conveyed. We used to have good television in the 90’s with quality teledramas occupying every channel. But today, all that has changed.
The fact that sirasa has grasped a large portion of the tv viewing population of this country has given it unfettered, dangerous powers as well as an implicit responsibility to serve the society in a healthy manner. It’s just a matter of sirasa getting a hold of this responsibility.
Machang, it’s one thing allowing people to choose whatever they want to choose. But it’s the responsibility of those who are capable, to provide a quality mixture of things for the people to choose from. Yes, let’s allow the people to make the choice: but from a good bunch of choices.
//The people of this country have been the victims of cunning manipulation from two prominent groups over the years - the politicians and the private media.//
Have you ever consumed government media? Specially in Elections days? Aren’t they taste like cotton candy? Puffy, big, sweet, eye pleasing but nothing in it? Do think government media is any better than private media?
//I say we stop. We stop depending on politics for everything in our lives.//
absolutely agree. We as a nation depend on too much on the government. I think that happened because of the years of ‘communist’ propaganda in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan government is absolutely corrupt and malfunction most of the time. But still, we have fairly good government than most of the other countries. We have free education from 1st grade to 12 grade, and closed system afterword – but we have free healthcare. I know those things are not good as much as in America, but Americans pay 30% income tax and around 12% tax. we get what we paid for.
Now about Sirasa. Sirasa and their fan base, not stupid at all – they may have deferent taste – but they are not stupid. There is nothing wrong with Sirasa getting Rich! There is nothing wrong with any one getting rich in that case. For 5Rs, Sirasa provide simple entertainment for the people who have no time to go out and watch a movie – and especially to those females who are not allowed to go outside. They need to do something until someone from the same caste answer their marriage advertisement in the news paper. So why not spend 5Rs meanwhile.
Some Entertainments are like Orange Barley, some Entertainments are like old coconut Arrack. Deferent people like deferent drinks.
People are sheep. They follow leaders. They even willing blow themselves up for their leader. A country should be lucky to have a good leader like, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth 1 or Jawaharlal Neru. We have JVP instead. People get leaders they deserve.
Out of curiousity how many countries have you lived in?
niro, you write and think particularly well for an undergraduate. i reside in mumbai and will be visiting sri lanka (colombo) soon. is there a possibility that i can meet up with you when i am there. i need a few insights into the culture and psyche of Sri Lanka (of course, for a a Corporate reason)...it will be ncie to interact with an intelligent citizen of the country. do let me know if you will be interested on meraj.hasan@gmail.com
looking forward to hearing from you.
Miraj:
I am afraid this chap has probably not lived in too many countries. If he did, he would realize that he would have the same complaints about the people in most other countries as well. Government is not different anywhere else in the world. It is just that some are more slick manipulators than others.
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