saturday lunch
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Gamini holding the catch of the day from our river in front of our cabin, which we had for lunch. His son Geethika is looking at the antics of his dad.
Archive for December, 2007
Happy New Year…!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
All the best for the coming New Year 2008!
Krishanthi Priyadarshani
Thanks 2007
Monday, December 31st, 2007
What ever it is, 2007 have come to an end. It’s time to look back and think about your activities. What have you done so far? what have you done for your family, country, mother tongue etc?
What ever happened is happened. Now think of the year 2008, and make your plans for the new year. […]
2007 I Hardly Knew Ya
Monday, December 31st, 2007
2007 started great with a new job and new expectations. But I should have known better. As long as you work for someone your at their mercy. The only way to get what you want is to work for yourself.
Don’t get me wrong this job is the best I had so far. I just […]
world food program that feeds the fat farmer!!!!!!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
The photo shows some of fellow neighbours getting into a neighbors tractor trailer to get home from the central distribution depot of the food.The readers of my musings will no doubt now know that every day in my life if both unpredictable, different a…
Was it ‘that’ kind of a year for you?
Monday, December 31st, 2007
The end of a year usually gets folk looking back at how it went for them – good bad, indifferent, or just plain fugged. There are also those ‘top-ten’ lists that are put out by magazines, radio stations, television networks and others that give us an indication of what they consider to be the best […]
“Lajja Nethikama, Amathi Kamatath Wada Lokuya”
Monday, December 31st, 2007
It’s pretty obvious that Mervin’s going scot free following his idiotic actions last week. Mahinda Maama, seems to protect the thugs over the wishes of the people of the country. I guess, when it comes to Sri Lankan Politics, no moral standard or cond…
A week is a long time even in farming (not only politics)
Monday, December 31st, 2007
The photo shows the way the water reaches my property from the pipe, and this is taken around mid night that day when the water was flowing rapidly once our dead of night operation was carried out.Only last week that is up till Christmas day we had 14 …
Arjuna Ranatunga to head Sri Lanka Cricket
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Jayantha Dharmadasa will quit Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) paving the way for Arjuna Ranatunga to take over. Read more here. Now, I’ve been a strong advocate of Ranatunga heading SLC ever since he quit international cricket, but it’s taken six years for this to come to fruition.
I came across this article concerning the SLC elections […]
ICT4Peace in 2007: Significant work, applied research and challenges
Monday, December 31st, 2007
It’s been an bloody eventful year, literally and metaphorically.
Sri Lanka’s war escalated dramatically over the course of the year, with the LTTE suffering significantly at the hand of a Government hell-bent on its complete destruction. The timbre of democracy in Sri Lanka took many blows, not just through the erosion of human rights and the […]
celestial sphere: new year’s comet
Monday, December 31st, 2007
happy new year!!! you might be able to see a comet tonight… its inside pisces… pisces is this constellation with a V shaped tip… the stars are (relatively) bright so you’d be able to see it… around 7pm it’ll be right above you on due north… and it eventually sets bellow the western horizon around 1 am… exact co-ordinates for a observer in colombo are given bellow in the ephemeris… so when you go out tonight to light some crackers… look west.. you should be able to see it if the sky is clear!
Sangakkara benefits from Ponting’s and Kallis’ failures to regain top slot
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Daily Times LAHORE: Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara has returned to the top of the ICC player rankings for Test batsmen for the second time in three weeks after Australia’s Ricky Ponting and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis suffered rare batting failures in the Melbourne and Port Elizabeth Tests respectively.
Ponting had entered the Boxing Day Test leading second-placed Kallis by one ratings point and third-placed Sangakkara by three. But his contribution of four and three in his team’s 337-run victory over India meant he has conceded 19 ratings points and has fallen behind the two on 917 points.
Kallis also squandered an opportunity to surge to the top when he was dismissed for a duck in the first innings of his team’s 128-run defeat to the West Indies. Despite managing 85 in his second dig, it was not enough to avoid losing 12 ratings points, illustrating just what it takes to stay at the top these days. Kallis did just enough for him to hang on to his second place on 923 points.
Sangakkara, on 933 points, had earlier knocked Ponting off the top spot after his performance of 92 and 152 in the first Test against England in Kandy earlier this month. The 30-year-old from Matale then shared the top slot with the Australia captain after the second Test in Colombo in which he scored one run in the first innings and didn’t get an opportunity to make amends in the second, a trend that was repeated in the third Test at Galle where he scored 46 and consequently dropped to third place behind Ponting and Kallis. Sangakkara’s return to the top now means that Sri Lanka again boasts a player at the top of both the batsman and bowler categories in the ICC player rankings as world record-breaking spinner Muttiah Muralidaran tops the bowling list.
Elsewhere, there was good news for Ponting’s team-mate Mike Hussey who edged closer to becoming the 24th batsman in history to reach the 900-mark. Hussey, who began in fifth position at 874 ratings points, climbed one position to fourth after earning eight points from the Melbourne Test which put him on a career-best 882 points. Matthew Hayden was also rewarded for his effort of 124 and 47 when he jumped two places to leapfrog Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jaywardena and England’s Kevin Pietersen in sixth position. While Michael Clarke cemented his place in 11th spot following knocks of 20 and 73, Phil Jaques and Andrew Symonds made movements in the right direction. Jaques, who scored 66 and 51, jumped 12 places to 25th position while Symonds climbed eight places to 32nd spot.
For India, former captain Rahul Dravid dropped two places to 14th but Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly climbed one place each and now have South Africa’s Ashwell Prince and Australia’s Adam Gilchrist firmly in their sights. Only five ratings point separate 15th place Prince from 18th place Ganguly. There were all smiles in the West Indies camp after its first Test victory in 31 months and maiden win on South African soil. Captain Chris Gayle, who scored 66 and 29, jumped five places to 23rd while opener Daren Ganga climbed 11 places to 58th. Marlon Samuels, who won the player of the match award for his 94 and 40, rocketed 18 places to 63rd while Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose 104 in the first innings was the foundation for a big first innings total, established himself in 10th position and is now just nine points adrift of Pakistan’s Yunus Khan in ninth place. The only consolation for South Africa was the improvement in AB de Villiers’ ranking. He climbed eight places to 33rd position.
Meanwhile, Prince and Graeme Smith dropped one place each to 15th and 22nd respectively. Hashim Amla fell four places to 38th while Herschelle Gibbs, who had a pair in the Port Elizabeth Test, dropped 11 places to 40th spot. In the ICC player rankings for Test bowlers, Australia’s Stuart Clark replaced South Africa’s Makhaya Ntini in second place whose team-mate Dale Steyn also dropped three places to sixth. Clark’s effort of 5-48 in the Test helped him jump two places and placed him 27 points ahead of Ntini who managed 4-135 in the match and consequently conceded 13 ratings points.
India captain Anil Kumble and Brett Lee of Australia gained one place each. Kumble’s match effort of 7-186 puts him in fourth place while Lee’s 6-89 places him in fifth position, just two points behind the Indian wrist spinner.
Mitchell Johnson’s 3-21 in the second innings helped him gain nine places and he is now ranked in 45th spot.
Like its batsmen, West Indies’ bowlers are also on an upward move. While Fidel Edwards retained his place in 34th position, Jerome Taylor jumped seven places to 35th spot, Daren Powell climbed two places to 38th position and Darren Sammy lifted four places to 46th position. In the player rankings for Test all-rounders, Chris Gayle leapfrogged India’s Irfan Pathan in sixth place. However, the West Indies captain is still 29 points behind fifth-placed Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka. The all-rounders’ list is headed by Kallis with England’s Andrew Flintoff a distant second.
The government of Sri Lanka; Flash back on 2007 and new challenges for 2008
Monday, December 31st, 2007
The year 2007 marked one of the politically vibrant years in Sri Lankan history. In the past year, while the war against terrorism being the main success for the country, other different politico-social-economic aspects had its ups and downs. The government not only successfully weather the political storms initiated by UNP and its backing international agents which is later orchestrated by JVP, but also lead the war against terrorism in successful manner. However the economy and corruption remained the weak links in the country in the last year. The year 2008 is going to be crucial in many aspects and the success of the coming year will greatly depends on completing the war in a wining note and starting the economic revival and fight against corruption in new grounds.
The war against terrorism
Last year, the country witnessed the success in the fight against terrorism in all fronts. The Sri Lankan forces must be commended for the enormous commitment and dedication shown in the fight against LTTE, which had transformed into one of the ruthless and powerful terrorist organizations due to weakness and selfishness of past political leadership of this country. It was Mahinda Rajapaksa who is closely backed by his own brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa that led the political leadership for the war. Unlike past governments, Mahinda never let the war to be politicized and he let the battle hardened military leadership to tackle the terrorism. The government made sure that it will not engaged in any act that would jeopardize the moral of the armed forces despite immense political pressure from international community and their local agents in the form of political parties and allied NGO’s.
The SL army successfully repulsed LTTE terrorists from the entire eastern province and now the SL armed forces have completely seized the Wanni jungle which is LTTE terrorists’ last strong hold. In the last year, The SL Navy was successful in sinking seven LTTE ships packed with arms and ammunitions and they have proved to be the most successful operational deep blue navy in the world. Now the sea tiger activities have been fully controlled and their operations have been limited to occasional futile attempts of arm smuggling. The SL air force has become the dark horse in the recent past. The earlier governments were too afraid to use the full potential of air force in the fight against terrorism due to myths spread by LTTE’s political agents in the South. However Mahinda Rajapaksa has not hesitated to unleash full potential of air force in the fight against LTTE. In the last year, Air force was busy bombing the LTTE camps and destroying their training and communication centers, but they had a temporary set back when LTTE black tigers attacked the Anuradhapura air base destroying number of trainer planes and strategic spying air crafts. However SL Air Force was quick to amend its deficiency by hunting Thamil Chellvam, the second in the LTTE rank. In the recent past, Air force has focused more on targeting LTTE leadership. In this backdrop, the reports from Vanni that LTTE self appointed supremo Piripaharan has been injured due to one of the air raids can not easily be set aside.
Its government’s obligation to complete the war in winning track in the early part of 2008, and democracy is established in the North and Eastern provinces. It will not only ease the burden of exorbitant defense expenditure, but relive the burden in the economy for spoon feeding the people in North. Opening access root to the Jafna peninsula by land will save millions of rupees spent on transporting the goods by air and sea.
The challenges in the economy
While the war against terrorism being the shiny ground of the Rajapaksa government, handling of economy has become the weak link and as usual the political opponents were busy make a point on this weakness in the government. It is understandable that the high defense expenditure and war has affected the economy and winning the war within next year will certainly ease the pressure. However, government has equally showed incompetence in doing the basics right in economic front. While Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabya were closely monitoring the war against terrorism, the president despite holding the ministry of finance, showed rather lukewarm interest in shaping the economy. The ministers holding key areas like industrial development, trade and technology, etc proved incompetent in their respective portfolios. It is pity that those open economic gurus jump from UNP to the government that is holding these key ministries. However, contrary to the popular beliefs; they too have proved themselves failed in reviving the economy.
The country witnessed considerable development in infra structures like roads, transportation and energy generation. However the effect of infrastructure development has not fully absorbed to the economy due to lack of industrial development. ‘Gama Naguma’ (raising the villages) and ‘Maga Naguma’ (raising the roads) programs which are guided by president Rajapaksa himself has been successful. The agricultural sector has shown steady development and again this shows that president’s personal influence has been the key to success in this sector. All and all it clearly shows that the president has not found the correct political leadership to develop the economy and year 2008 demands great commitment of the government to full fill its mission in developing prosperous country.
The International factor
Contrary to the popular myth spread by pro terrorist media agents, the government managed to balance the international community which has been long mislead by pro LTTE media campaigns. While the government was successful in countering pro terrorist mediation of Norway and allied Western countries, it managed to keep the good will of regional giant India. The unique feature of foreign policy of Mahinda Rajapaksa government is the non allied philosophy. He seems to be clever in bargaining in prevailing global political and economical ground realities. In the last year Sri Lanka benefited from not only India but its traditional competitors like China and Pakistan. This decade is belonging to Asia and the government has clearly identified importance of having strategic alliance with China and India than US and western countries which are looking at our country for exploitation and market than as a partner. The government has kept good economical and military relationship with rising giant Russia and strategic allied with Iran without unduly antagonizing USA. Again, the personality of Mahinda Rajapaksa was evident over the minister of foreign affaires and his bureaucracy in critical matters and in some cases, the president himself had to interfere and amend the mistakes.
The social and cultural impact
More than else, this government has positively impact in social and cultural affairs. Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed presidency after decade of cultural erosion under JR, CBK and Ranil Wickramasingha. Being a practical Buddhist coming with deep cultural roots of the village, Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown an example for social and cultural values of Sri Lankan society. The anti liquor (mathata thitha) campaign of the government has great success and this has been rated as one of the highly regarded campaigns by the public next to the war against terrorism. The government attitude against slaughtering of animals, new rules against environmental pollutions, stiff action against cultural invasions has been hail by majority of the community, but found equally stiff reaction from comprador and lumpan sectors in Sri Lankan society.
Fight against corruption
This is highly debatable area in contemporary Sri Lankan society. In the recent past, especially in post 1977 era, we could not see any political leader genuinely committed to fight against corruption. Starting from JR to CBK and Ranil, all those politicians never genuinely act against corruption while in the power and unfortunately, so far Mahinda Rajapaksa has not shown much of a different. The first sign of clean politics is to punish those who have been corrupt. But it is unfortunate that Rajapaksa government has to depend on these petty corrupt politicians to preserve majority in the parliament and there is a risk that corruption may sneak in to the current government as well.
It was mistake of Mahinda Rajapaksa to not dissolve the parliament and continued to work with minority government. However JVP who had allied with right wing CBK in the past, strategically refused enter in to the government giving various false reasons. Therefore, Mahinda Rajapaksa had no option but to ally with UNP. This has paved the way not only patriotic gentlemen politicians but also corrupt ones to cling into the government. Probably the only viable option right now for the president is dissolve the parliament soon after winning the war against terrorism, and look for fresh mandate to wage new war against corrupt politicians. Otherwise, the common people of this country will take on these corrupt politicos just like they serve the political clown Mervin Silva in the verge of the new year!
happy new year
Monday, December 31st, 2007
happy new year, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.
2008
1998
1988
1978
1968
feels like just moments ago.
time is flying
but, Pilawoos
is forever.
A conspiracy to Spin off Mervin’s Case
Monday, December 31st, 2007
As I mentione in an earlier update, a set of SLFP politicians aretrying to change the direction of police investigations for this case.A forme PA parliamentarian of Colombo district, is leading thisconspiracy.They have already used their power to change the private security firmcontracted to SLRC. Charges against the security firm is, allowing theSirasa camera crew, inside the SLRC premises.They
Google rates www.slt.lk as “HARMFUL”!!!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Well the title is a shocker,I know.I was shocked when I saw this.I was literally shocked.For a personal reason,I searched (ok,Googled!!!) for the official Sri Lanka Telecom web site,not that I do not remeber the name of the site,at that moment I was on the Google homepage so without thinking I searched for it.
And yes,as usual […]
Men Dressed In Women’s Clothes!!!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Coming to you live from Edinburgh. A city that I like the feel of, yet don’t know why. It’s like London in many ways; full of eastern Europeans and Indian restaurants, packed with expensive cars and aesthetically pleasing architecture.But I’ve spotted …
2007 Was The Year That…
Monday, December 31st, 2007
1. The LTTE started to look more vulnerable than they ever had before.
2. Sri Lanka experienced 22 per cent inflation
3. I moved out of my parents’ house, learnt the benefits of Wi-Fi, broadband, and king-sized spring mattresses.
4. I started playing squash and scrabble, and became a pretty decent poker player.
5. The LTTE carried out its inaugural air […]
Sweet, Sweet Fantasy
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Director Prasanna Vithanage and his crew took their cameras to yet another film within a film sequence, featuring Udith, played by young television actor Pubudu Prabhath, and Shalika (Dilhani Asokamala) who are making their latest movie.Shot at the ‘Ga…
How wonder the Senanayake Samudra in Sri Lanka is!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
We were wondered visiting Senanayake Samudra in Inginiyagala last week. The dam was constructed connecting two mountains. Only the local engineers were engaged to the construction work. The reservoir was built in 1950’s. Here we can not see the margins of the reservoir. It just like a sea! You can visit the reservoir when visiting […]
Its A new Begining : What will be there In the Year of 2008
Monday, December 31st, 2007
It has been the end of an another year. A very short one for me how ever. What could be more. In the year of 2008. Will it be the turning point in the history of Srilanka. Will it bring peace to Srilanka 3 decade old crisis which has already taken tens and thousands of […]
that’s it!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
I am done with everything. It is darned I tell you, when you go somewhere expecting to get the results of an exam and all you get is the ‘oh-it’s-not-here-yet-but-maybe-you-could-come-tomorrow’ response. But then, this IS the pearl of the Indian Ocean and that is the way everything goes in here. I guess.
And My friend is mad […]
This settles it!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
After all the unsaid and unwritten thoughts that I’ve had over the past months, pre and post production, it was quite re-assuring to read both Dil’s and Shanuk’s last blogs. Anything original is always tough. With no reference points to start working with at all, I realized with Christmas Inc, just how arduous the complete creative process for theatre can be. The concept, the script, the music, the orchestration, the stage, lighting, costuming… EVERYTHING had to be conceived of, from scratch.
Coverage for LIRNEasia book
Monday, December 31st, 2007
‘BSNL’s monopoly over infrastructure a hindrance to growth’ - Yahoo! India News
Rural connectivity is now the focus of every telecommunication player in the country. Almost all stakeholders, from handset manufacturers to service providers, believe that the next wave of growth is in the rural areas.”However, India’s roll out (of telecom services) in rural areas […]
Secrets…
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Was sitting at my computer and wondering what I should do, other than work of course! Contemplated writing a ‘it’s the end of the year’ type post, but then, everybody knows that right? Considered another rant about the many gripes and grouses I have with the powers that be, both in government and in office, […]
Krishanthi’s sucess story
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Hi, I am Krishanthi Priyadarshani a former student of the Horizon Lanka. Today (December 31) is my birthday. I have a pleasant story to share with you today.
I studied at Saliya Mala Viduhala in Mahavilachchiya. It is a small government school. At that time I was in grade 4. I had no much interest in […]
Thinking Beyond
Monday, December 31st, 2007
The Sunday Times has an article about the recent Peace Camp facilitated by Beyond Borders; it talks about participatory learning, change and the viability of this sort of interventions. Here’s from Thinking Beyond :
The 3 day camp had a combination of sessions on issues related with peace – identity, stereotypes, conflict transformation, critical thinking, social […]
The Splintered Face Tsunami Poems: A Reading in London
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
For those of you in or about London, I have been invited by the Centre for Community Development to read from The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems on Saturday January 12. The event will begin with cofffee at 10 am to be followed by the reading.The addres…
Sinharaja with an expat family
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
I visited Sinharaja rain forest with an expat family over 21-23 Dec. They were referred by Graham Crick who has been on two 15 day birding trips to Sri Lanka in 2004 and 2006, lead by me.
We arrived at Martin’s Simple Lodge; our overnight base by lunch time. This was after pausing for some wayside attractions, which included a Blue-tailed Bee-eater sitting pretty in good light and a couple of Green Forest Lizards. As usual, on the way to Sinharaja, I did plenty of commentary, which included on popular request, an extended version about leeches. To make things exciting for the kids, I announced several challenges & prizes. The first challenge was -‘the first person to get a bleeding bite by a leech!’ It turned rainy after our arrival at Martin’s. But that didn’t matter too much as it was all over by the time we finished our lunch. We had a Legge’s Flowerpecker, Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, Square-tailed Black Bulbul and Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike visiting the tree tops in front of Martin’s balcony and waiting long enough for wonderful scope views.
Soon, we discovered the lucky person to have got the first bleeding leech bite; one of the kids who was rather excited about the feat. And feet. That was quick! This probably would have got on when he ventured out to photograph some flowers before putting his leech socks on. A booklet titled “Mixed species bird flocks in Sinharaja” authored by Prof. Sarath Kotagama and Dr. Eben Goodale for was the prize for wining this first challenge. Early in our foray into the forest after lunch a stunning male Malabar Trogon offered heart-melting scope views before disappearing into the woods.
It was overcast not at all helping the ‘player comfort’. Our only other birds seen in this session were White-bellied Drongo, Sri Lanka Junglefowl, Pale-billed Flowerpecker & Green Imperial Pigeon. Our second challenge was spotting the first lizard in the forest. It didn’t take too long one of them spotted a gravid female Kangaroo Lizard. After seeing a pair of neat-looking False Lantern-flies (Pyrops maculata), we retreated to Martin’s for dinner and overnight stay. A book titled ‘Birds of Sinharaja’ authored by Prof. Kotagama, was the prize for spotting the lizard, which ended up with one of the kids who diligently took notes and marked the checklist, showing a lot of promise!
Early next day, we had tea with five Sri Lanka Blue Magpies, which arrived soon after 6.00 a.m. to feed on the insects fallen under lamps at Martin’s. These were followed by a confiding Spot-winged Thrush. An Orange Minivet that visited the tree crowns in front of Martin’s. Soon we went to the forest on a pre-breakfast walk, which gave us fine views of Sri Lanka Crested Drongo, Sri Lanka Junglefowl, Black-capped Bulbul, Yellow-fronted Barbet to name a few. Post breakfast, we explored the forest on a longer walk after meeting our compulsory local guide; who turned out to be Ranjith Premasiri; the discoverer of the Bay Owl roost in Jan, 2007, which caused a lot of excitement in the birding circles here – with one mad-keen local birder reaching the site in a tuktuk!
Our walk started with three challenges today; spotting a snake, a monkey and a Tree Nymph butterfly. We had no luck with monkeys and we had to contend with only the booming calls of two Purple-faced Leaf Monkey dominant males announcing their presence. The ‘snake prize’ also didn’t go to anybody as I was the first to spot one; a Sri Lanka Keelback Water Snake. Ranjith soon followed finding a beautiful Green Whip Snake (Ahaetulla nasuta) merged perfectly into the lush undergrowth. Its generic name is same as its local name; ‘Ahaetulla’, which means the ‘eye plucker’, which explains a local myth that surrounds it. A book titled ‘Pictorial Pocket Guide to Mammals in Sri Lanka’ by Prof. Kotagama went for one of them for spotting the first Tree Nymph butterfly of the trip. A Brown-capped Babbler waited just long enough to offer scope views. We had a decent mixed species bird flock with the usual complement of species.
