The destitution caused by the banning of the use of any dynamite in SL

The plight of the daily paid quarry workers

The minute the Easter Bombing happened the Government immediately banned the sale of any ammunition or gun powder or dynamite constantly used in Sri Lanka to blow granite for the rock quarrying industry. This meant that industry came to a standstill and granite rock became scarce in the market place for use in home building.

The real side effect say in the poorer area of Kurunegala, say in the Katupotha area where there are 300 such small quarries employing people who are on the breadline, who can do no other work, were left without their daily wage. They are day laborers who sometimes come with their families who live in tents in appalling conditions to earn some money crushing rocks with their hands once the dynamite blows chunks of rock from the rock face.

Being who they are, no shop gives them credit for food items either. So once they lose their livelihood they literally starve without anything to eat. There is no one they can go for relief. As transient residents, they don’t even get Samurdhi (welfare) as they are of NO permanent residence.

Can any politician understand that by their actions there are people who are so poor who have been directly affected by them and have no one to ask for help, and being low down the pecking order are the forgotten people of the land?

They need to be identified, but the government system fails this type of person, as they don’t get recorded anywhere. No one bats for them, or cares about them.

I presume often they don’t have a vote, so that is an even more serious case of willful neglect of the poorest of our society by the society itself, not having a mechanism to pick up those who don’t.

Finally, on Wednesday, 29^th May 2019, there was a decision to grant permits once again to purchase gun powder or dynamite, after getting a permit from the District Secretariat where the particular quarry is. I presument the Bureau of Mines and Geological Survey that grants this permit is also involved in the approval procedure and after over a month, these people finally have some relief.

I was given all this information by my driver Sugath who was appalled at the level to which these people had fallen into after the Easter Day Terrorist acts as innocent section of the community being most affected by the catastrophe.

This was written as a note to myself, for future reference, and action.

Embracing Change – It is not as easy as it sounds. Why?

Change for the better, right. Otherwise change is of no use, but then how do we know it will improve, we merely embrace it in the hope it will improve, whatever it is that we want improved.

In a Country where the Prime Minister comes even to open a multistory car park in the heart of Maharagama, when they should be coming up as a matter of natural growth in highly congested cities, more as an expectation and a business proposition, we are hard wired to think that even common or garden organic growth is something we must even celebrate!

It was partly with this intention, and to highlight the growth of the hair care industry, that would go unnoticed, had I not taken the plunge and dyed my hair for a dare, against the normal expectations of our society, that I was testing how this change would be taken by just those on my friends list to whom this information would go on social media.

The comments are there for all to read, and surprisingly, there were many in the older age group who one would consider less likely to approve, were complimentary, whereas the youth of course embraced it with gusto.

Coming to the nub of my argument then, is the need for an attitudinal change in our society, as far as our political culture is concerned but related to that, and much needed for the change, is the change in the whole educational system and thinking to face the next 50 years instead of teaching methods, more in tune with the last 100 years.

In social media sites such as Voice for Change, it is quite apparent that everyone wants change as the current status quo just does not produce the goods, but there is no uniformity on how it should be done, and the blame game is the result.

I am afraid sometimes there comes a time, we have to take the plunge, where the existing order is the worst of all alternatives, and anything else would be an improvement.

Let’s stick to politics here. If we don’t throw out the familiar NOW, we are again left to ponder what might have been for another 5 or 6 years, as that is what is being planned. The same faces, jockeying for position, working out the strategy to fool the people sufficiently by fears unfounded IF NECESSARY to stay or regain power, and we the people, being suckered to believe that Change cannot win, so let’s choose the lesser of two evils. IS THAT A CHOICE?

There is news and more news, but what can we believe? Now Oman denies any knowledge about the largest FDI ever!

Who is kidding whom?

http://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Oman-denies-it-has-agreed-to-invest-in-SL-oil-refinery-project/108-164241?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

All the newspapers are full of a full page advertisement taken by the GOSL trumpeting this investment of Rs 720,000 Million or in effect Rs 720Billion as the largest FDI ever! In includes the Oil Refinery referred to above with a company by the name of Silver Park Petroleum Private Limited and another investment of a cement producer by the name of Lanwa Sanstha Cement Corporation Private Limited. So I ask the question what to believe?

Is there a conspiracy to discredit the Government by parties coming to the BOI and fooling them to sign documents regarding FDIs and immediately having one of the parties to the agreement, or at least purported parties, denying its very existence? This is tantamount to taking the GOSL for a ride, and they seem to be quite blasé about being taken for a ride, especially when the BOI spokesperson assures the media that nothing is amiss, when a lot of this is all A MISS INFORMATION!

Who is behind this disinformation conspiracy? Should this kind of thing be a red rag to the intelligence agencies of this country, as it clearly the undermines the authority of the State in a way that discredits anything that is disclosed by the state?

I bet the intelligence agencies are sleeping soundly tonight and will wake up to this news this morning, and say this has nothing to do with us, we only worry about gun running or conspiracies to do away with the already discredited top brass of the land!

This is far more serious stuff, and we don’t have an intelligence agency to investigate the legitimacy of the jokers who come into the offices of the BOI to tell tales.

Frankly, if we have any sense, every Johnny, the investor and their local handlers, as soon as they walk in the door of the BOI to meet the DG or the Chairman, should be in the SPYGLASS of the defense intelligence agencies and a report placed on the President’s desk within 24 hours of their entering about their bona fides, and past history, especially Interpol records, as it seems that only the low life of the world knowing the way we seem to attract them like flies venture inside, if they feel that there is an opportunity at some kind of fleecing of a nation.

Now it is time to get back to basics. We are talking of a huge investment in an oil refinery in Hambantota! Has anyone in the environment lobby even been activated on this, as oil refineries are no longer being built anywhere in the world, and only Sri Lanka seems to even encourage one as we seem to be so desperate for headaches of the future!

Yes please we will have one.

What kind of Country is this? How about an investment in an offshore solar electricity generation plant to supply the region instead with the potential to grow? No we are waiting to import surplus electricity from a Nuclear Plant in India instead, as that would provide us cheap electricity sometime in the future!

I digress, just to make a point and to belittle this hair-brained scheme!

After all we should have had the Iranian Refinery that was on the cards 30 years ago when it was discussed, we would not have had to spend BILLIONS of dollars in foreign exchange in this period for refined petroleum products if we had then. Moreover there was no environment lobby then to put the skids on.

Now once the need for fossil fuel has passed, as they are only pollutants that no one in their RIGHT MINDS want, we are getting in on the act!

My God help Mother Lanka from its own leaders!

Further clarification on this denial by the Financial Times of 21st March 2019

http://www.ft.lk/front-page/Oman-denies-it-has-agreed-to-invest-in-Sri-Lanka-oil-refinery-project/44-675045 

The Dichotomy of Public Sector Employment & Need for Reform

Background to the present malaise

There is no argument that we in Sri Lanka must restructure our Human Resource Capacity, the real driver of our economy to meet the needs of the future and in this context 20202 and beyond.

There is also no debate now that we SHOULD HAVE made a visionary decision when Three Wheelers were introduced into the Country to restrict drivers to be 55 and above, as a source of income for those who have been forcibly retired from the Public and Private Sector when they reached the mandatory retirement age which was 55 at that time.

This would then have meant that the youth do not look at driving a three wheeler as the be all and end all of their lives, which appears to be the case today, which has added precipitously to prostitution, drug peddling, gun running, moonshine distribution, poaching as added sources of income for this drivers, who are actually under employed, in that they reach their earnings target for the day, with around 2-5 hours of work, leading to the perception that factory work, and training in trades are not as remunerative and therefore less attractive than their chosen field.

Coupled with this phenomenon, the traditional career path of state sector graduates, theoretically the best and brightest of the land, due to the admission criteria into the University System, EXPECT automatic employment in the Public Sector upon graduation. That in some way explains the demands of the 55,000 unemployed graduates to be given jobs within the state sector even today, and who have made little or no attempt to find employment in other fields.

You then are now faced with the demographic time bomb, which Sri Lanka, due its success in the family planning arena, that the population growth rate has stalled, and when one counts the net emigration to other countries it has become negative, with over 4 million Sri Lankan passport holders living overseas at present.

This has created a severe labor shortage in the Private Sector for a range of skills, due in part to youth not taking up vocational training opportunities and preferring to drive a three wheeler instead. It is almost impossible to convince these youth stuck in junctions throughout the land, to perhaps take up the dearth in agricultural employment or other trades, in the Construction sector and Industrial Sector.

The above phenomena coupled with a wholesale and indiscriminate politicization of the public sector, with jobs for the boys under the Mahinda Rajapakse Administration  from 2005 to 2014, adding over 600,000 positions to the Public Sector, we have created an unimaginable set of problems in managing Government Spending, where 80% of expenditure, when loan interest and repayments are excluded on borrowings is to pay wages and pensions.

This coupled with the recent admission by the UNP administration that the Yahapalanaya Government has increased Public Sector wages by massive proportions, where the lowest paid worker now earns more than Rs25,000, you have created a problem that cannot be resolved unless some serious measures are taken to evaluate EVERY position in the public sector and determine if it is needed, and if so what the job description and expectations are, because many people now do not work, are not supervised, and a disincentive to those who want to work in the public sector, creating a situation of impotence.

Adding to fuel to the fire, Minister Eran Wickremeratne said recently, that certain public sector positions are not filled as the pay scale is woefully inadequate to draw in the skilled people as needed, you come to the reason I called my essay “the dichotomy of public sector employment”

In a further development, partly due to the fact that there is a severe skill shortage in the economy, and positions in both the Public and Private Sector remain unfilled, there are steps taken to remove age limits of retirement altogether to legally permit people to work as long as they wish.

Here again we try to catch the tail and try to run with it, instead of grasping the real issue, which is to “Permit the Private Sector Company and the Public Sector Institution to grant an extension to the employee, say one year at a time, legally, AS LONG AS THAT INSTITUTION DETERMINES HIS OR HER SERVICE IS NECESSARY FOR THE PROPER FUNCTIONING OF THAT ORGANIZATION.

To me, that bold statement should be at the heart of the evaluation, NOT a blanket right of the employee to stay on as long as he or she feels!

One can therefore determine the mandatory retirement age as being 60 or above and have it the same for men and women as many countries now do, but permit service extensions, without the need to break the law or circumvent legislation after that age as long as that particular institution needs it. Additionally, according to need, any person who fits the requirements should be permitted to be recruited at whatever age that person is, where there is NO age discrimination, as long as he or she is the most suitable applicant for that job.

The Path to Public Sector Employment & Remuneration Reform

I believe that there is a commission that looks into the public sector pay scales and makes recommendations to the President on this, so that positions can be filled, remuneration can be made, and competent personnel hired or retained. This was apparently used to increase the pay scales of judges at all levels to retain qualified personnel in these positions as their income appeared to be way out of line with what lawyers seem to earn in the Private Sector, reducing the judiciary to be filled with failed lawyers, not good jurists!

This enormous burden on the state of inefficient public sector performance, due to overstaffing with political appointees, and lack of clear job description, evaluation of the need for that position, and poor supervisory and managerial responsibilities over staff, needs a complete overhaul and no one wants to grab this obvious issue and deal with it, first improve public sector efficiency, and cull the numbers not needed, perhaps by as much as 500,000 positions over a 5 year period.

If that is done institution by institution, then there is hope that a more efficient public sector, where the remuneration scales reflect the needed skills for those positions, will be able to handle their tasks as best as they can, and with the obvious proviso that corruption too will be reduced dramatically.

Then at a stroke the Private sector dilemma of people gravitating to the public sector as their remuneration and benefits, and need to work are more attractive will be over. This factor has not been appreciated by the lawmakers as a serious matter, as they have forgotten that it is the Private Sector that pays the taxes that are used to pay the Public Sector Wages.

The labor shortage in the Private Sector and the Agricultural Sector will be relieved somewhat, and not until the old practice of providing jobs in the Public Sector for political patronage is completely eliminated, can we see light at the end of the tunnel here.

The problem of the numbers engaged in three wheelers have to resolved purely on the supply and demand situation, where once Pick Me and Uber take over the hire business, the three wheeler era will disappear with midlife retraining for unskilled youth being the issue to be dealt with in the real world. This is not counting the need to remove them on the grounds of severe air pollution caused.

The economy can grow ONLY if companies are able to fill their vacancies and the HR issue in Sri Lanka must be directed at providing the needed training to fill those vacancies, and concentration should be on this task above all others.

Spice Garden Trails of Sri Lanka – Nutmeg the unheralded spice is actually made up of two spices Nutmeg and Mace

Spice Gardens are very much on the tourist trail, and are of different quality, one compared with the other, dotted around spice growing areas. Their whole objective is to entice the tourist to purchase product after seeing some spice plants and to a limited extent demonstrations on how they are processed.

The reality of the farmer faced with growing these spices commercially is a whole different subject, as issues facing them don’t get highlighted on a tour of a Spice Garden, that is usually located on the side of a main road, leading into Kandy or Matale from various parts of the Country, and are of limited size.

Surrounding the hills of Kandy are the main spice growing areas, but Pepper and Cinnamon grow more profusely in other areas too, not just in just the hills referred to here. Sri Lanka is also famous for Cloves and Cardamoms. Nutmeg on the other hand is a relatively unheralded spice where the tree in fact produces two spices, namely, Nutmeg (Sadikka) and Mace (Wasawasi), both of which are sold as spices, and are used for flavoring of sweet and savory foods.

The hills on either side of the Weuda Valley which extends from the Northwestern Province towards the Kandyan Hills, a means of getting into Kandy from areas such as Galagedera, where the new Central Expressway is to spill out before the approach into Kandy, is also an area where spices are grown extensively, but latterly with climate change, extensive droughts and invasion of the immigrant pests from other parts, has created a nightmare for spice growers. It is here that I highlight some of the challenges of growing nutmeg.

Nutmeg (Sadikka) is a spice grown in Sri Lanka that is used for flavoring drinks and food, and is poisonous in large quantities if ingested. In fact the nutmeg yields two spices, the kernel of the seed which is what we generally refer to as the nutmeg, and the crimson mace that surrounds the seed, that has to be carefully removed from the seed, and dried prior to sale to the processors.

In the past, in order to get the best quality, the fruit was allowed to ripen on the trees, split open and fall to the ground, to reveal the scarlet aril, better known as ‘mace’ which surrounds the nut, They are then collected and taken from the fields.  The scarlet mace is removed by hand carefully and dried for sale separately from the nut. The nut has an outer shell which is hard to crack revealing the kernel inside, which is the actual nutmeg itself which is powdered for sale. The growers generally sell the nut with the shell, for processors to do the rest, namely removing the kernel, as consistency and hygienic standards can only be achieved by those who have the necessary equipment, and can do it in the quantity that makes economic sense.

Latterly, due to the menace of pests, such as monkeys and giant squirrels to name the worst offenders, they pick on the fruit while on the tree and often damage them, as the ripening process is not uniform on a tree. Now it requires the laborious process of knowledgeable pickers, who have to pluck these fruit when they know it is sufficiently ripe and then take it away in bags for processing. This therefore is an added labor intensive process, an expense, which was not the case in the past.

Mace - Red balance is the nut

The pericarp of the fruit is edible and is made into jams, but in reality most of it is simply thrown away, unless a market is created by someone for fresh pericarp, in order to process it further, and make it economical to save.

Farmers dry the mace and sell it to the traders at the prevailing market price, and the seed is sold in similar fashion, where, whatever the market price of the day is the price at which it is sold. The farmer therefore is generally one who has only small quantities for sale, and so has no bargaining power of his own to determine or influence price, and so is at the mercy of the market makers, as far as price is concerned. I would challenge, considering the effort to grow, protect, and ensure the needed rainfall is obtained, producing nutmeg in Sri Lanka as a very profitable business and I believe there are fewer farmers going into cultivation of this crop. Wholesale theft of ripening fruit is also something to contend with, unless the property is sufficiently well guarded.

The Peacocks are rising in numbers and urgent action is required

“Diyawanna We have a problem!” – The peacocks are rising, and of course you have not noticed, as you don’t care, there are too many deals in the offing

One only needs to travel around the Country and observe. Peacocks are everywhere, they are in greater numbers than before, and they are crowding out other creatures, because their natural predators are dying due to traps, road kill and fewer areas for shelter.

Not only are peacocks in farmland, and rural areas of habitation, they are also in forests in greater numbers, perhaps crowding out other species. Recently I saw them compete with the Raptors for space on top of large trees, where they take shelter for the nights. The trees I saw peacocks did not have any raptors and vice versa, and I wondered what comes first. My hunch is when the peacock takes up residence on a tree and starts letting the world know of his presence, with its unmistakable call, (annoying, when you hear it all night, when preferring the other sounds of the night) NO raptor worth his dignity, or pride, wants to be near it, as it draws attention. Raptors prefer anonymity and camouflage, in order to pick and choose its morsels for the kill.

Of course those who have not lifted a Mammoty or driven a Tractor, are the first to come to their aid, not even aware of the real situation on the ground. I will now call for a biodiversity balance study to ascertain, region – wise, how certain species are more prevalent than others starting of course with those that affect agriculture most. You will say if we start with this what next! Cool it buddy!

There are endangered species. They need to be acknowledged, so we don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg. I call for temporary culls when things get out of hand, for a limited period. I don’t envisage any encroachment into protected areas to do this. That should remain free from human encroachment.

To begin with I propose picking some areas where the infestation is highest after a quick research into the numbers as statistical sampling techniques and even using drone technology enable more accurate and speedy studies these days, and determine that an area be permitted to kill peacocks.

Kill and you all shout, but don’t forget that EVERY village has people who poach for a living and if they are allowed to kill a 100 peacocks and sell their meat then you save 100 other animals they are killing anyway, from all the varieties of deer, to anything else they can lay their hands on.

In fact my proposal will help some endangered species get a chance for their numbers to grow, while over-populated species are culled.  

Media – Where is the moral outrage for the frivolous lawsuit of a deranged woman?

Even a baby is outraged and you are not! Shame on you!

An organization calling itself 'women for justice' has both desecrated women and justice at the same time in making this prostituted statement, at the behests of the PIMPS!

Is it any wonder that the Wonder of Asia, is simply rolling in its own garbage, when no one of any merit, common sense can come up within seconds of a frivolous lawsuit being made in the Court of Appeal, challenging the right of Ranil Wickremesinghe to his seat in Parliament.

Journalists where are you? Are you simply exchanging gossip on twitter, while the whole fabric of our society is crumbling underneath you and you don’t care?

For details here are the links:

http://www.adaderana.lk/news/51990/petition-filed-seeking-quo-warranto-over-ranils-mp-seat

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Women-for-Justice-files-Quo-Warranto-seeking-to-unseat-Ranil-159628.html

I know none of you own an independent media outlet, capable of giving objective opinions, and educating the public who are the ones who are taken for a ride, but still you can use your skills to indirectly call a spade a spade and not a bloody AXE!

Ranil Wickremesinghe is a mere shareholder of less than 1% of a company that prints cheque leaves for a Bank or two which has an ultimate shareholder, namely the Government. In fact that part of the business does not even produce a profit! So what has that got to do with his rights as a citizen to be elected to Parliament when a bunch of hooligans who are party to the lawsuit go unchallenged?

I am one of only 99 shareholders of Lake House, that is ANCL, the government print media outfit. How can I be responsible for the garbage editorials emanating from that joint, lately? I can only go to the meetings I am entitled to attend and protest at the Editorial policy, but will they even listen to me?

What about John Keells that does business with numerous state institutions through their subsidiaries? Can a shareholder of John Keells be deemed unfit to hold the position of an MP accordingly?

I am of course surprised that the Courts in Sri Lanka even allow the petitioner through the door to entertain such frivolity, as if they have no more important matters to attend to. So we know the background of this lawsuit. Why don’t you simply say it as it is.

Mahinda Rajapakse and his band of thieves are clutching at any straw to delay, demoralize cast doubt amongst the ignorant public about even the right of Ranil Wickremesinghe to be an MP. I am no fan of Ranil, but give the devil his due, this is simply low life, of the worst order, guttersnipes to be exact being egged on with guarantees from the top, that any legal costs of frivolity will be covered, and hence its incubation. So it is your responsibility to out this sham urgently!

The Challenges of managing a business in these troubled and unsettled times! WHY IS NO ONE WILLING TO TALK ABOUT THIS?

In a scenario akin to “Nero fiddles while Rome burns” the present impasse of A LACK OF LEADERSHIP BY ANYONE! is keeping us awake at night, wondering how to meet payroll at the end of the month.

The photo of me @ my desk at 7.30am this morning (I could have been here an hour earlier, had not been for the late arrival of the driver!) while the staff, turn up when they want, and even at 9am the official start, they clock in and have breakfast AFTER clocking, amble into the office, thinking this is playschool.

While I understand that Public Servants are DOING NOTHING now, we in the private sector are facing major hurdles. With uncertainty, hiring is frozen, bills due from the State Agencies are still on hold, being financed by us with bank borrowings, while interest rates are on the way up.

Imports of anything now cost 10% more than last month, as we depend on imported raw materials as inputs in this business. With attendant price increases to customers to soften the squeeze, the demand volume is dropping, and a credit squeeze is in the offing, where debt collection is getting increasingly difficult.

All these factors, ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER, are devastating the business, with staff completely unaware of the implications, of imminent layoffs, that cannot be avoided, if the company is to survive through this HOLOCAUST of a problem created by a completely and CERTIFIABLY INSANE decision taken by Maithripala Sirisena in a moment of insanity (we know it is not the first time he has set fire, now it is to the whole Country)

Why oh why is the partisan media silent on this gravest issue facing the nation?

IF this is not treason against the STATE I don’t know what is!

ALL the participants in this plot have to arrested immediately and locked up and the keys thrown away, so that this kind of treachery against a WHOLE COUNTRY never happens again.

BUSINESS COMMUNITY WHY ARE YOU SO SILENT SEEING THIS IS THE REALITY OF WHAT IS GOING ON?

The tri-force commanders, please understand that it is your tacit approval of your Commander in chief’s actions that are keeping this antediluvian plot to hold onto unjust power alive and so you are complicit in this Crime Against the State.

It's time you changed your allegiance for justice, and not propriety.

GET OFF YOUR ASSES NOW!

However you wish to paint it, there has been a Coup in Sri Lanka, that has ousted the legitimate Government of the day, and so no one has recognized the illegal Coup.

Stop referring to niceties of the Constitution, either you agree with the Coup or you don’t. If you do agree with it and say so openly, one day everyone who does, can be prosecuted under the law for backing the coup, and all the leaders, like MS, MR and the fake cabinet will be prosecuted and if convicted have to serve their sentence, seniors like the GMOA top brass will do jail time along with anyone who took orders from the Coup leaders, that is just a fact.

When that will happen is dependent on a few factors, like how long can the Coup leaders persuade the Armed Forces and Police that they are actually illegally following orders, where they can be prosecuted. The moment their heads understand the facts, they will turn, at the moment they are conflicted, as they have not sent the President, who is clearly mentally unstable, to the Asylum. No one even the SLPP is questioning the his state of mind!

Once the gravy train of foreign funding and propping up finishes, and they cannot pay foreign bills for imports, we are finished. We will be like Argentina or Venezuela. Don’t forget MR and Venezuelan Leader Chavez were buddies, where did that get Venezuela, a country that has oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia? It is only a matter of time before US$1 = Rs1,000. Unless-

So don’t be complacent, if you have broken the Constitution to seize power, you have to face TREASON CHARGES, once democracy is finally established. The MR camp is talking about elections, but they are unable to have elections until it is legal to do so. Once it is legal, they are likely to lose, as the economy will have tanked by the time they go to the polls. You cannot break the law, period.

If only they were patient, DID NOT BREAK any laws, waited for elections, they would have been handed the Country in a platter. Now it is the reverse, after they have ruined the economy, acted like idiots taking over ALL THE MEDIA, thinking the people are fools, no one is going to vote for them.

Their brand is dropping by the day, even MR supporters see his duplicity in his face, their behavior in parliament has shown the people that they are sore losers, and now they are grabbing state property, and holding the Ministry Secretaries to ransom. They are unable to release the funds, knowing if they give it to the illegal Govt. they also face CHARGES in Court if they sign documents illegally

Please stop your nonsense, agree you lost, before creating more trouble for SL and yourself. Don’t tell me later you were not warned, Once the show is over!

My name is Cheela, Spilornis Cheela Spilogaster for those who are finicky! ( a plea of a Serpent Eagle who has lived 25 years)

 

Look to the left, look to the right, look ahead and all I see is destruction of the forest for no sustainable purpose!

I have lived in these parts in the Ampara District for the past 25 years that is on the dirt track between Maha Oya and Rathmalgaha Ella which is my stomping ground. I have seen so much in the intervening period I fear for tomorrow, my kids who have flown the coop and live nearby and for all wildlife, animals, birds and all creatures. Yes I live by eating reptiles and lizards, but I don’t eat to decimate populations, otherwise I will have nothing to eat myself.

Just as my pals the Brahminis, who hover over the nearby Rambakan Oya to pick off the fish when they come up to the surface, we are all interdependent creatures of the wild that have survived for thousands of years, long before man inhabited this area.

It is as well to remember that the Adivasi Villages or Pollebadda, Nilobe, Rathmalgaha Ella, are almost in view from my perch up top at the top of the hill, the highest point on this trail that connects the main roads going between Kandy and Battcaloa on one side and Bibile and Ampara on the other side. This pathway is 22 km long, but has changed beyond recognition in my lifetime.

I was born when DB Wijetunge was the President and therefore don’t remember him as he was in office for such a short time, so it was the rule of Chandrika Kumaratunge, Mahinda Rajapakse and Maithripala Sirisena that I do remember.

The rapid destruction of the forests I live in took place under the Rajapakse Presidency. He had his goons cut down the forests and remove all the tall trees that I used to perch from and could have a commanding view of the whole area, for miles around me, as far north as the Maduru Oya Reservoir and as far South as the Gal Oya Reservoir over the Nilgiri Hills.

 

That's me Cheela showing off my reach to all who threaten

Now there is not one Ebony Tree left, as the Pradeshiya Sabhas under his rule along with the Local Police, took care of that, and worse you only have to come here to see the widest bridge in the South, that connects a ten foot dirt road, to another ten foot dirt road, it has to be seen to be believed, just so that someone could earn a big fat commission that even today, the Veddah community are called upon to pay for from the taxes charged on their very essentials like sugar.

The widest bridge in the south, built on a tiny dirt road ! 

Before the trees were cut the Adivasi community could just live on selling Bees Honey, now there are hardly any bees as the flowering trees that were tall and extensive have been singled out and chopped illegally to fill someone’s lust for the filthy lucre. I am at my wits end on how the Human Mind works, as the politicians simply play upon a person’s greed, and not on a person’s sense of pride as a citizen that wishes to live in harmony with the surroundings.

I see the breakdown in true religious traditions, when people are given land by the politicians as favors for helping them out, and what does that do? These people who are cultivating around me, are suffering due to this noose on their necks, IT IS CALLED FREE LAND. This land which they cannot sell, does not yield any income, and the people are forever in debt to the money lenders, thanks to the politicians giving this cursed land, as it has taken our food from us, it has prevented the elephants who used to live in the forest from going there and neither does it provide any means of living off the land, as it is not a case of giving money to a man to farm, a man has to know the ABCs of farming, and it is just those people who have no clue unlike the local Adivasi on how to live with the land, who are given land as political favors.

Who can I explain simple facts of life to, the humans who fool the people that land is needed for farmers, when half the farmers don’t even farm their land? They leave it fallow, while more forests are cut, ostensibly to farm, but in reality, a few political goons to cut trees and profit from it, both denuding the land for us, birds, and much of the wildlife, now hunted in these areas, as well as few majestic tuskers who have been killed by poachers for their tusks. This, in the 25 years of my life, covering my area of no more than 500 sq km.

It is time that Sri Lanka had some truly enlightened leaders to see the folly in this farming exercise of marginal lands, to put back at least a million hectares of land back to the forest by an exercise of growing native trees in a manner that will ensure their survival, that is not just plant and leave, first plant with shade so the hardwood trees can take root, and then be allowed to get to a size they are not destroyed by elephants in search of scarce fodder for survival.

In my opinion, the area here, which was opened up by the Mahinda Rajapakse agricultural plans, must be reversed. Yes, they built a few tanks and repaired others, so that the water from Rambakan can go there, but as the Adivasi only know too clearly, it is just the village fields that can be protected from marauding elephants in the time tested manner, and the new fields, though enclosed by electric fences are simply cultivated on elephant corridors that don’t make any sense, as the harvests, and ensuing revenues, don’t cover the costs.

In a country where jobs are not scarce and there is a desperate shortage of people to do the jobs that are available, it makes no sense to force these people, YES ENSLAVE them to the land, just to fulfill a political game of power greedy traitors? If you don’t believe me why don’t you come and see for yourself the folly of these two bit politicians who have fooled the poor farmers who have not benefited at all since Independence, and my Dad was born before Independence, and he can attest that the farmers were in fact better off than they are now. Something is seriously wrong, and IT MUST BE CHANGED.