(Lanka-e-News - 23.April.2018, 6.45PM) Are there citizens in this country who can spend Rs. 21000.00 just for a single meal ? Let us assume there are. But are there wealthy individuals in this country who spend Rs. 16, 800,000.00 (Rs. 16.8 million!) on 800 such meals (800 X 21000.00) just on one occasion? Fortunately or unfortunately the answer is again yes. However the shocking part of this monumental profligacy is the revelation that owing to this queue of such wasteful wealthy individuals , an order placed even for such expensive luxurious meals has to wait until after November to be executed.
Surprisingly it is in this climate of obscene ostentation and luxurious living of millionaire businessmen many traders say , ‘there is no business’ as they open their mouths while an ordinary man also talks about the price of a coconut. Perhaps we cannot blame them because what is manifested by the opulent wasteful life style of the selfish millionaires is unjust enrichment and how they thrive on it.
The factual situation disclosed in the foregoing paragraph is only a tip of the iceberg of the actual atrocious profligacy .
Recently , in order to meet a friend, I visited the recently opened super luxury Shangri La Hotel .My friend is an employee in this hotel. In the Shangri La Ballroom hall was a wedding function of somebody . Out of curiosity I inquired from my friend whose wedding it was ?.
He told me it was the wedding of the daughter of a businessman involved in tea business in Sri Lanka .The price of a single plate of meal the business tycoon had chosen for the guests was Rs. 21000.00 ! and he had paid for 800 such meals for the guests attending the wedding. The cost of the meal bill alone was Rs. 16.8 million !! There were also a host of other expenses too. Yet the most rudely shocking part of this obscene ostentation and monumental profligacy is , as a rule if such an expensive wedding is to be booked in that hotel , the one who is booking has to wait for until after November for the hotel has already been booked for the weddings that long. Mind you , all those bookings have been made by Sri Lankans !
In the circumstances , certainly this is not just an exceptional wedding of wasteful extravagance in a super luxury hotel ?
If a hotel in SL which is among the chain of most expensive luxury hotels in the world is being run on the expenditures of Lanka’s wealthy businessmen , how can anybody say business activity in SL has plummeted?
Of course not that there aren’t businesses which have crashed. But if the crash is as bad as is portrayed , surely the Shangrila business should be moving in a different direction.
I of course had an orange juice drink with my friend , and returned after discussing the subject over which I met him. In any case I don’t know the price of the drink because it is my friend who met the bill.
-Shrimal-
-Translated by Jeff-
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by (2018-04-23 13:49:34)
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