Linux Distribution Update = Very Subjective = Poor Productivity

Linux Distribution Update = Very Subjective = Poor Productivity

Nobody should get offensive of this post.

I have deliberately excluded Teeny Weeny Linux that are in my book except Puppy Linux.

This is the consumer world and I have my own choices to make when on STRIKE and in Holiday MOOD.

Strike is also a demonstrable, democratic, consumer activity which politicians do not see that way.

They have instead a Commonwealth Conferences to beg for AIDS, the Disease.

Education is a Common Wealth in this Country, not Private Property!

The views expressed are very subjective and won´t have any bearing to statistics of current Linux usage.

In fact I am more concerned about why Linux penetration is not active as it used to be than its user activity.

Would be writing a book on Quality Systems that should be in place in a successful Linux Distributions, soon when I get over the laziness and the mental intransigence I am going through.
I am getting used to the RUT due to procrastinated and prolong (intellectual) lightening strike or the general use of the term, the industrial action.

Yes it is very difficult to penetrate a good idea like Linux to ordinary masses.

It is also difficult to penetrate an idea the Education is a Common Wealth our people (If one is not using it prudently, that is his or her onus or responsibility) or the name sake FREE EDUCATION we enjoyed and want to foster in this century too.

It is very difficult to deal with politician with DUD BRAINS, just like it was very difficult for me to try to introduce various Linux distributions for general use in our school system and classrooms.

Yes, there is Hanthana Linux, a derivative of Fedora out there but it is very difficult to get a copy or download in this blessed country in which we pay through our noses for the services for which we pay dearly and get only 10% output or throughput, the productivity which is less than 10%.

We had been boasting about war victory for last three years but the productivity has hit rock bottom except for few privileged personalities with political connections.

In the University for the first time the productivity almost hitting the ZERO rating.

That ZERO rating made me to venture into many uncharted territories but relatively minimal political involvement but my POLITICAL STATEMENTS at the time of Commonwealth Conference is loud and clear.

Politician cannot produce productivity but only we can do it for them but they have to tore the line with the global trends.

We cannot reinvent the wheel.

Productivity comes with only good pay.
 

If you pay pittance the returns is a pittance.

Let me come to Linux, I was reading the Linux Magazine today but there I always read the editors page before even glancing on the FREE Distribution and this time it happened to be Mageia.

He was commenting on the news item that Google is paying 50% of the salary for 10 years to the dependent, if an employee is deceased.

WOW but his comments on this deal, an intellectual exercise by itself which I won´t repeat here.

A lesser politician cannot understand his logic but go buy the Magazine and read it for yourself, it is his intellectual property.

Now to my list in order of my preference.

1. Puppy Linux for its minimal use of resources and awesome collection of utilities including cloud compatibility.
There are many derivatives, for Games, Cloud, Netbooks, Laptops and Desktops.

It is easy on you and can carry in a Pendrive.

2. Pinguy Linux is the only one which has a current derivative for old (netbooks) and new computers.
It is very pleasing experience.
THANK YOU Guys/Girls.

3. Ubuntu for its bold steps, moving with the trends and cloud capability.

4. Ultimate Linux/TANGO / STUDIO and now KIWI and SUPER OS. The last two integrate classic genome with Unity.

This is what I said when Ubuntu was contemplating on Unity (provide Unity and Gnome in one distribution and everybody will be happy).

So Ubuntu derivatives will do what Canonical won´t do!
Canonical has abandoned Kubuntu and NetRunner is a good hit with Netbooks

This is a good lesson to FEDORA and Mandrake and Mageia.

5. Five has to be ARCH LINUX for its VISION and Dedication to produce a minimalistic Quality Product without fringes.

They are command line experts but why work only on black and white. Introducing a minimalistic desktop to play few games (4M Linux tradition) will make its global penetration cakewalk and in no time, when one is fed up with the black terminal, who would not play few at least DOS game?

Light desktop like DELI Linux will make a huge impact globally and will make it climb up in popularity almost like Puppy Linux.

Having said that Bridge Linux, Archbang and Criunchbang (Debian derivative) have done the honors for ARCH Linux.

6. Number six is Debian for its enormous resources, one will never be able to tap in a lifetime.

7. Sabayon comes seventh and it is Gentoo based and beautiful with many desktop versions including KDE and Gnome

8. Knoppix has come down below Debian simply because I had to download it for the third time.

The graphic installer for demonstration purposes to Linux newbies is still not working to my satisfaction.

It has followed KIWI and Super OS and actually do it better than Ubuntu with multiple desktops.
I am sure by Christmas time KNOPPIX will climb up to 3rd if not fourth place.

9. PCLinux and it is lacking in innovation even though the KDE is solid.

10. Korarra Linux Fedora derivative and not Fedora 17.

11. Even though, SuSe has not kept its place in the top 10, it is beautiful but heavy and lack simple utilities.

12. Linus Mint, has dropped in my list and unfortunately it is in its 13th edition.
It is trying to do too many things in one go.
Ubuntu is focused on its Vision for Future but Linux Mint is not.
It is playing an open market game which is a spoiler for me.
It is not a game-changer at all.

13. Mandriva  / Mageia / ROSA and I wish them good luck and they should follow Knoppix, KIWI and Super Os examples to get back on track.

It is humanly possible but Russians are not creative nowadays unlike in the nineteen sixties when cold war was in full swing.
I did not want to have 13th but decided to include Mageia since the copy I got with the Linux Magazine did not boot up with my old IBM which I have hacked with various new additions.
It does not have auto-detect utility for hard disks.
I want recommend it for general use yet.
They say number 13 is unlucky, may be so for Mandriva and Mageia

There won´t be 14th in my list it is for YOU to decide the next in the list.

I must tell you why I use Linux.

Number one is FUN now.

It used to be SECURITY when I started it.

I have used my Main Linux  Box for over one year day in and day out (more because of the strike action) but I never used any changes after Firewall was configured.

Worst scenario is that I have forgotten the password (I haven´t had any need for one year and I simply forgot it but no harm done yet) for root and I forgot the user password briefly yesterday.
That was unintended disaster!

I was up all night and doing sorting out of all my Linux distributions for installing on my laptop, three months in advance of the December recess from academic activities (again due to strike action and no creative work to do). and I could not start the computer after restart having tested a Puppy Linux derivative.
Absentminded prof!

I have now decided to write all my passwords in a book including my email passwords.

I also forgot the email password and Ubuntu One password too in a momentary loss of my intellectual capacity due to (no sleep at all) any valid reason just gone blank (not a stroke) and I was working nonstop on a Sunday from  2 p.m till Monday morning, knowing very well,  I do not have to worry about work on Monday.
Mind you Sunday is my SLEEP DAY.

So if you are on a Holiday or on industrial action, take care of your intellectual capabilities and passwords.

That is called disuse atrophy in medicine, in my case it was the BRAIN.

It is time for my brain to DRAIN, possibly abroad.

I recovered from this ordeal in a matter of one hour without sleeping or having a break and that will be another piece of writing, soon.

Last time when I forgot the email password I had to toil for solid three months to get back to base, nearly a decade ago.

It was horrible and I instituted a protocol that ran good stead for me due to mental apathy and lack of sleep this time round.

All these due to lethargy and industrial action and disuse atrophy.
Strike is not a good recipe for intellectuals and only good for political purposes.
Our strike has taken a political trend and a turn unfortunately.
God blessing we have a Commonwealth Conference now.
Hope it will be an eyeopener!

Update on Linux on Netbooks

Update on Linux on Netbooks

This little  writing would not have come if not for our industrial action.

First of all, I must thank my young colleagues for initiating and prolonging the action for the third month without a break.

I must thank my bank manager for extending a loan to to buy the netbook with SuSe Enterprise 10 on it. 

Mind you we are without a salary for 3 months.

I would not have found this net book lying in a corner, if not for the strike.

Everyday I come out looking for a new adventure and window shopping and getting involved in a long conversation (used to be very brief when we were working) with anybody and everybody was a welcome change.

The extra time was utilized to find the appropriate Linux distribution/s for the new netbook.

What you need apart from the netbook and money are as following

1. Gparted, an old version (new one might not boot in a netbook).

2. Pinguy Eee (It is actually a PIN GUY in Sinhala-Pinata Pahalawela)

3. Easy Peasy-2009-Ubuntu derivative

4.Puppeee a Puppy Linux derivative especially for netbooks

5. Couple of 8 GiB Flash Drives

6. Couple of Mini DVDs  and a USB DVD Writer.

7. Ideally on strike and sleep well on day time

8. Do all this when everybody is sleeping and Internet is not very busy

STEPS

1. Boot up and erase the hard disk with SuSe for good with Gparted and prepare the hard disk the way you like.

2. Install Pingue Eee with a relatively large home partition to place the images of the distributions mentioned above If one is downloading them.

I had all of them in my my CD/DVD collection downloaded over the last three years (for testing) with images as well as Live DVDs.
One needs the images or convert it/them to image/s using K3B, if UnetBootIn used for preparing Live USB.

Pingue 11.04 has Live USB/CD-DVD Creator instead of UnetBootIn.

3. Download NetRunner 4.2.1 and copy the image to  Download folder.

4. In my case I copied it to a DVD

5. Boot Up Pingue Eee with 8 GiB Flash Drive ATTACHED.

6. Open the UnetBootIn

7. Give the path to the NetRunner Image or  Easy Peasy Image.

8. Click OK and go and make a cup of good coffee if you an impatient guy / girl.

9. Before  you can finish the coffee the Flash Drive will be ready for booting.

10. Why did I select the latest NetRunner?

It has GIMP the latest 2.8 version which is pretty good.

Depending on your liking  the other distributions can also be run live or on a Flash Drive which I have done and they all work OK.

But take care with Puppy Linux since one is not able to reverse any action committed by you except reinstalling the distribution one has downloaded.

I have tried Joli OS, Cloud USB and PCLinux 2010 and all of them work OK.

All new versions of Ubuntu, SuSe, PCLinux and Knoppix do not boot and have left YOU with no choices.
They have become hunky dory!

However I copied Knoppix 7.0.4 CD to a download folder and prepared a Live Flash Drive to boot with my other computers.

It looks like images over 1 GiB cannot be copied to a netbook but downloading an image (large) by torrent may be a way round that problem if one has a fast Internet connection. 

If you are pressed for time, form a TRADE UNION and go on strike for at least 3 months and all your creativity will be recharged in no time.

GOOD LUCK with your FREE TIME on Linux FREEDOM.

One can boot Linux from a MicroSD card but I use them for loading photos from my digital camera /or from the phone.

Linux Distribution for Netbooks

Linux Distribution for Netbooks

I have some bad news for netbook users.

If you are a Linux user, the community has left you high and dry.

Thankfully only two distributions that came out three years ago and Netrunner Linux would support the netbooks.

I will dispense with Netrunner 4.2.1 which I downloaded only yesterday.

It is pretty good if you have enough RAM. 

It comes in both 32 bits and 64 bits versions and I recommend it without any hesitation for laptops but for netbooks, make sure you have enough RAM.

It takes up over 8 GiB and hence cannot be mounted on a Flash drive below 8 GiB and I hope the developers would TRIM it down to suit for Flash Drive / Pendrive use below 4 GiB.

But my TOP recommendation is Pingue Eee which does a good job of being relatively recent and having all the software.

Eeebunbtu would boot up your Netbook but has only limited software range.

Hurry up and download Pingue Eee, my favorite and report to its home base if you have any problems.

The rest of the distributions I tested except CloudUSB is not worth any mention here.

Cloud USB is Ubuntu 10 derivative and the developers have got into a FROZEN state due to Ubuntuś Unity project which left all Ubuntu users having a Netbook high and dry.

Sometime ago I suggested the developers of CloudUSB have a fresh look at its future development and they could take a leaf out of NetRunner 4.2.1 and think afresh.

Remember Ubuntu/Canonical does not support Kubuntu now and they are doing a great job and Netrunner is a Kubuntu derivative.

Ubuntu 12.04.1, (LTS-Long Term Support), SuSe 12.2, PCLINux and most of the standard distributions do not support netbooks and one has to remember Linux took off and its resurgence was due to netbooks and abandoning its netbook base is not a good ploy and has left a bad taste with (newbies) Linux users.

This is why Linux is lately becoming less and less popular due to Desktop Development (not utility) CRAZE (I call it D.D.C for short).

Equation of 3R+4R+5R=RxRxRxRxR or R5

Equation of 3R+4R+5R=RxRxRxRxR or R5

This is an equation that resonate in higher echelons which even Einstein failed to fathom.

Einstein used only 3Rs i.e. Register,Remember and Repeat (Review=Recollect)

Then there is 3R for Reconciliation (Respect, Recognize and Review)

Then there is 5R (R-M, R-G, R-B and R-C=RRRRR= R5)

Then there is Rata, Rajaya, Ravaya and Raja Raguma played ad nauseatum!

Linux Freedom with Proprietary Distribution, namely SuSe Linux

Linux Freedom with Proprietary Distribution, namely SuSe Linux

My story with SuSe Linux is both Love and Hate but now mostly HATE.

I was looking for a Netbook for sometime to buy but did not like all the Japanese OEMs since their hardware compatibility is tricky with Linux.

Reason for me looking for a netbook is apart from light weight in money and size was that with tablet hitting the market it would be extremely difficult to buy a new one let alone a second hand one.

I was lucky to find one in Kandy city and it had SuSe on board and it won´t boot up for any demonstration and was lying in a corner.

I had a look at it and was simply attracted by SuSe ¨my old flame¨.

Yes it won´t boot up.

I quickly figured it out that it was due to its clock and (SuSE and its YAST configuration) I let it run for nearly one hour for localization and terminated its looped script after going through many cycles from A to Z godforsaken of all the countries in the world.

Then finally it booted up without any local time but USA time.

I bought it for a reasonable price without knowing whether I can boot it up with  a Flash drive.

I kept it without registering with Novel and finally wanted to install Abiword (instead of Open Office that was available with SuSe 10 - SuSe come to 12 now and this distribution is pretty old) but I could not do that without registering with Novel.

I hated going to an automated process without any personal help.

In any case I do not need any help but problem was finding an alternative distribution that fits my need.

Web search was of no help  and for a week I went through all the Linux distributions downloaded from 2009 and none of them was comprehensive.

The I finally found Pingue Eee and booted it with a DVD and was pretty impressed by it, in about half and hour.

I resized the home partition of SuSe(100 GiB- too massive for my comfort) and installed Pingue Eee and to and my annoyance SuSe won´t boot up.

There was no way I could repair (No Install CD/DVD with the Netbook) it and took Gparted and rewrote the partition table to suit my needs and with it SuSe 10 was gone with the wind.

Good Bye my old flame!
The partition table made by SuSe or its technocrat was horrible to say the least and there was 2 GiB of NTFS partition (for what purpose I do not know) and the SWAP partition for my liking and comfort was too small.

Within half an hour I upgraded the software repository and installed the latest version of Abiword.

I left a big partition for Knoppix 7.0.4 (22 GiB is enough) once it is downloaded (may take a week or more) to Install.
I left a BIG 16 GiB of NTFS partition, in case I decided to dispense it (most unlikely scenario) one day to a Windows Guy with Linux on board.

I am free again without enterprise edition of SuSe.

Pingue has Calbre, Cheesse, Clemantine, UnetBootin, Gparted, LibreOffice and many more..

Who the hell who would beg the Enterprise for these packages from an Enterprising Technocrat?

Not me.

I will write about other Netboot crafted Linux distributions when I come out of my  laziness that was due to our nearly three months on industrial action and no work. 
I am actually enjoying it (the strike) and even Linux is of low priority for me now.

Tale of Five Sri-Lankan Monkey Types and Monkey Magic

Tale of Five Sri-Lankan Monkey Types and Monkey Magic

We have quite a number of monkeys in the wild and this story is not about them.

We have a monkey in edutainment ministry who is always appealing to the low grade or the gallery.

This monkey is like the proverbial monkey who got its tail caught up between wooden planks.

He came to the scene and straddled on the wooden planks with tail in between and for fun pulled the peg that was holding the two apart.

Presto!
The edutainment was in full gear and in crisis now and the tail is still caught between the planks.

Then we got a another monkey who was like the proverbial Hunuman with tail on fire.

He is a Union man who wants to be on industrial action while forgoing his/her meager salary.

His tail is on fire and he does not care.

Then we got the third and the biggest monkey who ventured into the cuckoo land and stole three eggs from the nest.

He puts one in his pharyngeal pouch (cheek).

The second one was crushed open with one hand.

The third one is, in its tightly closed palm not wanting to share with any other monkey.

He is the one who has law onto himself.

The fourth variety is the ones who have retired from active duty but looking on these three monkeys for reincarnation and cheering only one of them and abusing the other two.

The fifth category are the ones long retired and nothing else to do in active life but write to local papers to get their ego recorded for posterity.

This is the country of Monkey Magic and the reader is free to add any more categories down below in the comment section.

Thank You.

Pinnacle of Achievement-Sebastian Coe the Model Sportsman and Gentleman par excellence

Pinnacle of Achievement-Sebastian Coe the Model Sportsman and Gentleman par excellence

It is amazing what one man can do to sports.

I remember seeing him in Sheffield and talking to him while he was training for the Olympic gold in 1980.

His dedication, discipline and training to achieve and break the world record at the same time was remarkable.

I am sure Roger Bannister who was a neurologist, if he was alive today would have been more proud of his achievement.

Roger was one who said one can break the 4 minutes barrier in one mile and trained himself to do just that.

He is a role model and made other athletes coming from Africa with very limited resources to compete and break his record within a very short time space.

Having taken up politics he only served his ultimate gold getting the highest number of medals for a TEAM UK.

He galvanized, polarized and focused on the job while India played politics in this games by allowing an undesirable freak to appear in the opening ceremony and cast some slur on the character of Sebestian Coe.

I cannot believe the Team India did not recognize the freak before commencing the march.

I also believe Indian had a ploy to take mean advantage of her presence and cast some doubts on the overall security.

India has in the meantime has destroyed the gentleman´s Test Cricket by IPL and it is actively destroying our players too.

Indian can be bought and thrive only on money.

That is their name of the game and booking strategy.

They only speak with money and money is corruptive in any game, football included.

I hope Sebstian Coe make steps so that cricket is never in the Olympics until money minded Indian and their politicians get cricket back to its original gentleman´s game.

That is why India did not get a single gold with a population that will overtake China in a few years time but China may even lead the gold table by beating TEAM USA.

I have a issues for our guys and girls.

Like I predicted without having any inside knowledge that there will be more officials and politicians in London on state coffers to participate in this grand extravaganza has been reported true by an English daily but not Sinhala.

My fear is that if we have cricket is in the Olympics there will be more officials and politicians(fifty times the team strength and with additional cheer party lead by Percy) and they will drain the entire budget meant for sports in one week of sojourn in a foreign land.

The qualification to become a minister is to cheat ballot papers at all the elections from Local to National.

Unfortunately counting officers are also in the fray nowadays with political backing.

It is a shame.

Only crooks gets there that unfortunately include our cricket board elections too.

In this country they spent less than 1.8% on education and 80% of that is for salary and we do not have a sports magazine in the Medical library.

In actual fact, they spent less than 0.5 percent in real terms and they want to cut it more.
For sports it is even worse and that too is spent on cricket pitches and football pitches in the Vanniya and nothing for the sportsmen and women.

Sebastian Coe – Chair

Sebastian Coe is Chair of the Company, having previously been Chairman of the London 2012 bid company.

Sebastina is a double Olympic Champion and 12-time world record holder in athletics.

He won gold in the 1500m and silver in the 800m at both the Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 Games.

He retired from competitive athletics in 1990 and became a Conservative MP and Private Secretary to William Hague. In 2002 he was made a Peer – Lord Coe of Ranmore.

He received a knighthood in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List.

Ebony and Ivory

Ebony And Ivory

Live Together

In Perfect Harmony

Side By Side On My Piano Keyboard,

Oh Lord, Why Don't We?

We All Know

That People Are The Same

Where Ever You Go

There Is Good and Bad

In Everyone,

We Learn To Live,

We Learn To Give

"Ebony and Ivory" was banned for a while in South Africa during the Apartheid era.

In the early 19th century mammoth ivory was used, as substantial source, for such products as piano keys, billiard balls, and ornamental boxes.

One thing that Paul forgot to mention was that the piano keys were made of ivory.

I make that record here, even belatedly (he is alive and kicking well unlike the dead elephants).

Paul McCartney is the writer and Stevie Wonder the other of the duet.

This song hit the chart in 1982 and I was in England.

I was neither black nor white but a browny (not a brown Sahib) and was feeling the pinch.

All the jobs I did  up to that point were the ones white man did not want to work.

One place had the highest maternal death and another place had highest neonatal death in UK.

All the same, I worked for humanity and mostly neonates.

Worked hard to improve the lot including newly established wings and hospitals and planning for new ones in Dartford.

I was focused when British doctors were either half drunk or fully drunk and one social worker was killing destitutes to get their social benefits illegally and there was a mad GP and mad nurse murdering NHF patients and babies.

All three were in prison, one committed suicide in the cell.

Then the last case was  a little girl who was seduced by the father who was a policemen.

I had enough and left UK for good never to return.

These people who are agents of human rights, look straight into the mirror and see who is more innocent.

I abhor violence and killing even in war.

But I abhor killing innocent animals, more.

If we look at the history of Ceylon British occupiers killed our Gentle Giants almost to extinction in the hills and where now tea is planted and foreign labour was brought and they were the worst treated slaves until 1975, when British Television exposed them in broad day light.

I do not say their lot is better three years after the war ended and their daily wages are not enough to buy flour or bread!

They are fast leaving the plantation but their leaders are living in cushy Colombo 7 palaces.

They only come up when they need their votes that comes once in every six years.

Now coming to my lead story the Ebony and Ivory.

Ivory trade was regularized only towards beginning of  1980.

In this country we have both Ivory and Ebony.

From 1970 we started decimating the Ebony with 1973 oil price hike and with foreign cash deficit

We started decimating tree cover including in the plantation sector and growing not cash crops but manioc.

The tree felling is continuing with political patronage and now anybody who is somebody with political backing of  two third majority can transport illegal timber anywhere in this blessed country.

We deserve this type of government for our own stupidity.

State laborers were eating maniac with their leaves as vegetable matter and I had to do postmortem on them and the diagnosis was cyanide poisoning.

Now, we are killing the remaining tuskers to adorn the high palaces with ornamentation.

They are venerated for 10 days and the rest of the year they are neglected by wildlife, railway and the hashish cultivators in the deep jungle with ¨Upi Wawamu Rata Nagamu with Hashish¨.

Below is a historical record which I copied form elsewhere in the web for your information.

Japanese, American, Russians and the Chinese are the biggest consumers of illegal IVORY TRADE.

In the early 19th century mammoth ivory was used, as substantial source, for such products as piano keys, billiard balls, and ornamental boxes.

Some estimates suggest that 10 million mammoths still remain buried in Siberia.

The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, Rhino and most commonly, Asian and African elephants.

Ivory has been traded for hundreds of years by people in such regions as Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia. 

The trade, in more recent times, has led to endangerment of species, resulting in restrictions and bans.

Elephants or Starving Monks- A Question?

Elephants or Starving Monks- A Question?

 

In this Modern Buddhist Sri-Lanka and Democracy (Crazy) alternative opinion is suppressed.

If Elephants are given the choice none of them will be willing to be chained to a tree.

They prefer their herd (they are social animals) and roaming in the wild.

I have no objection to taming a single elephant (often with some disability) gone rampage.

Instead of looking after Elephants rich Buddhist monks (residing in big temples) should look after their fellow monks in some remote villages not having a single meal proper on some days (even the ordinary people, Tamils included do not have a square meal in these parts of the country).

Sinhala Buddhists and their political rulers going gradually mad with power.

Problem is many of them in power and high places do not understand that they are even anti-democratic to animals and their welfare.

Now with the rain failing even the birds do not have drinking water, let alone the big elephants in the dry zone.

 

We have thamashas in the big cities sometime with Indian celluloids appearing.

Reproduced is a text what appeared in a local paper last year. 

I am not privy to the details and I take no responsibility of its contents and hope the Author does not mind me reproducing it here.

 
I read the Dhamma Padaya and Karaneeya Meithriys Sutta verses (which I read very often) when I am at a loss to how to interpret modern Buddhist practices.

Elsewhere I have classified Modern Buddhist from Eggo to Chicken to EGO (some monks belong to this category).

By Ravi Palihawadana

I completely fail to understand the proclivity of certain Buddhist monks to raise animals in captivity at temples. 

Nearly three decades ago, as a 22 year old youth, a few friends and I got up at 4 o’clock in the morning and trekked 10 km along a footpath from the confluence of rivers Ganga and Varuna to Isipatanaramaya at Sarnath, India. 

This is supposed to be the path trodden by the Buddha whenever he spent the rainy (Vassana) season at Isipatanaramaya. We walked through mango and bamboo groves. It was an exhilarating experience. We could almost feel the presence of the Buddha and his benevolence towards all living beings. 

However, upon reaching Isipatanaramaya, we were dismayed to see caged peacocks. 

The whole place was highly commercialized. 

The obvious distress of the caged birds was certainly loathsome. 

We all felt that the incumbent monk had entirely failed to appreciate the fact that it was the place where the Buddha set in motion a process that would over a period of more than 2500 years help liberate hundreds of thousands if not millions of individuals from all their worldly bonds and set them totally, unconditionally free. 

Who in his right mind would want to imprison animals at such a hallowed precinct?

I see Buddhist temples as places that should enable people to free themselves from worldly bonds. 

Does it make any sense to keep animals in captivity at such places?

 

Let us examine what the Buddha has said about conduct towards living beings. 

In ‘Karaniya Metta Sutta’ (Discourse on Loving Kindness) he says:

"Just as a mother would guard her only child at risk to her own life

Even so towards, all beings

Let one cultivate loving kindness."

 

In Dhammapada, the Buddha declares:

"All are afraid of the rod all, fear death.

Taking oneself as an example, do not beat or kill."

 

And in Vasala Sutta (Discourse on Outcasts), he pronounces:

"Whosoever in this world kills living beings,

Once born or twice born (i.e., first born is an egg and then born for a second time as a hatchling),

In whom there is no sympathy for living beings

Know hint an outcast (untouchable). "

As such, it is with dismay that I learn that it has become a fashion among certain influential Buddhist monks to raise baby elephants at their temples. 

 Story

Recently a baby elephant was being transported from one temple to another without obtaining required official approval. 

The driver of the truck and the mahout were brought before a court of law and charged with cruelty to a captive elephant. The accused pleaded guilty and were fined. Although only the driver and mahout were hauled up before courts; the calf was being transported at the behest of two highly influential Buddhist monks. 

What is most disturbing is that the poor animal was being raised in captivity at the temple of one of those eminent monks. 

The observers say, the baby elephant cannot be more than three years old although in its adoption papers its mother’s name has been given as `Kale Alma’, which died about six years ago. The baby has been separated from its mother long before it reached the recommended age for weaning at the expense of its well being. 

Besides, it is no secret among elephant lovers that the process euphemistically referred to as taming is cruel. Baby elephants are made to obey a mahout’s orders by keeping them in close confinement, withdrawal of food and water, and by constant merciless beating.

Bearing in mind the Buddha’s words on how to treat all sentient beings; even if we disregard the treatment meted out to this poor baby elephant at the temple and dwell only on this nightmarish episode of transporting it in the cover of night, the implications are appalling. 

By cruelly inflicting untold misery on it and thereby placing the life of the cub in danger, the first precept of abstaining from killing has been violated.. Secondly, the cub was robbed of the inalienable right to roam freely in its natural habitat. 

Thirdly, false information was furnished about the mother of the animal. 

Fourthly, this cruel act had the blessings of individuals intoxicated with political power. 

In this preposterous exercise, three or four out of the five basic precepts were violated. 

That being so, the consequences of meting out cruel. treatment to the baby elephant at the temple on a day to day basis are unthinkable. 

Perhaps it was on witnessing such conduct by certain monks that the late Dr. E.W. Adikaram is supposed to have remarked, "It is my ardent wish that these monks would one day embrace Buddhism!"

Animal lovers may shout from the rooftops. 

But it is the Buddhist clergy who must finally decide whether the practice of keeping animals in captivity and separating them fro their mothers at a very tender age is consistent with the teachings of the Enlightened One.

 

Until then there the status quo will remain. 

 

Let us fervently hope that this cruel practice will be abandoned before long.

 

Ali Katha-Making an Elephant Laugh

 I have reproduced this here since the original web site is blocked by somebody?

Ali Katha-Making an Elephant Laugh

Making an elephant laugh is no easy task but this is a tiny attempt with the help of a tiny animal.

This sketch is overdue and is to record the 1st death anniversary of an unfortunate (first in the history of Esala Perahera) Majestic Pachyderm at the hands of the all too important Diyawadana Nilame.

Before that I must (this is also in the same spirit) rectify some of my own lapses and some incisive comments on an attempt by local Microsoft cronies and goonies to vandalize our emails (I have many emails but intrusion to my privacy is violation of Fundamental Right of any living and dead soul).

I have already rectified one by switching to Linux completely. I have dedicated this year for Linux and have already accomplished all what I wanted, well in advance (thought it might drag on till December holidays) and have enough time for my resumes, now.

Second lapse that I rectify now is that the finding a name (word) for (see Katha on Kadde) Kadde.

The boy who raised is now growing up fast physically and in English.

This is long overdue, may be by over three years. because of the vandalization attempt by some living paranoid soul breathing air I exhale.

I started looking at some of my old writing to see whether any one has been defamed or deframed and suddenly found it not edited on time with new / old discovery.

This I give credit to a Burger Gentleman with Irish descent who inherited it from his mother.

The word is Pingo Man.

I make it Ping Pong Man since when he walks with Pingo on his shoulder, he reminds me of a dancing Ping Pong ball.

The Pingo part may have come from either Vietnam or China. In any case it sounds Chinese to me, and with the ascent of the Chinese Tiger in the East due credit should go to China if it has any connection to the birth of this word like Ying and Yang.

Coming back to the pachyderm, the treatment it gets from the mahout and the tourists, local and foreign is less than desirable, to say the least.

I can remember once I had a not so healthy argument with a Lady Doctor from UK who was voicing the concern I raised now 25 years ago.

She said that it is a violation of Animal Rights and using them for long hours without due concern is inhuman which I fully endorse without reservation, now.

These animals are ill treated during Perehara time to please tourists!

I still have picture of this lady on an Elephant at Elephant Bath (now non existent) and I have never climbed an elephant in my life.

There was another dispute I had with this lady some days later.

I said, I admire this majestic animal so much that I cannot think (not fear) of climbing on one of them and pretend that I (the man) am big or bigger than my size (she of course did not have an answer to my unexpected impromptu) but she of course enjoyed the ride thoroughly.

Coming back to making an elephant laugh none in the list below can do that.

1. Diyawadana Nilame is out on the first count.

He goes on to record (in history) for the first death of an elephant who participated in this annual event.

2. President Rajapaksa cannot achieve this because he is making the elephants (two legged) under his fold crying for posts (latest is Mr. Milinda Moragoda).

3. Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe cannot achieve this because he is making all elephants (past and present) cry in vain.

4. I cannot do that since when I go near any one of them garbed with surgical gear even a tame animal gets angry (All Sri-Lankan Doctors are a very arrogant species).

5. A gecko cannot.

6. A chameleon cannot.

7. So who can do that? 

I have found one by accident. 

This was an ant.

He happened to be on my cup of tea. 

I asked the fellow what on earth you are doing in my cup of tea.

He looked at me and said, look guy I may be small but I have made an elephant laugh.

That made me to open my eyes wide.

I'll give you a Palawatta Sugar Grain for the information you give, please tell me the secret.

He took a meditative breath and with a smiling face told me,

It is easy.

I did that to the Majestic Elephant who died a year ago during Perehara.

My grey matter started working with new gush of pure blood not polluted by Americans.

How come?

He said when the Kandy Veterinary Surgeon was attending to him, he hid inside the nose (with his poking the elephant was crying) and when he was gone came out from his hiding (in the night) place to inquire why he was crying.

He said to the ant in his slumber, these guys even not me sleep my last nap (sleep) with poking and probing.

Suddenly the ant realized, he is having his last conversation with this majestic guy.

He (ant) whispered to the elephant, buck up you guy, if they take you to the Intensive Care Unit, I'll give all my blood and save you, OK.

To this the elephant could not stop laughing.

He took his last breath laughing and ended up in heaven.

The moral of this story is when one is dying only the little ones are near you.

Little things can make one happy but not doctors without humour.

For the two legged elephants, the little ones (grass root citizens and not those who are at Diyawaanawa) are the ones that matter most. 

Not foreign tours.

Small is beautiful!

How to make an Elephant Cry?

How to make an Elephant Cry?

This is something I have kept in storage for a very longtime due to its politically sensitive nature.

You may remember the story I posted about, how to make an Elephant Laugh?

A decade or so ago I posted that story when web posts were the unusual and unconventional and we did not have even 1% web presence in this country.

The routers were not known and dial up connection were the norm but were painfully slow.

Then, the politicians were ignorant that there was something called WWW in existence.
That web site is currently under political scrutiny and I do not use it anyway and I have migrated to bigger things like Google and www.wordpress.com.

The web site with British Heritage with local support is blocked for reasons unknown to me.

In any case, I have no connection with anything British except BBC Sports but that also I rarely visit since I do not watch Sri-Lankan cricket at all after political interference during the last world cup with a doctor without CMC registration with dubious record was managing the Sri-Lankan cricket.

Mind you, I even missed the trashing England suffered under South African command.

I only knew it when I visited the BBC sports to see the opening ceremony details.

BBC sports has done an excellent job and I suggest you visit it now before Sri-Lankan Government ban it for publishing a news event of a Sri-Lankan official who accompanied the team found shoplifting in a far remote corner of the British Isles.

I am pretty sure more officials than the athletes have arrived in London, well before the opening ceremony and they are involved in other dubious activities other than sports in London such as SOHO or Gambling Dens.

Mind you, the gambling is our National pastime when abroad to make some fast buck of foreign exchange.

I exchanged some Travelers cheques  kept for safe keeping in view of our industrial action but the bank has failed to realize it for the last three weeks or so.
One of our stupid union man (may be he is working for the government) has slipped his tongue in public and the government has taken mean advantage of the situation and stopped payment of our salary.

The usual procedure of stop payment is to set off leave, then half pay for 3 to 6 months once the leave is exhausted and finally the full pay is withheld.

We are not even into three weeks of union action and I have all my leave and more unauthorized leave because of the strike.

This stupid union man does not know the procedures or the etiquette of addressing. the public media and how he conducts his lectures is a pertinent question in academic circles.

Probably, he is not good enough to to give lectures and has taken up union activities to survive.

Coming back, to gambling one of the Papua New Guinea players was killed returning from a gambling den in Colombo, frequented by some our of ex-cricketers (not current) and the reason is not money but a girl we are told but we are still to hear the official version or the real version now into 10 years of inquiry.

All these diversions were to tone down the political nature of the story related to the elephant who died few years ago.

How to make an Elephant cry?

This is a true story coming from the aegis of Maha Brahma.

The elephant of course ended up in heaven but the second part which was withheld by me goes on like this.

Within minutes of his presence in high heaven, he started crying.

Maha asked him Why?

When this Elephant Guy of yesteryear was ascending to high heaven, the mahout who was drunk had been sleeping on his rear holding onto his tail thinking it is the Henduwa that is used to control the the gentle giant.

As he was bit up in the air he felt something skirmish and asked where am I?

The elephant had said ¨We are on our way to high Heaven¨.

Hold tight.

What nonsense I am already in high heaven and the Kassippu was invigorating to say the least.

No my dear, we are really ascending to high heaven and hold tight.

The mahout woke up from his slumber and having realized that he was holding onto the tail and took his hand off to take the Henduwa to bring his mad Elephant to senses but alas he dropped from the sky to the earth below in a flash.

The elephant guy said to Maha that his master who was holding onto his tail had met with this tragic misadventure and I fear he is dead and he is in hell now.

Maha Brahma had a little pause and burst out into a big laughter.

Our new god was bit bemused.

Your friend did not die of the crash but the Nilame was dead instantaneously.

How come?

The Nilame has come to visit the mahout to pay his dues for the day.

Then when both of you ascended up the Nilame got hold of the mahout´s leg knowing very well that the trip was to high heaven.

When they crash landed the mahout fell on top of the Nilame and survived but not his Nilame.

He was taken into custody by the Sri-Lankan police and now he is in prison charged with murder of his boss.

Now he is in prison?

YES.

Poor guy it must be worst than the hell know?

What nonsense?

Sri-Lankan prison is hundred thousand times better than the hell with cellphones and all the paraphernalia.

Is it so?

Yes.

Do you want to see the glimpse of the hell.

Yes, please.

My goodness.

Who is that guy?

He is the Nilame that just arrived.

Why is he having a big thing hooked into his back.

He is still under investigation and on probation for a proper appraisal.

Who is that guy?

He is one of your ex-presidents now already assigned a post in hell.

What is his post?

If any of his fellow presidents join prison he has to give a proper affidavit to process his or her claim in the hierarchy reserved only for Sri-Lankan politicians.

Does he give a good one.

NEVER.

Why?

He never wanted anyone other than his party of Elephants to hold the post of presidency.

Now, that he has lost it he takes the PIN (Kusal or the merits) or PAIN of it in Hell.

Do you want to see some of the Diyawadanae Nilames there.

NO, Sir.

BBC Sports and Olympics-Big Thank YOU.

BBC Sports and Olympics-Big Thank YOU.

I must confess that I do not watch BBC news at all because of its partisan nature, lopsided views and cyclopic eyes from the time of Tony Blair and Iraq War.

I must confess I even do not watch Rupavhinie of Sri-Lanka.

I briefly watch CNN which is studded with ex-BBC guys and girls who has left BBC probably with disgust.

Having said that, I have the habit of browsing the BBC cricket which is by far the best of all its sports features.

I love listening to Sir Geoffry Boycott and his Yorkshire accent.

I started from Yorkshire and worked myself to London and we rarely saw a bobby on patrol those days.

Now they are obsessed with security mostly due to Thatcher´s and Tony Blair´s lopsided foreign policy.

Britain used to be neutral till Mrs. Thatcher´s alliance with Ronald Regan.

I think the Olympics gives them a chance to be neutral again.

I do not mind they support their teams and sportsman to the hilt and win more medal than Australia if they can.

I used to Support Sebastian Coe, Steve Overt and Cram (forget his Christian name) those days and wish to hear their voices and see their old faces on this page.

One mile, 1500 meters and Roger Bannister are my favorite themes.

One gets once in a lifetime chance to hold Olympics in a country and hope the weather would keep cool for the athletes.

But this is to say big THANK YOU to the computer guys who worked many hours to get one of the best sports pages.

Well done guys and girls doing computer work.

You guys are never complimented like the backstage props.

For the competitors I have something to say.

When you are in my age you would love to have your fond memories permanently recoded digitally, even one does not get a medal.

Some of you guys and girls have not given your photographs to the BBC sports.

Hurry up and do it before you leave London.

I have suggestion to BBC Sports, please make an effort to give each competitor a DVD FREE before they leave London.

After all it is only 10,000 copies.

It not winning but participation that matters.

But do not give it/them to the officials please, some of them are very corrupt in this part of the world.

Sometimes more official than the athletes comes on state coffers and have no understanding to play fair.

This is the time British Sportsmen and Women can show the politicians that they are a neutral nation in the 21st century, again.

That is the fillip the BBC Sports can give all the sportsmen and women without drugs.

I hope officials will take stern action to stamp drugs in sports and apply the same rule they applied to Cricket.

By the way I missed the first test match in toto.

I new the South African will do the impossible deep in my heart.

To me South African captain Graham Smith was the most amiable captain of all and nobody has given credit for that feat.

I have never seen him in the field with antics.

He is a good soul and I hope he gives the (I still do not know boy or girl) baby the name FAITH, since the money and corruption has taken over the center stage and has tarnish the image of sports in human culture.

We need Faith and Fair Play in sports but not Hope as in business ventures.

Olympics is a business venture when one take the money paid for security in UK.

Why Britain in not secure now,

They lost the faith in fair play in foreign policy, that include little Sri-Lanka too.

Never ever help a terrorist in sheep clothing.

UK has done that for ages.

Now the time to STOIP it.

World is too small for 9 billion people in few years time.

Strategy to control population and conservation of biodiversity are themes that can be implanted on the athletes.

 People still do respect their efforts in the field of sports, if not in the farm/field.

They listen to sportsmen/women more often than the politicians who have failed us in the last century.

This is the time to market that force.