Job Satisfaction 2

Today i got a new complain from couple of our team mates. From morning to now as if i have no other work to do , i was thinking about this. I see the problem in many angles but still i couldn't solve it. When it comes to small things like this , my head starts rotating. Thought of going to answers.com. But never mind. I will put it in a blog. Our people will understand the gravity of this problem better and i will get some idea.

Now this is their problem. When people enter to our office, everyone is checked by the security. One reason is the security situation of the country. Second reason is the company security policy. There are certain things you cannot bring in side the company and there are certain things you cannot take out from the company. So forever there are conflicts between security guards and employees. Today these group of employees complained that every morning , securing lady digs in to their bags , takes out all personal belongings and checks. Not even that , she is giving explanations to them for her strict checking saying they must be taking bombs and unnecessary things, therefore she has to check them properly. This explanation has make them more upset. Because these are the loyal employees of the company who works for the company half of their life. Now suddenly there are new rules and new security guards who pays no respect for them at all.

I can understand how they feel. But if you take the underline facts, security guards are also doing their duty. We can't say anything to them. If we are to say not to check the employees , from next day company will have to take the responsibility for what ever the things happens. On the other hand , when people are treated like this in the early morning , it definitely effects their morals and in turn effect their work. We don't want to loose any of these people. Can we ask the security company to change their rigid security policy? All our employees are professionals. Considering that can we trust them and stay without checking? Some of the employees were scared to comment on it. Even though they suffer , they think its not a big deal. So as they always did , they bear things until it comes to the limit and then get very frustrated on life. Some people think that they them selves can handle it with the security guards. They have different ways to tackle them too. I guess no need to mention it here. But definitely there is a group which believes company should take some action? In companies point of view what can a company do to balance a strike between employees' satisfaction and security?

Law college entrance exam of Sri Lanka

We wanted to send couple of employees to a project based on an out station area. It was a very good career opptunity and most of our employees were interested in joining this project. There was only one guy who said he don't like to go. With much curiosity i asked why. Then he said he is doing the law entrance exam this time and therefore he need to go to classes .

I knew he was quite intelligent. So i asked him why don't you take the course book with you and go for the project. Because i knew he has done his previous professional exams without going to a singal class. Then he said still the law college has not issued the course book. According to him, law entrance exam is in the month of September this year. Thats just 2 months a way. But still they have not issued the course book. It was quite surprising for me. Because most of the exams i know , they issue the couse manuals before 1 year specially if they wish to change the syllabus. On my way to office i went to law college to get this clarified. The officer there told me that they have stop issuing the course book and after this they will never issue a couse book. I saw that there was a notice in the notice board which mentions the same thing he said. I came back and told what i found to my office mate. he just laughed and told me that , "yeah thats what they say. But our lecturers allready knows what the new lessons they are going to include in the book and they allready started teaching those in classes". He told me what are the new topics. But since its not nice to publish it before they do , i will not do that. But i started thinking. Who ever the students who do not go to classes or who do not have time or money to go to classes will not get the chance to know this. Same as by the time course book is out it will be very closer to the exam , and they will not be able to capture all those content. So is this some sort of conspiracy by law college to promote tution classes? I have nothing against the classes and iam glad that there are tution classes. So that people can learn much better. But still as a responsible organisation , what is Law college doing? Why the officer in book counter lies to people who come to buy the book?

Anyway some how our mate agreed to go for the project. He realise that its important. He has found a way to got class tutes through a friend. So he said he need not be in Colombo and will come to Colombo only for the exam. We had to ask everyone to inform the project manager on the dates they need leave in next couple of months which they planned to involve in the project. Because it was a foreign project and employees need to be on site every singal day. So unless its an emmergency , we will have to inform the doners that this particular person will be out of site on this particular day. I know its difficult and some times not practical. But who ever who has work for forign projects would know what i mean. We can't just go there and tell the client , there's no one on site tomorrow. It doesn't work like that. So with what ever difficulties we need to plan for it. I noticed that this guy who told me that his exams will be held in September has not applied a singal leave in September. I was bit scared whether he gave up on his studies. Feeling much guilty i went to his desk and asked him , "hay when is your exam dates. Why its not on the plan?". He just smiled and said he doesn't know when the exam takes place. I started thinking this is not the guy i knew all thsi time. He was very much of a responsibla person and now he's not even bothered to find his exam dates. Then he told me , its 2 weeks before the exam only they announce the exam dates. Isn't it terrible? I have heard our people telling that exams in Sri Lanka is much better than foreign exams. But is this the condition of the education systems in Sri Lanka? This is not a grade 5 scholarship exam. Its a professional exam. So what's so professional about the conduct of our law college with regard to this matter? If i want to find out the dates that any foreign exam takes place next year , its just a matter of logging to the site.

Finally i found out there's another guy at our office who is hoping to do the same exam. But i never see the same effort. I asked him , what do you think about this subject?Is it so easy for you? Because he hang around at office even at saturdays and sundays. So he couldn't be having much time to study. He gave me another smile and said "my father is a lawyer. He said he will make me pass." Thats it. I thought i better stop this article from here. If anyone related to law college reads this , please don't be mad with me. But please think about what i said and correct me if iam wrong. I feel its a shame how this exam in conducted. Its about the life of 10,000 people who sit for this exam any many other people who are suppose to get affected sooner or later.

Job Satisfaction

I have a friend who works in this top class company in Colombo which serves mostly foreign clients. In our gatherings we used to tease her about her company and its culture. Because some of their employees we know have a different type of social life within the company. They have one partner at home and another partner at office. This office partners of them regularly changes. I know its a normal habit in most of the offices. And she always argue with us saying its a good company to work with a respect. Day before yesterday i received a mail from her. I felt quite sad after reading that.

With her mail there was a photograph of her and couple of other friends. They were wearing very nice party dresses. Those were short dresses , but not micro mini and decent enough to cover what is required. At the end of the mail there was another photograph. Actually it was the same photograph edited by some one. It contained some, i would say not proper language to describe the legs of them and some other rubbish too. All this time my friend was quite happy at work. But suddenly this has made her very depressed and frustrated. I started thinking. Compared to the rate the photos are editing and uploading in to the internet today and compared to most other things this is a very small incident. But still irrespective of all the world class facilities provided by her organisation , she has lost her satisfaction at work. I know definitely it impact her work. She told me that its very sad that another mate who work in the next desk did it using the company email. I know incidents in some other companies where male officers have troubled seriously to female employees. But it was always said that "You know its guys. Its a joke. You should be able to bear those. You don't have patience". Even though i felt very sorry for my friend who deeply suffered due to this , i knew in such a company no one will be bothered to even listen to her. I told her , if its my company i would definitely do something. But this is not something i can help officially. All i could do is to console her.

But next day i got a call from her. She talks in an extremely enthusiastic encouraging tone as usual. I said I'm happy to hear you like this. Then she told me one of the most strange things i heard after some time. They have reported it to their company management. Management has conducted very strict deciplinary action towards the case , issued a warning letter and filed it in his personal file of that particular employee who edited the pic and distributed it. They have warned him its the last chance and if he says a single bad word to anyone works there, he'll be kick out from the company. He was ordered to apologise from all the girls in the picture. And company has sent a mail to all the employees of the office saying if similar action happens again , who ever who does that will immediately suspended. Everyone regained their places which deserved to them.

It was such a simple incident. But i saw how it affected people. It was amazing how that management solve it. I never expected that from a company which has a culture closer to American or European. But now i feel that this is what you call real decipline. Not to limit the freedom of people. But to respect them and protect them. Its wonderful. May this be a tribute to that management team.

How to be a star in Sri Lanka?

Sunday night I was watching Sirasa super star while I was having dinner. When everyone was watching it with much pleasure, I started thinking of something else. That is the tragedy face by our youth.

Younger generation of this country is very much talented. But do they have a proper route to show case their talents and abilities? Can they be a super star even though they are capable? One mother who brought her daughter for the super star contest said that she wanted her daughter to come for that, not because she dreams to make her a super star but wanted to show her talents to some audience. That little girl’s school teacher has stated that she will not let her participate in any school concerts. According to that mother teacher’s daughter is also studying in the same class and due to that she hates other talented girls. My old grandmother who was a teacher says teachers will never say such things. May be it has happened in the “golden past” era which all of them talk about. But not these “unfortunate” present days. But I have seen many similar incidents while I was schooling. I had a friend who is a captain of a basket ball team of a famous school couple of years back. Under her captaincy they won the all island under 19 schools championship. This school emerged this championship after 20 years. She was awarded as one of the best players of the tournament. But the teacher in-charge didn’t let her participate in the official school photograph with the team. Her excuse was simple. She publicly stated I don’t like that girl. That’s it. Even the principle was so scared to talk against her. This is the so called “democratic education” our society is talking.

We have ministries and ministers and hell of a lot of staff allocated for the subjects such as culture, national heritage, Buddhism and education. In such country isn’t this a curse? In that case can we consider the service done by Sirasa super star as so simple? If not for that we would never know this very talented bunch of youngsters.

What will happen if the government sector organizes such a thing? Well… for the very unfortunate we’ll guess that government organized this contest. Then other than practicing to sing, these stars will first have to go behind departments to get forms and files and fill the other documents from “Grama sewaka” to the head of departments. Going behind the ministers and their henchmen and more necessarily giving “something” to officers and organizers. Does our government sector have such creative minds to think of something new? I know it’s quite similar to “Idol” programs around the world. But still to organize something like this and re produce it to suite the Sri Lankan contest is not so easy. I used to work for an event management team for some time and therefore I can imagine how difficult it is to handle 57,000 applicants. We all remembered that one cabinet minister’s recommendation about the so called graduate recruitment scheme.

I’m quite surprised of another thing too. This country and its people always talk about culture and good conduct. But when an injustice happened to another person, such as this mother’s daughter, no one speaks against it. Is that the virtue of this country? What does it shows? Are we still living with colonial mind set? Or are they scared to talk? But if government or any other organization is trying to do something lawful for the betterment of the country, definably our union leaders and some NGOs will go to the Lipton circle or Fort Railways station. Wonderful country! Today Susanthika Jayasingha is in track because she spoke for herself. Muralidaran is there, thanks to Arjuna.

I don’t know much about this super star program. But I know that it’s a good chance many talented people to show up. I have heard that when H R Jothipala started singing, critics were insulting him and laughed at him. But what is the situation today with his songs? Can anybody easily copy his talent? There are no duplicates for him. Simply because he was talented and people love him. Thank god he was brave enough to face those and he had a way to come up. But there are many people in many organizations many fields that are really talented but people don’t know them. Some places, these people really work hard and those who are in the field know them. But people are famous in those fields and people who appear in news papers are not these real people who are really talented and work with quite dedication and by heart. But since they do not want to go after the publicity, they are never known by public and they do not get what is deserved. Why does it happen?

Change is the only thing that never changes. Our institutions should understand that they have to face rapid social change. Due to globalization and information technology there’s a impact on the society and we will need to change according to that. Therefore government institutions should understand that they need to help the community and cope up with the people to overcome their difficulties and problems. But still we can see that the power robbed and gave to Colombo by John Doyle’s cunning system. By not giving this power back to the people who really deserve this power shows that our government servants are still the Doyle’s commoraders rather than commoraders of this country.

In the break of the Super star program , I saw the close ups of the charming little girl Sarala Kariyawasam (Chuyya)’s smiling face. When those pictures gradually fade away , I remembered the famous song by Nanda Malini.

“Ane api kawadaka awidimuda ee sande”
(When can we walk under this moon light?)

Why do they give jobs only on recommendations?

There are some employees in our office who get a really low salary. Same as there are some employees who are exceptionally paid well. Even though the top management says its based on performance , i know there are hidden efforts hidden abilities which don't get scanned to the performance measures. But i have never seen these people on a strike. They some times screams and complaining about their salaries. But i always see these people working even out of their office hours to complete their tasks. Not that anyone orders them to do it. But they do it by heart. Though they get a low salary , they seem to be happy at work. One day i had a discussion with one of our mates on this. His answer was "Simple. We only recruit by recommendations. So we don't have anyone who is strike type". I do not know whether to be happy or sad for his comment. But i remembered this again when i saw a court decision given some week or 2 back.

According to Daily Mirror

"The supreme court has given an interim order restraining a particular minister (Name mentioned in the paper) and his associates from obstructing its factory and business. Petitioner company Sevanagala Sugar Industries Ltd. In its fundamental rights violation petition complained that this minister has, through one of his associates demanded Rs 50 million as gratification from the chairman of the company to ensure the smooth functioning of the factory. Court granted interim relief directing Sevanagala OIC , the IGP and Uva provincial deputy IGP to forthwith take steps to execute the warrant issued by the Embilipitiya Magistrate and act on the complaint to Police headquarters by the petitioner and the farmers. Company said it is considered the peak harvesting period and the sugar cane has to be crushed and processed within 72 hours of harvesting and that if its not processed within the said time period , it cannot be used. The company complained that several complaints were made to Sevanagala police , but the OIC failed to act on the complaints."

I'm a person who never supported our company's policy decision to recruit by recommendations only. I believed that by this we are loosing many potential future employees who do not have connections. But now i seem to understand the theory behind recruiting by recommendations. These employees who made this hunger strike are four former employees whose service had been suspended pending disciplinary inquiry in to allegations of mis conduct. Even though it suppose to be a hunger strike , they were perfectly fine and in good health after 26 days of fasting. They had claimed a crane used in the processing of sugarcane thereby disrupting work in the factory. Police said its impossible to take them down at first place. But after the court order they were taken down without any effort by the police. Its once again proved that its politicians who are in the back of any strike in this country. Its very unfortunate that they have already destroyed the public sector of this country and now they don't let private sector also to perform well. What ever reason they did the strike, ultimately it harms the country as a whole. Crop is ruined and we will have to import sugar. Its paid out from the pocket of all of us.

I don;t want to go in to the extent of discussing why there are strikes. I'm sure most of you'll reading this are aware about that. But my interest is to tell you that there are many companies in the country which politicians cannot encourage strikes. In some of those the main reason is they treat their employees very well. But as you know in hospitals and some other government places, how ever how good the employees are treated it won't prevent them enjoying doing the strikes. Why in some companies we cannot even see trade unions? Because they recruit on recommendations. They recruit based on relationships. An internal trust worthy employee has to recommend a new recruited, it they are to get the job. Then the person who recommend has a responsibility to find the best person. Same as the person who joins has a responsibility to keep the good will of the person who recommend him/her. So its like a mutual agreement. No strikes. Nothing. Work is done. If this country is to be developed and if we are to stand by our own feet without begging other countries to provide us funds , i think the economy should be developed. If economy are to be developed , i guess these strikes should stop and employees should work with the feelings its their duty.

There are 2 sides of any coin. But in this country , under this situation i guess employers has no option than recruiting people by recommendation.

Need graduates who can perform

A friend in the education ministry told me a story last week. In Sri Lanka there's a village call "Atakalampanna”. There is a small school in this small village. Some time back there was an art teacher in this school. He was very talented. In the first year he was appointed to a school in this village, six students from this school received medals from Shankar international art competition. Second year also they received six medals. This news was published in a very tiny invisible slot of a news paper. So in the second year, principal of this school wrote a letter to one of the education directors. Principal mentioned in his letter that their students are very talented and emerged this much of awards. But there wasn't any place in the school to keep at least the awards. So he requested the education director that, if this school gets a building for the students to study, that will be a great help. Now you must be thinking education director might not have replied as usually what could happen in Sri Lanka. No actually he did reply. Can you imagine what the education director's reply was? Just imagine. He replied saying "Please bring all the medals to the education office. There's enough space to keep the awards. No need for a building". Not only that. He transferred that art master in to Ananda College. (I have nothing against Ananda College. Glad they got a good teacher). In the first year after he joined Ananda College, two students from Ananda College won Shankar competition. But news papers gave them half a page publicity compared to the small place they gave to that small school. This art teacher is the one who later become the very famous art teacher of Ananda College. Please don't misunderstand me. This article is not about that art teacher. I'm happy he got a better place with better facilities. Happy for him and I do respect his talent and service. This is about some thing else. When I heard this, for a moment I felt the tragedy of the education system in this country.

In the papers last week I saw one of our famous ministers has made a comment that there are 48,000 graduates in the public sector and 25,000 are idling without having any work to do. What an unfortunate country? Where is the fault? Normally in private sector, they hire people only if there's a vacancy. Most of the top businesses have a career plan for their staff. They invest on their staff expecting to capitalize on their talent. Why these governments don't have such plans? I know one of the ministries submit a paper saying they need 60 odd graduates. They got 600 graduates. What can they do with this extra staff? Ministers can argue that they have to give jobs to people, otherwise people will die from hunger. But just pump graduates in to anywhere will not solve the problem. They will eventually hate this society after all.

But why does graduates have to go behind politicians and beg for a job? They are the so called most brainy people in this country. Who make these students in to such low level situation? Well in Sri Lanka the cream of this country is selected to universities from one of the most competitive exams in the world. Then what happen to these intelligent students? They have to go through very hard time. It starts with ragging welcome. Then for 4 years they have to be in the campus. Some universities don't allow their students to do a job and earn money or get some experience during that period. Because of this, university students has happen to print book marks, papers and go around buses and every where and beg money for their studies from people who didn't even pass their O/Ls . How sad? Our universities still stick to their old believes. They don't like students doing any other exams too. Because some of these lecturers do not have any qualification more than their first degree. They do not specialize on teaching or they neither do much research. So they never allow their students also to exceed them. In some famous universities in the world, only having a 1st class degree is not a qualification to teach. If you are really good in teaching, if you have far superior knowledge, you can teach even without a degree.

Does what we teach in our universities match for today? Can their graduates compete with other similar students who are professionally qualified with various other exams? (Some of course are very much better I do agree.) I feel our politicians and other policy makers bring these students to universities and then humiliate them. I feel they betray the students to take the revenge that they couldn't go to university. Do they really do any skill development? One of my mates who are qualified from University of Moratuwa told me that none of their graduates are unemployed up to now. I don't know how true that it. But if it is the case that is something a university can be really proud about them selves. How many universities in this country can give such a guarantee?

In other hand students also should know that a university is not a place which gives jobs. Just because you have a degree doesn't mean you have a job. Students should be intelligent enough to understand the tragedy they are in. Some students just spent their 4 years of life in the university doing strikes and ragging (please read the book "Giniralla Conspiracy by Nihal De Silva”) and all sorts of foolish work without taking any effort to develop their skills. They always complained that they do not know English. But as students who have a very high brain capacity, if they really want, they could learn English very well. May be better than the English speaking community in this country. They could assess them selves as to whether they are competent. If they are to stand superior to others, I think their degree certificate is not enough. They should grab skills. They should know about the world around. I think more than all, they have to develop their attitudes. Otherwise they could not market them selves and they will never get a chance to show their abilities to the world.

Another thing is I guess if we can categories the universities in this country as to different sections we can reduce the number of unemployed graduates. I think they have to have some universities to develop skills. Some for only academic and research purposes. Some for job oriented degrees. I don't know how the university system works in other countries. But I feel there is something terribly wrong with some of our universities and our systems and the mind set of our people.

In an interview at TV one of the spokes man said that even at a crisis situation, our garment sector develops. That’s because there are skilled labor in that industry to cater the demand at a world class level. But our IT sector does not develop even at good times, because we do not have enough IT professionals to serve. When are we going to fill this gap? Is the education in country is for the glorification of the politicians and foolish education officers who make these policies? Does the exams of this country focus on testing knowledge or failing students? Only less than 1% of the students go to a university in this country. Just look around. Just think. Is there anything we could do to change this?

People often ask me whether I'm a socialist, do I hate this country, why I always blame some one and various similar questions. No I'm not. I'm a very neutral ordinary citizen. I love this country. If we all try, we could make it a really nice place. What ever it is love to live in this country.

Sri Lankans looses many jobs due to country situation

Yesterday I met a friend who is working for one of the key BPO companies in Sri Lanka. According to him, Sri Lanka is loosing many of the jobs in BPO sector due to the political unsuitability here. Many of critical projects are taken out of Sri Lanka. These projects were again out source to countries such as India, Malaysia & China. Because investors are scared to keep these back offices in Sri Lanka. If there was a bomb blast and if anything happened to staff or if staff can't come to work for one day, that is a problem for them. Because if the staff here gets unable to work for one day, that has a direct impact on their share price with regard to some of the key processes. Some of the staff has made redundant. Some are not yet made redundant, but these professionals who handled most important tasks of the key companies in the world are idling today. They can easily find a job anywhere in the country with their skills, but the problem is they obtained very high salaries with these foreign clients. Because these clients who are operated world wide earned in dollars & pounds. They paid salaries in Rupees. So they did have a competitive advantage. For a Sri Lankan based company who cater for local market, it will be impractical to pay salaries even closer to these margins. Therefore this has a huge impact on our economy. Ultimately these officers will have no option but to leave the country for the same job in another country.

Countries such as India take the advantage out of this. They have already put up some large offices in many south Indian cities just to grab Sri Lankan market. Not only that. They have put up even training colleges to train their employees to receive these high end work. That is something which we never did. Our youngsters managed to do all these tasks without even having any idea what those companies are. They learned it hard way.

Not only BPOs, but even at other sectors we could see this. Just look at the hotel promotions these days. Hotels which cost about Rs 10,000 per night, have now introduced new packages. I saw one such hotel has offered one night, bread and breakfast for Rs3,000 only for Sri Lankan citizens or Sri Lankan VISA holders. They can't give full board package to this amount. But still they have introduced new packages at such comparatively lower rates, because they need to find some ways to survive. Half of the contract staff has sent home. In this sector even the permanent staff do not get attractive high digit salaries. But they had lavish life styles because they received commission from foreign tourists. At the end of the month most of the time, total of these commission exceeded their salary. But now it’s not the case.

These are only 2 examples which I know. In general we all are aware that the politics has an effect on everything and business is very sensitive to these issues. Some one could argue that there's a war going on and we have to tighten our belts. Now days what ever happens, the excuse is war. If you are a patriotic, you have to bear with it for the sake of the mother land. Is government responsible for this tragedy in economic sector of this country? Well economics or business is not my field and I'm not an expert of it. But as a citizen I believe YES. Government is responsible. Do they have any plan to develop the economy of this country? If they don't know what to do, at least they have to appoint some people who can run the game. Except for few I don't see any talented experts on the field. I don't see any plan to boost business or any infrastructure development to attract investment. Its reported that people like Lee Luan Yew and Mahatheir Mohammad also have killed people and abducted people in the early stages after they appointed. But they did develop their country. They didn't do those to take the revenge from anyone or hide witness. They made their countries as wonderful places to live. They made their citizens proud about their country. I think if you are a real patriotic that’s what you should do. Rather than destroying the country further more, if you can build it from scratch that’s great. War or what ever, as a responsible government they should develop the economy of the country. There is a strong private sector in this country and they have taken enough initiative to drive through this out break. But I feel there are things they cannot do. That's why a government is there.

Who can help you when there's a robbery?

Yesterday morning I saw in world news that President Bush who went to Albania has been received a welcome of a hero or a star. People of Albania were gathered to see the American president. Today morning in world news I saw that some body has robbed the president's watch while he hand shake with people. But white house announced that president just removed the watch and put it in his pocket before he goes to people. When I saw this I remembered something else. I met a friend of mine after a long time. He told me that his house has been robbed. Robbers couldn't find much of money from the house, but they have taken some of the goods at that house. As usually happens, he has gone to the police. Put a complain on their books. Next day police had come to their house. Has taken finger prints. Asked every one whether they know who the thief is. They asked whether there are any suspects. They asked neighbors whether they saw anything happened. Then they started walking around the house and tying to find from which door they entered the house , whether roof is strong enough for the thieves to walk on it , whether thief has entered the house while residents were sleeping last night etc etc. Then they have gone away with a promise to catch the suspects within 1 week. It never happened after months also.

Same thing happened to their neighbors. Some body robbed their house too. Knowing what happened to my friend, they did not expect the help of the law or help of the police. They had couple of under world friends around. They seek the under world help to find their stuff. Within 2 days they found the stuff and everything was returned.

Well now my friend has a fair doubt. Where we should really go when we are in trouble? Even though there's a law in thief country, will it be useful most of the occasions? I'm sure our police can find any sort of crime or any sort of suspect. But do they really care? There's a war in the country and everyday big crimes such as killing, raping etc etc takes place. Police department has only few resources to allocate for all the incidents reported. So day by day, small incidents are neglected. May be these robberies are not worth millions and comparatively small for police department. But for the victims who faced it has much more value for it. May be its’ everything they earned all their life. May be it has much more sentimental value. For such people, when the police never care to find the suspects, that it self is a shock to them. They live with anger and frustration. My friend's little daughter is saying now it self she will never go to police for anything in the future. This is only a primary stage where the society looses its confidence on law. This could ultimately lead to the hatred towards the country.

There are so many criminals around us. Some of them are army deserters and it’s difficult for the police to deal with them. So police thinks its better they mind their own business. I put forward this question with one of the senior police officer whom I met. What he said was, if they are to get information they will have to hit the suspects. Otherwise no one will come voluntarily and say "yes I did it” unless they are out of their senses. But when the police do those human rights organizations comes against them. According to new laws police officers will have to pay compensation personally if they are charges with human rights cases. It’s true that these laws came with a back ground. Police was treating even innocent people very badly at a particular time and some suspects died in the remand. So I'm always standing by the human rights laws. My friend believes that they are any way a pain to the society so let them die. This police officer's question was “then why don’t you go and complain to a human rights organization when you got robbed”. Because when someone steal you, that violates your rights. Hm who knows? Every coin has 2 sides. But I cannot agree with the fact that these police officers are not doing their job properly and using human rights laws as an excuse. What should we do now? Either we should look after our own security as president J R Jayawardana said. Can we rely on police in every case?

Betrayal

All these days some of the foreign media kept on repeating the news that Prime minister of Sri Lanka has apologized from the Tamil people who are evacuated from Colombo and taken to their home areas. It was a good step that he apologized and I’m happy about it. Same as i believe that this evacuation should not have been done. But my concern is not to explain this same old story which you already know.

I am sure most of you are not going to believe the baby talk of government saying they did not know anything about it. If they didn't know this, that it self shows how poor the intelligence system of the government heads and how poor administrators they are. Anyhow what ever done by the army, as the commander of forces president should be responsible. Therefore most people have their fair doubts.

Last couple of days I met various people from various levels. This article is based from facts I gathered from them. People think that what government did was like "Killing 2 birds with one stone". Because every one had the doubt why the Tamils were expelled during the time Akashi comes here for donation. Its quite obvious that Akashi will not recommend donation after such incident. Then why couldn’t they postpone it to couple of days if they really wanted to send those Tamils to North? Well people have different ideas on this issue. One person claimed that, foreign donors have requested to the government that Tamil people should not be checked and restricted from traveling any where in the country they want etc etc. But if government just accepts that, majority of the Sinhalese people will not like the government. Because they do have a reasonable fear that LTTE bombers will come with civilians. So what government did was they played this drama. Obvious next step is Tamil NGOs goes to court and get an order. Then they could nicely say "Hay look, its not us, the Supreme Court has given the order. We can’t do anything about it". Same as by doing this they can scare who ever helping LTTE. So it’s advantageous for them anyway.


Climax comes after that. Prime minister went and apologized saying they didn't know anything about it and Army has done something very wrong and they should be punished etc etc. Very next day minister Jeyaraj has criticized saying that he don’t agree with the fact that prime minister apologized because it demotivates the Sri Lankan forces. When I saw this news in Daily Mirror, I remembered one of the fighting strategies we had in school. Once our football team had to go for a fight with another team. If they didn’t go for the fight, that means they loose their status. Everyone could have thought they are week. But if they go for the fight, they will get banned for couple of matches. So they had a plan. They planned on how to hit the other team. Now the whole team is going for the fight except for the captain. Because next day captain has to go and apologize for what the team did. Then they don’t get the punishment. So simple. I feel now days our government also follow the same strategy.

But these jokes are not the sad part of it. I guess some of the Tamils who are innocent got in to trouble. Same as our army and police officers who just obeyed the rules were in the danger now. Government has nicely betrayed them after all. It’s a very bad strategic move. This definitely demotivate the army. According to Daily Mirror 12/06/2007 "Western diplomats in Colombo has mentioned yesterday that Sri Lankan security forces members may be denied Visas to European Union if they have human rights abuse charges against them. An Inspector involved in expelling Tamils from Colombo this month told reporters at the week end that he has been denied Visa to an unnamed European Union country because of this action. “One thing is now these officers are an easy target of LTTE. I am scared that the same thing happened to our Intelligence unit will happened to these officers too. And in such case they can’t go out of country too. I'm sure though these officers are wrong, they did it with the good intention and it’s for the country. They don't have any personnel benefit from that. So my friends, this is how this country betray its heroes.

Gone for a six

Through out last week, did we have any good sports news in our country? Did we have anything joyful to read in our sports pages? Well my opinion is no. When I read these articles I remembered some of the incidents I have personally faced and some others which were happened to my friends.

Most recent jumbles seen in Rugby field. It starts with the battles between couple of school teams’ couple of months back. One ugly battle was between Royal and Isipathan. Another unfortunate battle finishes with a wise decision by Kings wood college to drop the case against Trinity even though couple of their boys got injured. A Sri Lankan winger was suspended over his alleged role in the assault of a school referee at this match. After this incident there was a rumor that referees threaten to boycott Bradby. But finally they agreed. Same as there are 2 cases pending against St Anthony’s and Wesley. What I couldn’t understand here is it seems even the principles in schools promoting unethical behavior of school players. They suppose to teach their players to accept defeat and victory both. But today what happened is even under aged players and hired professionals included in teams just focusing on the victory.

I feel that there’s a “Jonah” with the sports of this country. The only sport we emerged a world level is Cricket. No need to write about the interim committee and the other misconduct take place at ICCSL, today. This situation is no much difference with other sports of this country. During the time period of one of the sports ministers (who was famous for VISA racket), most of the committees of sports unions were broken and ruined. This is the wound at the top level of the sports field. But there are enough and more other barriers also for younger players to come up. We all know that there are many talented players in the school level. But most of the times they are never visible after they finish their schooling. In every sport there’s some thing sad.

In some sports, only some families can win the matches. I do agree that those players are talented. Without talent you can’t play any match. But same as there are many other kids who are with the same capabilities. They are really discouraged to enter the arena. May be they are not rich enough to access the national level coaches or their parents have not much idea how to enter their kid to a match. Only few people know how the draws work in these tournaments. I remember at once in a leading Buddhist girl’s school, the teacher in charge received some of the invitations to divide between school team to participate in an Indian open tournament. She gave the invitations to players after the tournament was finished. Her explanation was she though that their players were not good enough to play with Indian teams. How inhuman? Those talented girls may not have won the Indian match. But that could have been a very good experience for them.

In some sports only some of the coaches can make players. Simply because they do not let others to win. When it comes to foreign matches, only their players can participate. If I say the sport any one who has played knows these incidents and people. Since personal insulting is not my aim, I will put it this way. Now if you play cricket, if you hit a six, umpire can’t say it’s not a 6. But there are some sports, where the judgment is fully at the referee’s discretion. In such games young players do not have a future sporting career unless they become part of the “gang”.

I know that there are good things as well as bad things. I know that there are teachers, coaches, officers, unions who really love the sport and play by rules. Why the pin point is always at the bad side is, because we have to sort out these things if we are to be stronger as a nation. Ultimately every time our players perform well, pride is on our side. They will be most probably good will ambassadors of this country. Therefore we have to speak against the injustice. If not these young players may think that this country is such a bad place and they will start hating it and there’s a chance that kids who are brought up seeing the injustice happened to them, may not be good citizens one day.


If any of you have similar experience please share with us. Because if the communication channels are stronger and if we can shed some light on general public that this is happening, there may be a possibility of reducing it.

Who gets the lowest salary in our country?

Recently I met a group of auditors who were involved in preparing the half yearly accounts of our organization. Since they had to meet a dead line they were working almost 18 hours a day I guess. When I came to office at 8.30 in the morning they were there. I worked late for couple of days to finish some of my work. When I left office it was around 2.00AM next day. I thought everyone has gone home. But there were lights on at a meeting room, to see these youngsters were still working. This happened couple of days. It was very surprising to see even girls worked in this team at that time. One day I felt like having a chat with them.

The group consists of 10 junior staff and 1 senior guy. I had a chat with them while having dinner. I asked them how much over time are they receiving and what their salary scales are. I knew the job they were doing is extremely difficult. It needs very high level of understanding of accounting as well as the knowledge on that specific business. More than that they had the access to very confidential information of the company. I got to know that most of them were university graduates. Some of them were CIMA qualified. All of them were following the exams of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. With so much qualifications and talents, I guessed they must be earning thumping amount of salaries.

Guess. Just guess… The senior guy in that team gets only Rs.4,500 per month and there's nothing call "over time fees". He was double qualified and facing his final 1 examination of his 3rd professional qualification. First I thought he was kidding. I asked him whether I asked a wrong question. He smiled and said “no I'm not joking". I asked him is it only for him or is it the same for others who are in the same level. Then he said, it is the normal standard salary levels of any audit firm in Sri Lanka. I called one of my friends who is in another country working for this globally recognized audit firm to see how is their salary schemes. He confirmed me that an auditor with such qualification would get at least $2,000 + other benefits for the same position. I was shocked. It’s the same company, same talent. Same work. I agree you can't pay $2,000 per month in an economy such as Sri Lanka. But can you imagine earning Rs 4,500?

I asked the young auditor, why do you work in this company? Why? What motivates you? Are you enjoying doing voluntary work? Because they knew how large their audit is fees and they don't get even 1% of the fees the company owners earn. I can understand if they were uneducated or people who are with just paper qualifications which cannot perform any work. But these people actually work hard. They have so many capabilities. I pointed him some of the multi nationals in Sri Lanka which pays about 20 times higher salary than what he earns now and I asked him why he will not join those companies.

Then only I understood the real reason behind this exploitation. Institute of Chartered accountants has drawn the guide lines for their students. If they are to face their final level exams they have to have 4 years experience. But they can't work in any company to get this experience. It has to be an approved company by the Institute. Most of the approved companies are audit firms. There are few other companies. But they recruit only few people a year, therefore most students don't have any option than joining an audit firm. Best part is they have to sign an agreement with the firm for 2 or 4 years saying they will not leave the company. If they leave they have to start their training from the beginning at another firm. Therefore they bear all the pain, all the sufferings happening inside these hidden organizations. It was really sad. I asked him why that Institute is having such ridiculous guide lines? Then they told me, people who are heads of this Chartered Institute are the partners of audit firms. That speaks all about it.

People, please be informed. Please know about these organizations. I know we can't do anything about them. I have heard so much about exploitation of labor in Sri Lanka. Recently i saw a salary sheet of a worker who is involved in a strike. If you are reading news papers daily you might have remember this. His monthly salary was more than 100,000/= (1 lac). But never heard any sort of organization fight for the rights of these auditors. I personally hate strikes and other sorts of nasty work. Therefore that’s not my recommendation. But to be honest it’s very frustrating for me to listen to their stories. I can imagine how frustrated it is for them.

On Air..........

One of my friends happened to come to SL from Scotland. He planned to come by an Emirates flight as usual. Emirates stopped flying here but then again agreed. Now this flight was suppose to land here at night time. But according to new rules, Katunayaka air port is closed after 6PM I guess. So Emirates have informed them that they will have a 16 hour transit at Dubai.

When I first heard I told him, so you can do shopping there. Then he asked me "How can I do shopping for 16 hours?"

To see, even though they have to go through quite a long hours of transit, air line is not providing them hotel facilities. Because closing down air port is not the fault of the Air Line. They only obtain VISA for travelers to go inside Dubai. But they will have to find places to stay by them selves.

Hm. I thought. ............................ What to do. Where the fault?

What’s my share?

Recently I involved in some consultancy project with a government department. If you served in any private sector company who have dealings with government departments or places like harbour its a known fact that there's a special fund, allocated to give commission, or in local language bribes to officers.

If the commission was not given, it’s better to give up hopes on that particular project or task to be done. In these dealings, you have to gift the ground level workers starting from ministers. Commission goes to different officers depends on their power & ability to get the work done. If it’s a very big project, most of the share goes to minister or his family or electoral. These are most of the times indirect as well as direct.

Very surprisingly in my recent project I met an officer who never gives any hint on bribes. Not only he didn't ask for commission, he was a very talented officer. When he started his duties in the last year, that department had funds only enough to pay the salaries. As a person who closely worked with that organization I saw how they developed. In terms of profits as well as in terms of scale. They started some major projects, some with foreign investors. He expanded their work in to larger category.

Last week I suddenly got to know that he was dismissed from his job. I couldn't hide my curiosity I called one of the directors of that Bureau who is a friend of mine. I asked him,

"That chairman has showed incomparable results during his time & I heard he was fired?"

His reply was,

"Yes he is superb. But what's the use for us? What's our share from that profit? Nothing. What did minister get? Nothing. There are enough people who supported us in the elections & there are more elections to do. When he was requested to give some jobs to minister's carders he refused saying there are enough & more people in that office. So I don't see why we keep him any more"

Even though this was quite a normal news for us, I felt I should write it here as a respect to that gentleman who did his duties. What do you think people? This is the system we have. Is there anything we can do to change this? Most people enter this system becomes a part of it. Otherwise they will be a victim of it like the hero in my case.

What do you think? Can we change it?

Missing in action

If you are watching “News 1st", abductions may not be such an alien topic for you. I feel many things when I watch these sad news every day. Different people say different things. I would like to share your views as to how would you feel about this.

Some people say these people who are abducted & killed are LTTE intelligent officers or some sort of terrorist attached with them. Therefore people think SL army is using a " Mozard" system to disappear them. There was a belief that when you disappear the supply for the problem, problem will get disappear with time. One of my friends in the SL army claimed that these people are not innocent & involved in killing so much of innocent citizens. Therefore it’s not a sin to kill them. He claimed that people should support the government for this as the same way American people supported the war against terrorism. His point was after Bush started so called "War against terrorism" there wasn't a single terrorist attack in America. Therefore it proves the success of it.

Another set of people think these are done by organized gangs in Colombo. People think they are abducted to take huge ransoms. One of the guys who stand for this argument told me that they abduct people who earn so much black money. Because then, when they get released they could not go to police & complain about the real amount they paid. Then they will have to answer the questions of income tax officers who will be at their door step next day morning. So some category of people thinks its fine to charge them since anyway its unlawful money. But as we all know, not only rich people get abducted.

But in my opinion I cannot agree with any of these. I do not know what happened to these people. I do not know whether abductions are for real like "News 1st" says or those are fake like president says. I do not know who do these things. (But I am sure that is some group with a very high power & political backup). All sorts of people belong to all levels & all religions get their victims. In the beginning it was only Tamils. But recently I saw they have abducted some Sinhalese lady & her little daughter at the Battaramulla check point. Whether its Sinhala or Tamil it’s human. It’s our people after all. Every person has a right to live. My friend still argues these people are terrorist & therefore should get punished. I agree. But there is a way. There is a law. You should give them a chance to prove their innocence before the court.

This shows that our society is not developed much. It’s true that even in developed countries these things happened. If you have watch “Prison break" you may have see how the intelligent service disappear the people. When these things happened in a country, after some time there are so many criminals that gradually develop. People uses the chances for their personal users & who are with power will always win.

Is it fair?

Did anyone think what will it be like if this happens to any of our family members? How sad it will be? Their families also must be feelings the same way. My friend here argues that people who get killed by them & their families also have fundamental rights. I know. I know. But still I feel very sad about this. What do you think?

Most Critical Problem in SriLanka

What do you think the most vital problem in Sri Lanka these days?

Is it War? Corruption? Abductions? Poverty? Cost of living? Well… when I read the news papers & listen to radio these days it seems that none of the above is “THE” problem of Sri Lankans. It is Lasith Malinga’s hair. There are so many conversations, arguments, insults on this talented boy’s hair style.

What do you think? I felt like analyzing who are these people who made it their favorite topic? First category is quite surprisingly a few Sri Lankans who are migrated to other countries, doing small super market & petrol shed jobs & feeling inferior about them selves. They don’t even work for this country. They don’t try to be Sri Lankans in any aspect. But try to make others live in the past forever.

Other category is who are here not doing any creative things & blaming others for whole day & expect someone to come & make a miracle for us. When a poor lad from here comes to an international level, they expect him not only make the hair style as they want but head too. What a joke it is. If he don’t play good cricket, then it’s a problem. If he’s not a good team mate it’s a problem. If he is match fixing it’s a problem. But he should have all his rights to cut his hair as they want. What harm does it do to other people? It’s all their deceitfulness. Patriotism is something different.

I remember once I met a daughter of a well known businessman laughed at one of our good cricketer saying he can’t speak good English. I asked her whether she can play cricket. She got shocked & mad with me.

Don’t be scared Malinga. & don’t look back. We need new people. New thinking. New patterns within the frame work of rule of law & fair play. We’ll always be with you. Even though you made up your hair style often, you are original by heart unlike some people who blame at you.

Go Malinga go.

A Beautiful Mind

Couple of our mates went for an assignment at a company near Central bank. There was a girl who joined recently to our group. She was a Tamil & her origination was at Jafna. We’ll call her Kalpana, though it was not her real name. In the outbreak of the war, she came to a refugee camp. Then moved from one camp to another & them managed to come to Colombo with the help of some rich relatives in Colombo. During some snacks, we were singing & enjoying our selves. Then it was Kalpana’s tern to sing a song. Obviously she sang a Tamil song. It was a beautiful song. We have heard many Tamil songs, but not this one. So we asked her from which film she picked that song & who sings it? Then she told us it’s the National anthem of the LTTE. We felt sad that she sang an anthem belongs to a killer organization. But since we didn’t want to hurt her, we remained silent. She complained that army guys out side checked her ID. I told her, they checked my ID too. It was the road next to Central bank & presidents’ house. So it’s obvious they check. But she hated when they check. It was just a matter of showing the ID. I did it with pleasure. But her attitude her ego was different. It was a shame to her. That’s how LTTE has taught her. I tried to explain it’s not discrimination. They her the same way they checked me. But it’s difficult to change what’s in their head. It’s how they were taught from childhood. Have to die for Tamil Elam.

The next day morning we completely forgot the national anthem part & it was normal day today work. While we were working, I got a phone call from a friend of mine. It was for the arms giving for her father who died from the Central bank bomb. I was telling my friends how sad that innocent people die from the bomb attacks. Then suddenly Kalpana speaks up. She said

“No we should kill Sinhalese. Then only the government will feel the pressure”

I couldn’t believe she said that. All of us were Sinhalese. We worked together. We played together. We eat together. Studied together & lived together basically. How come a person is so rude like that? We were really frustrated. But still we didn’t say anything. Because we knew it’s not her fault. Its how they have made her up. She was from a LTTE controlled area & they were brain washed. They were not building up in an open environment like we do. Her imagination is very little & she was always in her little frame. She was not a bad person. She was very good with us. She helped people a lot. I think with the time we managed to change her attitude & anger towards Sinhalese. But we could never be sure of that. They didn’t have a childhood. What more can you expect from them?

But that doesn’t mean that every Tamil is like that. There were very nice people. The good families bought them up under good conditions. I had so many friends like this. But there was a difference. They were not suffered with LTTE. They were not from war areas. They lived happily & peacefully at the other government controlled areas. Some of these people have so good qualities, which I never ever saw with other nationals.

Same as this problem is vice versa. There are many Sinhalese people with lot of bad qualities. They are not affected by war. But they had to live with lot of difficulties. It is not about belonging to a particular nation. It is about how people brought up. What was their environment? What was their family background? & Education also affected little bit.

Some time back I worked for an audit firm. We had to go to a NGO. This belongs to the key NGO activitist in SL (Sinhalese). Auditors get access to all the documents & basically they can sense the atmosphere when they work with a client. Since I have to respect my professional ethics I cannot disclose most of the things we revealed there. But every time when he & his team comes & sell the “Peace” in television I feel so sad for the people who believe in their nasty peace. I saw how they got money & how they spend money. I am not surprised. When a person gets such a large piece of chunk, you have to be more than human to say NO. It’s not about being a Tamil or sinhala. It’s about personalities. There would be favorable affects. There would be more weighting to some sides by some nationalities. But in my opinion, it’s all about how people think. How their mind set up are.

For a fact Tamils set up all the bombs in the metropolitan areas with the help of sinhaleese. That’s the tragic truth of it. That’s why building a person’s mind is very important after all. Even though people think its non of their business to change the way people think, there would be a day it will be their business.

There were many Tamils in Sri Lanka who tried to do this. Lakshman Kadiragamar is one example. But LTTE killed all of them starting from the Mayor of Jafna Dore Appa. Let this be a tribute to those who really tried for real Pease, unlike the NGO agents who support terrorists in the name of Pease. Let this be a tribute to real Heros of the process of brining peace to my motherland.

Kalu suddo (Traitors of a kind)

These days we always hear the classic blunder of the UK Channel 4’s Big brother celebrity show. They showed the colors of the western majority whites. It shows how the beautiful & intelligent Shilpa Shetty is insulted brutally by 3 UK women. Jade Godwoody who has an awful ugly look, who has always being nasty, got kicked out of the show already. (I know it’s not polite & nice to say somebody is ugly. But we must mention it to say how pathetic & how sad her situation here is). Daniel & Jo who can’t even come closer to Shilpa even in their dreams are still there displaying how poor they are with qualities. It’s not unfair to say these 3 idiotic, uneducated & big headed women portray how racist the British’s are. I have some friends there who are very nice & down to earth, but I have met many whites who talk nicely & let down to the back. When I watch all these, what came to my mind was something else. I do not care what the British’s do. Shilpa is anyway sacred in India & we don’t have to worry about what British’s do in their way. My problem is about the Sri Lankans who worship Brits. Some of the Sri Lankans who are still in the colonial mindset still worship UK & all its rubbish.

When I was working at office, suddenly I heard couples of girls have got really mad & upset. They were laughing at someone. So I also went there thinking it was some gossip. As a journalist, I normally keep an eye on what’s happening around. Then they explained the problem to me. Their complain was simple. They wanted to change the music of that office. As a trend they played English music 4 days & Sinhala music 1 day. These girls hated Sinhala music. (Please don’t misunderstand. They are neither Tamils nor Burgers). They were Singhalese. On this single day of the week they played not “choka baila”, but really good music. It was a good mixture of songs with Classics of Amaradewa maestro, Nanda Malini & same as good songs of new comers. They screamed saying when they hear Sinhala songs they can’t do work, they feel sleepy. I thought may be they listen to Rock music or very fast music. But it wasn’t. If it’s English, they listen to any kind of song. It’s only the language matters, not the music. I don’t have words to explain how I felt. I felt very sad. I felt they were disgusting. Not only music, they hate everything about Sri Lanka. What ever bad thing happens, they usually say “Sri Lankans” na? They must have forgotten they also are Sri Lankans. They lived here, they eat its food, they studied from its free education, and they obtained all the benefits from the land & its innocent nice people. But then they worship English. They hate Sirasa super star. They know nothing about it. Though they have never listened to it, they believe all super star singers can’t sing. They think Amaradewa maestro can’t sing. So no need to talk about Super Star. But they know in & out about American idol. They are madly in love with Mega star singers such as John Denver. I have nothing against him or the Mega star. But my point is Amila & Shihan & them also have the same or rather more capabilities. These people know nothing about Sri Lanka. But know all other gossip around the world. Once in a discussion when someone says Anton Balasingham, one fellow asked whether it’s somebody came to the super star. I know it’s unbelievable. But please don’t think they are frogs in the well. They know everything happens outside from Sri Lanka. They know about Sadam, George Bush & how much money Shakira earns per day & how many shoe pairs Britney has.

I have no much sadness towards these people also. They are never Sri Lankans. They will never be respected within the majority of real Sri Lankans who love the country. Same as they will never ever be respected within the western cultures they worship. They belong no where. But my real worry is something else. These people talk in English. Due to only this simple factor they dominate in everywhere they go in Sri Lanka. Some of the innocent girls & boys who come to work with them think it’s the correct way to the success. They think if they need to be recognized internationally they need to do all these nonsense. They never think why Channa & Upuli dance troop always travel around world. I don’t think any of the Sri Lankan western dance troops has such a demand around the world. Why Bathiya & Santhush always use Sri Lankan rural backgrounds to their clips? Why paddy fields? Because if they need to promote anything out side Sri Lanka, it has to be with a Sri Lankan scent. There need to be a Sri Lankan ideology. When we listen to African fold music we know it’s African. The innocent ordinary lads who join with them rarely understand this. They are not strong enough to stand by them. They do not have strong backbones to have their own policies. So they just follow the popular crowd. They do all wired things they do to be westernize. They go (night) clubbing. Most of their innocent parents wait until they come home. But they say some lie & goes. They get addicted to drinks & sexual life. Their life is gone. Then they become part of that society forever. Never escape. These wicked crowd encourage lot of unethical behavior. They make it a fashion. I feel very sorry for the people who follow. But can we do anything? Can we?