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Galle Fort- an absolutely galling attack
By Rajpal Abeynayake, Ruwanthi Herath Guneratne and Marissa de Silva
London is not a UNESCO world
heritage city. But, Havana is, and so is Galle Fort. A UNESCO world Heritage city
is a rarity. That's obvious if London isn't one.
But now, Galle Fort's inhabited
character is disappearing. The facts are startling. An average size house which
belonged to a Mrs Junaid, one with a modest tiled roof and an old somewhat ordinary
façade sold recently for US dollars 2.5 million --- approximately 22 million Sri
Lankan rupees.
In short, Galle Fort's houses are becoming far more expensive than those in Colombo
7. The fact is, only foreigners today can buy houses in Galle Fort at the going
prices.
What's happening in Galle Fort
now is unbelievable, because all the goings-on are hidden behind a smokescreen
of public relations. The politicians, the movers and the shakers of the Galle
Heritage Foundation, Galle Municipal authorities and everyone else will tell you
that Galle Fort is being spruced up, and that it is being "conserved."
INVESTIGATION
What our no stone unturned
investigation of what's happening at Galle Fort can tell you is that this can
only be a deliberate lie. The "conservation'' at most is window washing to cover
up the larger desecration of the Fort, which the authorities should be daft not
to know about. Around 35 per cent of the Fort's around 300 houses are now sold
- - to foreigners, for prices as stupendous as the USD 2.5 million given above.
The rest of the houses are being touted so fast, it is a matter of time before
the whole of Galle Fort falls into foreign hands. True, there are a few diehard
Muslims from the old community in the Fort who vow to remain. But, as Fowzia says,
from her quaint little house with arches and the old trademark Dutch lattice work
on Lighthouse Street, "if everyone goes we will have to go as well, one day, even
if we don't want to''
The mosque, says Zaheer, will
no longer have the required minimum quorum. The mosque will then become a monument.
The school will have no children attending from Galle Fort, and will probably
become a monument too. Already there has been an effort made by the new foreign
residents of the Galle Fort to get the school pushed out - but authorities say
the school will stay put. The city's other 'organic' appendages, such as the Court
the Kachcheri and the Bank are being contrived to be moved out. Ersatz 'museums'
and other 'attractions' will replace these organic sites.
HOTSPOT
From being a living breathing city, where time stood still, Galle Fort will
soon be transformed into a holiday resort a la the Bahamas, or something like
St Tropez which became a fad city after Brigitte Bardot started to live there,
or the island of Tobago which became a similar hotspot after Madonna bought property
there.
You wouldn't guess what such
holiday cities look like. They look nothing like what a heritage city such as
Galle Fort is supposed to look like. Most of the houses that have been bought
in Galle Fort, have been fitted with swimming pools which are -- as we saw - -
so huge they cover most of the backyards in the houses in which they have been
fitted. The old architectural ambience of these houses, for which partly the heritage
city is named, is gone.
It is against the law, to construct
these pools, but what law does foreigners who bring in money like 2.5 million
dollars a home, have to respect? They have paid off the authorities, says a prominent
old timer in the Fort. The joke is on us taxpayers - - because not only has the
law been flagrantly flouted -- the authorities say they know nothing about it.
Mr. Hewawasam Chief Executive Officer of the Galle Heritage Foundation, which
has to ratify all renovations, deadpans that around 4 to 5 residents applied to
the planning committee to construct pools in their backyards, but says these applications
were rejected. This is just minutes after we saw the pools ourselves, after we
tricked the watchers to let us past the large "No Trespass'' signs. Contrary to
all claims made by Hewawasam, almost all the houses (not just 4 or 5) bought recently
by foreigners have pools - large ones that, we repeat, cover almost the entirety
of their backyards.
Apparently the foreigners or
those who worked on their behalf started calling the pools 'water features' to
get the plans passed - and a lot of money has probably changed hands so that the
pools could remain. Question is when is the Heritage Foundation investigation
coming, and when are the pools going to be filled-in after being declared illegal?
That's about how cheaply the
world heritage site and its soul is being sold. It is legal of course for the
foreigners to buy the houses. The old time residents are not resisting the money;
most are relocating in Dehiwela, and are using part of their windfall to educate
children abroad etc.,
SPURN OFFERS
But it not upto the people
but to the government to preserve a heritage city. It is funny that sellers themselves
say that the government should bar them from selling to foreigners in the interests
of preserving the Fort. That may sound hypocritical but these long time residents
know what's happening to the future of the World Heritage city. Though their conscience
pricks them, their middle class circumstances don't exactly allow them to spurn
offers of millions of rupees for their houses.
Of the 131 houses sold so far
to foreign buyers, only a few are inhabited. The rest are used as holiday homes
and high class guest houses by the foreigners. They rent out the houses on a short
term basis to their foreign friends for around 500 USD a day.
What this means is that the
entire resident character of Galle Fort is changing -- an uninterrupted human
habitation from time immemorial, is for the first time becoming a ghost city --
or as at best a resort city for the non resident high-flyer. This means the city
ceases to be a living breathing inhabited city, and will hence run the risk of
being struck out from the list of UNESCO heritage cities, because UNSESO strictly
requires that heritage cities have an inhabited character.
GAY CITY
As if that was not enough,
Galle Fort is not just becoming a resort - it is becoming an 'in your face' resort.
An Englishwoman on Church Street has started a Montessori ''strictly for white
kids only.'' It is colour bar time in good old Sri Lanka! Having visited the Montessori
site, we ascertained that it is exclusively for white kids, even for 'transient''
ones who are here with their parents on holiday. Sri Lankan kids - even Galle
Fort kids -- need not apply.
While Galle Fort is ceasing
to be an inhabited living city and is being transformed into a holiday resort,
as if that wasn't enough, it is being transformed into a gay and paedophile paradise
as well. You do not need to be homophobic, that's not the issue. A World Heritage
city cannot be transformed into a gay paradise - it goes without saying that this
will soon change the heritage characteristics of the city which will run the risk
of losing its World Heritage city status. Several foreign couples who have bought
houses are gay couples - its is easy to verify this as we did. But, that's not
galling except that these are gay holidaymakers and not permanent gay residents,
even. What's galling is that some of these foreigners are in the habit of bringing
gay men - we are told some of them often underage boys - from a nearby rendezvous
point in a hotel, for their private pleasure in the luxury homes. So not only
is Galle's heritage city being sold for a mess of pottage - it is being converted
into a non-resident gay Center. World Heritage city? Galle heritage city will
soon be called the world's largest gay hostel.
Neither Mr. Rienzie Wijetilleke
of the Galle Heritage Foundation or anybody else in that body, or anyone who is
officially connected with the Fort's preservation seem to know or care about these
things. All they care about is holding press conferences to say that 'buggy cart
rides will be provided'' and the Fort 'beautified'' to 'conserve' it. They are
no doubt providing the cover for the concreted effort going on right under their
noses to make the magnificent Galle Fort lose its heritage city status.
Origins of an 'invasion'
How did the old Dutch Fort
in Galle transform an average priced although tremendously culturally rich heritage
city, into one of the world's most sought after hotspots for international property
buyers? (See TIME magazine March 3rd 2003.)
A 100 per cent tax on foreigners
buying property was removed by this government. But even before this, after Hong
Kong went back to the Chinese in particular, wealthy Englishmen and other Westerners
based in Hong Kong in particular, started buying property on Galle Fort. Its rich
traditions, safety and security, superb location, and the easy ability to find
loopholes in the tax regime by forming companies, helped.
A bright spark, a man still
resident in Galle Fort, also got the idea of exploiting Galle's Heritage status
- and lax rules - to entice foreign buyers. He advertised 'Villas for foreigners
in Galle' on the Internet. The boom began. The prices shot up - and Villa's became
unaffordable to locals. Soon the locals may not own any. The only way the government
can stop the disruptive "invasion'' of the Galle Fort (see main story) is to legislate
to stop foreigners from buying there, citing 'cultural reasons.'
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