US AIRCRAFT CARRIERS IN SRI LANKA AND WHAT WE LOST
Posted on October 31st, 2017
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Quote from US embassy
It is estimated that the carrier strike group will add approximately 1.54 billion rupees ($10 million USD) to the Sri Lankan economy as the ships purchase supplies and thousands of U.S. sailors come ashore and support local businesses. During the visit, sailors will have opportunities to explore the local community and meet with their counterparts in the Sri Lankan Navy. While in port, sailors will also work with local non-profit organizations to support community service events at a local hospital, an orphanage, and other sites
The USS Nimitz is more than 23 stories high from the keel to the top of the mast and is approximately 333 meters long. It can accommodate more than 5,000 personnel, with its kitchens providing more than 18,000 meals each day. It produces 1.5 million liters of fresh water daily and its two barber shops give 1,500 haircuts each week. The USS Nimitz’s home port is in the state of Washington
Unquote
Read more
https://lk.usembassy.gov/uss-nimitz-visit-sri-lanka-first-u-s-aircraft-carrier-since-1985/
American air craft carrier visited Sri Lanka on a good will visit .Air craft carrier Nimitz came and left with over 2500 sailors on board,This is equivalent to about a month’s tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka .Our shipping agents and tourist agents and Sri Lanka with tourist board have missed the bus” ( ship),in exploiting to get the sailors land in Colombo soil. Government ,defence ministry ,tourist board ,SLPA have miserably failed to attract the business .
They asked for some barges ( flat steel landing platform) to be deployed by the mammoth hull of the air craft carrier which had an odd shape .Barge or a transport boat could not do mooring by the side of the hull during rough weather as they will hit the hull of the ship.One barge deployed by a well-known contractor in the port with a very high superstructure ( control room on the barge) could not reach the ship because it was hitting the upper part of convex shaped hull .Then the contractor hurried to chop off the top part of the super structure and tried few times. They needed some Yokohama Fenders (1 m diameter rubber balloons with tyres wrapped around with steel chains ) were not available in Colombo hence transport barge could not moor the alongside the vessel .All avenues failed to bring single sailor to Sri Lankan spoil and the ship left Sri Lanka.Shipping agents were running around like hungry wolves trying to get the contract to bring sialors to Colombo but failed because of fighting ! Barge owners were trying to charge over 10,000 $ for one operation !
Our stupid politicians were talking about American Invasion and JVP protesting against Americas claiming that they are trying to invade ,but none of them have little brain to fathom that we lost over 1 million Dollars of income to Sri Lanka ,If the sailors manged to come on shore ,they would have enjoyed few days and spend much money in Sri lankan hotels .clubs,super malls and our small time businesses would have flourished.
Another interesting thing is Sri Lankan Navy was not even consulted in this operation due to the fact that these Americans thought that our Navy may look closely at their ship and copy the shape if they come close !!!!!!!!!!! .
I am sure that our Navy would have found a way to bring them on shore with a professional approach and make them spend money in Colombo .
Problem we have is that no one in this country has any forward thinking to find ways to generate avenues to earn money for the depleting economy .
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
October 31st, 2017 at 5:40 am
Doctor, Doctor
we lost over 1 million Dollars of income to Sri Lanka – 1 million $ is worth to loose rather than loosing whole Our Mother Lanka ( Include TE) .
bye bye American do not come back !!!
October 31st, 2017 at 8:28 am
With all due respect, I say in ONE Word …. BULLSHIT!
The US Naval Strike Group is not here to HELP Sri Lanka in any way, but to COW Sri Lankan Patriots into SUPINELY accepting the LOOMING Constitutional Coup-de-Etat orchestrated by Western Powers!
Lick if you must the backside of the USA,
But spare your motherland’s sovereignty, I say!
October 31st, 2017 at 8:15 pm
Thank God they left. Americans haven’t done anything good for small countries like us except destroying them with their strong arm tactics. Our stupids in the Yamapalanaya don’t have any ideas or will power to face such situations. We have jokers, pimps mostly in the parliament so what can we expect from these gobbles. Adios gringos. Don’t come back.
October 31st, 2017 at 10:38 pm
They are in a bigger disarray than we are. Every day there are new twists and turns in the US. BBC is making a huge propaganda war against both Trump and Putin and you can watch it every hour. They are trying to do the divide and rule in US too.Thank god they are not in SL. The western powers want to takeover third world countries without a fight doing things like what they are up to, right now in SL. That will not work. I do not think the minorities have a stomach for a fight either.
November 1st, 2017 at 10:14 pm
Aloy.Ananda ( USA) Ranjith
Opinions expressed by many
None of you have understood the point made .It is not about USA trying to take over SL It is about our own decisions makers not being able to foresee the benefits
I wonder Ananda from USA may be living in US and still complaining
November 2nd, 2017 at 2:19 am
Dr. Sarath, We understand what you say. There is a pithy Sinhala saying “Rawula ginigaththama suruttu paththu karanna hadanawa”. Your proposal is something akin to that. These US people are a disorganized lot. They may even be fearing that someone will blow a hole in one of their ships. That has happened recently twice in Singapore area. They are simply scared to stay near our shores. That may be the reason for their strange behavior near our shores.
I took the opportunity to comment as above which is relevant to our present situation.
November 2nd, 2017 at 3:46 am
Looks like some dis-organised USA sailors become dis-oriented after drinking Kasippu.
ඇමරිකානු නැවියා කොල්ලුපිටියේදී මත් වී අනාථ වෙලා
කොළඹ වරායට පැමිණි ඇමරිකානු ඩිස්ට්රොaයර් නැවක නැවියෙක් කොල්ලුපිටියේ අවන්හලකට ගොස් පදමට මත්පැන් බී අසල පිහිටි නිවසක වහළේ නිදා සිටීමේ සිද්ධියක් වාර්තා වේ.
පසුව කොල්ලුපිටිය පොලිසිය මොහුව සොයාගෙන ඇමරිකානු තානාපති කාර්යාලයට බාර දී ඇත.
ඇමරිකානු තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරින් පැමිණ ඔහුව වරායට ගෙන ගොස් නැවට බාර දී තිබේ.
ප්රින්ස්ටන් නමැති නැවේ සේවය කළ මෙම නැවියා අතුරුදන් වූ බවට වාර්තා වී තිබූ බව ඉහළ පෙළේ නාවික ආරංචි පැවැසීය.
කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය
November 2nd, 2017 at 12:44 pm
RW’s International Democratic Union (IDU) help line working ? Therefore the ships come in ?
RW is the main man for the IDU in Lanka.
IDU website mentions the UNP as their representative political party in Lanka, and says this party i.e. the UNP is in power.
We have no quarrel with all this, except that RW’s UNP at present does not practice Democracy !!
That is evident to all in Lanka.
RW practices ‘Crash & Sell’ politics. That too is evident for all to see.
In the past, RW practised his own brand of Democracy in Lanka – 40 yrs of it ! Yeow ! Poor Lanka.
November 3rd, 2017 at 5:39 pm
I am sure we got enough helicopters to land on an aircraft carrier. Thanks Sarath. Another lost opportunity. Those who are critical of US will love to go and live in the West. The problem we have is the US Ambassador here is an Indian Vermin.
An Obama sucker.