Dictator of the (so called) Biggest Democracy

Democracy or Dictatorship?

In 2002 Bush decided to attack Iraq, why?..... because they had weapons of mass destruction hmm.....
The UN opposed, the American public opposed, the general public of most other countries including Britain, Australia and France protested. Jacques Chirac heavily condemned and so did the Pope... but did that matter to Bush? .....nah!

Since then everybody has been talking about when the troops in Iraq are going to be withdrawn. Just a few weeks ago, after a lot of drag, the US passed a congressional bill to withdraw troops from Iraq, only to get De vetoed by Bush...




Thanks Powell, I couldn't have said it better!

Glorifying Death

I thought of writing this post when I saw this news article in the BBC. Two girls aged 16 in Perth, Australia had killed their friend (aged 15) and buried her. Why?... just to see if they would feel any remorse afterwards. This has taken place almost one year ago, after the court hearing they have now been sentenced to life in prison.

Isn't that shocking?

In a slightly unrelated note recently there has been a lot of talk about a certain 'EMO sub-culture' here. Due to a double suicide of two teenage girls in Melbourne who belonged to that culture, and a murder of another teenage girl in Adelaide.

Emo means something close to over emotional, and are usually unhappy and pessimistic. Self-infliction i.e. cutting or harming oneself with knives or sharp objects are common among them. (I'll write a separate one on this) But generally their view of life is gloomy and they have a way of 'glorifying death and murder'.

I seriously don't know where these people get this attitude from. But I have a feeling (I maybe wrong) that tv programmes contribute to this mentality.

Last night on tv, there were 2 crime scene investigation stories on one channel back to back, another murder story on another and a violent prison break story on another.
The day before I watched half of CSI-NY which is a very popular tv series all over the world. And not forgeting the other CSI Miami and CSI Las Vegas which have become quite popular. Anyone who watch this type of drama know how in agonising detail they present the murder. Every small step taken by the murderer to cover up, and every little clue the investigators pursue to find out the truth. The stories really are captivating and addictive.

However, I personally believe that these put ideas into people, specially young ones. Teen years are quite hard for children, and they can be confused and mislead very easily.

I very well remember when I was little there was a drama on tv in which a person hangs himself and commits suicide. Later on in the week there was a news on the paper (I remember my parents talking about it) A boy had tried out the suicide to see if it really works, and had died. Therearfter there was a roar about what should be broadcasted on tv.

My companions back home

That's Bingo and Bussy at home back in SL : my brother sent me the photo.

They are not really best friends :)

Bingo likes to come in and sit in front of the cat, blocking its way - just to show him who's the boss around here.

Gilchrist and his squash ball

Here we go again..

After I finished the post 'bye bye world cup' I was pretty resolute in not writing about the world cup again. But the hot topic of Gilchrist and his squash ball which keeps popping up in a lot of blogs and discussion groups just pushes me into writing some thing on it.

The first time I heard that he's got a squash ball inside his glove to help him with his grip I also asked the same question from myself "Is that........legal??" And I've been debating it with myself and my husband....well, if some extra object does enhance a players performance, it doesn't truly reflect his/her abilities, does it? No doubt Gilchrist is a great cricketer, but in this innings he did seem like 'superman'.

There are a lot of arguments going around, and I beleive the question is to be taken up at ICC's next meeting.

http://different-stroke.blogspot.com/2007/05/sri-lanka-cricket-to-question-legality.html
http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=22452
http://wordpress.com/tag/cricket-etcetera/

Anyhow, my question is that if he's allowed to do that, does that mean that any batsmen can stuff in any object of their preference under their gloves to enhance their performance?. Surely there has to be some regulation in this.

If the wicket keepers are not allowed to put on extra padding in their gloves, and bowlers can't wear bandages when bowling, and definetely fielders can't wear gloves (even inner ones) to improve their grip on the ball..........how come that batsmen can?

Farm in the City

This farmyard was in the middle of the city's busiest shopping street.....

No idea why they were there.

Wesak - The Festival of Light

Today is 'Wesak' full moon poya day. 'Wesak' is the Sinhalese name for the month of May, and 'poya' refers to the full moon days that fall once every month.

The significance of Wesak lies with Lord Buddha, it was on a Wesak full moon day (somewhere around 6th century BC) that he was born as Prince Siddhartha to a regional king and queen near the now India-Nepal border. And it was on a Wesak full moon day, 35 years later that he attained enlightenment. It was also on the same day another 45 years later that the enlightened one passed away.

Buddhists all over the world celebrate this day for its symbolic significance. Some prefer to observe 'sil' which means that they will spend the day, disciplining themselves to behave in the fashion of an 'arhath' disciple. Practicing 'morality', 'compassion', 'humility' and meditation to calm the mind.

In Sri Lanka (I'm not sure about other Buddhist countries), towards night fall people light up the whole country with lanterns and creative work, filled with lights, candles and colours. The creative aspects of children and adults alike come alive during this time. And there's so much to see no matter where in the country you live.

The symbolic aspect of this 'light ceromony' is the depiction of 'enlightenment'. Which brought the light of 'wisdom' and drew away the darkness of 'ignorance'.

Bye bye World cup

Ok, so the world cup is over, and Australia took it home.

This certainly has been quite an eventful world cup, with a load of controversies, confusions and emotions. Just to name a few

• The heavy weights Pakistan was sent home before the Super 8's
• Bob Woolmer, Pakistan coach was murdered (so they say)
• Inzamam resigns, the Pakistan cricket board president resigns and lots of mayhem
• Another big contender India also sent home before the Super 8's
• Riots in India
• Greg Chappel steps down
• Flintoff gets sacked
• Critisim towards the ICC at the organisation of the world cup; too long, bad turnout of spectators, loss making, no carribean atmosphere, not enough resources for players etc
• Many big names retire; team coaches from Tom Moody to Duncan Fletcher; players like Lara, McGrath, Stephen Fleming, and our Russel Arnold (this will also probably be the last world cup of Jayasuriya, Murali and Vass as well)

Oh boy! It's good that a world cup comes along only once in four years!

The world cup final that shouldn't have been

We were all excited to watch the world cup throughout the night.. I put on an extra winter coat to keep myself warm throughout the match and was all ready to watch the match. Was feeling very excited and nervous! to my annoyance the tv channel was showing "spiderman" till just past 11 o'clock ??!!!!^%@^&@ (the match is supposed to start at 11) Then finally they switched the channel to the sports channel, where Ian Healy and Mark Taylor were discussing weather, it was raining in Barbados..oh great! so the match is delayed.

Next to keep the viewers entertained till the match started, they began showing the extended highlights of the world cup final of '92, match between Pakistan and England. what the hell?!!@!
Out of all the possibilities why did they have to bore us with a match that had nothing to do with either Australia or SL? At least they could have given us a recap of this world cup or a summary of all the world cups since '75 or something interesting as such. Well, by the time the match finally started I was bored to death watching Imran Khan bowling the same ball to Ian Botham in slow motion over and over again!

Finally,..the match started with just 38 overs, what a pity for a much anticipated world cup final!
You would have expected the most important match in the whole series to have been organised so well, that you could kick back and enjoy. But this match turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. All went well for the Aussie innings, and Gilchrist (Gilly) batted out like mad! it was an incredible batting performance! Specially for someone who hasn't been in form all throughout the series.

Next the Sri Lankans came out to chase what seemed like a humanly impossible target of 281 in just 38 overs, that's a run rate of 7.4! but we still had Jayasuriya so there was a glimmer of hope, so I thought. However, to me it didn't seem like any of our batsmen were confident enough to go all the way. I dozed off and missed a couple of overs around 5 in the morning and woke up to a boundary by Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya and Sanga settled down a bit and lifted the run rate, but the strokes they played seem to be more out of desperation.

To add to the annoyance, it started raining again (just after we passed the 20 over mark; should have been good if the rain poured down a bit earlier :) but that was not to be) anyway, after another while yawning away, the match started again. The batsmen came out into the field not knowing what the revised target was. So both the batsmen and the Aussies stood there confused, waiting for the information from the umpires who were doing the D/L calculations. Wow, how professional. Finally it was announced that the 38 overs were further reduced to 36.

From there on the match went ok until it was begining to look very dark out there. Next came the biggest blunder of the whole series. The SL batsmen were offered to take the bad light condition and call an end to the match, which they did. And the Aussies started celebrating the victory, but not for long, the umpires intervened and told them the match isn't over yet. We were all confused as to what is going on. Next the SL batsmen were called back in to bat in the dark. The commentators were furious. it seriously was absurd, the ground didn't have lights to play on. So Mahela and Ponting discussed to use spinners for the last couple of overs instead of throwing fast balls at someone who could barely make out where they are coming from.

After what seemed like ages, the match came to an end, with Australia winning the 2007 world cup,..... Again!!

Have to admit it the Australian team is doing exceptionally well, and they do deserve to win the world cup.

But the Sri Lankan team has done very well to have come into the finals and put up a brave performance. Win or lose we are with you, you have always been the pride and joy of the tiny little island in the Indian ocean.

Oh well, better luck next time!

World Cup - The Grand Finale!

Just finished reading a few Sri Lankan blogs and news online and listened to a new song by the Gypsies made for our team, seems like the whole country is on their toes and getting ready for the big thing! The country's president is also in the Windies for the final.

My brother is also ready with enough snacks to last throughout the match.

Here in Australia there's no atmosphere of a Cricket World Cup final going to be played in a couple of hours. Not even an advertisement on the tv about it being telecast tonight. Nobody seems to care about it. It's all footy for them, a game played only in Australia among local clubs, a cross between rugby and soccer. They are just crazy over it. Cricket is just another game, not a part of life as in Sri Lanka.

Wish I was in SL to enjoy the anticipation and the excitement. Anyway, looking forward to a victorious sleepless night.

:)