Peace Ploys and Other Decoys

It was perhaps a year ago now that I met a Sri Lankan man on a train in Kuala Lumpur. After years of war, and many peace talks sponsored by big time international peace negotiators a ceasefire had been declared in Sri Lanka.

I questioned him about whether he (as Ex Pat Sri Lankan himself) thought that this signaled a real and lasting peace in his country or was it something like the little piece of peace that visited Nepal briefly?

He couldn't say, it was early days yet and we both agreed that to continue to pray for peace, which was probably a good option under the circumstances.

Peace, like history, is written by the victors.

Having witnessed the pseudo peace in Nepal crumble into chaos within months of a stunning victory at the polls for the Mao, I had my doubts about Sri Lanka too.

I'm not going to even look at a newspaper when I am there, I promised myself. I am just going to go and lie on the beach and relax. I didn't want to have my heart torn by the reality for the people I was about to visit because I didn't plan to visit with them at all. Like most tourists, I just wanted some me time to rest and recover and get a bloody tan for god's sakes!

Also I have spent more time telling people to GO AWAY than I have trying to engage them in conversation about their lives.

Sitting enjoying a cigarette at the house where I have a Room For Tourist in Kandy, my gentleman host and I were comparing family stories, talking about the price of rice and other basic essentials that make up the cost of living these days. Like everyone everywhere in the world, people who are struggling to manage amid soaring food prices.

An Italian guest said that the economy in Italy and Spain are in real danger of collapsing, banks are teetering on the brink of the edge of a great abyss.

It's also kind of strange to me that the price of rice or lentils in a country where it is grown has the same price tag on it as the rice we see in supermarkets in New Zealand or Australia. How can that be when the rice has to travel half the way across the world, and end up in some fancy package that we don't see here in India? Some strange and evil machinations of the global economy mean that we are all wondering how to feed our families. In New Zealand and Africa, in Palestine and Haiti, in Nepal and Timbuktu the price of food and the availability of staple items mean that living is a real struggle for us all. At least those of us at the bottom of the food chain, I guess the puppeteers of this area all happily munching on their organic smorgasbords while we screen the rice for stones that have been added to cheat the weight.

The Sri Lankans find it hard to believe, they have this idea that life in the West is cleaner, cheaper, safer and less corrupt than their life here. It's difficult to convince them that your own country is also in economic turmoil when you are sitting here and not doing daily battle at the grocery store you get them talking, they don't want to stop. There is a tension under the surface of these people that takes only a little scratch to reveal.

The scratch became an itch the other day with the arrest of the leader of the opposition,

Seems that even though new President won the Presidential elections by a landslide victory of almost two million votes and immediately issued a new one thousand-rupee note to celebrate, a parliamentary victory of the same magnitude will be assured if only there is no opposition.

So now I am openly ear wigging on conversations between guides and tourists, asking people from taxi drivers to hotel owners what they think about this situation.

The common feeling is that the election result was fixed. No one I spoke to believed that anyone could win such a tight election by so many votes. They also say that since he came to power, food prices have sky rocketed and law and order is still not under control.

They had a chance to practice that the other day when pro opposition people demonstrated for the release of

The usual tear gas and beatings resulted and the leader of the opposition still languishes in jail.

Are people afraid? I asked a guide in the ancient city of Sigiria.

Afraid, yes, angry yes, we don't know what will happen next. Perhaps the new president is going to be another Idi Amin,

Why do you say so?

Look at the new note, he said. People don't get their faces on a currency note until they are dead or a dictator.