Watch out VC is watching you!

Sri Jayawardenapura University Vice Chancellor N.L.A. Karunaratne is one who believes that a camera never lies.

So, he set up surveillance cameras at strategic locations in his campus including the library and other places where students gather. The students became aware that they were being watched only after 36 of their colleagues were suspended. They had all been identified taking part in a demonstration.

The cameras showed that two students were pasting posters. They were suspended. The same fate befell a male and female student who were holding hands. Dr. Karunaratne confirmed to the Sunday Times surveillance cameras had been placed at various locations. However, he said they were needed to monitor the activities of the students since there was a constant threat to their well-being.

"In this era of high technology I cannot see why such equipment cannot be used especially in volatile situations such as this. I will install these cameras wherever it pleases me," he insisted.

That means the boys and girls in the campus will have to be on their best behaviour at all times. No holding hands or whispering sweet nothings. In modern day Sri Lanka, Dr. Karunaratne has forbidden this.

German voices not in harmony

The Opposition leaders are livid about a meeting they had with a five member German Parliamentary delegation with whom they held talks this week.

Four of the five defended the UPFA government stoutly during the discussion. Only the fifth was the dissenting voice.

Whether the foursome was briefed by a local diplomat or by their Foreign Office was the talking point.
The discordant notes they sounded were quite different to the positions held by their government, said one opposition member.

Mangala sheds blood for the country

Matara District UNP parliamentarian, Mangala Samaraweera, was in Endagalawatte in Horana during the Grama Charika (Rural Tours) programme.

He suddenly found that he was bleeding from his legs. Hordes of leeches had bitten him. "I am not frightened to shed blood. But we should stop people who are bleeding the country," he quipped

No Pinochet treatment for MR

Sections of the Indian media have got it wrong. In a London datelined report they claimed, "In an embarrassing turn of events, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has been forced to cancel his proposed visit to Britain following fears that he might be arrested for alleged war crimes under British law. Rajapaksa's provisional engagements included an address to the Oxford Union, and it's learnt that certain Sri Lankan Tamil organisations were planning to move court for his arrest."

They cited the case of one time Chilean leader, late Augusto Pinochet, as an example. President Rajapaksa put off till the first week of December his visit to Britain purely due to pressure of work locally. His swearing in is due on November 19. Thereafter, he has to present the budget. These two matters, among others, are requiring the President's close attention.

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to London was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying the President shall visit in December. An External Affairs Ministry official said the talk of so-called arrest is "nothing but rubbish." "Unlike Pinochet, President Rajapaksa enjoys sovereign immunity and cannot be touched," he said.

Who's spoiling whom?

The wedding of the son of a one time deputy minister at a star class hotel ended on a sour note.
The wife of one guest told the wife of another, "do you know that your husband has a child from another woman? He is spoiling my husband too," she complained.

Later, when the accuser-lady was walking out with her husband, the wife of a serving deputy minister was to kick him hard on the groin. He yelled in pain. Now, the matter has ended up in the Kollupitiya Police.

Toddy for thought

The subject of discussion at the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council was the levy of taxes on alcohol.

Suddenly Jagath Palliyaguru (UNP) pulled out two bottles of toddy from under his table. He said, "there is no point in simply levying taxes. We have to ensure that the quality of liquor is good. See this is what they call Boku Dira" (meaning one that corrodes the intestines).

Government councillors took exception to the conduct of their colleague. They pointed out that on a previous occasion, another councillor had brought a loaf of bread inside a box.

Chairman Ranjith Bandara directed that councillors would in future be prohibited from bringing productions to the chamber.

Some do, some don’t

In Sri Lanka, Cabinet ministers in successive governments, past and present, have circumvented the law by designating their wives or their children as ministerial secretaries primarily to enable them to enjoy the perks of office and travel overseas at public expense.

One former Cabinet minister, who designated his wife as a member of the Sri Lanka delegation to the UN many moons ago, was caught on-camera sleeping in his seat at the General Assembly hall with his head firmly resting on his palm and his wife by his side unaware that UN photographers were on an upper floor taking shots with telephoto lens.

The incident turned out to be a political embarrassment because the Sri Lankan minister was caught sleeping (but, mercifully, not snoring) when the Indian Foreign Minister was addressing the Assembly. This is deemed an insult to the speaker at the podium. Being a member of the delegation, the wife's services were only to lend her shoulder-- at public expense.

However, at least one Minister in the present cabinet is playing by the rule book, even if he embarrassed the country by asking the Chinese for a 'freebie' recently and got snubbed. When he visited London recently, he travelled Business Class (which he is entitled to) but his wife travelled economy.

At the Heathrow airport, when British security tried to whisk him away, he had asked them to slow down because his wife was embarking much later than him because she was on the less-privileged economy class. Credit to her, and other wives of Ministers, past and present, who refuse to get themselves appointed as their spouse's private secretary to enjoy the ride at the expense of the long suffering people.