Whither The Fantasy
I have no over-weening interest in Iceland, despite it being awesomely weird. I just took these photos of Iceland on the Risk board and wanted to post them. The full set is here. I also learned that putting out even a small fire is really hard, and I feel extra glad that the Mumbai Seige is over. Suketu Mehta (Maximum Bombay author) has a very nice Op-Ed on that. The Financial Times has an interesting letter from Iceland. They block me out after I read three articles, but then I just delete the FT cookies and start again. I used to read the foreign news to get away from it all, but now the foreign news is worse. I was actually reading about Indian business the night the seige happened, but that’s all fucked now. Trying to find some other country to mentally escape to.
FT on Iceland, and when a credit crunch actually hits a personal level. Because it’s hard to conceptualize as something real that affects people. Iceland is a bit of a case study because they borrowed more than 10 times their GDP, hence about $250,000 worth for every human on that isle. The US debt per person, by comparison, is about $35,000. Word on the street is that the Sri Lankan debt is like Rs 160,000 per (about $1,600).
The Icelandic krona’s freeze in the capital markets had now spilled over into the day-to-day transactions of Icelanders abroad. Holidaymakers and business travellers venturing “til Útlandaâ€, as it is called, found their credit cards refused, and those wishing to buy foreign currency could not find willing sellers, aside from one or two who limited their purchases to €200…
On collecting our daughter from her handball practice, I learnt the news that her club could not obtain the foreign currency it needed to release their new team shirts from customs. The city’s myriad sports teams rely on local sponsors and our daughter also brought the news that this source of funding for her team was likely to dry up in the months to come. Later that evening, Skype, our communications lifeline, would not renew our credits with an Icelandic credit card.
Anyways, please tell me if you know of any countries with good news. I read the news for entertainment, and it’s not so entertaining anymore.
This is weird, but it happened to me. Lately I noticed that Google links weren’t working and my Google search page had a ‘Google Kindle’ link at the bottom, which they don’t sell. This wasn’t just on my PC, it affected my iPad and everything on the WiFi network. So I figured the virus/malware was on the WiFi router, which it was. Which is a trip. Anyways, here’s the symptoms and a cure.
I want to visit my friend in China before he comes back. Free place to crash and all. So, I applied for a visa to China, from Colombo. I’m not sure I’ll get it, but this is process to at least apply. For official but incomplete info, check out the 
The Mahavamsa (a history of Sri Lanka) is full of conflicts between generals and kings. Usually, the more bloodthirsty and unscrupulous would win. Our current (elected) ruler Mahinda Rajapaksa has had his own general conflicts, namely with one Sarath Fonseka. In the old days Fonseka would have staged a coup, as in literally try to cut of Mahinda’s head, and Mahinda would – if that failed – tie him to four elephants and split his parts asunder. Can’t do that shit anymore. Instead Fonseka ran for office and lost and Mahinda tossed him in jail.
Today on the 
Maybe u have an evil eye…:P
Do you always worry about why his shirt is whiter than yours?