Before writing this post, I would like to make 1 thing clear: I am a fan of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He is by far the best leader the country has ever had. I may not agree with everything that he does but by and large, I think the man is a visionary who sees Sri Lanka as a high-income country in Asia in the next 3 decades. He is also the most pro-India leader in independent Sri Lanka's history.
There was a time when a pilgrimage to the temple of Kataragama (Murugan) in southeastern Sri Lanka was dangerous. There were very buses that plied the roads and stories of elephants attacking jeeps weren't uncommon. A friend of mine once recounted how his bus broke down somewhere near Hambantota in the 1970s and they feared for their lives from an elephant attack. "There were no shops, no petrol pumps, nothing from Matara to Tissamaharama," he said. Now, development is visible everywhere but it isn't the ugly variety that you would find on the other side of the Palk Straits.
President Rajapaksa hails from the south of the country, where he is reverred. As a gift to the people in his consistuency, he is modernizing the sleepy areas on the southern part of the island. The first step is the Colombo-Matara-Hambantota expressway. The 1st phase is ready and now it just takes an hour to drive from Colombo to Galle. The Chinese are building the port in Hambanatota, which will also have Sri Lanka's finest airport.
The town of Hambantota is also witnessing rapid development. Many complain about the environmental impact of all the developmental activity in the region, but ask the locals if they want to remain relatively poor. The southern part of Lanka is where a unique Sinhalese culture has been well preserved. The differences between the south and the up-country highlands is almost as glaring as those between the Kenyan highlands and the Swahili coast.
I personally think it's wonderful that pilgrims can fly in straight to Hambantota and visit Kataragama before heading out to see some game in Yala, all this while completely avoiding the Colombo area. After spending almost 25 percent of the country's national turnover on a 26-year long war, the money can now go into making the island, an economic powerhouse of the region.
There was a time when a pilgrimage to the temple of Kataragama (Murugan) in southeastern Sri Lanka was dangerous. There were very buses that plied the roads and stories of elephants attacking jeeps weren't uncommon. A friend of mine once recounted how his bus broke down somewhere near Hambantota in the 1970s and they feared for their lives from an elephant attack. "There were no shops, no petrol pumps, nothing from Matara to Tissamaharama," he said. Now, development is visible everywhere but it isn't the ugly variety that you would find on the other side of the Palk Straits.
President Rajapaksa hails from the south of the country, where he is reverred. As a gift to the people in his consistuency, he is modernizing the sleepy areas on the southern part of the island. The first step is the Colombo-Matara-Hambantota expressway. The 1st phase is ready and now it just takes an hour to drive from Colombo to Galle. The Chinese are building the port in Hambanatota, which will also have Sri Lanka's finest airport.
The town of Hambantota is also witnessing rapid development. Many complain about the environmental impact of all the developmental activity in the region, but ask the locals if they want to remain relatively poor. The southern part of Lanka is where a unique Sinhalese culture has been well preserved. The differences between the south and the up-country highlands is almost as glaring as those between the Kenyan highlands and the Swahili coast.
I personally think it's wonderful that pilgrims can fly in straight to Hambantota and visit Kataragama before heading out to see some game in Yala, all this while completely avoiding the Colombo area. After spending almost 25 percent of the country's national turnover on a 26-year long war, the money can now go into making the island, an economic powerhouse of the region.
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