Saturday, February 10, 2007

#9.1, Colombo, Sri Lanka



  • Sri Lanka’s President Ratapakse (ab0ve) is a strong man. It is said he can wrestle six men, possibly even eight. [Conversations with various taxi drivers.]
  • Until very recently Sri Lanka had no restrictions to stop its female population working abroad. As a consequence large numbers move to work as domestic servants in the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia. Remittances make up around 10% of Sri Lanka’s GDP.
  • At the time of the recent Lebaonon conflict, an estimated 40,000 Sri Lankan women working as servants were stranded in the country.
  • As of last week, Sri Lanka has the world’s largest Cabinet. This followed a series of defections to the ruling party, partly encouraged by the creation of a dozen new cabinet positions for the defectors to fill. [Reports in Sri Lankan press]
  • Different numbers divide Colombo, like Paris, into districts. Colombo 7, otherwise known as Cinnamon Gardens, is an upscale neighbourhood near the centre of town. Its residents are publicly derided as “Colombo 7 liberals”, giving it the same reputation as Hampstead, or San Francisco.




  • Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage houses 85 parent-less elephants. One of them has only three legs. It stepped on one of the many mines that litter the north of the Island.
  • The average tourist in the Maldive Islands spends $300 a day. [Economist Christmas edition article.]
  • Updated. Dove adverts in Thailand use beautiful but naturally Thai models, because such modesl are the cultural equivalent of a “normal” looking female face. Almost all Thai adverts feature female models who are ethnically only half Thai: either Thai / Caucasian or Thai / Chinese. [Update to this post]

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