Therefore they must be falling into the vast ranks of the un-dead. Sambandan is un-dead. Maheshwaran is un-dead. Adaikalanathan is un-dead. So many others are un-dead.

But last week there was a chance to see some Tamil politicians in this part of the country who are not dead or even un-dead, but are for all intents and purposes alive, if not kicking.

There is Douglas Devananda, who if the LTTE had its way should have been dead by now, which means that the LTTE is at least having him in its very own version of the 'un-dead' list. But he came on TNL and showed he still has a mind of his own, so we can I suppose count him in the ranks of the living.

Then there is Arumugam Thondaman, who has saved many environmentalists from extinction, judging from the amount of environmentalists who were present at a party he threw last week at the Trans Asia. Thondaman is not only alive, he is so relaxed that one gets the suspicion that all the environmentalists that he saved from extinction with his 'No-Kotmale-dam' campaign have, in gratitude, declared him a protected species.

Thondaman is so environmentally friendly these days that he did not invite any other politician for his party, except Sellasamy who is of course family.

It is an environmental fact that protected species cannot be mixed with endangered species, and all other politicians are endangered species in Sri Lanka except for Mr. Thondaman.

He has entered into a symbiotic relationship with environmentalists.

He protects them from extinction. That is the only part to this 'symbiotic' relationship; except that environmentalists shout themselves hoarse to keep the Kotmale dam from coming up.

But Mr. Thondaman has figured that if he is the only politician who won't go extinct in Sri Lanka ("whichever side is in government I work with anybody" he says under the impression that we were all born yesterday) - he has it in his power to stop environmentalists and other endangered species from going extinct too.

Of course there are others who seem to have 15 lives, and who don't go extinct no matter how much the LTTE and its grim reaper tries to get near them.

Douglas Devananda has made his un-deadness an advertisement. But, unlike Thondaman, Douglas Devananda lives his life mostly in the posters.

Like Thondaman he has also given environmentalists a cause to keep them from going extinct, because of the acres and acres of forests that have been felled for paper for Douglas Devananda posters.

For instance, in the besieged Delft, the starch which is used to make these posters stick, is said to be the only means of sustenance today, not only for the considerable population of goats and ponies in Delft, but the entire human population in the island as well.

The World Socialist website is said to be preparing a study on this to be posted soon on their website.

Considering this, it will be extremely unfair for the LTTE to say that Douglas Devananda has not done his bit for the islanders of Delft.

Douglas Devananda and Thondaman taken together last week were a bit like 'DDT' - double distilled Thondaman. Devananda stepped out of the posters for a moment, to appear on TNL, and Thondaman took time off from his busy schedule of carousing and playing both sides smoothly, to talk a little and hobnob with at least some of the people he represents in parliament. Even Devananda seemed to be looking like Thondaman, evergreen, and providing sustenance for the Green Party. Which green party is that now?

Heh heh. For a moment I thought you were born yesterday...

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