Monday, June 9, 2014

Do I have more legitimacy than the INGO wallahs who outspend anyone else at posh restaurants?

Controversy has recently arisen about the real convictions of civil society, as it relates to their advocacy of causes, especially in defense of the citizens from attack for their beliefs and practices from their own Government, which more specifically is the GOSL!

When one is on a huge salary, perks, cars, expense accounts and a fully covered office with overheads and research staff to do the leg work for your projects, I get highly jealous.

As you can see from my posts sometimes irregular, I am a one man civil society guy trying to advocate for change and improvement in Government to help people survive in this jungle of a country gradually falling into decay in front of me, with very few people actually realizing it.

Unfortunately I don’t get paid to write. I have a day job that is extremely taxing and sometimes quite stressful, and I have to sneak time, sometimes at crack of dawn or late at night to write on a topic close to my heart or something that I feel strongly about. I wish the day was 48 hrs long so I can complete all the tasks in front of me, but such as it is there is so much happening in Sri Lanka that is plain wrong, and we have apologists who readily defend the status quo either due to ignorance or are in some way compensated for defending the indefensible.

Oh how I would love to have the time to pursue what is wrong in our society and try and change it for the better, so that our country can be steered in a more just direction, as we can never have utopia, but is our duty to at least pursue that goal.

So when I hear of professional civil society people who get paid to write, say, and organize seminars, one can sincerely question their loyalty to the cause, as it is merely incidental to their lives, would they risk their lives for it? and have they got assurances that if they get into hot water they would be spirited to some foreign land to carry on their lives as if nothing happened. I have seen how some journalists who fall out of favor also make that transition overseas!!


If there are like positioned people who risk everything, what little I have, really to express an opinion, not egged on or bribed by someone, please shout as we need to at least get some comfort that there are some genuine arses out there that are really and truly concerned about their country and want to do something about it.                   

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