{"id":90976,"date":"2019-07-02T15:40:43","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T22:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90976"},"modified":"2019-07-02T15:40:43","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T22:40:43","slug":"the-ship-that-has-lost-its-bearings-of-both-the-helm-and-the-helmsman-the-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/02\/the-ship-that-has-lost-its-bearings-of-both-the-helm-and-the-helmsman-the-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"The ship that has lost its bearings; of both the helm and the helmsman-The metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

What would you\nexpect from an unfortunate ship that has lost its helm and the helmsman, owing\nto bearing-malfunctioning, of the helm and the head of the helmsman, as well?\nInevitably, it will become uncontrollable and lose all sense of direction\nresulting in becoming incapable of sailing safely and soundly along mapped-out\nlanes towards its desired destination. It won\u2019t be seaworthy anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nIt will become an ailing ship that will be tossed to and fro by the waves, battered\nfrom all sides by the water and the wind and sooner or later will succumb to\nthe inevitable. It will sink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nNow leaving aside the above passage that I have written with a somewhat\nmetaphorical slant and tone, let\u2019s muse about what our country has been going\nthrough, particularly since \u2018Yahapalanaya\u2019 took over the reins, even though\nthis has already been done, most likely for an umpteenth number of times by an\nequally umpteenth number of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nWe all know that it came in with lots of fanfare and full of pledges and\npromises. And the people probably may have sighed in relief, telling\nthemselves; \u2018Oh at last the bright lights of decency, fair play, justice and\neventual prosperity in sight at the end of the tunnel, which was kept dark far\ntoo long. Now no more to white vans, cronyism, nepotism, deals, plots and\nthuggery, so on and so forth\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nAnd just four years on, we find ourselves on a cursed ship, which has lost\ndirection in every conceivable sense and is adrift, left to float on its own,\nin stormy seas bereft of accountability and responsibility, full of chaos,\ndisarray and lies. And to top it off, it is, having been already hit hard with\nthe massacre of more than two hundred and fifty innocent worshipers including\nchildren, now facing a new form of threat, different from what Mr MR fought and\nfinished off. (The good part of him, in spite of the bad and the ugly\njustifiably attributed to his conduct during his tenure as president for the\nsecond time, in particular).<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nIn fact, there is hardly anything new that I could add here. Many concerned\ncitizens including the editor himself have voiced their opinion on paper\nwithout mincing words and many times over, at that. Almost everything is in the\ndoldrums. The accusation, denial, denigration, manipulation, you name it and\nit\u2019s there, but fair play, sensible, sustainable and far-sighted economic\nplans, policies without political bias, law enforcement, much needed reforms in\nmany a sector and industry-building, to mention a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nYet, the corrupt, dirty deals of the nation builders and their cronies continue\nuninterrupted, with scant regard for decency and honesty. And the perpetrators\nare frolicking amidst the riches with gay abandon, enjoying what has already\nbeen gained and salivating at what is in the offing and yet to come. Their\nadventures are too numerous and so varied, one would find it hard to assign an\nidentity to each one of them, whether it\u2019s betrayal, corruption, sell-off,\nmischief, theft, sheer daylight robbery or whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nAnd there is always something to keep people busy; blabbering, discussing,\ndissecting and guessing. There is a mind-boggling array of events and\nhappenings so varied and weird, akin to a kaleidoscope, an ugly one though,\nthat it\u2019s hard to keep track of them, let alone make any sensible analysis of\neach one, as one becomes lost amidst hearsay, rumour and divided\nexpert-opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nFrom inexplicable silence that many of the Diyawanna Oya inhabitants\nmaintained, yet knew in advance of an impending terrorist attack, through a\ncase relating to female reproductive system, then onto a Ven. monk going into a\n\u2018fast unto death\u2019 protest and now to the current hot topic of \u2018whether to hang\nthem or let the noose rest in peace\u2019, we are never short of drama, be it comic,\ntragic or downright stupid. Perhaps, this is how they want it; keep us busy\narguing, debating, fighting and fuming over who, what, where and why and make\nus forget that we are in reality being ceremoniously, yet cunningly led down\nthe garden path by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all,\nanything and everything is possible in \u2018la-la land cruise ship\u2019 helmed by \u2018la\ncomedian\u2019, who seems to have lost few bearings in his head and helm too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Laksiri Warnakula What would you expect from an unfortunate ship that has lost its helm and the helmsman, owing to bearing-malfunctioning, of the helm and the head of the helmsman, as well? Inevitably, it will become uncontrollable and lose all sense of direction resulting in becoming incapable of sailing safely and soundly along mapped-out lanes […]<\/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-90976","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\/90976","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=90976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}