Its imbecilic journalists like this that gives Sri Lanka a bad name

The article appearing in the Island of January 22^nd, is of such low quality and laced with a level of hate towards foreigners that even the Editor, should have rejected it. However the fact that it was permitted reflects the bigoted state of our journalists, and journalism.

They fail completely in being patriotic and nationalistic, picking out the Galle Fort for ridicule, blaming foreigners for ruining it! Where has he been all this time. I remember the time when the Fort was a ruin, and a lost place more like a slum!

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=96402  

It is a reflection of the journalist's credentials that fails to mention, that until the Foreigners could spot a winner, the whole place would have gone unnoticed as WE fail to identify our own treasures. The mention that the removal of the 100% tax gave them the Fort is utter rubbish, as the locals who are now buying into the Fort have done so only after the foreigners gentrified it. If they had a vision they could have bought into fort at a fraction, when the property was going cheap. Mr Harischandra Guneratne you are a disgrace to your eminent profession. Even with the 100% the Fort would have been bought up by foreigners!

The foreigners in NO way prevented the locals from buying, as there were enough locals with a lot of money, but they could not see a future and did not have a vision, so they did not gamble their money. It is sour grapes that thanks to them they have raised the value of the place, and they can now benefit from selling to the locals at a profit and move elsewhere to do the same, as our still tunnel visioned people cannot see the level of beauty in our country and buy up the remaining land, and instead buy a Rs100M Benz.

To blame Dobbs who was able to see an opportunity, which other people have copied, and made money, is very silly and insular. Also to say that Ratnayake was the first of the Boutiques is wrong. I stayed at Saman Villas on opening and it was not boutique!  Don’t go around fooling your readers on half truths.

If there are patriots they will buy up the other 150,000 beauty spots in Sri Lanka, as they have the money. Instead they are in the process of further destroying the 250,000 archeological sites, by digging for treasure. Until we clean up our own act, don’t blame foreigners who have profited from our foolishness and lack of common sense and vision, as eminently reflected in the ridiculous article.

Thank the foreigners for their faith in Sri Lanka to invest here, whilst our politicians are socking their money in foreign bank accounts, when they could be safeguarding our treasures from pillage from our own citizens, and buying up the available land.

It is time we learned how much potential we have in our country, that we can preserve, instead of selling anything just to make money, as greed will eventually destroy Sri Lanka. Just to highlight one example, the Yala Park is too overcrowded, and now there is talk of opening up all the Zones. What a travesty? We MUST limit entry to preserve its purity NOT open up more areas for traffic jams.

This race for 2.5M tourists IS GOING to kill the Goose that has laid the golden eggs. We can earn more if we know how to value the tourists and make ten times per tourist, in the way that Geoffrey Dobbs has, and many more foreigners at the expense of our blind tourist industry investors and professionals. If we still have not been able to take a cue from Dobbs, then we will never, as we have perceptions like that of the journalist to forever damn this country with a vision of a bat. 

Patriot you are not a Traitor maybe!