News and irony intersect in a cyclone's aftermath

IF you didn't know you were scanning the news these days, you might well suspect that you've stumbled into 'newscurry'.

- Wasantha Siriwardena

Where do the vulnerable go from here? The aftermath of Ditwa in the Central Province - Pic by Shehan Gunasekera

(Shehan Gunasekera)

To the sensitive reader, the time has been a parade of pages and memes masquerading as headlines.

The presidency distances itself from the draconian dimensions of Emergency regulations ahead of a social/social media backlash. A former president evicted from her official residence by this regime gives them a handsome handout to aid government's rebuilding and relocation efforts. An inane opposition figure invites derision with a proposal to dump the IMF, scratch the 2026 budget, and ask Trump to help us out.

Such are some of the enervating ironies making the headlines these days in lieu of enlightening information.

In the aftermath of Cyclone's Ditwah's physical devastation, Sri Lanka's psyche is also being laid waste.

A few trends yours truly spotted in the week that was may illustrate the point: the point being to rehabilitate the way we islanders think as much as recognise and laud the way some of us act in times of extreme crisis.

All the president's mien

First there was the modest cough to intimate that Emergency powers, once declared, would not be used as only too often in the past - to curb civil society criticism or stifle dissent.

Then the sabre-rattling by the defence secretary (sounds familiar?) that any defamation against the executive would be dealt with under its provisions.

And in the face of a social media backlash, the head of state sought swiftly to distance himself from his lieutenant's earnest defence (no pun intended).

It has that customary ring... that man Acton had it right power tends to bring out the beast in the mildest bureaucrat.

Still early days. Wait and see. Sooner or later; out pops the cloven hoof and forked tail. The devil has the best lines.