American Politics, British Diplomacy and Buddha’s Intelligent Inquiry-Kalama Sutta

American Politics, British Diplomacy and Buddha’s Intelligent Inquiry-Kalama Sutta

Posted on February 8, 2012 

If I have not read Kalama Sutta by the age of 16 years, I  may have, to begin with, would have been caught up and swallowed by the rationalist (almost nonfunctional today in this irrational country Sri-Lanka) deliberates.

There are 13 qualifications, one has to apply if one is an open inquirer.

So read Kalama Sutta before reading this.

I ended up as an independent thinker, never believing anything what the white man said.

We were under 500 years of foreign invader influence, it is probably inbuilt in my system not to believe them and probably many Sri-Lankan of today have lost that inbuilt defense we had, especially the politicians (Ranil Wicramsinghje is the best example)  and political refuges who leave and become prisoners of conscience.

I can dispense with British easily.

In about 6 months in Britain, I realized that what they say is not what they mean.

That included medical men, too.

This is at ground zero level where most of us end up in Britain.

In diplomatic level they do it in a professional manner and unlike the ordinary British who survive on a meager salary, they are paid very well.

How better or brazenly one can lie while blazing a blue-collar and tie is the standard of British Diplomacy, at all levels.

They do not mean what they say.

Only people who can beat them in the game are Americans.

(Compare President Bush and PM Blair relationship)

I have had limited association with the Americans and it took many years of rational and independent analysis, only after leaving them though, to get the correct  assessment and true picture of what they really meant.

See how Obama came into power with full-scale liberal views and end up as a stubborn personality and not listening to people power but continuing what Bush did better than what Bush would have figured it out but pretend to the whole world he is different.

Unlike British there are some genuine and stupid Americans, too.

Otherwise they would not have elected him for the first time.

If they elect him for second time my above genuine analysis would be confirmed without any doubt or contention.

Polls as at present prove that I am right at this point of time.

Unlike British they pay well for your services.

I do not know how one is paid under President Obama.

I am not interested who should become the next American President, let the stupid and brilliant Americans decide it.

But they are well advised by me to read the Kalama Sutta before voting next time round.

Coming back to America and American politics, they are not a benevolent society.
Obama pretended to be benevolent to the masses but he is truly benevolent  to the rich.

Chrysler bail out is one object lesson.

They have the capitalist mentality at all levels and success depends on how much one is prepared to get returns for initial investment.

Good examples are Microsoft and Speculators.

Now that Microsoft is having a nose dive, Apple is trying to get into that niche.

I-pads and educational material that they are planning to copyright are trying to swallow the stupid Americans in one stroke.

They propagate the universal truth which a myth by all standards, more educated one is and more one spends on education, more productive one is when employed.

But no education standards were necessary to get the bail outs.
The standard is how bad an American fails in his or her business. 

What ever the voters may say they always win and many a small Americans will have to foot the bill. 

In this context, Amazon did an amazing and wonderful thing by introducing Kindle Fire (selling below cost price) and creating http://www.createspace.com, in this big business world of Education and the hold that the publishers have on writers.

They are all out to kill this experiment.

Amazon is a successful business empire.

There is nothing wrong with it.

But at least in education Amazon’s vision is somewhat benevolent.

In American politics who ever who becomes the next president would try to kill this endeavour,  in its budding stage.

I hope I have not jumped or triggered the America gun mentality.

Time will tell what I say now will be right or wrong.

It is tilted towards ipad and Big Apple and not towards Amazon’s efforts.

If Apple wins it is a disaster for the entire world of education.

Elephant Bath

Elephant Bath

Elephant bath, it was where everybody who visits Kandy go to see elephant when it is not the Pereharas season. 

Botanical garden and Elephant bath were two landmarks of visit to the city.

Now no more thanks to development projects like Polgolla dam to divert water to the dry zone.

I must address an issue that this dam caused after its opening I must retell this story for the present engineers to understand the need to release water downstream regularly to avoid similar episodes.

The downstream water spilled over the dam was not enough to cover the river bed. 

Soon water pools begin to form and the mosquitoes started breading in them. 

For the first time we started detecting Malaria in Kandy. Any place under 4500 feet Malaria mosquito can breed.

Then water samples collected with mosquito larvae confirmed that Malaria mosquito was breeding in Kandy for the first time.

Now the remedy was to spray DDT on the river bed.

This was actually the consolidation phase of Malaria campaign and we prematurely relaxed spraying with the recommendation of the WHO.

Story circulating at that time was that the resident Malaria Campaign Officer who was  a foreigner, fearing his job would be axed if we successfully completed the campaign gave wrong signal to withdraw spraying prematurely.

In any case by the time of the opening of the Polgolla Dam in 1976, the malaria had spread all over and Kandy was relatively immune.

Now spraying the river bed was no feasible with people using it for bathing.

Our public officers gave the Mahaweli an order to intermittently release the water giving them correct instruction considering the life cycle of the Malaria larvae, so that the larvae get destroyed before they become mature mosquitoes.

This was a simple remedy but was very effective to arrest malaria spread in Kandy.

I do not think they still practice this simple remedy. 

One visit to Earl’s Reagent Hotel is enough to witness whether they are practicing common sense.

Now it was only yesterday I went to Kandy to buy something double sided sticker to stick the Telephone box to the wall. I was going from from one conner of the city to the other corner  find the same without any success.

At one point the cross road and the main were blocked and people were getting ready (some Bank organizing the thing) a procession.

Very young elephant with soaring sun beating down was covered with a decorated overcoat and was kept waiting till the men and the retinue got ready.

This poor animal while baking himself in the sun was trying to lift foot/feet in rotation, giving some respite to the burning feet (it was like the restless feet of old people who suffer from a similar burning but less distressful to the owner).

It was a pathetic sight to watch and mahout was nonetheless not bothered about the young animals welfare.

They are only exhibits without real life away from the jungle habitat.

Mind you, I am one is totally against domesticating these majestic creatures.

Ill treatment is totally unacceptable.

Not only they have lost a place for bathing they have lost all sense of wellbeing under human care in this Buddhist country.

These majestic animals love water and water is a sport for them and that is how they keep them cool under a thick skin.

With global warming and even in Kandy temperature going above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, they have no comfort zone.

It is criminal. Not only humans even animals need water for survival and that water has to be good for drinking.

Which is not true today.

“5 S” Strategy for Linux and a Businss Model

Posted on September 18, 2010 

For the future of Linux Community of Developers we should have a strategy in ISO style.

1. Sort.

2. Set

3, Shine or Refine

4. Standardize.

5. Sustain

I looked at the the successful companies and found No Linux derivatives there. 

This is the failure of Linux.

We do not have a Business Model to boast about. 

We have a Logo and a Mascot where are they standing at present?

If you look at the list in the first 20 we have IBM, Google, Microsoft and Intel and Yahoo at 66 but no Linux.

Like Coca Cola we should be in the Number One.

The simple reason is we do not know to market our products.

Do not merge with the big companies.

Look at Yahoo having merged it is in the 66th place whereas Microsoft is in the top 5.

Why?

1. Embrace

2. Expand

3. Extinguish or Explode

We call EXPLODE it in this country since we a firecracker happy nation (to show politicians are in the vicinity) to Explode at any moment.

We knew for over 30 years how to avoid and escape from bombs now we have to escape from (all powerful but impotent in deeds) politicians.

Unfortunately we do not know how to escape from the stranglehold they are imposing on us.

So merging with big companies or the politicians (Obama and his expensive social program) is not the way forward.

The way forward is to scrutinize the activities and put them the Acid Test of “5S”.

First of all we have to SORT all the Models.

I will do it in my way but my analysis also a Primitive Model to work with.

1. SORT

Sort all the essentials (LIVE CDs, Servers, Desktops, Netbooks most importantly O.E.M.s).
Sort the Origin

Debian series, 

Knoppix and Live CDs series, 

Puppy series. 

Ubuntu series, 

Redhat and Centos Series… 

Mandriva series, 

Slackware series, 

Gentoo series etc.

I am almost finishing with the Live CDs with subcategories named after our ancestral mammals the Apes (Light Weight, Middle Weight, Heavy Weight type of apes and monkeys) with x-Windows to go with it.

2. SET

Set a business Model with a strong Logo for Live CDs, Desktops and Server and O.E.M.s (that will be the future netbooks).

Target is to get within the first 10 if not it is not marketable.

3. SHINE rather REFINE the most essential basics for each category worth marketing.

4. Standardize

Linux is standard based operating system and this should not be a problem.

5. Sustainability

This is the difficult part without a strong Business Model.

This is only possible if all the Linux derivatives in each category pass a gold mark or the gold standard (for Live CD I have chosen PCLinux as the Gold Standard of usability) and move up the ladder in the 100 in each category.

That is my wishful thinking.

When I did my survey (now the time for a research) I found a lot of good stuff has gone into dormancy because of lack of support like a business model would have.

To name a few are MYAH, Linux Console. ADIOS. O.L.P.S and many more.

It is a shame that the good work of dedicated developers are now in the attic instead of in the classroom or in the living room.

I have shown the way.

We must revive and take Linux out of the doldrums and develop some marketable products.

I will be willing to work with even the devil if my suggestions are taken to heart by Developers but not business crooks.

Please make some critical comments.