This is a topic one can address till end of this year or for that matter end of this century but still I will have some scathing remarks to be made.
Question is can mankind achieve or manage efficiency in fields of politics, economics and energy?
The answer is no.
There are more stupid ideas and stupid people in this world than the wise philosophers.
In fact we do not have wise philosophers left.
If there are any they have shut their mouth for good or dead and gone for good.
The money he spent for a day can be used to build 100 of shelters for refugees in whatever the godforsaken country in this planet under economic hardships.
(I was once dealing with an American who was an ex-IMF big whip who spend 100 times the settlement for retrenchment he was proposing, for his own traveling.
I cornered him on this point and told him if he did not come to settle this issue or curtailed his travel we could have have a better settlement and showed the last best settlement we had in this country up till then and challenged him to treble it.
Finally we had the settlement little over 2 and half and I could go and tell the workers who lost their livelihood that was the best I can guarantee when JVP and Goon Squads were reigning and I could not get a single MP to raise a voice (either in government or in opposition) regarding their plight where government had abrogated rights of their own citizens by signing a blank protocol with a IMF subsidiary.
Mind you I was not a negotiator but an executive in that board and I did not raise my voice or made any gestures. However, we made sure a good Kandyan welcome, good food and Kandyan troupers to entertain the visitors under trying condition.
Quiet diplomacy worked).
Cleaner who comes to clean his suite becomes a sex object.
Why cannot this guy accept that he has a problem and a good prostitute can solve his ailments without trying to hide his own self esteem and bloated image.
I cannot understand.
He basically is cheating himself.
What is annoying is this is World News and whatever the legal arrangement or compromise they come up with it will waste more time and money.
Better still why not recognize the oldest profession and treat that profession with U.N.O charter with some dignity without having some bizarre religiosity.
I could not see that happening in America but probably libertine society in France should devise some means and forward it to U.N.O. consideration.
This preamble is necessary to avoid what I state below does not apply only to this small country and the disease is perennial and universal and top three are
1. U.N.O.
2. W.H.O.
3. America and American politics.
Deal with the third and then focus on our own issues.
With the heroic execution of American Seals the wheel is oiled and started moving in full gear in the second round of the American Election campaign.
The biggest time wasters on this planet are in Americans and their aspiring politicians.
We all want to follow them.
Their legal system is similar in time wasting and unlike ours where Justice is meted out very rapidly if one is in the opposition.
But our legal system is the best in time wasting (except for the express and executive cases like election petitions) in the region. I know of an old lady ( 80 plus) who had been going for a legal case (land dispute) for over 20 years and she has written a book on similar line in that period in Sinhala which is due for publication(publication is very very slow process in this country).
Quite an interesting country this is.
What is relevant to our country is given below with some oblique reference to India from where we get most of the archaic practices.
1. Time Wasting and Astrology.
To this we should add the number of holidays (If we hold a world record in world holidays, probably we come within the first three).
We had our New Year holidays and celebrations, going on for weeks and the productivity fell to almost zero.
Then we come with religious celebration, immediately followed by another.
There is is big confusion between laity and faith.
The list can go on but we keep encouraging this phenomenon without any objective or scientific evaluation.
2. Wasting Water and polluting it including ocean.
We are the biggest polluters of our water resources in the region. Every conceivable poison is washed down to our rivers and lakes and spend vast amount to clean it while many do not have pipe born water.
People who has water waste it by the buckets.
I can remember I made sure that the little container we used to collect water was full before I left for school. My mother and two sisters never had to carry a pale of water.
Kandy Municipality did not have pipe born water then not even Mailgawa monks had pipe born water.
Now the Kandy lake is the most polluted water body in Kandy.
What is annoying is that they spray this polluted water and spread it all around.
Now they have started doing the same water game at Gatambe where there is a Children Play Ground built on refuse dump.
If one peeps down to see the KuNu Ela from this play ground one can see how crystal clear the water coming from Kandy and it suburbs.
3. Most significant time wasting is made on land and cell phones.
This is quite evident in government offices and in parliament too. Look at the bills they speak for themselves. For average users look at the profit and share of all Telecom companies.
4. By strange coincidence we tend to save on electricity mainly because many of us cannot pay the bills. But when it come to offices and temples we have an enormous bill.
Only time we indulge a bit extra is during Vesak and Christmas and I have no qualms abbot that.
5. Then we have the traditional pilgrimages which various from the amount of money we have.
They go from Lumbini in Nepal to Maligawa in Kandy to Anuradhapura to Kataragama and most of the time in these pilgrimages they waste time on cooking and in actual fact forget that they are on holiday cum pilgrimage.
The latest variety is when our president is on U.N.O pilgrimage or any other political pilgrimage and this is by far the biggest and lucrative for some airlines. I have not got any figures but every time a new pilgrimage takes place it is bigger than the previous best and may even reach world cup level.
One should not put the blame on our president.
He is innocent.
It is our P.B.J and the presidential advisory crowd that hoodwink the president in the name of protocols and bare essentials which is getting bigger by every new venture.
It is said that an issue that can be verified with a email is re-verified with round the globe tour by some presidential advisers with no credentials.
Their favorite song is we go round the (mung and man and bun and Moon) mulberry bush, mulberry bush and they have never graduated from kindergarten to international level.
If they do we will solve all our problems including Bun Ki Moon.
All the expenses are credited to President’s Account which is not audited for all the presidents from JRJ to present incumbent.
This is a very rare oversight of JRJ and all is credited to him with veneration and every President after him claims that he was the most brilliant and brightest politician in Asia as regard to accountability issues but alas we never see him again but a hybrid of him from time to time comes in his place.
But nobody can beat his talent of no accountability.
asokaplus 