Colombo slowly but surely spreads south. First people flocked to Hikkaduwa, making it uncool. Now Unawatuna is effectively a suburb. Next it will be Mirissa, and the meh will spread on to Hambantota before it turns around and starts affecting Kalpitiya, then round Yala to Arugam Bay.
There are still a few common fears floating around Colombo. They are that the country will return to war, that the economy will collapse, and that we will descend into a totalitarian dictatorship soon. These are the traditional rallying cries of the disenfranchised elite, but I think they simply don’t apply any more. These fears are unfounded.
I swear I’m not a cat video kinda person but I thought this was cute. This is the first time Alex (the epileptic kitten) has seen himself. He stared for a while, tried to fight and later ran straight into himself. It was pretty funny.
If I had a blogger idol it would be Han Han – Chinese super-blogger, race car driver, and all around dreamy guy. My friend is down from Beijing and he says China is a land of paradoxes. It’s both more free and restricted than you would imagine. I think Han Han is the riddle within the enigma. He’s recently written three essays, On Revolution, On Democracy, and On Freedom. They’re quite interesting.
The Daily Mirror wrote a misleading headline saying “Tamils to blame for Lanka solution delay: Rajapaksa“. What the President seems to have said is that he blames the TNA, saying “There is no point blaming me, it’s the Tamil parties that are delaying the solution.” In the Colombo Telegraph, also, Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka has pointed to the intransigence of the TNA (the Tamil National Alliance).
Recently a foreigner was killed in Tangalle, with a local government leader being a suspect. This is highly unusual (for a foreigner to be killed), but thuggery does persist. In Unawatuna, a friend of mine was accosted by someone flashing a government ID, essentially asking for his girlfriend. Some other friends were leaving a party and ended up getting thrashed into the Mount Lavinia gutter. Not to mention semi-regular fights at nightclubs like Karma.
I remember the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. It was a literal sea change for everyone on this island. For many people it meant death, for many more it meant destruction, and for everyone it meant loss. There are a few lessons we learned from that natural disaster, and a lot that we didn’t.
The Department Of Examinations has fumbled and now completely dropped the ball on A/Level results. First the results were late, then finally released on Christmas, and now they’re saying that the results of some students could be wrong, effectively meaning that none of the results are reliable. Kids study for these exams for years and try to get stuff right, but the Exams Department can’t even add up the scores. I give them a Fail.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. It was yesterday but I spent most of the weekend eating or sleeping on the floor so only getting around to writing this now. What is Christmas in Colombo like? The shopping is there, and the dinners. Perhaps one difference is the fireworks, going on late into the night. This holiday seemed more lively than before. Hope it was nice for you as well.
The latest reports sound exactly like Pakistan is breaking up with America – ‘A senior US official said “Pakistan has told us very clearly that they are re-evaluating the entire relationship.”‘ ‘Mushahid Hussain Sayed, summed up the anger that he said many harbored: “We feel like the U.S. treats Pakistan like a rainy-day girlfriend.”‘
