RihView: Courtrooms, Catwalks, and Cyclones

Someone had to say it

This past week served chaos in every flavour: courtrooms, catwalks, and cyclones. We had two ex-ministers actually sentenced without spontaneously developing mystery illnesses, a beauty pageant post-mortem where PR met public perception, and a stormy reality check that made the Met Department look like they’re forecasting vibes instead of weather. Let’s get into it.

Sri Lanka’s Weather Forecast: Vibes-Based and Vaguely Threatening
The weather last week? Cyclonic. Unpredictable. Roofs flying off like budget drones. And yet, barely a peep from the Met Department before chaos hit.

People have been dragging the Department of Meteorology left, right, and centre, saying it’s unreliable. And while I hate to disagree with the masses… I don’t think they’re unreliable. I think they’re reliably wrong.

If they say it’ll rain? Bring sunscreen.
If they say it’ll be sunny? Brace for floods.
If they say there’s “no immediate threat”? Cancel your outdoor plans immediately.

It’s honestly impressive how consistently off the mark they are. At this point, we could get more accurate forecasts from a coconut falling off a tree.

But jokes aside,  people have lost homes, livelihoods, and lives in the last few weeks. Sri Lanka can’t afford a Met Department that’s always playing catch-up. If your job is to track disaster, you can’t be part of it.

Last Word: Predicting the weather isn’t easy. But in this country, getting it wrong this often should qualify as a national sport.

Pretty Isn’t Enough. And Neither Is PR.
I came across a post on X a few days ago (yes, we’re still calling it a tweet, what else would we even say? an “X”? absolutely not). And while it’s a bit of a contentious opinion, I’ll be honest, I agreed with it.

The idea was simple. When the hype machine becomes the main event, it can swallow the contestant whole. Over-curated feeds, deleted posts, brand-new “safe” accounts, and a rehearsed-on-repeat delivery, all of it adds up to a performance that starts to feel… hollow.

That doesn’t mean she didn’t work hard. It doesn’t mean she wasn’t committed. It means the real person may have been lost in the noise of strategy. And if we’re being honest, that can turn even the most polished campaign into a liability.

But what’s been especially frustrating is how people are now praising her to the high heavens while dismissing past contestants for not being “visible enough.” Let’s be clear: every single woman who’s represented Sri Lanka has done it with grace, grit, and under immense pressure. Just because their journeys weren’t PR-driven doesn’t mean they weren’t impactful.

Last Word: A crown doesn’t come from visibility alone. And tearing down the past to hype the present? Not the look.

Carrom Boards, Corruption, and a Rare Appearance by Justice
This week, something almost unheard of happened: two former Cabinet Ministers were sentenced to over 20 years in prison, actual rigorous imprisonment, not the kind that comes with spa visits and press conferences.

The charges? Misusing over Rs. 53 million in public funds to import and distribute thousands of carrom and draughts boards in the lead-up to the 2015 Presidential Election. The money came from a state-run enterprise and was conveniently funnelled into this little “youth sports initiative” that, shocker, lined all the right pockets.

And for once, the system didn’t stall. We didn’t see the usual performance, you know the one: perfectly healthy when walking into court, then suddenly clutching their chest like a third-rate soap opera character the moment the verdict drops. No dramatic hospital admissions. No emergency wheelchairs wheeled in for sympathy. Just a clean 84-page judgment and two guilty verdicts, delivered without the usual theatrics.

After years of watching white-collar crime end in press statements and shoulder shrugs, this felt different. It felt like… accountability.

Last Word: Justice in Sri Lanka may arrive late and limping, but this week, it actually showed up.

Until next week, stay dry, stay smart, and if the Met Department says it’s sunny, maybe pack an umbrella just in case.
– Rihaab