Odds & Ends

Still time for you

Sunday was a big day for many politicians as they lined up to be sworn in as Ministers before President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mahinda Samarasinghe was being sworn in as the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights and when he had to sign on the dotted line, instead of signing where he should, he placed his signature where the President should sign. A bemused President was quick to tell the minister “there is still time for you to sign there.”

A little insecure

Some of the UNP MPs who took up posts in the Government are a little insecure. So when a scribe called up one of the MPs who is now a deputy minister to get his comments on what he thought of the Mahinda Chintanaya he hung up the phone. Soon afterwards a call came back. It was none other than the deputy minister himself calling to check whether the person who called him was actually a scribe or someone spying on him.

Not very healthy

Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva is one minister who has had to face trade union action more frequently than many others. So when he came to the Eye Hospital in Colombo last week he was in no mood to mince his words. The employees at the Hospital got such an earful from the Minister that some actually walked out of the meeting. Not a very healthy attitude to adopt towards trade unions, especially now with their growing clout.