When I questioned AI, “According to the Buddhist philosophy, what is the reason for rebirth after death?“
AI Replied;
In Buddhist philosophy, rebirth after death happens because the causes that drive existence have not ended yet. It’s not a soul that moves on, but a process continuing.
Here’s the core idea, step by step 👇
1. Craving (Taṇhā) is the main reason
The Buddha taught that craving—for pleasure, existence, identity, or becoming—is the key cause.
As long as there is:
desire
attachment
clinging to I” and mine”
…the cycle continues.
Craving leads to renewed existence.” — Samudaya Sacca (The Truth of the Origin of Suffering)
2. Kamma (intentional action) fuels rebirth
Our intentional actions (body, speech, and mind) leave kammic potential.
At death:
the body ends
but accumulated kamma + craving conditions a new birth
Think of it like:
one candle lighting another 🔥 The flame continues, but it’s not the same flame.
3. No permanent soul is reborn
Buddhism rejects an eternal soul (attā).
Instead:
rebirth is a causal continuity
a stream of conditions (nāma–rūpa, consciousness, formations)
So:
not the same person
not a completely different person
This is called dependent origination (Paṭicca Samuppāda).
4. Ignorance (Avijjā) keeps the cycle going
Not seeing reality clearly—especially:
impermanence (anicca)
unsatisfactoriness (dukkha)
non-self (anattā)
—leads to craving → kamma → rebirth → suffering again.
5. When does rebirth stop?
Rebirth ends when:
ignorance is destroyed
craving is extinguished
This is Nibbāna.
When there is no fuel, the fire goes out 🔥
In one sentence:
According to Buddhism, rebirth happens because craving and ignorance, supported by kamma, continue the process of existence—even after death.
If you want, I can also explain this:
using a simple everyday analogy
or from a Sinhala / Theravāda perspective
or with exact sutta references
Just tell me 🙂
Q: Can you explain this further?
Of course 🙂 Let’s go deeper but keep it clear, step by step, exactly how Buddhism explains rebirth.
1. What actually dies?
In Buddhism, what we call a person” is only a combination of five aggregates (pañca-khandha):
Rūpa – physical body
Vedanā – feelings
Saññā – perception
Saṅkhāra – mental formations (intentions, habits)
Viññāṇa – consciousness
At death:
the body breaks down
consciousness does NOT continue as the same entity
but the conditions that support consciousness are still present
Nothing permanent leaves the body.
2. Then what causes a new birth?
This is where Paṭicca Samuppāda (Dependent Origination) comes in.
The Buddha explained rebirth as a chain of causes, not a soul-transfer.
Like an echo —caused by a sound, but not the sound itself
Or:
Like milk turning into curd, curd into butter —continuous, but never the same substance
4. Why craving is the decisive factor
At death, the mind naturally moves toward what it is attached to.
If there is:
craving for existence
fear of non-existence
attachment to identity, people, possessions
Then the mind grasps → that grasping becomes fuel → rebirth occurs.
The Buddha compared this to:
A fire jumping from one house to another It moves because of wind and fuel, not because the fire wants” to travel.
Craving = fuel Kamma = direction Ignorance = blindness
5. Why good people are still reborn
Even wholesome kamma:
still supports existence
still produces rebirth (even in heavenly realms)
So rebirth ends not by good deeds alone, but by:
wisdom
non-clinging
seeing reality as it is
6. How rebirth stops completely
When a person realizes:
there is no permanent self
all conditioned things are impermanent
craving causes suffering
Then:
craving ceases
kamma loses its fuel”
consciousness no longer seeks a new base
This is Nibbāna.
Like a lamp going out when oil is finished.
7. One powerful summary (Buddha’s own logic)
When this exists, that comes to be. When this ceases, that ceases.”
Rebirth exists because:
craving exists
ignorance exists
Rebirth ends when:
craving ends
ignorance ends
If you like, I can:
explain this with a modern science analogy
map it moment-to-moment (not just after death)
explain what happens at the exact moment of death
or explain it in Sinhala, very simply
Just tell me how deep you want to go 🌱
Can you please explain this with a modern science analogy map it moment-to-moment (not just after death) explain what happens at the exact moment of death or explain it in Sinhala,
Love this question — you’re basically asking for the full-stack explanation 😄 I’ll do all four, clearly separated, and tie them together so they click.
1️⃣ Modern science analogy (no religion needed)
🔌 Think of rebirth like energy + information, not a soul
In modern science:
Energy is never destroyed, only transformed
Information patterns can continue even when hardware changes
Example: A flame 🔥
One candle lights another
The first candle goes out
Is it the same flame? ❌
Is it unrelated? ❌
What continues is:
heat
conditions
process
➡️ Buddhism says rebirth works exactly like this.
There is:
no permanent thing”
only a causal process continuing
🧠 Brain analogy
Your brain today:
is not made of the same atoms as 10 years ago
yet your habits, fears, desires continue
Why? ➡️ Patterns, not substances.
Buddhism says rebirth is the continuation of mental patterns (kamma + craving) after the body stops.
2️⃣ Moment-to-moment rebirth (THIS is the key insight)
Rebirth is not just after death. It is happening every moment.
Example (right now):
Thought arises → I like this”
You cling → identity forms
That moment dies
A new moment is born
➡️ This is micro-rebirth.
The Buddha taught that:
Birth and death happen billions of times in one lifetime
So:
death of the body = just a big version of what already happens every second
If craving exists: ➡️ the process continues If craving stops: ➡️ the process stops
3️⃣ What happens at the exact moment of death (Theravāda explanation)
Very precise here 👇
Step-by-step:
Body fails (organs stop)
Sense consciousness shuts down
Mind enters a final mental event called cuti-citta (death consciousness)
If craving + kamma still exist:
a new paṭisandhi-citta (rebirth-linking consciousness) arises
instantly, without a gap
⏱️ No waiting room ⏱️ No soul traveling ⏱️ Just cause → effect
Like:
one wave ending 🌊
another wave beginning 🌊
What decides the next birth?
dominant kamma
habitual tendencies
strong attachments at death
overall mental direction of life
Not judgment. Not punishment. Just physics of mind.
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 25-31 January 2026
*
‘The visitor to Devundara (Dondra) inevitably visits
the Vishnu Devale, the Buddhist vihara built
by Parakramabahu VI… Much less known is
the granite structure called Gal-ge or Galgane…
First discovered in 1914 by ER Ayrton, the
building was declared an archaeological reserve
in 1927… In Feb of 1587, the Portuguese
destroyed this grand shrine completely,
plundering the jewels & the valuables,
building a church where the shrine was.’
– ee Sovereignty, Gal-ge:
Forgotten shrine to Lanka’s guardian god
*
The shrine (to honor the Sinhala guardian deity Upulvan – not Vishnu, by the way) was destroyed in 1587 and a church built upon it. How then was it ’discovered’ by a roving Englishman in 1914 (when he was in the midst of fighting another of their wars on the world)? Uncovered, may be? This verbiage of ‘discovery’, trite as it may seem to be blatantly reiterated in 2026, is flashed before our eyes by this week’s Sunday Times (see ee Sovereignty, Gal-ge: Forgotten Shrine). The Times has not just cold blood but hot ink in their varicosed veins, and not only English whitewash. So how or why are they making such an egregious mistake about our own history in this moment of much babble about ‘Education Reform’. Or is it a mistake? Access to ink does not ensure an open sluice to common sense.
*
The merchant media in Sri Lanka absolutely love a good diversion, and the inclusion of a US homo mating site in a proposed education curriculum has given them enough powder to use up all the ink, electronic & chemical, to blanket paper & screen. Lost in the controversy is need for a modern industrial curriculum, which alone can prepare us to face the rest of the 21st century. Lost also is identification of the main obstacles to realizing that goal. Lost then is the kidnapping of the education system by the USA’s World Bank & the ADB (see ee Random Notes), aided by their bribing of Education Ministry officials & employees via junkets & jaunts to England, the USA & Japan, etc. Lost as well is the failure to understand the role education, and the prevention of it, plays in reproducing an unequal class system.
*
Here is another enlightening scoop from the same Times this week:
‘For many in the international community, it was a moment
of profound surprise – a realization that the US electorate
was willing to break entirely from established political norms.
However, when the US voter returned [US President Trump] to power
for a 2nd term in 2024, that surprise transformed into a deeper,
more resonant disbelief.’ – Javid Yusuf (ee Politics, Trump phenomenon,
the Sri Lankan parallel & the responsibility of the American people)
Why ‘disbelief’? Liberals, like this disbelieving columnist (from a so-called ‘minority’ community) usually love to blubber about the USA & Europe being models of freedom to quickly emulate. Yet for those with eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a brain to smell a dead rat, it has always been very easy for the USA & Europe to ‘break entirely from established political norms?’ If and when they need to.
The USA’s bottom-line ‘norms’ derive from their unapologetic genocide of the original owners of that so-called NewWorld. It then profited intensely from the enslaved chattel slavery for their plantations (from whence its ‘human resources’ policies were imposed on us!). They did not share with us the intricate mechanisms of modern machine-making industry & capitalist wage slavery. But their more ‘established’ norms have always included the ‘divine right’ of these colonial settlers (regardless of their rulers being of Republican or Democratic Party vintage) to invade our & other countries at will.
The clamour for so-called ‘minority’ rights, actually originates in the demand by the ‘minority’ English invading Sri Lanka & India: to have ‘equal’ rights over the majority they chose to oppress & exploit. (Once they wipe out the original majority peoples, of course, there is little dribble about minority rights). In the US, the constitutional 14th amendment that reluctantly declared ‘negroes’ as ‘humans’ – actually as ‘persons’ – was passed only to also declare corporations as ‘legal persons’ too.
In Sri Lanka, the rights of ‘minorities’ were provided to enable the continuation post-1948 of colonial rule by merchants, ‘to represent important interests which were not represented or inadequately represented in the House’ especially over the economy.
As for that disbelieving columnist Yusuf, this disbeliever as usual only uses his ‘disbelief’ to divert to his (& other liberals’) favorite theme of abolishing the executive presidency in Sri Lanka (though they never call for abolishing corporate Chief Executive Officers – CEOs):
‘Perhaps the most alarming aspect of these developments
is the apparent inability of the US governance system to
restrain the executive. The US Constitution was designed
with a system of ‘checks & balances,’ yet the 2nd Trump
term has demonstrated that these checks are only
as strong as the individuals who uphold them.’
Phew! It is not about ‘individuals’ but the collective forces, the classes, behind political actors. This dear liberal should really check his history books at the door. The US Constitution, from its very beginnings, was primarily concerned with preserving chattel slavery! Instead, mythologies are freely disseminated by our so-called ‘minority’ liberals. These are also promoted by other petty merchants, including lawyers. Look at these claims, again in the Sunday Times, about ‘English justice’ & ‘free speech’, especially in their colonies, where justice is still politically & economically prioritized for white settlers:
‘In South Africa, prosecutorial decisions are regularly reviewed
for their rationality & legality… I say this as a liberal proponent
of contempt of court laws & abiding fully by the standard set in
modern jurisdictions that, as well put by courts in England, there
must not be ‘gagging of bona fide public discussion of controversial
matters of general public interest’.’ – see ee Security, An Office
of a Director of Public Prosecutions independent of AG…
These columnists appear to be clearly ignorant of recent legal rulings in England, Europe & the USA (which are ‘legally’ suppressing speech & repressing demonstrations against the slaughter in Palestine, or the kidnapping of migrants). Their jurisprudence is always contingent on the political & economic priorities of their rulers.
*
‘US President Trump – despite deep differences with
most western allies – framed western power & prosperity as
the product of a shared & ‘very special’ culture, which he
argued must be defended & strengthened. The emphasis on
cultural inheritance, rather than shared rules or institutions,
underscored how far the language of the old order has shifted.’
M Moragoda (seeee Sovereignty,
India, middle powers & the emerging global order)
Moragoda Mahattaya, founder of the Pathfinder Foundation, a recipient of the beneficence of the Rockefeller dynasty’s oil-sucking Exxon Corp, cannot bring himself to address what this ‘very special’ ‘culture’ the US President is dog-whistling or helpfully trying to pry open our eyes to: white supremacism. Moragoda calls it a ‘shift’. As for the so-called ‘deep differences’ that Moragoda divines, he may be in for another surprise aka discovery. Now, what does this tell us about our so-called ‘thought leaders’? They are yet to ‘discover’ ourselves or our enemies:
*
‘If you know the enemy & know yourself,
you need not fear the result of 100 battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every
victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you
know neither the enemy nor yourself,
you will succumb in every battle.’
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
*
Just as the US amasses another ‘big, beautiful’ armada to attack Iran, again using stolen Diego Garcia as an attack base, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka last week claims it ‘welcomed’ once again the Montana National Guard to assess damage following Cyclone Ditwah. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in November 2025 with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence formalized ‘cooperation under the US Department of War’s State Partnership Program’. We are thus moved to examine the extents of this enemy we are confronted with today in Sri Lanka and the seas we claim to own around us:
‘The Trump Administration & its NATO allies are clear:
They will escalate their war against Russia at sea, deploying
their navies to enforce trade blockades, ship sabotage &
seizures, & the closure of sea lanes, & to launch
‘pre-emptive’ attacks before their targets can defend
themselves. This is sea war to achieve regime change on
land. Trump’s current targets are Iran, Venezuela, Cuba,
Russia, North Korea, China, & India. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio told a Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday
that if these targets attempt to deter the US escalation by
raising their guard, the US Navy will shoot first.’
– John Helmer (ee Sovereignty, Trump’s Global Sea War
is the New Strategy for Regime Change)
*
This of course is not new. The US President’s blabber last week about England being ‘stupid’ for handing back nominal ownership of the Chagos Atoll (Diego Garcia), made sure that the media made no reference to England ‘leasing’ the base to the USA for the next 00 years. When England and their effusive choirs & tenured professors claimed ‘post-coloniality’ they forgot to note:
*
‘British Overseas Territories (BOTs) are 14 territories
that maintain a constitutional or historically recognized
[imperialist– ee] link to England & constitute part of its
sovereign territory, yet lie outside the English Islands –
these include Anguilla, Bermuda, The British Antarctic
Territory, The British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin
The Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie & Oeno Islands, Saint Helena,
Ascension & Tristan Da Cunha, South Georgia & the South
Sandwich Islands, Cyprus (Akrotiri & Dhekelia) & the Turks
& Caicos Islands. These territories are remnants of the former
English Empire, which remain under English sovereignty.’
– see ee Sovereignty, British Overseas Territories
Indeed, the English, even while their choirs & professors sang loudly about ‘free trade’, have continued to bawl out:
*
When Britain first at Heav’n’s command
Arose, arose from out the azure main
This was the charter, the charter of the land
& guardian angels sang this strain
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves
Britons never, never, never will be slaves
– Rule Britannia! 1740
This bellicose anthem, played & sung by colonial forces (including the US) when Japan surrendered in Singapore in 1945, is struck aloud, annually at least, by the BBC. Note: ee does not use the words ‘Britain’, great or not, nor ‘United Kingdom’ – we always use ‘England’, and ‘English’, for that is the source & language of their power – not Celtic or Gaelic or Welsh which their immediate fiefs claim to also pronounce. Their principal institutions refer to a Bank of England, & Church of England. And then there is the USA’s Marines’ Hymn. ee always refers to this settler colony as the ‘USA’, not ‘America’ or even the ‘US’ as a noun (not us). In their hymn, Montezuma, the name of the Aztec leader killed by the Spanish, refers to the US War that stole parts of Mexico in 1847. And ‘Tripoli’ refers to the US wars on North Africa (1801-15) to avoid paying tariffs on the US opium trade from Turkey to China, an opium which created the USA’s first ‘millionaires’:
*
‘From the Halls of Montezuma
to the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
in the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right & freedom
& to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.’
– The Marines’ Hymn, 1867
‘To fight for right & freedom’ to enslave others & sell opium? Which brings us to the USA’s National Defense Strategy 2026 unveiled last week:
‘Among these expansions will be for the US to ‘erect’
new military installations in close proximity to China.
Per the jargon of NatSec Speak, this means establishing
‘strong denial defense’ in the ‘1st Island Chain’ –
which may sound like a modestly-sized region to the
unschooled reader, but actually encompasses Japan,
the Philippines, Taiwan, & perhaps a smattering of
other places like Vietnam & Malaysia, depending on
what the cockamamie Grand Strategists decide to theorize
& war-game next… On top of ‘deepening’ US military
involvement in West Asia, so as to ‘enable integration
between Israel & our Arabian Gulf partners’.’
– Michael Tracey(ee Sovereignty, A note on the
ridiculous 2026 ‘National Defense Strategy’)
Well, the English are now the slaves of the USA! And the USA seeks to rule the waves along with them! And their guardian angels – the polluted MSM (mainstream media), & flunkies – strain to sing along:
$500mn in military spending in the region. The number of
Canadian frigates assigned to the waters off the Chinese coast
will increase from 2 to 3. China considers sailings through the
Taiwan Strait to be provocations & in violation of its territorial
sovereignty but Canada routinely sails there alongside US warships.
Canadian foreign policy is in lockstep with the US in its hegemonic
design to threaten & contain China.’ – William Dere & Wawa Li,
– ee Sovereignty, Chinese Canadians Organize for Democratic Rights
& Against Modern Exclusion
*
Perhaps the Canadians & their de jure English overlords have changed their minds? Like a World Wrestling Federation tag team, taking over from their thumper Don Trump, the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney & the English PM Keir Starmer have both coming knocking on China’s door. The media has also been lighting fireworks about Carney’s supposedly ‘historic’ thunderbolt at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Charith Gunawardena & Kanishka Goonewardena (G&G) however urge Sri Lankans to be cautious (strategic & tactical) about decoding any ‘roadmap for reform’ in Carney’s words. G&G see an urgent need to ‘manage the destructive consequences of policies dictated by our creditors’ (which includes Canada), asserting ‘it would be naïve to trust global political-economic business as usual’ (see ee Focus).
The speech by Carney (Canada’s ‘Governor’ as the US President refers to him) ignores the structural injustices of the imperialist system. G&G notes his speech is directed at the supposed ‘middle powers’: Europe, etc. These ‘powers’ have certainly not been in the ‘middle’ when it comes to us; they remain (pick one: ‘flunky’, ‘running dog’, ‘lackey’, ‘poodle’) accessories to major international crimes. This includes the stealing of Venezuela’s gold reserves – when Carney was Bank of England governor – and Canada’s role in the kidnapping of both Venezuelan President Maduro, as well as Haiti’s President Bernard Aristide in 2004.
Europe (to be precise, Germany, England & France) have actively pushed the IMF programs that ‘limit policy autonomy in our economies while preserving advantages for multinational corporations (MNCs) & advanced industrial states’. G&G instead highlight the need for policies that would ‘prioritise value addition, food & energy security, import substitution &, above all… industrial development’ (see ee Focus).
*
• Our media remain insistently blind to how the white settler states (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) have become leading political economies in the world. Unravelling the roots of underdevelopment, SBD de Silva in 1982 classified the world into 3 parts: the states of new settlement (the genocidaire states led by the US, etc), settler-colonial states (largely led by the old European thugs) & non-settler colonial states (like ours), come into sharper focus with each passing day. Of course there are powerful exceptions to this division of the world, but much of the world is still colonized, and the USA’s & Europe’s tactics to besiege those who refuse to submit to their dictat, grow deadlier…
This ee Focus concludesChapter 6 of our reproduction of SBD de Silva’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. Here de Silva examines the differences (USA, Canada etc vs Sri Lanka, India) in the treatment of workers. In the non-settler colonies like Sri Lanka, unable to decimate the local population, colonial government officials had to project a semblance of justice.
In settler states, however, government officials openly colluded with local investors against the indigenous people. Officials acquired property and political interests and even opposed the metropolitan government. White officials even insisted they be treated as indigenous, opposing attempts to regulate the conditions of labor, and attempts to improve African farming.
De Silva also detailed how ‘the problem of a labour supply in different socio-historical situations’ was ‘solved in different ways’. In the settler colonies, the settlers’ need for labor was linked to the officials’ needs for revenues; labour had to be ‘extracted by dismantling traditional economic structures – through taxation, land expropriation and by outright coercion’. In French West Africa, people were forced to ‘grow cotton (for export to France) under the threat of imprisonment if the quality was indifferent or the quantity insufficient’.
De Silva also pointed to the different roles the export sector was made to play. In Sri Lanka, Malaysia & India, the export sector was based on plantations. In Sri Lanka & Malaysia, they chose to import Indian & Chinese workers. In Myanmar (Burma), Thailand & West Africa, the export sector was peasant-based and expanded beyond the home market. In Sri Lanka, the English impoverished the peasant economy, & prevented rural industrialization:
‘Unable to effectively utilize the available number of labourers
nor could it in the absence of organizational or technological
changes release labour to other sectors of production (This
‘irrationality’ was largely due to the nature of labour demand
& supply. The timing of labour requirements in grain
cultivation based on monsoonal rains was both uneven &
erratic, & the resulting variations in the demand for labour
were aggravated by a maldistribution in the supply,
intra-seasonally, inter-regionally, & even between
holdings in the same district).
De Silva added: ‘Settler agriculture was less labour intensive than either plantations or peasant-based cereal crops.’ Foreign absentee investors in non-settler states focused on the plantations, and the colonials formed an enclave. He also recorded the destruction of the ancient village administration (the self-governing gamsabhava), as well as the environment:
‘In Sri Lanka, there was a loss of village pasture land,
& a denudation of forests which caused soil erosion
& the silting up of water courses & paddy fields.’
*
• The media & plantation mafia have been working overtime to hide theculpability of the plantation system in the recent disaster. We cannot expect them to admit to the role that the plantations & the import-export fraud have played in the overall underdevelopment of the economy,as SBD de Silva has analyzed. The tea plantation mafia own the media. Instead, this mafia have poured out good unreported rupees to publish fine & glossy ‘coffee-table’ volumes on the wonders that the over-150 years of plantations have bestowed upon us! As for the recent flooding, at first the plantation owners denied they had been affected at all (see ee 26 Dec 2025). Then news ‘leaked’ out that workers had been very much affected, particularly due to the peculiar architecture of estates that values capital equipment over labor ‘resources’.
Our attention was recently drawn (by Former Secretary to PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sudath Gunasekara, see ee 24 Jan 2026) to how, midst the general lament about ‘Malaiyaha’ Tamil workers, the landlessness & reduction to beggary of the evicted Kandyans has been studiously ignored, since 1948. Gunasekara referred to an 1894 Kelani Valley Railway Commission Report by the English, to estimate the cost of a railway and the profits that could be obtained, which had then noted the ‘recurrence of high floods’ & ‘allegations’:
‘Navigation of this river is yearly becoming more difficult
1) on account of the floods being more sudden & of higher
volume, owing to the denudation of the slopes of its upper reaches
through the opening of new tea estates; 2) on account of the detritus
swept down from these newly-opened lands, which has filled up
many of the deep reaches, & has formed sandbanks in the
navigable channels; & 3) on account of the rapid drainage into
the basin of the Kelani, which, while causing high floods during
the heavy rains, has reduced the ordinary low water level.’
– see ee Random Notes
Of course, these allegations were partially refuted by an English tea planter (of that infamous colonial Byrde family) who ‘owned’ 800 acres, even as he did not discount the possibility that it would get worse…
This week, 131 years later, saw the government call to ‘vacate housing above 5,000 feet’. Rather than recall our own history, written in blood & tears, the President, rather ironically had to refer to a recent survey report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which he said, provided ‘a stark picture of the past, present & future of the Central Highlands: erosion is so severe that only exposed rock remains. Many reservoirs in the hill country risk being filled with silt & mud. The soil layers have become extremely thin.’ Soil is the most effective natural medium for storing water. ‘Healthy land absorbs rainfall, retains it, & then releases it gradually, forming streams, springs, waterfalls, and eventually rivers that sustain both people & agriculture across the island. This natural process is now under threat. All 103 major rivers & tributaries in Sri Lanka originatefrom the highlands. From the hilltops, water flows outward, supporting life in distant regions far removed from the mountains themselves. For this reason, protecting the Central Highlands is absolutely critical.’ Well, let’s see what England’s Unilever Corporation – direct descendant of Lever Brothers & Lipton’s, etc – its innumerable MSME fronts, and the rest of the plantation mafia, have to say about all this… Unilever will of course claim it has spun off its plantations – but they still control them remotely though other means. Will they pay reparations? Will the ADB cover it all up? (see ee Random Notes)
Sri Lanka’s governments display a disturbing tendency to repeat the mistakes of other countries, even after those countries have openly admitted failure and reversed course. What is more troubling is that these reversals are not hidden or disputed — they are documented, and publicly acknowledged. Yet, despite full awareness that overseas online voting experiments failed in advanced democracies due to risks to election integrity, public trust, and national security, Sri Lanka appears willing to proceed down the same path — knowing that reversal is inevitable. Sri Lanka does not need to learn the hard way” what others have already learned at great cost. A government that knowingly walks into a mistake — fully aware it will have to reverse —It is abdicating its constitutional duty. What is being proposed is not merely a new voting method, but a reallocation of political power from citizens living under Sri Lanka’s laws to individuals who have chosen to live outside its jurisdiction under foreign laws — without first asking the People whether they consent to such a transfer.
Sri Lanka’s Constitution (Article 3) vests sovereignty directly in the People, not to the Government of the day.
Any fundamental alteration in the exercise of political power — including how votes are cast or counted — requires the explicit consent of the People themselves (Referendum).
Lobbying, technology, or donor pressure cannot override this constitutional mandate.
If nations with stronger institutions, advanced cybersecurity capacity, and stable political environments have concluded that online voting undermines democracy, on what rational basis does a post-conflict country like Sri Lanka believe it will succeed especially when ministry websites get regularly hacked.
I. What Other Democracies Learned — and Why They Reversed Course
Countries including Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, France, and the United Kingdom halted or rejected online voting after concluding that:
1. Election integrity cannot be guaranteed in online environments
2. The secret ballot cannot be protected outside controlled polling stations
3. Foreign interference is undetectable and deniable
4. Public confidence collapses faster than technology improves
Elections must be verifiable by the average citizen, not dependent on technical expertise.”
This principle is universal — and even more critical for Sri Lanka.
II. Sri Lanka’s Constitution: Clear Safeguards, Clear Intent
Article 3 – Sovereignty of the People
Sovereignty includes:
· legislative power
· executive power
· judicial power
· the franchise
This sovereignty must be exercised in a manner that protects the State and the People.
Sovereignty belongs to the People — not to the Government of the day.
Article 3 of the Constitution vests sovereignty in the People as a collective, not in Parliament, the Executive, or the Elections Commission acting independently of the People.
Therefore, any fundamental alteration in how the franchise is exercised — especially one that shifts political power outside the territory of the Republic — requires the explicit consent of the People themselves, not merely administrative or legislative initiative.
No Government has the constitutional authority to redesign the exercise of sovereignty without consulting the sovereign — the People of Sri Lanka.
Article 4(e) – Exercise of the Franchise
The Constitution requires that the franchise be exercised at elections conducted in accordance with the law.
This has historically meant:
1. controlled polling environments
2. physical verification
3. secrecy and transparency
4. public confidence in the process
Online overseas voting transfers effective political power away from resident citizens — without their consent.
The Constitution does not authorise the Government to redefinewho effectively determines electoral outcomeswithout the consent of the People.
Any proposal to allow large-scale overseas online voting — particularly by those who have voluntarily left Sri Lanka to live, work, or enjoy life elsewhere — must first be put to the People of Sri Lanka, whose sovereignty is directly affected.
Article 104B – Elections Commission
The Elections Commission is mandated to:
1. ensure free and fair elections
2. protect the integrity of the electoral process
3. maintain public trust
Election Commission is not empowered to introduce mechanisms that:
Any such change must be explicitly authorised by Parliament and consistent with constitutional intent.
III. Sri Lanka’s Election Law: Physical, Verifiable, Secure
Under the Parliamentary Elections Act No. 1 of 1981 and related election laws:
· Voting occurs at designated polling stations
· Voters are registered by electoral district
· Ballots are secret
· Counting is observable and auditable
These laws were designed to:
· prevent coercion
· prevent impersonation
· ensure equality of voting power
Online overseas votingcannot meet these standardswithout rewriting the law — and weakening its safeguards.
IV. Why Sri Lanka Faces Risks Other Countries Do Not
1. An Organised, Hostile Separatist Diaspora
Sri Lanka has faced:
· three decades of terrorism
· a well-documented, internationally active separatist network
· digital lobbying, fundraising, and influence campaigns abroad continue
Online overseas voting would:
· enable bloc mobilisation from abroad
· allow foreign-funded campaigning without domestic accountability
· directly influence Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity
No post-conflict state/Govt aware ofan unresolved separatist threat permits unrestricted overseas online voting.
2. Transnational Extremist Influence
The Easter Sunday attacks demonstrated:
· ideological radicalisation from external networks
· foreign funding and influence
Online voting environments are:
· susceptible to coercion
· vulnerable to ideological pressure
· impossible to regulate across global jurisdictions
3. Persistent Foreign State Interference in internal affairs
Sri Lanka has repeatedly experienced:
· diplomatic pressure
· political interference
· policy influence from external powers
Online overseas voting would:
· magnify funding and digital capability
· allow algorithm-driven influence campaigns
· disadvantage domestic candidates and voters
The result will not reflect the will ofresident citizens who bear the consequences of governance.
V. International Experience: Overseas Voting Practices
While the Sri Lankan Government proposes overseas online voting, global experience shows such practices are extremely rare and highly restricted.
Most countries that allow citizens abroad to vote do so via postal ballots, embassies, or proxy voting, not the internet.
Examples include:
· France: Postal or embassy voting; temporary internet voting for parliamentary elections was suspended due to security concerns.
· India: Postal ballots for government employees and armed forces abroad; no online voting.
· United States: Mail-in absentee ballots; limited internet use only for military voters.
· United Kingdom & Canada: Postal or proxy voting; no online voting for federal elections.
· Italy: Postal voting for citizens abroad.
These examples highlight that even technologically advanced and politically stable countries limit online voting for overseas citizens because of risks to ballot secrecy, voter verification, cybersecurity, and foreign influence.
Sri Lanka, with a post-conflict environment, active hostile diaspora networks, and limited digital safeguards, cannot safely implement a similar system.
The precedent is clear: overseas online voting is an exception, not the norm — and Sri Lanka’s plan would be a risky experiment with constitutional, operational, and security consequences.
VI. Questions That Must Be Answered — Publicly
By what constitutional authority does the Government propose to alter the exercise of the People’s sovereignty without first seeking the People’s consent?
To the Government
1. Under which constitutional provision does the Government justify overseas online voting?
2. Has Parliament approved amendments to election law permitting it?
3. How will the State prevent foreign funding, coercion, and cyber interference?
4. Who bears responsibility if election legitimacy is challenged?
To the Elections Commission
1. How will the Commission guarantee ballot secrecy in uncontrolled environments?
2. How will coercion, vote-buying, and bloc voting be detected?
3. How can ordinary citizens verify results, as required by democratic principle?
4. Has a national security risk assessment been conducted?
To the Opposition
1. Would you accept election outcomes shaped by foreign digital campaigns?
2. Would you challenge results if overseas online voting determines government formation?
3. Are you prepared to defend this mechanism before the Supreme Court?
To Citizens of Sri Lanka
1. Should political power be exercised by those outside the legal, tax, and social consequences of governance?
2. Should convenience override constitutional safeguards?
3. Why should online voting be granted when any citizen may return to Sri Lanka to vote?
Citizens who retain strong civic ties to Sri Lanka, including dual citizens, are not disenfranchised.
Any citizen who wishes to exercise the franchise may do so by returning to Sri Lanka and voting within the constitutional and legal framework that applies equally to all resident voters.
The issue is not citizenship — it is method, accountability, and consent of the sovereign People.
Practical, Legal, and Public-Interest Objections to Online Overseas Voting
Beyond constitutional and national security risks, online overseas voting presents serious operational, financial, and civic failures that governments elsewhere have already identified — and rejected.
1. Inherent Risks of Online Systems
Online voting suffers from the same vulnerabilities as other online platforms, including:
· hacking and cyber intrusion
· manipulation of personal data
· connectivity failures and system outages
· lack of end-to-end verifiability
Even advanced systems such as online banking and government databases experience breaches and errors.
Elections, unlike financial transactions,cannot be reversed once compromised.
2. Unreliable Voter Registries and Data Integrity
Accurate voter rolls are the backbone of any credible election.
Online systems make this harder, not easier.
International experience shows:
· ghost voters” and duplicate registrations
· voting linked to deceased persons
· non-existent individuals receiving benefits through digital systems
· widespread disputes over mailed and digitally managed voter lists
Sri Lanka lacks the capacity to:
· verify overseas voter status in real time
· cross-check deaths, migration, asylum status, or nationality changes
· audit data received from multiple foreign jurisdictions
This alone creates systemic unreliability.
3. Voter Registration Will Be Costly, Complex, and Slow
Overseas online voting would require:
· new registration frameworks
· foreign-based verification processes
· constant updates across countries with different legal systems
This will be:
· expensive
· time-consuming
· administratively burdensome
Far from improving efficiency, it diverts limited state resources from domestic elections to catering to Sri Lankans living overseas who have no role in day to day governance.
4. Foreign Funding and Influence Must Be Prohibited
Any attempt to implement overseas online voting will inevitably attract:
· foreign government funding & foreign intel presence
· NGO involvement
· private tech vendors
· entities with vested political or ideological interests
Allowing such funding:
· compromises sovereignty
· distorts domestic political competition
· undermines public trust
Foreign funding of electoral infrastructure should be explicitly prohibited.
5. The United Nations has no Legitimate Role
Given the UN’s deeply contested and divisive role in Sri Lanka, its involvement in electoral processes would:
· undermine public confidence
· raise sovereignty concerns
· deepen political polarisation
Election management must remain exclusively national.
6. Foreign Campaigning will create chaos both in Sri Lanka & in nations where Sri Lankans live
Overseas online voting opens the door to:
· foreign-based political rallies
· fundraising events
· TV, print, and digital advertising campaigns in host countries
· These & more may stir red flags by police/intel in these countries & may even lead to revoking of citizenship (US is already mooting idea of enactments to revoke citizenship of naturalized migrants)
https://www.usa.gov/renounce-lose-citizenship
Key questions arise:
· Are Western governments prepared to police foreign election campaigns on their soil?
· Will host countries tolerate political agitation involving foreign conflicts?
· Who benefits from these campaigns — ordinary overseas citizens, or political actors and funders?
· This is also an opportunity for enemies of host countries to influence Sri Lankans which may lead to a national security threat in these host countries.
Such activity risks:
· social disruption
· communal tension
· potential violence
None of this benefits ordinary citizens abroad.
7. Unsustainable Cost to the Sri Lankan Taxpayer
Sri Lanka is:
· servicing IMF obligations
· cutting social services
· managing economic recovery
Against this backdrop, online overseas voting would impose:
· technology costs
· cybersecurity expenses
· legal and monitoring costs
· foreign verification infrastructure
· massive logistics costs for even personnel to travel to different countries (opportunities for a handful of people to misuse taxpayer money)
All borne by resident taxpayers, for outcomes they may not control.
8. Dual Loyalty Is Now Being Questioned Globally
Several countries, including the United States, are:
· reassessing dual citizenship
· emphasising loyalty to one country
· questioning voting in multiple jurisdictions
This global shift reinforces a basic principle:
Political power must align with civic allegiance and accountability.
Sri Lanka should not move in the opposite direction.
9. Monitoring and Enforcement Is Practically Impossible
Monitoring overseas online voting would require:
· cross-border cooperation and travel by Sri Lankan officials
· enforcement in foreign jurisdictions
· oversight of coercion, funding, and interference
This is administratively unmanageable and legally unenforceable.
10. Asylum Status Raises Legitimate Questions
A serious question must be asked:
Why should individuals who sought asylum abroad, often on claims against the Sri Lankan State, be permitted to influence the political future of that same State from outside its jurisdiction?
This is not about denying citizenship.
It is about protecting electoral integrity and fairness.
11. The Fundamental Question Remains
Ultimately, the most important question is this:
For whose benefit is all this being done?
· Not resident citizens
· Not taxpayers
· Not electoral integrity
· Not national security
If a policy benefits external actors more than the People living within Sri Lanka, itcannot be justified as democratic reform.
Sri Lanka does not lack examples.
Countries with stronger systems tried online voting — and reversed it for valid reasons.
Sri Lanka, with greater risks, should not pretend it will succeed where others failed.
A Government that reallocates sovereign power without the consent of the People does not modernise democracy — it bypasses it.
Online overseas voting, without a mandate from the People living in Sri Lanka, is not inclusion. It isconstitutional overreach.
VII. The Global Consensus Sri Lanka Is Being Asked to Ignore
Countries that rejected online voting did not do so because they were:
· anti-technology
· anti-diaspora
· anti-democracy
They rejected it because they were:
· pro-democracy
· pro-integrity
· pro-sovereignty
· pro-constitutionalism
Sri Lanka, with far greater risks, cannot afford to be less cautious.
It is a structural change that affects:
· sovereignty
· national security
· electoral legitimacy
· constitutional order
Democracy is not measured by how easy voting becomes, but by howtrustworthy the result remains.
Given that overseas online voting is constitutionally, operationally, and financially risky, why proceed with the plan?
Let us once again ask this question.
Is the decision being influenced by potential profits from technology contracts, logistics, or outcomes that benefit a handful of actors?
The decision to proceed despite clear negatives would enable a handful of actors to profit, while the People of Sri Lanka bear the costs and the risk. Any policy affecting the exercise of sovereignty must be free from conflicts of interestand guided solely by public interest, not potential personal or private gain. The Election Commission is to be held accountable for mooting idea even without legislative approvals.
Shenali D Waduge
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Across every civilisation, from the temples of India to the monasteries of Tibet, from the synagogues of Jerusalem to the churches of Rome, humanity has carried a remarkable and unifying hope: when the world is engulfed in darkness, a divinely guided reformer will arise to restore light.
This expectation is not a minor footnote in religious history. It is one of the most striking common threads woven through the world’s major faiths.
Despite vast differences in culture, language and geography, every major religion anticipates a future figure who will revive spirituality, establish justice and guide humanity back to truth.
Before exploring how these expectations appear across different faiths, it is worth asking: what exactly do the world’s religions say about this awaited figure?
The Walk for Peace in the United States includes a specific objective to petition for the recognition of Vesak as a federal holiday.
The Mission: As part of their 2,300-mile pilgrimage from Texas to Washington, D.C., the group of Buddhist monks plans to ask Congress to declare Vesak—the day commemorating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing—a national holiday.
Purpose of the Request: Organizers state that official recognition would acknowledge Vesak as a day of reflection, compassion, and unity for all Americans, regardless of their religious background.
Spiritual vs. Advocacy: While the holiday request is a tangible goal, the monks emphasize that their primary focus remains a spiritual offering to promote mindfulness and inner peace.
Current Recognition: Although not yet a federal holiday, recent progress includes the White House hosting its first official Vesak celebration in 2021 and the Texas state government reportedly declaring May 15 as the 2026 Texas State Vesak Festival.
The 120-day journey is scheduled to conclude at the Lincoln Memorial in mid-February 2026.
Senaka Weeraratna has presented his arguments in various articles and an address delivered at the 28th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) in Seoul, South Korea, in 2016.
Reciprocity: Weeraratna emphasizes that reciprocity should be a guiding norm in international relations and the granting of religious concessions. He contrasts the magnanimity of traditional Buddhist countries (e.g., Sri Lanka, which grants public holidays for other religions) with the lack of similar concessions for Buddhism in most European nations.
Current Status in Europe: He notes that, as of his writings, only Russia, Austria, and Belgium have granted some form of official recognition to Buddhism in their constitutions or legal frameworks. Most other EU countries do not offer this status, which he views as a form of “step-motherly treatment”. Human Rights Fora especially the UNHRC platform in Geneva has become the favourite Happy Hunting Grounds for former Colonial Empires UK, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy among others to brow beat Sri Lanka on alleged discriminatory treatment of racial and religious minorities in the host country, while evading at every turn accountability for gross violation of Human Rights of the indigenous people especially the Sinhalese and Buddhism (as the prime target) and payment of Reparations and Repatriation of Stolen Artifacts vividly seen displayed to this day in the Museums of the former Colonial Masters.
Consequences of Non-Recognition: The absence of official recognition can result in various impediments to the practice and development of Buddhism, including:
Categorization of Buddhists as members of “sects” or “cults”.
Lack of access to public media or financial support provided to recognized religions.
Denial of the right to teach Buddhism in public schools.
Absence of public holidays for Buddhist significant days like Vesak.
Difficulties in constructing new temples (instead, using existing buildings is often the only option in some countries like the UK).
When Temples are allowed to be built if at all they cannot be built in the main thoroughfares like in France.
Call for Action: Weeraratna has urged international Buddhist organizations, like the WFB, to lobby the international community and governments of non-Buddhist countries to grant official recognition to Buddhism and ensure equal rights for Buddhists. He advocates for the formation of a stronger, more united “League of Buddhist Nations” to function as an effective lobbying group, similar to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) or the European Union (EU) on behalf of their respective communities.
His work primarily involves raising awareness and advocating for a change in legal and diplomatic policy, rather than a specific set of actions that led to immediate official recognition across Europe. He has called for the use of Buddhist Diplomacy in the major countries that still claim a proud heritage of Buddhist Civilizations such as China, India, Japan, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Korea, Cambodia( Angkor Wat), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Laos, Singapore among others.
The Walk for Peace has raised Buddhist Consciousness in people sympathetic to the cause of Buddhism showing a Global Role for Buddhism and Buddhist activists such as the new Superstar Monk Ven. Bhikkhu Pannakara ( Theravada Buddhist monk of Vietnamese origin).
See also
Official recognition of Buddhism in non-Buddhist countries
Love of one’s country is a part of faith” Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH) said: –
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai and Madan Homoeo Clinic, Adamapakkam, Chennai jointly celebrated 77th Indian Republic Day on 26th January 2026 at Masjid Haadi premises, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai.
The event began at 10 A.M., with flag hoisting of Indian National Flag by the Chief Guest Dr. N.A Jayakumar, President, Homoeopathy Council Tamil Nadu and the owner of Madan Homoeo Clinic, Adamapakkam, Chennai. He led the medical camp.
In his Guest speech, Dr. N.A Jayakumar, remarked that a number Ahmadi Muslims from various parts of Chennai as well as Tamil Nadu, had been treated in his clinic.
In this five hours long Medical Camp, team of doctors led by Dr. N.A. Jayakumar and staff including physiotherapist attended.
75 patients were treated and more than hundred participated at the event.
Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, stated, Love of one’s country is a part of faith”
Head of the World wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (Jamaát) in Islam (www.alislam.org) Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) had noted that, in fact, sincere patriotism is a tenet of Islam.
Ahmadi Muslims world over usually celebrate the National Day of their respective countries as they love their countries, they obey the law of the land.
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Early on Saturday, January 3rd, Venezuela was attacked on behalf of oil, mineral, tech, and weapons profiteers in a regime change operation. Since then, the Trump administration has threatened Iran, Greenland, Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico. What unites these threats? The U.S.’s quest for endless resource extraction to power its increasingly deadly global empire. And it’s not slowing down. These resource wars and operations” are emerging as the AI drive also ramps up. In July, Palantir and the Pentagon signed a 10-year, $10 billion agreement. In April 2025, Palantir won a $30 million contract with ICE — a significant development in their decade-plus-long partnership that we are now seeing play out in their increasingly militarized, unrestrained murders and abductions in Minneapolis and around the country. This increasingly inextricable partnership between AI and the war economy, including Elon Musk’s Starlink system used to crowd-source violence for protests and regime change in Iran, is throwing us into a fast track of climate and environmental chaos that threatens us all.
In August, I learned about an AI program created by the U.S.-armed Israeli military called Where’s Daddy.” The program is designed to track individuals Israel is targeting in order to kill them at home with their families. In October 2023, the AI war giant Palantir entered into a contract with the Israeli military. Since 2021, the Israeli Occupation Forces have been working with tech companies like Google on AI programs such as Project Nimbus, used to surveil and murder Palestinians. Where’s Daddy” and other overlapping systems represent the newest phase of this. The program characterizes the families of these alleged combatants as collateral damage” and is often far from accurate, killing entire families without the intended targets” even being there. The tech companies developing these programs do not have anyone’s safety” or security” in mind; they are solely motivated by profit. This cruelty is no surprise— these companies are the same ones building toxic data centers across the U.S., largely in working-class and Black and Brown communities, in the newest phase of environmental injustice.
We’ve been hearing about AI more and more as it enters the commercial market in increasingly pervasive ways. In particular, much has been reported about AI data centers entering communities and the opposition to them. Many of these fights have been taken up by environmental organizations; it’s estimated that data centers could consume approximately 21% of global energy by 2030. In order to sustain this energy use, data centers need cooling. Mid-sized data centers use as much water as a city of 50,000 people. Meta’s Hyperion data center in Louisiana is projected to use as much water as the entire city of New Orleans. Another Meta center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is projected to use more power than the state of Wyoming itself.
These centers not only increase electricity bills for communities that can’t afford them, but they also generate significant air, water, and noise pollution. Some centers regularly use diesel emergency” generators to meet increased demand. Each generator is the size of a railcar, and thousands are littered across data center hotspots like Northern Virginia. As a result, toxic chemicals are seeping into the lungs of residents, causing asthma and long-term illness. Data centers are known to create noise pollution, with constant hums that can lead to hearing loss, anxiety, cardiovascular stress, and a host of other long-term issues. Furthermore, equipment is certain to break down and lead to toxic waste and electronic pollution.
Critical” minerals are required for the operation of these data centers. The process of obtaining these minerals, supposedly also used for green technology, requires the militarization, destabilization, and total plunder of mineral-rich regions. These minerals are supposedly critical” for energy transitions, and some have advocated more sustainable” methods for maintaining data centers through green” technologies.
The use of these minerals is clear: The Pentagon recently became the largest shareholder in MP Minerals, one of the largest mining companies in the Western Hemisphere. Why? Aluminum for fighter jets. Titanium for missiles. And copper, lithium, cobalt, and many others for data center batteries and semiconductors. The more data centers are built, the more minerals are needed. This process of extraction has murdered millions in the Congo, destroying the soil, water, and forest: one of the largest lungs” of the planet. It has led to the newest phase of imperialist aggression on Venezuela, a mineral-rich country with the largest oil reserves in the world (oil, of course, is also essential for data centers). Additionally, it has led to the attempted subordination of the Philippines to semiconductor production. The U.S. also seeks to use the archipelago as an unsinkable aircraft carrier” for the U.S.’s looming war with China, its largest competitor in the AI and mineral race.
These are the impacts we already know to be devastating. But this is also new technology, which means there’s a lot we don’t know and a lot that’s being intentionally hidden. Lack of transparency is the norm in this industry. As data centers rapidly expand and buy up land around the country, the actual companies behind them hide behind non-disclosure agreements. This is not dissimilar to the intentional concealment of the military’s role in global emissions, enacted through U.S. pressure at the third U.N. Climate Change Conference in 1997. Decades later, the issue of militarism is still left out of climate conversations.
The parallel makes sense, considering how the AI industry has fused with the war machine. The U.S. military is one of the most environmentally destructive forces on the planet. In its oil consumption alone, the U.S. military is the world’s largest institutional polluter. The U.S.’s 800+ bases in 80 countries globally are known to regularly leak jet fuel and cancer-causing PFAS chemicals, along with a toxic cocktail of hundreds of other chemicals. While training exercises like RIMPAC in the Asia-Pacific region authorize the deaths of thousands of sea creatures, in environmental sacrifice zones like Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, toxic waste from military facilities has killed infants hours after birth. In bomb testing sites like Vieques, off the coast of mainland Puerto Rico, lung cancer and bronchitis rates have been shown to be 200% higher than on the mainland for men, and 280% for women. And the oil-motivated war on terror” emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from 2001-2017.
Now we are entering a new era of resource wars that will further destroy the planet as the AI race with China accelerates. The relationship between AI and the U.S. military goes beyond the Pentagon’s contracts with Palantir, Meta, and Microsoft: last June, executives Shyam Sankar (Palantir), Andrew Bosworth (Meta), Kevin Well (OpenAI), and Bob McGrew (Thinking Machines Lab, previously OpenAI) were sworn into the U.S. Army as lieutenant colonels. Michael Obadal, executive of the AI-war manufacturing company Anduril, is now the Under Secretary of the U.S. Army, still with hundreds of thousands in Anduril stock. Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir, is himself a major funder of Anduril. In June 2025, OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Anthropic entered into $200 million contracts with the Department of War. The more you look at the partnerships between such companies and their executives, the Pentagon, governmental departments, and other entities, the more tangled this military-tech-industrial complex all becomes.
Many organizing groups are rightfully building power against the data centers that literally fuel it all, pushing for increased regulation and transparency. At the same time as Palantir makes new deals with the Pentagon, regulations in sacrifice zones are being thrown out the window. On December 18th, the House of Representatives passed a bill backed by Microsoft, Micron, and OpenAI to fast-track data centers. The bill significantly reduces the number of environmental and financial factors that can be considered in permitting processes. It’s simple. These communities are becoming the Camp Lejeunes of a new age: the new toxic waste dumps in the belly of the beast used to power the war machine. They must be fought against at all costs.
Regulation is crucial. It’s also far from a long-term solution. There is a lot that we don’t know, because a lot is hidden: just how much of these companies are tied up with weapons manufacturers, the Pentagon, and proxies like Israel; the environmental destruction caused by military usage of AI; the specific usage of all of these data centers. But it is obvious that AI is becoming inseparable from war-making, that increased AI means increased war-making, and that increased war-making is resulting in new and increased forms of unfathomable environmental destruction to communities around the world and here within the belly of the beast.
AI has been creeping up our necks. The horrific Where’s Daddy” program existed long before I heard of it. It seems like these products are popping up in every corner of the market before we can even start discussing them. Their emergence has been intentionally designed to not only conceal their role in environmental destruction, but also their role in the militarism destroying communities from Virginia to Gaza.
No part of this is sustainable — not the war economy, not unending extraction, regardless of how much green tech” it produces, and not an AI-driven speculative economy. We cannot afford to have splintered conversations either; these AI and tech companies are war profiteers. The new Cold War on China drives this. The genocide in Palestine drives this. The war on Venezuela, Latin America, and the Caribbean drives this. And so our organizing must be unified against the impacts, mechanisms, and causes. Against data centers and the wars that drive them. We need to stop the blood. But we can’t lose sight of why and how the bullets are fired.
Aaron Kirshenbaum is CODEPINK’s War is Not Green campaigner and East Coast regional organizer. Based in, and originally from, Brooklyn, New York, Aaron holds an M.A. in Community Development and Planning from Clark University. They also hold a B.A. in Human-Environmental and Urban-Economic Geography from Clark. During their time in school, Aaron worked on internationalist climate justice organizing and educational program development, as well as Palestine, tenant, and abolitionist organizing.
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The recent article Helming a Sea Change: Building the Future Workforce for US Shipbuilding” (January 12, 2026) correctly identifies shipbuilding as a cornerstone of national strength, economic resilience, and security. Ships still carry more than 80 percent of global trade, and yet the United States—once a dominant maritime power—now accounts for barely 0.2 percent of global commercial shipbuilding, a dramatic fall from its 5 percent share in the 1970s. In defense shipbuilding, the imbalance is even more alarming: China now produces more than three warships for every one built in the United States.
The diagnosis is clear: America faces a critical shortage of skilled maritime labor, and this gap will widen as global demand for ships and naval assets accelerates over the next three decades. The question is whether the proposed remedies—reassessing nautical education, creating new maritime academies, and modest private-sector incentives—are anywhere near sufficient.
The Workforce Reality No One Wants to Name
Shipbuilding is hard, physical, and highly disciplined work. It requires welders, pipefitters, electricians, naval architects, outfitters, and planners willing to work long hours in industrial environments. In today’s US labor market, younger generations are understandably drawn toward technology, finance, or services rather than heavy manufacturing. Even when shipyards raise wages, they struggle to attract and retain workers at scale.
This creates an uncomfortable truth: the United States cannot rebuild a globally competitive shipbuilding industry relying solely on its domestic labor pool. Demographics, skills mismatches, and lifestyle expectations make that mathematically improbable.
What emerges instead—often without being openly acknowledged—is a system that resembles neo-slavery with pay.”
What Neo-Slavery with Pay” Really Means
The phrase is provocative, but it reflects a global reality. Many advanced economies already rely on migrant labor to sustain industries their own populations no longer wish to serve—construction, shipyards, caregiving, agriculture, and logistics. Workers are paid, often better than in their home countries, but they live in constrained conditions, with limited mobility, limited political voice, and a narrow economic role.
The United States already benefits indirectly from this system through global supply chains. Ships built in South Korea, China, or Japan are constructed by workforces that include migrants living in dormitories, company housing, or tightly regulated townships. The difference is that this neo-slavery with pay” happens offshore, out of sight.
If the US wants ships built at home, it must confront this reality directly.
A Radical but Realistic Proposal: Immigration Linked to Shipbuilding Townships
Rather than pretending that marginal reforms will solve a structural labor crisis, the US should adopt a streamlined, sector-specific immigration framework tied explicitly to shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing.
Key elements could include:
Purpose-Driven Immigration
Fast-track visas for skilled and semi-skilled shipbuilding workers from countries with strong maritime traditions.
Clear pathways tied to employment in certified shipyards and suppliers.
Planned Shipbuilding Townships
Purpose-built, affordable townships near major shipyards, combining housing, healthcare, schools, and vocational training centers.
These would revive the historic shipyard town” model that once powered US industrial growth.
Contractual Protection and Oversight
Transparent wage structures, enforceable labor rights, and independent oversight to prevent exploitation.
Mobility within the maritime sector, even if broader labor mobility remains limited initially.
Skills Transfer and National Benefit
Mandatory training and mentorship programs to transfer skills to US citizens over time.
Integration with community colleges, unions, and maritime academies.
This is not about charity. It is about national survival in industrial and defense capacity.
The Moral Discomfort—and Why It Must Be Faced
Calling this model neo-slavery with pay” forces an ethical reckoning. Yes, such systems risk exploitation if poorly designed. But refusing to name the issue does not make it disappear. The alternative is continued decline: empty shipyards, delayed naval programs, strategic vulnerability, and permanent dependence on foreign builders.
The real moral failure would be to demand world-class shipbuilding without being willing to create the human systems that make it possible.
Rebuilding Ships, Rebuilding Communities
If done transparently and humanely, shipbuilding-linked immigration could do more than fill labor gaps. It could:
Revitalize declining industrial regions
Rebuild middle-skill manufacturing ecosystems
Restore America’s maritime credibility
Strengthen national security in a volatile world
The United States once built ships—and cities—at scale because it aligned labor, housing, policy, and purpose. Today, rebuilding that capacity requires courage to challenge comfortable narratives.
Shipbuilding cannot be resurrected with slogans alone. It requires hands, skills, and people willing to do the work. If those people must come from abroad, then the US should design a system that is honest about the trade-offs, firm about protections, and bold enough to match the scale of the challenge.
Anything less is not strategy—it is denial.
Regards
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
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Buddhist monks should not remain silent in the face of social unfairness and serious cultural decline, but instead speak fearlessly for the nation without being intimidated by threats.
Venerable Wendaruwe Upali Anunayake Thera of the Asgiri Chapter emphasised this during a book launch held at the historic Mihintale sacred site.
The prelate stated that monks should never fear intimidation and must advocate for the country and its religion.
He questioned who would speak up if the clergy remained silent while the nation’s culture faced such significant erosion.
He further noted that while some individuals reside in Sri Lanka, their mindsets remain fixed on European values, contributing to this cultural shift.
The remarks came during the launch of the book “Sela Chethiya,” written by Mihintale Rajamaha Viharaya Chief Incumbent Venerable Valahagunawewa Dhammarathana Thera.
The event took place today (31) at the Mihintale Rajamaha Viharaya, presided over by the Anunayake Theros of both the Malwathu and Asgiri Chapters.
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Without lobha, taṇhā doesn’t arise. Without taṇhā, upādāna can’t form.
But upādāna is where liberation or bondage really gets decided — because clinging always implies a self who is clinging.
A sharp one-line insight
Taṇhā wants the experience; upādāna wants to be someone who has it.
That’s why insight practice often focuses on seeing taṇhā early — before it congeals into upādāna.
If you like, next we can look at how mindfulness cuts the chain specifically between vedanā and taṇhā, which is one of the Buddha’s most practical teachings.
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One of the major initiatives of the NPP government is reforming the country’s education system. Immediately after coming to power, the government started the process of bringing about transformational” changes to general education. The budgetary allocation to education has been increased to 2% of GDP (from 1.8% in 2023). Although this increase is not sufficient, the government has pledged to build infrastructure, recruit more teachers, increase facilities at schools and identified education reforms as an urgent need. These are all welcome moves. However, it is with deep concern that we express our views on the general education reforms that are currently underway.
The government’s approach to education reform has been hasty and lacking in transparency and public consultation. Announcements regarding the reforms planned for January 2026 were made in July 2025. In August, 2025, a set of slides was circulated, initially through unofficial sources. It was only in November 2025, just three months ahead of implementation, that an official policy document, Transforming General Education in Sri Lanka 2025, was released. The Ministry of Education held a series of meetings about the reforms. However, by this time the modules had already been written, published, and teacher training commenced.
The new general education policy shows a discrepancy between its conceptual approach and content. The objectives of the curriculum reforms include: to promote critical thinking”, multiple intelligences”, a deeper understanding of the social and political value of the humanities and social sciences” and embed the values of equity, inclusivity and social justice” (p. 9). Yet, the new curriculum places minimal emphasis on social sciences and humanities, and leaves little time for critical thinking or for molding social justice-oriented citizens. Subjects such as environment, history and civics, are left out at the primary level, while at the junior secondary level, civics and history are allocated only 10 and 20 hours per term. The increase in the number of essential subjects” to 15 restricts the hours available for fundamentals like mathematics and language; only 30 hours are allocated to mathematics and the mother tongue, per term, at junior secondary level. Learning the second national language and about our conflict-ridden history are still not priorities despite the government’s pledge to address ethnic cohesion. The time allocation for Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy, now an essential subject, is on par with the second national language, geography and civics. At the senior secondary level (O/L), social sciences and humanities are only electives. If the government is committed to the objectives that it has laid out, there should be a serious re-think of what subjects will be taught at each grade, the time allocated to each, their progress across different levels, and their weight in the overall curriculum.
A positive aspect of the reforms is the importance given to vocational training. A curriculum that recognises differences in students, whether in terms of their interest in subject matter, styles of learning, or their respective needs, and caters to those diverse needs, would make education more pluralistic and therefore democratic. However, there must be some caution placed on how difference is treated, and this should not be reflected in vocational training alone, but in all aspects of the curriculum. For instance, will the history curriculum account for different narratives of history, including the recent history of Sri Lanka and the histories of minorities and marginalised communities? Will the family structures depicted in textbooks go beyond conventional conceptions of the nuclear family? Addressing these areas too would allow students to feel more represented in curricula and enable them to move through their years of schooling in ways that are unconstrained by stereotypes and unjust barriers.
The textbooks for the Grade 6 modules on the National Institute of Education (NIE) website appear to have not gone through rigorous review. They contain rampant typographical errors and include (some undeclared) AI-generated content, including images that seem distant from the student experience. Some textbooks contain incorrect or misleading information. The Global Studies textbook associates specific facial features, hair colour, and skin colour, with particular countries and regions, and refers to Indigenous peoples in offensive terms long rejected by these communities (e.g. Pygmies”, Eskimos”). Nigerians are portrayed as poor/agricultural and with no electricity. The Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy textbook introduces students to world famous entrepreneurs”, mostly men, and equates success with business acumen. Such content contradicts the policy’s stated commitment to values of equity, inclusivity and social justice” (p. 9). Is this the kind of content we want in our textbooks?
The career interest test” proposed at the end of Grade 9 is deeply troubling. It is inappropriate to direct children to choose their career paths at the age of fourteen, when the vocational pathways, beyond secondary education, remain underdeveloped. Students should be provided adequate time to explore what interests them before they are asked to make educational choices that have a bearing on career paths, especially when we consider the highly stratified nature of occupations in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the curriculum must counter the stereotyping of jobs and vocations to ensure that students from certain backgrounds are not intentionally placed in paths of study simply because of what their parents’ vocations or economic conditions are; they must also not be constrained by gendered understandings of career pathways.
The modules encourage digital literacy and exposure to new communication technologies. On the surface, this initiative seems progressive and timely. However, there are multiple aspects such as access, quality of content and age-appropriateness that need consideration before uncritical acceptance of digitality. Not all teachers will know how to use communication technologies ethically and responsibly. Given that many schools lack even basic infrastructure, the digital divide will be stark. There is the question of how to provide digital devices to all students, which will surely fall on the shoulders of parents. These problems will widen the gap in access to digital literacy, as well as education, between well-resourced and other schools.
The NIE is responsible for conceptualising, developing, writing and reviewing the general education curriculum. Although the Institution was established for the worthy cause of supporting the country’s general education system, currently the NIE appears to be ill-equipped and under-staffed, and seems to lack the experience and expertise required for writing, developing and reviewing curricula and textbooks. It is clear by now that the NIE’s structure and mandate need to be reviewed and re-invigorated.
In light of these issues, the recent Cabinet decision to postpone implementation of the reforms for Grade 6 to 2027 is welcome. The proposed general education reforms have resulted in a backlash from opposition parties and teachers’ and student unions, much of it, legitimately, focusing on the lack of transparency and consultation in the process and some of it on the quality and substance of the content. Embedded within this pushback are highly problematic gendered and misogynistic attacks on the Minister of Education. However, we understand the problems in the new curriculum as reflecting long standing and systemic issues plaguing the education sector and the state apparatus. They cannot be seen apart from the errors and highly questionable content in the old curriculum, itself a product of years of reduced state funding for education, conditionalities imposed by external funding agencies, and the consequent erosion of state institutions. With the NPP government in charge of educational reforms, we had expectations of a stronger democratic process underpinning the reforms to education, and attention to issues that have been neglected in previous reform efforts.
With these considerations in mind, we, the undersigned, urgently request the Government to consider the following:
* postpone implementation and holistically review the new curriculum, including at primary level.
* adopt a consultative process on educational reforms by holding public sittings across the country .
* review the larger institutional structure of the educational apparatus of the state and bring greater coordination within its constituent parts
* review the NIE’s mandate and strengthen its capacity to develop curricula, such as through appointexternal scholars an open and transparent process, to advise and review curriculum content and textbooks.
* consider the new policy and curriculum to be live documents and make space for building consensus in policy formulation and curriculum development to ensure alignment of the curriculum with policy.
* ensure textbooks (other than in language subjects) appear in draft form in both Sinhala and Tamil at an early stage so that writers and reviewers from all communities can participate in the process of scrutiny and revision from the very beginning.
* formulate a plan for addressing difficulties in implementation and future development of the sector, such as resource disparities, teacher training needs, and student needs.
A.M. Navaratna Bandara, formerly, University of Peradeniya
Ahilan Kadirgamar, University of Jaffna
Ahilan Packiyanathan, University of Jaffna
Arumugam Saravanabawan, University of Jaffna
Aruni Samarakoon, University of Ruhuna
Ayomi Irugalbandara, The Open University of Sri Lanka.
Buddhima Padmasiri, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Camena Guneratne, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Charudaththe B.Illangasinghe, University of the Visual & Performing Arts
Chulani Kodikara, formerly, University of Colombo
Chulantha Jayawardena, University of Moratuwa
Dayani Gunathilaka, formerly, Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Dayapala Thiranagama, formerly, University of Kelaniya
Dhanuka Bandara, University of Jaffna
Dinali Fernando, University of Kelaniya
Erandika de Silva, formerly, University of Jaffna
G.Thirukkumaran, University of Jaffna
Gameela Samarasinghe, University of Colombo
Gayathri M. Hewagama, University of Peradeniya
Geethika Dharmasinghe, University of Colombo
F. H. Abdul Rauf, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka
H. Sriyananda, Emeritus Professor, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Hasini Lecamwasam, University of Peradeniya
(Rev.) J.C. Paul Rohan, University of Jaffna
James Robinson, University of Jaffna
Kanapathy Gajapathy, University of Jaffna
Kanishka Werawella, University of Colombo
Kasun Gajasinghe, formerly, University of Peradeniya
Kaushalya Herath, formerly, University of Moratuwa
Kaushalya Perera, University of Colombo
Kethakie Nagahawatte, formerly, University of Colombo
Krishan Siriwardhana, University of Colombo
Krishmi Abesinghe Mallawa Arachchige, formerly, University of Peradeniya
L. Raguram, University of Jaffna
Liyanage Amarakeerthi, University of Peradeniya
Madhara Karunarathne, University of Peradeniya
Madushani Randeniya, University of Peradeniya
Mahendran Thiruvarangan, University of Jaffna
Manikya Kodithuwakku, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, University of Jaffna
Nadeesh de Silva, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Nath Gunawardena, University of Colombo
Nicola Perera, University of Colombo
Nimal Savitri Kumar, Emeritus Professor, University of Peradeniya
Nira Wickramasinghe, formerly, University of Colombo
Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, University of Colombo
P. Iyngaran, University of Jaffna
Pathujan Srinagaruban, University of Jaffna
Pavithra Ekanayake, University of Peradeniya
Piyanjali de Zoysa, University of Colombo
Prabha Manuratne, University of Kelaniya
Pradeep Peiris, University of Colombo
Pradeepa Korale-Gedara, formerly, University of Peradeniya
Prageeth R. Weerathunga, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
Priyantha Fonseka, University of Peradeniya
Rajendra Surenthirakumaran, University of Jaffna
Ramesh Ramasamy, University of Peradeniya
Ramila Usoof, University of Peradeniya
Ramya Kumar, University of Jaffna
Rivindu de Zoysa, University of Colombo
Rukshaan Ibrahim, formerly, University of Jaffna
Rumala Morel, University of Peradeniya
Rupika S. Rajakaruna, University of Peradeniya
S. Jeevasuthan, University of Jaffna
S. Rajashanthan, University of Jaffna
S. Vijayakumar, University of Jaffna
Sabreena Niles, University of Kelaniya
Sanjayan Rajasingham, University of Jaffna
Sarala Emmanuel, The Open University of Sri Lanka
Sasinindu Patabendige, formerly, University of Jaffna
Savitri Goonesekere, Emeritus Professor, University of Colombo
Selvaraj Vishvika, University of Peradeniya
Shamala Kumar, University of Peradeniya
Sivamohan Sumathy, formerly, University of Peradeniya
Sivagnanam Jeyasankar, Eastern University Sri Lanka
Sivanandam Sivasegaram, formerly, University of Peradeniya
Sudesh Mantillake, University of Peradeniya
Suhanya Aravinthon, University of Jaffna
Sumedha Madawala, University of Peradeniya
Tasneem Hamead, formerly, University of Colombo.
Thamotharampillai Sanathanan, University of Jaffna
Tharakabhanu de Alwis, University of Peradeniya
Tharmarajah Manoranjan, University of Jaffna
Thavachchelvi Rasan,
University of Jaffna
Thirunavukkarasu Vigneswaran, University of Jaffna
Timaandra Wijesuriya, University of Jaffna
Udari Abeyasinghe, University of Peradeniya
Unnathi Samaraweera, University of Colombo
Vasanthi Thevanesam, Professor Emeritus, University of Peradeniya
Vathilingam Vijayabaskar, University of Jaffna
Vihanga Perera, University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Vijaya Kumar, Emeritus Professor, University of Peradeniya
Viraji Jayaweera, University of Peradeniya
Yathursha Ulakentheran, formerly, University of Jaffna.
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The island of Sri Lanka has lured travellers from near and afar to its shores. Over 2,500 years ago, this was the domain of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, a unifying force that turned the island’s dry plains into a breadbasket to fuel their cultural growth as a budding centre for the new religion of Buddhism, and where followers flocked to from as far away as Greece and China. Curator and scholar Peter Lee travels across this beautiful island to discover how it became known across the ancient world for its unimaginable riches, drawing traders in search of luxury goods, but also becoming a target of envy to unwelcome visitors. From visiting the kingdom’s first Buddhist stupa, to practicing the ancient martial art of Angampora, to tracing the origins of its celebrated moonstone gem, he sees how the kingdom created a dazzling golden age that laid the foundations for a distinct culture and identity that has endured until today. WATCH MORE The Mark of Empire:
• The Mark of Empire 00:00 Introduction 02:15 At the Esala Perahera festival 04:20 Sri Lanka’s Buddhist roots 06:23 First stupa 07:39 Inside a monastery for women 11:40 A history of invasions 12:46 Warriors’ martial art: Angampora 16:22 Street art around Sri Lanka 18:36 City architecture of Anuradhapura 21:11 Surprising visitors 23:07 Inside UNESCO site Lion Rock 27:08 Ancient hydraulic network 29:34 Historical hospital complex 31:52 Sri Lanka’s traditional medicine 35:01 Panning for gems 39:49 Jewel of Anuradhapura art: Moonstone 42:37 Fall of the kingdom ============================== ABOUT The Mark of Empire: Kingdoms of the Sea: What are the secrets and mysteries behind Asia’s ancient empires? In the third season of this award-winning series, curator and scholar Peter Lee is back on a journey to trace clues and uncover new theories behind the Srivijaya empire, the Champa kingdom, the Sultanate of Sulu, and the Anuradhapura kingdom. What were the epic battles, political alliances and cultural exchanges forged by the four powers in the region? From investigating the iconic reliefs of Borobudur temple in Indonesia, to diving for sea cucumbers in the Philippines’ Sulu Archipelago, to practicing the ancient martial art of Angampora in Sri Lanka, and learning about modern Cham rap music in Vietnam, Peter traces the rise and fall of these formidable kingdoms, and the cultural legacies that they have left on the region until today.
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A Proposal for adoption by the Global Buddhist community
In the spirit of global harmony and non-violence, the
The Global Buddhist Peace Prize is hereby symbolically inaugurated. This honor recognizes those who embody the core tenets of the Dharma—loving-kindness, compassion, and equanimity—through tangible, peaceful action.
The inaugural recipients are the 19 Buddhist monks currently completing their 2,300-mile “Walk for Peace” across the United States.
Citation of Honor: The 19 Monks of the Walk for Peace
The Journey: Since October 26, 2025, these 19 monks (primarily from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas) have been walking across 10 states toward Washington, D.C.. The monks are drawn mainly from Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan. They are led by Ven. Pannakara, a Theravada Buddhist monk of Vietnamese origin.
Message of Unity: Their mission, known as the Walk for Peace USA, aims to raise awareness of loving-kindness and compassion while fostering national healing.
Resilience & Forgiveness: The group notably demonstrated the power of Buddhist practice by forgiving a driver after a traffic accident near Houston that resulted in one monk losing a foot—an act that has inspired millions worldwide.
Global Impact: Their pilgrimage, accompanied by Aloka the Peace Dog, has garnered a massive social media following and brought together people of all faiths, with thousands gathering to greet them in cities like Raleigh, North Carolina.
Aloka’s story resonates with specific Buddhist principles:
Ahimsa (Non-Violence): By walking peacefully without a leash or traditional training, Aloka serves as a living example of non-violence. He responds to the calm environment of the monks rather than to forced commands.
Mindfulness and Presence: Observers note that Aloka embodies the Middle Path by remaining fully present in the moment—walking when the monks walk and resting when they rest—without seeking a specific destination or reward.
Interconnectedness of All Beings: His inclusion in the pilgrimage emphasizes the Buddhist view that compassion extends to all sentient beings, erasing the distinction between human and animal in the pursuit of world peace.
Resilience and Karma: Originally a destitute street dog, Aloka’s transformation into a “world-renowned symbol of peace” is seen by some as evidence that any being can develop noble qualities if given the right guidance and love.
Aloka is currently traveling with approximately 19 monks from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center toward Washington, D.C., with the journey expected to conclude in mid-February 2026.
This proposed prize i.e., ‘The Global Buddhist Peace Prize’ celebrates their unwavering commitment to Dharma in motion, proving that “peace is attainable if we strive for it collectively” and furthermore it highlights inclusivity by bringing animals ‘ (e.g. Aloka) into the fold in the quest for PEACE. This is true Pluralism.
Source: AI Overview
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Former Presidential Secretary Saman Ekanayake was ordered to be held in remanded custody until February 11 by Colombo Fort Magistrate Isuru Nettikumara today (28).
The order was issued during the magisterial inquiry into the case involving former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who faces allegations under the Public Property Act.
Ekanayake appeared before the court today, where the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officially named him as the second suspect in the ongoing proceedings.
The investigation centers on the alleged misuse of public funds, with the court recently noting that certain foreign travel associated with the case appeared to be private rather than official business.
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A child nurtured with virtue becomes a lamp to the world; a teacher who guides with wisdom lights the path of many.” —Dhammapada, Verse 183
The Buddha never saw education as passing exams or collecting certificates. Teaching was about shaping charater – imparting discipline, respect, moral clarity. A teacher who does this builds not just students, but society itself. Students, in turn, carry the duty to listen, respect, and practice moral learning. When this moral lens collapses, confusion and misconduct follow. Look around – when calamities of every kind plague a nation, its worth asking: Did we fail our education system or did our education system fail us? We carried forward a colonial model designed to produce clerks, not citizens; workers, not leaders. In doing so, we sidelined the indigenous systems that once formed strong minds, grounded values, and principled leaders and mighty inventions that continue to be held in awe. If we want order, wisdom, and moral strength, we must be honest enough to rethink how and why we educate—not just what we teach. Real reform begins when education returns to its true purpose: forming human beings, not just passing students.
Why Schools Exist
Schools are not merely centers for exams or certifications. They are moral ecosystems where character, discipline, self-restraint, responsibility, and social conduct are formed in partnership with parental guidance.
Schools do not replace moral foundations at home — they reinforce them.
When morality weakens at home, in schools, or both, no academic excellence can compensate for the damage to self and society.
A life detached from virtue is not progress, and celebrating it brings consequences.
Distorting Morality: When Boundaries Collapse
Schools function safely only when roles are clear.
When boundaries are blurred, violations do not appear suddenly — they appear predictably.
· Teachers reduced to service providers → authority collapses
· Students treated as autonomous adults → restraint disappears
· Leadership granted without maturity → responsibility erodes
· Parents sidelined → moral guidance fractures
· Society addicted to spectacle → misconduct becomes systemic
These are not isolated scandals. They are symptoms of moral breakdown: weakened discipline, fragile authority, and technology racing ahead of ethics.
No society can sacrifice moral architecture — in homes, schools, or public life — and escape the consequences.
The Child Then and the Child Now: What Technology Cannot Replace
The child of the past grew up with limits before liberties.
Without screens, algorithms, or digital supervision, children learned through living: through nature, play, consequence, correction, and example. They learned restraint by experience, respect by observation, and responsibility by expectation.
That child was not perfect – but the child was formed.
The child of today is growing up differently. Childhood is increasingly mediated by screens, templates, and policies. Decisions are guided by charts, emotions outsourced to professionals, discipline replaced by negotiation, and exposure arrives long before understanding. Technology now occupies the space once held by parents, elders, teachers, and lived experience.
Technology offers information – not wisdom.
Exposure – not discernment.
Simulation – not formation.
A child raised on devices but deprived of moral grounding does not mature faster; the child becomes confused earlier. Curiosity accelerates while restraint weakens. Empathy dulls. Boundaries blur. This is not empowerment – it is premature adultification without moral armour.
The consequences are now global and undeniable:
· Rising childhood anxiety, isolation, emotional fragility, and dependence on medication
· Early sexual exposure without maturity, accompanied by contraception, abortion, substance use, and adult vices experimented with in childhood
· Online cruelty replacing face-to-face correction, with children falling prey to grooming, scams, exploitation, trafficking, and abuse
· Children increasingly harmed – and harming – in ways once rare
· Fractured family bonds, where children raised without attachment later justify abandoning parental responsibility
Technology did not create these harms.
But it magnified them in the absence of moral guidance.
No device can teach right from wrong.
No algorithm can replace conscience.
No platform can substitute for character.
When moral formation is removed and technology is allowed to lead, childhood is not enriched – it is endangered.
Progress that abandons humanity is not progress.
Education that forgets character is not education.
If society truly wishes to protect its children, it must restore what technology can never provide: moral clarity, restraint, boundaries, and example.
A Civilizational Reversal
Then: Moral formation before freedom. Gradual exposure to complexity. Authority grounded in credibility. Correction guided by restraint.
Now: Adult concepts imposed early. Rights taught before duties. Mistakes amplified online. Guidance weakened, authority questioned.
The result is inevitable: confusion replaces clarity, and misconduct follows.
Western societies that adopted these models first are now confronting their failures and reversing course. Sri Lanka risks importing what others are abandoning.
Policies Without Moral Readiness
In weakened systems, policies such as Comprehensive Sexuality Education amplify harm – as child has not been guided to what is moral/immoral:
· Adult frameworks introduced before maturity
· Teacher authority neutralized
· Parental roles diluted
· Curiosity expanded without ethical grounding
Harm is not accidental. It is the consequence of policy without moral readiness.
Reframing Child Protection
True protection demands:
· Clear boundaries upheld by accountable adults
· Age-appropriate guidance
· Rejection of child adultification
· Education rooted in moral formation, not ideological experimentation
Law can support this — but law alone cannot replace moral authority.
Shared Moral Responsibility
Students must practice respect and restraint. Teachers must lead with integrity and firm boundaries. Parents must guide, monitor, and model values. Institutions must enforce discipline with wisdom. Society must protect children — not exploit crises for spectacle.
A Civilizational Warning
When authority collapses, childhood is shortened. When boundaries blur, children suffer. When morality weakens, society fractures.
Restoring boundaries, restraint, and moral guidance is no longer optional. It is imperative.
Shenali D Waduge
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Today more than ever, Arabs and Muslims must become aware of the terrible maneuvers and plots being hatched against them by lighting the fires of discord and sedition among the members of the Ummah, between Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds, Arabs and Berbers, and Muslims and Christians.
Proof of this is the turpitudes suffered by the central cause of the Arabs and Muslims, that of plundered Palestine.
I highly recommend reading Amir Nour’s book because of the judicious choice of carefully documented writings by authoritative authors and studies, the sagacity of the analysis, and the clairvoyance of the foresight.” — Ahmed Taleb-Ibrahimi, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria (1982–1988)
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There are endorsements that adorn a book, and there are endorsements that place it inside history. The words of Ahmed Taleb-Ibrahimi do not merely recommend The Monstrosity of Our Century: The War on Palestine and the Last Western Man”; they situate it within a long tradition of intellectual vigilance against division, manipulation, and moral corrosion. They also state—without euphemism—what many governments, institutions, and editorial boards prefer to dilute: Palestine is not merely a political cause; it is a truth test.
Amir Nour’s new book does not approach Palestine as a conflict,” a cycle,” or a file.” It approaches it as a historical rupture—the point at which the contemporary international system ceased to reconcile power with principle, law with alliance, and narrative with reality. One year after the full return of Trumpism to the center of global machtpolitik—might politics—this book no longer reads as a polemical incursion. Rather, it reads as a forensic document.
Indeed, the question is no longer whether Nour went too far in his analysis of contemporary geopolitics and their lasting implications. The real overarching question is whether reality itself has already gone further than his words.
Gaza Is Not the Event—It Is the Mirror
Right from its opening pages, Nour’s book dismantles the most comforting illusion of modern diplomacy: that Palestine in general, and Gaza in particular, represents an aberration in an otherwise functional international order. He writes—without rhetorical excess and with devastating precision:
What is unfolding in Gaza is not a tragic deviation from the international order; it is the moment when that order reveals its true hierarchy of lives.”
This sentence is not a metaphor. It is a diagnostic instrument. Gaza, in Nour’s analysis, is not the breakdown of the so-called rules-based order;” it is the place where those rules finally stop pretending to be universal. The book’s title itself draws from the formulation of Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who described Gaza as the monstrosity of our century.” Nour adopts this phrase because it names a condition, not an emotion: a world capable of witnessing mass destruction in real time while simultaneously organizing its justification.
That is why Richard Forer, in the foreword, states unambiguously,
For logistical reasons, Israel could not act alone. It needed the blessing and the military assistance of the United States, Britain, and Germany.”
This is not an accusation from the margins. It is an observation grounded in arms transfers, sustained funding, diplomatic cover, and repeated vetoes. Gaza exposes not only violence but also complicity structured as policy.
Double Standards as an Operating System
One of the book’s most meticulously documented sections is devoted to what Nour identifies as the institutionalization of double standards. This is not moral indignation; it is comparative analysis. While Ukraine is framed as a sacred cause of sovereignty, legality, and civilian protection, Palestine is consistently stitched up as complex,” contextual,” and indefinitely postponed. Forer writes,
In its unrestrained codependency with Israel, hypocrisy plays a major role,” adding, Confusion and dissembling occur when a nation acts contrary to its publicly stated values.”
These lines matter because they identify hypocrisy not as a lapse but as a governing logic and behavior. International law has not disappeared; it has become selective. And selectivity, Nour shows, is no longer a flaw—it is the design.
This diagnosis is reinforced by Chas W. Freeman Jr., former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, who writes that Amir Nour eloquently and unflinchingly shows how the course of events in Palestine has discredited the moral authority of the West and devalued international law, while changing the world order and isolating Israel, making its survival increasingly doubtful.”
When such words come from within the Western strategic establishment, they are not radical. They set alarm bells ringing.
When Justice Becomes a Target
Perhaps the most chilling section of the book concerns international justice. Nour does not romanticize the ICJ or the ICC; he treats them as fault lines where the system’s contradictions surface. Forer notes how Western officials responded to the ICJ’s finding of a plausible genocide”:
Criticism is answered with ‘Israel’s right to defend itself,’ without explaining how killing children by the thousands makes Israel more secure.” And Nour’s conclusion leaves no ambiguity: Even in the midst of a ‘textbook case of genocide,’ the West continues to shield and thus bolster the actions of Israel.”
This is not rhetoric. It is a description of procedural reality. When international justice approaches protected actors, it ceases to be celebrated as law and begins to be treated as a threat.
The book documents the intimidation of the ICC prosecutor and the explicit warning: Target Israel, and we will target you.” What Nour analyzed as pressure has since hardened into policy through sanctions and institutional retaliation. The system does not merely ignore justice; it disciplines it. Hence, as the foreword states bluntly, The West has abandoned its responsibility to the world order and made a mockery of its alleged respect for international law.”
