Uncommon Sense - truth less ordinary: The Killing Fields

Picture perfect

I was born in the killing fields of an island that holiday brochures describe as “paradise”. As far as first impressions go, it is stunning. Miles of soft, sandy beaches surrounded by waters that shimmer like crushed sapphires.

Most days, the sky is a translucent blue and each evening there is a magnificent sunset. The rains kiss this gentle earth blessed with an exotic range of fauna and flora and a range of wildlife that could rival the best game reserves of Africa.

Though it has few natural resources it has a wealth of beauty and any visitor to this isle will rarely have anything unfavourable to report.

Sunkissed Serendib

I am not a visitor and would that I were a patriot. I am a humble world citizen who has been just as much a victim (as the other minority races that reside there) of the abuses that the ruling class mete out to their underlings. Though karma also delivered me from the hands of my “lesser developed” countrymen to the developed world and I am grateful. However, my fate is to be an immigrant…hopefully an enlightened one.

Problem solving in Paradise

There’s big trouble in little Paradise as documented by a film crew who witnessed some of the military atrocities to end a long standing war. War is never pretty but the jubilation that arose after this slaughter of innocents is an ugly reminder of mankind’s lust for power. Oh yes, despite it’s rare beauty this paradise has been awash in blood and a tsunami of tears. Nature’s bounty has been defiled and devoured by the greed and ignorance of the very people it supports.

This country could have been the pearl in the oyster of Asia but it lays now bloodied, battered and licking its wounds. Abuse is rife and manifests not just in war zones but in the daily lives of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society – women and children. A government that represses basic freedoms is not paradise. A government that is slow to improve the quality of life for its citizens is not paradise. Any person living in this country will tell you it’s not paradise…not by a long chalk. Human subsistence is a daily grind and abject poverty an evil consequence.

Paradise lost

There is a presence of Buddhism in this land and statues of a prince who rejected his noble birth in favour of a life of austerity line the roads. Buddhism is worn as a badge of honour but the practices of it are ignoble. The people of this country display a host of behaviours akin to that of demons – in this paradise you will find the seven deadlies in hearts that are as dark as their faces. Lust, avarice, sloth, gluttony, pride and anger are some of negatives you will encounter if you delve deep enough into hearts and minds.

Where is the love?

Crushed dignity

Anger is perhaps the worst of them all since it turns fathers, brothers, uncles and other male role models into tyrannical figures who make war (not love) to their womenfolk and children.

In turn, the women robbed of their dignity become cruel and bitter. Their psychological make-up often twisted and distorted as they fight over anything worth having…which would be worthless by any developed standard. It’s a vicious circle that everyone accepts as karma and there is no will to implement change.

But change has come to Paradise for reasons that are not celebratory. There’s no longer a war since the minority was bombed whilst they sought help from hospitals and make-shift medical centres. Some of them were poorer than poor. Post battle, soldiers took photographs of the dead in order to later boast of their triumphs.

Life has become far too cheap in paradise and it will cost you a fortune to live there.

Power sharing -"You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours"

Minds in this paradise are as small as the land space and very little effort is put into meaningful expansion (though hotels and leisure parks are springing up at an alarming rate). There’s no shortage of qualified brains but if not imbibed with finer feelings of human worth then there can be no significant improvement to life and liberty.

Freedom is much maligned in this paradise. The state is the “Fat Controller” and politicians well-oiled fat cats. Loving kindness is in hiding and compassion banished. If they’d only given a thought to sharing a tiny piece of their smallness they could have achieved spiritual greatness.
There is strength and untold benefits in the unification of all cultures. That is the way to build and grow a congenial and progressive thinking society.

Today Paradise’s reputation lies sullied and besmirched wrought by those who deviate from the path of peace to the pot hole riddled roads of malcontent. Buddha sleeps in his temple as his teachings fall on deaf ears. This paradise has become a hell on earth.