NOTEBOOK OF A NOBODY
by Shanie
"What we can't face look for us anyway. If there is any chance people have to be willing to think; to not be afraid of thinking. If we learn to think clearly and coherently, we will create the solution."
"I am just a human being trying to make it in a world that is very rapidly losing its understanding of being human."
- John Trudell (US lyricist and poet)
When Basil Rajapaksa announced in Parliament last week that the Government had taken over the land on which the Hilton Hotel was sited, not many were surprised. The Urban Development Authority had in 1984 leased out the land to a developer with a stipulation that the lease rent should be paid annually. Apparently, the lease rent had not been paid for the last twenty-five years and the holding company itself had run up huge debts. A few years ago, Nihal Amarasekera, that irrepressible initiator of public interest litigation, had unsuccessfully moved for the winding up of the company. But despite the lack of surprise, there was also concern about a lack of transparency by the UDA, now curiously under the Ministry of Defence. This take-over followed the leasing out of prime property on Galle Face to the Hong Kong based Shangri La Hotels, and the proposed eviction of the urban poor from Slave Island and Kollupitiya areas to make way for this kind of development.
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