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Last Sunday my vehicle was checked at three points in traffic queues that lasted more than an hour. I make no bones about the checks. They are carried out in our own interest and at grave risk to the security personnel. I also observed that the checkers were polite and apologetic.

What distressed me however was that I saw at the end of every checking queue, a tense crowd of seemingly frightened and embarrassed people with similar ethnic features.

No doubt, their tension was heightened by exposure to the passing motorists who would have rushed to their own conclusions about the 'culpabilities' of the hapless 'detainees'. My heart sank at the thought that they were my co-citizens who could not go ahead with me as they were not as lucky as I was, to be born in this country.

I heard later in the evening, that most of them were subsequently released as they were found to be guiltless. Among them, there could have been persons of the highest character, integrity and attainment. They will take a long time, if at all, to live down their experience, enough to develop a sense of belonging to this nation in their heart of hearts.

I do not deny the acute need for security checks. If not for their thoroughness we would by now, have lost many more lives.

It is also granted that in the present precarious situation, public inconvenience cannot be totally avoided. But it is the prime responsibility of those in power to ensure that no one is unnecessarily embarrassed in the process.

Obviously, the forces do not have the resources to remove detainees one by one, as they are earmarked. But the least that has to be done is to make it possible for the 'suspects' to sit under cover until they are taken away, without being gazed upon like animals at the zoo. Certainly that is not too much to ask.

Human rights instruments of civilized countries highlight the need to respect and protect human dignity. Our own Constitution is bereft of such sensitivity but at least it grants equality to all and implied non-discrimination. It is the duty of the Human Rights Commission to investigate whether the above incident conforms with our Constitution and take remedial measures to ensure the human rights of our minorities to the optimum extent possible under the present crisis.

Such considerations will go a long way to help them to heal their wounds and spontaneously clasp the hands of the majority on that happy day, when the armed conflict ends with the verbal conflicts of our politicians - if it could ever happen.

It is quite surprising to note that many are under the impression that “globalization” is a new phenomenon. Sri Lanka is being urged to join the globalization process and not be a "frog in the well”.

Globalization was established over 3000 years ago with the establishment of the “Silk Route” across Asia from the Far East to Europe. Goods were transported overland and by sea from China all the way to Rome and the Middle East. Sri Lanka (then called “Sihaladveepa”) was an important and famous point on the sea route.

We had a flourishing ship-building industry and Chinese history records that ships from Sihaladveepa were the largest in their ports.

We had expert builders and engineers and the necessary timber to meet international orders for even the largest sea going vessels.

Unfortunately, this industry has died out. Hardly anyone in our private sector today knows this fact.

Sri Lanka was the most important trans-shipment point on this global trading route. Goods from east and west ended up at our ports, where international trading houses and auctioneers had their offices and warehouses.

These global multinationals of that era were in close contact with our kings, who charged taxes, port fees, warehousing fees etc.

We also exported our own products such as spices, gems, ivory, elephants etc. International traders had their trading houses at ports around the island which were moved according to the monsoons.

The main ports were Gokharna or Trinco, Godavaya or Walawe, Kalyana or Kelaniya, Mantota or Mannar and Jambukolapatuna or Sambaltivu near KKS in Jaffna. There were several minor ports as well.

International trading practices were followed and foreign currencies were commonly used. Shipping documents were kept and taxes were paid. Therefore, “globalization” is not a new phenomenon for us. We were more important globally then than now.

The name of William Shakespeare is indeed immortal. Even in the tiny island of Sri Lanka, we are familiar both with the Bard and with at least some of his 37 plays. Being an avid reader of Shakespeare, having qualified in English literature in all its magnitude, I question when, where and how this same Bard, this William Shakespeare, ever wrote a play called “Venice”. Why then is the theatre-going populace of Sri Lanka being assured that this production is “By William Shakespeare”.

In these troubled times when money is indeed a concern, I do understand the necessity to sell tickets. However, using the name of Shakespeare as playwright of this production is indeed straying very far from the truth. To begin with Shakespeare never wrote a play titled “Venice”. Surely it would be possible to indicate that this will merely be an adaptation if it is that!

Should the real playwright of this play be uncomfortable using his own name he could resort to presenting it simply under his stage company but surely it is unfair to promise people a “William Shakespeare” play and then at best present them with a production that will boast a selection of scenes from the Bard’s work interspersed freely with contemporary music and song.

I am aware that many students and fans of Shakespeare will attempt to come for this production. Schoolchildren from out of Colombo, teachers of literature, drama will attempt at all cost to somehow be present. In fairness and in honesty I do hope the Director/Producer/Playwright (??) will present Venice under his own name.

Dr. Leonard Pinto from Australia had sent a controversial letter, which warrants further thought, to The Sunday Times of August 27.

It was a veritable shooting gallery. Safely ensconced in Australia, he is on the usual hobby-horse of expatriate locals in diagnosing ills of the land of birth left behind. It is certainly revealing that in presenting his arguments he seems to address his thoughts couched in “we” and “our” abstractions.

With this slip, he exhibits true to form the usual émigré tendency of speaking for all birds of similar plumage that flock together in foreign lands.

He uppercuts our national political leaders for their symbolism, in foundation stone laying, opening “a few structures”, offering flowers (the so called mal wattiya syndrome), while slashing “thugs and drug lords” as well as “law enforcers” equally for their deviant ways. He also finds it difficult to find a “professional politician who is totally free from thuggery, corruption and nepotism”. He slams Sri Lankan governments for inconsistent policies in dealing with the LTTE, which he paints as being a much maligned cherub.

Exercising the vox populi freedom facilitated by our mass media Dr. Pinto wades further into the attack mode by calling to book the President on his “about turn” stance from “expelling” to “inviting” Norwegians. The Opposition Leader is similarly reprimanded for his apparent inability to distinguish between “national” and “international” politics in recent discussions held with diplomats. Both, according to the good doctor, share a commonality in crying on the ample shoulders of India.

Besides nailing the UNP for its package (quaintly called “GL’s package”) which undermined the “united and unitary Sri Lanka”, which remains a hotly debated serious issue, it is also castigated for dismantling the intelligence unit and exposing its officers to LTTE liquidation squads. Covert operation-guided selective elimination as a method for neutralizing terrorists could not win a Nobel Prize for peace for the ruling party leadership. According to past news rags the urge to become a Nobel Prize laureate was seemingly not unique to the UNP leadership.

Ironically, basic principles of democratic governance also do not expect democratically elected governments to resort to the rule of the jungle. Yet the public exposure of the unit resulting in their elimination by the LTTE and substantial damage to intelligence gathering by armed forces cannot be condoned. Rival political leadership will see to it that the act will not be forgotten by the large mass of the people for a long time to come, even while the perpetrators seem to have been forgiven by all political parties as they have exposed the unit within the rule of law of the land. We can only join the cry of Dr. Pinto in the wilderness of laws and politics.

The good doctor who sees all ills in Sri Lanka also does not overlook making an oblique dig on the politics-weary voters of Colombo who have voted for a three-wheel driver as their mayor. In my mind there is nothing wrong with a three-wheel driver, who in traffic congested roads almost always (99.5% of the time) takes his passengers in relative safety to their earthly destinations in the shortest possible time. Contrary to expectations, if given a chance I think the three-wheel driver’s risk-taking instincts in the new mayor will prevail, to similarly safely steer the Colombo city to a garbage-free, disease-free and environmentally self sustaining paradise in the shortest possible time.

In contrast, Dr. Pinto is all praise for the LTTE, a home-grown bunch of neo-Nazi separatist terrorists, for their “one clear aim” of Eelam and who had “obtained equal status” with GOSL because of “their skilful manoeuvre” (through the pools of blood they have spilled all over the country). He finds that the “LTTE is proactive, creative and forward thinking”. Prabhakaran must be bursting at the seams with pride on this implied praise of his leadership in contrast with the political bunglers and bungling of the South.

Dr. Pinto sums up his critical analysis of the political leadership by moving into esoteric heights of advising on strategic planning, drawing lessons from King Parakramabahu rather than King Dutugemunu or King Vijayabahu who are studiously avoided. A more recent example in D.S. Senanayake would have better fitted the bill on visionary leadership, whose ideals of a unity in diversity, economic progress and negotiated settlement of problems, though somewhat ragged by intervening political bungling over the last five decades, remain to this day. As to his oracular advice to the forces on how to conduct their strategic planning, it is best left to the reader to judge.

As with another letter writer to the Letters to the Editor Page who had signed off as “An elderly woman driver”, who no doubt is out of tune with new realities of Colombo driving, so too Dr. Pinto seems out of tune with the reality in Sri Lanka. The reality is that we have too many critics but too few positive thinkers and doers in Sri Lanka. Too few indeed who have drunk “deep from the spring of wisdom” to advise our decision-makers. Going along the words of wisdom of Prophet Mohammed and medical recommendations of Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, another companion letter writer, I would suggest that Dr. Pinto takes up her recommendation of eating “three dates a day” to improve his thinking on a “leader who can liberate us from all evils”. I would further suggest that all politicians and others who strive to lead us, including Prabhakaran and his Tiger brood, and all of us for that matter, also take “three dates a day” to improve our thinking.

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