Pada Yathra & You Do the Maths

Pada Yathra (the protest march) and the costs associated with it.

Social media are reporting different numbers and some are obviously exaggerated.

Assuming that 100,000 people have attended the march, here are the costs and you do the math later.

If every person’s Man-hour worth is LKR 100 per hour, they have spent nearly six hours daily and for almost a good week walking.

I leave it to you to do the math and that was what the country lost in terms of GDP.

The creation of traffic jams led to vehicles burning more gas than usual.

The public who commuted on those have lost valuable time as well.

We again lost in terms of GDP and our Forex will be strained because we need to import more gas from aboard.

The members of OPEC are the beneficiary.

Vehicles will have excessive wear and tear and we are a country that does not produce any car parts.

Again the hard earned currency will flow away to another country, thanks to this stupid march.

The only local product that was benefited on this foolish march was the locally produced Hooch industry.

This will invariably add more costs to the health sector a few years down the line.

I leave it to you to do the maths.

Then you can understand who won and who lost in this march.

What are we really Celebrating now ?

What are we celebrating?
Can someone tell me, please?

Per Capita income is less than the US $ 2000
Not even 3% of the GDP is invested in
Neither Education nor health.

Spend more than SLR 100 Million a day
Just to glorify one person only
Corruption is endemic
And we are at the bottom end of the list
With Sudan and Afghanistan etc.

Winning T20 is not worth celebrating
I will join the crowds on the streets
Only when we beat Sweden and Singapore
In the list of least corrupt nations or
Invest at least 6% of the GDP in education and health
Limit spending to glorify one person
And uplift the Per Capita Income
At least to the US $ 5000.

Those are worth Celebrating and not just a T20 win
And who will remember it in a few weeks' time
What are we celebrating?
Can someone tell me, please?

(My political ranting).