Open invitation to SL academics who left country during war
Posted on February 17th, 2011
Vajiragnana Warnakulasuriya
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ My views in response to this articleƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ by Dr. Jayaratne Pinikahana, MelbourneƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Island, February 15, 2011, 7:19 pm ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=18481ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
It is indeed an interesting article to read about the plight of those Academics who left the motherland years ago for various reasons. Now the country is liberated and proceeding with its development programs, the President has invited all those who have left including those who breached the bond obligations of the Govt to come back and contribute to the progress of the country. From the article it is evident that this author speaks for all academics who consider to go back home. If all these academics are engaged in professions in par with or above their skills and still willing to sacrifice for the sake of the progress of the country, it is indeed magnanimous in thought and deed. But lets be truthful how many are really employed in their field of expertise in the West or in Developed countries?
However many a Sri Lankan expatriate academics are under-employed due to obvious reasons and have neither added to their knowledge and skills nor are they recognized by the peers in their own fields. If at all a handful of those Academics are employed in their trained, qualified area, they would draw a very handsome remuneration which would discourage them to sacrifice the luxurious life and go back to build the country, It is difficult to believe even for a moment that there will more than a handful of Sri Lankns who would be that generous.
The fact that this article mentions about a person spending Rs300,000 and going for a interview is just nothing for a person who gets a decent salary. But, the story of spending nearly A$3000- to go to Sri Lanka cannot be accurate as the current low air fares enables any person to travel to Sri Lanka from any major city in the world at much lower rate.
I have no qualifications, no glorified titles in front or at the rear, yet in year two thousand my take away salary for a fortnight was a meager A$2500 for which I have pay slips as proof. Presently I am a satisfied pensioner living on my superannuation. So, if my remuneration with no professional tags is this, needless to say these academics must be getting at least A$4000~A$5000 a fortnight! Pardon my ignorance. Then spending A$3000 for the sake of oneƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s country of birth which enabled them to get be highly qualified should be peanuts!
Of course there are umpteen Professionals with glorified titles working as misfits in Western countries regretting being unable to get back home.
This being the case if any of the academics or otherwise applies for employment in Sri Lanka, I suggest to the prospective employer they must ask for a job description and a pay slip from the applicant as proof that he is a worthy recruit.
Every developing country has a salary structure for Government and Semi-Government staff within her means. Similar jobs in the West may get several times more than the third World .In any part of the world the Teaching and Health professions unfortunately are low paid areas, possibly because they fall under one-way traffic, in other words they do not generate profits. This situation is applicable to Sri Lanka too.
February 17th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
West has moved on from old fashion pay scales…
Old world govt. or public sector pay is for low or mid level employees… All high level executives ,today come under contracts and are out side public pay structure..
About time SL look into value based contracts for public sector since western system now attract high calibre people due to this duel system.
Other option is to set up University based private companies that take Uni research to commercial market similar to Stanford and UK Uni’s. Even Sydney Uni start to do this… Lots of my work sit on Stanford UNi servers for public and private access.
In SL bio diversity area is so strong and some SL academics are selling local knowledge to foreigners and foreigners synthesise this extracts and get patents and no one can use these local extracts in future due to this madness in patent law…. UN is trying to fix this but SL need to publish papers and govt. need to get UN to help to counter these patents.
Govt need to access SL high fliers who are coming home to retire and these people are wealthy and happy to contribute free of charge to the countries welfare .. I started to do this few yrs ago on ad hoc basis and we all need to give something back , although I was educated in London.
February 17th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Now the war is over . I am confident the 60 years of hatred will vanish also
I love to see Tamils,Sinhalese, Muslims, Burgers,Indian Tamils work together as srilankans to build this Country
Tamils Sinhalese Muslims should help each other . I like to see Rich tamils help their sinhala brother in South and make a difference
Samething for Rich Sinhalese to lend hand to a poor tamil
same thing for Muslims and Burgers
Srilankans living abroad should respect every lankan regardless of race
If you see a Srilankan where ever you live say hi and be kind .
I do that and I also make sure to spend $$ on a Srilankan food , clothes etc
This Life in this earth is too too short . we have to love respect each other and also look after each other
No more sorrow no more pain
I have a dream There will be everlasting peace and People will forgive , forget the past and lead a better future
February 17th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Jimmy,
“Samething for Rich Sinhalese to lend hand to a poor tamil”
Samething goes for rich Tamils to lend a hand to poor Sinhalese. :)
February 17th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Amen Lorenzo
We all have to start thinking like srilankans
We have to help each other
When earthquake happened in Gujarath some years ago I saw Indians from all differnt states asking for their brothers in Gujarath i
in NJ NY and other places people were collecting $$
I was thinking why can not we as srilankans help each other ,It will make differnce
I am sure There are wonderful sinhalese and Tamils think the same way I think
February 17th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
what I meant was people from all different states of India who live in USA collecting $$ for Victims in Gujarath
It was a patriotic act
we should be like that also
February 17th, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Thanks for the humble and wise words, Vajirangana! “I have no qualifications, no glorified titles, in front or at the rear”, even though I have a few for the rear, I do not use them as I am a humble ‘Sri Lankan’ and a follower of Buddhist wisdom.
I have seen it and gone through it all by myself and is the truth in this Aus land. Sheer modern day slavery of the west, while they talk about justice, freedom and democracy.
I am planning to go home, not for money, but to give back to the country I was born and raised. She is my Eternal Mother! I am not retired but nearly there.
The main issue is regaining of Sri Lankan citizenship, amount of sheer paper work, let alone the cost.
Secondly, it is a matter of they (Lankans) wanting us to be there. Their ego is still larger than life, not to welcome expats to work side by side. It is the same here in my part of the country. I even can’t get young kids of my friends in SL to come on Skype to practise conversational English. I do this for free to two Czech and two Chinese people. They are very eager but not us. Our kids are busy downloading ‘movies’ and games.
I leant lots of life skills by volunteering here which can be handy in SL society. I am also a volunteer for State Emergency Service too, amongst my other volunteer services in the state I live in. I even can’t get any of the lovely army soldiers to wear army supplied boots when they go on flood rescue missions. Being ‘Singhalese’ I even cannot get someone form my family or a friend to go to north east to serve displaced Tamil people at least for a day! But they have time for a week long ‘wandanas’ in luxury! I grew up with Tamils and Muslims and I still remember the wonderful time I had with them! They are still my brothers! (Not the terrorist lot)