Colonial mindset of supermarket companies
Posted on November 24th, 2019
By Janaka Perera
Throughout every Christmas season, customers at supermarkets in Sri Lanka can hear Christmas hymns being sung and the staff wearing red Santa Claus caps, though not all the staff may be Christians.
This no doubt is commercializing religion but why force-feed it on non-Christians too – both employees and customers?
During Buddhist and Hindu festivals however, we hear neither chanting of Buddhist sutras nor Hindu devotional songs at these same supermarkets.
Are we still a European colony?
We can understand if this is confined only to December 24-25. But why continue it for over a month until the festive season ends? This does not happen in Western countries to my knowledge.
Is not forcing non-Christian employees to wear Santa Claus costumes a violation of human rights?
Getting the female staff to wear cloth and jacket during the Sinhala-Tamil New Year is quite different since it a national festival according to ancient traditions – not a religious festival as such.
We do not mind Sri Lankan supermarkets having Christmas trees during the season provided they have Vesak Lanterns during Vesak and maybe some Hindu symbols during Hindu festivals at least in areas where Hindus are in the majority.
November 25th, 2019 at 2:21 pm
Christian / Catholic Church march in insidious ways! By the time their ‘acts’ are exposed the harm is already done and irrevocably.
One other thing is what Pastor / Brother Charles Thomas is doing. He is going all over the island as well as overseas addressing mainly Buddhist audiences giving false and misleading explanations to Buddhist teachings. Just seeing the idiotic crowds that throng his audiences fascinated by Christian music, show the level to which Buddhists have descended in the recent past, although there are many who just wants to be seen with the ‘Joneses’!
I have heard him saying that Buddhist meditation Ana Pana Sathi is simply breathing and no more. His efforts to minimalize and make a joke of Buddhist Meditation is a subtle way of castigating Buddhism when all over the virtues of Buddhist meditation and other meditational practices are extolled.
Brother Charles Thomas is so keen about Buddhism it is best he becomes a Buddhist. In Buddhism, there is no place for a creator God. There is no need to extol the virtues of God while preaching Buddhist themes. His efforts are mainly directed at confusing the minds of those less informed. He is a cunning wolf among the unsuspecting Buddhist sheep!