My neighbor wanted to go to Hikkaduwa in the morning so I was like OK. We took the SEX Bus to Galle and another bus back up the coast. It was fine. Hung out at a friends restaurant there and he was complaining about the government and the cops to high heavens, and he voted for Mahinda. He said it wasn’t the family but the catchers and cronies below, messing his stuff up.
In the Hikka case, there’s a constant battle between the beach spots and the cops. Everybody wants a beer on the beach, but nobody can legally serve it. Even the cops want to drink, so thing inevitably get corrupt. People that are politically connected serve, and those that aren’t get symbolically busted. Half the time the cops just bust a spot, take a bottle and leave. Which shows you how unrealistic the policy is.
Anyways, this guy was pissed because he said the government ‘Have to treat everybody same. We do the business’. As in the tourism business. Which is true.
I’m on these diaspora forums so I asked him some of the questions they’re obsessed about, ie, war crimes, political devolution, race. He was basically like WTF are you talking about. In regards to a ‘political solution’:
“What is this political solution? This is not problem to talk even. Only making problems in this country. I don’t give a shit. Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, I don’t give a shit. I’m Sri Lankan but I don’t give a shit. I have more problems with Sinhalese. Tamils work together. We work together we run this shit. I think that my friends think this also.”
So, yeah. Hikkaduwa. Still happening. The beach crowd this time was 95% white, 4% Lasith Malinga (ie, Beach Boy stylee) and 1% me. It’s all right.
Hey Indi , Can you suggest me few good places around unawatuna ?
Licensing of alcohol is supposedly a ‘religious’ issue but is in fact a political one.
Politicians control the licenses and take a cut when they are issued.
I am told that a lot of illegal liquor (bogus arrack products that look like the real stuff) is made by people connected to politicos/politicos. This stuff is then distributed through the wine stores. They cannot get it into the supermarkets, which is why it is a huge issue for a supermarket to get a liquor license for a new location – the local politicos will lose because their customers also realise that they are ripped off so they prefer to shop at a supermarket. Witness the huge queues at the liquor counters of a few outstation supermarkets that have liquor licenses.
The colonial government used to have public auctions for liquor licenses, we need to return to this.