It takes twice (may be thrice) the time to type this since, like the flickering light I am making spelling mistakes one after the other.
This is a typical day in my life quiet frustrated but letting my anger disappear with the touch of the key board buttons.
I am not a touch typist (I was never) so with very poor light my eye not focusing on the keys I am making mistakes after mistakes. Thank god the spell checker is there with the touch of the button, even then I type tenants for tenet and price for prize, career for carrier and vice versa (One day, I will post one without correcting any keyboard mistakes for posterity and I am sure I will be nominated for a writing prize by the English experts brought in from India to teach our teachers English).
I am one who was brought up with the zero error /defect principle, strictly by the old code of conduct, these irritations would have made me neurotic by the minute.
I am sane now and always (with or without elections and with or without Kings and Queens-Card Pack- Buruwa- Mentality) because I practice this moment meditation (nothing to do with Buddhist meditation) and attend to the task at hand not one before or not one that has not yet come from my young age (without me consciously knowing the scenario then but quiet cognizant of the fact with advancing age and the practice of insight meditation).
So nothing disturbs my inner peace or joy but overtly presenting myself to all and sundry, boring, ignorant and man without substance for my own safety-THIS IS ALSO FOR MY INNER PEACE-mediocre questions drives me nuts though).
The flickering low voltage luminance for me is the driving energy to put some thoughts into words. I should have done / written this ages ago but never too late should be the guiding principle and the angles' message (that disappeared from this land of opportunities).
Weekends heralds disaster for me.
That is because the IT industry (Telecoms) keeps me up in the night.
Even now I am keeping my eye on the flicker / blinker of the router to see whether it is shaking hand with the server or not.
1. IT and Telecoms
Now I will start with the Telecoms, then go to Water Board, Electricity Board, Highway and the Municipality to illustrate how the zero defect principle should operate in this country.
Even though, Telecoms promises so many KBs or Mega Bites for a second, the throughput is never what they promise, it is way below the mark.
Often 10 or 15 instead of 50 or 200 they promise.
The Microsoft computers cannot measure the throughput but my Linux box does accurate measure of downloads and their speeds.
Currently it is 25 KB per second and below and almost two thirds of the country is in deep sleep now and / or not using a computer.
How come?
Who is responsible for it?
Not only that it goes to zero after midnight.
The guys / girls working in the night are very nice and moment I give them a call they put me on line.
Problem is the directors and top managers who have no understanding of IT are taking the perks from the coffers but doing nothing to run a zero defect industry.
They do not have a business plan or management skills.
They are all political appointees!
No wetting no appraisal or scrutiny!
2. Water Board
To me the most corrupt institution from President Premadasa's time.
I will not talk about late Mr. Premadasa.
I have more respect for him now than then except highlighting his blemishes in the Water Management in Kandy,
Only after his demise (I was away abroad but fully involved) I got involved with few of my friends who were engineers and got the Nilambe Project come into existence with the help of President Wijetunge.
Now what happens?
The guys who came after the Project was commissioned are having a whale of a time.
They divert the water to Kandy meant for the people of the project to please the politicians who frequent Kandy to invoke blessing for themselves (not the voters who voted them in).
Water Board is fully politicized!
3. Electricity Board
Flickering lights is not the only manifestation. I have to get up many a times to switch on / off the computer.
Mind you I have downloaded over 200 Linux distributions in spite this handicap.
Since, I am intending to write a review on hundred (after seen the 2010 updates) distributions I still have to download many.
Watching the flicker of the router has become a hobby (not watching any more of Sir-Lankan Cricket).
Just browse the BBC sports for Indian scores though!
Our Electricity Board cannot provide standard constant voltage supply 24 hours a day and I have lost so many valuable equipments worth millions in current value including computers and microwave ovens over the last two decades and I have stopped buying new ones any more.
If this happened abroad I would have sued.
A lady in UK won millions of worth of compensation for a faulty milk bottle with pieces of glasses or something similar.
What about Sir-Lanka ? Yes Sir Lanka
A bottled mineral water with a condom inside was hushed up!
4. Kandy Municipal (Kunu Mawana / Kawana) Council
It cannot provide safe breathing air (see my writing on Warning Inland Fish Eaters) and come Perehara cats and dogs are provided as delicacies.
5. Highway!
Come and see for yourselves during the Perehara to see the side roads where politicians with power never travel!
Whats the point in writing this?
There is something for you.
If you look at the statistics nearly 40% did not vote.
Nearly 25% voted against.
If we let the 35% to run the country nothing will change.
It is time for the Citizen's Bureaus to be formed (not new political parties) and Consumer Protection Societies to be formed and take people doing wrong things to task in courts of law.
Whether our Judiciary System is ready I am not sure but it is worth investing our frustrations and energy.
Our political system (both in power and out of power) are too corrupt to respond to the needs of the consumer.
We all are consumers.
Why not take the plunge?
Asoka with Vision!
18th July, 2010
PS.
The Flash bulb flicker never stopped!
The download speed never went up above 25!
