{"id":61482,"date":"2016-12-15T11:43:56","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T17:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=61482"},"modified":"2016-12-14T13:19:18","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T20:19:18","slug":"galle-face-christmas-tree-the-tallest-christmas-tree-in-the-world-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/12\/15\/galle-face-christmas-tree-the-tallest-christmas-tree-in-the-world-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Galle Face Christmas Tree -The Tallest Christmas Tree in the World 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Gove Crescent .\u00a0 Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Hounarable Mithripala Sirisena
\nPresident of Sri Lanka
\nPresidential Secretariat
\nGalle Face
\nColombo 1
\nSri Lanka<\/p>\n

Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith<\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 The Tallest Christmas Tree in the World 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Dear President Sirisena:<\/p>\n

When I read that this stupid ChristmasTree Project costing 12 million rupees is back on track after the intervention of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramesinghe, I was shocked with disgust and gasped, Sweet Mother of Jesus, speak to these fools who think that this Christmas Tree will pack planes with Tourists flying in from all quarters of the world to look at it. \u00a0\u00a0A tourist attraction, they like to believe. \u00a0Sweet Mother of Jesus, tell these Sri Lankan politicos that this is a foolish dream when they could utilize that money to feed the poor of all communities all over Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Sweet Mother of Jesus, please convince the President of the island to use that 12 million rupees to put together Christmas hampers and distribute them among the poor from buildings which display a cross on their fa\u00e7ade which will recognize it as a Christian church.<\/p>\n

To celebrate this charitable Christmas event I will gladly sing my Christmas Carol to you and Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith on Christmas day.\u00a0 Archbishop knows the tune.\u00a0 Join me.<\/p>\n

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
\n<\/em><\/strong>Who said, you\u2019ll ever be unchanging.
\n<\/em><\/strong>A symbol of goodwill and love,
\n<\/em><\/strong>Who said, you\u2019ll ever be unchanging.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>This year in Colombo
\n<\/em><\/strong>The Christmas tree will be taller
\n<\/em><\/strong>Costing 12 million rupees
\n<\/em><\/strong>And keeping poor stomachs in limbo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree
\n<\/em><\/strong>Such pleasure do you bring me,
\n<\/em><\/strong>O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
\n<\/em><\/strong>But this year you have angered me<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>With each shining light
\n<\/em><\/strong>Each silver bell
\n<\/em><\/strong>This is how
\n<\/em><\/strong>Yahapalanayos
\n<\/em><\/strong>Spread Christmas cheer well<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree
\n<\/em><\/strong>Who said, you are so unchanging.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is a true story, Mr. President, when I promoted the dignity of the poor people in Sri Lanka, pooh, poohing the decadence of the Canadian bureaucrats. And I swear that this incident did happen.<\/p>\n

The year was 1972, a working weekday in the Summer.<\/p>\n

The place was 150 Kent Street in Ottawa, where the National Film Board was located,<\/p>\n

I was the Head,Thematic Research Section for the National Museums coordinating the production of 15 brand new Halls at the Victoria Memorial Museum where the National Museum of Man was located.<\/p>\n

On the third floor of the right wing we were designing the History Hall \u2013 The Four Acres of Snow.<\/em><\/p>\n

On this particular day, the Director of the National Museum of Man, Dr. William (Bill) Taylor and a few other \u2018higher-up\u2019s were summoned to the National Film Board to approve the rough-cut of the film for the History Hall that was presented by the producer of the film and the curator responsible for the History Hall.\u00a0 No one present liked it, and nor did I and it was rejected,<\/p>\n

The lights of the auditorium came on.\u00a0 The Curator responsible for the film said, Oh, the rough cut has only cost us $60,000,\u201d<\/em> as if to say so what! It is no big deal.<\/p>\n

My immediate visceral reaction was, Don\u2019t you ever repeat those words again, it shows the Canadian decadence.\u00a0 With that money I could feed all the poor people in Sri Lanka three meals a day for one whole month.\u201d\u00a0 And there was a big silence among the 20-odd people who had assembled to approve this rough cut.<\/p>\n

After a three minute silence, Dr. Bill Taylor got up, looked at me and said, Asoka, come out, I want to speak to you.\u201d\u00a0 A thin film of sweat covered my whole body not knowing whether I had spoken out of turn and that I would lose my job.<\/p>\n

When in the foyer, Dr. Taylor told me, I am sorry we angered You.\u00a0 I understand your punishing statement and I am embarrassed for the Canadians.\u00a0\u00a0 Listen, I want you to take over the production of the film, and I will put in that $60,000 from the Director\u2019s slush fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

And my response was, Thanks for respecting my words of frustration.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help but speak out for the dignity of poor people who have no voice, and I was brought up in a poor country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. President, and that is why my Christmas Carol and pleas to Sweet Mother of Jesus.<\/p>\n

I was disappointed in Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith with his skewed logic.\u00a0 He felt that the Catholic church should protest as he had thought the project was funded by the Government, which happened to be the Tax payers money.\u00a0 No sooner he was told by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickeramasinghe that it was sponsored money and it only cost 12 million rupees, he found it OK,\u00a0 That was strange and silly, wasn\u2019t it, Mr. President.\u00a0 I thought it was a protest on a principle than the genesis from where the funds came from.\u00a0 Surely, doesn\u2019t the Archbishop have a conscience?<\/p>\n

Mr. President, you have every right to ask me, Who are you, and if you are fighting for the dignity of Sri Lanka\u2019s poor, what have you done for them so far?\u201d<\/p>\n

You know what Mr. President, my response to you will be, I have not renewed my bragging license, but let me whisper in to your ears what I have done for the poor in Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. President, how stupid can your Yahapalanayo\u2019s be.\u00a0 For God\u2019s sake tighten up their reins, because the Good Governance lily-whites with halos over their heads are losing it and their halos are getting tarnished by the day with their own actions.\u00a0 Don\u2019t tell me that you didn\u2019t know it!<\/p>\n

I hope the New Year will let you bring more honesty to your people who are no fools, especially the poor who do not have a voice, and are tired of vindictive<\/p>\n

politics.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Gove Crescent .\u00a0 Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada Hounarable Mithripala Sirisena President of Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat Galle Face Colombo 1 Sri Lanka Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith Re:\u00a0 The Tallest Christmas Tree in the World 2016 Dear President Sirisena: When I read that this stupid ChristmasTree Project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asoka-weerasinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61482","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=61482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}