Going Global

So the All Island Lottery Dealers' Society (AILDS) is going to strike on Thursday and bring to a standstill one of the main contributors to the Sri Lankan economy is it? 35 million in revenues per day im told. taken at an average of 10 bucks a sweep ticket. thats 3.5 million sweep tickets sold per day and i suppose it would be safe to assume that approximately 3.5 million people buy those tickets (excluding the few who are more addicted and maybe blow a good proportion of their paycheck on them).

whats my point? well i dont really have one to tell you the truth, except to explore this whole business of sweep ticket selling and how it affects a country like ours. So lets see, the AILDB (The dealers netwok) says that they are currently only entitled to 1.5% of the revenues from a ticket and out of that, 1.35% goes to the sweep ticket seller. so out of 35 million thats about an average of Rs. 525,000 for the dealer network and about Rs.472,500 for the ticket sellers as a whole, per day.


Well do the math and consider the massive amounts of tickets sellers that the dealer network has an it is pretty apparent that they only make a pittance compared to the total revenue generated by the lotteries board. After the planned increase if ticket prices this might change and double their revenues. So that would probably keep them happy.

Meanwhile, the lottery board continues to contribute to the economy and infrastructure of the country and also dish out gazillions to the occasional jackpot winner. So that is the current set-up and it doesnt look like its going to change any time soon.
I wonder how much of these 'funds' are being absorbed by corruption though eh

k now here's some news. woke up early this morning and switched on Rupavahini to maybe catch a glimpse of the Olympics and there is apparently a 'Live' foreign news program going on at that forsaken hour. Who would watch Rupavahini for foreign news that early? well i suppose they must have some viewer segment somewhere that does it or they wouldn’t have it would they? I mean Rupavahini is the most sensible of all Sri Lankan stations right? er, Right?

Anyways i was up watching it but what’s with the Live gimmick? I mean surely just cos those poor presenters are coming all the way from home to be there at 6 am sharp to project yesterdays news live from the studio doesn’t warrant calling it Live?? i mean, where’s the consumer benefit from labeling the news Live? when the only things that are live are the slightly bleary eyed, overly bright presenters trying way too hard to look really cheerful and here's the stinky part, righteous.

So first there was a segment on the Spanish plane crash. Conflicting views. Tragic incident. over 150 people dead. Crazy the plane crashes we get these days. Then onto Georgia, and get this, they show the Russian point of view. I mean why not the US? are'nt we, or at least our giovernment, supposed to sucking upto Bush? and as the government's media machine isnt Rupavahini supposed to exemplify thise vews? So i was waiting for a couter argument. heavy with western views.. But it never came.

They talk about how the US is condemning the attacks but how Russia is defending them and paint the Russians in an innocent light claiming that their sovereignty was breached first. While technically that might be correct, the incidents that followed painted the Russians hands with a significant amount of blood that would IMHO, definitely warrant some mention from a media organization that values integrity and freedom of expression. Then they go on about the US attacking Panama and Iraq and so on and so forth and ask if those attacks were justifiable as a response to US bad talk with regard to the whole conflict. Those facts are not irrelevant and I support their sentiments. But you can’t use them as an excuse to carry out your own killings can you?

Did anyone notice how smoothly the US went ahead with their missile plan in Poland and Putin kept shut like little mouse? After all that big talk of 'we will not let you belittle us in our own region' etc etc? signs of a bit of a deal? bit of a 'if you turn the blind eye on our atrocity , we let you go ahead and build a missile defence center right next to us' sort of deal?

Then onto the presidential race of the US. Our national TV station states that the US media is highlighting the fact that McCain is ahead of the polls by 7% a little bit too much and (this is what cracked me up) Rupavahini says that 'the US media is famous for such propagandist activities that go against the nature of unbiased media'

So righteous. So disgusting. Audacious. But plain ridiculous if you ask me. Rupavahini can’t even fool the people properly. As a government propaganda machine, they absolutely suck.