Pri's blog

  I have just seen RED.   Not because it is the auspicious colour for the New Year, but because I have just read in the Island of 11 th April the seventieth Pathfinder Economic Flash entitled Colombo Port City: Monster or transformative opportunity.   There has been a lot written about how transformative the project promises to be – not just of the Sri Lankan economy, but also of the environment in which we Sri Lankans live.   Some consider the transformation monstrous, others an opportunity! I had gone to the Pathfinder article with a view to finding some evidence for the latter view; for learning about the ‘potential benefits of a massive integrated development project of this nature’, especially the benefits of the marina and yacht club, the seaview apartments, the five star hotel, the mini golf course, the shopping and entertainment centre and the ‘many other modern facilities’.   IMHO, the benefit from projects such as the Colombo Port City Projec...

An article in the Daily Mirror  of 22 April reports a call from the National Sangha Council  that asks that Colombo not be made a Chicago or a Bangkok.  It is a protest against the casino bill that will be presented to the Sri Lankan parliament this week.   I don’t know about Chicago, but I am right now in Bangkok, and I marvel, as I have always done, how Thai people practise their religion, Buddhism, alongside their highly consumerist life style, with little pretense or hypocrisy.  The Sanga walk collecting alms every morning in the city.  I have never seen that in Colombo. And it would seem that the gods of consumerism and the gods of religion sit comfortably side by side, with the people of Bangkok constantly worshipping at street temples in the course of their day to day activity, showing respect to the gods as they go about their daily routine. May be a little more Bangkok style Buddhist piety,  may not be a bad thing...

I don’t really DO Christmas... and my best December 25ths have been spent in  London in my sister’s flat, drinking the rather lethal hot punch my brother-in-law prepares, watching Bond movies on television while the men (brother-in-law and son) prepare the Christmas meal; stuffing myself up with whatever fantastic menu they decide to lay out at whatever time (brunch, high tea, supper), and then full of good food and drink, falling asleep on the couch only to wake up on boxing day, happy that the whole event for that year at least, is behind me!  This year I am in Colombo.   As season’s greetings flood my inbox, facebook, twitter, etc etc  and the Christmas songs reach such a crescendo on Gold FM as I drive frantically to and from Arpico, Selyn, Barefoot, Paradise Road, Rhithi (cannot handle a pre-Christmas ODEL, I am afraid) filling in the gaps in my gift list, there are three thoughts I would like to share with you... The first thought  is related to ...

A couple of days ago some of us were talking about all the changes that were happening in Colombo. As readers of this blog might have noticed, these changes do not happen without some heartache for many of us old residents, though of course the real impact is on those residents who are being displaced or losing their homes and whose voices are not always heard on the likes of this blog.  For them it is much, much worse.  But read more about that here . Our recent conversation was whether the beautification, a component, albeit a small component,  of the Metro Colombo Urban Development Project funded by the World Bank and which is, in essence, a flood control project was being monitored in its implementation, especially its accelerated CHOGM implementation.  We rather cynically observed, that if the new developments had not taken issues of drainage into account, they could result in more flooding, which of course would go contrary to the whole objectives of the p...

Here as promised a gist of what I said at the 6th South Asian Economic Summit's Managing Urbanisation Inclusively   session... The background to the session seemed to suggest that being ‘inclusive’  is about the rural-urban gap, looking at ways in which the rural labourers, left out of the growth that is being generated by the cities, are able to benefit from that growth.   The result of this is a labour force which remains predominantly agricultural and rural, while a small proportion of the population – that which is urban and more highly-skilled  enjoys the benefits of growth and integration with the global economy. What I wanted to point out in this session was that growth within cities is not equal either.  If one begins to talk economics as if people mattered, then one would see that urban development is beginning to transform city space, and relationships between people living in the city, in ways  that privilege some city dwellers an...

see this video from Vikalpa also just to confirm that it's all flattened - kovil and laundry - here's a photo from last week