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Sri Lankan mentalities that cannot be upgraded
- The more we read about deals and promises that are on offer to upgrade ourselves we must also see whether these offers will distance us from human qualities
- Those who are in power and have fake personalities may not upgrade anything. These lawmakers who hoodwink the public are darlings at home
There was a recent post on facebook where a picture comparison from the past with one of the present shows that travelling by bus hasn’t changed much in this sun-kissed island. One of the pictures-printed in black and white- shows people on a bus using the footboard and some part of the front potion of the bus to hang on to dear life with the hope travelling dangerously to reach their scheduled destination. The only difference in the people back then and now, according to the picture caption, is that Sri Lankans have upgraded their cameras, which enables them to take coloured photographs instead of black and white ones. The mentality of people when it comes to tavelling is not to care much about safety as long as you reach your destination. The same can be said about people travelling in trains as well.
The problem when these people travel like this is that they give enough signs to the politicians that the latter can push the former to the wall. These are days when unsatisfied people are 
immigrating to other nations which offer a better ticket to life. But don’t we still get feedback from people who go abroad to visit relations and friends who observe that some of our very own people ‘now settled there’ read only the Sinhala newspapers sent via flights from Sri Lanka and serve the island’s known brands of biscuits with tea; when they have to entertain visitors?
Despite all this we still get to hear attempts being made by almost everybody to purchase smartphones that promise all the latest facilities. Most of these phones come with super cameras that allow users to take high resolution photographs. But often we hear of this facility being misused and used to blackmail people. We all know about the well-muscled politician who uses his smartphone to record conversations and inconvenience people; this man getting a thrill out of the whole process in the end.
The more we read about deals and promises that are on offer to upgrade ourselves we must also see whether these offers will distance us from human qualities. It’s a meritorious deed to offer alms or food to the less-privileged, but it doesn’t seem so good when such moment are photographed and shared on social media outlets. Class discrimination- when it comes to education and marriage- must be frowned upon, but when a person travelling first class in a train misbehaves it spells out where you come from. Just a reminder of an old saying, class tells!
There was a time when parents failed to find national schools for their children to pursue their education. Then we saw the advent of international schools in this island. These institutions offered an education in English and did it in line with what’s globally accepted as imparting knowledge. Most people were okay with opening up of these education institutes. But this was not the case when the government gave the green light to open private universities. There was mayhem in the country. There were politicians and union leaders who were not very honest when they protested against establishing private universities here. Their very own offspring, by then, were studying in foreign universities.
We still see the same old lawmakers up to their old tricks of fooling the public. They haven’t upgraded themselves. There are exceptions however. National People’s Power Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) doesn’t look like a leftist politician when you study his attire. But this guy has embraced the ‘new’ and preserved what can be termed as the best parts of camaraderie. That’s why he is a trusted individual today in the political scene. Walking on some of the same lines as he is lawmaker Patali Champika Ranawaka . People still talk about his views expressed regarding digitalizing of all products and sales, so that the Sri Lankan Government can have a better control of the economy and how much can be raised as taxes. But despite all these positives expressed by them, these two individuals are criticized heavily for views expressed to change the system.
Those who are in power and have fake personalities may not upgrade anything. These lawmakers who hoodwink the public are darlings at home. We have seen how the public responds with ‘positive’ comments on social media when they die or their kith and kin are called to rest. People of this country must update and upgrade themselves before the lawmakers do the same. That photograph of the loaded bus, that appeared on facebook and was mentioned very early in this column, offers us plenty to ponder about. It suggests that we as a nation are willing to live dangerously even when our surroundings are made very shaky by lawmakers.
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