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Comments received according to chronological order (latest first)

"I will join the Club again if I get the feeling that it is doing something constructive. At the moment I just feel that the SSLA is just enjoying the money that the old crowd built up long time ago. They should budget the social events properly and see that they don't make deficits and waste the money." - Interview with Siva Pushparatnam (ex SSLA member) at the cricket grounds Sept 2003.  

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"Bei der letzten Sommer-Party sind einige angemeldeten Gäste nicht erschienen. Die Folge davon war, dass wir zuwenig Gäste aber zu viel Essen hatten. Um dies in Zukunft zu vermeiden, sollen wir Reservationen für Parties nur von Mitgliedern entgegen nehmen. " 21.6.2003 Prema

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"Ja, Ja ich bin theoretisch immer noch ein Mitglied. Mein Problem ist, dass ich viel geschäftlich unterwegs bin und manchmal passen die Daten gerade nicht. Ich werde schon mal Euch bei einem Anlass sehen. Ich bin zufrieden mit der SSLA und habe nichts zu klagen. Auf der Schnelle habe ich auch nichts konstruktives über die Anlässe zu Sagen." 14.6.2003 Tel. Interview

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"It is a pity that there are not many Tamil people in the SSLA. I would also like if the SSLA could organize events to inform us about what is happening in Sri Lanka in general and political developments. According to the constitution the SSLA is a non-political organisation , but talking about your own country is absolutely ok. The Constitution  should not be a hinderence to organizing talks by visiting Ministers, Junior Minister, Ambassadors and anyone else who is competent to talk about Sri Lanka. All these people when they come to Switzerland have to travel through Zürich, so it should not cost us much to get them to give a small talk and wind it up with a discussion. Whether there will be enough response from our member I cannot say. But non-members can also attend these discussions. I think the SSLA organizes enough social events and no one can complain about this. Talking about getting informed about Sri Lanka, did you know that the CWE is going to open a shop in Zürich and the Insurance Corporation is going to be privatized?" - 14.6.2003 tel. Interview Edmond Chanson 

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"The fact that Free Carrom Aargau (FCA) - founded by a past member of the SSLA and affiliated to the SCA - was referred to as the Carrom Club on this page must have been a slipped disk. The other institution SLCCZ which was referred to only as the Cricket Club - which was also founded by other well-known past members of the SSLA  - was I suppose a wide."  - 13.6.2003 Prema Ferdinando 

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"There is no such thing as the Carrom Club. Free Carrom Aargau ( FCA) is affiliated to Swiss Carrom Association (SCA) which in turn is affiliated to the Intenernatiol Carrom Federation (ICF) . I presume that 'The Cricket Club' has an inviolable right to call itself thus. Was the Cricket Club founded in Greenland ?  Pardon my ignorance. " - 13.6.2003 Riz Careem   

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"I generally don't like to go for parties specially expensive ones. But if I do I will only attend SSLA parties and not those from any other Sri Lankan Club in Zürich. This is because there is a difference in the crowd that attend SSLA parties. I lost interest in the SSLA long time ago because I felt that the SSLA was only collecting money and no good came out of that to Sri Lanka." - 12.6.2003 tel. Interview Lionel Liyanage

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"If the SSLA wants a permanent charity project why not sponsor a few poor children in Sri Lanka. This will cost about Fr. 40.- per child per month or even less. When an individual does charity, it is his or her private thing and it is not necessary to tell everyone else about it - let the right hand not know what the left hand gives. With a Club it is a different story. We should give more publicity to our charity projects so that more people will join us.  Sri Lankans in Switzerland have the wrong idea that the SSLA is only a social club and does nothing for Sri Lanka. We should also correct this wrong impression of the SSLA. " - 11.6.2003

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"The Cricket Club has it's clear objective, that is playing cricket, nothing else. The Carrom Club has it's clear  objectives, that is playing carrom, nothing else.  Our Objective - friendly relations between Switzerland and Sri Lanka - is so vague that we can get involved in practically anything. It was this vagueness of objective that made it possible for the  SSLA to play an important role in the initial stages of promoting cricket and carrom in Switzerland.  The problem was that the SSLA started many thing but did not continue. 

I consider the Committee to be the drivers of the Club who lead it towards specific goals and not the  servants.  Therefore, I would like to see the Committee members taking a rest from organising parties for one year and use their valuable time to find out whether we can do better and more meaningful things than what we do now. Perhaps we can once again be the first to start something new in Switzerland or in Sri Lanka but this time carry on with it. If you fail then you can still write a report - to let the members know what you did one year long - and forget about new ideas for some time to come." -  10.6.2003

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"Instead of the SSLA organising events all the time, sometimes the SSLA members can also attend - in a group - events organised by other people,  specially public events like open houses, sports, exhibitions etc. On our homepage we can publish these events at short notice. Members have to look out for such suitable events and let the committee know. Since SSLA members like rice and curry, we might be able to also squeeze in to the programme  some rice and curry packets or other Sri Lankan specialities as refreshments" - 9.6.2003

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"Why is the SSLA Committee wasting it's time organising parties which every other club can do,  sometimes even better?. Are we competing with others?. There are parties with the same band that we hire, held at Paradise Party Service regularly. I think the SSLA has a lot of potential - specially with the Swiss componet in it due to special qualities that they have, which the whole world knows about - to do better and greater things than organising parties." - 9.6.2003

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"With the money that the SSLA has, it can realize a big charity project in Sri Lanka. Instead of handing out Funds piecemeal every year, it can start its own project. This is difficult I know but I heard that the Swiss Association in Sri Lanka is working togther with the SSLA. We can get them to manage this project. Just to give some ideas starting from small things, we can give free meals every month or every week to beggers or disabled people. I know someone who is willing to rent out his house and garden for a very nominal amount if the SSLA can start a children's home or old people's home or something like that." - 9.6.2003

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"I disagree with Edda Pereira's argument about lost sheep grazing in the cricket fields of Zürich. By toadying up to our former colonial masters we ensure generous amounts of foreign aid. Playing cricket also means generating foreign investment in the form of match-fixing. I'm sure that in the fullness of time the Zürich players will emulate this noble gesture of some of the heroic cricketers of our time. So gentlemen, play up, play up and play the game" - 9.6.2003 riz careem 

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"In the past, summer parties, sarong parties and christmas dances were organized mainly because they were ways of making money for the club. Although the SSLA was (still is) a non-profit making club - at least according to our constitution - we wanted to build up our Funds with the idea of doing  big things like having a permanet club house. At that time we were able to use kitchen facilities of big hotels  and sometimes the Hall was given free (Hostellerie Geroldswil for example) .  So this is why it was possible to make money by holding a party. Also with a lot of money coming in from the tombola we managed to build up the club Funds. 

Now things are very much different. We  cannot use the kitchen facilities at big hotels, everything has gone up in price. We can now hardly cover our costs when we hold a party. So is there any point in blindly organising parties?. If we still want to, then it should be done without a band to cut down on the costs, this means having a disco of our own.  Or those members who want the parties to be held and vote for it at the AGM and Committee meetings should guarantee that they will bring the required number of guests.  One cannot just vote for parties and then keep quiet and let the club make a deficit.  

The band is one element where there is still a chance of cutting down the costs. Another idea would be for  the band to agree to a profit-sharing basis for payment. This means that we only guarantee a basic minimum payment. The rest will dependend on the number of guests that attend the party.  To do this sort of thing the band should be well known to us and also have an interest in the SSLA.  With profit-sharing, the band members will also be forced to canvass  and bring in guests. 

If we decide to forget about the band we could get our young members to manage the Disco. We don't need to spend money on discs nowadays. One can download any kind and any amount of music from the internet free of charge. Since our events are private parties, there should be no problem about copyrights when playing such downloaded music. So we just have to buy a small Hi-Fi Unit and a PC for the Club and that's it.  This will also be a way of getting our young ones more involved in the Club " - 8.6.2003

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"The Committee is looking for ideas. What I say is that you will never be able to satisfy all the members nor  get all the members to participate in the events that you organize. There are also passengers - like in every other Club - who really want only to be a member and expect nothing else. Therefore, you should look out for people among the members who think on the same wave length as the Committee, get them to take an active role and so take the club forward. " - 8.6.2003 

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"The SSLA was the mother of all Sri Lankan Clubs in Zürich and it's surroundings. Due to internal power struggles many Sri Lankans left and formed their own clubs. The SSLA should  now bring back under it's fold these lost sheep who are wondering in the cricket fields of Zürich and give them some direction and bring about some unity within the Sri Lankan community. It is the only club that has the potential to do this." - 7.6.2003, tel Interview Edda Pereira, founder member of the SSLA (ex)  

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"The SSLA is a non-profit making club. However, with hard work the committes in the past managed to raise a formidable amount of money even after spending some of it for charity. Going back about 15 years, I can remember that the committe had an idea of the SSLA having its own club house. If we make deficits at parties now, naturally we can never hope to realize a dream of that sort.  Therefore, I think the Committee should think twice before organising parties that are bound to be a loss - at least out of respect to all those past members who worked hard to build up the SSLA. It is easy to spend club funds but hard to build it up." 

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"My name is Riz Careem and I don't wish to be anonymous. I was a founder member of the SSLA, but because of my working class background and lack of substantial academic qualification I had to work shift hours and mostly on weekends doing menial work for a prestigious company near Zürich. Subsequently I had to restrict my activities to minimal necessities in life - wife and child etc. - as every family-man in Switzerland knows.

However, others have done a wonderful job in promoting the culture of the land of my birth for which my sincere kudos to them. I do not wish to name names because the list would occupy too much reading space since in Switzerland  one has to be concise and to the point.

My mitigation is that the SSLA helped me rediscover the wonderful game of carrom which I played as a young boy and try, to this  day, faithfully to reflect the magnanimous culture of Sri Lanka and for which I am ever so thankful. The Sri Lankan Cup will be held on saturday 30th August 2003 and all are welcome to participate as part of a team (no individual glory recognized). Right now I am trying to entice my grandson into flying kites, another aspect of my Sri Lankan culture. I used to play Guddu as well . At the same time I also enjoy a good fondue laced with kirsch and garlic and have seen a play by Frederik Dürenmatt.

I hope the ssla will keep on going further with or without my participation and my sincere wishes for its success. "   

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"How about organising Sri Lankan dancing classes. It is a pity that the SSLA does not have its own oriental dance group. The committee could spend a bit more time on encouraging Sri Lankan culture. Once we had our own band - although not very professional. A Sub Committees could be formed to encourage Sri Lankan culture on a long time basis. It is not necessary to be able to produce a dance group overnight. One can start with theory lesson for example. First of all one should find a few people who know a bit of dancing and then try to develop their capabilities."

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"I and my family like to eat rice and currry and this is why we attend the SSLA parties. If the price could be kept reasonable - say Fr. 30.- for a buffet - I think we would be satisfied. A band is not really necessary. It only makes it difficut to have a conversation with your friends. Some soft background music off a CD would be fine for us. After the meal all can join in a sing-song. This will not cost anything. There might be members or their children who can play an instrument and would really like to join in a sing song." 

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"I actually don't know why I am a member of the SSLA. 25 years ago I joined the club just to experience a bit of Sri Lanka in Switzerland. Now I just keep on being a member although I don't really attend the events that are organized. I have no special expectations from the SSLA but  prefer small get-togthers where people can meet each other at personal level."

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"We are members because we are a mixed couple. My wife comes from Sri Lanka. We attend the Christmas Ball because it is an event where we can dress up nicely and enjoy an evening out with our friends. The important things for us in this event are the buffet, the fine music and dancing. We don't mind paying Fr. 100 for this event."

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"I am still a member of the SSLA because it is the oldest Sri Lankan Association in Zürich and I would like to see it alive for many more years to come.  I think the Committee should now organize members only events to let the members get to know each other better. When the members know each other personally it will be easier to get them also involved in the organising of the activities and take the load off the Committee. Automatically there will be new ideas coming in." 

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"I think the Annual General Meeting is a good opportunity for members to get to know each other personally. It is a pity that even the wonderful free rice and curry meal does not seem to attract some members. Perhaps if you change over to a saturday evening and wind it up with a small party, it might attract more members." 

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