Of Saradiel and His Mother's

Wednesday 22nd July, 2009 9 Dayan: Short Of Saradiel and his mother’s ear shrift served have followed the interesting debate stole items of greater and greater ment. For instance, there are many on the son who bit off his mother’s value. Time passed and the man was plots that are common to the Jatakas Iear. The point is whether the son finally caught in the act and taken off and Aesop’s fables. Even within a par- was the notorious bandit, Saradiel. to court where he was condemned to ticular culture, the characters may In Aesop’s Fables, A new translation death: woe betide the trade of the thief ! change with time as forgotten figures by Laura Gibbs, Oxford University His mother stood behind him, weeping are replaced by those coming into Press (World’s Classics): Oxford, 2002, as she shouted, ‘My son, what has vogue from time to time. Historical there is a story of a son who bit his become of you?’ He said to his mother, facts are elusive in folklore and it is Dayan Milliband mother’s nose. Chambry’s first edition ‘Come closer, mother, and I will give often futile to chase them. of Greek fables gives another version of you a final kiss.’ She went up to him, The temptation to fit this plot to otally unacceptable that this story in which the son bites off his and all of a sudden he bit her nose, tug- Saradiel would have been quite natural Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka mother’s ear, rather than her nose. ging at it with his teeth until he cut it in the years following the death of the Thas been recalled - at such short Gibbs version runs as follows: clean off. Then he said to her, ‘Mother, if bandit who was a notorious figure in notice and in spite of H E the “A boy who was carrying his only you had beaten me at the very his time. Imaginably other similar President extending his term of serv- teacher’s writing tablet stole it and beginning when I brought you the writ- characters in contemporary limelight ice in Geneva till 31 May 2010. brought it triumphantly home to his ing tablet, then I would not have been would have played Saradiel’s role in the Reading the editorial in the Island mother who received the stolen goods condemned to death!” forgotten past. I dare not identify who of Monday 20 July and ex- with much delight. Next, the boy stole a It is well known that in traditional would be cast as Saradiel when the plot Ambassador K Godage’s letter to the piece of clothing, and by degrees he folklore, the prototype of a story is is recast on our times. Editor in the same paper, readers were became a habitual criminal. As the boy copied by various cultures dressing it left in no doubt as to who axed grew older and became an adult, he A prisoner believed to be Sardiel up with local characters and environ- Somapala Gunadheera Dayan - the Foreign Ministry and thus the Foreign Minister. The question that came to this reader’s mind when the news broke on Sunday about the shameful fate meted out to this patriot No offence, Prof Animals no exception (to Dayan by the .... Boggles) was: “Are they mad; is the Foreign Minister crazy?” Is there no sense of respect, was interested to read Dr. M. A.M. weight of modern classifications of leave alone gratitude, for all that Siddique’s letter under the above love and desire that some contend did Dayan Jayatilleka did to stem the tide Iheading in The Island of Monday not exist in previous eras. of rank criticism by certain countries 13th July. Homosexuality, as we know it today, and diplomats; and to make it possible Firstly, I am grateful to Dr. Siddique was not fully codified until the mid- for our armed forces to finish the bat- for describing me as ‘learned’. I would 20th century, though this process began tle against the LTTE with interference not have described myself as such but much earlier.” kept at bay. so be it. 2) The category ‘Homosexual One thing I dare to pronounce is I would like to take issue with some behaviour in animals’ includes ‘sex, that it is proved the Foreign Minister of the points raised by Dr. Siddique. I courtship, affection, pair bonding and can counterweiigh the President’s Engels Karl Marx will not address all of the points I would parenting’. It notes that a) a 1999 orders; can over-rule his decisions. have liked to as The Island is a family review by researcher Bruce Bagemihl This is done blatantly.Also he spends deeply appreciate the apology tendered newspaper and they could be consid- shows that homosexual behaviour has our money vulgarly extravagantly on by Prof. Carlo Fonseka in the Island of ered indelicate and offensive to many of been observed in close to 1500 species his foreign trips on which he takes Ithe 21st, for the use of the phrase the readers of your distinguished publi- ranging from primates to gut worms wifey dearest and family and others. ‘rural idiocy’ in an earlier essay.The cation. and is well documented for 500 of them We hear and know about the nin- humility reflected in his response to my However, I would like to observe that and b) a new review made in 2009 of compoops he has stationed in various ‘objection’ bears ample testimony to his homosexual behaviour between human existing research showed that same-sex dpl posts around the world and how learning and culture for which he is individuals is not restricted to males as behaviour is a nearly universal phe- inefffectual they are. always held in the highest esteem. I take believed by Dr. Siddique. Human nomenon in the animal kingdom, com- E-mails came pouring in about the no offence and the matter ends there. females also engage in homosexual mon across species. incompetence of the ambassador to By way of explanation, the Professor behaviour. Although one is at liberty to dispute the Court of St James who dared not traces the origin of ‘rural idiocy’ to the Human females engaging in homo- the precise figures, it appears to be well say even the mildest boo to Milliband. well known ‘Communist Manifesto’ by sexual behaviour are termed ‘lesbians’. established that homosexuality does One person who put this British FS in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A person The word ‘lesbian’ is derived from indeed exist among at least many place was Dayan Jayatilleke. has the liberty to believe even in a heresy, Lesbos, a Greek island situated in the lesbian tourists. species of animals. So we have two Ministers who take if it appeals to his conscience. That comes Aegean Sea. Sappho, who was born Reference to Wikipaedia, the online Finally, I would like to take issue the law into their own hands with under the Law of Fundamental Rights. sometime between 630 and 612 B.C. in encyclopaedia, also furnished the fol- with Indian astrologer, Sushil Kumar impunity; cocking a snook at no less a But he has no right to defame another on Lesbos, wrote tremendously emotional lowing information: Kaushal’s use of the term ‘even ani- person than our President. The insolu- the ground that someone else has used the poems addressing other women. The 1) “Homoeroticism refers to the mals’. I have personally encountered ble puzzle is that they get away with words earlier, however big that someone poems are believed to have been representation of same-sex love and animals, for which I have much more any devilry with not even a repri- else may be. That falls under the Law of inspired by homosexual love. It is said desire, most especially as it is depicted respect than some of their human mand. But patience is called for here Torts. Repetition of a libel creates another that, due to this interpretation the in the visual arts and literature. The counterparts. from us who love this country.Nothing substantive libel for which the repeater is island of Lesbos is visited frequently by term ‘homoerotic’ carries with it the Dr. Rohan H. Wickramasinghe remains static, nothing is permanent, personally exposed to delictual liability. more so power misused and abused. Somapala Gunadheera We will dance like dervishes; light crackers an entire day and night when these two individuals meet their Waterloo, either at the hands of voters Collapse of southern More on Australia’s ‘Concentration Camps’ or cursed by the gods, whifffed off like highway bridge so much chaff by indignant Fate. Mr. Tissa Devendra (‘The Island’ Tisaranee of ‘The Island’ Group, and two to some western countries, or Concerned woman must first of all congratulate you on 03.07.09) is rightly saddened “at the most of the ‘S/Leader’ Group. These who have domiciled abroad for one your forthright editorial of Saturday readiness” by two ladies (Anne people have eyes only for alleged reason or another, and who on their I18th on the above subject. Abayasekera and Marie) “to believe lapses in and by their own country. return or on a visit back home, tell When I read it my blood began to the worst about their homeland Sri Naturally they don’t see the other us how great that country is, com- boil. This is yet another example of the Lanka, and amused at their naive side. If one is at a gathering of peo- pared to their native country, how Gagged by stinking corruption and inefficiency enthusiasm for Australia’s decency”.

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