(Lanka-e-News- 29.Sep.2014, 11.30PM) Medamulana MaRa going by his self publicity circus and gimmicks after taking over the reins of the country is indulging in monumental profligacy and wasteful extravagance using up the public funds like his dowry monies only to conceal his acute inferiority complex before the annual UN general assembly, and merely to achieve just that dastardly selfish goal .
Like leaders of other countries , our own sensible leaders of the past too did not attend this conference every year because it is customary for the leaders to attend this conference only if there is some important matter affecting the country or the world is going to be discussed. In other instances , the country’s permanent representative in New York and the foreign Minister alone attend this conference , which are amply adequate, and for which purpose they are appointed and paid salaries in addition to the perks and privileges they enjoy.
Sadly however to the detriment of the country’s already crumbling economy , Sri Lanka’s present insensible leader Medamulana MaRa in contradistinction to his sensible predecessors has chosen to go on a junket every year making this conference an excuse. Though his going alone itself is bad enough , he has yet made it a habit to make pleasure trips annually for this conference with his wife , their bevy of damsels and others who know absolutely nothing except sightseeing and free excursions at state expense- thanks to MaRa.
Mind you his entourage comprised more than 70 members this time when he travelled to New York. A full two floors of the most expensive hotel ‘Waldorf Astoria’ have been reserved for his entourage, while the ‘Presidential suite ‘of Medamulana MaRa costs US $ 24000 per day ! Apart from the bedroom , it has a lobby and a conference room while the cost of a meal is US$ 175.00
This expenditure turns two fold when wife’s expenses are included. Believe it or not , MaRa is spending or rather wasting Rs. 3.4 million in Sri Lankan currency just for lodging alone per night in ‘Astoria’ .For six days , the expenditure is Rs. 20.4 million!! It is to be further noted, Heads of countries who reserved super luxury hotels like Astoria are those from most affluent countries , and not from countries like Sri Lanka where the oppressed people are perennially planning how many meals they must skip per day to eke out a living. The affluent countries are America, China, Japan , South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Even England that is rich enough did not book this hotel .
Though MaRa by staying in this hotel sought to rub shoulders with the Heads of the affluent countries and paint a wealthy image about his country , it is reported that those countries are frowning on him , and are giving the cold shoulder ,being fully aware of the poor and grief stricken masses he represents. They construe it as obscene ostentation and utter idiocy on the part of a Head of State. This Head of State who after plunging the country into irredeemable debts and overwhelming poverty indulging in profligacy of this magnitude unconscionably have rudely shocked them.
(The photograph depicts the hoisted national flags of the countries at Hotel Astoria where the Heads of States are staying .)
In addition to this wasteful extravagance , 50 luxury limousines have been hired for the traveling comforts of the MaRa entourage. The hiring charges are US dollars 50 per hour , and these vehicles have been booked for 16 hours of the day , meaning that per vehicle the hiring charges areUS $ 800 per day. The total expense for the 50 vehicles therefore per day is US $ 40,000. Hence for six days the full expenditure in SL currency is Rs. 31.2 million!!!
These super luxury traveling comforts are provided not to serve any worthy purpose on behalf of the people , but rather for the shopping sprees and sight seeing of MaRa’s wife and his bevy of cuties .These vehicles are apart from the high roof Mercedes Benz Vans hired for the cuties .
These vehicles were booked for 16 hours a day at US. $ 100 per hour or Rs. 1.25 million had been spent on these hiring vehicles . Because of MaRa’s limousine mania , a new breed of individuals have emerged. They pay US $ 50.00 per day for a vehicle that is hired out at US $ 25. 00 per day .
The worst part ? even after spending so much of public funds most recklessly and ruthlessly stemming from his inferiority complex , the speech made by MaRa at the UN session was a total fiasco. No important heads of States were present . This was also because MaRa’s speech was at 7.00 in the night. By that time , the Heads of States were meeting and greeting each other.
The next slap in the face came to Medamulan MaRa most disdainfully at the sumptuous dinner he hosted spending most lavishly. This was organized on the second floor of Matropolitan club at 60 th street yesterday (27) . Unnecessarily monies were wasted on this. For this dinner between 8.00 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. , strangely not a single head of State attended. Only some foreign Diplomats of the second tiers and beneath attended, and not surprisingly they were all stooges and lickspittles of MaRa .
Incidentally , wife of MaRa who attended a dinner at a most expensive Restaurant ‘Thulsi’ at 46 th street participated in a pooja conducted in Sinhala in a church at Saturn Island today, while MaRa left for New Jersey to inaugurate a golden fence belonging to a temple.
While the people of Moneragala in his own country are abysmally suffering without drinking water , the Head of this country on the other hand oblivious of all the sufferings of his own people right before his own eyes deemed it fit to indulge his and his cuties’ beyond anything they were ever accustomed to wasting public funds with reckless extravagance . In spite of all this ostentation and exhibitionism at state expense , MaRa and his entourage left New York for SL this evening with empty hands after a futile tour of New York . It is learnt that 8 members of his entourage have been left behind in America on the sly .
By Taylor Dibbert | @taylordibbert
(Lanka-e-News- 29.Sep.2014, 11.30PM) Medamulana MaRa going by his self publicity circus and gimmicks after taking over the reins of the country is indulging in monumental profligacy and wasteful extravagance using up the public funds like his dowry monies only to conceal his acute inferiority complex before the annual UN general assembly, and merely to achieve just that dastardly selfish goal .
Tue, 09/30/2014
A Joint Statement by the Asian Legal Resource Centre
30/09/2014
Recognising a help and expressing gratitude for it is a worthy human gesture. This applies to groups, societies, or even countries. 
Non recognition of a helping hand given is considered unkind and disgraceful. Worse is when parties unrelated are praised when the true helper is elsewhere unrecognised. In Sinhalese tradition, such behaviour is deplored, and the expression underlying such an attitude is “Gangen diya bee muhudata aawadiema”, or “praising the sea having drunk water from the river”.
Former British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sri Lanka's refusal to participate in the End Sexual Violence in Conflict summit was an “obvious gap”, adding its rejection of the campaign will become “more and more obvious” in the months ahead.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has sought legal opinion from foreign constitutional experts on whether the Constitution allows President Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest for a third term, a senior member of the BASL said yesterday.
TUESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2014
