Sayonara Slackers

Sri Lanka to Expel Slackers

June 17, 2007 (TASS) - In the latest twist, after evicting 'loitering' Tamils, and deporting foreigners without visas, Sri Lanka has decided to expel so-called "Slackers".

Slackers are young, mobile 20 to 30 something persons of Sri Lankan origin, most of whom have lived, worked or studied abroad at some point, and have now returned to Sri Lanka "to have a good time, but do no real productive work, and add no value to the country" the island's media spokesman said.

Defense Spokesman Keheliya Rambukewella said "These slackers come to the country claiming they are here to work, when in reality they are only here to party, eat in beautiful restaurants, and are ready to decamp to a luxury boutique hotel at the drop of a hat".


Keyboard Warriors

Most Slackers are also known to be highly active in the internet blogging scene. They are accused of spending hours debating frivolous topics with little logic or argumentative reasoning, whilst at the same time upholding themselves to be the champions of the liberal elite and defenders of Colombo Cool.

They can be spotted on the internet, engaging in vicious comment wars using narcissistic nom-de-guerre's. Some are defenders of free speech, some are defenders of the government, other blog about human rights and some about Colombo restaurants. The common theme - "We are keyboard warriors" says one. All have highly stylized viewpoints are a ready to go into internet battle whenever an offending view is posted. No one and no topic is spared their trenchant keyboard wit, be it Colombo traffic or Colombo dating.


Pettah Junk

Clearly, all these slacking takes place during working hours. Victor Perera, the Inspector General of Police, is not amused. "These people do no productive work whatsoever. Other countries import highly talented engineers and IIT scientists. What do we get? We get people who take photos of fruits and vegetables and post them on Blogger. These people take us for fools." said Victor Perera.

In addition, Sri Lanka's central banking chief, claims these Slackers add no value addition to the economy, and instead their high salaries and Slack lifestyle consume ever increasing amounts of precious foreign exchange. "People must realize that they are like the imported junk watches in Pettah Market - they look good, but do nothing" said Ajith Nivaard Cabraal, Head of the Central Bank, adding that its a crime to waste foreign exchange on these Slackers. “and this is the reason we had to recalculate the NEER and REER – these figures were getting skewed by these slackers"


Business Class

At the moment, all Slackers are being registered and kept in a temporary holding facility at the Lotus Business Class Lounge in Katunayake, which the government has dubbed Camp Lux.

Jean Kouchner, head of Slackers Sans Frontiers, appealed to the civilian population to help them in this crisis. "These Slackers are not like you and me, they need the best food, the best parties and the best business class lounges - without these amenities, we have a real fear for their well being". Reports are coming in of the Belgian Government preparing an emergency airlift of Business Class seats - in the eventuality that the Slackers will end up being air deported.

So far, the government is tight lipped about the deportation destination, but a sources close to the IGP said they would be sent to Singapore, so that they can finally learn "to teach them a lesson on how good they have had it in Sri Lanka. Its a holiday camp here compared to the kind of work they will have to do over there".


Lifestyle Refugees

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wicremenayake defended the Government's action, claiming "Sri Lanka is a country of hard-working toilers, to work hard and support the Nation is glorious. We have no room for Slackers in our workforce. " Prime Minister Wicremenayake however insisted Slackers' lifestyle needs such as multiple A/Cs and wireless broadband would be provided for the deportation duration, "we are a responsible Government, and a Government of all Sri Lankans, even Slackers, and will therefore meet their needs". The ICRC has also agreed to run four emergency convoys of iced-coffee (with a hint of brandy) to Camp Lux.

But none of the Slackers we spoke to want to go to Singapore. Many have historically worked in other cosmopolitan locales like Hong Kong, London or Zürich - preferring to instead make a beeline to the slacker climes of Colombo.

Said one defiant Slacker: "I don't want to go to Singapore. I am in SL for lifestyle. Where else but in Sri Lanka can I can work 2hrs per day, drink sweet tea for 2hrs, and then head home for a nice nap before catching some fusion Spanish / Japanese / Lankan tapas at the new Colombo Casa and then on for some funky jazz at Tramps? They work too hard in other cities. I am a lifestyle refugee.".


Lighting Up Sentosa

Opposition leaders, however, are claiming that Sri Lanka should not deport these Slackers, "we should instead rehabilitate them into being productive workers, - that is the only way we can become the next Singapore", says UNP Leader Ranil Wicremasinghe.

Indeed, it appears Singapore has a technologically innovative plan to generate value, literally, from these Slackers. The Singaporean plan, according to Singapore's Minister of Worker Rehabilitation, Minister Kwoon says that Singapore will "extract the hot air inside these Slackers and use it to power a special wind turbine on Sentosa Island to light up multi-coloured lights." Singapore plans on using these vast amounts of hot air generated by Slackers as a major power source, obtaining carbon credits as an added bonus.

The Singaporean Engineering Department posted on a press release that "this is the next phase of urban development. Stage one was land reclamation, now we are moving onto human reclamation. This will rank as a landmark global engineering project." Minister Kwoon added, "This is not an easy task. After all, these are huge egos we talking about."


Slacker Nation

Despite the Government's claim that Slackerism is contained to a few bad apples, some have a more philosophical attitude.

An analyst at Jane's Slacker Weekly, sums it up "The whole nation is defined by Slackerism. Look at their independence movement - other nations fought with tooth and nail with guns and satyagrahas. What did Sri Lankan's do? They slacked off." The theory, according to Jane's, is that the British Imperial machine had one key weakness - it relied on the majority of their subjects desiring hard work in return for self-betterment. But if everyone wants to party, then nothing works. In the face of monumental the monumental Slackerism of Ceylon, the mighty Empire shuddered to a halt. "The British could not work with an island of all slackers, so they just decided to wash their hands off from the whole enterprise."

Indeed, a historical evaluation shows that that Sri Lanka's so called Independence Movement leaders slacking it off with the cream of the Empire during the 1930's and 40's. Dressed up in resplendent British military costumes or elegant Saville Row suits, their minds of Ceylon's 'finest minds' were clearly on the next party, rather than the next Political Party.


By the Slackers, For the Slackers

Some say Slackerism is also at the root of Sri Lanka's governance problems. "What other government in the world has been unable to build more than 3 feet of railway in 60 years? What kind of government takes over 15 years to build a 20 kilometer expressway? Totally slack if ask me." asks an exasperated non-slacking citizen.

We interviewed one Slacker about to be taken to Camp Lux, forlornly packing his Nokia N95 which he had just used to post a picture of a pothole under the caption 'Colombo Pothole'. He said, "Deport us? that's the biggest joke - the biggest Slackers in this island are the Politicians! This is a government by the Slackers, for the Slackers".

It is hard to deny that the present Government has engaged in large public displays of slackery. The President is currently addressing a the International Labour Slack-a-thon in Geneva, and this is the third such travel slack-fest in the last 12 months, including a major 60 person party at the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies (sources close to the ICC have applauded the Sri Lankan governmental delegation for taking the "carnival of cricket" slogan to its literal conclusion).

The government's political allies, the socialist Marxist JVP party, are however, not so happy. Their spokesman says "We are not against slacking per se. But we believe that there should exist an equality of slacking for all under a unitary framework. Why should it only be Colombo bloggers that are allowed to party? The common people want to join in". Most political observers comment that this is disingenuous on the part of the JVP, for in Sri Lanka "public or private sector, everyone slacks off. The difference is that in the private sector, the instruments of slacking are LCD screens used to surf the internet and nice views of the Beira, whereas in the public sector, employees slack off using much humbler means such as the thrice daily tea break."

One government employee, however, who is definitely not slacking, is the President's younger brother, Gotabhaya Rajapakse. In the last 18 months, the younger Mr. Rajapakse has been busy dismantling past institutions of slacking, including the Cease Fire Agreement and several large sections of the Sri Lankan Constitution.


Fab Cake

Paikasothy Savaranamuttu, head of the CSA - Centre for Slack Alternatives, decries the de-generation of Sri Lanka's Slacker society. "The key measure of a civilized society, is the number of Slackers in our midst. These people, by their sheer in-aptitude for hard work are a beacon for other hard-working nations across the third-world - that they too, one day, can be Slack Like Us".

A foreign diplomat based in Colombo says "Slackers want to have their cake (preferably Fab) and eat it too. They see the whole of Sri Lanka as one big delicious Fab chocolate cake, which can be enjoyed after lunch, with afternoon tea or after dinner. They really have no one to blame but themselves for their overindulgence."

As night descends on Camp Lux, the Slackers remain defiant, the soft clacking of keyboards and the flashing of camera phones, demonstrating their never-say-die attitude. Says one "you can take the Slacker out of Colombo, but you can never take Colombo out of the Slacker".

the astronaut

i have been having 2 very separate conversations with 2 different friends of mine and it got me reflecting on my past aspiration: to become Sri Lanka's first astronaut much in the same vain as Kalpana Chawla was for India ( may she rest in peace). To cut a long story short we both did aerospace engineering to join Nasa at some stage and get on to the astronaut program. anyway she did and i decided to pursue more commercial ventures.

the love of flight and space is still there and thought i would share some pictures i received from yet another friend - simply breathtaking ...

Death of Prof V. K Samaranayake

Just got an e-mail announcing that Prof V. K Samaranayake has passed away. No news yet about the funeral arrangements. May he rest in peace.

Shift happens - another perspective on our future

Came across this link and thought it appropriate to share...


Shift Happens - Watch more free videos

an optimist's views on the next 25 years for Sri Lanka

the futures so bright - i got to wear shades - timbuk 3

Been a number of arguments of late about the state of the country and more specifically just how "bad or good" things are and will get. M accuses A and I of being the "last 2 optimists in Sri Lanka". Anyway A is going to publish an article soon enough and thought I would share with the blogosphere my own predictions.

So Personally these are my predictions (in 5 year blocks):

2007- 2012 Politics: War, more war and then war weariness. Somewhere around 2010/11 a truce (peace) declared giving an autonomous state in the North Province to be governed by the LTTE for 5 years without an election (similar to what was given in the Phillipines to the Moros Liberation Front). East rejoins the rest of the island and starts to develop. APC finally makes this proposal in 2008. Haggling about this occurs thru 2009-2010. Karuna arrested or killed in 2008/9.

Economics: 2008-9 – Relatively Dire GDP growth around 4% - but jobs created in south for Hambantota port. LKR 125 :USD 1, Inflation around 10%.

2010- 11: Hope emerges – GDP growth around 6%. Southern highway completed. South is a buzz – lots of new development. Plan for Hambantota to become southern commercial capital – LKR 130: 1 USD, inflation 13-14%.

2011-2012: the beginning of the boom years – GDP growth around 8%. FDI hits USD 1 Bio pa – Work starts on transforming Trinco.

20012-2017 Politics: North Stable and growing leaps and bounds. LTTE raises international bonds (which are oversubscribed). JVP are spent force but activism in central provinces emerging. Educational reforms thought necessary as only private schools/universities are able to produce people worth hiring – Student uprisings etc.

Economics: 2012-2014: Boom years – GDP growth at 10%pa. International airport planned for Jaffna and Trinco. Trinco port

2014-2017 : Reality starts to dawn – GDP growth at 6.5% - structural issues which have been ignored for years – bloated Government, Health, education start becoming the issue of the day.

2017-2022 Politics: Centre becomes an issue – what can be done to develop the Central provinces – Coasts are relatively stable. East is falling behind the North now. Economics: GDP growth at about 7% pa mainly led by provinces. Kandy expressway completed.

2022-2027 Politics: Jobs in Jaffna and Hambantota – Colombo now primarily a government/administrative city Economics: Jaffna now richest province, followed by South.

2027-2032 Politics: the central uprising – Kandy breaks into riots as economically depressed relative to the other provinces. Told to get new skills and work ethic or to remain a pure tourist town…

colombo cool or the ultimate in pretension ...

went out the other night for dinner with the usual gang to Casa Colombo - and I am still trying to get to grips with was it something that was ultra hip or just so wannabe it was funny?my personal opinion is that I am glad that someone had the guts to do it - it is incredibly unique and you would be hard pressed to find something like it this side of South Miami Beach. However I guess I am looking at it from an architectural appropriateness - is this what I believe is appropriate for such a beautiful colonial-style building?there are some stunning elements - including the bar and some of the rooms... but also far too much for my taste

- it felt gimmicky and cluttered (as if a Miss Havisham from Great Expectations had been on an acid trip and decided to decorate this colonial mansion).

anyway enjoy

there were 2 restaurants:

• heaven (HVN) (inside)
• zaza (outdoors)

as for the food - it was generally fabulous. we decided to eat at the zaza and re-arrange the tables to accommodate the 8 of us. the tapas were really unique and really worked for sri lankan-ised fusion foods. i had a pol-sambol tuna tacos and they were truly mouth-watering. others on my end had the calamari with a mango or passion-fruit dip, crab pancakes and lollipop chicken - again outstanding and even the mixed salads were very good. i had the halibut with a curry sauce and lime basmati as a main - this was not so great (or not up to expectation after the incredible starters). others however were far more pleased - cannot remember what everyone had ...

we decided to have the desserts in the tea garden - and again rearranged the chairs to our preference. the wait-staff and management were very nice about this and didn't seem to mind us re-organising their layout. i had a scope ice cream which was a mix of juggery, almonds and something else but was served on a block of ice. very nice detail.

there were a few criticisms we had collectively about the food experience:

• the bill - it came to about LKR 3000/ per head (with no alcohol) ( the tapas were relatively cheap at LKR 400 each but some of the fruit juices were LKR 450 each and mains were mostly LKR 1500-2500)
• the drinks were served in plastic glasses - it is OK to have interesting shapes but you want to feel some weight in your hands
• the chairs outside were lined in a velvet material - made some of feel hot and sticky

it was actually a very pleasant evening and personally i was very pleased that someone had the gusto to try something like this in Colombo..

dialog sucks

just for once it would be nice if things worked as promised...as the premier telecom provider in sri lanka dialog really sucks...

For the last year I have had the following issues with them:

• this last weekend they turned off my idd without informing me. when i called up their customer services i was told that I had exceeded my credit limit. i then told the person that I had a left a deposit of LKR 11,500 and that my largest bill had been LKR 5,000 and that my bills are automatically settled to my credit card. She went "oh" - left me on hold for about 15 minutes and promised to restore my idd in 10 minutes time.
  

• my phone was cut off from making or recieiving any calls for practically the whole day last thursday 17th may. I had arrived from Thailand that morning and use dialog's sms roaming service when abroad (paying my own bills i do not want to have outrageous roaming bills + they require a deposit of LKr 40,000). to start up the service you have to activate it by sending an SMS before you leave and similarly de-activate it by sending an SMS when you return to the island. I have had constant problems with it when I started using the service but they seemed to wok out the niggling issues (or at least my wife has patiently informed them that things weren't as they should be). Anyway my phone was not working properly until about 3:45pm and I had missed some very important calls that i had been expecting. dilaog really sucks

• i had been receiving nuisance phone calls throughout this year from another dialog number. i had to send a formal complaint to them about the calls and sms - whcih i did. Anyway once i had made my complaint they sent this person a mail with my very number on it! Of course the idiot starts calling me and texting me in a very threatening manner - all dialog says it for me to take it to the police.

• every time i go abroad and come I have to reset my phone to use voice mail or missed call alert

I just think their service sucks and was wondering if i should start a blog dialogsucks.blogspot.com similar to the ranjitfernandosucks.com - maybe we too can take it to the international media - especially in light of their trying to raise LKR 20 billion...

Virtusa - the share

You can view the Virtusa prospectus here:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1207074/000095013507002136/b64348vcsv1.htm



Question arises are:

• is it going to be worth investing in it? if so why?
• what is the story you are investing in? what i mostly see is that they want to develop the 6+ acres they have in Hyderabad into a Campus with about $30 mio - what are they going to do in Sri Lanka?
  
• can they really compete with the big boys?
• can they maintain a 25%+ growth rate?
  
• at what price are they going to sell a share?

I want to buy the share - I guess as a play on the Sri Lanka tech market without having to take the currency risk - but is it really? The story they seem to be telling is the Indian one... i guess this is the tried and tested one though. Then why not buy Infosys, Wipro,TCS or Satyam?

The other gnawing thing I can't seem to get around is - what are they great at? the Indian competitors attract the brightest from IIT and IIM but where does Virtusa recruit from? Is it a great place to work?

Any other thoughts?

Updated acronyms..

Traffic on Galle Road:

I think it has come to update some of the acronyms we have has in the past:

• KGB - should now be a Kossa ( slang for police constable) Generated Backlog (referring to how at the end of most traffic jam. The old Kandy Govigama Buddhist no longer seems apt in our Mahinda Chintananya world...

• PISSU - Politician Inspired Street SnafU - like the picture above, when one of the revered political mutts decides to make move along the streets and traffic comes to grinding halt along one of the main arteries into and out of Colombo. People start taking alternate routes and thus the snafu as every street becomes jammed up. Journeys of a few hundred metres can take far too much time...

Any other suggestions?

the 5 mig 29's

has the GOSL got its head up it rear-end? Sri Lanka is apparently going to delivery of 5 Mig-29s to have the air capability to take on 5-10 Cessnas. Talk about a sledgehammer approach. Please see the following link Sri Lanka to take delivery of 5 mig 29

Source: wikipedia

My friend M pointed out:

• that the cost would be 5 x $15m =$75m, plus all the annual maintenance, repair, and pilot training, will probab result an NPV of over $125m for GoSL.
  
• All because of a handful of light propeller aircraft!
• buying and training pilots will probably mean that it will take at least a year to properly field the planes operationally (i.e. we will have to get some expensive Russians to fly the planes for us in the interim..)
• we could easily obtain several dozens of man-portable, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air, and sea-to-air anti-aircraft missiles...and they could probably be made operational within a month.
• there must be a far better way to counter 5 subsonic propeller aircraft, than spending $125m on ultra-sophisticated supersonic war planes

I agree and more so - I again think we are buying entirely the wrong aircraft. we should have bought the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II for about US$ 10 million each and no more than 3 of them. (check out the wikipedia entry on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II

Source: wikipedia

Now this is a war horse. Unfortunately the troika in power has pissed off most of the international community and have to deal with Russia who would be willing to sell them Mig-29s – which are great fighter aircraft but useless at countering a subsonic aircraft ..

squash balls for your feet

so the gilchrist controversy seems to be dragging on... the best retort i heard so far was from this sales guy. he said "whenever I hit a slow period now I am going to wear squash balls on the bottom of my shoes - to give me that extra spring ..."

what other uses can we think of for these squash balls? btw has the price of squash balls increased yet?

ode to tailor

Aiyah passed away on Friday 04 May 2007. he was a good man and I will miss him. he was an unassuming sort that could always adjust anything i bought to fit me. he never asked for very much (for his tailoring services) but was always there whenever we beckoned. I saw him a couple of weeks back walking along the road towards Thimbirigasya junction and he seemed to look a bit dishevelled. Wish I had stopped and chatted with him. Anyway so long Aiyah, I hope you found your peace.

hole in galle rd wellawata

just received these pictures of the crater in galle road at wellawate. do not know who to attribute to or how real they are ...

the world cup 2007

this article in the guardian about sums up how most people feel about the world cup 2007.

Aussies seal world cup win

Sportsmanship

before i lash out - i must first congratulate the aussies for a deserved win over "our boys". they were clearly the champs - or the team to beat in the final - from the very first game of the world cup. however you got to wonder about the spirit of sportsmanship... what constitutes cheating or gaining unfair competitive advantage?

i am specifically referring to the gilchrist squash ball. immediately after the game my wife commented that gilchrist must surely have been on something - no one else was scoring at the rate he was (not even haydn) and his performance throughout the world cup had been lacklustre at best - come the final and he is hitting at about 1.5 runs per ball. surely something was amiss. then there was the curious incident about him pointing at this gloves once he had reached a particular milestone. Please see this article " Did Australia cheat its way to Victory"

But it does get you thinking about sportsmanship and the expression "it's just not cricket". You got to admire the kiwis when Shane Bond almost made the catch but then pushed the ball onto the rope for a six. he was the first to signal that it was a six - to the umpires no less. there are many other examples even from the world cup but rarely do any of them refer to the aussies... is it ok to be the best at a sport without being a good sport?

the beautiful west

pictures from the west of our gloroiuos island.

"this country is amazing - smiling people and so so green - I love it. want to come back again"

"if I ever catch one of those bast**d tigers I am going to throttle them" sentiments of a good mate of mine who came in from china

as taken from the banks of the kalutara ganga


from Hiks:

investment ideas - high tech stocks

i have been toying with the idea of investing some money in the US stock markets again after a lapse of about 4 years. i am a high tech stock junky and usually look for very high growth stories - tech companies that have great ideas but are generally undervalued by the market. generally i would be willing to commit a significant portion of a portfolio to a couple of stocks if i had the belief that it would one day come true [out of all the investments i have made - this has come true on 2 - DELL and Net Silicon].

a fund i think that does a lot of decent due diligence is First Hand funds

Anyway looking for the next great story - incidentally there was a company I came across that should be very interesting if they go or an ipo - Globalive Communications Corp

Looking for ideas if anyone wants to share - probably going to be investing in bits and drabs and creating a seperate blog along the way...

kewl image

I think credit goes to 9A design - however very nicely done...

the scum of my heart

“Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart.” William Shakes-his-beard

The scum of my heart at the moment (other than my wife) is the cricket world cup finals. What anticipation. I am trying desperately to be objective about the result without succumbing to the hoopla that surrounds us. But how could i come up with anything other than a Sri Lanka win.

A friend and colleague said that it would all depend on whether we won the toss i.e. if we bat first. the logic being that the batters need to get a decent total for the bowlers to work their magic. There is much truth in this sentiment, however I think we can rule the day as long as we can get the better of their bowlers - no this not a Ranjit Fernandoism. Look at the table below:

Australia bowling averages
Player	Matches	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Ave	Econ	SR
SR Clark	1	8	1	19	1	19	2.37	48
BJ Hodge	5	6	0	17	1	17	2.83	36
NW Bracken	9	65.4	9	224	15	14.93	3.41	26.2
GB Hogg	10	79.5	6	313	20	15.65	3.92	23.9
GD McGrath	10	73.5	5	326	25	13.04	4.41	17.7
SR Watson	7	37.3	2	168	3	56	4.48	75
MJ Clarke	10	12	0	63	0	-	5.25	-
SW Tait	10	78.3	1	425	23	18.47	5.41	20.4
A Symonds	8	20.2	1	129	2	64.5	6.34	61

what is most tantamount is controlling Bracken, Hogg, McGrath and Hodge if they bring him on. I think the Aussie power plays are going to be absolutely crucial. Shaun Tait imho is not going to be such a problem unless he takes a number of wickets..

As for us - we have got to play as if the world depended on it - and from all that we read and hear it does. However it would be great if they could just play the kind of cricket that has made us the scum of world's heart - entertaining spirited and endearing.

the "air" attack - the need for sams

the lights went out last night - somewhere around 22:30. I was just nodding off to sleep and trying to think of how i would open my presentation for the conference I was presenting at this morning. anyway i woke up this morning to hear that the lights had been turned off as a precautionary measure as some aircraft had been spotted over Puttalam ( by the way there is a landing strip in Palavi [thanks to cerno for the link]about 6 km south of Puttalam) - i really didn't give more thought to the matter until i read about the airport being closed down for 45 minutes as a precautionary measure - now this was concerning.

My friend A called me shortly after i gave my presentation and told me how another friend of his had boarded his flight from Dubai and then been told they would not be flying to Colombo. What the airline mean? What are the implications of a carrier like Emirates pulling out or imposing flight only during the day on Colombo? Now this is even more concerning.

My greatest concern however is the solution to the ltte's air threat- surface to air missiles (SAMs). it seems like we can't even learn from the not-so-distant past - 2000/2001 to be precise. surely the defence-types can remember how our troop-carrying aircraft were being swatted out of the sky by sams being shot by the ltte. isn't this what the gosl should be doing? how difficult would be to train our foces in this technology? hell ask the karuna faction how to do it.

we won

we won we won we won we beat the kiwis. we are in the final. just going to relish in moment for now and save the analysis for later. hats off to " the boys" and much respect to the skipper - great captaincy.

petrol station scam - the changing tide ...

You must read the comments on this Times On-line article
what stands out to me most is the changing sentiment against the ltte by the Tamils themselves - i am being highly presumptuous in interpreting certain names. The overwhelming angst against the ltte is quite substantial.

I guess this gets to people in two fundamental ways:

1. touching their own wallets (or the possibility to be robbed) in their own neighbourhood to fund a war they are not involved with. No one likes getting robbed but getting robbed for a cause far away i.e. not even supporting the local economy is even worse.
2. the more frightening - credit card fraud. this itself is getting even scarier. most people (of a certain income level) in most locations around the world now carry a credit or debit card. for the vast majority of transactions in the UK i would probably use a credit card - buying a tube ticket, paying for groceries, shopping, dining out, hotels etc. we are constantly on the vigil against on-line credit card fraud but when it happens at the petrol station - then it becomes real. you can see it, you may know the guy who stole from you, did he have access to all of your credit - it is really scary.

the dog wonders if this is the proverbial straw that'll be the undoing of the funding pipeline. mind you the ltte are still meant to indirectly control some 10% of all petrol stations in and around london...

forgetful

i am getting forgetful. not entirely sure why - but i am forgetting to keep track of things i shouldn't. today i forgot that i had this conference call scheduled for the morning but i even forgot to look at my diary.

i am usually pretty good at remembering things - or at least i rely on a bunch of tools to keep me up to date. i use ms outlook pretty extensively, including alarms for my appointments and a synchronization with my o2. I used to synchronize my n80 as well but for the life of me i cannot get my new laptop to recognize the phone. i also have use an excel tool that has my to do's and to receives and some calendaring tools as well. on top of all of this i also write things down especially action items in meetings. writing all this down i recognise the complexity and probably need to simplify this dramatically. i guess what ever system you do have you just need to practice it religiously...

our loss to Australia

my take on the loss - so be it. in my humble opinion (IMHO) we lost because we couldn't execute the given strategy - yes yes please bear with me...

resting the bowlers I believe was designed to get our batting kick-started. I think the coach and captain probably wanted to see if we could get our batting line-up firing on all cylinders at a match. all the matches up to now(and including the Oz match) we have had a pair of batters who have been able to see the game to a face-saving total that could be defended by the superior bowling. what would happen if the master-bowlers were not there? you would then need a total well in the region of 270-300 to defend against.

I reckon the game plan had been to have Upul and Sanath get to at least 50, get Mahela and Chamara to about 150 and then Russell Arnold and Dilshan to about 250. the tail were to bring home the last 25-50 runs. the bowlers were meant to bowl as tight a line as possible and step up to the plate on this pitch.

I guess we failed to execute - but what do I know...

the beautiful east

i am very proud of being a humble farmer from the eastern part of Sri Lanka. the pictures above were taken just around some of our paddy fields ...I still can't believe the sky did that

Why?

Why did Cho Seung-Hui want to kill so many innocent fellow students? I presume it was anger of some dimension. but what makes someone so angry they feel the need to kill - and kill randomly those one associates with?

On the question of why - why is driving in Sri Lanka so testosterone-based? you often get the sensation that people (of both sexes) measure themselves by how aggressive they are behind the wheel of a vehicle. My friend Nirm used to tell me to just let them go in fact even be more polite - this often confuses them.

the new year - new thoughts or more of the tired old thinking

suba aluth aurudu wewa

I remember learning this phrase for the for first time and being quite tickled that I could say it. until then it was quite a tongue twister for me..anyway lets see what the new year has on offer for us.


as we begin this new year what do you think will be the catalysts for change (hopefully for the better)? will peace break out? will we win the world cup? will the politician stop being guided by horoscopes and act with their conscience? will a leader emerge that can see beyond a vote? will traffic improve? will someone suddenly take education of our youth seriously? so much yet so little being done...

What has happend to humanity?

The Washington Post did a fantastic check of what we have become - or at least a check of our attitude towards beauty. They got Joshua Bell to play on his Stradivarius at the L'Enfant Metro station.

For those who do not know Joshua Bell is an absolutely amazing violinist. He seems to live thru the music when he is playing - absorbing the notes and transmitting them thru to produce a visual and aural feast. You feel his personification of whatever he is playing and that his true brilliance. I got to catch him playing with the Austin Symphony Orchestra about 15 years ago and still remember the performance.

Anyway please read the following article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Has a lot to say about who we are..

the new essel cricket league debate

a good friend of mine, MF, sent me this about the proposed cricket league in India:

Essel Group comes up with a new initiative

Business mogul announces break-away cricket league

Cricinfo staff

April 3, 2007

Subhash Chandra, who heads the Essel Group, owners of the Zee brand, has announced a breakaway cricket series called the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The Essel Group will invest Rs 100 crore (US$ 23 million approx) in the project, which will run parallel to the leagues and tournaments of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The ICL will have six teams with two Indian internationals, four overseas players and eight juniors in each side, though Chandra didn't name those players, if any, who'd already signed up. At the end of the third year, there will be 16 teams in the ICL. Chandra, while announcing this initiative in Delhi, said this initiative was not in conflict with the BCCI but would be complementary to them.

Stating that the Indian board's selection process has failed to create "a reserve pipeline of players", Chandra added that the idea behind the league is to create an "ideal pool with killing instinct". The BCCI, he said, would be free to draw from the talent pool.

"We feel that despite cricket being a passion, a religion in this country and despite it having great commercial players, BCCI has only six A-grade players signed up," he said. "Therefore, there is need for some united effort to create a talent pool. And this will be done by a three pronged strategy -discovery, diligence and display."

To achieve its objectives, Zee plans to set up cricket academies equipped with state-of-the-art facilities across the country. Sports medicine would be introduced to ensure players' fitness and a full-fledged record maintained of their behaviour pattern, diet-plan and game statistics. The group will also appoint talent scouts in all 35 states to hunt for young players to play in the ICL.

The finer points of ICL:

- 6 teams or clubs to play in the opening year
- Talks on with BCCI for gaining access to stadiums
- Executive Board of the league under installation
- Pool of referees and umpires to be created
- Rules committee to form regulations for ICL
- Ombudsman to look into grievances of players
- League to begin with Twenty20 format and move to ODI format
- League to be a joint venture between Essel Group and ILFS Group
- Each team to have a mentor, media manager, psychologist, physio
- Prize money for the winner- US$ 1 million
- League teams to compete with teams internationally
- Number of teams to be increased from 6 to 16 in three years

© Cricinfo

His initial take on it was:

have been suggesting this for ages - that the subcontinent 4 (ind, Pak, Bdesh, SL) should create their own internal domestic cricket league in the mould of the UK Footbal Premier League...The reason being that the current domestic cricket structures in all 4 countries are in shambles - they do not propely serve their national purpose of discovering and training new talent, nor do they attract a great amount of viewers or money or TV..........I always thought an enterprising businessman a-la Kerry Packer (he who transformed cricket in the 1970s with TV and coloured clothing and made it far more commercially, and TV, friendly ) or Bernie Ecclestone (who did the same for F1) could do the same for cricket in the subcontinet.....

...After all, with a domestic base of 1.5bn+ people, cricket already a religion, and an established roster of sponsors. ...And think of the excitment of club cricket, like Mumbai CC taking on Colombo Colts esp if the League decides to allow free and full international trade in players...you could see the emergence of 'superclubs' like Man U or Real Madrid...It would be a huge monepsinners - cricket is to the subcontinet what football is to Europe - so, given the right organisation and capital, I cannot think of a reason why domestic club cricket in the Subcontinent cannot be as commercially successful as European football??

My reply was:

Great idea – but there are a few flaws to it and I think there are some phenomenal barriers to entry.

Funnily enough it is India who has most to gain from something like this. But before I get to that, I think what needs to be set up first is not exactly what the Essel group has in mind – it should probably be more on the lines of the US Major League Baseball or national Hockey League. You basically set up Super-teams based around a large city's capture market around a large stadium. Very important is the prevalence of a competitive TV market affiliated to a national broadcaster. You could even have a couple of teams per large city such as Mumbai, Karachi, Delhi, Dhaka etc.. Funnily enough there should also be a cricket season – a defined length of play of the game within the year to sustain a heightened sense of anticipation and build up – aka the beautiful game in the UK, F1, baseball, American football etc. There should be other games in the off-season but these need to be very much secondary sports – what basketball originally was to US Football.

So what are the barriers to entry:

1. the cricket season. There actually is none any more. The game is so global and the ICC runs the national teams like a league with both the test and the ODIs. Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is open season and Winter means the tropical countries and those in the Southern Hemisphere get the visitors. It is a year round sport at the highest levels.
2. building the teams/infrastructure. The mix of economic ingredients for local teams to succeed is just not there. There is still no TV station dedicated to just a city anywhere in the subcontinent. The investment in the stadiums has also been done at a national government level and they would need to be involved in how it was given out.
3. India should have a pool of talent 50x ours. There is a clear need for the Indians to identify and nurture talent early at develop it. There current selection process I think has failed them successively and needs to be revamped and what Essel proposes makes sense as a complimentary service to the BCCI. PCB has there own process and it seems to work but they could definitely do with much more transparency – but this in a country run by a Dictator, Bangladesh need to nurture their existing talent in the team. In Sri Lanka funnily enough we have a fairly good colloquial system – it works inspite of the BCCSL – probably has to do with how small we really are and the fact that school matches and club matches are well attended and put in to the newspapers.

And he replied:

Yeah I agree - My point was general - in the sense that a country (India) with the passion, population base and wealth should be able to support a commercialy successful, TV focused cricket league. All the points you raised are valid - and see more such points in the cricinfo debate - but, just like the Kerry Packer Wordl Series in 1970s, this could be the big catalyst which creates a true profesional sports league in India (and hopefully by extension, draws in its subcontinental neighbours).....either because its succesful in its own right, or because it forces the existing system to change. As for whether it can work within existing ICC rules and schedules - my point is exactly that India can call the tunes at the ICC, and force them to change (which would be a change for the better, cos all these ridiculous and meaningless cricket tournaments can be gotten rid of, leaving just a core bunch of meaningful International competitions).

On your final point - i disagree. I think that ALL the subcontintental first-class systems for finding and nurturing talent are broken and pathetic....Because SL are doing well now, everyone is saying our system is good....Just 12 months ago, at the beginning of our Test Series in UK (not the end, when we did very well against expectations), when we succumned to humuliating defeats, every pundit, both local and foreign, was waxing lyrical how its because our system does not produce the right kind of talent, at the right time, playing on the right surfaces, yadi yadi yada.

At the moment - its Indian and Paks' turn....4yrs ago, when India went to the semi's, everyone was gushing on how great the domestic Indian Ranji trophy is at producing talent. Now everyone says its broken. yes, BCCI power struggles between Dalmiya, Pawar, Ganguly, etc are pretty bad - but nothing compared to SL genius in that dept with our local hero Sumithipala dishing his thug lovin'....Honestly, when i arrived in SL last June, I was worried that SL Cricket wouldnt even have the organisational skills to field a team for the World Cup this year! The fact that our guys are doing well, and gelling as a team, is probably due to alot of luck and personalities.

The reality is ALL the subcontinetnal systems are not working - because they are essentially State Owned Enterprises in monopoly industry, which are run according to political objectives - and therefore suffer from the usual various rent-seeking / incentive-compabitibiity issues inherent in such structures. England and Aus Boards are also state-owned, but they are far more professional, run by a salaried, professional cadre. Its really like comparing the English Central Bank with a banana-republic version (of course, SL CB is much better than that!). Which is why a commercially focused, privately owned, sports league hopefully can provide the competition to change some of this

And my reply was:

Agree – with the need to build proper talent acquisition systems in the sub-continent and with the need to professionalize the management. I have unfortunately seen how Sri Lankan Football has been run as a personal fiefdom and what this has done for the country in the sport.