That’s Fan- freaking – tastic
The official government trip to China cost the tax payer 56 million bucks. Isn’t that great. As though buying unusable MIGs will not suffice we are also paying for 192 people to go count the stones on the Great Wall.
It surprises me continually that the Sri Lankan public continues to accept whatever is thrown at them. A huge government expenditure is going unchecked because of the abject faith we have in the “Social Contract” and yet there continues to be no proper mechanism to hold the powers that be accountable.
Interesting questions to be raised would be as to why there hasn’t been a serious move to question this trend. But most importantly what does it say about our political culture? How do we change this?
The fact of the matter is that the present political system doesn’t provide any space for a rethink of the strategy. With proportional representation system political culture is dependent on party seniority. Which means that there is no chance for the political culture to change for a good twenty years.
I love Sri Lanka and her history and her diversity and everything about her. But sometimes i wonder is it worth the effort i am putting in to change a culture that is so entrenched in the way things have been done, that it refuses to change.
As a young person that means a lot to my future. But given the system how is it possible to kick it and work with it.
Any ideas?
F.I.T.M.S – Foot in the Mouth Syndrome
Sri Lankan leaders seem to be suffering from a severe case of FITMS – Foot in the Mouth Syndrome. Coming at a time when Sri Lanka is being increasingly marginalized by the international community it is imperative that our leaders speak with a clear voice. Furthermore a clear voice alone will not suffice. They need to make sense and they need to gain credibility for themselves as well as the country through what they say.
However our present leaders seem intent on sending us further “down the pallan” while the people of the country continue to fund their trips abroad. I believe it is well within our rights to question the statements made by our leaders in international forums which continue to make the country look like a banana republic.
For instance Caitlin’s GYCA blog on the 8th ICAAP noted that President Rajapakse had made a “bizzare” speech. His excellency had noted that drugs and alcohol lead to more drug abuse and thus to HIV infection. He has quite clearly shown himself to be a greater expert on the subject of AIDS than all 2200 delegates who had gathered for the congress.
Nimal Siripala De Silva whom i considered the more respectable of many of the government ministers, is also eminently capable of blowing his foot of off with a rocket propelled grenade. At the closing ceremony of ICAAP he had noted that Sri Lanka doesn’t promote gay and lesbian relationships as we have pretty girls and smart guys who can get married. He also noted that condoms are not really necessary since we are a monogamous society. I believe he missed his vocation – he should have been a sociologist. Furthermore at a recent UNFPA event to felicitate two of their female staff members he had noted that “no wonder the rate of HIV Infection is going up. Look at the amount of women in this room”!
You see in Sri Lanka HIV/AIDS is not really the most fearful communicable disease; Foot in the Mouth Syndrome is.
Meaningful Youth Participation: Moving Past the Rhetoric
With the conclusion ofthe 8th ICAAP in Colombo yesterday serious questions need to be raised with regard to the rhetoric of youth participation in conferences of this nature.
It has been said ad nauseum that youth are our future, we must support youth activity, we must involve youth in decision making but such talk is rarely seen in reality.
The 8th ICAAP was a fantstic opportunity to move past this as unlike in many other spheres HIV/ AIDS has a major impact on young people with 50% of all new infections being between the ages of 15-24.
However, the reality at ICAAP was much different and quite disapponting. It toook some active lobbying on the part of the youth committee on the final day of the conference to ensure that youth had a space to speak at the closing ceremony after being informed that there was no space to hear them at the closing ceremony. There was no space at the opening ceremony either.
There were extremely few youth focused sessions and even then the panelists can hardly be considered young. Furthermore young people can no longer afford to be the subjects of research without seeing positive action taken based on such research.
The next international AIDS conference in Mexico in 2008 still appears to have no youth committee visible on its website. Despite the fact that young people are the most at risk, conferences of this nature continue to relegate young people to “if we find the space” status. Personally it appears quite clear that any talk of youth participation continues to be purely rhetorical.
While appreciating the willingness to talk about issues facing youth the time has come to move past the talk and see positive action.
So what does this mean for the youth of the 8th ICAAP and what does it mean for youth around the world.
It means that we need to be calling for and holding leaders accountable to the promises made to youth. We need to demand greater funding for youth led initiatives, more significant involvement on panels and most importantly provide real opportunites for youth to attend and participate in conferences of this nature.
It is time we moved past the rhetoric and stepped in to concrete action.
