Odds and Ends

A 10-month travel ban imposed by the French Government on its nationals visiting Sri Lanka was lifted last Monday much to the relief of the Sri Lanka travel industry.

The Tourist Board which should have immediately got into action in the French market, meeting all the tour operators and reactivitating them, promoting them to re-start the Sri Lanka programme, summoned the Director of the Paris office to Colombo instead, for 'consultations' to meet the local travel trade, keeping him away from France for two weeks.

And what happens when the man from Paris turns up for these 'consultations' in Colombo? The Chairman of the Board goes to Kandy. So, the man from Paris keeps kicking his heels in Colombo. So much for the development and promotion of tourism through the Tourist Board.

Everything may not be black and white

The modern day ‘Mahoshada’ with a ghost writer and a path finder of a foundation to back him nearly had it made as a whiz kid with plenty of hints that Uncle Sam is backing him to the hilt, till he decided to double cross green boss. Grandpa certainly was a financial wizard, but the grandson with a massive war chest may yet prove a failure.

No wonder the green boss snubs him in public. May be the pole vault was a case of a rat abandoning a ship thinking it was about to sink. But with an important report to cope with now and a presidential commission too ready to probe collapsed financial houses a lot of exposure is in store for him. Soon we might get to see whether he is a whiz kid after all. By the way folks have you noticed that Mahoshada has stopped writing since our friend joined the Government?

Canvassing for no-confidence

Green man is once again firing all cylinders and with plenty of spring in his walk. Even a wedding of a scribe Galle Face way was no barrier for him to canvass support from TNA members for a no-confidence against a governing type, but will TNA back is the question? Rambuksand is certainly one of the best defenders of the State, probably better than any dyed-in-the-wool blue. The governing types too have promised a retaliatory no-confidence against a green heavyweight, who is more a street brawler than a refined debater.

Poor A.L.M. Cader, the faithful UNP workhorse from Gampola. He complained in Parliament and to the police that he is getting threatening calls, but one of two numbers he gave to police from which two of the calls had originated, the khaki coats have found is registered in his own name.

Now the poor man is threatening to sue the cellular phone company for selling a phone to a stranger under his name. He told The Sunday Times that the caller who threatened to kill him each time and spoke in Tamil, was definitely a member of his own community from his accent.

The Tuesday bomb scare in Ampara, which nearly resulted in the District Development Committee meeting being called off completely, apparently was not a Tiger job, but an inside one. The meeting was set to begin at 9:00 a.m. with Minister P. Dayaratne scheduled to jointly chair it for the first time since joining the Government with Minister Ferial Ashraff, but Minister Ashraff had sent a message that she would not be able to attend it. It is now suspected that someone who did not want Mr. Dayaratne to chair the meeting had been behind the hoax. Later the meeting got underway with both ministers co-chairing the session, but by then some officials had already left the scene.

Who is the genie ass?

Remember the recent shortage of high value revenue stamps. A genie ass has rushed and printed some stamps in ordinary offset at a press that is Government as a stop gap measure till the real stuff was printed by a security printer with all due precautions. Now Lankan forgers are known to print even ordinary currency notes, even if they have got caught in their hundreds. Guess what now? The copy cat forgers have apparently printed stamps as well, either emulating the stop gap arrangement or to meet the sheer demand created by the shortage. And khakis in civvies have been entrusted the task of tracing them. It must be like finding a needle in a hay stack. Poor PMG vouches that all due precautions were taken and nothing could have leaked.

A General has been transferred for allegedly failing to drive back LTTE efficiently during recent skirmishes in the Omanthai area. The truth is said to lie with there being a general shortage of ammo for MBRLs. The cost of the war may not be a worry for Tigers, but it certainly is for us. These ammo don’t come cheap.