Madmax In Sri Lanka

[madmax]

No I'm not talking about the movie Mad Max : Fury Road. Yours truly will be in Sri Lanka for two weeks in a few days. Look forward to any motoring events and catching up with old friends.

[Supra_Natural]

No I'm not talking about the movie Mad Max : Fury Road. Yours truly will be in Sri Lanka for two weeks in a few days. Look forward to any motoring events and catching up with old friends.

Excellent, let's try and organize a gathering.

[MasterDon]

Shoot me a text with time and place.Heading up north tomorrow but will try my best to make it.Haven't seen Max in a loong time no.

[The Don]

Not as big an event as Madmax returning, but I'll be in the country for a week from the 13th. So do include me in any plans. I have a bad feeling I might miss max as 2 weeks from now is the 14th and I only arrive on the 13th mid day

[MADZ]

Too bad I'm missing this one though...enjoy guys!

[Pericles]

Not as big an event as Madmax returning, but I'll be in the country for a week from the 13th. So do include me in any plans. I have a bad feeling I might miss max as 2 weeks from now is the 14th and I only arrive on the 13th mid day

He arrives on the 4th so you have some time.

[madmax]

Few observeration from returning after half a decade...

• Honda Vezels are everywhere, I mean F*CKING everywhere! WTF!!
• Roads are so chaotic and overcrowded. People seem to spend half their life stuck in a traffic jam.
• I tried to drive my mom's Honda Fit Hybrid like all the local hybrid drivers to get the best gas mileage and failed miserablly.

Edited June 12, 2015 by madmax

[The Don]

5 years is a long time to be away man. A lot has changed.

Since the Army no longer cleans Colombo (a bit of a scandal that was, I mean I don't think anybody became a soildier to become a rubbish picker) its become a bit messy, but if you arrived during the last days of the last regime the place was actually very clean. You might also notice the availability of nice public places

[madmax]

5 years is a long time to be away man. A lot has changed.

You might also notice the availability of nice public places

Yes, went to Race Course to see how that has changed. Also took the highway to and back from Galle. Very nice and almost on par with developed countries. Amazingly everyone behaved on the highway. The bus drivers seem to have a hard time keeping inside the lane and their driver side wheels were crossing over to the other lane. I also noticed that very few cars were actually traveling at the speed of 100kmph, most were at speeds below that but were keeping to the slow lane.

Also the majority of the people I spoke to seem to be regretting being part of the government change, regardless of corruption and the dictatorship there seem to have been tangible development.

Edited June 15, 2015 by madmax

[bycap]

Yes, went to Race Course to see how that has changed. Also took the highway to and back from Galle. Very nice and almost on par with developed countries. Amazingly everyone behaved on the highway. The bus drivers seem to have a hard time keeping inside the lane and their driver side wheels were crossing over to the other lane. I also noticed that very few cars were actually traveling at the speed of 100kmph, most were at speeds below that but were keeping to the slow lane.

Also the majority of the people I spoke to seem to be regretting being part of the government change, regardless of corruption and the dictatorship there seem to have been tangible development.

seriously ??

that hit me hard.

[Crosswind]

seriously ??

that hit me hard.

The trouble is everyone expected big miracles to happen with the government change. Small miracles such as not having infinite amount of numberplate-less cars on the road, not having 1000-car convoys, not stopping ambulances with patients just because the neighbourhood politician has right of way often goes unseen in this country.

[The Don]

Yes, went to Race Course to see how that has changed. Also took the highway to and back from Galle. Very nice and almost on par with developed countries. Amazingly everyone behaved on the highway. The bus drivers seem to have a hard time keeping inside the lane and their driver side wheels were crossing over to the other lane. I also noticed that very few cars were actually traveling at the speed of 100kmph, most were at speeds below that but were keeping to the slow lane.

Also the majority of the people I spoke to seem to be regretting being part of the government change, regardless of corruption and the dictatorship there seem to have been tangible development.

A lot of the country still measures development by roads and buildings.

There are a lot of subtle changes that have taken place after the government change. Not all positive, and it depends on perspective.

I don't think people wanted the current coalition government, but people will have better choice at an election which is what we should have had months ago.

[madmax]

I don't think people wanted the current coalition government, but people will have better choice at an election which is what we should have had months ago.

I guess that is probably the concern of most, the inability to get anything done due to the differences in opinion. I don't follow SL politics so don't know to comment.

Edited June 16, 2015 by madmax

[The Don]

I guess that is probably the concern of most, the inability to get anything done due to the differences in opinion. I don't follow SL politics so don't know to comment.

I think people have unrealistic expectations. I'm not sure who in the right mind would have expected massive change in a matter of 6 months. Its impossible. The old political class is still there and a lot of tears will need to be shed before the onion is cleaned (the layers of corruption).

So the 100 day plan was not deliverable, so they surprisingly did manage to achieve some. The most important was the constitutional change which re introduced the clause against the formation of a dictatorship in this country.

But this is where perspective matters. I went to a government school, used the national health service etc, and while the roads were not great, we didn't have multiple airports, we did not have draconian censorship, there was generally a free press, and at the higher courts you did get justice. That gave me comfort, and mind you these are not things that anybody can take that for granted.

So in my mind I was not willing to trade the above for better infrastructure. Others may differ but thankfully neither of us need to get beaten up and locked up for expressing that any more.

There are many subtle changes. I was happy to see the president did not feel the need to close Galle road, because he wanted to take a trip down the road. In fact he was stuck in traffic just like the rest of the cars. Some of the policies introduced by the last budget have been suspended by court pending review. I don't think there is anybody attacking the courts in parliament any more, including the finance minister who is implicated in the complaint. All censorship including sites attacking the current regime have been lifted. There is also a reduction in interference by ministers (I'm sure it happens, not as much any more, and it was funny when a minister tells a friend that he does not want to enquire about something on his behalf due to policies of the current government, but assured him it will be successful as long as correct procedure was followed)

Anyway as always my loyalty is to Sri Lanka, not to a certain set of individuals or political parties. Enough people broke ranks last time, and as they keep doing that, we have some hope in hell of making the government whatever it is accountable.

[madmax]

Why does almost every SUV(ish) vehicle on the road have this blue/red emergency vehicle light on the dashboard. Is that to try show people you're a V*P?

[The Don]

Why does almost every SUV(ish) vehicle on the road have this blue/red emergency vehicle light on the dashboard. Is that to try show people you're a V*P?

You are Sri Lankan. You know our people like this kind of crap.

From what I know they are illegal now, though some people still use them. They were permitted for use by certain political stooges. Utter nonsense I say. If you are that important you will get a police escort anyway.

[Saturn]

Few observeration from returning after half a decade...

• Honda Vezels are everywhere, I mean F*CKING everywhere! WTF!!
  
• Roads are so chaotic and overcrowded. People seem to spend half their life stuck in a traffic jam.
  
• I tried to drive my mom's Honda Fit Hybrid like all the local hybrid drivers to get the best gas mileage and failed miserablly.
  

Honda Vezel was declared our national vehicle about a year ago. Guess it fits that magical low fuel consumption plus infinite annoyance potential our motorists seek.

You might notice an excess of tuk tuks too.

[PreseaLover]

Honda Vezel was declared our national vehicle about a year ago. Guess it fits that magical low fuel consumption plus infinite annoyance potential our motorists seek. You might notice an excess of tuk tuks too.

And Alto's

[matroska]

I think people have unrealistic expectations. I'm not sure who in the right mind would have expected massive change in a matter of 6 months. Its impossible. The old political class is still there and a lot of tears will need to be shed before the onion is cleaned (the layers of corruption).

So the 100 day plan was not deliverable, so they surprisingly did manage to achieve some. The most important was the constitutional change which re introduced the clause against the formation of a dictatorship in this country.

But this is where perspective matters. I went to a government school, used the national health service etc, and while the roads were not great, we didn't have multiple airports, we did not have draconian censorship, there was generally a free press, and at the higher courts you did get justice. That gave me comfort, and mind you these are not things that anybody can take that for granted.

So in my mind I was not willing to trade the above for better infrastructure. Others may differ but thankfully neither of us need to get beaten up and locked up for expressing that any more.

There are many subtle changes. I was happy to see the president did not feel the need to close Galle road, because he wanted to take a trip down the road. In fact he was stuck in traffic just like the rest of the cars. Some of the policies introduced by the last budget have been suspended by court pending review. I don't think there is anybody attacking the courts in parliament any more, including the finance minister who is implicated in the complaint. All censorship including sites attacking the current regime have been lifted. There is also a reduction in interference by ministers (I'm sure it happens, not as much any more, and it was funny when a minister tells a friend that he does not want to enquire about something on his behalf due to policies of the current government, but assured him it will be successful as long as correct procedure was followed)

Anyway as always my loyalty is to Sri Lanka, not to a certain set of individuals or political parties. Enough people broke ranks last time, and as they keep doing that, we have some hope in hell of making the government whatever it is accountable.

Amen to that - what Sri Lanka needs is an attitude change. For some reason we have been fed the subject/slave/vasal mentality for ages so that a large number of people think of political leaders as royals that deserve to be worshiped not just bloody ordinary people whose job is to address our issues - IMHO the country happily embraced the 'wadawasam' mentality during the last regime where there was a lot of appacchi/rajathuma sentiment.

To be honest I'm embarrassed that in my country an airport, an airline, a stadium was named after the president who was still in power (reminds me of Tintin comics where general alcazar names the capital after himself) and a road gets named after a girl who sang a song of praise, that like centuries ago when a minister comes people have to make way, bow before them, roads have to be closed, that like in typical Game-of-thrones/ Mediveal fashion political goons can rape and plunder as they see fit.

you can make airports roads and whatnot but the country will not progress as long as the majority live like stone age peasants cringing and bowing before their leaders licking boots and thinking that building a road was development.

[The Don]

Amen to that - what Sri Lanka needs is an attitude change. For some reason we have been fed the subject/slave/vasal mentality for ages so that a large number of people think of political leaders as royals that deserve to be worshiped not just bloody ordinary people whose job is to address our issues - IMHO the country happily embraced the 'wadawasam' mentality during the last regime where there was a lot of appacchi/rajathuma sentiment.

To be honest I'm embarrassed that in my country an airport, an airline, a stadium was named after the president who was still in power (reminds me of Tintin comics where general alcazar names the capital after himself) and a road gets named after a girl who sang a song of praise, that like centuries ago when a minister comes people have to make way, bow before them, roads have to be closed, that like in typical Game-of-thrones/ Mediveal fashion political goons can rape and plunder as they see fit.

you can make airports roads and whatnot but the country will not progress as long as the majority live like stone age peasants cringing and bowing before their leaders licking boots and thinking that building a road was development.

Quite true. Infrastructure needs to build for demand (ok, I guess you can build expecting demand but you need a strong business case), and the presence of infrastructure does not denote development. The recent problems in Spain was also caused by over development where there was a massive building boom, then they could not find tennants or potential buyers, leading the developers to default on loans which put banks under stress.

If the afore mentioned ruler had any class, he would have opposed the naming and deferred that to people after to bestow him the priviledge. The same has to be said about our other airport, which was named by a Bandaranayake in memory of a Bandaranayake. To be honest I'm sure the poor suddas must have quite a time pronouncing that

The feudal mentality is one problem.

But the recent freedoms have made another thing apparent.

Quoting spiderman, "great power comes with great responsibility". Freedom is a great power but it must be exercised responsibly. Freedom is not absolute but abuse of freedom usually ends up causing crack downs. The balance is very difficult.

BUT the amount of complete and utter mis information, lies, slander being spread through social media and others at this point makes me wonder if a considerable number of our population has aquired the cognitive abilities to use their heads and not believe everything they here. On this forum we constantly come accross hear say in terms of fuel economy, performance, service intervals etc. But this at a completely different level.

It is very sad that when these same people turn out to be members of your extended family, people you went to school with, people you went to university with and people who have impressive careers etc. And I'm not talking about political views or views over the economy etc. Thats not quite black and white and you can have a debate about those. But stories about alleged conspiraries (which in another context will serve well in a fantasy book), intolerance, abusive language and behaviour makes me ashamed to be associated with them. Its a dilemma I struggle with on a daily basis...........

[Saturn]

Amen to that - what Sri Lanka needs is an attitude change. For some reason we have been fed the subject/slave/vasal mentality for ages so that a large number of people think of political leaders as royals that deserve to be worshiped not just bloody ordinary people whose job is to address our issues - IMHO the country happily embraced the 'wadawasam' mentality during the last regime where there was a lot of appacchi/rajathuma sentiment.

To be honest I'm embarrassed that in my country an airport, an airline, a stadium was named after the president who was still in power (reminds me of Tintin comics where general alcazar names the capital after himself) and a road gets named after a girl who sang a song of praise, that like centuries ago when a minister comes people have to make way, bow before them, roads have to be closed, that like in typical Game-of-thrones/ Mediveal fashion political goons can rape and plunder as they see fit.

you can make airports roads and whatnot but the country will not progress as long as the majority live like stone age peasants cringing and bowing before their leaders licking boots and thinking that building a road was development.

We are feudal people. We like kings. We like displays of power. All those things you mentioned above which make normal rational people shudder? The masses love all of that.

Our brief flirtation with democracy was just that, and is bound to come to an end soon.

[Crosswind]

We are feudal people. We like kings. We like displays of power. All those things you mentioned above which make normal rational people shudder? The masses love all of that. Our brief flirtation with democracy was just that, and is bound to come to an end soon.

Sadly, that is the case in this country.