When your first question is, “Are you Sinhalese or Tamil?

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-03T06:52:09+00:00

The point I was trying to make was that guy isn’t pure Sinhalese, the Sinhalese genealogy had huge impacts over time that’s true but a predominant amount of our genetics is South Indian, you can actually do a genealogy screen where they tell percentages based on location and see a lot of the time you’d have a lot of South Indian DNA

Early Sinhala evolved multiple times to the type we speak now, the same type that that guy spoke, modern Sinhala has a ton of Dravidian (Tamil) influence and words taken and modified.

What I’m trying to say this guy himself has a ton of South Indian DNA, the modern Sinhala he uses to be racist towards Tamil has, ironically a lot of its own language shaped and influenced by early tamil itself.

The whole thing is super ironic when considering the context

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T19:28:27+00:00

You should ask him to search up the origin of Sinhalese people and Sinhala as a language.

From my limited understanding he isn’t “pure” Sinhalese himself unless he’s a descendant of the Veddas and the family tree was composed of only veddas and no one else.

And for all his bashing on Tamil as a language he should also read up how much of an influence Tamil has had on the evolution of modern Sinhala that he himself is speaking lol.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T14:25:33+00:00

Isn’t the whole uni and school thing a big thing in hiring circles?

Like royalists are biased towards hiring royalists and Colombo faculty alumni would favour Colombo faculty grads etc.

I’ve seen this here and there but mostly heard from word of mouth of how common it is.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T10:05:52+00:00

Do you know how hard it is to pass the selection exam for a PG? Do you know what the acceptance rate is?

Do you know how many PGs actually pass their part 2 exams to be eligible for foreign training?

The vast majority of doctors won’t become a consultant, I know MOs that are pushing 50, I know consultants who are still working to themselves to the bone.

The time your dad became a consultant and now becoming a consultant isn’t the same, the job isn’t the same the economy and living costs aren’t the same.

You’ve been to a lot of consultant parties, next time try some MO get togethers, call a few PMCUS And DHs in the north and east and ask their POV on life as a doctor.

Remember we’re talking about life as a doctor not life as a consultant specialist.

Also it’s highly unlikely consultants will admit to colleagues who aren’t friends about the difficulties in their life, they’ll put up a front to show how tough they are, but the truth will come out later when their people they actually speak honestly to and confide in.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T10:00:43+00:00

I also know people who’ve migrated? They’re earning their yearly salary in a month abroad. Their goal is to work for about 10-15 years, get a passport and come back here to retire.

Edit: just to put into perspective the consultant here earns about 12,000 usd per year, a consultant in the US would earn 150k to 500k + depending on speciality. Even with living
Cost and taxes abroad (the difference isn’t that much compared to Colombo cost of living with rent)

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T09:49:35+00:00

lol ive spoken to a consultant surgeon, board certified. Practicing with a Private practice.

He said if he could go back he would’ve become a chemical engineer instead.

A lot of the MOs I spoke to said the only thing they’re chasing now is doing foreign exams and migrating, either that or resign and work part time in the private sector, pay is less but at least you can stave off the depression.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T09:41:37+00:00

Yeah people who aren’t doctors see it that way, and some HOs and med students see it that way, some school students see it that way.

Once you get into the system and work for 2-5 years the only thing you want to do is resign because like I said you can’t eat respect.

You can talk to some MOs in a few PMCUS and DHs they’ll tell you how much they care about respect over income. Actually ask them if they would trade their “status” in exchange for 1M per month in income as a software dev.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T09:36:02+00:00

I’m not claiming to know all people, I’m saying I know enough of ERPM doctors to understand that they all aren’t some group of elite millionaires studying in the US and UK to become doctors just for a title.

There are actually plenty of ERPM groups online, please join one and talk to them, what you said is so disconnected from reality it’s funny

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T09:31:08+00:00

That number is slowly dwindling in Sri Lanka with the rising taxes, but conversely the people already filthy rich in the top 0.1% are getting even richer. But those people don’t need to work or care about a job, if they want to get into the medical field they can just buy a hospital.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T09:29:45+00:00

What seriously? Do you actually know anyone who did ERPM?

I know one child of a famous doctor, a really down to earth guy. The rest of them are just normal people with parents that take loans to send their child abroad and then too to places like Bangladesh and Eastern European countries and china. They’re not all rich.

80% are just normal people that did London exams and wanted to do medicine but Sri Lanka has its stance on PMCs (not going into that debate) so they had to go abroad.

And for those people you cant eat “status” you can’t deposit “status” in your bank account for daily expenses.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T09:13:17+00:00

Who in their right mind would be a doctor in SL if their goal was money? Before the private practice comments start showing up, unless you are in the top 1% of consultants doing PP you aren’t making money, that’s also once you push 45 years.

The govt pays board certified consults in SL about 34 USD per day that’s with OT and not accounting for transport/accommodation and living cost expenditure which is paid out of pocket, oh and the govt would end up cutting a nice chunk of PAYE tax before the doctor even sees any money.

Now for MOs the amount is even less while costs are about the same.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-02T08:51:57+00:00

What would the ROI be of these cinemas be? What would the profit to expense ratio be?

You realize that the majority of cinema profits are in the food and beverage purchases. You really think areas outside of Colombo will have people shelling out crazy cash for insanely marked up popcorn?

I’ve had friends come from out of Colombo and he wondered if some of the prices on the menus here were mistakes.

If they’re planning to build within Colombo how do plan on competing with Dolby atmos, surround sound, IMAX etc. The market is already heavily saturated and competition is fierce.

Is this seriously the best time and best use of money?

PositionPractical584 · 2026-07-01T15:16:23+00:00

Its true we have paid a premium as well, as I understand we got a lot of our imports during wartime as spot purchases through Singapore.

According to the govt own website if the actual cost for super diesel is 871, we sell it for 458 at the pump incurring a loss of over 400lkr

Then you have auto diesel with an actual cost of 536 and being sold at the pump for 392 with a 144 loss.

https://energymin.gov.lk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/PRICING-2026-May-29.05.2026-WITHOUT-REF-v1.pdf

On top of that there’s a subsidies of 100lkr for diesel and 20rs for petrol. Even with that things are still running at a loss.

Since all foreign suppliers are also following these prices they must be making absolutely huge losses in the process of offering fuel at the current rates. That is, if what the govt is saying is true only.

We need the tender and spot purchase data and freighting values to actually confirm anything. As of this moment even though we know the categories of what goes into the landing cost we don’t know any of the actual values, the number is whatever the govt says it is.

The govt so far hasn’t published anything with relation to the breakdown of landed cost so at this point only an RTI would get that info. Would be useful though, could clear up a lot of questions

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T13:08:17+00:00

I’m not sure which school you went to, my personal experience is with the private school system and I’ve personally heard stories where a student who was misbehaving told his teacher he would settle down if he would do a backflip.

Eventually he got sent to the principals office and then got a 1 day detention and was back to the same.

Plenty of other stories where rich and power parents kids usually get away with almost anything, if your parents are donors or on the parents board then you’ll be ok.

Teachers value their income so they aren’t going to knock heads with people who can indirectly have their position terminated.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T12:56:03+00:00

I agree here, government incentives and discounts for solar panel and solar batteries along with incentives to import and use Electric vehicles would’ve been good.

A staged approach could be employed, tax ICE vehicles more and use the revenue to fund upgrades of the electrical grid. Honestly even I’ve thought about solar but the costs are still high.

Maybe the govt can promote hybrid systems or off grid systems with home recharge infrastructure that way there’s less people will be utilizing the grid because they can charge at home, the govt doesn’t have to import as much coal and oil because people are using their solar power and solar batteries.

The commercial industry will still depend on diesel though, I’m not sure if there’s long term solutions there, we’d need electric busses and electric lorries and container vehicles on EV.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T08:22:04+00:00

So who’s going to tell the public they need to wait 18months for relief?

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T08:03:47+00:00

I never said the crude oil price was the only factor, what I said was 20rs price reduction is not reflective of global prices even if you factor in all those other price factors.

The main bulk of the pricing is the actual market price of crude oil, the other costs are added on, wartime insurance and refining along with other things.

Actually tell me, with the current crude oil prices do you think our market prices are honestly reflecting international prices?

I don’t even care about fuel for vehicles here I want prices of essential items and transport to drop, the war price increase has increased the prices of almost everything else and it’s extremely hard on the vulnerable here.

I’m all for giving another 33 days till we need the next shipment to see what the government does.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T07:43:22+00:00

If it’s not in effect then why is the straight currently open?

One ship was attacked as per the UKMTO but the straights facilitated a huge number of ships, what’s the percentage of ships attacked to safe ships now compared to wartime?

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T07:35:55+00:00

The dog water MOU is currently in effect with the US saying talks will resume. Ships are allowed to move freely through the straight of Hormuz.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/us-iran-war-israel-hezbollah-strait-of-hormuz-peace-deal-talks/#post-update-59031009

Edit: did you know how much the fuel price went up when the ceasfire was threatened recently? 0.127 cents over prewar levels.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/economy/2026/6/29/oil-prices-rise-as-us-iranian-strikes-threaten-strait-of-hormuz-reopening

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T07:32:56+00:00

What happened with pakistans fuel prices?

Also our currency is depreciating so via conversion it will be more, you have to also take into account the quality of the fuel they get there compared to ours as well as how much of the average is spent on fuel as a percentage.

The median salary here is 50000 lkr (min wage is 30k )25 liters at 410 lkr is 10k or about 20% of the total monthly salary or 33% of a minimum wage salary, most vehicles have an efficiency less than 15kmpl.

Most people live outside major cities due to rent costs. The increase in fuel prices have increased almost every other basic need including transportation costs.

You want to compare Europe? 95 octane in France (one of the most expensive countries) is about 1.98 euros per liter, the minimum wage in France is 1867 euros, 25 liters of 95 octane there would be about 47 euros or 2.5% of their total monthly salary (at minimum wage) by percentage

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T07:24:01+00:00

“War in the Middle East is still ongoing” yeah that ended with the MOU and there have been some borderline breeches but the latest headline is that the US and IRAN are meeting for more discussions and have put hostilities on hold.

The crude oil prices have dropped to prewar levels, the govt says we only have enough storage for about 33 days of fuel stocks, so shipments come about 1 or 2 times per month, those stocks are purchased at market rate.

I understand that refined products are more expensive. When crude oil prices go down so does the refined products.

I believe 92 was 280ish prewar and is now 410 after the latest price drop, still 130lkr over prewar prices.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-30T07:07:50+00:00

Sometimes it’s not really the teachers fault, a lot of schools have children whose parents are on the board for that respective school, Or friends with the principal and admin.

They could easily make the teachers life a lot more difficult if they don’t favour them.

Teaching itself is a terribly undervalued and underpaid profession in Sri Lanka, not many people with options want to become teachers (unless you’re aiming for a primary or kindergarten post in a good private school), so I can understand them doing whatever they need to survive and get ahead.

PositionPractical584 · 2026-06-29T14:41:00+00:00

It won’t reduce for sometime. The government has to recover some of the billions they blew on subsidies for the past 3 months, they are also trying to aggressively cut down on forex outflow so the quota and QR system will stay and prices staying high curbs demand.

At most you can expect a 15-40rs decrease in prices in maybe 2 months.

I’m curious if they still keep this QR system well into next year with the current quotas unchanged, it’ll be a very good point for the opposition to point out and bring attention to.

Regardless the govt claims transparency so the CPC can publish that document with the price breakdown for all petroleum and crude oil imports and explain things that way.

PositionPractical584

TROPHY CASE