Having an intimate love affair with Sri
Lanka, the United Kingdom and the United States, having lived in all three for
a substantial period of my life, schooled, studied and worked (and paid tax and took NO welfare)
and kept house and home, car and travel,
holiday and relaxation. I even bought a new Jaguar in 1995 in Santa Barbara,
California and drove across the US and took it across the pond to the UK, and
drove around Europe, before taking it back across the pond to the US and drove
it finally to Las Vegas!
I note as follows:
The United Kingdom
Theresa May, starts her first full day
in office at Number 10 this morning, in a Country that is divided between young
and old, city and country, between rich and less well-off, Brexit and Remain!
I was there at the time the UK joined
the EU and believed it was the natural progression of nationhood, dropping
nationalistic shackles and entering the NEW WORLD ORDER, so I was disappointed
that the people followed a narrow, Nationalist Path of self destruction, with the
Tories at the bottom of it.
It is now repair and remove time from Europe,
and till 2020, till the next elections, the new Prime Minister will have her
work cut out, and I wish her the very best.
The United States of America
The new President of the US will be
installed in 6 months from now after the November 9th Presidential
Election. Hilary came through a bruising battle to receive the Democratic
Party’s nomination, while Donald Trump has against all logic received the
nomination of the Republican Party and in the middle of gun violence in Dallas
of the killing of 5 policemen and the violence in Orlando, Florida, I trust
that the divisive issue will be on the Second Amendment rights, that will
definitely divide the nation between Red Necks and the rest. Again a nation
clearly divided with NO common ground.
I hear today, that Trump is only 3
points behind Clinton, and anything can happen, especially how Brexit showed us
what Nationalism can do, and Trump is playing the same divisive game aimed at
the ignorant.
Sri Lanka
We have a joint opposition that is
trying again and again to raise their Nationalist credentials, which are the
populist ones, which especially due to a lackluster leader of the ruling
National Government is turning people irrationally to a bankrupt cause of a
bunch of people who bled this Country. Those who replaced them, have not been
able to get traction to show how this bleeding occurred, and the steps being
taken to stop the bleeding, which are definitely UNPOPULAR as it is an unfair
distribution of the pain, skewed to the poorest sections of society, with the
Ruling Elite, ensconced in their Luxuries, and tax free cars and lives, at the
EXPENSE of the working poor, who pay the bulk of taxes.
I am therefore on a crusade to point out
how high these taxes are as a percentage of a poor man’s US$250 a month average
wage, which goes for the basic food he buys, the basic phone and internet
charges he incurs, and the basic costs of living with VAT on everything else he
purchases too. Who is kidding whom when the Govt. says that Sugar is an
essential and is not Vatable, while Rs 30 is creamed off each kg of sugar as
taxes to the Government? That is an unkind blow in lying.
The population is fast dividing between
haves and have nots. There is NO middle ground, with the shrinking middle
class. The race card is being played to the maximum by the members of the Joint
Opposition which will stoke racial clashes, instilled purely for POLITICAL
EXPEDIENCY.
There are impending crises galore, which
the people do not trust the existing leadership to solve painlessly! We need
strong leadership, and I know the US and UK will finally have women heading
their respective Executives. They will buckle down to business, but in Sri
Lanka we have a rudderless leadership of impotent old timers, with NO ONE with
a vision or exciting persona to be handed over the reins, where the people have
confidence in their ability to produce the goods.
It is therefore the duty of the existing
leaders to UNIFY this highly fragmented and divided Country into a one
‘Nationhood’ concept, where the people believe that it is the only way forward
to ensure peace. I just hope the Diaspora in the guise of the UNHRC pressure,
will finally desist and go back to their lives, leaving Sri Lanka to peacefully
transition to a Country where ALL people are treated equally with NO ONE
seeking any preferential treatment. Preferential Treatment is the root of most
of the evil in Government and the sooner we learn this lesson after 70years of
struggle, the better. So I hate to see progress on these issues made in the UK
and US while we seriously lag behind.
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