{"id":128358,"date":"2014-07-27T00:02:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-26T18:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=128358"},"modified":"2014-07-27T00:04:17","modified_gmt":"2014-07-26T18:34:17","slug":"the-beautification-of-urban-and-rural-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-beautification-of-urban-and-rural-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cBeautification\u201d Of Urban And Rural Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Emil van der Poorten<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Emil<\/a>

Emil van der Poorten<\/p><\/div>\n

Ever since I\u2019ve had the misfortune to observe the wholesale political and ethnic \u201ccleansing,\u201d in the name of \u201caesthetic re-arrangement,\u201d of Sri Lanka\u2019s capital city, I have had no desire to get closer than I absolutely had to such monstrous work.\u00a0 And I really mean the word \u201cmonstrous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a while back that Time<\/i> or Newsweek<\/i> ran a cover story on Rumania and the \u201csuccess\u201d it allegedly was in contrast to the rest of the Eastern Bloc of the time.\u00a0 It talked in glowing terms of the beautiful, clean lines of the new city of Bucharest among other \u201cfacts\u201d that pointed to the country of Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, as a beacon of freedom and democratic practice, where its citizens enjoyed a quality of life without equal in the countries behind the Iron Curtain of that day.<\/p>\n

It was not long before the horror of Ceausescu\u2019s \u201creforms\u201d emerged and they hardly bear repetition here.\u00a0 With some exceptions.<\/p>\n

Yes, he had razed old Bucharest to the ground and replaced it with a brand, spanking-new city. To people who knew what the classic old city looked like, the new Stalinist monstrosity, \u201cblock concrete architecture\u201d personified, was an unbelievable horror.\u00a0 In addition, those who were \u201cre-located\u201d from their residences were put in state-owned apartments with no provision for their pets.\u00a0 In a city where virtually everyone had pets, particularly dogs, one can well imagine what a huge problem tens of thousands of dogs suddenly cut loose with nowhere to live presented!\u00a0 The orphans caged, literally, like animals and other horrors that the overthrow, street trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena brought to light are now history, but history with a lesson: take \u201cevaluations\u201d by \u201cinterested parties\u201d of regimes responsible for such as \u201ccity cleansing\u201d \u201cunder advisement\u201d, as that old expression had it!<\/p>\n

\"EVP\"<\/a>In a similar context, one cannot but wonder what happened to the pets of those who were so unceremoniously \u201cre-located\u201d from Slave Island not so long ago. Perhaps there were White Vans to cater to their canine friends as well!<\/p>\n

The last straw that drove this camel to his computer keyboard, however, was the pictures that I\u2019ve seen in more than one issue of a newspaper published by the Times group which have the old Racecourse Grandstand (artistically lit), with the ubiquitous \u201cGolden Arches\u201d of the outfit sometimes called Rotten Ronnie\u2019s – the house of Ronald McDonald, McDonalds \u2013 prominently displayed on its fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that even in Ceausescu\u2019s Rumania would a historic building have been defaced with the trademark of all that epitomizes unhealthy eating!\u00a0 It is beyond belief and I am further bemused by the fact that the commercial entity responsible for this bit of planning is headed by supposedly respectable professional architects with a reputation for good taste if nothing else!\u00a0 Oh, well, everyone has his or her price, I suppose and when everything, inclusive of \u201cgood taste\u201d is at the disposal of a ruling coterie who wouldn\u2019t even know the meaning of the word \u201caesthetics\u201d if it bit it in that most tender part of its anatomy, who is one to complain?<\/p>\n

To me what this epitomizes, though, is the arrogance of a ruling clique to whom nothing<\/b> is sacred and to whom nothing<\/b> matters except self-aggrandizement and the exercise of brute power and authority.\u00a0 It also speaks volumes for those who have the training and education to \u201cknow better\u201d than to go along, it speaks volumes (again!) about the debasement of Sri Lanka\u2019s allegedly professional and educated class!<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An example of the figures on the hotel roof<\/p><\/div>\n

When streets were straightened out in areas of Colombo where exceptions had previously been made by by-law in order to preserve trees of historical and cultural value, no protest was made by the architectural community except, to my recollection, by one man whose opinion would, I am sure, have been discarded because of his last name which had a \u201cBurgher sound\u201d to it!\u00a0 The rest of the architectural elite even if it didn\u2019t sing the praises of the new Czar of urban planning certainly did not so much as make passing reference to what was happening, not even \u00a0in one of the elitist Forums that I am sure they would have attended, fuelled by the cocktails of upper-class existence.\u00a0 No, they were too busy lining up for crumbs from the urban planning table!<\/p>\n

And now, a return to the rural Sri Lanka that has always been home to me in this country, the relevance of which to this narrative I hope you will appreciate.<\/p>\n

For those familiar with the Kandy-Kurunegala road I would strongly recommend an edifice, close to Mawathagama for appropriate scrutiny any time you pass that way.<\/p>\n

The faux-classic architecture of the edifice, located immediately adjacent to the road, proclaims it to be a hotel, replete with a quite extensive and expensive outdoor children\u2019s playground to one side of it. \u00a0What makes this a place of interest in the context of buildings in poor taste, is the fact that it is festooned with statues of various kinds on its quite extensive roof that faces the A10 Highway.\u00a0 Predominant among the figures are horses, eagles and classic Roman (?) figures (see picture).\u00a0 While it has been my intention to deal with my curiosity by driving in for, perhaps, a cup of tea and a biscuit, on every occasion on which we\u2019ve driven by, the gates have been chained shut.<\/p>\n

Another interesting fact, in the matter of landscaping, is the large vehicle sales lot which preceded the hotel\u2019s construction and which still continues, between the highway and the hotel and the entry to it.\u00a0 This can either be considered bizarre or, in a more charitable vein, surrealistic!<\/p>\n

Gossip around these parts is that this unique combination of a hotel with extravagant architecture and a used-vehicle lot has connections to those responsible for the \u201cbeautification<\/span><\/a>\u201d of Colombo.<\/p>\n

As a footnote, I must admit that I have become the butt of many jokes since it was discovered that I had donated an adult \u201cBiling\u201d tree (Averrhoa bilimbi) to this location, being told that the tree was going to the grounds of some charitable institution and that the Triple Gem would bless me etc., etc. for my act of charity!<\/p>\n

Given my known distaste for this new Philistinism and those visiting it upon Sri Lanka, I cannot but share my friends\u2019 amusement at what I\u2019d done, no matter how unwittingly! Oh, well, as they say, \u201cThe road to hell is paved with good intentions\u201d and now that this regime has made its contribution to 21st<\/sup> Century Colombo\u2019s architectural aesthetics by sticking a McDonalds sign on an imposing building of significant historic interest, I don\u2019t feel too bad about being taken in by some con-men working for a political czar who had me believing their patron\u2019s hotel was some charitable institution.\u00a0 After all it wouldn\u2019t be too much of a stretch to classify all of that group\u2019s businesses as charitable because the funds for their existence and continuing prosperity are \u201cdonated,\u201d no matter how unknowingly, by the Sri Lankan public!<\/p>\n

Confirmation of where our landscape is headed is the most recent emblazoning of the Burger King logo on one of the most recently \u201cbeautified\u201d historic buildings, re-launched as a consumers\u2019 paradise for the anointed in Colombo!\u00a0 Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Pizza Hut, both owned by the Yum Brands fast-food giant must really feel ill done by in these advertising stakes, though I would urge them not to lose faith because, perhaps, the powers-that-be can be persuaded to re-name Parakrama Samudra \u00a0\u201cThe Lake of Pepsi\u201d or something like that!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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