Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Peripheral road development Sri Lanka.

Not so obvious values of peripheral road development Sri Lanka


In the news has been the  visible development of the main roads all over the country. Not confined to Colombo alone.

But often unnoted  by the  traveller has been the equally valuable development of the smaller roads in the provinces and the village areas ( pradeshiya sabha) going on for years. Few have the time to go through thousands of by roads and village tracks.

Attached is the  news  of the  planned investment of a further $ 1200 million into a thousand of these provincial/village roads.
Maybe it is election time, but unlike in former times, they are not beginning now; they have been at it for years, for decades though at a slower pace.

Some patriots have been  critical of this peripheral financial input, some even going so far as to condemn even the new rd to hitherto isolated Mulaithivu.
But one needs ask for  opinion only from the villager beneficiaries  who  serendipitously  got quick road access in  case of health, business reasons etc etc.

Referring to my familiar area, the health sector too has kept pace, the budget of 124 million last year spent and upped to 159 million this year.

The upgrading of peripheral hospitals have kept young orthopaedic surgeons reasonably happy, so that many of them are doing work there, not scooting to  greener pastures as was happening  in the past decades.

I am not able to comment on the third important factor schooling, but that  seem to have kept pace too.

Today, there is promise of a better life for the locals who are (farming) the backbone of food production.
Hopefully more and more  will find acceptable productive work in these difficult areas, what with present droughts and future floods.
To wit, my former car driver is now back home in Tissa driving as well as developing his family paddy land, also putting up a new house at a slow pace.

There is no immediate visible result on these govt. investments, except in the long term. But it is a must.

Today Embilipitiya is a well to do town or city ( buses leaving the town stand every 5 minutes,)  after  decades of development efforts and today much of our farm produce is sourced from it.

Dambulla is another, a rustic town not so long ago, now  about the most important market centre of produce in the whole country.  

Ampara yet another.

In the last ten years of my travel there has been such development wherever we went, excluding the former ‘war’ areas which we avoided then.

(Looking at the sparsely populated north, I wonder who will settle back in their own agricultural regions without jumping out for better pastures?
Some doctors stationed there say that their work load is too small! (Other than Jaffna peninsula) to warrant too many medical specialities.
Seems some of the western province entrepreneurs of all hues are tapping these regions putting up hotels and fishing businesses) 


  
Going back 40 years to the past, as I know, the Canadians offered us a developed road work in the 1970s which our socialist govt.  was not interested in. Maybe we could have avoided some nasty events originating from the poor regions? Only gives more reason  why we need develop under developed areas, if only to avoid roots and pockets  of violence.

Keeping this short.

jksw

Raju the captive elephant.

email from Gallege De Silva


In case you missed this article: Latest news on Raju the elephant moved world to tears, pictures crying swept internet smiles introduced five females..!!

07:54 (22 hours ago)

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Curiosities of history.

email from Chellah Padmanathan

1:20 AM (4 hours ago)


 
Have a history teacher explain this----- if they can. 
 


  
  

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. 
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. 

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. 
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. 

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.. 
Both wives lost their children while living in the 
White House. 

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. 
Both Presidents were shot in the head 
. 

Now it gets really weird. 

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy. 
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln . 

Both were assassinated by Southerners. 
Both were succeeded by Southerners 
named Johnson. 

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. 
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. 

  

  

John Wilkes Booth , who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.   Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy,
was born in 1939.   


Both assassins were known by their three names. 
Both names are composed of fifteen letters. 

Now hang on to your seat. 

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford'. 
Kennedy was shot in a car called 
' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford'. 

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin 
ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials. 

And here's the kicker... 

A week before 
Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe , Maryland. 
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.



 

WHO FIGURED THIS OUT?! 

        
Now, try this… 

INCREDIBLE 

        
1) Fold a 
NEW $20 bill in half... 




2) Fold again, taking care to fold it exactly as below 




3) Fold the other end, exactly as before 





4) Now, simply turn it over... 
        




What a coincidence! 

A simple geometric fold creates a catastrophic premonition printed on all $20 bills!!! 

COINCIDENCE? 


YOU DECIDE 


As if that wasn't enough...

SUPER SHORT SCRIPTS‏

email from Kamalini Kanapathippillai.

1. COOL MESSAGE BY A WIFE:
Dear Mother-in-law, “Don’t teach me how to handle my children, I’m living with one of yours and he needs a lot of improvement!”

2. SWEET DEMAND BY A KID:
A kid was spanked by his mom. His dad came home and asked the crying boy, "What happened, Son?"
The kid replied, "I can’t stand your wife anymore. I want my own."

3. 
THROWING KNIVES:
A wife was throwing knives at her husband’s picture. All were missing the target!
Suddenly she received a call from him. “Hi," he asked. "What are you doing?”
Her honest reply: “Missing you!”

4. I WILL THINK ABOUT IT:
When a married man says, “I’ll think about it”, what he really means is that he doesn’t know his wife’s opinion yet.

5. TALKING IN SLEEP:
A lady says to her doctor: "My husband has a habit of talking in his sleep! What should I give him to cure it?"
The doctor replies: "Give him an opportunity to speak when he’s awake!"

6. HEAD OF THE FAMILY:
It is said that the husband is the head of the family, but remember that the wife is the neck of the family. The neck can turn the head exactly the way it wants.
 


Monday, August 4, 2014

CoMSAA Reunion, 2014.

Newsletter_july, Flyer_reunion

Inbox
x

CoMSAA 2011 

Aug 3 (2 days ago)
to Haleem, vajirahwd, ajithpm, senanij, risintha, Naomali, pradeep490, dineshkoggalage, Dr, g.d.s.pallawela, Arosha, Dakshitha, nevillevp, sandamali_prem., niroshan_loku, si7np5e, tirankeragala, suramya1983, sanathp.lama, anurasen, rmcbhunu, gnaniss, kalyani_guruge, sumithra, sumithratissera
Dear members,

Please find attached the July newsletter and flyer (3rd Reunion and congress).

Thank you.

Colombo Medical School Alumni Association
Faculty of Medicine
University of Colombo
Sri Lanka
comsaa2011@gmail.com
2 Attachments





Head of £13k-a-year girls' school tells pupils not to fret about exams.


Judith Carlisle, who runs Oxford High, said perfectionism was 'not achievable longer term' and that no one will 'give a damn which GCSE you got in French'.
Read the full story:

2 August 2014

Hot curries ‘could stop you getting bowel cancer’.


The capsaicin, which gives chilli peppers their heat, triggered a pain receptor that set off a reaction which reduced the risk of growing colorectal tumours.
Read the full story:
2 August 2014