| Not
safe at all
The buyer of the official car used by former PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike
that was sold by private auctioneers recently, found to his amazement
that certain parts of the Volvo he bought for Rs. 650,000 were missing.
After a few inquires he found the missing parts but he had to fork
out an additional Rs. 25,000 to get back the parts which had been
allegedly removed by some employees of the Prime Minister's office
at Flower Road. The general view is that cars are unsafe only when
left unattended at Panchikawatte but now they are not safe even
in more guarded areas.
Refreshing
change
The dawn of the New Year was a day of relaxation for many but for
the scribes it was business as usual with government spokesman G.L.Peiris's
press conference scheduled for the day. But
there was a refreshing change to the weekly briefings that were
held throughout the previous year. The journalists were invited
to a serving of kiributh before moving on to the more mundane matters.
Not
secure even abroad
The Christmas and New Year season is also a time that most politicians
were using to travel overseas and attempts by journalists to contact
them over the last two weeks have been a difficult task. One scribe
called the home of a Cabinet Minister to be told by an aide that
his master was out of the island. When asked where the Minister
was spending his holidays, the man refused to reveal the destination."
I can't tell you due to security reasons," was the reply. And
we thought their insecurities were confined only to the shores of
this country.
Gloomy
outlook
The JVP has issued its New Year greetings in rather an unusual manner.
Under the heading wishes for a year of overcoming challenges, the
party says the country was taken to the brink of division, the economy
was taken over by foreign forces and there was mass scale subjugation
of the country's culture in the past year and the people must resolve
to overcome these disasters in the new year or else this would never
be a "Happy New Year". Not a very optimistic prediction
of things to come.
New
Air Force headgear
Among those turning heads in the New Year were men of the Sri Lanka
Air Force who started wearing new headgear from the first. Their
previous peak caps have been confined to ceremonial functions only.
However the reviews coming in about the new addition to their uniform
haven't been all that promising. |
