Here I am meeting with the Speaker of Parliament in Sri
Lanka, the Hon. W. J. M. Lokubandara, in his magnificent residence and handing him a copy of the
Constitution for the Federation of Earth.
Being a Buddhist, Mr. Lokubandara was very interested
in the fact that I have written on the connection between Ludwig
Wittgenstein and Buddhism.
A beautiful Mosque on the shore road overlooking the
sea south of Colombo.
A protected harbor full of small fishing boats in the
bay behind the above Mosque.
 A huge and
beautiful Buddhist Stupa on the shore road south of Colombo.
At the Hotel Rannmuthu in Colombo, I am giving the Abdul Ameer
Memorial Lecture. Abdul Ameer was owner of this hotel at the
time the Third Constituent Assembly was held here in 1979.
The beautiful room at the Rannmuthu Hotel that was
generously assigned to me.
The obscenity of multinational corporations the world
over. While people in the third world rot in their hell of
poverty, these corporations rake in billions of dollars in profits.
This woman's husband was also present, but he said he
was in the military and would not allow his photo taken. Their
apartment was this room and another that served as bedroom.
Another woman whose home we visited in the crowded
area. There was no running water to these apartments, no sewage,
just one source of water and one bathroom for the entire community of
perhaps 100 families.
As with the people in this poor section of Colombo,
everywhere I have been in the world ordinary people are friendly,
welcoming, and gentle. Why then is the world such a mess
of violence, poverty, and misery? The answer lies in the
institutions of the world: the system of so-called "sovereign" nations
and global monopoly capitalism.
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Dr. Terence P. Amerasinghe and myself in front of
his home outside of Colombo
Here the Imam is giving me a
document about the historic significance of this Mosque.
The outer wall of the fort at Galle,
built by the Portuguese, then occupied by the Dutch and finally the
British. Today, we find a comparable imperialism in the
more than 725 U.S. military bases all over the world.
Here I am meeting with Arthur C.
Clark in his home in Colombo. He is giving me a copy of the
paper on satellite communications that first made him famous.
Here I give the present owner/manager of the Rannmuthu
Hotel, Mr. Habeebulla Ba-falul, an electronic copy of my book Millennium Dawn.
Mr. Ba-falul is also Honorary Consul for the Dominican Republic in Sri
Lanka.
This woman is a wood carver in Colombo, along with her
husband. They call their business "Dilini Carvers." They have carved all the things seen with her in this
picture.
My 3-wheel taxi driver who spoke some English. I asked
him to take me to a slum in Colombo and he complied by taking me to
his own neighborhood where I was welcomed in the homes of all of the
people in the photos below and on the left.
Another woman who allowed me and my taxi driver to
visit her home. She was proud of her new baby. Her
apartment was very tiny with a door opening into the tiny alley.
A group of curious neighbors, who were not used to a
foreigner with a camera in their community, pose for a photo at my
request. As I was
leaving the community and back near the main street, we passed the
water supply for the community - three concrete walls open on top and
on one side, making an area about 10 feet square in size. In it
there were four naked women all soaped up taking their bath.
These two women near by (photo at the left) were joking with me -
asking if I wanted to take a photo of the bathing women. I
declined but took their photo instead. |