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Conferring Honorary Titles-
To Honour or Serve An Ulterior Motive?
By Ramani D.Wickramaratne
Email messages which end up in the Spam Mail eventually can be very
intriguing and also tempting to a person who is desperate to become
an accepted personality in society. An example of emails that come into
one's mailbox on a daily basis trying to sell university qualifications
and diplomas without one having the basic academic qualifications, is
stated below just to show the readers how cheap and insulting education
has become today. Money can do almost anything even for an "empty
head" & "Hey Presto!" he can add BA/Dip./Ph.D or
MBA behind his name and feel so good about it.
Quote:
"Not able to get a high pay job due to "NO" University
Degree/Dip1oma? You can buy it now..."
Erna Melinda to me
Would you like to:
Increase Your Salary?
Increase Your Ability to find other work?
Increase Your Marketability?
Increase Your Desirability?
Please call:
1-718-989-5740 [Inside USA]
+1-718-989-5740 [Outside USA]
Is an University Degree/Dip1oma holding you back? Kindly call us To
inquire about Our degree programs.
Whether you are seeking a Diploma, Bachelor, M B A/ P h D We can Provide
you credentials to get you Better Career
No Study, Exam, test, or course works required
Please call:
1-718-989-5740 [Inside USA]
+1-718-989-5740 [Outside USA]
Please leave us your "Name, country & phone no. with Country
code" - Our staff will call you back soon
(End Quote)
How very tempting! Such mails arrive in email mailboxes by the dozen
each day.
For whatever reason best known to those who have earned such cheap
qualifications, issuing such qualifications must be an extremely lucrative
business which can earn you quite a lot of US Dollars, if you have the
proper channel to process it. In a materialistic competitive world such
businesses must be thriving and highly lucrative.
During the last decade or so, in Sri Lanka it has become a highly fashionable
trend and a money spinner for bogus institutions to confer Honorary
Doctorates & Titles to murderers, thugs & mafia gang leaders,
self-seeking egoistic politicians without academic qualifications and
"school drop-outs" for them to be accepted in society and
be called "Dr……..", be photographed receiving their
bogus certificates wearing the Cap & Gown and reported in the local
newspapers to gain publicity. From then on, erudite scholars who have
excelled in their academic careers and laboured for years to write their
Doctoral Theses before gaining their hard earned Diplomas, Degrees,
MBAs and Ph. Ds are required to address the other category that "purchased
their qualifications" as "Dr…….!"
In bygone days, learning was considered as a Noble Human Endeavour
and it was with a sense of pride and dignity that one strived to obtain
educational qualifications through hard work. The Convocation Ceremony
was a milestone in one's life & thenceforth one endeavoured to live
up to the high ideals of one's profession. Today, the educated in Sri
Lankan society are being ridiculed and side-tracked and the way is paved
for money and thuggery to rule the day.
Similarly, it used to be that only a highly educated personality who
served his profession and society with academic achievements, dignity
and decorum and earned high accolades both locally and internationally
that was conferred with Honorary Titles to appreciate the services rendered
and the respect and reputation brought to one's Motherland -Sri Lanka.
The entire country would raise their hats to such personalities.
In a bid to further insult society, a new trend seems to have emerged
where religious groups especially Buddhist Sects or Nikayas where the
Nayake Theros are being pressured into demeaning themselves by conferring
Honorary Titles to politicians who are not even Buddhists or social
workers who have served our country honestly, loyally and with commitment.
They have been known to be scrounging & running behind our Maha
Nayakes and the four main Nikayas begging for Honorary Titles- we could
certainly name quite a few who qualify and fall into this category which
is an absolute insult to the entire country. Certain universities have
also conferred such Honorary Titles on well known business magnates
purely to boost their egos. There seems to be absolutely no guilt in
the minds of these recipients that they are not only fooling themselves
but also ridiculing the entire country as well as the highest institutions
of education in this country making it a mockery.
Until recently this game has been played only with our local citizens
but there seems to be some NGOs which are now planning to insult Sri
Lanka internationally by coming forward to confer Honorary Titles on
foreigners and for this, they feel no shame at using Buddhist organisations
and Buddhist Prelates as the "front" for their covert operations.
Some of these NGOs have been working vehemently to destabilize the sovereignty
of Sri Lanka and working tooth and nail to give legality and credibility
to terrorist groups in Sri Lanka such as the LTTE which is world renowned
to be the most brutal terrorist set up in the world! Innocent and unsuspecting
Buddhist Monks in our country have been lured with sweet words, into
joining the leaders of such NGOs. Quickly coined "bogus" organisations
are formed, with fairly well known Buddhist Monks given the opportunity
to play pivotal roles in order to invite internationally known personalities
who have supposedly championed the cause of "peaceful co-existence"
or become peace promoters with hidden agendas. During the past 6 months
or so, one NGO leader has been writing articles even to the local newspapers
extolling the virtues of The Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi with the intention
of ridiculing Sri Lanka because it is noted as being an important Buddhist
country in the world more so in South East Asia. Terrorism was not extolled
either by The Buddha or Mahatma Gandhi and there is no need whatsoever
to drag these names into one's dirty game of international politics
and furtherance of terrorism.
It was rather disturbing to learn that a Buddhist Organisation or seemingly
so, is organising a ceremony under the auspices of "International
Network of Engaged Buddhists" with their contacts in Grandpass-Colombo
14. Even the Letterhead is only a computer designed one. We are hearing
this name for the first time in this country and without a doubt, it
is one of these "quick sprouting mushroom organisations" with
ulterior motives with the hidden hand of a powerful foreign backer.
The fact that this is a quick shot is quite obvious because the invitation
letter sent out states in the middle of the invitation in Sinhala, that
the ceremony will be conducted at 4.00 p.m. on 29th November 2008 at
the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall(BMICH) but a
special reception for special invitees for a cordial discussion at Renuka
Hotel-Colombo 3 will be held on 29th November 2008 from 10.00am to 1.00
p.m. The normal practise is that one has the main function followed
by a reception at one and the same venue! The special event on this
day according to the invitation letter is to confer and Honorary Title
from the Amarapura Maha Sangha Sabha on 2 erudite scholars, one from
Thailand named Prof. Sulak Sivaraksa and the other Prof. Rev. Dharmachari
Lokamitra a westerner based and working in India. It seems that these
two erudite scholars are specialists in the field of NGOs and peace
processes!
We certainly hope that Sri Lanka is not insulting such personalities
by inviting them to this country without informing them of any hidden
agendas of the organising group. It is also of interest to know whether
or not these personalities have been working closely with the Amarapura
Maha Sangha Sabha before and for how long, as well as what their contributions
have been towards our Sri Lankan Buddhist community because Conferring
Honorary Titles must never be treated lightly and we should not in any
way show our disrespect to foreign personalities who are being invited
to be recipients of such titles.
Let us hope that these erudite dignitaries are not being invited to
Sri Lanka, to advocate the virtues of the "non-violent path of
negotiation" with an extremist group of terrorists, which has been
tried on several occasions during the past 25 years and proven to be
totally ineffective, resulting in more death and destruction in the
country. Let not the Amarapura Maha Sangha Sabha be taken for a ride!
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