They were read another Chapter of Mahinda “Chinthanaya”

Rome’s Nero was put to shame by the apathy shown by the Home’s Heroes when the Jumbo entourage of 65 ( nothing less) and the President took flight to the 62nd UN sessions .When the people at home are starving , the entourage were having an orgy of wasteful spending of the Taxpayers’ money at the super luxury Ritz Hotel and the glitz at the Fashionable Beverly Hills !

The cost of a room per night was U.S. $ 600.00 with the Presidential suite costing U.S. $ 4000.00 per night! No Leader in the whole history of Sri Lanka had it so good! Born lucky, isn’t he? Particularly when the Nation is absolutely poverty stricken and burdened owing to his own Govt.’s unconscionable undoings.

Although 65 or over were in the delegation, most of them were conspicuous by their absence at the UN. They were attending to their private agendas, out on jolly jaunts: to Niagara Falls, Casinos, medical check- ups, reviving lost contacts or simply sight seeing – all at taxpayers’ expense! What’s more! apart from a lavish daily allowance paid to the ‘delegates’ , meals , phone calls, Laundry, and entertainment expenses were all on official account!

Foreign Minister Bogollagama answering a question from an American reporter made a sad slip when disclosing that “ I thought we were invisible in this environment when I walked down the corridors of the UN ” He made a rare utterance of the truth indeed .Of course , no one was visible- all of them were on jolly rides ignoring the UN sessions.

Sri Lanka delegation committed another blunder by securing the first slot for the President’s speech in the afternoon, which clearly made a glaring exhibition of the many empty ‘blue’ seats in the audience.