The Crow and the politician

• Both crows and the lawmakers share a common trait: their love of stealing
• Most Lankans look up to undisciplined lawmakers or believe in superstitions
• The aftermath of the exposition of the tooth relic in Kandy prompted discussion around keeping the city clean

At the time of writing, the National People’s Power is leading the count after the LG Polls and there is a prominent advertisement carried on television about the perishing of crows. 
The news about both are pleasant to the ear. The NPP, as expected, is cruising towards a comfortable victory. But the popular television channel that carries a propaganda campaign using ‘the crow’ makes us understand that the voter is supreme and has significant potential to usher in change at an election. Combining the crow and the existence of the lawmaker to make an advertisement is classic; given that these are election times. 
The problem associated with the less affluent, who have voting rights, is that they are below the poverty line. These are the people who struggle to buy even the basics in life. Sri Lanka’s official poverty line at the national level for March 2024 was Rs. 16,619. The poverty line represents the minimum expenditure incurred per person per month to fulfil basic needs. But the less affluent have clout at the time of an election.  
In the TV advertisement, there are dead crows all over the place. And the politician who visits the place assures the people that he’ll take care of the issue. The prompt response from the city folk is, “You don’t have to take care of this problem. Instead, we will take care of you during the election”. 

In the TV advertisement, there are dead crows all over the place. And the politician who visits the place assures the people that he’ll take care of the issue. The prompt response from the city folk is, “You don’t have to take care of this problem. Instead, we will take care of you during the election”. 

The crow is an amazing bird. It can be trained to steal. That’s why the authorities in most countries have banned rearing the crow as a domesticated bird. If the crow would steal, so would past lawmakers who were in power. People must keep an eye on both the crow and the lawmaker. Both love to steal!
Another issue is, when people are below the poverty line, they cannot decide for themselves. On most occasions, during this precarious situation, the less affluent tend to say ‘yes’ to anything. These are the same situations when the well-educated, affluent person would say ‘no’ sans hesitation. The existence of the underworld is the result of saying yes to offers that cannot be refused. 
In that advertisement, the surroundings belong to a slum area. This is the hunting ground for lawmakers. If you take most of the slums, the people living there are squatters. Such people look upon lawmakers as demigods. 
The problem starts when you look at someone for negative purposes. There was an era when law-breaking individuals, especially killers, were granted bail even before the dead bodies of people, whom they had harmed, could be taken to the undertaker. That was the time when the ‘satakaya’ (Shawl) ruled the roost in this island nation. 
The people of this nation either look up to undisciplined lawmakers or believe in superstition. People possessing horoscopes are over careful when they have to negotiate the obstacles that ‘Saturn’ creates for them. That’s the time when people experiencing Saturn in their horoscopes seek the help of crows on Saturdays. This they do by offering milk rice mixed with ghee and calling out to the crows to come and feast on this meal. They believe feeding the crows in this manner will reduce their troubles for the little ones. For the record, that’s the only day of the week when the crows are needed by humans who practise astrology. 
We still remember the lawmaker, from the family who promoted wearing of the shawl, who resides overseas. There was a time when no deal could be struck in Sri Lanka without giving him his commission. He was known as the commission man or Mr. Ten Percent. He was known by other names too, especially in the political circles. 
Though this man was residing in a developed country and was well-connected, his English needed improvement. Once when he was giving an interview to a television channel, about crows and the danger they posed to planes arriving at or leaving the airport, he broke into Sinhalese and referred to the black bird as the ‘kaputa’. Hence his nickname ‘Kaputa’. Thanks to the ushering in of a new era of clean politics, individuals like the fellow mentioned here in this column have been forced to hang their ‘satakayas’ and call it a day in politics. 
Just a few days ago, Kandy resembled a beehive with massive crowds flocking to the Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth) to get a glimpse of Gautama Buddha’s tooth relic. The event gave people a golden opportunity to receive the blessings of the Enlightened One. But the event also made Kandy city very dirty. This event also presented another opportunity to talk about making Kandy clean. When one takes a walk around the Kandy Lake, the bad odor that one gets is due to bird droppings all over the place; thanks to the crows. 
Let’s hope that after the counting stage of the elections conclude and the local government bodies start functioning, the bird dropping menace will be looked into and Kandy will be made a ‘heaven’ for those who take a walk around the lake. Till then, that advertisement about the crow and the politician ought to be aired at regular intervals.