Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada The government,  some private sector groups, and NGOs have  spend a large amount of money on reverse osmosis (RO) machines for the purification of water as it was advocated  by a number of people who feared  that there are metal toxins (Arsenic, Cd, etc) in the water. The claim that metal […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana Roundup is one of the commercial names of a glyphosate-based herbicide (“weedkiller”). Glyphosate is manufactured mainly in China, though it originated in the USA. The government has just announced that the ill-conceived ban on glyphosate – an essentially harmless herbicide – has been relaxed to allow the tea industry to use it, […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. It is well known that ecosystems and societies are complex systems that do not permit careless tinkering. Social revolutions led by visionaries – usually with tunnel vision narrowed down by some ideology- have almost always ended in reigns of terror or long-lasting social chaos. However, when the government, goaded by eco-extremists […]

Chandre Dharmawardana The New Zealand government, after an long review of the weedicide Glyphosate (Roundup), has now given it the ALL CLEAR signal, confirming that it is VERY SAFE for use. Here is the report: http://www.epa.govt.nz/Publications/EPA_glyphosate_review.pdf BACKGROUND TO THE STORY: Sometime ago there were sensational claims that Glyphosate,  the popular weedicide,  causes kidney diseases, Cancer […]

by Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, writng to the Lankaweb on the 24th of July has bemoaned the fact that the Dengue control program​ is an “Utter waste of money and Energy“. We can shrug our shoulders and say that this is no big deal considering the waste of public money […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada. Last year the Yahapalanaya leaders, flush with electoral victory banned Glyphosate, the well-trusted but controversial herbicide, heralding their “toxin-free nation” policy announced with much fanfare. The government hopes to replace modern agriculture with “traditional agriculture”, based on “traditional seeds” and “traditional farming methods” that do not use modern technology, chemical fertilizers, insecticides […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada The Brixit vote once again demonstrates the well understood but rarely acknowledged fact that referenda do NOT constitute a valid instrument of democracy when it comes to resolving complex questions. Most countries end up deeply divided, as also happened in Canadian French Separatist referenda.  There was potential for great anguish and violence, but […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. Kumar David, well-known columnist and past Professor of Electrical Engineering in Hong Kong has come forward to defend (May 8, Island Newspaper, and in the Colombo telegraph) the controversial coal-power installation which has become a thorn of controversy. The ancient name of the city itself (saama-pura, the “city of Peace”), has […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana, Otatwa, Canada. I was prompted to write this note after having seen the article that appeared in the Lanka Web ( https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/04/26/unp-mp-cyril-mathew-report-to-unesco-proof-sinhalese-were-living-in-the-north-before-tamils/ ) by Shenali Waduge (SW), focusing on the submission by the late Mr. Cyril Mathew, Member of Parliament in the UNP government of J. R. Jayawardena. Mr. Mathew came under a […]

Chandre Dharmawardana Ottawa, Canada April 20, 2016, 8:46 pm (A shortened version of this article was published in The Island) In a midweek review article in The Island (April 20) Dr. V. J. M. de Silva attributes the quote “Science without religion is blind; religion without science is lame” to Einstein. Einstein quotes like “God does not play […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. Mark Salter is a person who has come forward to write a book entitled “To End a War”,dealing with the “failed Norwegian Peace process” and related matters. In his second comment (March 30, 2016) on Ferdinando’s column, Salter writes that : “First, Ferdinando asserts that the ‘Norwegians believed decision making process […]

 Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. Most people assume, without further inquiry, that moving to traditional farming methods, or what is sometimes caleld organic farming”, es essential to a ensure a healthy food supply and a sustainable future. Unfortunately, that view is too simplifitic and in fact wrong. Furthermore, a number of people have  expresses surprise about […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. The President unveiled a three-year program put forward by the  agriculture minister,  promising a toxin free nation” based on ”wholesome agriculture”. The minsters as well as Ven. Ratana are acting with what they believe are the best interests of the people. That modern agriculture” is responsible for an alleged  deterioration […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. Christina Gallach, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Communication barred Matthew Russell Lee from the UN  offices.  Lee  ran the website known as the  Inner City Press”,  based in New York. This website operated in a  grey area of journalism exposing”  institutional corruption, human rights abuses etc., and  supported   militant  groups […]

Chandre Dharmawardana Those in the forefront of the Tamils’ agitation for devolution of power have always been  vague, deliberately or unconsciously, in the terminology used in their arguments, and the distinction between provincial autonomy, states’ rights in a federal union, and a separate state have been blurred by a fog of verbiage, and obfuscation K. M. de […]

Chandre Dharmawardana Canada Courtesy The Island January 20, 2016, 7:26 pm The Minister for Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media is said to have proposed a Bill to curb a number of human rights enjoyed by one section of the Sri Lankan public who are eligible to vote – namely, the Buddhist monks. For instance, they are to […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada The Minster for `Parliamentary reforms and Mass Media’ is said to have proposed a bill to curb a number of human rights enjoyed by one section of the Sri Lankan public who are eligible to vote – namely, the Buddhist monks. For instance, they are to be denied the right […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada. It has been reported that some Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members have initiated moves to change the name of Nagadeepa to Nainathivu, triggering polarization of opinion back to the feverish days of the TNA rallies in Vaddukkoddai (a town known even up to 1900 as Batakotte, marked as such in Dutch […]

ආචාර්‍ය චන්ද්‍ර ධර්මවර්ධන විසිනි “පොහොර හා වකුගඩු රෝගය” යන මාතෘකාවෙන් ආචාර්ය නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතා වකුගඩු රොගය පිලිබ්ඳව දක්වා ඇති අදහස් (2015 – 11 – 05 රිවිර, ලංකාවෙබ් : http://www.lankaweb.com/news/ items/2015/11/06/පොහොර-හා-වකුගඩු-රෝගය/) ගැන විද්‍යාඥායන් අතර දැනට පිළි ගැනී ඇති මත ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට අවස්ථාවක් රිවිර කතු වරයා සහ ලංකාවෙබ් කතුවරයා අපට දෙනු ඇතැයි සලකා මෙම ලිපිය සපයමු. […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana (posted: October 2015)  The fear that what you eat is poisoned” and it is not good for you have produced a two-tier market with the top tier, made up of  organic foods”  catering to the rich, while the poor have to eat the food from the large warehouse sales centers, US examples […]

Chandre dharma-wardana  Corruption too must be judged against what is the going yardstick in other parts of the world. Corruption is a natural phenomenon (like entropy) in rapidly evolving  complex physical systems. There is no entropy production (corruption) in systems that evolve infinitely slowly, as we know from thermodynamics. In the West, the Enron scandal, […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana Canada Courtesy Island According to Dr. Leo Fernando (Island, 7-10-2015), “assuming that there is an almighty omniscient God who is also all loving and merciful, one cannot imagine that He would create a Hell for His subjects when He could have easily refrained from creating them to spare them of eternal punishment ….”. If […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada Let us recall that the United Nations secretary general appointed a committee of four individuals to ADVISE HIM about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. This report, known as the Darusman report has since then assumed a role that the secretary general never intended it to have.  It has become one […]

Chandre Dharmawardana,  Canada. The people of Sri Lanka have spoken, both on Jan. 08, and now on August 17. The North has backed the TNA while the South has supported the UNF and the UPFA with a simple  majority to the UNF. The country has apparently returned to the politics of the 1960s, with the […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Courtesy Island newspaper, 6th August 2015 In a previous comment I discussed the economic and sovereignty issues that may arise if the Indians revive a 2002 proposal for a land bridge over the Palk straits. Surprisingly, many Northern nationalists think that the opposition to the land bridge is a matter of ‘Sinhala chauvinism’. […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. Ex-diplomat K. Godage has recently written to the Island pointing out the strategic dangers of building a land bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka. KG has emphasized the threat to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka from such a bridge. The wars in Afghanistan feeding Pakistan with Jihadists, Muslim-Hindu and Sikh […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada The president has naively banned the well-known herbicide (Glyphosate) pivotal to the productivity and  survival  of Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector. He has been led  to believe that the ban would stop the epidemic of kidney disease in the Rajarata.  The resultant sky-rocketing of the price of food items and the disarray […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. In 2010 the politcal landscape was different. The UNP, the TNA and the leftist factions had all fielded General Sarath Fonseka as the presidential candidate against Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. During that time the author composed a song which was set to music by Dr. Nimal de Silva. It is of interest […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada  I have read Canagaratnam’s articles in the Island and elsewhere,  and appreciated his insights, but I had also noted his remarks on GMO foods, nuclear energy, pesticides and fertilizers as being more an indicator of public fears rather than informed opinion.  My professional  interests today are more in  topics not […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada Galileo nearly got burnt at the stake for heresy when he claimed that the Earth orbited around the sun instead of being the fixed center of the God-created Universe. At that time most people were science Nay-Sayers. A century before Galileo, when Christopher Columbus defiantly sailed  West seeking Eastern India, […]