Bill Gates' 11 Rules Ficient Persistence, and for Putting Too Much Emphasis on Negotiations with the LTTE

Thursday 26th June, 2008 9 The killer electricity rates The government has decided to Units, bearing in mind that places of nothing, as there would be virtually mulate less complicated ways of sub- easier for the CEB. Giving one rate grant a concession to places of reli- religious worship have to be built to no place of worship that uses under mitting their bills. It is better to have for consumption and another rate gious worship and charitable institu- accommodate a fair number of wor- 90 units of electricity. one flat rate and have consumers after one month for a fuel surcharge tions – a reduction of the surcharge shippers. It is time that the government was charged a firm flat rate for the con- is of no use. The consumer in the of 30% for places of worship that The present reduction of the 30% more realistic, and allowed the sumption of electricity each month. end pays both rates. Let us pay the consume less than 90 units of elec- surcharge for places of religious removal of the entire 30% adjust- Today what happens is that adjust- whole bill for June and end it there tricity. This is of no purpose. Hardly worship is meaningless and of no ment surcharge from all places of ments are made on the current bill with no further calls being made for any place of worship will use less advantage at all. As a result, places religious worship irrespective of the on the previous month's bill for the a later payment for the June bill. The than 90 Units. It will always be much of religious worship will have to pay units consumed. The government fuel adjustment surcharge. Let there people just do not want any more more. The consumption of electricity anything from Rs. 50,000/- to Rs. could, of course, urge these places be an amalgamation of the two rates eyewash. It is better to take the bit- in places of religious worship will 100,000/- or even more on their con- to reduce their consumption as much into one rate. There should be no ter dose in one shot. Is this too much easily be from 250/500 to 750/1,500 sumption of electricity. The govern- as possible, but under no circum- additions made on a current bill for for the government and the CEB to Units or even more. There could be ment says it will lose approximately stances should they be asked to pay the previous month's bill. Let there understand? large places of religious worship Rs. 150 million as a result of this the present high rates of electricity. be one firm flat rate for electricity that consume more than 1,506 to 2,000 concession. It will probably lose It is time also for the CEB to for- each month. It will also make billing Maurice Lord Finding ... From page 8 It was scuttled largely due to UNP intran- sigence, although the SLFP leadership was also to blame for failing to pursue it with suf- Bill Gates' 11 rules ficient persistence, and for putting too much emphasis on negotiations with the LTTE. Bill Gates recently gave a Rule 3: You will NOT born, your parents weren't as bear the slightest resem- Under the Rajapaksa presidency, hopes for a speech at a High School about make $60,000 a year right out boring as they are now. They blance to ANYTHING in real political solution were revived by the cre- 11 things they did not and will of High School. You won't be got that way from paying life. ation of the APRC, and at first, those hopes not learn in school. He talks a vice-president with a car your bills, cleaning your Rule 9: Life is not divided appeared to be justified. The talks were incomparably more inclusive than previous about how to feel-good, politi- phone until you earn both. clothes and listening to you into semesters. You don't get talks between the government and LTTE, and cally correct teachings, creat- Rule 4: If you think your talk about how cool you summers off and very few a proposal that would satisfy the democratic ed a generation of kids with teacher is tough, wait till you thought you were. So before employers are interested in majority of all communities was well on the no concept of reality and how get a boss. you save the rain forest from helping you FIND YOUR- way to being crafted. this concept set them up for Rule 5: Flipping burgers is the parasites of your parent's SELF. Do that on your own Yet in a bizarre twist, the ruling party and failure in the real world. not beneath your dignity. generation, try delousing the time. president put one obstacle after another in Your grandparents had a dif- closet in your own room. Rule 10: Television is NOT the way of the APRC process, finally consign- Rule 1: Life is not fair - get ferent word for burger flip- Rule 8: Your school may real life. In real life people ing the whole exercise to the dustbin when used to it! ping: they called it opportuni- have done away with winners actually have to leave the cof- the president proclaimed that a ‘solution’ Rule 2: The world won't ty. and losers, but life HAS NOT. fee shop and go to jobs. would have to be found within the present constitution: a constitution that has not only care about your self-esteem. Rule 6: If you mess up, it's In some schools, they have Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. been a major cause of the war, but has also The world will expect you to not your parents' fault, so abolished failing grades and Chances are you'll end up been responsible for a conflict in which tens accomplish something don't whine about your mis- they'll give you as MANY working for one. of thousands of Sinhalese were killed by BEFORE you feel good about takes, learn from them. TIMES as you want to get the M. Zulkifli Nazim Sinhalese! The UNP,which could have put the yourself. Rule 7: Before you were right answer. This doesn't Colombo 06. president and his party on the spot by pro- claiming their support for the APRC process, instead helped to sabotage it. It looks less and less likely that a political solution can emerge during the term of the present government, but that does not change the fact that there is no other way of healing the wound that A case for the 'Kaduwa' exudes war and terrorism. This is therefore a road that leads to peace, unlike the dead-ends of a purely military solution and peace talks Sheathing of the 'Kaduwa' closely associated with it. derers; Tarzie Vittachie and embrace the future. Let with the LTTE. is what helped Ceylon regain Britain fortified its hold on Aubrey Collette trailed behind. Sinhala be relegated to the cat- Eliminating Obstacles on the Road to its destiny, Ceylon, the colony governance through the The Civil Service was egory of dead languages, like Peace of Britain, sought to make English- speaking Ceylonese. scrapped and replaced by the Latin and Sanskrit, holding Having identified the road to peace, the white everything that stood in The top administrators Administrative Service, the interest of the etymologist, next task is to eliminate the obstacles block- its way. It was guarded by remained Englishmen. enabling any clerical servant while Lanka moves on the fast ing the way to our destination. One is white soldiers. The top admin- With S. W. R. D. to climb the ladder to the top forward mode. Sinhala is the undoubtedly the LTTE, and we have already said that the best way to remove this obstacle istrators were Englishmen. Bandaranaike coming in as grades in the service. The gov- kitchen language. Let us is to propose a political solution that drains They helped open schools in the Prime Minister, he moved ernment service ceased to be replace it with English. away its support base. The other obstacle is the towns of Colombo, Kandy to give the Sinhala- educated strictly compartmentalised, S. W. R.D. Bandaranaike the government. The experience of the last and Jaffna, which helped them their true place as citizens of save for the technically- quali- was elected president of the sixty years tells us that the two parties which to train pen pushers to main- Ceylon. The Sinhala- speaking fied. Cambridge Union because of have been in power during this period are not tain records of their rule. Ayurvedhic physician, the vil- English is now rapidly his fluency in English. He out- capable of the task. Both have pandered to Schools were few and far lage school master, farmer and becoming a language of inter- shone the British student in totalitarian Sinhala nationalism, and the between in the rural hinter- manual worker and the lower national communication. The oratorical skills. A picture of SLFP, whose human rights record was not as land. Those that existed were rungs of the government serv- government has realised it and him still hangs in the gallery bad as that of the UNP,is catching up rapidly. S. W. R.D. Bandaranaike Pirivenas or temple schools ice were jubilant and hysteri- lest Sri Lanka falls by the way- of past presidents. Ceylon had In other words, their commitment to democ- racy is very much in doubt. where the medium of instruc- cal when the Sinhala Only Act side, the Minister of no Supreme Court and appeals Yet various minority parties have gravi- tion was the mother tongue, came up in Parliament.

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