Broken jars and shattered lives

Tuesday 3rd September, 2024

A few days ago, Ariel Geller, a four-year-old Israeli boy, hit international headlines. During a museum visit in Israel, he accidently broke a precious artefact—a jar dating back to between 2200 and 1500 BC. His mother, who was watching over him, was distracted for a moment, and the curious boy tried to see if there was anything inside it, and that was the last time the invaluable Bronze Age artefact was seen in one piece. However, the museum authorities were sympathetic; they undertook to restore the broken jar, and invited the child and his family back as they had cut short their previous visit due to the accident, according to international media reports. Playful, curious children tend to break things and museum workers should exercise caution when young visitors are around.

What is of even more interest is that the Israeli boy in the news is from an area, which has been under Hezbollah rocket attacks over several months, owing to its close proximity to Israel’s border with Lebanon. He and his family members are reportedly visiting museums, etc., to escape tensions. Such is the terrible impact the spillover of Israel’s war in Gaza has had on the lives of Israeli citizens, especially children. How devastating it has become for the hapless children and their families across the border and in Gaza goes without saying.

It is heartening that Israel cares so much for its children, especially those affected by war. If only the Jewish state, backed by the self-proclaimed human rights defenders such as the US, showed the same concern for the children of Gaza and halted its military operations, allowing those hapless little ones and their parents to piece together their shattered lives. According to the UN, out of more than 35,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, 14,500 were children.

Hamas, which provided Israel with a casus belli by staging an invasion and taking civilians hostage last year, and Hezbollah have also shown the same callous disregard as the Netanyahu government for civilian lives, especially children, whose deaths have apparently been mere statistics for them to boost their propaganda drives aimed at turning international opinion against Israel. One can only hope that Israel, whose military response to the cross-border threats have been outrageously disproportionate, will stop attacks once and for all, and Hamas, Hezbollah and others will reciprocate for the sake of civilians.

Lies, damned lies and manifestos

SLPP presidential candidate Namal Rajapaksa had been looking askance at election manifestos until a few days ago. He kept on saying that they were not to be taken seriously as they were full of promises which the parties that put them out did not intend to honour. Yesterday, he unveiled his own election manifesto, which itself contains a bagful of promises. Nevertheless, it is true that manifestos are filled with promises made to be broken like pie crusts.

The election manifestos presented by the main presidential candidates read beautifully like Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales. If the promises contained therein could be fulfilled, this country would become a developed nation within a few years.

In 1977, the UNP promised to build a ‘righteous society’, but its rule came to be marred by corruption, state terror and bloodshed. The SLFP pledged to rid the country of corruption and terror, in 1994, but those two evils were institutionalised under its rule. Later, it promised a ‘brighter future’, but only the future of its leaders and their kith and kin became brighter. In 2015, a UNP-led coalition promised to usher in good governance, but within the first few weeks of its rule, the Treasury bond scams were committed. The SLPP put out a manifesto, under the theme, ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’, before the 2019 presidential election, but the economy nosedived on its watch. Now, we are inundated with manifestos and promises again.

Having been taken for a ride by politicians notorious for their Machiavellian promises and Goebbelsian lies, one would take election manifestos seriously only if they were made legally binding with their authors undertaking to resign in case of their failure to fulfil their pledges.