Features
MORE ADVENTURES & MISADVENTURES

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canad. Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum, chandij@sympatico.ca
Trying Hitch-hiking
A month passed after our period of suspension from the Ceylon Hotel School (CHS) and being gated for cutting school for a five-day cycle trip. Once again, I was hungry for an adventure. Over the holiday period, I did a week-long hitch-hiking trip around Sri Lanka with a friend. We faced some challenges, as hitch-hiking was not a common practice in Sri Lanka in the early 1970s. Our overnight stops included houses of CHS batchmates in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, a rent-free hostel near Kataragama kovil and my aunt’s house in Akmeemana. We achieved our target of zero spending for travel.
More Cycle Trips
1) Kandy
Soon after that I did another cycle trip. This adventure had four main differences – I went alone, included the hill country in the itinerary, did not cut school and borrowed a better bicycle from a friend. I named the bicycle ‘The Lone Rider.’ It was a three-day trip from Colombo to Kurunegala on the first day, Kurunegala to Kandy on the second day, and back to Colombo on the third day. I stayed in my CHS batchmate’s homes in Kurunegala and Kandy.
I was not able to cycle for seven kilometres going up the steep hill around Galagedara, just before reaching Kandy. I pushed the bike for a long time to reach Kandy. The key challenge was the next day when I went downhill. Flying down (on my bike) Kadugannawa’s deep slope was a nightmare. For around seven kilometres, the brakes did not work to stop or reduce the speed of the bicycle. I was petrified, but quickly realised that I must keep my balance and clearly focus on not colliding with any fast-moving trucks on the narrow road. Slight rain made the road very slippery. I was also scared of falling down the mountainous road, which certainly would have been deadly! I was fortunate to return to the CHS hostel unharmed, covering a distance of around 260 kilometres. I improved my speed and became a better cyclist, since the adventure of ‘The Iron Horses.’
2) Kurunegala
A few months later, I planned another cycling adventure. This time, four of my fellow ‘Iron Horses’ joined the trip. We were surprised when one of the younger CHS Lecturers, Mr. Desmond Fernando decided to join. He was always friendly and informal with the students.
There are many interior Sri Lankan towns that have mysterious mountains and towering rocks as backdrops, and Kurunegala is one of them. Thanks to its picturesque setting with eight peaks, most especially the famed Elephant Rock, Kurunegala has much that makes it remarkable. Once an ancient capital, it also has a history worth becoming familiar with.
Our hosts in Kurunegala, my CHS batchmate, Sunil Perera and his elder brother Leslie, loved to party, sing and entertain. They were the ultimate hosts. Every evening we had a big booze and music party before a late dinner. We were woken up early in the morning on our second day in their house, by Leslie. He said, “Machang, let’s climb the Elephant Rock and have our breakfast on top of the rock with some gin remaining from last evening.” A couple of us were hungover from previous evening’s heavy drinking. That was no excuse for Leslie, we soon ended up having a big breakfast on the rock with neat gin!
The next day they took us on a picnic lunch. It was to a venue popular among locals, Bathalagoda Lake Park. This was believed to be built in the 13th century. A stone inscription on the embankment revealed the historic significance of the lake. A little bit of history and lots of food and booze made this trip very enjoyable. We also learned a lot from our lecturer, Mr. Desmond Fernando. He used his talent in interesting story telling to break the ice at parties attended by people we had never met before. I made a mental note that this is a skill I must cultivate.
3) Matara
Since I commenced my hotel management career the very next year, I organised a few cycle trips with the teams I managed. I also organised a couple of cycle races. In 1976, I organised a cycle trip to Matara with members of my team at the famous pioneer resort in Hikkaduwa – Coral Gardens Hotel (where I worked as the Executive Chef and Assistant Manager). The highlight of that trip was a nice swim and a heavy lunch after several rounds of arrack. A major problem stemmed from that.
Some of the riders had too much to drink. They simply were not fit enough to cycle back to the hotel from Matara. I had to think quickly outside the box, in consultation with the few who were relatively sober. We rented a large truck and a driver from a local trader in Matara. We placed all our bicycles in the truck. As the truck had no seats at the back we sat on the floor while we were driven back to the hotel. Those supervisors who were drunk fell asleep during the ride. When we were very close to Coral Gardens, we got off the truck and paid the truck driver. Then we cycled back to the hotel like heroes!
Not Good Enough for InterContinental
Towards the end of our second year at CHS, we heard some good news. The first five-star hotel in Sri Lanka, Hotel Ceylon InterContinental needed 20 well-trained part-time waiters to work during the grand opening of the hotel. I was thrilled with this news. As I was good at restaurant service, I was somewhat sure of this opportunity. However, when the principal announced the names of the 20 second-year students chosen by CHS, my name was not the list. I knew that Herr Sterner disliked me, but did not expect him to deprive me of this valuable experience. Perhaps, that was his revenge for my role in organising the previous cycle trip and cutting school. I was disappointed and depressed when my batchmates described their experience at the one and only five-star hotel in the country. My desperation gradually became a strong determination to gain that five-star experience, without an official recommendation from CHS.
Flipping Hamburgers at a Small Cafe
One day when I was passing the famous Galle Face Hotel, on my way from CHS to the hostel, I dropped in at a small local cafe then called ‘The Windmill’. It was advertised as the first hamburger restaurant in Sri Lanka. There were no internationally branded fast-food restaurants in Sri Lanka at that time, in fact not until the early-nineties. ‘The Windmill’ was very small, but the layout was well-planned for a fast operation and was quite trendy. I introduced myself to the Manager, Mrs. Chithra Perumal, a well-known cookery demonstrator. She interviewed me immediately. I paused a little to read her personality and adjusted the way I communicated with her. That worked in my favour. She offered me a part-time job as a Grill Cook from the very next day.
My job was simply flipping hamburgers, but the manager occasionally asked me to make other dishes I had learnt to prepare at CHS. The few evenings I worked there each week; I was the last to leave after the manager locked the cafe. Her husband, Mr. Felix Perumal was a senior police officer, and came to pick his wife soon after we closed the café at 11:00 pm. They both were friendly and on occasional Saturday evenings went out of their way to drop me at my home in Bambalapitiya Flats, after work. Mainly because of the friendliness of the manager, I enjoyed my fifth part-time job. It is always nice to work for superiors one likes, respects and can le
arn from.
InterContinental through the Backdoor
While working at the Windmill, I never lost sight of my then goal to get into Hotel Ceylon InterContinental. I was pushy in getting introductions to the Personnel Department (Human Resource was not a trendy term at that time). Finally, after some persuasions I was hired as a part-time banquet waiter a few weeks after the grand opening. I was most impressed with their service standards and I learnt a lot. At that time Sri Lanka hardly had any hospitality managers with five-star experience. Therefore, Hotel Ceylon InterContinental managed to get work permits approved by the Ministry of Labour for twenty-three expatriate managers to open this hotel.
At that time, Gamini Fernando (years later the General Manager of Colombo Hilton) was the only Sri Lankan operational manager. He was the Front Office Manager and his team included a young Lobby Manager – Chandra Mohotti (years later the General Manager of the Galadari Hotel). Forty years later, Sunil Dissanyake, one of my batchmates who worked as a part-time banquet waiter became the General Manager of the former InterContinental now rebranded as the Kingsbury.
Mastering Five-star Banquet Service
Mr. Mansourian, the hotel’s Banquet Manager came from Egypt. He was also a good trainer. We served at dinner banquets with elaborate menus with Beef Wellington as a favourite main course. Once an accident happened when one of my batchmates, Kotte, raced with another student with a butter carving made for a buffet table, on a tall trolley from the cold kitchen to the ballroom. It was a large butter carving of a dolphin, which hit the beam of a low celling in the stewarding area. The head of the dolphin broke and that angered the German Executive Chef. Kotte nearly got fired.
The ballroom of Hotel Ceylon InterContinental was the grandest and most prestigious venue for weddings in Sri Lanka in 1973. However, as the socialist government led by the Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike had restricted catered weddings to a maximum 150 guest, the hotel could not book any large wedding banquets. That meant that weddings with over guests served only soft drinks. When I served at such weddings my tasks were limited to serving the soft drinks and changing ashtrays throughout each function.
The hotel’s standard was maximum one cigarette butt in an ashtray at any given time. Banquet waiters were trained to cover the used ashtray with a single cigarette butt with a clean ashtray, place both on the banquet tray and then place the clean ashtray on the table. Mr. Mansourian watched the banquet waiters very closely, like a hawk. If he ever noticed two cigarette butts in one ashtray, that became the last shift of the part-time banquet waiter serving such a table.
I quickly learnt that attention to details was essential for quality assurance in five-star hotels. It was in my sixth part-time job that I was exposed such strict discipline in maintaining five-star service standards. That banquet service training and experience at the Hotel Ceylon InterContinental in 1973 was very useful for me ten years later when I worked as a banquet waiter at some of the best five-star hotels in London. It was during my graduate student years in England.
From 1983 to 1985, I worked in London in between my classes and research as a banquet waiter at the Dorchester, Savoy, Claridge’s, London Hilton and InterContinental London Park Lane. Coming first in a special banquet service training program in 1984, I was chosen to serve the Queen of England, Prince Philip and the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at a royal banquet held at the best British five-star hotel – the Dorchester. Thank you for the training, Mr. Mansourian!
Features
How many more must die before Sri Lanka fixes its killer roads?

On the morning of May 11, 2025, the quiet hills of Ramboda were pierced by the wails of sirens and the cries of survivors. A Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus, en route from Kataragama to Kurunegala via Nuwara Eliya, veered off the winding road and plunged down a deep precipice in the Garandiella area. At least 23 people lost their lives and more than 35 were injured—some critically.
The nation mourned. But this wasn’t merely an isolated accident. It was a brutal reminder of Sri Lanka’s long-standing and worsening road safety crisis––one where the poor pay the highest price, and systemic neglect continues to endanger thousands every day.
A national epidemic
According to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s 2023 Road Safety Report, buses and other passenger vehicles are involved in 60% of fatalities while motorcycles account for 35% of reported accidents. Though three-wheelers are often criticised in the media, they contribute to only 12% of all accidents. The focus, however, remains disproportionately on smaller vehicles—ignoring the real danger posed by larger, state-run and private buses.
The Ramboda incident reflects what transport experts and road safety advocates have long warned about: that Sri Lanka’s road accident problem is not primarily about vehicle type, but about systemic failure. And the victims—more often than not—are those who rely on public transport because they have no other choice.
One of the biggest contributors to the frequency and severity of road accidents is Sri Lanka’s crumbling infrastructure. A 2023 report by the Sri Lanka Road Development Authority (SLRDA) noted that nearly 40% of the country’s road network is in poor or very poor condition. In rural and hilly areas, this figure is likely higher. Potholes, broken shoulders, eroded markings, and inadequate lighting are all too common. In mountainous terrain like Ramboda, these conditions can be fatal.
Even worse, since 2015, road development has effectively stagnated. Although the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration was often criticised for its ambitious infrastructure drive, it left behind a network of wide, well-lit highways and urban improvements. The subsequent administrations not only failed to continue this momentum, but actively reversed course in some instances—most notably, with the cancellation of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project in Colombo, which had been poised to modernise urban mobility and reduce congestion.
Instead of scaling up, Sri Lanka scaled down. Maintenance budgets were slashed, long-term projects shelved, and development planning took a back seat to short-term political calculations. Roads deteriorated, traffic congestion worsened, and safety standards eroded.
Dangerous drivers
Infrastructure is only part of the story. Human behaviour plays a significant role too—and Sri Lanka’s roads often mirror the lawlessness that prevails off them.
A 2022 survey by the Sri Lanka Road Safety Council revealed alarming patterns in driver behaviour: 45% of accidents involved drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and 40% were attributed to speeding. These figures reflect not just recklessness, but a dangerous culture of impunity.
The legal blood alcohol limit for drivers in Sri Lanka is 0.08%, but enforcement remains lax, particularly in rural areas and during off-peak hours. There is no consistent system of random breath testing, and police checkpoints are often limited to high-profile holidays or urban areas.
The same lack of enforcement applies to speeding, tailgating, overtaking on blind corners, and ignoring traffic signals. While the law technically provides for penalties, in practice, enforcement is selective at best. Even SLTB bus drivers—tasked with transporting hundreds daily—are known for aggressive and erratic driving. The Ramboda bus is reported to have been speeding on a dangerously narrow bend, a pattern that has become disturbingly common.
Public buses, both state-run and private, are some of the most dangerous vehicles on the road today—not just due to their size, but because of operational cultures that prioritise speed over safety. Competition for passengers, poor driver training, minimal vehicle maintenance, and weak regulatory oversight have created a deadly combination.
Do they not deserve better?
Most people who travel in SLTB buses are from lower-income backgrounds. They rely on public transportation not by choice, but by necessity. A factory worker in Nuwara Eliya, a schoolteacher in Bandarawela, or a daily wage earner commuting between towns—all are bound to a public transport system that is increasingly unreliable and unsafe.
Sri Lanka’s social contract has failed its most vulnerable. The poor are expected to brave substandard buses on crumbling roads, driven by underpaid and undertrained drivers, often in hazardous weather and terrain. In many rural areas, buses are lifelines. When one crashes, it is not merely a tragedy—it’s a profound injustice.
Had the LRT system gone forward, had road maintenance been prioritised, had reckless drivers been reined in through strict enforcement, how many lives could have been saved?
Experts agree that the solution lies in a combination of infrastructure investment, driver education, and law enforcement reform. The Sri Lanka Road Safety Council has repeatedly called for mandatory road safety training, particularly for commercial drivers. Such training should cover not just traffic laws, but also defensive driving, fatigue management, and the dangers of DUI.
Enforcement, too, needs a dramatic overhaul. License suspensions, large fines, and jail time for repeat offenders must become the norm—not the exception. A centralised traffic violation database could prevent habitual offenders from slipping through the cracks.
And critically, investment in infrastructure must resume—not in flashy mega-projects for political gain, but in safe, functional, and equitable roads and transit systems. The re-introduction of the LRT or similar mass transit projects should be seriously reconsidered, especially in urban centers where congestion is growing and road space is limited.
The misunderstood three-wheeler
On the other hand, while three-wheelers are frequently vilified in public discourse and media narratives for reckless driving, the data tells a different story. According to the Central Bank’s 2023 Road Safety Report, they account for just 12% of all road accidents—a fraction compared to the 60% involving buses and other passenger vehicles, and the 35% attributed to motorcycles. Yet, disproportionate attention continues to be directed at three-wheelers, conveniently shifting focus away from the far greater risks posed by large, state-run and private buses.
What often goes unacknowledged is the essential role three-wheelers play in Sri Lanka’s transport ecosystem, particularly in remote and rural areas where reliable public transport is virtually nonexistent. For residents of small towns and isolated villages in the hill country, three-wheelers are not a luxury—they are a necessity. Affordable, nimble, and capable of navigating narrow, winding roads where buses cannot operate, these vehicles have become the primary mode of short-distance travel for countless Sri Lankans.
Even more importantly, in the aftermath of road accidents—especially in remote regions like Ramboda—it is often the three-wheeler drivers who are the first to respond. When tragedy strikes, they ferry the injured to hospitals, assist with rescue efforts, and offer immediate aid long before official emergency services arrive. This community-centered, grassroots role is rarely acknowledged in national conversations about road safety, yet it remains a vital, life-saving contribution.
Rather than treating three-wheelers as a problem to be blamed, the government should recognise their indispensable value and work towards integrating them more effectively and safely into the national transport framework. Regularising the sector through measures such as mandatory driver training programmes, periodic vehicle safety checks, and the enforcement of standardised operating licenses could improve safety without displacing an essential service. Additionally, designating official three-wheeler stands, particularly in high-risk or high-traffic areas, and incentivising drivers who maintain clean safety records would help create a safer, more accountable environment for both passengers and pedestrians.
Moving beyond the blame game
It is time for us to move beyond the tired narrative that blames specific vehicles—motorcycles, three-wheelers, or buses—for the carnage on Sri Lanka’s roads. The problem is not the mode of transport. It is the system that surrounds it.
When buses are poorly maintained, roads are not repaired, drivers are not trained, and laws are not enforced, tragedy becomes inevitable. Blaming a single vehicle type does nothing to address these root causes.
The real question is: Do we have the political will to fix this? Or will Sri Lanka continue to count the dead—accident after accident—while doing little more than issuing condolences?
The Ramboda accident was not the first. It won’t be the last. But it should be the turning point.Let this be the moment we stop pointing fingers—and start fixing the road.
(The writer is an Attorney-at-Law with over a decade of experience specializing in civil law, a former Board Member of the Office of Missing Persons, and a former Legal Director of the Central Cultural Fund. He holds an LLM in International Business Law and resides in Battaramulla, where he experiences the daily challenges of commuting to Hulftsdorp, providing him with a unique perspective on Sri Lanka’s road safety issues.)
By Sampath Perera
Features
J’accuse – Need for streamlined investigation of corruption in former President’s office

Though the government is moving more slowly on corruption than I would have liked, it is moving, which is more than can be said for its predecessors. I remember how sad I was when Yahapalanaya did very little, except for political advantage, about the corruption it had highlighted in the election campaign in which I had so foolishly joined; but the reason became clear with the bond scam, when the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration rose to heights of corruption that surpassed, in convoluted ingenuity, anything the Mahinda Rajapaksa government could have achieved. Thus far the present government is clean, and that will make its task much easier.
I hope then that the slow but steady progress of this government in investigation will bear fruit. But at the same time, I think it would also be good if it looked at instances when corruption was avoided. The horrors of the visa scam, in which the Controller General of Immigration seems to have connived with his political masters, suggest how important it is to also praise those civil servants who resist pressures.
With regard to the visa scam, I had thought Tiran Alles largely responsible, but perhaps I have done the man an injustice – if that were conceivable – and the fountainhead of the matter was the President. I now think this the more likely, having heard about a Civil Servant who did stand up against the political pressures brought upon him. If this government were to look into the matter, and recognise his integrity and courage, perhaps that would prompt the former Controller General of Immigration and Emigration too to come clean and turn Crown Witness, having accepted a compounded penalty for anything he might have done wrong.
It can be difficult to resist pressure. That must be understood though it is no reason to excuse such conduct. But it is therefore more essential to praise the virtuous, such as the former Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Dr Palitha Mahipala. I had heard of him earlier, and I am sorry he was removed, though I have also heard good things about his successor, so there is no reason to bring him back. But perhaps he could be entrusted with greater responsibilities, and awarded some sort of honour in encouragement of those with courage.
One of the notable things Dr Mahipala did was to resist pressure brought upon him to award a contract to Francis Maude, a British crony of the President. This was to design a supply chain management for pharmaceuticals. A system for this was already being designed by the Asian Development Bank, but when told about this the authorities had nevertheless insisted.
The then Secretary to the Prime Minister cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for having asked the Ministry of Health to prepare a stunningly expensive MoU that was quite unnecessary.
But his claim was that he had been introduced to the Britisher by a top aide of the President. This rings true for it was the President who first wished Maude upon the country. It was after all Ranil Wickremesinghe who, a year after he became President, announced that, to boost state revenue, Maude had been invited ‘to visit Sri Lanka and share his insights on sectoral reform’.
When he became a Minister under David Cameron, Maude’s responsibilities included ‘public service efficiency and transparency’. There seems to have been nothing about revenue generation, though the President’s statement claimed that ‘Sri Lanka must explore new avenues for increasing income tax revenues…He expressed concern over not only the neglect of public revenue but also the unrestricted spending of public funds on non-beneficial activities’.
He ‘called for an extensive media campaign to educate the public’ but this did not happen, doubtless because transparency went by the board, in his antics, including the demand, whoever prompted it, that Maude be to do something already done. Surely, this comes under the heading of unrestricted spending of public funds on non-beneficial activities, and it is difficult to believe that top government officials connived at promoting this while Ranil would have expressed concern had he known what they were up to.
Nothing further is recorded of Ranil’s original trumpeting of Maude’s virtues, and far from being there to provide advice on the basis of his experience in government, he seems to have been trawling for business for the firm he had set up on leaving politics, for it was with that private agency that the MoU was urged.
Thankfully, Dr Mahipala resisted pressure, and that plot came to nothing. But it should not be forgotten, and the government would do well to question those responsible for what happened, after speaking to Dr Mahipala and looking at the file.
Indeed, given the amount of corruption that can be traced to the President’s Office, it would make sense for the government to institute a Commission of Inquiry to look into what happened in that period of intensive corruption. It should be subject to judicial appeal, but I have no doubt that incisive questioning of those who ran that place would lead to enough information to institute prosecutions, and financial recompense for the abuses that occurred.
by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha
Features
Trump’s Press Secretary; no attention to the health crisis

In her Cry on 25 April, Cassandra wrote this in her section on Trump’s moves to Make America Great Again – MAGA. “The latest was heard on BBC news on Wednesday 16. A fluff of a blonde White House press secretary by name of Karoline Leavitt announces that President Trump expects Harvard University to apologise to him for the continuing tolerance of anti-Semitism by the university. And that little blonde fluff adds ‘And they should.’ Didn’t Cass guffaw, but bitterly. That’s Trump vs Harvard.”
Karoline Leavitt
This young blonde has been making waves ever since, so much so that night shows in the US have spoken of her, and not well. Jimmy Kimmel arranged a dialogue between Karoline and Mark Carney, PM of Canada, when he recently visited the US. She insulted him by saying he did not know what democracy was and that Canada would benefit by becoming the 51st of the US. Carney vowed Canada was not for sale and never would be. The interview which was described in a video which I watched got hotter, Carney became cooler and Karoline rattled until she shot up and left the room. The usually noisy crowd that collects to listen to Kimmel roared – disdain.
Cass had to ferret more about her, so she went to the Internet. Born in 1997, Karoline Leavitt studied politics and communication at Saint Anselm College, which she entered on a games scholarship. She interned in the White House as an apprentice press secretary and was named a press secretary in Trump‘s first term. After Trump’s loss in 2020, she became a communications director for New York. She was the Republican candidate in the US House of Reps election for New Hampshire in 2022 but lost. She was much in Trump’s campaign against Biden’s winning and then served as a spokeswoman for MAGA Inc. In November 2024, Trump named her his White House Press Secretary, the youngest to hold this post in US history. All this seems to have gone to her blonde head!
Mosquitoes making life hell in Colombo
These pests are breeding like mad in and around Colombo and other parts of the country too. We can be tolerant of nature and its creatures, but the mosquito now is deadly. She passes on the dreaded diseases of chikungunya and dengue; the former debilitating for months after the grueling ache in bones is abated as the infection recedes. Dengue can be fatal if one’s platelet count goes below the red line.
The crux of the near pandemic of these two diseases is that infection and prevalence of the two could be greatly reduced by control of the carrier of the infection – The Mosquito. And on whom rests the responsibility of controlling the breeding of mosquitoes? On You and Me. But both of these entities are often careless, and totally non-caring about keeping their premises clean and of course eliminating all breeding spots for flying pests. Does the responsibility end there? Not upon your life! The buck moves on and lands on the public health inspectors, the garbage removers, the fumigators. Their boss who sees to them working properly is the Medical Officer of Health. And he is part of the Colombo Municipal Council that has the responsibility of looking to the health of people within the MC.
The spread of the two diseases mentioned is proof that the above persons and establishments are NOT doing the work they should be doing.
It is a proven fact that just before a change in personnel in the country, or a MC or a Pradeshiya Sabha, with a general election or local government election in the near future, most work stops in government offices or in local government establishments as the case may be. Workers get the disease of ennui; do minimum work until new bosses take over.
This definitely has happened in Colombo. Cass lives in Colombo 3. Quite frequent fumigation stopped some time ago. About two weeks ago she heard the process and smelled the fumes. Then nothing and mosquitoes breeding with the infrequent rain and no repellents or cleaning of premises. She phoned the MOH’s office on Thursday last week. Was promised fumigation. Nothing.
We are in a serious situation but no Municipal Council action. Politics is to blame here too. The SJB is trying to grab control of the Colombo MC and people are falling prey to the two diseases. All politicians shout it’s all for the people they enter politics, etc. The NPP has definitely shown concern for the public and have at least to a large extent eliminated corruption in public life. They have a woman candidate for Mayor who sure seems to be able to do a very good job. Her concern seems to be the people. But no. A power struggle goes on and its root cause: selfishness and non-caring of the good of the people. And for more than a week, the personnel from the MOH are looking on as more people suffer due to dirty surroundings.
Garbage is collected from her area on Tuesdays and Saturdays with paper, etc., on Thursdays. Tuesday 13 was a holiday but garbage was put out for collection. Not done. At noon, she phoned a supervisor of the cleaning company concerned only to ask whether the workers had a day off. Garbage was removed almost immediately. That is concern, efficiency and serving the public.
As Cass said, Colombo is in near crisis with two mosquito borne diseases mowing down people drastically. And nothing is being done by the officers who are given the responsibility of seeing to the cleanliness of the city and its suburbs.
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