Me and my life

Since October 2011 (the month I joined the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo), we have been going on for pickets, protests, silent pickets, candle light vigils, public awareness campaigns, signature collecting events against an illegal institution (SAITM should not be called an institution but a business venture). We have walked to University Grants Commission, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka Medical Council, Presidential secretariat, President's house, and parliament. I am not sure whether there are any other places where we could have walked to make our pleas heard. Our voices fell on deaf ears both of the rulers and the ruled. Our peaceful protests were returned first with water cannon, then with tear gas and currently with lathi-charge. I pray that days of rubber bullets followed by real bullets and bombs will not come. Us and our protests were labelled with various terms including radicals, political parties, disruptors. Soon we will be tag...

This post is part of a series in addressing the several questions posed by the people who support SAITM, private medical college in Sri Lanka. Foremost point they argue on is that all the other countries are having private medical colleges why Sri Lanka should not have them. First let's take the countries who are in the top 10 positions in the Human Development Index of United Nations and also the regional countries (SAARC) and compare their GDP, percentage of GDP on health, education, health level, structure of their medical education. Human Development Index is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. (1)  HDI Rank Country Life Expectancy at Birth Infant Mortality Rate per 1000 live births Maternal Mortality Ratio per 100000 live births Total Health Expenditure as % of GDP Government expenditure on education as % of GDP Expenditure on educa...