Thank you President Obama

It is highly welcome that the ban on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. Thankfully you were brave enough to take this decision even when you knew that it would not be taken lightly by the far right evangelists. It is disturbing to see the progress of science being obstructed by the claims of false idealists. These same people would jump up and cheer when thousands of civilians are murdered for the sake of a few business people. Killing is okay to them as long as it is covered in the shroud of war and patriotism. But they would fervently argue the case for the undeveloped stem cells. This is not a case of sympathy or passion for humanity on their part, but a hollow attempt to ensure the survival of their political influence. I felt like the evangelists were in power for the last 8 years because the Bush administration acted as a puppet of the evangelicals, and did their ultra conservative bidding.
I sure hope you will continue on this path and get the space program on track too. Of course there will always be stiff opposition to such a decision (To the Rush Limbaughs of the world, the whole space program is “pork”!). But ultimately, it is a question of whether you are willing to give up a little of your present so that the future may be brighter. You have the mandate of young people who are willing to look beyond the current crises and see the world progressing. The question is, are you brave enough to take the tough decisions?

Musings from my hostel room

Looking out into the dark skies outside my hostel room, I wonder at the sheer beauty of the night sky. The world is so beautiful, so much so that I sometimes wonder why people dont spend more of their time outdoors. Maybe it is the safety that they feel indoors. Maybe they just dont have time to appreciate the beauty and the mystery of nature. However sad it is, I think that man should really look more closely at the nature if he is to survive another millenium. When scientists develop new technologies they get a lot of their inspirations from nature. That is because nature has outlived us all due to her endurance, and she has so many secrets hidden deep within her. We just have to be good friends to her so that she will yield them to us. Anyways, recently I went to Deenston forest reserve in Hunnasgiriya(In the heart of Sri lanka). Me and my friends camped out in the darkness of the night only broken by our campfire. The unpolluted sky gave us glimpses of the heavens like never before. I tell you there is nothing as beautiful as the night sky so full of stars. As i drifted off to sleep that day, my last thought was the famous line from Sir Arthur Clarke’s book 2001, (Was it Dave Bowman or Frank Poole? I can’t seem to remember) “My god, Its full of stars!”

Story behind the 1000 rupee note

Every one of us familiar with the Sri lankan Rupees 1000/- notes for its size,
colour and so on will not know about the factual story of the elephant
and the man with the cap near it, printed on the 1000/- rupees notes
that are now in circulation in Sri Lanka.

Can anyone imagine that the elephant and the man wearing a cap near it
are from the eastern province and the man is a Muslim? Yes, they are
from the eastern province. The man is Umar Lebbai Panicker from Eravur
in the Batticaloa district and the tusker in the note was caught in
1925 in the Eravur forest and reared by him.

It is said Umar Lebbai Panicker presented this tusker to Dalada
Maligawa and within a short period it escaped from there and went in
search of him to Eravur. He brought it back again and handed over to
the Dalada Maligawa.

His Excellency President late J.R. Jayawardene in order to honour the
long services of the tusker had declared it as a national asset in
1984. This tusker named as Raja adored the Esala Perehera processions
in Kandy and thus became national fame and honoured nationally.

After this, the government in power then, decided to honour the person
presented this elephant to Dalada Maligawa by printing the picture of
him with the tusker nearby, on the notes of rupees 1000/- and the
village Eravur was thus honoured by this action.

The tusker Raja that served in Dalada Maligawa and brought fame and
honour not only for itself but also to the person presented it to
Dalada Maligawa and the village Eravur finally died on July 15, 1988
after serving 50 years in the Maligawa.

“Panicker “is a name given to people who catch elephants in the
forest, rear them and sell to people involved in business,
transporting or carrying very heavy materials and things. Their
decedents are still identified as “Panicker Thaththi” or “Panicker
Kathara”in Eravur. There is a road in Eravur known as ‘Panicker Veedy’
named after their name.

Bail outs : feeding the cancer

I am a big fan of Pres. Barack Obama’s foreign relations policies and his methodical approach to the presidency. But I have serious doubts about his approach towards this financial crisis. This crisis has so far reaching an effect that even in Sri Lanka, a lot of firms are cost cutting and anticipating major economic turbulences in the future. A lot of my friends ask, what could lie in the future. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I can see the crisis only worsening.

First let me tell you what Obama administration is doing, they are literally pumping money into firms that are running out of money due to their own mismanagement. So what is going to happen is that these companies will go forward as they are, and will seek more ‘bail outs’ in the future as well. And who are paying for these bail outs? The businesses which are successful and the average citizens through taxes. This is definitely not the way forward. It will help stem the tide of unemployment, but it will only be a short term effect. In the long term, the money spent for the economic recovery plan is going to be to no avail as there is no signs that these companies like the big three automakers will come out of this alive. To use an analogy, these companies are like a cancer on the US economy. And feeding them more tissue is not going to cure the cancer.

What Obama should have done is to let these companies collapse and file for bankruptcy. That way the Darwinian philosophy of “Let the strong survive” would have maintained that the well managed companies will prevail and the ‘cancerous ‘ ones will go down. Of course most of Obama economic advisers seem to be from Keynesian school of thought, who believe that State intervention is a must when it comes to economic policy. But that means the free market principles that have taken the US forward are being neglected.

Not only in the US, but major economic powers like Japan are also proposing bail outs of firms. Even in Sri Lanka, there have been numerous investment firms which have collapsed due to their investments abroad in Housing and real estate, going down the drain. The most recent example being the Ceylinco group, which is facing an imminent collapse because of one of its rotten apples, “Gloden Key Investments” . The Ceylinco group tried to pump money from their liquid assets into Golden Key but failed. So now the whole group is under threat of imploding.  This is also an example for my case in point that when it comes to economic recovery, Bail outs do not work.