In a tech savvy world, adults must improvise if their message is to be heard by youth.

Whatever young people think, they are usually unable to organize a piss up in a brewery, unless they have received a better education than the state sector currently provides. It is therefore the duty of the adults to take charge of the projects that benefit the youth, but make the youth feel that it is them that are running the show.

This is an important point. Left to the youth, nothing will ever get done! Adult supervision, encouragement and participation is necessary to give that added sense of urgency to the task. The education system has NOT taught the necessary discipline and self-motivation in organizing and carrying out projects and tasks successfully.

It is how adults communicate with young people that is at stake. Often young people are VERY suspicious when dealing with adult promises to help. Therefore the intentions must be clearly laid out. Some psychological knowledge in dealing with this aspect is helpful, so as to gain maximum impact especially in a program designed to help the youth.

The psychology of the youth of today also must be understood, so that the adults designing workshops such as leadership development programs, understand the fluid nature of acceptances to attend. Whilst my word may be my bond and if I say I will attend, I mean it. A young person in Sri Lanka on the other hand, may acknowledge that they will come, but in the end, if there is a more enticing offer, this promise will be conveniently forgotten.

It is therefore important that the invitation itself is sufficiently enticing to require their presence at “a must be at event!” These are all considerations that must be taken account of when planning any youth related event.

Of course there are the set piece events that will generate automatic interest, such as musicals, as the people are starved for entertainment of this nature, but when that is not the objective, why indulge in extravagance, when a different approach at far less expense may achieve the same or a more focused objective.

The youth will engage in something if direct and perceived benefit. The Nil Balakaya is making promises of employment if one is with them in the long haul, and that is a good enough reason for people to be with them, as long as that promise still holds true! That is what I mean about a direct benefit of belonging! 

What hope can the opposition promise for the disgruntled youth of today?

If the survey I referred to in my last blog entry is anything to go by, the youth of Sri Lanka do not see a future for them in the island. Offered a chance they will leave at the first instance, and therefore have voted with their feet, and they are also disgruntled with the political process having lost faith.

Young people are idealistic and that is a defining quality of Youth. Therefore it is important that this enthusiasm is not stifled, and turned into despair instead. A responsible opposition should seize this opportunity and prepare Youth for a better future with a believable set of policies that the opposition agrees to put forward to actually attract the youth vote.

The main issues that concern youth are improving their employment prospects, improving the quality of education, and matching the skills to the vacancies and carry out programs to reduce this void between, jobs available and skills to fill them. As a matter of policy, the opposition has undertaken to double education spending at National Level, and most of that will go to the Free Education sector, from Montessori all the way to Tertiary Level. Instead of building construction, where there is a lot of leakage due to kickbacks, the attention MUST be in retraining teachers to the required levels as 75% of teachers in the state sector WILL NOT pass a competency test today for the subjects they teach. If the quality of the education system improves, then some of the required skills will be available just as result of a better educated and motivated student who is able to think clearly and apply their attention to specific areas of employment.

In my line of work, I interview dozens of youth monthly and none of them without exception are able to clearly define what they want. I guess those who really know what they want, don’t come to me! How can I say politely that those who then come to me are the no hopers! Actually they really need my help in find their focus first. Once they know what it is they want, then that is half the battle, they are almost there in their march for success.

We must have leadership programs to empower youth in finding their jobs for themselves AND NOT be dependent on others! Aspects of this will include how they should go about planning their lives, so that they will obtain a relative level of satisfaction and NOT success and we must encourage them to put satisfaction over income level.

We then map out best as we can what the future would look like and provide appropriate training in the fields where the needs are expected to be the greatest, both locally and overseas, where we permit people the opportunity to explore the world and return with qualifications, and experience in fields of benefit to Sri Lanka.  

It must offer every emigrant a desire to return once their short term aspirations are met.

Of course just employment is NOT the answer, but a living wage where basic aspirations can be fulfilled. Most wages today, do not permit the young person to live on their own, outside of their parent's home leading to much disillusionment. 

Making promises to fill this is a tall order, and it is most important that they are not mere promises and are followed with deeds. It is this believable platform, that must be introduced, for renewed interest in the political process and for the main opposition as a matter of priority. Giving the message that connects with the target group is the 64,000 dollar question.  

The youth vote is a critical element in winning an election, and it is now clear that the Govt. campaign is just smoke and mirrors, which may try and confuse some of its merits, but the vast majority is likely to view it cynically, and choose NOT to exercise their franchise, unless the opposition can justify the reason for voting, in their best interests. 

Youth – Should I vote or not!

Is it pointless to educate our first time voters, and those who have never voted before on the importance of the exercise of their franchise in an election, or should we leave it to their common sense alone to make that decision for themselves assuming it is their conscious decision so to do?

I would like the readers to comment on this if they might! In Sri Lanka politics dominates all areas of life, and so politicians make decisions that affect our daily life, and in that sense who we appoint or elect make a huge difference in what choices and freedom we enjoy.

A yet to be published survey, the results of which I was made privy to recently said that 82% of our youth will given a chance, migrate overseas for with permanent settlement or for temporary employment.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?   

It is this escape valve that has stopped another youth uprising, and given our young people an option that they can at least hope to pursue giving them HOPE. It is HOPE that youth have. They begin with idealism in their student lives, which are sadly CRUSHED when they enter the world of employment search. A young person wants hope for the future, and when there is none, he despairs and forms a cynical opinion on those who make promises, that they cannot keep, and politicians are at the blunt end of this criticism.

So in the Sri Lankan context what must a social minded person do?

It is our duty to show what the reality is today. Then it is noble if we can show them what might be a better alternative to the status quo, and finally it is up to each political party to attempt to show these people, that their policies have the best chance of achieving their personal goals.

It is the political party that can best market this in the youth favor that will hopefully persuade the youth to exercise his or her franchise first and secondly cast it to that political party. It then boils down to a marketing exercise where the winner is the one who is able to get the majority of this deciding franchise that can make the difference in an election as to which party can form a government and accordingly implement its policies, if they are true to their word. 

This all sounds very idealistic, but if thought out carefully, we owe our future this debt!  Let us start repaying this now.        

Politics is to Men, in a similar fashion that Jewelry is to Women!

I was at a workshop over the weekend where we asked a young Man (26yrs) of what he thought of the Political System in Sri Lanka. He simply said that “men in Sri Lanka tend to embrace Politics in a similar vein to how Women embrace Jewelry and wear it. He said there was nothing more he could say about it.

This coming from an intelligent youth, is a telling reminder to our Politicians that if they go on like this, they will be nothing more than irrelevant jokers preening themselves for attention grabbing gimmicks with nothing on the inside.

In a society which is so politically minded, with Politics being a topic of conversation almost in every living room, for young people to damn this whole episode in such a derisory fashion means, they have hit rock bottom both as a career and as one of stature.

Ironically it is just this very cynical aspect of politics that the US Aid Program, was encouraging NGOs to apply for funding for voter education and knowledge enhancement of the power of the ballot and the collective will that can be expressed by the exercise of the franchise.

I will not get into the argument about how it is in the USA where there is a high incidence of non participation in elections, and why are they interfering in ours. Remember that in the USA politics affects very little of a person’s daily existence as policies are not changed haphazardly and there are just a few main issues that dominate politics and they are well explained and there is equal weight given to both sides on how they are promoted, publicized and pursued.

Casting aside, the issue of if they have any right to interfere in our domestic political process, the mere suggestion of the Defense Secretary that all NGOs WILL be investigated, if they are given funds under this program means simply that the present administration, (GOSL) does not want the  voter to be educated!  Lest they would educate the GOSL out of office!

The GOSL stance is that we are a participatory democracy with universal franchise for nearing on a century and so the voters are highly educated. So much so that they have actually made a conscious decision to allow, murderers, rapists, drug lords and other common criminals to enter the political arena. It is these people then who will decide whether to punish a police officer who attempts to enforce the law, or encourage the proliferation of drug trafficking, no matter the laws in the statute books! 

In a fit of frenzy if your spouse says she has left you for someone else, and asks you to take care of the kids too! Would you kill your kids and kill yourself?

This is exactly what happened. The attempted suicide did not work, and the father has confessed to killing his children.  

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=106135

I have personally known of instances where the wife went to the Middle East never to be heard from again. The father has had to bring up the kids by himself with great difficulty and with much ostracism from the village too!

Sri Lankans are NOT equipped to deal with the social problems caused by sending their especially women folk to the Middle East for jobs. The remittance from the mother is the MAIN source of income for the family, that is why she went there!

From a simple unsophisticated background, having to confront another world, where many are lonely, it is easy to fall prey to other associations with the opposite sex, willing or unwillingly. The men folk who send their wives MUST understand the possibility can become a reality and unless they are mentally equipped to cope with that they must be careful when the collective decision is made for the mother to leave in the best interests of the family.

As a society Sri Lankan men are extremely psychologically immature, more than women, and I blame this mainly on society and the mothers of these men. They do not explain the facts of life as they should know it. Men are generally led to believe certain sureties about their wives that turn out to be untrue!

The children in the above case were both under 7. I believe there is a rule to prevent mothers leaving if the kids are under 18 and as I understand this mother only left a year ago, after the rule was adopted.

Who permitted the woman to leave, and what incorrect statements did she give to the authorities before she left? We as a society MUST take some collective responsibility in this tragedy rather than just blame it on the father and be done with it. He is likely to spend a long part of his life, if not life in jail, as he is not one with the wherewithal to find a good lawyer to fight his case, as manslaughter with diminished state of mind.

Let us take steps to reduce the likelihood of such tragedies occurring in future.      

Education Spending: The Govt. and the World Bank have both got it wrong!

The Government is at pains to inform the public and low cost lenders such as the World Bank, that they are spending heavily in education. 

The latest ploy is showing the gleaming Mahindodaya Thakshanika Vidyagara which includes Computer and Language Labs, all in one unique design, that mesmerizes all those who see it from the outside. (the external show for the purposes of a mirage)

What is inside? The quality of the computers some miscreant has fooled the Govt. into buying, and lack of proper AC facilities to protect them from overheating and making the class comfortable for learning are lacking inside, and worse, appropriately qualified teachers, able to impart the required skills to students eager to learn,  don’t exist.

The Govt. hopes that the ingenuity of our students to self-teach will carry the day!

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=106023

In a country where the Minister admits that in his (Education Minister’s) own Electorate of Homagama, that the quality of education has drastically dropped, despite the most lavishly funded Mahinda Rajapakse Vidyalaya where NO expense has been spared,  it really begs the question what has happened to our Education?

The World Bank is lavishly funding a project, that is expected to boost the quality of Education. However knowing the bureaucrats they have to deal with, who don’t understand what a quality education means, it is nigh impossible to achieve the expected results.

Education therefore has been held hostage to politics, where people see the strategically placed Mahindodaya buildings when they drive on the roads, newly painted, so a false sense of expectations on education spending is inculcated in the average Joe’s mindset. 

It is this construction culture, where it is seen, and large kickbacks are the result, where at least in Education the need of the hour is heavy spending on producing quality teachers. Unfortunately the fruits of that brain building is not for all to see, and therefore not considered electorally beneficial and thus set aside as a need. The people, the Country and the Economy suffers, and fools and believers in bullshit development of the government is the result.

It is time the people demand that wasted money is really spent on Education, and not on bricks monitors, mother and key boards with huge kickbacks. The money is there in bundles and oodles, but wasted and miss-spent on fooling the public so that they will be voted in to continue their plunder, as both an uneducated electorate and kickbacks on a mammoth scale are necessary for this longevity exercise.

I will challenge anyone to prove that not more than 50% of the class rooms today had any productive teaching done! Our children are better of at home, where they will learn more, faster, and become creative, coming out with the inventiveness that is inherent in all our minds, but which is massacred and submerged in the education so called Free Education System the Govt. appears to be so proud of! 

Trust me. Anyone who can afford to pay, will opt out of the state system, that is broken. We can fix it, but sadly the wrong people appear to be in power, only fools and horses to be frank, who have NO interest in making a positive change.         

A follow up on inequality, bogus statistics, and poverty in Sri Lanka

My blog entry on 30^th June was about the increasing inequality in Sri Lanka and compared that with increasing inequality in the US due to some Govt. decisions there. It was however clear that due to the Wild West mentality in Sri Lanka, and the Dog eat Dog concept, and today, it is Govt. and Govt. sponsored dogs, along with their enablers in the Security Forces who are decimating the livelihoods of the rural poor.

There was an interesting article by Rohantha Athukorala, in the FT of 1^st July 2014, about the inequitable pace of growth, showing poverty in excess of 20% in the Moneragala District, when Sri Lanka is now showing a growth rate of 7.5%

http://www.ft.lk/2014/07/01/what-happened-in-monaragala/

In fact the article is a must read for the student who wishes to understand head or tails of the real situation in Sri Lanka vis are vis statistics. May I remind the reader that a respected ex-Central Banker, Dr Anila Bandaranayake specifically stated that the statistics are cooked by the Govt. and further, we learned later that the Dept of Census and Statistics was to be taken under the wing of the Treasury, thereby enabling this whitewash to continue to spew out hogwash in the Media.

I would like to draw the reader’s attention further to an article in the Lankadeepa of 1^st July 2014, page 4, where Professor Aminda Methsila Perera of Wyamba University, Faculty of Business Studies and Finance, who goes on to point out that with 42% of the Country receiving Samurdhi Benefits (Welfare) by their own statistics as being poor and on the other hand the Govt. trumpeting the fact that SL has the second highest growth rates in the world (China and NO 1), and rising to next year to be the highest! There is a clear INCOMPATIBILITY here of the Govt. own statistics being at odds with itself!

This fact contrasts with Ajith Nivaard Cabral saying on the following day (2^nd July 2014) in the same paper in the equivalent section, that it is just that people’s expectations rise when a country develops and grows, and therefore it is this insufficiency that is manifested in the people’s minds, and this DOES NOT bear any truth in fact, saying that in 1960s 75% of household expenditure was on food, whereas now it is vastly different.

Of course he is talking like Marie Antoinette! tell it to the real poor who have lost their crops to the drought and have NOT had any relief. These farmers are now spending 75% of their cash on food, when in 1960 they were spending 25%!   

Need i say it, that the Governor of the Central Bank is completely out of touch with the reality, and living and working in an Ivory Tower, does not help him hone in his senses. 

Cargills Bank was left loitering around for 4 years before they could start operations due directly to the procrastination of the Central Bank, was it due to the right amount of bribe not being paid to the right individual at the right time or that the Bribe got bigger after the granting of the original license I still do not know. It was therefore beyond ironic that the procrastinator in chief was a VVIP at the opening delivering his pontificature knowing the correct palms were adequately greased in that respect.

Time for him to gracefully resign having served longer than is deemed seemly in such a position in this day and age, just like his patron.

Sri Lanka’s position in the world of Top Apparel Exporters! We are not even no 10, even Cambodia with a population of 15M is ahead of us

As a point of reference it is worth noting that as of 2012 in the league of apparel exporters, Sri Lanka did not rank in the top ten and Cambodia rounded off the 10^th with a $4.29B export with even the USA higher at $5.61B. The FT July 2^nd 2014 link is below with the data. Cambodia in fact was far behind us and is racing ahead of us in this as well as Tourism, and it is time we take a leaf out of their book to see what it is they offer we don't!

http://www.ft.lk/2014/07/02/bangladesh-budget-offers-minor-incentives-for-garment-industry-safety/

Further in 2013 our apparel export total was $4.26B, and that is gross sales, as there are considerable imported inputs that go into it and so is NOT value added. This should be compared with a near US$10B of inward remittances from migrant workers overseas which is pure dividends into the Country, going direct to a million families amounting to a direct benefit of over 5 million people, to say nothing of the multiplier effect of indirect benefit of employment and industry.

 http://www.ft.lk/2014/07/02/lanka-handlooms-special-intl-design-expert/

Coincidentally both these facts were on the same page of today’s FT on page 10.

Granted Sri Lanka is aiming to export high value apparel, due to the fact that wages relative to those in Bangladesh, where Sri Lankan companies are now opening up factories, are much higher here.

Much is said that our relative level of exports are falling precipitously and our Balance of trade is in huge deficit. This is propped up purely due to the remittances. I have said time and time again, and none in Govt. appears to admit that, but for the bad governance our growth rate would be even higher.

I was as usual appalled that in today’s (2^nd July Lankadeepa, page 4) the Governor of the Central Bank attributes all the growth to Govt. policies, when I challenge that none of their policies would have been worth a hill of beans, because during his tenure alone at the helm of the Central Bank remittances amounted to a staggering US$50B and that is why, with all his external borrowings we have reserves of US$9B which he takes credit as being great! He would not even be walking the streets of Colombo in his underwear had this great freebie not come to Sri Lanka from our hard working citizens abroad. We MUST give credit where it is due, and not permit him to gloat over his performance and that of the Govt. and get away with hoodwinking the hapless population.    

The Rising Inequality in Sri Lanka – A case of comparison with the US

It is worth looking at the reasons for inequality in Sri Lanka, and comparing it with recent US history as it relates to the distribution of wealth and in that the article in the New York Times by the well respected economist Joseph Stiglitz is worth a read.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/inequality-is-not-inevitable/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0

In the US he states how the system favored the Banks and Institutions over the people, and this resulted in wealthy being assisted over the poorer sections, which had an adverse effect on the recovery, and if for example some of the breaks went to home owners, over the lending institutions, then the recession would NOT have been as severe, and so many people would not have been left with negative equity.

The same issues do not arise in Sri Lanka, but there are just as important if not more, issues at the heart of why inequality is growing exponentially, and there appears to be NO effort by the Govt. of putting a break on this process.

http://www.ft.lk/2014/06/30/local-banks-on-track-with-us-imposed-fatca/

Even compared to the US, that is now insisting that US citizens, where ever they maybe are tracked and their income and bank accounts monitored so that all sources of income are ascertained and if taxes are due they are tracked and collected. So the US has high income tax rates, capital gains taxes as high as income taxes, and there is duty on the estate one leaves behind on death as well as lifetime gifts that are made. There are very strict controls in the system to ensure the tax net falls all around, and the taxes are collected. SO there is inequality rising even despite the wealthy being taxed at every corner, and I have NOT mentioned sales taxes on almost everything that is purchased.

In Sri Lanka except for taxes on essential food stuffs that hit the poor, a regressive tax, there is NO tax on the rich. Simply put Sri Lanka is the biggest tax haven on earth where wealth is not only protected, without taxation this will grow at rates in multiples to that of the US. Due to their being NO tax files on most of the wealthy Sri Lankans the overall tax net that people get caught in is negligible leading to extreme situations where the wealthy can double their assets in a year with NO tax paid during this amassing of wealth.         

Racism within the Diaspora is rife! That fallout is what we in SL suffer

I have always maintained that the success of the LTTE war was due to two factors, both having its origins abroad. One is the determination of the Defense Secretary after getting a full dose of racism in Southern California, where Sinhala people vilify the Tamils as backers of the LTTE and Tamils vilify the Sinhala as racists of the extreme kind. The other factor was the remittances from overseas by Sri Lankan workers that enabled the Govt. to fund its war, and equip the defense forces with everything they wanted in addition to the assistance given primarily by the US, Pakistan, China and to a lesser extent India. 

Similarly this extremism practiced by the Diaspora, paints a picture that is actually far worse than reality, and this is done for many reasons, one of which it to justify their existence in the host countries.

It has taken a turn for the worse, where the Muslim Diaspora have now also taken up the cudgels previously reserved for the Tamil Diaspora to paint a picture of Sri Lanka that is also far more extreme than the  reality for their personal goals.

The readers can ascertain from my blog, that I abhor racism by any extremist group and therefore am not taking the sides of the BBS and its sponsor the Govt. So when I see Muslim groups painting the Country and not just a few individuals in Govt. with the extremist moniker, I wish to defend Sri Lanka as a nation of moderate people who have lived side by side with all communities, and NOT restricted any community to ghettoes or clusters, except that it is natural that the minority communities live near a Mosque or Church for practical purposes.

The moderate elements within Sri Lanka are working hard to preserve the unity and integrity of the Nation. It is disconcerting when extremist Diaspora groups try to break that, by first damning the people as a whole as they have NO intention of returning by justifying their existence with scurrilous allegations.

http://www.nation.com.pk/international/27-Jun-2014/us-lankans-stage-protest-against-buddhist

http://www.nation.lk/edition/news-features/item/30500-the-true-colors-of-racism.html

The publicity related to this stance by the Diaspora is indeed hurtful to the interests of all Sri Lankans, of all races and therefore is not in the interests of all communities in Sri Lanka. The sooner the Diaspora identify the real culprits and direct their ire at them alone the better, otherwise Diaspora are effectively aliens. 

The Diaspora with very little to gain within Sri Lanka continue to engage in misinformation in their host Countries and the foreign policy so decided in those Host Countries is often detrimental to the interests of ALL Sri Lankans as a whole.

This means the residents in Sri Lanka have to suffer a double whammy of innuendo and allegations that must be fended, disputed, and defended, taking a lot out of the relevant parties which then fail to solve the main events of the day.