Stratergic Victory over Mindless Acts of Violence

The Govt of Sri Lanka secured Sampur on the 4th of September. This was seen as a welcome turn of events proving the Govt's Military Power over the LTTE, as many of their attacks in Colombo took center stage in the Media. Unlike the mindless bombings and failed attempts of the LTTE, the Govt chose strategic targets to execute their goal. A blinded one may still argue that a Training Center is still an Orphanage, I will let you decide.

Sampur has lately proved to be a very huge threat as the LTTE acquired the ability to mount long range artillery attacks on Trinco Harbour from there. The victory at Sampur I'm sure will prove a Moral Booster for Govt Troops who were being teased and their patience tested all these days by the LTTE taking to account the numerous CFA violations.

A few points from the Govt Press Release regarding the take over are pasted below.

"The entire Sampur area is under the control of the Security Forces and the troops advanced and captured the heart of Sampur town and coastal areas in the early hours of yesterday. Ichalampattu, Kadakaracheru and Kattaparichan were taken under the control of the Security Forces at the beginning of this operation," Defense Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said.

"Our aim is not taking over or occupying the territory but neutralizing the artillery for the safety of civilians. There is the Prima Flour factory and an Indian Oil farm which are located close to the port. These locations and civilians are under immense risk and threat. Therefore we have to provide them security and safety," Minister Rambukwella said.

"The LTTE cadres have been attacking the Security Forces since August 27 from Sampur using artillery and mortars. The Security Forces retaliated the attacks for the sake of civilians, Army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

As a country our gratitude goes to those Brave Soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Unity and Peace of this Country. Let spend a moment for those fallen hero’s as well.

I’ve included a picture posted by a certain “Suren” on one of my previous posts as a Tribute to our Heros.

Check Point the Play

Managed to catch the much talked about production in town on it's final day - Check Point. Thought provoking to say the least, brilliant production where the Actors did a splendid job I must say as a whole.

Last bus story was a Good one man show! Actor handled the Transitions very fluidly. Although there wasn’t enough gum to pass around.

Loved how the Orphanage/Training_Center was depicted and the symbolism of the Colpetty scene. Auction was an interesting idea, but dragged a wee bit at the end. My friend Boycy suggested a Counter on the back drop for the no of Tamil/Sinhalese or GoSL/LTTE.

The forum was brilliant. The sheer nature of starting something that you wont know how it will end is mind boggling. Although the Characters know their limits well before us, it upto the Audience to set up confrontations in a way that will lead to a Resolution. I felt that the audience was stuck to the traditional school of thought and failed to accomplish the goal, not that it was a must. Although I'm curious to know what means led to the Resolution on that "fateful" day. I'm happy that although we didn't reach a resolution a Conflict within a conflict was pointed out, that being the plight of People like Rajive(an) the Tamil Married to a Sinhalese sandwiched between two Hard Liners. I thought he played his part brilliantly and didn't stray for his Characterization, although the audience was begging for him to slip towards a one side. Hat's off to you mate!

Shanaka (also being called Rambo by Prakash the possible LTTer) was found out of sorts at one solitary point when he said he doesn’t like "JVP and JHU" but continued on his war path, it's difficult to find such war mongers who don’t support the above organizations. Although an interesting point was that he never actually said he likes war, and wants to finish this off through war. Maybe I'm contradicting my self then, but leaves us something to think about. Maybe we should have provoked him more, on how he wants this to end.

All in all GOOD SHOW!! Worth every Penny!! (the best way my little vocabulary can describe the play, rather than getting into all posh posh words)

Petrol Hits 3 Figure Mark - $$$

Yesterday saw the last barrier being broken for Petrol, the 3 figure mark. Yep for those of you who didn't know, Petrol is now available at Ceypetco Shed's for Rs. 101 per liter. I think the IOC guy will be selling it for 4 bucks more.

So it's time to pull out my trusty Mountain Bike, which I used to call "Knight Rider" ha ha.. and start peddling from Colpetty to Nawala. Who knows end of the day I might lose some extra flab too.

Any other suggestions?

Over and Done With... I hope!!

Last Sunday saw the end to exams in my External Degree program . I hope! (Unless I flunked any ones, but I think I'm cool) So an end to exams means, an end to misery!! Yey!! No classes on Weekends, at 7.30am (not that I make it on time).

With that over, I had a very rude welcoming at the Office. Our SLT Modem had decided to Freeze up and say bye to this lovely world. Make matters worse, my Boss was here before me, wondering why he can't check his mail.

Well, response was not that bad from SLT, didn't have to wait long, very helpfully guy replaced the modem, without having to persuade him.

So here I am, after finishing my daily work, reading Kottu!

Isn't it Ironic?

"A traffic jam when you're already late

A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break

It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife

It's meeting the man of my dreams

And then meeting his beautiful wife

And isn't it ironic... Don't you think?"

In order for you guys to get any sense out of this post, I'd have to explain a bit of what I do. So go ahead take notes.

Some of you would have already figured out I work in some IT company. That's a head start. My company is one of the few companies who sets up Broadband Internet for Hotels. Our main competitor is an Indian Company operating here. Anyways this starts of with one of existing Hotels wanting more from the system. Myself and my Senior colleague spent over an hour debating with the Hotel's IT Manager (who still doesn't seem to understand how our system operates) about certain reports he wants. We were explaining to him, we simply cant provide them as they are not available in the current system, and got into a long drawn out argument about "Company Policy".

After that we come back, our General Manager is complaining that he's home internet is not working. We've set up an SLT Dial Up on card because the guy hardly has any use of it. So I take his username and check it out on the SLT Site and I get "Account Expired", and no place to recharge the card. So I go through the SLT F.A.Q. and is says can do so. So I call up, and wait on hold for like 10-15 mins and get through to a lady who says you cant Recharge after it's expired.

Obviously pissed off I say go through your F.A.Q's. And she explains that if the card balance is over they can recharge it, but if the duration has expired, they cant do anything about it. Which makes perfect sense, but the wording on F.A.Q suggest otherwise.

Anyways I push her to the bone, and speak to her Supervisor and Manager and all, to get something impossible done. Why? Coz, if I create a new account for my G.M. that means I need to go all the way to Wattala to re-configure it. (Yes, he cant do it on his own). When all of a sudden it hits me, hell these guys are just like me, it's their company policy, the system is set in that way. So I just give up, thank the lady for a patience.

Isn't it Ironic? How you don't want to change your policy, but go all out to change some one else's?