Well guys it looks like the part about “Can the sweeping powers of a VISA officer decide the future of Sri Lankan scientific programs?” on the post MURALI: Robot for landmine detection was actually true and in fact has happened to Dr. Thrishantha.
How do I know? Well, on the 2nd of May I received a short email from the Doctor himself. ( Yes, I did go through ALL the email headers to find out where the email came from!)
Here is the email (published with permission):
Kavinda – in a fit of pique I emailed the French Embassy in Sri Lanka, I got a reply to the tune of resentment, but they also mentioned that they referred Dr. Nanayakkara to the Spanish Embassy in India, which of course does not help at all. I’m not sure if they are going to make a formal apology, though they did mention that they treat all of the applicants in the same courteous manner ( Which I find hard to believe anyway.)
Anyway, just to let you know.
Thanks for passing on this news Ruwani.
It’s really nice to see people getting involved with these kinds of issues. Lets hope that something good comes out of it all.