In Sri Lanka.
I bet that got your attention! Yeah, Fahim got me a copy of last Sunday’s Sunday Observer "Sri Lanka’s English Newspaper with the Largest Circulation", price 22.00 Rupees. Established 4-2-1928 (April 2nd? February 4th? No idea.)
It’s pretty thick – thicker than the weekend editions of major newspapers in either Vancouver (pop. nearly 2 million) or Edmonton (pop. over 3/4 million). And it’s interesting.
There are a LOT of advertisements for immigrating to other countries like Australia, USA, Canada.
There are a LOT of advertisements for further education overseas in countries like India (much cheaper to get an education in India than in Sri Lanka, apparently – it’s an even poorer country than Sri Lanka – for three years education, including tuition, room & board, airfare, clothing, transport, books, incidentals, it can cost as little as 350,000 Rupees, or $3500 US, approximately), USA (save up to 75%), UK, Australia, Russia, Japan, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Cyprus.
There are a LOT of advertisements for jobs overseas in countries like Dubai, Qatar, Singapore, Malaysia,
And lots of other interesting things.
Excerpts from various news stories:
"Fifty thousand policemen have already been deployed to monitor polls related violence, and all police stations have been instructed to immediately arrest any troublemaker. Inspector General of Police, Indra de Silva, told the Sunday Observer that instructions had been given to his men to be firm and arrest any trouble maker irrespective of his rank or file or political affiliation."
Wow, that’s a lot of police! Does Canada, with half as many again people, even have that many police in the entire country?
And you know what scares me? The fact that they have to state all of this. It’s not taken for granted that trouble makers will be arrested, regardless of whatever. Yikes.
Oh, and so far, no dead bodies as a result of the election. Only beatings and such.
Next:
"Attacks on churches which were intermittent and isolated until recently, have ballooned into an issue of serious national concern, with unidentified gangs attacking and destroying htese places of worship, purportedly to protest alleged unethical religious conversions. Around 30 churches were attacked by gangs last month despite the arrest of some of the culprits. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga recently ordered police to take stern action against those responsible for these attacks, but the incidents continue to increase, raising concerns as to whether thte attacks are being orchestrated to create ethnic unrest in the south.
"Unethical conversions of Buddhists into Christians is touted to be the main issue behind these attacks, although heads of Christian denominations have categorically denied that such conversions take place. Religious zealots have however seized the opportunity to create ill will among different religious faiths by resorted to such attacks, which have been condemned by the Buddhist clergy and the majority of people."
Oh, and people here don’t graduate, they "leave school."