Banking in Sri Lanka

Good-bye Williamsburg Bank

As I’d mentioned in a previous post, now I know why NSB is the richest public bank in Sri Lanka. It’s fucking hard to get money out once you’ve put in. Well not due to some irritable cashier or something, but their ATM anyway used to suck. Their business rules are kaput and like those of say 100 years back when you couldn’t connect the branches. They’re very branch-centric. I’ve got my account in Branch X and I can’t event update my book in another. I dunno about the ATM cause the last time I tried it sucked in my card and still I didn’t get one. I think they’re only good for long term fixed deposits. I dunno about interest rates cause anyway as I know about the inflation rates here putting your money in bank makes it less valuable. By putting in bank what I really expect is to stop myself from keeping the bundle of cash in my drawer. Like you can buy a cheeseburger today for 200Rs: if you put it in bank and get what’s in there in say a year and try to do the same, it won’t buy you the burger. Atleast at the present inflation rates. (how much is it now? Think was like 19% something last time I checked.) So better use it altogether today to buy something worthwhile than putting in bank all in all. I consider banking in elsewhere or buying US$s even. Or keeping the wad in my drawer. Atleast I’d have better access.

Right now what I need is a proper bank. I think I’ll walk outta the richest bank thing and try something more humble like Sampath, NTB (their AMEX service is pretty good) or HSBC even. Atleaset they’ve got a better spread ATM net.

I wish Ranil was president..

Would stuff've been any better?

The Star-Spangled Banner Yet Waves

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Police and the Human Rights Situation

US Customs and Border Protection. Police, but a different breed.

Yesterday while watching News First [after Swarnawahini got 'converted' I have no choice, and it's good] I saw a ridiculous statement made by the chairman of some presidential committee to investigate killings and abductions etc., etc. saying that most police officers complain that they cannot perform their duty because of the constant prodding of human rights organizations, which visit police stations to see how many people are in illegal [over-time without warrant] custody, and being tortured etc. What I think is if the police seem to think that their duty is to keep people in while they don't have enough evidence for a warrant and pick up people and torture them to get forced confessions. I was surprised that this chairman person is a retired judge. But then I got reminded that he was heading a 'Presidential Commission'. Devil's advocate.

It is widely known that although they pretend to protect the law and order, police are a prime source of human rights violations in the country regardless of what administration. It happened all the time. People have frequently died while in police custody, with the police giving faint excuses such as sudden pneumonia, heart attack, and sometimes the story of the suspect suddenly whipping out a weapon from nowhere, which was the latest thing. People do not get served by the police the way they deserve, but the police thinks that they are to push people around. In Sri Lanka, anyone visiting a police station cannot expect more than a 'dog's treatment' 99.99% of the time. That's anyone, and suspects usually get badly beaten, if they are kept overnight at the police station: the policemen just come in drunk and beat the suspects senseless to get over with their day's grudges with someone. This situation must change. That's why the human rights commission is visiting police stations and investigating the crimes being committed by the guardians of the law themselves. If the only thing the police can then say is "we can't do our duty because human rights people are walking in upon", then that has serious problem to go with it. Basically that is "keep outta our way so we can do keep people in illegal custody, torture them and accept/prompt bribes, which is mainly our duty."

I dream of a day we have a proper police force. A day when law and order really will be here. The police isn't a trusted institution here, but is generally regarded as consisting of 'thugs n thieves'. The main reason there's no law and order is the police themselves, who now blame the human rights watchers. They catch the culprits [when they can], get a bribe and let them go, be it a traffic offense or perhaps a murder, especially if someone from high above is involved. It is a bunch of constables like this who are mumbling that human rights are coming between them and their so-called 'duty' .

What does this mean? Only one thing, that the police is utterly incapable, and constantly violate human rights. They can't decide who's the culprit so they catch someone and beat him down to get a confession. Basically it. I get reminded of the posters that were all around Colombo sometime ago saying that we do not need to regard human rights when fighting terror. If we do not regard people's basic rights in an exercise to protect their very existence, then what the hell is the use of it?

Human rights are not something exotic which came into being yesterday. They are basic rights and needs of you and me, what we deserve as humans, and what we get hurt when taken away from us. We do not feel this until we get them violated on us ourselves or at least on someone close. Til then it is even easy to say that things like expelling people from their dwellings just because the police cannot pinpoint the suspects are 'unavoidable and necessary'. It was pathetic to hear such a irresponsible statement from someone like a former justice, like they doesn't know the grade of the police here.

I hope the retired judge thought more rationally when he was on the bench. If the judge also thinks that it is right to get beaten up by the police just because you were taken in, then what's the deal?

This is the big deal 'human rights' situation in Sri Lanka.