There is nothing wrong with your television set.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Outer Limits.

Remember that phrase? Do you remember The Outer Limits? Or maybe >The Twilight Zone? No? How about Tales From the Dark Side?

Still no?

Well hearken to me, and I will tell you a tale. Or something like one

Welcome to Sri Lanka. A land where everything is beautiful. The people are happy and content. The rulers are benevolent, kind and uncorrupt. The laws are just. And the minor altercation in the North, very minor, against a ruthless and cruel foe who does nothing but kill women and children and rape little girls, is being won with the glorious forces of what is right and good, who are happily welcomed by the people they are liberating, not suffering so much as a hangnail. Where, at the same time just so that we can enjoy our lives, the heroic forces are risking their lives and sacrificing their futures and suffering a thousand travails against a ruthless and cruel foe who does nothing but - oh wait. I said that part already.

Welcome, to the mind-control that is Sri Lanka.

Does anyone remember the Shrub on an aircraft carrier? Why does that seem so familiar? Maybe because it has a lot in common with this pic of The Beast. Both were staged. Both were used to to show that they are not afraid to go to war. Or to a war zone. Or maybe to a carrier that was a whopping thirty miles from land.. People now know that the carrier picture was a fake. A photo-op. A set up job. The Shrub never flew the plane. Just had his hands on the controls for a bit. He never landed it. The White House created the famous Mission Accomplished banner and hung it up. And more people have died since he said Mission Accomplished than before. At least the White House is ashamed of it. Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff, stated soon after I wish the banner was not up there.

But of course The Beast and his ilk are, to say the least, shameless. And we, the people? We're fucking stupid. Seriously. Take a look at that photo. And see the others that came from the set. Remember the video that came with it? Are we to believe that The Beast would go anywhere where he is ever remotely at risk? He even gives his speeches behind a bullet-proof shield - something which even the American President, who has more powerful enemies than our one, doesn't do. Would someone like that actually walk in an area where he was not protected by many hundreds of armed soldiers? Or maybe you think that the image, a president, surrounded by tough looking members of the STF looks good. It's so macho. So John Wayne. So Oliver Stone. So Rambo. So fake. Yes. Really. Its only in the movies that the machine gunners carry bandoleers of machine gun belts on their body. The original bandoleer was for single bullets, which would be pulled off the bandoleer and loaded one by one into a rifle. An ammunition belt, on the other hand, is ammunition that comes for a belt-fed machine gun, like the American M60, and the Russian Kalashnikov PK (the ones they are carrying in the picture). And the machine guns are notoriously temperamental. Any dust or dirt in the belt can and will cause it to jam. And the one thing you do not want happening in a firefight is your gun jamming up on you. Which is why linked ammo comes in boxes that are only opened when necessary. And lets not forget the ammo wrapped around the barrel of the gun. A barrel that heats up severely as you fire it, wrapped with bullets powered by incendiary chemicals, adds up to a very nasty combination. And yet this is being put up on posters, put up on a massive billboard at Thunmulla Junction, and people still believe it.

The war itself started with a scam. The ADB gave the LKGOV a lot of aid to be given to the farmers in the East. This money was supposed to be deployed to farmers on both sides of the battle lines. And the money was used only on the Government controlled sides of the Great Divide. Obviously, the LTTE wasn't happy about this. I'm not saying the money would have all gone to the farmers. Hell, very little of it went to the farmers on this side of the fence too, but they were supposed to get it. And quite obviously, they cut off the water at Mavil Aru. No killing. Nothing major. Just a simple case of you don't give us aid, we won't give you water. Come to think of it, that was pretty fair. But what the LKGOV was looking for, was an excuse. And we all remember what Mavil Aru lead to. It lead to the LKGOV unilaterally breaking the CFA, starting a war, and many people dying. Why? Because The Beast needs a war as much as Prabhakaran needs a war. A war to hold on to power, a war to scare us into giving up all the peoples' rights to him, and most of all, a war to make money.

But the media portrays the war as a humanitarian one. One being fought to liberate the poor people of the North from the evil clutches of the LTTE. Much like the war in Iraq the US is currently engaged in. They said it was about WMDs. They said it was about liberating the poor Iraqi people from a tyrant, but in actuality, it was simply about oil. We are told it is because the LTTE is re-arming, we are told the goal is to free the poor innocent people of the North from the clutches of the evil LTTE. But how do they do that? Simply by killing them, bombing them, and by hitting them any which way they can. I guess it is possible to save someone by killing them.

But the government is playing an incredibly well-played game of public manipulation. The facets of it are interesting to see. It is always good to know how you're being ass-raped. The start is in the media portrayals. Does it seem strange to you that we are fighting a war but are suffering no casualties? It sure seems that way to me. Oh don't mention the poor innocent DPU guy who so heroically died in the fighting. Every war needs someone to idolise. And what he was, was the equivalent of an LTTE suicide cadre. The DPUs go deep into LTTE territory and set off claymores, bombs, and carry out assassinations. Are we to assume that they have been quiet through the ceasefire? Or were they also acting as agents provocateurs? But I digress. The point is that there is absolutely no coverage of the huge numbers of people who have died during the war. This is not just the civilian dead, but also the huge numbers of soldiers who have died. Do you seriously believe that there have only been a few soldiers who died? I think the Brooklyn Bridge is still up for sale if you want it. I can get it for you for a special low, low price. Of course the first casualty of war is a lady called Truth. We all know that. Even during the other regimes we had the same thing happening. The papers used to carry whole sections of CENSORED sections. They had to write the news and then submit them for censorship. There was no hiding from the word. There was no way of saying that the government was saying that they didn't want you to tell the unpleasant truth. And the people were happy with that, and the news-media were strong enough to tell the government to go take a flying fuck at a full moon if they ever got too repressive.

It's all changed now. The white vans go around. The media are scared. In a blog post I wrote many moons ago called Bombs or Bullshit I mentioned something a friend of mine, a reporter, said, in the white van era, no-one does investigative journalism. the white vans come, they lift you, and just like the in the days of the KGB, and the SS. The only difference is that the white vans are unofficially Government funded and operated while their, for want of a better word, inspirations were official.

The Government controls the media. And through the media it controls the people. And how does it control the media? Well watching the history of it all is rather disturbing. It started off with the famous MiG-27 Deal. The Beast asked the media and the newspapers not to demoralise the forces while they were attacking. This was the beginning. Any questions about corruption were suddenly pushed aside as demoralising the great and glorious forces who are giving their lives. Then the more insidious campaigns started. A law that made it an act of treason to demoralise the forces was put forward. While it was never made into a law, the proposal was given great publicity in the media channels, both by people who were pro such a law as well as those who were against it.

Treason. Its a very powerful word, with lots of other connotations. Calling someone a traitor is to brand that person in a very powerful way. And governments have used the treason tag against anyone who doesn't agree with them. Witness George W Bush calling the New York Times traitors because they reported actions done by the USGOV which violate, if not the letter, then the spirit of the law. The Beast did the same thing. It became treasonous to attack the morale of the forces by publishing the details of the corruption in the forces. With The Beast as the Commander in Chief and his younger brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse (aka Beast Jr.) as the Defence Secretary, it is quite obvious were the billions of rupees stolen in various defence contracts went. The personal attacks on journalists, by phone, by thugs (Mad Merv being one of them), or, as in the case of two reporters from Associated Newspapers (the LKGOV's print media mouthpiece), called to Beast Jr.'s office and threatened in person.

Tarring all media and associated groups critical of the government as traitors has had a chilling effect on the media. Investigative journalism is dead. The on-line media, such as blogs and websites, are in danger of being stifled by the new law enacted by gazette. And far more insidious is the campaign being carried out by the government's supporters. The public is being more and more conditioned to fear and xenophobia. Insular-ism, conservatism, and chauvinism racial and religious are the order of the day. People are being conditioned to distrust others, look upon everyone with suspicion and fear. This culture of fear is stifling everyone. You walk down the road, you're looked on with suspicion. Get in a bus, its the same thing. We are told this is for your safety, but this culture of fear and xenophobia is what is helping the government maintain and gain more power. Our heightened sense of fear has not made us safer. It has only made us more fearful and more willing to give up the freedoms we once took for granted. But it is also making us more and more willing to not only ignore and accept, but also laud actions that most of us would normally condemn. The regular roundups of civilians, the killings and torture. the attacks on the media (especially the recent attacks on the MTV studios) are not condemned anymore. The killing of the editor of the Sunday Leader was pretty much ignored by the people. What is obvious is that the government is using its current victories in the North as a way to suppress all criticism. While the killings have an immediate effect, it is more likely looking forward at the elections that are pretty much guaranteed to be held after the war. It is telling that the killings and attacks happened soon before the government announced that it had captured the A-9 highway to Jaffna.

LKGOV does not announce news that is positive for it immediately. Footage of the fighting so eagerly watched by the rubbernecking masses is not Live as the embedded journalists would like us to believe. It is done well after the fighting is over. After the blood and guts and bodies, at least the bodies of the soldiers, are cleared away. It is extremely probable that Elephant pass was captured either on Wednesday or Thursday. The news was held until the LKGOV could prepare for it. How else do you explain that the news was immediately greeted by fireworks? Yes, its just after New Years Eve, and yes, we set off a lot of fireworks. But that was over a week ago. No one keeps fireworks that long. Especially not in Colombo. The fireworks were part of a concerted plan by the LKGOV to create a feeling that people are celebrating. This feeling of jubilation was used as the cover for the attacks and the killings. Especially since both MTV/MBC and Lasantha Wickramatunge were both highly critical of the war and the human damage it is causing.

But is just the media control leading to mind control. There are other, and more insidious controls that are happening. For a starting point, lets look at Wikipedia. The on-line encyclopedia that allows lots of people to contribute. The Beast and his administration have been working hard on wiki-washing. Want proof? Just look up the history on his wiki page. Wikipedia pages are full of edits pushing the LKGOV agenda. The entire media blitz is being rather deftly controlled. This control is far too deft to be an amateur. There is a media company organizing planning and implementing this. I don't know who they are, but I am sure there are people out there who do.

However, it is unlikely that this image/spin control group would be responsible for the gross abuses that are happening. Its hard to tell of course. But if the Stanford prison experiment and the Milggram experiment have shown us anything, it is that even the most stable and normal of people can become brutish when they are given power or have the responsibilities for their actions are taken away.

Either way the people are being oppressed and pushed away from exercising their freedoms. And anyone who wants to exercise his freedoms is being scared out of it. How many of us are willing to take photographs in the street. I still do. But I have been questioned more than once. We fear to take our bags on the buses because the security forces may decide to check and search us. The sight of all the cops and army and other forces people on the road do not give people a sense of safety. They give people a sense of unease and fear. The STF types riding around Colombo armed and masked on their trail-bikes remind many of us of the dark days of the late 80's where government sponsored vigilante groups like the Black Cats rode around in pretty much the same manner.

People are being pushed into paranoia and fear. And like the old tale of the monkeys and the banana and the water hose. What? Never heard it? Here it is:

Put five monkeys in a cage. Inside that cage, hang one banana on a string and place a ladder under it. Keep a garden hose nearby. Soon one of the monkeys will spot the banana and start to climb the ladder to get it. When he does, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. Now, replace the banana.

After a while another one of the monkeys will probably go for the banana. Again, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

Monkeys are relatively smart, so pretty soon, whenever one of the monkeys attempts to climb the ladder, all the other monkeys will try to prevent him from doing it. When that happens, put away the cold water hose. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. Now hang a new banana over the ladder.

The new monkey will spot the banana and head for the ladder. To his surprise, all of the other monkeys will spontaneously attack him. After several more futile attempts, all of which will result in further beatings, the new monkey will no longer try for the banana.

Remove another of the original monkeys and again replace it with a new one. Now replace the banana. Again, the new monkey will make a grab for it. Like his predecessor he will be stunned to discover that all the other monkeys attack him. In fact, the previous newcomer will most likely take a particularly enthusiastic role in his replacement's punishment.

One at a time, gradually replace all of the original monkeys with new ones. Each of the newcomers will go for the banana. Each one will be attacked by the other four. Most of the new monkeys have absolutely no idea why they were not allowed to climb the ladder, or why they are participating in the assault on the newest monkey.

When all of the original monkeys have been replaced, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, not one of those monkeys ever approaches the ladder, why not? Because as far as they are concerned that's the way it has always been done around here.

Imagine that. There is very little risk of getting killed in a bomb. In fact you are far more likely to get hit by a car than get killed in a bomb. There are few LTTE members in Colombo. But people have been trained into xenophobia and fear. Now, like the monkeys, they would jump on anyone who acts differently from they way that they have been trained to

This war will probably be over soon. Unless Prabhakaran can come up with some kind of secret weapon. But it will be over. But I find it unlikely that the freedoms taken away from us will ever be returned to us. The government will always come up with a reason why we should bend over and take it for just a bit longer. And the governments that follow will learn too. And we will keep spiraling further and further into insanity.

Welcome to the mind-control that is Sri Lanka. A mind-control that is being put in place by the current government. A mind control that is imprisoning us all. A mind control that most of us are gladly accepting.