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News Briefs 08-09-2011

By red pill junkieon

Be this fact or fable, so it stands.

Thanks to Rick, Kat, Greg & Micah.

Quote of the Day:

“The behavior of a superior race would not necessarily appear purposeful to a human observer. Scientists who brush aside UFO reports because “obviously intelligent visitors would not behave like that” simply have not given serious thought to the problem of non-human intelligence. Observation and deduction agree, in fact, that the organized action of a superior race must appear absurd to the inferior one. That this not preclude contact and even cohabitation is an obvious fact of daily life on our planet, where humans, animals, and insects have interwoven activities in spite of their different levels of nervous system organization.”

Jacques Vallee, Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact [Amazon US & UK]

red pill junkie
Agnostic gnostic, walking conundrum & metaphysical oxymoron (with emphasis in the 'moron' part), the mysterious RPJ leaves a double life: By day he serves as Grand Master of the International Sacred Order of Lucha Libre, but at night he pursues his life-long study of everything considered mysterious and/or 'paranormal' --a term he personally detests... When he's not exploring the web looking for his daily fix of Forteana, he can be found blogging, doodling, fooling around and offering his services as news administrator and writer at The Daily Grail. He also regularly participates in other websites and podcasts like Radio Misterioso and Where Did the Road Go? He impatiently awaits for the return of the mothership in Mexico City. absurdbydesign.com
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6 Comments

  3. Grease Devils
    These ‘grease devils’ are a political, not a cryptozoological Fortean, phenomenon:

    Reconciliation, a Political Settlement and the “Grease Devil”

    […]

    The recent post-war phenomenon, the Grease Yakas (Grease Devils) have frightened too many people, specially in the villages. Of course the villagers realize they are men in devil’s clothing. But who are these men? Villagers claim they run into police stations or army camps when chased. There are rumours to say they are fed, clothed and then released by the police. People are beginning to question whether these ‘devils’ are creations of the government, used by the forces to terrorize the people and create a feeling of unrest in the country. The Defence Secretary however, has denied using these ‘devils’ for his benefit.

    And yet these ‘devils’ are spreading to different parts of the country. There is something sinister and mysterious about their origin and the areas they haunt. They were originally detected and hunted by the estate workers in the Ratnapura area. Gradually they have found their way to the North, East and the Central hills specially to areas inhabited by Tamils and Muslims. In Jaffna due to the ‘Grease Devil’ phobia 100 have been arrested, the papers report.

    The hundred arrested are not ‘grease devils’ but civilians who tried to attack the ‘devils’ through fear. These ‘devils’ have obviously activated the police and the army in the North. Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe has said, “We have increased the troops and we are now conducting mobile patrols n the area to assist the police.” Special Task Force (STF) personnel are being kept busy maintaining law and order in other areas like Puttalam, Mannar and Kinniya in the East. In all these places civilians who protest against the ‘Devils’ are the ones who are considered the villains of the peace. According to General Hathurusinghe those who disturb the peace, those who protest would be shown no mercy – in fact they would be branded “Terrorists”.

    Now that the ‘Emergency Regulations’ are to be lifted the PTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) could be more widely used to deal with these civilians who defy the ‘Grease men’. UNP parliamentarian R. Yogarajan says, “The ‘Grease Devil problem” has been created by the government to get the army into the up country. The army is now in all the estates and asking the workers to show their ID cards. We want the military to stay out because the upcountry people have never taken up arms and have always been a peaceful group”. He also raises the question why these ‘grease men’ appear in Tamil and Muslim areas only.

    There is also the view that the ‘grease men’ serve the government to distract the people from the real issues such as corruption, inefficiency, Human Rights violations and the cost of living. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also decided to set up vigilante committees headed by government MPs in all parts of the country. They too will work with the police to “eradicate the “Grease Devil”. If the LTTE Terrorists could be eradicated there is no reason why the ‘Grease Devils’ cannot be eradicated. But so far not a single Grease Devil has been caught. Even mosques are to receive “police protection”. During the last Presidential election government supporters spread the fear among the voters that if General Sarath Fonseka won the election he would establish a military state. Now, although General Fonseka is locked up in prison, people fear that gradually the whole country may be administered by the Forces.

    There’s also the problem of rehabilitating those who escaped from the “Cage” during the final stages of the war. The day before the local government elections in the North in July, driving from Pudhukudiyiruppu to Killinochchi, a group of us witnessed a scene which is difficult to forget. All around us was desolation, on either side of the road we saw burnt down houses and an equal number of vehicles burnt and abandoned two years ago, shrubs and trees sprouting through the rubble, destroyed wells and an occasional lavatory standing erect amidst all this devastation. While contemplating the devastation caused by war, we were taken by surprise to see lorry loads of IDPs being brought and dumped by the roadside with all their belongings packed in a few “pora bags”. There were small children seated on these bags looking lost and forlorn. Obviously there was the need to “empty” the IDP camps before the elections, and this was one way of doing it. They were being brought back to their original “homes”. It was already late evening, how would they spend the night without lights, without shelter, surrounded by the jungle, with no human habitation in sight? Where would the children sleep? What if it rained? We found no answers to these questions. Many of these children we saw could have been those who had witnessed the deaths of many within the “Cage” before they themselves escaped. As such they would go through severe psychological trauma. According to a recent Al Jazeera report hardly anything is being done to deal with the psycho social aspect of the rehabilitation work done in the North. Papers also report that 514 children in Killinochchi have lost both their parents in the war. The National Child protection authority has selected 50 of them to receive a monthly dole of Rs. 500. What happens to the other 450 and the 3829 who have lost one parent? What will they grow up to be, with no proper education, sufficient food or shelter?

    There is no doubt that the government would easily win the other 23 local government elections to be held on October 08. There is no opposition to challenge the Rajapaksa regime. Rapid development and the beautification of towns will continue to make the people happy. The South will have no reason to wish for a regime change and whether there is a political settlement or not would not worry them. But among the majority Sinhalese there is a minority that believes the Tamils and Muslims do have grievances and that it is the successive Sinhala majority governments since independence that pushed a section of the Tamil youth to take up arms against the government and finally annihilate themselves and forty thousand of their own people on that narrow stretch of land along Nandikadal lagoon, now referred to as the ‘cage’ where the final solution to the ethnic conflict was enacted in May 2009. These liberal minded people realise the need for a political settlement based on devolution of power. They also realise that if there is no settlement now, the peace we enjoy today cannot last very long. Unfortunately our political leaders on both sides, the government as well as the opposition do not realise this danger. Now that the PSC is going to take the place of the APRC, Left politicians led by Tissa Vitharana, could go on discussing “Devolution and Power sharing”, interminably perhaps for another five years, while enjoying power and perks without responsibility. It is ironic that that only Left politician who has steadfastly stood for Devolution and the rights of the minorities, Wickramabahu Karnaratne has never been voted into Parliament because he seems unable to barter his principles and convictions for power and perks as the other Left politicians have done quite shamelessly.

    More, if you’re interested.

    1. Keelian
      I think Micah studies this case from a Fortean perspective —or, to use his own term, a Keelian perspective— rather than a cryptozoological one. The ‘grease devils’ fall into what he coins the ‘Fortean Folk Devils’, strange unexplained phenomena to which a community projects their fears and obsessions.

      Then again, it could very well be that the Indonesian government is making use of the paranormal —or rather, beliefs in the paranormal— for political purposes, the same way the Haitian government made use of Voodoo to create fear among civilians through the secret branch of the police, the Tonton Macoutes.

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