New Address!

Decided to ditch Blogger and shift to Wordpress instead. More room to experiment with cool features 'n' such.

Cultural Learnings will continue here.

New Year, New Year

This year has started in a rather controversial way. We spent the weekend relaxing by the beach down south, surrounded by all the tropical beauty this country holds. Very nice getaway it was! This morning I was back to business getting my hands into work, when I was reminded of the rotten side of the paradise. We heard a loud blast, which then turned out to be a bomb in the vicinity, right around the corner to where I get off the bus in the mornings. Luckily I had already walked past the place and arrived safe to my desk. However, after some wondering and head shaking everyone was quickly back to their tasks and the event became nothing more than a lunch table topic. But yea, what to do? You just get past it and continue. Panicing does not help much. And one cannot become terrorized by such happenings, since that is exactly what the terrorists are after.


When coming back from the South, there were ,like always, many of these “fixer”guys, who want to help you to get whatever services you seem to lack, approaching us on the Galle bus stand. One tried to lure us into paying for an extra seat for our bags. Luckily we are not dumb tourists who will fall for such, but we just went across the road and waited until the guy had pissed off. Meanwhile we were approached by another dude generously offering his tuk-tuk services. I guess we were so aggravated by the previous rip off attempt that I managed to sound quite arrogant when telling him we are not interested. The guy gave a minor litany about how “We are people too and you Westerners should not be so obnoxious and keep your head high”. A point well made, definitely. I do regret showing such an attitude. One has to be firm, but always polite.

Then again, afterwards I prepared a whole speech I could have burst out on him (which I luckily didn’t at the point). I mean sure, I understand, things are difficult here for many and people try to earn their living in all ways possible. Still the current reality is not my or any other Western expats fault. As I shouldn’t take my frustration on locals, neither should they on us. Not to mention the pointless war that has gone on for over two decades and which is seriously holding back the vital development steps this country could be taking. We try to help in various ways, but what I feel is the problem in many aid programs in general is the lack of action by the receiving country. In many cases the money allocated falls into the hands of corrupted officials or other crooks and criminals of the nation in question. The reality in the receiving country is often much more complex than we in the west can see. Therefore we need more commitment from the countries themselves. And somehow we need to expand that commitment even more on the local levels. Go there where the people in need are and show them that they indeed can make a difference in their own lives.



Still, life here goes on and I have a good 1,5 months time to experience many of the positive things this wonderful country has to offer. I refuse to get too upset and shocked by such unfortunate events. Nevertheless, I wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year 2008.