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Monday, 28 December 2009

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Dreams, daydreams and fairy tales

Man likes to dream. This is especially so when the dreams are sweet. Barring nightmares, there is no one who would not relish a dream. Even a popular song says, "allow me to see my dream. Do not disturb".

Our concern here is not so much the nocturnal dream or what one sees during sleep. The focus here is on daydreams, dreams of statesmen and inventors, of adventurists and politicians that had an impact on the lives of the people.

Wilbur and Orville Wright dreamt of flying and man does fly now. Now there are giant airplanes roaming the globe crossing wide oceans. The sound barrier too has been broken. Konstatin Tsiolkovsky dreamt of breaking through Earth's gravitational field and conquering space and man has today conquered space. He is even probing distant worlds. There were social dreamers too. From Spartacus to Che Guevara they have been dreaming of a better world. Though much progress has been achieved the dream is yet to be realised fully.

"There is a dreamer in the Kremlin", said celebrated science fiction writer H. G. Wells speaking about Lenin who had a dream of making Russia a developed country through electrification. That dream did come true. From a backward nation Russia emerged as a world super-power, though the society he built imploded later for other reasons.

Sri Lanka also had its dreamers. Wimalasurendra dreamt of harnessing hydropower for the country's development, another dream come true. Rampala was a dreamer who developed our railway network.

There is also a dreamer at Temple Trees. Long before shifting his abode there he dreamt of a unified state, a state free of terrorism for Sri Lanka. His dream has been fulfilled today.

It is not enough to dream. It is necessary to pursue the dream till it is realised. That needs determination and singleness of purpose.

The dreamer at Temple Trees has other dreams too. Mathata Titha or the dream of eradicating the drug menace and alcoholism is being realised progressively. The dream of taking ICT to the village youth, the dream of developing English language skills among the youth, the dream of making the country self-reliant in staple food crops etc. are being realised at a rapid pace.

Having fulfilled his basic dream of uniting and freeing the country he has spelt out a new dream. It is about making a leap towards a developed modern nation with its cultural identity intact.

We also come across other dreamers too. Their dreams, however, have turned out to be just modern fairy tales. For example, there was a dream of building a parallel rail track to the South in the wake of the disastrous tsunami five years ago and a proposal to run a cable car to reach the Sri Pada peak. Then there was also the dream of providing each and every citizen with eight kilograms of pulses. All these dreams have become fairy tales.

It is necessary to identify dreamers who could deliver from dreamers whose dreams would turn into fairy tales the sooner they are spelt out. It should be easy as differentiating seed from chaff.


Reflections on relativity

Everything in the Universe is supposed to be relative and not absolute. As Einstein showed even time and space which remain eternal are relative to each other.

Relativity, of course, could be established far too easily by examples from everyday life. Take for example people's habits, customs, fashions and so on. Several decades ago the Western dress was the exclusive privilege of the social elite, especially of those who could command the Queen's language.

The Radio, TV at the time of their introduction were affordable only to the rich and wealthy. Now they are common household goods. The same goes for many electrical and electronic apparatus of household usage.

Few decades ago those males who had their hair tied in a knot were ridiculed by the young. Today the hair knot is in vogue among the youth, even in the cities and among the elite. Similarly the mobile phone was a status symbol when it first arrived in the market. Now it is in almost everybody's hands.

The other day the media carried a picture of a beggar contacting somebody on his mobile phone. Few decades ago males wearing pigtails and earrings would have been considered insane. Today it is 'high fashion'.

Yes, everything changes. Everything is relative.
 

Death to democracy and road to dictatorship - Part IV:

Government policies bring economic boom

The best human quality is to give credit to those who deserve, and refrain from indulging in self-aggrandizement. It is hilarious to find Sarath Fonseka attempting to claim sole ownership for defeating the terrorists and that too without having involved at the beginning and end of the war. If the operation unfortunately failed will he come forward to accept the responsibility in the same vein?

Full Story

Candidates, vilification and the eunuch syndrome

There’s a book I strongly recommend to anyone who is interested in the issue of power, naked exercise of control and subtle control, ideologically and otherwise: Soul on Ice by Elridge Cleaver.

Full Story

Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary:

Sacrifices and reconciliation

Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a man of multidimensional qualities. A politician, philosopher, orator and diplomat par excellence. A true political son of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in every sense of the word. For Jinnah, he always used to say, ‘That is my man! That is my idol, the man I respect’. He launched the Pakistan People’s Party on November 30, 1967, in Lahore and caught the heartbeat of the people when he declared: ‘Chahta Hai Har Insan, Roti, Kapra Aur Makaan.’

Full Story

Developing English language usage in school education - Part IV:

Positive outcomes of bilingual education

Bilingual education provides learners with ample time for using the target language, unlike in the attempt to develop English by teaching English only as a link language in the curriculum and covering less than four hours a week in the timetable. Learners are thus in a position to use language widely across the curriculum.

Full Story

 

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