Sri Lanka's curse is one of mediocrity. Our insurrectionists were mediocre. Our separatists were mediocre. Our supposed authoritarians were mediocre. Even our economic crisis was mediocre. We need one thing - be it good or bad - to be seen to the end for this country to change. If the insurrectionists succeeded we'd have started valuing law and order and civil liberties. If the separatists, ethnic harmony; the authoritarian, democratic values; or the economic crisis, fiscal discipline and accountability. But we have none of that. This doesn't stop.

RW is finally where he wanted to be but better: executive president on steroids. Stronger than what even JR had.

He isn't at anyone's mercy (including the Rajapaksas) and governance under him is going it make MR2 look like a hippy rally. In less than 24 hours

(1/7) ... he managed to revive his (small yet key) voter base, cause strong rifts within the SJB (watch next week), steal the SLPP voter base, and also steal the law-and-order/tough-on-crime/strong-administrator crowd. He also repaired his image with uniforms and has established

(2/7)

What happened today? A coup.

In March this year, AKD in a speech in Nugegoda started mainstreaming the idea that extra-constitutional means are the way to go. He painted the constitution as a block for representative democracy. (23:35 onwards).

(1/9)

Then by 'occupying' Presidential Secretariat, Temple Trees, and the President's Residence, the FSP mainstreamed the idea that taking over the state by force is democratic. By occupying RW's personal residence, they mainstreamed the idea that personal property is fair game. (2/9)

Finishing hour fifteen in a fuel queue. No ETA. Bloody humid. Met a nice girl called Malsha who is a kindergarten teacher. Offered her shelter from the rain in my front seat and in return she offered me tea. Not seeing a ring on that finger. Malsha left at one point and her father tagged in for her. Bonded with uncle and gave him a crash course on floating exchange rates and then on free markets. Man is a convert now. Best outcome. Uncle angry that Malsha's Scooty Pep is all she can afford. Also Malsha single.

So during his speech today @GotabayaR said that he regrets not going to the IMF sooner. So a valid question at this point is why we didn't go, and who sold snake-oil "home grown solution" to Gota to keep us going to the IMF and why they did it.

Here is an explainer. Obviously attention has been with Basil R and Cabraal. But they are the mere tip of the bullshit iceberg. The cabal of PB Jayasundara, WD Laxman (and his acolytes at the monetary board).

They were guided by Howard Nicholas. They Dhammika Paeniya-ed the Sri Lankan economy.

A few quick thoughts about rumours of PBJ being fired:

As President's Secretary, PB Jayasundere is the de facto head of the civil service. Man's ethics/character aside (let's not open that can of worms) he's still a very senior, very capable, very powerful civil servant. (1/6) He has been the biggest gatekeeper toward GR from day one. He has GR's ear, and he is even now the most powerful man in the country (more than GR). He is almost universally hated within the SLPP. GR takes PBJ's advice, and PBJ treats everyone else like insignificant trash. (2/6)

Financial independence by your 30s is near impossible. I know many who are most certainly in the path to becoming so someday, but none who are in their 30s or even 40s who are financially independent - essentially, retired. What we should aim for is survivability + independence. Financial independence is either having enough passive income to maintain the quality of life you want, or having a fund large enough to drain by the time your life ends. Employment (however well paid) or entrepreneurship (however successful) are by definition, not independent.

When Gotabaya Rajapaksa was running for the presidency a vast majority of his opponents were forecasting a rapid decline in Sri Lanka's human rights environment, full of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. I'm probably the only one in my circles who disagreed. This wasn't because I thought he was incapable of violence. This was because the 2005-2012 era was a very specific set of circumstances during which the wider public put up with a lot because of the war. Death sqauds are logistically difficult when you're present (unless...

I reached out to the @metpoliceuk about the repeated use of LTTE flags in the UK to feed into an article/book I'm working on. My specific question was about the use of the LTTE flag being an offence under 13(1) and 13(1A) of the UK's Terrorism Act 2000. The law makes it offence if someone wears, carries or displays an article "in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation."

අවුරුදු තිහක් තිස්සේ රටේ තිබ්බ යුද්ධය ඉවර වෙලා අදට අවුරුදු දොළහක්. තාම අපිට සාමය උදාවෙලා නැහැ. යුද්ධය පටන් ගන්න හේතුවුණු 1956 සිංහල රාජ්‍ය භාෂාව කිරීම, 1971 අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ වගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති තාම තියනවා. සාමය උදාකරන්න අපි සෑහෙන දේවල් කරන්න ඕනේ.

ප්‍රථමව අන්තවාදීන් එලවන්න ඕනේ. තමන්ගේ දරුවෝ අතුරුදහන් වෙච්ච දෙමව්පියන්ට අපිට රටක් විදිහට කරන්න පුළුවන් අවම දේ අවුරුද්දකට වරක් ගිහිල්ලා පහනක් පත්තු කරලා තමන්ගේ දුක බෙදාගන්න දෙන එක. උතුරේ අයට එහෙම තැනක් නැහැ. දකුණේ යට තිබ්බ එකම තැන (අහිංසකාරාමය) කඩලා ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ එතන උසස් පැලැන්තියේ පොලක් (දියත උයන) හැදුවා.

Until the Itukama fund RTI request comes in, here is some information regarding a Rs 25 billion (US$ 128 million) loan that the Sri Lankan Government borrowed from the World Bank for Covid response, and what it (didn't) do with it.

You will see a pattern. A total of 12 designated laboratories with COVID-19 diagnostic equipment, test kits, and reagents were scheduled to be added by December 2020.

Actual number added by end September 2020: 0.

Ten soldiers were killed on this day 36 years ago in an LTTE landmine attack. This would trigger a series of horrific attacks against civilians that would see more than 300 dead when it finally stopped. In response to the landmine attack, the Sri Lanka Army rounded up 70 civilians in Velvettithurai, herded them into the town library, and blew it up.

මේ ආණ්ඩුව තමන්ගේ දුර්වලතා වහගන්න ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව සහ පොලීසිය සර්කස් එකක් බවට පත්කරන්න හදන්නේ. මුලින්ම මගුල් ගෙවල් වීඩියෝ කරන්න පාවිච්චි කරන ඩ්‍රෝන් දීලා අලුත් බලකායක් හදුවා කිව්වා, දැන් ජෙට් ස්කී දීලා "දියමත විශේෂ මෙහෙයුමි බලඝනය" කියලා විශේෂ කාර්ය බලකාය වටේ යවනවා. තමන් පොලීසිය සමූලඝාතනය කරා කියලා පම්පෝරි ගහපු කරුනා අම්මාන්තුමාව මේ ඒ කාලේ බදාගෙන ඉන්නේ දැන් ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ශ. මේ ගොල්ලොම තමයි කරුණාතුමාට හොර ලියකියවිලි හදලා එන්ගලන්තෙට යන්න හරිගස්සලා දුන්නේ.

The regular bullshittery from me will be paused for a while to talk about the important issue of wellbeing and mental health in this time of crisis. Here are few tips from things that I learnt by doing wrong and doing right, both during Easter attacks and now with the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1244260266856067073

1) Limit your input.

Being updated about information is important, but this doesn't mean that checking news is the first thing you do. I've now broken my habit of loading Reuters TV the moment I wake up and being bombarded with ten powerful stories.