Galle Face Christmas Tree -The Tallest Christmas Tree in the World 2016
Posted on December 15th, 2016
Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Gove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada
Hounarable Mithripala Sirisena
President of Sri Lanka
Presidential Secretariat
Galle Face
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith
Re: The Tallest Christmas Tree in the World 2016
Dear President Sirisena:
When I read that this stupid ChristmasTree Project costing 12 million rupees is back on track after the intervention of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramesinghe, I was shocked with disgust and gasped, Sweet Mother of Jesus, speak to these fools who think that this Christmas Tree will pack planes with Tourists flying in from all quarters of the world to look at it. A tourist attraction, they like to believe. Sweet Mother of Jesus, tell these Sri Lankan politicos that this is a foolish dream when they could utilize that money to feed the poor of all communities all over Sri Lanka.
Sweet Mother of Jesus, please convince the President of the island to use that 12 million rupees to put together Christmas hampers and distribute them among the poor from buildings which display a cross on their façade which will recognize it as a Christian church.
To celebrate this charitable Christmas event I will gladly sing my Christmas Carol to you and Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith on Christmas day. Archbishop knows the tune. Join me.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
Who said, you’ll ever be unchanging.
A symbol of goodwill and love,
Who said, you’ll ever be unchanging.
This year in Colombo
The Christmas tree will be taller
Costing 12 million rupees
And keeping poor stomachs in limbo
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree
Such pleasure do you bring me,
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
But this year you have angered me
With each shining light
Each silver bell
This is how
Yahapalanayos
Spread Christmas cheer well
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree
Who said, you are so unchanging.”
Here is a true story, Mr. President, when I promoted the dignity of the poor people in Sri Lanka, pooh, poohing the decadence of the Canadian bureaucrats. And I swear that this incident did happen.
The year was 1972, a working weekday in the Summer.
The place was 150 Kent Street in Ottawa, where the National Film Board was located,
I was the Head,Thematic Research Section for the National Museums coordinating the production of 15 brand new Halls at the Victoria Memorial Museum where the National Museum of Man was located.
On the third floor of the right wing we were designing the History Hall – The Four Acres of Snow.
On this particular day, the Director of the National Museum of Man, Dr. William (Bill) Taylor and a few other ‘higher-up’s were summoned to the National Film Board to approve the rough-cut of the film for the History Hall that was presented by the producer of the film and the curator responsible for the History Hall. No one present liked it, and nor did I and it was rejected,
The lights of the auditorium came on. The Curator responsible for the film said, Oh, the rough cut has only cost us $60,000,” as if to say so what! It is no big deal.
My immediate visceral reaction was, Don’t you ever repeat those words again, it shows the Canadian decadence. With that money I could feed all the poor people in Sri Lanka three meals a day for one whole month.” And there was a big silence among the 20-odd people who had assembled to approve this rough cut.
After a three minute silence, Dr. Bill Taylor got up, looked at me and said, Asoka, come out, I want to speak to you.” A thin film of sweat covered my whole body not knowing whether I had spoken out of turn and that I would lose my job.
When in the foyer, Dr. Taylor told me, I am sorry we angered You. I understand your punishing statement and I am embarrassed for the Canadians. Listen, I want you to take over the production of the film, and I will put in that $60,000 from the Director’s slush fund.”
And my response was, Thanks for respecting my words of frustration. I couldn’t help but speak out for the dignity of poor people who have no voice, and I was brought up in a poor country.”
Mr. President, and that is why my Christmas Carol and pleas to Sweet Mother of Jesus.
I was disappointed in Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith with his skewed logic. He felt that the Catholic church should protest as he had thought the project was funded by the Government, which happened to be the Tax payers money. No sooner he was told by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickeramasinghe that it was sponsored money and it only cost 12 million rupees, he found it OK, That was strange and silly, wasn’t it, Mr. President. I thought it was a protest on a principle than the genesis from where the funds came from. Surely, doesn’t the Archbishop have a conscience?
Mr. President, you have every right to ask me, Who are you, and if you are fighting for the dignity of Sri Lanka’s poor, what have you done for them so far?”
You know what Mr. President, my response to you will be, I have not renewed my bragging license, but let me whisper in to your ears what I have done for the poor in Sri Lanka.”
Mr. President, how stupid can your Yahapalanayo’s be. For God’s sake tighten up their reins, because the Good Governance lily-whites with halos over their heads are losing it and their halos are getting tarnished by the day with their own actions. Don’t tell me that you didn’t know it!
I hope the New Year will let you bring more honesty to your people who are no fools, especially the poor who do not have a voice, and are tired of vindictive
politics.
Sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)
December 14th, 2016 at 5:53 pm
Obviously Ranil has an inferiority complex because so far he could not do any decent thing for the country when Mahinda did so much in a such a short time. So he thought building the world’s biggest Christmas tree will impress the whole world.
December 15th, 2016 at 2:19 am
Why can’t the donors pay back some of Ranil’s debts ?
December 15th, 2016 at 4:23 am
Ranil the Governor or the Agent of the Indian Empire just follows the orders. This could just be a little wish he had from his child hood.
December 15th, 2016 at 6:13 am
Two years on, these Yahapalanaya Ministers have nothing in the form of development, to show the world. Therefore they have taken refuge under a Christmas Tree.
December 15th, 2016 at 7:14 am
The Sri Lankans leaders are really stupid.. And those Sri Lankans who support these dumb-ass leaders are equally or even more stupid, to say the least.
Whether it is government or private money doesn’t matter. What matters is these idiots are wasting money that could have been used for something useful, like helping poor parents whom don’t have money to buy school supplies for their children, or rural hospitals that don’t have enough medicines and supplies to treat the poor citizens, etc.
The Christmas is a season of giving and helping those who are under-privileged, and needy. Spending Rs.12 millions for a stupid Christmas tree which has nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas, is outrages and irresponsible specially in a country like Sri Lanka. Shame on those idiots who came up with this hair-brained idea, and those dimwits who are supporting it..
December 15th, 2016 at 3:33 pm
After he himself stealing millions, he is now finding this !
Send both Cabraal ( first) and Mahendran ( 2nd) to the same jail ( not hospital)
ඡන්දෙට පෙර මහබැංකුවෙන් කෝටි 1300 ක් පිටවීම ගැන පරීක්ෂණ කරනවා
– රවි කරුණානායක
ශ්යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත
ශ්රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවෙන් පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව කාලයේ ඡන්දයට පෙර රු. කෝටි 1300 ක මුදලක් පිටවී ඇති බවද ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පොලිසියෙන් සහ මූල්ය අපරාධ විමර්ශන කොට්ඨාසයෙන් පරීක්ෂණයක් සිදු කෙරෙන බවද මුදල් ඇමැති රවි කරුණානායක මහතා ඊයේ (15 දා) මුදල් අමාත්යාංශයේ පැවැති ප්රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී කීවේය.
මේ මුදල් ප්රමාණය මහ බැංකුවෙන් එළියට ආවේ කෙසේ දැයි බැලිය යුතු බවත් මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා කීවේය.
ඉන්දියාවේ මෝදි අගමැතිතුමා රු. 1000 සහ රු. 5000 නෝට්ටු අවලංගු කිරීමේ ප්රශ්නයට සමාන දේවල් මෙහෙත් පේන්න තියෙනවා. විපක්ෂයේ විරෝධතා රැලි ගාව මේ රු. 5000 නෝට්ටු සංසරණය වෙනවා. ඒ සංසරණය වීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් දැන් තියෙන මුදල් නෝට්ටුවල අංක බැඳීමක් නැහැ. මෙන්න මේක තමයි අපි බලන්න කිව්වේ. ඒකෙන් කොහෙද අර්ථකථනය වෙන්නේ මුදල් නෝට්ටු හතරම අවලංගු කරනවා කියල. අපි එහෙම කිව්වේ නෑ. එහෙම පුවත්පත්වල ගියහම යම් අයට බයක් ඇති වන බවද මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා කීවේය.
ප්රශ්නය – ඔබතුමා කියන්නෙ එම රු. 5000 නෝට්ටු ව්යාජ නෝට්ටු කියලද?
පිළිතුර – නෑ. එහෙම කියන්න බෑ. එහෙම වගකීමෙන් කියන්න බැහැ. මම අර්ථකථනය කරන්න හදන දේවල් ඔබතුමාලට තේරෙනවා මම හිතන්නෙ. එවැනි සියුම් මට්ටමක වෙනින් දේවල් වෙලා තියන එක වෙන්න පුළුවන්.
ප්රශ්නය – ඒ කියන්නෙ මහ බැංකුව නිල වශයෙන් නිකුත් කරන්න කලින් නීත්යනුකූල නෝට්ටු එළියට ආව කියලද ඔබතුමා කියන්නේ?
පිළිතුර – නෑ. ඒකත් නොවෙයි. ඔබතුමාලා දන්නවනෙ ඡන්දෙට දවස් දෙකකට කලින් මහ බැංකුවෙන් රු. කෝටි 1300 ක් එළියට ආව කියලා. එහෙම කොහොමද ගියේ. මෙන්න මේවා තමයි අපිට බලන්න අවශ්ය වෙන්නේ. ඇහුව නිසා කිව්වෙ. නැත්නම් හිතයි මම බාගෙට උත්තර දෙනව කියලා ඒවට වගකීමෙන් උත්තර දෙන්න ඕන. නැත්නම් නිකං ගින්නක් ඇති කරන්න අවශ්යතාවක් නෑ.
ප්රශ්නය – රජය ඒ සඳහා ගන්න පියවර කුමක්ද?
පිළිතුර – අපි බලාගෙන ඉන්නව පරීක්ෂණ කරගෙන යනවා. ලොරිවල ගිය ඒවයි ඔක්කොම බලනවා. පොලිසිය සහ එµaසීඅයිඩී එක ඔක්කොම කටයුතු කරගෙන යනවා.
ප්රශ්නය – මේ සියලු මුදල් පිටවෙලා තියෙන්නේ රු. 5000 නෝට්ටුවලින්මද?
පිළිතුර – ඒව ගෙනිච්ච අයගෙන් අහන්න.
ප්රශ්නය – ඔබතුමාද මේ ගැන පරීක්ෂණයක් කරන්න උපදෙස් දීල තියෙන්නේ.
පිළිතුර – මට වඩා ඉහළින් වන දේවල් වුණ එක තමයි මම කිව්වෙ.
December 15th, 2016 at 8:59 pm
SL has the world’s TALLEST Buddhist STUPA.
SL has the world’s OLDEST HINDU kovil – Mannar kovil.
SL has Asia’s largest church.
SL has world’s HIGHEST NUMBER of mosques within 10 square kilometres – Katankundi.
Now the TALLEST Christmas tree.
And the TWO BIGGEST MODAYAS in the world.
December 15th, 2016 at 9:05 pm
The REAL REASON is the lover of that minister is a Christian. This is to PAMPER her with the WORLD’S TALLEST x-mas tree. The minister has told her, “kunju, my love for you is taller than the tallest x-mas tree”.
Excusing Jyothibala,
“his aase gawenna tharamata x-mas tree ekak bandimi”.
The BISHOP over FOOLISH reasons RETRACTED his opposition!! What shameless and spineless people. They all rob the country left right and centre.
Next they will erect WORLD’S TALLEST LINGAM to satisfy HINDU women.
December 16th, 2016 at 3:54 am
Traitor arjunaya durjanaya wanted to score points from the church for his ambitious plan of becoming the president
of Sri Lanka. But durjanaya, a modaya of course with not much education qualifications like the impotent puppet
maru (hora) sira, doesn’t know he destroyed his chances by being a hate figure with his treachery to Mother Lanka.
So the pea-brained durjanaya started the project. Don’t ask why he never thought of putting up a lantern
in Galle Face to celebrate Vesak, let alone the world’s biggest. So the pea-brained barrel man lost more and more points and destroying his chances of
even being an MP next time round. Good riddance of a traitor low life deshapaluwa!
It is unbelievable how crafty this lot are. First cardinal crafty oppose it. Points galore. What a nice man. Then the
traitor chief die hard catholic token Buddhist Batalande Wadakaya pol pot r@nil wickramaSinhalakiller along with
his catholic buddy karu paiya come along. Durjanaya press the button to restart. How crafty? It was not going to be
stopped in the first place anyway. So in the end all become good guys. Damage limited. Sinhala modayas didn’t understand
it at all. What lucky traitors Mother Lanka have! Cancers within and we will see the demise of her before long! Buddhism
is going to be the first casualty. Then Sinhalese race and finally Mother Lanka. Traitor chief die hard catholic token
Buddhist Batalande Wadakaya pol pot r@nil wickramaSinhalakiller working overtime to achieve his goal. After all
he doesn’t have to worry about any off spring. So why should I care? That’s his line of thinking we are sure.