Displeased with All Sides

I decided to express my views about Sri Lanka’s politics right now. I’m displeased with all sides. I feel that when Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power, the qualities of all the political parties deteriorated further from its already bad state. This is a serious problem that must be rectified. Sri Lanka needs to be saved from its destructive politics.

I’ll begin with President Ranil Wickremesinghe. I think he’s doing a good job with Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and engagement with the international community. After taking office in July 2022, he was able to end the queues and increase the amount of Sri Lanka’s reserves. The 5 year graph on the Trading Economics website shows reserves increasing from 1.82 billion US dollars in July 2022 to 5.37 billion US dollars in May 2024. In March 2023, Sri Lanka secured an IMF program with the third tranche approved last month. Ranil initiated reforming of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) that’s ongoing which is a welcome move due to the drain SOEs have on the country.

The reason why I’m not very enthusiastic about Ranil is because of his politics. I don’t like him teaming up with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the party of the Rajapaksas who consist of most of his government. These are individuals who were part of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government. It was not good to see Ranil and his government delaying the local government elections last year which still hasn’t been held. I don’t like Ranil’s handling of human rights issues, including the targeting of protestors. It was distressing to see the controversial Online Safety Bill passed earlier this year.

Ranil acted shamefully in an address to Parliament last November where he accused some members in the Constitutional Council (an independent body) of sabotage. He appointed Deshabandu Tennekoon as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) in February via the Constitutional Council. The current IGP had been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay compensation for violating a person’s fundamental rights a few months prior to his appointment. This appointment was strongly condemned by the Sri Lankan Collective Against Torture (SLCAT).

The Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa stated that this appointment was unconstitutional. Five votes are required to approve a President’s nomination. Sajith pointed out that there were four yes votes, two no votes and two abstentions. The Speaker of Parliament can only have a casting vote when there’s a tie and he voted for this appointment. It seems that the Speaker abused his power by equating the two abstentions as votes against the appointment.

Sajith Premadasa leads the main opposition party the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). They are a breakaway party of Ranil’s party the United National Party (UNP). I have not been pleased with the conduct of Sajith Premadasa and the SJB. It’s disappointing to see him embracing populism including plans for it if the SJB comes to power. When he met with the Norwegian Ambassador a few months ago, he spoke of SJB’s plans for a “populist government”. At this year’s SJB May Day rally, Sajith mentioned “populist” as one of the changes an SJB government would make to the IMF agreement.

Sajith has been teaming up with the independent group of the SLPP that eventually became the breakaway party the Freedom People’s Congress (FPC). I did not support Sajith backing Dullas Alahapperuma from that group in the 2022 Parliamentary vote for Sri Lanka’s new President. I provided my views on this in the article “Thoughts on Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Resignation & Aftermath”. Even though these individuals are no longer officially with the Rajapaksas, I’m not convinced they are against the Rajapaksas now. I wonder if they broke away from the Rajapaksas due to not getting the power they wanted. It’s worth noting that Dullas Alahapperuma attended the book launch of “Nine: The Hidden Story” by Wimal Weerawansa. At this event, Wimal made wild accusations against the US including being responsible for Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s exit from power.

One example of Sajith collaborating with FPC MPs is having Nalaka Godahewa as an economic advisor. Nalaka had previously been an economic advisor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa and a founding member of Viyathmaga. His tenure as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) a decade ago was controversial and faced corruption allegations.

The SJB is opposing everything the government is doing for the sake of opposing. My point isn’t to defend the government or to dismiss all criticisms of the SJB. The SJB is correct to speak out against the bad governance that’s going on. The problem I have is their constant opposition to economic recovery initiatives. When it came to the 21st Amendment to reduce presidential powers following Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s exit, they voted for it. I would have liked to see them similarly vote and participate in some of the economic recovery efforts. They were previously with Ranil and can easily find common ground with him on this front. I think it was immature of them refraining from voting in Parliament for the IMF agreement in April last year. This is despite previously calling for IMF assistance.

I’ll now mention issues I have with both Ranil and Sajith. Dr. Nihal Jayawickrema mentioned in his article “The Constitutional Council – Is It Under Threat?” of Ranil stating that the Constitutional Council is an “executive body” and Sajith stating that it’s “part of the legislature”. They are both incorrect as the Constitutional Council is an independent office of seven parliamentarians and three civil society members who approve or reject the President’s nominations to head state institutions. I don’t like the fact that both Ranil and Sajith have a group of SLPP members with them. It seems to me like they’re trying to compete with who has more SLPP parliamentarians. I want to see a government formed with no SLPP members of any faction including under different names like the FPC.

A growing force is the National People’s Power (NPP). The main party in the NPP is the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake. I’m concerned that the NPP will come to power. While the JVP is a legitimate political party now, they were previously responsible for two insurrections. This brings risks of them governing in a brutal, violent and oppressive way. I don’t agree with their communist ideology which I feel could derail Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and make the situation even worse. Sri Lanka already has a bloated public sector and I could see the NPP expanding that.

I wish to see the SJB re-integrated with the UNP and the UNP being headed by neither Ranil nor Sajith. I think this fighting between the SJB and the UNP is not in Sri Lanka’s best interest and could enable the NPP to win at the coming elections. It’s my view that the UNP’s policies are more sensible than the SJB’s, but the UNP has many influential figures who reflect what’s wrong with Sri Lanka’s politics such as Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Palitha Range Bandara, Wajira Abeywardana, Ravi Karunanayake and Sagala Ratnayaka. A rejuvenated UNP should not have such persons in leadership. One person in the UNP who I think may be suitable to lead the party is Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijewardene.

A re-integration of the two parties could bring the best qualities from them. The economic recovery and reforming of state owned enterprises that the UNP is currently involved in should continue. The SJB is rightly against the bad human rights policies of the government that the UNP is engaging in. Having the two parties together could bring back sensible human rights policies. I want the UNP to take a stand against the Rajapaksas like they used to.

Elections are coming up with a Presidential election later this year followed by a Parliamentary election that’s likely to be held next year. We need to elect a stable government with sound policies who will focus on delivering system change that the protests two years ago were calling for.

The 100th S Blog Post

This is my 100th blog post. I started this blog “The S Blog” eight years ago. I decided to write a post giving some highlights from this blog and some new content based on the topics I cover.

I write about Sri Lanka on this blog as it’s an interest of mine and where I call home. Sri Lankan blog posts have covered economics, politics, history, photos and more. I’ve also shared ideas of my own that I think would improve Sri Lanka. I’ll include three Sri Lankan images I’ve taken below with a link to the blog post it’s from. The text comes from those blog posts.

Diverse Views of Sri Lanka - 16 January 2020

A view of Bible Rock from a distance, taken near Kadugannawa.

Kaleidoscopic Kandy - 23 January 2020

A view of the Kandy Lake.

Captivating Colombo - 30 January 2020

Buildings in Wellawatte.

We just looked at three different images from Sri Lanka which are regional, Kandy and Colombo. They show the unique look of each one and reflect Sri Lanka’s colourful nature. Wellawatte is where I was when I lived in Sri Lanka.

I’m a fan of classic rock music that uses piano. The singers I like the most are Elton John and Bob Seger. I’m going to embed my favourite Bob Seger song which is “Even Now”. It’s a piano-driven rock song from the 1980s. Bob provides a powerful melody and singing. It reached Number 12 in the US charts, but it unfortunately isn’t remembered as one of his classics. I hope it will someday be remembered that way. I consider it to be an incredible heartland rocker.

In December 2022, I wrote the article “Ten Great Elton John Songs by Ten Different Guitarists”. It’s the inverse of my article “Ten Great Bob Seger Songs by Ten Different Piano Players”. Elton John’s guitarist Davey Johnstone plays on songs in both these two articles. I have also written “Ten Great Jackson Browne Songs by Ten Different Piano Players” which featured Elton John as one of the piano players. Moving back to the Elton John article, the guitarists I featured are Davey Johnstone, Caleb Quaye, Tim Renwick, Steve Lukather, Richie Zito, Eric Clapton, Chris Rea, Rusty Anderson, B.B. King and Doyle Bramhall II. I thought I’d feature a leftover which wasn’t in the original article, being the song “Ballad of a Well Known Gun”.

Ballad of a Well-Known Gun - Caleb Quaye (1970)

Caleb Quaye plays all the guitars on this Elton John song including an acoustic guitar in the background. The song opens with Caleb’s guitar intro. Elton’s piano comes in and out before coming in fully for a full band sound. This rocker incorporates elements of country and blues. The backing vocals sound like a choir. There is a special percussion beat going on during the choruses. Elton’s piano and Caleb’s guitars play well with each other including the powerful guitar solo that comes around the halfway mark. Ballad of a Well Known Gun is a good example of an americana styled rock song written by Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin.

When I did the retrospective post “The S Blog One Year On” in January 2017, I created a word cloud of the words used in my blog’s first year. I just created another word cloud for my blog. I suspect it is covering the last year plus my blog labels. This was created using the website WordArt.com.

The top ten words are Song, Sri, Piano, Rock, Lanka, Bob, Bill, Elton, Plays and Sing. This makes sense as I write about songs & Sri Lanka and I’m into piano rock music. Bob represents Bob Seger and Elton represents Elton John. Bill is referring to keyboardist Bill Payne who I’ve written about on this blog. I recently wrote an article about his keyboards for Bob Seger. While Elton so far hasn’t worked with Bill Payne, he thinks highly of Bill’s piano playing. Elton John and Bob Seger came together via Bill Payne on Bob’s song “Love’s the Last to Know” that features Bill Payne on piano and Elton’s guitarist Davey Johnstone on acoustic guitar.

One issue I’ve been having most of the time over the last year onwards is an enormous amount of fake traffic. Real traffic unfortunately got much less since I began this blog. As this is my 100th post, it’s difficult to get 100 views and when I reach it, fake traffic plays a big role in it. I would like to have the amount of fake traffic replaced by real traffic with getting at least 100 views being normal. I’ll give four less known blog posts of mine which I’d like to see get more exposure. The heading has their name/link and date with a brief description below.

Ten Great Electric Piano Rock Songs - 12 February 2022

My 75th blog post about ten rock songs I enjoy that feature electric piano. The artists featured are Blues Image, Traffic, Elton John, Bob Seger, Eagles, Billy Joel, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Christopher Cross, Toto and Bad English.

Elton John & Cat Stevens's Duet Honey Man - 29 October 2022

This is about “Honey Man”, a duet by English superstars Elton John & Cat Stevens recorded in 1970. This song was unreleased until 2001. I embed it in the post.

The Power of Bob Seger’s Singing - 22 November 2023

This article is giving my thoughts on the power of American rocker Bob Seger’s singing. I refer to some Bob Seger songs in it.

Five Export Diversification Options for Sri Lanka - 20 April 2024

I give five sectors I’m suggesting Sri Lanka diversity its exports into which are computers & electronics, visual effects for Hollywood, pianos & keyboards, vehicles and planes.

I’m pleased to reach 100 blog posts. I plan to continue writing about similar issues to what I’ve written before and hope to cover new ground in future posts.

Five Export Diversification Options for Sri Lanka

I decided to write an article providing five options I think Sri Lanka can diversify its exports into. I’d like to point out that this isn’t a detailed analysis on how it can be done. It’s my own ideas on improving Sri Lanka’s exports.

Computers & Electronics

Products I’m thinking of are desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and televisions. We can make agreements with international computer & electronics companies to manufacture components of those devices with the goal of making complete devices. Sri Lankan brands can also manufacture computers & electronic items. It’s important to note that the Sri Lankan company EWIS is successfully manufacturing computing devices. EWIS collaborated with Singhagiri to launch Sri Lanka’s SGL Android Smart TV in January 2023. This Smart TV is manufactured in Sri Lanka.

Visual Effects for Hollywood

I’d like to see a Sri Lankan visual effects company work on Hollywood films. Hollywood has outsourced visual effects to some companies in Asia. Even if it’s a very small contribution, it would be a win. We can start this with goals of where we want to be over the next 10 years. As a Sri Lankan sci-fi fan, I would love to see a Sri Lankan visual effects company working on a sci-fi blockbuster. There is also the possibility of securing Sri Lankan offices for international visual effects companies. Hollywood visual effects work would bring in jobs and revenue to Sri Lanka which could help with the issue of brain drain.

Pianos & Keyboards

I think Sri Lanka could get into the industry of making pianos and keyboards. Pianos include grand pianos, upright pianos and digital pianos. Digital pianos and electronic keyboards would also tie into computers & electronics I mentioned above. We can learn from Indonesia, another tropical country which is a successful piano manufacturer. There are pianos of the Japanese brands Kawai and Yamaha made in Indonesia.

Vehicles

Sri Lanka has the potential to get involved in vehicle manufacturing. The Sri Lankan company Vega Innovations has made the Vega EVX, Sri Lanka’s first electric sports car. This project has been promoted for many years, so it would be good if it could begin its sales soon. Last year, Vega Innovations introduced the electric three-wheeler Elektrateq ETX. Electric three-wheelers are a good market to focus on due to three-wheelers’ environmental issues and their use in both Sri Lanka & the developing world. Moving back to cars, I don’t think we should focus exclusively on luxury vehicles as it’s important to make cars for regular consumers.

Planes

I believe planes is an industry Sri Lanka can get involved in. It’s not well known that Sri Lanka already has a boatbuilding industry. Expertise from that industry can be transferred to the manufacturing of planes. It’s good to start off with small planes and have a goal to eventually build aeroplanes. In the aviation sector it’s unfortunate to hear negative stories of Sri Lankan Airlines. Making aeroplanes would be something positive that could transform Sri Lanka’s aviation sector.

Those were my suggestions for Sri Lanka’s export diversification with some real-life initiatives mentioned. Feel free to give your thoughts on this issue including if there are other industries you think Sri Lanka should get involved in as an exporter.

Bill Payne's Keyboards for Bob Seger

Bob Seger has worked with keyboardist Bill Payne from 1978 onwards. Session musician Bill Payne is part of the southern rock band Little Feat. Bill first worked with Bob playing piano & organ on his 1978 hit “Hollywood Nights” from the “Stranger in Town” album. Bill’s keyboards are just organ at the start. During the first verse, he brings in his piano which adds depth to the song. The piano rocks well with some notable moments. A few years later Bill played all the keyboards (piano, organ & synth) on the ballad “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” from the “Against the Wind” album. This song opens with acoustic guitar and Bill soon brings in his piano & organ. His synth is hard to hear. The piano makes this song whole and there are strong organ moments. In both songs, Bill played with Bob who was the sole guitarist.

Hollywood Nights (1978)

You’ll Accomp’ny Me (1980)

On the next album “The Distance”, two songs Bill played piano include the country hit “Shame on the Moon” and the ballad “Love’s the Last to Know”. On the Rodney Crowell cover “Shame On the Moon”, the sole keyboards at the start are organ. After the first chorus, Bill brings in a memorable piano solo with piano continuing throughout the song. Bill’s piano elevates “Shame On the Moon”. Piano is the main instrument on the ballad “Love’s the Last to Know” giving Bill a stronger presence than the previous songs. He plays gently and melodically giving the power of a piano ballad. In these three songs, he played with Silver Bullet Band keyboardist Craig Frost on organ and would do the same on the songs in the next paragraph.

Bill played keyboards (piano & synth) on most tracks on the 1986 “Like a Rock” album. This is the most prominent presence he’s had on a Bob Seger album. I will describe what I consider to be his best contribution from that album. In the heartland rocker “American Storm”, his piano is driving the song. In the rock ballad title track, he was playing gently and supported Rick Vito’s slide guitar solos well. In the intense rock song “Sometimes”, he played a good supporting role and provided a memorable piano solo.

American Storm (1986)

This album also has songs with the combination of him on piano and Craig Frost on synth. The two keyboards went well together on “The Aftermath” with Bill rocking out well. The two instruments were used in a different way on the ballad “Somewhere Tonight”. Somewhere Tonight has gentle sections driven by Bill’s piano and rockier sections driven by Rick Vito’s guitar. On the following 1991 album “The Fire Inside”, he played on two Tom Waits covers. One of them was the jazz song “New Coat of Paint” which brings a completely different sound to what Bob normally does. Bill does incredible piano playing including having two piano solos. The other one was the country song “Blind Love” with his prominent gentle country playing.

We’re now going back to a Bob Seger original. Bill played piano on the 2006 rock ballad “Wait for Me” which is a very Bob Seger song. Bill gives warm melodic playing. He backed Bob Seger’s guitar solo. I didn't like how the “Face the Promise” album this song is from had a lack of keyboards on it. I wanted there to be more piano on the album. I wish Bill could have played on more tracks. His presence would have elevated the material like how he did on “Hollywood Nights” as that song was recorded as a band without the keyboards first. I’m imagining how great the title track could have sounded with Bill’s piano & organ.

Wait for Me (2006)

On Bob’s last album “I Knew You When” in 2017, Bill played on three songs. The “I Knew You When” songs featured unreleased songs, most of which had been updated as well as a few covers and newly written songs. These songs Bill played on were from the unreleased “Blue Ridge” album recorded in the late 1990s. On the piano ballad “I Knew You When”, Bill plays in a relaxed, gentle way. In aggressive rocker “Forward Into the Past”, Bill plays a supporting role. He gives good rock piano moments throughout the song. The song “Blue Ridge” opens with real drums and steel drums. I suspect these steel drums are played by Craig Frost on keyboards as I didn’t see any steel drums in the credits. Soon, Bill’s piano appears. It gives a good presence in this melodic rocker. Bill accompanies Bob on his rocking guitar solo.

Blue Ridge (2017)

These songs showcase Bill Payne’s contributions to Bob Seger’s work. He is one of the key session musicians Bob has worked with over the years. Bill contributed to the iconic Bob Seger sound and brought vibes from americana & southern rock. The Bob Seger songs he played on are rockers & ballads and also other genres like country & jazz. Bill showed the power of the piano as a rock instrument. I hope to see Bill Payne reunited on the next Bob Seger album.

A Look Back at 1980s Colombo

On YouTube, there is a video called “Sri Lanka Colombo 1984” by user Wolfgang Gegusch. I decided to write a blog post about 1980s Colombo based on the video. I’ve written similar blog posts which are “A Look Back at 1960s Colombo” two years ago and “A Look Back at 1970s Colombo” four years ago. To give context to this period, the 1980s was a time without internet, email and mobile phones for the general public. Television was something new to Sri Lanka then as it arrived in 1979. I’m embedding the video and giving my thoughts below it.

The video opens with a close up of the “Insight Guides Sri Lanka” book. I have the 1987 Fifth Edition with the same cover which I referred to in the second part of my article about how Sri Lanka switched to the metric system. We are then shown a good postcard of Colombo from this time period. The video footage starts which shows the guns at Galle Face. We see the Galle Face Hotel which looks special. I like how it’s so green with the palm trees and grass around the hotel. There’s a gigantic chess board in that green environment.

We are taken to Galle Face Green which doesn’t look to be well maintained. Looking back at this time, I see the achievement Sri Lanka has made of getting cleaner in the decades since. We see buildings with the Bank of Ceylon Tower being in construction. I notice near the Galle Face Green there are black and white markings on the edge of the pavement which doesn’t exist anymore. We see more roads nearby and go to Colombo Fort with buildings such as the State Bank of India and the red Cargills building next to it. The Colombo Fort Clock Tower looks good.

We see the Diyawanna Lake with the Sri Lankan Parliament building that was new at the time. It’s good to see the old Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) building on Dharmpala Mawatha. The SLSI played a major role in Sri Lanka’s metrication as I’ve covered in this blog. It’s unfortunate to see elephants being mistreated for a zoo performance.

This was a good look into what Colombo was like nearly 40 years ago in 1984. This is a colourful video with good cinematography. When I posted “A Look Back at 1960s Colombo” exactly two years ago in December 2021, economist Amal Sanderatne in correspondence with me suggested other blog posts like this to do, including one on the 1980s. Amal who founded Frontier Research tragically passed away in July 2023. I never met him personally, but enjoyed being in touch with him online. He is a man of integrity who contributed greatly to Sri Lanka. I dedicate this article to Amal Sanderatne.

Bitter Fingers by Elton John

I decided to write about an album track from Elton John. An album track means a song from an album which wasn’t a hit and/or a single. The song I’m writing about is “Bitter Fingers” from Elton John’s 1975 album “Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy”. This was during the peak of Elton John’s success. This song was written with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. It features his original band of Davey Johnstone (guitar), Nigel Olsson (drums), Dee Murray (bass) & Ray Cooper (percussion) and is produced by Gus Dudgeon. I’m embedding the YouTube audio of the song and am discussing it below.

The song opens with Elton’s piano. There is a subtle melodic part with his piano. I suspect this instrument is bells or belltree. They are two of the instruments percussionist Ray Cooper is credited with playing alongside tambourine and congas. Elton then begins singing. Soon subtle bass by Dee Murray appears. This is followed by understated rock guitar by Davey Johnstone and barely audible drums from Nigel Olsson. When the chorus starts, Nigel’s drumming properly comes in and it becomes a full-on rock song. Nigel’s drumming and Elton’s piano rock well together in the chorus. Davey’s guitar comes in and out during this section. Davey, Nigel and Dee sing backing vocals in the chorus and at the end of the song.

After the first chorus, it goes back to the piano intro of the start. Davey’s guitar then comes in, doubling the piano which sounds good. Towards the end of the second verse, Nigel brings his drums properly in a bit before the chorus. Dee’s bass seems to be louder from the second chorus to the end of the song. After the last chorus, Davey gives a good guitar solo to conclude the song which is followed by it going into the chorus with the song soon fading. Elton is credited with playing pianos on the track so it seems he’s playing two pianos. I’m interested to know how the two pianos are featured.

Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy is an autobiographical album chronicling the early days of Elton John & Bernie Taupin’s careers before Elton became a superstar. Bitter Fingers is about Elton & Bernie’s struggles as staff songwriters at Dick James Music (DJM) where they had to write songs they weren’t interested in which were popular at the time. Steve Brown who worked in promotions at DJM told Elton & Bernie their work was awful and to instead write music they believed in. This resulted in them writing the rocking single “Lady Samantha” in early 1969. More songs recorded by Elton came out that year which were the single “It’s Me That You Need” and his debut album “Empty Sky”. Steve produced those singles and the debut album. While he didn’t produce any more songs for Elton, he set Elton & Bernie on the path to be the globally successful songwriting team they became.

Bitter Fingers is a great album track by Elton John. It’s representative of his style of music being similar to some of his well-known songs. I really like Bernie’s line about “the keyboard player’s hollow haunted eyes”. While this song was recorded in America, it has a definite English feel both lyrically and melodically. This makes sense as it deals with Elton & Bernie’s experiences in England. Gus Dudgeon did a very good job producing this melodic 1970s rocker. This song represents the songwriting of Elton John & Bernie Taupin at their best.