I have tried for a very long time to turn a blind eye to this whole "let's hate the other races and point fingers at each other" scenario that's been going on lately, hoping that if I ignore it long enough without contributing to it, that people would soon tire of it. But seems not. Atrocities heighten day by day and my groucho-level goes up every time I spot some post or the other on a social media platform.
The BBS (aka the Beastly Bullshit Squad) had successfully done their part it seems. In addition to wanting to ban halal, rip hijabs off Muslim women's heads (which the feminist in me secretly condones cz come on, these ladies have pretty faces that they should totally flaunt) and rebelling against contraception for Sinhala women, they have managed to successfully incite the ignorant (or rather bored) "Sinhala Buddhist" majority into a frenzied racist fury. One should only look at the various posts being shared on social media to gag in total disbelief at the sheer blatant animosity, the narrow mindedness of the majority that the shock and disgust just freezes you for a good few minutes. With a herd of brainless bullocks in this country to follow them, no wonder the BBS has such a large fan base, bawling "sadu sadu" at every idiotic stunt that they pull. Seems that Lankans, better yet the "Sinhala Buddhist" majority are no better than Tamilnadu ignorants who go about brutally attacking innocent Sri Lankans under the slightest provocation.
This is not to say that there are certain Muslims and Tamil people who are as nitwitted as the Sinhala patriotic junkies hammering out BBS-inspired slogans, beating their chests, dangerously whipping their robes/sarongs/sarees/skirts and etc out there. It was just a while back that I was attending a workshop on building intercultural dialog that a Muslim young man, a local university student (I am assuming that one needs at least a tiny bit of intellect to get into a local uni) and an "educated" one at that declared and threatened that the Muslims will overtake Sri Lanka very soon during a peaceful discussion about how to advocate intercultural dialogue between the races for a peaceful future. He was rather aggressive about it and a few other Muslim members of the group joined him in the taunting while the rest of us looked on utterly shocked.
So yes, the truth is that there are extremists in every religion, in every race, in every sphere of life. After all, one is partial to one's own community, however impartial they claim themselves to be. But that does not, by all means, mean that one has to be aggressive, violent in the way in which one remains loyal.
But I am of the opinion that behind this latest racist craze are the authorities themselves, igniting issues with the aim of covering up much larger issues such as the corruption, the declining economy of the country, the seriously effed up education system and etc for which they themselves are to be blamed (Remember the coloured rains, the spaceships, the UN resolution drama, etc just when the fuel prices shot up?) The general public too is custom-made-stupid for the authorities it seems. Now that the war is over, we have nothing to keep us entertained. Once the colourful rains are done and the spaceships have all left us earthlings in peace, there was simply no entertainment. So now we've resorted to finger pointing and hating. Its the latest trend now.
So the point being, one should not even think of tainting the name of Buddhism by such heinous acts, shameful words and soul crunching aggression. Buddhism is a beautiful philosophy and it does NOT need your bullshit to give off a bad impression to the rest of the world. The people in yellow robes (for I refuse to call them monks) who engage in such acts need to be arrested and properly punished for hiding behind this noble philosophy to engage in such lowly acts. Where in Buddhism is it stated that one should hate and despise other religions? Where in Buddhism is it stated that one should engage in aggressive acts against all those who bear different ideas than what you think? After all, how many of these goodness preaching know-it-alls actually are aware of the true core of Buddhism? How many of them actually even adhere, at least once in a blue moon, to the principles preached? And IF they adhere to those principles, will they go around throwing rotten eggs at unsuspecting females, would they go around vandalizing others' hard earned property, would they go around harassing individuals from other religions and most of all, would they go around harassing all others who dare challenge their views? And WHERE were these righteous knights, rather noble guardians of Buddhism when people were being harassed, brutally murdered for political reasons, money and etc? WHERE in the world were they when innocent women get raped and tortured, harassed in the public? Too busy picketing against the average Mala and Sumana trying hard to manage the number of mouths they have to feed with their meager income by purchasing the occasional contraception I suppose.
It was just recently that I stumbled upon a certain pseudo Sinhala Buddhist page that claimed with much ardour that we must put a stop to women wearing trousers in this country. The page had a regular generous flow of pictures featuring female backsides clad in denims. I wonder how "Sinhala Buddhist" they were feeling when they chased random females down the streets, taking so much pains to photograph their derriers.
So lets say they do manage to chase off all the Muslims, Tamils and even the Christians out of the country. What next? Who to pick on next? I'm sure they'l be flying at each other's throats next, the "Sinhala Buddhists" murdering each other over cast issues and whatnot.
So BBS Puh-leese GAL! (Get a Life!)!
The BBS (aka the Beastly Bullshit Squad) had successfully done their part it seems. In addition to wanting to ban halal, rip hijabs off Muslim women's heads (which the feminist in me secretly condones cz come on, these ladies have pretty faces that they should totally flaunt) and rebelling against contraception for Sinhala women, they have managed to successfully incite the ignorant (or rather bored) "Sinhala Buddhist" majority into a frenzied racist fury. One should only look at the various posts being shared on social media to gag in total disbelief at the sheer blatant animosity, the narrow mindedness of the majority that the shock and disgust just freezes you for a good few minutes. With a herd of brainless bullocks in this country to follow them, no wonder the BBS has such a large fan base, bawling "sadu sadu" at every idiotic stunt that they pull. Seems that Lankans, better yet the "Sinhala Buddhist" majority are no better than Tamilnadu ignorants who go about brutally attacking innocent Sri Lankans under the slightest provocation.
This is not to say that there are certain Muslims and Tamil people who are as nitwitted as the Sinhala patriotic junkies hammering out BBS-inspired slogans, beating their chests, dangerously whipping their robes/sarongs/sarees/skirts and etc out there. It was just a while back that I was attending a workshop on building intercultural dialog that a Muslim young man, a local university student (I am assuming that one needs at least a tiny bit of intellect to get into a local uni) and an "educated" one at that declared and threatened that the Muslims will overtake Sri Lanka very soon during a peaceful discussion about how to advocate intercultural dialogue between the races for a peaceful future. He was rather aggressive about it and a few other Muslim members of the group joined him in the taunting while the rest of us looked on utterly shocked.
So yes, the truth is that there are extremists in every religion, in every race, in every sphere of life. After all, one is partial to one's own community, however impartial they claim themselves to be. But that does not, by all means, mean that one has to be aggressive, violent in the way in which one remains loyal.
But I am of the opinion that behind this latest racist craze are the authorities themselves, igniting issues with the aim of covering up much larger issues such as the corruption, the declining economy of the country, the seriously effed up education system and etc for which they themselves are to be blamed (Remember the coloured rains, the spaceships, the UN resolution drama, etc just when the fuel prices shot up?) The general public too is custom-made-stupid for the authorities it seems. Now that the war is over, we have nothing to keep us entertained. Once the colourful rains are done and the spaceships have all left us earthlings in peace, there was simply no entertainment. So now we've resorted to finger pointing and hating. Its the latest trend now.
So the point being, one should not even think of tainting the name of Buddhism by such heinous acts, shameful words and soul crunching aggression. Buddhism is a beautiful philosophy and it does NOT need your bullshit to give off a bad impression to the rest of the world. The people in yellow robes (for I refuse to call them monks) who engage in such acts need to be arrested and properly punished for hiding behind this noble philosophy to engage in such lowly acts. Where in Buddhism is it stated that one should hate and despise other religions? Where in Buddhism is it stated that one should engage in aggressive acts against all those who bear different ideas than what you think? After all, how many of these goodness preaching know-it-alls actually are aware of the true core of Buddhism? How many of them actually even adhere, at least once in a blue moon, to the principles preached? And IF they adhere to those principles, will they go around throwing rotten eggs at unsuspecting females, would they go around vandalizing others' hard earned property, would they go around harassing individuals from other religions and most of all, would they go around harassing all others who dare challenge their views? And WHERE were these righteous knights, rather noble guardians of Buddhism when people were being harassed, brutally murdered for political reasons, money and etc? WHERE in the world were they when innocent women get raped and tortured, harassed in the public? Too busy picketing against the average Mala and Sumana trying hard to manage the number of mouths they have to feed with their meager income by purchasing the occasional contraception I suppose.
It was just recently that I stumbled upon a certain pseudo Sinhala Buddhist page that claimed with much ardour that we must put a stop to women wearing trousers in this country. The page had a regular generous flow of pictures featuring female backsides clad in denims. I wonder how "Sinhala Buddhist" they were feeling when they chased random females down the streets, taking so much pains to photograph their derriers.
So lets say they do manage to chase off all the Muslims, Tamils and even the Christians out of the country. What next? Who to pick on next? I'm sure they'l be flying at each other's throats next, the "Sinhala Buddhists" murdering each other over cast issues and whatnot.
So BBS Puh-leese GAL! (Get a Life!)!
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