Or should that say “If Sri Lanka Were a Company”?I’m unsure.But, a friend said this to me recently and it’s got me thinking. If Sri Lanka was a Company it would be on the brink of going bust.It would be run by a megalomaniac purely for the benefit of h…
Keyboardist of Something for Rockets, performing at the Getty Center.(Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT; 10/26/2007; 1/40 at f/4; ISO 400; white balance: Auto; focal length: 200 mm)
Online shopping and credit cards. Baaad combo. Well, at least I was book shopping and not shoe shopping. This time. Having decided it was time to add to my library once again, I took myself to the uni bookshop, not to, as one who does not know me might…
view from Amaya Hills , towards i don't remember where…a land worth dying for…
ජීමේල් මගින් දැන් POP වලට අමතරව IMAP සේවාවද ඇතුළත් කර ඇත. ඔබගේ ගිණුමේත් IMAP ඇත්දැයි පරික්ෂා කර බැලීමට Set…
I think to myself “It’s high time to do some spring cleaning around the house” so I potter around the house and try to bag up the stuff which aren’t really useful to us anymore. I pick up something to give away and then the part of me that wants to cling on to things says, “Who knows it may come in use to you in the future and besides if you go to buy it in the shop today it will cost and you an
It was the combination of an unexpected picture, an inopportune tag and the bad timing for message response of my part that caused it. That I was bone tired, a tiredness that no amount of caffeine or nicotine could erase also probably had something to do with it. The thing is it’s always there in […]
The UN +5 OCHA Symposium was another instance where the power of new media (Web 2.0, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, wikis, SMSs and that sort of thing) was repeatedly touted as an innovation that would change the face of humanitarian response as we know it.
The heady optimism of a revolution in humanitarian affairs using mobile phones […]
Pay television channel AXN will be premiering two editions of “The Amazing Race” this month. The Amazing Race Season 12 and The Amazing Race Asian Edition Season 2 will commence on Nov 5th and Nov 22nd respectively. The Amazing Race Season 12 is commen…
Reliance Communications took the competition in domestic telecom head-on as it reported operating margins similar to bigger rival Bharti Airtel in the July-September quarter. RCom’s robust performance was aided by higher growth in its wireless and broadband services along with increased operating efficiency.
Net profit has surged 86% to Rs 1,305 crore (USD 330 mil) year-on-year backed […]
oh yeah! it’s that time of the year again. pumpkin patches, pumpkin carving, scary/funny/hideous outfits, trick-o-treating, candy, candy and more candy… It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been accustomed to this awkwardly crazy tradition (so I th…
These days I’m having fun with Oracle. Ye, its kind of cool stuff, feels like mysql that we used to expertise on our past undergrad database class taught by Amalka , I guess Dr. Amalka Pinidiyarachchi by now : ) We used to work with mysql, SQLServer, A…
According to the association of unemployed graduates, 10,000 more joined their ranks since November 2006. Today (November 1, 2007) these people are poised to demonstrate in front of the Fort railway station.
Who produced these graduates? If the social science and humanities faculties in our universities are responsible, why do we keep giving money to these […]
Usually, when I’m in a project, I pretty much get a good understanding of the domain and a thorough understanding of the requirements before I start to code. But this time, it’s been a totally different story.We are suppose to deliver a project on Frid…
i was going to write a post denouncing a proposed censorship of military news, and suggest ways to get and publish such news without getting imprisoned when i heard the welcome news that after all there won’t be a censorship. so i will keep this short …
The Sri Lankan government is now reconsidering the decision to impose censorship on news items related to the ongoing conflict. A number of media institutions immediately opposed the ban when it was first announced. Internal sources from the …
And I’m still here! That’s right, its been exactly 3 years as of today (31st) since I got into the world of blogging. For the curious here is my first blog post which I made out of UCSC’s MSc computer lab, under not so good circumstances :)Anyway thats…
AAAARGHH!! I’m starting to shit bricks now. Hey themissingsandwich, if you’re reading this, I hear ya, babe. I’m going through exactly the same mental motions and it’s freaking me out.D day is here… I’m starting work at the new place tomorrow, and it…
I know i’m being a downright pain, but please please, fill this out. It’ll only take 2mins!Thanks!http://www.kanabona.com/www/?q=shannons_survey
WiMax and other wireless, large footprint, broadband internet access technologies interest me for one very simple reason.
Resilience.
Telecoms infrastructure (towers, switches, cables, microwave and transmission equipment) are about the first things to be attacked, pilfered or sabotaged in areas of violent conflict. Broadband internet and web access through ether offers communities living in the throes of […]
Money…. Can money do anything in life??? Is it everything?? Will all the problems be solved if there is money???? Is money all the happiness????? Tooooooo many questions came into my mind while I was thinking what to write for my next post…
Yes, in a way money is everything in life… Without money you are […]
I really liked this one. The movie about Daniel Pearl’s death and how his wife Mariane held it together while attempting to locate him was much awaited and definitely worth a watch. The connections and procedures, the people connected and the authoriti…
some of my friends were going to unawatuna and i tagged along… one of them wanted to go dive… but thats not why i went… yeah the food and the beach! oh and also the sunset… love the sunset there!!
unawatuna (Lat:6.009902°N Lon:80.248890°E), located approximately 120 kilometers (75 miles) south the capital colombo, is considered to be one of the best beaches in Sri Lanka.
Missing entirely in the discussions I was part of at the UN OCHA +5 Symposium and also the draft statement current on the Symposium website for public review is the manner in which complex political emergencies (CPEs, herein used to also cover violent ethno-political conflict) influence the design and deployment of ICT support architectures and […]
It is with a sense of great sadness and a feeling of emptiness that I inform all those whom it may concern that, Mr. Viji Weerasinghe, an exemplary character who epitomized the true meaning of what it is to be a Royalist, passed away in hospital today.
Mr. VijiWeerasinghe was hospitalized at the Asiri Surgical Unit […]
Alan Smith in “Integrating Lifelong Learning Perspectives” says:
In all part of the world, in their different ways, the impact of globalizaiton, the advent of the knowledge society and the pervasive advance of the new information and communication technologies are radically changing not only the way people work, but also their individual aspirations and the way […]
Prof. Ajith de Alwis distributed an article among us and asked us to read it. The article was about William Edwards Deming. But every one has forgotten to read it when he asked about it in today lecture. William Edwards Deming was an American statistician who worked on improving production improvements using statical process analysis. He was a college professor, author, lecturer, and consultant who did very big service to uplift production processes in manufacturing premises. He taught top management how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing and sales (the last through global markets). Initially this man was not taken into granted by US people but he worked with Japanese and taught them how to use his ideas for total quality management . He targeted sensible improvement with in five years but Japanese people were bright enough to caught his ideas and improved their product quality within four years. (”Japana Hapana”, A sinhala saying [Japanese People are clever]).
American people got to know about this person when they search the secret behind the rapid increment on Japanese Product’s quality. But when William Edwards Deming was only beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death.
This is very good lesson for us. We normally do not care about people who come up with new ideas and innovation. But they might have capacity to build up our country .
For a very good read about deming visit wikipedia
While I was returning home after the above trip, I had a message in my phone from a Sri Lankan lady wanting to book a trip to Sinharaja for two persons. It was Enoka and joining her was her school time friend Sandali; & they booked a tour to Sinha…
The LTTE attack on the Saliyapura airforce base has reminded those who wanted to think otherwise, that a quick, cheap and/or certain military victory is by no means assured. The attempt to achieve one will take time and cost quite a lot more in human and other resources. In the meantime, the […]
A second telephone call was received from Sinharaja on 26 Jan with the news that a pair of Bay Owls had been sighted the day before. Due to limitations of digi-scoping, I had not been able to capture the full bird in most of my Bay Owl pictures taken p…
Indonesia has learnt lessons from dealing with a string of earthquakes, but still can do more to reduce the impact of such disasters by quake proofing buildings and deploying more tsunami buoys, officials said on Wednesday.
An official at Indonesia’s National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management said there had been progress in educating people since the […]
Last evening was a mess trying to get home. I leave Fort at 5 pm and just get stuck near the Hunters Roundabout for a good 15 mins. Then get on to Mudalige Mawatha and traffic is stand still for good half hour. Parts of main fort for blocked I think …
Homegrown terrorism two-parter starring MC Riz Ahmed and comedienne Manjinder Virk. Check it out here or on Channel Four at nine pm tonight 
If I.T. Merged With E.T. - New York Times
To appreciate that potential, look at how much is being done with just car batteries, backup diesel generators and India’s creaky rural electricity grid. I traveled to a cluster of villages with a team from the Byrraju Foundation — a truly impressive nonprofit set up […]
தோட்டத் தொழிலாளியே நீயும் தமிழன்தான்
தமிழன் உலக ரீதியில் படைக்கும் சாதனை
உன்னை மட்டும் எட்டவில்லையே – ஏன்
தோட்டத்தில் இன்னுமேன் தவிக்கின்றாய்
நீ எப்போது இங்கு வந்து சேர்ந்தாயேர
அந்த நிலை இப்போது மாறியர விட்டது
நீ வாக்கு வங்கியானதுதான் உண்மை
சந்தர கொடுத்தும் சலிக்கவில்லையர நீ
உன் முதுகில் ஏறி சவாரி செய்து
நாடாளச் சென்றவர்கள் எங்கே
திரும்பிப் பார்த்தார்களர உன்னை
உனக்கு உறைக்கவர போகிறது
நீ அடிமையானது போதும் - உன்
வம்சத்தை வாழவைக்க வழி செய்
வரவைப் பெருக்கி கல்வியைத் தேடு
கல்லதார் கண்கள் புண்னென்பது தெரியாதர
உனது […]
I read Java Jones’ post on sexual attraction to animals with much interest. I won’t even lie, when I read his posts I usually have dictionary.com open in the next tab. In any case, he mentioned this aspect of what is considered ‘normal’ in our …
I went on a self declared vacation the last five days, bunking work and bumming around at home. Yesterday, in the midst of the brain freeze induced by lack of activity I got a call from a friend whom I shall christen M for now. M is an old friend from …
I’m not quite sure if Pandora actually had the www in her box of evils but it’s almost 4am and yet with miles to go before I sleep, I can’t resist visiting my favorite haunts on the web. But then again they do say that all work and no play makes some b…
It’s a bit unmanly to say such a thing but I’ve always been a fan of chocolate and I’m not talking about that song by that lot that Child of 25 likes either.I’m no connoisseur of the stuff but I know what I like. Some years ago I went with the girls to…
Something for Rockets, performing at The Getty Center
In 1977, Sri Lanka entered into open economy and we were the first to adapt this free market philosophy in the region. India adapted the same in decade later and China is still transitioning into open economy from the communist regime.
We were the first to adapt it, still where are we now? India and China has become the new giants in world economy while we have become a nation that depends on other courtiers for mere existence.
What really went wrong is that Sri Lanka adapted the open economy just for the sake of opening without clear mission. Japan managed to build up national brand names like Toyota, Panasonic and Sony while India is emerging new brands like Tata (manufacturing) and Infosys (IT). However Sri Lanka, despite adapting open economy before India and China, is still chasing after brand names of others and not building our own brands and products. While our counterparts opened their economy in controlled manner according to a master plan, the short sighted politicos of Sri Lanka opened not only the economy, but culture and society as well just like a flood gates of a dam. It created a temporally bloom in the country, but it was nothing but an economic bubble which did not last long. The tragedy result was a nation without national proud and dignity and people having lost their cultural roots. This leads to more and more unrest in the society.
In the South it burst out in the form of ‘JVP insurgency’ and in the North, the petty politicos managed to give it a reading flavored with racism and the result was the LTTE terrorism.
Marketing is the key driving force in the globalize world and Sri Lanka is not an exempt. However, the unfortunate reality in Sri Lanka was that the government lost its grip and marketing started playing devils in so called ‘freedom’. It was under the custody of (comprador) businessmen having their feet in the West and not in our mother land. Their philosophy was to import whatever junks to the country and sell them here and pump the profit back to their masters. It was hard earned money of our mothers and sisters in the Midle East and manufacturing sector including garment factories in the country that these people were pumping out. Their only focus was on profit and not any national interests.
Their consensus was with petty politicians and not with the common people of this country. These anti national companies were willing to invest Billions on political campaigns to market petty feeble and crook politicians to the nation as genuine leaders and they were getting open license to exploit the common people of this country in return.
It is in this backdrop that the Mawbima (Motherland) Lanka foundation was established with the mission of “Country with a formidable and sustainable National Economy where people are proud to consume locally manufactured products and the industrialists strive to develop new products and high quality import substitutes.” Now this is an new attempt to come to a consensus between genuine businessmen with national interests and common people of this country and not with the politicos.
Mawbima Lanka foundation is actively involve in conducting educational and socio cultural activities in the direction of creating a consumption culture and a ideology in the society that are conducive and supportive towards developing a formidable and self sustained National Economy.
A ceremony was organized by Mawbima Lanka Foundation to recognize and reward 34 local entrepreneurs from various fields yesterday (29) at the BMICH. The function was headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In the future the market would have local goods carrying the Swarnasinghe (Golden Lion) logo on their products. These companies are committed to work based on national interests and support various projects for the benefit of the common people of the country and in return their brand names carrying national pride have been given extra recognition.
The Sri Lankan brands receiving certificates, are…
Orange Electrical Accessories
Harischandra Food & Beverage
Emerald Men’s Wear
Baraka Herbal Products
Laughs Liquid Petroleum Gas
Laughs Gas Conversion Unit & Service Gas Auto Lanka (Pvt) Ltd
Laughs Water Bottles
Laugfs Engineering Equipment
Laughs Three-Wheel Tyres Laughs Corporation (Rubber) Ltd
Laughs Coir Mattresses Laughs Corporation (Coir) Ltd
Raigam Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd
SSS Best Bulbs
Diana Biscuits and Cakes
Diana Chocolates and Candies
Kist Prepared Fruit & Beverages
Cargills Ice Cream & Dairy Products
DSI Footwear
Sigiri Furniture
Pelwatte Sugar
DGI / Lacer Garments
Crysbro Chicken
Kandos Chocolates
DSI Tyres
Nippolac Paints & Related Chemicals
Munchee Biscuits
Kandurata Umbrella
Hemas Personal Care Items
Heladiv Beverages
KVC Prepared Fruit & Beverages
Nature’s Secret Cosmetics
Nippon Plastic Products
Cargills Rice and Rice Based Products
Highland Dairy Products
Ceypetco Petroleum Products and Agro Chemicals
Was all grumpy and sleepy this morning and decided to do the sudoku puzzle in the newspaper. after finishing that I noticed the horoscope column and decided to see what destiny has in store for the family.
My mother’s said that she is about to “accumulate sudden profits from a sale of property or vehicle.” Fishy since just two days back I got a call from a family friend inquiring if my car is
It’s the night when all the spooky creatures come out to play. When witches prepare magic potions in their black cauldrons and get ready to feast. The night when the headless horseman goes looking for his lost head. It’s all part of Halloween…The…
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