Renton de AlwisCan we afford this extravagance and waste?
Th
e year 2012 is cited as a threshold or a point-of-no-return year by climate scientists in their recommendations on how we could effectively manage catastrophic outcomes that could arise from global warming and climate change.
What then are crises?
We often hear the word ‘crisis’ mentioned in discussion, speeches, orations, in poetry, fiction, articles, cartoons, within corporate board rooms, on strategic plan presentations, broadcasts, narrowcasts, etc.
Welcoming 2012
I was fortunate to be there to witness a group of ‘disabled’ kids, young volunteers who look after them and their parents usher in the New Year and chose to share that joy with you.
They all got up very early last Sunday morning, the first day of 2012, to come together at their school premises. Elsewhere, many were still perhaps returning home a bit dazed from the revelry made to ring in the New Year. This indeed was different and the pictures will tell their story.
Living within our means is a virtue
It’s the holiday season once again. Christmas cheer is all around and another new year is fast approaching. Night races of fuel guzzler cars are held as proof that there is peace around us in the City of Colombo. At least, that is what we are made to believe by some commentators.
Looking inward to look outward
This is the week of Budget bashing for some and for others it is the week for inventing cute ways to meet the bashes.
As is usual for most, it is looking at this all in the ‘what’s in it for me?’ mode. For some, it is also about ‘who said what’ and not ‘what’s in what was said’. For some it is merely a game or part of their favourite past-time of opposing for the sake of opposing.
They forget that there are millions out there who do not have the luxury of time or the ability for playing games for it is a hard life they lead out there.
A plea…
This was written upon following recent events that unfolded in our midst which made one wonder if we adequately managed our natural assets at our national parks and protected areas… many lovers of nature and concerned persons presented varied views in the print and e- media. On the global front we also observe the intensified frequency of natural disasters occurring all around us on planet earth.
The week that was…
.jpg)
The last week was an eventful week indeed. We barely recovered from the news of the death of the maverick inventor Steve Jobs. Although I am a loyal Microsoft right-brain person, I admired the ‘left-brain innovative spirit’ of Apple and the ingenuity of the man.
Austere ways to avoid crisis
I like to be an optimist. No matter what may happen around us, I would like to retain feelings of hope I have for all human-kind and on a more intimate level for you, for me, the newborn and the to-be-born.
Yet, what has already happened around me, happening now and may happen in the future, keeps bothering me and it bothers me deeply. The silver linings I see are of the keen sense and love for nature a key segment of our youth have.
I see this love demonstrated on a daily basis on the Facebook, where thousands participate on dedicated blogs and groups, to share their knowledge of our natural heritage while keeping a watchful-eye on wrong-doings as well.
One is significant
Last week a young man named Majula Ranasinghe, the winner of the 2006 State Drama Festival’s award for the ‘Best Supporting Actor,’ concluded a free one-and-a-half-month theatre workshop for village kids of Kiula in the Deep South of Sri Lanka.
Manjula, a father of three young kids, is himself from the neighbouring village of Hungama and chose to volunteer to share skills he had acquired during a short break from work, fitting it into part of the school holiday period.
The culmination of the event was the staging of a play by Parakrama Nirielle’s Janakaraliya ‘Andara Mal’ to an audience of around 400 villages at an arena created within the junior school’s excuse of a playground.
Arrival of ‘Staycations’ and some ensuing thoughts
In 2008, the Sunday Times of the UK ran a story titled “Hard-up Britain: Holidays turn into ‘staycations,’” stating a Times survey report that “a third of the public said that they were switching their plans from a holiday abroad to a holiday in Britain”.
It added: “As economic gloom deepens, guest-house owners, hoteliers and restaurateurs in resorts from Scarborough to the Sicily Isles had been hoping that a perfect storm of the high euro, record oil prices and uncertain job prospects would persuade people to play safe and holiday at home this year.”
‘Staycations,’ as against vacations that we were all familiar with before, entered the vocabulary of the world of travel and tourism and is now taking further shape with the likes of ‘Tips for Staycations’ and ‘Staycation Ideas’ coming into the information sharing networks.
• 
