Maharagama Roadkill

I got down from Waththeygedara bus halt to meet up with a friend some weeks back when i got a sudden stench from nowhere. When i looked around i was a bit taken back from what i saw. A stray dog lavishly munching off what seems to be..urr well...a dead Monkey.

I really dont know if it was a road kill or the exact cause of death, but that sound of raw flesh being torn off that dead animal's body reminded me of how it would be in the wild where the goal is nothing but survival...but come to think of it its not so different here either right?

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The urban scavenger...

War of the Mind

So a while ago I saw this show on Abuse against Women called Apeksha. The show went on to show men as evil beasts who just plain do horrible things to women. In fact at one point it seemed that one man actually saved the titular Apeksha from her terrible fate to only end up marrying her and becoming another monster.

The whole thing seemed somewhat one sided to me. Sure these things happen but they themselves go on to say that abuse can be both physical and mental. In the discussion with the audience that followed afterward I found myself agreeing with the Father from the Church who said that abuse can go both ways, it’s not only against women… yes even the physical kind. Pots and Pans people… pots and pans. But psychological warfare is equally or more potent.

In fact I’ve noticed that women are generally better at psychological attacks with the reason being that physical attacks are generally out of their means. I stress generally. They can be great schemers. Such forms of offensive action are also commonly employed by men who lack physical strength because they too need to develop alternatives.

In fact it seems to me that mental abuse can have more far reaching consequences and be sometimes be permanent or near permanent. Physical blows on the other hand will heal and recover but sometimes damages on the mind cannot. Even worse other people can’t really see if another person has been mentally abused either.

To show you the strength of what can happen to the mind I’m going to take two examples... though I'm sure there are many other examples that can be found.

The first is Al Capone. This hard man gangster was the untouchable man during the major bootlegging era of the United States. But strangely enough when he was caught he was a broken man who was quiet and humble. Once the game was up he was finished being completely defeated in the mind.

The Second is Lawrence of Arabia who led many successful campaigns in the Middle East. Unfortunately for him he was captured by Turks who subjected him to all kinds of sexual abuse. He was never the same and he died a broken man.

Just think hypothetically of a robot whose exterior was completely fine. But it if its programming is messed up it may behave erratically but you might not be able to see why and I believe this is the same with human beings.

I leave you with a quote from the Matrix:

Morpheous "The body cannot live without the mind"

Love will Save us All!

So the age old adage goes. Or is it a cheap cliche? Well... let's a take a look.

A long long time ago, Europe was besieged by war. At the end of the First World War much of France was destroyed due to the fact that much of the fighting had taken place there. Being a member of the victors, the French demanded harsh reparations from the Germans. Thus the Treaty of Versailles was born.

The French were completely angry and pissed off at how their nation had been ravaged by the war whose chief propagator was Germany. So with this hatred their decided to 'suck the blood' of the Germans for what they had done to La Francaise.

The Germans were also pissed off. They had lost the war and much bitterness was felt all around, especially with the Treaty of Versailles making life in the country unbearable. Amidst this bitter resentment rumours began to spread about how the Weimar Democracy had stabbed the Germany Army in the back and how they had never lost the war. This hatred on both sides eventually lead the World to war once again.

With Hitler in power, he blamed the nations ails on the Jewish people. Ordinary German folk lapped it up like a cat does milk. So easy to just blindly hate the people who were different and many of whom were affluent. They went nuts with the idea.

Soon the Jews were being rounded up, killed, their babies bashed in the head etc etc. Why did these things happen? An absence of Love I tell you. Because of the bitterness all around the people in Germany just wanted to tear someone apart in pure revenge.

Love is a feeling or state of mind that allows for creative and peaceful creation. Movies, books, art, music and so much more is created with a love for the medium. You can't hope to create any of those out of anything else... well a lot is created just for money, but they're usually no good. You need soul and passion.

Without the positivity of love we cannot create and instead go down the destructive route that requires little thought, understanding or reasoning.

Battery Myths

"Let's all charge our batteries right before they die!" said the wise man before he died. And thus the followers proceeded to do so in honour of their wise man ever since.

But hah! Sorry for you my friend... but your wise man was off his rocker. You see back when he was a young un they used to have these different kinds of batteries that needed to be fully discharged before they could be recharged. It's kinda like how some people played village games with stones before they invented video games and movies and stuff.

So why is the wise man wrong? Well most devices these days with batteries use a different kind of battery known as Lithium Ion. These little babies prefer to be charged whenever and actually hate to be discharged fully or left in the low power battery ranges. It's bad for them. Practically every mp3 player, laptop and mobile phone uses these now.

These kinds of batteries have one main weaknesses and that's exposure to heat. It's better to keep them cool but with the heat in SL that's kinda hard unless you have AC. Most laptop batteries die fast because when people run them on the mains, the battery remains at full power whilst being heated from the laptop which kills the battery. The more charge in the battery the worse the effects of heat. In fact its recommended to store them in a fridge or somewhere cool to increase longevity... but who can be bothered doing that?

How do you know if it's a lithium ion battery you've got? Open the back and google the serial number. You should find info on the battery. Another method is to see if it has a battery meter - that you know tells you how much battery is left. If it has one... chances are its a lithium ion battery.

Devices where you can't see a battery meter and are requested to keep charging constantly without interruption for X amount of hours even after the first time you charge it are usually not lithium ion batteries. These you do need to wait till the damn thing gets to near death before charging and can't remove it from the charger.

Anyway keep charging those lithium ion batteries whenever instead of waiting for them to die or get to near death. Your battery will be happy.

The Wife, the Prostitute and the Golddigger

Let’s assume that there are three types of women out there as the title states, The Prostitute, The Gold Digger and the Wife.

The Prostitute is a woman who has sex with men for money. She does this for a living, usually because she has no choice in the matter. I really doubt anyone does this out of choice. In fact there’s that whole classic scenario that happens even here with the Chinese and possibly Russians who are told that they’ll be given a good job if they come to a particular country. Once they get here it’s another story entirely and it’s either work or go back home… except they’re paying for the ticket.

Porn stars are another matter entirely and the people who work in that business as certain unnamed people pointed out can be highly educated business people – yes even the women. Anyway last point about the prostitute, she is probably never ever going to complain probably because she doesn’t give a damn about you and will most likely never see you again.

The Gold Digger on the other hand is a woman who will do anything for her own security, wealth and comfort. The ultimate extreme would be marrying someone they care absolutely nothing about just for the money and comfortable life. There are plenty of women who are willing to do this… I suppose it’s a biological survival mechanism or something. But what is the difference between a woman like this and the prostitute?

The answer is quite simply the money. You see the prostitute is paid on a wage basis whereas the Gold Digger gets paid on a monthly basis… a salary if you will. The latter type of women will typically have a monthly expenditure amount that Hubby/Gold Mine is willing to put up with. While technically it can’t be seen like this, if you were to divide the amount of money she siphons off in to months or years you can work out the salary or annual gross.

Of course the job description is a little more complicated and can involve birthing and raising children in addition to being a smiley representative. These things are just not cheap. But such women are probably amicable as long as you can keep paying, though probably less amicable than the prostitute.

But you know what’s even more surprising… it’s the men who actually don’t mind marrying a woman like that. What exactly is going on in their heads? Do they even care? Are they anyway having affairs with a stand in wife to cover the fact and maintain appearances? If the latter is the case, then they are getting what they paid for I suppose: a total farce of marriage to keep people placated and stop asking questions.

Now we come in for the wife which is probably the most complicated. This ‘type’ of woman I assume would enter relationships for more suitable reasons such as building a long term commitment. Her duties aren't part of a salary package and she’s going to be squeezing out babies for absolutely no additional charge. The wife is also probably going to be very cranky and highly likely to complain and be an all around bitch.

Not surprising since she had the misfortune of loving your sorry ass. See that’s the main thing that would separate the wife from the other two; that iffy little word called ‘love’ and that’s the difference. The love of a woman is not for free, but you can't buy it… for it was never for sale.

A New Political Candidate?

With the recent happenings regarding our Good General it seems to me that another person has stepped on to the scene. Who am I talking about? No one but but the Good General's wife nonetheless. Crazy idea? Hmm...

Well let's see, having watched some of the press conferences, what comes across is that this woman has a far better 'stage' presence than that of Sarath Fonseka and generally comes across as being more polished. She seems quite interesting to watch unlike her husband who just might put you to sleep.

It appears to me that the longer Mr. Fonseka is in trouble, the longer she will be in front of the cameras and talking to the nation. Going to the hypothetical: if anything were to happen to Sarath Fonseka she would be the prime candidate to lead any kind of 'new wave' of politics. After all the grieving widow has generally been quite a success politically especially when considering the likes of the Bandaranaikes, Sonia Gandhi and Corazon Aquino.

To be cold and a realist, one wonders if the opposition themselves might put 'two' in him... after all seems like no one really gave a damn about Sarath Fonseka.

A pile of crap or not... it's up to you to decide.

"Evil Knievel"

Serendib Isle recently made a comment on this post about people being evil in nature or inherently evil (perhaps even being born this way). This is a response to that using the fictional character of the Joker from the 2008's 'The Dark Knight' as an example.

First off, what I argued in that post is that there is no such thing as good or evil, only motivations. People who do evil things do so out of some kind of compulsion. Let’s take the Joker who might be classified as being just plain evil. I however disagree. While his actions are all designed to cause damage to others and generally bring about chaos there is still a motivation behind his actions.

The Joker is a twisted individual who has become this way due to reasons that are not known to us. He makes up constant stories about his origins, but what is clear is that he enjoys messing the plans of others and generally causing chaos or anarchy. You might say this is being inherently evil, but I say that his motivation is simply doing something that satisfies or pleases him. You might also say that is sympathizing with a psycho but I once again disagree.

Most of us do things that we enjoy. The problem with psychos and other crazy people is that the things that they enjoy doing are detrimental to society or just plain dangerous. The fact that such people ignore the negative aspect or even enjoy it is what allows us to deem them psychos in the first place.

So I say that everything is motivated one way or another, whether through reason or irrationality. Good and Evil are just labels we attach to events and actions to classify them in our minds.

Giving money to the poor = Good
Stealing = Bad
Stealing from the rich to give to the poor = Good if you’re poor, Bad if you’re rich

After all during war... the psychotic killer is our hero.

Please Note: This is not a flame on Serendib Isle

Consolidation...

Defined as: The act or process of consolidating, making firm, or uniting; the state of being consolidated; solidification; combination. [1913 Webster]

People who consolidate usually go out of their way to cement their position and make it the status quo. It is generally done when the position held is not unassailable. Let's look at some examples.

Hitler during his reign consolidated his power early on by raiding the offices of the Communist Party, a strong rival. After the Enabling Act that gave Hitler the status of "Fuhrer" or leader there was an invitation that all views were welcome. The Communists came in droves to exercise their rights. The ones that showed were all arrested and the membership of the Communist party never recovered during the Third Reich and they were eliminated as an opposing force.

Joseph Stalin used a variety of ways to overcome his rival and Lenin's number two, Leon Trotsky, in order to consolidate his position. The first was lying to Trotsky about the date of Lenin's funeral... Stalin became the chief mourner at the funeral.

Second he eventually expelled Trotsky (who was opposing him at the time) from the Politburo and then banished him to the practically barren wasteland that is known as Siberia. But Stalin was paranoid... understandably so since he was the man with all the power in the USSR. Many would do well to oust him. So he set about purging the army... after all Trotsky had once been 'Commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War' meaning he had many loyalists in the Soviet Armed Forces.

Sadly for the USSR, the purging of the army went too far and all experienced personnel were demoted, arrested or executed leaving younger men who were loyal to Stalin in charge. This led to the Soviet Army being embarrassingly defeated by Finland during a Soviet invasion attempt of the small nation. It also demonstrated a sign to the Germans that perhaps the Soviet Army wasn't all that it was cracked to be... a reason for Operation Barbarossa but that's going off on a tangent.

But the final paranoia of Stalin led to the untimely fate of Trotsky. Some twenty years later when Trotsky was living out his days in Mexico, an NKVD agent (Soviet form of Gestapo) buried an ice pick in to the back of the man's skull thereby eliminating him for good.

Relationship Randoms

When people see a guy and girl hanging around together everyone automatically assumes that there is something going on. While naturally there is a strong precedent for such a belief as people of different genders hanging out together as a duet generally does convey an image of being a couple.

Sometimes however people really are just friends, but this doesn’t stop others from making a world of assumptions. This isn't the only form of speculation, so lets look at some others.

First off as a guy, there is sometimes the tendency to take even the slightest bit of attention from a woman as a message that ‘she likes me’. This is quite common I would argue. Secondly if a woman gets touchy with a guy it also sends more signals confirming the previous statement.
However looking at it from a female perspective the same actions can mean two different things and it really depends on the woman. Yes for some women being all touchy is clearly a message that says ‘Let’s Go’ but really I think that’s rare and more so in Sri Lanka. If anything it just means that a woman is comfortable with the guy and doesn’t even think of him in that way. But the guy on the other hand gets a complete wrong idea. In fact sometimes a woman who really likes someone will do the complete opposite by being distant from them and never daring to venture in to the physical realm.

Why? It’s quite simply really because it’s all in their heads. It’s the way they are thinking about it. If they like someone then the physical stuff actually means something. If they don’t like someone then it’s just like slapping a buddy on the back. So as a guy it’s probably important to not read too much in to the actions of women… after all we have no way of reading their minds as much as much as they might want us to be able to!

But let us not forget that there are some women who deliberately convey the wrong idea all for a bit of attention. They are out there. I assure you. Some guys do this too... but perhaps with more 'sinister' motives behind their actions!

On the other hand there are also some guys with a serious lack of exposure who know next to nothing about women. One creepy individual that I spoke to seemed to think that he could get married after a single date. That’s right… a SINGLE date! Ok… that’s not creepy right? Well he also seemed to be under the impression that his wife would be his sex slave. I listened to him with my jaw on the floor and when I tried to tell him that it wasn’t really going to be that way he insisted that he, I quote “would make her do it”. I pity his wife should he ever get married. The guy is 27 years old and clueless.

I'm sure there are also some women who have no idea what a man really is. Some even venture in to marriage before they really find out. Exposure can be (and I don't mean physical) so important.

Seems to me a lot of men just get married to have sex, especially in the more rural areas/or people with less education. A friend of mine had a servant in his house. She was going to leave because she was going to get married. My friend was telling me that her man was repeatedly saying “I love you baby… I love you baby” in what I assumed was generally a meaningless conversation. My reaction was “oh oh… that doesn’t sound good’ based on the stuff I mentioned before.

Anyway surprise surprise a while in to the marriage the woman had enough. She wanted to come back and work at my friend’s house. It’s not that the man was evil he was just thinking with the wrong body parts. It happens to every guy I would imagine at some point in time. And I don’t mean he was abusing her in any way. It’s just that going in to something with only a single idea in your mind is going to be a disaster. Maybe it’s the over importance that is ascribed to sex that makes people believe that it’s the entire world. All the guys I’ve ever spoken to confirm that it just doesn’t really change your life all that much. It’s an experience but not of life altering proportions.

Anyway this entire topic seems so murky with so little scientific analysis on it despite it potentially forming a significant part of our lives. Strange isn’t it?

Evil Becometh Thee

The story of good and evil is a timeless tale that has been told since the dawn of man. Always pitting the extremely good Samaritan against that ultimate and despicable villain. In the end after a long struggle the good always wins out.

But these tales which dominate our movies, sometimes our books and most certainly some religious texts don't really have any basis in reality.

I mean look at it for real. When have you ever met someone who was truly evil? Probably never? Ever met anyone who was pure good? I doubt it. While its all nice and convenient to sugar coat everything in to simple black and white, the reality is a big giant grey.

There are no really evil acts that people do. It's all simply actions that are justifiable for the person undertaking them and generally selfish in nature. It's all well and good to be a peace loving hippie when there is no conflict of interest whatsoever, but its when the small personal gains (and sometimes not so small) come in to the picture that everything tends to fall apart.