One one things

It’s been a while since I wrote something during office hours but i’m feeling mildly rebellious today. I have nothing to say as such but I’m going to say it anyway. Just because I’m feeling rebellious. It’s been an oddish day - started up with a bang (mea culpa, bad joke) and proceeded to improve despite a 3 hour bat on the Sri Lanka transport board courtesy some chap the office chaps felt would be a good chap to talk to us. And he was good. He said some great stories about moving from the private sector to work in the govt sector - spiced by some super reenactments of phone conversations, sarong hiking and all. In the last few months I’ve heard encouraging stories about the SLTB and the Railways - at least the chaps in charge are quite encouraging, and they both seem to think that the minister is the shit.

(I must at this point digress for a minute to relate a great railway story this chap said. So our friend was on an inspection run from Colombo to Badulla and he was with his deputy in the Engine putting a giggle with the driver. All is good till the guard rocks up, swearing at the top of his lungs and looking in bad shape. The deputy is told to go and see if the guard is cocked. “Plastered sir, stinking of booze even.” So they stop in Nawalapitiya (or Nanuoya, I can’t recall) and GMR hands over the drunk guard to the railway security chaps and tell them to get the bugger charged by the superintendent. Now it’s quite late in the piece, just short of midnight, and the security chaps escort the guard to the SI’s residence. After several knocks a light flickers on and the SI staggers out. “Mokada oy raa meda? hic” The SI is trolleyed. The security chaps explain that the guard was removed from the Badulla train bc he was drunk and needs to be charged. The SI peers at the guard for a good 2 mins before spluttering, “Meya beela nah yako, mama outa wada veri ne, yanawa yanna.” Slams the door. So they return to the station with the guard who passes out promptly. The GMR stops by the next day on the return leg only to be told that the guard could not be charged and that he now is demanding an apology and compensation for being wrongfully kicked off the train. So the GMR apologised, and the guard was compensated.)

So at the minute both systems (SLTB, CGR) are, unfortunately, not the shit. SLTB loses around Rs. 3Bn a year (main problem being a spectacularly bloated staff of 38000 swelled by politically appointed Johnnies who are predominantly ata pass, at best) and the railways can’t cover variable cost - which is bad form, really (here the problem is a lack of flexibility in pricing. It costs around Rs. 70 to go back forth Colombo Moratuwa by bus - by train it costs around Rs. 18 - and GMR can’t increase it without the political nod - so obviously no cash for investment, incentives, nothing). But these chaps who spoke to us have the balls and the mind to set things in the right direction - VRS’s at the SLTB and internal markets in the CGR. Let’s wish them some luck because they bloody well need it with our trade union brothers. That said, we’ll probably have a change of government and everything will be scratched. That’s why we love our political system. Rah.

After that super long discourse I did two sound hours of work before taking a break to have a Dinemor Tuna sub which is, also, the shit. Unfortunately my day took a turn for the worse having received in my inbox a rather dicey picture of a Chinese kid trying to cut off his love-stick. Now I know they’ve had population issues in the past but this might be a tad extreme. Just as I was recovering from that I get pictures from a colleague of this morning’s bomb victim - gruesomely splayed across Galle road. What strange people I associate with. Thankfully my spirits were rescued by a fabulous image I stumbled across of a young lefty girl wearing a beret and brandishing a Kalashnikov. Which explains why I’m feeling rebellious, and this post for that matter. I’m certainly not getting those fifteen minutes of my life back. Thankfully my procrastination came to an end when I came across a former housemate’s PhD topic. This is the kind of thing that slaps you in the face, tells you to sit up and appreciate your job, well mine at least. His thesis is entitled;

“The Acquisition of Books by Chetham’s Library 1655-1685: A Case Study in the Distribution and Reception of Texts in the English Provinces in the 17th Century.”
It goes on to explain that he will be undertaking a three-year AHRC-funded doctoral (PhD) project to research the Library’s acquisitions policy between its foundation in 1655 and the death of its first supplier, Robert Littlebury, in 1685. It is hoped that this project will not only generate a thesis about the trade in books and ideas between London and Manchester in the 17th century, but also a detailed transcript of the Library’s earliest accessions registers.”

My God. Oh GSP +, let me embrace you in amorous splendour.

P.s.
This post’s title pays tribute to the Island headline of 5/3/2008 “Robbers of pubic money will burn in hell - CJ” which is easily the best example of journalism, ever. Who says we don’t have media freedom?