IN SEARCH OF AN ELUSIVE CANCER TREATING DOCTOR.

Name of the Game ?

After seeing a Facebook advertisement for one of the paint manufacturers in Sri Lanka, I called their head office to see if I, as a walk-in customer, could also claim the same discount offered to online buyers.

I was refused, but on my insistence, I was connected to their sales department, and a young lady executive picked up to reiterate that the offer is only for online purchases with free delivery, as stated in the advertisement.

My rationale was that since it is a walk-in deal, the delivery portion of online shopping goes away, so the company benefits in the end.

Knowing that these frontline sales staffs have little authority in taking decisions, I asked her, without offending her, to check with the senior sales team and give an update on the request.

Surprisingly, after a few hours, she returned the call to inform me that the offer was only valid for online purchases, and it was confirmed by her senior management. 

I thanked her profusely, only because giving an update by calling is not in our culture and it was a rarity. 

Unless they entice customers with hefty discounts and the trying to pass off their rejected and/or inferior quality products to unsuspecting online shoppers, it does not make any sense to me otherwise. 

Now I am trying to see what I missed there.

Can someone enlighten me, please?

 

 

 

 

Original Post

Rishi's Story !

Colombo Stock Exchange Meltdown ?

IS COLOMBO'S STOCK MARKET ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE?

A couple of days ago, I realized that I was unable to buy any stocks using the platform access given to me by the broker firm, and when they were contacted immediately to know the reason why my ability to buy was brought to near zero rupees, the reply I received was astonishing and alarming.

My current portfolio is worth a couple of million rupees and has a healthy unrealized gain worth another couple of million rupees, yet the broker firm was not willing to give me any usable buying power.

The reason they give is that many have bought shares on credit and are not willing to settle their dues.

When asked as to why not “force sell” available shares of such people and recover their dues, they had no answer.

I have spoken to a few more stockbroker firms and they all have the same song to play, which means that there is a very big credit exposure across the board but either instructions or guidance received from the governing body regulating the market activities and or their own management not to restore to force selling to avoid a meltdown of the market in a couple of days.

If that is the case and real investors realize the same (not gamblers), the 5% safety barrier currently in place in the system will not be able to cope with the situation, unless the market is kept closed for an indefinite time to cool off at its own time and pace.

Finally, among all the negative news swirling around, it was a sad thing to know that we have finally reached the Catch-22 situation in investing too.

Original Post

What's Your Story?

There are no good or bad people in this world, but there are happy and unhappy people.

Some stay in their chosen corner forever, but some oscillate between the two extremes from time to time.

That is when the unexpected or unimaginable happens in the world.

We are all, whether we understand or not, unique storytellers.

Some tell it openly, others in whispers, and the rest silently.

Some stories, whether said in silence, whispered or loudly, are inspirational.

So, if every happy storyteller could inspire another to have a chance to go from being unhappy to happy, it would be a positive change.

Therefore, I end this note with an open-ended question.

What is your story?

Think about it.



ඔබේ කතාව කුමක්ද?

මේ ලෝ කයේ හොඳ හෝ නරක මිනිසුන් නැත, නමුත් සතුටින් හා අසතුටින් සිටින මිනිසුන් ඇත.

සමහරු තමන් තෝරා ගත් මුල්ලක සදහටම රැඳී සිටින නමුත් සමහර විටින් විට අන්ත දෙක අතර දෝලනය වේ.

අනපේක්ෂිත හෝ සිතාගත නොහැ කි දේ ලෝ කයේ සිදු වන්නේ එවිටය.

අපි සියල්ලෝම, අපට තේරුණත් නැතත්, අද්විතීය කතන්දරකාරයෝ වෙමු.

සමහරු එය විවෘතවද, තවත් සමහරු මුමුණමින්ද අනෙක් අය නිහඬව ද තම කතාව කියති.

නිශ්ශබ්දව කීවද, මුමුණමින් හෝ උස් හඬින් කීවද, සමහර කතා ආශ්වාදජනකය.

සෑම කතන්දරකරුවෙකුටම තවත් කෙනෙකුට අසතුටින් සිට සතුට දක්වා යාමට අවස්ථාවක් උදාකර දීමට හැකි නම්, එය ධනාත්මක වෙනසක් සඳහා යන ගමනක් වෙනු ඇත..

එබැවින් විවෘත ප්‍රශ්නයකින් මෙම සටහන අවසන් කරමි.

ඔබේ කතාව කුමක්ද?

ඒ ගැන සිතන්න.

 

IS PIRATING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY A BOON OR BANE?

At a time when all seems lost and gloom is engulfing the Sri Lankans financially, politically, and sportingly, a person of Sri Lankan descent winning the Booker prize recently is something worth celebrating.

However, the euphoria was short-lived when a pirated version of the book started doing the rounds on many social media platforms.

Some readers, with limited resources, were happy to be able to get their hands on it very cheaply to quench their thirst, and some are annoyed because it amounts to stealing, according to them.

Further, it is denying the owner his rightful return for years of research and work to get the idea into book form.

Yes, it is a valid argument, but what is the alternative to meeting at the halfway point so both needs can be met?

It is no secret that while publishers are making a killing on such successes, the real owner gets a paltry sum as the writer’s royalty.

Many publishing houses present the same book in many ways.

Electronic access, hardbound and paperback versions of the same.

Despite all these avenues, they still fail to cater to the reading public who are not as affluent as the rest, and their only option is to read a pirated version or buy secondhand, and it will take years to hit the market, by which time the allure of it may have worn off in many minds.

Though a pirated version will not give a direct return to the publisher and the writer immediately, in the long run, it will, as the buzz created even by reading a pirated one can later turn into a direct purchase.

Looking at the big picture, I believe that all efforts should be made to stop pirated works, but if those efforts fail, no further efforts to bludgeon the pirated market should be made.

Original Post

Why Subtitles Are Important !

 

දර්ශන නිස්සංක මැතිඳුගේ තෙමස් අනුස්මරණ ආගමික වතාවන්

Side Hustling !

Shameless Cloning !

The Best Investment

මිහිඳු මාවතේ අභාවය

How Did He Read the Future So Well?

One of my father’s younger brothers was in the Sri Lanka Police, not as a uniformed one, but as a male nurse in the police hospital in Colombo.

My cousin was a couple of months younger than me, and we were in parallel grades in different schools.

My uncle wanted to get his eldest son into the police force.

He was having high hopes and when the ordinary level results came in, his hopes were dashed as my cousin could not secure results to meet even the basic entry-level requirement for a position as Sub Inspector in the police department.

He was at a loss as he couldn't face his superiors after speaking in advance with some of the higher-ups to clear the way for his son’s admission to the force.

He was aware of my results and his next move was to approach my father, his elder brother, to get his blessing for me to step in instead of his own son, who flunked.

The only question my father asked him when the proposal was made was, "Are you crazy?"

His hopes were dashed for the second time.

Seeing how those who are in uniform behave in inhuman ways today and knowing how they have lost the respect of the public, who are calling them derogatory names in their absence as well as in their presence, I could not help thinking how farsighted and wise my late father was.

How did he read the future so well?

Now I am at a loss.

 

 

How much should I save for retirement?

Makumbura Multimodal Transport Hub Reading Area

A Tribute to Late Nasser Muhandis (Engineer) a.k.a. Nyerere

A Tribute to Late Nasser Muhandis (Engineer)  a.k.a. Nyerere

Nasser came to work with us from the cargo section after he and another colleague had some disciplinary issues over there.

Unlike Nasser, his colleague was a reserved guy.

Nasser was a boisterous extrovert.

He quickly picked up the work and the rhythm, ready to solo.

On attendance and time, he has a different value system.

Usually, he comes a bit late, especially for the morning shift, and knowing his habit, many get used to preparing work allocations accordingly.

But once he is in, it is not important at what time he leaves the place of work.

Sometimes with extended work, but mostly waiting for someone else to finish his work so Nasser can give him a ride home in his car. 

While waiting, he would entertain others with many interesting stories while having a cup of tea.

He was fond of tea and not a coffee guy.

When he comes in the morning, he comes with some herbs with him, and the first thing he does is put the kettle on, knowing well that he will not have any immediate engagement.

Do a quick mental calculation as to how many are in the rest area and make tea accordingly, not knowing some have already had their morning doses by then.

He was never a tight-fisted guy and loved to share.

People love his tea, and hardly anybody refuses it.

His main ability was to dissect any argument into small packets and answer them one by one accordingly, like a renowned lawyer.

Perhaps that must have been the reason why he was called Nyerere by many of his former colleagues of African descent or lineage.

Once, he said that his dream was to buy a BMW car and wanted others to help him by giving him some extra hours of work.

After slogging for a few months of extra work, one day he announces that he will be going to the U.A.E. to look for a suitable BMW car from one of the secondhand car markets.

The following day, he was back with his new baby and his dream car, a gleaming BMW, that looked almost brand-new.

But both his pride and joy were short-lived.

He fell ill at home, was taken to the hospital and, after spending days, was discharged with no proper diagnosis, or so we were made to believe.

He went overseas for treatment and came back without much success to tell.

Once more, he was rushed to the hospital and, after spending a few days there, succumbed to illness, leaving a very young family behind.

MAY HIS DEPARTED SOUL REST IN ETERNAL PEACE.

How to create an Emergency Fund.

FAST TRACK DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN DOT POINTS

         Digitalization of all possible activities,

·         Create a unique number at birth for all citizens, and it should be their

o   National Identity Card,

o   Tax Reporting &

o   Social security numbers,

·         Embrace the Open Market economy,

·         Set up a Task Force to educate the masses about the benefits of the market economy on an urgent basis,

·         The government should only take care of a few things.

o   The national security,

o   Monetary,

o   Health,

o   Education and

o   Formulation of national standards & policies,

·         Setting up a big and independent income Tax office.

o   Independent tax office with sweeping powers,

o   Mandatory for everyone eligible to vote to submit their income tax return yearly.

o, Recruit capable investigators with analytical skills. 

o   All banks and other financial institutions, land and motor vehicle registries, stock exchanges, and other such entities where ill-gotten wealth can be easily hidden should be linked to the income tax authority.

o   Work out a system where the big tax office can have access to all the entities above and troll their databases for any unusual but not reported financial activities, but without being a hindrance to their own daily activities and or being overly intrusive.

·         Adopt the best available procurement methodology for all future dealings. 

·         Do away with the current import/export licenses and restrictions. 

o   Anyone who can fulfil the national standards and requirements should be able to import and/or export without any hindrance. 

·         Make it illegal to seek, share and or give any information unless only on digital  request,

·         Setting up an independent Currency Board with a unique possibility of lender of last resort provision.

 

Original Post 

Section 230 - Who Hates & Who Loves It?

No matter how rude something someone says about you on the internet is, you can sue them but not the platform where they said it.

That’s thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which broadly protects websites from liability for posts made by third parties.

But the Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear a case that will test just how far that goes.

The case the Supreme Court will take up, which was lodged against Google over YouTube recommending videos made by ISIS, is about what responsibility websites might have for hosting terrorist propaganda (as is a related suit the court also agreed to hear against Twitter).

But Section 230 covers a whole lot more.

Dating back to the pre-Google days of 1996, the 26-word law laid the foundation for the internet we have now by establishing that websites can set rules about what they allow users to post while still not being on the hook legally for user-generated content.

With that much power, Section 230’s been controversial for a long time now.

Who loves Section 230?

Big Tech and anyone else whose business depends on the internet.

It’s the law that allows Google, social media companies, video-sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, review-based sites like Yelp or Airbnb, and even regular ol’ sites that allow user comments the ability to operate without getting sued into oblivion over things like defamation.

Who hates it?

Politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have called for the repeal of Section 230. Republicans tend to ding the law for giving tech companies too much say over what speech people see online (like when Twitter booted Trump), while Democrats complain it gives tech companies a pass for allowing hate speech and disinformation.

Bottom line:

The internet landscape won’t change immediately, but when the court does eventually rule, it’s got options: It could narrowly focus on whether exceptions should be made for terrorism (like the ones that already exist for copyright violations) or it could totally change life on the internet as we know it.


අන්තර්ජාලය තුළ යමෙකු ඔබ ගැන කෙතරම් අශික්ෂිත දෙයක් පැවසුවද, ඔබට ඔවුන්ට නඩු පැවරිය හැකිය, නමුත් ඔවුන් එය පැවසූ වේදිකාවට නොවේ. තෙවන පාර්ශවයන් විසින් කරන ලද පළ කිරීම් සඳහා වගකීම් වලින් වෙබ් අඩවි පුළුල් ලෙස ආරක්ෂා කරන සන්නිවේදන විනීත පනතේ 230 වගන්තියට ස්තුතිවන්ත වේ.

එහෙත් එය කෙතරම් දුරකට දැයි පරීක්‍ෂා කරන නඩුවක් විභාග කිරීමට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය ඊයේ එකඟ විය.

ISIS විසින් සාදන ලද වීඩියෝ නිර්දේශ කරමින් යූ ටියුබ් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගූගල්ට එරෙහිව ගොනු කරන ලද ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් පවරා ඇති නඩුව, ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රචාරක සත්කාරකත්වය සඳහා වෙබ් අඩවි වලට තිබිය හැකි වගකීම කුමක්ද යන්න පිළිබඳවයි (අදාළ නඩුවක් ලෙස ට්විටර්ට එරෙහිව අධිකරණය ද විභාග කිරීමට එකඟ විය).

නමුත් 230 වගන්තිය තවත් බොහෝ දේ ආවරණය කරයි

1996 පෙර ගූගල් දින දක්වා දිවෙන, වචන 26 නීතිය දැන් අප සතුව ඇති අන්තර්ජාලය සඳහා අඩිතාලම දැමුවේ, වෙබ් අඩවි වලට නීත්‍යානුකූලව පරිශීලකයන් සඳහා කොක්කෙන් නොසිට, පරිශීලකයින්ට පළ කිරීමට ඉඩ දෙන දේ පිළිබඳව නීති සැකසිය හැකි බව තහවුරු කිරීමෙනි- ජනනය කළ අන්තර්ගතය.

එතරම් බලයක් සහිතව, 230 වගන්තිය දිගු කලක් තිස්සේ මතභේදයට තුඩුදී ඇත.

230 වගන්තියට ආදරය කරන්නේ කවුද?

බිග් ටෙක් සහ අන්තර්ජාලය මත රඳා පවතින ව්‍යාපාරයක් ඇති වෙනත් ඕනෑම අයෙකු. එය Google, සමාජ මාධ්‍ය සමාගම්, YouTube සහ Vimeo වැනි වීඩියෝ බෙදාගැනීමේ අඩවි, Yelp හෝ Airbnb වැනි සමාලෝචන පදනම් වූ වෙබ් අඩවි සහ සාමාන්‍ය ol' වෙබ් අඩවි පවා පරිශීලක අදහස් වලට දේවල් අමතක නොකර ක්‍රියා කිරීමේ හැකියාව ලබා දෙන නීතියයි. අපහාසයක් වගේ.

එයට වෛර කරන්නේ කවුද?

දෙපස දේශපාලනඥයෝ. ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් සහ ජෝ බයිඩන් යන දෙදෙනාම 230 වගන්තිය අවලංගු කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා ඇත. රිපබ්ලිකානුවන් තාක්‍ෂණ සමාගම්වලට අන්තර්ජාලය හරහා මිනිසුන් දකින දේ ගැන (ට්විටර් ට්‍රම්ප් බූට් කළ විට මෙන්) ඕනෑවට වඩා ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම සඳහා නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට නැඹුරු වන අතර ඩිමොක්‍රටික් පාක්ෂිකයන් පැමිණිලි කරන්නේ එය තාක්‍ෂණ සමාගම්වලට ලබා දෙන බවයි. ද්වේශ සහගත ප්‍රකාශ සහ වැරදි තොරතුරු වලට ඉඩ දීම සඳහා අවසර.

සමාලෝචනය

අන්තර්ජාල භූ දර්ශනය ක්ෂණිකව වෙනස් නොවනු ඇත, නමුත් උසාවිය අවසානයේ තීන්දු කරන විට, එයට විකල්ප තිබේ: එයට ත්‍රස්තවාදය සඳහා ව්‍යතිරේක කළ යුතුද යන්න (ප්‍රකාශන හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝනය කිරීම් සඳහා දැනටමත් පවතින ඒවා වැනි) හෝ එය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වෙනස් විය හැකිද යන්න පිළිබඳව පටු අවධානයක් යොමු කළ හැකිය. අප දන්නා පරිදි අන්තර්ජාලයේ ජීවිතය.

අන්තර්ජාලයෙන් උපුටා ගැනීමක් ගූගල් පරිවර්තන සහය සමග.

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR PATHUM KERNER.

Dear Mr Kerner,

I may have watched many of your videos on social media platforms and they were very compelling.

Your efforts to extricate the Sri Lankan mindset from the old and failed socialist perspective are commendable.

An open market economy is something that I too endorse, as I have seen and enjoyed the benefits of such a system.

Setting up a task force to educate the needy about the benefits of the market economy in cities and in villages is an urgent priority.

Let the market forces control everything and not any government authority.

The government should only take care of a few things.

The national security, monetary, health, education and formulation of national standards should be in government control and the rest should be detached from the government control.

One thing I have not seen you talking about is setting up a big and independent income tax office.

Perhaps I was wrong that I may have missed a video in which you expressed your views on the issue.

A big and independent tax office with sweeping powers is a must to curtail corruption in this country.

Make it mandatory for everyone eligible to vote to submit their income tax yearly.

Recruit capable investigators with science backgrounds, preferably with mathematics as a subject in their undergraduate degree, and analytical skills.

One should not try to reinvent the wheel, and there is software already to detect false reporting without any human intervention.

All banks and other financial institutions, land and motor vehicle registries, stock exchanges, and many other such entities where ill-gotten wealth can be easily hidden should be linked to the income tax authority.

It is time to work out a system where the big tax office can have access to all the entities above and troll their databases for any unusual but not reported financial activities, but without being a hindrance to their own daily activities and or being overly intrusive.

Adopt the best available procurement methodology for all future dealings.

Do away with the current import/export licenses and restrictions.

Anyone who can fulfil the national standards and requirements should be able to import and/or export without any hindrance.

With all the other plans you have in the works, the country will undoubtedly change for the better.

I wish you luck and a brighter future for everyone.

An Open Letter to Mr Rohan Pallewatta.

How to Achieve Financial Success