from my hospital bed - to all those who were worried

I will go into detail in a more opportune moment. My sister just brought me a notepad and i am struggling to use it in this awkward position and will try to be brief before i get too agitated.

Today is Saturday 7.30pm. I am in a paying room in class 1 ward in the National Hospital Colombo. I was shifted here at noon from Ward 76 the main Orthopaedic ward a very short distance away. The surgery took over three hours on Wednesday morning. The team was under the eminant surgeon Mr Banagala FRCS. It performed with a injection to the spine where only below the waist was numbed so I was completely conscious throughout but did not see the op as there was a screen but Icould here the team discussing the op. I will relate the surgery chatter when I am more comfortable. My femur was broken in two and it was quite tough to fix it with plates and screws etc. As the bone was hard I think one of the tools broke. That may thanks to years of drinking fresh milk!

Anyway the team was happy with their effort and I can only hope that after considerable physio I recover fully. I am so grateful to and proud of the health service in Sri Lanka and this hospital especially and all the doctors and nurses and physios as well as the attendents who have looked after me so well during this very trying time.

I expect to be released on Monday, to begin an intensive course of physio to get movement in my limb as that is a very important and urgent part of the recovery.

I thank the well wishes for wishing me a speedy recovery and promise my readers that I will eventually get back to my routine once I am able to drive and that may be six months. I have still to contemplate how I am going to get through this period especially after the repeat floods yesterday and day before for the second time in a month while I have been lying in bed. I have not been able to assess the damage at this stage.

So long for now

A Narrow Shave...

I am a guest poster.

Ranjit's trusty Tata was slammed into by a convoy of a cabinet minister. Ranjit has a broken femur and some stitches on his head. He is to undergo surgery tomorrow morning. Pictured above is Ranjit in the general hospital in Colombo.

He was transported to Colombo in a long ambulance journey from Polonnaruwa. In my opinion he is lucky to be alive as his vehicle was destroyed.

Considering the terrible turn of events he is in good spirits. Hopefully he will soon be able to tell us all the whole story.

Let us wish him the best on a successful surgery and a speedy recovery.

A proposal for the long term relief of communities devastated by floods

The flooding in the rice bowl of Sri Lanka rendered around 1M people temporarily without shelter with various degrees of damage to their personal property as well as their crops. Similarly the ongoing flooding in the state of Queensland in Australia has completely devastated communities, who have lost most of their movable belongings in their homes and much of it still being waterlogged.

The essential difference between the two unrelated catastrophes is that the Australian losses have been insured for the most part. In Sri Lanka, even I have not covered any possession for damage caused by flooding. In Sri Lanka, the loss is mainly to the agricultural crops, where many people live hand to mouth. They have lost personal possessions, but the value of them is not as high as in Australia. In Australia the home contents are covered by insurance, and many people will be able to replace much of their damaged goods, once a proper inventory is taken and a claim made. In Sri Lanka, it is up to the government to determine what if any can be given. There is talk of giving seed paddy and fertilizer, but remember that is for the next crop, Yala, to be sown from March onwards, with little immediate relief.

The anxiety is higher in Sri Lanka, even though the severity of loss is greater in Australia. This is a timely opportunity for insurance companies to stake a claim to coverage of all these areas, using this tragedy as the prime example of what can happen. It is estimated that the cost of the flood could be Rs50B, but this loss will not be compensated, and therefore those suffering this loss will just have to bear it.
Living amongst subsistence farmers, I find it hard to see a way out of this rut, where there is little hope of getting out of the debt trap, and the local money lenders, and banks being the beneficiaries of the tragedy. In this instance the rich in the village will get wealthier sometimes at the expense of the poor who may make desperate choices out of sheer necessity, such as mortgaging their property or pawning their jewelery to make ends meet. So what is the solution?

If we are to learn from this tragedy, it is one to impress on the people the futility of subsistence farming, and instead provide other employment opportunities, so that farming can be carried out in larger units. Employment in the temporary area of road building is one to consider as a short term fix, so that people will have a means of income. A proper assessment of alternatives can then be made. When I look at the situation in Polonnaruwa, the urgent need to dredge the silted tanks is a long term project that can employ people for a long time and will have long term benefits both of adequate water for agriculture, but also provision of local jobs.

The current floods in Polonnaruwa and the ongoing relief & rescue operation

My earlier entry was of my personal experience of the first day of the Polonnaruwa district flood, and how it affected me and my property. This is a follow up to it.

My home was completely underwater for less than 12 hours during the worst of the river swelling and bursting its banks due to the various sluice gates being opened of nearby tanks or reservoirs. It is now a question of salvage what I can and wash down and dry the place up with no help from sunshine.

However the more severe consequences are further downstream as the water eventually flows down to the Mahaweli River, and the river basin is completely flooded. The water level having risen 20ft has therefore gone into the hinterland, drowning the paddy fields for at least a kilometer outwards from the riverbank. The destruction to homes is more permanent and the extremely slow response from disaster management who were caught napping yet again is regretful.

Today is Thursday and only now once the BBC reporters have come to report the destruction and is shown in Sri Lanka as well where those have access to those channels can we actually see the moving images of the destruction, which while shown to some extent on local television was less graphic and less serious as those shown in International TV channels. Was this an attempt to hide the truth and also avoid blame for the slow response? I don’t know.

In my personal circumstances, after I had been able to save some of my property, they could not be protected overnight as they had to be left out on higher ground in the open. Well a few important things such as my nearly new HaySprayer to spray the paddy and other crops was nicked, a great blow to me as it is not cheap. Then a male calf also succumbed to too much rain, and had to be buried. Today we had the person in charge of the fertilizer distribution, on the property to survey the damage, and report to her superiors who each property has been affected.

In the overall context the need for disaster preparedness is more evident, as many people had to be housed in schools, while their possessions left behind were fair game to thieves. This lack of protection for individual property, where poor steal from other poor people is a fact, that can be addressed only as part of the overall morality teachings as young children. It is difficult to do when the examples set by those in power who steal from the rich and the poor alike seems to be admired and not punished.

It is important that respect for private and public property be ingrained into the psyche. Finally I all I can wish is that those people who are affected be immediately assisted especially with regard to their urgent needs.

A new experience of being flooded out as a result of the recent incessant rains

I went to bed on Saturday night around 9pm after eating some Maggi noodles (easiest to cook) as my farm hand in Hingurakgoda was in an alcoholic stupor and nothing could wake him up, and my man Friday, used the inclement weather to sleepover at a neighbor who has electricity and thus TV. In a nutshell I was alone with the nearest neighbor over a screaming distance away in case of emergency.

The heavy rain started around 11pm, and as I sleep on the verandah, I could not escape the light water spray on to me. Nevertheless it was freezing, another very unusual occurrence in these parts, and I managed to sleep soundly completely bundled out in the open. Waking up at about 3am I shone the flashlight to the river in front and saw that the water level was about two feet below the level of the verandah and went back to sleep. Once I woke up again at dawn around 5.30am the water level was at the verandah, and as it had happened earlier, I thought it was not unusual, until a neighbor came to check on us due to the water level, which had by now covered the bridge close by. I was told that the Giritale Tank was so full that it was unable to take the load, and the spill would be cut about two feet which would send a wall of water downstream, and I was directly in harm’s way.

We had a process to go through, first to move the water pump tractor to higher ground, end then everything in sight out of the way. By this time both the farmhand and the errant man Friday had been summoned to help along with about 4 locals, and others were making there way in from neighboring houses on higher ground, to see the once in a life time rise in flood waters, also being asked to help.

The speed with which the flood waters kept rising surprised us and we realized that soon the paddy store would get flooded, and soon thereafter the adjoining room where the fertilizer is stored. In the end once we began removing the paddy and fertilizer, the water had come in and soaked some beyond salvage, and in the meantime the recently plucked coconuts were floating down river along with some pots and pans and some personal items like shoes and slippers that missed our gaze. In the end I had to get my vehicle out of harms way once I had it filled with wet paddy sacks hoping to take it to Godagama to dry, as there was no chance that there would be any sun for a few days here. Sodden paddy would immediately sprout and render it useless. My home was under 6ft of water at its worst.

Eventually the journey back to Godagama took over 8 hours arriving at 2am through flooded roads and other mishaps such as a flat tire. I was able to carry on my normal routine as usual on a Monday to deliver my produce a little late.

Another year, another page, another change and another challenge

I feel this year has flown by faster than most, and when I realized at one stage that I had not blogged for 5 months, it was simply because I just did not have a spare moment to do so. I have had to evolve over time and meet the new challenges that I have faced. Change in my field is par of the course and if I do not change, I will be steamrolled by events, all out of my control.

When I began this particular journey 6 years ago, I was selling Rs70,000 a month in King Coconuts(thambili). Today I barely make Rs15,000 and that is after price revisions, which means the volume loss is ever greater. To explain this phenomenon, which may not be understood by the reader; when short of nuts, I used to go outside my farm and pluck from neighboring houses and lands too meet the demand, as I used to drive my pick-up to the wayside stalls, near parliament, along the Western Provincial Council and Central Environmental Authority offices as well as along the University of Colombo as well as other streets including opposite DS Senanayake School. I sold everything I transported to Colombo.

Now these wayside stallholders have been evicted by Gotabhaya Rajapkse and his edicts of cleaning up unauthorized structures, and they have had to find alternative sources of employment and I have had to change my product range and work balance. In their place are fancy Coca Cola stalls selling sweet water and so the wholesome thambili has been sidelined in favor of cleanliness and development.

I have had to change with the times, and find some part time work that keeps me even more occupied than before, as I have to commute to office, work late nights and rent another place close to the workplace to make it a practical proposition. My staff have not improved their conduct, or mended their ways, and despite being on the lookout for more suitable persons to do the work, have not been able to find them.

Still my intentions and goals remain unchanged, and I have now resolved to draw up a plan that as its objective is to establish an efficient and productive agricultural business, provided I am able to obtain the services of the relevant and suitably qualified personnel. There is no other way in which one can truly justify spending the time and effort in this field, unless the rewards are worth the risk.

The immediate concerns of the public re sky rocketing food prices have not been addressed satisfactorily, and I still believe this critical national food security topic requires addressing urgently, and I am part of the solution. To that end, despite the brickbats from my friends poking fun of me for not being able to satisfy their needs for wholesome, nutritional food, due to shortage, I am still determined to continue.

Have you ever had your liquor cabinet raided in Sri Lanka? Tell me about it!!

This is such a uniquely Sri Lankan saga, that I must write about it for the benefit of my readers overseas who want to know what it really is like living in this splendid land. What prompted me to write is the tragedy I was told about yesterday.

At my open house last evening I was told that my neighbor had unexpectedly returned home one evening and stumbled upon the fact that a usually locked room had been opened, and upon entering found a trusted staff member rifling through the liquor cupboard having found the hidden keys. (in SL the alcohol is usually kept locked away) Upon seeing the master he had run out of the first floor window and fallen badly injuring himself, in addition to possibly losing an eye. So much for long service and a chance of improving one’s position in life.

This is just a tip of the iceberg, but nevertheless it was the first time that I heard of one actually coming to such grave injury on account of the need to raid let alone drink alcohol. Any type of alcohol cannot be left unattended. I was at an exclusive Christmas Party at one of the top hotels in Colombo recently and the host who has this event, always provides his own liquor, both to ensure quality of the drink, wines and spirits are unblemished, but also to ensure that none goes missing into the hands of the servers. His trusted employee who is a teetotaler is in charge of serving the drinks into the tumblers and wine glasses which the waiters then serve to the guests.

It is a well known fact, ask a wedding planner, that a good proportion of alcohol served at weddings disappears. It is noteworthy that a bottle of Dom at Rs30K is not siphoned off to be sold, but to be drunk as quickly as possible mixed of course with Sprite to get thoroughly sloshed! It matters not one iota as to the value of the bottle, it is much the same to the drinker if they can get high on it.

In a similar vein, at a relative’s home just this week I was informed that all the boxes of premium whiskey that had been carefully purchased and stored for an occasion over a period, were suddenly found to be empty when the cupboard was opened recently. So the theft of the bottles was not noticed till then as the empty boxes looked untouched! They have no idea as to when it occurred, at one go or over a period, and by whom as there may have been many domestics in the house.

No doubt I have lost more than a share of bottles, and have been embarrassed when guests at Polonnaruwa bring their liquor and my boys swig it and are under the table even before they leave. Ask the tourist hotel managers how they control mini bar losses and their whole accounting for alcohol. It is something that occupies an inordinate amount of their management time. It is a huge cost to the industry.

I must also add the favorite trick is to fill the bottles with water to take attention away from the missing liquor from the open bottles, sometimes using artificial colorings too!!!