A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Back to 500BC.
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, December 1, 2013
CHOGM Balance Sheet
By Bandu de Silva -November 30, 2013 |
It is then just as well that with available information that one tries
to draw up at least a tentative balance -sheet to see if the grandiose
spectacle for whose success the government placed all its aces in recent
times was not what our small time businessman would call “Jaan bera-gattha” or, on the contrary, “Athatath Paadu-una”
affair, but one with rewarding results as the government might wont to
present it. As some say, it has been very rewarding to a few. Let’s not
talk about that here. For the risk taking business community, big or
small ones, such risk-taking experiences are not unusual. They consider
the risks are worth taking, “Giyoth Satha pahay: Aavoth JP Pattamay”, as our erudite scholar Late Prof G.P Malalasekera often repeated. In this case, of course, the ‘going” (giyoth) stakes were not “satha-paha”
for the postage -stamp but billions of Rupees, enough to build two more
sea ports or such big ventures, not forgetting the closed-down over
hundreds of schools for lack of funds to maintain them; and “coming” (Avoth)
is the far more prestigious Chair of CHOGM for two years. Cannot one
see the accolades coming from the provincial politicos with their
“maharajaneni” posters and full page newspaper advertisements, of
course, done with tongue in cheek, hoping for a betterpattama for
them next time, like a promotion to central politics with a deputy
Ministerial post at least, to start with. Such is the greed for power
and climbing in the country. Remember the Sinhalese adage “Vaedi
Aacharaya Hora”. That helps to understand the poster people today with
their own picture (stamp size) down below that of the larger portraiture
of the President leaving much climbing space in the means while, both literary and metopherically speaking.