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Year 2014: Buddhist era 2557-2558

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There was an interesting debate among colleagues that was triggered by the simple fact that I shared the official government calendar for 2014.  The Calendar has, as it has had in the previous year, and possibly many years prior to that,  the sub title -  Buddhist Era 2557-2558. This triggered a discussion on whether it was appropriate to have that on the calendar or not.  The argument against seemed to be based on it being seen as an imposition by the State of Buddhism, into areas that are perceived as secular and non-religious. [Though of course, as was pointed out,  the Gregorian Calendar is not really secular at all, based on the fact that it counts the years from the birth of Christ!] What was interesting was that we were having this debate at all.  Obviously, the current context has made us all ultra sensitive to certain issues, and the whole question of a state religion led some of us to be uncomfortable, others to be resentful (not overtly ma...
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Some thoughts on the White Saviour Complex of development consultancies

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photo taken from  https://e11e99.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/identity-in-a-post-colonial-world/ I am sharing some thoughts that I picked  randomly from a relatively progressive Christian facebook page (Sojourners)that I follow, mainly to help me counter the rather misinformed opinions of my true believer Christian friends (brown not white).  The article is called , 6 HARMFUL CONSEQUENCES OF THE WHITE SAVIOR COMPLEX, BY RYAN KUJA  and is so relevant to the northern development consultancy space that many of my (white) friends and colleagues occupy (and that I too sometimes venture into) that I thought to use it to write a blog post that I can share with that community.   R yan Kuja confesses that he was "never a missionary in the standard sense of the word, never proselytized or attempted to save souls"  but admits that "the engine driving [him] was the white saviour complex..... The other Westerners [he] worked with believed [they] had it al...
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Costume pageantry at the National Museum

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I am not sure how many people who read this blog were at the HSBC Costume Pageant held in the Museum courtyard on the 17 th of May, held in conjunction with the opening of the HSBC sponsored textile and pottery galleries.  I got a ticket through a friend in the organising committee, and went there with another friend, a Premier customer. We had some high expectations, and together with several others who were sitting around us, and who we met on our way out, we were sorely disappointed.    Unfortunately, not everyone was.  The organisers and the producer, a well known Sri Lankan choreographer, got many accolades, and personal congratulations.  I have been told that the government thought the pageant excellent and wanted to show it at the coming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, that several TV stations had wanted to air the video of the event.  I was also told that the organisers and the choreographer had sat with heavies in the archaeo...
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