{"id":154522,"date":"2026-02-04T16:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=154522"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:23:01","slug":"on-independence-day-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/02\/04\/on-independence-day-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"On Independence Day 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Let us live in hope<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let there be a new Programme<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To Create jobs- Earnings for people<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alleviating their poverty<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making everything that we import today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My mind rushes to the Matara of 1971<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>when I as Matara Disapathy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ran Ariyadasa, DeeRrOo created<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a Boatyard making seafaring boats<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we also established an Industry making Crayons<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The method found by my Planning Officer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vetus Fernando<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>struggling every night at<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the Rahula College science lab<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>for a long three months<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And let us find a Cooperator<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>like the parlimentu mantree Sumanapala Dahanayake<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>who established Morawaka Coop Crayon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>fifty lads and lassies- all making crayons<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coop lorries moving crayons islandwide<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We did make what we import today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us live in hope<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now it is Anura at the wheel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making everything we import<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>finding jobs for our boys and girls<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saving forex that we today pay for imports<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is a thought for 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us hope that this dream&nbsp; will come true<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garvin Karunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matara Disapathy 1971-73<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>04 02 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Garvin Karunaratne Let us live in hope Let there be a new Programme To Create jobs- Earnings for people Alleviating their poverty Making everything that we import today. My mind rushes to the Matara of 1971 when I as Matara Disapathy Ran Ariyadasa, DeeRrOo created a Boatyard making seafaring boats And we also established an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154523,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154522\/revisions\/154523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}