Lester Jansz
Tech’s binding force
Q: What aspects of Sri Lankan culture do you maintain in your daily life while living in the US?
A: I would say food! Food is deeply ingrained in my cultural identity; it serves as a representation of my heritage, history and values.
My wife is an amazing cook. She ran her own Sri Lankan catering business when we moved to the United States. Despite being as busy as a bee with her full-time job, she continues to cater to our Sri Lankan friends’ parties in sunny SoCal (Southern California).
So having a terrific traditional Sri Lankan meal every day is one way in which I maintain my cultural identity.
Q: And how do you stay connected with Sri Lankans living in your part of the world?
A: California knows a thing or two about promoting diversity. The Golden State ranks first in the US for its amazing cultural diversity.
This means that there’s a healthy Sri Lankan community especially in the SoCal region. From San Diego to Los Angeles, and Santa Monica to the inland valleys, you meet Sri Lankans wherever you visit – and that makes connecting with the community a breeze.
Technology too has played a major role – I’d say I am a member of half a dozen Sri Lankan WhatsApp groups in the US!
Q: Has living in California influenced your perceptions about journalism and the media compared to Sri Lanka?
A: Be it print or electronic, all major Sri Lankan news outlets tend to compartmentalise jobs. In print media – which is my forte – news organisations employ reporters, cameramen, subeditors (referred to as copy editors in the US), page designers, proofreaders and so on.
But in Qatar and the US, journalists need to be jacks of all trades. More often than not, they have to write their stories, take pictures, edit and insert them into the layout, and send them to news editors who do final checks. Since Sri Lanka’s major asset is its workforce, having one journalist do all these tasks may be neither viable nor feasible.
With the advent of social media platforms such as YouTube, there’s a paradigm shift towards single journalist productions. I strongly believe that a journalist should be an all-rounder without being limited to one role. He or she must strive to be a jack of all trades but never a master of none!
Q: How do you stay informed about current affairs and news about Sri Lanka?
A: I have a network of journalists who feed news about Sri Lanka’s current affairs to me. At times, I’m informed before a particular news item makes the headlines!
At the end of a long day, I wind down by watching a select list of YouTube channels that broadly discuss Sri Lankan issues. Despite all major television stations in Sri Lanka having their own YouTube channels, I tend to distance myself from them due to their biased reporting.
Although we’re no longer citizens of Sri Lanka, my wife and I are actively involved in Sri Lankan politics as we truly care about the people over there.
FACT FILE
FAMILY
Wife – Thanoja
Children – Thimira, Lakmina and Anne
SCHOOLING
St. Joseph’s College
HIGHER EDUCATION
Aquinas College of Higher Studies
PRESENT OCCUPATIONS
Technical Writer – Synrgo
Class B commercial passenger driver
COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE
United States
CITY OF RESIDENCE
Whittier (California)
CV IN A NUTSHELL
A former Features Editor at the Daily News, Lester Jansz works as a technical writer for Synrgo in Glendale (California) from Monday to Thursday. While editing and writing training manuals and technical documents, he is also the head of logistics at its Brea office in Southern California.
Come Thursday night, he sets aside his pen and rolls up his sleeves to run his own transportation network company. From the southern tip of San Ysidro in San Diego to the busy Bay Area in San Francisco, Jansz shuttles clients across California and the nation – if his Synrgo boss Arman Azarpira allows him to do so!