I was born here, in Colombo
Why on earth are so many desperate to leave Sri Lanka and do work in unpleasant conditions and very long hours in an unfriendly work environment, say for example, in Sainsbury’s Freezer Rooms packing and stacking food, for a measly wage and studying during daytime to qualify for Student non-support Visas to UK?
by Victor Cherubim
( April 20, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) To many in Sri Lanka, life overseas is a bowl of cherries. It is quite natural for longing to travel outside our shores of our small island, to see the world. Strangely from birth, it becomes a cherished ambition for some, in search of the unknown, the unchartered, the new frontier of experience? Could it hardly be a comparison, as a step on the Moon?
Over centuries however, many world travellers too have come to our land, some in search of adventure, and others in search of trade. We ask ourselves what makes them travel? Is it a pastime to find solitude, solace or sobriety or in hope to conjure memories of the hidden jewels of pleasure?
Life in our land and life abroad
If life in our land is so different to life abroad, or seen to be different, why is it that many leave our shores taking perilous journeys over land and sea(s) and many continents, as refugees?
If life in our land is so different to life abroad, why is it that they are willing to give fictitious accounts of persecution in today’s Sri Lanka,perhaps, to earn a crust abroad?
