Portrait

a year ago, i made a decision that would permanently alter my life.

thank you, for the love. it’s so endless, unconditional, relentless, passaionate, courageous, joyous ways have brought me life and laughter, and taught me love. here’s to the year gone by, and many more.

ministry of sound, here in colombo?

so it seems.

this morning, eagerly awaiting auspicious times to dawn, i turned on the tv to the state channel because they’re pretty reliable with their times.

what i witness there is a crock of shit. the president’s brother has traveled to the north east area of sri lanka and is distributing ‘new year gifts’ amongst the poor tamil refugees there, in the festive and giving spirit of the sinhala and hindu new year. there are shots of happy, playing children, happy, grateful people receiving their gifts with thanks in their eyes, women seated around playing a rabana (as if tamil people even play the rabana). it’s a picture of joy. and why? we soon find out. because of course, as the commentary tells us, the innocent people of the north and north east have been rescued from the jaws of the LTTE and its violent ways by the goverment and it’s policy under the ‘mahinda chinthanaya’. because of course the super efficiency and consideration of our good mr president has saved the people from a life of misery and given them a reason to celebrate the dawning of a new year with hope of prosperity and safety. it’s all because of him.

the blatant display of nationalism in hopes of fooling desperate, poverty stricken war victims in the form of gifts and a visit by the president’s brother, the false sense of patriotism they are instilling is every person that turns on their tvs, the mollycoddling of the refugess in the north east areas who’ve been victims at the hands of both sides, the way the mainstream media is being manhandled to get such a specific message across, is altogether shameless and far from subtle. it is, in fact, grossly obvious.

blinding the masses from the truth, holding us back from knowing the reality of the suffering of our fellow citizens, a fate that we may all soon be looking at, compelling us to mistrust the media horribly and turn instead to our gut feelings and bits of unbiased news we can illegitimately pick up, this is our new year. fan fucken tastic.