It is interesting that Wikileaks as I understand has exposed the reason for so much Chinese supposed Investments in Sri Lanka as the bribes they have paid our Politicians in order that they approve extremely dubious (by that I mean unproductive, too costly, with long term implications in that high interest loans have to paid, and environmentally contentious projects of dubious technology levels being implemented) overpriced projects dotting the whole country.
To be fair India is also trying to exert a level of influence in this regard too and we have also approved similarly dubious projects emanating from them, but not anywhere near the level we have obtained from China.
With a government full of traitors who have accepted bribes for which the future generations of Sri Lankan especially today's youth who will have to face the consequences of the aging population where they will have to support more people per working person, is very regrettable. In my opinion this blame must be laid squarely at the top, namely the President who appears to revel in receiving more and more honors from the Chinese in return for turning this country over to their complete subjugation.
We are now looking forward to billions of dollars more of loans to take the Southern Highway to Hambantota, whilst putting the more urgent one to Kandy in abeyance. Such logic which will show eventually that we would have spent zillions in an area of Sri Lanka that actually does not need this kind of development by any stretch of the imagination, when that same amount of money could easily have been spent on more productive projects that would have more instant returns to the economy is in itself a further example of traitorous actions on the part of the Regime, which no one seems to have pointed out, due to self preservation.
It appears to me that it is easiest to bribe Sri Lankans over any other race, and the resulting National disaster will have to be paid by all future generations with no time limit. This can be stopped in its tracks now if sufficient people either write about this to the papers or other media to let their thoughts be known, followed up later by protests and turn the country into a "Sri Lankan tropical downpour" much in the nature of the Arab spring but a completely home grown version of it to throw out the traitors once and for all.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The opportunistic Minister of Power - Champika
When there was plenty of rain and all the Hydro Power stations were at full capacity, the CEB did not have to use much imported fossil fuels and so made an operating profit. The Opportunistic Minister of Power took full credit for something he had absolutely no say in nor was he a party to it.
It was disgusting to read some of his statements that he was the first person to turn the CEB into a profit from heavy losses. This kind of brigand and rogue has the audacity to now say that the Monsoon has failed and blame the monsoon for the huge losses CEB is currently incurring due to the need to import large amounts of imported fossil fuels to keep all the Thermal and Coal Power plants in operation.
Why does he not get real and ask questions as to why the coal is shipped from the Trincomalee harbor instead of being brought straight to the Norochcholai harbor and be conveyord from the dock direct to the facility saving huge time and expense in the former procedure. The Minister is 100% to blame for that as the power station was built to carry out that process, which it has failed to do.
It is very sad to have someone from the Hela Urumaya who professes to be a Buddhist behave in such an un Buddhist fashion looking for fame and glory for himself, by saying he is not a person to take bribes or be touched by scandal.
Space does not permit me to go into the details of all his appointments and hugely wasteful and counterproductive deals and half baked ideas that he has come up with like SL manufacturing CFL bulbs, when we can buy them at a quarter of the cost of manufacture.
I am aware that even the President has finally been alerted to the lies and doublespeak of this person and is in the process of doing something, and time will tell if Champika is Chaffing, Champing, or Cheating. I hope he finally consigned to the Gulag before he can do any more damage to Mother Lanka.
It was disgusting to read some of his statements that he was the first person to turn the CEB into a profit from heavy losses. This kind of brigand and rogue has the audacity to now say that the Monsoon has failed and blame the monsoon for the huge losses CEB is currently incurring due to the need to import large amounts of imported fossil fuels to keep all the Thermal and Coal Power plants in operation.
Why does he not get real and ask questions as to why the coal is shipped from the Trincomalee harbor instead of being brought straight to the Norochcholai harbor and be conveyord from the dock direct to the facility saving huge time and expense in the former procedure. The Minister is 100% to blame for that as the power station was built to carry out that process, which it has failed to do.
It is very sad to have someone from the Hela Urumaya who professes to be a Buddhist behave in such an un Buddhist fashion looking for fame and glory for himself, by saying he is not a person to take bribes or be touched by scandal.
Space does not permit me to go into the details of all his appointments and hugely wasteful and counterproductive deals and half baked ideas that he has come up with like SL manufacturing CFL bulbs, when we can buy them at a quarter of the cost of manufacture.
I am aware that even the President has finally been alerted to the lies and doublespeak of this person and is in the process of doing something, and time will tell if Champika is Chaffing, Champing, or Cheating. I hope he finally consigned to the Gulag before he can do any more damage to Mother Lanka.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
The annual dividend from our Human Capital Investment overseas is expected to top US$5Billion
The money that Sri Lanka earns directly from her overseas workers is expected to top Rs550 Billion. With that kind of money coming in it is worth more than the total tangible product exports of Sri Lanka when you consider the value addition. To explain the latter statement as many will not understand what I say I will use an example.
If we sell a Bra overseas for US$100 foreign exchange. If the material cost was US$30 for the various items from cloth, buttons, elastic, zips etc. The depreciation cost of the high value imported machinery used of US$5, the imported energy component of the electricity and other fuels was US$5, the cost of imported items of the overheads of the enterprise, such as sales people's overseas travel, wear and tear of the company motor vehicle fleet, and use of imported energy and depreciation of imported office equipment from photocopiers to laptops etc. was US$20 and then the repatriation of profits to foreign owners of the organization is US$30, then the economic benefit to Sri Lanka of that bra is after netting all this which comes to a mere US$10 mainly for the value addition of the labor component which is the only local input here. The net export value therefore is just US$10 and not US$100.
This clearly shows the value of the remittances. I am told that in 2011 the Middle East uprisings will actually result in a higher remittance through formal channels because the workers who had banked some of their prior earnings in the those countries feel it is safer to remit it to Sri Lanka and therefore there is a further one off boost to remittances arising from that source.
This staggering amount of money is how this country is getting its growth no matter how incompetent the Government is. Sadly the Govt. takes credit for the hard work all our people do overseas, and not give credit where credit is due. The Country will be a basket case if not for this money and we will probably be starving also. Remember we have a further 2million fewer mouths to feed in Sri Lanka as they are overseas, not burdening the state with health or food costs and in the case of the families, the education of their children, all of which are direct benefits for the state.
It is truly tragic that hardly any reference is made to this contribution, and little is done to assist those people who are the lifeline of this country who even do not have a vote in the land, as we do not allow our foreign workers to vote in our local elections from our embassies overseas. This is permitted for US, Australian and citizens of many other countries and is sadly not offered to Sri Lankans.
An important point to bear in mind in this remittance issue is that migrants to places like USA, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ etc do not remit as higher a proportion of their earnings as those who go for shorter periods on work contracts, and only remit funds for aging parents or if they eventually decide to retire in Sri Lanka, and send funds to buy a luxury apartment or such like.
The only reason I firmly believe this important Revenue source is not acknowledged is because the Government of Sri Lanka will be shown to be jokers who are just spunging off these people, and claiming all the growth is due to the policies of the Government when in fact it is just due to this income from overseas.
IN TRUST FUND TERMS THIS MONEY IS EQUIVALENT TO HAVING US$250 BILLION INVESTED IN US TREASURY BILLS AND WE ARE LIVING OFF OF THE INTEREST THEREON. THAT IN ESSENCE IS THE VALUE OF THIS INHERITANCE
If we sell a Bra overseas for US$100 foreign exchange. If the material cost was US$30 for the various items from cloth, buttons, elastic, zips etc. The depreciation cost of the high value imported machinery used of US$5, the imported energy component of the electricity and other fuels was US$5, the cost of imported items of the overheads of the enterprise, such as sales people's overseas travel, wear and tear of the company motor vehicle fleet, and use of imported energy and depreciation of imported office equipment from photocopiers to laptops etc. was US$20 and then the repatriation of profits to foreign owners of the organization is US$30, then the economic benefit to Sri Lanka of that bra is after netting all this which comes to a mere US$10 mainly for the value addition of the labor component which is the only local input here. The net export value therefore is just US$10 and not US$100.
This clearly shows the value of the remittances. I am told that in 2011 the Middle East uprisings will actually result in a higher remittance through formal channels because the workers who had banked some of their prior earnings in the those countries feel it is safer to remit it to Sri Lanka and therefore there is a further one off boost to remittances arising from that source.
This staggering amount of money is how this country is getting its growth no matter how incompetent the Government is. Sadly the Govt. takes credit for the hard work all our people do overseas, and not give credit where credit is due. The Country will be a basket case if not for this money and we will probably be starving also. Remember we have a further 2million fewer mouths to feed in Sri Lanka as they are overseas, not burdening the state with health or food costs and in the case of the families, the education of their children, all of which are direct benefits for the state.
It is truly tragic that hardly any reference is made to this contribution, and little is done to assist those people who are the lifeline of this country who even do not have a vote in the land, as we do not allow our foreign workers to vote in our local elections from our embassies overseas. This is permitted for US, Australian and citizens of many other countries and is sadly not offered to Sri Lankans.
An important point to bear in mind in this remittance issue is that migrants to places like USA, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ etc do not remit as higher a proportion of their earnings as those who go for shorter periods on work contracts, and only remit funds for aging parents or if they eventually decide to retire in Sri Lanka, and send funds to buy a luxury apartment or such like.
The only reason I firmly believe this important Revenue source is not acknowledged is because the Government of Sri Lanka will be shown to be jokers who are just spunging off these people, and claiming all the growth is due to the policies of the Government when in fact it is just due to this income from overseas.
IN TRUST FUND TERMS THIS MONEY IS EQUIVALENT TO HAVING US$250 BILLION INVESTED IN US TREASURY BILLS AND WE ARE LIVING OFF OF THE INTEREST THEREON. THAT IN ESSENCE IS THE VALUE OF THIS INHERITANCE
Friday, August 26, 2011
The sorry state of the TOURIST INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA
I was reading a review recently of Maalu Maalu by a Sri Lankan family, who primarily live in the UK and have extensive travel experience in high class establishments worldwide. I therefore accept the fact that they are qualified to comment on the "Boutique" moniker given to a hotel on 2 acres on the Parsekudah Beach. There consensus opinion was that it was just a three star place that was charging 5 star prices.
This was a recently if rather hurriedly built place, that had been given full marks and rave reviews by the Sri Lankan travel trade. That immediately raised my antennae about the qualification of our travel trade to rate this place. I sadly came to the conclusion that most of those who visited this site were not seasoned travel professionals internationally, so were unable to judge the quality of the place with any relative comparison to overseas establishments and that their terms of reference was merely to hotels in Sri Lanka or a limited amount of hotels they may have stayed in overseas.
The service standards along with the price of star class boutique hotels are probably out of the reach of some of these travel professionals, while within reach of some of Sri Lanka's wealthy people. The Wealthy Sri Lankan in my view is better able to judge such a place than the travel professional and I believe they should be roped in to comment on the quality of these hotels some of which are owned or run by friends of these self same wealthy individuals.
What are we trying to do to tourism? In my opinion the Tourist Promotion Bureau of Sri Lanka, have not got a vision of what exactly they are trying to do. When one talks to some of the bosses of the tourist trade they have differing opinions on what needs to be done, who should be attracted to visit Sri Lanka, and what kind of tourist product Sri Lanka should offer. These issues are reflected in the complete breakdown of the direction that tourism is going. It was rather unexpected that at this time of year there are so many hotel rooms (overpriced) that are vacant, despite the paucity of rooms. That is an indictment in itself of what is happening, as no one would have thought that with the safety and security that is guaranteed in Sri Lanka tourism would have dropped to this level of occupancy.
The answer may lie in the fact that the value of money destination has disappeared overnight, due to the hiking up of rates with no commensurate improvement in service standards that seem to be dropping instead of rising. This does not bode well at all for the future, and the usual pontifications of the Ministers, completely oblivious to the current state of play does not help the cause as they are full of hot air, with no evidence to back their claims.
I believe we can arrest this rot, if we are able first to identify that we have actually fallen into a pit of our own making and then do something about getting out of the pit with a renewed energy and vigor going about it in an enlightened way.
I believe we should start this with identifying who our tourists should be? Once we know who we should attract, then we can design the product to suit that market. I am opposed to the buckshot approach. We have decided to reduce the carbon footprint. So we should start with that premise. The first being tourist with lowest carbon footprint, NAMELY INDIAN TOURISTS.
If my memory serves me right there are about 12million Indian overseas tourists a year and we do not even attract 1% of that. Our goal should be to attract 10% of the Indian tourist market offering direct flights to the destinations within a maximum of 3flying hours to the destination, whilst at the same time opening up a number of airports just to the Indian clientele, giving them significant privileges of visa free travel. Then the high end Indian can fly in their personal jets with their families to China Bay in Trincomalee and be ferried to the hotels on Nilaveli Beach for the weekend and they can theoretically have a better holiday with fewer crowds than they can experience anywhere on earth. This quick holiday that is exclusive can command a high price tag as long as the service is to match, so that they are picked up in Land Cruisers as soon as the plane lands and be whisked off to the hotels.
We must think outside of the box in catering to this High Net worth individual. If they want the Casino effect they just need to fly to Colombo and the needful can be done there. Sri Lanka offers something for every one so all tastes can be catered to as long as the service standards are matched to the pricing and then there will be self generating traffic from those who have already experienced a fabulous holiday in Sri Lanka.
In order to keep this note brief I will not elaborate as to other ideas, on how to increase the value addition of Tourism which is the key we should concentrate on and not the numbers game. This is just one example of what can be done and it is not too difficult to think of others that are similar that will yield huge advantages to the Tourism Industry.
Lets currently fire all the Industry professional and start from scratch as these old dogs cannot be taught new tricks, and as long as they are around interfering in policy issues nothing concrete will come of it.
This was a recently if rather hurriedly built place, that had been given full marks and rave reviews by the Sri Lankan travel trade. That immediately raised my antennae about the qualification of our travel trade to rate this place. I sadly came to the conclusion that most of those who visited this site were not seasoned travel professionals internationally, so were unable to judge the quality of the place with any relative comparison to overseas establishments and that their terms of reference was merely to hotels in Sri Lanka or a limited amount of hotels they may have stayed in overseas.
The service standards along with the price of star class boutique hotels are probably out of the reach of some of these travel professionals, while within reach of some of Sri Lanka's wealthy people. The Wealthy Sri Lankan in my view is better able to judge such a place than the travel professional and I believe they should be roped in to comment on the quality of these hotels some of which are owned or run by friends of these self same wealthy individuals.
What are we trying to do to tourism? In my opinion the Tourist Promotion Bureau of Sri Lanka, have not got a vision of what exactly they are trying to do. When one talks to some of the bosses of the tourist trade they have differing opinions on what needs to be done, who should be attracted to visit Sri Lanka, and what kind of tourist product Sri Lanka should offer. These issues are reflected in the complete breakdown of the direction that tourism is going. It was rather unexpected that at this time of year there are so many hotel rooms (overpriced) that are vacant, despite the paucity of rooms. That is an indictment in itself of what is happening, as no one would have thought that with the safety and security that is guaranteed in Sri Lanka tourism would have dropped to this level of occupancy.
The answer may lie in the fact that the value of money destination has disappeared overnight, due to the hiking up of rates with no commensurate improvement in service standards that seem to be dropping instead of rising. This does not bode well at all for the future, and the usual pontifications of the Ministers, completely oblivious to the current state of play does not help the cause as they are full of hot air, with no evidence to back their claims.
I believe we can arrest this rot, if we are able first to identify that we have actually fallen into a pit of our own making and then do something about getting out of the pit with a renewed energy and vigor going about it in an enlightened way.
I believe we should start this with identifying who our tourists should be? Once we know who we should attract, then we can design the product to suit that market. I am opposed to the buckshot approach. We have decided to reduce the carbon footprint. So we should start with that premise. The first being tourist with lowest carbon footprint, NAMELY INDIAN TOURISTS.
If my memory serves me right there are about 12million Indian overseas tourists a year and we do not even attract 1% of that. Our goal should be to attract 10% of the Indian tourist market offering direct flights to the destinations within a maximum of 3flying hours to the destination, whilst at the same time opening up a number of airports just to the Indian clientele, giving them significant privileges of visa free travel. Then the high end Indian can fly in their personal jets with their families to China Bay in Trincomalee and be ferried to the hotels on Nilaveli Beach for the weekend and they can theoretically have a better holiday with fewer crowds than they can experience anywhere on earth. This quick holiday that is exclusive can command a high price tag as long as the service is to match, so that they are picked up in Land Cruisers as soon as the plane lands and be whisked off to the hotels.
We must think outside of the box in catering to this High Net worth individual. If they want the Casino effect they just need to fly to Colombo and the needful can be done there. Sri Lanka offers something for every one so all tastes can be catered to as long as the service standards are matched to the pricing and then there will be self generating traffic from those who have already experienced a fabulous holiday in Sri Lanka.
In order to keep this note brief I will not elaborate as to other ideas, on how to increase the value addition of Tourism which is the key we should concentrate on and not the numbers game. This is just one example of what can be done and it is not too difficult to think of others that are similar that will yield huge advantages to the Tourism Industry.
Lets currently fire all the Industry professional and start from scratch as these old dogs cannot be taught new tricks, and as long as they are around interfering in policy issues nothing concrete will come of it.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The concept of " TOO MUCH SECURITY IS A SHOW OF INSECURITY"
In the current context of Sri Lanka in September 2011 in the cusp of the removal of the PTA or the Prevention of Terrorism Act where the Emergency Regulations in force are expected to be lifted shortly, we seem to have a scenario where no one in Sri Lanka feels safe.
You ask any person Sinhala or Tamil or for that matter any Sri Lankan and they will say suddenly we feel very unsafe and that despite heavy Military and Police presence everywhere, with the total Strength of the Security Forces exceeding 500,000. That means we have the largest per capita Security Force on the face of the Earth and that does not count the Private Armies masquerading as a government security service to protect buildings, that is a private concern that has been given the task of doing all the security for public and government buildings that security guards used to do.
How can this situation arise? There is simply only one way and that is when this immense security service becomes the threat as it has today in Sri Lanka. They are no longer seen as the protector of peace, but the single most important reason for the threat of violence, especially of the innocent.
Sri Lanka is the only country where not one disappearance or murder of a journalist has been solved, and not one white van abduction has been solved. In a country with so much security where this sort of event takes place in broad daylight there is no earthly reason to believe any other theory, but the one that says the Government is directly complicit in this. I cannot understand how the President of the Country can continually set up teams of enquiry that do not come out with any answers to the questions posed by him and he says nothing in public about it. This smacks of either his total embarrassment of his incompetence of presiding in a government where they are unable to find the culprits to any of the acts of violence or intimidation, or that he is part of the problem!!!
It is therefore very important that the people take the law into their own hands and forcefully demonstrate against this government inaction so the authorities are forced to admit incompetence or culpability.
It is only a matter of time before this happens and I hope for the sake of all Sri Lankans it is sooner rather than later, so that we carry on our normal activities of building this country with morals, values, hardwork, rid of corruption.
LETS ALL FERVENTLY HOPE THAT THIS COMES ABOUT SOON
You ask any person Sinhala or Tamil or for that matter any Sri Lankan and they will say suddenly we feel very unsafe and that despite heavy Military and Police presence everywhere, with the total Strength of the Security Forces exceeding 500,000. That means we have the largest per capita Security Force on the face of the Earth and that does not count the Private Armies masquerading as a government security service to protect buildings, that is a private concern that has been given the task of doing all the security for public and government buildings that security guards used to do.
How can this situation arise? There is simply only one way and that is when this immense security service becomes the threat as it has today in Sri Lanka. They are no longer seen as the protector of peace, but the single most important reason for the threat of violence, especially of the innocent.
Sri Lanka is the only country where not one disappearance or murder of a journalist has been solved, and not one white van abduction has been solved. In a country with so much security where this sort of event takes place in broad daylight there is no earthly reason to believe any other theory, but the one that says the Government is directly complicit in this. I cannot understand how the President of the Country can continually set up teams of enquiry that do not come out with any answers to the questions posed by him and he says nothing in public about it. This smacks of either his total embarrassment of his incompetence of presiding in a government where they are unable to find the culprits to any of the acts of violence or intimidation, or that he is part of the problem!!!
It is therefore very important that the people take the law into their own hands and forcefully demonstrate against this government inaction so the authorities are forced to admit incompetence or culpability.
It is only a matter of time before this happens and I hope for the sake of all Sri Lankans it is sooner rather than later, so that we carry on our normal activities of building this country with morals, values, hardwork, rid of corruption.
LETS ALL FERVENTLY HOPE THAT THIS COMES ABOUT SOON
Monday, August 22, 2011
Damn shame that the rulers of Sri Lanka did not show any decency in inviting Ghaddaffi
Now Ghadaffi is history, and if the country carries on its destructive corruption, the Rajapakses are also likely to be consigned to the same fate. It is sad therefore that some one who had his arms over Mahinda Rajapakse in Tripoli, would not be invited to spend his last days as a guest of the President when he is about to be hauled up in the ICC and have to answer to crimes against humanity.
Is it that this incumbent also fears one day that he would also have to answer to his sins, and expects the same fate, or worse? That is a tricky question to answer as we do not have twenty twenty hindsight. It is incredible that there are so many parallels to Ghadaffi, except of course the one obvious one, namely that Ghadaffi lasted 42 years. I somehow do not think this incumbent would last a quarter of that, so lets be hopeful.
History is a great teacher of what happens to people who are too pompous and arrogant. Nothing like this happens to the pious and those without ambition, as they leave quietly in a similar way to their arrival.
Leadership is a quality that requires an immense amount of humility, as those who are possessed with arrogance and ambition beyond their ability to handle, are never looked on by history by anything other than despots, a moniker more than likely to be attached to the current ruling regime in Sri Lanka just as much as it will now be attached to Ghadaffi.
When Ghadaffi overthrew a rotten system of a king and corruption, it was with great hope that Libya embraced Ghadaffi as a modern day savior. It is sad that within a short while the leadership of a country seemed to sound like a birthright, and then a family right, which he started to cultivate, where the will of the people would be completely subjugated to that of the family. One notices the amazing similarities in Sri Lanka of just this situation, the human being do not realize what they turn themselves into. They become unrecognizable and try every game in town to muster support and prevent any dissent and try to make believe that the world is a better place because of them, rather than the converse.
Let us hope that we in Sri Lanka are able to muster sufficient public support of right thinking people who are not led by fear, to take action against the complete breakdown of law and order and also the depths with which human life is being valued by this regime, into something that is profound and instantaneous.
Let us therefore hope we can learn from the mistakes of Libya and learn from their example that we do not try to emulate this bad example for the sake of our countrymen but try to prevent such an event by seeing sense from this event and prevent a copycat of this in Sri Lanka by permitting the leadership to carry on their treasonable activities a day longer than necessary.
Is it that this incumbent also fears one day that he would also have to answer to his sins, and expects the same fate, or worse? That is a tricky question to answer as we do not have twenty twenty hindsight. It is incredible that there are so many parallels to Ghadaffi, except of course the one obvious one, namely that Ghadaffi lasted 42 years. I somehow do not think this incumbent would last a quarter of that, so lets be hopeful.
History is a great teacher of what happens to people who are too pompous and arrogant. Nothing like this happens to the pious and those without ambition, as they leave quietly in a similar way to their arrival.
Leadership is a quality that requires an immense amount of humility, as those who are possessed with arrogance and ambition beyond their ability to handle, are never looked on by history by anything other than despots, a moniker more than likely to be attached to the current ruling regime in Sri Lanka just as much as it will now be attached to Ghadaffi.
When Ghadaffi overthrew a rotten system of a king and corruption, it was with great hope that Libya embraced Ghadaffi as a modern day savior. It is sad that within a short while the leadership of a country seemed to sound like a birthright, and then a family right, which he started to cultivate, where the will of the people would be completely subjugated to that of the family. One notices the amazing similarities in Sri Lanka of just this situation, the human being do not realize what they turn themselves into. They become unrecognizable and try every game in town to muster support and prevent any dissent and try to make believe that the world is a better place because of them, rather than the converse.
Let us hope that we in Sri Lanka are able to muster sufficient public support of right thinking people who are not led by fear, to take action against the complete breakdown of law and order and also the depths with which human life is being valued by this regime, into something that is profound and instantaneous.
Let us therefore hope we can learn from the mistakes of Libya and learn from their example that we do not try to emulate this bad example for the sake of our countrymen but try to prevent such an event by seeing sense from this event and prevent a copycat of this in Sri Lanka by permitting the leadership to carry on their treasonable activities a day longer than necessary.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
There is nothing in the newspapers in Sri Lanka worthy of news
When one reads the newspapers in Sinhala and English, (sadly I do not know Tamil, so I cannot comment on their content) and listens to the Radio and watches TV, I realize that had I been away meditating in the forests for 6months, I would not have missed anything of value, and it would be a regurgitation of the same old stories with a few new twists, but no real changes or improvements to society. Time has not brought one improvement to the quality of life of the Sri Lankan citizen!
So should I continue to meditate knowing that nothing has changed, or get out of this trance and come out and do something that will make a change! I would like to feel the latter, and then I wonder how with my meager resources and lack of clout how I could do what I want. I believe individually if we take that attitude then this country WILL NOT change for the better and continue in its higgledy piggledy way.
It is incumbent on us those who have a mind or body to agitate against injustice. We cannot all do everything as the job is too great, but if we agitate enough with some time allocated from our free time for it, we may with many who feel that way make a difference to our society. Drawing rooms in the Capital and outskirts continue to debate injustice, but with a feeling of individual helplessness at what we can do to change the status quo. How does one give rise to empowering these genuine people to change the system? We must give rise to discussion fora instigated by opposition parties at village level, where these very points can be discussed and debated. Many people do not realize the level of their ignorance, namely in believing what they see or read in Media, so that is the first myth to be erased, and then be taught to think critically about every aspect of debate. In company we tend to report on something we read or saw on TV and to the audience uncritically spread that as being an accurate and true statement without qualifying it first, saying where we heard it and how reliable this source of information it to give us credibility on its statement.
If we therefore act with a bit of skepticism, we will be able to decide to concentrate our attention on the more important aspects of life that affect ourselves and our children over the unimportant and insignificant, as otherwise we attach the same weight to everything uncritically.
We can then put to bed the Grease Devils, UNP Satyagrahas, Government coverups, and the General deterioration of Media reporting in context and concentrate on our Country, its people, and how we can all live and co exist in peace without being hounded out of home and country for saying what we believe or having independent thought on what is right and wrong and which contradicts the dictum of the powers that be who can affect our individual Freedom and Liberty to act and speak of our free will exercising a certain amount of restraint where we do not have first hand evidence of transgressions, whilst making that qualification in our comments.
More debate and discussion is needed in our homes to formulate our attitudes so that we can speak with a better understanding of the problem. We can contribute to this at all levels of society if we allow people to say their piece and be allowed to critically evaluate others comments and then give our opinion explaining why we differ in our outlook of the same if that is so.
So should I continue to meditate knowing that nothing has changed, or get out of this trance and come out and do something that will make a change! I would like to feel the latter, and then I wonder how with my meager resources and lack of clout how I could do what I want. I believe individually if we take that attitude then this country WILL NOT change for the better and continue in its higgledy piggledy way.
It is incumbent on us those who have a mind or body to agitate against injustice. We cannot all do everything as the job is too great, but if we agitate enough with some time allocated from our free time for it, we may with many who feel that way make a difference to our society. Drawing rooms in the Capital and outskirts continue to debate injustice, but with a feeling of individual helplessness at what we can do to change the status quo. How does one give rise to empowering these genuine people to change the system? We must give rise to discussion fora instigated by opposition parties at village level, where these very points can be discussed and debated. Many people do not realize the level of their ignorance, namely in believing what they see or read in Media, so that is the first myth to be erased, and then be taught to think critically about every aspect of debate. In company we tend to report on something we read or saw on TV and to the audience uncritically spread that as being an accurate and true statement without qualifying it first, saying where we heard it and how reliable this source of information it to give us credibility on its statement.
If we therefore act with a bit of skepticism, we will be able to decide to concentrate our attention on the more important aspects of life that affect ourselves and our children over the unimportant and insignificant, as otherwise we attach the same weight to everything uncritically.
We can then put to bed the Grease Devils, UNP Satyagrahas, Government coverups, and the General deterioration of Media reporting in context and concentrate on our Country, its people, and how we can all live and co exist in peace without being hounded out of home and country for saying what we believe or having independent thought on what is right and wrong and which contradicts the dictum of the powers that be who can affect our individual Freedom and Liberty to act and speak of our free will exercising a certain amount of restraint where we do not have first hand evidence of transgressions, whilst making that qualification in our comments.
More debate and discussion is needed in our homes to formulate our attitudes so that we can speak with a better understanding of the problem. We can contribute to this at all levels of society if we allow people to say their piece and be allowed to critically evaluate others comments and then give our opinion explaining why we differ in our outlook of the same if that is so.
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