The King And The Monkeys

The proverbial monkey that killed the king it loved so much because it did not want even a mosquito harming him is a story that we all have enjoyed as children.   It told us what harm can misplaced loyalty do to a person and what danger awaits a person who trusts his life with the wrong kind even if it displays extreme loyalty. In everyday life such situations are commonplace and that is why the story is so. In everyday life when such things happen the repercussions are not felt much, since the affected are in a limited circle. In politics however as with the king in the story, it is the leader who is put in harm’s way and the whole country suffers the consequences.  In the politics of this country this act has been played many times over in the past with a slightly different storyline every time but with similar results. In the story it is one monkey but in politics it is a troop of monkeys that is responsible for the mischief when it happens. In the story the loyal advisors to the king killed the monkey so that there would not be another such tragedy.  In the politics of this country, the king gets killed and the monkeys go scot free to kill another king. The recent trade union action by the university academics has brought the act back on stage again.
In the modern political drama, three groups play the monkey in the life of the political leadership of this country. They to a certain degree are creations of the political leadership itself; at least two of them are direct products of political decisions of the past. The other has evolved into shape through its own actions to a large extent but also supported by actions of the rulers who discovered the benefit in promoting this group. These three groups are representative of three influential segments of the country, namely, the top public servants, the law makers, academics and professionals. Their importance in the drama may not be necessarily in that order but their historical emergence is. Furthermore, there is one thing that they all share and keep them together; their survival.

The Top Public Servants

Politicisation of public service has a relatively long history in this country.  The first formal attempt to control the public service administration can be traced back to the workers committees in the mid 60s. Though this was done with good intentions of making the public sector accountable it opened the doors for politicians to interfere with the system.  The abolition of both the Public Service Commission and the Judicial Service Commission by the 1972 Constitution eliminated all remaining safeguards.  Today the interference of the political leadership in the public service has expanded much further and the entire public service is under political control. The provisions that were used sparingly and under very special circumstances with proper consultation in the old days, are used regularly today to get friends, relations and cronies to high positions so that political masters feel comfortable.
The unfortunate result of this is the second or third best becoming decision makers in the public service. Their existence and survival rest with politicians who install them there. This has created a dependency relationship between public servants and politicians. The link to politicians gives these men power that is beyond their position, and perks and benefits too to go with it. Politicians in return get a servile public service that bends over backwards and a little more to fulfill their whims and fancies.
In this master-servant relationship the public servant has become a mere messenger boy of the political master. The greater the dependency, the greater the power of the bureaucrat and it is a vicious circle one cannot get out of. The top public servant who is caught in this can no longer serve the public and is not bound by the rules, norms and traditions of the service. The sole aim of his/her existence is to serve the master. What is important is the immediate perks, and if retirement is nearing perhaps an extension of service or even a diplomatic posting after retirement (to be with the child who was sent abroad with the public servant’s pay of course). It therefore is not surprising for top public servants to play the role they play and not mind the consequences except those that personally affect them.

The Law Makers

The law makers in this country today are no longer the people’s representatives they used to be in the old days. They are servants of the top political leadership.  The creator of this monkey is the government that came into power in 1977. To survive under the system one has not only to toe the line of the leader but also be servile. Though one could argue that the situation relaxed somewhat during the latter part of President Chandrika Bandarabaike’s regime due to the dual leadership situation, it was however a temporary deviation and the fundamentals of this second form of political master-servant relationship remains unchanged.
Theoretically the law makers of this country are “elected” by the people but practically to be elected they need to be “selected” first. This is a rule that leads to an unswerving yet bizarre and very warped form of loyalty binding people’s representatives and their leader, especially when the leader is the leader of the party in power.  Invariably the result, as we see today, is a master-servant relationship connecting a hierarchically organised group of “yes-men” (read politicians).
There are two ways of demonstrating loyalty of the law makers to their leader. The first is to be the mouth piece of the leader and utter in public every word the leader says. There is therefore nothing of their own in the public speeches of our law makers. ‘As my leader says’ is the beginning of practically every sentence they utter in public. The second is to be seen with the leader wherever he is present both in public and in private life. Their priority is not their electorate but the electorate of the leader or that of somebody who they think is close to the leader. The public often gets a ringside view of this type of shameless display of “loyalty” during elections.

Advisors To The Government

This is the most unusual group in the modern day version of the monkey story and one that is to a large extent its own creation.  Though there have been academics and professionals in active politics before, the evolution of this particular species began during the run up to the 1994 Presidential election. The political involvement of professionals and academics before that, in a very peculiar way, was apolitical; even when they were members of political parties they on the whole maintained their professional integrity and independence.  They were certainly no political valets of the leader like the ones there are today. The year 1994 was a watershed, for not only did it bring a very large number of academics and professionals onto the public political stage but also through that created a unique group of “political yes-men academics/professionals.”  Today the majority of academics/professionals who advise the government are mere foot soldiers to politicians and not in the class of the ones that used to guide politicians in the good old days. Of course one could argue that in the good old days it was a different class of politicians too.
Today we have a new breed of academics and professionals who compete for top positions in the administration and government. These often are a self serving group of people who use their political connections to hide their intellectual deficiencies and academic inadequacies. Their political masters in turn benefit from them as their whims and fancies can be legitimised by claiming they have the support of the intelligentsia of the country, a truly beneficial relationship though pathetic. The unfortunate thing about this is that the majority of these advisors know little of the subjects they are supposed to know and even less of the politics they are playing.  The path to a position normally begins with the elections when they are taken in groups and herded into meetings for “discussions and dialogues.”  Today it is a must for politicians in this country to publish in the papers a list of names of academics and professionals asking the public to vote for “their candidate” and even get some of them on their campaign trail. This list is the one that is consulted later when appointing advisors.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil And Talk No Evil (But Do All Evil)

Like the proverbial monkey the three groups encircle the top political leadership and have nothing but praise for their master. They do not dare to contradict the leader for that could lead to loss of position and perks. There is always another who would be waiting to take the place of the one who gets into the bad books of the leader. The leadership naturally is now used to being praised and does not want to hear anything bad about it. It is a see no evil, hear no evil and talk no evil situation for the leader and the monkeys.
The only way to put an end to this scourge is by dismantling the system that nurtures it. It can only happen if politicians become true representatives of the people and the public service is allowed to be independent. Academics and professionals also need to re-establish their dignity and worth. Stopping the monkeys will be good for not only the country but also the political leadership. Any attempt to break this system will create a minor crisis but if the present situation is allowed to continue the resultant crises will be of extraordinary proportions.  The better and the less painful option is for the politicians to take the lead and dismantle this system at least for their own sake. After all, working for their own sake is nothing new to them.
Sisira Pinnawala
University of Peradeniya
sisirap@pdn.ac.lk

Budget Deficit And GDP Growth

On the eve of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year the Central Bank (CB) ceremonially presented its Annual Report of 2010 to the President. At this occasion the President used some statistics in the report and said that Sri Lanka achieved 8% of GDP growth in 2010. Further it was said that per capita income rose to USD 2400 in 2010 from $2053 in the previous year; unemployment decreased to 4.8 from 5.9%. He assured that this decade will be a decade of economic prosperity and will double per capita income by 2016.
Only a die-hard opposition member might grudge the optimism expressed by the President. The overwhelming majority of Sri Lankans from all ethnicities must be happy if Sri Lanka could win in the game of economic development or at least become a kind of runner up as our cricketers did in their game recently.
Yet, being a honest researcher, I want to send a message of caution to the President and the administration in general. The parameters cited above by the President has nothing to do in assuring continuing economic progress.
Let us take an example to explain my point. GDP or Gross Domestic Product is a measure of the goods and services produced in the country; in fact it is a relatively good measure of economic output. GDP is calculated in adding up four quantities namely C+I+G+(NE). Here, C=private consumption, I= investment by industry excluding investments in stocks and bonds, G= government expenditure again excluding interest and capital paid on loans and NE= net exports (exports – imports).
So, the  government expenditure is represented in GDP. If the government spends Rs. 100 the GDP should increase by Rs. 100, if the government did not pay any interest and capital. Similarly if the government increased its expenditure by 8% over the budget which is known as deficit spending, then the GDP should be increased by 8%. According to the statistics deficit spending of 2010 was 8% of GDP (or to be exact it was 7.9%).
We all know that budget deficit (or deficit spending) is bridged with borrowing. Does this mean that the total GDP growth we achieved in 2010 was from borrowing from the government? No, the case is not that simple but we can understand it.
CB reported that some sectors in real economy like agriculture, tourism and exports posted a growth in 2010. Should these figures contribute to increase GDP? Yes, they should. That means even though the deficit spending has come to 8% of GDP the effective contribution to GDP from government expenditure should be less. How has this become less than the nominal value? If a good part of government expenditure goes for the payment of interest and capital, that expenditure of the government does not contribute to GDP. What does this mean?
In answering the above question let me generalise it since I do not know of any plans of the government economic planners and the IMF. If deficit spending is ‘ x%’ and the increase of GDP is less than ‘x’ then the country is heading towards a national debt crisis or unwanted inflationary situation. If deficit spending is ‘ x%’ and the GDP increase is greater than ‘x’ then the country is far from having a debt crisis. I would suggest the President to keep an eye on this matter before it is too late.
Let me bring up another matter here. According to the Central Bank the rate of unemployment has decreased to 4.8%. It is expected to reduce further if we sustain the same level of growth which is the expectation of the CB. If huge productivity improvement did not take place or retirement age is not increased we are heading to maturity of our economy before we double per capita income to USD 4000 in 2016.
When any economy reaches maturity it possesses certain characteristics which I summarise as follows.
At economic maturity “If the private consumers are not in significant debt then the government should. And if both the private consumer and the government are not in debt significantly then the system gap must be filled from the income derived from the stock market which means there should be a bubble in the stock market with heavy debt on holders/ or holding companies of stocks. If nothing of the above is happening then it must be an immature economy which is expanding by reinvesting the expanded capital and producer credit mostly producing goods and services of higher order goods.”
“In all former scenarios except the last scenario the economic system should crash due to heavy debt sooner than later if partial debt cancellation does not take place pro-actively to ensure the continuing filling of the system gap. In the later case the economy would fall into any one of the former scenarios as the economy grows.”
“The only other possibility that a producer country does not have a ‘debt’ crisis is when it continues to have an excessive (I mean excessive) trade surplus; but all countries in the world cannot record ‘trade surpluses.” (above quotes are from an essay written by the author of this article).
As we noticed above there is a certain underlying order in economic behaviour. The recent economic crashes that happened in the developed world, proved it. Japan had a good foreign reserve surplus but the economy crashed in 1990; the decade of 1990’s is now called by the Japanese as the lost decade.
The U.S. had a continuing trade deficit but had the lowest rate of unemployment (around 4%) and highest rate of home ownership, high productivity and a stable dollar before the economy crashed in late 2007 due to a debt crisis.
Is such a crisis possible before we hit per capita income of USD 4,000 in 2016? I would suggest the President to be mindful on this point again before it is too late. Because the restructuring of state enterprises, reducing budget deficit and cutting social welfare programmes etc. are simply no solution to prevent such crises happening.
Hema Senanayake

Using Body Language

Body language is an important part of communication which can constitute 50% or more of what we are communicating. If you wish to communicate well, then it makes sense to understand how you can (and cannot) use your body to say what you mean.

Message clusters

Body language comes in clusters of signals and postures, depending on the internal emotions and mental states.  Recognizing a whole cluster is thus far more reliable than trying to interpret individual elements.

• Aggressive body language: Showing physical threat.
• Attentive body language: Showing real interest.
• Bored body language: Just not being interested.
• Closed body language: Many reasons are closed.
• Deceptive body language: Seeking to cover up lying or other deception.
• Defensive body language: Protecting self from attack.
• Dominant body language: Dominating others.
• Emotional body language: Identifying feelings.
• Evaluating body language: Judging and deciding about something.
• Greeting body language: Meeting rituals.
• Open body language: Many reasons for being open.
• Power body language: Demonstrating one's power.
• Ready body language: Wanting to act and waiting for the trigger.
• Relaxed body language: Comfortable and unstressed.
• Romantic body language: Showing attraction to others.
• Sales Body Language: Using your body to sell.
• Submissive body language: Showing you are prepared to give in.

Core patterns

A number of core patterns can be identified that include clusters of body movements:

• Crossing, Expanding, Moving away, Moving forward, Opening, Preening, Repeating, Shaping, Striking and Touching

Parts-of-the-body language

You can send signals with individual parts of the body as well as in concert. Here's details of the contributions of each part of the body.

• Head: Face, Cheek, Chin, Mouth, Lips, Teeth, Tongue, Nose, Eyes, Eyebrow, Forehead, Hair
• Arm: Elbow, Hand, Finger
• Torso: Neck, Shoulder, Chest, Back, Belly, Bottom, Hips
• Legs: Thigh, Knee, Foot

Other notes

Remember that body language varies greatly with people and especially with international cultures (so be very careful when applying Western understanding to Eastern non-verbal language).

• Body as Cue, Evidence, Persuasion: How we shape changes how we feel.
• Body language caveat: You can't control all of your muscles. So why bother?
• Emphasis with body language: Adding emphasis to what you are saying.
• Social distances: The space between us.
• Satir's Five Positions: Speaking positions.
• Touching: Using physical touch.
• Hugging: Close comfort and affection.

18 ways to improve your body language

There is no specific advice on how to use your body language. What you do might be interpreted in several ways, depending on the setting and who you are talking to. You’ll probably want to use your body language differently when talking to your boss compared to when you talk to a girl/guy you’re interested in. These are some common interpretations of body language and often more effective ways to communicate with your body.

First, to change your body language you must be aware of your body language. Notice how you sit, how you stand, how you use you hands and legs, what you do while talking to someone.

You might want to practice in front of a mirror. Yeah, it might seem silly but no one is watching you. This will give you good feedback on how you look to other people and give you an opportunity to practise a bit before going out into the world.

Another tip is to close your eyes and visualize how you would stand and sit to feel confident, open and relaxed or whatever you want to communicate. See yourself move like that version of yourself. Then try it out.

You might also want observe friends, role models, movie stars or other people you think has good body language. Observe what they do and you don’t. Take bits and pieces you like from different people. Try using what you can learn from them.

Some of these tips might seem like you are faking something. But fake it til you make it is a useful way to learn something new. And remember, feelings work backwards too. If you smile a bit more you will feel happier. If you sit up straight you will feel more energetic and in control. If you slow down your movements you’ll feel calmer. Your feelings will actually reinforce your new behaviours and feelings of weirdness will dissipate.

In the beginning easy it’s to exaggerate your body language. You might sit with your legs almost ridiculously far apart or sit up straight in a tense pose all the time. That’s ok. And people aren’t looking as much as you think, they are worrying about their own problems. Just play around a bit, practice and monitor yourself to find a comfortable balance.

1. Don’t cross your arms or legs – You have probably already heard you shouldn’t cross your arms as it might make you seem defensive or guarded. This goes for your legs too. Keep your arms and legs open.

2. Have eye contact, but don’t stare – If there are several people you are talking to, give them all some eye contact to create a better connection and see if they are listening. Keeping too much eye-contact might creep people out. Giving no eye-contact might make you seem insecure. If you are not used to keeping eye-contact it might feel a little hard or scary in the beginning but keep working on it and you’ll get used to it.

3. Don’t be afraid to take up some space – Taking up space by for example sitting or standing with your legs apart a bit signals self-confidence and that you are comfortable in your own skin.

4. Relax your shoulders – When you feel tense it’s easily winds up as tension in your shoulders. They might move up and forward a bit. Try to relax. Try to loosen up by shaking the shoulders a bit and move them back slightly.

5. Nod when they are talking – nod once in a while to signal that you are listening. But don’t overdo it and peck like Woody Woodpecker.

6. Don’t slouch, sit up straight – but in a relaxed way, not in a too tense manner.

7. Lean, but not too much – If you want to show that you are interested in what someone is saying, lean toward the person talking. If you want to show that you’re confident in yourself and relaxed lean back a bit. But don’t lean in too much or you might seem needy and desperate for some approval. Or lean back too much or you might seem arrogant and distant.

8. Smile and laugh – lighten up, don’t take yourself too seriously. Relax a bit, smile and laugh when someone says something funny. People will be a lot more inclined to listen to you if you seem to be a positive person. But don’t be the first to laugh at your own jokes, it makes you seem nervous and needy. Smile when you are introduced to someone but don’t keep a smile plastered on your face, you’ll seem insincere.

9. Don’t touch your face – it might make you seem nervous and can be distracting for the listeners or the people in the conversation.

10. Keep you head up – Don’t keep your eyes on the ground, it might make you seem insecure and a bit lost. Keep your head up straight and your eyes towards the horizon.

11. Slow down a bit – this goes for many things. Walking slower not only makes you seem more calm and confident, it will also make you feel less stressed. If someone addresses you, don’t snap you’re neck in their direction, turn it a bit more slowly instead.

12. Don’t fidget – try to avoid, phase out or transform fidgety movement and nervous ticks such as shaking your leg or tapping your fingers against the table rapidly. You’ll seem nervous and fidgeting can be a distracting when you try to get something across. Declutter your movements if you are all over the place. Try to relax, slow down and focus your movements.

13. Use your hands more confidently – instead of fidgeting with your hands and scratching your face use them to communicate what you are trying to say. Use your hands to describe something or to add weight to a point you are trying to make. But don’t use them to much or it might become distracting. And don’t let your hands flail around, use them with some control.

14. Lower your drink – don’t hold your drink in front of your chest. In fact, don’t hold anything in front of your heart as it will make you seem guarded and distant. Lower it and hold it beside your leg instead.

15. Realise where you spine ends – many people (including me until recently) might sit or stand with a straight back in a good posture. However, they might think that the spine ends where the neck begins and therefore crane the neck forward in a Montgomery Burns-pose. Your spine ends in the back of your head. Keep you whole spine straight and aligned for better posture.

16. Don’t stand too close –one of the things we learned from Seinfeld is that everybody gets weirded out by a close-talker. Let people have their personal space, don’t invade it.

17. Mirror – Often when you get along with a person, when the two of you get a good connection, you will start to mirror each other unconsciously. That means that you mirror the other person’s body language a bit. To make the connection better you can try a bit of proactive mirroring. If he leans forward, you might lean forward. If she holds her hands on her thighs, you might do the same. But don’t react instantly and don’t mirror every change in body language. Then weirdness will ensue. 

18. Keep a good attitude – last but not least, keep a positive, open and relaxed attitude. How you feel will come through in your body language and can make a major difference. For information on how make yourself feel better read 10 ways to change how you feel and for relaxation try A very simple way to feel relaxed for 24 hours.

You can change your body language but as all new habits it takes a while. Especially things like keeping you head up might take time to correct if you have spent thousands of days looking at your feet. And if you try and change to many things at once it might become confusing and feel overwhelming.

Take a couple of these body language bits to work on every day for three to four weeks. By then they should have developed into new habits and something you’ll do without even thinking about it. If not, keep on until it sticks. Then take another couple of things you’d like to change and work on them.

Chivito

The chivito is a flabbergasting hot Dagwood that combines the triple joy of a BLT, a cheese steak, and a ham and cheese sandwich all on one bun! 

Recipe Source: The Olive Market
Preparation Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 1

Ingredients:

2 slices of bacon
1/4-inch slice of filet mignon
Salt and pepper
1 egg
1 hard roll (Portuguese Roll, New Orleans Muffuletta, or any sturdy Italian torpedo)
Mayonnaise
1 slice of Black Forest ham
1 slice of Provolone cheese
Lettuce
2 tomato slices
1 slice of onion

Directions:

1. Fry the bacon in a hot skillet. When cooked, remove to drain but leave the bacon fat in the skillet.
2. Pound the filet mignon until it is about the size of the hard roll.Salt and pepper it on both sides, then fry it in the bacon grease. When cooked until pink in the center, remove the steak.
3. Fry the egg, removing the egg when the yolk is cooked but still runny.
4. Slice and toast the hard roll. Spread mayonnaise on both sides. On the bottom, first place the filet mignon, followed by the ham, the Provolone, the fried egg, the bacon, the lettuce, tomato, and onion.
5. Serve with French fries and many napkins

Dealing with a puppy's heart murmur

Q. I just purchased an 8-week-old Maltese puppy and took him to my veterinarian for his first exam. My veterinarian said the puppy has a heart murmur, and that I should consider taking the puppy back since he may not live long. I have had the puppy only a few days but am already very attached and cannot imagine returning him. What should I do? Is the murmur something to worry about?
A heart murmur in a puppy or a kitten may or may not be a serious problem. A murmur is an abnormal sound that is heard when listening to the heart with a stethoscope. Murmurs are due to atypical blood flow in the heart or the surrounding vessels, but they do not necessarily confirm the presence of heart disease. Typically, the louder the murmur the more concern about the possibility of significant heart disease.
Murmurs in puppies and kittens can be placed in two categories. Murmurs that are a result of actual heart disease are referred to as pathologic murmurs. Murmurs that are present with a normal heart are referred to as innocent or flow murmurs.
The cause of innocent murmurs in both humans and animals is unknown, but the prognosis with an innocent murmur is excellent. Many innocent murmurs will resolve as the patient ages. Pathologic murmurs are of much more concern. Unfortunately, differentiating between an innocent and a pathologic murmur can be difficult by just listening to the heart during a physical examination. If a murmur is heard, then a special test called an echocardiogram is often necessary to determine if actual heart disease is present.
An echocardiogram is an ultrasound examination of the heart. It is easily tolerated by the patient, and it is the most accurate test for the presence of heart disease. In addition, the echocardiogram is very good at determining the severity of disease. Your veterinarian may need to refer you to a specialist for the echocardiogram.
You have three options. The first and very difficult option is to return the puppy. The second option is to have an echocardiogram performed to assess whether there is significant heart disease present. It may be helpful to review your sales agreement, because some pet stores and breeders will help you pay for the echocardiogram. The third option is to have the puppy examined again in 1-2 months. As discussed above, some innocent murmurs will resolve over time. If the murmur resolves it is unlikely to be of concern in an otherwise normal animal. The main concern with the third option is the possibility of the puppy having significant heart disease that was not detected early. Whether a murmur is associated with a shortened life span is completely dependent on the presence of heart disease, and the severity of the disease.
— Donald Schrope, DVM,
Diplomate ACVIM (Cardiology)
This column is prepared by the veterinarians of the Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus, one of the largest technically advanced veterinary facilities in the world. The veterinarians wish to remind readers that any suggestions or advice mentioned in the column are not a substitute for a consultation with your own veterinarian.