We are Stronger Together

So many thoughts today. We have seen the country united through ethnic and religious lines, despite the political powers that strive to seperate us. And last evening, we happily laughed when we saw the pro-government goons being stripped off their clothes, swimming for their lives and being beat up. And finally, we saw the country burn, quite literally.

Most of the people who came into the city, brandishing poles and blood lust in their eyes, were doing so because they had hunger in their bellies. Granted, getting 2000-5000/- and a bottle of arrack is not comparable to attacking peaceful demonstrators but for someone who is desperate, this is wealth and perhaps a distraction. Now, we are slowly getting more news that prisoners were brought into this fight. We also seeing news that this may be part of a big conspiracy (it wasn't that long ago we saw the Ratmalana airport being reopened as an international airport and now we kind of know why - thanks to the escaping political rats).

I know everyone is angry and wants some sort of legal compensation to be done and this will be done - thanks to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka which has finally woken up (thank you, my lawyer friends and associates). But this is also the time that we, the ordinary citizens, start listening.

This is an chance for us to continue to be united. I realize this sounds cheesy, cliched but hear me out. Yes, they tried to break us before - we had a 30 year ethnic war and not forget the Easter Sunday bombings (and the repercussions from that) but now we have this amazing opportunity to bring ourselves together to form an united front. As someone mentioned in a post, Gotagogama (all of them) are not physical places. They are in our hearts and souls. We Lankans want better and damnit, we deserve better.

We have been given this opportunity to make this country amazing and we should not squander it. Other countries have gone through similar economic situations - Greece, Lebanon etc but we have something they don't have. We have the hunger for this, honed in from years of political oppression. We also have the brains and true patriotism - plenty of local and expat Sri Lankans I know would drop whatever in a heartbeat to make this country what it's true purpose is. Even if we don't realize our own potential, the expats who live in this beautiful country do (on a side note, our biggest asset according to our visitors is... our people).

So let's work and rebuild this great nation together. We are Sri Lankan, united and diverse and we can do this. Just as the ashes of GGG are being rebuilt, let's renovate and restore this country together, step by step and make this an amazing example of what can be done, if we all work together.

P.S

Yes, I realize we have had a horrible history but if we keep dredging the past, we will not move past it. We have to learn from those and move to a better united future together.