How The Bus Should Be
I’m a big fan of public transit, but it’s not that cool right now, in Sri Lanka at least. This bus is cool. From Germany. This is how public transit should be. Nice seats, panoramic windows, its own lane, big and long. That’s cool.
You can watch this video with or without subtitles on (the CC button). 90% of the content is communicated through sheer tone.
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service to nationalists while at the same time trying to run an actual nation. Every government has also generally failed, SWRD being killed by a nationalist monk and everyone after almost losing the country to various rebellions. In that context Mahinda is actually doing a better job by virtue of not being dead and not losing control of the country. But he’s still not doing a good job.
Still comparing 1st world Europeans with 3rd world Sri Lankans er???
When will you morons realize that dark skinned people can never ever, even in their wildest dreams, can even come close to building a civilization equal to that of the West???? What does it take for you dimwits to come out of your daydreams and fantasies???
It’s just annoying that all the nutjobs seem to end up here all the time…
Who in their right minds would want SL to turn into the west? I like my sunny, gentle pace of life here. I have everything I need. So, dear srilankasucks, I suggest you continue sucking on the white mans balls and leave the rest of us to get on with things here. You won’t be missed I assure you. BTW do you also go by the name of xelene (https://www.facebook.com/xelene)? Your comments are typical of her twisted views on life in SL.
You have everything you need??? Are you sure you dimwit???? Do you realize that EVERYTHING you use, cars, buses, computers, electricity, mobile phones, televisions, basically every technology you use, and very concept you use, like democracy , equality, human rights etc all come from the West?? You are too stupid to realize that you are a slave to Western Civilization, cos you use everything they created. Only reason you are commenting here on the Net (another Western invention) and in ENGLISH (Western language) is because you DEPEND on the West for everything.
What about medicine you moron??? What do you do when you get sick?? Go to the nearest Western doctor, right?? What about culture?? What movies do you watch??? What music do you listen to??? Western, right. You are 2 stupid to realize that you are a completely westernized person, who depend on Western countries for everything. Do you wear underwear or the ambude??? If you wear underwear, even that is western invention. So is the sitting toilet. You are such a moron. 99.99% of Sri Lankans are backward, morons with dogsh1t in their brains. Even after a whopping 64 years after gaining independence from the British, we are a worse that what we were in 1948. Instead of developing this country, what did we do, divide among ourselves and screwed ourselves, a hallmark of a very backward, sh1tbrained group of people. Look at Colombo our so-called capital city, an unplanned ugly, dirty city. Look at our neighborhoods. Can you call them real neighborhoods??? This country with 20 million people does not have a SINGLE coherent well planned neighborhood. Not one. This country sucks. It’s backward people suck. We ain’t going anywhere but to the gutter of humanity.
Xelene…this is you right? Im laughing as I write this. Yes, I use technology because its available. But its only been around for a few hundred years. Mankind for much longer. Humans lived, loved and survived for thousands of years without it. Yes, some of us are now slaves to technology and the west. Better rid of it. Better rid weak minded western puppets like you too.
Slaves to technology? At least its better than actually being a slave, which you could’ve become few centuries ago.
it is a pity heshan still couldnt find a better past time
You guys here are unhealthily preoccupied with this Heshan person.
Actually, we’d quite forgotten Heshan until his twin appeared.
Completely agree with Such. SL is great country, compared to the Democratic Republic of Congo. You are better or worse always, with respect to somebody else.
It’s just a bus for gods sake guys. Take a chill pill. Or learn how to write properly (that goes for both sides by the way…) and express your views on Groundviews.org.
Ankie you do realize that when we refer to “western” and “white ” it includes you? i.e we were discussing the inherent merit/demerit of your cultures influence on ours. I for one see no absolute benefit in technology or the western consumer culture. It corrupts mind and soul horribly. Thus many who have lived in the west far prefer to live here in “third world” Sri Lanka.
True. Europeans have ruined this planet with their technology and culture. However, you are quite wrong when you imply that “3rd world” is better than the West. It is not. If we are better, then why do we need to improve?? Why are we trying to catch up with them? Why follow them?? Although Europeans have destroyed this planet with their technology and everything else that comes with it, I don’t have that much issue with it. Because, if we look at Sri Lankan society (there is no Sri Lankan civilization) it was based on the caste system where 1/2 the population of higher caste govigama, completely oppressed and almost enslaved the rest of the non-govigama population. Non-govigama castes were there simply to provide services to the higher govigama caste and were considered inferior. It was no better than what the Europeans did to us. So, since we oppress our own people I find us worse than Whites are doing even now though neo-colonialism and liberalism and things like that.
It’s still just a bus.
Dear Such – if you saw no merit in technology you would not be ranting on blogs now would you…just an observation.
“It corrupts mind and soul horribly” – oh dear why am I bothering to even reply, you are obviously in the throes of corruption of the mind.
Seriously guys? The west/east divide is completely artificial posturing, at least on a personal level. Guess what, a ton of Sri Lankans have family and friends abroad and vice versa. We’re generally not so rude to each other, or foreigners
How’s this for ridiculousness?
Sri Lanka private bus owners to strike against import of buses for state bus company
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_12A/Sep18_1347939494CH.php
What. The. Hell.
Truly ridiculous. That’s what I thought too, from the point of view of commuters.
Then again, is there fair competition between the two parties? The government pumps in funds to keep afloat loss-making state-run companies, and controls all ticket prices. But in this case, I really don’t care. Commuters need relief more than private bus owners.
[...] it runs on time. This seems fairly ordinary stuff, but it isn’t. I’ve talked about the need for new buses and the resistance from some entrenched interests before. This is an example of something actually [...]