A bit of poetry

In spite of the holiday cheer its always good to slow down and think. A bit of amateur creative writing.

Continue Reading December 13th, 2008

Joshua Generation: Hope & Warning from History

When the hype dies down… Its the work that matters and not the wave of emotion that swept you over. Musings on the politics in the USA. No nation is truly separate from those around it.

Continue Reading Add comment December 5th, 2008

CELEBRATING FOR HE IS GOOD

Published on behalf of Ayoma Fernando. (Available on Scope June edition)

What would you feel on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, if you happened to be one of his disciples? I would feel a deep sense of loneliness and loss. Breaking news received from the women who went to the tomb on Easter morning would sound all rubbish to my analytical mind! (“How can a positive Gibbs free energy reaction favour inside a dead cell?” a chemist would argue.) But what if you too happened to be with the women on that early Easter morning? Would you do

Continue Reading 1 comment July 15th, 2007

The Truth – My Point of View

What are you thinking? Do you accept what goes on in your head? Think and comment… just some thoughts… would you ever think like this?

Continue Reading 5 comments March 16th, 2007

Haggai Sends Students to the Streets

A study on the Biblical book of Haggai compelled the students from the management faculty of the University of Colombo to go to the streets in search of those whose lives lay in tatters due to various reasons. Unsure at first, they overcame their fears and the people they met left a lasting impression on the four of them.

Continue Reading 7 comments March 9th, 2007

Should we abolish Christmas this year?

Good grief??? What an absurd question to ask you might say! What kind of a Scrooge would suggest such a preposterous thought? Why on earth would anyone want to abolish Christmas? Why would anyone want to take away the fun and joy of the most wonderful time of the year as the song goes. Why on earth would any one want to throw a dampener on the time that is a time for giving and receiving, a time of forgiving and forgetting a time of joy and peace?!?
All these are very important questions…and similar thought ran through my mind but as I read this article on this particular topic and as I thought further about it I realized that the entire Celebration of Christmas celebration has become a huge farce!
The History of the celebration of Christmas-
But, Christmas celebrates the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Feast of the Nativity of Christ has only been observed since the 4^th Century A.D. No one knows the day or month of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. 25^th December was the date of a Roman festival celebrating the birthday of the unconquered sun which at the winter solstice begins again to show an increase in light. Sometime before 336 A.D. the church in Rome spiritualised this as the Feast of Nativity of the Son of Righteousness. Moreover the modern Christmas with all its commercial trappings, parties and sentimentality dates from 19^th Century England: the romanticizing of the Christmas story has gone hand in hand with commercial exploitation ever since. So you see Christmas today has nothing at all to do with the church. And in real we are celebrating a pagan festival which due to Western romanticization has become a part and parcel of our own culture. Our Sri Lankan culture is such that many times we adopt Western practices without really thinking too much about them. Actually we’re cultural dopes…we just consume different cultural practices and we think these practices are so modern and westernized but we really do not stop once to think about how stupid they really are… The media has a major role to play in creating an aura of joy around the entire celebration of Christmas. Therefore, they come up with clever gimmicks like Santastic Fair, Snow City, Christmas Bonanzas, Mega sales… The list of absurdities goes on…

• Advent Calender-of chocolates at Cinnamon Grand for kids
• Everybody’s Santa with HSBC
• Abans Christmas Carnival and sales-Upto 60% discounts
• Every day is Christmas…
• E.H Cooray’s Annual Furniture Sale
• The perfect gift for the season-Parker pens
• Promo of the Week-Christmas Accessories from Dwellings
• Have the time of your life with Wimaladharma’s this year!
• Boru nathi sale!
• Mega Bang

Oh and don’t forget Odel’s wonderful marketing techniques and their snazzy red bags with joy, lust, passion, desire, rapture, revenge, conquest emblazoned on them. My goodness! One wouldcertainly have a pretty amazing Christmas if we go along with ODEL wouldn’t we? What’s with all these words??? What are they trying to prove? That they have a very good vocabulary…that they do know English? Well…I’m sure that none of us had any doubts about that! After all they do cater to an extremely elitist clientele don’t they? Or are they trying to associate these words with Christmas and saying that if you shop at ODEL this Christmas these words could become you or rather that you would become these words? You can be a person who is joyful, encourages lust or better yet is lustful, is passionate…at times this passion could rise to a level of rapture…or does it mean you get raptured? (Hmmm…could ODEL be the sole sponsors of the Second Coming?) There are times when one’s emotions moves to another level of revenge…of conquest? Amazing! This is the ODEL Effect! This is the ODEL version of Christmas for you! Play the Association game and just think…what’s the association between joy and Christmas? How about lust and Christmas? And what about revenge and Christmas? A lot of associations obviously…
We who are apparently intelligent human beings why are we fooled…why do we fall prey to colonialist racketeering of these already rich shop owners and the media! Are we only a bunch of hapless, helpless clones in their hands!
Well I thought of posing the question… Should we be celebrating Christmas with the usual futile traditions and gimmicks???
The false situation is told to us by the media, but the real situation in our country is…

• A state of Emergency in our country extended by a month. Bombs exploding at every junction. Our young people (Both Sinhala & Tamil) getting blown up every day.
• Aerial bombing in Jaffna. (thousands of people living in fear everyday)
• Thousands of refugees due to the war in the North.
• Many families still living without a proper shelter due to the tsunami 2004. The families of the 30,000 victims of the tsunami will be miserable this Christmas while you and I are probably spending our Christmas with our families!
• Many young people who are lonely, suicidal. Sri Lanka still has a high rate of suicides.
• 815 identified Aids patients in Sri Lanka. Who knows how many unidentified patients?
• 150 people displaced in Hambantota by floods.

So think as you go out to do your shopping or as you take part in the usual Christmas traditions…what am I really celebrating?
Well if you want to celebrate the real Christmas…newsflash people! The real Christmas involved a young pregnant woman and a confused man (aren’t they all?) wandering around in a busy street looking for a place to rest. Jesus their baby…the Son of God born in a manger (anyone knows what a cattle shed smells like? I don’t and frankly I’m not too keen on finding out) But Jesus knew and by being born there…He identified with the poorest of the poor! Soon they were on the move again…refugees on the run from the bloodthirsty Herod’s strategies to annihilate all male babies under two years old! So Jesus identified with the refugees and He knows what they feel as they do not have a place to call their own…and finally Jesus is born at Christmas with one mission in mind…He is born to die! Whew! What a mission! This is not just a meaningless suicide! But He dies for us to live! For a world which was traveling on a one ticket to the depths of hell…He gives His life to give us eternal life! So this is the real Christmas! Question is what Christmas are you going to be a part of???

3 comments December 22nd, 2006

UCCF TRIP

October 24th and the UCCFers were ready to rock the town of Ragama with their presence! Despite the weird sms-es and the creepy calls that were going around on the 23rd night…D Day dawned with shiny blue skies and sparkling clouds…just the day for a fun trip!!!
But who knew that it would be soooo much fun! Certainly not moi!
Until the eleventh hour we were still not sure whether we’d be going to Ragama or not, based on the wonderful patrons of Boys Town who teach people (like us!) to put their faith in God…so after a last minute call and confirmation we were ready to rumble! Ragama here we come!
So to the bus it was…but no wait! We had to wait for our ever punctual sleeping beauties who made their way slowly to the campus…how come it is always the women who are late??? Wonder why??? Probably b’cos the men don’t have much to do…it’s just a cat’s lick and a promise for them…while the fairer sex…well the label says it all I guess!
And then to Fort we rushed…an uneventful trip of course except for our dear Treasurer making new friends on the bus with some Management Juniors…make use of every opportunity!
The train ride was quite fun filled especially with a dear First Year (a member of the Core) from the Management Faculty keeping the others in stitches!!! However…the sound on one side of the train suddenly decreased…as there was a vow of silence taken on the part of one young lady…with much apprehension and delight did the other morally bankrupt onlookers view her plight but chalk one up for the innocent as she fulfilled her vow and completed her period of silence as the train reached the Ragama station putting her enemies to shame!
Finally we reached Diyagala Boys Town…and there the announcement was given…LET THE GAMES BEGIN! The wonderfully talented and spirited GAMES TEAM, heretofore known as the The Terrific Three had an absurdly simple but creative game to break the ice as it were…
From there it went on to the Worship time…which touched the heart strings of the audience as they sang!!! The Worship Team did an awesome job bringing us into contact with the Awesome God whom we worshipped!
Next it was over to staff as there was a talk on “ Our Purpose on Campus”. A heated debate and exhilarating time of discussion ensued and was followed up in the groups…
Well…such a mind boggling time could only be followed with some good food and good food it was as we were served victuals that would have shaken the strongest of digestive systems!
Then it was over to the Entertainment Trio who served up some good, solid fun as they gave each of the teams some hard scenes and concepts to enact from the Bible, songs, and from campus.
Then the time came for the best trio to take the stand as they produced some of the most mind boggling and tendon tearing games ever imagined! The Treasure Hunt was skillfully concocted that even the toughest of hearts to tremble! However, it came to a grinding halt as the rains came down…but before the floods went up…one of the Terrific Trio climbed up and retrieved the treasure from the highest point in Ragama Boys Town!
Then there was tea time and more games in the form of an Obstacle Race organized indoors…This was quite a sight especially to see rather calm and composed people jumping on one foot shouting I am a fool at the top of their voices and also quite amazing to see the innovative renditions of the national anthem produced especially by certain members of FOCUS Staff. There were also some very hopeful candidates for the next student elections and their reasons for running for the elections were enamouring…
Well then we had a time of prayer in our groups and after that it was mad rush to the station to catch the train (actually we went in a van which took the proverb All Roads lead to Ragama Station very seriously). Finally we made it after a trying time in the wilderness…and then we sprang into the train and made our way back home after a trip which could be also be termed a superb experience!
Gallery now available

39 comments October 30th, 2006