My Space (aka SOB)

Cowrie shells and the unknown!

2011-12-16T13:42:00.000Z

Cowrie shells play an intimate role in west African society as it is often referred to as a source of divination since they play a part on the rituals and beliefs of many religions in the region.

The general pattern followed is that a number of shells are cast upon the ground after the practitioner invokes and saluted Orishas - a spirit. The pattern of the then cast shells are interpreted to convey a message.

In the recent past, out of curiosity I've gone and sat down with a couple of readers in the vicinity of Ouaga, one an elderly woman who is called by one and all as "Tanti" (Aunty) and the other an old man who lives in a mud hut a few km away in a little village.

The messages conveyed have been quite interesting to hear - and let me tell you that in both instances my decision to go see them were made on the spot, leaving no time for my guide to fill anyone up with any details about me.

Of the two however, the old man has impressed me the most nt only for the telling but for what he can do. Twice he's demonstrated something which I have absolutely no idea how he does it, even though I have tried to keep a close eye upon the ensuring events.

The first 'wonder' was when he fashioned a ring out of a piece of string, wrapped it up in a ball of paper and lit it up. Allowing it to burn for a few minutes he then extracted a metal ring from the burnt paper - and I have no idea how he did it.

On the second occasion he stuffed an empty tin with cotton waste, closed it and asked me to place my hand upon the lid and to speak out what my wish was.

I did, thinking out aloud what I needed. Taking my hand away he then opened the lid to now reveal it full of a black powder and absolutely no trace of the cotton. Having taken a smidgen of the powder out, he re closed the tin and tapped it twice, opening it to now revel the cotton back and the powder gone!

The readings themselves have been amazingly accurate, indicating the present and the future to come. Depended on the latter, the practitioner offers various ways of enhancing ones future or protecting against it, not that much different to how a someone with a similar practice would do so in SL.

All in all, I have to put this down in the list of things I dont know how they happen!

I'm still around....

2011-12-12T07:39:00.000Z

Its been a while since I've posted, been enough reason for this, so caught up in getting through 2011 that there has just not been the space to sit a reflect on something to type.

As I come to the end of another year I have to confess that this is easily one of the most outstanding one's I've had. Now, I need to make it clear that it has not been an easy one, instead, truth be told, its been one of the hardest one's to deal with, but amazingly I have never been happier.

First off, if anyone is reading this, early in the year I made the decision to quit my job because work suddenly began to feel like work, which was kind of messy because I like my fun. So I quit, just walked away with no idea of where I was going next. This act was shortly followed by the news that I had a new responsibility to take care of which resulted in me having to delay my retirement plans by 20yrs.

In between act one and two, an angel appeared and made me an offer I could not refuse, resulting in me deciding to take off on my own and set up shop. Which I did, and while things have not been easy at all and look like they are only going to get harder in 2012, I have been having fun again.

So all in all, its been a great year and I hope its been just as good for you too!

In closing, a few of the latest pics

Take a peek!

2011-06-07T17:47:00.001Z

Bang Bang and life goes on

2011-04-28T11:46:00.000Z

Sometime last night members of the Police force at one of the barracks on the eastern side of the capital stepped out on to the streets to roam the neighborhood firing in the air.

This the latest in a string of protests about pay and the rising COL that Burkina has seen in the last few months.

The police "mutiny" then spread to the barracks of the Republican Security Company who are billeted right in the middle of the city, just two blocks from where I am accustomed to work from and 5 blocks from where we live.

Its a surreal situation with an area of one block around cordoned off to vehicular traffic, those businesses in the vicinity shuttered and closed as periodically the sound of gun fire can be heard from within.Beyond that point though, life goes on - businesses opened, trucks unloading and loading goods. goods being moved from point to point.... and yet, not 500m away from all the hustle and bustle guns are going off.

We live in strange times

Travail's of living and working in Africa

2011-03-23T10:21:00.000Z

In addition to the hardship factor - lack of amenities, poor infrastructure etc. there is also the possibility of 'situations' developing either as a result of a crack down on protests or in fighting amongst the powers that be,

During the course of the last three weeks, students marched the streets in protest of a killing two months ago, burning tires, throwing stones. This resulted in ALL schools being shut down for a three week period.

Last night disgruntle elements of the army took the streets firing into the air in a protest of their own. 5 colleagues had been sentenced to 18 months in jail for assaulting a civilian, a judgement apparently they disagreed with.

From what I hear the shooting started around 11pm going on till the early hours of the morning. In the process shops looted, goods stolen as these elements ran through the centre of the city.

Going to work this morning, things seemed normal on the periphery, but shops remained closed in and around the Grand Marche. The only other indication really that things were not quite as they should be was the closure of Filling Stations.

As I stood there, a few meters away from ground zero the tension in the air spiked; people began running, throwing glances over their shoulders, car's screeched away, pandemonium as pavement hawkers threw their goods together - clothes, shoes, food - and joined the flow; tables disappearing in a twinkle made me think that this was a well practised routine.

Torn between taking out my camera and recording the events around me and the potential risk of doing so against the prosaic act of leaving actually took me some time to decide... I chose the later, deciding to return to the relative safety of my accommodation.

I don't quite know why I did that...

The latest is that these guys are threatening to hit the streets again this afternoon

I quit...

2011-03-11T13:30:00.000Z

Nov 2010

Over the last few months I've logged a few miles between here and Colombo, with a short trip across to Gay Paree

That trip was notable for nothing more than an opportunity to fly aboard an Airbus A380 and what an aircraft it is!!

Take off and landing barely noticeable on this 'Super Jumbo' so smooth is its flight. Seating 525 people in a typical 3 class configuration, to fly in one an experience indeed!

All that done, to the east and back, I am back in good O'le Ouaga, and pretty much happy to be so...

Mar 2011

Item #23 on my Bucket List was "to walk away from a job" something that I never really thought I would do, ever. Well, I did just that last week, and amazingly feel wonderfully liberated by the experience of having done so.

I love my job, its taken me to places I could never imagine, showing more of the world than I could ever hope for and all the time I've done it with a passion and a fire determined to do the best that I could. Ha, not for a moment did I imagine where life would take me when I sat for an interview with the State Plantations Corp so many years ago!

A job is worth doing only as long as its fun, I've always maintained that if you found something you loved to do, you would never have to work a day in your life, and to me, tea was just that. From the tea gardens of Sri Lanka, to China, Darjeeling, the Blue Mountains of the Nilgiri's, the gently undulating tea fields of Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, been there, seen it all.

So, making this decision was not an easy one, but there is always a time and a place for everything, and this was my time to move on, it felt right, it feels exactly right, so much so that I've taken to asking myself if I should be worried that I am not worried.

I've quit my job, walked away from it because corporate policies and people's agenda's were getting in the way of me having fun, doing something I loved doing. I upped and said now enough, deciding that for once, I would dictate the terms.

The first question of course is what I quit this for - the short answer is "nothing". I now have a little less than 45 days to figure this all out.

I'm free-falling, having taken the plunge without a parachute I'm enjoying this exhilarating feeling I have... and in spite of it all, I know that just before I hit the ground, there's gonna be a gust which will send me soaring up up and away, off on another adventure.

Salif Keita concert - 5 March 2011 In Ouagadougou

Handicrafts at a Trade Fair, Ouagadougou

High protein?

Regional traditional masks

Exquisite I thought

High fashion

Portraits

2011-01-17T18:22:00.000Z

Four African kids, four lives.... wonder where they will be 2yrs from now....

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here

2010-11-26T10:55:00.000Z

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. State how many you've read in the title. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - A thur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo- Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

A few recent pics

2010-11-09T15:26:00.000Z

Rainy season

2010-08-22T11:36:00.002Z

The last month has been spent more or less on the road, and the last two days were spent in finding my way from Freetown in Sierra Leone to Monrovia in Liberia. With no direct flights between the two cities even though they are adjoining countries I had no option but to take the land route, an interesting trip I was told

The drive from Freetown to Bo, SL's second city with a population of 150,000 was uneventful and would have been singularly boring if not for the landscape along the way. This trip by the way was done in a Mahindra Bolero, a vehicle that seemed to have been built sans a suspension - the seats reminiscent of those little wooden chairs we see in pre school class rooms. Bo is a commercial town, spotted with diamond merchants who buy rough stones and then sell them on to clients in Europe and Dubai.

From Freetown to Bo, Sierra Leone

Everyone works, irrespective of age - Sierra Leone

Colored bolts of clothe - Bo, Sierra Leone

From Bo the next morning we set off for Kenema, a 30mt drive from Bo, where we needed to take a ferry across a river. But this being the rainy season the ferry was grounded forcing us to take an alternate route through a 'lightly' populated part of the countryside and jungle.

For the next 8hrs we rocked back and forth, left and right as Alfa battled the Bolero and the muddy road that meandered its way through a lush green countryside, thickets of forests, paddy fields and neat little villages along the way. These little plots of habitation, many miles from anywhere struck me most for their cleanliness, neatly cleaned yards, swept paths, smiling people and children absorbed in their own little worlds as they played under watchful eyes. These are little kids with big responsibilities, carrying water, minding livestock, planting crops, taking care if even smaller kids. They carry knifes and axes with a dexterity that even I dont posses!

The road to Liberia - Sierra Leone

At Sierra Leone's immigration & emigration facilities 28km short of the actual border, we were greeted with smiles from everyone including a barefoot man in the traditional grab of a Muslim carrying an infant in his arms. As the officers flicked through my passport this amiable man strolled across to jest with me about my name. It was only then that it began to dawn upon me that this man was in fact the senior office of this post!

The actual crossing was over a bridge and a river that had broken its banks to flood the adjoining areas, including the Sierra Leone police post on the border! On the Liberian side were met by 'Big Dada' the immigration officer dressed in desert battle fatigues a patch with the Liberian flag sawn on the sleeve of his right arm - this made an impression upon me as it was so similar to a US flag barring the fact that it bore one lone star as opposed to fifty

Border crossing Sierra Leone to Liberia

The Liberian flag at Bo Waterside - Liberia

The drive to Monrovia Liberia's capital was on a well built tarred road, our journey interrupted only by frequet 'check points' which offered the officials manning them an opportunity to make a pass for gifts. This is something to be expected in a country where the population is supposedly getting by on an average of US$ 1.30 a day. And the economy is the USD, the most used form of currently everything is priced in US$ in spite fo the fact that Liberia has its own 'Liberty' dollar.

The effect of the civil war that raged across this country from 1989 to 2003 devastated the population and cities, refugees streamed into adjoining countries, US warships anchored off the coast, an ECOWAS Peace keeping force tried to keep the warring factions apart. Charles Taylor ironically is being tried not for what happened here but for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war even though it was his 1989 Christmas Eve invasion of Nimba Country with a few hundred rebels that tore this country apart.

The UN's military force (UNMIL) and a number of NGO's still manage a large part of the country, though Liberia's government is headed by Africa's first elected female president - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who came to head the nation in 2005.

There are still bullet holes to be seen in the facade of many buildings, abandoned buildings sit along side occupied ones, not much a difference between one or the other really except for a fresh coat of paint. Last night after dinner I stood by my hotel's door watching a torrent of water rage down along the street under the weight of a rain storm which lasted for three hours.

All said and done, there is yet a sense of liveliness in the people, smiles and animated chatter fills the streets, kids commandeer side streets for games of footie, like in the rest of Africa, the people still laugh and smile and face each day as a new one

Its not that I disappeared...

2010-08-03T16:10:00.001Z

but you know how it is, sometimes there just does not seem to be enough time to do all the things that you wanted to.

I've been a mite preoccupied, with work, with myself, just so that while I've been wanting to sit down and pen a few words, there just has been no spark as such to get me to do so.

Since Bamako I've been to Niger on a relatively uneventful trip - done that so often now that I tend to take it for granted. More recently I've been to Angola, Ghana and Togo with stops in Ethiopia just to make things interesting. Right now I'm in Lome, Togo penning these words as I wait for our client to free a few minutes to sit down and talk to me.

Over the last three weeks I've been in flights that have been mysteriously re routed adding three hours to what should have been just a 70 minute flight, taken all of two hours to cover 5km thanks to traffic in Luanda, and oh yes paid $260 for a hotel room!

On the fun side I've now added Ethiopean beer to the list of "All the beers I've drunk" - it was pretty foul - watched the action in an Addis dive bar, exchange pleasantries with two guys who spoke only Amharic, got through four different customs and immigration checks without getting hassled even once and drunk a spirit made of honey which I was told is quite similar to mead.

Tomorrow will, I trust, see me on my way back home for a couple of days before setting off again, this time to tour Niger, Sierra Leone and perhaps Liberia too if all goes well as planned.

All in all, the last two months have been busy ones and it looks like it will continue to be so for the next two... some R&R needed I think

Surreal at times

2010-06-22T09:24:00.000Z

Dinner last night was a surreal experience for me...

Too many hours in the sun yesterday left me with a light head and the lack of sleep in the previous 48hrs not much help anyway. But here I was sitting in this restaurant called Le Logon a few km outside of Bamako with my client and his brother.

We had met up again after spending almost the entire day in his office and walking the market in search of information. Conversation was general, bordering on the personal when he mentioned his intention to seek another wife - the two biggest issues he was apparently faced with in this quest was a) whom to select from a large number of potential mates and b) the need to build a second house - which he intended to share with just his new wife as opposed to his currant residence which includes wife #1, two kids of his own, his two brothers and their respective wife's and children.... the problems people have eh?

From what I gathered the quest was progressing well, and he seemed in no hurry to make a decision... but surreal really kicked in once the conversation slipped into religion; in this instance Buddhism and Islam

Now I'm one of those easy going types when it comes to religion, live and let live I believe and unless I am witness to an act of cruelty as defined by my perceptions, I tend to treat people the way I would they treat me.

And generally, when the person I'm talking with edges on intensity, I prefer to resort to nodding my head and making appropriate noises at appropriate moments.

When I mentioned that Buddhists did not have gods to believe in (yes I know, we have the Hindu ones) and that there was a cycle of re birth and accountability, things got interesting; I tend to be amused by people who while trying to convince me of the merits of their argument are unwilling to conceded that there might be other options - is this due to my practice of Buddhism and its call for compassion and tolerance? But then I know of so many others who claim to be better Buddhist and yet seem unwilling to be tolerant.

Take for example the issue of Buddha Bar and the general usage of the Buddha's image as art. I freely admit that I am quite taken up with his image used as art - in my own home I have wood carving hung on a wall, the 'Pièce de résistance' of all the trinkets I have - by currant SL standards I might be in big trouble!

It seems so silly really, who gave us the right to act in such a churlish manner - are we not expected be more tolerant, is it rather not better if we lived and changed people by example? These are the double standard issues that SL seems to be today - the national dressed politician with eyes cast down worshiping at a temple only to leave with tires screeching, tearing at breakneck speed along narrow roads and barely a care of a human or animal...

Tat's R Us

2010-06-19T07:20:00.000Z

I was thinking (and that act alone deserves some mention) inspired by Lady D and her Tat post if it would be a kindda of an interesting project to see what people actually thought were their tats of choice...

I wanted a tat to celebrate, well ‘me’ really, it was to mark a milestone along my life’s path and having gone through the phase of considering Chinese dragons and scantily attired vixens on my arm, I found myself looking at Celtic symbols after having read a Sci Fi story that touched upon the Book of Kells

What I ended up picking was the triquetra, a three pronged Celtic knot which offered broad interpretation for what it stood

The Celtics honored the Great Mother who had three personifications – the three lunar phases, other possibilities included:

- Spirit Mind and Body
Past, Present and Future
Thought, Emotion, Feeling
Power, Intellect, Love
Creation, Destruction and Preservation

For me the interpretation was the connection between mind body and soul, and that is one of two reasons for this to be my pick – the other reason is simply that I liked the design!

What I have is a stylized version of what’s above, which is a simple Celtic knot

BP you suck

2010-06-16T10:53:00.001Z

BP, you suck; and yes I know I enjoy all the fruits of your labour, that without you I cant sit in the comfort of a car and cruise around, and there might not be electricity, but you still suck

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Charlie-Riedel-Gulf-photos-grimly-resonate/ss/events/sc/060410riedeloilpix#photoViewer=/100603/480/urn_publicid_ap_org_a2affc09c1d543a6b61fd0dcbbb145c5

Surely there must be some way to do this without causing so much grief?

Confucious, he say:

2010-06-14T06:53:00.003Z

Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.

"An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger" Confucius

2010-06-13T07:43:00.005Z

Ususfructus

2010-04-21T07:41:00.000Z

It was just another day in Paradise, the sun rose, as it always did, the waves lapped against the shore, as they always did, life, went on, as it always did. But sinister moves were afoot, for a few, like those wee little pigs from 1984, were scheming - after all, the gods may have created man in his image but some men were more equelll than others were they not?

And so, with rhetoric and whispered sweet nothings, with promises of even greater pleasures (after all, this is paradise is it not?) to come, of claims to take paradise to the forefront, to be a miracle (of indefinite proportion) we the people were asked to pave the way for those few to tread upon the yellow brick road with the vague promise that we too would walk upon it...

Time of course will tell if this is to be so, if we everyday Paradisians will enjoy the fruits of our labour, walk the streets of New London like Dick Whittington where the streets were supposedly paved in gold - or if those fruits are to be enjoyed by other less industrious souls!

Or perhaps it will be a mere case of ususfructus - the right to the enjoyment of the fruits of a thing by one person, while the ownership belonged to another - this of course interpreted in true Paradisian style to accommodate the chosen few.

But the people have spoken, or at least seemed to. End result of course is that the little hut down by the fish pond is soon to be home to a band of some of the most interesting characters that we have seen fit to gather in that one place since 1948. If loose talk is to be relied upon amongst those few are drug barons, rapists, murderers, thieves of different hues, stars, some mind you barely out of their teens!

What then have the people said? That its OK to be an oaf? Perhaps, I'd like to think not, but then, what do i know eh?

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

2010-04-12T16:38:00.000Z

I was not gonna do this, I was gonna suck it up and just let those waves of heat wash over me...

But, given that the mercury hit a record high - and I caught it - I had to, especially since we dont have any power ether...

Its hot, made doubly terribly so by frequent prolonged power cuts.... its 30c at 5 in the morning and only gets warmer... 35c at 8 in the night!

So here I sit, my pores all open as the very moisture in my body is being sucked up into this vacuum. 3 - 4 litres of water a day just to keep up with the loss.... I don't know how people manage...

So I decided to see just how bad it can get.... and this apparently is it:


Month	Average Sunlight (hours)	Temperature				Discomfort from heat and humidity	Relative humidity		Average Precipitation (mm)	Wet Days (+0.25mm)
		Average		Record			Relative humidity
		Min	Max	Min	Max		am	pm

Jan	9	16	33	9	45	Medium	42	19	0	0.1
Feb	9	20	37	12	45	Medium	38	19	3	0.3
March	9	23	40	15	45	High	39	20	13	0.7
April	8	26	39	15	47	High	51	28	15	2
May	9	26	38	19	48	Extreme	65	40	84	6
June	8	24	36	17	44	High	73	49	122	9
July	7	23	33	18	41	High	78	62	203	12
Aug	6	22	31	14	38	High	81	67	277	14
Sept	7	23	32	19	39	High	79	60	145	11
Oct	9	23	35	18	41	High	72	44	33	3
Nov	9	22	36	16	42	High	58	30	0	0.2
Dec	8	17	35	11	45	Medium	46	23	0	0

What did happen?

2010-04-04T10:31:00.002Z

Reading the news yesterday the most shocking item was a report dated 3-4.2010 to the effect that President Rajapakse had used derogatory language in the course of a speech he made in Jaffna - Lanka Truth & Lanka News Web.

These remarks are attributed to his reaction to the crowd jeering him during the course of his teleprompted speech in Tamil, apparently due to them not understanding him.

The Sunday Times of today has a different spin to the tale, attributing the jeering to a Sinhalese segment in the crowd who jeered for the same reason

So, while two reports claim that he used language derogatory towards the Tamil community the third suggests him speaking in support.

As the president of a country made up of different ethnicities his excellency has an obligation to lead this nation with no favor of one group over another - it was this favoring of a majority in the past that lead us down a path that saw an entire generation of Sri Lankan's living through a bloody war which tore the very social fabric of this nation.

If the initial reports are true - and frankly though I am incredulous that a politician of his caliber would make such a statement under existing circumstance; this is after all a new Sri Lanka where laws, constitution, common decency is tormented daily, anything is possible - its shocking, If what actually happened is a distortion, it make the reporters no better than the government propaganda machine

Will we ever find out what exactly happed that day in Jaffna?

Micro finance anyone?

2010-04-03T10:09:00.000Z

Can anyone suggest a micro finance organisation that may be in need of funds?

I've come across a possible source and would be happy to point a suitable organisation in the right direction

Explore Sri Lanka

2010-03-31T17:48:00.002Z

I've been reading posts about trips to the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka over the last few weeks, seems that many a 1000's are traveling to areas that have been virtually out of bounds to an entire generation and I'm so wanting to join in!

My last trip to Batticaloa would have been about 9 - 10 yrs ago, a drive I'm not likely to forget as I started the trip on a Thursday evening after work. Just getting out of Colombo was a nightmare, upto Kandy, on to Habarana and onwards. And I did this in a Toyota Cynos - the closest I've ever been to driving a 'sports' car! It was an eerie sensation I remember, driving along in darkness along roads not traveled upon before.

In 2003 I took the night mail to Vavuniya, and bussed it from that point onwards to Jaffna - that too was a surreal experience and one I am unlikely to forget in a hurry.

My only regret is that at the time I really didn't have a camera - I cant think why not, oh well; memories I do have.

So, lets see, what would my dream trip be...

A week on the road, driving up along the East Coast - from Arugam Bay up to Batticaloa, Pasi Kuda, on to Trincomalee, from there to Jaffna, Delft Islands (is that possible?) back down to Mannar and further along the Western Coast, two weeks maybe?

A few years ago I took the coastal road upto Puttalam and on to Anuradhapura - that stretch of road was awful at the time and I berated myself for choosing to do so at the time - those pot holes!

This post is actually going no where, but I wanna go anyway

35.5C

2010-03-29T19:11:00.001Z

The end of a financial year is close upon me and looking back I got to say, I'm not too happy with the results - the impact of the global economic slow down cut into my performance by as much as 50% taking me back to trading levels of 2007/08.

Any improvement is slow in coming due to multiple factors - increase in material cost, a weakening Euro and a gaining US$, whatever anyone else says, I dont think we are clear yet; the fundamentals look wrong, no matter how much of a positive face the experts try to keep.

It was not really surprising then to read that a leading Telecommunications provider in SL was cutting back due to the "economic crisis" - interestingly, most of the previous communique from this entity till I saw this article has generally been positive.....

Its 19:05, Monday evening and 35.5 degrees Celsius, warm eh? There were a couple of cool days, much appreciated, last week, but the temperature is back with a vengeance, sigh...

BTW, my ATM card, which worked so well over the last two years has stopped - Inability to access one's salary has its obvious advantages, but me starving to death may make enjoying it later difficult.... the cloud in the silver lining eh?!

Take care all

Ha ha ha...

2010-03-22T17:26:00.000Z

To all those mean Moms

2010-03-14T10:01:00.001Z

Including my own - thank you

Mean Moms

Someday when my children are old enough to

understand the logic that motivates a parent,

I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me:

"I loved you enough to ask where you were going,

with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you

discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to stand over you for

two hours while you cleaned your room,

a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger,

disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children

must learn that their parents aren't perfect..

I loved you enough to let you assume the

responsibility for your actions even when the

penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough to say

NO when I knew you would hate me for it”

Those were the most difficult battles of all.

I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.

And someday when your children are old enough to

understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them.

Was your Mom mean?

I know mine was.

We had the meanest mother in the whole world!

While other kids ate candy for breakfast,

we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch,

we had to eat sandwiches.

And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was

different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times.

You'd think we were convicts in a prison.

She had to know who our friends were

and what we were doing with them.

She insisted that if we said we

would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it,

but she had the nerve to break

the Child Labor Laws by making us work.

We had to wash the dishes, make the beds,

learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry,

empty the trash and all sorts of cruel

jobs.

I think she would lie awake at night

thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth,

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

By the time we were teenagers,

she could read our minds

and had eyes in the back of her head.

Then, life was really tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk

the horn when they drove up

They had to come up to the door

so she could meet them.

Because of our mother we missed out

on lots of things other kids experienced.

None of us have ever

been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's

property or ever arrested for any crime..

It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults.

We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what's wrong with the world today.

It just doesn't have enough mean moms!

Holi Party

2010-03-08T12:42:00.001Z

A praying mantis, in Obama's footsteps and fantasy coffin's

2010-03-06T16:16:00.001Z

I’ve been on the road for the last one week, traveling to Ghana and back. This is always a trip made with some sense of trepidation given the distance, the very ‘enthusiastic’ cops one encounters on Ghana roads not to mention the driving conditions.

The road for the greater part of the 1000 odd kilometers is in good shape, interspaced at some points by road conditions that would challenge an Audi qQuarto on a rally drive; and then of course there are the huge container trucks and taxi drives to keep an eye open for.

The trip to Accra takes me two day’s – I try to cover between 600 to 700 km on day one, Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city my target where I gratefully take a shower before dropping off to sleep. This time I was treated to a wonderful thunder storm and fell asleep to the sound of rain drumming on the tin roof a few feet above my head – the first rain I’ve seen in 5 months!

I had a little trip planned for the next day, instead of heading directly for Accra I was gonna make a detour to Kakum, a 300 sq km rainforest close to the coast which boasted a canopy walkway. Six suspension bridges 40m above the jungle floor, this walkway offered a bird’s eye view of the rain forest.

Kakum boasts a myriad of fauna – forest elephants, monkeys, 400 verities’ butterfly’s and at least one Praying Mantis! Sadly, except for the last I was not to see anything else.. I suspect that the canopy walkway is too close to human activity to have much of the forest creatures in the vicinity.

With time to spare the next stop was the Castle at Cape Coast – one of the largest slave trading centers’ in West Africa. Converted into a castle in 1637 by the Dutch it was subsequently enlarged by the Swedes and then changing hands five times over a 13yr period until 1664 when it fell into the hands of the British. For the next 200yrs it was the headquarters of the colonial administration until Accra was declared the new capital in 1877.

The tour takes one from the bowels of the castles slave pens to the gate of no return and from there to the windowless double locked cell of the condemned where ‘reluctant’ slaves were starved to death as a lesson to others.

My next stop was a casket manufacturer a few km away from Accra. For over 50yrs now a group of specialized coffin makers have been turning out fantasy coffins in some amazing shapes and sizes too! An elaborate funeral is a status symbol with families spending more on one that they do on a wedding, and these 'fashion statements' for the afterlife one of the more obvious ways to do so.

The norm is that a fisherman choosing a boat or perhaps a fish, a truck driver a copy of the vehicle he drove in this life... lions, stools, crows, a coke bottle and while I visited even a cooking pot was in the making - the 'occupant' to be placed in a near fetal position apparently!

My fav though had to be this old camera!

On the way back I came across the tallest termite mound yet - the black strip is 5'5" -so by my reckoning, this mound was a little over 12'

Till the next time folks.....

If you think it hot...

2010-02-20T07:55:00.000Z

Ah, now I get it!

2010-02-17T10:03:00.002Z

Two mice at opposite ends of the cat spectrum are at it in a bar.

Each one is a stanch believer, one that cats are bad, the other that cats can do no wrong.

The pro cat mouse finally brings the argument to an end by saying

"Whatever you say about cats, you got to admit, they have style"

Now, do you get it?

Isn't it lovely!!

2010-02-17T06:42:00.002Z

Just a look around whats in the news over the last few days really warms the cockles of the heart... its great to be a Sri Lankan in this day and age

Reading an AP release from the UN in Geneva it was good to see our country stand up in support of Tehran's conduct during their recent election citing the achievements they have made in promoting culture, education and health care rights; we Cuba, Venezuela and even Nicaragua

And I am so looking forward to having the internet policed - perhaps I can finally stop getting spamed with sms's wishing me a wonderful future; I really don't need them, really, I can read the writing on the wall just as well as the the other person. What I've garnered so far is that is our Far Eastern friends, all the way from China who are gonna help us with this - they already have a wealth of experience in this area - just ask google, those capitalistic, freedom of speech nonsense promoting whatchama call them's!

Did you know that in Urumqui, the capital of Xinjiang province some chaps are having to drive a 1000km to send an email? I kid you not!! I think its great that the Chinese government is so keen to encourage people to travel - you get to see the country, meet people..... hey, just think of the time you get to spend out of office!!!

The one cloud in my otherwise perfect blue sky was the possibilities of those saffron robed monks gathering the shadow the of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy... I mean what were they thinking? But thats history because, citing security, the convention has been called off. They should have thought about these things no, after all, the state of emergency was extended was it it not?

And what was the EU thinking when they withdrew the GSP = Trade benefits to SL? Why should they want to nitpick about something so trivial, I mean this is our culture no, we have had kings (from 543BC to 1815) and serfs and might has always been right, so what do they know? You cant argue with 2500 years of culture!

And for all those unpatriotic people out there who complain about illegal detention, worry no more! The IGP announced not one but four new detention centres making public the locations - no one can say GOSL is not transparent!

The UN, and they should I think, distanced themselves from a former staffer who claimed that as many as 40000 died in the last few days of our joyous victory - we won, so forget it, lets look forward to a bright future. Interestingly, and I wonder if this is some subtle ply they added that "While we maintained internal estimates of casualties, circumstances did not permit us to independently verify them on the ground, and therefore we do not have verifiable figures of how many casualties there were,”

Fence sitters!! They should take a page out of that illustrious proud son of the soil, non other than the Defense Secretary who recently stated that he knew for sure that ex presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was ' “In fact, I know for sure. He was definitely responsible for 5 or 6 cases [of disappearances] where media people were involved,”. No ambiguity there folks!

Think about it people, why else would Sanath be contesting, do you think he would put his cricketing career at risk if he did not believe in these great and wonderful times?!!

In closing let me cite a non resident Sri Lankan who penned a letter confirming that Sri Lanka is not in turmoil. Mark his words dear reader - who better knows how things are than those of us who live abroad and yearn to be back home in that paradise isle of ours...

The heat is on...

2010-02-15T08:15:00.003Z

Its not just in SL that things are hotting up, Burkina is making the transition to the hot season - this fortunately is a natural event...

It's starting warm up, nights are in the low thirties, dropping into the high 20's towards dawn..

Boiled eggs with a little pepper and chillies, a popular snack/ meal on the streets of Ouaga

This huge monument Lat: 12°18'43.43"N Lon: 1°30'9.31"W) built to celebrate heroes . It lies in the new 'Ouaga 2000' development, the newly created enclave for the elite - including the Presidential Palace ( Lat" 12°17'26.28"N Lon: 1°30'9.84"W). Its an impressive structure, but saddening that when so many people live on a mere $ a day, there is money enough to spend on things like this.

One of Burkina's secrets, available for just a few weeks in January and February. At Rs 360 a kilo, you can imagine that I'm eating a lot of them these days!!

Is it too much to ask for?

2010-02-09T12:55:00.003Z

One thing I've noticed and I find this quite fascinating is the argument that worse things happened in the past.

This is certainly a twist to that 'in the good old days' line that old uncles and aunties, grand ma's and pa's use when taking a walk down memory lane reminiscing about times gone by to their grandchildren!

Perhaps I'm naive, I might be, but its my thinking that we should know better now than we did, that we learn by what we did, that knowing our history we avoid repeating the same mistakes.

But then, WWI was referred to as the War to End All Wars wasn't it, and yet a mere 21 yrs later the word was at it again...

In our recent past we've seen our nations resources squandered, our men and women slave away in the Middle East - which in turn has changed the social fabric of this country - a 30yr conflict, insurgency, people shot, maimed, blown up, kidnapped, tortured, families wiped out, driven insane... our economy has surged, slumped, sunk, queues for bread, for rice, for fuel, we've seen beggar's become kings, tri shaw drivers become Mayors, some have earned their wealth, others stole it, some did it legally, others did it somehow, we've seen Buddhist monks march in protest, amass wealth, sit in Parliament, been spat at, beaten, shot - not for their religious beliefs but for their political ones mind you - what have we not?

What do I think? I think we should know better by now, I think we should be able to look back at our past and say enough, we will not repeat the mistakes. Is there really no place for compassion and kindness and integrity and honesty in this day and age of ours? Are we not better people to know that just because someone else did this or that, it does not make it any righter for us to follow suit in retaliation?

That there were 'Cat's of varying hue in the past is no justification for the presence of White vans today, barb wire in pvc pipes, corpses strewn across the streets strung up against lamp posts, nothing not then not now not tomorrow can justify any of that!

What do we really want? To prosper, to see our children grow up in a land that offers them so much more than it did us... A house to live in to call my own, enough to feed, cloth , educate, shelter my children, to be able to walk from North to South, from East to West without fear, to know that this is our land and that I am protected by my government, the government that we elected to give us a better today and tomorrow, a government that protects me, my right to a better life, my right to express my views and thoughts freely.

Is this too much to ask for?

Perhaps this is a good time to quote par of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, for many have died in in this island nation of ours, in wars between kings, against foreign invaders, for independence, in uprising, in suppression, blood split, families destroyed...

...as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth

This is not about the color of one's political affiliation or sympathies, this is about what is right and what is wrong... might is not right if the cause is unjust, its still wrong to steal, now matter if you call it a facilitation fee, or grease or whatever, its wrong to abuse your power for personal gain, it is and I dont think anyone can say otherwise

Where would we be, honestly, where would we be if the people we elected actually conducted themselves in a fair and just manner, putting country ahead of personal wishes or gain?

Less beggar's for sure.... and perhaps not so many nobles

The silence, is deafening

2010-02-09T08:18:00.004Z

First they came for the Jews

and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists

and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

German theologian, Martin Niem”ller

Its interesting to note that Niem''ller was at the start a conservative and a supporter of Hitler. A navel officer, he initially welcomed Hitler's accession to power in 1939, believing that it would bring about a sense of national revival.

While in prison, having been tried for 'activities against the State" he was once asked why he had supported the Nazi Party. His response:

"I find myself wondering about that too. I wonder about it as much as I regret it. Still, it is true that Hitler betrayed me. I had an audience with him, as a representative of the Protestant Church, shortly before he became Chancellor, in 1932. Hitler promised me on his word of honor, to protect the Church, and not to issue any anti-Church laws. He also agreed not to allow pogroms against the Jews, assuring me as follows: "There will be restrictions against the Jews, but there will be no ghettos, no pogroms, in Germany."
I really believed, given the widespread anti-Semitism in Germany, at that time—that Jews should avoid aspiring to Government positions or seats in the Reichstag. There were many Jews, especially among the Zionists, who took a similar stand. Hitler's assurance satisfied me at the time. On the other hand, I hated the growing atheistic movement, which was fostered and promoted by the Social Democrats and the Communists. Their hostility toward the Church made me pin my hopes on Hitler for a while.
I am paying for that mistake now; and not me alone, but thousands of other persons like me."

Strange how history keeps repeating itself....

Harmattan

2010-02-07T18:56:00.003Z

The Harmattan is the dry West African winds that blow from the Sahara between November and March.

Dry AND dusty, these winds can blot the entire sky out for days, turning sun light into a blinding haze. The dust seeps in everywhere, clothes inside the house and car.... irritating the throat and lungs, making life less than fun... but the winds also ensure a coolness that will be missed with the advert of the hot season when temperatures will soar to the mid 40's!

President for a day.... have your say

2010-02-02T17:43:00.006Z

Picked this up off the BBC's Network Africa - which gives everyday Africans an oppertunity to broadcast their inaugural speech as 'President for a Day'

With no futher ado then, here's mine

"Its with humility I accept this responsibility that you the citizens of Suba Anagatheyak have placed upon me in electing me to this position and in doing so I am fully aware of the obligation I have to fulfill your dreams and aspirations to make this beautiful land of ours a better place and a true paradise

No one man can bring us into the light, rather it is as one that we will lift ourselves out of the darkness into a tomorrow that will see our children grow free of fear, in a land of opportunity.

There is much to be done, we cannot think for even a moment that all will now be well, we have merely taken the first of many steps required for us to go forward.

With your support, with your help, together, as Suba Anagatheyan's we will succeed.

We will start by focusing on increasing the government's income, reducing expenditure, rationalizing our government to ensure that there is no overlap of functionality and responsibility. All the members of this government and the people who work for it will be held responsible and accountable for their actions.

Our tolarance for corruption will be zero, and with this goal ahead of us, it will be mandotary for all senior public servants, Members of Parliament, members of this cabinet and their immediate families to declare their assets, with no exception

Steps will be taken to free the Judiciary to act independently in ensuring that this country will progress within the framework of our constitution, free of any interference In time to come, every institution that makes up the backbone of this nation will be held accountable to act in an independent and fair manner while discharging their responsibility to all citizens.

Developing our agricultural sector, education, health and power will take priority, as will ensuring freedom of speech and allowing an independent media

All Suba Anagathyans will have the right to fair and equal treatment irrespective of ideology, ethnicity, religion, from this day forth we will all be guided by the morals and principles of wisdom, compassion, kindness, by treating others as we would they treat us"

An open invite one and all, lets hear what you would say!

2010-02-01T10:34:00.000Z

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)

A rose by any other name is still, a rose

2010-01-30T14:19:00.003Z

Does anyone know...

2010-01-29T11:15:00.003Z

....how much and where all the money for the presidential election came from?

I'm not asking about the cost of the election in terms of printing the ballots, logistics involved, for which I presume the Election Commissioner has a budget and some form of accounting exists.

No, I want to know how much each of the two main candidates spent and where that funding came from. I've read, unsubstantiated claims that its million and even billions... so, where is it from?

There is a motive in asking this seemingly naive question - on the day of the election, 60 patients at the Nephrology unit in Kandy were faced with the possibility of being turned away due to the lack of 'disposable diacap dialyzers', each one apparently costing the princely sum of Rs 1500/-, so for the want of Rs 90,000 in the backdrop of this election when unimaginable sums of money were being sent on posters, hoardings, tv and radio ads, breakfast, lunch and dinners and what not!

On a related but different platform I read that our cabinet costs a whooping 4 billion rupees annually - their 'official' perks include 2 official and one security vehicle, an incentive for participating for a parliamentary session AND another participating for a select committee, monnthly rental allowance for each minister who is not provided with an official residence in Colombo, fue, official and pesonal mobile 'incentives', unlimited amount of idd and local calls from the ministry official telephone, 3 computers and unlimited Internet access, 4 secretaries for media, personal, coordinating, and public relations.

(If anyone can correct my figures, please do by all means, they are mere numbers I've picked up from here and there and would be happy to have the correct numbers)

Just where does this money come, I mean the campaign funds? Business interests are one source I presume, the rest personal wealth, running into the billions?

And 60 people go home for the lack of funds...

Leave your comment it said

2010-01-28T06:18:00.007Z

I was reading this post, I think it was about that cartoon Lion King, it was nice, very enlightening, so much so that I was prompted to add my two cents worth, after all, it was open to the public, I thought the author might like to see some dissenting comments.

So I did, making note of the little thingamy at the top where this specific blogger had requested that

"Have your say. Politeness and proper upbringing reflecting in your reply will be noted and much appreciated"

Fair enough really, after all we are all entitled to an opinion and in these times of enlightenment, the least one expects from anyone I suppose is politeness

But you know, being middle aged and with way too much time on my hands I've developed a sense of the person behind the words; and somehow this one did not quite jell together.

Never mind I thought, after all, comment's have been invited, else why blog and promote it - if you were narcissist and just liked the sound of your own voice, one would restrict ones public appearance's to singing in the bathroom and writing ones thoughts in toothpaste on the shaving mirror

So I did

Why then was I not too surprised when the response to my comment was in the style which I understand is quite popular in our parliament these days?

Actually, it was quite an eye-opener, obviously into the character of the author. I would have expected such a retort from someone who was either terribly constipated or at the least, had been shat upon by a very large elephant.

This then must be a "true" lion/lioness of Sri Lanka!

"Please f’off from my blog both of you. Piss off I say, I have nothing for you here."

It amazes me just how fast people revert to type specially when they have no real rational, 'adult' response to a situation - reaction, probably a knee jerk one, is to mouth foul language while spraying saliva all over the place... most uncouth

Somehow I don't think I'll be reading that blog again.... I would find it terribly painful to urinate while copulating for one thing, and seriously, just how seriously can you take someone who wont even abide by the very guidelines of his/ her own blog?

PS: You're all welcome to comment here, and you can be rude if you like, I'll probably just delete the really bad stuff, if any, without bothering to be rude right back at ya!!!

A stranger's generosity

2010-01-27T13:22:00.006Z

I was witness to an act of generosity which while completely unexpected, did not really surprise me given the person it was. Yesterday while chatting with a friend in SL, he happened to tell me that the Nephrology unit in Kandy was facing a crisis, that due to the lack of funds, 60 patients requiring dialysis would be turned away. My response was to stick the appeal on my Face Book and here on the blog and to be honest, I thought that would be the end of it.

This morning I find a note on FB for me to get in touch with K, a client and friend who lives down on the coast. Well I do, to hear that he's seen my post and he wants to help. To cut a long story short, the end result was that KS made a donation to cover the entire cost involved in treating those 60 people, people he's never met, in a country he's never been to and please note, he's not even a Sri Lankan!

K is a practitioner of Pranic Healing, a follower of the spiritual teacher Grand Master Choa Kok Sui, under whom he has studied

My interest in pranic healing came from two different directions, one obviously based upon my association with K and the other, unexpectedly, through a Tibetan Mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum which as I was to discover was a subject upon which the Grand Master Choa Kok Soi had written.

As I read his thoughts on this I came across to things which struck me for their simplicity - The Law of Karma and The Golden Rule as he referred to them

The Law of Karma

"You can control your future by using the Law of Karma. The Law of Karma gives you the ability to create your own destiny"

Karma is not fatalistic he claims, if all you have to eat is rice, its because that's all you planted; if you had planted wheat, potatoes and tomatoes you have a choice. You harvest only what you sow

The Golden Rule

In its 'yang' form states " Do unto others what you would have them do unto you" - to receive you should give, if you desire prosperity then practice charity and giving.

In its ying form "Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you" if you don't want to be cheated or swindled, then treat others with honesty and fairness.

Seems straightforward really, not rocket science at all...

In closing, my thanks to K, for what he did today, I'm humbled by his example, proud that I can call him a friend and encouraged to be a better person by his example.

The next 24hrs

2010-01-27T09:20:00.006Z

Me thinks that the events of the next 24hrs will be a fair indication of times to come...

So far I read that

Matara Wimalananda Thero of the Sri Bodhirajaaramaya Pirivena at Thambiligala at Nawalapitiya has been shot dead and that a Police curfew has been imposed in Gampola and Nawalapitiya
Rumours to the effect that the Election Commissioner, Dayananda Dissanayake has been detained.
That Mangala Samaraweera and Prebath Jayasekara of Matara, are being held under house arrest
Supposedly an unidentified group had shot at UNP Parliamentarian for Kurunegala Akila Viraj Kariyawasam this morning
Sarath Fonseka is appealing for people to come to Lake House

I want peace and prosperity for Sri Lanka, for all of us, I hope for good governance by people with principles, with compassion and integrity, I hope for a better tomorrow...

Of more immediate importance is that as a result of a donation by someone who's not even a Sri Lankan"...will pay for about 37 capillary dialyzers and 37 patients out of the sixty patients due tomorrow - travelling from all corners of the country - for dialysis at the Kandy Nephro Unit - will not be turned away"

Just when I lose my faith in the inherent goodness of people, I'm reminded that there are truly generous, good people out there, who in their own little way, can and do make a difference

Nephrology unit faces crisis

2010-01-26T12:25:00.003Z

I hear that the Nephrology unit in Kandy is facing a crisis. There apparently isn't a single disposable Diacap dialyzer for dialysis of the sixty patients due tomorrow.

Each Diacap dialyzer is Rs 1500/-. The Kandy Kidney Protection Society is trying to raise Rs 100,000/-urgently.

If you can or know someone who could help please contact:

http://kandykidneycare.org/contact_info.htm

Say's so much about our government, that our health care is in such a state when millions go wasted by them, to line their own pockets and bend elections in their favor

Gardawa - Traditional African meets jazz

2010-01-22T08:56:00.005Z

On my last trip to Niger I found a CD by 'The Gardawa', a group consisting of Nigerien and European musicians who, together, fuse afro beat and jazz to form traditional Niger music with Western undertones. Lead by Garba Ali the group includes

Sani Tankari: Tambari, vocals
Mahamadou Naban: Karbou, vocals
Chrystelle Lanaute Blanc: Flute
Lukas Aimard: Bass
Jean-Marc White: drums, percussion
Nicolas Corradi: alto sax, soprano sax
Matthieu Mollard: keyboards, melodica, drums

Have three of their clips on skydrive if you wanna hear them

Accidents happen

2010-01-18T06:09:00.002Z

The people you meet

2010-01-17T16:45:00.002Z

On a long drive this morning I had time enough in hand to contemplate about the different people we met on this trip....

There were 6 Americans, 2 Australians, 5 French 2 Norwegians and the two of us Sri Lankan's plus the 5 Malians who made up the crew and guides.

I'll start with the Norwegians, father and son traveling together, the sons first time in Africa' his father's 4th or 5th time. The old man was definitely someone fun to talk with, with his dry sense of humor and his ability to play a lively tune on a harmonica he was indeed good company.

The French were French, typically so except for two of that set a mother and son this time. The mother was awesome, 65yrs old and I wish I was as fit as she was. Quite little thing, she was fastidious in her neatness, quick to wipe the table if something spilled, carefully wiping f the top of bottle s before closing them, a wonderful woman!

The two Australians were a married couple, the guy a horticulturist and his wife a butterfly breeder! Their free time spent traveling the world, sometimes taking three or four trips to cover a country properly.

Of the Americans there were two that struck out for their extremes - one an extrovert, a young guy who it seemed was experiencing everything for the first time, so up beat was he about anything that happened, as long as it was happening to him. He's apparently on his way to SL to oversee a project to build better ties between communities with Government funding provided to a son of a priest....(?)! I'm sure he's a nice guy, I just did not have the inclination to really sit down and find out.

Which brings me to the person who impressed me the most. This guy, from day one, sat in one corner of the boat, didn't move except to get on and off, hardly spoke, his entire demeanor was one of such great intensity.

My first brush with him was when he popped in front of me just as I was about to take a photograph, mildly annoyed at the intrusion I kept my peace more so because it struck me that he seem the better photographer. Later on I happened to ask him for his help, which he most kindly did, transferring some of my pics onto a flash drive. As we waited for the transfer I happened to inquire what his line of work was - Actor he replied... and apparently a guy who's played roles with Al Pacino, Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Miachel Keaton, Charlie Sheen and Keanu Reeves! I Googled him later and to my surprise discovered that this guy was not only an accomplished photographer and actor but also American singer-songwriter, raconteur, spoken word artist, writer, publisher, radio DJ, and activist! And since then, when I've mentioned meeting him to a few American's they all go "No way, did you really meet him?!"

I did, and a more unassuming, calm person you could not meet - which is really really hard to balance with the fact that he is also this Punk Rocker, and since then I've found that beneath those long sleeves he wore everyday were some pretty impressive tattoos!

I could not but help compare one American against the other, that the one who had so much to talk about hardly volunteered a word.... I kind of liked the guy...ah, the people you meet

Quote of life....

2010-01-15T17:28:00.000Z

SUCCESS is just like being pregnant, everybody congratulates you, but
nobody knows how many times you were fucked.

At last!

2010-01-14T08:29:00.004Z

The pics from the trip are up on FLICKR

Timbuctu - Desert City

2010-01-12T21:23:00.012Z

Arriving late at night there was little to see of this almost mythical city - a shower was of greater importance to be honest; after 72 plus hours on a Pinnase with limited water in spite of the River n which we traveled, a shower was no longer a luxury!

* Sunrise in Timbuktu

The next day we toured the city, picking up on the way a stamp in my passport and a few trinkets - Tuareg crosses - seeing old manuscripts, hand written copies of the Koran centuries old, the autobiography's of long deceased holy men. walking amongst the alleyways of the older part of the city was like stepping back in time, it was easy to imagine that I was no longer in 2010 but in a place 200 yrs or more on the past.

* An ornate door

* Artwork on an ancient manuscript

* My first Tuaregs

Sadly, this year's festival was to be a let down in spite of the fact that it was its 10th edition. Up till now, since its inception the Festival au desert has been held 65km away in Essakane, a desert oasis further north which served as an annual meeting place for the nomadic Tuareg - a Berber nomadic pastoral people. They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa.

Citing security the Festival was moved on short notice to Timbuktu, to be celebrated in conjuncture with celebrations for Mali's 50th independence anniversary and 15 years if culture and tourism in the city proper - the end result was a chaotic event with poor crowed control on the first day, mismanaged sound on the second and music that, in my opinion, was more for city folk than the nomads it was supposed to be for.

* Arrivals

* The stage in the making

But, I was there and while I was not to experience the festival as it was, I would as it is - and I did! I had traveled for 5 days by car and boat, slept under the stars, watched life along the river as it had been for centuries, I was here in a city that many think does not exist, I was there, at the edge of the Sahara in Timbuktu!

Over the next three days I wandered happily around, camera in hand, listening to music from the likes of Tinariwen, Annane Sye, Rhissa Ag Wanagli, Tartit Mamar Kassey, Mangala Camara, Amadou & Mariam, Vieux Farka Toure, Oumou Sangare and more. I haggled with Tuaregs, sitting on the hot desert sands sipping minute cups of chai, sat on a dune at sunrise to watch the sun come up, thinking about one of my favorite books - The Little Prince - dosed away the afternoon heat sprawled out in a Tuareg tent, sipped a cold beer as the sun set, watching the shadows deepen and feel the temperature plummet

I had been to Timbuktu

Tuareg's

2010-01-12T17:34:00.002Z

To Mopti and down the Niger

2010-01-12T08:12:00.013Z

* Milepost

The route to Mopti from Ouaga passes through Ouahigouya 187km along a paved road and then on to Tiou the last village in BF onto Koro in Mali Bankass, Banidiagara - a journey of 480 odd km; 200 of it on dirt!

*Cattle Herder

* The dirt road

* Looking back

Our initial plan was to spend the night in Bankass, rest the car given is temperament, but on crossing the border I discovered that there was a Dogon Festival in Bandiagara and decided to push on there - a decision I was to be quite pleased about given the spectacle we were witness to that evening!

That day we were treated to Dogon dancers, Dogon hunters and most impressive of all a glimpse of Dogon Masks - Dogon culture is filled with mysticism, folklore and rituals, their religion based upon animism. Dogon's knowledge of astronomy superseded western knowledge - in the 1930's two Frenchmen interviewed four Dogon priests were told of a companion star to Sirus - a star that was only discovered in the 1970's!

* Masked Dancer

* Head dresses

* Stunning

* Playing with fire

* Dogon Hunter

* Drummer

* Drum

* Tarmac - after 200km of dirt!

* Cattle

Mopti is one of West Africa's busiest river ports, a bustling city with a population of 105,000. Boats from here go to Timbuktu serving villages up and down the Niger river. We had a day here to walk about and explore the city before meeting the group the next day. Mopti's Grand Mosque built in 1933 and subsequently restored in 2007 towers over the old city. A beautiful building it is sadly off limits to non Muslims.

* Hustle in Mopti

* The Grand Mosque of Mopti

* Slabs of salt from the Sahara

That evening we found ourselves a seat at the restaurant Bar Bozo which sits at the mouth of harbor, nursing a cold beer watching the sunset across the far bank of the river.

* Sunset in Mopti

While most people were getting ready to go to work, I was boarding a West African river canoe - a Pinnase - en route down the Niger river. A river which is born on the Guinea - Sierra Leone borders a mere 200km away from the Atlantic choosing instead to make a tortuous journey across five countries - Guinea, Mali, Niger/ Mali, Nigeria - for 4200km.

* Our Pinnase

Equipped with tents, sleeping bags, a cook, two people to man the boat, our guide and his second in command 17 of us set off destination Timbuktu. As we gently motored along, Penda the cook set about preparing lunch for us, all cooked on board, sitting in an area that was 30sq feet in size with nothing more that a few pots, one charcoal burner and a couple of knifes. That afternoon's lunch of rice and grilled Nile perch has to be one of the tastiest meals I've had!

* Penda our cook!

That first day on the river was spent in lazy contemplation of life as we past it by, isolated villages, river traffic carrying goods and people from place to place, the fauna and flora that we past by - birds, goats, cattle, occasional troops of monkeys and even a few hippo's further along!

* Hippo mum and kid

* Intense kid

The river was full of character, at its meanest point perhaps a 100ft in width, at its widest, a km it seemed at times! But always placid, gently flowing with hardly a ripple to show.

* The river

The first nights campsite was on firm ground, packed earth, reassuringly solid! We pitched our tents and gathered in small groups to chat - we 21 strangers from Norway, France, the US, Australia, Mali and Sri Lanka.

I cannot begin to explain what that night sky looked like, such a brilliant firmament against a black background, sparkling diamonds in the sky, old friends I had not seen since my days on the tea estates of SL.

* Traveller

The quietness, the lap of water against the boat, the smile's of the kids on the river banks, tranquility...

We reached Korioume, Timbuktu's port, 12km from the city after sunset on the 6th, an eerie experience landing in this little port in the dark, surrounded by kids clamoring for handouts as we struggled to shore jumping from pinnase to pinnase back pack's in hand. After three days on board it was time for a shower and blessed be it it that the house we stayed at that night had hot water to boot - most welcome in the desert where temperature drops to less than 10C at night!

Next, Timbuktu and the Festival au Desert!

To Timbuktu and back...

2010-01-11T20:26:00.004Z

The first of more to come...

Fauna in the garden

2010-01-01T18:14:00.001Z

For some absolutly stunning African wild life pics click here!

2010-01-01T08:17:00.002Z

And here for more

Bring it on 2010!

2009-12-31T20:55:00.000Z

Packed

2009-12-31T10:49:00.005Z

Whats in that? Well, three pairs of pants, two pairs of shorts, 7 shirts/ t shirts, socks and underwear, a pair of binoculars, tin plate and mug, fork and knife, a pen knife, a box of matches, a pair of shoes, a 4GB SD card and four spare re chargeable AA batteries plus charger, a tin of baked beans, sardines, cheese and a loaf of bread, passport, yellow fever certificate, my English French dictionary, a hat and scarf, sleeping bag and rubber mat, a leather jacket, towel, razor, toothbrush, TP (lots of that) toothpaste and phone charger.

And that's it really except of course I need to throw my camera in there somehow. Its been a long time in the planning, even longer in the dream stage but I'm finally ready to hit the road destination, destination Timbuktu

Yes, there really is a place called Timbuktu, it does actually exist...

From my childhood Timbuktu has been this mythical place, somewhere in the middle of no where, a 1000 miles from that place no one really knows... few places in the world have that same aura of remoteness, of being almost not... for many it still remains just that, a place that really does not exist, a phantom city like Shangri-la, clouded by legends and tales, a remote place that might not even be!

Its just in the last three years that getting there has become an achievable goal, and ever since my first trip to Mali, I've been looking at how best this could dream could become reality.

Timbuktu was founded around the 10th century by the Tuareg who used it as a camp for its proximity to the Niger to transport salt from mines in the Sahara Desert. Three centuries later the city was part of the greater Mail Empire, which controlled the gold-salt trade routes in the region.

Prosperity made by the trans-Saharan trade routes brought great wealth to the city. This wealth attracted not only merchants and traders but also men of academic and religious learning.

Timbuktu's golden age ended in the late sixteenth century witht he end of the Songhay Empire. With more reliable trade routes established by Portuguese navigators along the coast of West Africa Timbutu's importance declined rapidly and today the city is threatend by the very desert that made it famous! Having lost the source of its wealth, Timbuktu declined and became known as a lost city.

Driven by the Harmattan winds the sands of the Sahara threatens to cover the city, destroying buildings and vegetation and water supply - today in the words of one unimaginative traveler "its just a collection of mud huts, I don't know what the fuss is all about"!

Every year, in January, the dunes are 'alive with the sound of music' as the Festival Au Desert kicks off. With its origin in a Touareg gathering the event has now become a festival in celebration of life as the various tribes gather to exchange information, sing and dance, renew ties and participate in events that govern their nomadic life.

Usually held in Essakane, two hours from Timbuktu in Mali, this year, in its 10th edition, the festival will take place in the vicinity of Timbuktu itself - due to security considerations and events planed to celebrate Mali's 50th year of independence.

Over a 3 day period Touareg, Malian and other West African musicians will play their music to a gathering from across the world - last year there was one guy who had spent 16 days hitchhiking across the desert from Morocco!

My own, planned journey, will be I hope less strenuous. Saturday morning I leave Ouagadougou for Ouahigouya and on to Tio/ Koro, the border crossing to Mali. The plan is to reach Bankass 325km from Ouagadougou - 266km of this on a dirt road - where I hope to find a place to sleep.

The next day's drive should get me to Mopti, one of West Africa's largest river ports on the Niger. Its from here that the real adventure starts, for from this point I switch to a Pinasse - a river canoe - to travel along the river en route Timbuktu.

With luck, I'll survive to share the tale and the pics...

Wishing you all a wonderful 2010, full of reasons to laugh and smile about!

The 12 days of Christmas

2009-12-25T07:47:00.001Z

Temple Square, Salt Lake City

2009-12-24T07:33:00.004Z

Three awesome Christmas pics by Heather Dazley

More then...

2009-12-22T06:23:00.005Z

The last post was really an attempt to try and get a few good photographs; not been too happy with my recent efforts to be honest.

Here lies the entire collection, taken over the years

A Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy 2010 to all

Focusing on portraits

2009-12-21T06:45:00.004Z

Music

2009-12-11T06:45:00.005Z

I've been trying to figure out a way to share music on line - being a techno klutz, this has proved to be harder than I thought - that and the fact that my connection to the internet is more akin to a foot path meandering across the Kalahari than the Autobahn...

But, thanks to a fellow blogger who nudged me along the way by example, I've discovered SKYDRIVE!

I'll add to these as I go along, in the interim, enjoy:

Africa

Spiritual

Om Mani Padme Hum

2009-12-08T06:24:00.003Z

Om Mani Padme Hum is a six word Tibetan mantra - the base of all wisdom, salvation and joy.

Over the last year or so, I've found myself drawn to listening to this as well as some other mantra's like the Gayathri Mantra.

'Om Mani Padme Hum' is is said to embody all the teachings of the Buddha in those six syllables. Religious connotations aside, I just enjoy listening to it

16 seems so far away...

2009-11-24T12:13:00.003Z

It seems that the relative wilderness of Africa is not as isolated as one would expect, I've been tagged by DL into trying to give advice to myself - that alone a feat comparable with climbing Mt Everest in my undies since I'm not know to listen to anyone let alone me!

We shall nevertheless try, who knows, all things are possible....

I hate to have to break this news to you but you know getting through your O'Levels is not gonna be quite enough, in spite of what everyone tells you - they lied! right after those damn O's come the A's which fortunately you happen to hit upon away of avoiding while still completing your secondary education - atta boy!

Your late teens are gonna be relatively quiet, things actually start getting interesting when you turn nineteen - oh if you only knew then what I know now.. for instance, nice polite, boys don't get very far with girls, the wilder, bad boys do for reasons which you will never understand... of course, by the time those girls realize what a gem you are it will be too late.

At nineteen you will meet the first of three girls who will then shape the rest of your life - the first will break your heart and it will take oh about 8yrs or so before you quite get over her. The second will many many years later betray you in a way that though shocking will make you a stronger man. As for the third, well she will hold a key to unlock a part of that somewhere along the line you buried deep within yourself.

By 21 you will have formed the basis of friendship with a select few people who will over the years to come remain true and steadfast, in that sense you are indeed fortunate to have good friends. These very friends will, during the course of celebrating yours age of majority toss you into the sea off the Mount Lavania beach, in spite of the fact that you just wined and dined the bastards.

This will also be the year that another wonderful woman will take you in hand and make a man of you, you'll never see her again after that brief encounter, but in the years to come, you will always remember with love and admiration.

You'll never become a lawyer or an engineer, face it, school was bad enough and if not for a combination of good luck and a wonderful sense of self confidence in yourself you'd be in trouble my younger self.

But what you chose to do will take you to places most lawyers and engineers never go to, so don't fret too much about being left behind. In your life you'll do things that a lot of your peers will not, go places few people go too.

There is one thing that I'd try to change if I could... that Sunday when you had to go for CIM classes, don't on the way back home stop off to do the grocery shopping - trust your gut and get back home please... if you don't, that will be the one regret of your life... the 30mts you spent there you will regret for a long time to come.

PS: Your collection of alcohol, while impressive is not quite as good an investment as you thought, stock would be better, or even gold.

Wooden Mallets and wax cloth

2009-11-24T11:50:00.006Z

I’m touring coastal West Africa at the moment, in the company of a colleague who is over here to promote a new range of products. Over the last 5 decades my employers have diversified from their core business of tea to include a number of rather unrelated industries – so much so that its at times difficult to understand the logic. I’ve come to the conclusion that the gent I refer to as the ‘chairman’ as akin to a gardener who prepares the ground and plants to sit back and watch the crop grow ; there really is no other way to look at it.

From Burkina I flew to Togo where I received a typical Togolese welcome at the airport starting from the Immigration booth, twice, customs, and the final security check on the way out – the demand for a ‘cadeau’, French for a gift and a euphemism for a bribe. Now, I’m not averse to demonstrating my gratitude to someone who steps in to help me getting through the tangle of bureaucracy and red tape that snarls up one for no apparent reason for hours on end but blatant attempts to part me from my hard earned money really annoys me especially when its done in the course of someone just doing his job and me in the right too.

I recollect one memorable occasion in Sierra Leone when a customs inspector opened play with something to the effect that if he was to discharge his duties I might most likely miss my flight and therefore it was in my best interest to oil his already greasy palm. My response was that I had immense respect for him and those in his profession and that I would be the last person on earth to stand between him and the discharge of his responsibilities. He blinked a few times before waving me to take a seat, which I did, making myself comfortable and pulling put a book to read. Nonchalantly browsing the pages I could see from the corner of my eye my friend casting glances at me as my suitcase remained unopened in front of him. This little act played on for about 10mts, me immersed in my book, draped in a plastic chair, the inspector hitting on other would be passengers with a rather surprisingly high rate of success to I must say which made me wonder what the heck people had in their bags anyway! Eventually he tired off me and calling me over waved me through. I rewarded him with a bright smile and a Reynolds Ball point pen – standard stock I carry with me which I use in lieu of money on such trips; after all this was not going to be my last trip to Sierra Leone and Freetown!

But I digress….

After the polite professional efficiency of Burkina Faso border crossing points I’m annoyed when such blatant attempts are made to solicit a bribe. But the sad fact is that the majority of African’s live in dire circumstances, and people are desperately poor. Many government employees are badly paid, work under terrible conditions and soliciting a ‘donation’ for many is a means of survival.
I smiled my way through all these efforts, my stock answer to such ‘touches’ is to say that if only I knew he was gonna be there I would have brought him something, that , sadly, as a paid employee myself, money was something I had little of in hand…
This trip had something new in store for me, entry into Benin, a country I was yet to visit on a formal basis. Yes, I did choose my words carefully there; for this was not my ‘first’ visit to Benin in reality. That was back in April when I happened to cross the border from Togo at a loosely guarded point for a spot of lunch. I had been visiting this isolated village called Bassamba to see their fortress styled houses and did a quickie for a bite to eat one afternoon.

Benin was not quite what I expected it to be, my experience with the place limited so far to scam mails and what little I had read in my guide book. All in all it was not too bad at all. The primary and cheapest way of getting around the city is on a motor cycle taxi, of which the city boasts 1000’s it seemed. Fast and rather daringly ride it tends to be indeed. While the first couple of days was spent in the relatively sterile environment of a staid hotel – its redeeming feature being a lovely pool – the kind of accommodation preferred by my colleague I was eager to check out Cotonou's “Hotel California” – Alex’s Hotel. Its location is not for the faint hearted, on the fringes of the huge and apparently abandoned railway yard, in close proximity to a bar district, it’s a place bursting with life!

It was here that I was fortunate to come across a little alleyway where sitting upon the ground a gang of men pounded away at fine “Bazen: cloth, beating into the fabric the last coating of wax which gives the material its peculiar stiffness and shine.

These men are brawny souls with arms that a body builder would be envious of and no surprise given the weight of the mallet they use to pound the cloth – at least 4kg if not more! They work in relative silence, all one can hear is the rhythmic ‘thunk thunk’ as the mallet hits the wooden tree truck upon which they have placed the length of cloth. Sweat glisten their torso’s as they pound away, two to a cloth, swinging away with one had as they maneuver the material around.

So there I was

2009-11-11T10:08:00.003Z

.... on my way back home after an absence of 28,512,000 seconds (or 330 days)with all these great plans about kicking back and watching the world go by while I rocked in a hammock, book in hand, a cold drink close by, soothed by the rustle of the wind in the tree's the lap of water on the shore; nothing more to do than eventually nod off to sleep, an entire month of sheer bliss!

That was the plan, that reality was a little different an understatement...

It all started right here in Ouaga and the very morning I left for my flight. A disagreement over the rate saw my luggage unceremoniously taken out of the taxi (by me) and I was left to cool my heels for another 30mts until an alternate could be found - one filled with Jerry cans of water mind you! From that point onwards it was one flight delay after another till I reached Dubai. Now I had work planned for that trip, but while I was in the air someone decided to celebrate the end of the Ramadan by declaring a holiday, leaving me again to cool my heels til my flight back home...

SL was not much better really, it was one mad rush rush rush and right now just a few high points is about all I have to remind me that I did take my vacation.

High points: A trip to Thailand, a couple of days in Kos, Kottu, Hoppers, A trip to Kataragama, getting to wrestle with the pack - there is something therapeutic about rolling on the ground with a bunch of mutts... and oh yes, I got to meet two bloggers!

But, I'm back now... and its been a little surreal, SL and that lush greenery seem like a dream back here in the dust and reddish soils of BF.

Water

2009-10-19T02:05:00.005Z

Stopping off to look at some fountains I found light, motion and perhaps art in H2O

I see a lion's head in this last image, does anyone else see it? Hint: Think "Singapore"

A picture say's so much more...

2009-10-17T02:30:00.000Z

A few recent shots

2009-10-08T14:16:00.001Z

If Africa can

2009-09-18T04:28:00.002Z

I read today of plans afoot to halve the Kenyan Cabinet in the face of increasing taxpayers criticism.

Kenya has a population of 37 million people and a Cabinet of 40 - one minister for every 925000 people. The proposed change, if implemented, will change the representation to 1 for every 1,542000.

One Minster has gone on record saying that it was an embarrassment that he did not know the name of a colleague, who sat on the opposite side of the house - "This showed even ministers don't know each other as their number is too big." he is reported to have said.

Debate about the size of the cabinet revolved around the fact that the bloated cabinet, which also includes the president and prime minister, had made it ineffective!

Should such a proposal be implemented in Sri Lanka, we would see our Cabinet shrunk to an even dozen - just imagine what a lean and mean fighting machine we would be

Small, I mean BIG Miracle indeed!

Crikey!

2009-09-16T09:13:00.003Z

Sri Lanka Feedom Party - having a centre-left or pro-socialist economic agenda and is often associated with hard-line Sinhala parties

Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna - a nationalist, Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party

Muslim National Unity Alliance - a left-wing political party

Mahajana Eksath Peramuna - a left-wing political party

The Communist Party of Sri Lanka - a communist political party

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party - a Trotskyist political party

The Jathika Hela Urumaya - Monk led lay-based, secular Sinhala nationalist political party

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress - represents the Muslim community of Sri Lanka.

The Tamil National Alliance a minority Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance, amalgamation of moderate Tamil parties as well as number of former rebel groups. Supports self-determination in an autonomous state for the island's Tamils

Eelam People's Democratic Party - a political party and a Paramilitary organization

The Ceylon Workers' Congress - a political party which has traditionally represented Tamils working in the plantation sector of the economy

The United National Party - a right-leaning, business friendly party

Democratic People's Front - originally a trade union, then converted into a political party. It draws support from the Tamil population of Colombo

The government coalition( Sri Lanka Freedom Party - People's Liberation Front - Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya - Muslim National Unity Alliance - Mahajana Eksath Peramuna - Desha Vimukthi Janatha Pakshaya - Communist Party of Sri Lanka - Democratic United National Front - Lanka Sama Samaja Party), as far as I can work it out, is therefore a Socialist, Marxist, Leninist, Communist, Nationalist government with, of course, capitalistic tendencies at an individual level.

Is it any wonder then that what we need is apparently to rebuild our institutional foundations to foster and preserve the new multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Sri Lanka that we wish to create?!

I need advice

2009-09-16T05:36:00.003Z

I find my self in need of advice of a legal nature...

The situation is as follows

I'm a shareholder in an extremely large organization. As organizations go, its rather unique in that no single individual is entitled to more than one share - so in that sense its more of a Co-op I suppose, technically all of us have a single vote and equel rights in doing so.

As in all organizations there are various factions here to, people with differing ideologies, convictions, who inevitably jockey around for support in the hope of being elected to the Board. These individuals, and their supporters make numerous promises to the rest of us - better ROI's, all kinds of perks at Company cost etc. which inevitably get forgotten once they are elected. In fact I have the nasty suspicion that the only reason they do so is for the sole purpose of feathering their own nests at the cost of the rest of the shareholders!

For quite sometime now we were asked to grit our teeth and bear the burden of a costly war - you know how aggressive mass marketing is, right? And it was tough, for quite sometime we were actually on bended knee trying to contain the competition which was using faster, almost guerrilla tactics. We prevailed though, hats off to the Board, they got the job done, albeit at a great cost, one which I think though many of the shareholders accepted as required for us to move forward. But now, things seem to be just as bad for so many other reasons, and it seems to me that the Board of Directors are evolving into a Board of Dictators, albeit with the support of some shareholders. The problem lies in the silence of the majority though - who was it who said that "for evil to triumph all it needs is for good people to remain quiet' or something like that?

Fact is I'm not happy with my BOD, I am no longer convinced that they have the shareholders best interests in mind anymore, I'm not convinced that what they do is for our good anymore - dividends are down, and with the cost of living as it is now, every single cent counts, most of the perks they promised are are yet to come, in fact, stuff that we considered to be our rights as shareholders are in fact becoming steadily eroded. Whats worse is that any reasonable objection or question is being increasingly frowned upon and brushed aside with neigh a thought for the shareholders and their hard earned efforts that fund the organization!

Now comes my question: Can I sue them? Can I take legal action against the BOD for failing to deliver, for failing to meet our expectations?

I've tried the other way, at every AGM we have tried, but human nature being human nature there will always be those swayed by the promise of better returns, of growth of increasing wealth just around the corner.... promises if kept I am fine with.

I don't know man...

Read all about it!

2009-09-15T16:34:00.005Z

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses,
And all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again

Humty Dumpty as you all must know by now, had a great fall - well actually it was not a really big one at all. In fact, if you or I had happen to take the same fall it would not even be worth two half pennies - or a ten rupee note given the state of our economy now; but that's besides the point.

Anyway, Humpty Dumpty had a fall and all the kings horses and all the kings men got terribly upset about it. They ran hither and they ran thither, pointing at one another saying "it wasn't me, it wasn't me..."

Having suddenly fallen, for no apparent reason, Humpty Dumpty was picked up and deposited in another chair, but perhaps the incident was too traumatic for the Ole Egg for he departed soon there after, albeit intact...

Though no record of the incident was allowed to be kept for posterity, a little bird did tell me that several of Humpty's friends have been consulting animal entrails, the three witches of Macbeth and the heavens to see if this is a harbinger of sorts - we do live in funny times after all

The general consensus was no serious physical damage was done to Humpty's spine possibly due to the fact that egss don't have spines as one wit commented

Thumbs up

2009-09-14T18:00:00.003Z

HD all the way across in Utah is one of my favorite people - she not only paints but takes some pretty neat photographs too.

These are from a recent trip she made to the East Coast, enjoy!

"‘Machang eya ape hole ekata haal kiyanawa"

2009-09-13T10:42:00.005Z

I am an avid reader of Gamini Weerakone's Serendipity colum in the SUNDAY LEADER.

His most recent contribution in the paper of 13th September deserves as wide a readership as it can get, in my opinion, for this quote if nothing makes such a poignant comment about what being Sri Lankan is, celebrated differences!

Such a pity then that when we can celebrate, we chose to differentiate based upon the personal agenda's of those who walk and wish to walk the corridors of power.

Its a sad telling indeed in the context of the entire article that our Government thinks we can learn English from our neighbors on the sub continent, a glaring telling on the depth to which our level of competency in English has sunk to...

English is a language I speak and write in greater fluency that I do my 'mother tongue' of Sinhalese; that I understand even a little Tamil is a matter of pride to me and all things considered, I think it is this fact that makes me a Sri Lankan, not limiting myself to being a Sinhalese Buddhist, but a proud citizen of this country of ours Sri Lanka!

Way to go

2009-09-11T17:27:00.005Z

The following is a true story - however, to protect the parties concerned, the names have been changed.

Should the story bare any resemblance to our ship of state, I maintain it purely coincidental!

The places I've lived

2009-09-11T08:35:00.008Z

With time you usually find yourself living in various places - and some of them can be pretty different.

Ah, Wellewatte, the one place I've lived a significant portion of life

Los Osos in Central California, a quaint little town and one I wish I had explored more!

The Eastern Cape of South Africa

My little piece of earth is here, down south

The 'hood' in Ouaga, home for the forseeable future

Pic of the moment - my desktop!

2009-09-10T18:36:00.001Z

My 'Goni'

2009-09-10T17:28:00.004Z

I've finally managed to put together enough about an acquisition to be able to comment upon it with some detail. Belonging to the 'Kora" family the Goni is played by Dioula people of Burkina Faso. The instrument is very similar to Kamale Ngoni, though somewhat larger.

I got mine in June from Akili Gnouma a local musician - who treated me to an impromptu performance that day.

The tuning is also pentatonic: D-F-G-A-c-d-f-g left hand: D-G-c-f, right hand: F-A-d-f, there are 8 or 10 strings, expanding the tonal range over more than one octave.

The Goni is played solo for accompaniment of songs or together with the pentatonic Balafon of the region. Like the Kora, the Goni is played with thumbs and forefingers of both hands - played with the left thumb and forefinger and the right thumb. The dampening technique of the right thumb is used to stop the sound immediately after plucking the string.

419

2009-09-09T13:32:00.003Z

"Dear sir, you may be surprised to receive this e mail from me and I ask for your understanding in this matter. I am Amani Bamon Ouadrago Sullaiman the second daughter of the 5th wife of the the late Senator of the Nigerian Assembly, a god fearing woman left to fend her self against her father's enemies.

Before my father passed away - may he rest in peace - he shared with me the information regarding his wealth which he had saved up for me his loving daughter.In it he has given to me a sum of $350,000,000 (three hundred and fifty million us dollars). However due to the jealousy of my family members and my fathers enemy's I am unable to collect these funds alone and I appeal to you sir for your help. if you can do so I appeal to you in the name of the almighty god to help me, a poor orphan left to fend for herself. For your help in transferring these monies I will share with you 30% of its value after all expenses and if you are agreeable, perhaps even to share my life with you"

Sound familer to anyone? It was after an exchange of emails on this very thing this morning that it occurred to me that this was indeed a subject upon which a post could be built. I'm pretty sure that most of you reading this has at some time or the other been the recipient of a similar e mail which basically follows the same format of offering a substantial sum of money for little effort on your part. Welcome to the world of West African scams!

419 is a reference to the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code and is a popular crime with the West African organised criminal networks. There are a myriad of schemes and scams - mail, faxed and telephone promises designed to facilitate victims parting with money. All involve requests to help move large sums of money with the promise of a substantial share of the cash in return.

The most notorious origins of these scams are Benin, Nigeria, Togo and Camaroon. And I'll tell you, these guys are good! They will create fictitious websites, send you reams of formal documentation, drop the names of apparently real Government Departments along with those of the people heading them in their efforts to part you of your money.

Now, I'm not claiming that all of them are scams, but the truth is that a large proportion of them are unfortunately just that and as long as people are greedy, the chances are that the scams will go on - who after all does not want to make a buck?!

Apart from the basic email offering to share money along the lines of what I penned above are the more sophisticated Import/ Export scams.

If you are in trade, chances are that you, like me have trawled B2B sites in search of trade leads, even, like me, opened an account with sites such as ALIBABA. Sooner or later you will either receive an email asking for your product or a response to an email you sent out - to or from a West African based organization more likely than not from Benin or Nigeria.

Nigeria alone is a huge market - with 146 million people, one in every six Africans is a Nigerian - which what makes it such an attractive proposal to someone like me.

Now this organization will claim to be an important importer/ distributor or perhaps even to be an aid group or even a government office. I even had one who claimed to be the welfare arm of a Benin Political Party - the Movement for Popular Freedom Benin (MPFB)!

If its an importer the scam will then proceed along the lines of

a) Asking what your products are

b) Writing back to tell you that there is a huge demand for such products and asking for a quote for a volume which boggles the mind and makes $ signs run across your brain!

c) Agree to your price with little if any resistance, sometimes even without seeing the product

d) Offer to make 100% TT transfer on receipt of the Pro forma Invoice

Now starts the fun.

You send your invoice by email.

Then comes back a thank you mail, confirming that the transfer will be made shortly - you may even get a copy of the bank instructions!

Then silence for a few days. You write and the response is that the bank is unable to transfer the funds until authorization is given by a very impressive sounding nevertheless fictitious government agency - Center for Quality Assurance/ Department of Agricultural Imports etc. Now to obtain this authorization you are told that you need to register yourself or your products. You'll be given the name of the relevant person too who for some strange reason has a yahoo/ hot mail account!

You write to him and he responds with a detailed step by step check list with what is required and how much it will cost - anything from $700 to $5000.

Your initial contact then will write urging you to expedite the matter, that unless you do so, the funds allocated for your order will be re allocated pending finalizing the registrations.

When I first entered this region I actually spent some time and effort to follow a scam, sending samples, invoices, filling out the reams of paper they sent me, all the time checking with the Benin Embassy in the UK if such a political party actually existed.

So when it came to the sting, my response was that due to strict currency regulations in SL I was unable to transfer the required FOREX to the relevant authority. I went on to request Mr Chimbawa, my contact, to release the US$ 750 required for purpose of registration from my invoice of US$ 1,400,000/-, transferring me the balance

His reply was "As we have already allocated and held the sum of US$ One Million Four Hundred Thousand for you, our Chief Financial Officer informs me that she cannot authorize a further sum for this purpose"

I was devastated - riiiight - and immediately called Mr C, who reiterated the content of his mail. When I happened to mention that the Benin Embassy in the UK had told me they knew nothing about the MPFB there was a moments silence, and then, ever so softly, the line was cut. Mr C and I never spoke after that, his line seems to have been disconnected

What you should look for?

a) Is the email address from a free service provider such as yahoo, hotmail etc? Most legitimate entities will have their own accounts.

b) Is the only number you have for your contact a mobile number? In Benin a mobile number stars witha 9 after the country prefix

c) Benin and Togo are Francophone countries - any official institute will have a French names

d) The more elaborate the titles the designations, the bluster, the more likely it is that its a scam - Contract Awarding Committee, contract committee board, CONTRACT AWARD BUREAU, NCAC, National Contract Awarding Council, Bidding Commission etc.., the list is endless.

e) Hardly anyone pay's 100% up front - if you know anyone who does, I'd like to meet them please!

Not all inquiries or queries are scams, some can and are legit. Just be careful if you have not met the person you are dealing with, still remain cautious even after you meet him!

My rule of thumb is "If it sounds too good to be true, its unlikely to be"

Keep going

2009-09-09T13:05:00.004Z

Peace of Mind

Once the Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days.

While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and the Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid.

The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to the Buddha to drink!”

So he came back and told the Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.” After about half an hour, again the Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake.

This time too he found that the lake was muddy. He returned and informed Buddha about the same. After sometime, again the Buddha asked the same disciple to go back.

The disciple reached the lake to find the lake absolutely clean and clear with pure water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to the Buddha.

The Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said,” See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be…. and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water. Your mind is also like that! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

What did the Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having ‘Peace of Mind’ is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process!

In life everything goes on................Keep Going.

Pic of the moment

2009-09-08T10:12:00.003Z

The things one can do when there is a power cut! No lights last night, so I ended up playing with the camera, my dancers and a candle!

Result is this!

African masks and carvings

2009-09-07T08:14:00.005Z

Spend Saturday digging around for some trinkets.

The masks are traditional ones from different regions of Burkina Faso

#1

#2

#3

No question what this is -a Phallic symbol!

This one reminded me of , Rascar Capac's mummy in The Seven Crystal Balls

All in all, a good days haul indeed

Memo from God

2009-09-07T07:37:00.003Z

I just got this memo and since its not marked confidential, I'm pretty sure it's OK to share it with all of you.

To: YOU
Date: TODAY
From: GOD
Subject: YOURSELF
Reference: LIFE

This is God. Today I will be handling All of your problems for you. I do not need your help. So, have a nice day.

I love you. And, remember.... If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not attempt to resolve it yourself! Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours. Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now. Should you decide to send this to a friend; Thank you. You may have touched their life in ways you will never know!

Now, you have a nice day.

God

Love is...

2009-09-07T05:25:00.002Z

Tagged by DL

Love is the small things -

a shared cup of coffee early morning

holding hands

sleeping in, bodies wrapped around each other

eatting off the same plate

facing up to the tough times together

Now inky pinky polly and I tag

Chavie

Hissyfits

And

Gossip Aiya

1001

2009-09-03T08:06:00.004Z

I've hit a milestones of sorts today, actually I've just noticed that I hit a milestone.

My flickr account is arranged into 7 sets, one of which is title 'Around the World". And THAT set I see has just touched 1001 photographs as at 0811hrs today!

'Around The World' carries a collection of photographs from India, Hong Kong, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Senegal, Angola, Ethiopia, the UAE, almost everywhere I've been since I got my Canon IS S1 and its successor the S5

Anyways, just thought I'd make a note of the fact

A few recent ones

2009-09-03T07:01:00.003Z

Blew the dust off the camera this week to go out and take a few pics. Tuesday's storm knocked the entire city to its knees, roads flooded, houses washed away - So many people with so little have lost so much, its sad to see.

An antique globe and a familer place on it - thanks to the storm we were out of power and the usually bland looking globe took on a warm feel to it in the candle light

Sunset over the lake, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Puddles on the road

Silver gray skies

It seemed like almost everyone came out to collect the sand and pebbles washed up.

My Birds

2009-09-02T19:12:00.003Z