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.

Indian editor on the Sri Lankan situation and the LTTE

Etymology of “Sen-kada-gala”

Since it is the independence week, I thought I’d write something about the history of Sri Lanka and its folklore. This is about Senkadagala, the last Sri lankan kingdom.

It was no coincidence that the Sinhalese kings chose Kandy or “Senkadagala” as their kingdom. It all has to do with the etymology of the name “Sen-kada-gala”. This is a tale in folklore that I gathered from my visits.

In the earlier times, there was a craftsman who went into the jungle in search of ingredients. Suddenly,  he saw an Elephant chasing him. He ran as fast and as far as he could and climbed upon a rock. The elephant who was chasing him, suddenly changed course and ran in the opposite direction. As the man was contemplating this amazing event, he saw a rabbit being chased by a Fox, the rabbit came to the rock and the Fox started running back to where it came from. The craftsman saw this and reported this to the king. The king thought that this was a great location to establish his capital: the rock where enemy forces are broken to pieces “Sen- kada- gala”.

The senkadagala remained the last bastion of the Sri lankan kingdom, withstanding sieges by all of the colonials. Until internal strife led to its downfall and subsequent surrender of whole of Sri Lanka.

Towards lasting peace

Is peace such a complicated issue? The Sri Lankan situation seems so complex that there are times when I thought that the whole exercise of hoping for lasting peace was futile. Especially in the latter half of the 90s, the LTTE were practicing such acts of provocation and polarization. This cast a shadow on any attempts to build peace among communities. But now that the LTTE influence is diminishing, there is hope for real peace and reconciliation.

For me, I think peace is not a goal in itself, it is the development of human relations through pursuing justice and integrity. To think of peace in such a way, simplifies the issue so that even a layman can grasp it.

By justice I don’t mean settling the score, it is about forgiveness and reconciliation. Just like Nelson Mandela’s “Truth and reconciliation” movement. It is also about respecting others and their viewpoints. If justice prevails, So can the roots of lasting peace take hold.

Integrity is another critical aspect of achieving lasting peace. The corruption that is rampant in Sri lankan day to day life causes such disenchantment in the ordinary citizens, that they lose hope in their government. So steps should be taken to abolish corruption through a transparent monitoring body with the due power to take action.

I sincerely think that if each of us is dedicated enough towards this goal, achieving peace is not so complex after all.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead