{"id":118898,"date":"2021-10-05T16:46:23","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T23:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118898"},"modified":"2021-10-05T16:46:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T23:46:23","slug":"so-who-is-calling-the-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/10\/05\/so-who-is-calling-the-shots\/","title":{"rendered":"So, who is calling the shots?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I was going through the \u2018editorial\u2019 of the \u2018Island\u2019 (29-09-21)\ntitled \u2018When heroes cower\u2019 and as usual the ‘Editor’ stung again, where it\nhurts and matters most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And suddenly my mind veered off the rails and there they are,\nright in front of me: Garlic, sugar and rice. And then there were others as\nwell, too many to fit into this short letter; turmeric, milk powder, to mention\na couple.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the three mentioned above occupied the centre stage:\nGarlic, sugar and, rice, of course, being kept in various forms of storage,\nsome even cleverly hidden from the eyes of the casually curious to serious and\nhonest investigators (sadly though, not many of them left now, of that\nquality).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I wondered. How come garlic, which in folklore of some\ncountries is regarded as a substance capable of keeping the evil spirits away,\ntook sides with some evil-minded and let them steal it? My somewhat slow-witted\nmind saw it in that unusually dumb perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we all know Sri Lankans love sugar (including sugar-coated\npolitical mumbo-jumbo) and there are plenty unscrupulous out there, who would\ndo anything to take advantage of that love to fatten their wealth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the \u2018Rice Band\u2019. I am sure many of us already know when,\nhow and who laid the foundation and then subsequently kept building on it to\nsuch an extent, that now seems to have become a law unto itself and it seems to\nhave no problem at all to say stubborn no\u2019s even to the government, which as we\nhave seen very recently had to timidly bow down to its demands.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They came in, promising big to take those marauding bulls in all\narenas of concern including political, by the horns, tackle them and tame them,\nonce and for all. At the beginning it all looked well. However, many of those\npromises remain yet to be fulfilled and millions, who ticked the boxes in\nfavour of them and not the other parties and their candidates, must be really\ndisappointed, for very obvious reasons. And those bulls are still there (could\nbe more now) and even more active than never before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure that our President is capable of putting things straight\nwith stern actions, sending those bulls where they belong and also let those\nroguish businessmen know, who is calling the shots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laksiri Warnakula <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula\u00a0 I was going through the \u2018editorial\u2019 of the \u2018Island\u2019 (29-09-21) titled \u2018When heroes cower\u2019 and as usual the ‘Editor’ stung again, where it hurts and matters most.  And suddenly my mind veered off the rails and there they are, right in front of me: Garlic, sugar and rice. And then there were others […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laksiri-warnakula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}