Send in the Kids?

A certain Sinhalese doctor who was in Hong Kong for some time is now back home in Sri Lanka. He has been sending notes saying that every Sinhala family should send at least one child for the war. One of his friends who received this has written back saying thus: " You have your two children abroad. Will you call one of them back to join the army?" The friend does not expect a reply, of course.

Big Ducks and Taxi Philosophers

Last week I was travelling back to Copenhagen airport in a taxi. The taxi driver was a Lebanese, and has been in Denmark for ten years; he looked to be in his early thirties. A rather big, red-coloured van was driving along in front of us. The taxi driver asked me "Do you know what it is?" I said no. He said, "That is an animal ambulance." I did not get it at first, so he repeated, "an animal ambulance." 

A little later he told me, "you know, there were reports in the press and TV about a good story. There were some ducks living in a lake, big ducks. Two big ones got married. They had children. After some time, they had fights, because there was not enough room in the small lake for all of them. One day, the mother duck decided to leave with her young children to another lake. They came some way, but they got tired. So, they came and sat on the highway. Later, this van came and rescued them." He happily laughed. 

After some time he said, "In some places, people kill each other and in some other places they try to save even animals. Why they kill?" he asked. I think he just asked it from himself. I promised to tell the story he told me to many others.

Role Reversal

BBC showed a few interviews about the recent crisis in Sri Lanka. One monk who was interviewed said that it was necessary to fight. A group of soldiers said, we want peace, we do not want to fight. What inversion of traditional roles!

- Basil Fernando