To hear Renton de Alwis tell it, you'd think Sri Lanka's bloody civil war was as good as over. As Tamil Tigers and government soldiers slog on in a war that has stretched 18 years, the vast chairman of the Ceylon Tourist Board is bursting with goodwill, a giggling giant of peace in a balmy, sheet-like shirt and Colossus' sandals. "We are blossoming, we are blooming," he bellows. "We are very, very optimistic of finding a solution to our problems and achieving a breakthrough. Eighteen years of nonsense is enough."
