This Monday the Galle Chamber was in a mild panic as the British High Commissioner was coming for a visit. The High Commissioner, Dr Peter Hayes, was doing the tour of the dignitaries in the south and, for some reason, that included the Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was due to start at 9.45 am which normally in Sri Lanka would mean a 10.15am start at the earliest. To demonstrate the cultural difference, however, the HC arrived 10 minutes early. Boy did that cause a panic! He was greeted with a garland of orchids as well as ceremonial leaves which have to be presented stem forward (but no one could tell me why!).
I'm not really sure what the purpose of the meeting was. The HC is clearly a very bright guy and was asking some very pertinent questions about the status of the business community which the Directors clearly didn't know the answers to based on their responses. After 30 mins of some seemingly purposeless to-ing and fro-ing the HC was presented with a plaque to commemorate his visit. It was a pretty expensive piece of tat. He must have cupboards full of the stuff!
The thing that really struck me about the visit was the level of stress and preparation (a lot by Sri Lankan standards) it had generated. We've had visits by the Canadians (x 2) and the Americans and they didn't get nearly half as much of the pomp and circumstance. When I asked why, the answer was "Because the Britishers did so much for the country". I was surprised to hear such a positive response about the UK as, in other instances, I hear negative comments. This was heightened about 6 months ago when the UN announced it was investigating war crimes in Sri Lanka. Effigies of Milliband and Brown (before the elections) were even burned in Colombo. Despite more recent aggravation, however, there is still a deep-seated respect for the British within Sri Lanka and that, coupled with hierarchy, is a potent mixture hence I should have realised that the High Commissioner of the UK would always get a huge amount of grovelling!
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