{"id":62145,"date":"2017-01-07T23:55:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T05:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=62145"},"modified":"2017-01-07T16:54:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-07T23:54:51","slug":"62145","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/01\/07\/62145\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Tallest Christmas Tree on Galle Face Green 2016-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asoka Weerasinghe\u00a0Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

6 January 2017<\/p>\n

Honourable Maithripala Sirisena,
\nPresident of Sri Lanka
\nPresidential Secretariat
\nGalle Face, Colombo 1
\nSri Lanka<\/p>\n

CC;Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
\nHis Grace Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith<\/p>\n

Dear President Maithripala Sirisena:<\/p>\n

Re: Sri Lanka\u2019s Tallest Christmas Tree on Galle Face Green 2016-17 <\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope in your daily briefing you have been informed of the latest chapter and verse of your Minister Arjuna Ranatunga\u2019s Tallest Christmas Tree in the World<\/em><\/strong> saga which is on Galle Face Green in the shape of a rocket as if it is about to take off in to orbit.<\/p>\n

This 12 million-plus rupee ill-conceived venture is now been challenged by the newly formed Catholic Movement in Sri Lanka.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>It\u2019s President Chirantha Amarasinghe in his letter to Alistair Richards, Global President, Guinness Book of World Records in the UK, says:<\/p>\n

As a Catholic Movement in Sri Lanka we would like to inquire as to how the builders claimed that Sri Lanka\u2019s tallest Christmas Tree was the tallest artificial Christmas Tree in the world.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To be classified as a Artificial tree\u201d it should have ornaments and green fir.\u00a0 I also note that in the record set by China, it is clear that the tree was covered with green synthetic foliage.\u00a0 However, the Sri Lankan tree does not have any such ornaments or foliage.\u00a0 It has a green mesh which does not depict the natural fir requirement.\u00a0 The metal structure of the tree is completely visible (evidence attached), and the shape of the tree looks like a bell (more say it looks like a rocket) rather than a Christmas Tree\u201d.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With all the concerns that Chirantha Amerasinghe of the Catholic Movement of Sri Lanka <\/em><\/strong>has pointed out here is the cake that beats it all.<\/p>\n

Some smart Alec of your Yahapalanaya Government had the cheater\u2019s audacity as Chirantha Amerasinghe reported to Alistair Richard of the Guinness Book of World Records thus, Also a board (photo wall) was made available at the tree for people to take pictures with Guinness World Record Logo, as if you all have already given the tree as the tallest in the world<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Certificate.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. President Maitripala Sirisena, this is not classy, this is embarrassing, this is cheating, and this is humbugging and it is certainly not good for your \u2018Yahapalanaya Good Governance\u2019 window-dressing which is pocked with hood-winking and scandals.\u00a0 I hope you will take serious note of it, look into it, and rap the knuckles of this smart Alec, and don\u2019t try to cover his\/her behind with a Velcro taped \u00a0\u2018it\u2019s OK\u2019 \u00a0happy lungi to legitimize its insolence.<\/p>\n

I agreed absolutely when the Archbishop of Colombo had initially objected to the construction of the Christmas tree saying it is a waste of money which could have been put to better use.\u00a0 But, then, Mr. President, your Prime Minister and a Minister ignored his wisdom, twisted his arm to make him renege his earlier thinking, and continued wire meshing this Tree, and spent 12 million plus rupees constructing it.\u00a0 And it has been challenged again, now by the Catholic Movement of Sri Lanka<\/em><\/strong> and \u00a0I being a critic of this project, I loved it.<\/p>\n

You know what, Mr. President, the Arjuna Ranatunga\u2019s Port\u2019s group feeling the winds of objection blowing their way on their project quickly tried to cover their behinds by announcing that this was a project promoting Religious<\/strong> Harmony<\/strong> in the island.\u00a0 All what I could say was that it was a barrel full \u00a0of Jardi,<\/em> smelling up, up towards heaven.\u00a0 Perhaps your Prime Minister and your Minister of Ports could explain their thesis how this wire-mesh Christmas tree could bring about Religious Harmony<\/strong> which incurred a colossal expenditure of 12 million -plus rupees.\u00a0 Would they be kind enough to explain to us\u00a0 I\u2019d love to hear their defence of their thesis.<\/p>\n

Surely, Mr. President, you didn\u2019t expect your gamme minissu<\/em> who count their cents to buy a loaf of bread for their night\u2019s dinner, pay a bus fare and get over to Galle Face Green to look at this miracle Tallest Christmas Tree according to Minister Ranatinga would provide them with the magic of Religious Harmony<\/strong> which the majority of them haven\u2019t experienced such religious dis-harmony any way.\u00a0 For goodness sake, give these \u00a0poor gamme minissu \u00a0<\/em>a break.<\/p>\n

Mr. President if \u2018Religious Harmony\u2019<\/strong> was their intention I am surprised \u00a0that your two bright-eyed smart \u00a0Cabinet colleagues couldn\u2019t come up with a better and a creative way to spend that money for religious harmony<\/strong> by helping the poor and needy. And there are hundreds of them in your neck of the woods down Ganewela, Dambulla and Polonnaruwa that need help, whom I met early last year. \u00a0And you all go and blow over 12 million rupees on this project for a handful of people to get their names endorsed in the Guinness Book of World Records.\u00a0 It\u2019s pathetic, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Try this for size Mr. President to promote Religious Harmony.\u00a0 <\/strong>The Yahapalanayos could have put together, thousands and thousands of Multi-faith Good Will Hampers<\/strong> which would include \u2013 a loaf of bread, a coconut, small packets of rice, dhal, curry powder, sugar, tea and salt, a small bottle of cooking oil and a small bottle of clean drinking water.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hamper ?burlap bag could have been silk-screened with the symbols that represent all major faiths in the island, and perhaps a slogan on Interfaith Harmony in Sinhalese, Tamil and English and distributed the hampers at remote villages and towns.\u00a0 Each distributing center should have been manned by four members of the clergy of Sri Lanka\u2019s major religious faiths garbed in a saffron robe, a Cossack with a white collar starched towards heaven, another in a vetti and an orange wrap and three stripes of ash across the forehead and the last one in a crocheted white skull cap and a white thwab..<\/em> \u00a0Mr. President, that 12 million rupees would have gone a long way to promote religious harmony<\/strong> in this multi-religious island . That would have been a simple, but a rewarding exercise.\u00a0 But one thing is for sure, this act would not \u00a0have bloated the ego of your parliamentarians. \u00a0\u00a0And I say tough tiddy!\u00a0 But I am confident that you would have come up with an excellent idea to use that 12 million-plus rupees to promote Religious Harmony<\/strong> in the island. But you Yahapalanayos blew that opportunity having accommodated the ego of a few.\u00a0 Tough!<\/p>\n

Apparently, they are going to dance around the Christmas Tree singing a song similar to Brenda Lee\u2019s Rocking around the<\/em> Christmas Tree<\/em> with new lyrics when the questionable Tallest Charismas Tree in the World will come down. No doubt you three will be asked to participate.\u00a0 Here is the celebratory song with an apology to Brenda Lee \u2013<\/p>\n

\u2018Rocking around the Christmas tree
\n<\/em>at Arjuna\u2019s Christmas party hop,
\n<\/em>million pine cones are hung
\n<\/em>where you can see
\n<\/em>and Maithri and Ranil want to stop.<\/em><\/p>\n

They will get a sentimental feeling
\n<\/em>when you hear voices singing,
\n<\/em>Let\u2019s be jolly with bottles of toddy
\n<\/em>we spent twelve million rupees for this.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rocking around the tallest Christmas tree
\n<\/em>they say is for Religious Harmony,
\n<\/em>who the hell cares that poor have food
\n<\/em>or the Archbishop is in a foul mood.<\/em><\/p>\n

What matters is that
\n<\/em>we got our names in the
\n<\/em>Guinness World Record book,
\n<\/em>who the hell cares whether
\n<\/em>they have clean water to drink
\n<\/em>Arjuna has his tallest Christmas tree.\u00a0 Look!<\/em><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s rock around the tallest Christmas Tree
\n<\/em>at Sri Lanka\u2019s Christmas party hop,
\n<\/em>with a million pine cones hung
\n<\/em>for all to see
\n<\/em>and tourists are amazed at
\n<\/em>this silly foolishness and
\n<\/em>being curious they want to stop.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Asoka Weerasinghe\u00a0Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada 6 January 2017 Honourable Maithripala Sirisena, President of Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat Galle Face, Colombo 1 Sri Lanka CC;Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka His Grace Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith Dear President Maithripala Sirisena: Re: Sri Lanka\u2019s Tallest Christmas Tree on […]<\/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-62145","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\/62145","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=62145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}