tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104584892011-10-31T01:04:12.155+11:00A life in these times : Civilization, Democracy, Economics, Family, Ideas, Liberal, Life, Multi-Cultural, Principles, Progress, Science, Self, Truth.ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.comBlogger601100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-81715551922254292872009-05-19T22:53:00.003+10:002009-05-20T00:24:36.512+10:00

Congratulations to Sri Lanka for getting rid of the Parabahkaran and his racist band of mass murderers.When I first started blogging about Lankan issues after the tsunami I was hoping that the LTTE will transform into post-tsunami mainstream politics, though I despised their racism. Then, when they started attacking the military I gave up on that and the only question I had was how badly the

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-6359104741492070372007-04-28T23:15:00.000+10:002007-04-28T23:22:24.892+10:00

My bets are on Australia wining tonight. True to Sri Lankan form, and if kottu is the form guide, the world cup has caused an epidemic in the normally fever ridden Sri Lanka. Something I cannot even imagine in current day Australia, well suburban Melbourne at least. More people seem to be interested in this weeks AFL games than the cricket, except for the Lankan migrants of course, perhaps its

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1158150463445967722006-09-13T19:00:00.000+10:002006-09-13T23:10:11.483+10:00

I usually like reading the AsianTribune. However every now and then they end up publishing articles which turn out to be comedic gems. I don't know about the editorial policy practiced by K T Rajasingham and Co but some of the posts border on the plain ridiculous and do not show any kind of journalist integrity. The latest article, which finally prompted me to write this post, is this blatant

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1155732096487243322006-08-16T21:27:00.000+10:002006-08-19T08:13:52.966+10:00

Let's see, shortly after my previous post,BabyH was bornI lost track of timeAssumed new responsibilities at workStarted post-grad studiesLost more track of timeAdded oooh, aagh, gaaaa to vocabStarted looking for a new jobForgot what time isPlanning on renovationsDid I say something about time ...So whats new in serendipity? Hmmm, the tigers have started fighting again as predicted. A pity since

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1146245552736104942006-04-28T21:03:00.000+10:002006-04-30T21:10:23.253+10:00

What went on in the east just under two weeks ago? This is a question I have been asking myself since then. The established facts are, following two of the many blatant LTTE actions murdering innocent civilians their aim of instigating retaliatory attacks bore some fruit when there was ethnic rioting targeting tamils. To the credit of the government they reacted quickly and effectively to bring

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1142339679177904062006-03-14T23:28:00.000+11:002006-03-15T01:32:35.396+11:00

bb | ^bb I'm not a poet so I'll let the bard echo my thoughts ....To be or not to be, that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to, 'tis a

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1137938711635814202006-01-23T00:54:00.000+11:002006-01-23T01:07:03.816+11:00

On a 43 degree day I didn’t feel like doing much except keeping cool and sitting in front of the tv to watch the cricket (a rare feat) and some reading in between. As Sri Lanka beat Australia I watched the trumpeter and a few drummers kick off what looked like a baila tune or two. However, a similar attempt to keep a band playing at the previous match at the Melbourne’s Telstra Dome was

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1137591784711351332006-01-18T23:13:00.000+11:002006-01-19T00:43:04.750+11:00

Living overseas it's hard to guage the day to day violence and death in the North and East of Sri Lanka and finding the truth is itself a challenge as each of the antagonists are out to create illusions of it. I usually await the UTHR(J) publications (last report) to clear the air. However, in this particular criminal act the truth appears to be a lot easier and transparent thanks primarily to

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1136013569527059602005-12-31T17:46:00.000+11:002005-12-31T20:04:40.880+11:00

This was the year Intelligent Design (ID) made its push to get into the science classroom and Iraq was supposed to be the shining new example of democracy in the Middle East. Alas, the latest attempt at cloaking creationism by another named gibberish has encountered its first knock back by the US legal system in Pennsylvania. The court's decision is available here (pdf) for the interested.

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1135090493329088842005-12-21T01:36:00.000+11:002005-12-22T22:36:49.923+11:00

Over at Lanka Libertarian there is a bit of discussion about the social vs economic development. Sometime ago while discussing Sri Lanka with a family friend who was involved in and led a development organization for most of his life expressed the view that the problems were caused by the social development of the country outpacing economic development. I made a mental note though I wasn’t

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1134483710640351942005-12-14T01:18:00.000+11:002005-12-14T03:51:02.450+11:00

Note:subscription issues using links try www.bugmenot.com Over the past five years these words became part of the media verbiage when describing violent and anti-social activities associated with gangs of first and second generation Lebanese-Australian youth in Sydney. It looks like the blowback has finally happened in the rather insular suburb of Cronulla which has a history of intolerance

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1134379780635310452005-12-12T20:21:00.000+11:002005-12-13T00:35:59.386+11:00

I haven’t been in a blogging mood lately. It must be that time of the year because I have been out of sorts. The head heavy; the heart dry; the clouds grey; the mood dim. This explains the lack of interest in the blogosphere. Weekend and long hours became part of the work week in trying to get the latest version of the software out the door. Having inherited some bad algorithm designs it

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1132751816726745962005-11-24T00:02:00.000+11:002005-11-24T13:06:26.853+11:00

Australian federal police and secret services organisations have raided suspected Tamil homes possibly associated with LTTE. The news item mentioned that one of the the raided houses could be connected to the Kadiragamar murder and that Tamil material has been taken away.Staying up late and this is what I just saw in the late night news bulletin. Here is the first item I could find online. Stay

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1131456782733443102005-11-09T00:20:00.000+11:002005-11-09T00:33:35.300+11:00

Unis are not happy about the maths skills of new students. Professional bodies are worrying about shortages of engineers. Could it be that engineering is not sexy again? Is this the attitude in general and are budding engineering geeks opting for softer options like banking? In a recent OnlineOpinion article Tanveer Ahmed argues Australia needs more engineers and fewer bankers to secure our

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1129618416168183692005-10-18T16:26:00.000+10:002005-10-18T22:11:48.446+10:00

The smh had an article yesterday comparing Warne and Murali. The question is, given a chance, on merit who would you pick ? Your mission, and you have chosen to accept it, is to pick a cricket side like no other. A team comprising the best players from the Australian and Rest of the World XI sides strutting their collective stuff at the SCG this week. You can choose whoever you like, but there's

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1129543635221433302005-10-17T20:03:00.000+10:002005-10-17T20:23:07.620+10:00

via namedcoderHarmless fun - leave yours ( remove line breaks )Serendip + Eye

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1128347888626312622005-10-03T23:48:00.000+10:002005-10-04T00:17:51.883+10:00

On the weekend there was yet another article describing the chindia complex. Thankfully unlike other articles it does not aim to compare the growth and development of Chinese and Indian economies. It’s a little more realistic and focuses on the growing ties and relative differences of the two. Despite its reputation as a software superpower, India's exports have been driven by the export

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1127745337872644282005-09-27T01:27:00.000+10:002005-09-27T19:42:59.263+10:00

Since I have been distracted to from finishing a certain promised blog it's my turn to distract with a few quirks (or was it not-so quacks) from history. In 1978 who wrote? "Today the consequences of such an educational emphasis are already apparent, and while it may once have served helpfully to boost battered post-colonial egos, against this must be set the fact that it has sharpened

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1125833299398455622005-09-04T21:27:00.000+10:002005-09-04T21:53:23.143+10:00

A blog commentator named Ashanthi, who first turned up in nittewa, has the habit of carrying out unrelated conversations across multiple blog entries. So I opened this thread for the conversation here.

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1125673231344991702005-09-02T22:07:00.000+10:002005-09-03T14:23:45.336+10:00

Watching Snake Plissken in Escape from LA I could never have imagined such a scenario occurring in the US. At least not in 2005.A few days before cyclone Katrina visited the shores of the southern US states I was watching a detailed news briefing outlining the expected fall out from the hurricane, the measures taken to safeguard the city, the emergency planning and disaster preparedness. The 3D

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1125244347825262292005-08-29T01:37:00.000+10:002005-08-29T01:54:10.986+10:00

Some blogs and articles that drew my attention while the offline world has me occupied. Sanjana acting as Hell's Dire Agent appeals to the much needed Cudgel of Reason in Sri Lankan politics. John Quiggin has a very interesting discussion about the merits of pursuing political objectives by the use of force. Don Arthur is blogging at catalaxxy on how think tanks( aka NGOs ) capture the

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1122653901013407512005-07-30T00:34:00.000+10:002005-07-30T02:58:21.510+10:00

I have always wanted to experience being Opinion Polled on politics (sad! yes I know). Growing up in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, AFAIK, we hardly received phone calls for opinion polls. Now that I have settled in a middle-about suburb, we must be within the pollster demographics / geography. I missed the previous two calls but it was 3rd time lucky.ACNielsen was conducting a not-so-maybe-so

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1121254562571611032005-07-13T21:20:00.000+10:002005-07-13T21:54:46.326+10:00

A quickie...arrived home last night only to find an interview with the Iron Lady of Sri Lanka (their words not mine) on an ABC TV program called Foreign Correspondent. The ABC is our version of the BBC and usually do a good job. The story and the streaming video (RealMedia format) can be found here. It was followed by a story on decorative coffins.An interview with CBK seems to be an annual event

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1120820887093169192005-07-08T19:00:00.000+10:002005-07-08T21:48:33.543+10:00

Morquendi tagged me couple of weeks ago with the book meme. Finally got around to having some blogging time. How can this be a meme? It's sent out with intent unlike memes that spontaneously evolve through social dialogs. If anything its viral meme.Total Number of Books I Own: Currently the bookshelf contains about 150+ books, leaving out the books from my teenage days and library borrowings. I

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1120740162622451852005-07-07T22:35:00.000+10:002005-07-08T12:49:12.156+10:00

…one man’s terrorist another man’s freedom fighter ?If they lived in a village in Darfur,If we disagreed with our own,If some are starving in North Korea,If we were Tutsi in the 1993 of Rwanda,If our right to vote did not exist,If your mother caught a train to London today,If she was a black living in apartheid,If your lover worked in the fateful twin towers,If his house was demolished in

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1118994350370610402005-06-17T17:01:00.000+10:002005-12-31T19:31:01.780+11:00

There are endgames being played out in SL but the chills of winter have finally come around. It started raining during the week followed by the cold winds and snow is falling in the mountains as I type. My hopes of a white winter have been raised and I hope it holds out until I get a chance to make it to the mountains over the coming months. Below are some photos to feel goodI'm away this weekend

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1118623038361522612005-06-13T09:26:00.000+10:002005-06-13T14:43:58.353+10:00

Life has gotten in the way of blogging lately. It's time to get back into it and I intend to finish the analysis on HLD. It's the queen's birthday long weekend and a dry winter with intermittent rain, caused by a new drought hitting the continent, means there are no signs of snow in the mountains. Neither are there any signs of a republic on the horizon. However I came across some interesting

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1117592970106134262005-06-01T12:29:00.000+10:002005-06-01T14:41:13.890+10:00

Heads up The Agonist is running a story about Sri Lanka's strategic importance. It's discussing two articles (below) about the Indian vs Chinese influence in SL and South Asia in general.Sri Lanka's strategic importance at the HindustanTimesChina's March On South Asia at The Jamestown FoundationGo contribute. IMHO, The Agonist is one of the best Foreign Affairs Blogs around.

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1117456374715281152005-05-30T21:04:00.000+10:002005-05-31T00:45:11.453+10:00

Lately there have been two sides of Australia on display. Both bringing out the ugly face of nationalism as well as highlighting an emerging face of a new Australian ethnic identity.The first story involves the detention of illegal immigrants. In 2001, post 9-11, the Oz elections were decided on the platform of protecting fortress Australia from illegal immigrants smuggled in boats from Indonesia

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1117142705229508012005-05-28T01:30:00.000+10:002005-05-28T01:50:32.246+10:00

Having previously looked at H.L.D Mahindapala’s primary thesis, before further examining his ideas, arguments and views, we should examine HLD's self-expressed principles and values in regards to Individuals, Ethnic Groups, The Democratic State and the relationships between them.The individual and the state The rights of individual are universal..... universalities and commonalities in the rights

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1116753269488451982005-05-22T19:04:00.000+10:002005-05-23T23:03:26.596+10:00

We are seeking a Conservative for Sri Lanka to defend the Democratic institutions and constitution of the nation. Your role is to uphold the Liberal Democratic Values central to the wellbeing of the citizens of this nation against over-zealous reformers wishing to implement ideologically driven reforms.Today’s candidate is H.L.D Mahindapala. There isn’t a single up-to-date repository of his

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1116418259056970952005-05-18T21:47:00.000+10:002005-05-18T22:35:54.893+10:00

Here I was planning to write something long about an article I had seen while not being involved in an interesting discussion with sanjana over at Indi's. Unfortunately while riding to work in the morning I put my back out. Found it hard to sit up in front of the computer all day and finally got a lift back home.After visiting the physio I've been instructed to sit or lie in the most awkward

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1116327830573031422005-05-17T19:28:00.000+10:002005-05-17T21:38:17.313+10:00

How is your status anxiety today? Hope it's under control. Have you checked if the latest budget offers some prozac?. Apparently it's supposed to give tax cuts to the high and middle income earners over the next two years. Andrew Leigh from Imagining Australia has some analysis. To summarise, viewed per individual ... Report (pdf) [see pages 8/9]Here is the annual pre-tax income distribution for

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1115730886352857502005-05-11T20:30:00.000+10:002005-05-11T21:55:54.296+10:00

Just a heads up to let you all know that you can now blog in Singhalese using a standard English keyboard and minimal effort. Indi has developed a new font for phonetic singhalese that relies on english letters (romanization) to sound out (phonetically spell) singhalese words. As for Tamil there has been a lot more work on developing it. Here is a good starting point.You need to install the

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1115559983077396512005-05-08T19:32:00.000+10:002005-05-11T21:09:01.646+10:00

Been promising this for a while and I've finally got around to writing something about Tony Abbott the Federal Liberal Government's Minister for Health, AKA the "Mad Monk". The blogsphere is full of entries about him so feel free to Google. In the meanwhile here is my contribution.Tony Abbott is the pitt-bull of the right and seems to have trouble separating his politics and policy submissions

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1115385445864018562005-05-06T22:32:00.000+10:002005-05-06T23:28:34.346+10:00

This is a post of frustration stemming from chasing dependencies and versioning of components. You know what it's like, working on a new product, have half the time needed to deliver the project, design docs are "good enough", you or your team drag in 3rd party components put them in the runtime environment don't check or note down the version numbers anywhere (oh yeah, you can always check

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1114869934748039112005-04-30T22:46:00.000+10:002005-05-01T00:11:52.173+10:00

Working on a blog about our beloved health minister, the pitt bull of the right, the moral enforcer of the nation, the feminist hater, the unimaginative intellectual, the serial policy cost under-estimator and I nearly forgot an apparent cuckold. For now, from the International Affairs Desk here is what I've been catching up on over week.When it was announced, I hedged my bets on Wolfowitz

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1114016209226002912005-04-21T21:25:00.000+10:002005-04-22T17:12:57.510+10:00

Christianity’s largest branch, the Roman Catholics, have a new leader. Former cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is the new pope elect and is to be known from now on as Pope Benedict the 16th. It’s a European again and if you don't like it there is always Indi’s choice beware though if you are in Sri Lanka. If he is not too busy he might also want to consider replying to Christopher Hitchens.He will be

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1113742067865945322005-04-17T21:37:00.000+10:002005-04-17T23:28:37.196+10:00

My quest for laughs continued over the weekend as I caught the last days of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. A weekend of stand-up comics and dinners has taken its toll, next weekend is going to be a quite one.The first act was Denise Scott a local comedian playing at a building called the Swiss Club. I guess it was a club for the Swiss migrants back in the day. Denise was funny but

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1113436667302280142005-04-13T21:45:00.000+10:002005-04-14T12:42:46.966+10:00

It's the 5th anniversary of the .com crash. Australia too was caught up in the .com boom trends starting 2 years behind the US as usual and when the markets crashed on the 13th of April 2000 it was followed the very next day. Funny that.The SMH has a story on some of the player in OZ at the time. I work for a company that went from 550 employees to 140 over the next year and a half but it

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1113303480394510422005-04-13T07:00:00.000+10:002005-04-13T14:24:55.520+10:00

What’s happening to history [subscription?] in India? It’s been developing for a while and the latest article I’ve come across is from the NYRB. It appears that the aspiring super-power is struggling to come to terms with its history while developing a modern self-identity. Unlike the usual culture wars associated with the interpretation of history, usually fought in books and essays, the fights

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1112970603104250872005-04-09T00:11:00.000+10:002005-04-09T00:33:35.416+10:00

I digress. Somewhere in my teenage years kottu roti came into my life. After a game of cricket in the grounds of the local school or a particularly bruising game of what I now prefer to call fuugby (f**d up rugby) on gravel streets, the hood-rats, including myself, would head down for some kottu in a cafe at "thun mulla", which roughly translated to "triangular junction" in our locality. For

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1112593729378686902005-04-04T15:42:00.000+10:002005-04-08T22:37:32.236+10:00

Whenever you listen to someone promoting the benefits of a laissez faire free market based approach, almost inevitably they seem to use Adam Smith to give some credibility to their point of view. It turns out that he didn’t even say some of the stuff that many people claim. That's not to say he wasn't a giant in the enlightenment, because he was, but he was primarily a moral philosopher than an

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1112111485953479192005-03-30T09:19:00.000+10:002005-04-02T21:53:32.356+10:00

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

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1111887309993296982005-03-27T09:03:00.000+10:002005-03-27T15:52:46.943+10:00

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

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1111734168437749762005-03-25T16:18:00.000+11:002005-03-26T01:23:12.066+11:00

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)

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1111678225510017542005-03-25T02:01:00.000+11:002005-03-26T01:15:52.836+11:00

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

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1111500187505245442005-03-23T09:15:00.000+11:002005-03-23T01:06:53.483+11:00

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?

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1111057538995510572005-03-17T21:18:00.000+11:002005-03-17T22:39:20.963+11:00

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

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1111051688983146222005-03-15T18:58:00.000+11:002005-03-17T20:28:08.993+11:00

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

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1110200881023978442005-03-07T23:43:00.000+11:002005-03-09T23:28:58.013+11:00

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

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1109780860678325922005-03-03T02:57:00.000+11:002005-03-03T10:23:29.070+11:00

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

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1109110232177410622005-02-23T09:10:00.000+11:002005-02-23T23:00:52.493+11:00

Not a big fan of Bollywood musical cinema but Morquendi has a nice little analysis/thoughts about a few movies with a feminist view point. Have a read ...... while I contemplate on writing something about current op/ed debates on feminism in Oz and Yummy Mummies

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1108775183440211952005-02-18T03:42:00.000+11:002005-02-23T23:21:00.013+11:00

The Purpose Principle:it is a higher moral principle to pursue purposeful thought or behavior with someone else's purposeful goals in mind, and never pursue a purpose when it leads to someone else's loss of purposeThinking about the pupose of purpose this hypotheses/idea in the American Scientist approaches the realms of self-evident truths, at least in my view. Here are a few quotesThe atoms in

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1108458792397602602005-02-12T10:15:00.000+11:002005-02-15T20:13:12.400+11:00

It's been a while since I caught a plane interstate around working hours. Today I had a chance and I had nearly forgotten how uniformed the corporate travellers are. Dark suites and light colour shirts/tops seem to cross the male-female divide. The styles of the suites and shirts might change but the dress code is roughly the same. Put this together with the laptop cases and black footwear and

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1107869409531987162005-02-09T00:28:00.000+11:002005-02-09T01:06:00.623+11:00

Funny things have been happenning in how we treat the intellectually disabled in Australia lately. Most intellectually disabled look like the majority of people around you and I, but they act in ways we never do. In most cases an intellectuall disablity does not betray itself in the physical appearence of a person but through their actions. Should the law enforcements be able to reconize such a

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1107467528113544412005-02-04T09:00:00.000+11:002005-02-04T22:22:23.573+11:00

Link It's been rainning records in the last 24-48 hrs. I couldn't sleep well, the wind was gusting and thoughts of branches falling on the house kept the nightmares real. The city is usually known for it's four-seasons-in-a-day behavior but having a winter break in the middle of summer has been interesting. Woke up to announcements asking people not to come into the city unless it was

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1107420517167525192005-02-03T19:48:00.000+11:002005-02-04T22:32:13.820+11:00

Lately I've been trying to upgrade my Gentoo installation. I have 2004.0 and It started out as a system upgrade of the latest packages. No luck, compiling glibc causes gcc to core dump. Next ,tried doing a proper migration/upgrade from 2004.0 to 2004.3, glibc is again causing the same problem. Looks like it's this bug. The next option is to get the 2004.3 package iso(s) and install the x86

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1107171115930271562005-01-29T21:32:00.000+11:002005-03-23T22:14:40.030+11:00

My policy. While I'm originally from SL I don't live there anymore, I have spent more than 50% of my life Down Under and am a citizen. As I don't live in SL I will not, directly or indirectly, interfere in the political affairs of the country. However, I'm a diaspora child and as such reserve the right to make comments on my observations about SL.Opinions and view expressed here are purely

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10458489.post-1106914219288112942005-01-22T09:01:00.000+11:002005-02-03T19:25:03.680+11:00

My first Blog entry ever....oh, yippeee (picture me filled with unbridled joy jumping for on a cushion)....... It was about 5.15 PM and I was on my way home from work, after popping in for a couple of hours to fix a critical bug before UAT, when I heard on the radio that early reports were coming of a Tsunami hitting Sri Lanka due to an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra with a death toll of at

ivaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17050884350733276294noreply@blogger.com0