By Chandre Dharmawardana. When the family of Czar Nicholas, children, and women included,  were brutally killed by the Bolshevik revolutionaries, that was justified by a throng of intellectuals who were ready to defend anything done in the name of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. Clever dialectical arguments were presented as to why even the children had […]

ආචාර්ය චන්ද්‍ර ධර්මවර්ධන විසිනි. දැනට ඇහැලියගොඩ ආපන ශාලවක් පවත්වාගෙන යන අතර අක්කර හතරක ගොවිතැන් සහ බෝග වගාවක් ද  වවන  අජිත් පිරයන්ත  තරුණ මහතගේ ප්‍රයත්නය ගැන ලක්ෂණ ලිපියක් පසුගිය ඉරිදා දිවයින පත්‍රයෙහි පල විය. එම ලිපිය අනුව:  තම පියාගේ ආභාෂය මත කුඩාකල සිටම කුඹුරට, කමතට ඇලූම් කළ අජිත් කැත්ත උදැල්ල කමතට අවනත කරගැනීමට වැය කළේ කෙටි […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana The event, Hiru Govi Sangraamaya -Thun Helayei Ranketh Udhaanaya” may be visited at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Own9TRzKUYw). A part of the title means Hiru farmer’s battle”. But what does Uddaana” mean? In Sanskrit, Uddaana implies the act of binding, fastening together”, while it also denotes the entry of the sun into a zodiacal sign. In […]

By Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana Mr. G. A. D Sirimal (GADS)   has lobbied consistently for  a  continuation of the  traditional and well-tested energy plans of earlier decades  in his writings  to the Island newspaper, and calling for the further expansion of coal-burning power plants, even though  the Norochchollai power plant is limping between shut downs and […]

By Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana Hon. Chamal Rajapaksa  had stated  on January 14th at Embilipitiya that According to the WHO, Sri Lanka is the country eating the most amount of toxins (ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ වාර්තාවල් අනුව ලෝකයේ වැඩිම වස විස බුක්තිවිදින රට තමයි ලංකාව)! Meanwhile, an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry has called for a  ban on […]

By  Chandre Dharmawardana (This article is  also to appeared in the Island Newspaper January 23, 2020) The so-called  Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC)  of USA  proposes to grant nearly half a billion dollars to Sri Lanka’s development. Sri Lanka has already received  over  2.5 billion in Chinese aid, and this is a US initiative to counter […]

ආචාර්‍ය චන්ද්‍ර ධර්මවර්ධන විසිනි,   රජරට බොහෝ ගම් වල අලුත් මාදිලියක වකු ගඩු රෝගයක් වසංගතයක් මෙන් පැතිර ගොස් ඇති බව කවුරුත් දනී. සාමාන්‍ය වකුගඩු රෝගය අධික  රුධිර  පීඩනය සහ දියවැඩියාව සමග ඇතිවේ. නුමුත්, නව වකුගඩු රෝගය එවැනි කිසි රෝග ලකුණක් නොදක්වා,  ලෙඩය අසාද්‍ය වූ විට පමණක් හෙලි වෙයි.    මෙමෙ ලෙඩය 1992-2004 වකවානුවේදී මහනුවර වකුගඩු ව්ශේෂඥ දොස්තර […]

Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana A floating solar array system installed recently in France. According to an Islan d news report (http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=216282), His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith says no to coal, and environment-friendly power projects which utilize renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power must be prioritized.The Cardinal is said to have made this remark […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada Emeritus Professor Ariyasena de Silva of Moratuwa University, writing in The Island (1st Dec. 2019) suggests the following. “[making] blocks one metre long and 0.5 m across … outside plastered with a thin layer of cement mortar … Compressing the garbage into a steel casing can also be done with a […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana The Indian government, by acting with strategic alacrity  managed a diplomatic advance in inviting the New President of Sri Lanka to Delhi, within the first breath of the new presidency. The new president, in accepting the invitation equally rapidly has shown his friendliness and openness for dialogue, at a time when Tamil […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana. According to news reports (e.g., Island 18-Oct.-2019), the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi”, a constituent party of the  The Tamil National Alliance” (TNA) has hurled a 13-point request letter into the political arena of the presidential stakes, even though the prospective president has been shackled by the 19th amendment crafted by the Jayampathy-Sumanthiran […]

By Prof. Chandre Darmawaradana. The former Governor of the Central Bank (2006-2015) has made proposals with the objective of  A new impetus to revive the Economy from 2020-2025” (Island, 25 Sept-2019). These include  (1) a new elliptical expressway parallel to the coast at a distance of about 40-50 km from it around Sri Lanka, (2) […]

Chandre Dharmawardana Pothuvil  පොතුවිල් is Tamil usage. Its earlier sinhala usage  was indeed පොතුවිල, possibly derived from Budhuvila Bodhivaalaබෝදිවාල. Let the sinhalese writers at least begin to call it by the sinhala form පොතුවිල and NOT POTHUVIL. Please see my discussion of the place name given inhttps://www.dh-web.org/place.names/#P The link takes you to the letter P. […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana Today, even if you wish to dig a canal to provide water to rural people who are suffering from kidney disease owing to having consumed brackish well water contaminated with fluoride, an environmental impact statement is needed. Any major undertaking needs environmental impact statements. One of the reasons given for the cancellation […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, This is a very good analysis by Susantha Goonatilleke. We should agree that Sri Lanka, even more than India, has a strong historical memory, and the Mahawamsa falls in line with the Gilgamesh, the Old Testament, and the writings of Herodotus. The Indian Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata contain far more myth than […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada. Nearly 4000 metric tons of illegally imported hazardous garbage, contaminated with hospital waste and human organs have been found in Colombo’s free trade zone. The foul stench emanating from the illegal cargo had let the cat out of the bag! The Island Newspaper Editorial and writers like Dr. Ratnasiri (I29-07-2019, Island)  […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada June 23, 1983, known as Black July” was a day of shame for Sri Lanka where a government calling itself a Dharmista Rajya” (a Righteous Regime)  permitted, aided and abetted armed mobs to attack a section of its defenseless citizens — civilian Tamils.  The fact that there were looters or the […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana. David McKinnon, Canada’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka  has stated, on Canada’s National Day  that  Canada would continue to support conflict prevention efforts in Sri Lanka, where  it has been seen how hate speech and media can entrench communal divisions”.  Meanwhile back in Canada, successive Canadian governments have failed to understand how […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana While the country remains mesmerized and  paralysed by revelations of incredible security lapses, the failure to implement long-term plans for energy production, updating of agriculture and industry  to keep pace with climate change, population growth etc.,will cause irrevocable systemic collapse causing more prolonged misery than any sudden Jihadist shocks. Many of us  […]

By   Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada Newspaper  reports mention how the minister of Power and Energy  and the CEB engineers are trying to meet a systemic power shortage looming over Sri Lanka. The Easter Sunday carnage made everyone forget about the grave systemic problems facing Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka seems to lurch from one emergency to another […]

By  Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada Newspaper  reports mention how Mr. Ravi Karunanayake, the minister of Power and Energy had taken the initiative of contacting French and Canadian agencies regarding Sri Lanka’s  grave energy crisis. The Minister has even explored  awarding a Turkish company a tender to provide electricity from two power-ships. A sense  of desperation is […]

Chandre Dharmawardana It is often asked  why educated youth  coming from good homes” join extremist organizations.  Simple  references to  brain washing”, or the stupidity of the young are no explanations. There is no scientifically recognized   process called brain washing”.   It is also  naive to assume that  educated youth  join the IS (Islamic state)  to go […]

Chandre Dharmawardana Every one has by now heard of how a large number of cows have been imported in recent years, and how they had died causing severe problems to the dairy farmer. A recent report entitled Importing exotic cows which performed poorly under local conditions” by Ananda Wickremasinghe appeared in the Last Sunday Times. […]

Chandre Dharmawardana A 2016 talk by an engineer which may be accessed at: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0NEaPTu9oI&feature=youtu.be) gives a wake-up call” about-the danger of cell-phone use and Wi-Fi radiation. It is titled: Wireless wake-up call | Jeromy Johnson | TEDxBerkeley A Silicon-valley engineer turned technology-health advocate, Jeromy Johnson discusses our attachment to technology. This video is  once again […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada When construction workers excavating the site of the Sathosa Store  in Mannar  unearthed skeletal remains in  late 2013, they had accidentally found one of the largest mass graves in the country. Radio-carbon dating has now put the skeletal remains to the 15th -18th century. However, the TNA and a number of NGOs […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana Some  technicians dressed like surgeons in an operating theater are working in a vast tower sealed from the environment. It is full of hydroponic shelves, lights, pumps and small robots  controlled by  clusters of computers. This is  ultra high-tech  agriculture (UHTA). We are in a modern agro-factory tower that has replaced the […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana Imagine a space rocket whose controls are taken over by  zealots who are driving the rocket  straight into the sun due to ignorance  of its controls. Mission control detects danger and advises the pilot to correct the course. Rubbish, you technos and engineers  know nothing –  yes, we are having increasing glare […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada. It is gratifying that several writers have taken up  the vital topic of pesticide use in agriculture (6th  of February, Island).  Dr. Ranil Sananayake (RS)  has claimed to  rebut”  what I wrote. I stated  that our soils are NOT laden with toxic agrochemicals, and that they support a thriving ecosystem full of  […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada. Mr. Siri Pathirana,  a Farmer from Malsiripura” has responded (1st February,   Island”) to my article  (Island, 24 January).  Mr. Pathirana  recounts his memories about the poisoning of fish in a paddy field after the application of pesticides some 60 years ago (note that the word pesticide” includes herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc., as […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada Sri Lanka has now woken up to the fact that the armyworm caterpillar, known locally as the Senaa caterpillar, has arrived in Sri Lanka and begun its march of devastation. This is what is known as a Grey Rhino” event – that is, an event whose coming  is  obvious but totally ignored […]