Anita Pratap on Prabakharan

I've mentioned before that I have run out of books to read, so I've been upturning the shelves at home, looking for something that would help while away the time. 

I stumbled on Bill Bryson's Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States, a delightful read not just of the history of English in America, but of many quirky historical facts, for which alone the book is worth reading.

I have also been reading Anita Pratap's Island of Blood, which has proved to be more interesting than I thought. A friend of mine gave me his copy a couple of years ago and suggested I read it. I never bothered, I had heard a lot of hype about it and had thought it overrated, but in my desperate search for reading matter picked it up a few days ago.

She has no style to speak of, there is no elegance or grace in her writing. Nor so far have I seen anything remotely erudite or philosophical, this is just straightforward, punchy reportage, but quite readable. She tells a fairly good story and the writing has a ring of authenticity to it. A couple of passages are worth summarising. I will try and put them into context .

(The interview takes place some time after the battle of Elephant Pass.  She notes that he is now a lot more assertive and cadres treat him with a new deference. No one calls him 'Thambi' anymore, there is none of the backslapping camaraderie between Prabakaran and the cadres that was there a year ago).

I asked Pirabhakaran the question that had been haunting me for a year and a half: Why hadn't he opted for peace when it was in his grasp? After all, Premadasa had virtually given Eelam to them on a platter. Pirabhakaran denied that they had started the war and laboured the Tiger version of events, that the Sri Lankan army had violated their agreement and come out of their barracks. And anyway, he said, 'We don't want Eelam on a platter. We will fight and win Eelam. 

That then, was the crux of the matter, the reason for the fresh violence. Pirabhakaran did not want anybody else's version of Eelam -he wanted his own, an Eelam that he liberated militarily. 'Thousands of my boys have laid down their lives for Eelam. Their death cannot be in vain. They have given their life for this cause, how can I betray them by opting for anything less than Eelam? he asked. 

He didn't see the conundrum they were in-by fighting for the dead he was engineering the death of the living. Unable to bury the past, he was digging a burial ground of a nation. I told him that at the rate he was going, it would have not be an Eelam but a graveyard that he would create. If Eelam finally dawned, expatriate Tamils would rejoice but by then, most Tamils in their homeland would be six feet under. Pirabhakaran scoffed at the idea.

In some ways those words would prove to be strangely prophetic.

These remarks also reaffirm, in my mind, that Prabakaran never wanted peace except on his own terms, which is why he undid the CFA, first by ensuring that the UNP was defeated and second by restarting the war, breaking the ceasefire. It was CBK who precipitated the fall of the UNF Government by seizing the ministries, but the Tigers eagerly seized the opportunity to boot the Government out.

The Tigers brought a terrible end on themselves and they took the Tamil people down with them. 

 

  

  

Deaths in custody, a growing trend

There is a persistent problem with  deaths in custody. No one seems to have kept a total score but putting together the various summaries published makes for disturbing reading.

There were six between March 2011 and April 2012. There were ten between February and October 2010. There were about thirty two in 2009 and about twenty six in 2008. There were only two in 2002.

Although the numbers have fallen from the levels of 2009, there still seems to be a persistent recurrence of the problem and no one seems to want to ask why.

First, why are deaths in custody different from random murders that take place? The difference arises because an arm of the state is potentially involved. Given that the State is supposed to ensure the safety of its inhabitants (not just its citizens, anyone who happens to be around should also enjoy the same level of safety) this is a serious problem. The guardian has, in effect, turned aggressor.

Deaths in custody can cover a wide range of situations. The UK's Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody lists the following areas that are covered by its remit: "deaths, which occur in prisons, in or following police custody, immigration detention, the deaths of residents of approved premises and the deaths of those detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA)". It is something that can occur anywhere, even a suicide in prison is covered.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights is appointed by the House of Lords and the House of Commons in its report on deaths in custody defines its approach thus:

1. When the state takes away the liberty of an individual and places him or her in custody, it assumes full responsibility for protecting that person’s human rights—the most fundamental of which is the right to life. This right, and other human rights which protect people detained by the State, now form part of our law under the Human Rights Act 1998. Yet at a time when we have finally abolished the death penalty in the United Kingdom and few of our prisoners serve whole-life sentences, too many still die in custody. Some of these die, of course, from natural causes. A few are killed by fellow inmates. Others die as a result of actions of officers of the state, often without charges being brought or an effective remedy being made available to family and friends. Most deaths are ‘self-inflicted’, with yet more people in custody, especially women, inflicting upon themselves life-threatening injuries, but surviving.

2. Each and every death in state custody is a death too many, regardless of the circumstances of the person who dies.

The duties of the state towards detainees flows from relevant Human Rights laws. These are not abstract, esoteric issues, they concern the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. They need to understand why these are important, ultimately to protect their own interests, and in the case of the long list of unfortunate victims, their lives.

The fundamental issues need to be addressed and the problem rooted out at its source, otherwise who knows when the next victim will be claimed?
 
 






 

Gavin Menzies - '1421, The Year China Discovered America' is a work of fiction

I ran out of reading matter just before the Avurudu holidays. While desperately searching for something to read, I came across my brother's copy of 1421.  I had seen this before but never got around to picking it up.

I started reading it but found it a bit hard going. Not that it was difficult to read but it was a bit difficult to take in all that he was saying. Although no scholar, I am a keen student of history and I found the book problematic.  The author seems to keep jumping to conclusions or trying very hard to twist the facts to fit his idea. He never seems to consider alternative explanations for facts and the claims he makes get bigger and bigger.

This afternoon I did a bit of research on the book. Although based on some facts, many of its claims are fictitious. Dr Geoff Wade of the National University of Singapore believes this is a violation of the British Trade Descriptions Act of 1968. Having read his argument, I think he has a very important point. Libraries are the repositories of knowledge, publishers who misclassify books will mislead many and do great disservice to the furtherance of knowledge.

I had read about a third of the book when I came to write this, I'm not going to finish it.

Looks like I will have to find another book to keep me amused.

Anders Behring Breivik and the LTTE

Anders Breivik is currently is about to go on trial for a massacre of 77 people in Oslo. Sections of the local press have been trying valiantly to find parallels between him and the LTTE, the objective of which seems to be:

a) to prove Western hypocrisy
b) prove that the fight against the LTTE is the same as the West's battle against miscellaneous evils, from Al Quaeda to the odd psychopath.

I don't think anybody takes this very seriously, although people trying to draw parallels even saw a resemblance between the coastline of Sri Lanka and the area of Norway in which the massacre took place. Having a little time I decided to do a little research, to test the veracity of these claims.

Anders Breivik's 'manifesto' is available online. I skimmed it and found one reference to the LTTE and one to Sri Lanka.

The tract as a whole is against Islam and other anti-Western influences which he perceives to be destroying Europe. According to him these influences are disguised under the cloak of 'multiculturalism' and will eventually destroy Europe. There is nothing new in this, plenty of right-wing nationalist parties have similar views and pages 1244-1250 of the manifesto list many of these.

In any case, why such a racist should see anything positive, let alone be influenced by the LTTE is a mystery. His one reference comes on page 1,479 (of 1,518 page manifesto) and refers to physical fighting. To quote the relevant paragraph:

Fourth Generation War is normally characterised by a “stateless” entity fighting a state or regime (the EUSSR). Fighting can be physically such as Hezbollah or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to use two modern examples. In this realm the 4GW entity uses all three levels of Fourth Generation War. These are the physical (actual combat; it is considered the least important), mental (the will to fight, belief in victory, etc) and moral (the most important, this includes cultural norms, etc) levels. Fighting can also be without the physical level of war. This is via non-violent means. Examples of this could be Gandhi’s opposition to the British Empire or by Martin Luther King’s marches. Both desired their factions to deescalate the conflict while the state escalates against them, the objective being to target the opponent on the moral and mental levels rather than the physical level. The state is then seen as a bully and loses support.

It is rather far-fetched to look at the above quote and claim that he was inspired by the LTTE, or for that matter Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group, mentioned in the same breath. Many opponents of multiculturalism will however find plenty to draw on in Breivik.

This article claims that "The killer’s manifesto also referred to the Anuradhapura massacre in 1985 and the slaughter of Muslims at the Kattankudy Mosque, in August 1990", neither of which I can locate in the manifesto.

It goes on to say that the "Sri Lanka mission in Oslo has said it would be important to study how the LTTE had influenced Breivik and the circumstances leading to the 33-year-old Norwegian following the Sri Lankan terrorist group".

If this is indeed what they intend doing perhaps they should desist, unless they want to run the risk looking rather foolish.

Pockets

A friend wanted to know where she could buy a wrist bag to hold her Blackberry device.

The problem with little wrist pouches is that they tend to swing around and knock into things, which is the last thing that one wants with a Blackberry since the screen is quite vulnerable. My friend's brother and I were of the same view so we advised against this, pockets are the safest option.

The problem is that women's clothes don't have roomy pockets, if they have them at all. Even trousers or jeans don't have proper pockets. It seems that designers avoid pockets because they leave ugly bulges that spoil the line of the garment. Women are thus forced to carry bags in which they have to put all their valuables, which is why it common to see women on the floors of nightclubs dancing with their bags in hand or why male friends are seen standing outside women's loo's holding onto friend's bags.

Whether designers omitted pockets because they believe that women carry bags around or whether women are forced to carry bags because of a lack of pockets I do not know. Not only must women suffer the indignity of wearing uncomfortable shoes, it seems she must also put up with impractical clothing for the sake of a masculine aesthete.

Any views to share, ladies?

The vanishing middle class

A friend said something quite surprising a couple of days ago. There is hardly a middle class left, just a small circle of the very rich and a large mass of the less well off.

My friend has a small flat in Borella that he was trying to sell for around Rs.15m that has attracted very limited interest. I have another friend who has a nice house in Kotte for sale for Rs.21m and he has been waiting for over two years with no serious offers.

My friend thinks, there is fair interest for houses upto a value of about Rs.4-5m. There is also not much difficulty in disposing a flat at Monarch, Empire City, Emperor or Iceland for Rs.70m+. Houses and flats in the range of Rs.10-25m, prices that should be affordable to the middle class, bring forth very few buyers.

I think consumption taxes and price increases over the past decade have hit the middle class disproportionately, while they have (in general) been unable to cash in on the big deals that have taken place over the past few years.

Tremor detected in Colombo 2

People in the Sampath Bank building at Navam Mawatha, Colombo 2 detected a slight tremor in the building roughly around 2.30pm. Some saw their teacups shake other saw signboards swaying or felt their chairs shake.

People rushed out of the building and stayed outside for about 20 minutes before returning in.

A cure for hiccups?

I had a sudden attack of hiccups last afternoon. It was annoying, embarrassing and, after a while, a little painful. I searched on the internet for remedies. I tried swallowing air, unsuccessfully. Warn water was a little more helpful, it reduced the intensity but did not cure.

I exercised in the evening and it disappeared after that, but reappeared as soon as I had dinner. After about half an hour my throat was beginning to get a little sore from the hiccuping so I drank a tablespoonful of bees honey. It soothed the throat and cured the hiccups immediately.

Sri Lanka's economy grows 8.3%

The economy has apparently recorded a growth of 8.3% in 2011, a record but this particular citizen does not feel particularly well off.

One reason is that my pay has been stuck at virtually the same level as it was in 2008. Wages were frozen due to the poor performance of the company. There were also unfortunately, too few job opportunities opening, and what ones that did open up were taken by 'Sri Lankan 'returnees', fleeing recession in the West, so I was unable to shift to a better job. Expenditure, however has been growing steadily.

I more or less gave up alcohol a few years ago, it was simply getting too expensive and I constantly thank the heavens that I don't smoke but despite my frugal habits things have been getting expensive. The official inflation indicator omits both of these so I'm roughly in line with that at least, but still the costs keep mounting.

I remember telling a friend when we were budgeting for trip in the mid 1990's that we only needed to budget for the meat items, however many vegetables we bought it would never come upto more than 500-600 rupees. Now buy a handful of vegetables or fruit and you are down two thousand rupees.

What exactly does the growth in GDP mean to me?

Well, to start with, it is a fairly crude measure of output, have a look at the definition for GDP. It is generally stated in real terms, which means after discounting inflation. One problem with Sri Lanka's GDP number is that the inflation index probably understates real inflation because it omits items like tobacco, alcohol and has been re-jigged a few times to show lower numbers. Second it just adds Government spending, whether productive or not, so high levels of Government spending contributes to an improved GDP growth rate, even if it does not benefit a large number of its citizens.

When GDP numbers are a bit ropey, a good proxy on growth is energy consumption. I have been looking at the units of electricity sold over the last few years and this shows a few surprises, see table below.


-->

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Electricity sales	7,832	8,276	8,417	8,441	9,268
Growth in electricity		5.67%	1.70%	0.29%	9.80%
Electricity generated	9,389	9,814	9,901	9,882	10,714
Electricity lost	1,557	1,538	1,484	1,441	1,446
Loss as a % of sales	19.88%	18.58%	17.63%	17.07%	15.60%

Historically, I believe Sri Lanka's economy has grown at around 1.5 times the growth in electricity usage. Looking at the table above, 2008 and 2009 were rather lean years, while 2010 was a bumper one, which corresponds more or less to my own experience. Unfortunately the data for 2011 was not available. The data was taken from the Central Bank's Socio-economic data 2011.

What is also interesting is the wide gap between electricity generation and electricity sales. Does this represent losses in transmission and piracy? If so it is pretty serious, some 15% of electricity generated has been lost in 2010, although it is an improvement from the 19.88% in 2006.

Coming back to my own problems, growth to me means improvement in my lifestyle, which in turn is dependent on two things; my income and my expenditure. My income depends on the availability of jobs, the more jobs there are in relation to workers, the greater the price paid. What determines job creation? In a word, investment. Investment that creates jobs.

The second factor is the cost of living - the further my hard earned rupee can go, the better off I will be.

Some sectors have undoubtedly recorded good growth, tourism and its allied industries, motor vehicle sales, construction, banks and leasing companies. People working for these sectors of the economy should have seen growth in their incomes although some of this would have been offset by increases in prices.

Perhaps I'm just in the wrong sort of job. Most of the investment has come from existing companies expanding their operations so while there has been an increase in direct customer service type jobs, from salesmen to waiters, to drivers to maids,to cashiers and cooks, there has been little demand for back office work of that would suit an 'Office Wallah' like me. These usually come when new companies are set up which usually means new investors, either locally or from overseas. This has been lacking, people who are already in business are willing to expand a bit here and there, put up a new hotel or a block of flats, especially when interest rates are low. The big new investments have been in basic infrastructure and seemed to be manned by the Chinese.

If I wait patiently and growth continues at this rate, perhaps the benefits will trickle down to me. With interest rates and taxes on the rise that is beginning to look a little unlikely.


Update 16.4.2012

Electricity consumption grew 8.2% in 2011 to 10,024Gwh, slower than in 2010, but still healthy. Losses between generation and sales dropped to 13%. More info here.

St Bride's, the journalists church, faces closure.

St Brides, a beautiful church in the city of London, just off Fleet Street, faces closure due to the deterioration of its spire. They have not received funding from the state and have now launched an appeal to private donors.

A short video on the church is on Youtube.

The Children's Encylopaedia by Arthur Mee

I started to read rather late as child, having a grandmother who would read stories being the probable cause of the delayed start. When I did start to read it was with Enid Blyton but having developed the habit, I would pick up any book that I came across. Fortunately there were plenty of books around and one particular set, The Children's Encyclopaedia was a favourite.

The Encyclopaedia (in several volumes) occupied a shelf in my grandfather's bookcase. It had been bought in the 1930's for my mother and her siblings. Beautifully written in an elegant, if slightly old fashioned prose, it presented heaps of facts in a uniquely interesting way. I would spend many an afternoon with a volume in my lap, reading it almost like a novel.

I've just discovered that the joy that this brought me was shared by others and someone has even put a part of it on the web. Some copies are even for sale on Amazon! (although this is a 1963 edition it looks almost the same) An infestation of termites destroyed all those lovely books, but I'm toying with the idea of buying the copy on Amazon. Have a look at the bits that are on the web.

For some further info on the books, see here.

Glinka's Grand Sextet

Glinka was a Russian composer, best known for being a member of the The Five (also known as the Mighty Handful), a group that attempted to create a distinctly 'Russian' music, drawing on the folk traditions of Russia.

One of his early, and quite delightful, works is the Sextet in E flat, written in 1832. Its written for an unusual combination of instruments; two violins, viola, 'cello, double bass and piano. The double bass in not frequently used in chamber music.

I first encountered it in a rare recording by a group called Capricorn, its popularity seems to have increased, deservedly so. There are several recordings available now. Listen to it on Youtube. It tends to load slowly so its best to let it load first before listening.

Losses at the CEB and private power

I was at dinner with some people this evening. At our table were seated a person who works for a company that runs some private power projects and someone who works for the CEB. I spent some time talking to these people and this is what I gleaned over the course of the evening.

The person working for the private power firm said that they sell power to CEB at Rs.13 per unit for hydro and Rs.21 per unit for wind power. The return on investment on wind power is apparently about 22% while that on hydro is 17%. I asked if there was any risk in the power business, in the opinion of the person involved in the business there was none. The CEB buys all output at the set price.

When talking to the CEB employee she claimed that the main reason for the losses at the CEB was private power. According to her, about 60% of the CEB's revenue is spent on private power. Quite apart from the tariff charged by the private companies there is apparently a hefty surcharge that is charged by the companies for delayed payment. She claimed that transmission losses were small in comparison to the losses on generation.

The information that I obtained tends to square up with what I have gathered from other sources so I believe it is largely correct. There are plenty of other inefficiencies that can be improved upon, from overstaffing to power piracy but these appear to be the big ones.

The CEB sells a unit at around Rs.8 but buys it at around Rs.13 from private producers, thus incurring a huge loss. I have no problem with private enterprise, which need to earn a fair return for investors. However are they charging too much? Given that they have a low risk business should they only earn the risk-free rate of return ie the rate on treasury bills (currently in the range of 10-11%).

However if all the private producer is going to earn is the risk free rate they may as well as put their money in the T bills and save themselves the hassle of running the business, therefore no private power would be generated. Therefore a premium is necessary, but how much? A difficult question, so why not let the market resolve the question? Let private power producers bid every quarter to supply the CEB at whatever rates they may determine. The CEB can then buy from whoever quotes the lowest price. This is a simplistic model, there probably needs to be a floor price to at which the CEB buys as the buyer of last resort and, possibly, options for the private producer to sell direct to consumers, but the general principle of the auction is best.

In the meantime, the CEB engineers should lobby to move to daylight saving time, a painless means of saving power that will help ease losses to some extent at least.

The state as a bandit or why poor countries are poor

Tim Harford, the economist who is known for his best selling book The Undercover Economist has written an interesting piece on why poor countries are poor.

He uses the arguments put forward by the American economist Mancur Olson in his book Power and Prosperity, which looks at the economic effects of different types of government. To quote Olson:

Under anarchy, uncoordinated competitive theft by "roving bandits" destroys the incentive to invest and produce, leaving little for either the population or the bandits. Both can better off if a bandit sets himself up as a dictator - a "stationary bandit" who monopolises and rationalises theft in the form of taxes. A secure autocrat has an encompassing interest in his domain that leads him to provide peaceful order and other public goods that increase productivity. Whenever an autocrat expects a brief tenure, it pays him to confiscate those assets whose tax yield over his tenure is less than their total value. This incentive plus the inherent uncertainty of succession in dictatorships imply that autocracies rarely have good economic performance for more than a generation. The conditions necessary for a lasting democracy are the same necessary for the security of property and for contract rights that generates growth.

I would emphasise the importance of secure property and contract rights, as well as the rule of law. Corruption, which is another way in which agents of the state, in the form of officials and politicians tax businesses and citizens is an obvious deterrent. The fact that corruption is unorganised, or anarchic, in that there is no certainty of knowing how much will be demanded and at what point in a transaction effectively brings in aspects of rule under anarchy as described by Olson. The agents become roving bandits, stealing whatever is possible before the next election, cabinet reshuffle or when they may otherwise fall from grace and be removed from their positions of power.

The path to prosperity is thus about governance, governance and governance. Singapore had an autocratic leader but thanks to excellent governance and sound policies they prospered. South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, did not score as high on governance (corruption and cronyism were problems) but with decent legal systems and sound property rights (and a lot more resources than Singapore) still did well.

Malaysia, with many times Singapore's resources but far worse governed has achieved only a fraction of Singapore's prosperity. Still, a functioning system of commercial law and property rights with some half-decent policies has paid dividends.

The growth of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were helped by the boom in Europe and US in the 1950's and 1960's; Malaysia and Singapore reaped more or less the same benefit between the 1980's and 2000.

Now with world economy in the doldrums, those who were left behind have to work a great deal harder, if they are to find a path to prosperity.

Taxes on potatoes increased by Rs.10/ kg

The Government has increased taxes on potatoes by Rs.10/kg, taking the total tax to Rs.30/kg.

This took me by surprise, I was expecting the next round of price increases during the extra long stretch of holidays between the 6th of April and the 14th of April. Thus we have a tax increase, albeit a relatively small one, out of season, so to speak. Well, not quite. Tomorrow is a mid-week holiday and Sri Lanka managed to win a game of cricket this afternoon so, so it is perhaps a good day to release bad news, when the public are preoccupied with other things. Those with long memories will recall that there was one fuel price hike, on the weekend of the World Cup Cricket final.

The Treasury has mastered the art of taxation by stealth. To begin with, very few tax increases are actually proposed in the budget, which is when they are supposed to be presented. Instead, starting from around September (or in the case of last year, in October, just after the local council polls) a few taxes are increased every week or so. After the budget is presented in mid-late November comes another round of increases, usually between January and April.

This time around, what has been shocking is the frequency and size of the tax hikes. Clearly finances are under pressure and the Government is doing its best to raise revenue and shore up the currency. With dollar denominated loans to pay, every decline in the exchange rate increases the size of the debt and the cost of servicing it.

The fuel price hike alone left consumers reeling, I can already see a reduction in traffic on the roads, now we have others to contend with potatoes and only heaven knows what we will be hit by during the long April holidays.

When I was a child and we asked our parents for things they would sometimes retort that 'money does not grow on trees'. Colombo was a much greener city then, but that piece of wisdom is one that the rulers would do well to ingest. It is unconscionable to keep heaping taxes on people, while tolerating, waste and corruption on a mammoth scale. It is time to start cutting costs and passing those savings on to the citizenry.

The souring of the economy

Indi has written an interesting post on the bubbly nature of things.

It is quite astonishing to see how rapidly the mood has changed. One month ago a lot of people were happy with things, many accepting the view that we were growing well, even if we were not exactly the wonder of Asia. The falling currency and rising prices have suddenly soured the mood. Were things as good as they seemed and can things go so bad, so quickly?

Just to turn the clock back back to 2009, just after the war tourism picked up but not a lot else happened. Things remained slow for some months until the following happened:

1. Taxes on household goods (electrical appliances) were cut.
2. Interest rates were forced down.
3. Income tax was cut in the budget.
4. Vehicle duties were cut.

This sparked demand. Low interest rates enabled people to borrow. Finance companies sold household goods on hire-purchase and cars on leases. Banks lent to the finance companies and leasing companies.

Corporate profits in general improved because of low interest rates and lower taxes. Some investment activity began to take place, repairs, reconstruction, refurbishing. All this was positive and people did feel the benefits, at one level or another.

The problem was with sustainability. Five or six years of bottled up demand for cars was suddenly released. A similar tale with electrical appliances. Once the pent up demand is satisfied, things will slow naturally. There is nothing wrong with this, it just happens.

With the end of the war tourism will naturally pick up, but growth is dependent on the state of the world economy, how cost competitive the country is and how well it is marketed. Rapid increases in prices coupled with regulations on minimum prices caused things to slow down a little after April last year.

In order to build sustainable growth we need investment, that will create jobs and boost incomes. In order to do that we need to cut regulations, taxes and generally have a friendly investor climate. A functioning legal system, low corruption, low taxes and consistent policy are all things that will help.

An over-large state that is actively involved in every sector of the economy impedes investment, because it displaces the private sector. Further to run these extensive operations they need to tax and this takes money out of the consumers pocket.

The factors that drove growth in 2010/2011 were lower taxes and interest rates. In order to keep these cuts in place the government needs to cut expenditure, which is not happening. Now that the taxes have gone up everything slows. The moment the Government increases its local borrowings, interest rates will rise.

The great saving grace of Sri Lanka has been its ability to export its unemployed. Whenever things get difficult, more people go abroad. They then send money back that sustains their families-and the local economy. If it were not for the workers in the middle east many families could not survive. Almost every family has someone abroad and the remittances they send pay the bills. As long as this option remains open, we will stumble along in some fashion. If that closes, we will be in real trouble.

The Road to Serfdom

The economist Friedrich von Hayek is best known for his work on the business cycle but his book on the dangers of centralised planning, The Road to Serfdom has particular relevance today.

It was written at a time when the Nazis were rising to power in Germany, hence the references to war. There is a simple version, in cartoon form here.

Praised by Orwell and Keynes, it tells a tale of how citizens can end up as serfs, if they allow themselves to fall under the spell of mesmeric leaders.

The lure of the harpsichord

Like a lot of other people, I have tended to regard the harpsichord as an inferior instrument to the piano. The piano has a great deal of power and expressiveness that I thought was lacking in the harpsichord. I had never really listened to the instrument properly, I had heard the odd bit here and there and heard it mostly as the continuo in early opera and oratorio, where, to be honest it was more irritating than anything else. Looking back, that was probably the worst possible introduction to the instrument: accompanying long tracts of dialogue, without the benefit of seeing the actors or the drama; and all in a foreign language to boot!

One of the great advantages of the internet revolution is that there is a great variety of music readily accessible. I listened to some Bach and Handel played on the harpsichord and found it to be very agreeable. There seem to be a variety of instruments around with varying degrees of depth and tone, but on the whole, nice.

Listen to Keith Jarrett play Bach's F minor Prelude and Fugue here or Sophie Yates playing Handel's suite HWV 437.

I don't listen to much music now and what little I do listen to is frequently on Youtube, but you can bet that the harpsichord will feature a little more regularly.

Governance and growth: a lesson from Rwanda

Growth does not depend on resources, it depends on policy and governance. Many countries rich in natural resources from Nigeria, to the Congo to Angola remain poor because of bad governance.

The African continent seems to teem with ill-governed countries so it may come as surprise to learn that a country that seemed a basket case in 1994 is now progressing reasonably well, thanks to better governance. When Rwanda emerged from a genocide in 1994 prospects looked very bleak. Now things are much better, as this article explains.

They have cut red tape (Rwanda ranks 45 in the World Bank's ease of doing business report, in contrast to Sri Lanka's 89th position) and reduced corruption. Transparency International ranks Rwanda at 49 (out of a 182 countries and just below Macau, Brunei and Bahrain). Sri Lanka ranks 86, just below Jamaica, Panama and Serbia.

Although Sri Lanka is far, far ahead of Rwanda, I still think there are some useful lessons to be drawn. Hopefully the next time G.L Peiris takes wing it will be to Rwanda.

Some further reading here and here.

How much does the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation raise through the price hike?

Fuel prices were hiked last week, not unexpected given the need to maintain the budget deficit at targeted levels (so that further borrowings can be made). What was shocking was the size of the increase; kerosene by Rs.35 (up by 49%) and diesel by Rs.31 (up by 37%).

According to the Central Bank Annual report (see page 63), the country's fuel consumption in 2010 was as follows:

Metric Tonnes
Petrol 90 octane 595,000
Petrol 95 octane 22,000
Auto diesel 1,699,000
Super diesel 12,000
Kerosene 165,000

Converting this into litres (at approximate specific densities of 0.74 for petrol, 0.95 for diesel and 0.82 for kerosene) and multiplying the results by the amount of the price increase the CPC will raise Rs.72bn, assuming that fuel consumption remains at the above level.

This is a lot of money, by any standard. The Government revenue (excluding grants) in 2011 was Rs.963bn. The 2011 revenue deficit was about Rs.95bn, this was to be reduced to virtually zero (just Rs.1.8bn) in 2012. The price increase in fuel (72bn) will plug most of the gap, provided of course that expenditure is in line with budget.(Have a look at this link for a few more details on 2011 and 2012 figures).

Could the Government have plugged the gap in some other way?

If expenditure were cut, then there would be no need to raise prices. Where there is waste, inefficiency and corruption it should be relatively easy to cut costs, with no loss of services. Close down or sell off loss-making enterprises and improve the efficiency of others. The COPE reports highlights enough problems with public enterprises, its time to start dealing with them, or face the prospect of still higher taxes, to pay for more waste.

Some scenery of Hatton and Dickoya

Travelled to Dickoya early this week. Here are a few pictures (click on the picture to get the high quality image).


The entry to Hatton



Late morning sun



Christ Church, Warleigh. The little stone churches in the hill country make such pretty pictures



Castlereigh Reservoir



The Castlereigh reservior, from further up the hill



Misty mountain



Mist, mountain and road



Tree clad hills..



...and winding roads




This is a picture of Queen Victoria's statue, at the back of the Colombo Museum. Took it last year and meant to write something suitably Victorian. Found it in my phone with the others so uploaded it anyway.

Rupee slides, IMF loan more likely, expect taxes to rise

The Central Bank did its best to defend the rupee but squeezed by all sides they have given up the fight and seemingly allowed the rupee to float. The markets have not really digested the news so it is difficult to say where the rupee will end up but current quotes are around 115.10-115.50. It may move up a rupee or two in the short term.

This should come as no surprise to careful observers, the Central Banks started defending the rupee in the second half of 2011 and they have been fighting a losing battle since then. The reason they have allowed it to slide is to obtain the remaining facility of US$800m from the IMF. It is rumoured that the Government was shopping around in the Middle East for funds but had been quoted rates of 6-7%, so even at 3% the IMF loan is far cheaper.

We are basically back to where we were in 2008, which is when the last currency crisis occurred. In that instance the rupee dropped to about 115 (it may have touched 120 briefly, I have forgotten the exact dip) and interest rates spiked. I still carry a legacy of that era in the form of five year fixed deposit that is at 24%. In 2009, with the end of the war there was a positive story that the government could sell so they were able to tap the bond markets and rebalance the foreign debt. This time, having screwed three international banks and having alienated many foreign governments, that task will be a lot more difficult.

The IMF demands that the Government sets its macroeconomic house in order - or least embarks on a plan to set in order before it lends. One point is that the budget deficit needs to be brought down. This is excellent advice that the Government can follow by either cutting costs or raising taxes. The pattern that we have seen in the last six years has been no restrictions in Government expenditure, which means ever more taxes on the population. When one discovers that a great deal of this expenditure is spent on white elephant projects (eg Mihin Air, Lankaputhra Bank), or servicing high interest commercial borrowings the people need to start asking why they should fund the lavish lifestyles of so many cronies. (Read some comments on the COPE report for more on this subject here).

Until some means is found to get expenditure cut one must be resign oneself to the payment of higher indirect taxes. These are mostly imposed on essential foodstuffs (Dhal, onions, potatoes and canned fish are particular favourites). We saw this last month and once or twice last year. This is of course in addition to increases in fuel, gas, alcohol and a host of other items that took place in the month before and the months after the budget. Very little new taxes are actually announced in the budget, everything takes place the month before or a few months after. This little subterfuge really works, even I find it a little difficult to recall what exactly went up and when.

Due to the huge losses at the CEB, we can expect a (long overdue) increase in electricity rates as well. The non-operational coal power plant, built with expensive Chinese debt, no doubt contributes to this loss. The interest needs to be paid, even if no power is generated, and the consumer or taxpayer ultimately foots the bill, while those who build the plant walk away with their profits intact.

The exchange rate is linked to the interest rates so we need to wait and see where things end up. In anticipation of the depreciation interest rates were edging up, we need to see where they end up. Businesses which were making good profits on the back of low interest rates will find that borrowing costs go up, banks will find margins squeezed (as deposit rates rise) and overall increases in indirect taxes will bring about wage pressure. Company earnings will therefore be adversely affected but the biggest blow will fall on consumers.

When the average consumer is left poorer, does a the GDP growth number have much meaning?

Racing in Yala

I visited a friend in hospital last night, he was nursing a rather nasty gash that he had received while on holiday in Yala.

He had been in the park with some friends in a hired jeep. The driver was going very fast and the jeep hit a rut, he was thrown up, hit his head on the iron cross bar of the jeep and was left with a pretty nasty cut. After visits to the Tissamaharama and Hambantota hospitals he has now been transferred to Colombo.

The park had been packed last weekend with large queues waiting to get in. Traffic jams within the park are a frequent occurrence and judging from the descriptions people give me it seems that the parks contain more people than animals on busy long weekends.

The jeep drivers, eager to earn money are hell bent on trying to show their clients as many animals as possible, so as soon as word it received of a sighting everyone races to the spot. Quite apart from the dangers to passengers, the roar of engines must surely be disturbing the wildlife, not to mention wildlife being run over by vehicles .

My concept of visiting a sanctuary is to spend some time in quiet contemplation of nature. It seems that the jeep drivers work on the basis of trying to show as many animals in as short a period of time as possible. Regrettably some visitors seems to encourage this, a trip being rated on the basis of numbers seen rather than an overall experience.

Tourism is a good industry, it creates a lot of employment but it must be managed in such a way as to bring in long term benefits. Thoughtless, short term exploitation can ruin the product.

There is a need to regulate the number of visitors and vehicles in the park. A park that resembles the Bambalapitya junction, crawling with vehicles and people is not a park. People will be put off. Some people already asking if the experience is worth it. A visitor on the Lonely Planet website commented:

"In general, I find the Sri Lankan national parks to be over priced and where there are animals to be seen, I find them over crowded.

In Yala , before the Yala East section was opened up, I was very surprised that even when we came across an elephant, the driver or " tracker " would phone all his jeep driver mates to tell them exactly where the animal was and in a few minutes there would be so many jeeps competing for position that the animals were scared off anyway."

In the interests off all concerned, not least the animals, I hope the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society will a take a lead in regulating visitor numbers.

For some ideas on this check the link below:

Tools for visitor management

See also this appeal to photographers.

A new growth industry- Poaching

A friend of mine was involved in the building of a hotel on the East coast, Passikudah to be exact.

He was telling that there is a shop that sells game; venison, wild boar sambhur and various other meats. I have no objection to eating wild boar, it is not protected and for the most part regarded as a pest because of the damage that it causes to crops. I do however draw the line at that, I do not consume protected species.

This shop apparently has a booming business - supplying to construction workers. My friend estimates that there are about 5,000 workers building hotels in the area. As soon as a fresh supply of game is obtained the word goes out and within hours every scrap is sold out. The main demand seems to be from these workers, not the people who live in the area.

The best part of the story is that the shop is supposed to be owned or run by a policeman so no action is likely to be taken to shut it down. Since demand seems strong poachers are probably putting in extra hours to supply the need with consequent damage to wildlife stocks.

Could the people involved in construction in the area take note and attempt to educate their workers not to buy meat from poachers? It is, after all, in their own interest to do so.

Wildlife is a tourist attraction. If a lot of deer are killed there will be fewer to see. Moreover, if all the herbivores are destroyed, it will lead to leopards turning to lifting cattle or dogs which will bring them into conflict with herdsmen who may resort to trap guns or poison. Even if leopards simply move away to other areas in search of game, it will be a loss, so take the initiative and act.

On teachers and teaching

Cerebral Ramblings post on bad teachers got me thinking. I have suffered at the hands of bad teachers. I used to hate school and although the passage of time has dimmed this emotion I can't really empathise with those who profess great love for one's school.

Education, especially at primary and secondary school has become commoditised with a focus on large classes and rote learning, which breeds (and rewards) only poor or mediocre teachers. Shaw's adage that people who can do; and those who cannot teach, is unfortunately true.

Teaching is in fact a noble profession, one of those that I describe as a 'calling'. To my mind teaching, preaching and healing are all callings: if one does not hear an inner voice that calls one to it and if one is not prepared to devote ones life to it, better not go. If you are only looking for a career or a means to make money, don't follow the callings, spend your time on something else.

In a perfect world, teaching is about a student at one end of a log and a teacher at another. Human beings are naturally curious all that a great teacher need do is to stimulate and guide that curiosity. In order to learn it is often more important to ask the right question than to find the right answer. Frame a good question, pose a knotty but interesting problem and let nature take its course in the mind of the pupil. On the way, equip the pupil with the tools to tackle larger questions, initially to read, write and perform basic arithmetic but later to the basics of science and logic.

Fear plays no part in learning. Discipline is necessary in life but the process of learning should never be coloured with fear. Patience is essential, civility necessary and kindness prized among the characteristics of good teachers.

This is what great teachers are about. I should know, my grandfather was one.

Of bird flu and suicide vests

Two little articles in today's Daily News caught my attention. One was that a large number of chickens had died in a farm in Bingiriya, Kurunegala. The dead poultry had the symptoms of bird flu but, according to the report they may not have died from it.

This is a fairly serious matter. We have had many fears of a bird flu outbreak before but this is the first time that there seems to be a confirmed case. Adequate precautions need to be taken because if the virus is of a type that spreads to people many can die. China has attempted to cover of outbreaks of SARS, swine flu and bird flu before, resulting in the disease spreading further and claiming more victims. The 'China model' is worshiped in many quarters, lets hope that it will not be followed, in this instance at least.

The other story was that a suicide vest discovered in Kataragama was five years old. When the Emergency Regulations were in place, there was a 'discovery' of a stock of arms on a monthly basis, usually in the week preceding the date when parliament would need to extend the Emergency Regulations. Now that all of the Emergency Regulations (plus a few more) have been permanently enshrined within the PTA there has been no need to extend these regulations and the 'finds' of weapons have also halted. Therefore it is quite likely that this is indeed a genuine find. The question is who put it there and for what purpose? Information is never easy to come by but lets see if any further news develops. Eight people have been arrested, according to the Island, which gave the story more prominence. No arrests were made, according to the Daily News.

Treasury prepares plans for Third term: 2016-2020

It appears that the Treasury believes in long term planning, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Speaking at a press briefing P B Jayasundera said "Under the first economic policy manifesto, called Mahinda Chintana, of President Mahinda Rajapaksa covering the period 2006 to 2010 we have doubled per capita income from around US$ 1,000 to US$ 2,400. Under his second manifesto covering the period 2011 to 2015, per capita income would be doubled further from US$ 2,700 to US$ 5,000. We are preparing the environment for the third manifesto which would cover the period 2016 to 2020 which would take the per capita income to around US$ 10,000," The Island reported that Dr. Jayasundera was apparently convinced that President Rajapaksa would be elected to serve a third term.

Oh well, since he is convinced I guess we should be as well. Only thing is, I thought the third term started in 2018, not 2016.

The problem of stray dogs

Indi posted something on this here, I wrote this as a comment but it grew so long I decided to post it on my own blog.

There are a number of problems with stay dogs, because of their nature as pack animals and the tendency to chase things. People assume the problem is only about bites and rabies (which is a big problem in itself). Bite victims need to go through an painful process of injections (24 I think) which I believe is also expensive. Apart from this they are a cause of accidents by:


a. Running across roads causing motorists to swerve or brake, possibly losing control and hitting someone. Some I know has a friend who swerved to avoid a dog and killed a woman on the pavement.

b. They have a tendency to chase things, cyclists and motor cyclists are particularly vulnerable. A yapping dog at ones heels is very disturbing, the sudden barking tends to shock the rider and make him swerve, possibly into the path of other vehicles. I have experienced this myself. Although never bitten the barking has sent me all over the road, luckily without incident but I have friends who have plenty of broken bones as a result of dogs chasing them. There is an added danger at night on darkened roads (many of our roads are not properly lit): when the dog sees a light approaching, they sometimes jump at the light. Again, the dog landing on the handlebars sends the cyclist (or motorcyclist) crashing on to the road, who may get hit by a car from behind. Again I have a number of friends who have experienced this problem. I used to cycle everywhere for years and so did a lot of my friends.

c. Because they are pack animals and territorial they tend to congregate in certain spots. First there is one, then a few others gather and soon a pack is formed. The territory then becomes their own and they try to defend it whenever someone comes close by, barking and growling as a pack. This tendency tends to be heightened in the evenings when they are settling down. I have seen reports of patients being afraid to enter the Badulla hospital because there is a pack of dogs that is near the entrance and attempts to attack people.

Bottom line is animals in general should not be on the street. Another person I know is now in hospital with a broken leg after he ran into a black cow on an unlit road on his motorcycle.

Sterilisation has not worked, dogs breed too fast and its very difficult to sterilise them all. Miss a few and the population keeps growing. The CMC has been catching dogs for decades, there were always a few around but we never saw the large packs that we see today, post the no-cull policy. People don't want the CMC to kill the dogs but what should the solution be?

My suggestion is that genuine animal lovers should collect money, put up shelters and take the stray dogs off the streets and into care. Its expensive but if there is a will, there is a way. Letting them starve on the streets, foraging through garbage is not kindness and imposes huge costs on society. People should also be educated so that they do not abandon puppies, but hand them into the shelters.

Fascism, anyone?

I came across a very interesting list of characteristics that mark a fascist regime.

Do all fascist regimes necessarily display all of these characteristics? Probably not, as in everything else I suppose there are shades of grey but if one finds that too many boxes are being ticked then its time to start worrying.

The rest of that site is worth reading as well, seems to have quite a bit of information on the subject.

In the winter of discontent

In a far off country a vegetable vendor, an unemployed university graduate, frustrated that the police would not allow him to trade set himself ablaze and unwittingly set off a chain of events that rocked the Near East.

There have been subterranean rumblings for a while. The mysterious phenomenon of the 'Grease Yaka' seems to capture the tone of many incidents, before and after.

The latest is vegetable traders and farmers who have taken to the streets. A rather troubling pattern seems to be forming. Once again, the imposition of laws and regulations with little consultation or foresight. Once again, the people have taken to the streets in protest.

The imposition of rules or laws that are seem to be unjust, creates anger that spills over to the streets. Some may call this attitude, high handed or arrogant while others would use stronger terms.

There have been many such instances of late, but to examine just a few, a year ago, the 18th amendment to the constitution, which had far reaching ramifications was rushed through as an "urgent bill". The average man in the street could make no sense of the complex constitutional questions and no one could explain its significance properly, so it passed unremarked. A certain minister who had been removed following mass protests earlier was then promptly reappointed.

Two months ago, the so-called expropriation bill was smuggled through, as an "urgent" bill. The business community was aghast but it was beyond the comprehension of the man in the street so it passed.

In both instances there was criticism but it could easily be shouted down and safely ignored.

The proposed pensions bill in May this year did however affect the workers directly and they understood its significance. They took to the streets in mass protest. The Government eventually backed down, but not before a worker was killed. Now it is the vegetable traders who are on the roads.

It is not the plastic crates that are the problem, it is the way in which it is imposed on the people that breeds this anger. I think reducing losses in transport is important and reducing waste will contribute to better income for farmers and traders while bringing lower prices to consumers. However the way to approach this is through education. If people see it is to their benefit, they will quickly adopt it. If the high cost of the plastic crate is the barrier then subsidising it, at least at the introductory stage would be a good idea, for it could bring long term benefits.

Employing the police to stop transport if the approved crate is not used should not even be contemplated. In a democracy, that is.

Green Path, renamed, for the second time.

I just received a news alert that stated that "The road from the Horton Place roundabout up to the Public Library roundabout is to be named as Nelum Pokuna Mawatha from December 15, after the Arts and Theater complex, titled “Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theater” is declared open.

I had to think a bit to work out which road this was. The news alert simply described two different points on the road. The road in question is actually Green Path or at least a part of it. The most extraordinary thing is that Green Path has already been renamed once, it is now officially known an Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, after the last major round of renaming that took place somewhere in the 1960's and 70's.

I have no patience for this silly business of renaming roads and public buildings. I have grumbled about it before, but the latest one really takes the cake, because the usual specious argument that the renaming is necessary to erase colonial influence is no longer valid. Which is probably why the news alert discreetly omitted mentioning the current official name of the street.

If there was any Sri Lankan who actually deserved to have something named after him it was Coomaraswamy, not that he would ever have wanted such a thing, he was far too modest a man. A brilliant scholar, he was fluent in Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Pali, English, French, German, Spanish, Tamil, Persian, Hindi and Sinhalese. The American's are happy enough to list him in their list of distinguished Asian Americans, he probably qualifies due to his long stay in that country.

In fact, in his first career as a geologist, he did discover a new mineral, which he could name after himself if he so wished, but did not, it is Thorianite. He would surely have turned in his grave, if he knew that some thoughtless politician had decided to rename Green Path in his name.

In his second career as an art historian he achieved great fame, ending up as curator of of the oriental collection of the Boston Museum. The rulers would have served the people a a lot better if they had done something to promote wider understanding of his work or funded studies that could have continued what he had started, instead of naming a road.

Read more on his work here.

Pillows

This is something that I have been thinking about for a while.

They are the thing on which we rest our heads every night, yet do we know where they came from? Why is it so difficult to sleep without pillows? I need two pillows, one is not quite enough, although I can just about manage (on a trip for example) with one if pushed.

I have a large foam rubber pillow and a softer cotton one, the springy foam rubber one sets a foundation and the cotton one goes on top.

How far back in history do we find references to them and why do none of the other primates need them.

I have heard of an old campers trick, where one scoops out a small hollow in the earth, just to fit the hips. It apparently guarantees a good nights sleep. Has anyone heard of this or used it. Was it a sort of precursor to a pillow?

Your pillow thoughts, please?

Up the plantain tree

The weekend newspapers carried a story of a rare triumph for the rule of law. The company running a farm that encroached on a wildlife sanctuary has vacated the sanctuary, full story here and here.

What is noteworthy is the reason for the withdrawal from the sanctuary. It was not the law enforcement authorities or the courts that forced the company out. In fact the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) and the Ministry of Agrarian Services and Wildlife claimed that there was no encroachment at all.

It was the multinational partner in the project, Dole Bananas of the US that acted, on being informed of the encroachment by local activists. Given that no local agency was even willing to look at the matter Dole could easily have followed the (now well trod) path of brazening it out and denying that the sanctuary was violated. Luckily for the public they chose to do what was right and not what was convenient or profitable.

Things have come to a pretty pass when it is a foreign multinational that acts responsibly, while the rulers, law enforcement and other agencies ignore a problem. Multinationals are frequently painted as evil, exploiting corporations. While not all of them are squeaky clean, many have embraced the concept of accountability and responsibility seriously. Do we now need to turn this concept on its head and treat Governments, rather than multinationals as the likely villains in the play?

Why did no one else act? Powerful forces were involved, as a quick glance at the Sunday Leader story will tell.

The rule of law is one of the foundations of a functioning state, the events above testify to the extent to which it has been undermined. Laws exist to protect the population from the whims of the rulers, as the rule of law unravels citizens will find themselves being preyed on by the rulers, as in this case. Looks like we are up the plantain tree?


Addendum 29th November

Serendipity looks at some other aspects on the same question here.

Colombo Hilton now vested with the Government?

Hotel Developers (Lanka) PLC, the listed company that owns the Hilton property in Colombo made a very strange announcement yesterday.

The announcement states that consequent the enactment of the Revival of Underperforming enterprises act the assets of the company are vested with the Government and all the shareholdings of the company are now held by the Secretary to the Treasury.

This has left many people in the stock market utterly confused, although the announcement may seem innocuous to the uninitiated. This is a public, listed company with many shareholders, all of who are unaware as to how the shares have been transferred.

How were the shares transferred? There is no record of any shares trading on the exchange, indeed the share has been suspended following the announcement of the bill. Were the shares traded privately, off the market?

If shares are traded off the market, the stock exchange has a share transfer form that needs to be signed by the buyer and the seller. No existing shareholder signed anything. They have not even been informed, they only read about the announcement in the news.

They have not been paid compensation, which is stipulated under the act. The electronic registry run by the stock exchange still lists the shares under the names of the original owners.

Are we to take it that the registry is no longer valid? Or that procedures necessary to transfer shares are no longer required, that a directive from the state will suffice to change ownership? Will this apply to the land listed for acquisition under the Act, with the requirements for land registry entries being dispensed with?

The Act itself left many unanswered questions, most pertinently on the status of mortgages on the properties to be acquired, the status of the winding up procedures that were being followed and the claims of the various other creditors. All norms and processes seem to have been thrown out of the window.

These seemingly mundane procedures are all part of the legal framework of the country on which business is conducted and which is taken for granted.

Now it suddenly seems to have given way, hence the confusion as to how businessmen should operate in the future.

Binge

I went on a bit of a binge for breakfast today. I usually don't each too much bread and avoid butter altogether. Today I had home-made buns with butter and honey, accompanied by my favourite Mattekelle tea. It is a combination that I used to enjoy regularly as a child but have not tried in many years.

Good honey is the key and for best results should be accompanied by freshly baked bread (I ate some rolls that my mother made yesterday afternoon, so it was not a perfect combination, but it was good enough).

There is now a fairly good supply of local honey available. When we were children we had to rely mostly on imported Australian honey. The Australian honey is not bad, it is well packaged in nice jars (usually with a pretty picture of a bee) and has a rich golden colour, almost like golden syrup. Unfortunately (to my palette at least) it does not taste as good as the local honey.

I had been spoiled in my childhood by my grandfather, who used to return from his shooting trips to the jungles with a bottle of wild honey. This was honey that was collected by the Veddah's and was usually filled into an old arrack bottle, stopped with a cork or bit of wood cut into the shape of the mouth of the bottle. (I have heard stories that the Veddah's collect the honey in old kerosene oil tins and then empty it into the arrack bottles). Because the stopper was never perfect, there was some paper and string tied around the mouth. It was very messy, with some honey oozing down the side, soaking the grubby bits of paper and string.

The packaging was terrible, but the product was delicious, even if it had bits of honeycomb inside it. The honeycomb is perfectly edible (I think) and the beeswax has a nice consistency to it. We did not bother with the impurities, we just ate the stuff.

The Australian honey, for all its nice packaging, was never as sweet. After my grandfather died supplies of honey stopped and for years the only thing available was the Australian honey. I tried buying some honey from villages when on holiday but it was not good. Although the bottles looked the same it was heavily adulterated with treacle and sugar. After a few days the sugar and treacle starts to crystallise and it needs to be thrown away.

A few years back I discovered a small plastic bottle of honey in the supermarket. I was delighted because the dark, slightly messy contents looked very familiar. When I tasted it, it was exactly as I remembered it and we have been buying it ever since.

When I looked at the bottle this morning it claimed to be 'wild honey', I could not quite believe this, so I did a bit of research on it, it does seemed to be farmed, but in small remote villages, so its probably pretty close to wild honey.

I found that the company that is producing the honey is even trying to export it, in slightly smarter packaging.

I was amused to see an expiry date on the bottles, probably necessitated by law or possibly, requirements of sale. I don't think pure honey can expire, the Veddah's even used it as a preservative. It will not last for ever, but it lasts pretty long and will surely get eaten before anything can possibly go wrong, so who cares about expiry dates?



PS. For reference on how Veddah's preserve meat, Google books has an extract from Samuel Bakers Rifle & Hound in Ceylon(incidentally a book that I remember seeing in my grandfather's library) here.

Gold Coast edges out Hambantota, awarded Commonwealth Games 2018

I had a feeling that Sri Lanka could pull off the bid to host the next Commonwealth Games in Hambantota (in 2018). It was a close thing but the Gold Coast prevailed in the end.

Hosting a big sports event is a huge PR exercise. It brings in a lot of publicity but reaping long term benefits can be tricky. After co-hosting the last cricket world cup Sri Lanka Cricket is now virtually bankrupt and has asked for a bail out. The same thing, on a far larger scale would have been likely had Hambantota won the bid, so on the whole the country probably better off having lost the bid.

I have a theory that the straw that broke Greece was its hosting of the Olympics in 2004. Originally expected to cost $1.3bn, later revised to $5.3bn and now thought to have cost $20bn (the official cost was $14.2bn but others estimate it to be higher). Total Greek debt in 2009 was around €374bn.

Hambantota is a sleepy little town, with charm of its own. The comparison, with the Gold Coast could not be more stark, as these pictures testify.

I would rather it remained that way.

Gentlemen

I have mused on the subject of gentlemen before. To the male of the species, this endlessly fascinating topic has more aspects to it than one, work being rather important.

What one does plays a a role in defining ones place in society and as far as gentlemen are concerned the less work the better. You see, a gentleman is a gentleman of leisure. He does not work for a living, instead he manages land or perhaps, property.

He will usually manage other investments, in shares, bonds or (even better) works of art. In these straitened times he may be forced to work, something he will despise and avoid as far as possible, endlessly shirking responsibility in the office, making him a rather lousy (if charming-otherwise one can never get away with it) employee. He will never, ever, engage in trade.

The great industrialists of 18th and 19th century acquired respectability with a country seat, so my devious mind was went off on one of its usual tangents when I read about this.

In a feudal society, where the economy is primarily agrarian, land represents wealth and in turn social position. This state of affairs persisted for many centuries until it was overturned by the industrial revolution, which created new paths to wealth and the aforementioned quest for land by the industrialists.

Coming a couple of weeks after the bill to acquire underperforming entities, does this signal a renewed fascination with this feudal idea? Or are we turning the clock backwards, to a more glorious feudal past?

The preamble to the bill talks of vesting underperforming enterprises or assets with the state, yet the schedule lists only one enterprise (Hotel Developers), the rest is all land.

There are thirty six other companies listed - but only the property will vest with the state, not the company. Some of the companies have multiple plots of land listed, so this adds to to a lot of land.

The latest to join the foray is the Central Bank, which has now bought an office in New York. Doubtless a flat will follow, for the country may as well as save the hotel costs,since we may expect frequent travel in future (else why buy an office?).

We may live in interesting times but the truly bored can read my musing on work, here.

That's, all folk, now get back to your jobs. You must work you know, your taxes are what pay for all of this.

The dangers of multitasking

I sometimes read email, blogs or browse the web while doing other things in the office.

Last morning I was reading something online when a friend called. While I was on that call I saw the bank manager's direct number blinking on my office line. I ignored it (we have our priorities, right?) and went on with my conversation.

When I had finished, I called my bank manager while trying to read Dee's post on the Hed Kandi Girl at the same time.

When my bank manger asked why I had not answered I thought I heard the words "sorry I was on another girl at the time" coming from my lips. I wasn't quite sure if I just thought I'd said it or if I had actually said it.

There was a stunned silence on the other end. "Do you know what you just said?"

Shit! Talk about Freudian slips. And its all Dee's fault.

Curious and curiouser

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).

Amidst the stormy weather some strange doings are afoot.

Take for instance the report that some 249 state enterprises lost a total of Rs.19,000m between 2007 and 2009. The usual culprits, the Ceylon Electricity Board and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation were there (and probably lose the most money) but the surprise inclusion is Sri Lanka Cricket. Cricket is a very lucrative game, the ICC shares some of its revenue with member boards which is in addition to direct advertising revenue earned locally. Yet they lost money. Some white elephant investments, built with expensive debt is the probable cause of the loss.

The Government's recent forays into business including Mihin Air and Lankaputhra Bank have also lost money. The timing of this report is rather unfortunate coming within the week of the bill to vest underperforming assets with the state. Why these State ventures lose money is anybody's guess.

We are also informed that Gazprom will start oil exploration in the Mannar basin. All very well, but what happened to the proposed tender for exploration blocks? Was it called? Who bid? How was it awarded? And where did Gazprom turn up from?

When the blocks were originally auctioned the sole bidder was Cairn, a small but respected operator that specialises in niche markets. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, they have reasonably transparent operations, some details of the exploration bid and recent gas strike being available on its website. Gazprom's website contains nothing on Sri Lanka other than two reports of meetings where the participants considered the prospects for bilateral cooperation in the energy sector.

Gazprom has a well earned reputation for opacity. It was a formerly privatised venture that the Russian state reacquired under controversial circumstances. Perhaps there is more in common between the parties than we thought?

In the meantime, the Central bank has told directors of banks to be diligent. This is all very well, but it was only a few months ago the directors at a couple of banks were changed under strange circumstances.

The BOI is now set to receive a CEO, a new position that has been created within the organisation. Last year, it was announced that the BOI was to be abolished...

I'm beginning to understand what Alice felt when she remarked "Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

SEC Director General removed, market moves 200 points

It has been a good week for Governance. I just received a news alert that the Director General of the Securities has been removed, the market moved up 200 points during the day, before closing a 178 points up.

Many players in the market including some big fish have reportedly been pushing for the removal of the DG on the basis that the SEC was responsible for the recent decline in the market. How so? By imposing unnecessary regulation, including the necessity of payment for purchases three days after the transaction. What the players wanted was less regulation and, above all, credit. Credit! Credit in unlimited quantities. Credit makes the world go round and if no further restrictions are placed, the market is set for a heady, debt fueled ride.

Unfortunately the announcement is only that the DG is being transferred, there was no mention of any change in the rules. Perhaps these will follow? If it does not, then there will be some very disappointed people, more painful declines and another outcry for credit. The last time the players wanted credit, the SEC did approve it, but it took the market a week to work out that the amount was too little. Part of the problem is that the people don't know exactly what they ask for and may not really know what they are getting until it hits them.

This follows just days after news leaked out of a bill to vest underperforming assets with the state. Drafted by a private law firm and sent for review by the Supreme Court as an urgent bill (more details here), it is set to be approved next Wednesday.

People have sometimes accused the islanders of leading slothful and indolent lives, fast service is quite uncharacteristic. Parliament, however is setting the right example with legislation being made with the speed that MacDonald's reserves for its burgers. In contrast, the Mother of Parliaments serves a leisurely four course dinner consisting of green/white papers, draft bills, pre-legislative scrutiny before the final bill is taken up for debate. Here we just have the preprocessed burger, all ready for deep frying in cheap oil with a side order of chips.

Light regulation is best, no regulation better still. Half of Mexico no longer requires driving tests. In the 1990's driving tests were difficult and a bribe was often necessary to pass. Instead of tackling the corruption, they abolished the tests.

Six out of ten road deaths worldwide take place in just 12 countries, one of which is Mexico, but critics claim these statistics are wrong. Given the size of its population, Mexico they say, is no more unsafe than anywhere else. They claim that the absence of tests actually makes driving safer, since the drivers learn to expect the unexpected. We too can do the same.


Addendum: 4th November 2011

The Daily News has finally deigned to report on the bill to vest assets with the state, a full week after news of the extent of the bill began to trickle out (and about two weeks after rumours began to circulate). "Decision prompted by poor management, corruption etc" read the banner below the headline, "No hurry to pass Act" read another. Quite.

I have noticed a pattern, matters that closely involve the rulers are almost never reported in the State owned press, at some point when it does make its way its usually couched as a rebuttal or denial. Where did we see that last???? Hmmm that little matter of the beggars? See also here.

Addendum 2 4th November, 4pm

It now appears that the Sevanagala sugar factory has been stormed and the management thrown out.