Ajantha Dharmasiri on Uditha Liyanage: PIM and the reality within SL!

I refer to the article in the FT by Professor Uditha Liyanage’s successor at the PIM about his mentor, and the person synonymous with PIM which enters its 30^th year.

http://www.ft.lk/article/558360/Remembering-a-management-sage--One-year-later

It was good article of the student in honoring his teacher, in memory of his life, and in remembrance of his untimely demise a year ago.

I know many people who have gone to the PIM to do their MBA, and many in senior positions in the Private Sector who believed that an MBA from the PIM would secure a future where they could advance in their chosen fields and become the captains of industry, or even step aside and become the entrepreneurs of the future. Therein lies the fallacy of what actually becomes of the product of the PIM.

This blog is about improving the quality of life of those who live in Sri Lanka. So in that context, it is important that the beneficiaries of the Education at PIM are both able to benefit themselves in their chosen field by improving and diversifying their knowledge base from their original specialization, but are also able to contribute positively to the growth of their Country, through the knowledge they have gained in following this course of study.

I know many of the top Sri Lankan business leaders personally, and while no one has got their through what one would call high academic education, most of them being self made with hardly O levels to speak of, now want to find competent people to take the responsibility to manage these businesses, and can’t find suitable people who fit the bill.

The next stage for a self-made billionaire is to hand over his company to professionals who institute procedures and practices and pass on their vision and values to take the Companies to the next level. They are frankly STUMPED for talent. It is almost impossible to find the right people with something more than technical competence.

They need to think and make decisions on the go. They need to face unexpected challenges, and overcome them with ease. That is lacking in the people, and the PIM course which may teach theory has not instilled the vision in them to take the risk, (often at the risk of their own job) to think outside the box and provide business solutions to everyday problems, which foreign owned entities do!~

I would appreciate a reader who could prove me wrong, but contradicting my hypotheses to the contrary, to save the bacon for PIM as one that not only teachers new ideas that are relevant but also produces people who can go to the next level.

Ceylon Tobacco – Are we about to see the import of all our cigarettes? After the Govt. intentionally destroys the Tobacco Industry!

The Double Whammy to the Tobacco Industry, A death defying tax increase, and the ban on growing tobacco by 2020! Will see the end of this Industry that employs 50,000 outgrower farmers, that indirectly feed 250,000 people.

I don’t smoke and I have never smoked. However the usual Sri Lankan practice of putting the cart before the horse, takes yet another turn. In this two pronged assault at the Tobacco Industry, one of the most efficient industries in Sri Lanka today, we are about to by Government decree to completely destroy it, due to their being NO ONE to be seen PUBLICLY to defend this.

Now the Government is JUST ABOUT TO increase taxes to prohibitive levels, to kill this GOOSE WHICH LAYS THE GOVERNMENT’S GOLDEN EGGS! The Govt. collects over Rs100B per annum, at present from just one Company, the monopoly known as Ceylon Tobacco Company, a foreign owned entity. This amount exceeds the income taxes they collect from Individuals.

We are about to see a price increase to cover the shortfall in revenue from the inability to raise VAT on health services, passed onto the Tobacco Industry as it is the easiest political explanation. See link:

http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/08/01/business/89048

Two separate issues though they are linked.

Firstly, with the tax increase in Tobacco, the consumption will fall to a level, where the Tax increase will finally result in a lower tax yield as finally consumption will fall faster, and so there will NO MORE TAX TO THE GOVT. so the whole point of the tax increase to make up the shortfall will NOT OCCUR.

So that exercise is USELESS, and for those who say, hooray, fewer people will now smoke, and so they will be healthy, and the state will not have to provide free health for smoking related illnesses, I say GET YOUR PRIORITIES RIGHT!

The Govt. just reduced the tax on Sugar, from Rs30 to 25cents! Why, so that the price of Sugar to the consumer should be kept the same, as an ESSENTIAL ITEM. This is due to the world market price of sugar rising, and the Govt. did not want to pass this burden onto the people. What a stupid decision! Sugar is AS IF NOT MORE POISENOUS than cigarette smoking in this sweet tooth Country, where sugar is fed to the spoilt children of ignorant parents who are killing their kids with kindness! Diabetes is the result of high sugar consumption, one of the highest in the world. Why has NO ONE POINTED OUT THIS IRONY, as the Govt. has lost Rs20B in taxes per annum at a stroke by NOT passing on the price increase to the public, I say, the Govt, SHOULD HAVE LET THE SUGAR PRICE RISE TO Rs130/kg and at the same time put full page ads in the Newspapers, to say SUGAR KILLS! This if they cared about the people.

I have NOW COMPLETELY DEBUNKED THE TAX THEORY  of tobacco in one stroke. Further I wish to point out that it is the middle classes who are MOST likely to reduce their cigarette smoking, and the poor will continue, and what does that mean? Less disposable income for the family, and the wife and children will continue to starve, as the husband who now gives Rs15,000 from his paycheck to his wife, to feed the family, will now just give Rs12,000 and the extra Rs3,000 for his cigarettes will go direct to the Govt. a regressive TAX ON THE POOR.

Of course politicians have NO IDEA HOW THE POOR LIVE, so they are making asinine statements which the asinine MEDIA DO NOT POINT OUT as being worse than a a SICK JOKE.

Now lets come to the ban on Tobacco Growing. I have grown tobacco in my Hingurakgoda property. The CTC tobacco outgrower program is the most slick and well organized and helpful program there is, in SL today, and I have attempted to get the Govt. to adopt its practices to paddy production. Needless to say the Govt. and the departments are manned by cretins, so they don’t even understand the point, let alone emulate from the masters at outgrowing. 

CTC knows each day the extent of land, the number of plants, the age of each plant, the quality of the growth, and approximate harvest date, along with help in the drying of the leaf AT EACH OF ITS GROWERS in every part of the Country, and now the Govt. want to destroy this as they say, tobacco harms the soil! Another absurd argument. First destroy ALL OTHER PRACTICES that harm the soil, before attacking tobacco that actually provides a living to poor farmer families more than any other agricultural crop.

My point is to provide the alternatives that are better. It is like asking the poppy farmers in Afghanistan to stop growing poppies, before providing them with an alternative form of livelihood that will compensate for their loss. 

Our jokers (those who pretend to rule us) don’t understand that simple principle. 

Finally this will end the whole agri-industry of tobacco, in SL, and take it overseas, and our cigarettes will be IMPORTED worsening our balance of payments. CTC as a business will not be affected, as it will make more money, but SL will NOT get any taxes like they do now due to the transfer pricing they will adopt, that will show NO PROFITS WILL ACCRUE TO SL by distribution of cigarettes in SL. The Govt. will NOT be able to enforce a change to this or impose imputed taxes because they will affect their tax yield further from cigarette direct taxes, and if they pull out from this Country completely, the Cowboys in the form of the Politicians and their cronies are ready to pounce on this cash cow, to fleece the state and line their pockets at the expense of the people.

YOU THE PEOPLE, WE MUST FIX WHAT IS BROKEN FIRST, ONLY THEN TRY TO IMPROVE THE LIFESTYLE. It is not by taxing tobacco, or banning growing, it is simply by providing an alternative that is better for the people, that people will stop smoking and getting addicted to this weed. Drugs and Kerala Ganja is a far bigger problem, neither of which is bringing any revenue to the Exchequer, go against this first, before attacking tobacco. Why is it not being done? The politicians are the people who benefit from the drug trade, and are paid BIG MONEY TO KEEP QUIET. 

Worse we will have cigarette smuggling on a LARGE scale. Why are the politicians bent on destroying Sri Lanka at every step. Is CTC not paying a big enough bribe to them, so they take revenge by closing it down?   

Child Care – Critical need of the hour to fill the skills and labor shortage

Make no bones about it, Sri Lanka has a huge skill shortage, and there are particularly skilled women who have decided to start a family and are staying at home, and who do not have the means to pay for carers in order that they may return to work.

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/government-encourages-women-to-work-issues-comprehensive-guidelines-for-day-care-centres/

I am currently trying to help a highly skilled mental health counselor of one of our voluntary social service programs to be able to balance her life to both be able to take care of her new born, while at the same time, be able to work in her field, where there is a huge skill shortage, but the wage rate employers are prepared to pay does not come up to the viability of using child care. This is therefore a real problem that the Govt. is supposed to be addressing, and I hope they are able to do so.

The problem with this balance, is that unless there is a state subsidy or an employer subsidy, the viability is a question. A good trained child care service is costly as it involves trained individuals. The employee is NOT able to pay the true cost, when their earnings are insufficient. So how does society get the skills to balance both sides.

In the current situation, she stays home to look after baby, and the Country loses a productive person. If she goes to work, the Country’s GDP doubles with her working and her salary, and the child care worker and her salary both adding to the economy, where neither has a place now. We can focus on the problem when we think of economic cost and benefit here. If she was NOT a skilled person with a job that is in demand then her need to join the labor force is not as great. However her catch 22 problem is that as of now her skills do not get the needed value, as mental health counseling is accepted as highly in demand, but unless remuneration is given to compensate this level of skill adequately there is no contract. Conversely, to have a trained child care worker is also a cost, and the compensation is therefore a factor, and one who is not trained is then of little value to the parent, who has to substitute oneself to that of the carer.

I have not mentioned it here, but we have some skilled staff having to take time off to take care of aged parents, and that too is a cost to society, that we have to increasingly be aware of and take steps to set up elderly care centers in villages. 

Free Education @ Tertiary level is only for 5% of eligible in Sri Lanka

Following on from earlier blog a few days ago, which was galvanized due to an article I read, by a PhD student from Sri Lanka that implied, Sri Lanka has free education and it was immensely superior to the US model where they have to pay for education at the Tertiary level, I am writing a follow to completely debunk her theory of SL. I am not going into the US model here, as that requires an entry all of its own.

In conversation with heads of Companies, employers are increasingly worried, that though HR is their main asset, at all levels, that determine how they succeed, they have NO FAITH in the State’s ability to educate people to take any of the vacancies they have in their companies. This is across the board in ALL industries, and I am flummoxed, why the politicians are NOT addressing this need. Isn’t it good to have a skill shortage, rather than TOO MANY people applying for the job. I was indeed shocked when I was talking to a senior banker who said what a problem he had not having quality staff to recruit, and once they train a good, one they are MORE than likely to have left them for better prospects, either here or overseas, completely debunking the skilled unemployment issue!

Firstly let me tackle the issue of 5% of the 18 year olds who enter University. I sincerely believe that the entrants who both believe it is a right they have earned for being the best in society, go into a course of study they know nothing about, do not have an aptitude for, and so are qualified, but when it comes to employment interview clearly display this ignorance, as it is NOT the course of study they should have followed. The double whammy here is that those who had an aptitude for that field of study were NOT chosen to that faculty, and so the STATE has wasted a fortune educating someone for NO REASON but a Z score mark.

To illustrate this point even further, 70% of the Agriculture Graduates are Female. Less than 1% of these graduates go into a field that bears even a remote fascination to agriculture, an area where we have a huge skill shortage, as we have to use new techniques to be productive, and lower the cost of farm-gate produce for agriculture to be viable in Sri Lanka.

In conclusion, not only is the WRONG 5% receiving free of fee education, which is often  paid for by people who have not even received that level of education, we are NOT educating those who should be educated and able to contribute to society, as we have a convoluted system of choosing the wrong population to receive free tuition. 

I am afraid, I will go so far as to say the PhD student also falls into that! I do not believe, though she extols the virtues of having an education free in Sri Lanka, and was able to get a Fulbright to the US, and who is now pursuing a PhD at Cornell, is somehow going to give the State a return on the state's investment in her! I would not say this if she actually had to pay for her education, then what she does is her choice. We must be always, cognizant of what the STATE PAYMENT MEANS. It is public investment for public benefit or return. If that transaction or contract is not kept, then the state has wasted money, much like paying a bribe from state funds as a commission to a politician to get a contract which the tax payer pays for.  

In short she has fleeced this Country, and has NO rights to extol the virtue of the freebie she received. She has broken the social contract and must be punished, if corrupt officials are in keeping with the spirit of the law.

I can’t find 10 people for work, try and fill a million jobs with an ageing population – you must be kidding!

Forbes is reporting that the GOSL has agreed to give the Chinese 15,000 acres for an industrial zone to create a million jobs. The reality is that it will provide a million jobs for a million Chinese, as there will be NO Sri Lankan left to take these jobs. I sincerely believe that we are living in a fallacy of mythical jobs, when we cannot fill the real jobs in our Economy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/07/27/china-just-asked-for-15000-acres-of-land-in-sri-lanka-for-a-million-worker-sez/#5d1d560b31cf

I meet so many employers including the top business men of the day. Their broken record is simple. “We just can’t find the right people for the jobs we have and it is stifling our ability to grow.” It is the Education STUPID, and that is ALL that we have to fix, and all will fall into place.

Anyone who wants a job can find one, but in our land of lotus eaters, it is mythical jobs that people are dreaming about that they are looking for, and those I am afraid don’t exist, no matter how much day dreaming takes place about them.

When will the politicians realize that our youth today have certain ambitions, and they are NOT fulfilled by the jobs that the Govt. believes will be created. Unlike most Countries less endowed by God’s largess, the price point at which an unemployed person will take on work is rising, and I believe it is now Rs50K a month for the Greater Colombo area, so that MUST be in the back of a person’s mind. I know personally that I was not able to persuade 6 youth who were initially organized to come to Colombo for a Rs40K a month job, no skills needed but to be machine operators, who will have work some overtime, and on the morning they were set to leave Minneriya for work they en masse decided not to go, as they wanted to go fishing that day in the local tank instead. Such are their priorities.

Sri Lanka defies ANY ECONOMIC THEORY currently known to man, and it is time for a new NOBEL dissertation based on our economy, where we will just have to leapfrog to the minimum US$1,000 a month jobs, and train our people intensively from pre-school to get them, starting with 5 S behavior of discipline and conservation. I believe we can do it, as the brains are certainly in place at that age, but the education system needs so much reform, that even the Govt. does not have a clue on the processes and until this basic requirement gets the needed resources will are in limbo, in LA LA LAND!

Free Education up to what level? Certainly NOT AT UNIVERSITY SURELY - Geethika Dharmasinghe~

Reading the attached article in the link referred to here, where a successful product of Sri Lanka’s free education system received a Fulbright Scholarship and is pursuing further education in the US, comments on the advantages of free education over that of private education in the US without really understanding the pros and cons, and is truly reflective of the pathetic education she had received due to our free education system.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/113169/Is-Free-Education-a-boon-or-a-bane-

In a country where a select few like the writer has been truly able to benefit from the school system so as to enter University, she is the minority of those who have been able to leap into a State University, the top 1% so to speak. So here you have the top 1% talking when the next 99% don’t have a basic education and she is talking, free for the top 1% and aka scholarship and NOT a right! Where is she coming from? Not understanding what she is trying to say.

What I maintain is that everyone in Sri Lanka is entitled to a very good free education system till age 16 and NOT FURTHER. Our education system with Tuition does NOT give even that, and she has the gall to talk about free university education. A typical IUSF mindset.

IN THE US - That can be obtained by sacrifice, or payment if you will. It may be subsidized and certain people who are high achievers may be able to win scholarships, and it is even possible that some disadvantaged groups receive preferential or bursaries into higher education. However free TERTIARY EDUCATION IS A FIRM NO.

She is using the US system as a failure, one where she for the grace of a Fulbright has actually been able to learn so that she can impart some good suggestions, but alas she has been completely misled into a wrong path of mediocrity of learning! The best of Sri Lanka go to US Universities and most never come back to mother Lanka, I did.

Let it be said that there are scholarships in the US for bright kids and we must follow that. There are also bursaries for poorer kids, and further there are lower fees for instate students.

She is further harping on the credit rating of people, as their non-payment of loans affects their ability to borrow, or get loans for homes etc. If only she had studied the period of which these loans need to be paid, she will realize it is reasonable. It may penalize the lazy or one who has unexpectedly fallen on hard times, due to illness, in that context I will agree that the Health Care system is archaic and needs overhaul, but don’t confuse that with Free Education please.

In my opinion, even though she says the quality of life is dependent on the ability to choose how much leisure time we have, let me remind her that it is precisely this lotus eater mentality where our people choose leisure over work, is why we are in this mess, as we desire material things but we are NOT willing to work for them, and prefer receiving them FREE.

She is typical of what is wrong with Sri Lankans, and everything she espouses exposes her prejudices. Yes she does not espouse Anglo Saxon work ethic, but then she just has to live in with much less. She does not state that, and it has NOTHING to do with education. So don't confuse quality of life with education as they are mutually exclusive. It is choice we need to give and we pay for our choices if it means we want more of something.

For example I do not posses a means of transport, I don’t have electricity in my home. I can therefore live on less than what she probably spends, as the protein is just fish caught in the lake. I certainly don’t espouse that as the norm. If we all live like that we will just as well live in the dark ages, and perhaps have a high quality of life, but don’t expect someone else to pay for your education, as that is exactly this myth of free education is! Some is working their butt off to pay for someone's free education, don't ever forget that and our Undergraduates don't even realize this. NOTHING IS FREE

I am actually quite cross with her for not knowing that nothing in this world is free. Someone else pays for it. I hate to think that my poor neighboring farmers who don’t have a penny to scratch their backsides with have paid for her education in the Sri Lankan University system that she so smugly glorifies, without realizing that person who has paid for it is in want. It is a zero sum game, and the sooner we take the word FREE OUT OF EVERY THING the better it is.

I trust this girl will from now on value those who paid for her education. Please therefore realize that the US tax payer has not paid for some lout to get educated and not realize its benefit. Only those  who want to learn, to better themselves and maybe get a job that they want will work, save, and pay for their education.

Take my case, if I have a child, I will do my utmost to educate this child as best as I can till age 16 to O levels. I will then give the child a one way ticket to the US and say seek your fortune. (fortunately they will be a US citizen) They will be thrown at the deep end, get a job in Taco Bell and start from scratch, live a tough life, get into a lower paying community college, and if their grades are good graduate to a better State University, and if they do well get a scholarship in the subject of their choice, and will go through the system and end up with some debt that they will know they will have repay. If they cannot hack that formula they can always return to Sri Lanka and be a lotus eater!

Hell they appreciate everything they have got and NOT the unappreciative SL undergraduate who forever moans and demonstrates at MY EXPENSE.  

I would love to meet with you to discuss this~

Where has he gone wrong? PM’s dilemma

The PM is embroiled in so many unnecessary distractions that detract from his brief! Added to which I just got two sms one of which said “the Court Issues an Order to prevent 4 Joint Opposition MPs from commencing the protest march from Kandy tomorrow” and immediately thereafter received, “ the Court issues restraining order on 2 Govt. Ministers NOT to commence recruitment drive by UNP, scheduled for tomorrow morning in Kandy town”. Two further furors we can do without! Looks like tit for tat to the alien invader!

This is sounding like a joke, using the Courts to play musical chairs, whilst the people of the Country are wondering what is going on.

As if the furor caused by the PM complaining, naming and shaming Editors was not enough to get the whole press riled up about their Primadonna status that is NOT warranted, a slew of anti Govt. writing is flooding social media, with no grace. This is all much ado about nothing, as we live in an environment that the Media, don’t know how to use their new found freedom for the benefit of the Country. They are abusing it for their own survival, but are NOT providing new thought to crises of the day, and suggestions for their solution.

If that weren’t enough Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has talked about regulating the Media, which in the current context of the PM’s allegations is not the right time to talk about it, no matter how unprofessional the media are. We have to face the reality that due to a dictatorship for 10 years, Media Ethics and Independence is new and most media do not know how to responsibly report, hence the catch 22~

On this allied note, the Director General of Govt. Information was involved in some brawl where he offered to resign and that was not accepted, all because of saying something that manic depressive media misunderstood. The litany of media related problems goes on, with GL Peiris adding his two cents wondering why the foreign missions are not issuing communiqués wrapping the PM for his remarks.

We then have the unsolved VAT issue, where we don’t know what amount to charge or pay, and small traders are up in arms over this as they are NOT aware of the reasons, and the recording and processing procedures. Uncertainty is resented, and the blame falls to the Govt. The reality is different as it forces discipline in recording, and paying, and this will eventually throw up those who should be submitting Tax Returns, as 90% of those who should be paying even Income Taxes don’t.

We then have the saga of the members of the NIE being fired, with no explanation and that too falling on the PM’s feet as if it is his making. In the end the system must be improved, and NIE revamped, where their primary purpose being the revamp of syllabi takes place without delay for the benefit of our students.

Then there is ETCA with India, which is causing a lot of dissension amongst professionals who can’t compete with India on a level playing field. This had therefore been also used by the press who don’t understand it as another whip to hit the PM with. For soe reason no one talks about its benefit to SL~!

The clash of the students in Jaffna has caused ethnic strife as it is billed as a mini war between the Sinhala and Tamil factions, inside the same university, and it is another proxy war for other parties, with the Govt. made a scapegoat for not restraining the Tamil students who attacked the Sinhala students. Another shot at the Govt.

The delay in bringing up the proposals for the new Constitution is another one blamed on the Govt. which is trying to pacify different factions, one which does not want much change, and at the other extreme others that wish to see drastic change, with the Cardinal chirping in saying Buddhism should take pride of place in the Constitution, being seen by many as being partial to his Govt. and not to his God.

This litany of woes has hit the PM who is increasingly facing dissention amongst his own ranks, not happy with the lack of largess doled out to UNP supporters. So to pacify them, he had a HOPPER NIGHT last night at the Havelock City with his supporters.  Going around pacifying interested parties without grappling with the serious affairs of the day that people want answers, to build a POLICY framework on which to build the economy and attract foreign investment, to once and for all put to bed the allegations that the UNHRC have not lifted or loosened the VICE, and overhaul of the Health and Education Sectors, and possibly removing the wastage of Samurdhi money that non-entitled people are sharing in saving a lot of money have NOT had the attention due.

The debt service which the New CB Governor is supposed to tackle is also in limbo, and where we are NOT taking adequate steps to solve without delay, and the allegation that Professor Sally said and blogged yesterday, about the fact that we are losing our window of DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY mean to the fly on the wall in the PMs office that he is in fact beleaguered and NOT getting on with the real matters of the day he needs to tackle with.  

Squandering the opportunity of a lifetime – current leadership will be condemned in History

Make no bones about it, the MR administration will be condemned in History for errors of commission, and RW administration will be condemned for errors of omission.

Like Professor Sally says in today’s FT article,

http://www.ft.lk/article/557316/SL-in-danger-of-squandering-growth-window--Sally

This IS THE BEST CHANCE we have of improving the livelihood of all who live in Sri Lanka. We are NOT going to find this opportunity EVER AGAIN, as the world is in for a period of taking stock and evaluation of the fundamentals, when growth as we have known it in the past will not recur at that speed, where environmental, recycling, pollution, global warming, future of the Human Race will take precedence, and the populist but destructive dictatorships that are causing huge shifts in people between the have and have not nations, will consume all political dialog.

Before all this happens we have a honeymoon period till 2020 to get everything done. We MUST change the Constitution for the better, which will put to bed once and for all the threat of any future racial or religious strife, and at the same time institute practices that reduce corruption, give people security but balance it with giving them a degree of freedom, that brings out the best in all of us, especially in innovation, and carrying out practices that improve the quality of life for all.

The last two budgets of the new Government have ONLY caused consternation, and we must hope that the next one in a few months, will be able to completely change that round after a well thought out and researched budget, yielding as much revenue, whilst at the same time NOT squeezing the middle classes any more than at present is the way to go.

It is all about reducing the deficit, reducing wastage, making public investment productive, increasing tax yield by better collection of unreported income and unpaid taxes. Further maximizing on service exports, encouraging more inward tourism with high value tourists, directing a higher yielding remittance mix from skilled workers to deal with the drop in numbers and improving Education drastically. It is NOT rocket science, and can easily be done, if we and those who lead us put their minds to it, and not in fattening their personal pockets as is the case now. 

I have talked about leading from the front in my previous entry, about the entitlement culture, which has to go hand in hand to obtain the public's approval for a few painful short term shocks to get the engine working smoothly to go the distance.

Sri Lanka – the hardest part is reigning in the entitlement culture

In a Country where every section of society has been given entitlements beyond what is reasonable, reigning them in is a very difficult task, as it is the norm, and NOT the exception.

To explain this just take the HUGELY loss making Sri Lankan Airlines. The board of directors, decided to stop cheapening the Business Class Lounges, by canceling previously given privileges to the Cabin Crew, and their families to use the lounge at BIA, even though they maybe on free tickets as part of their ENTITLEMENT!

That did not go down well with the Pilots Guild, and when the letter addressed to the Chairman was replied by the head of HR, they were belittled, and worse, as those self same privileges were NOT removed from the Board, who also partake of freebies, their ire was further provoked leader to a WAR OF WORDS see link:

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/pilots-guild-further-exposes-srilankan-airlines-chairman-ajith-dias/

It is in limbo, with neither side wishing to give in. In a nutshell this is the SAGA OF SRI LANKA, where the people pay the price for shameless entitlements.

Then there is the case of MPs getting car permits that they flog for Rs25M and don’t pay a dime in taxes. See the supreme court case as outlined in the link:

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/duty-free-vehicle-permit-abuse-mps-instantly-make-over-rs-25-million-for-selling-permits-sc-heard/

Lets face it examples come from above. WE CANNOT get the people to let go of their entitlements until the people above us do the same. If the Govt. is serious about putting its house in order, just as the Board of Directors of Sri Lankan who should ALSO forego their privileges of even free travel for that matter except on Airline Business, so must the MPs forego their duty free permits, if we are to expect our long suffering public to tighten their belts to pay back interest and loans taken as a result of Rajapakse excesses. This is why people don’t believe that MR mortgaged the nation to line his pockets, as the present administration is doing the same thing, but at a much reduced scale.

We in Sri Lanka have rotten leadership qualities amongst its leaders. They just don’t know how to lead by example, so that the followers will actually listen to their exhortations that they are doing it for their Country. Let’s start by showing an example.

Montane Ecosystems – Montane Forests – Horton Plaines Future

Montane ecosystems refer to any ecosystems found in Mountains, and Montane Forest in Wikipedia is defined as: Montane forests differ from lowland forests in the same area.^[5] The climate of montane forests is colder than lowland climate at the same latitude, so the montane forests often have species typical of higher-latitude lowland forests.^[6] Humans can disturb montane forests through forestry and agriculture.^[5] 

See details of the previous post for the context in which this entry is written and are interlinked.

In Rohan Pethiyagoda, a biodiversity scientist’s lecture recently, he pointed out how some of the aforesaid forests at the Horton Plaines National Park were in fact dying and pointed out to scientific data on extremely high levels of LEAD in a country that really does not spew out a lot of lead, leading to some concern about how the global effects of lead discharge, perhaps India, perhaps further afield, also affect our own environment, and following on from that our very existence!

The mist particles of Cloud Forests were apparently better at giving plants nutrients, but at the same time, they can also absorb effluents in the air too! This is obviously an area of concern that our scientists, must be aware of, study its effects and possible progression, and if serious get the International Communities cooperation to reverse this trend, which if anything will lead to the complete destabilization of our ecosystem before our eyes, and we can do nothing about it.

This is the very existence of our Country that we are talking about. It is important therefore for the Government to takes steps to identify the gravity of this problem, and take necessary steps to minimize its effects, or scientifically evaluate the extent of the threat and the consequences of it.

This is simply an example of the need for the use of current techniques, and new technology, to be able find reasons for the problems, suggest solutions to them, and measure the effects of the damage and map out a path of eliminating the threat.

This is a clear example of what our scientists can get their teeth into, through international collaboration. After all, those who get first class honors degrees in Sciences are snapped up by US Universities to do post graduate work. It is time they take a topic such as this, get further research funding for it, and study the effects of external factors on our environment and come up with solutions.

It is incumbent upon the Government to encourage this work, assist these students and use the brain power we already have to work for the survival of Sri Lanka.

http://www.ft.lk/article/485165/Rohan-Pethiyagoda-new-Tea-Board-Chairman