Karuna, AIG: Size does matter

If Karuna was of a low rank, he would probably be languishing in a jail. But he is not. He was one of the bigger fish.

If AIG was the name of a USD 100,000 annual turnover business, it would have failed if it ran out of money.

Size does matter.

What about appointing Karuna to the Sri Lankan Parliament? Morally, I can say that it is wrong to appoint a former high ranking terrorist, who planned and carried out attacks and allegedly, used children in the war.

I can also say that it is better to bring a former terrorist in to the democratic system, forgiving their past deeds – else, a terrorist will always be a terrorist.

Sometimes, I guess we have to do what is practical, and not what is “correct” or “the proper thing to do”.

So, what if Prabarkaran wants to join the parliment? Well, he is the biggest fish: and doubt he wold ever want to be a MP. If he does, Brother India would wait for him.

Georgia helps build US economy

Would be interesting to know how much of the USD 1 Bn aid (link to VOA) to Georgia would find itself back to US contractors.

Bush: What about your backing for Kosovo?

US / Russia / Georgia

I am not anti US: but I am anti idiot Bush and his camp which attacked Iraq and the aftermath, Kosovo, Darfur, and I can go on.. I am with Russia on its support to the breakaways. Perhaps one reason I love Russia is because it can say f*** of to idiotic Bush & co.

Despite my love for Russia, it sickened me to see how some Russian soldiers robbed from an innocent man, at gun point after been shoved to the floor at gun point.  I wish the Generals had instilled proper conduct on the soldiers: some, seem to be just thugs; that’s all. Given the footage, I would love to see them prosecuted. No sovereign, or representatives of a sovereign should be allowed to engage in criminal activities against civilians of any country. Period.

Some old great friendships must end

People change. I have changed. My old friends have changed. The relationship (friendship that is) after been mothballed for a while seem to have lost its colour. The silence has grown quite a lot, and the attitudinal change and mutual respect seems to have withered quite a lot. Its just life and how things are. So the relationship moves from an old – very strong one – to a rather weak one, only perhaps to be reactivated if someone is in deep shit and shouts for help.

Dialog Reduces Tariffs?

Checked the Dialog website and it says about giving a discount for calls with a longer duration.

I sincerely hope LKR 477 is only a one time charge. Its a pleasure to see them quote the LKR 477 all inclusive, wish they did the same for the call charges too!

The beauty of competition. Communication tariffs seem to be the only commodity under the influence of gravity in Sri Lanka – everything else just keeps on going up.

By the way, should this price reduction have an impact on the share price?

Ambivalent about this weekend

I want the weekend just to relax after a rather tiring (and interesting) week at work, a weeding, dinners and a bachelors party (which had only alcohol and food).

Sad because one of my closest friends have already left the city, and the other will leave the country within a few weeks. Time, fortunately or unfortunately waits for no one. So it goes both ways. We will all meet again “soon” after about 1-1.5 years. So far, neither of us have any plans to migrate…

Its really funny how the three of us (and my other close friend who will leave in about one year) met. It was all a coincidence. If samsara is true, I am pretty sure we would have been one big clique of robbers / Generals in our previous lives. Non of us are childhood friends – we met well in to our late teens, early twenties, and got quite attached to each other during a short period.

Some people are just too heavy

There is this guy I had to speak with today. I suppose he would register about 80-90Kg on a weighing scale. But if you speak with him, you would realise he weighs at least 1,000,000 tonnes… :P

I am moving. Don’t want to get squashed…

Crash – movie

Watched Crash the other day. It was a pretty good movie – didn’t know where it was going as there were a lot of plots built in to one movie. And the twists and turns were… well, engaging.

There was one scene, which got me thinking quite a bit: perhaps because there is at least a small possibility that I might unfortunately face a similar situation. In that scene, a police officer molests a women in front of her husband.

You can watch that particular scene by clicking here. That particular incident tears the couple apart…

I don’t know about you, but if I were with a female friend, and a group of guys come and does something like that, there won’t me much I can do. And that bloody scares me…I would be helpless to a large extent. The only thing that I can think of, is to plan ahead and avoid such situations and places where things can go wrong.

How much tax do you pay?

I am used to people asking me (and I asking them) “when did you do your A/Ls?” (in other words, what is your age)?

The other day, a colleague asked me (accidentally I believe) how much tax I pay? (now wouldn’t that give away my salary?) I didn’t answer; despite he accidentally disclosing his salary…

By the way, do you know your friends’ salaries? I am not speaking about colleagues, real loveable friends’ salaries? Do they know yours?

Intelligent Design

Two ladies visited me today in the morning. I answered the door, all sweaty etc from cleaning up my room, shorts and a sweat soaked somewhat not very presentable T-shirt. Obviously, I wasn’t expecting any visitors, Poya.

They introduce themselves, and after that “do you think the world would get better or not”. I answer “perhaps it will, I don’t know”.

Next “are you a Buddhist?”.
So I say “lets say I am…” (politely.. but I don’t like people asking me this question)
Next “So you must believe that the world would come to an end, Kalpa-vinasaya (Translation: end of the “system”)”.
I say “I don’t think that will happen during the next 90 years, so not really too worried about it”
(I really want to get back to my cleaning… I really want to ask them to go….)

Next “You know the Buddha knew everything, but he didn’t preach everything. You would know what he said about the leaves in the forest…” and continued “well, so he didn’t say whether or not a God exists. But he knew that there is a God. An intelligent creator, who designed this beautiful planet. He is coming… “
(I have a creative mind; so at the coming, I am pretty sure my face twisted a bit… to a grin.. )

I was wondering how to politely ask them to leave, and so I lied: “I really must go, there is a Dhamma programme about to start… so, please excuse me, now is really not a good time”. At that, I received a book and they went on to the other house.

I don’t mind them coming and trying to convert – but they should really ask whether or not this is a good time (basic courtesy), and whether or not we are interested in it.

Uhm, I cannot take the credit for the following statement, but I love it “intelligent design, my foot: why on earth did he / she / it put a bloody sewer disposal unit through the pleasure park?” go figure..

Probably only partially related to this, but Jack Point has a very nice piece on Atheism, which actually goes in to many areas.