Famous Quotes And Their Relevance To Sri Lanka

Famous Quote: "The matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around. What do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers and carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand; most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it."
~ Morpheus, The Matrix
In Sri Lanka: This former ‘Democratic Socialist Republic,’ is now an ‘Autocratic Theocratic Dictatorial Banana Republic,’ run by a ‘Quadrumvirate of Brothers,’ who have the grandiose notion of forming a ‘Dynasty’ similar to those seen in ancient China. This ‘Gang of Four,’ should be the enemy of all freedom loving Sri Lankans. But what do we see instead? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, farmers…the gullible majority, ready to do the biding of this ‘Gang of Four.’ They do not want to think for themselves; instead they want to be lead by the nose like they have been led for the past sixty-one years. They are beyond saving.


Famous Quote: "...History is replete with whispers of secret societies... The oldest is the Brotherhood of the Snake, also called the Brotherhood of the Dragon, and it still exists under many different names. The Brotherhood of the Snake is devoted to guarding the 'secrets of the ages' and the recognition of Lucifer as the one and only true God... It's secret symbol is the all-seeing eye in the pyramid.
~William Cooper (Author of "Behold a Pale Horse")
In Sri Lanka: The “Rajapaks Brotherhood,” also known as “The Gang Of Four” and “The Four War Lord Millionaires,” rule the country like it is their own personal fiefdom.


Famous Quote: "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In Sri Lanka: The ‘Sinhala Majority’ is made to believe that once the LTTE is forced to cease conventional battle, the war will be over; that none of the Tamil civilian deaths in the north are due shelling by the armed forces, that no soldiers are killed or maimed, that all the destruction is by the LTTE etc. This has all been possible because journalists of the independent media have been killed, abducted, intimidated or gone into hiding; leaving the Government media to disseminate whatever tall stories it wants.


Famous Quote: Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it;
Do not believe in anything simply because it’s spoken and rumoured by many;
Do not believe in anything simply because it’s found written in your religious books;
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your elders;
Do not believe in tradition because they have been handed down for many generations;
But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason, and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
~The Buddha
In Sri Lanka: The ‘Sinhala Majority’ believes it if it appears in the Government media;
The ‘Sinhala Majority’ believes it if the ‘Buddhist Clergy’ tells them so;
The ‘Sinhala Majority’ believes whatever the ‘Gang of Four’ tells them,
If you tell the ‘Sinhala Majority’ that there is an ‘International Conspiracy’ to destroy their religion, language and culture, they will believe it, because they are nothing but a bunch of xenophobes.


Famous Quote: "The greatest purveyor of violence on earth is my own government"
~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In Sri Lanka: The greatest purveyors of violence in the country are the Government and the LTTE.


Famous Quote: "Those of us who love peace must organize as effectively as the war hawks. As they spread the propaganda of war, we must spread the propaganda of peace."
~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In Sri Lanka: Those who spread the propaganda of peace are branded as LTTE sympathisers, traitors and terrorists while some are abducted and killed.


Famous Quote: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public"
~ Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States
In Sri Lanka: If you criticise the president, his brother or the army commander, you end up six feet under like Lasantha Wickramatunge, editor of the ‘Sunday Leader.’


Famous Quote: "I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why they can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are, but they're never the ones to fight and to die." ~ Jackson Browne
In Sri Lanka: It’s the politicians and the Buddhist clergy who urge the gullible ‘slum dog’ village youth to fight and die, and they live in the lap of luxury while their sons and daughters are safely ensconced in foreign countries.


Famous Quote: "The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable."
~ H.L. Mencken
In Sri Lanka: There are a few such people here as well. Some have been killed, some have been intimidated, some are in prison, some have migrated in fear of their lives and the rest remain silent because they fear death.


Famous Quote: "A country whose leader has the power to imprison any citizen, on his order alone, and hold them indefinitely, in military custody, without access to the courts, without a lawyer, without any charges, their fate determined solely by the leader's arbitrary whim -- that country is a tyranny, not a democracy, not a republic, not a union of free citizens."
~ Chris Floyd, The Moscow Times
In Sri Lanka: We are sure Mr.Chris Floyd has visited Sri Lanka recently or how could he have described it so accurately?


Famous Quote: "Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervour, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
~ Julius Caesar
In Sri Lanka: The ‘Wannabe Caesar’ and his 3 brothers have done just that in this country. Like the Caesar of old, he better be aware of ‘The Ides of March, April, May, June, July etc.’


Famous Quote: "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy."
~ Henry Kissinger
In Sri Lanka: These dumb, stupid animals are used mainly as pawns and cannon fodder for domestic policy, especially to win elections.


Famous Quote: "War is a sociological safety valve that cleverly diverts popular hatred for the ruling classes into a happy occasion to mutilate or kill foreign enemies."
~ Ernest Becker
In Sri Lanka: It’s a local enemy (the Tamils) who are mutilated, killed, abducted and bombed into
smithereens.


Famous Quote: "Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervour - with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it."
~ General Douglas MacArthur, 1957
In Sri Lanka: It’s the ‘evil Tamils who want a separate state’ at home, and an ‘International Conspiracy’ that wants to destroy the Sinhalese race, culture and religion.


Famous Quote: "Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
~ Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II
In Sri Lanka: History is repeating itself in this country. Hitler’s Germany is been reborn as ‘
Mahinda’s Sri Lanka.’


Famous Quote: "The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
~ Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
In Sri Lanka: 17 journalists killed…more than 28 beaten up, abducted and intimidated, the countless others who have been imprisoned without a trial, the burning of MTV and destruction of the Sunday Leader printing press is ample proof that the truth is the greatest enemy of the Sri Lankan State.


Famous Quote: "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defence of our great nation."
~ G. W. Bush, former President of the United States
In Sri Lanka: Rajapaksa and his brothers export death and violence to the four corners of the Island in defence of the ‘Rajapaksa Dynasty.’


Famous Quote: "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn’t exist."
~ Golda Meir
In Sri Lanka: There are no such people as Hindus, Christians and Muslims in this country. Sri Lanka is a ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ Country.


Famous Quote: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
~ Thomas Jefferson, American Declaration of Independence
In Sri Lanka: We hold this truth to be self-evident, that the ‘Sinhala Buddhist Majority,’ is more equal than the minority Hindus, Christians and Muslims. And they are endowed by their Creator, with the unalienable right to impose their language, religion and culture on all the minorities; for ever and ever, amen.