07:32pm. 07:32pm. Look me in the eyes and tell me this is an ungodly hour. An hour that women should lock their doors and stay inside. An hour where one can’t go out and enjoy the company of friends.
25th April 2016. 07:32pm. Also coincides with Mother Lanka, losing two of her daughter. Sharon Schuilling and Imeshi Perera.
Firstly, let me offer my most heartfelt condolences to the Schuilling and Perera families. To the relatives that treasured them and the friends that adored them.
They are now with God. Blissful happy and peaceful. But there seems to be a fair number of fellow Sri Lankans who deem that they shouldn’t be. That they should be repenting for their “sins’. Suggesting, that the got what they “deserved”. That perhaps they entirely called it upon themselves.Suggesting that they sauntered into the arms of death.
These fellow Sri Lankan, unsurprisingly are adorned in their armor of hiding behind a computer screen. The ever so brave Keyboard Warriors of Lanka deem that Sharon and Imeshi were asking for it. The deplorable comments on websites that informed us of this tragedy, made me shudder. Why? Because “human” beings who proudly claim to be human seem utterly convinced that the girls actions beckoned and welcomed death.
I wonder if they have a heart or just a bloody red stain. A stain that’s spreading like a contagion and convincing other people with distorted truths and inhumane stances – that the girls are completely to blame and they in some twisted way actually asked for it.
Comments on news sites like NewsFirst was absolutely appalling, made worse by the fact that NewsFirst too handled it in a very unprofessional manner, so much so that they issued an apology and took down the CCTV footage of the accident. Yet, NewsFirst managed to save face. But what about the thousands of people who hide their face behind computer screens and wish death upon others.
The downright disgusting claims ranging from:
“Sure, These girls were out their sense, with the temptation of love, that is what do you call youth,
Fortunately, they did not jump to a car driven by father or mother of small kids, other wise that parent would have been in a jail by now. and also smashed their faces by on lookers.
Crazy young kids.. no sense of importance of life, parents could have done much more better that what they did …good lesson for all parents”
or
“ Totally parents should responsibility for this..because why their allow their teenage girl to go out for a party with friends? ,,,its that our culture….??? so as i think cz of parents they loose their life… “
or
“Post moterm revealed both girls didnt have their Virginity….it was not a big deal for their parents….RIP sistets…”
or a comment by a user aptly called Sherlock Holmes,
“ Secret was revealed!!! This is a help for Imeshi’s parents.
The Imeshi’s boy friend’s real name is Shamika Hansajith who is studying at St. Peter’s College, Colombo. He works at Works at Funkey World and Party Rock.
Find him and buried with Imeshi tomorrow.
RIP sisters. GOd bless “
It terrifies me to comprehend that the people typing the above, are actual humans. Humans with families, friends, girlfriends and yet they deem that the girls death was not a “big deal” for their parents because they “supposedly” didn’t have an intact hymen.
My friends, these are just a handul of the few English comments. There are so many more comments mainly in Sinhalese that are so horrifying an heartless, you cant help but wonder what environment these people were exposed to.What kind of environment led them to actually believe that these girls deserved to die. That the parents who nurtured and fed these girls don’t have the right to mourn.That someone needs to hunt down their boyfriends. All because, they were out at 7:32pm.
Would these people still fling blame at the victims, if they were two middle aged ladies.Or two children. Or perhaps even two 18 year old girls crossing the tracks to get to somewhere other than a party ?
Why don’t these heavily intellectual humans open their eyes to other possibilities. That perhaps this was freak ACCIDENT or perhaps, just perhaps there could have been a way to prevent it.
A method of prevention, that does not involve a 6:00pm island wide curfew.
What bothers me the most is how it always become a blame game. Just like every other major political , economic or social problem faced by Sri Lanka. Does anyone not ask as to why, the girls who were going to a relatively high end restaurant, Barracuda Beach Restaurant, were subject to crossing a railway track unsupervised.
The only supervision coming from an “eye witness” with explicit night vision, who has a supernatural predisposition to spot headphones.
It terrifies me, that the last time I visited establishments like Barracuda Beach, The Station, The Shore by O, numerous restaurants Down South etc I could have just as easily been victim to a racing train. So could have the hundreds who wine and dine there every night. These places have bars and serve alcohol to their restaurant patrons. Do they really assume it to be safe to allow intoxicated patrons to cross a dark railway track? And more importantly, why has anyone not spoken about this before? Did it really cost the lives of two 18 year olds for such establishments to realize that the speeding trains, is very much an imminent threat?
Perhaps the unfortunate event of 26/04/16 is the neon sign that we all needed. To realize that our night outs can very easily end up as our last night out.
It petrifies me to recall the number of times my own family and friends have crossed the tracks of death under the influence of alcohol and their only safety measure was looking around and assuming its safe. Yet, there’s a simple solution to such problems, a security guard. A security guard to ensure that the ‘valued patrons’ will actually be able to “thank you, come again”.
A security guards average salary is under 40,000 rupees a month (source: http://www.salary.lk/home/salary/salary-check ). I doubt establishments that boast full houses every weekend and patrons consisting of Colombo’s elite cannot afford such a basic facility. A security guard. A single security guard to ensure that a tragedy like what the Schuilling and Perera families had to endure will not happen again.
How about for once rather than pass inhumane judgment and post statuses on Facebook, we all unite and take action to ensure that such an accident can be prevented in the future.
Government of Lanka, perhaps a security guard should be mandatory for any establishment that requires patrons to cross a railway track.
But people of Lanka, why don’t we all unite to form a more kind and compassionate society. After all when you point your finger to blame someone, there’s four fingers pointing back at you.
Rather than run to the temple and offer flowers this Vesak month, lets act on the words of Buddha, “Hatred never ceases hatred.” So lets all unite and spread love and kindness.
