Happy Independence Day, Sri Lankans!

Today is Independence Day in Sri Lanka.

A commonly held idea is that most of our problems as a nation come from the colonists and so that therefore today is a day to celebrate our freedom from being a colony.

I say that if we like to think we are an island paradise then we should also accept the other side of that where humans desire to possess beautiful things and that can occasionally lead to disaster – we had both peace and awesomeness and also wars and other horrifying things long before the Europeans showed up.

So I think we should celebrate today accepting everything we are as a nation and a people, flaws and all and then remember that tomorrow and the other 364 days of the year we have to still keep working to make things better for ourselves – no blame game, no divisiveness, no waiting for heroes, just ourselves.

A nation is a community – support each other.

Happy Independence Day to the SL crowd. 

PS. I wish I had a public holiday today.