Patriotic Marketing initiative in Sri Lanka

31 Oct 2007

In 1977, Sri Lanka entered into open economy and we were the first to adapt this free market philosophy in the region. India adapted the same in decade later and China is still transitioning into open economy from the communist regime.

We were the first to adapt it, still where are we now? India and China has become the new giants in world economy while we have become a nation that depends on other courtiers for mere existence.

What really went wrong is that Sri Lanka adapted the open economy just for the sake of opening without clear mission. Japan managed to build up national brand names like Toyota, Panasonic and Sony while India is emerging new brands like Tata (manufacturing) and Infosys (IT). However Sri Lanka, despite adapting open economy before India and China, is still chasing after brand names of others and not building our own brands and products. While our counterparts opened their economy in controlled manner according to a master plan, the short sighted politicos of Sri Lanka opened not only the economy, but culture and society as well just like a flood gates of a dam. It created a temporally bloom in the country, but it was nothing but an economic bubble which did not last long. The tragedy result was a nation without national proud and dignity and people having lost their cultural roots. This leads to more and more unrest in the society.

In the South it burst out in the form of ‘JVP insurgency’ and in the North, the petty politicos managed to give it a reading flavored with racism and the result was the LTTE terrorism.

Marketing is the key driving force in the globalize world and Sri Lanka is not an exempt. However, the unfortunate reality in Sri Lanka was that the government lost its grip and marketing started playing devils in so called ‘freedom’. It was under the custody of (comprador) businessmen having their feet in the West and not in our mother land. Their philosophy was to import whatever junks to the country and sell them here and pump the profit back to their masters. It was hard earned money of our mothers and sisters in the Midle East and manufacturing sector including garment factories in the country that these people were pumping out. Their only focus was on profit and not any national interests.

Their consensus was with petty politicians and not with the common people of this country. These anti national companies were willing to invest Billions on political campaigns to market petty feeble and crook politicians to the nation as genuine leaders and they were getting open license to exploit the common people of this country in return.

It is in this backdrop that the Mawbima (Motherland) Lanka foundation was established with the mission of “Country with a formidable and sustainable National Economy where people are proud to consume locally manufactured products and the industrialists strive to develop new products and high quality import substitutes.” Now this is an new attempt to come to a consensus between genuine businessmen with national interests and common people of this country and not with the politicos.

Mawbima Lanka foundation is actively involve in conducting educational and socio cultural activities in the direction of creating a consumption culture and a ideology in the society that are conducive and supportive towards developing a formidable and self sustained National Economy.

A ceremony was organized by Mawbima Lanka Foundation to recognize and reward 34 local entrepreneurs from various fields yesterday (29) at the BMICH. The function was headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In the future the market would have local goods carrying the 'SuryaSinha' logo on their products. These companies are committed to work based on national interests and support various projects for the benefit of the common people of the country and in return their brand names carrying national pride have been given extra recognition.

The Sri Lankan brands receiving certificates, are...

Orange Electrical Accessories
Harischandra Food & Beverage
Emerald Men's Wear
Baraka Herbal Products
Laughs Liquid Petroleum Gas
Laughs Gas Conversion Unit & Service Gas Auto Lanka (Pvt) Ltd
Laughs Water Bottles
Laugfs Engineering Equipment
Laughs Three-Wheel Tyres Laughs Corporation (Rubber) Ltd
Laughs Coir Mattresses Laughs Corporation (Coir) Ltd
Raigam Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd
SSS Best Bulbs
Diana Biscuits and Cakes
Diana Chocolates and Candies
Kist Prepared Fruit & Beverages
Cargills Ice Cream & Dairy Products
DSI Footwear
Sigiri Furniture
Pelwatte Sugar
DGI / Lacer Garments
Crysbro Chicken
Kandos Chocolates
DSI Tyres
Nippolac Paints & Related Chemicals
Munchee Biscuits
Kandurata Umbrella
Hemas Personal Care Items
Heladiv Beverages
KVC Prepared Fruit & Beverages
Nature's Secret Cosmetics
Nippon Plastic Products
Cargills Rice and Rice Based Products
Highland Dairy Products
Ceypetco Petroleum Products and Agro Chemicals

The complete list of Sri Lankan brands receiving SuryaSinha logo..

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‘Operation Ellalan’, Piribaharan and us

28 Oct 2007

The whole story behind Ealam is based on a myth which is based on hand picked isolated stories. However, the scholars supporting the Ealam myth has been shrewd enough to convince not only part of the Tamil community, but also certain elements of the international community.

In 1977, after getting two third of the majority, one of the key decision taken by president J R Jayewardene was to remove teaching history in schools. The result was an immerging generation that do not know or lack in confidence in their true history. When south is doing away with history, the theoreticians in the north were busy inventing their own version of so called Ealam history and it is no doubt that Piribaharan had learned all these lesions in the path to create one of the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.

It is in this backdrop that one has to analyze the thinking of the enemy deciding the code name for their latest terrorist operation in Anuradhapura. Piribaharan’s choice for code name was ‘Operation Ellalan’. Why did he do so? It may have been due to the theatre of combat being Anuradhapura where king Ellalan or Elara (The south Indian invader) reigns for 44 years. The choice for Ellalan is to revive memories of the Elara-Gamunu conflict. Codenaming the operation after Ellalan strikes a responsive chord in the Tamil psyche and that is a necessary part of motivating the black tiger squad on suicidal mission and subsequent political targets.

Apart from Colombo, LTTE has always choosing strategic national and cultural targets which include ‘Dalada Maligawa’ in Kandy and ‘Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi’ in Anuradhapura. It clearly shows the ethnic and religious hatred in LTTE terrorists.

It is another son from Rohana, that has accepted the challenge after long regimes of mere political indifference or lack of confidence to challenge terrorism. And just like king Gamunu, he has already clear the Eastern province and started heavy pounding on the Wanni jungle in the north.

Knowing his history lesions and knowing the importance of psychological aspects in war, Piribaharan has shown due concern even in selecting the code name for counter attack which can be marketed to the Tamil community.

However, the Sinhala society which has been under the influence of indifferent politicians is having a media war on petty issues like ‘cost of living’ , ‘trade union rights’ with fancy names like ‘junta’, ‘Company of brothers’.

This is exactly the mood in the south that Piribaharan is desperately seeking to buy time to get his heavily powdered war mechanism back on rails. In the attack on Katunayaka international air port, LTTE was succeeded in converting their military victory to political victory by imposing defeated psyche in south to elect so called peace friendly government and we have seen the consequences, a de facto regime for Piribaharan in the name of peace talks and much needed international recognition. The psycho-media mechanism is active again with the help of power politics in the south.

Piribaharan has only a single mission and task that is to fight against the government. However, it is unfortunate reality that the government has to fight against various political parties having their own agendas while fighting against terrorists.

While Piribaharan is trying to play the role of ‘Ellalan’ in Tamil community, The choice for Gamunu for some politically influenced media in South is not president Mahinda Rajapaksa, but a mere political clown named Mervin Silava. The local media should not forget the fact that every time Mervin Silva is branded as ‘Gamunu of Rohana’, it is the great heroic image of king Dutugamunu that they are indirectly diminishing, as a nation we must understand their agenda and people behind it.

These paltry politicians and their hired media personals should not forget the fact that “Country must always be the first and not politics”. Only if we win the war against terrorists that politicos will have a country to do their petty politics.

Related Posts:
- Terror Attack at Anuradhapura Airbase and Our Next Steps.. (Oct 22, 2007)

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Chick and egg story of corruption in Sri Lanka

27 Oct 2007

In recent past, there has been a renewed enthusiasm on corruption in the media and political arena. However, the corruption in Sri Lankan society has been a chick and egg story for decades. The legislature is elected by the people of the country and therefore it should reflect the cross section of the common people. It is a multimillion worth question to ask if corruption is passing down to the society from politicians or vise versa.

Mere topic of chit-chat for the common people?
Corruption of politicians has been a popular dessert in lunch areas of office and institutions. It has become a popular fashion to criticize politicians in social gatherings. However, it is unfortunate to find that most of the time, the politicos that they are criticizing are the ones that they have personally elected and of course they will most probably vote for the very people they criticized in next elections for petty gains and expectations. It is the same lot of corrupt politicians that is being reelected by the vote of the people.

Span across the society
It is astonishing to see the number of medical reps lobbing around medical practitioners in government hospitals and private medical centers. The result is doctors prescribing in commercial names rather than using their pharmaceutical names resulting exploitation of the innocent patients. Is there any difference in giving a tender to higher value by a politician and a doctor prescribing expensive drugs using brand names rather than pharmaceutical names in return for direct commissions and foreign tours etc? Do we have regulation to counter this type of exploitations in the society? This same corrupt mind set has been widely seen across most of the professions and institutions alike ranging from taking bribes for day to day activities to underhand deals of millions of worth by influential people in the society.

Look warm approach of political parties
Corruption has been one of the highly marketable topics for opposition parties in Sri Lanka. They are super active in accusing their opponents. However it is really doubt if their true intention is to minimize corruption or to take petty political advantages. Once in power, the same people behave like dumb. This has been a role play by both UNP and PA in tandem to just to fool the people to grab the power. Once in the power, all the politicos are in one side while the common people are in the receiving end.

JVP has been in the forefront in criticizing the corruptions of politicians. However, it is sad to see that they are reluctant to show this by example rather than by words. In the recent past, JVP has been so reluctant to involve in governing by taking ministerial portfolios. The best way to eliminate corruption at ministerial level is to take up those ministries and manage them with clean hands, rather than preach nor criticizing others. It is an irony that the only time they ally with a government is one of the most corrupted governments under CBK.

One of the whole marks of Sri Lankan politics is the indifferent attitude of minority ethnic parties towards corruption. By looking at their behavior, one can decide that either they are more corrupt than main stream political parties, or they have no real interest in democracy and rights of people other than operate based on separatism.

The role of media
The bulk of the mass media in Sri Lanka is directly allied with either the political parties or under direct influence of allied businessmen. Therefore, most of the time, the noise is against targeted individuals who are against their political aspirations rather than with good intention in the side of the common people. These media only talk about individual cases which they can exploit rather than bringing up worth dialog against corruption as whole in the society.

COPE and Commission of Bribery & Corruption
The commission of Bribery & Corruption has been a positive outcome of a long time struggle of the people. It required even a higher effort to get the commissioners appointed and activate it. This has brought some hope in the right direction.

COPE has been in existence for decades, and it is only in recent past that it got its due place largely due to the active role played by the current COPE president Mr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa and its active membership consist of multitude of parties including JVP and JHU. Unlike Commission of Bribery & Corruption which is an independent body, the effectiveness of COPE is highly dependent on its leadership and members.

The next step
COPE has been a success in the purview of its legislative powers exposing large number of corruptions and suspicious under hand trades which involved billions of hard earned money of the people of this country. However, it seems that there are no clear cut guidelines on the next steps to proceed on with the findings. It is arguable to say that the legislature itself should punish the culprits.

The next step should be to bring up new laws in the parliament to mandate the COPE findings to be presented to either Commission of Bribery & Corruption or directly sue them in the courts.

It is the wish of all Sri Lankans to see the justice in bringing all the corrupt politicians, bureaucracy and importantly the crooked businessmen behind the deals into court and punish to the maximum.

By the by
In the mean time, it is duty of the nation to punish all the corrupt politicians, regardless of they somehow escape in the judiciary, in the next election. The real political prudence of the voter is not mere chit-chatting conduct of corrupted politicians in pubs, but selecting real genuine politicians while rejecting all the crooks by ballot. It is the eggs that they hatch in the form of ballot that will result in swans, crows or vultures.

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Buddhist economics theory – A practical approach

25 Oct 2007

The popular definition of western economics is “The science that analyzes the behavior of man trying to fulfill his unlimited desires using limited resources.”

By simply analyzing the definition itself, one could understand that this so called ‘Economics’ is mere a futile effort. How in this world, one find a way to satisfy unlimited desires using limited resources. As long as resources are limited (a fact), you can not met with unlimited desires of even a single person, and not to mention on trying to meet desires of all the people. It is just an attempt to find a solution for a problem which they accept by definition as non feasible problem to resolve.

If one still remembers his college algebra, this is just like a futile attempt to find real roots of a square equation of which no real roots available. (i.e ax2 + bx + c = 0 where b2-4ac is less than zero) The mathematicians proved that this type of equations can not have real roots (solutions) and they come up with different solution which involved complex numbers.

However, in modern economics theory, they accept the fact that there is no real solution, still trying out to solve the issue in traditional approach. This western approach is just like a child crying for moon!!. In reality, it has just created a competition to consume most amount of natural and human resources in attempt to full fill (unlimited) desires of people resulting more unrest, hatred and unhappiness among the man kind.

In the contrary, the realistic solution for this dilemma (for Western world) has been known to Eastern world in the form of Buddhism.

Not even if it rained gold coins;
would we have our fill of sensual pleasures.
'Stressful, they give little enjoyment'.
Knowing this, the wise one finds no delight;
even in heavenly sensual pleasures.
He is one, who delights in the ending of craving,
a disciple of the Buddha

All thoughts begin in the mind;
Mind is supreme and mind-made are they.
If one speaks or acts with impure mind, pain follows him,
Like the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.

All thoughts begin in the mind;
Mind is supreme and mind-made are they.
If one speaks or acts with pure mind, happiness follows him,
Like one’s shadow that never leaves.
- Dhammapada (The Buddha)

Now, the solution is different, Buddhism does not promote the idea of trying to satisfy unlimited desires, rather it provide a realistic solution where one has to control his desire knowing that the resources are limited. Unlike the western Economics theory, what Buddha taught is a feasible solution which is in harmony with the nature.

When someone just looks at this Buddhist concept on the surface, he might see this as a heedless and negative view. However, the practical Buddhists who understand the reality of unsatisfactoriness, certainly lives more happily than their western counterparts. The secret for all friendly and happy faces in Buddhist countries is that they have a practical way of life to supersede the reality of unsatisfactoriness.

Those who think that Buddhism is interested only in lofty ideas, high moral and philosophical thoughts, and that it ignores the social and economic welfare of people, are wrong. The Buddha was interested in the happiness of men. To him happiness is not possible without leading a pure life based on moral and spiritual principles.

Buddhism does not consider material welfare as an end in itself; it is only a means to an end- a higher and nobler end. So Buddhism recognizes the need of certain minimum material conditions favorable to spiritual success.

Himself and the World
In the Buddha Dhamma, the human being is an impersonal combination of ever-changing mind and matter. In the flux is found no unchanging soul or eternal principle. The self or soul is then a piece of fiction invented by the human mind. To believe in such an absurdity is to create another source of unhappiness. One should therefore see oneself as one truly is — a conflux of mind and matter energized by tanha or craving, containing immense possibilities for both good and evil, neither overestimating nor underestimating one's capacities and capabilities.

Buddhist never consider oneself as a unique isolated entity in the world, rather thy identified ‘ego’ as a false view and each individuals are part of the nature and its flow of existence.

A Buddhist tries to see things as they really are. He remembers the instability of everything and understands the inherent danger in expecting to find permanence in existence. In this way, he strives to insulate himself from potential disappointments.

Balanced Life
A discerning lay Buddhist is not unduly elated or upset by the eight worldly conditions of gain and loss, honor and dishonor, praise and blame, pleasure and pain. He does not expect too much from others, nor from life, and recognizes that it is only human to have one's share of life's ups and downs.

Heedfulness leads to immortality.
Heedlessness leads to death.
The heedful are immortal,
The heedless, though living are like the dead.
- Dhammapada (The Buddha)

Buddhist is not a heedful or negative one, in fact he must be a very active and headless character. However his effort is now not only for his benefit, but also for others well being and prosperity. A practical Buddhist knows his real needs as oppose to superficial trends created by various marketing elements in the society and therefore, he has time to strive for his own real benefit and also to serve the society with loving kindness.

Simple Life as Oppose to Being a Slave to Marketing Forces
“Just like a hen wondering here and there to find a place to hide her egg, people are starving to satisfy themselves”
Every mindful lay Buddhist sees the world in its real form. He can identify his real needs without get trapped into various marketing campaigns around him, so called social pressure, etc. Buddhist layman is a free thinker. He sees that others spent most of time busy collecting money for so called pleasure seeks. People go for night clubs, drinking, addicted to films or music, etc. The Buddhist layman knows all these excessive activities by people are to satisfy so called ego.
But in this sense, Buddhist has identified the reality of life, its unsatisfactory nature. Having fully understood this reality, they live a happy life. They are no longer living in past or future. They live every single moment happily.

Society of peace and harmony
In the competition, people loose their virtue and internal tranquility. Buddhist society is not place where every one is competing with each other, but a place where every one live in harmony with each other and importantly with the nature and its resources.

References:
What the Buddha taught by Ven. Walpola Rahula
Mind Unshaken by John Walters

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Neocolonialism (Origin of Compradors) – Part 1

24 Oct 2007

Compradors:
During the heyday of European imperialism, a class of natives rendered the invaders yeoman service. They were the facilitators of colonial penetration and eventual domination of a vast swathe of the planet, from South America to Africa to Asia. They were well rewarded for their loyalty and services. Known as the compradors, they are still among us, continuing work for their paymasters.

The origins of the compradors:
A Portuguese word meaning 'buyer,' compradors (also spelled compradore), originally referred to a local merchant acting as middleman between foreign producers and a local market. As the Portuguese burst into the world stage and expanded their power in far flung places, the term took on another meaning: comprador, became the word that described members of the Chinese merchant class who aided Western traders in China in the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.Hired by contract, the comprador was responsible for a Chinese staff of currency-exchange specialists, interpreters, coolies, and guardsmen. Many compradors became extremely wealthy and established businesses of their own. (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica)

Identifying compradors:
Marxists specifically refer to those elements of the local bourgeoisie who owe their privileged positions to foreign monopolies and maintain a vested interest in colonial occupation.
As Aschcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin explain in Post –Colonial Studies: Key Concepts: "The word continues to be used to describe a relatively privileged, wealthy and educated elite who maintain a more highly developed capacity to engage in international communicative practices introduced by colonial domination, and who may therefore be less inclined to struggle for local and political independence."( Sesha Samarajiwa's emphasis.)

How the colonial powers cultivated compradors:
So, how did the colonial powers cultivate their compradors? The question is a no-brainer. The one word answer is – REWARDS. What were these rewards? Money, perks and power.

Inter dependency and cohabitation:
The compradors' services to their foreign masters made them very, very rich, rich enough to spawn long dynasties, as far back as the first imperialists from Europe – the Portuguese. All the European powers who followed adopted the financial reward system established by the Portuguese: fees and/or commissions on every deal.

As they established colonies through military might, the colonials consolidated their positions. They were supreme. Now, they were in a position to offer their loyal servants better rewards for their services – land, titles, concessions, monopolies; in other words, virtually unlimited opportunities to enrich themselves. So the compradors made hay while the sun shone and built legendary fortunes – enough to keep several generations in luxury.

Thanks to the money, perks and plum positions in colonial establishments, the compradors consolidated their power and privilege. And so the good times rolled.

Spiritual rewards to amend guilty consciousness:
In addition to the temporal rewards, invariably the compradors were also seduced by spiritual rewards. That's where religion came into the picture. The compradors had to abandon their human qualities and they were continuously in repentance and needed a mechanism to confess and forget their sins.

Converting to the coloniser's religion brought them rewards in this life and held out even better (false) promise in the next. The colonizers even colonized their souls!

The black skin of these compradors was 'masked' by their complicity with values and, agendas, of the while colonial powers. The native intelligentsia is yet to radically restructure their society on the firm foundation of people and their true values rather than those false 'values' presented by Compradors.

Polymorphism of current compradors under INGOs common grounds:
In post-colonial era, the term has evolved a broader use, to include the intelligentsia – academics, creative writers (media) and artists – whose independence may be compromised by reliance on, and identification with, colonial power and most importantly all these current compradors are no longer directly deal with their western masters directly, instead they have formed more sophisticated infrastructure named as INGOs (International Non Government Organizations) to facilitate the reward and service contract.

- Neocolonialism (Conduct of Compradors) – Part 2

Note:
This post series is based on the following news articles and original copy rights reserved with Sesha Samarajiwa:
- INGO agents of neocolonialism by By Sesha Samarajiwa (The Nation 2007-10-07)
- Comprador Chicanery - INGO Agents of Neocolonialism By Sesha Samarajiwa (Asian Tribune 2007-10-14)

Ref:
- Neocolonialism. Leong Yew, Research Fellow, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore

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No-confidence motion against Milinda Moragoda - Insight story

23 Oct 2007

Mr. Milinda Moragoda was elected to parliament getting the second highest number of preferential votes for UNP, only second to Ranil Wickramasingha in the last parliament election in Colombo district. By that time also, the allegations had been leveled against Moragoda and, as usual the rightwing UNP vote bank was of little sensitivity to corruption. (By contrary, the PA vote bank in Colombo, in last election made notorious Mervin Silva the last in the PA list, and in a similar move PA district leader Kingstly T Wickramarathna was defeated on a previous election).

COPE has been in existence for decades, and it is only in recent past that it got its due place largely due to the active role played by current COPE president Mr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa and its active membership consist of multitude of parties including JVP and JHU and as usual TNA being mere LTTE proxy has shown very little interest on national policies and fight against corruption.

No-confidence motion against Milinda Moragoda which is based on COPE findings has surfaced interesting political ground to test each political party. First of all we must be learned that all these allegations are against a MP of UNP and for his conducts in UNP government headed by Mr. Ranil Wickramasingha. So this no confidence motion is from UNP against the conduct of their own member of then UNP government. This has created an interesting situation where UNP has to target Milinda Moragoda, while defending its own past government and Cabinet. It is not surprise that splits are already immerging within UNP itself on this regard.

Mahinda Rajapaksa government is also in awkward position. It is the government itself for blame for its position. Contrary to the expectations, Mahinda Rajapaksa showed look warm attitude against bribery and corruption. While president Mahinda has shown full confidence on the support of common people for fight against LTTE terrorism, he turned to mere politicos for stability of government against threat from UNP. Therefore, he accepted every Tom, Dick and Henry from UNP to his government and there was good chance that some of UNP members crossed over to the government to make a shield for their wrong doings during the UNP regime. This has effectively put MR government not only susceptible for allegations from the opposition, but also hindrance for MR himself to give clear vision on fight against corruption and wastage. If MR adapted more open policy, he could have been in a better position to let individual to vote according to the conscious rather than blindly defending the accused which is more beneficial for country in cleaning the corrupt politicos. In the contrary, now MR has to defend a UNP member for corruption charges (which is related to UNP regime) leveled against by MR's own government.

It is JVP to make hay while the sun shines. JVP had great set backs since they quit the MR government which was clearly evident in last local government elections. Being preferred to be in opposition than join hand with government to develop the country, JVP can play the Mr. Clean role and charge against all the others. Still JVP can never forget the fact that their only involvement with a government was with CBK which is notorious for corruption and inefficiency.

JHU is also in a difficult situation because, it has to defend government decision while maintaining their clean track and firm resist against corruption. Recently, Milinda Moragoda has tried to play as a Buddhist friendly leader. However, person’s virtue is based on his acts rather than frequent visits to temples. If we are looking for Buddhist leaders, we should always look for clean characters rather than crooks.

It is not only Milinda Moragoda, that was having allegations against. The entire Sri Lanka nation is closely eying if all the allegations involving selling of Air Lanka, Shell Gas, Sathosa, curruption in Port, etc are taken on to the table and culprits are punished in equal manner.

Therefore, after Milinda’s case, each individuals including Chandrika Bandaranayaka, Ravi Karunanayaka, Karu Jayasooriya, etc must be summoned and quarried. And we all must remember that there are intelligent crooks who know how to steal from without keeping any clues on their robberies as well and as a nation it is our duty to bring all the robbers in to gallows and not just one.

All and all, it is Mahinda Rajapaksa himself to blame for this situation. If Mahinda showed as same keenness as for the fight against terrorism, for fight against corruptions, these unnecessary bugs may never cling into his government. But he blindly accepted any one from UNP under the sugary coated word of "supportive politics as oppose to politics of hearted". It is not too late for MR to defend his government by adapting open policy on fight against corruption by keeping full faith on the people of this country rather than petty politicians.

Ultimately, all these robbers have to face the reality of 'Kamma' (regardless of Buddhist or Catholic or Islam) and face the consequences in next world if not this world. Still as a nation, we can not wait until all robbers go to hell and repent, because they are misusing the hard earned money of general public !!!

If a politician is not corrupt he do not need to panic because their own conscious will clear him and someday the truth will reveal, and of course same truth in reverse apply for smart crooks who are under the cover as well.

- Read COPE report here..
- Mr. Milinda Moragoda's Personal Statement Regarding the COPE Report
(Parliament, 8th July 2005)

Related Posts:
- Before the judge is hanged!! (September 21, 2007)

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Terror Attack at Anuradhapura Airbase and Our Next Steps..

22 Oct 2007

The LTTE terrorists managed to attack at Anuradhapura Airbase and some considerable damaged has ocured. According to the available information two Russian built MI 24 helicopter gunships and a K8 air craft on ground were severely damaged in the attack. Meanwhile, it has been also reported that a Bell 212 helicopter which was pursuing the terror aircraft was crashed onto Doramadalawa, in the Mihinthale area during the confrontation.

Seven security forces' personnel including one army personnel made the supreme sacrifice for their motherland while defending the vital air base against terror attack. Twenty security forces personnel sustained injuries and admitted to military hospital Anuradhapura.

In the battlefield, while any party has to bear with ups and downs, the important point is to maintain overall win and finish with overall victory.

This time, all these scarify are not mere casualties, but it was result of challenging the enemy in both ground and air. The Bell 212 helicopter which was pursuing the terror aircraft has almost succeeded before collided due to technical fault. Technical fault is not an excuse and it shows that SLAF has some lessons to learn and room for improvements.

The SL Navy had to undergo similar learning curve and they have now become one of the most competent deep blue marine force. It should be the similar case for SL Air Force before long and as a nation we have all the confidence in the brave youth in SLAF. Its time for Sri Lankan defense helm to reinforce the militants and further intensify the fight against brutal LTTE terrorists.

Now the long range commandoes of SL army is nearing the den of the Pirbaharan and just like a flame intensifies before a candle is about to put out, LTTE will intensify resistance in their last few days of fight for Ealam myth.

LTTE knows that when the Wanni jungle is captured by SL forces, their flying machines are no longer of any use. So they will use these for suicidal missions rather than dig them in earth.

Just like after every LTTE attack, the white collar terrorists and their local agents in NGO and media will now start growling to convert this limited military gain to exaggerated political triumph. Now these goons will start muttering the old mantra of “Miserable War”, “War that can be never won” etc.. and try to down the moral of our security forces and divert the focus into another episode of peace (or rather piece) drama.

It is time for all true patriotic people to unite and defeat these white collar terrorists (immaterial of whether Tamil or Sinhala) while supporting our security forces to fight against the LTTE black collar terrorists (goons with cyanide capsules in the neck) in the Wanni jungle.

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Cricket, Rugby, Buddhism and a lesson from the West

21 Oct 2007

Buddhism has helped England’s Johny Wikkinson get over injury and the massive expectations on him before the Rugby Union World Cup final against South Africa, he said in comments published Saturday.

Wilkinson kicked England to a last-gasp victory in the final against Austrailia in 2003 and was subsequently feted as a national hero, until a string of injuries threatened to cut his career short.

But in an article in the Times Saturday he said that as he battled back to full fitness, he turned to a variety of sources, including Buddhism, to help him cope with what he had achieved and the renewed burden of a nation’s hope.“Don’t get me wrong. Don’t think: ‘Johny’s now a Buddhist.’ I am not. I have just been finding a direction, learning different ways of looking at life and taking bits I could use and discarding bits I could not,” he wrote.

In the same time, London Times quoted England’s new cricket coach Pieter Mover saying that “Secret behind England’s recent victory against Sri Lanka is the practice of ‘Dhammapada’ which contains 423 stanza.” He further stated that England players managed to play in disciplined manner because they were taught on Buddha’s teaching on curbing anger and passion in both victory and defeat. The result was the victory for England in subcontinent after 20 long years and importantly it is against Sri Lanka which is known to be a prominent Buddhist country.

Buddhism is the way of life which is not a property of particular nation or region, and different people can make use of it at different levels. Most importantly, it is practice of Buddha’s teaching which effect on one’s life and not knowing or preaching it.

“A fool, though he may associate a wise man through his life, will no more understand the Dhamma, than a spoon the taste of the soup”
“An intelligent man who associates a wise man even for a moment will quickly understand the Dhamma, like the tongue the taste of the soup”
- The Buddha (Dhammapada)

As a predominant Buddhist nation, all Sri Lankan’s should see this new trend of use of Buddhist concepts by western countries in a balanced view. It’s a lesson for all of us that we must make use of Buddhism in all aspects rather than just keeping it in box and conducting rituals. It is time for us to adapt more and more Buddhist core values into policies, law, management and business and make us the role model for success which is in line with the rule of nature.

Then only Sri Lanka will be able to provide next level of leadership to the world, to present core Buddhist values into practice in order to solve burning crisis like environment issues, political hunger and neocolonialism.

Western world is adopting more and more Buddhist concepts, but unfortunately they are just grasping the surface for their own material gains rather than for the benefit of whole man kind. As a nation which nurtured upon Buddhism, we should be able to show how core Buddhist values are practiced not only for narrow areas but at macro level as a way of life which is in harmony with nature and benefit of each individuals.

The day whole world is operating on core Buddhist values, is the day free of hunger and fear and full of prosperity and happiness for whole world in equality.

Ref:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/jonny_wilkinson/article2697308.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article2648336.ece

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Why teaching of Sri Lankan history excluded by JR

18 Oct 2007

After clean sweep victory for UNP lead by J.R. Jayawardana in 1977, one of the key decisions taken was the removal of ‘History’ from general curriculum stream.

It was reported that this old cunning fox has asked ‘Ithihasaya kannada’ (What is the use of learning History?).

After three decades, both youth and middle age generations have grown up without knowing their history, as a result, consequences are immerging more and more evident now.

There are countries which do not have a recorded history due to late colonization or they were not developed enough to record their history until recently.

However as Sri Lankan’s we have proud history of over 2500 years, which is written in Books, gold scripts, stone or earthen scripts and each resource is cross referencing and matching with others without any conflicts.

It is important to analyze and identify the hidden agenda behind taking out of teaching our history in schools.

JR Jayawardana was well known for his greed for power who struggled for eon to grab the power and succeeded only at last in very old age.

He clearly identified that when the civil society is ignorant on the history of the country, it is easier to manipulate and rule them at his will.

History is the white board that hails its heroes and equally picks apart the traitors.

When the nation is not aware of their heroes, a feeble can act like a hero and no one will question him.

Equally, the history clearly shows the chain of traitors and their true faces and tactics which ease identifying current links.

It’s a well known fact the King Don Juwan Darmapala converted to Catholic and betrayed this country to gain the helm. There were many more who followed the trend and get posts, wealth and property in return to betray one’s religion and culture.

When we look at current political dynasties like ‘Jayawardana’, ‘Bandaranaike’, ‘Wijayawardana’ and ‘Wickramasingha’, all of their ancestors (fathers or grand fathers or in some cases themselves) are converted back to Catholic to Buddhism in post independence era. So somewhere in the ancestry their forefathers have converted from Buddhism to Catholic for petty gains and here they have gained all the wealth and power and converting back to retain their power in the era of ‘vote for all’.

The history clearly shows this vicious chain, and that is why JR wanted to keep away history from the people to hide their true story behind heritage of political ancestries.

When people are not aware of the prosperity of past, they can be satisfied with little,
When people are not aware of great heroes of history, any feeble clown can pretend as a leader,
When people are not aware of their great cultural values and roots, any imported junk can be sold to them,
And, when people of the country is not sure about their history, myths like 'Ealam' can be easily marketed in the community!!

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Back to the mercy of her own masters !!

16 Oct 2007

When King George of Britain which ruled this country up to 1948, abandoned our motherland, after absorbing all the nourishment and wealth, the local agents took up the continuation of their masters.

In 1995, the backbone less and ignorant people of this country paraded another queen from Britain named as Madam CBK.

It was unfortunate, but time and again CBK has proved to the nation that she had been marching in the foot steps of her ancestors Don Juan Dharmapala and Dona Catherina.

Recently, national news papers reported that CBK is going to sue against the government in the international court.

This clearly shows that she has no shame to continuing the curse against the nation even after kicked away from the helm.

It is unfortunate that, in the greed for the political and economical power, she has even forgotten the fact that she had been the president of the same country which she is now going to sue.

When ever these post colonial compradors are facing challenge, they always look for their masters in the western country. They know for sure that they have their master's favor in return to the dirty work they have done betraying their own motherland.

So CBK is not at all worrying in settling what ever her so called grievances in local judiciary system in which she was the head at time. She may thinks that our country's judiciary system is too small for a radala person like her, or may be she thinks that she is permanently reside in UK, it will be convenient for her to her own stuff in the west rather than coming down to this tiny land from time to time.

As a nation we all must bite our noses for letting this kind of cunning foreign agents to rule us for two consecutive terms !!

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Success of Google - Running the business in Buddhist way

12 Oct 2007

There is popular miss-conception in the society that the core values of Buddhism are hindrance to material success of individual or succeeding in business. The success of Google is a clear answer for this myth.

Google was not started by a businessman with mere profit in mind, but it began as a research project in January, 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California. They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques. So they turn their idea into a business.

"A lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison."
- The Buddha (Right Livelihood)

Democracy on the web works.
While other search engines like Yahoo was making money by both URL submit and search facility, Google never intended to make money from web site owners to get them undue preference in searching in return for their paying. Google identified that this will result in poor search experience for web search users. Google assesses the importance of every web page using a variety of techniques, including its patented PageRank™ algorithm which analyzes which sites have been "voted" the best sources of information by other pages across the web.

Simplicity is the power
The start starter/home page for the Google is one of the simplest web pages in the net. Ordinary people expect that when a company or person is growing, there need to be increase complexity. However, it’s amazing that Google keeping its simplest form in google search and they have adapted the same approach in products like GMail, Google Talk, etc as well.

Google's services are run on several server farms, each consisting of thousands of low-cost commodity computers running stripped-down versions of Linux which is contrary to traditional tend of using big super processor mainframes. So success of google search is based on power of large number of small processors than having big super processor.

You can make money without doing evil
Google is a business. The revenue the company generates is derived from offering its search technology to companies and from the sale of advertising displayed on Google and on other sites across the web.

"Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong livelihood as wrong livelihood, and right livelihood as right livelihood. And what is wrong livelihood? Scheming, persuading, hinting, belittling, & pursuing gain with gain. This is wrong livelihood.
- The Buddha (The Great Forty)

However, you may have never seen an ad on Google. That's because Google does not allow ads to be displayed on their results pages unless they're relevant to the results page on which they're shown. So, only certain searches produce sponsored links above or to the right of the results. Google firmly believes that ads can provide useful information if, and only if, they are relevant to what you wish to find.

Not flashy and hindrance to the user
Google has also proven that advertising can be effective without being flashy. Google does not accept pop-up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content you've requested.

Trustworthy and reliable
Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a "Sponsored Link." It is a core value for Google that there be no compromising of the integrity of our results. Google never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our search results. No one can buy better PageRank. Therefore users trust Google's objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.

Pleasant working experience
One of Googles key philosophy for employment is that “Work and play are not mutually exclusive”.

"In five ways should workers and servants as the lower direction be respected by an employer: by allocating work according to aptitude, providing wages and food, looking after the sick, sharing special treats, and giving reasonable time off work.
- The Buddha (Sigalovada Sutta)

Every Google engineer is encouraged to spend 20 percent (20%) of their work time on projects that interest them. Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News and orkut, originated from these independent endeavors.

Promoting Open Source
Google has recently formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program openoffice.org.

Google Code and Google Docs are two of the main project aiming toward free and open source culture.

If you're respectful by habit,
constantly honoring the worthy,
four things increase:
long life, beauty,
happiness, strength.
- The Buddha (Dammapada)

Ref:
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html&about=top10

- Dighajanu (Vyagghapajja) Sutta
- Buddhist Approaches to Present-day Problems
- The Buddha's Advice to Sigalaka

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Crows – The dirty animals that depends on garbage

10 Oct 2007

There is a bunch of people in Sri Lankan society which clearly resemble to crows which solely depend on garbage.

Their business is so called human rights and they will be profited only when they can convince the international community that there are huge violations of human rights in this country.

Whenever, there is UN general assembly or other important world summit, these crows pack up their junks and go there in advance. Then they start campaigning in those organizations to tarnish the image of our mother land.

They are consistently providing exaggerated statistics and reports on human right violations to UN organizations requesting for sanctions against Sri Lanka.

The darker the devil they can formulate on the image of our country, the larger the bag of money they get in turn.

The current leaders of this dirty gang are Sunila Abesekara, Nimalka Fernando and Rukshan Fernando.

There is large number of our mothers and sisters shed their sweat in Middle East countries and there are equally large number of youth laboring in garment industry and other industries in Sri Lanka. However, hard their livelihood, they are having dignity and have never been a burden for their mother land.

Life is easy for someone
shameless,
cunning as a crow,
backbiting and forward,
arrogant and corrupt,

but for someone who's constantly
scrupulous, cautious,
observant, sincere,
pure in his livelihood,
clean in his pursuits,
it's hard.
- Dhammapada (Malavagga)

Regardless of these NGO crows live in luxury and having political power, the history will record all of them as mere traitors.

In fact, it will be interesting to check the ancestral roots of these dirty crows and see if these shameless creatures are really the current joints of the same ancestry that has betrayed our mother land during the colonial period.

Crows always look for garbage and waste as their food and even if given an opportunity, those will never learn to depend on fruits or vegetation.

We all know that there are some other NGOs which are genuinely serving the country on moral basis and without any hidden agendas. However rather than being a dirty NGO activist of this nature, one would be better of finding a job in garbage collecting or being a cemetery keeper!
It is worth than being a traitor of one’s own country.

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Political starvation & selling of hunger

5 Oct 2007

This is a world where marketing plays key role and it is very important to live knowing this reality, or one will be miserably under the grip of this marketing society. We should aware that these marketing people will try to sell caps even to someone who does not have a head. Marketing is no longer selling consumer commodities and services, rather selling of everything including individuals, and no exception for ideologies and politicians.

Sometimes back, opposition leader Ranil Wickramasingha was spending most of his time meeting foreign leaders to get their support in ousting President Mahinda Rajapaksa in an international conspiracy. After failing to grab the power using foreign political forces, at last, Ranil has fallen back onto his own feet and these days he is walking from village to village and from market to market trying to sell hunger which is UNP’s new political commodity.

It is shamed that, throughout the history, hunger and food has been one of the key commodity in fooling the voters. “Giving eight pounds of grains for free”, “Bringing rice even from the moon”, “Giving bread at Rs 3.50” were few of the famous promises in the past. But we all know that those were mere promises to fool the ignorant voters.

These petty politicians who pretend as sympathetic for the people, never present a proper plan on ways to increase agricultural production, rather their short political history clearly shows their true attitude towards agriculture.

Like any other eastern countries, Sri Lanka culture has been raised on agriculture. Asian giants including China, India and Japan has always shown their due concern for agriculture in the march towards prosperity.

Only those political heads mold on western Anglican machinery thinks that agriculture is a hindrance to development or shameful profession.

A country must be developed based on its social and cultural roots considering its historical core strengths.

It is good to see that current government has shown great interest on these value propositions and come up with good action plan to develop the agricultural sector.

If every family has a well managed home garden, we should not even think of the term ‘hunger’. Of course, the image of ‘lumpant’ consumer developed by marketing sector that depends on sausages, fast foods and carbonated drinks may never be satisfied in any time.

It is well known fact that during world war II, people of Sri Lnaka willingly choose to depend on petty grains like 'Buddgerry'. It was a war faugt in the name of the king of Britain. Now we are wining the our own war against terrorism and why not sacrifice a bit in the name of our future generations! Throughout the history, Sinhalese have never been known to be greedy.

How they eat:
"Their Diet and ordinary fare is but very mean, as to our account. If they have but Rice and Salt in their house, they reckon they want for nothing. For with a few green Leaves and the juice of a Lemmon with Pepper and Salt, they will make a hearty meal. Beef here may not be eaten; it is abominable: Flesh and Fish is somewhat scarce. And that little of it they have, they had rather sell to get money to keep, then eat it themselves: neither is there any but outlandish men, that will buy any of them. It is they indeed do eat the fat and best of the Land. Nor is it counted any shame or disgrace, to be a niggard and sparing in diet; but rather a credit even to the greatest of them, that they can fare hard and suffer hunger, which they say, Soldiers ought to be able to endure."
- An Historical Relation Of the Island CEYLON - Robert Knox.

In the last election, people of this country decided that their head and spinal chord is more important than belly. We are now winning the war against terrorism which was branded as ‘miserable war’ by incompetent and feeble leaders. It is now the time for all Sri Lankans, including great farming community in Jafna, to come forward to win the fight against hunger and let the bankrupt politicians to keep on walking from market to market until their feet get wear and tear.

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The Law: Roman-Dutch mismatch in Sinhala Buddhist society

1 Oct 2007

Law is one of the corner stone of the society and we have been keeping the foreign Roman-Dutch law, even after sixty years since independence.

It is a shame for a country, having more than 75% of its population consist of Theravadha Buddhist, still relying on Roman-Dutch law which is based on Christianity.

Mechanism based on right to lie
Unlike the traditional eastern stream of law that is based on truthfulness and justice, Roman-Dutch law is completely based on mere debating based on right to defend and truthfulness play very little value there.

This western law system has introduced a third party named lawyer who can lie in all means to defend his client and he has no liability for that. Therefore, this system is based on sheer logic and it has very little concern for human values. In a nut shell, it is just a tussle between two licensed liars while the actual parties involved in the dispute are playing very passive role.

Buddhist culture based on moral values
The minimum moral basis of a Buddhist is the Five Precepts (Pañcasila). The standards set by the precepts are simple — no intentional killing, stealing, having illicit sex, lying, or taking intoxicants. It's entirely possible to live in line with these standards. Not always easy or convenient, but always possible.

Clear-cut
The precepts are formulated with no ifs, ands, or buts. This means that they give very clear guidance, with no room for waffling or less-than-honest rationalizations. An action either fits in with the precepts or it doesn't.
Right speech, a key element in middle path

"And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech."
— Buddha (Magga-vibhanga Sutta)

Lawyer (Professional Liar)
There are only few professions that directly conflict with the Five Precepts (Pañcasila) .
A butcher who kill animals, a robber who steal others property, a prostitute who involved in commercial sex, and lastly it is a practicing lawyer who has to lie (there is about 50% of chance that a practicing lawyer has to lie in the court each day!) in the (Roman-Dutch) courts. It is strange that while all the other stated professions are considered as shameful; still profession of law has still being regarded high in our society.

The lawyers are governed by code of conducts and ethics and one of the codes is that ‘they have to accept client regardless of him being the accuser or accused”, and of course, only one party will be innocent and lawyer whom is hired by other party has to defend his client by lying in all manner. Usually high earned lawyers are those representing for accused in murdering and other criminal acts.

In current Roman-Dutch law system every lawyer has no option but to obligate in this mechanism willingly or not !
The danger in lying

The person who lies,
who transgress in this one thing,
transcending concern for the world beyond:
there's no evil, he might not do.
- The Buddha, Itivuttaka (Kuddaka Nikaya)

It's not good,
the doing of the deed
that, once it's done,
you regret,
whose result you reap crying,
your face in tears.
- The Buddha, Dammapada (Balavagga)

I might argue that lawyer is profession and he is not lying for his behalf.

“chethanaham bikkawe kamman vadami” – The Buddha

The lawyer’s intention for lying is earn money and he is lying for money and he is clearly committing demerit act.
If doing sin as part of profession is allowed, the Buddha may have exempt butchers (who kill wage) and prostitutes (who sexually misconduct for money) as well.

Politics and Law
The bulk of the members of the parliament are lawyers, or in plain word, professional liars. It is no wonder lying is a principal in politics! It is the court that has taken away the fear of lying of these MPs. Because of the political power for lawyers, unlike butchers and prostitutes, this profession of liars has kept high status in the society. However, one thing that all the lawyers must remember is regardless of their social status, they have to face the natural law of the nature, the karma, in next lives.

What can we do?
It is lawyers themselves that lie, so the greatest responsibility is within the lawyers (if they really do not want to go to hell) to push to change this Catholic law system. All the Buddhists should unite and demand for law system which is based on core Buddhist values or at least for more reforms for the existing system so that it is based on truthfulness rather than power of lying.

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