Can i weigh in on the teenybopper thing?

Me. late teenybopper stage, i think 2002-3

With all the discussion on teenyboppers i cannot simply stand by and see our next generation flayed to pieces. Especially by the likes of Himal, whom i actually knew when we were both teenyboppers and let me just say that he wasn’t exactly Sir. Ian McKellen then, and he isn’t now either.

But neither was i. When i was a teenager i was just as aimless and prone to do senseless things like try out various hairstyles in front of the mirror and walk around with an exaggerated swagger that fooled nobody. Me and my friends crashed batch parties of girls’ schools and did almost anything to get people’s attention. I’m sorry if you think that was stupid, it probably was but i’m glad i got a  lot of that stupid out of my system so my twenties are considerably less cringe-inducing in retrospect.

The ‘teenyboppers’ referred to by Himal are probably of a higher socio-economic class that us local school kids. They’re wealthy and opulent and can afford to go to places that we can only afford now that we’re making our own money. So they get in our faces with their aimless pandering and can’t even appreciate the fact that they can afford to buy drinks after paying for the ticket while still in school. Why these ungrateful brats i tell you.

I don’t think it makes sense to hate on them, not just them all tennyboppers in general. i got a fair share of disapproving looks and disgusted stares when i was their age. A lot of people looked at me like i was some complex math problem out of a neighboring universe and i know all you others from my generation had your fair share of similar experiences. You can deny it but you know its true.

And you know what? I didn’t really give a damn about them. How could i? I couldn’t really do anything at the point anyway because i was on a hamster wheel trying to keep up with all the sensory stimulation coming my way, and learning all the while how to act and behave in a world that increasingly got newer and more interesting. I just chose to think of everyone who looked at me askance as outdated codgers who weren’t worth my time. And that’s how these teenyboppers are looking at you now.

Inside every teenybopper there is probably a slightly insecure kid laying out a crusty armor of swagger to hold the world off until he/she can figure it out. A lot of adults don’t get them but that’s okay cause they know you see, old people were young once too but they forgot how it felt to be young and now they think they were fifty since the day they were born. Just humor them and nod and smile. When you grow old you’ll show em that some old people can still be in touch with kids and be old at the same time, remember thinking that way?

Overpriced Tuk Tuks Are Overpriced

yes.

Tuk tuks, even metre tuks, are ridiculously overpriced. Just do the math. A metre tuk costs Rs. 30 a kilometer. Your average car covers the distance in about ten. Regular tuk tuks will fleece you for even higher amounts.

Tuk tuk fares, like a lot of similar services, have not reached their optimum pricing. They are disproportionately high in comparison to income levels and costs of alternatives. The key figure would be something more than Rs. 10 but way less than Rs. 30. Just enough to incentivise a would-be driver to leave his car at home and take a tuk, as well as incentivise a would be bus traveler to fork a little extra for comfort. Profits will increase as more and more people are attracted to tuk tuks.

Tuk tuk pricing is a fascinating topic. Tuk tuk stands appear to take an almost cartel-like approach to charging fare. ‘Stands’ are wherever you see a collection of tuk tuks parked on a regular basis. Members of a cartel will enforce high prices and will then use their monopoly on the stand to block any new tuk tuks from starting business there. This has resulted in artificially high prices.

The advent of metre tuks have reduced prices, but even they appear to have priced their fare not based on actual market conditions but based on exactly how much they would need to undercut non-metered tuk tuk pricing to grab their market share.

Another factor that determines tuk tuk pricing: location location location. Outside Majestic City the tuk tuks cost you at least 50 percent more than anywhere else. A wise strategy in this case is to move away from MC and hail a tuk already going in the direction you’re heading in. If you stopped it in slow moving traffic and start bargaining, the driver will have no choice but to meet your price or risk the wrath of a thousand horns.

Most tuk tuks quote prices that incorporate potential bargaining loss. So they generally always expect to be bargained down. Tuk tuks in more rural areas are cheaper than those in Colombo i’ve noticed. Maybe a reaction to the lower income levels of rural citizens as opposed to Colombians?

Tuk tuk costs involve petrol, wear and tear and owner fees. Your average tuk probably does about 25kms per liter. This makes the petrol cost per kilometer something like Rs 4. Wear and tear and user fees can be (very) generously calculated to be Rs 10 per km, with this decreasing the further you go. But lay out the math to a tuk tuk driver and you’ll likely be accused of being a know it all, and threatened with violence.

I know because that happened to me once when i went from Pettah to Panchikawatte. The driver demanded more that what we agreed would be the rate. I was having a bad day and was in no mood to be fleeced, so we disagreed loudly. Unfortunately he didn’t appreciate my math skills. But luckily i had a menacing gear lever in my hand which i waved threateningly. And he went off grumbling.

Most tuk drivers are amicable fellows. They’re out to make living and therefore do what everyone else in the system does; capitalize. What they don’t realize is that low prices can be good for them as well as the customer, and can bring them more revenue in the long term. I think maybe a regulatory authority making taxi meters compulsory and fixing the rate can help, also solving transport issues in cities in the process.

Twilight Hate

Twilight haters make me think. You know the type, they take great pains to undermine the target IQ level of the franchise. Woe betide if you admit having even accidentally glimpsed the latest trailer. If you don’t trash it enthusiastically, and call Edward all sorts of names usually offensive to homosexuals, you are committing social kamikaze. Or a less dramatic version of events.

Some call Twilight ‘bad literature; but then who are they to judge what bad literature is? If a story is well written, has a tight plot and strong characters and more importantly, if millions of people buy it then what does it matter if the language isn’t refined?

The illusion of good literature i think is that it should be ‘hard to read’. If only a few among an educated elite can read and truly appreciate a book, then it is ‘good literature’. ‘Good literature’ tends to focus on books that are old or books that fall into the  ’modern classic’ genre.

Others decry it for its portrayal of women as dependent emotionally fragile creatures. Well in that case why not have a problem with half the fairy tales they grew up with. Why not hate Snow White, The Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin’s concubine or even Cinderella? No, the origins of Twilight hate go beyond mere social consciousness or awareness of literature.

Twilight hate is something you do to fit in with the cool kids. It’s like hating Justin Beiber when you’ve barely listened to any of his music. It puts you in a social group directly opposite to the ‘populist masses’ that consume the ‘crap’ that you think ‘unworthy of your refined taste’.

I can understand disliking it, hell i’m not its biggest fan either but i can understand people who dig it. I’ve watched the movies and i could have thought of worse ways of spending a couple of hours.

Blind hate takes many forms. And sometimes we blindly hate simply to look cool. But wait a minute, i think I’ve hit upon something that’s almost universally applicable here. Maybe all blind hate is based on irrational self defeating sentiments. Probably why it’s called….blind hate..Right.

The Common Good (and other Fairy Tales)

Following is a brief synopsis of the history of economics as i understand it together with a subjective viewpoint on its inherently oppressive nature. This viewpoint as written below does not necessarily reflect my personal opinion on economics, it is simply a viewpoint, that should stand alone in its own right.

-The Raj

Since industrialization humans have focussed on getting more efficient, becoming more profitable. I shouldn’t say humans in this regard, for it is mostly the capitalists who expound such thought processes into practical application. Economics after all, cannot be taken away from the self interest of its proponents, and when brought into the fray of politics, self interest largely depends on who is in power. And, money being tantamount to nearly everything in entering politics, most modern democracies flout the interests of capitalism over ‘what is good for the masses’. Of course this is cleverly disguised, more so from the politicians themselves, but GDP is not a measure of quality of life. Getting richer as a country, with it’s complete wealth distributed according to the laws of the Pareto Principle, is questionable as a purpose of being. Most modern economies can be highlighted as examples.

The prevailing ‘what is good for the powerful is good for the economy’ philosophy can be easily illustrated with simple look at the history of economics. Initial feudal establishments (which were centered around the absolute power of the landowning class and its default omni-ownership of all capital) crumbled with the increase of trade and the appearance of ‘marketplaces’. This only exacerbated with colonialism and eventually led to the Merchant class surpassing in wealth the landowning overlords of feudalistic society. Eventually, the reign of Merchants was the norm.

Mercantilism

‘Mercantilism’ was their philosophy. Mercanltilists were of the opinion that to prosper, a nation must sell more than it buys. In other words, its exports must exceed its  imports. This kind of thinking will seem absurd in the modern day world with interdependencies among nations causing more deficits than surpluses. A system like that cannot survive, for the simple reason that were every country in the world to follow identical princples, trade would simply halt! leading to eventual collapse of the system. As it happened Mercantilism survived for a long while, primarily due to cheap resources readily available from colonized nations and also by oppression of its own country’s peasant class, and economies in that day were controlled more by guilds of merchants that functioned more like cartels; monopolizing trade and commanding prices. Not very good for the quality of life of your average peasant, I would say.

Moving on, the rise of capitalism happened when the industrialists got into the game. They were a class of people who believed in the use of capital to control the arena of trade. They would supply capital to small scale artisans and contract merchants to sell them. This practice formed the basis of what would become the modern company.

Capitalism

‘Capitalism’ full blown, had names like the Dutch and British East India Companies as its flag bearers.  They allowed joint stock ownership and modern share markets found their origin here. They used their vast capital and trade monopolies to import cheap and sell dear. Making their owners’ wealth increase to previously unimagined proportions. Along with the emergence of capitalism, the seeds of the destruction of mercantilism were sown. Some advantage was gained to the common man with the abolition of protectionist measures like monopolies. And free market systems ensured competitive prices but along with its advantages the market economy also increased the sense of work ethic. Previously idyllic lives were now to be spent slaving at factories and workplaces eking out a living.

This hasn’t changed much. In the world of globalization and international trade, corporate interest is the main driving force behind ‘growth’. Obama treads lightly with BP because Obama possibly knows who has a fatal but light grip on his balls. The ecosystem and the small people making a living off it are not really significant. And this is not really a one off example. Trade barriers, free markets, international trade agreements, multinationals etc are all ‘good for growth’ but not really good for the increment of the quality of life of the small man. At least, such increment does not make the betterment of the common good its priority. Leading us to question the validity of the whole system, and our perceptions of human nature.

Enter Title Here

I couldn’t think of a title. (pic by indi)

I have often wondered what my purpose is in life. I have no truck with this philosophy of letting things ride. life is not a train ride you find out your destination of only when you arrive at it. When i feel jaded and when i know my intellect is clouded i can only get depressed. If i don’t, the only other alternative is to get lost in ignorance.

We are higher beings than animals, if only because we have the capacity to think. It is a sad thing if we just throw that away to a hedonistic lifestyle and live life without even having an inkling of a greater order of things.

After embarking on my quest for reason, i finally hit upon the very truth that i was born into; Islam. I was born a Muslim and prayed but my faith soon failed its test. In those short years I believed but i didn’t believe; I’d work, get high and yeah, thats pretty much it.

We do not think of the future because we are afraid of it. We are afraid of our plans failing so we do not plan. We are afraid of never achieving our dreams so we abandon them and above all and everything else, we are afraid of death, because that is where everything ends, period. It doesn’t matter if you plan, dream or do the hokey-pokey, when your time comes you got to go.

So therein arises a lifestyle of ignorance and ‘happiness’. By ignoring death, we immortalize ourselves temporarily. We live in the present and ignore the future, for what more do we want than ‘happiness’?

But think about it. We are minute creatures living on a huge mass of land that we call a planet. Except of course, this mass of land is not so huge, it is merely but one of nine other, even huger, masses of land that revolve around a star that is 100 times as big. Pretty big.

Except of course even that star isn’t the biggest thing around, It is only but one of billion in a cluster of suns that are closely amalgamated across billions of light years of space, an unimaginable length and breath of space. Now that’s big.

Except that its not. reversing from the panorama of the milky way, after encountering nothing but the blackness of space, tiny pinpricks of light become visible as the galaxy we know fades. We are now beginning to see the true scale of what we like to call the universe; the biggest thing that human senses can perceive. A humongous collection of galaxies stretching to infinity.

And that is not the end. The nature of the universe has led scientists to theorize of alternative realities, parallel universes, an infinite stretch of universes themselves stretching on and on and on. And beyond that, what?

All this, all this magnificence, all this incomprehensible greatness, how did it come about? Are we not as insignificant as bacteria in the context of the scale of existence? Yet our egos threaten to encompass all of it and more. We continue to live lives focussed on goals like earning more money, becoming more popular, climbing the career ladder etc.

Creation

Modern science tends to imply the belief that the universe came about through an accident. I don’t buy it, but that’s only me. I’m perfectly open to the fact that other people do. Actually, people who do buy it are people who have probably at least thought about it. Too many of us tread blindly through life without thinking. I think a lot of problems of the world wouldn’t exist if more people had a firmer perspective on the greater meaning of life. And thought about how they figure in the whole game of the universe. Because that’s reality. And the raiment of our everyday lives is an easy way of hiding from it.

Endangering the Pavement Hawk

-there’s money to be had on the pavement

 We all bear a secret grudge against pavement hawkers. Maybe one of them cheated you, or intimidated you when you were a kid or was rude to your mom or felt your bum or whatever. Pavement hawkers wouldn’t really rank high on our lists of favourite people.They clog up the streets, the block access to legitimate shops, they scream in your ear, they pollute and they conjest. The city is a lot less refined looking cause of them.

Many (mostly on the side of the government) hail the current drive to clear the streets of Colombo of pavement hawkers as a bold move heralding our entrance bid to become one of Asia’s more developed economies. Others snidely remark on other various measures that are adopted to clean up the face of Colombo before the IIFA awards, like the uncharacteristically ultra-efficient road painting going on in the Negombo road.

But there is no denying that illegal pavement hawkers are a problem, and must be tackled,  indeed it won’t be fair to say that this is  clean up effort prior to the Indian invasion so to speak. The government has been doing this for some time and not only in Colombo, but current methods strike me to be too symptom oriented and not actual disease focussed.

Impulse Purchase

To provide a viable solution to your average pavement hawker, we must ask; what makes it profitable to be a pavement hawker? Most pavement hawkers probably make barely enough to eke out a living at that. But they do that primarily out of catering to impulse rather than actual needs. Think about it, whenever you bought something off the pavement, it was out of impulse wasn’t it? Unless of course, you actually set out from home looking to buy a pen torch that can also write in five different colors, cheap/fake Ray-Bans and Rolexes or wierd fake mustaches and beards harking back to the era of ancient Sri Lankan kings.

Such impulse products rely on supply to create demand. If it’s there, you buy it. If it isn’t there, you don’t. So, obviously the ideal places to sell products such as these are places where people gather. The sellers must go to the buyers. The market must literally be in the way of the potential customer. It more or less relies on this characteristic to survive. Hence the inherent nature of your average illegal pavement economy.

An Impotent Solution

So far the solution for these people has been to relocate them to shopping mall like buildings that accommodate them in concrete stalls in a many storeyed building. The building is located in a busy area of the city, sure but hardly in a place where customers frequent it. Therefore the businesses soon fall apart or return to the streets to survive. Current solutions are impotent, they only result in higher unemployment (and by extension possibly crime), wasted public funds and space.

A potent solution

Obviously, all current pavement hawkers will not be able to continue hawking viably while also following laws and regulations. Limited spaces can be provided in existing public infrastructure that can tackle the dual problem of getting them off the streets and also providing adequate livelihood. Shop spaces in the Borella underground is a good example. Maybe space can be given in major railway stations and bus stops but that will only mean that a very few of the currently afflicted will be able to continue work.

A potent solution must be a more dynamic one. It’ll involve a lot more reasearch into rooting out root causes and the studying of the communities involved. What causes people to enter into the pavement trade? Lack of opportunity, education; what? Is there any way their entrepreneurial capabilities can be directed towards a more productive industry that will also help build a more robust economy?

But is the government ready to undertake such deep study and come up with such solutions? are they even capable of it? Maybe a think tank should handle it. These imo, would be great areas for reconciliation work to take place. After all the potential for conflict, suffering and hardship is very high. This kind of intelligent reform, if it were to materialize, should definitely signal our entry bid into Asia’s list of top economies.

Untopia

Designing the future; Shinter

TIME Magazine has got an interesting section called 10 ideas for the next 10 years on this weeks issue. It features some interesting ideas dealing with thoughts ranging from why watching Kubrick’s 2001 – A space Odyssey is depressing (I’m always surprised how people attribute the work to Kubrick instead of Clarke), how and why white America will become a minority group, how an increasing amount of people are turning their backs on the rat race to lead more chilled out lives  to how TV will save the world.

Personally i am partial to the one before that last one. Utopic or starkly authoritarian views of the future have always fascinated me; not because they are a contradiction, but simply because utopia never seems to exist in the future unless iron-hard control is exercised throughout the system. Orwell’s 1984 portrays the bad side of it, while Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World shows the psychotic side of it. Iain M. Banks though comes out with a wholly agreeable outlook for the future of humans that i wouldnt mind freezing my brain for another few hundred thousand years to be a part of.

But just like Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 gave us a nice ride through fantasy, Iain M. Banks’s future controlled by super benevolent, super(artificially)intelligent yet independent Minds dedicated to the running of the known galaxy while ensuring all their flesh and blood species led completely pampered lives may seem the stuff of fairy tales come year 1,000,000; our computers can still seriously mess our lives up. But on scales vastly less devious than HALs.

People look at the future and see magic. But then in reality it’s just probably the same us out there with a fancier phone, wearing goofier clothes and holding atrocious moral compasses.

Peacebuilders aren’t so bad

The answers to corny questions like world peace and happiness lie in answering corny questions like the purpose of existence and life.

Im at a gathring of peacebuilders, activists and humanitarian workers and have already been embroiled in a couple of intense discussions on religion.

Accusing religion of causing conflict is an ill thought out argument in my opinion but promoting inter-religious understanding and active civilized and intellectual debate on the subject is a good thing.

maybe peacebuiding will have a future if it can find genuine ways of getting poeple to confront the most fundamental and sensitive divisions separating them genuinely and intellectually..

But of course in any debate, sensitive topics are usually avoided. As was made clear by the slightly taboo treatment of religion in the classroom. But as usual with any scene like this, there is more learning to be had from good frank conversation with other
participants.

Peacebulding and peacebuilders aren’t that bad. They try and seek out commonalities to try and conquor differences, but this ssometimes leads them to forget the differences entirely, and often diffrences are the stronger driving forces in conflict.

peacebuilding may seem like idealistic hogwash to the uninitiated; just listen to a passionate peacebuilder and his superordinate goals and u will wonder at the 70s flavor of it all.

But most of them know where its at; that a world completely without conflict is impossible. Indeed, thats almost a fundamental premise. But to aim for the stars is to at least end up on the coconut tree, they say. So u can hardly not forgive the idealism of their approach.

On the Campaign (Jungle) Trail

ye olde propaganda banner

I traveled to Kandy and also upto Puttlam over the weekend. I mostly saw Mahinda Rajapakse’s face and the color blue splattered everywhere. Evidence of Sarath Fonseka’s presence was limited to a few slightly ripped election posters and the odd old wartime banner put up during the days when both he and the president were on the same side; the side that killed terrorists.

MR on the New York Times via @TMnY

 Sarath Fonseka’s new advertisement is happening. But not as happening as the president’s SMS to all mobile phones in Sri Lanka on new years day. Dinidu asked Dialog about it and has written about their response here. They apparently said that they couldnt stop sending these messages beacause it was from the president. Sarath Fonseka’s new years e-mail was a bit long, so i haven’t read it yet. 

Mahinda has got his below the line advertising down pat while Sarath Fonseka’s town storming looks like a campaign for Gay Pride week. Fonseka seems nervous when he speaks; a newbie into the political way of doing things. The only thing consistent about his speeches are his gaffes that reveal a Sinhalese superioritist sentiment. They are not doing much to take back what he expressed to the Canadian Press a while ago. 

Leaving no stone unturned, or carriage unoccupied

 The coalition on which his candidacy rests is itself resting on shaky ground; it has all come together to try and win an election and has absolutely no idea what it is going to do next. People say ‘never trust the JVP’. Indeed, the economic alliance of the UNP and the JVP cannot be more bipolar than Santa Clause working with the Grinch. Their brands of Capitalism and Neo-Marxism can hardly combine to make a unprecedented super economic philosophy. 

This is reflected in the respective campaigns. The opposition is not offering any kind of concrete reform other than a broad promise to abolish the executive presidency and general talk of doing away with nepotism and corruption, not really providing a challenge to the incumbent who is currently just using proven-to-succeed tactics like plastering the country with images of himself and reducing/ promising to reduce the prices of essential goods. 

Propaganda is usually illegal and mostly sponsored through dubious means. In the case of Mahinda, he is dictating the terms here. He controls the state and arguably the legal system. He is setting the rules in a game that Fonseka is not equipped to play in. When it comes to campaigning its a jungle out there and the fittest survive. And given the conditions of play it is no surprise who is gaining the upper hand. 

From one perspective, it is in the interest of the taxpayer that the president wins. It makes sense to put your vote where your money goes to.

Faustian Foreign Policy; Sri Lanka compelled to sell out.

There has been some mystery surrounding the Foreign Policy of our governemnt for some time now. Increasing signs of ‘disturbing’ alliances with ‘antagonistic’ nations such as Iran, Russia and China during the war and subsequent post war events especially in the Human Rights department have got a lot of people wondering why we are so openly going against the West. The following article from the Sri Lanka Guardian sheds some light on the whole affair. Cheers to Zack for the link.

The position of the governments of India and a group of states that can collectively be called the Periphery, such as the U.S. and Australia, were in support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) or Tamil Tigers, either overtly or covertly. Many of these governments also provided this support tacitly, so as not to close any future opportunity of co-opting Sri Lanka after the fighting was over.

(…)In contrast, the governments of a group of states that can jointly be called Eurasia as a collective entity, such as Iran and Russia, supported the Sri Lankan government. The polar nature of the support by Eurasia and the Periphery for the two different combating sides in the Sri Lankan Civil War betrays the scent or odour of a much broader struggle. This is a struggle that extends far beyond the borders of the island of Sri Lanka and its region.

Why is this so? Much of the answer to such a question has to do with the formation of a growing alliance in the Eurasian landmass against the international domination of the U.S. and its allies.(…)In 2009, the last chapter of the Sri Lankan Civil War was very much a theatre within this process.

- Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Sri Lanka Guardian October 29, 2009

Read the rest or continue for a quick summary

There is growing division among the West and countries of the ‘Eaurasian’ coalition of which the main stakeholders are Russia, China and Iran. Sri Lanka is caught between a power struggle between Western and Eurasian nations due to its strategically important location in a key supply chain line connecting the East with the rest of the world. The West has either wised up to this long ago or had their own ideas of its importance as evidenced by Diego Garcia; a key military base jointly held by the US and British armed forces situated approx 1000 miles exactly south of Sri Lanka.

The LTTE was seen as a threat to the Eaurasian alliance cementing their control of Sri Lanka, as a ‘Balkanized‘ SL would have meant instability and a possible loss of control to the ‘periphery’. So support was provided to the Government of Mahinda Rajapakse to help it eradicate the LTTE. This was not seen in a friendly light by the West and aid from that region declined at a tremendous pace; almost as fast as aid increased from Iran and China. In 2008, within the military framework, Chinese aid reached $1billion while US aid dropped down to $14million. Iran chipped in with interest free loans and extended support fot the GOSL to get its crude oil situation sorted out.

This Eurasian Alliance formed along the lines of the Primakov Doctrine (which chiefly advocates a ‘nonpolar’ world) has formed the ‘NATO of the East’; the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) of which Sri Lanka has become a ‘dialogue partner’ (see right on SCO wiki page). The Hambanthota ‘harbour’ under construction is really a Chinese naval base; A part of the Chinese ‘string of pearls’ strategy to strengthen its military power in the region to secure its supply chains originating from the Mid East and Africa. 

Now the primary interests if the Eurasian states lie in consolidating their influence in Sri Lanka. They need to ensure that a government friendly to them will remain in power in order for them to do this. End of summary.

…

Given this context, some light is shed on the possible underlying reasons why the president is now referring to Gen Sarath Fonseka as a traitor. We will probably see some strong propaganda coming out of Temple Trees soon to the effect that the General is trying to undo all the hard work put into winning the war in a selfish and frustrated bid for power. Both sides will try and keep all details of foreign influence out of public campaigns; Sri Lankans are notoriously paranoid when it comes to interfering foreigners. But when the dirtypolitik that our campaigns are famous for raises its head, everyone will get a chance to sniff at the garbage.

Back to this emerging Cold War; it does not seem to be abating as some leading local intelletuals seem to think. The recession drove home the importance of economic buoyancy and the increasing need to compete for resources has only emphasized fears of possible threats to independence and security, leading to a need for powerful nations to start preparing for a possible big one.

The West will try its best to preserve the already changing status quo. And they do not want to be faced with a powerful China, Russia or Iran if and when push comes to shove. So they will obviously try and take pre-emptory measures to reduce the possible impact an Eurasian opposition would have in a next Great War or series of mini conflicts that will encompass a sustained Cold War. And the Sri Lankan elections, to the minds of both sides, will be crucial in securing power in the important shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean.

In a setting like this, a small country like ours probably has no other option but to sell its soul. The war has divided our society too greatly for us to be able to unitedly stand against foreign influence. Plus, in a globalized world where we rely so much on foreign help for economic sustenance, staying non aligned for long is a virtual impossibility. Especially when we are caught in such a geopolitically strategic location in the tug of war between two powerful opposing forces.

The best we can do is keep playing a dangerous game to ensure that we keep getting the benefits. But a Faustian game is a tough one to play and you don’t always get rescued by heaven. In the real world Mephistopheles usually caps yo ass, or you get your ass capped because of him, one way or another.