March 31, 2004

False Values

This is a country of false values. The Sinhala majority name themselves after the Lion - an animal that never lived in this country. The mahavamsa tells the countries history as recorded by monks for from around 2,500 years ago....

The main slogan of the 'left alliance' and the ayatollah in yellow robes contesting the elections is that they want to preserve Sri Lanka's values.

Posted by raditha at 3:11 PM

March 30, 2004

End of the road?

The other day I wrote about the assault on the freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. Things have taken a turn for the worse. During the last few days we have seen the home of the Chief of a private...

It's probably because of the control the president wields over the police that they supposedly raided the Sunday Leader without a warrant last sunday.

There is a silver lining to the clouds though. The commissioner of elections has finally decided to appoint a competent authority to temporarily take over the state owned TV stations. This is in view of the blatant abuse of state resources in slandering oher parties at the election.

The ruling party does not care about law suites that are flooding into the state media organizations simply because it will be public funds that will be used to pay the victims.

Posted by raditha at 8:43 PM

Cricket Selectors, please resign

This web log has been highligting the extremely negative tactics of the Sri Lankan cricket teams captain over the last couple of weeks. Despite his short comings he is a honourable man and has tendered his resignation. The same cannot...
Posted by raditha at 7:19 AM

March 29, 2004

Chess

Reading through some of the past entries you might be tempted to think that cricket is my favourite sport. It is not. Chess happens to be my favourite sport. Until very recently chess in this country did not get the...

Today the anual general meeting of the chess federation is scheduled to be held. Derrick is no longer directly involved with the affairs of the local federation since assuming office as the secratary of the asian chess federation. Hopefull someone who can continue what he started will be elected to office today.

Posted by raditha at 7:15 AM

March 28, 2004

The East Coast

The coastal towns of Trincomalee and Batticaloa are some of the most beautifull places in Sri Lanka. At the turn of the century only very small number of people living outside the north and east had ever visited these towns....
Posted by raditha at 3:44 PM

March 27, 2004

Still Blinking eight years later

Lanka Internet was the first company to function as an ISP commercialy in Sri Lanka. That was around eight years ago. They also happened to be the first company to offer web design and hosting services. Their prices for all...
Posted by raditha at 3:50 PM

March 26, 2004

Lying in the faces of facts and figures

According to the economic data published by the central bank the country was in recession in 2001. Then we had growth rates of around 5% over the last two years. Two years durng which the UNF governed the country. Then...
Posted by raditha at 3:18 PM

March 25, 2004

Sri Lanka Exam Results

The GCE ordinary level results were released two days ago. For some strange reason lots of people wondered into these pages searching for phrases like "sri lanka exam results". Looks like the MSN search engine is as bad as the...
Posted by raditha at 4:14 PM

March 24, 2004

Warne or Murali - Who is the better bowler

No one would argue that Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan are two of the best bowlers ever. This current series in Sri Lanka was billed as the showdown between these great spinners. So how do they stand? Well they have...
Posted by raditha at 4:26 PM

March 23, 2004

One step closer to calamity

Yesterday there was a near disaster at the countries main thermal power plant. A generator had been just saved from being wiped out by a fire. A disaster has been averted but this will probably prompt the ministry to take...
Posted by raditha at 3:06 PM

March 22, 2004

No Coal Power Please.

The UNF has threatened to go ahead with the building of not one but two coal power plants in this beautifull country. As we all know coal power is one of the dirtiest forms of generating energy, with the kind...
Posted by raditha at 3:31 AM

March 21, 2004

State Media Mafia

Sri Lankan has a sad state of affairs where the biggest TV and radio stations (widest coverage) and the biggest newspaper company are maintained at public funds for the benefit of the party in power. Politians of all colors have...
Posted by raditha at 7:42 AM

March 20, 2004

Sri Lanka Cricket

Not so long ago Hashan Thilakaratne was a very good batsmen, around ten years ago he was probably the best batsmen in the team - in terms of batting average. Every sportsman has a sell by date. Unfortunately for Sri...
Posted by raditha at 3:33 PM

The priest and the Election

There is an old (American?) joke about a priest and the elections A priest after finishing his sermon addressed his parish and said "As your priest I cannot tell you how to vote but I can remind you that next...
Posted by raditha at 7:46 AM

MovableType

This blog was started on the 26th of February using the web service available at blogger.com. Unfortunately there are too many things wrong with blogger and I have had to move on. Which I did a couple of days back....
Posted by raditha at 3:29 AM

March 19, 2004

Ranjan Ramanayake

It is refreshing to see that people of the caliber of Ranjan Ramanayake still walk this land of spineless people. According to statement made by this popular actor, a group of artists were invited to a tea party at the...
Posted by raditha at 2:26 AM

March 18, 2004

Tigers, Lions and vegetarians

Sri Lankans has two species of dangerous felines - Lions and Tigers. The tigers are known the world over as a very dangerous animal. The tigers that are black in color are said to be more dangerous. The lion as...
Posted by raditha at 2:28 AM

March 17, 2004

Two players do not make a team

Sri Lankan cricket seems to revolve around two players. Murali might get all the credit but he would be lost without Chaminda Vaas. Though foriegn commentators and columnists speak very highly of Vaas their Sri Lankan counter parts sadly spend...
Posted by raditha at 11:18 PM

March 16, 2004

The darkest kettle in town.

Last week when Sri Lankan crashed to a humiliating defeat at the hands of the australian cricketers the captain (the most negative captain in world cricket) was quick to put the blame on the team's batsmen.He seems to have conviniently...
Posted by raditha at 8:26 PM

March 15, 2004

Doctors On STRIKE

Sri Lankan doctor educated at public expenditure, paid good salary by the government and assured of a pension on retirement have gone on strike.On strike at the hospitals but the private practice continues. The strikes are probably a ploy to...
Posted by raditha at 9:26 PM

March 14, 2004

Tourism boom continues

Despite the elections, despite the heat, despite the rumblings in mordor the tourism boom in Sri Lanka continues. Nowadays it's almost impossible to get a hotel room at short notice. Compare this with the situation just three years ago when...
Posted by raditha at 4:53 PM

March 13, 2004

Anura talking rubbish: CBK

This is headline news in the Daily Mirror Today. In case you are wondering CBK is the president, anura is here brother. To quote from the report : "Dismissing a remark by UPFA frontliner Anura Bandaranaike that he would stake...
Posted by raditha at 10:36 PM

March 12, 2004

Censorship

Censorship.A few years ago we had censorship in Sri Lanka. That was when the war was raging and lots of brave soldiers were losing their lives due to ill planned campaigns. Thankfully the war is taking a breather but looks...
Posted by raditha at 8:31 PM

Cricket :: Paying the price for being negative

Sri Lankan Cricket team has one of the most negative captains in the world. Couple of days back I wrote about how negative thinking let the aussies off the hook. Today at the time of writing australia is one the...
Posted by raditha at 12:01 PM

March 11, 2004

Trees, TV and the IQ of the average Sri Lankan

There was this huge tree that provided a lot of shade less than 100 meters from my house. It was on a plot of state land and it's leaves were falling into the garden of one of my neighbours. Few...
Posted by raditha at 2:01 PM

March 10, 2004

Getting the better of the australian cricketers.

Sri Lankans have a love hate relationship with the australian cricketers. Most people just love to hate them. This dates back to 1995 when two Australian umpires made a grave error in judgement and called Muttiah Muralitharan a 'chucker'Thus to...
Posted by raditha at 10:31 PM

Switch off those extra lights

The country was assured not too long ago that the power cuts of 2001 will never be repeated. Now today's daily mirror is carrying a desparate plea from the electricity board asking people to conserve electricity. This is the very...
Posted by raditha at 7:48 AM

March 9, 2004

Women's Day

Sri Lanka had the first elected woman head of state anywhere in the world during the 1970s. She won the elections thanks to her tears. Then nearly 20 years later her daughter became the president (she is said to have...
Posted by raditha at 8:58 AM

March 8, 2004

A small minority

I belong to a minority. No doubt one of the smallest minority groups in the world. The group of people who have read the Lord of the Rings trilogy but not seen the movie. Our numbers are decreasing all the...
Posted by raditha at 12:11 PM

March 7, 2004

UNF neglected education, says President

This statement appeared in the Ceylon Daily News barely Two weeks after the president disolved the parliament causing the Advance Level examinations to be postponed by over a monthThe advanced level exam is the shool leaving examination. The ceylon daily...
Posted by raditha at 8:37 AM

March 6, 2004

Internet Service Providers - The bane of Sri Lanka's IT Industry.

Except for a small part of colombo city limits the rest of the country has to choose between dialup and leased lines. This small area has has ADSL connectivity as a result many smaller software companies have relocated their offices.Dialup...
Posted by raditha at 6:56 AM

March 5, 2004

Sea water in Kelani river: Supply to Greater Colombo cut off

This news item is typical of the sad state of affairs in Colombo. The kelani river is the only source of water supply to the city. It never runs dry, but what's happening now is that when the water level...
Posted by raditha at 7:59 AM

March 4, 2004

Paying the price for the wanten felling of trees.

2003 was the year of floods. 2004 is the year of droughts. They both have a common cause. The forests and wetlands that used to cover large parts of the country used to absorb quite a lot of water when...
Posted by raditha at 10:39 PM

Hijacked Platforms

The paliament was dissolved four years ahead of schedule throwing the country into confusion. Before the dissolution the opposition was strongly critical of the peace process. Their goal was to enter parliament with the votes of the Sinhala hardliners. Unfortunately...
Posted by raditha at 10:54 AM

March 2, 2004

This country was devided long ago.

Minority is the most abused word in this country. It is used by all those who deal in communal politics to divide and rule. These same parties are strongly opposed to any sort of devolution of power saying that it...
Posted by raditha at 7:43 PM

Hats off to the deputy mayor

In Sri Lanka politians never see anything wrong with what they or their party does. Using the old adage that attack is the best form of defense, accusations of bribery and corruptions are usually met with even wilder counter accusations....
Posted by raditha at 8:29 AM

March 1, 2004

:: Daily Mirror - Opinion ::

The daily mirror is the best out of a bad lot of Sri Lankan news papers. There are some columns that still make this journal worth reading such as the column by Gamini Akmeemana titled Papa labours to explain to...
Posted by raditha at 7:14 PM

Break all the traffic laws but don't drive fast

Want to drive reall slow on the fast lane? want to park where ever and when ever you please, even next to a no parking sign? want to reverse on to the main road? drive at night with out lights...
Posted by raditha at 2:59 PM

 

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