The High and The Mighty

Most of us know or have at least heard of King Solomon. There was none more Richer, Wiser or more Powerful than him. King Soloman’s mines had the largest collection of diamonds and other precious stones, ever owned by any single person on earth. Ever since he was recalled by him who gave him all this Wealth, Wisdom and Power; many expeditions, and adventurers dared the many odds risking their lives and made frantic searches for his mines. If I gave you an indication of where he lived in his gleaming, solid Crystal Palace, with his beautiful Queen Sabah (Sheba); you might be tempted to go looking for his infinite wealth?

Do you wonder why our citizens elect criminals and murderers into our Parliament? Do you also wonder why a murder convict from jail was allowed to take oaths to sit in our most sacred legislature. Our crass ignorance began from the day when an Oxford-educated PM, threw away the English language education in 1956 for his own selfish power and glory. Notwithstanding I sent my children to a leading Sinhala Buddhist school. Being ardent readers of English books from my personal library, they complained about the mediocre and narrow ‘Sinhala only’ education. The English language gave me a kaleidoscopic vision and made me madly in love with Sri Lanka. “I climbed o’er the crags of Lanka, and gazed on her golden sea, And out from her ancient-places, Her soul came forth to me, Give me a Bard, said Lanka, My Bard of the things to be. For high in my highland valleys, And low in my lowland plains, the pride of the past is pulsing, Hot on a people’s veins, Give me a bard, said Lanka, A bard for my joys and pains” Walter Stanley Senior 1905.

G. SOMAPALA BANDA. KADUGANNAWA