26 January 2013

Please Mrs. Robinson...

Mrs. Anne Robinson said:

I say,
Mrs. Robinson
Your honesty about the relationship with your daughter’s refreshing. 

But your insensitive comments about visiting a tropical country and the way you portray verbally imagery of a poor third world is honestly annoying.  For someone who has travelled extensively you would have known about the food and the tropical conditions in the country your visiting.
Sri Lanka retains the simple charm of a country in development. Yes, its hot and humid, it’s a tropical island.
By far in the South Asian region, we’re one of the countries that have a good record of birth control, public services and free medical care.
Sri Lankan’s understand the British well and most people speak a few words of English and understand it reasonably well. For a backward country like ours, as you so depict, we’re proud of the fact that most of us are bi or tri-lingual.
The English are well represented in Sri Lanka. The new spacious and luxurious premises of the UK High Commission in Colombo 7, Sri Lanka’s St. Johns Wood illustrates this.The fact that British Airways will recommence flights to Sri Lanka itself shows the world that we have well recovered from 30 years of terrorism.

Sri Lanka is truly a paradise island.
The very quirkiness that made the British Empire colonise it from 1815 to 1948 and leave with great reluctance. Most of its roads are key trade roads built for us by the British. We have constantly upgraded these roads and built many more.
Rain or not. As many Brits say, there’s no bad weather, just the right clothes. The rain in the tropics may fall heavily, but the average temperatures of 25 to 35 makes it extremely pleasant when rain does fall.

The charm of Sri Lanka and our tourism offer is truly appreciated by everyone all over the world. I am sincerely sorry that you seem to have somehow missed the beauty of our country, the culture and the people.
I end with apologies for my command of your language Madame. I am but a Sri Lankan domiciled in your truly wonderful country. 

I wish I could have written this in my mother tongue to express myself and the beauty of Sri Lanka better.

http://invisiblemigrant.blogspot.co.uk

Dhammika Dharmawardhane
Borehamwood, Herts, England.

1 comment:

Jack Point said...

I rather enjoyed the piece by Mrs Robinson and her comments on the weather are understandable.

Just to update you, we had the most dreadful weather in December and early Jan. I'm not talking normal monsoon, this freak rain that poured virtually every single day. We had floods and landslides (of which our glorious politicians cared not a wit, engrossed as they were with ejecting the Chief Justice).