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One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap.
Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out.
She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.
Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and
says, “Good morning, Ma’am. What are you doing?”
“You’re in a Restricted Fishing Area,” he informs her.
“I’m sorry, officer, but I’m not fishing. I’m reading.”
“Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any
moment. I’ll have to take you in and write you up.”
woman.
at any moment.” “Have a nice day ma’am,” and he left.
After 272 bouncy km on the famous A4 passengers in transit to Arugambay are obviously happy to spot a modern restaurant on the left side.
With well advertised clean toilets. What a relief!
On closer inspection a shiny brass plaque is found on the wall.
Coastal bound travelers are confused:
“Are we near the sea then?” I thought we have half a hundred more kilometers of rough ride ahead of us, Alf shouted to the shaken driver.
What on terra Buy generic proscar uk earth has a distant Small Fishy Corporation to do with this Inland ‘project’?
“Don’t be stupid”, his wife said and ordered ‘Any style’ of a NeppTune’s meal in this clean, well build restaurant.
Terre des Hommes and the Green Cross Family want to promote the “poor” fishing industry!
More confusion follows! There is not a single Red Herring to be had on the premises. Or any other fish. Now that is getting a bit fishy Order vasodilan 10mg , Karin says.
Never mind! At least some of the near bankrupt hotels and restaurants in the destination Bay might get an order or two; after all they never received a hint of such good assistance from the Millions of donations. Which were supposed to help with the huge Tsu. losses in this hardest hit coastal village.
Can anyone shine a light behind the thinking of this otherwise brilliant project?
Photo: Unlike a farmer who needs to cultivate and look after his crop, extensive (over-?) harvesting the sea at Arugambay, shown below is totally FREE.
But no power.
What to do? Wobble the head?
Most so-called “active” NGO’s actually hate Arugam.info.
We only seem to run them down in public.
We do. With good reason.
Why on earth don’t they ever come up with a real bright idea for a change?
Arugam.info is not part of any ENJOY and we never have been given any official funds to this day.
Q.:
What would AbHa do if they had just a tiny fraction of the cash all the Orgas. waste, every day?
A.:
The priorities of the concerned underdog change all the time.
To demonstrate allow us to give you one single example of what worries us right now.
USAid has used its obvious influence and they had a brand new transformer installed near their office. In record time.
Something we tried to do for the past 10 years was completed yesterday, in just 3 days: The US air conditioners were not performing well at their end of Arugambay or whatever.
But of course there is a serious power problem, everywhere.
As a result the mains voltage now drops at the other, opposing end of town.
What to do? As the Sri Lankans would say? And wobble with the head.
Today, is the day when Australia has outlawed the old, incandescent highly inefficient light bulbs. We quote: “saving the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tonnes by 2012″.
Arugam.info recalls that with very limited funds and very little power as from January 2005 only energy efficient lights were supplied by AbHa to AbaY residents – free of charge.
Why doesn’t some Donation dripping NGO come up with the idea to change one for one:
One museum-type 1879 Edison patent’s heat bulb for a new, low energy bulb for EVERY household in the famous, but underpowered Bay?
What is wrong with making remote AbaY the first energy efficient village in Asia: Wouldn’t that be a real compliment to sanity and progress?
Further, it would actually be a low cost, high profile, ecological and highly “sustainable” “Project” (sorry: but we are truly sick of all these empty NGO slogans!!) which the locals would really LOVE. It would also educate the Natives to become more power efficient. And as a result, Arugam would have decent power again, at both ends of town, consume less fossil fuels and save cash for the Nation and every home.
Why?
Because the poor population can’t afford the new low energy lamps! They cost more than twice as much, but actually last more than 4x longer! Cheaper in the long run, but costly to buy in the first place. That’s why everyone keeps on buying the ancient cheap, crap, heat bulbs. This great “project” would save everyone money on high CEB bills.
And better still they get it for FREE, perhaps with a pretty Mercy Corpse (or so) sticker on each bulb…..sorry: Oprah Whinfrey’s preferred partners embrace only Las Vegas “Lights of Hope” to show their highly paid TV & PR teams what US help and changing lives is all about.
Q.: How many Americans does it take to change a 100W light bulb??
A.: Arugam.info does not have an answer we could print.
Sadly we are still not funded by anyone, but we remain confident that we have better ideas than most. We are locals as well as professionals after all.
And for a change 😉 we feel that our own ‘Community’ based “Sustainable” ‘Projects’ actually are what they claim and aim to be Order levlen ingredients .
Meanwhile nearby NGO’s light up their brand new buildings with power guzzling lamps.
The uneducated natives have an excuse. They have no knowledge and no funds.
What justification will we eventually hear from XXXX???? organization when judgment day has come? (We will name and shame them; don’t worry! Right now AbHa simply wants to record local events for future history).
Will they say “We had no funds available to buy 10 energy bulbs”?
To light up the new Community Tourist Office and local show piece?
Or do the XXX-experts Cheap biaxin 500 have no knowledge or education?
Or maybe the simple answer is: ‘We don’t really care’.
…..As long as their own jobs are secure they don’t.
This appears to be the thinking of our E.N.J.O.Y.s -In a nutters shell…..
See today’s related links and more info on this subject:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4667354.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6378161.stm
http://www.banthebulb.co.uk/
The end of 500 years Western Domination of our globe we refer to.
When we published our prediction 10 years ago we had few takers.
Now the wind has changed dramatically and we see a general agreement that our generation is highly privileged to witness a rapid shift back to Asian dominance.
Experts agree that future global players are, already China, Japan & India.
Europe and America will decline more and more and lose their status as world leaders, a position enjoyed for the past 500 years through Colonies, war and technology.
Strangely, many in the West seem to ignore this obvious fact and actually help to accelerate this natural process.
By giving aid, removing trade barriers and open immigration – all of which are in fact a one way gesture, so it seems.
Some feel that most help should be channeled to poor Africa instead – Asians are well equipped and motivated to help themselves, if they wish to do so.
However, it might be ….a year or two… before Sri Lanka manages to catch up.
This is because, generally, Ceylon is Asia’s odd man out.
The Baidyanath ashwagandharishta price Tear of India is the only Asian Country with a long ongoing homegrown bloody conflict.
All other Nations have been fairly peaceful and stable – compared to the West.
The two hot wars in Asia (Korea & Vietnam) had external, western causes.
It is up to the leaders of this island Nation to chose a good partner: Is it India or the Inderal generic name propranolol US?
This article has been submitted by Peter, who has added a related link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6365433.stm
On the Happy Day of Love romantic Ms. Somlak has sent us a rose for all.
She also has her own Thai Home Page:
http://swell.bloggang.com
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Arugam.info has received many inquiries about the new bridge.
A Swiss Internet Journalist has sent us the following, simple design today.
We are unable to confirm if Arugam Bay Aciphex is there a generic is actually ending up with such a ‘innovative’ road or not.
Maybe USAid can assist?
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Master plans being developed
The first plan to emerge was that for the redevelopment of Arugam Bay, a small town nestled on the edge of a 300 hectare lagoon on the east coast of Sri Lanka, which just happens to be one of the best surfing spots in the world, with beautiful beaches as well.
No other plans are so far available, but it is said that this will serve as a model for all the other areas.
Plans envisage a complete transformation of the local environment and economy
The A?a??E? Zanaflex price us Arugam Bay Resource Development Plan: Reconstruction Towards Prosperity covers a stretch of land 17km by 5km between Komari and Panama, including Pottuvil Town.
It envisages the total reorientation of the area away from the current fishing and agricultural communities, supplemented by seasonal guesthouses, into a large development of hotels (A?a??E?low cost budget windsurfer to 5-star touristA?a??a??), a commercial centre (A?a??E?shoppersA?a??a?? paradiseA?a??a??), a yachting marina, floating plane pier and helipad. According to the plan, while only 9 out of 25,000 hectares are currently being used for tourism, this figure is set to increase exponentially through the redevelopment.
Consultants contracted by those responsible for the plan admit, A?a??E?consultants have drawn heavily upon past plans (esp. the Tourism Master Plan)A?a??A?which was widely recognized as being A?a??E?grandioseA?a??a?? and A?a??E?inappropriateA?a??a??, referring there to a report of the Asian Development Bank.
The disconnect between the planned development and the interests of the people is illustrated in the following quote, A?a??E?the location of the helicopter pad near the new pedestrianized road will bring a new vibrant life in to Arugam Bay Buy bupropion sr town centreA?a??a??.
If all of the 15 tourist resorts cover a similar area, a total of 1,275 square kilometers will be taken over for tourism, far more than the 500 square kilometers that it is estimated were affected by the tsunami.
Pushing fishing communities away from the sea and the lagoon in favour of tourists
In order to achieve this, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board is ready to acquire not only all the land within the buffer zone of 200m from the high tide line, but also a stretch of up to 1km wide running along 3km of the coast beyond the buffer zone, and a belt of in places over 600m around the edge of the lagoon. Add to that an area of sea next to the lagoon entrance for the yachting marina and a strip across the middle of the lagoon for the floating plane landing pier.
It is reported in notes taken at a meeting organised by Sewalanka Foundation between the community and the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Chairman, A?a??E?The land belongs to the government. Maybe your forefathers lived in that area, but the 860 acres belongs to the government. It will be developed as a tourist zone. We will put up buildings and develop the area and we will ask you to come and work thereA?a??A?After I became the Chairman I captured 5,000 acres of land for the Tourist Board. My target is 15,000 acresA?a??a??.
The plan explains that new housing for the estimated 5,000 displaced families will be provided in 5 separate inland locations, in all cases behind areas zoned off for tourism, at an average of well over 1km from both the sea and the lagoon, obstructed from accessing the same by the new infrastructure. It then proposes to allocate houses by drawing lots. It is reported in the same set of notes mentioned above that A?a??E?these houses will be given to people who support our programA?a??a??. Further, A?a??E?if you built any illegal structures in Arugam Bay, the army and the police will have to come and remove themA?a??a??.
The document also says that the estimated over 70 existing guesthouses and numerous other small enterprises that will have to be relocated would, if they were already registered businesses, be given the option of leasing land within the zones for a period of up to 30 years, while unregistered businesses would have no such rights. Nobody would receive compensation.
If all of the 15 tourist resorts follow the model of Arugam Bay, the number of families pushed out of the way of hotels, yachting marinas, helipads and floating plane landing strips could be well over 75,000.
Government spending $80 million of tsunami funds to facilitate the process.
The initial investment in the planned development is estimated at $80 million. Of that, $50 million is earmarked for a bridge over Arugam Lagoon, which according to the document A?a??E?will stand as an inspirational symbol that shows progress towards the achievement of prosperity for Arugam BayA?a??a?? as A?a??E?the gateway to a tourist paradiseA?a??a??.
Another $5 million is allocated for a new road around Arugam Lagoon. Then $20 million is proposed for the construction of the new inland townships of 2,500 houses. The remaining $5 million is given for water supply schemes and sanitation systems in the new townships and the tourist zone.
The cost of the other proposed infrastructure and amenities, such as the floating plane landing pier and helipad, is not yet included in the overall plan, although it is stated in the document that this will have to be funded either from investment by the Government or by NGOs.
If all of the 15 tourist townships require an investment of $80 million, the cost will be $1.2 billion, or a massive 40% of the total amount apparently raised to date.
Putting the wrong people in charge of planning again
The Arugam Bay plan was initiated apparently independently by the Rebuild Sri Lanka Trust, which was set up in the aftermath of the tsunami by 4 individuals and started working in the Arugam Bay area as a A?a??E?non-political private sector initiativeA?a??a??.
The Trustees are:
Mr. Ajith De Costa, is Managing Director of Maxim Ltd
Mr. Michel Sproule, is his stepson and a senior partner in a Colombo law firm
Mr. Hanif Yusoof, is the Managing Director of Expolanka Freight Ltd
Dr. Mrs. D. Kumara. is a retired doctor.
The Rebuild Sri Lanka Trust had within a month of the tsunami contracted a series of consultants to work on the plan.
These were:
Arcadis, a company of consulting engineers from the Netherlands,
ECOPLAN-Z Limited from New Zealand, and
EML Consultants from Sri Lanka.
All are themselves involved in or are directly linked to work on large Asian Development Bank or World Bank infrastructure projects. The local company, EML Consultants, according to their website, normally works in facilitating US investment in water and environmental services, in carbon trading and in the promotion of plantation agriculture and floriculture.
The plan was finalised by 25th April 2005 and states that at the time of writing the President had already given approval, and further was A?a??E?keen to see the action projects proposed in the report are implemented without delayA?a??a??. In fact, USAID had already published a Presolicitation Notice for a contract to construct the bridge, road, water supply scheme and wastewater system in Arugam Bay by 8th April 2005, and hosted a Pre-Bid Conference for potential contractors in Colombo on 10th May 2005.
The first the Residents of Arugam Bay heard of the plan was at a meeting organised by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board and Sewalanka Foundation in Colombo on 17th May 2005.
An assessment of the plan carried out for the Rebuild Sri Lanka Trust said A?a??E?the most important shortcoming is that it has largely been produced in isolation in Colombo, with little or no stakeholder involvement. It is evident that the team spent only two days in Pottuvil – Arugam Bay, and apart from the GA officer in Ampara and the DS in Pottuvil, they met only with INGO staff.A?a??a??
This article has been submitted by:
SwissHits
Arugam.info was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Japanese Government has quietly and without the usual NGO publicity constructed a small township just North of PottuVille.
An almost identical Japanese mirror project is located north of Trincomalee, again for the benefit of Tsunami sufferers.
At Pottuvil, a total of 200 houses are near completion, complete with all modern infrastructure, with wide access roads, water tower, sewage treatment plants, mains power station and best of all:
They have included a nice Pre school, a Social Centre and a shopping arcade and bus stops.
The total cost of the project is about 380 Mill. Each modern home has its own bathroom, shower room and kitchen and will cost about 1.2 Mill/each
Now here we have a decent project for a change!
Also, in marked contrast, there are NO flash 4×4 Jeeps, no Flags or blue lights, no huge posters and banners. There is only one single Japanese project Consultant, and he himself collected our reporter in his own private, unmarked and very modest car.
At the obligatory tea ceremony in his plain site office it became obvious that they were not used to any media exposure.
Arugam.info Order cardura dosage is …highly …..IMPRESSED!
We wish and pray that the Prevacid over the counter reviews Bay itself will, one day hopefully, receive the benefit of such brilliant guys, who just get on with their task and produce such excellent results.
more photos are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/arugamsurf/JapanVillage
The beneficiaries were identified by the PottuVille Divisional Secretary, Mr. Mohammed M. Nowfel and we are informed that they consist of 180 Muslim and 20 Tamil families.
Arugam.info has been informed that a popular and well known local elephant was shot and badly wounded by a home guard in Panama a few days ago.
Sadly this conflict exists, but what makes this particular event so tragic is the fact that the injured animal is believed to be the last remaining How much keftab Cross Tusker in Sri Lanka.
Arugam.info is about to obtain and issue recent photographs of the injured bull.
The authorities, in this case take the event extremely serious:
A Helicopter was scrambled, the wild life director and leading vets are on location and the animal, shot above the knee is receiving all possible attention.
The big worry is that the tusker cannot stand up unaided and might not be able to recover.
Mercy Corps received 1 Mill. US$ from the Oprah Winfrey Show, to be spent on “Changing Lives” in Arugam Bay.
The idealistic and well motivated Ms. Lyn Robinson implemented various “lively hood programs”, until her departure last autumn.
Nombre generico de arcoxia AbHa and Arugam.info has always been cold shouldered by Mercy Corps, and there has been an uneasy relationship, which resulted in a a lack of information flow and some misunderstandings.
However, Arugam.info Purchase lasunana is happy to admit that M/c was perhaps the best of any NGO ‘active’ in the Bay.
However, can we now ask “How wise was the 1 Mill.$ actually invested?”
1.) Concrete Block factory: No longer in operation
2.) Bicycle rentals: Never worked,all bikes sold for cash
3.) Kali Motorbike rentals: All 5 motorbikes sold for cash – at a fraction of the value
4.) Garment factory: Bankrupt – No orders!
5.) Garbage Tractor: Parked up, never goes out, no money for Diesel
6.) Chicken Farm: No Chickens
7.) Donated Fridges: Compressors burned out due to mains power fluctuation’s
8.) 100,000 ‘Las Vegas’ lights of Hope: All broke, see above, + rain
9.) Street Trees: OK, growing. But many will be uprooted when the road is done
10.) Street lights: Never on. House owners can’t pay the electricity bills anymore
11.) Boats, nets, engines: All sold for minimal cash
12.) Small side Roads: Substandard, unprofessional.A?A? All will be redone by UNOPS
12.) Small restaurants: All closed. No business, too much competition all round
13.) Internet: No more Internet in the entire Bay. Cut off by SLT (bill arrears)
AbHa advised Ms. Lyn that the American Dream might simply not work in Sri Lanka.
Here not everyone is cut out to be a successful business man.
It hurts to see that this seems to be the sad result of the best funded, most involved and most successful organization the Bay has had the pleasure of welcoming after Dec/2004.
As mentioned, Mercy Corps ignores us, our advice and this web site – so maybe there are many more successful investments we don’t know about.
The Bay’s own Tsunami warning system will also be switched off as soon as the Inmarsat prepaid credit is run out – Mercy Corpse had no funds available for this Community project, run by proven survivors, in every way.
 |
An earthquake measuring 7.3 has struck near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi the US Geological Survey says. The quake was centred in the Molucca Sea, according to USGS reports.
Indonesian officials put the quake strength at 6.5 and said it could pose a tsunami risk, Reuters news agency reported, but no warning was issued.
Indonesia is regularly affected by earthquakes, and the country was badly hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004.
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All coast roads around Arugam Bay and PottuVille are flooded, bridges to Panama damaged, the track is eroded and impassible.
Hamlets are cut off due to very heavy up country rainfalls, now beginning to reach the East Coast via the rivers.
photo: Cc Reuters News feed
The brand new, white coloured EU funded construction machinery, parked at Panama during the past 6 months had been withdrawn in the dry season – before Christmas – without being put to use locally.
The US 10Mill$ Arugam to Pottuvil bridge has widely been reported at global level.
It is the first, large and most welcome investment right there in the -still- worst affected area of Tsu. hit Sri Lanka.
Locals are happy and express some hope:
But: Will it help US?
Arugam.info has been asked why we just reprint USAID and US State Dept. PR press releases.
And why don’t we cover the actual construction progress, being right here on our doorstep.
The simple answer is that there is no real progress to report from bridge head.
However, an eminent Chartered Civil Engineer is busy with an extensive study of this impressive Public Service project.
We are promised frequent reports, once work has commenced.
A local quantity surveyor has also kindly agreed to let us have frequent details and realistic cost estimates, as observed at local level.
At present, there is no activity at all. To date some Labourers have basically, partly and simply rebuild the southern 70m causeway, using sandbags and aggregate. USA Contractors CH2MHill have therefore just replaced the earth & material which was in fact the only major damage the road link sustained during the Tsunami.
We recall that this quick and low cost, very simple landfill operation was in fact proposed back in December 2004, partly or mainly using rubble from all the broken buildings, from both ends of the bridge. As a result Arugam Bay would have been re-connected to the mainland within days and may have progressed quicker in its own recovery. The anticipated side effect would have been that all rubbish would not have been scattered without any plan throughout the Countryside. And of course it would have totally eliminated the need of the small Bailey bridge constructed by the Indian Army as a temporary measure.
However, the funds and contracts are in place and we will let you know how this impressive landmark Friendship Bridge progresses.
Reports that the same multi Million Dollar US Contract includes various other improvements such as fishing harbours relate, as usual, to the South Coast and have no obvious connection with the dire situation experienced at Arugam Bay.
Below is a link to last year’s USAid “Environmental Assessment” study – known ever since asA?A? “US – AbaY Turtle” or EMU study in some quarters.
If you are somewhat qualified or interested just download the (virus free) pdf file, consider its merits and let us simple Arugam peasants know if you are also totally impressed; as all the invited natives were ( expats or qualified local professionals were not invited or considered to be worthwhile ‘stakeholders’ at its initial presentation, see appendix page 95)
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CORRECTION!
The photo above is NOTHING like the bridge Arugam Bay is going to get!
We are informed that a very simple, cheap and non-memorable design is going to replace the old landmark box girder bridge.
It’s official!
Tourist resort Arugam Bay has been identified as Asia’s most promising rising star.
Take a look at the impressive Development plan contained in a 68 page zip pdf study together with attached zoning and infrastructure plans:
abaydevelopment.zip
abaydevelopment.zip
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