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9:30 p.m. (b)

I like this.

https://youtu.be/DVBdXXhQB3s

I love McDonald's.

I would walk very gleefully to McDonald's every week in Singapore

I lived in Albert Winsemius Lane in Clementi and behind, there was a parkway, I would walk all the way to McDonald's

They have unlimited Curry sauce, which tastes great at first, but has a metallic tang aftertaste which isn't pleasant

And chili sauce

And ketchup which isn't much

I LOVE McDonald's

Near the back track path, there is a smoke house, and also a Chinese restaurant for great fried rice with Chinese sausages

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On the path to McDonald's, I would find some people eating red color bone marrow dishes which I never got to try because I had to go to Mac Dees

And I'd go to Holland Village for bakkwa

I spent quite heavily on the cancer causer, as it's expensive

They should call it not Bee Chiang Hiang or the other place Lim which I prefer, and I don't like some,

They should call it, "Abel's Offering".

I didn't find a Bah Kut Teh place nearby

But it was there

It was a bit harder to get

When something wasn't nearby I couldn't get to it as easily

I think this was within a 2 or 5 km radius

I would use the bus or ComfortDelgro cab service which was expensive

Or just walk

People in Singapore have a very rapid walking pace or speed

Even faster than New Yorkers

Which I still have.

I did go once a month to Little India for Muthu's Curry South Indian food

Because I was a bit richer

$2,550 bucks is a lot

Per month

So, I could fork it out quite literally

And when it came to fish head soup

I'd "go for the eyes"

Like they do in Don't Starve

1) Rich description:
The image is a screenshot of a BBC news article, focusing on the dire situation of food scarcity in Sri Lanka. In the foreground, Harshini is holding her baby, standing in a doorway. Harshini's expression appears serious, reflecting concern and perhaps fatigue, indicative of the struggles mentioned in the article. She wears a dark blue dress adorned with small floral patterns, while the baby is wrapped in a soft, white blanket with a pink hat, suggesting care despite hardship. The background is dimly lit, with faint outlines of a room behind her, reinforcing the somber mood. The article headline, prominently displayed, reads "Sri Lanka's children go hungry as food prices soar," written by Archana Shukla of BBC Business Correspondent. The text below discusses a child named Nitisha, who is experiencing malnutrition and associated health issues due to rising food prices. The colors in the image are muted, emphasizing the gravity of the issue. This presentation effectively highlights the human impact of the economic crisis described in the article.
2) On-screen text block:
- Title: "Sri Lanka's children go hungry as food prices soar"
- Site / app: "BBC"
- Captions / subtitles: "Harshini with her baby"

10:45 a.m.

BBC News - Sri Lanka's children go hungry as food prices soar

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63868497

This is quite sad because of the serious mismanagement that occurred. ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

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The video frame is from the official music video for "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias. It shows a tense outdoor scene in a desert setting. A group of men, all dressed in dark clothing, are standing in a semi-circle. The atmosphere is serious and confrontational. The lighting suggests it's either early morning or late afternoon, with a clear sky in the background. Several cars are parked nearby, adding to the dramatic and suspenseful ambiance. The scene is part of a narrative that unfolds in the music video, enhancing the emotional and storytelling aspects of the song.
- Title: "Enrique Iglesias - Hero (Official Music Video)"
- Channel / profile: "Vevo"
- Site / app: "YouTube"

6:45 p.m.

You know, this is how ████ thinks a "fair fight" looks like.███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

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1) Rich description: The screenshot is from an ABC News page, displaying a video segment from the program "Four Corners." The scene features a man wearing an orange polo shirt, presumably Nimal Perera, based on the hint provided. He appears to be in an interview setting, standing outdoors with greenery in the background. The lighting is natural, indicating it's daytime. His expression is serious, suggesting a discussion of a significant topic. The ABC News logo is visible in the bottom corner of the video. The page discusses Aspen Medical's selection to supply the National Medical Stockpile without a public tender during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the urgency of securing PPE. Text below the video invites viewers to watch the full investigation by "Four Corners" into Aspen Medical.
2) On-screen text block:
- Title: "Aspen Medical Greg Hunt Four Corners"
- Channel / profile: "ABC NEWS"
- Site / app: "abc.net.au"
- Captions / subtitles: "Watch Four Corners’ full investigation into Aspen Medical."

Monday, September 12th.

12:00 a.m.

Profiting from the pandemic: How Aspen Medical cashed in on COVID | Four Corners

https://youtu.be/FoQKMfA3zPA?t=2230

ABC News Australia

Four Corners / By Linton Besser, Ali Russell, Lucy Carter and Patrick Begley, ABC Investigations. Posted Sun 1 May 2022 at 11:40pm. Sunday 1 May 2022 at 11:40pm, updated Mon 9 May 2022 at 12:11pm

LINTON BESSER, ABC News Australia:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-02/aspen-medical-greg-hunt-four-corners/101022086

The police could find no evidence that Cyber Vision Holdings or Nimal Perera had performed any service for the money paid by Aspen Medical.

Those funds never went to the hospital. The money trail led here. To this property. In an affluent suburb of Colombo. Nimal Perera purchased it with some of the money from Sabre Vision Holdings.

But what really caught the attention of police was that it was soon combined with property immediately next door. It housed the private offices of Namal Rajapaksa -- the then president MR's son.

The question was obvious: Was Nimal Perera AGAIN secretly collecting money for the Rajapaksa family? This time from the hospital contractors? And if so, what was the role of Aspen Medical?

Hello! Hallo!

Nimal Perera agreed to an interview at his house.

Hi : ) How are you? Linton Besser from ABC Australia. 😃

Q1. ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

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Q3. Why did Aspen Medical pay you 2 x payments of €687,000 Euros? (Which adds up to €1.4m euros or $2.1m dollars)

Nimal: "To me!? 😕

Q4. (Yes, to you?).

Nimal: "No, Aspen has not paid to me (paid me**)."

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Q8. At the time of those transactions. According to business documents from the British Virgin Islands. There was only one beneficiary of Sabre Vision Holdings. And that was Mr Nimal Perera.

Nimal: "No that is because of by default. Since I became the managing director of that company. I became the beneficial owner."

Mr Perera's explanation to Four Corners differed wildly from what he originally told the police.

Q9. █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

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Q15. The payments that Aspen Medical put into Sabre Vision Holdings?

Nimal: "No, I don't want to answer. So, you can go." 😡

Q16. █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████


Aspen Medical and pandemic contracts sit between what can be proven, and what cannot responsibly be ignored.

Four Corners reports payments of about €1.4 million from Aspen Medical to Sabre Vision Holdings, a BVI company beneficially owned at the time by Nimal Perera. Investigators said they could find no evidence of services provided in return, and no evidence the funds reached the hospital project.

The best case for Aspen is procedural. Pandemic procurement was fast, messy, cross-border, and often relied on intermediaries. Offshore structures are not proof of illegality, and the reporting does not establish criminal liability or show Aspen knowingly funded political actors.

The best case against Aspen is governance. The record shows inconsistent explanations, documentary contradictions, and a refusal to clearly account for large payments. The funds were also traced to property later linked to politically exposed persons. None of that proves corruption, but it does indicate weak transparency at the exact moment the public most needed it.

Two things can be true: this does not prove wrongdoing in the legal sense, and it still falls short of the accountability standards expected during a crisis. The public interest issue is precedent. Emergencies will happen again. If transparency is treated as optional, trust fails again.

This is a vibrant oil painting of Milina Sumathipala, characterized by bold use of color and expressive brushwork. The subject is seated, wearing a rich blue garment that contrasts with the warm orange background, creating a lively and inviting atmosphere. Her pose is relaxed, with hands calmly resting, while her bright smile and attentive gaze convey a sense of warmth and approachability. The highlights on her jewelry subtly catch the light, adding a touch of elegance to the portrait. The interplay of colors—deep blue against the orange backdrop—draws attention to her expression and presence. The style of the painting is impressionistic, focusing on texture and color to evoke emotion rather than precise detail, capturing the essence of the subject in a captivating manner.

The Name of Milina -- A Sweet Fragrance

---------------------------------------

My Mother Milina Sumathipala is here December 26 marks the fifth anniversary of his departure. It is not just because she was my mother that I make such a note about her for that five year celebration. If she was a mother who gave shelter only to her children, I would not be allowed to talk so much about her today.

Milina Sumathipala is a huge tree that gave shade to the whole country.

Her immense contribution to the country, the nation and the Buddha Sasana cannot be overstated in so many articles. But I think writing like this in the slightest is a tribute to a great woman she is.

I was about fourteen when my dear father died. My family of three sisters, one brother and two sisters, including me, were the only two older sisters married at the time. Accordingly, my mother had to carry the weight of five children on her head alone. I have never met a woman in my life as courageous and determined as she is. If there was a woman like my mother, I think it's just her.

The care and guidance that that strength and courage provided to our lives is fantastic. My mother raised the seven of us without giving us a single blow. Her one angry look was enough to discipline us. We felt more of the mental pain at one glance than the physical pain of a blow. That's how our mother guided us. Like any other little kid, we often got into fights when we were little. Then the punishment that mom gives us is different than most other mothers.

No matter who started the fight or who was beaten, the younger one should bow down and apologize to himself and the older brother or sister who fought. We often tried to avoid fighting because we could not bear the pain of the beating and the extra shame of having to bow to the brother or sister who had been beaten.

The union between us was so great that with the exception of the two sisters, who lived in Australia every Sunday until Mother's death, we all inevitably went to Mother's house for lunch on Sundays. It had become a family tradition for everyone to get together on a Sunday at home. It was Mom’s will. The mother is the whole world to the child.

When I consider my mother's service to the country, the nation, the religion, I think she's a world, not just the seven of us.

Officially founded in 1919, the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, the pinnacle of Buddhism, was in a state of anarchy by 2001 due to short-sighted rule. It was not an easy task to recover from this anarchy and restore it to its former state.

For that, there must be a true Buddhist leader with unwavering perseverance and a strong mind to face any challenge.

Mahinda Sarachchandra, who was a member of the Buddhist Congress at the time and had a sincere feeling for the conference, had in mind a leader, not a leader, when he thought of a true Buddhist leader who could take on the heavy task of building the conference. Those are my mothers.

When Mr. Sarachchandra met my mother and told her about the situation at the Buddhist Congress at that time and requested her to come forward to save the conference from this dark mouth, my mother was deeply shocked.

Its electricity and water were cut off due to non-payment of electricity and water bills for months. Employees had not been paid for months. The Buddhist Congress did not have any revenue for this.

Although there were many other problems there, my mother, who was not shaken by any of them, took over the leadership of the Buddhist Congress.

In the early days of the conference, there was no female participation. Although a number of eminent women later became members, no woman has ever held the position of chairperson.

Accordingly, my mother Milina Sumathipala became the first woman chairperson of the Buddhist Congress, opening a new chapter in its history. My brother Jagath Sumathipala and I gave our full support to my mother.

In 2001, my mother took over the presidency without an election and was able to do a lot of work for the Buddhist Congress. She had spent a large sum of her personal wealth on it.

Then in 2002 an election was held to elect a new office bearer, including its chairman.

In this election, my mother defeated Olcott Gunasekera, who was contesting for the post of President with my mother, by a majority of votes and she became the President of the Buddhist Congress for the second time.

During my tenure as Chairman of SLT from 2002-2004, I donated my entire monthly salary to my mother to use for the betterment of the Buddhist Congress. Thus my mother was able to bring the Buddhist Congress back to the glorious era of the past. She made tremendous sacrifices for it.

During her entire tenure, she practiced religion as well as nationalism through the Buddhist Congress. A great deal of work was carried out throughout the country for the revival. My mother started doing religious services and other social work from the very beginning when my father passed away.

She had a great ability to continue the work that my father had been doing until then, even better and more powerfully. In 1990, she contributed to the creation of the Ransivi House of Gold and Silver to house the Tooth Relic at the Temple of the Tooth. For this, the whole family came together and donated gold and silver.

Princess Hemamala and the Tooth Prince made a statue of the Tooth Relic and offered it to her in 1991. On behalf of the poor people of Dambadiva, the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa. My mother donated a lot of money to the housing project launched by Mr. Premadasa.

My mother also donated money to stone the Damsak Sutta sermon in Dambadiva Varanasi in Sinhala.

Apart from this, construction of a dagoba at the Sri Sambodhi Temple in Fort, offering of a 100 feet flower seat at the Matara Veherahena Temple, erection of a pandal reflecting the Atalo Dhamma in front of the Hunupitiya Gangarama Temple in Colombo, construction of a Bhikku Rest Hall at the Gampola Temple Donating money to build a rest house near the Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura is one of the major Buddhist religious services rendered by my mother. Apart from this she has performed many other great religious services during her lifetime.

There are many other tasks she has done for the health service.

Completion of an Oxygen Room for the Colombo National Hospital, Pioneering and contributing financially to the National Hospital Neurology Unit as well as donating to the Neurosurgery Unit. R. I. Financial assistance for the purchase of a scanner, construction of a maternity ward at the De Zoysa Women's Hospital, Colombo are some of the major tasks.

My mother's contribution to the betterment of hospitals by donating labor as well as wealth is immense.

My father has a very good artistic taste. His first commercial film, Unnat Dahai Malath Dahai, was a record-breaking film. My father's film "From Heaven to Earth" won the Akton Award for Best Third World Film at the 1978 International Film Festival in Cairo, Egypt. With the untimely demise of my father, my mother made sure to continue her other social and artistic endeavors.

I think it's a great privilege for my mother to have won 50 awards at various film festivals, including the Presidential Awards, for producing award - winning films such as Riverside, Daughter Mother, Uppalavanna.

I think I could write a separate book about the religious and social services my mother performed. Here are just a few. That is, considering it my duty to commemorate her fifth birthday. While wishing my mother Nirvana, I will finally note one more thing.

That is to say, I am not so fortunate to have such a mother.

-- Thilanga Sumathipala

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