Why I wish not to be born again in Ceylon?
I am writing this with over 70 years of experience in my files or folds.
First we have a parliament which has over 125 elected representative who are IRCs (I.R.C. means Island Registered Criminals not Internet Relay Chat) or either Sinhala (D.J.V.P and J.V.P) Tamil (L.T.T.E and many more) or Muslim (? now Thaw-shit Jamal) terrorists or their sympathizers.
I think we introduced all types of terrorists to this world in 1956 when Ceylon was changed to Sri-Lanka by ill gotten politicians of all faiths.
Then, closer to my heart all my foreign cheques or transactions were stolen in the Colombo Post Office by the criminal syndicates who are good at delivering illegal drugs within 24 hours to any corner of the country but the letters and money orders takes more than 24 hours for delivery or lost in the mail, for ever where no legal mechanism to catch or punish them.
Then comes the crunch point this country is pawned for over 100 years by our politicians over the past 15 years and we are selling our prime land to China and India and multinationals from all over the Globe.
So how can I be proud of Ceylon or wish to be born again here?
This piece is to highlight the contribution of the British and the American Postal Officers to Global communication link long before the new I.R.C. or Internet Relay Chats were established.
Vital part of this development is rail roads and highways built by the British to make delivery is possible to any part in this country within 24 hours.
Now we have given that civil responsibility which we were able to manage by Civil Servants of High Quality in the past, including our Grama Niladharis or Grama Sevakas to the three armed forces (to an individual family who has taken over the forces under their fold) who were good at killing host of civilians with the putative terrorists.
Before coming to the digital closing remarks, I want to highlight that I am waiting to get my third ID card which I applied for, ages ago but not yet received and a guy at Dialog refused to issue a telephone number with 077 prefix to me.
This is what happens to a simple retiree in his or her 70s.
Wish I am dead sooner than later but politicians over 70s are running this country or ruining this country and the youth are eloping and none will wish to return as NOT intended by their own parents as they leave.
This tendency, I believe is ingrained in the womb by ultrasound noise they hear while incubating inside.
Now let me thank the British and the American civilian administrators who have made me a digital entity and their entries (even if my ID card is not delivered before my demise) will last for 70 years or more after my death (70 year is which my legal premise will end abruptly and posthumously).
When I reached UK, I only had a passport and 50 pounds and I lived on borrowed money for 4 months (living was cheap then and with five pounds a day on a tube-train in daytime and a derelict hostel at night with 50 pence coin for gas heating, was more than enough for survival).
I got an instant (not digital) photo in a tube train in London (which tube train I forget, may be King's Cross) and a weekly Travel Card with a photo ID for traveling up and down never coming out unless, I wanted to go to a bookshop at Charring Cross (Foyles Book Shop, the largest in England, then).
Reading on the go, I learned in UK, which I carry to this day!
No cellphones or laptops, personal computer came into existence in primitive form and I bought a 128 Compaq (coming from US and UK did not have computers except perhaps Sinclare) as my last purchase, before leaving UK.
Within a month of my first employment in the National Health Services (N.H.S.) I got my first digital identity by filling a form and posting it to the head quarters of National Insurance as a legal immigrant from Ceylon.
My degree certificate was M.B.B.S (Ceylon) and O and A level certificates with English translations were never requested (by now all printed in Sinhala only) for authentication since, The University of Ceylon was a recognized (unlike today) Entity in UK.
Then, I got my first digital license in 1980s in Ceylon and A.A.International driving license.
Now everything is digital including postal numbers which originated in America.
I hope the American Postal Service will survive the crisis including the postal voting.
I am against digital voting which European Union wants to establish.
Voting is a private affair and it should be recorded as such and only the Postal Service can do that effectively, no other organization or N.G.O of European origin can think of coming close to that of the experience of the Postal Service.
Even though, my cheques were stolen by workers with bad taste, I always support (poor man's option) the postal services and it had done service even during the Second World War with only civilian administration.
By the way, my first ID for O Level examination was from the postal service and the same photo was pasted in my record book of the University.
I worked for a Faculty Academic Identity Card to avoid security officers with no credentials checking your entry, in all institutions today.
The Marshal Office was a recognized entity, then.
This country going for military control aided by stupid monks in saffron cloths, the only civilian link going to be the letter delivered or the tinkle one make with the old handset (trunk call we call it).
Now the cellphone can do wonders.
We paralyzed the administration of Sirima with Felix Dias as a dictator.
We can do it again, if the need arises BUT digitally.
Do not be reticent or withdrawing from responsibility, when the need arises.
