Deepamala Abeysekera
Deepamala Abeysekera on her perspective of the 75 interviews she will host from November 2009 – June 2010
ITN Chairman, Mr. Anura Siriwardane, with the launch of their productions, Round Table & Ayubowan Sri Lanka, took the initiative to host discussions that are crucial in a post-conflict era when there is a bounden duty for everyone to deliver, perform and learn from each other.
Brainstorming the formulas for success through discussions and rapport is an essential requirement of Sri Lanka’s forward march. Many a time, over the years, we have observed Sri Lankans seem to enjoy negativity and looking at the downside of things, criticizing in a very unhealthy manner rather than in a constructive manner. This attitude of criticizing at times has become a national pastime which has instilled in the minds of the majority of people a very pessimistic attitude, resigning to their fate and expecting the others to deliver on their behalf. When we look at the Press, TV, Radio, listen to news most of the time our attention is directed to all the things that are going wrong. It is as if we seem to have almost lost the power to be positive and optimistic.
For post-conflict Sri Lanka to go to the next dimension, having a positive perspective,is a necessary attitude that Sri Lankans need to posses. It is important to be realistic and understand a country that has been ridden by war, plagued by the most brutal terrorist organization cannot be restored to normalcy overnight as how all of us might wish and pray. We need to have patience, tolerance and understanding and look at things from a multitude of perspectives, and then make pronouncements and judgments rather than jumping into conclusions on listening to mere heresy and baseless utterances made with vested interests. This is not to say, stop being constructively critical, but to say recognizing positive developments are equally crucial. Eternal pessimists and cynics hold back the country, retarding the progress that can be made. As the public with sharp minds, knowledge, ability to look at things from both sides, it’s our duty to equally look at positive developments taking place in our country in diverse respects.
It is in this spirit that I try to bring out the best in the guests I interview and also focus on the positive contributions that have been made in their respective fields. Recognizing and highlighting positive developments is also a way of reminding the public and all officials in positions of power that life goes far beyond into proper understanding, and delivering by action rather than by speech. It is a message that all of us need to understand, how important it is to walk the talk ourselves and to give back to the nation as much as possible, and in that process, to help develop true sons of the soil and not traitors to the nation and world at large. It is this same energy that I try to infuse to the interviews.
To sum up, we need to understand discussions such as these can be the starting point, we need to remember that it is a mere beginning and not the end in itself, at the end what we will leave behind is how much value we were able to add to others lives and how truly genuine and sincere we were to the cause. I am happy to be meeting key leaders from a diverse range of fields, in the nation building exercise and to be able to extract the essence of their positive work and convey it to the masses, in the seventy-five interviews I will be hosting from November 2009 – June 2010.
Deepamala Abeysekera
General Manager
Aspirations Education Pvt Ltd
No,267/20, Samagi Mawatha
Nawala Road, Nawala
Sri Lanka
Tel : ( +94) 011 2808800-1
(+94) 5512549
Web: www.aspirations.edu.lk
Aspirations Education
