Hard Facts
It is almost a month since I have been staying in Sri Lanka. A month time is enough to have a general observation about the country, its people, system and the culture. So in this article, I would be giving my own observations about the life here in Sri Lanka and would be comparing it with Pakistan.
Let us first talk about how did a common Pakistani thinks about Sri Lanka. Well, normally a common Pakistani doesn't have much about Sri Lanka except few names of its Cricket team like Jayasuria, Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas. But people here in Sri Lanka generally know a lot about Pakistan. Most of them know about famous Pakistani leaders, current political situation, and they are quiet concerned about the things happening there in Pakistan. Pakistan and Pakistanis are quiet respected here as all the arms and ammunition for Sri Lankan army comes from Pakistan. Pakistan had always supported the Sri Lankan government in its war against Tamil Tigers whereas India’s role was not more than a lip-service. Sri Lankan is a good market for Pakistani products as their stores and super-markets have Pakistani Basmati rice, chakki atta, onions and potatoes. I have also seen Shan Masalas in most of the stores.
It has been raining here since last 10 days but I have never seen water sanitation problem here. Heavy downpours leave no water stranded on the roads. Neither have I seen power cuts during rains. People generally obey the traffic laws and the signals. That is why they don’t have long hours traffic blockades which are common in Karachi. I also don’t see vehicles coming from the wrong side, nor dad I hardly seen people shouting on each other while breaking the rules by themselves. Roads are also much better in condition. I haven’t seen open man-holes, garbage mountains, shattered foot paths etc. Still I wonder why the Colombo City mayor was not included in the top mayors list.
Load shedding is not a problem in Sri Lanka. They used to have it a decade ago but they have maintained the demand supply ratio at par. The electrical distribution system is much better than KESC distribution as the entire distribution network is underground. But still I don’t see roads being dugged for maintenance purpose. KESC should have learned some lessons of effective distribution from Colombo Electric Authority.
Education had always been a top priority among Sri Lankans. And you won’t believe that top schools here are run by government whose standard is equivalent to Cambridge based schools. It is much harder to get an admission in government schools because of tough competition among the candidates. Literacy rate is almost 99%. Education is free in schools. Schools also provide free books and uniforms.
People are not happy with the politicians but they don’t look forward towards Army as well. Democracy prevails here although corruption exists among the elites. Education and health indicators are not at the developed world level but still they are better than Pakistan.
The best thing about Sri Lanka is that the people always smile whenever you look at them. I haven’t seen the faces of tension, depression and anger which is quiet common in my beloved country. Most probably, they don’t have to worry about water or electricity. Neither do they need to worry about the safety of their mobile phones and wallets while walking on the roads, as crime rate is quiet low as compared to other South Asian cities. Although inflation here is highest as compared to other South Asian countries, even than you hardly find a beggar on the streets.
