and a happy couple they make, Not!!!

The debate about private unis in SL is rolling on between Morquendi and Indi with Chanuka turning up the heat. The way I see it there are a few broken arrows flying around. I've tried to cut through the BS and rhetoric so feel free to correct me.

Morquendi's view:

1. Basically he doesn't want poor students missing out on university simply because they would not be able to afford the upfront fees for a degree. That is. He wants to provide every student that qualifies, irrespective of socio-economic status, with an Equal Opportunity to get a degree.

2. He also doesn't want those that did not qualify for university to buy their way into a degree at the expense of the qualified poor. That is, he also wants to maintain a Meritrocratic system of education. The idea behind the Meritocracy is, those that work the hardest get their just rewards. After all, who would you trust your (country's) future with the hard working or the not-so hardworking?

Why? The poor in SL are "Really Poor" (i.e. in poverty), there is no "so-called poor" in SL, that's in developed countries and it's called "Relative Poverty". Also, Education is one of the best ways for an individual to overcome poverty. This has been proven around the world.

He doesn't oppose private unis wholesale. He supports them as long as they maintain a Just system of entry to degrees (a system that meets the above principles of fairness).

On the grey matter, He doesn’t like the World Bank imposed conditions on education reform as it strips national sovereignty and stinks of neo-colonialism. But, is this because of the Bank's failure to uphold the above principles? What if the bank agrees to a financially accountable education system, proposed by SL, that doesn't violate the said principles? Morq, do you support student loans as long as the above two conditions are met?

Or is it about a bigger picture ?

BTW, Mahangu's arguments go along the same lines.

Indi's view:

Indi wants to educate more Sri Lankans by introducing private unis as long as those that qualify can afford to pay for the degrees. Everyone who qualifies might not be able to enter due the fee costs, but more students will get a chance at an education. He see no fault in the World Bank imposed conditions to change the education system as more students than the current amounts will gain access to uni.

He supports different forms of student loans and does not accept the arguments for expanding the fully public system due to present and future costs. Sri Lanka cannot afford the costs and loans due to its economic condition. He also wants to improve the Research status of unis.

On the grey matter, does Indi see education as a means out of poverty for the poor? Does it matter or is development the only priority? Does he support uni entrance only for those who qualified or for all who can afford it irrespective of qualification? I.E. if someone didn't qualify to get into a degree but can afford to pay for it, should she/he be allowed to enter?

Chanuka:

When you say liberal do you mean neo-liberal/libertarianism (as I suspect you do)? As Liberal also stands for progressive politics it is an ambiguous term. Are you referring to Liberalism? I'm not sure there are many "liberal" arguments for education not being a Right.

Now for the "so-called" poor, have you been watching too much FOX? Do you think that there aren't any people in poverty in SL? Again, do you refer to "Relative Poverty"? As for the most "liberal" country in the world, what about the "New Deal"?

Also, if student loans are not being collected/payed is the problem with the Education System or the Financial System and/or Government? Shouldn't they be chasing up the ex-students? A few well publicised court cases might convince people to pay up.

BTW, The JVPers might be misguided but as you say, not-educated? Me thinks not. Also, the internet is full of every kind of person, it's a medium for all indivuals and the one with the lowest barriers to entry. Remember, that was the reason for the speculative tech boom and bust.

---

Update:

After writing this the idea of an FAQ crossed my mind. Well guess what, while I was asking him questions Indi was writing one of his own. See it here.

BTW, my views on this are expressed here.

---

Update2:

Fixed up Chanuka's name (was Chanaka), apologies for the misspelling.

A preview to laughter

In the last two evenings I've managed to get to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival looking for laughs, hoping to forget my usually serious demeanour. It's always good to rock up to the Melbourne Town Hall at this time of the year and see so many different people lining up in the ticket queues and gigs. The Town Hall is ground zero for the festival where you find many a stand-up or at a near by theatre, pub, club or lounge-bar whithin walking distance. Wanted to take a few photos for the blog but forgot my camera.

The first day, rocked up late and after 20 minutes waiting in line, facing a cold autumn wind and the desired show sold out, had to improvise and choose an unheard of Canadian. First point, if you have been living in the UK for the last 15 years and have more English jokes than Canadian don't advertise yourself as a moose-head. Next, if it's a comedian's first trip to Oz the Previews are not just a preview to the public but a preview of the locals to the comedians to try out their wit looking for hits and misses as well as searching for "culturally" relevant humour. I'm not going to say who it was as, let's look forward to improvements next year.

Last night we went to see Chris Addison. Now this is guy is really funny. I had never heard of him before yesterday, now I highly recommend his shows. For a show titled Civilization there weren't as many skits about it but he had the audience in rapture all the way, including the required quantity of local humour.

Let's say, for example, if you were a Latin, French, Japanese or Arabic (pick your language) speaking comedian do they get to attend such global festivals as Melbourne, Edinburgh or Montreal? Is this is the future for comedians or are we getting one of these ?

The relevance of tution

As I mentioned before, Indi's Mum has blogged on the notion of Free Education. The argument for factoring in the cost/benefits of tution into the debate about private unis seems to me to be irrelevant. After all, each student is provided with the "level playing field" that is the Free Education System. The way I see it, anything beyond that is an individual's private choice made by the parent(s) of each child over which the state should not concern itself. That is, unless the students are being harmed by the tution system. If this is the case I'm sure there are many ways the state can use it's apparatus to bring the tution industry into line. As it did a few years back by making mandatory school attendance rates for students. Is the tuition industry a form of middle-class angst in SL?

On the point about the "modified Z!-Score" I won't bite other than to ask, do you really want a 1984 style Animal Farm?

As an aside, the article states

... a decreasing business tax base, increasing VAT burden on the populace, and the ever ready supply of loans from foreign donors.

Sri Lanka is a developing third world country. Show me a country that has developed in the past 50 years and ended at the same time with a lower overall tax base. Is this also suggesting that a majority of SL businesses in the globalized future will be using off-shore tax heavens ?

I find this to be an unreasonable expectation. No doubt excessive taxes and debts are bad for economic development but seriously, even with high levels of public/private partnerships do you expect poverty to be eradicated without appropriate tax measures and higher debt? I suspect that the political imperative to eradicate poverty will eventually overcome the technocratic arguments, as in Thailand[WDB].

Handouts and Debts

So the online debate over the proposed introduction of private unis in SL has been continuing over at the blogs of Mahangu, Morquendi and Indi. It's evolved into a lively discussion about the whole Free Education system. Even Indi's mum, Ms. Sujata Gamage a Former Director General of Tertiary Education in SL, has contributed. More on all of that later. The following is a personal account of my journey through the Australian tertiary education system, its handouts and debts, the costs and benefits accrued and brief look at the ongoing changes in tertiary education in Oz.

Circumstances

When I qualified to enter uni I was from a single income, single parent household topped off with a dysfunctional family. I lived on the outer border of the city (cheap housing) and Uni was on the other side of town, a two hour trip in each direction everyday of the week. If only I did a 3 day a week arts-degree, too bad I liked computing too much.

By Oz living standards I was well and truly in the realms of urban poor. If I had to pay upfront fees to enter uni I would have never made it and my family would have no means to purchase me a means to a degree.

Handouts

The government offers students a means tested "student allowance" (i.e. if mummy and daddy earn lots you get zilch).This usually covers the expenses associated with travel, text books, stationary, Union Fees (yes its compulsory) and the subsidised cafeteria food. It also allows for discounted medical fees. While I was able to qualify for this allowance there are other allowances available to rural and independent (not living at home) students.

It's not like uni was completely free because Tertiary places are awarded to a student on basis that he/she accepts to pay the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) fee, this is actually an interest free loan by the government. For the better off there is the option to pay the fees upfront but for most of us the choice is "deferred payment". In special circumstances you can appeal to the Education Department to drop these fees (i.e. a free education). The course fees are based on the future income potential of your career. That is, Medical$$$$ > Engineer$$$ > Teacher$$, get my drift? The payments kick in once you finish your studies and start earning beyond a certain threshold. Also the more you earn the more you have to pay.

On top of this you get access to university provided student loans. One year I needed to upgrade to a better computer which could run at a reasonable speed. From my 286PC (no-HDD, 5.25" double FDD) to a 386PC (25 MHz, 3.5 “FDD, 25 MB HDD) so I had to get one of these loans. I had to get a part-time job to pay this off and it affected the studies a little but it had to be done.

Outcomes

I was able to graduate and start a career, allowing a change in my socio-economic circumstances away from the underprivileged beginnings to a reasonable middle-class life. It's also given me sense of acceptance of, security in and responsibility towards the society/state I live in. Of course there were other contributing factors, actors and phenomena but IMHO they had minor effects compared to the Equality of Opportunity provided by the state.

While I and a few of my friends got through, there were plenty more who started uni but dropped out. Most notably people from underprivileged rural backgrounds, broken families and non-english speaking backgrounds (FYI- not all migrants have good English).

Why education ?

With all this chatter about[my contrib included] free vs private education in SL I thought I'd spend some of my paid time re-reading what a certain J S Mill has to say on this topic.

.....Consider, for example, the case of education. Is it not almost a selfevident axiom, that the State should require and compel the education, up to a certain standard, of every human being who is born its citizen? Yet who is there that is not afraid to recognize and assert this truth? Hardly any one indeed will deny that it is one of the most sacred duties of the parents (or, as law and usage now stand, the father), after summoning a human being into the world, to give to that being an education fitting him to perform his part well in life towards others and towards himself. But while this is unanimously declared to be the father's duty, scarcely anybody, in this country, will bear to hear of obliging him to perform it. Instead of his being required to make any exertion or sacrifice for securing education to the child, it is left to his choice to accept it or not when it is provided gratis! It still remains unrecognized, that to bring a child into existence without a fair prospect of being able, not only to provide food for its body, but instruction and training for its mind, is a moral crime, both against the unfortunate offspring and against society; and that if the parent does not fulfil this obligation, the State ought to see it fulfilled, at the charge, as far as possible, of the parent.

Were the duty of enforcing universal education once admitted, there would be an end to the difficulties about what the State should teach, and how it should teach, which now convert the subject into a mere battle-field for sects and parties, causing the time and labor which should have been spent in educating, to be wasted in quarrelling about education. If the government would make up its mind to require for every child a good education, it might save itself the trouble of providing one. It might leave to parents to obtain the education where and how they pleased, and content itself with helping to pay the school fees of the poorer classes of children, and defraying the entire school expenses of those who have no one else to pay for them. The objections which are urged with reason against State education, do not apply to the enforcement of education by the State, but to the State's taking upon itself to direct that education: which is a totally different thing. That the whole or any large part of the education of the people should be in State hands, I go as far as any one in deprecating. All that has been said of the importance of individuality of character, and diversity in opinions and modes of conduct, involves, as of the same unspeakable importance, diversity of education. A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing generation, in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body. An education established and controlled by the State, should only exist, if it exist at all, as one among many competing experiments, carried on for the purpose of example and stimulus, to keep the others up to a certain standard of excellence. Unless, indeed, when society in general is in so backward a state that it could not or would not provide for itself any proper institutions of education, unless the government undertook the task; then, indeed, the government may, as the less of two great evils, take upon itself the business of schools and universities, as it may that of joint-stock companies, when private enterprise, in a shape fitted for undertaking great works of industry does not exist in the country. But in general, if the country contains a sufficient number of persons qualified to provide education under government auspices, the same persons would be able and willing to give an equally good education on the voluntary principle, under the assurance of remuneration afforded by a law rendering education compulsory, combined with State aid to those unable to defray the expense.

The instrument for enforcing the law could be no other than public examinations, extending to all children, and beginning at an early age. An age might be fixed at which every child must be examined, to ascertain if he (or she) is able to read. If a child proves unable, the father, unless he has some sufficient ground of excuse, might be subjected to a moderate fine, to be worked out, if necessary, by his labor, and the child might be put to school at his expense. Once in every year the examination should be renewed, with a gradually extending range of subjects, so as to make the universal acquisition, and what is more, retention, of a certain minimum of general knowledge, virtually compulsory. Beyond that minimum, there should be voluntary examinations on all subjects, at which all who come up to a certain standard of proficiency might claim a certificate. To prevent the State from exercising through these arrangements, an improper influence over opinion, the knowledge required for passing an examination (beyond the merely instrumental parts of knowledge, such as languages and their use) should, even in the higher class of examinations, be confined to facts and positive science exclusively. The examinations on religion, politics, or other disputed topics, shouLd not turn on the truth or falsehood of opinions, but on the matter of fact that such and such an opinion is held, on such grounds, by such authors, or schools, or churches. Under this system, the rising generation would be no worse off in regard to all disputed truths, than they are at present; they would be brought up either churchmen or dissenters as they now are, the State merely taking care that they should be instructed churchmen, or instructed dissenters. There would be nothing to hinder them from being taught religion, if their parents chose, at the same schools where they were taught other things. All attempts by the State to bias the conclusions of its citizens on disputed subjects, are evil; but it may very properly offer to ascertain and certify that a person possesses the knowledge requisite to make his conclusions, on any given subject, worth attending to. A student of philosophy would be the better for being able to stand an examination both in Locke and in Kant, whichever of the two he takes up with, or even if with neither: and there is no reasonable objection to examining an atheist in the evidences of Christianity, provided he is not required to profess a belief in them. The examinations, however, in the higher branches of knowledge should, I conceive, be entirely voluntary. It would be giving too dangerous a power to governments, were they allowed to exclude any one from professions, even from the profession of teacher, for alleged deficiency of qualifications: and I think, with Wilhelm von Humboldt, that degrees, or other public certificates of scientific or professional acquirements, should be given to all who present themselves for examination, and stand the test; but that such certificates should confer no advantage over competitors, other than the weight which may be attached to their testimony by public opinion.....[Link]

He was using education as an example of when the state has the right to override and interfere, in a limiited manner, on the liberty of individuals.

a little something something ....

The problem of Downloading Democracy without the memes of democracy in the native cultures. Australias hand in racism towards the Japanese prior to WW2. How much of this contributed in the shift amongst the elite of Nippon, from the path of Racial Equality to this and WW2? On another note, is this OZ's biggest "arse licker" to the Energy Industry?

In a previous blog entry I commented on the JVP and Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Morquendi has started to analyze this in more depth. What was that about politics makes strange bedfellows.

The comedy festival is about to hit town and I'm looking forward to some laughs. I desperately need some. If you are in visiting don't forget to catch some Jazz over here. Remind me to blog about my alleged connection to that Prince gig.

Bitten by the OOME

It's been a slow blogging week as I've been pre-occupied chasing a Java OutOfMemoryError (OOME). OOME is one of the most dreaded problems in the Java world. Not easy fix other than hooking up a profiler and debugging your way through it. I was impressed by JMP as a Free/OSS tool (No, I'm not using Eclipse so the plugins are of no use to me) specially on win32 systems, however you need a fair bit of memory (+512mb) for a large app. I'd also recommend YourKit on the commercial front.

The problem turned out to be too many String temporaries caused by excessive logging in our app (I didn't discover it...doh!!!). Increasing the JVMs "MaxPermSize" also had a dramatic effect on Garbage Collection.

Some useful links I came across are

• Java GC is discussed in detail here, here and here (+Performance Portal).
• 1.5 now provides a nice Platform Monitoring and Management API allowing apps to monitor the JVM act on events. For example it's possible to monitor the heap and clear caches when memory thresholds are reached. (No good for me as we use 1.4.2). Here is a nice example.
• A comprehensive list of JVM options.
• Some performance tips for developers.

Entreprenuers in SL

This has been on my mind for a while and after reading indi's blog on entreprenuers here are a few stories of people I have come across in Sri Lanka.

When I lived in Colombo he operated the nearest "kaddai" (coner-store/milkbar). After a game of cricket we would all stop by his shop and buy drink on credit. All the houses on the street seemed to have a line of credit. He was "mudhalali" (can some one correct the spelling). He had been to the middle-east performing blue-collar work, the type of work spurned by the locals, and had collected enough capital to purchase some land and build the house+shop. 10 years after leaving SL I caught up with him. He had managed to renovate and extend the house. Next visit: five years afterwards and he had diversified into operating a private bus and also into tourist travel. He said that the war ravaged economy was taking a heavy toll on his businesses and getting start-up loans from the banks was very difficult.

A relation of mine, having graduated from a local university as a pathologist worked in government hospitals before deciding to seek his fortunes in the middle-east, performing tasks the locals couldn't qualify for. Having earned enough money he came back home and decided to start a pathology clinic at home, working in his after-hours providing the most basic of services. As the years passed the clients grew as did the range of services and he quit his job. Being self-sufficient the clinic became the largest in the town/region. Patients spurned the government clinic by the masses. I still wonder why he didn't go onto open more clinics may be it was his reluctance to see it as a business.

A family friend was a government engineer. Frustrated with the bureaucracy he quit and started consulting. Emboldened by the success achieved through hard-work, and using the land that came with the marriage (read dowry) he managed to find enough investors to provide start-up capital to open a restaurant and hotel complex. Serving the middle-classes and local business he has now trebled the size of the hotel complex.

Finding start-up capital and evolving the business to the next stage seem to be challenges.

When you travel from SL to a developed country, watching the local news the most striking aspect is the emphasis placed on the local and national economy. In SL, unless things have changed recently, with a literacy rate of 92% why isn't there more discussion about economic activity and its connections to the political economy, specially in the Singhalese non-english local media?

---

Update: performed some clean up.

Feminism Today and its black sheep, the Yummy Mummies

The 3rd generation of feminists, as I call them, having established their careers and being financially independent have come to realise that the biological clocks are ticking. They want to have families and full-filling careers but have found that under current workplace arrangements when you have a family the career suffers. You get side-shifted, opportunities for advancement diminish, skills are lost and in general the career stagnates. They are also finding it hard to find good men, apparently they are all taken.

Over the last two months the op/ed pages of the non-murdoch (liberal friendly) newspapers (TheAge, SMH) has been the battleground of public debate over the needs of working mother. The feminists are leading the charge followed by the columnists, husbands and mothers chipping in.

The feminists of past generations chose to be martyrs to the cause by not having children and instead focussing on changing society and breaking down the glass ceilings. I have noticed how most of these women have a lot of cats at home. From Germaine Greer to one of the best professors I have had, all of them have cats. I guess you can't outrun some biological callings after all. However the 3rd Gens have realised this and want it all. After all, why shouldn't they be able to live their lives to the fullest as individuals in a community reaching their potentials?

Basically, the debate so far has gone as follows ( I might have missed a few..please add in the comments ).

• The government has been accused of not funding enough child-care places and of wanting women/mothers to stay at home around John Howard's white-picket fences.
• Industry is accused of not supporting equality of the sexes by not being family friendly, thus implicitly supporting men's careers over women’s and there by being sexist.
• Mandatory working hours have been called for with penalties for people who work extra.
• Bosses have been blamed for employees working long hours without pay and missing out on family time.
• Men have been accused of working too hard, being insecure and not standing up to their bosses.
• Men have been asked to act collectively in demanding family friendly actions at work.
• Women have been labelled as too fussy in wanting the perfect man (I.E. intelligent, successful, sensitive, good looking, a good cook, etc)
• The boredom and frustrations of bringing up children have been written about and compared with the fulfilments of career achievements.
• Feminists have been alarmed by women leaving the workforce and giving up the careers to have children.
• The rise in House Prices and Cost of Living has being blamed for both parents having to work. Specially in the working class homes where the choice of staying at home is not an option.
• Young men have been accused of selfishness for not wanting to settle down and have a family.
  For each argument there has been opposite points of view provided too.

Then a few weeks ago a hand-granade was dropped into the sisterhood by introducing us to Yummy Mummies who are stealing child-care places in the name of lifestyle. Until a few weeks ago I didn't know what a Yummy Mummy was. Apparently a Yummy Mummy is someone who ...

..... pays attention to trends, assiduously avoiding anything pleated, tapered or high-waisted

....She indulges in a nip here, a tuck there. She stays fit, even buff......

..... "They have kitten heels, cleavage, and they don't cut their hair short....

In this article the author accuses Yummy Mummies of

Across the affluent inner-ring suburbs of Sydney, a covert war has broken out between working mothers and yummy mummies who use scarce child-care places as an opportunity to attend Pilates classes or have a pedicure.

I have to agree with her. These Yummy Mummies are usually married to high-paying husbands and have chosen to take part in just breeding, at the expense of their individuality. Unlike more progressive women who choose to use their intelligence and their capacities for reason by pursuing meaningful lives towards self-realization and services to community.

My predictions: The next time we have a Labour federal government they will radically increase the support for women in the workplace.