Well last post I mentioned that I had emailed the Keith's brewery about getting some decent beer, and quite to my surprise they actually responded! I am so amazed that I actually decided to post ASAP rather than wait the usual couple of days/weeks/months... hehe small joke... uhm.
Anyway for your reading pleasure below is a transcript of the mail, though the news wasn't what I had hoped.

My passionate plea:

Greetings,

My name is Srian Fernando, I've lived in Canada all my life, though recently moved to Sri Lanka for a few months. While the weather is decidedly warmer, I find one thing lacking and it is a growing concern. There isn't a single decent beer here, when one is accustomed to Canadian beer (most notably Keiths of course) the local stuff I have to reluctantly force down (t'is a crime to waste beer after all).

Anyway I was hoping I could find out if there is someplace I would be able to get a bottle of Keiths in Sri Lanka or if not is there some way to get some? I would also like to introduce my new friends to some 'real beer'.

Thank you,

Srian

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"No one writes jokes in base 13 [...] I may be a pretty sad person but I don't write jokes in base 13"
-Douglas Adams

The prompt yet disappointing response:

Thank you for your e-mail Srian. We appreciate that you took the time to leave us your comments. Unfortunately Alexander Keith's cannot be purchased in Sri Lanka at this time. In reality Alexander Keith's is growing so fast in Canada that we are straining to meet demand. Today it would be difficult to consider any export markets, however please stay tuned, as we are always thinking about the future. Thank you for your interest in Keith's.

Best regards,

Tania

Keith's Customer Service

So that is that, I'll have to settle for drinking the local beer when I have the chance... oh well. I suppose I can try the Coconut Arrack, it burns so badly you forget all about the taste... and anything else for that matter. So to all of legal age, raise a glass and enjoy what you have while it lasts, for as that ol'song says "Ya don't know what you've got till it's gone", there was also something about a taxi but it never made much sense to me. Take care.

It ain't got Guinea pigs, but...

So I was planning to write my great opus of local conflicts and give a compelling argument of my take on the whole sordid mess… then my brain exploded from the depth of complexity I was trying to fit into a single blog post.
After recovering by watching some inane and pointless media I was ready to reattempt another entry but it was turning into what would be an epic novel by the standards of the Internet.
I will still attempt to write my viewpoint but I have a lot of editing to do, speaking of editing I must say that one quote has been springing to mind quite a lot recently:

“Write drunk, edit sober.”

To those who have had the experience of being inebriated I’m sure you can relate well to those words. Unfortunately for me, the prospect of endeavouring to write while intoxicated – while certainly appealing, is impractical in my case as I need to write quite a bit in relation to work and my relations in the area do not approve of alcohol consumption. In addition the prospect of drinking the ungodly stuff that passes for beer in my present local is quite disturbing… I miss McEwan’s, or a good ice cold Keiths. I’ve even taken the liberty of emailing the Keith’s brewery to see if there is someplace I can acquire the godly nectar… and no I am not an alcoholic.

Anyway I digress (actually I have no idea what that means… meh), so it finally comes around to the point where I have to decide what the heck I am going to write about. We’ll this time it will be something quite inane but can make me smile even when I’m not feeling too good (one can be surprised how often these things are needed).
So after my brain meltdown I decided to peruse some old internet sites and browsed around newgrounds, a user built site consisting the scum of the internet who make amateur flash movies and games, though some are better than mainstream.
There I came across a excessively cute but fun clip called “There She Is!” I had seen way back when, basically the story of a Rabbit and a Cat falling in love… okay I know it sounds corny but believe me it is fun, innocent and something that makes a nice change of pace from thinking about corruption, nationalism, suicide bombers, exploitation and the general ills of the world.
Though I was surprised to see that there were four more episodes or 'steps' to the clip that the author produced, and while it was a bit darker and had more depth managed to make me smile more. Give a watch for yourself and see if you can’t smile at the end.

So here we go, (UNFINISHED)

The first few weeks of this New Year have passed; a brief moment in the span of lives but significant nonetheless. There is a lot I would like to write about, the storm of recent events that have passed and the worrisome thoughts they provoke. As always I am hesitant to go into a topic, not because of importance or the worry of offense (actually there is a perverse fun in being offensive), rather I always look to find the deepest root of things events and rely not on second hand knowledge but what I can observe... I guess a better way to put it is that I only trust what truth I can see with my own eyes - anything else is merely a possibility awaiting confirmation. It is a good idea in theory however it often leads one to spend altogether too much time in observation without action or as in the case of the heroic Dane of Shakespeare, the balance skewed too far into reason without passion (I'm not actually that well read, had to study the play in High School).
Anyway perhaps it is time to put a few thoughts out as incomplete as they be...

Currently living in Sri Lanka the New Year has started off with a bit of a bang... literally. There is currently a military campaign waged against the LTTE (Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam) by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLAF), this year has seen the Government forces recapture areas of the Island that was controlled by the LTTE for the past 23 years. There is a lot of history behind this conflict and while it is against my better judgment I'll give a bit of an assessment based on my study the past few months here.

Firstly Sri Lanka has several different ethnic and religious groups, the main players being Sinhalese, Tamils divided further into Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians. If you want a further details the CIA Factbook on Sri Lanka breaks it down as follows: Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%, Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%, unspecified 10% (based on 2001 census). So historically there has been a bit of a conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils, now it should be noted that while Tamils are a minority in Sri Lanka they are part of a greater Tamil Diaspora that was once the great Chola Dynasty including Southern India and parts of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia... damn, this is turning a bit too technical and that is something I really wanted to avoid.

Unfortunately trying to explain this situation properly requires a lot of background information to get a real picture - to try and sum it up in a couple of incidents is self-serving mockery.

Then how should this be tackled, facts are in most cases irrelevant anyway... people will always find 'facts' to support their position and then it becomes a game of random figures and information.
Alright let's go with a bit more of intangible feeling of this whole mess, without giving all the details here is how it played out. Although on reflection that isn't altogether appropriate either... often times I think people tend to read articles or watch a couple of news clips and form quick opinions on complex issues without bothering to question deeper. For the most part this isn't really wrong as how can one have the time to research everything amidst the activities of daily life, though it does get a bit scary when people who really have no clue start touting their opinions as 'truth' and will with surprising energy vehemently defend the ignorance they champion.

So let me give my view and make of it what you will, though if you are curious and want to speak on the issue please do some real research, I'm tired of having read opinions of people whose only claim to intelligent thought is use of the 'copy' and 'paste' function on their computers.
Sri Lanka is now at a turning point; the military has almost crushed a terrorist group that has occupied the northern part of the Island for over 25 years. There is a bit of an ethnic schism and truthfully neither side is completely blameless, foreign factions have also contributed but that is another matter. At the root of it there is just a lot of distrust, and in some hatred. What is surprising is that the average person the common man if you will is the most open, just wanting to get on with their lives not caring about, politics or religion. Unfortunately people with a desire for power will use (or create) prevalent issues to control people, Prabakaran (leader of the LTTE) is one such and many of the politicians in Sri Lankan are the same.
Whatever said and done the LTTE have to be destroyed, terrorism isn't the way of solving problems and they have done more to hurt the legitimate causes of those they supposedly protect than the agencies they claim to defend against.

After that... is the bigger question, on top of ethnic distrust there is poverty, corruption, government policies, environmental concerns and a host of other problems to deal with that have either stemmed from or made worse by this conflict.

///Crap late for work, I wanted to finish this before I posted but will just have to leave if here and update when I get a chance, otherwise who knows how long it will take to post :P