The daily newspaper published by Printec Holdings owned by Dr. V. Ramadoss is up and running. Usually when a new paper, and a daily paper at that is launched, the voices of the Free Press will all join in uniform acclamation for such a momentous occasion.
First issue of The Rising Sun had little or no Free Press in it. The Front page was a picture of former President France Albert Rene celebrating one of his birthdays a few years back when he still kept his hair well cropped and wore white safari suits.
In the news section on Page Two (2), under the title “Soaring Food Prices”, the writer makes a round-the-world tour to finally tell us to stop complaining about the price of goods and start planting pumpkin and papaya seeds to get our five (5) portions of fruits a day. How nice coming from the SPPF. This is an advertisement that the empty shelves in our shops are not about to be filled to capacity one day soon.
How could we miss the red, (red of course is the international color of Communist ) photo color adverts page after page after page of Mr. France Albert Rene and the wishing of Happy Birthday over and over again. The one advert that caught my eye distinctively was the one where they seem to refer to Mr. Rene as Father of the Nation and below it read “Long Live Dr. V. Ramadoss”.
Mr. Rene is not the Father of a Nation. That is taking the matter of flattery and birthday presents too far. Mr. Rene is the Father of The Coup D’etat of June 5th 1977, nothing less, nothing more. Except perhaps the Father of our disastrous economic policies which have left our “strong Rupee” DEVALUED and if left to float, as the SPPF Economist Ralph Agrippine told us in Face-A-Face last week, would not be worth more then 2% of its value today.
Can you believe we are funding this guy’s birthday parties every year after he has left us in such a mess and our money is worthless today.
In the World News section, The Rising Sun carried a headline, “Man Weds Dog in Bid to Break Curse”. Sounds a little like that Indian Doctor who showed in a little country one day, courted the powers that be and ended up with casinos, restaurants, printing companies, cemetery shopping centers and God only knows what else.
Congratulations to The Rising Sun initial print of 1000 free copies. The challenge now will be to try to get someone to buy the paper. Then again, who ever advertises in it can buy ample copies to keep the wheels turning.
Long Live Dr. V. Ramadoss.....in Mr. Rene’s Shadow!
(Contributed)