DailyMirror: "Lanka rejects visa for Akon"

March 24, 2010 | By Rakhitha | Filed in: Sri Lanka.

I don’t like Akon that much anyway. But still I was planing to go to his concert in Sri Lanka. Only because I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to have fun. I did not visit any of the earlier events of international artists. Mostly because of the fears of  being at a large gathering in a country at war. I didn’t have the money to buy tickets anyway. But this time both of the problems are resolved, so I was planing go there. But later I changed my mind. I just don’t want to be around when bombs go off. Probably terrorism is still here, under a different name and a face. I hope that I am wrong. Most probably I am. But if I am right, I don’t want to find that out firsthand. Anyway, based on this news item on dailymirror.lk, Akon event will not happen unless something change in near future. I hope it’s over for good.

I am not trying to write another post supporting or opposing this entire Akon mess. You have already read enough of it. I don’t want to judge someone who is living in a completely different culture. I am not going to pretend that I understand his culture. I think that he don’t understand ours ether. As a Buddhist I am not disturbed by his action. I have seen worst. According to a friend of mine , “This is nothing compared to things that happen in our own country”.

Probably not letting him in to Sri Lanka is the safest decision to take. It’s a good idea to keep ‘Sinhala-Buddhist’ (What is the ‘Deshapremee’ equivalent term for religion?) camp happy. But overall, I don’t think this ‘We Hate Akon’ campaign has spread beyond Sri Lankan internet users. Unless media/political/religious elements try to make it bigger, this is nothing compared to ‘Khan Event’ issue as far as the public is concern.

Is this a lost opportunity for tourism? Yes. But IMO this will also avoid a potential PR disaster. Even after 2500+ yeas of Buddhist culture, ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Non-Violence’ are still new concepts for some of our people.

/Rakhitha


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