Do you know what it means? Most pejoratives have origins in completely acceptable descriptive words. ‘Negro’ comes from the Latin ‘Niger‘ which means black, ‘Paki’ is shortened from ‘Pakistani’. Terms like Chinaman, Coolie are also derived from relatively innocent descriptive origins. They get their pejorative connotations after being repeatedly used in an insulting manner. Other names originate directly from a desire to put down ...
image from the Colombo Gazette Tonight’s protest against the BBS (well, actually a vigil to promote the ‘true values’ of Buddhism which the BBS are going against) was an eye opener in many ways. Number one, injustice And this MUST be mentioned first and foremost. It was an eye opener to be on the wrong side of injustice, assuming ...
For minorities to know their place in this country all they have to do is to look at its national flag. Here’s a picture. There are the minorities colored in green and orange, and the Sinhala have a big patch of red.. Hey that’s fine, proportional representation ain’t no crime, but what’s that there in the red patch? is ...
Nice guy Pakistan fan at Pallekale Halaal Sri Lanka tweeted the below this morning. The ACJU already sent what i think is a mass SMS via dialog saying the same. Muslims are requested to avoid deliberate support/overjoy in today’s match arousing the feeling of hatred among our Sri Lankan brothers-ACJU — HALAAL Sri Lanka (@HalaalSL) October 4, 2012 Interesting. I ...
I met Nathan on a bus bound for Hatton. Nathan lives in a shop at pettah. A hotel. He’s a career hotel worker. Having worked in Nawalapitiya. He now juggles three jobs in pettah in order to raise his kids of which he has four. He is also a karate master. Owns five cows. And farms a small patch ...
The BBS ringing tone on Mobitel had recorded nearly a 1000 buys as of 9am, 27 March Racist and hate groups are supposed to remain on the sidelines of society, screaming their subversive rhetoric in order to appeal to the seedier side of the collective conscience. Their funding usually comes from shadowy sources with powerful interests and money to be ...
The premises being refurbished Starbucks branding just coming up Starbucks has finally turned its beady eye to Colombo it seems. There is an outlet coming up at Jawatte road just near the Thimba junction. While Starbucks might just be testing the waters*, the overpriced coffee market indeed seems to be booming. Its funny, the thing about overpriced coffee is well, ...
Photo by AFP They are demolishing Unawatuna. At least, they’re demolishing all the illegal hotels there. I don’t know how i feel about this yet. On the one hand they’re illegal, on the other the hotels are what give Unawatuna its character and feel. The Man is moving into Una. I’m picturing large resorts being opened up on the bay ...
Delegates at Hambantota trying to pose for the massive group picture with the president. I know a lot of people here are idealistic, I am too. I’m just a little cynical about the mechanisms we usually use in order to get what we want. Getting what we want (‘we’ being ‘the youth’, an over-homogenized entity that sometimes does not make ...
Some of the earliest cartoons i remember were dubbed by Titus Thotawatte. They included Pissu Poosa (Top cat), Walas Mama (The Beary Family), Dostara Hondahitha (Dr. Doo Little) and Haa Haa Hari Haawa (Bugs Bunny). These were freakin A cause in the early nineties regular kids only had access to lame local sing along shows and Sesame Street, and even ...
Traffic in Colombo is not pleasant. Leaving home at the wrong time can ruin your whole day. Do this for a while, and soon cursing behind the wheel everyday will likely give you grey hairs and a prematurely weak heart. Blame The Cars Tax reform, low interest rates and possibly increasing middle class incomes have [...]
First of all sorry for the hiatus. I had a good excuse. And a very satisfying one too. Insha Allah i’ll get around to blogging about SWY 24 when I’ve managed to piece together some reason out of the flood of memories in my head, but in the meanwhile, what on Earth is going on with the Rupee? A seahorse ...
Tintin was epic. It managed to give near three hours of rollicking entertainment, bringing alive the twelve year old thrill seeker inside me. Speilberg and Peter Jackson did a more than decent job of doing justice to the comic book. The entire thing was done in cgi, using motion capture technology. Meaning real actors donned motion capture suits and ...
The IMF has just asked us to remove the currency peg. What is a peg? Well as the video above beautifully explains using the metaphor of yacht racing; a peg is a peg cause its a peg. Basically allowing us to fix the value of the rupee with any currency of our choosing. We chose the dollar [...]
This is probably one of the best videos on Sri Lanka tourism i have ever seen. One, because it focuses on Sri Lankan tourists and two, because it is highly entertaining but still gets across a message. Garbage. Trash. Pollution. Look at any ‘trip’ that Sri Lankans do and you will see garbage in their wake. Numerous are the occasions ...
I saw this eyebrow raising advertisement today trying to sell fairness cream for vaginas or, so corrects my spellchecker, vaginae. What will these ingenious Indians think of next? Was going to blog about it but seems Indi has beat me to it. Also, the topic has caused some debate among the more figuratively enlightened as well, refer this hilarious ...
(Syndicated with permission from Frontier Research) News The S&P 500 index rose by 0.9% for the week on optimistic expectations from Europe while the European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.6% to a 13 month high. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index again saw a slight rise (0.2%) based on positive comments from the Chinese premier and expectations of a US recovery. Brent crude pared larger weekly gains and advanced only 75 ...
take it easy and you’ll do fine: Upali Upali is what industry insiders call a ‘professional tuk tuk driver’. He bought his first tuk tuk 27 years ago. Currently driving a four stroke TVS, he claims that it is better than its Bajaj equivalent. The TVS is the latest of 8 three wheelers he has owned throughout his career. He gets ...
After stewing about it for more than two days ‘Team Mobitel’ appears to have finally come up with a response. It’s actually quite ridiculous. They apologize for any ‘inconvenience or pain of mind’ caused but reiterate that the racist ringtone will remain on their site on a ‘revenue share basis’. Apparently they still care about upholding the ‘true values of unity ...
Dharmapriya Dias and Gihan De Chickera in a scene from Machang Sri Lankans have a fascination with everything foreign. Going ‘to the foreign’ or ‘ab-road’ is considered to be the epitome of success. For after you are ‘in the foreign’ life there is going to be all feather beds and high disposable income. I’ve run into many people like that ...
