My Sri Lanka Holidays bunpeiris-Gleannigs: Read, Write, Record & Present
My Sri Lanka Holidays is presented by Riolta Lanka Holidays (Pvt.) Ltd., a tour operator based in Kandana [5mnts drive-9km from Colombo CMB Banadranyake Int'l Airport at Katunayake] on Katunayake-Negombo-Cololmbo-A3 Main Road, Sri Lanka.http://www.mysrilankaholidays.com/
THE SEA OF PARAKRAMA, ANCIENT RESERVOIR , SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS
"Not one drop of water must flow into the ocean without serving the purposes of man"
King Parakrambahu the great (1164-1196 AD), the builder of rainwater reservoir "Sea of Parakrama"
KITULGALA WHITE WATER RAFTING, BIRDING, SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS
The season for Whitewater rafting at Kitulgala is the period of April to November. During this period southwestern monsoon of Sri Lanka gently increase the water level of River Kelani Ganga.
PINNAWELA ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE, SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS
Twice a day elephants here, after the meals, are driven across the road to May Oya river for a leisurely bath. And you will be watching their antics from the comfort of river bank
Anuradhapura, Greatest monastic city of the ancient world
Anuradhapura, the first capital of Sri Lanka 437 BC-845 AD, today a World Heritage Site is home to Stupas, Temples and Reservoirs
Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka Holidays
Horton Plains National Park, a World Heritage Site perched on the southern edge of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, The Land Of Delights
Is there anybody in the island that can bring evidence from modern politcal history of ours that politicans have delivered what they promised? The only exception is Don Percy Mahendra Rajapakse: wiping out terrorism; end to the war. And Tamils wanted his head for that-gon rela joined them; USA wanted head his for aligning Sri Lanka with China- gon rela joined them and had the Hero of Modern Sri Lanka defeated on 8th January 2015 in the presidential race.
Who was the only man
who stood against west; who was the only man who refused to be bullied by
India, who was the only man who had a working relationship with India; who was
the only man who had courage, tenacity, strategy, aggression and diplomacy to
overcome all local and international oppositions and obstacles? Who was the
only man who renewed the friendship originated with Rubber-Rice pact that was
carried out half a century ago? Who was the only man who took the tigers head on? He is the only LION of Modern Sri Lanka. He is the Hero of Modern Sri Lanka;
he is the Prince Diyasena whose arrival was prophesied centuries ago and
reminded in "Revolt in the Temple" by D. R. Wijewardena [Don Charles
Wijewardene]. bunpeiris 21 December 2014
To the hell with Cost of Living, damn the corruption and wastage, blast the neopotism, I will still vote for him; he saved the island and nation from three decades of terrorism and war; he saved the island nation from Asia's Second Pol Pot.When the regimes that preceded couldn't have even a pond built, he had so much built and and goes on.It is zillion times better to be aligned with China than become a dog of the Western Countries hell bent to tear the island apart. bunpeiris 20 November 2014
See in an international perspective: weaker regime, stronger Tamil diaspora and western countries hell bent in breaking up Sri Lanka. Or you can see in the local perspective: has any of the regimes/party since those of D.S. and S.W. R. D. tried to solve the issue of cost of living; had any of the regimes/parties been free of corruption, wastage, malpractise and neoptism? bunpeiris 15 December 2014 දේශපාලනය අමතක කරමු.. පක්ශ පාට වලට නොබෙදී එකාමෙන් එක් සිත් ඇතිව කුරගල මුදාගැන්මට දායක වෙමු....... එය අපේය...... අපගේ අභිමානය රෑකගනිමු.... පෙළගැසෙමු...... bunpeiris 22 February 2015 Now, you are talking. Aren't you, who voted them ? Haven't you voted in the patriots devoid of racism? Haven't you voted in the saints free of corrupton? You will talk more and more like hell, cry like hell! By the way, how is Panui, Coriander Kottamli curry hodda, nagela yanwade? Ane gon rale. USA, CANADA UK, FRANCE, NORWAY, SWITZERLAND, TNA , TAMILS, T DISPORA WANTED THE HEAD OF RAJAPAKSE AND YOU GON RELA JOINED THEM. Who betrayed King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe? Who betrayed Weera Kappetipola? Who betrayed Weerahennadige Francisco Fernanado Puran Appu? Who betrayed Don Percy Mahendra Rajapakse THE HERO OF MODERN SRI LANKA? You.
“Ah, what an age it is! When to speak of trees is almost
crime. For it is a kind of silence against injustice." To Posterity: Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
Right, while we are talking about cricket, sanctions will be enforced by USA & UK against Sri Lanka for aligning with China (Yes, it has done) and exports to west will be dealt a deadly blow below the belt. Sri Lanka is bound to suffer an economic crunch. Meanwhile in spite of the INCOMING CASIONS THAT WOULD TEAR APART THE WHOLE SOCIAL FABRIC OF THE ANCIENT ISLAND NATION, heroin containers & alcohol containers caught red handed, corruption, bribery, malpractice, wastage, skimming the wealth of the nation on the Top Lombargini Gear, Mahinda Rajapkse will still remain the Hero of Modern Sri Lanka for saving the nation & island from 30 years of terrorism & war, 30 years of suffering at the hands of Pol Pot the Second, 30 years of suicide bombs & blood, 30 years of not knowing your son, daughter, father, mother would come back home alive after work.
The World Over Today
Such is the pathetic situation, the poet has no business with nature: time has come for him to speak of the ground reality of the humanity.
Such is the suppression, the novelist has nothing in common with love: time has come for him to speak of injustice.
Sri Lanka's banks have no shame
In front of the posh banks- national, international & state- are cheap banners calling the public to pawn their jewelry at the bank each one claiming higher advance for each gram of gold; claiming theirs are the lowest interest rate upon the loan given on pawned jewelry.
Once upon a time, banks used to extend pawning facilities only as an additional service to its clients in need. Today, the banks have taken up the role of pawn brokers too over and above the business of leasing motor vehicles.
The suppressed class is in such dire straits, survival depends on the remainder of its jewelry. People who once had decent living-economical conditions have now started to scrape the barrel. Meanwhile the hoard of buffaloes by the stream where Vidiya Bandara drowned Samudra Devi enjoy their pork barrel to the hilt.
Perversion of Just Rule & Law
Quote the newspaper "The Island" of Sri Lanka, 5th December 2012: Financial Review Since the mid 1980s Sri Lanka has given completely tax free cars to elected rulers tax slashed cars to state workers
while taxing ordinary citizens to a very high levels, in a perversion of just rule of law.
Unquote "The Island"
Local Transportation in Sri Lanka
The pathetic state of the government transportation has resulted in the increase of continued import of Indian Bajaj three wheelers -[used for taxis] in Sri Lanka creating chaos, creating unbearably congested traffic in the main streets. The uncalled for factor of taxi fares has added further burden to the cost of living chaos of the suppressed class.Over and above all those, three wheeler taxis have made matters easier for hired criminals and drug pushers.
Tourism in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Holidays is on the rise. Yet industry needs to be improved in leaps and bounds. Listen to the sexpertsCompared to Malaysia and Indonesia, Sri Lanka is currently 30-40 per cent higher in terms of the latter’s hotel charges, Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President Mahen Kariyawasan said in an interview with the Business Times on Wednesday at his Nawala office.He noted that while Sigiriya would charge US$30 as entrance fees from visitors, Dambulla costs $25 and likewise for Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura. But he pointed out that in comparison entrance to the Taj Mahal would cost only $15.
Like most of the MIGHTY in Sri Lanka, the majority of Judiciary too choose and select what is BEST for them, not what is RIGHT. When the HIGH & MIGHTY says to those who got favors it's payback time, they cry Foul Play.
People are attracted to issues that concern them-not those that attract the fiefdom of a President or Minister or Parliamentarian or Judge or Lawyer. Experience has taught that dignitaries struggle to preserve their habitat of power and make it look, as if, it is for a cause...a cause, they try to make out, is for the people. Let's not fool ourselves; their cause is primarily intended in looking after them-selves!
Gomin Dayasiri, son of Neil Quintus Dias: The Island, Sri Lanka, 22 December 2012
Several lawyers who spoke to Colombo Telegraph stated that while they deplored interference with the judiciary, Kariyawasam should not have accepted a political appointment in the first place. He was first appointed as Chairman of Sri Lanka Insurance and later as Chairman of the National Savings Bank. Never in the history of Sri Lanka’s judiciary had a spouse of a judge of a superior Court accepted a political appointment, they stated.
“when you sleep with dogs, you have to get up with fleas” a former judicial high up stated.
"It
is not the masses who have to be held in check, but the parliamentarians and
lawyers, so that they do not betray the masses"
Rosa
Luxemburg (1871- 1919)
In Sri
Lanka- parliamentarians, lawyers, politicians, media, judiciary and INGOs.
Sri Lanka's Skills, Wiles & Guile Honest Overwhelm India
6th April 2012. Sri Lankan Cricket Team,
which has consistently been losing finalists in One day International World
Cups & T20 World Cups, since winning the One day International Champions in
1996 under the captaincy of indomitable Arjuna Ranatunge at Lahore, finally
triumphed over India, with great death over bowling skills coupled with wiles & laced with guile honest to win T20 World Cup at Dhaka, in a fitting
tribute to Kumar Sangakkara & Mahela Jayawardene, who retires from T20.
SEPTEMBER 2012 Sri Lanka lost to West indies in the T20 Cricket World Cup Final in Colombo.unlike to 1996 World Cup Wining team of Sri Lanka, the present cricket team of Sri Lanka cannot finish the job. Cricket is a game, but then loosing finals in a row, will not bode well for the game.
Perhaps the Sri Lanka Army can dish out a winning formula.
The south-western and southern coastal belts are teaming with with softball cricketers [natural stroke makers] who lift the ball straight up overhead or six after six. All Sri Lanka has to do it get them into play the leather ball with gloves and pads. They don't need helmets and other battle armour.
Politics: the world's most
fearsome violator of human rights, the bomber
of nuclear bombs, preach human rights to Sri Lanka. Foul play, to say
the least.
On Russia Today television channel's interview Engdahl stated that the 2011 Egyptian Revolution was orchestrated by the Pentagon to facilitate Barack Obama's Middle East foreign policy and Egypt had turned to a worse situation after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. According to Engdahl"The ultimate goal of the US is to take the resources of Africa and Middle East under military control to block economic growth in China and Russia, thus taking the whole of Eurasia under control."He believes that the Arab Spring is a plan "(...) first announced by George W. Bush at a G8 meeting in 2003 and it was called "The Greater Middle East Project"."
Double Standards in US Foreign Policy vs Sri Lanka
Ranking member of US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Congressman Eni F.H. Faleomavaega on Tuesday (Feb 26,2013) expressed his deep concerns over the double standards applied in the US foreign policy toward Sri Lanka. SRI LANKA ASKS THE WORLD TO REFRAIN FROM BEING UNFAIR
Canada helping ‘evil forces’ with threat to boycott Commonwealth meeting, Sri Lankan envoy says
Wagiswara, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada said Sri Lanka needed support after facing “separatist terrorism for nearly three decades,” and ongoing post-conflict challenges.
“Notably certain separatist elements within the diaspora including in Canada, still continue to relentlessly disseminate anti-Sri Lanka propaganda and lobby political leaders and other decision makers,” said Wagiswara. “Hostile criticism and unfair targeting of Sri Lanka by Canada only serves to further strengthen the evil forces working against Sri Lanka and does not contribute in any manner to the ongoing rebuilding and reconciliation process in the multicultural society of the country.” Wagiswara added that his country was looking to all members of the Commonwealth to “uphold principles of objectivity, understanding, mutual respect and the equality of sovereign states.”
May 2, 2013,
Education: commotion in higher
education system Local Railway Transportation System: unsastifactory. Local Public Road Transportation System: Mihin Air needs to be closed down so that those funds can be to diverted for revival of local road transportation. Our country cannot afford more than Sri Lankan Airlines already in red. Health Services: government hospitals being overcrowded, business makes it their day
Cost of Living: talk to the people -they are desperate.
Corruption: that began in the
regime of Srima Bandaranayake had no intervals since then to this month.
At the helm in Sri Lanka:- A nationalist leader with no fear. He loves his people of all races and loved by
the majority of people of all races in spite of the
major deficiencies of the government. He is an unknown quantity to
the west.
Development of the country: on,
mostly in terms of cultivation and road construction.
Suicide in Sri Lanka
New official data shows that
Sri Lanka still has one of highest suicide rates in the world, with almost
4,000 people killing themselves per year, or about 11 per day. Dr. Neil
Fernando, who heads the country’s National Institute of Mental Health
Promotion, released the figures in a Suicide Prevention Day seminar on
September 10. The majority of victims, he reported, were aged 15 to 44.
Poverty, joblessness, high debt
burdens and other social problems—the main factors behind the high suicide
rate—are rampant throughout the country.
Ethnic harmony in Sri Lanka
Who tour in Jaffna? Sinhalese
Who visit the Tamil Sivar
Restaurants most? Sinhalese
Who work with the Tamils side by side in Colombo? Us
Who buy from Tamil Gold shops in Colombo most? Sinhalese
Who are the main traders & sellers in Colombo: Tamils. Who are
the buyers? Sinhalese
Who call Tamil school boys
"Mallie" (Sinhala: younger brother)? soldiers of Sri Lanka Army Civil Inequality in Sri Lanka Different segments of the citizens are treated in such a way, those who have been fortunate to receive right royal treatment, demands for more; those who have been suppressed are given to shoulder more burdens. The government do change, modify, repeal, introduce new rules and new policies on taxes to suit its great mass of politician businessmen so that they could exploit the openings to get richer at the expense of the wealth of the country, the taxes on the masses, upon the sweat, tears & blood of the suppressed. The rich get richer and richer; the poor get poorer & poorer. The poorer pawn everything they have so that they could buy bread without butter for the day. The banks have taken up the mass scale opening of pawn shops in every little bazaar. The gap between the have and have not go on widening as had been with the previous governments since regime of Sirima Bandaranayake. In this context the current government is no better than any of the previous. And an incoming government, if any, would be worse. Having said all these, as at present, given the western pressure on Sri Lanka and American plots to bring Sri Lanka to its knees, the patriots of the nation have no alternative but to support the president who saved the nation and its faith. All you can do is work within the system, and suffer the system, though no one has the right to ask you that. bunpeiris Law for the Rich Ends Up In Injustice to the Poor
The law protects the rich and makes sure no justice is done to the poor.
SATURDAY, 09 FEBRUARY 2013Justice Ministry Secretary Kamalini De Silva faulted the police and the acting Magistrate with regard to the unfortunate incident where a 13 year old school girl was produced in court by the Horana Police on charges of having stolen eight coconuts.Ms. De Silva said that in the first place the girl should have been referred to the Mediation Board instead of being produced in Court. Meanwhile, police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said according to section 367 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the case could not be referred to the Mediation Board as the girl had committed an offence for which police bail could not be given. Mr. Jayakody blamed the media for giving “out of proportion publicity” to the incident. EH!
FINANCE COMPANIES HAS BEEN PLUNDERING THE NATION SINCE 1988
The Central Bank fails to recover billions from 13 default finance companies
Well documented evidence indicates that the CB has failed to recover the refinance facilities provided to 13 default finance companies during the period 1988 to 1994. While the total advances made to these companies amounted to Rs. 2.7 billion, the total outstanding balance as at December 31, 2004 amounts to Rs. 7.3 billion.
In a hearing for bail at the Mount Lavinia Chief Magistrate's court on March 27, 2009 Kotelawala was accused by Deputy Solicitor General Sarath Jayamanna of running a Ponzi scheme.
HERE LANDS THE KICKER: GOLDEN KEY: The misappropriation of 26 billion rupees of investments from the failed Golden Key Credit Company
Depositors of Golden Key at the BMICH following the run-on and collapse of the so called financial institution.
It had been recommended that affairs of Golden Key Credit Card Company should be halted and further investigations should be carried out. However, the recommendations were not implemented under the present Governor Ajith Nivad Cabraal. In October, 2009 the company collapsed. As a result about 9000 depositors of the company lost more than Rs.26000 million.
The statement made by Ms. Shirani Thilekewardene reveals that had recommendations given by Mr. Sunil Mendis’ committee been implemented the loss to depositors could have been minimized.
Colonialists in British Ceylon; Robert Knox & The Bible; Joseph Stalin & The American church
I
IMAGE:Warrior King Rajasinghe the Second, (1629 – 1687), the third king of the kingdom of Kandy, Sri Lanka, who held a melange of Europeans captive (open air -closed kingdom prisoners) within the natural fortress of Kandy surrounded by hills and looped by River Mahawel Ganga; no way out.
I have never ceased to be amazed at the acute observation, precise analysis and sheer brilliance in writing brought to us by the multitude of British colonialists in British Ceylon (1796-1948). They weren’t professional writers: they were professionals from all walks of life: planters to soldiers; irrigation engineers to road builders. The descriptions of Ceylon, travel narratives, hunter’s stories, planter’s tales, biographical & semi autobiographical books narrated by the British in Ceylon and the Ceylonese British have now become colonial classics of Sri Lanka. Among the numerous publications, at the forefront are: An Account Of The Island Of Ceylon by Robert Percival, London, 1803; An Account of Interior of Ceylon by John Davy, London,1821; Eleven Years In Ceylon by Major Forbes, London,1840; Ceylon by James Emerson Tennent, London, 1859; The Wild Elephant by James Emerson Tennent, London, 1867 (dedicated to Major Thomas Skinner, the builder of Kandy Road); Ceylon by An Officer, Late of Ceylon Rifles,1876, London; Fifty years in Ceylon by Major Thomas Skinner, London, 1891; The Buried Cities of Ceylon by S. M. Burrows, London, 1905; Ancient Ceylon by H. Parker, London, 1909.
The serious students of English Language in Sri Lanka would do a world of good to themselves should they opt to read these classics since much could be derived from those works of prose in English Language. Furthermore it would open up opportunities to gain a wealth of knowledge of Colonial Sri Lanka.
Then again, In terms of learning English, one of the most fascinating lessons that can be learned by students of English in Sri Lanka comes not from those British colonialists, but from Robert Knox Jr.(1641 – 1720), who had been an open air captive in Kandy, Sri Lanka since 19 November 1659 for 19 years till his escape to England with Stephen Rutland, one of his companions in Kandy. Knox’s celebrated book “An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon”, was written during the voyage back to England in 1680 and was published in the following year. Robert Knox Jr. was only 14 years of age in the beginning of his captivity in Ceylon. From where did his proficiency of English Language come from?
Of course, there were other British captives in Kandy, the gateway to the Central Highlands and all of them were allowed to communicate and interact with one another. Hence Knox wouldn’t have lost fluency in English at all. But then Knox’s fascinating narration, in no way plays second fiddle to a literary work of an erudite man of letters. It is true, that historian and biographer John Strype, Knox's cousin, helped him to prepare the book for publication. But then again, John Strype wasn’t a co-author at all. In the circumstances we can only deduce that Knox must have been reading the centuries old Bible in English, left behind by the Portuguese (1505-1640) when they lost Fort of Colombo to the Dutch (1640-1796), that he laid his hands on soon after being taken captive, day after day for 19 years in Sri Lanka then called Ceylon.
Above is a historical novel written by a Sinhalese in Sri Lanka based on Knox's historical narrative.
IMAGE: White langur (not albinos).leaping in the canopy of UNESCO World Heritage Site ofSinharaja Forest, was discovered by Wildlife Conservation Society, Galle (WCSG). Robert Knox as well as James Emerson Tennent have made reference to White langur in Ceylon in their literary works.
Had Knox developed a habit of reading the bible daily during his captive years in Sri Lanka Holidays Kandy? The answer could perhaps be found in the appreciation expressed by Knox at the sight of Bible. It must be given in his own words:-
“The sight indeed of this Bible so overjoyed me, as if an angel had spoken to me heaven; to see that my most gracious God had prepared such an extraordinary blessing for me, which I did, and ever shall, look upon as miraculous; to bring unto me a Bible in my own native language, and that in such a remote part of the world-where His name was not so much as known, and where any Englishman was never known to have been before. I looked upon it as somewhat of the nature with the ten Commandments He had given the Israelites out of heaven; it being the thing for what whereof I had so often mourned-nay, and shed tears too-and than the enjoyment whereof there could be no greater joy in the world to me.
Joseph Stalin (1878 -1953), the dictator of Soviet Russia (1922-1952), who discouraged practice of religions in his land, in the year 1943, while dispatching Andrei Gromyko (1909 – 1989) to the post of second-in-command at Soviet Embassy in U. S. A., advised him to attend the Sunday Service at Church during his tenor so that he could make rapid progress in learning English language further. "Comrade Gromyko you should pay a visit or two to an American church and listen to their sermons. Priests usually speak correct English with good accents. Do you know that the Russian revolutionaries when they were abroad, always followed this practice to improve their skills in foreign languages?"
Gromyko never did. But then, the serious students of English Language in Sri Lanka ought to heed the advice of late Stalin to late Gromyko. After all, Christian sermons are free of charge.
Marginal Comments are written by bunpeiris.
"Shahrazad (Scheherazade) had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred."
"Stories are indispensable to the life, they tell you how to live & why. " Street story teller to Princess Shahrzad (Scheherazade), the narrator of 1001 Arabian nights In The Thousand and One Arabian Nights, written in Persia between the 9th and 13th centuries, Adam's Peak Sri Pada of Serendib (Sri Lanka) is one of the strange places that Sinbad visited. "I made, by way of devotion, a pilgrimage to the place where Adam was confined after his banishment from Paradise, and had curiosity to go to the top of the mountain" narrated Sinbad