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?