|
 |
|
The day two people are joined in matrimony is indeed one of special remembrances. It is a day when months of eager planing, of hard work culminates with the love and wishes of the dear ones of the young couple. It should thus be one the two can look back with much happiness and remembrances, of the love and laughter. Yet....for the three couples we speak of below, their wedding day is one they wish to never remember. To them the day holds no happiness but tears,hurt and anger.
Thamali and Ruwan (not their real names) were married at a star class hotel about one and a half years back amidst the wishes of family and friends. But theirs was not the happiness and love of their first night together as Ruwan was rushed to the General Hospital Colombo, immediately following the reception with severe head injuries. His injuries were the result of him being pushed to the pond opposite the hotel as the couple were leaving on their honeymoon, where he hit the back of his head against the fountain taps at the bottom of the pond.
The second case of Maheshi and Rohan (not real names) is also equally harrowing where the two newly wed unfortunates were not even allowed the pleasure of their time together as one. Instead, Rohan who was subjected to been thrown up and down by his friends who were 'eager' to share the happiness of their friend was never to walk again. Having being accidentally dropped on the ground while the act was going on, on his back, Rohan was paralyzed for life. Today Rohan and Maheshi share a life of much difficulty due to Rohan being restricted to the wheel chair, and Maheshi having to earn the bread and butter for them both.
Despite both cases presented above being totally shocking, nothing could have shocked the country more than the incident that was reported last week where a bridegroom actually died following such treatments from his friends at their wedding in the Kelaniya area.
The groom who was a heart patient was subjected to the same 'rag' that Rohan was but suffering an attack at the rest house where the couple had checked in to following the reception for their honeymoon the groom passed away in a private hospital in Colombo in the early hours of the following day. Thus ended the many hopes and plans treasured most by two people joining their lives in matrimony to satisfy the perverse fun of their own friends.
What is indeed tragic in such instances where newly married couples are subjected to the now famous 'rag' is the fact that the two people are forced in to it by their own friends and relatives. So much for the day being one where the closest to the two being married are invited to 'share in their joy.'
Further adding to the tragedy is the fact that the family of the groom's total reluctance to bring justice to the untimely death of their son. Instead of expressing their anger at the so-called 'friends and cousins' of the groom who murdered their son, the parents and family are today placing blame before the media for highlighting the issues.
Refusing to speak to the press the family of the groom states the press, had no right to interfere in 'family business'.
Instead, the mother of the groom requested 'The Island' to refrain from speaking or commenting on the ragging incident at the reception, as those who instituted the rag were those friends of her son 'who helped immensely with the wedding preparations.So today instead of the same close friends looking forward to sharing the happiness of their friend in marriage, they help build his pyre.
What is equally shocking in these instances is the manner in which the families of the couple are reluctant to interfere when their children are subjected to such ragging. Instead many a parent watch helplessly as the friends take over the function and satisfy their own means of happiness.
The indecency and perversity of the rag takes many 'distasteful' forms. Among these are dousing the couple in flour, throwing rotten eggs, spoilt water, throwing the couple to a pool, dousing the couple's honeymoon wear in spoilt water or rotten eggs again.
Wedding ragging at forces weddings are reportedly the worst of the kind where one case was reported where the bride who was 'kidnapped' by the friends of the groom and returned only the following morning. Though no harm had been done to the bride such antics can only bring immense pain to young people forced to join in the 'fun'.
A reputed bridal photographer says:'It is sad to see families who have spent their hard earned money being forced to just stand helplessly as their friends subject their children to all forms of ragging. Most of the time even the groom is helpless as it his own friends. These friends have to realise facts like where an expensive suit is doused in flour the dry cleaners don't even take an order. Imagine how unfair this is to them. This situation I have noticed is bigger in weddings where they serve liquor.
'Even my crew when we tried to stop a couple from being ragged were assaulted by a group of the friends. It is hard for us not to interfere as sometimes the groom comes and seeks our help. Earlier the rag which was in a very small scale was done just for the people to have a little innocent fun but now it has become a part of the wedding people have come to dread. Even hotel security is helpless as they have no right to interfere. Especially at forces weddings they fear intervening. The elderly members of the families must come forward to prevent such situations, otherwise they will go on,' he added.
Contacted by 'The Island' the General Manager of Mt.Lavinia hotel a popular venue for weddings, Bazeer Cassim, admitted that the hotel security has little jurisdiction to interfere.
'This part of the wedding is really beyond our control. We only handle catering and provide the reception hall. We have security at different points but they can not interfere in the fun of the guests if no damage is caused to hotel property.
'These ragging is usually pre organised but we can do very little about it. Of course, if there are drunks we can intervene to avoid any inconvenience to the hotel guests. Most of the time the families of the couple too join in the fun so we can not interfere.
'We agree that the pond opposite the hotel is used for dumping the couples etc. But we strictly disallow any one from being pushed to the pool. A wedding is a private function and if it is the families themselves involved we can do little. It is true that when liquor is served the situation is made worse so the families have to decide on this issue.
'We have however informed our security staff to inform management if there is any damage to hotel property or any extreme situations taking place. But to stop the rag the initiative must come from within the families themselves,' he added.
Also speaking to The Island, the Director Marriage Courts, of the Catholic Church in Colombo, Father Mervyn Jayakody was of the view that such incidents must be discontinued at all costs in a wedding where the two people are brought together under holy matrimony.'It is wrong to subject them to these ragging after they have been let out of the church and the blessings of the God. Some people rag the couple within the church premises soon after the father has left. Why do they ridicule such a holy institution as marriage? This kind of ragging is not suitable to a country of culture like Sri Lanka. Although the rag was brought to Sri Lanka from foreign countries all they do is to tie a few tins at the back of the car. It is us that subject the couples to this tragedy.
'The various social services organizations must come forward to speak against this rag and abolish it,' he added.
Indeed it is within the families themselves that this message against this inhuman and indecent practice must come. As long as we continue to watch with horror as our own friends ruin one of our most precious days, it is ourselves and our friends lives we will continue to destroy. Two peoples happiness must not be allowed to be destroyed at the hands of a perverse few. - (S.P)
Hint: A vehicle you'd not want to ride in while alive
This is a reikyusha, a hearse used to carry a body from the funeral home to the crematorium. The photo above shows a typical reikyusha in Japan. You might think it is too gaudy for its purpose, but the fancy decoration perhaps best expresses the bereaved's desire to say farewell to a loved one with as much dignity as possible.
The reikyusha only became popular after World War II. In the olden days, the coffin was carried on a mikoshi, a portable shrine, shoulder high. Later, in the Meiji Period (1868-1912), it was placed on a large wagon or in a special vehicle decorated like a mikoshi. When cars became fairly common in the 1910s, a type of hearse, decorated like a shrine or temple, began appearing in Osaka. Then after the war a hearse maker in Tokyo, Yonezu Saburo, began selling his products all over Japan. These were the forerunners of the reikyusha seen todamy. Yonezu's son, Katsuhei, now runs Yonezu Corporation, which is the largest manufacturer of hearses in the country with about 70% of the market.
The body of these shrine-like vehicles generally comes from a luxury car, like a Cadillac or Toyota Crown. The top half is cut off and replaced with walls and a roof shaped like an elaborate shrine, with space inside for the casket. The upper structure is generally made of a light tropical wood, but may be built entirely of Japanese cypress if a company places a special order.
Almost all funerals in Japan follow Buddhist traditions, but to ensure that the hearse can also be used in Shinto ceremonies, Buddhist symbols like the lotus flower are not used to decorate the reikyushainstead you might see dragons and lions.
In today's energy-conscious world, vehicles are being made smaller and lighter. The challenge for reityusha manufacturers is to keep the vehicle strong even after the top is cut off. They realize they must experiment with new ways to make the shrine-like section lighter.
- China Pictorial
The people their stories
Taking the less travelled roadBy Carl Muller
Even as I begin to write this, I can't help thinking of Arthur Alvis, the short man with the iron jaw who, long ago, cycled to London. Arthur's antics and exploits have been recorded many times over. We were friends all the late Jim Wanigatunga (that grand old man of the travel trade), Arthur and I. The memories flooded back when I talked with Ahmed Kazim Saheed at the Kandy City Mission. He's Kasha, he says, to his friends the world over and simply Kazim to his many admiring relations in Kandy and he grins and runs his fingers through his shock of thick hair and says he wishes he had a bike right now.It is nice to meet someone who has so vivid a memory but I guess its hard to forget times of real adventure when he and his friends lived in the Kandy of the seventies - Anton (Jaws) Wanigasinghe, Ashley (Frackey) de Selfa, and Errol (Grease) Maynert. The unstoppable four! Young, full of the sort of get-up-and-go that made Kandy's youth something special in those palmy days.
'I remember how it all started,' Kasha said. 'It was March seventy and the four of us decided to cycle to Trinco. Nobody demurred. We were game for anything. It someone said let's go to Timbuctoo, to Timbuctoo we would have gone. And we got to Trinco. No real problems if you leave out the problems we may have caused others, and then we met a couple of German tourists.'
Kasha still remembers their names. Udo and Bert. 'They were from Weippertal. They had come overland from India: and were enjoying the beaches. Good scuba divers. Anyway, we were able to help them. We got their oxygen pump repaired at a roadside bicycle shop.'
Chumming up, the idea took hold. These Germans simply breezed in, had a nice time, went away, seeing the world at leisure. They took boats, buses, trains. Kasha and his pals hatched a scheme. They would take their bikes on the ferry to India, go with the Germans, then keep cycling and cycling, go to Gemmany. Would Udo and Bert help?
'We will see,' they said. No promises, but this cycling business was not on. 'You travel overland with us.'
The ride back to Kandy must have been a record breaker because four fired-up boys had made their decision. They would get their passports, go to India, join Udo and Bert and go to Germany.
'We left in April - the four desperados - everyone in Kandy wagging their heads in disbelief, many quite envious, others gloomy, picturing the worst. Also, there a little bit of concern that travelled with us, but that disappeared when we joined Udo and Bert. They were pleased to see us, assured us that everything was fine.'
They did India - Trichy, Madurai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Agra, New Delhi. Life was really high key for the adventurers... and then the bomb dropped. The Germans had been told that they would have to take full responsibility for the boys if they were brought to Germany, and this they were not prepared to do. They had thought it so simple. Get the boys into Germany, leave them to their own devices. Now they would have to house them, guarantee their good conduct, fund them if necessary, even feed them. They gave the boys gloomy looks. The boys listened and decided that they would go on. 'We will come to Germany anyway,' Kasha said with supreme confidence.
'But you cannot. Not with us.'
'So that's all right. But we will come. We have friends in your country. We will find a way.'
Above all was the determination not to turn back. What? And say that they had failed?
Udo and Bert left. The parting was rather lukewarm but perhaps Kasha and his friends were too full of plans. 'End of chapter,' Kasha said crisply, 'now we must decide what to do.'
What they did was quite unthinkable. They split up, and each went his separate way. 'You see, we decided to hitch hike our way across Europe. Together we would not have had much chance. We worked out a plan. We would leave messages of our progress at border crossings and tourist information centres and at all Sri Lanka consulates in the large cities. We mapped out routes to be taken and places where we could meet.'
Call it desperation if you like but here were four Sri Lankan boys stepping out into the unknown. What could maps really tell them? There were miles to trudge and rain and mountains and precious little money and thieves and bandits and where would food be begged for and how heavy would their back-packs become as the miles piled up to mock them? As it was, they were camped in the Mahabodhi Hall in New Delhi. One thing helped however. They were all fine musicians and did some gigs in the city at night, earning some money.
Two months. It took Kasha two months to reach Bonn, West Germany. He had a friend in Bad Godesberg, Upali Dole. Upali had come to Germany in 1968 with the musical duo Eranga and Priyanga. They too, as you know, live in Kandy, in Katugastota to be exact. Upali was delighted. They made beautiful music together and it was then that Kasha had his big break. The Sri Lanka- Gemman Association in Essen was intrigued by the story of a young man who had made his way out of India, through some of the most arduous territory in the world, into Germany. The head of the Association Ruth Menke came to see him. Soon, they were firm friends. 'I call her Akkie even now,' Kasha said, and this 'Akkie', also a journalist, told the story of Kasha's journey in the press and of how he wishes to study and work in Germany.
Response was immediate. 'In a few days, I was offered work in a dairy bottling plant in Essen and a few months later I was sent to Krefeld for a course in Dairy production and Animal Husbandry.' He returned to a four-year contract with his employer. 'It was hard work, mind. I had to learn German too and I had my quarters in a small provincial town. People would stare at me all the time. Foreigners were a rare sight there.'
But the boy had become a man, and a well-paid man too. He would holiday around Europe and that was how, in 1976, he met Patricia in Zurich. They were married the next year in New York (Patricia's an American), and they came back to Germany where he continued to work.
One would think that Kasha would shun the less travelled road thereafter. Today, he has it made in New York and is considered important a man enough to be invited to diplomatic functions. In fact Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN had to have him and his wife at the special reception accorded to Mr. and Mrs. Premadasa in October 1985. But Kasha simply had to come home. 'I was suddenly utterly homesick. I wanted Patricia to meet my family. I wanted to see Kandy again. Another friend, who was also from Kandy, Zaroun Mohamood, said he would come along too. Maybe it was nostalgia, but I simply had to travel once again that road I took to Germany.'
'You mean you did the overland trip back?'
'That's right. We bought a Volkswagen bus, got it in shape for the 12,000 mile run and that was some trip. Sometimes I could not help thinking that it was easier when I had hitch hiked!' Yes, sometimes, four wheels pose more problems than two or no wheels at all. They took the mountain passes through the Austrian Alps, into the forbidding mountains of Yugoslavia, through Zagreb, Beograd, crossed the Tigris into Turkey. 'We hit a donkey in Bulgaria and Patricia was beginning to fret. The two-week journey we had planned kept hitting snag after snag. There was this revolution in Iran, but what is Iran without a revolution? When we nosed into Pakistan there were no roads with directions and plenty of people to give directions when there was no sign of a road. And then came the Indian monsoon and the usual floods that made everything impassable. It was as if the whole of Central India was under water.'
Unable to proceed, Kasha consigned the Volkswagen to the Indian Railways. 'And do you know what they did? They lost the bus! Can you believe it? They said they had lost my bus! A whole bus! It took them three weeks to find it. They told me four days but I think they were simply waiting for the flood waters to subside.'
'By that time,' he said ruefully, 'We were all suffering from dysentery and my wife was seriously considering divorce! Everytime we talked she would ask whether it would be simpler to get a divorce in Kandy or in New York. I really couldn't tell if she was simply kidding me.'
Anyway, when nothing worse can happen, things usually get better and they had the pleasure of finally driving up Kadugannawa into Kandy, to an uproarious reception from family and friends.
'And no, Patricia didn't want a divorce any more. I think she didn't want a divorce from Sri Lanka either because we spent 18 glorious months here and went back to the States with many regrets.'
They flew back, and today, the old Volkswagen bus, 38 - 9202 still runs in Kandy, the propud possession of Kasha's brother-in-law, M.P.M. Saheed, who runs Saheed's. Furnishing Co, in Trincomalee Street and still rides the VW - the vehicle that can tell a travel story of its own!
And the others? Ashley', Anton and Errol all made their way into Europe and found their own niches, their own fortunes. What may be another story may be one of reunion... some day.
In July 1980, Kasha and Patricia were blessed with a daughter, Jasmin, who is today a Communications major at Ramapo College, New Jersey. In Kandy, M.P.M. Saheed said, 'I still look at the Volkswagen and wonder at the joumey it did. Kazim simply gave it to me. 'Machan,' he said, 'it's yours. We are flying back.' It is a very precious possession.'
Kasha is back in the States. He's an American citizen now and as he says, life is good. 'But I will come back again. This is where home will always be.'
Oh, by the way, I have to add a postscript. All four boys were Trinitians. Does that say something for the spirit of adventure that took them miles and miles on those less travelled roads?
Holland is often called the Home of Flowers. In late spring every year, the flower-growing areas of the country break out in a riot of colors. Red, yellow, blue, pink, and white flowers meet the eye everywhere on the vast expanse of fields covered with flowerbeds. It seems that the entire land is covered with a huge carpet, and the sight is fascinating.
Most of the villages in the area are decorated with flowers. Plants are grown on the roadsides and in household courtyards, flowerpots are set out on the balconies and windows ills, and baskets of flowers hang on the electric-wire poles. When flowers are in full bloom in April and May, the local farmers hold flower shows. Motor vehicles decked with flowers drive through the streets, followed by people wearing flower garlands on their heads and waving bunches of flowers in their hands. The processions turn the streets into dazzling displays of color.
Roses and azaleas are the most common flowers in Holland, and tulips are the most treasured. Near The Hague is a park that features the best tulip varieties in the country. I visited the park and saw that it is beautifully laid out, with tulips growing under trees, along the paths, on the banks of streams, and around beds of other flowers.
The park has a large greenhouse featuring the rarest species of tulips in Holland. The flowers are shaped like wine cups, and they are large and bright. They are solid or variegated in color, and some of the flower petals bear speckles and streaks. The flowers look tender, gorgeous, and dignified.
The park is often called the Tulip Park or the World Center of Tulips, and it has several million tulips of more than 500 species. During the flowering period, more than 20,000 people from all parts of the world visit the park every day. Many tourists come to take photographs, sketch the flowers, or even hold wedding ceremonies in the park.
Eighty percent of the flowers produced in Holland are for export, and there are many flower exchanges in the country. I visited a production cooperative not far from the park. The cooperative, formed by 4,000 flower growers, is the largest flower exchange in Holland and has a 335,000-square-meter salesroom, as large as 50 soccer fields. Every morning, 2,000 trucks haul flowers fresh from the farms to the exchange, where 1,000 workers unload the trucks, sort out different species of flowers, and load them on small wagons for immunological inspection before they are transferred by electromobiles to the salesroom. I stood on an overhead passageway above the salesroom and saw a vast sea of flowers in infinite varieties of colors and shapes arranged in fantastic patterns, looking like colorful clouds or endless waves.
The manager told that 12 million flowers are sold there every day. All the flowers sold in the morning would be loaded into refrigerated vans and airplanes and reach the markets in Europe, the United States, and Japan in the evening or the next morning. Holland, he said, is the largest flower exporter in the world and the country's income from flower exports alone is as much as 3.2 billion Dutch guilders a year.
I spent a few hours at the exchange. The heavy fragrance and beautiful colors of the flowers made me feel happy and pleasant, aroused my love for life, peace, and happiness, and gave me fresh energy. I believe that efforts should be made to let flowers blossom all over the world, not only in Europe but also in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
- China Pictorial
Diminishing House Sparrows - some observations
During the past weeks, several articles appeared in The Island, drawing attention to the plight of the House Sparrow. This is written as a sequel to my previous article 'What ails the House Sparrow? (The Island 17-01-98) to share some more observations.
The decline of House Sparrow populations is not confined to Colombo, but is happening in many parts of the country and has been observed by me in 12 districts. It is still found in the commercial area of Borella, as seen by both Dr. Dhammawansa and the Amateur Ornithologist, but not in the surrounding residential parts, from which they have steadily disappeared during the past years. In every town where the sparrows are in decline, the pattern is the same, the birds disappearing from households but maintaining populations in the midst of busy commercial areas.
This hardy, adoptable omnivore can feed on a broad variety of items like seed, grains, leftover food, household refuse to insects and other small creatures. Food sources are more abundant in towns than in many rural areas. The loss of garden space in towns does not affect them as long as they can find enough food. This is evident from the thriving populations in some busy parts of Colombo such as the Moor Street and Dam Street which are devoid of any kind of greenery.
Similarly, the destruction of trees and strubs in urban areas has no impact on sparrows as they do not usually depend on these for nesting purposes. During all observations, the instances when sparrows were seen resting on trees were very rare. The few times their globular nests were seen on trees were in the middle of large paddyfields in the dry zone which does not have suitable buildings for their nesting. In every place where there are both trees and buildings, they invariably select buildings to nest.
It may be that sparrows prefer buildings due to the security from enemies by the close proximity to humans, or that crevice, ventilations holes and ceiling spaces in buildings provide convenient places for nesting as they require much less effort in construction, or due to both reasons.
The earthen pots and nest boxes placed in many homes have been removed when people realised that they have gone unoccupied for some time. In some, the removal of these has been hastened due to these abandoned nest boxes being occupied by Magpie Robins. Unlike the House Sparrow which is considered by many to bring luck to the house, there is a superstition that Magpie Robin. Brings misfortune. Some of these disused nest boxes were inspected by me and many had unhatched eggs, many of them broken. In several, the birds have placed nesting meterial to cover unhatched eggs and layed another clutch. Even the shell fragments in nests indicate an unsuccessful clutch, as the parent birds always take away shell fragments to a distance and throw away when young birds hatch out.
Initial inquiries from people help reveal that the sparrow is mostly affected where insect vector (mosquito) control chemicals have been used. But, the decline is seen in pleces where no spraying has occurred for years. The people in such areas complained that they have resorted to using mosquito coils since the mosquitoes are a big problem. In many brands of mosquito coils that were inspected by me, the active ingredient is a synthetic pyrethroid. This class of chemicals had been known to be extremely toxic to birds. Although it is still too early to give a clear picture whether the coils are a culprit, it may be possible to say whether there is a co-relationship between the two, or is just a coincidence.
Sphinx yields location of Cleo's palace
The sunken ruins of Cleopatra's Palace may be opened to the public in an underwater museum where visitors will be able to stroll through a network of glass tunnels on the Mediterranean seabed off Alexandria.
Support for the project, devised by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has been boosted by the recovery recently from the harbour's waters of a 2,000-year-old sphinx.
The black granite statue's face portrays Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII, and dates from an era when Alexandria was one of the cultural capitals of the ancient world. The complex of waterfront buildings and royal courts, where the statue stood, slipped beneath the waves more than 1,600 years ago after a devastating earthquake.
'Ptolemy XII was known as the Flute Player,' says Susan Walker, deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum. 'He would be difficult to mistake because he had strong features like Mr. Punch; a huge hooked nose and prominent chin.'
Two French-led teams of marine archaeologists have been diving in the waters around Alexandria. At the western end of the harbour, further out to sea, the first team have discovered the toppled remains of the Pharos, the giant lighthouse once rated as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
The other sub-aqua team, led by Franck Goddio, discovered the location of the submerged royal courts after four years of exploration aided by a satellite global positioning system.
They have also pinpointed the royal harbour of Cape Lochias, the island of Antirhodos, which housed one of Cleopatra's palaces, and the peninsula where her lover, Mark Antony, built his retreat, the Timonium.
'That part of the eastern harbour was for years a protected zone because of its military use,' says Dr Walker, who intends to visit the site. 'It's an aquarium version of Salisbury Plain, where great tracts of land have been preserved because of a military ban which has now been lifted.'
Although Alexandria is well known from historical and literary sources, most of the archaeological evidence has disappeared under the modern city. Built by Alexander the Great in 332 BC for its magnificent harbour, the city became the commercial: gateway to Egypt and a centre of learning filled with gardens, fountains and temples.
'We are opening a whole new world. This is the world's heritage,' declared Gaballa Ali Gaballa, Egypt's chief archaeologist rather than draining part of the bay or removing the statues, he proposes constructing the network of underwater tunnels. Most of the site is under 6 metres of water.
A feasibility study for the museum has been started and funds are being sought from UNESCO. 'It sounds crazy but I know it is not crazy. I know it can be done,' says Dr Gaballa.
Another suggestion has been to use a glass submarine to take tourists down below.
- Guardian Weekly
Custard pie on menu for celebrities
A surrealist Belgian intellectual's 25-year campaign to throw custard pies at pompous celebrities and those with unaccountable power has spread to Britain with a group calling itself the Biotic Baking Brigade. Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch, and even the broadcaster Jeremy Paxman are believed to be targets.
Recent recipients of pies thrown by the Brussels-based International Patisserie Brigade and the BBB are Bill Gates of Microsoft, Robert Shapiro, head of Monsanto, and the economist Milton Friedman.
The pie wars moved to London last weekend with the entartainment (pieing) of the Italian head of the World Trade Organisation, Renato Ruggiero. Several BBB protesters ambushed Mr. Ruggiero, aged 69 complaining about his intention to speed up neo-liberal economics even as millions of people were suffering recession. The protesters launched a volley of pies, and Mr. Ruggiero was hit several times.
'When they have no more rational arguments, the fringe elements have to use cake,' the WTO chief said.
A BBB spokesman said: 'To those who wish to dominate the world, the world replies, 'Let them eat humble pie. 'We will wage our gastronomical struggle with epicurean passion.'
British pie-throwing is the latest in a long line of subversive tactics by direct action groups. That it has a philosophical underpinning is clanks to Noel Godin, a 51-year-old Belgian, who says his slapstick politics is inspired by Norman Wisdom and the Three Musketeers.
Mr. Godin has been throwing custard pies at celebrities since 1965, when he pied French novelist Marguerite Duras for having 'a kind of intelligence that serves only her own vanity'. His teams yell 'Gloop', 'gloop, 'gloop' as they launch their tarts. If they fail to strike, they eat the pies which they insist are top quality.
