Would it be of any use even if they build thousand flyovers when you drive like this?

Source: http://www.lankadeepa.lk/2009/10/21/front_news/03.html

Here’s a potential model question for next year’s fifth grade scholarship examination.

Background:
A and B are high profile characters in a certain country. They were good friends and considered as heroes in that country. However the duo were not in good terms lately since B was considered a threat to A’s position. But this was categorically denied by A. C is A’s ultimate henchman who holds a doctorate from an alien University. C launched an attack on B publically which made headlines in mass media.

Few days later, media reported that A has summoned C and blasted him for attacking B.

Questions:
(i). Who revealed the news of A blasting C for attacking B to the media?
(ii). Why he would have revealed it to the media?
(iii). What is your conclusion of this scenario?

Answers:
(i). The media reports do not indicate the presence of any other person at the time A blasted C for attacking B. C is unlikely to reveal it to the media since he is the embarrassed and ashamed party in the given situation. Therefore A has revealed it to the media.

(ii). Since C is A’s ultimate henchman, C wouldn’t have done anything without the backing of A. When C’s act made headlines in mass media, A wanted to get his hands off the situation. So A summoned C, had a fake go at him and leaked the news to the media to clear his name.

(iii). A and C are smarter than a fifth grader, but none of us are.

On a day like today, I cried. You were happily kicking and playing in your mommy’s tummy. It was heaven for you. But you didn’t know what was going to happen to you the next day. You didn’t want to come out but we did. We were going to take you out forcibly from the heaven and I couldn’t bear it. I apologized; I said sorry many a time and I couldn’t keep it tight any more. I cried the whole night.

When you were taken out the next day, you cried a lot too. We could hardly stop you. I was lost in excitement and didn’t really feel happy or sad. But what a gift you have been since then! I have not been good to you some times but what an angel you have been all the time! Thank you for making our lives so fulfilled and we owe you so much for that. Many happy returns of the day Sweetheart!

This song that I randomly found pretty much sums up the current situation of our country. In fact, this is a mix of two songs, first of which is very popular but I’ve never heard the second one before.

Listen it here: http://www.slhits.com/links/songs.jsp?id=452646374 and enjOY!

We went to see the annual Floriade in Canberra last weekend. Driven by its popularity and propaganda, I was expecting a spectacular event but it turned out to be a heartbreaker. Yes, it was a pretty good one, but the ‘WOW’ factor was missing, or may be I expected too much out of it.

Every year, they come up with a theme and this year it was ‘Mind, Body and Soul’. They grow various types of flowers, mainly tulips, in meaningful shapes to elaborate that theme. But the truth is; only people flying in airplanes can see the shapes. True, there was a giant wheel, but you can only see a small part of the exhibition from that. However massive crowds were coming from all parts of the country to witness it.

On our way back home, we talked about how well something similar could have been done back in Sri Lanka. Let alone a flower exhibition, how many scenic spectaculars do we have back home that could have drawn thousands of visitors? But why do we fail in attracting big crowds? It’s the presentation.

In these countries, they don’t have that many attractions but they know how to present the little things they’ve got. When I first visited the National Museum of Australia, I was amused by the way they have presented their short history using state-of-the-art technology. Thinking about the rich and centuries long history we’ve got, I immediately felt what wonders we could have done with it.

In this country, story is the same everywhere you go. Very little in quantity, very big in presentation. You would find information centers, parking facilities, toilets, changing rooms for babies, cafes, souvenir shops, guided tours, free maps or brochures, decent and polite staff to help, clean and well maintained environment… basically every single facility an average visitor would need at every single attraction.

If we can get these infrastructures in place and get things organized, we could have done unbelievably well with the incredible natural beauty and the rich history we are gifted with. But the sad side of the story is that we don’t realize how much they mean to us and how much they mean to people around the world. We either forget about managing these places properly or we don’t have any idea about it. Just think about a toilet at one of our tourist attractions. Can anyone with a faintest sense of smell use them?

It’s all about presentation. If you can bundle the naturally and historically gifted resources with decent facilities and infrastructure you don’t need fancy videos or theme songs or “small miracle” kind of multi million propaganda to attract people. For that we’d probably need people who can think beyond borders and act beyond conventions and constraints at positions that matter.

Now, this is how one should address an international summit. The Maldivian President has made a strong statement on climate change and challenges ahead for his small nation at the United Nations Climate Change Summit at the UN headquarters in New York. Hats off to you Mr. President, and a good lesson for those gamarala’s who accompany massive delegates for such high profile events just to address the gallery back home.

One of my friends recently commented on one of my posts and asked me to come up with my own solutions for the issues that I raise in my blog. I usually don’t reply to comments but I do respond in one way or the other. My friend’s query was fair enough because at first sight it seems like full of problems but hardly any answer.

Well, the truth is, if I knew a definite answer I wouldn’t be here writing this, would I? But I’ve got my own opinions as to why we are in this whole mess and how we can get ourselves out of it. They don’t necessarily have to be solutions.

We, Sri Lankans may have learned so many things from the Western world, except for one important thing. As I have tried to point out in few of my previous posts, this crucial missing parameter is… discipline.

Whether you like it or not, we lack discipline (if not we do not have it at all) from top to bottom and all across. You don’t need to work your brain out to figure it out. Just drive for 10 minutes at a peak time in Colombo or stay 10 minutes in a queue or try to cross the street even at a pedestrian crossing at a busy time or invite someone for dinner at 7pm. Enough said.

To tell you the truth, I also had no idea about how disciplined the people are in developed countries until I first visited a northern European country a few years back. When I saw the difference I immediately felt that “what if every Sri Lankan can come and see these incredible scenes! “. Since then, I’ve tried my level best to replicate those disciplines back in Sri Lanka, specially in driving, but I always ended up being a loser.

To me, it’s lack of discipline that made this social, economic, political and judiciary turmoil we are in. My father-in-law has a very good example for this. If you are a member of a sports club and you go against the constitution of it, the club should have every right to take an action against you. At the same time, you can’t be a member of one sports club and play for a rival club. Even a kid in kindergarten would know it. But in our country’s politics, both these scenarios are invalid. Doesn’t it come down to lack (or non existence) of discipline at the end?

Similarly, why we are so messy when we drive, why we don’t have patience to stay politely in a queue to get a job done, why we don’t stop our vehicles at pedestrian crossings and why we arrive at 9.30 for a dinner we were supposed to come at 7.00 all come down to lack of discipline.

Now the problem is how can we establish discipline in our society? My understanding is it has to come from top to bottom. In our culture, we tend to follow leaders and idols. If they are disciplined, the layers underneath will be disciplined as well. Theoretically that should be the easiest way as well because top layers are low in quantity.

One would argue that discipline should come from childhood. But having seen children in our country as well as in a few ‘developed’ countries, I can clearly say that our children are much more organized, loyal, tidy, well behaved and disciplined. But when they enter the adult society, all those good attributes disappear and eventually become part and parcel of the same mess. In contrast, children of these countries who look so untidy, disorganized, undisciplined and violent become more loyal and disciplined when they enter the adult society.

This observation made me think that the problem lies in the adult society. I always believed that example had to be set from the top. The secret behind the success of these so-called developed countries is that their leaders were disciplined; they set the targets, they were true to their word and they led by example. It doesn’t mean that they were perfect. They made mistakes, they were wrong, they were stupid and they will be. But they are disciplined enough to accept their mistakes and wrongdoings. The end result is the public can trust on them.

In our case, our leaders start by misleading people, telling all sorts of lies, cheating and going against their own word. Having seen their heroics for decades we have completely lost faith on them. Because of indiscipline, senselessness and stupidity of our leadership, we as a country and a society are moving slowly towards an inevitable disaster. Being a pessimist, I feel like we are about to pass the point of no return, if not we’ve already gone past that.

This government is so scared of many things. First it was a spineless opposition that they were scared of. The journalists and prominent figures in the society who criticize them were next in the firing line. Then came the artists and astrologers. Latest is a so-called Western conspiracy which was revealed by a man who once fled to a Western country, having had enough with politics in Sri Lanka.

I found this hilarious cartoon trying to give a clue of what might be the next in line of scary things.

Source: http://www.lankaenews.com/English/popimage.php?id=428

This is an old story for my close friends. I’ve been saying this for ages but most of the time I end up being humiliated by them. Now when I’m going to say it again, I can sense what’s coming my way. But after seeing a couple of hilarious video clips of a certain candidate running for the Southern Provincial Council, I felt I’ve got to say it again. I wouldn’t mind a few stones thrown at me.

Sri Lankans, including myself, have been both stupid and wrong more often than not in their decision making when it comes to national matters. In my opinion, that’s because they let their hearts overrule their brains most of the time.

Our political leaders know it pretty well and that’s why they always bring up sensitive subjects like race, religion, patriotism and ethnicity during election times. This is the easiest way to hide their failures in all other critical fronts, like economy, health, education, social matters, international relations, and trade… almost everything else. Have you ever heard our leaders talk about these things during election times?

Our stupidity and incorrectness in decision making is quite evident in recently concluded Provincial Council elections. Just look at the preferential votes list and see who has topped. Ex-beauty queens, bookies, thugs, drug dealers, well known rapists, actors, jokers… and all sorts of crap characters. What happened to those intellectuals, professionals, people who declared their assets and people who adhered to election rules?

We are so stupid to have patriotism mixed up with sarong, beard and belly. So when these patriots put forward imported Barbies to contest elections we accept them without any question. We don’t understand that it’s a slap on our faces and a punch on our heads. Ideally, we should have rejected not only these Barbies and men who demolished billions of public funds, but also the people who put them into the contention. But in the name of patriotism, we grab any piece of shit our leaders throw at us with both hands, because that’s what our hearts tell us to do. If you are not sure about what I say, just wait for the election results.

Indi once wrote in his blog that “…Americans are often wrong, but they are not stupid… …They were wrong for eight years, and now they’re right again, and that’s what being smart is. Not being right all the time, but righting yourself…” Sad thing about us is we are both stupid and wrong. Yes, you and me. And we don’t know it. We’ve got brains but we’ve got our hearts overruling them. So the saga continues.

PS: The funny thing is, people who humiliated me when I first said this few years back have either left the country for good or planning to do so!

There’s no point playing day-night Cricket matches at Khettarama Stadium any more. It’s too biased, too predictable and too distasteful to watch. The team that wins the toss gets the match in their bag unless they perform unbelievably poor, like New Zealanders did a couple of days ago. On that occasion, they were hard done by a few dodgy umpiring decisions as well. Other than that the formula is to win the toss, bat first and win the match.

Can there be anything worse than that for a format of Cricket which is already under threat by high rising 20-20? It is acceptable for a team to enjoy home advantage. But this is quite outrageous. I don’t understand the logic behind one day Cricket always being played at Dambulla and Khettarama stadiums and grounds like SSC and Galle not getting a single game. One can argue that you don’t get crowds for day matches and the telecasters are not interested in that. Well, if the games are competitive and unbiased, anyone would watch them and that’s how you make money out of it.

If the matches and championships are decided solely on the luck of the toss, there cannot be anything disgusting than that for the fans of the game.