Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

22 January  2020

LINK CITIZENS

Many years ago Dr Deepika Udagama came to  Sydney and as members of the Sri Lanka Reconciliation Forum, Sydney we gave a lift to Dr Deepika Udagama from the area around the University of NSW to Epping where the special meeting was taking place in honour of Dr Deepika Udagama – who is presented as follows by Wikipedia:

[Deepika Udagama is the Head of Department of Law, University of Peradeniya and is on sabbatical. Her specialisation is international Human Rights law. She is Sri Lanka's alternate member to the United Nations (UN) Sub-Commission on the promotion and protection of Human Rights, and the UN Sub-Commission's Co-Special Reporter on Globalisation and its impact on Human Rights. Dr. Udagama was the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the Faculty of Law. She serves as the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Foundation's Commission on Democracy and Human Rights. ]

During question time I asked Dr Udagama whether it was time to think of Equal Opportunity Laws for Sri Lanka but Dr Udagama said that the requirements were already built into the existing laws. I asked the question because that was the legislation that I used here in Sri Lanka – to express my pain at the University of NSW. Ironically, Dr Udagama was in Sydney for a conference organized by the University of NSW. By this time I was ‘out’ of the University because I believed that I was experiencing the pain due to Racial Discrimination. In theory they were like Dr Udagama. My main satisfaction from that meeting was that former Attorneys General of Sri Lanka - Mr Shiva Pasupathi – a Tamil  and Mr Sunil De Silva – a Sinhalese – were both present there to honour Dr Udagama. I then felt that my contribution to Sri Lanka Reconciliation Forum had also been a causal force that manifested that outcome. On the outside, my contribution would have seemed like just giving Dr Udagama a lift. But the real value was that within me those two gentlemen were merged – each taken from a different angle to the other. But like English being the link language of Sri Lanka, I became the ‘link’ entity of the two Attorneys General. At family level - Mr Shiva Pasupathi held high status and I believe I paid my respects to him at all times in a community group. I respected Sunil through his steadfast contribution to Sri Lanka Reconciliation forum and more importantly his love for his mother whom he often brought to the forum. Without realising that she was his mum I asked Sunil himself who the lady was? As per my standards one who respects her/his parents are themselves respectable.

Dr Udagama arranged through Mr Chandra Jayaratne – for me to participate in one of the meetings of the Friday Forum in Colombo. The call from Chandra came when I was in our Temple - near the altar . I took that as positive vibrations. Since then I have been writing to a group in which Chandra included me. From time to time I received disrespectful emails effectively asking me to stop sending them emails. Many in the group are Accountants and like me they also would have learnt about the Posting Rule in relation to contract law:

[The posting rule (or mailbox rule in the United States, also known as the "postal rule" or "deposited acceptance rule") is an exception to the general rule of contract law in common law countries that acceptance of an offer takes place when communicated. Under the posting rule, that acceptance takes effect when a letter is posted (that is, dropped in a post box or handed to a postal worker). In plain English, the "meeting of the minds" necessary to contract formation occurs at the exact moment word of acceptance is sent via post by the person accepting it, rather than when that acceptance is received by the person who offered the contract.] Wikipedia

The postal service represents the Common Government and hence when we entrust it to the Government – it is taken as having been delivered / communicated.  

When I therefore ‘send’ my emails which carry messages of belief – they are taken to have been accepted by the other side. Today, I opened the email from Tissa Dharmagunaratne  in the above mentioned group – stating ‘Returned to sender’. The email I sent him was headed ‘PRIMA, TRINCO’ & 19A’

In my own mind, I thought of another member of the group - Mr Deva Rodrigo – also of my profession – who expressed appreciation for my articles as follows:

[I read your commentaries with interest except when I am far too occupied with the mundane stuff of life. 

Reading today’s article I noticed a typo. Einstein’s equation should be E=MC squared.]

I was reminded of Professor Bruce Dowton who also said he read my articles and would highlight something from the latest article to confirm the valuation. To me, their minds are highly structured to so identify.  

I therefore placed Mr Tissa Dharmagunaratne   low in ranking within that group. That restructure is made to adjust for the Truth I identify with. Accordingly, I responded as follows to Mr Tissa :

[              I believe  this to be educational. If you return this to me – the value of my investment in producing this gets raised exponentially and you in turn devalue yourself exponentially. As a person of this generation – you would use the email facility to ‘block sender’ or just press the delete button. I conclude that you are still a babe in Democracy . As far as I am concerned – no one’s work is without value. Even work that is frivolous has meaning due to the ‘lesson learnt’ about the psychology of the person concerned as I have about you. When you disrespect my work you disrespect education itself. ]

I looked up Tissa Dharmagunaratne   and it took me to LinkedIn where I found a message waiting for me. When I went across to my own page my eyes went to the following message from Sohan Pieris; Manager at NGIS (US navy):

“Prolific writer and has an indepth understanding of human rights and related issues.”

I thanked Sohan again in my mind – which I believe opens the gate to free sharing of Energies. Sohan is part of the St Joseph’s Alumni group to which I was taken by Professor Henry Sathananthan.

In that frame of mind,  I was drawn to the Daily FT article ‘Tourism development and minimum hotel room rate’ by Mr Tissa Jayaweera. The connection was intuitive due to Sohan who was then manager – US Navy’s Gateway Inns & Suites.

The connection helped me feel that I was meant to make my contribution to the Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka. I believe, I am an example of one who has settled her dues to Sri Lanka and has therefore completed her Sri Lankan experience. This naturally confirms ownership and when I feel good in Sri Lanka – it is exponentially good for Sri Lanka. Just yesterday, we were discussing the high standards of service by Jetwing in Jaffna. Together with Cargills, Jetwing confirms global standards in Jaffna and I believe that when I bring them into me – at the highest level of a Sri Lankan customer – that completed value becomes the foundation of exponential growth of that value at that place. When I read about elephant ‘Natta Kotta’ in Jetwing Yala – I felt good on behalf of Jetwing. Yala is not far from the Hindu Shrine of Kathirgamam where I connect naturally to Indigenous  form of Lord Murugan. Since I have been genuinely concerned due to the fire at Shangrila Hambantota – I felt comforted by the ‘homely’ elephant at Jetwing. The latter diffused the former.

While most Tamils of our generation travel for leisure to other parts of the world – we – my husband and I travel to Sri Lanka – due to my belief that we need to and are able to replace ourselves in our home communities by being part of them. When more members of the Diaspora identify with this value – Sri Lanka will go global due to the Link Citizens like us.  

Dual citizens are those who separate the two – as in projects. Link Citizens bridge that ‘gap’ through common ownership. Their contributions – however tiny they may seem – are exponential in value. What we do in one nation becomes valuable at the parallel level in the other nation. That is what globalization means to me.

Mr Jayaweera writes:

[The Hoteliers Association of Sri Lanka is in a world of its own in requesting the Government to bring back minimum hotel rates. There is no country in the world to our knowledge that governments get involved in fixing hotel room rates. 

The only country that had a fixation on minimum spend is Bhutan. Now they too are not very stringent on insisting on minimum spend and as a result room rates in Bhutan too have dropped. Why do our hoteliers fear competition?]

Jetwing is an outstanding example of global tourism. I believe that they use Discounting method instead of Minimum rates. I do the same with our Airbnb Services here in Australia. Bringing the tourist into ourselves is fundamental to completing the service. One with global experience being a satisfied customer naturally raises the standard of service. This I believe is my ownership contribution which would produce more like myself.