Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Ususfructus

It was just another day in Paradise, the sun rose, as it always did, the waves lapped against the shore, as they always did, life, went on, as it always did. But sinister moves were afoot, for a few, like those wee little pigs from 1984, were scheming - after all, the gods may have created man in his image but some men were more equelll than others were they not?


And so, with rhetoric and whispered sweet nothings,  with promises of even greater pleasures (after all, this is paradise is it not?) to come, of claims to take paradise to the forefront, to be a miracle (of indefinite proportion) we the people were asked to pave the way for those few to tread upon the yellow brick road with the vague promise that we too would walk upon it...


Time of course will tell if this is to be so, if we everyday Paradisians will enjoy the fruits of our labour, walk the streets of New London like Dick Whittington where the streets were supposedly paved in gold - or if those fruits are to be enjoyed by other less industrious souls! 


Or perhaps it will be a mere case of ususfructus -  the right to the enjoyment of the fruits of a thing by one person, while the ownership  belonged to another - this of course interpreted in true Paradisian style to accommodate the chosen few.


But the people have spoken, or at least seemed to. End result of course is that the little hut down by the fish pond is soon to be home to a band of some of the most interesting characters that we have seen fit to gather in that one place since 1948. If loose talk is to be relied upon amongst those few are drug barons, rapists, murderers, thieves of different hues, stars, some mind you barely out of their teens!


What then have the people said? That its OK to be an oaf? Perhaps, I'd like to think not, but then, what do i know eh?



Monday, April 12, 2010

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

I was not gonna do this, I was gonna suck it up and just let those waves of heat wash over me...

But, given that the mercury hit a record high - and I caught it - I had to, especially since we dont have any power ether...

Its hot, made doubly terribly so by frequent prolonged power cuts.... its 30c at 5 in the morning and only gets warmer... 35c at 8 in the night!

So here I sit, my pores all open as the very moisture in my body is being sucked up into this vacuum. 3 - 4 litres of water a day just to keep up with the loss.... I don't know how people manage...
So I decided to see just how bad it can get.... and this apparently is it:



MonthAverage Sunlight (hours)TemperatureDiscomfort from heat and humidityRelative humidityAverage Precipitation (mm)Wet Days (+0.25mm)
AverageRecord
MinMaxMinMaxampm
Jan91633945Medium421900.1
Feb920371245Medium381930.3
March923401545High3920130.7
April826391547High5128152
May926381948Extreme6540846
June824361744High73491229
July723331841High786220312
Aug622311438High816727714
Sept723321939High796014511
Oct923351841High7244333
Nov922361642High583000.2
Dec817351145Medium462300

Sunday, April 4, 2010

What did happen?

Reading the news yesterday the most shocking item was a report dated 3-4.2010 to the effect that President Rajapakse had used derogatory language in the course of a speech he made in Jaffna - Lanka Truth & Lanka News Web.


These remarks are attributed to his reaction to the crowd jeering him during the course of his teleprompted speech in Tamil, apparently due to them not understanding him.

The Sunday Times of today has a different spin to the tale, attributing the jeering to a Sinhalese segment in the crowd who jeered for the same reason

So, while two reports claim that he used language derogatory towards the Tamil community the third suggests him speaking in support.

As the president of a country made up of different ethnicities his excellency has an obligation to lead this nation with no favor of one group over another - it was this favoring of a majority in the past that lead us down a path that saw an entire generation of Sri Lankan's living through a bloody war which tore the very social fabric of this nation.

If the initial reports are true - and frankly though I am incredulous that a politician of his caliber would make such a statement under existing circumstance; this is after all a new Sri Lanka where laws, constitution, common decency is tormented daily, anything is possible - its shocking, If what actually happened is a distortion, it make the reporters no better than the government propaganda machine

Will we ever find out what exactly happed that day in Jaffna?

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Micro finance anyone?

Can anyone suggest a micro finance organisation that may be in need of funds?


I've come across a possible source and would be happy to point a suitable organisation in the right direction