Good News! A Rare Treat!

I rarely come a cross good news these days. Today I bump in to this news at theage.com.au that inspired me.

MELBOURNE'S Shanaka Fernando was named Australia's Local Hero for his work founding not-for-profit restaurant chain Lentil as Anything.

The group of four restaurants, which employs about 80 young people and provides space for artists and writers, does not set prices for dishes.

Instead, diners are encouraged to pay what they can afford or what they think the meal was worth.

Bravo! Bravo Brother!

I know it is defiantly very challenging for first generation of migrant to establish in a foreign country. Most of all I know how hard it is for some one to do what they like to do in their life. Top of that I know how hard it is for run a 'good' restaurant.
He did all that!

25 January, 2007

Way Forward to Buddhist Taliban Sri Lanka

A new bill is about to be passed. A two year jail term or a fine of Rs. 100,000 is to be imposed on those found guilty of misusing the image of the Lord Buddha.

That is the most hideous illogical thing I heard in quite some time.

First of all, how would they plan to define the image of Buddha? Is Chinese laughing Buddha included in this? How about Japanese Buddhist images? How about almost naked bodhisattva images in India and Afghanistan?
First Buddhist statues created by Greeks whom never seen Buddha in flesh. Till then people used different symbols to represent Buddha, that practice till today. Even those statues we have today, still looks like Greek statues with soft manly body and curly hair.
How do they plan to prove each image of Buddha is really an image of Buddha?

Next, what is misuse? Misuse of 'Buddhist image' for gain political power? Or use Buddhist statues for collect money from poor people? Or use 'Buddhist image' for control people? Can a painter use Buddha's image in his painting anymore? Can I use a Buddhist statue as paperweight?

Who going to make the final decision of 'misuse or not'? There must be some kind of judicial body implemented for take that decision. Are they planning to implement religion police or similar institute in Sri Lanka? Isn't such a conceipt itself contradictory with very basic teaching of Buddha?

Buddha told to treat Dharma (his teaching) as equal and same position as himself once he was gone. So he was gone quite some time back and Dharma is the Buddha now. That means, 'misuse of Buddha's image' automatically equal to 'misuse of Buddha's teaching' too. Since who ever the person passes this bill and executes this law, violate and misuse Buddha's teaching of forgiveness and compassion, he himself viable to two year jail term or fine of Rs. 100,000 automatically.

Holy Crap! If this law executes, Judge, diffendant and accuser - all three parties should go to jail at the same time for misuse of Buddha.

Taliban demolished the Buddhist statues - they are just bricks and rocks. They are forgiven. But those religious extremists in Sri Lanka are demolishing very foundation of Buddhism..

22 January, 2007

Test Your Karma with SanDisk Sansa MP3 Player.

I used couple of mp3 players so far. m:robe, 2 RCA players, iPod - But SanDisk Sansa was my favorite player. It is lightweight, tuff, 2GB with inbuilt radio. I let it fall number of times, never baby it - even I recommend that to others - it works perfect until yesterday.

When I was transferring files yesterday, USB cable got disconnected in the middle and I noticed there were two corrupted files because of interrupted data transfer. But I left the files alone and copied rest of the file. Restart the player. It starts with SanDisk logo with 'Initializing' message - but keeps on looping around the same start-up screen after that. Connect back to USB - but it was same. The computer even does not recognize the player any more.

Then I noticed what happened. The player could not read the corrupted file. Instead of ignore those corrupted files, it restarts the system. Next I did exactly same thing every one else do. Google!
I'm not the only one face this problem. Almost every one unfortunate enough to buy a SanDisk Sansa eventually face this problem.

Looking at the bright side of loosing 9000Rs (89$) I thought this is a good way to decide your Karma. It is like Russian rootlet. Keep on copying mp3 files in to SanDisk Sansa until you copy the corrupted file that will kill the player on the spot. Depending on time you use the player, you can see how much good Karma you have. I use the player like 3 months - so I guess I don't have much of good Karma left. Need to do something about it.


20 January, 2007

Islamic Republic of Sri Lanka

Most of the times I bump in to news I'm wish not. Today I bump in to this news in Sunday observer.

Several Karaoke restaurants in the Colombo city, in suburbs and elsewhere in the country will come under the scrutiny of the police with the amendment to section 360 of the Penal Code being passed in Parliament. A Korean proprietor of the exclusive restaurant was produced in Court and remanded pending further investigations.

Acting on a tip off the Police Women and Child Protection Bureau raided a Karaoke restaurant in Colombo 7, and took in for questioning twenty young girls aged between 20-25. Among the women was a university student, who entertained customers who call over at the Karaoke restaurant.

The university student said that several of her batch mates at the university were on the pay roll of the Karaoke restaurant. "We are made to wear skin-tight clothing and dance along with the customers from dusk to dawn," the student had told the police.

Apart from the salary a hostess earns around Rs. 500-600 per night from tips, for dancing with clients.

What is wrong with this country? When does having good time become a crime? When next time I want to have a good time what should I do? Get a guy to wear a skin-tight cloth and dance for me?
15 January, 2007