All Presidents without exception are bane of this country.
I will start with"Cat Shit Theory"
The "Cat Shit Theory" of Evasion of Accountability!
Even though, I wanted go digitally silent for good, for reason of my own sanity and public consumption, this piece has become mandatory.
Cat Shit Theory is the closest that, I can get to describe how both Private and Public Services in Ceylon operate.
Niceties first, before I get bogged down with the exposition of this theory.
All the institutions that I visited have dropped the political colour display to a significant degree, in their official costume (but some still wear pale blue overall- I now hate any shade of blue) which was a great plus point.
There
are millions of colour shades that a computer can detect but the
human eye can contrast only about 256 colours and many of us can only
name about 16 colors for certain.
If
we discard all the colours political parties use,
blue,
red, green, maroon, still we have 12 more colours.
Why can’t we use them, instead?
That is my question.
One hospital had an attire in apple green which was soothing for a patient.
The workers in the business institution had a reasonably well customized suit but little hint of blue was still visible.
The shoes they wore made obnoxious sounds (high heels) which was very disturbing.
I even hate the sound the slippers make, that girls wear.
Buddha was supposed to walk without making a noise or without even disturbing the dust.
One who is adept at meditation walks swiftly across.
Below, I have some advice, I fished out from the Internet to reduce the sound of shoes and slippers.
I
If you need to stop squeaky shoes, try a quick fix first, such as sprinkling some baby powder under the insole.
If you aren't wearing any socks, put a pair on.
Take care of your shoes.
If they are leather, you might want to oil them.
Be sure to fix any loose heels or soles.
Lastly, if your shoes are wet, you will need to dry them thoroughly.
II
In my workplace, it seems that for males, the higher up you are in the hierarchy, the noisier are the shoes, almost as if it’s in the job description. Middle managers shoes tend to make a bearable noise level, but when a male VP walks by, I could swear he’s wearing high heels.
Are
quality men’s shoes noisier?
Or
is this just that executives tend to prefer noisy loafers by design?
III
I
moved into the second floor of a building, right above a family. I've
been living there around three months, and my neighbor just told me
about this recently. The place has pretty bad sound isolation, which
is definitely part of the problem.
My neighbor was pretty
polite and nice about it.
He
said that I'm generally not otherwise noisy, but that I'm the loudest
walker who's lived in the apartment in all the time he's been there.
I'm not inclined to believe that he's making it up or being overly
sensitive.
I'd really like not to be a Horrible Neighbor, but
I'm really not aware that I walk particularly loudly!
I don't wear shoes inside or stomp a lot, and am not particularly heavy.
I have hardwood floors, which are kind of creaky when I walk, and no carpets.
I'm not really willing to get carpets.
Are there magic tricks to this?
I generally tiptoe walk indoors without shoes; just land with the ball of your foot rather than the heel. It's not at all awkward or inconvenient once you're used to this.
IV
Better quality dress shoes usually have leather soles and a heel built up from several layers of leather. It doesn't have quite as much give as a sneaker or a rubber sole, so they tend to make a sharp clacking noise when walking on them. I've noticed that even the Allen Edmonds I have with rubber soles tend to make more noise than cheaper dress shoes I've owned, I believe because the rubber is a bit stiffer.
I visited Colombo yesterday, after two year lapse to attend to some work for a “Third Party” bound to a wheel chair.
Two Private Hospitals and a private service that facilitates VISA services for UK and Australia.
The latter had a presumptive need to help a person on a wheel chair but did not have a dedicated individual.
In one of the cubicles, negotiating the wheel chair was almost impossible.
But all these institutions have individuals (not trained, though) designated as security officers.
Business on Wheel Chair is a thorn in the flesh of Ceylon and no government institution has even help for a person gone blind after retirement.
That is the bitter part of service orientated institutions in Ceylon. In the two hospitals, I visited one with a dress code, the runners were used as it to cover up the inefficiency of the service.
A procedure centralized with a proper software (ideally Linux not Microsoft) management, I believe all the procedures could have been finished in an hour the most, but it took 3 hours even after making an appointment at a fixed time.
The doctor was late and there was no proper management system to expedite the process.
Mind you in early 1990s, I was involved in promoting the National Quality Award (for the first time) for the other institution and it has slipped down drastically in its procedural aspects, in spite of the massive expansion of its facility.
All the grand institutions of yesteryear, including the Elephant House Fountain cafe are no more and are gobbled by this institution.
The restaurant was awful and nasty.
I decided to go to Majestic City and bring some food for the patient (while the patient was waiting for the consultation, nearly three hours) after a fixed appointment.
I asked the next in line after us and he had been waiting for 5 hours.
This place was for the visually handicapped and the lighting was very poor, even I could not find the numbered room after going up and down for three times.
The
entrance was narrow and did not give any consideration for a
handicapped person (no wheel chair) entering.
The
security officer was more interested in acting as a traffic warden
rather than a nurse in attendance.
Mind you blindness is a big handicap.
If the person did not come with a helper he or she would be knocked down by the next vehicle that enter, the institution.
This is after paying a hefty fee.
What the public announcer saying was incomprehensible, like a railway station in London of yesteryear.
It is no different to public sector except for the time and money wasted.
Now with that preamble with lot of diversion, I would like to expand on the “Cat Shit Theory”.
Cats are very good at covering up their mess after voiding without soiling their paws.
What a blessing if the dogs also had that facility fine tuned in their brain?
My
dog of course, make it a point to do it outside, very rarely
accidents inside even as a puppy.
We
never trained him but he has
realized
that even as a totally blind soul he wished not to do it inside.
Now come to humans.
They are very good at covering their excesses and misappropriations, just like cats covering their mess under soil.
The difference is they soil their hands and soul with tell tale tracks.
Ceylonese, especially the politicians for the last 38 years (17 under UNP and 21 under SLFP) covered up their tracks as diligently as cats but the only exception is the Armed forces including the Police.
Now
it seems the Law and Order Minister has come forward and stifle the
progress of any investigation by the AG (with officers of the office
aiding and abetting) against persons of wrong doings in the
forces.
The Lasantha Wicramatunge murder is a case in point and not yet properly investigated.
Not a single investigation has been concluded independently to full satisfaction of a global citizen.
I
go under the banner of global
citizen.
I
need to pen down how our excellent public service under British
Administration was destroyed by successive Presidents of this
country.
All
Presidents without exception are bane of this country.
That
is why I want it (Presidency)
abolished
as soon as possible and go back to parliament system.
Then
at every electron we can get rid of the rouge elements in the
legislature by vote.
No
list MPs please!
Let
me start with President Premadasa as a Minister of Land and
Construction under JRJ.
He
had the canny habit of delivering letters to his followers by hand in
every electorate (as a preparation for campaigning for Presidency
much later) he visited.
In
reality officer in charge can release these letters much earlier
without
waiting for the Minister to deliver it at his
political
meeting.
He
had directed his public servants to hold onto them (letters of
approval or any similar official sanction or deeds) as long as he
visits the electorate in his political schedule.
He
has a saying that "he will act on anything within 24 hours",
though.
So
officials of the Public Service collect all the outstanding letters
for him to deliver personally and get the credit from his voters.
All
the public servants in high officers became his political stooges and
redundant in this political exercise.
That
is the beginning of the downfall
of
the Independent Public Service.
Of
course there were rogue elements in the public service who solicited
bribes for simple work.
That
had been in practice from 1970s if not sixties.
This
is much worse but a political
bribe.
Under
his administration many of the
Ministers
(I decline mentioning their names here and many of them were
considered as his enemies) had major mishaps related to LTTE.
LTTE
had printed large amount of counterfeit Rs.100/= notes with the sword
of the Lion upside down.
The
notes were not visibly different from that were
official
notes but to the touch they felt different.
I
was working in a Private Hospital then and one day a chap who could
not sign his name paid a large bill.
I
happened to be with the Manager and I was bit suspicious of the chap
and
took the notes from the bundle and palpate them for texture and told
the manager, they were fake notes.
I
took few notes and held one by one to sunlight and discovered the
upside down sword in them.
The
manager was surprised but I told him do not make an issue since the
patient
was
still hospitalized and make some inquiries to see who this guy was.
I
told my senior of the discovery and he did not object to my
investigation.
The
guy was a smuggler who bartered diesel and petrol to LTTE in high
seas at Kalpitiya.
Then
we made sure the patient brought in real notes not faked ones at
discharge.
That
was my first discovery and within a few months every second Rs.100/=
was a faked one.
We
declined to take any payments in Rs. 100/= notes for a while.
As
it is the government took some
time
to discover this and the Central Bank took a low profile probably
under instruction from the higher ups.
The
popular belief then was that the LTTE had delivered large consignment
of faked notes through one of their insiders in the
government
for foreign exchange.
This
money was used for buying first cache of arms for the LTTE.
This
is to illustrate how we were taken for a ride including the Central
Bank.
Then
the Bank started destroying the notes in circulation with the sword
upside down and started issuing slightly different new Rs. 100/= note
with a strip inside over a year.
Little
I say about Chandrika's Presidency is sufficient.
Public
Service including the Armed Services deteriorated under her command
much lower than the UNP regime.
Under
Mahinda Rajapaksa total destruction of the Public Service started
with fresh appointment of very large number of party stooges to all
institutions from Samurdi to Bank (servants).
These
stooges did not have any training but political clout.
So
in 21 years SLFP destroyed the Public Service including the Education
department.
Some
of the things, I cannot publish here regarding police officers and
school principals.
Just
today, I went to pay a bill and the cashier threw the balance back at
me even without an eye contact.
I
just knowing the consequences I stomached it up and decided to pen
the frustration down here.
All
the government institution including semi-commercial ones fall into
this fold except one.
That
is the Office of The Commissioner of Elections.
Mahinda
Deshapriya
and his team of officers are the only officers
who
could rise up to the need of this century.
If
they can do it why can't the others follow suit?
It
is because when we allow the system to rot for over 20 years,
getting
them back to serve people takes 100 years or more.
It
is an uphill task but we have to start somewhere.
Only
way we can achieve this is by sending few of the officials of the
former regime to prison for good.
But
the current legal system protect them like System of
administration.
We
were good in doing that until 1977 when JRJ came in and made a
mockery (of the current system) of our democracy.
If
that is not done by the current regime, I
wish I should not be born again in this country.
I can't go to the Hell too, since its current director is an ex-president of this country.
Banking in Ceylon
But I get a notice from Income Tax Department.
I filled it up and stated my local worth is less than 5000 a month, A little over 150 for a DAY.
It is not worth the paper that carried the intimation OF TAX REGISTRATION.
In this country Deal Dasas and Mara Palas who are taking us round the mulberry bush.
Big guns are not caught in the small net.
This country is a heaven for Kudu Mudhalalis from time immemorial, from SLFPs Tennison Edirisooriya to Mara Pala's Regime.
Live and Let Live
A
brief moment
Of Insanity
Destroys
Thousand moments of
Sanity
And the vanity
That drives
This perpetual
Self
image
The Man
The Only Mighty
This Ego
concept
Is the one
That makes him to
Exploit
everything
On this planet Earth
To its “Sixth
Extinction”
It is almost,
Too late
Since the
Sun’s Cycle
Of “Sun Bursts"
Are already in
evidence
That make us become
More Insane
Even for
the briefest of moments
Calm and serenity
And
sanity
Dwell upon
My mind
The moment
I
listen to,
The Mother nature
In its “Crying Moment"
If
the Mankind
Can take out
The “I”
The “Me”
The
Concept of Delusion
Out of context
This World,
Is
going to be a better place
To “Live and Let Live"
Then,
The
brief moment
Of Insanity
With its attendant Vanity
Will
disappear
For the good
Of the Earth and Mankind
