Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Nicaraguayil Ortega!



Malloo film buffs may remember this dialogue from the film Sandesam: "..Nicaragua-yil Ortegaye purathakki avide oru pava government-ine sthapichu.." (In Nicaragua, Ortega was ousted and a dummy government was put in power.. [by the US])

Sreenivasan's character, a hardcore communist, tells this (and some comments on what happened in Polland-- it was a good laugh) in reply to his brother's-- he's a Congressman-- comments criticizing the left parties in Kerala. Their father, played by Thilakan, can't stand these two political rivals fighting in the house.

Today I was reminded of this line by my [needless to say, leftist] friend Dileep. It seems Ortega is coming back to power in the central American country after 16 years. He also sent me a link to Deshabhimani online news (CPI-M paper in Malayalam) that celebrates the comeback.

But another friend Arun tells us it's not the Ortega that he used to be.. It seems there are considerable changes his positions.

"Mr. Ortega, ousted in a 1990 election after his Sandinista government had fought a civil war against U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas, has reinvented himself as a moderate and a reconciler who will bring jobs and growth. His campaign colour is pastel pink, his rallies play John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance, and his running mate is Jaime Morales, an ex-Contra.

Mr. Ortega, 60, is paunchier since his rebel heyday, when he was compared to Che Guevara. Secularism has given way to support for the Catholic Church and its abortion ban campaign. He has declined to debate with rival candidates and focusses on rapturous rallies in the barrios.."

[ Sandinista comeback alarms U.S., also from The Hindu.)

However, if even a moderate, paunchy, Catholic Ortega is sending panic signals to the U.S., we may see more sanctions, more poverty (Nicaragua is apparently the second poorest country in the western half of the globe, after Hayti), another "axis of evil" and probably another war or another coup. It seems the U.S. had warned the people even before the elections of sanctions and other "dire consequences" that a Sandinista comeback would lead to. Business as usual.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Abt Poland; it was Jayaram saying something about it and Srinivasan replying .."Polandine patti maathram parayarathu...athenikku ishtamallla..." or something like that :-)

Movie Mazaa said...

Nothing to do with Ortega, but should say Sandesham was one fantastic film...

:)

Sudeep said...

arun.. thanks for the correction. a translation for non-mallus: "don't utter a word about Polland.. i don't like that..!"

Anonymous said...

both scenes are there. both are right(subid.ks@gmail.com)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reminding about that joke once again..... We used to see that movie almost once in a month during college final year.......

It seems that the left parties are yet to move away from the ghost of the past (blunders)..... But I should rather pity "Mathrubhumi" and other popular news papers who are supposed to take a more balanced stand. And amopngst the Saddam's political barbarianisms the murdering of Kurdish Communist Party members truly stands out .... I wonder when will the organized left go a step further and think beyond electoral games and rhetorics......