It’s been a while since I’ve blogged I guess, the last few posts have been harried ones, spruced up with a few photographs cos we all know that a picture’s worth a 1000 words, right?
But I really should make an effort, its not as if what passes of as my brain has gone into hibernation, I can still surprise myself with a thought or two.
What happened to rubber slippers, you know the kind that people used to refer to as “Bata’s”? I was reading about someone’s ‘Urban Thongs”, got all excited when I saw the word and galloped on to read the post… was I in for a surprise? Since when did people stop referring to a thong as a thong and start calling good old rubber slippers thongs? A thong goes around the waist, not on your feet – well, it may pause for a little on the way down and out, but you are not supposed to wear them!
Gas gone up again in SL, and as usual the powers that be in GOSL have hiked up petrol, to a greater degree than diesel and kerosene – even more reason to shit on the environment with high powered SUV’s and Fishermen and Farmers using even more of the later to power boat and agricultural equipment. Kerosene is the most expensive of the three refined products and yet is supplied cheaper than the other two, thanks to those wonderful people in our government – and poor lame assed tax payers like me have to foot the bill so that the fat cats and the super rich can haul their neither regions around encased in luxury!
And then what about carrots?! A cabinet minister no less, saying that we should switch to cheaper vegetables - rabu and kekiri I presume - as a strategy towards reducing the COL. Small Miracle indeed if he practiced what he preached! Ain't the government responsible for the state of the economy? And if they suck at it should they be allowed to go on? I have an idea, lets privatize the government, with bench marking and best practices and remuneration based upon performance!
The general direction of things in SL does not seem to auger well, day by day whatever rights the common man had, seem to erode further and further. The President’s words to the effect that one was either for one Sri Lanka (double speak for his government) or not – in plain language if you disagreed you were a traitor, a terrorist etc. I wonder how many people actually heard what he said.
The celebrations I hear go on, at least the majority continues to celebrate the demise of the LTTE. It should dawn on people though that a significant percentage of the population remains silent…
We were told that with the end of the war, expenditure on defense, in fact total expenditure would come down. But one hears that the Army Commander requires a 50% increase to ensure security in the liberated areas – that’s another 100,000 soldiers! And of course, politicians with dubious track records – murder, rape, general mayhem – keep getting promoted, I read today of two new ministerial appointments….
Oh how soon people forget their roots, the current incumbent when a minister under CBK was someone who supported media freedom, championed the down trodden, albeit sotto voce. Much hope’s were there about a future SL under his steward ship, instead what we have seen are things never seen before in this beautiful country of ours.
I love SL, and I consider myself a Sri Lankan, my ethnicity and my religion come second. AND that is the only way forward for us, for all of us to see ourselves as Sri Lankan’s first and last.
Whether it will happen I doubt it.
I’d like to think that we are going to grow as a people, as a country, that poverty will reduce, that there will be harmony amongst us, that the quality of life of every Sri Lankan will improve, that our future will be a bright, prosperous, peaceful and calm one, that we will have country that our children will be proud of.
I’d like to think that, but I’m a pessimist; who would like to be proved wrong
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