The One-Way System: Yet Another Luxury For Politicians…

The recently introduced one-way system which applies to Galle Road and Duplication Road hasn’t been talked upon in the blogosphere as far as I know. Some of you may feel that the said road system is good and eases the traffic in Colombo. Others, like me, may feel that it is a total inconvenience towards drivers as it further complicates the already complicated road network in Colombo.

Fuel wastage

Oil is now 90$ a barrel. Not long from now it’ll finally break the 100$ barrier. Sri Lanka is a poor country with a high dependence on foreign oil for all it’s transportation and industrial needs. With the new one-way system introduced supposedly to ease traffic in the city, a vehicle on Galle Road has to travel a further distance to get on to Duplication Road or any of the other by-lanes and streets attached than the distance it would travel before this stupid one-way system was introduced. Imagine not one vehicle, but the thousands of others that have to do the same damn thing everyday. Doesn’t this waste fuel?

Time wastage

Back to the supposed ‘reason’ for introducing this system. True, there is a major crisis looming regarding traffic in Colombo. That is an accepted fact. But have you noticed a difference in traffic? I certainly haven’t In fact, now it takes me more time to get from A to B than it did when the two-way system was in place.

High accident rate

Many people, drivers and pedestrians alike, are still not aware of of the one-way system and are constantly found confused and muddled as to where to go next. Pedestrians, for example, are very likely to cross Galle Road and look the other side for oncoming traffic and cross the road unaware of a lane of traffic charging at him form the other side.

Taking into consideration the wastage of fuel, the wastage of time and the many other factors that come with any clogged road system, air pollution, noise pollution, a high rate of accidents etc. is there any point in bringing into place a system like this at all.

There is a reason, my dear bloggers. Unless most of you have not figured it out for yourself, which is a shame, this one-way system was introduced for one purpose and for that purpose only. Government Ministers can now practically fly with their entourage on the streets of Colombo. What they do is, they close down one whole block of road and all the other roads connecting to it, and make the Minister’s vehicle, Jeeps filed with escort troop and all, travel in the opposite direction of the one-way, leaving the ordinary man waiting for his turn to get back a to the same old clogged streets.

If only they used their brains for the good of ordinary Sri Lankans instead of themselves……………..

Ceylinco’s Greed (Pvt) Ltd.

My Grandmother is quite old, feeble, and weak. She just suffered a heart attack and a stroke.

So when the family decides to bring her to our house and keep her with all the creature comforts she needs, we call Ceylinco. Ceylinco SwiftCare is a home nursing service provided by the conglomerate, what else isn’t?

Anyway, we registered for the home nursing service and they send two nurses to look after granny dear everyday. But there is a major problem. SwifCare doesn’t have enough nurses to cope up with the demand. Are these people so greedy? Imagine Ceylinco cash-stripped!!! pfft….

Why I say this is that everyday a nurse gets ready to leave her shift and switch with the other nurse, but once the other nurse was indisposed and the previous one waited on complaining and making a general mess of things and moods. And the supervisor of shifts has the audacity to call and laugh out loud when complained to.

And what more? The nurses provided are straight from villages and haven’t heard of cleanliness. One was found sleeping on the bare floor with my granny’s pillows. Yech!

Are your’ll so desperate to hang on to customers to the point of sacrificing your supposedly good name?

ETV is the dumbest shit ever!

If you’ve read my previous posts regarding the Government Regulations on Alcohol and Tobacco and have been watching a bit of TV lately you’ll know that TV stations are now required (not sure) to blot out scenes of alcohol and tobacco consumption.

In my previous posts I’ve stated why these so-called regulations affect the viewing pleasure of the TV viewing public, and how the regulations can’t possibly affect the consumption of the said vices in this country…………

Everything blogged, said, and done………………….ETV is the dumbest shit ever!

Why do I say that? Yesterday, Friday, I settled down to watch One Tree Hill, one of the only few good shows ETV broadcasts, anyway, there I was watching it and anticipating a blot-out on the screen when there was a drink shown. Thankfully there isn’t much drinking in the show, which mainly focuses on a group of teenagers. Halfway through the show, during a perfectly acceptable scene of a girl talking on stage to a group of people, the dumb-asses at the station blot out the whole scene! What the hell??

This was not an isolated incident, several other perfectly peaceful and clean scenes,  two actors talking, a girl talking on her cell and a perfectly acceptable scene of a play were just some of the scenes blotted out.

Come to think about it there were plenty of scenes where loads and loads of vodka, gin and scotch bottles together with filled-to-the-brim wine glasses were in plain view of the screen…………

And not only that, scenes with sexual content were plainly shown on screen……………………!!

ETV is anyway a good for nothing channel just polluting the airwaves of Colombo, on top of bad management of shows and stupid blunders like these, ETV shows the most amount of advertisements, ruining viewing time, they constantly show repeat telecasts of the same episode over and over again, they keep on showing those pain in the neck Teleseen ads.

All said, ETV has the bloody guts to ask viewers whether they are addicted to the damn channel………….

Grow up, ETV.

Crap still continuing……..

For those of you who don’t know what this means, please read, ‘What the crap is the Government up to now???’. Anyway as I stated in the post before the last one, when watching a movie on MTV, I suddenly saw the screen blotted out and a sign saying, ‘This is due to Government Regulations on Alcohol and Tobacco……………

Yesterday, Monday, I switched on to my favourite TV programme, Veronica Mars shown on ETV. Suddenly, during a bar scene, the screen blotted out for apparently no reason, but there was no explanation as to what was happening, no ‘Government Regulations’ sign. But now I’m sure the Government has imposed some new ban on alcohol and tobacco consumption being shown on screen……..

So, so, so, the Government’s cracking down on the vices of Sri Lanka, actually, can you call drinking and smoking not being shown on TV, ‘cracking down’? How many times have you seen a person smoking on TV and films already? How many times will you see a man smoking on the road?

People will always drink and smoke at parties and functions unless you absolutely cannot find any liqour in the country (like that will happen).

When you blot out scenes from a show, it makes it very annoying and a nuiscance to the the viewers………….what will Mahinda do next to completely destroy the TV industry in Sri Lanka?

Are these people so jobless?

Teacher’s Day ‘07

Well, well, well of all the days in Sri Lanka, someone comes up with another day for Sri Lankans to organize a cheap function with horrible colours, music and food. Welcome Teachers Day! Yet another day for those good-for-nothing teachers of Sri Lanka to go around in their best manipurees and sarees and bangles and chains, and other assortments of Swarnamahal.

This year’s theme is ‘Better resources for teachers to ensure better resources for learners’……or some other bulldandruff. The Very Honourable Edu Minister said that he’s trying to get the Gov to increase the amount spent on edu to 5% of national revenue up from 2.9%. TWO POINT NINE!! that’s all they spend on the future of Sri Lanka, two point nine of almost nothing……………….

Nothing in the Very Hon.’s speech outlined the teachers strike……something very important for discussion during teacher’s day, don’t you think? Speaking about the arrears on the teacher’s salaries, a friend told me that another friend of his who’s mother is a teacher never got her pay rise for 07 years!!!!!!!!!!! When she had inquired, the officials had told her that she’d be paid when the government gets more money……….wonder what kind of car Namal would get if the Government got more funds? Maybe an aeroplane, or maybe a nice little yacht…to sail off in the coast of Hambantota………..

Going back to the day, when are the teachers going to get their arrears on their salaries paid off? If not, when are they gonna picket again? When are those poor kids gonna get into a decent school? Or even get an interview with the school?????????????

The teachers aren’t getting their money, students aren’t learning anything in school, a kid can’t even get into a school, and Susil has the the frikkin’ guts to say that there’ve been no complaints concerning schools during his tenure………………….

What’s the point in voting at all………………………….?

Isstate of Ingrish in Sirii Lankaawa…………..

Hehe…….I had to start with something like that……..well what is the iss…….i mean the state of English in Sri Lanka? Ahem…….(drumrollllll)……………………..bullSHIT.

That’s all I can say right now………I mean come on, it is bullshit, worse than bullshit, at least bullshit is made up of something solid , Ok where to start, well why don’t we isstart at the bigginnin [sic]? When the Gov introduced the Swabaasha only policy in the mid 9os, signalling the start of Sri Lanka’s mid life crisis, a very looooong crisis. The gov’s stubborn attitude to be as far away, and least like the British seemed to seep into the minds of these “”"patriots”"” as they’ve called themselves, what patriotic person would ensure the sure death of their “beloved” motherland? Was it to get more votes? More popularity among the uneducated masses out there? I’m sure those were the only reasons for them to discard the well established English language. I mean as everybody knows, that’s all politicians, especially in Sri Lanka do………..

So there it was…..the policy. Generations and generations of Sri Lankans were moulded in the Sinhala lang, went to Uni………..and got unemployed. Such a waste actually, because quite a number of Sri Lankans are exceptionally bright, and have immense potential……………but what happens when one is educated in a language only spoken within a small island of 65,610km? Let’s look at the problem of unemployment………..employment is created through business, any tom, dick and harry knows that…….to do business you have to interact a lot with all kinds of people, and some of these people speak different languages, but the most common of them is English. Plain and simple English. Communication is probably the most important tool in business both within and outside the organization. You might say that if a person without a good English knowledge can be placed within the organization in such a way that he has minimal contact with customers or clients. True, but what about the ‘communication within the organization’ part. Hows biz gonna be good when people don’t understand the next person their working with?

Among other things, TV news and other programmes done in English. Well I must say, there a few categories that I like to put them into (i’m talking about news anchors), 1. Totally not-pot, 2. Shape, 3. Good but with some shortcomings.

Totally not-pot…..not many people, at least the employers have got some sense at last

Shape…………..okaaaaaaaaaaaa………y but no class

Good but with some shortcomings….ahhhhh this is where I really wanted to comment……..I’m talking about MTV, well there pretty good in comparison with the isstandard, but still show that they are………….well………….Sri Lankan. The over-pronunciation of ssssssssssss, fumbling with quite common words like fauna (fowna – according to MTV) and here comes the biggy…………..it’s not briGAYdier, its brigadier, with a short and sharp ‘ga’.

W ell having said all that, I feel………………..useless. Yeah useless. I mean what’s the use in writing all this if no one takes action and does something about it? Please, somebody, anybody…………………………..be a patriot, not a ‘patriot’.