Days are going really fast these days! How to find time to breath is the problem!!!!

Finally, the WSIS working group manage to finalize the plans and ICT is now a compulsory subject in schools. More work to be done with Colombo schools, program at Royal College is going in full sway, kids are loving the idea of the global classroom, thanks for the excellent resources with IEARN!!

Hopefully, would be able to visit Matale by the end of this week, not sure how rural schools would respond to this idea, everything depends on the support of teachers with parents not being able to support children. A real tough job!

Maybe the education on ICT’s would boost the English language skills of rural kids, a positive points, but the primary teaching MUST be conducted in Sinhalese. Or else
everything would be Greek to these kids who has very little knowledge on English.

That’s all for ICT’s in life!

oooops. time is running really fast! Which reminds me that I have to go for my late night study sessions. Will miss some good discussions in TIG tonight. Hopefully, time would
go slow tomorrow. I can only pray ;)

Udara

Hey friends,

Are there any TIG members who have travelled from Varanasi to Nepal ? Or are there any who are located in Varanasi or the Indian - Nepal border :)

Thanks, Hope to hear from you guys soon!

Udara

By Rabindranath Tagore, "Selected Poems"

RAILWAY STATION

I come to the station morning and evening,
I love to watch the coming and going -
Hubbub of passengers pressing for tickets,
Down-trains boarded, up-trains boarded,
Ebb and flow like an estuarine river.
Some people sitting there ever since morning,
Other people missing their train by a minute.
(...)
The essence of all these moving pictures
Brings to my mind the image of language,
Forever forming, forever unforming,
Continuous coming, continuous going.
(...)
The world is merely the work of a painter,
This is the truth I have accepted -
Not made by a craftsman, beaten and moulded
Not a thing the hand can grip hold of,
But an insubstancial visual sequence.
Age follows age, never losing momentum,
A stream of forming and passing pictures.
Alone in the midst of the to-ing and fro-ing
I watch the constant flux of the station.

(written in 1937-1941)

Dear Ronald Reagan,

Even though they are having your funeral today, I thought I’d write to clear up a thing or two. I don’t know if you remember that letter I wrote you in 1986. You had just bombed that uppity Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi. I was feeling pretty proud to be an American, and I wrote to tell you about it.

Of course, you didn’t get Qadaffi himself. You only killed his infant daughter and about 60 other people. I’m sure you didn’t plan to kill him because killing a head of state would have been against the law, but you never know where one of those stray bombs will land (wink, wink). I was sure ol’ Muammar would think twice before thumbing his nose at us Americans again.

That’s how I saw things, anyway, and that was why I voted for you. Things started changing for me after that, and in 1988 I read about the Pan Am 747 jumbo jet that crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing about 270 people, most of them Americans and many of them U.S. military. I couldn’t help but think we were paid back in spades after I heard there was a Libyan connection.

When you compare 60 people to 270, it seems like when it comes time to pay the piper, there is interest tacked on. When people are killed, there are mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters who have a sore heart, and there are stories of grief and rage that we never think about until retribution comes. Maybe Muammar was unhappy about the bomb you dropped on his little girl, and so he practiced that time-honored custom of revenge. Who knows?

I also thought of the time you ordered the navy to shell the Muslim militias in Beirut. Then you sent the Marines ashore, and 243 of them were killed by a suicide bomber who was enraged by the shelling. We were paid in spades again. I marveled at how a “super-power” could be stopped by a single man with a grudge and a little help from his friends.

What about the Nicaraguan Contras you called “freedom fighters” and “the moral equivalent of our founding fathers"? From what I read, they behaved more like terrorists, raping and killing when they met up with peasants who had a different political philosophy. Did Thomas Jefferson do that?

I believe a large share of the Contras crimes can be laid at your door because you armed and financed them. When will payday come for that? What about the thousands and millions of government abuses we never hear about, buried in secret files at CIA headquarters or only in the memories of the perpetrators and invisible witnesses that report directly to God?

I won’t go into the legacy of your “running mate", George H.W. Bush, and his son, but it would seem you also bear a share of guilt for their crimes, because you endorsed the Bush dynasty as you left office, and led the political establishment that produced those two characters. Your legacy will be used for toilet paper in the day retribution comes on this land for the horrors it is now perpetrating in the name of “liberty.” The mob praising you today will curse you tomorrow.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever….”

Mr. Reagan, you came from what is called “the best generation.” You represented all we believed was honorable and good about our country, and you appeared as wholesome as mom and apple pie. But, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and many good folks won’t find that out until they reach that destination. We can speak and do seemingly good and noble things and only end up guilty for so much pain and desolation. When we appear before God to be judged, He isn’t interested so much in our beliefs, but rather, if our hands are clean or not. What will God say when He checks yours?

Maybe you weren’t aware you had blood on your hands. I didn’t know I had blood on my hands, either, until I realized that by supporting and paying for the actions of others, I was just as guilty for their crimes as they were. Today is a national day of mourning. I mourn for those who suffered at the hands of those I supported with my vote and taxes.

So, regarding that letter I wrote to you in 1986, please put it in the trash.

Sincerely, Jeff

Friends in Sri Lanka,

Sri Lankan parliament indeed is a coming to a state of a classic comedy , ministers acting like buffaloes
being an insult to the whole Sri Lanka!

Sri Lankan peace loving citizens must realize sticking to traditional political parties would not boost the country,
A difference must come from the heart of the people to touch the higher legislation!


We are blindly worshiping politicians who are worst individuals in the society in all aspects, lets understand
our responsibilities!

With best wishes for a better Sri lanka!

Udara