April 30, 2004
Off to Great Western
It's sweating buckets in Colombo. April is usually one of the hottest months but you normally get a little bit of rain in the evening to cool things off. Not so this year, it's been very dry. Thankfully I am...
Posted by raditha at 12:27 PM
April 29, 2004
The UNP wakes up at last
The UNP has finaly realized that they may never be elected to power again - if the UPFA changes the constitution 'unconstitutionaly'. They have finally started to talk about it. While being manifestly unconstitutional, the Constituent Assembly mechanism for constitutional...
Posted by raditha at 5:23 PM
April 28, 2004
Mobitel
Nearly two weeks after sending my first complaint to mobitel about their poor service they have finally managed to activate my GPRS connection. MMS is still a big no no. Well in theory my account has all the facilities and...
Posted by raditha at 3:40 PM
April 27, 2004
St. Clair Under Threat Again.
When the UNP lost the election many people who love nature heaved a sigh of relief. The last government was a total ecological disaster. And they promised to make it worse with two coal power plants and a hydro electricity...
Posted by raditha at 4:40 AM
100th entry
This is the hundredth entry in this blog. It's only been around for two months, goes to show how interesting things have become in Sri Lanka. Though I try to limit myself to a maximum of two posts per day,...
Posted by raditha at 4:32 AM
April 26, 2004
Unsung Hero of Cricket
Chaminda Vaas is no doubt cricket's greatest unsung hero. Probably because he is in the same team as the best bowler the world has ever seen. Vaas is a seam bowler and who would argue that Pollock, McGrath, Bond and...
Posted by raditha at 7:10 PM
Felling trees in the name of wesak
Next month, May is the month of wesak, the most important event in the buddhist calendar. Wesak is celebrated in Sri Lanka with a lots of lanterns, lights and wesak pandals. Wesak pandals are big structures made of wood with...
Posted by raditha at 3:24 PM
April 25, 2004
The Temple
During the past three weeks parliamentarians have spent a lot of time at the buddhist temples (accompanied by camera crews of course). If you add up the number of hours they spent this way, you will find that it far...
Posted by raditha at 1:33 PM
April 24, 2004
The carnival
The carnival is an ice cream parlour in colombo. For a long time it was 'the' ice cream parlour and a favourite hang out for students. It was reasonably priced, spotlessly clean and comfortable. Things have changed. Students are not...
Posted by raditha at 12:16 PM
Has democracy been saved?
When all the smaller political parties got together with the UNP to defeat the UPFA candidate for the post of speaker it looked for a breif moment like democracy may have been saved but it seems the UPFA is still...
Posted by raditha at 6:20 AM
April 23, 2004
Red Lights
You can get away with anything on Sri Lankan streets, mostly because cops don't care. Red Lights are usually ignored often right under the very noses of the traffic cops. Heres a photo of a motor cyclist caught in the...
Posted by raditha at 10:33 AM
April 22, 2004
A speaker at last
After three rounds of voting, lots of fist waving and retoric a speaker has at last been elected. The first round resulted in a tie, the second round was cancelled due to a sit in protest on the floor of...
Posted by raditha at 3:30 PM
No one to speak.
The parliament has been in session for well over four hours now. They MPs have still not been able to decide on a speaker. It's not because there arn't any takers, the two biggest parties in the parliament (the UPFA...
Posted by raditha at 9:22 AM
Parliament without a government
Today the new parliament, the first after the recently conducted general election is set to meet. The parliament will meet with out any party having enough seats to form a government. And both the major parties have failed to get...
Posted by raditha at 12:35 AM
April 21, 2004
Ceasefire violations
When you have an uneasy truce the best way to deal with ceasefire violations may be to ignore them. That is certainly what the UNP government when they were in power. During this time the UPFA went to town saying...
Posted by raditha at 2:00 PM
Tiger vs Tiger
After nearly twenty years of fighting with the lions the tigers finally agreed to a ceasefire. After two years of peace they apparently became very bored by it and decided to separate into two teams and have a war game...
Posted by raditha at 10:04 AM
April 20, 2004
Sri Lanka beats Zimbabwe Under 24 Team
The official record will say that the Sri Lankan Cricket team today managed to beat the Zimbabwe national team. What really happened was that the Sri Lankans beat the Zimbabwe under 24 team, suprisingly this team in which no one...
Posted by raditha at 3:46 PM
April 19, 2004
Back to School
Today is the first day of the second school term. Schools were closed for about three weeks to coincide with the big holiday season in Sri Lanka. During the past week colombo was virtually deserted wtih everyone going off to...
Posted by raditha at 2:54 AM
April 18, 2004
Everyone is a minister.
While the UPFA is making a pathetic attempt (with the help of the publics ignorance of arithmatic) to show that they have a 2/3 majority in parliament (they dont' even have the numbers for a simple majority) , they are...
Posted by raditha at 6:16 AM
April 17, 2004
No place for nice guys
The former minister of foriegn affairs - Tyronne Fernando is one of the few people to have held a ministry and not have serius allegations of bribery and corruption made against him. He has been denied a seat in the...
Posted by raditha at 7:47 AM
April 16, 2004
Mobile Phones
Sri Lanka has four telecos that operate mobile networks. One is neglibly small and the other is trying really hard to become small too. That leaves us with mobitel and dialog. Mobitel itself was insignificant until it was taken over...
Posted by raditha at 12:58 PM
April 15, 2004
Voting away your right to vote
Before the elections the UPFA said they will change the country's constitution with our without the required two thirds majority. As we all know in most countries of the world this 2/3 majority is required to protect against law makers...
Posted by raditha at 3:21 AM
April 14, 2004
The latest comedy show.
Most politicians are screaming theirs heads off about how they have worked to bridge the ethnic divide, while doing the exact opposite. The latest comedy on television is a stream of buddhist politicians making bee lines for the nearest church,...
Posted by raditha at 5:28 PM
Dictatorship
If Sri Lankan politians are concerned about the UPFA's intention of changing the constitution with out the required two thirds majority it's conspicous by it's absence. Apparently very few politians really care about democracy; after all contesting an election is...
Posted by raditha at 5:51 AM
April 13, 2004
Happy New Year
Today is new year's day in Sri Lanka. Great, but what with the good looking birds? The bird pictured here is the koel, the black featured one is the male the other three photos are of a female. The loel...
Posted by raditha at 10:06 AM
Arjuna Ranathunga
Looks like there is a glimmer of hope for this country. Arjuna Ranathunga, the former captain of the Sri Lanka Cricket team has turned down the offer of a deputy minister post. It's an act that has to be applauded...
Posted by raditha at 6:13 AM
April 12, 2004
Ministers and Impeachments
During the bad old days of president Premadasa's rule a group of leading politicians from the UNP tried to impeach him. President Premadasa managed to defeat this attempt by sacking the group that lead the impeachment campaign and promoting nearly...
Posted by raditha at 12:25 PM
The Five Precepts
The Five Precepts are part of the fundamental principles of Buddhim. One of them is that you should not tell a lie. The buddhist monks who contested the recently concluded parliamentary elections promised not to prop up one political party...footnote:
The monks say they will act independently but support the government when 'doing good deeds', which is exactly what all other parties say when the help form a coalition government.
Posted by raditha at 4:30 AM
April 11, 2004
The Holidays are here
The big Sri Lankan holiday season started on good friday. Sri Lanka probably has more public holidays than any other country in the world. The concentration is very high during the month of April. This year the new year holidays...Good friday usually comes just before the new year so for many people that means they can keep away from work for ten whole days. Families can make full use of it because schools and universities also put up shutters during this period.
Many people living in colombo have their roots in the rural villages and these people make full use of the opportunity to catch up with their relatives.
Posted by raditha at 10:14 AM
April 10, 2004
A vote for the monks
Vote for the monks and hope for a UNF win. Strangely enough this is what lots of people I spoke to have done. They were fed up by the last government taking no action against the countless allegations of bibery...Of the nine provinces in the country in six of them the UNF might have won all the districts if they didn't lose votes to the monks. And thus the extra 'bonus seats' allowed the UPFA to get the most number of seats in the parliament.
As for the UNF many will say they got what they deserved. And it seems the people have got the government they deserve.
Posted by raditha at 11:21 AM
April 9, 2004
Sri Lanka an Indian State?
During the days of the last government it was accused of attempting to make Sri Lanka into a member of the united states. (Surely that would have been a good thing. we wouldn't have to worry about the dollar appreciating...If the news paper reports are to be believed the diplomats have at least two leaders of the parties in the paliament dancing to their tune. Indeed todays daily mirror cartoon shows three prominent politians dancing at the end of a puppet string. The string is held by India.
refer - Daily Mirror :: Thondaman says this and that: Indian envoy in backstage move
Posted by raditha at 8:33 AM
April 8, 2004
The UNF defeat - puts off coal power.
Here is a statement to send shivers down anyone's spine - Anyone who loves trees, wild life or nature that is. "We have taken decisions on investments in coal fired power plants, the first which will be constructed in Hambantota....
Posted by raditha at 3:45 PM
Arithmatic and Governances
Here is a simple Arithmatic excercise for you. You may use a calculator. Devide 22 by 3, and multiply the result by 2. What is the final result? If you answer is 14.67 you are right. (acurate to two decimal...
Posted by raditha at 1:35 AM
April 7, 2004
A Win Win Situation
For two political parties in Sri Lanka it has always been win win situation. These parties - the CWC (Ceylon Workers Congress) and the SLMC (Sri Lanka Muslim Congress) usually contest the elections in partnership the UNP. The UNP has...Thus when the UNF wins an election the SLMC and CWC immidiately partner with them to form a government and land a couple of ministries for the seniors MPs. When the UNF loses - they act independently to help the UPFA (or PA or SLFP as it used be) to form a government and get a chance for some of their seniors to become ministers.
Thus these two parties always have a win win situation - at least for themselves.
However this time there may be an exception, Mr. Thondaman, the leader of the CWC says they haven't decided to work with the UPFA yet...
let's see how this one develops.
Posted by raditha at 4:48 PM
Lies damn lies and website statistics
I wrote the other day about how people have been lead to believe the economy is weak despite figures that indicate a strong growth. The other side of the coins you find the face of websites statistics. Sri Lankan managers...
Posted by raditha at 8:24 AM
April 6, 2004
Murali and chucking.
A mediocre former cricketer was recently appointed as a match referee by the ICC. To get his five minues of fame he decided to call Murali a chucker during his first series as a referee. As a result of this...
Posted by raditha at 3:38 PM
The prime minister may not be a tamil after all.
Just 24 hours ago Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar was tipped to become the First Tamil Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. There was wide spread speculation that the president would make the official announcement today. Now this mornings paper says the prime...
Posted by raditha at 7:53 AM
April 5, 2004
First Tamil Prime Minister
Ironically it now looks like the sinhala hardliners may have elected the countries first tamil prime minister to power. According to the news reports Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar is set to become the next prime minister of the country. This is...
Posted by raditha at 2:42 AM
April 4, 2004
Hijacked Platforms II
Few weeks ago I wrote about hijacks. It wasn't planes or buses that were being hijacked by political platforms. The monks hikjacked the left alliance's anit peace platform and then the alliance turned around and hijacked the UNF's anti war...
Posted by raditha at 1:58 AM
April 3, 2004
May you live in interesting times
That's an ancient chinese curse. In Sri Lanka we certainly are living in interesting times. We have had three general elections in four years. As this entry is being typed the results from the latest effort to waste public funds...
Posted by raditha at 9:52 AM
The verdict
The people's verdict is in. They have voted against Coal Power Upper Kothmale Hydro power project Large scale corruption and shady deals Deforestation Peace Economic growth They have voted in support of War Religious fundamentalism Censorship Subsidies Higher import duty...
Posted by raditha at 9:45 AM
April 2, 2004
Balapitiya
Here is a very interesting stat for you. In the balapitiya electorate the total number of votes cast at the last election was almost the same number as at this election. But look at the final result 20012004 Total34,41034,217 PA/JVP...
Posted by raditha at 11:37 PM
The airport drive
The air port is just 40 kilo meters away from the city. In this country of bad roads and worse drivers 40km is a long long way. During the day time the trip usually takes about 45 minutes to an...
Today I did make this journey and I set out at 2:30 in the morning and made it there in 25 minutes. The return trip was even quicker. Just like the Galle Face this evening the road the katunayake and the airport itself were both deserted.
Many Sri Lankans probably decided to stay home and follow the election results and put of their flying for sunday.
With the traffic cops who hide behind trees away probably on election duty it was a good time to floor the accelerator - if you don't mind the pot holes. Fortunately I was driving my brother-in-law and sister to the airport in their car which is an SUV.
Posted by raditha at 11:17 PM
The First Results
The first results from the just concluded election results have just come in. A handfull of postal voting results have been announced and it seems the UNF is heading for a rout. The UPFA may be able to change the...
Posted by raditha at 5:52 PM
The Galle Face
Just got back from the Galle Face in Colombo haven't seen so little traffic in the downtown area in ages. Today was election day. Elections in this country have always been rather bloody affairs with supporters of politians taking pot...
Now to get back to the Gall Face. The Galle Face is a vast open area in the heart of the city located right next to the beach. 'The greens' is usually bustliing with activity and it's nearly impossible to find a parking space anywhere close by.
Today in anticipation of the curfew most people stayed in their homes during the evening. Members of my extended family decided to risk the curfew and ventured to the galle face. To our immense delight we found almost no traffic all the way from home to the greens and the greens itself was as empty as it can ever be.
Posted by raditha at 2:00 PM
Count down to a dictatorship
Sri Lankan my be just hours away from becoming a country governed by a dictator. What's really alarming is the silence of the UNF on this very issue. One of the parties contesting the election, the UPFA says it will...
Posted by raditha at 4:18 AM
April 1, 2004
The Election Commisioner
In this land of cowardly people the election commisioner is known to be an upright gentlemen with the courage to do what's right. Many times during his career he has had to stand up to presidents, prime ministers and their...
Posted by raditha at 10:15 AM
Murali and chucking.
Heard of the name Chris Broad? you probably haven't. He was mediocre cricket who couldn't leave any indelible mark on the cricket field. Now the ICC has in a grave error of judgement appointed him as a match refree. Other...
Posted by raditha at 10:10 AM
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