So in Sri Lanka today, we have a generation of young men and women who ‘dream’ of become a 'Star',go to Italy, get a goverment-job and Cricket, but there are few signs of environmental lawyers, quality journalists and film-makers, professors with Sri Lanka-specific research interests and politicians from the middle class. So what about young generation who are trying to be 'Stars' made by televition networks?
Understanding middle Sri Lanka’s relationship with English is crucial. Knowledge of English, together with mass media and the internet puts middle Sri Lanka in a very interesting position. It is in some sense, ‘pre-western’. The combination of comfort with English, combined with the relatively liberal political and media environment of Sri Lanka, is resulting in a huge American influence on this middle class.
I am accusing you, the middle-class Sri Lankan, with good reason. Usually the reason for the existence of idiotic laws is that some interest groups benefit from them. This is true of laws related to agricultural land too. Corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and land sharks derive their power from this rule. Industrialist prefer to grab land through politicians rather than buy it and leftists use the opportunity to extract their pound of flesh in the name of protecting the interests of the poor. And people like you who have no idea of village life, whose parents or grand parents have abandoned a lifestyle in favour of city dwelling, still continue to insist on romanticizing the village and agriculture. It is this attitude that makes it almost impossible to find any columnist or editor who will say that farmers should be allowed to sell their land.
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