ulterior motives

I am a very simple man. At least I like to think so. I am sure those who know me will contradict me on this. However for the most part, I speak words that truly reflect my feelings. This brutal honesty can at times be hurtful in the village, and is not diplomatic for them but at least it is truthful. I have made a few enemies from telling people the truth about who they are.

The people in the village I have noticed are full of double speak. That is they never tell the truth, and trying to decipher this and get down to the truth, is very hard, as I am not used to the game they play. While they are relatively simple folk, they have a great ability to talk in riddles and not say what they mean or mean what they say. This is most irritating when it relates to the methods adopted to part me from my hard earned money, which they think falls from trees literally for me!!

I fall into this trap time and again, and accept people at face value and then get conned, not knowing that what they said is not what they meant. When they borrow money, it is never the intention of paying unless, tough terms or repayment are extracted and collateral taken. Promises are made that are never kept. No one's word is their bond.

You might wonder why I live amongst such people if they are out to take you for a ride at every juncture. I thought about this for a long time and came to the following conclusion.

Actually people from all walks of life are like that with ulterior motives, so that I cannot run away from that. It just took me a while to realize that in a developed economy it is more subtle, and the sales talk can cost you a pile more and I have suffered far greater financial loss as a result. Hey how come I returned to Sri Lanka with hardly any money after years abroad. I was somehow parted from a life time of earnings, by those closest, through a devious method called divorce.

So this level of rural village double speak is the least costly, though more apparent and often you cannot escape without satisfying their hunger, but the price is not great in the scheme of things.