Go Home, Kath

I refer to Kath Noble’s article in the Island of June 17, in which a whole paragraph is devoted to me. Before dealing with that paragraph, I must set out the background to it. In my article HRC Special Session in the Island of June 15, I described the   Westerners as the grand specialists in the art and science of the massacre of the innocents, in which connection I pointed not just to massacres in the imperialist past but to Iraq, which I described as one of the greatest crimes against humanity in the whole of history. I concluded my article by pointing out that there were no conflicts of interest between SL and the West, and that all that was required to repair relations with the West was to end the “culture of impunity” and make reasonable concessions to the minorities.

There is not one sentence in all that, not even one word, to denote or even remotely imply that I am servile to the West. But KN after making some sneering remarks projects an image of me as putative Ambassador in Geneva “offering to hold their [Westerners’] bags while they gave Sri Lanka a good slap.” What on earth is that about? So stupendous a misreading of my text implies prejudice, of a sort that has led to a demented rage and hatred. Why? Is it that what I write has made her feel – for some odd reason – inadequate? Such things happen. Or is it that she is Islamophobic? I ask because I seem to remember that at the time we lost our seat on the HR Council she was among those who preposterously explained it in terms of the Islamic bloc voting for Bahrain. Not necessarily so, but that preposterous notion could have behind it Islamophobia.

I have been much preoccupied over the full implications of the HRC Special Session, and have to write another article about it. I don’t have the time, nor frankly the inclination, to comment on the many babooneries in the rest of KN’s article. She is evidently in a distraught frame of mind.  Someone ought to take her home again. Soon.