“SETTLER COLONIALISM” AND TAMIL EELAM Part 5A

November 4th, 2024

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Sri Lanka’s development policy included state-sponsored colonization schemes which transferred people from the densely populated wet zone to the sparsely populated areas of the dry zone. The places best suited to such colonization schemes were located in the north and east of the island. These provinces were the least populated, the land was suitable for   agriculture   and there were rivers than could be dammed.

These colonization schemes had a dual purpose. They helped ease the acute land hunger of an expanding population, now well beyond the carriage rate for the island. They also opened up vacant land   for agriculture.  The first colonization schemes concentrated exclusively on paddy cultivation, but the later schemes included agro industries .The reservoirs were used to generate hydro-electricity as well as provide water for irrigation.

Sri Lanka was very proud of its state-sponsored colonization schemes. They were intended for national development. The first  colonization scheme was at  Kantale in 1948   (Trincomalee district),  then Gal Oya in 1949 ( Batticaloa )  Allai  1953 ( Trincomalee ) Padaviya  1958, ( Anuradhapura )  Morawewa  1960( Trincomalee ),   Weli Oya  1984 ( Mullaitivu  and   Yan Oya2012  in progress  ( Trincomalee).

Tamil Separatist Movement vehemently objected to   state aided colonization schemes. Tamil settlers considered the north and east to be exclusively theirs. They feared the arrival of the Sinhalese and saw these   colonization schemes as a threat to Settler Colonization.

The main strategy of Settler colonialism is   to somehow get exclusive possession of sovereign territory, usually by   chasing away its original occupants, then sit down on that land and refuse to budge. State aided colonization schemes were a threat to this strategy. Settler colonialism is not interested in national development, only in consolidating its own position.

The Tamil separatist movement has opposed the Sinhala colonization of ‘Tamil lands’ at every opportunity. At the 4th annual convention, 1956, the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) resolved that “colonization, policies pursued by successive governments since 1947 of planting Sinhalese population in the traditional homeland of the Tamil speaking people is calculated to overwhelm and crush the Tamil speaking people in their own national areas.’

The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1957 had a specific Clause that the Regional Councils shall have the power to select allottees for colonization schemes in the Region. And the Resolution passed at the 5th National Convention of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, in 1957 declared: State aided Sinhalese colonization of the Northern and Eastern provinces will be effectively stopped forthwith.”

 TULF Manifesto, 1977, stated that the territory from Chilaw through Puttalam to Mannar, up to the Jaffna Peninsula and then     past     Trincomalee and Batticaloa down to Kumana, and the Kumbukkan Oya, were ‘firmly established as the exclusive homeland of    the Tamils. This is the territory of Tamil Eelam.”

Tamil Separatist Movement knows that its position in Sri Lanka is very shaky. The Tamil settlers do not have   their own declared state in Sri Lanka. Nor do they have a long history of settler residence in Sri Lanka .They only came in the  late 19th  century and they are settled in two   artificial provinces created by the British, the Northern and Eastern provinces, with arbitrary boundaries.

The homeland” assertion of the Tamil Separatist Movement has been laughed at and dismissed.Critics wanted to know whether any other ethnic group has two homelands, one in India and another in Sri Lanka.  KM de Silva in his ‘Traditional homelands of the Tamils’ has squashed the historical claims of the Tamils. G. H. Peiris has demolished the demographical claims. 

The government took no notice of the Tamil protests. It continued with its colonization schemes. It is the duty of a government to utilize the resources of a country, including land, in the greater interest of the total population, the government said.  The government also said that does not recognize the division of land on an ethnic basis   and there can be no restrictions on internal migration in a democratic society.

The UN supports this view. UN repeatedly affirms the right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the state. Article 13 of the UN Declaration of Human rights, (1948) says everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

UN resolution 1803(XVII) of 14.12.1962, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory states that the ‘right of peoples and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources must   be exercised in the interest of their national development”

Article 12 of the International covenant on Civil and Political rights (1966) says Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.  .

Article 5d (i) of the International convention on the Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (1969) said signatories undertake to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to ethnic origin, the right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of the State.

Population density also had to be considered when selecting lands for Colonisation schemes.  The government found that the Northern Province had the most space. It was the least populated. Census 2012 showed that Mullaitivu, Mannar, Killinochchi, Vavuniya, had low populations. The population density of 38 persons per square kilometer in Mullaitivu is the lowest density recorded in 2012. Populating density in Eastern Province was also low, 60 persons per square kilometer.  Therefore the colonization schemes were located in the north and east.

Census of Sri Lanka 2012 showed that 5% (1,061,315) of the total population of Sri Lanka live in the Northern Province. Vavuniya had a total population of 171,511, of which 82% were Tamil, 10.2% were Sinhala. Kilinochchi had total population of 113,510 of which 97% Tamil, 0.85 Sinhala. Mullaitivu had had total population of 91,947 of which 86% Tamil, 9.63% Sinhala.

The outrageous notion of an ‘ethnic compact’ was invoked on behalf of the Tamil settlers. It was suggested that land settlement should not disturb the existing ethnic ratio. A Marga Institute study, Inter racial  equity and national unity” (Marga 1985) suggested that ‘settlement policies should take into account the ethnic balance of the region in which settlements are taking place. New settlements should not significantly alter the ethnic balance in that district. There should be agreement on the ‘tolerance limits’ of any changes in ethnic balance.[1]

Critics responded. There is no such thing as an ethnic compact regarding land, they said. Land is a national resource.  The request is outrageous.  It should not be entertained.  Agreeing to ethnic quotas would mean accepting that   ethnic priorities must be respected in all land settlement projects.

It is reported, from a Tamil source, not an official one, that the Mahaweli Development   Scheme used the national ethnic ratio. Mahaweli land, it said is distributed according to the   all island ethnic ratio.  The Provincial Councils have no say and 96% of the beneficiaries have been Sinhalese, moaned    Tamilnet. [2] 

However, in the 1980s, the   Mahadiulwewa colonisation scheme, Morawewa recognised the ethnic ratio of the district. The Mahadiulwewa project was historic because   it was decided that for a medium scale project, settlement should reflect the ethnic ratio in the district in which the project was located. This was the first time such a policy had been enunciated, said Jayatissa Bandaragoda. A land Kachcheri was held, the selection made and the selected allottees informed. Most were landless chena cultivators, who had been living in the project area for a long time. [3](Continued)


[1]  ‘Inter-racial equity and national unity in Sri Lanka’ p 14,  41

[2] https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?artid=38864&catid=79

[3]  Jayatissa Bandaragoda, Path of destiny  p 161

ජනාධිපති අනුර කුමාර (2024) හා  සිංහල- මුස්ලිම් කෝලාහලය (1915) – part 2

November 4th, 2024

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

බුද්ධාගම කියන්නේ බොරුවක්!

1505 දී පෘතුගීසීන් කොලොම් තොටට ගසාගෙන ආවේ එක අතකින් කඩුව හා අනිත් අතින් බයිබලයද රැගෙන යයි කියැවේ. 1096/1204 කාලයේ පෝප් මූලිකව මෙහෙයවු කුරුස යුද්ධ වලින් මුස්ලිම්වරු දිගටම පැරදවිය නොහැකිවිය. මේ නිසා යුරෝපයේ පොහොසත් පන්තියට ඉන්දියාවෙන් (චීනයෙන්?) ගොඩමින් ගෙනා කුළුබඩු යනාදිය ලබාගැනීම සඳහා වෙනත් මුහුදු මඟක් සොයා ගැනීමට අවශ්‍යය විය. මෙම දුෂ්කර ගමනට නාවික කම්කරුවන් සොයාගත්තේ එය යුරෝපයෙන් පිට වසන වනචාරී මිථ්‍යාදෘෂ්ටිකයින් ගලවා ගැනීම සඳහා  කරණ දේවකාරියක් යයි  යයි කියමින් රවටාදය.

පෘතුගීසින්ට පසුව ආ ලන්දේසීන් කතෝලිකයින් මරද්දී උඩරට බෞද්ධ රජු ඔවුන්ට රැකවරණය දුන්නේය (ඊට පෙර පෘතුගීසීන් මුස්ලිම්වරු මරද්දීද සිදුවූයේද මෙයය). මේවා ලෝකයේ ප්‍රථම සනාගත කඳවුරුවිය. සිය යටත් විජිතවල වැසියා සමඟ ලන්දේසීන් අනුගමනය කලේ ඉංග්‍රීසි හෝ ප්‍රංශ ක්‍රමයට වෙනස් ක්‍රියා පිලිවෙලකි. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ලන්දේසීන් උඩරට රජුට  සියමෙන්/බුරුමයෙන් උපසම්පදා භික්ෂුන් ලබා ගැනීමේ කාර්යයේදී උදව් කලේය.

1798/1802 සිට නෝත් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගෙන් ආරම්භවුණු ඉංග්‍රීසි පාලන සමයේදී ගමේ  සිංහල පන්සල ඔවුන්ට බලවත් අභියෝගයක් විය. මේ නිසා (සිංහල?) ක්‍රිස්තියානි පාදිලිවරුන් විසින් ගෙනගිය බුද්ධාගම කියන්නේ බොරුවක් යන කතාවට සුදු පාලකයින් විසින් තිරයෙන් පිටුපසින් සිට සිය අනුබලදීම දිගටම කරගෙන ගියේය. මෙය කෙතරම් බලවත් වූවාදයත් 1848 කැරැල්ලට පසුව වනවිට පලවු කළු සුදු ක්‍රිස්තියානි මතය වූයේ තව දශක දෙක තුනකින් බුද්ධාගම රටෙන් අතුරුදහන් වනවා යන්නය (ඔබේසේකර-බණ්ඩාරනායක පවුල්වලට අයත් ජේම්ස් ද අල්විස්ගේ ප්‍රකාශය).

1842 දී පමණ සිට පානදුරේ වලානේ සිරි සිද්ධාර්ථාරාමයේ සිට රත්මලානට වැඩමකර රත්මලානේ පරම ධම්ම් චේතිය පිරිවෙන ආරම්භකර, විද්යෝදය හා විද්‍යාලංකාර මහපිරිවෙන් දෙකක් සඳහා මඟ පාදාදුන් වලානේ සිරි සිද්ධාර්ථ හිමිපාණන් ප්‍රමුඛව ඇතිවූ බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවනය හරහා බෞද්ධ-ක්‍රිස්තියානි වාද හතරකින් පසු පස්වන වාදයවූ 1873 පානදුරා මහා වාදයෙන්  මිගෙට්ටුවත්තේ ගුණානන්ද හිමිඳුන් පාදිලිවරුන්ව පරාජය කලත් ක්‍රිස්තියානි බලවේගය තාවකාලිකව වැලලීගියා මිස මැරුණේ නැත.  මීට හේතුව වූයේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සුදු පාලකයින් හා සිංහල ක්‍රිස්තියානි කළුසුද්දන්ගේ බෞද්ධ විරෝධී යටිකූට්ටු වැඩ පිලිවෙලය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් 1883 කොටහේනේ බෞද්ධ-ක්‍රිස්තියානි කෝලාහලයේදී සුද්දා ගත්තේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි පැත්තය.

මීට සමානම දෙයක් 1915 සිංහල මුස්ලිම් කෝලාහලයේදීද සිදුවිය. එහෙත් කිසිවෙක් මෙතෙක් එය සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී ඉතිහාස කතාවේ කොටසක් වශයෙන් විමසා බලා නැත. එය 1971 JVP කැරැල්ල, 1988/89 JVP-UNP භීෂණ සමය, 2019 ජූලි 13 දා සමූහ කාණ්ඩ 21 ක් සමඟින් JVP මූලිකව ගොඩනැඟූ මාලිමා පක්ෂය (NPP), 2024 සැප්තැම්බර් 21 අනුර කුමාර ජනාධිපති ලෙස චන්දය දිනීම හා, 2024 නොවැම්බර් 14 දා පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත පාර්ලිමේන්තු චන්දය  දක්වා ඈඳෙන කතාවකි.

සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ (2019-22) හා සුදු (බෞද්ධ?) ආණ්ඩුකාර රොබට් චර්මර්ස් (1913-16)

2022 දී ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපති ගොඳුරුවුණ කුමන්ත්‍රනය වැන්නකට 1915 දී චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාද ගොඳුරුවුනා යයි මට සිතේ. පාදිලි පවුල් සම්භවයක් තිබු ඔහු, 1881 දී පාලි පොත් සංගමය ඇරඹූ රීස් ඩේවිඩ්ස් ගේ ගෝලයෙකු විය (Pali Text Society – T. W. Rhys Davids).  1894 දී මජ්ජිම නිකායේ මධුර සූත්‍රය (කුල භේදය) පිළිඹඳව රචනාවක් ලියූ ඔහු, රීස් ඩේවිඩ්ස් ආරම්භකල ජාතක කතා ඉංග්‍රීසියට පෙරලීමේ සෑහෙන කොටසක් 1895 වනවිට නිම කලේය. 1897 දී පැරිස් (ආගමික) සමුළුවට සහභාගිවූ ඔහු තථාගත- සම්මා සම්බුද්ධ යන සංකල්ප පිළිඹඳව රචනාවක් 1898 දී පලකලේය. ආණඩුකාරයා වශයෙන් ඔහු කල එක් ප්‍රථම නිල රාජකාරියක් වූයේ විද්යෝදය පිරිවෙනේ උපාධි-තෑගි ප්‍රධාන උත්සවයට එක්වීමය.

රීස් ඩේවිඩ්ස්ද පාදිලි පවුලකින් ආ බුද්ධාගම බොරුවක්ද යන්න ගැන සැකකරමින් සිටි, 1864 දී සිවිල් සේවකයෙකු වශයෙන් ලංකාවට පැමිණි පංචස්කන්ධයකි. 1864-72 කාලයේදී ඔහු යත්තරමුල්ලේ ශ්‍රී ධර්මාරාම, හික්කඩුවේ ශ්‍රී සුමංගල, වස්කඩුවේ ශ්‍රී සුභූති යන හිමිවරුන්ගේ ඇසුරෙන් බුදුදහම අවභෝධ කරගත්තේය. ඔහුගේ <බෞද්ධ-පාක්ෂික හැසිරීම> නොරිස්සූ යටත් විජිත පාලකයින් යම් හේතුවක් අල්ලාගෙන ඔහුව සේවයෙන් පහකරණ ලදී. ආපසු ලන්ඩන් බලා ගිය ඔහු පාලි සංස්කෘත අධ්‍යයන කටයුතුවල නියැලී (ලන්ඩන් හා මැංචැස්ටර් සරසවි වල, 1882-1905) ලෝකය පුරා ථේරවාද බුදුදහම  පැතිරවීමේලා (පසුව ඔහුගේ බිරිඳද)  මහඟු සේවයක් ඉටු කලේය.

ධර්ගා ටවුන්, අළුත්ගම (2014)- මහනුවර කාසල් වීදිය (1915)

මහනුවර කාසල් වීදියේ මුස්ලිම් පල්ලිය ඉදිරියෙන් නීත්‍යානුකූල ලෙස වෙසක් දා (මැයි 29 දා) අළුයම 1 ට ගිය පෙරහැරකට නීති විරෝධී ලෙස ගල් ගැසීම නිසා 1915 දී මධ්‍යම හා බස්නාහිර පලාත් දෙකේ ඇතිවු සිංහල-මුස්ලිම් ගැටුමේදී ජර්මන් ආක්‍රමණයකට බියෙන් ලංකාවේ නතරකර සිටි බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පන්ජාබි-මුස්ලිම් රෙජිමේන්තුව යෙදවීමෙන් සිදුවූ  සිංහල සංහාරය සමාන කල හැක්කේ 2014 ජූනි මාසයේදී අළුත්ගම ආසන්නයේ ධර්ගාටවුන් මුස්ලිම් පල්ලියෙන් ගම්බලා යන සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයාට එල්ලවූ ගල් ප්‍රහාරයටය. තමන්ට මොහමඩ් රාජිත යයි කියනවාට කැමතියයි බොස්ටන් TV එකට ප්‍රකාශකල රාජිත සේනාරත්නගේ හයිය 2014 දී මුස්ලිම් තරුණයින්ට තිබුණි. චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා වැරදි උපදෙස් මත නොමඟ ගොස් ජූනි 2 දා කෲර ලෙස යුද නීතිය (මාෂල් ලෝ) ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ඉඩ දුන්නේය. මෙය සමානකල හැක්කේ 2018-22 කාලයේ ගෝඨාභයට සිදුවූ අකරතැබ්බටය. චාර්මර්ස්ව අමාරුවේ දැමීමේදී ඒ කාලයේ ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් ලංකාවේ බෝවෙමින් සිටි සිංහල ක්‍රිස්තියානි කළු සුද්දන් මෙන්ම 1880 න් පසු කාලයේ <ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයින්> යයි හැඳින්වූ කළු සුද්දන්ද  අඩුවැඩි වශයෙන් දායක විය. මේ කළු සුද්දන් දෙවර්ගයම 1931 දී සුද්දන් විසින් සර්ව ජන චන්ද බලය දීමත් සමඟ <ඩොනමෝර් බෞද්ධයින්> වශයෙන් වෙස් මුහුණු දා ගත්තේ පන්සල් හරහා ගමේ චන්ද ලබා ගැනීමටය. ගෝටාව කොට උඩ යැවීමේදී නම් වශයෙන් හඳුනා ගත හැකි පංචස්කන්ධ වන්නේ, පී. බී. ජයසුන්දර, ජුලී චුං, ඥානක්කා, ලලිත් වීරතුංග, ජයනාත් කොළඹගේ, මිලින්ද මොරගොඩ යනාදී තිරයේ ඉදිරියෙන් හා පිටුපසින් සිටියවුන්ය.

ගෝටා ගෝ හෝම් කුමණ්ත්‍රනය

2019 දී ගෝඨාභය බලයට ආ අවස්ථාවේදී මෙන් 1913 දී ආණ්ඩුකාරයා වශයෙන් චාර්මර්ස් ආ විටද දිවයිනේ පන්සල් හා අවංක සිංහල බෞද්ධ නායකයින් බලවත්සේ අමන්දානන්දයට පත්විය. මෙය ලෝක යටත් විජිත ඉතිහාසයේ සිදුවූ පුදුමාකාරයේ පත්වීමක් විය. ක්‍රිස්තියානි සුදු පාලකයින් විසින් සුදු බෞද්ධයෙකු සිය යටත් විජිතයට යැවුවේ බෞද්ධ ප්‍රභෝධයක් රටේ මතුවී තිබූ අවධියකය. අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමා සිංහල බෞද්ධයින් තුල දේශාණුරාගය නැංවීමට කල උත්සාහය සුද්දන්ට හා කළු සුද්දන්ට විරුද්ධව කල විප්ලවකාරී සටනක් විය. සුද්දන්ට දරදිය ඇද, ඔත්තු සපයා, ආගම වෙනස්කරගෙන, ධනවත්වූ, වලව්කාරයින්ට ධර්මපාලතුමා තර්ජනයක් විය. ලන්ඩන් ගොස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා ආ ඔවුන්ගේ දරුවන් තමන්ටද රජයේ රක්ෂා අවස්ථා ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. සුද්දන් විසින් ජාතිය, භාෂාව, ආගම, කුලය  නම් කරණවා වෙනුවට ප්‍රදේශ අනුව චන්දයෙන් ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවට  ඒමේ ඉඩප්‍රස්ථා ලබා දෙන ලෙස මොවුන් තර්ක කලේය,  උද්ඝෝෂණ කලේය.

මුඩු බිම් පණත් යටතේ සුද්දාගෙන් කුණුකොල්ලයට ඉඩම් ලබාගත් වලව්කාරයින් බවට පත්වූ කළු සුද්දන් හා අළුතින් කරලියට ඒමට හදන කළු සුද්දන් අතර ඇතිවු ගැටුම, සිය සුදු මව සමඟ ලන්ඩනයේ හැඳී ලංකාවට ආ විශාඛා කුමාරි සොයිසා මෙනෙවිය (පසුව ජයවර්ධන මැතිණිය) සිය මාක්ස්වාදී හා බෞද්ධ විරෝධී කණ්නාඩියෙන් බලා විස්තර කලේ සුද්දන්ගෙන් යැපුණ ක්‍රිස්තියානි කළු සුද්දන්ගේ වචන උපුටා දක්වමින්, නෝ බොඩීස්, සම්බොඩීස් වෙන්නට හදනවා යනුවෙනි (තැනක් නැති පිරිසක් තැනක් හදා ගන්නට හදනවා).

මෙම අළුත් පිරිසට කරාවේ, දුරාවේ හා සලාගම කුලවල අයත් ඩී. එස්. සේනානායක, ඩි. බී. ජයතිලක, ආටිගල යන අයත් ඇතුලත් විය. විශාකාටත් වඩ හොඳින් දැනට ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ වාසය කරණ ගාල්ලේ උපන් මයිකල් රොබට්ස් මේ කාරණා විස්තර කර තිබේ. මෙහිදී අපගේ මාතෘකාවට වැදගත් වන්නේ මේ හැම කොටසක්ම ධර්මපාලතුමා රටින් එලවා ගන්නට ක්‍රියාකල බවය. මේ කරුණේදී තෙම්පරාදු ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයින් හා ක්‍රිස්තියානි සිංහලයින් අතර වෙනසක් නොවීය.  ඕල්කොට් ආගමණයෙන් පසුව එතෙක් ඉදිරියෙන් සිටි පන්සල් පිළිකන්නට තල්ලුවී ගියේය. ඒ වෙනුවට සිදුවූයේ අමද්‍යප ව්‍යාපාරය හරහා සුද්දාව කොනිත්තීම පමණය. මෙම ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධ කළු සුද්දන්ට 1915 චාර්මර්ස්ගේ මාෂල් ලෝ නිසා හිරේට ගොස් කෙසේ හෝ වෙඩි කෑමෙන් බේරී ජාතික වීරයින් ලෙස සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයා අතරට ඒමට හැකිවිය.

මෙම ව්‍යාකූල පසුබිම අස්සේ චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා සුද්දන්ගේ හා කළු සුද්දන්ගේ කුමණ්ත්‍රනයක් යයි සිතෙන වැරදි උපදෙස් අනුව ක්‍රියාකර, සේවයෙන් පහකිරීමකට ලක්විය. අමාරුවේ වැටුන ඔහුට විරුද්ධව උද්ඝෝෂණ කිරීමට පොන්නම්බලම් රාමනාදන්, සර් ජේම්ස් පීරිස් යන කළු සුද්දන් මූලිකවූ අතර, E. W. පෙරේරා හා D. B.  ජයතිලක යන දෙන්නා ලන්ඩන් ගොස් විනය පරීක්ෂණයක් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය (ජයතිලක හා සේනානායක යන දෙන්නා උග්‍ර ධර්මපාල විරෝධීන් වූ බව බොහෝ ඉතිහාසකාරයින් විසින් සඟවා ඇත).

LankaWeb – Governor Robert Chalmers was a Pali-Buddhist scholar

මැනිං මැනිං ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ බෙදා පාලනය කිරීමේ සෙල්ලම අසාර්ථක වීම 1921-1931

හොරස් පෙරේරාගේ ලංකාව: බටහිර ජාතීන්ගේ පාලන සමය (1961) යන පොතේ 229-234 යන පිටුවල දැක්වෙන පරිදි මෙම කාලයේදී තමන්ට ව්‍යවථාදායක සභාවේ බලය ඉල්ලා සිටීමට චාර්මර්ස් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ මාෂල් ලෝ ක්‍රියාව හොඳ උදාහරණයක් විය. මෙහිදී මැනිං ආණ්ඩුකාරයා සිංහල-දෙමළ ජාතීන් බෙදීමට හා සිංහල මහජාතියට බලයක් නොලැබෙන ආකාරයේ නියෝජන සූත්‍රයක් සැදීමට කූට ලෙස උත්සාහ කලේය. අන්තිමේදී මෙම ප්ලෑන් ආපසු කැරකී ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවේ නිල නොලත් මන්ත්‍රීන්ට බලය හිමිවීමේ අවදානමක් ඇතිවිය. සර් හියු ක්ලිෆර්ඩ් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා මෙය ලන්ඩන්වලට වාර්තා කිරීමේ ප්‍රතිපලය වූයේ 1927 දී ඩොනමෝර් කොමිෂම ලංකාවට පැමිණ 1931 සිට සර්ව ජන චන්ද බලය ලබාදීමත්, 1832 සිට පැවත ආ ජාතිවාදී නියෝජන ක්‍රමය වෙනුවට ප්‍රදේශ අනුව මන්ත්‍රීන් තේරීමත්ය.

වඳුරන්ට දැලි පිහි දීම

දේපල හෝ අධ්‍යාපන සුදුසු කමකින් තොරව සැම දෙනාටම චන්ද බලය දිම එංගලන්තයේ හා ඇමෙරිකාවේ සිදුවුයේ විශාල කාන්තා අරගලයකට පසුව 1931 ට දශකයකට පමණ පෙරය. 1832 සිට ජාතීන් අනුව නියෝජන ක්‍රමයකින් කළු සුද්දන්ව බෙදා පාලනය කල සුද්දා ලංකා කොලනියට  මෙසේ මන්ත්‍රී ආසන ක්‍රමයක් ඇති කිරිම විෂ්මය දනවයි.  එහෙත් 1931-1948 කාලය ලංකාවේ ජාතිවාදය උත්සන්නවූ අන්දම ජේන් රසල් ඇගේ ආචාර්ය උපාධි නිබන්ධනයේ පෙන්වා දී ඇත.

ලංකාවේ සිංහල හා දෙමළ කළු සුද්දන් ජාතිවාදය උඩ ගැටුණු අතර සර්ව ජන චන්ද බලය දීමට යාම ගැන ඔවුන් සිය විරෝධය පලකලේ එය වඳුරන්ට දැලි පිහි දීමක් යයි පවසමින්ය. ඊට පක්ෂව කතා කල එකම පුද්ගලයාවූයේ කම්කරු පක්ෂයේ නායක A. E. ගුණසිංහ මහතා පමණය. ඔහු මාක්ස්වාදියෙක් නොවීය. දැන් 2024 වන විට මුන් 225 ම එපා කියන තත්වයකට රට වැටී ඇති අන්දම ගැන සිතන විට වඳුරන් වූයේ  මෙම පක්ෂ දේශපාලක කළු සුද්දන් පරම්පරා මිස අසරණවූ චන්ද දායකයින් නොවන බව අවුරුදු 76 ක් පුරාම  සනාථවී ඇත.

මෙතෙක් මෙම දීර්ග විස්තරය ලිවීමේ අරමුණ වූයේ 1861-65 කාලයේ ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන් මුහුණ දී ජයගත් අන්දමටම සමානවන මානසික හා භෞතික අභියෝගයක් 2024 දී සිට අනුර කුමාර ජනාධිපති ඉදිරියේ ඇති පැහැදිලිකර දීමය. 1948 න් පසුව නොව, ලංකා ඉතිහාසය පුරාම, දුප්පත් ගොවි පවුලකින් පැමිණ දශක කීපයක්ම එක් මතවාදයක් වෙනුවෙන් ජීවිතය කැපකර මහජන චන්ද බලයෙන් රටේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයා වුන එකම පංචස්කන්ධය ඔහුය.

මාක්ස්වාදයද සමඟින්ම ඔහු විද්‍යාලංකාර බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයේ සභාපති ලෙස ක්‍රියාකලා නම් සියේට 3 ක් වූ JVP මාක්ස්වාදීන් හා NPP මාලිමා නිරාගමිකයින් කොටස්, සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය කෙරෙහි දක්වන විරෝධය මතවාදයෙන්ම නිෂ්ප්‍රභාකර දැමීමේ හැකියාවක් ඔහුට තිබෙනවා නිසැකය.

ලංකා කම්කරු පක්ෂයේ නායක A. E. ගුණසිංහව කොළඹ නගරසභා චන්දයෙන් පැරදවූයේ මහමුදලි සර් සොලමන්ගේ පුත් SWRD ය. මෙම කම්කරු නායකයා රටේ බෝරා, සින්ධි වෙළඳ ආධිපත්‍යයට විරුද්ධව කතා කිරීම මාක්ස්වාදී විශාඛා කුමාරි විසින් විග්‍රහකලේ සිංහල කුහක කමක් ලෙසය (Sinahala Buddhsit chauvinist). ලංකාවට පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේ ගාන්ධි පවා මෙම ඉන්දියන් වෙළඳුන්ට අවවාද කලේය. මෙම පදය සිංහල බෞද්ධ සභ්‍යත්වයට විරුද්ධව මුල්වරට එල්ල කලේ ඇයය. ජාතිවාදය හා ජාතික වාදය යන අදහස් දෙකේ වෙනස නොදැන අදටත් ගිරවුන් මෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිවාදයක්, අන්තවාදයක් (Buddhist extremists!) ගැන කතා කරන්නේ බටහිරට ගැති කළු සුද්දන් රංචුය.

1964 සිට මාක්ස්වාදීන් සිය පන්ති සටනෙන් අඩියක් පස්සට ගත්තේය. රුවන් වැලි මහාසෑය සැදූ නිසාවෙන් දුටුගැමුණු රජතුමාව ගඩොල් මෝඩයෙක් ලෙස හැඳින්වීම නතර කලේය. එහෙත් සමහර JVP අරටු සැප්තැම්බර් 21 චන්දයට පෙර සිය මෝඩකම නිසාම බුදුහාමුදුරුවන් ගොස් ගසක්, දෙල්ගසක් වෙනුවට බෝගස තෝරා ගැනීම ගැන වේදිකාවල විකාරකතා කියමින් සිටියේය. බුද්ධාගම කන්නද කියා අසණ බුද්ධාගම කන්නද කියා අසණ JVP/NPP අයද සිටී.

1964 සිට 2019 NPP පිහිටුවීම හා 2024 සැප්තැම්බර් ජයග්‍රහණය දක්වා අනුර කුමාර පරිණාමයවූ අන්දම මෙම ලිපියේ මීලඟ කොටසින් සලකා බැලේ. එහිදී මෙහි පහතින් දැක්වෙන නන්දන වීරරත්න නම් මාක්ස්වාදියාගේ අදහස්ද  විග්‍රහ කෙරේ.

Sexual Crisis in Radical Movements in Sri Lanka – Nandana Weerarathna reveals

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“SETTLER COLONIALISM” AND TAMIL EELAM Part 5B

November 4th, 2024

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Tamil Separatist Movement was highly critical of the state colonization schemes of the 1950s. They were not in the least interested in the development aspect of the schemes, only on   the impact of Sinhala settlements on their precious Eelam.

Tamil Separatist Movement charged that the colonization schemes, from the very beginning, were intended to Sinhalise the north and east, not develop the country. Ever since independence it has been the policy of both the UNP and the SLFP to undertake state aided Sinhala colonization schemes with the sole aim of altering the demographic profile of Northeast, said V. Thangavelu. [1]

 Irrigation schemes such as Allai, Kantale and others in 1950s and 60s saw old tanks restored, new tanks constructed, and forests cleared to give land to landless peasants. These became instruments used for Sinhalisation of the district, said Oakland Institute, repeating what it was told.[2]

The objective of the government   is to break the continuity between the Northern and Eastern Provinces. . That is why the Padaviya and Allai schemes were started on the northern and southern sides of their districts observed   UTHR.[3]

 There was a  substantial increase of Sinhalese population in Tamil districts, especially in the Eastern Province,  due to the aggressive policy of settling thousands of Sinhalese in Tamil districts by the government, said C. Manogaran.[4]

It is estimated that almost a quarter of the island’s population was moved from the Wet Zone to the Dry Zone between 1946 and 1971, under peasant colonization schemes. These colonization schemes drastically altered the ethnic composition of Tamil provinces, Manogaran continued.

Comparison of the ethnic composition of the administrative districts for the census years 1881 and 1981 indicates that, Sinhalese population had increased substantially in the Ampara, Trincomalee, and Vavuniya districts. In the Amparai District, Sinhalese population increased from 7.0% to 38%, while the Tamil population declined from 37.0% to 20.0% between 1911 and 1981, said Manogaran

The rise in Sinhalese population between 1953 & 1963 was due mainly to the Allai and Kantale schemes and from 1963-1971 to Morawewa scheme. Padavi Siripura brought in a further 14, OOO in 1981.

The Kantale and Morawewa schemes become dangerous during periods of ethnic tension. They are located on the Trincomalee – Vavuniya and Trincomalee -Kandy roads. The Allai and the Padaviya schemes   cause problems on the Trincomalee-Batticaloa and Trincomalee – Mullaitivu roads said UTHR.

Kantale was a Village Headman’s division in Thampalaka­mam AGA’s division, in the early 190O’s. The Kantale tank irrigated the paddy fields belonging to the Thampalakam­am and Kinniya farmers, said UTHR. Farmers who had worked the land for more than 30 years and cultivated about 4,000 acres of paddy were chased away without compensation, and their lands were awarded to the Sinhalese in 1954, said Oakland institute.

It is estimated that about 40,000 of the present Sinhalese population of 86,000 in the district came in as a result of the Kantale colonization scheme. The intake was 77% Sinhalese and 23% Thamil speaking. After colonization, Kantale became a separate AGA’s division with 23 Grama Sevaka divisions, said   UTHR.

The Allai Scheme began by constructing an amicus across the Verugal river, a tributary of the Mahaweli Ganga. Under Allai colonization scheme 65% of the allotments were given to Sinhalese, 35% to Muslims and Thamils none, said V Thangavelu. Thangavelu was working in Trincomalee Kachcheri (1957-59) during this time.

 The Koddiyar AGAs division to which Allai belonged was replaced by three divisions, Muthur, Seruvila, and a Verugal AGA’s division. Seruvila was created in the late 196O‘s and Verugal division centered on Ichchilampattai was created in the mid 198O’s.

Names were changed. Serunuvara was originally Arippu. Kallar is Somapura today. Neelapalai is now Neelapola. A part of Poonagar is called Mahindapura and Thirumangalai is now Srimangalagama.

Seruvila AGA division contained new Sinhala villages such as Dehiwatte, Lankapatuna and Pulasthigama. This division has a population of 20,187 with 17 Grama Sevaka officers divisions. 99% of the 11,665 Sinhalese living in this division were brought from the south by the government, said Thangavelu.

The restoration of Padaviya tank led to the creation of Padaviya, Padavi Parakramapura and Padavi Sripura colonization schemes. Padavi SIripura, located in Trincomalee district had a population of 11,804, almost all of them Sinhalese said UTHR in 1993.

 Padaviya colonization   scheme extended into Trincomalee but was administered by Anuradhapura. Land which came under Trincomalee districts was also given to the Sinhalese said Oakland Institute .

Padaviya scheme played a key role in the 1958 riots and the activities of the Land Development Department employees during the riots has been vividly described in the book Emergency ‘58 by Tarzie Vittachi.

Morawewa is the Sinhalese translation of the Tamil word Mudalikulam, said UTHR.  Morawewa tank was earlier under Katukulampattu East, which included the present Kuchaveli division.  In 1961 a colonization scheme was started at Morawewa tank, 24 km west of the Trincomalee town. This scheme included Tamils as beneficiaries, said UTHR. Allotments were made on a proportionate basis, confirmed Thangavelu, but subsequent violence directed against Thamil settlers on a regular basis by Sinhalese forced many Thamils to evacuate.

A new AGA’s division was created in the early 1970s for Morawewa.  Morawewa AGA’s Division has a population of 9271 and 10 Grama Sevaka officers divisions. The Sinhalese constitute 56% of the total population while the Tamils constitute 37%. A considerable percentage of the present population of 5101 Sinhalese in the Morawewa are outsiders, said UTHR in 1992.

In the late 60s the government started an Air Force farm near the headworks at Morawewa. Tamils became subject to small scale attacks by air force men and Sinhalese hooligans. The largest number of killings of Tamils took place along the Anuradhapura Road and the matter was raised in Parliament. This was the first instance in the island of the forces being stationed permanently in the middle of an agricultural scheme. The proportion of Tamils kept falling, said UTHR. With the violence of the 8Os the gradual displacement of Thamils became a total retreat said Thangavelu.

In the 1980s, the Mahadiulwewa colonisation scheme was begun in the Morawewa AGA’s Division. More Sinhalese were brought in under this scheme and their proportion rose to 56%, said UTHR.

The Mahadiulwewa project was historic because it was decided that settlement should reflect the ethnic ratio in the district where the project was located. [5]  This was the first time such a policy had been enunciated. A land Kachcheri was held, the selection made and the selected allottees informed. Most were landless chena cultivators, who had been living in the project area for a long time.

Then an objection was raised by MP for Trincomalee that   persons from Trincomalee should also have been selected. However, the selection already made could not be altered for legal reasons. It was suggested that the blocking out plan could be redrawn to increase the number of allotments by reducing the area allocated to an allotment. 

Gamini Dissanayake, Minster for Mahaweli, accompanied by   NGP Panditeratne and Gamini Iriyagolle, came to investigate. Amirthalingam and Sampanthan were present. I also participated at this unprecedented meeting, said Jayatissa Bandaragoda. It was agreed that applicants from Trincomalee should also be interviewed and selected and the final list should reflect the district’s ethnic ratio. The plan would be redrawn to include more allotments by reducing the extent of land per allotment   (Continued)


[1] V Thangavelu https://tamilnation.co/forum/thangavelu/chauvinism.htm .

[2] https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_The_Long_Shadow_of_War_0.pdf

[3] https://www.uthr.org/Reports/Report11/appendix2.htm 1992 april

[4]  C Manogaran https://sangam.org/sinhalese-settlements-and-forced-evictions-of-tamils-in-the-north-east-province/

[5]  Jayatissa Bandaragoda, Path of destiny  (Godage 2011)  p 161

Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin participated in the International Buddhist Conference Academic to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Das Buddhistische Haus, the first Buddhist House in Europe.

November 4th, 2024

Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin

On Sunday, August 4, 2024, H.E. Mr. Nadhavathna Krishnamra, Ambassador of Thailand, along with his spouse, Ms.Viphawan Benniman, Minister and embassy officials, participated in the International Buddhist Conference Academic to make the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of Das Buddhistische Haus, the first Buddhist House in Europe, at the Zehlendorf Community Hall, Berlin. The event was organized by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Germany and the German Dharmaduta Society with the participation of by ambassadors and representatives from embassies of countries practicing Buddhism, including Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand, as well as over 40 Buddhist monks from various countries, including Thailand and 50 participants from relevant academia and general public.

The Conference involved presentations and discussions on a wide range of topics, including the profound contributions of Buddhism to global peace and unity, the motivations that led Dr. Paul Dahlke to establish Das Buddhistische Haus and his tireless efforts to spread the teachings of Buddhism in Europe, and the relevance and application of Buddhist teachings in the modern world. The Royal Thai Embassy also supported the activity with a Thai traditional dance performed by Members of the Thai community in Berlin.

Das Buddhistische Haus was established in 1924 by Dr. Paul Dahlke, a German physician who purchased land in Berlin-Frohnau to establish the “Buddhist House” to spread Buddhist teachings and purify the mind. It combined the Buddhist way of life within a Western environment. Later, Mr. Asoka Weeraratna, the founder of the Lanka Dhammaduta Society (now known as the German Dharmaduta Society), purchased the property from the heirs of Dr. Paul Dahlke in 1957. He transformed it into a Buddhist vihara with monks from Sri Lanka and other countries, including Thailand.

Scott Ritter Warns: Iran’s COUNTERATTACK Is Counting Down! IDF FALL Into Trap In Gaza & Lebanon

November 4th, 2024

Kamil Kerimov

https://youtu.be/X2oEuSIZCuU

This Positive News! Moving Global! Finland Thinks Global. Should Sri Lanka Think Again?

November 4th, 2024

Prof. Hudson McLean

Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz (SPP) told Yle News he wants to take that step. If his legislation is approved by parliament, high schools would be in a position to begin offering a curriculum in English by the autumn of 2026

https://yle.fi/a/74-20121822

Education minister “confident” Finland will introduce English-language matriculation exam by 2028

The upper secondary exam is currently only available in Finnish or Swedish, but there has been growing demand to offer some high school students the option of taking it in English.

Young people sit and take their exams in auditorium.
The matriculation exam, which high school students take at the end of their studies, is currently only available in Finnish or Swedish. Image: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle

Ronan Browne

4.11. 6:02

Could some high school seniors don their white graduation caps in the future after taking the matriculation exam in English?

If it comes to fruition, a proposal now going through parliament could see an expansion in English-language high school provision by 2026 in some cities.

That would resolve a key issue in the education of kids from mixed or foreign backgrounds, who can go through the Finnish schooling system in English up until the age of 16 — but face drastically reduced options at that stage.

The first step in expanding that range of options is making sure they will be allowed to take the matriculation exam from Upper Secondary school in English.

Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz (SPP) told Yle News he wants to take that step. If his legislation is approved by parliament, high schools would be in a position to begin offering a curriculum in English by the autumn of 2026, and the first-ever matriculation exam in English would be available two years later — by the autumn of 2028.

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India Brings Back 102 Tonnes of Gold from London | Vantage with Palki Sharma

November 4th, 2024

India’s central bank – the RBI – has announced that it secretly repatriated around 102 tonnes of gold stored in the Bank of England vaults. The gold, which is part of the RBI’s reserves, had been pledged in London during the 1990s financial crisis. Why did the RBI decide to bring it back? Palki Sharma tells you.

ලෝක බැංකුව අපි ඉල්ලුවෙත් නැතිව ඩොලර් මිලියන 200ක් දුන්නා පාවිච්චි කරගන්න කියලා..- ටිල්වින්

November 4th, 2024

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ඉල්ලන්නේවත් නැතිව ලෝක බැංකුවෙන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 200ක් ලබාදුන් බව ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් ටිල්වින් සිල්වා මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

මිරිහාන ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවැති ජාතික ජන බලවේග මහ මැතිවරණ ජන හමුවක් අමතමින් ඒ මහතා මේ බව පැවසුවේය.

අද වන විට මෙරට ආණ්ඩුවකට ලැබුණු වැඩිම ජාත්‍යන්තර සහයෝගය හිමි ආණ්ඩුව බවට මෙම ආණ්ඩුව පත්ව ඇති බවද හෙතෙම පැවසීය.

‘ලෝක බැංකුව අපි ඉල්ලන්නෙත් නැතුව පහුගිය දවස්වල අපේ ආණ්ඩුවට ඩොලර් මිලියන 200ක් දුන්නා සංවර්ධන වැඩවලට පාවිච්චි කරගන්න කියලා’

ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා සීඅයිඩියෙන් ඉවතට… තමන්ට එරෙහිව ඇති විමර්ශනය කඩාකප්පල් කරන්න රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න තමන්ගේ ලේකම් ධූරය භාවිත කරනවා – ගම්මන්පිලගෙන් චෝදනා

November 4th, 2024

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්


මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේත් කනෙන් රිංගා රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත යනුවෙන් සඳහන් කර සී අයිද්ධියේ ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතාව සීඅයිඩියෙන් පොලිස් මුලස්ථානයට මාරු කිරීමට රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා ක්‍රියාකළ බවත්,  රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත යැයි පැවසූවද කිසිම රාජකාරියක් ඔහුට පවරා නැති බවත් සර්වජන බලය කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික් අපේක්ෂක සහ පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායක නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා පවසයි.

ඒ මහතා මේ බව සදහන් කර සිටියේ අද දින (04) පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය පක්ෂ මූලස්ථානයේ පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුව හා එක් වෙමිනි.

එහිදී තවදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ඒ මහතා,

“රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතාගේ නොසැලකිල්ල නිසා පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සිදු වුණු බවත් ඔහු තනතුරේ සිටිය නිසා මීට පෙර පැවැති කොමිෂන් සභා ඉදිරියේ මේ කාරණය නිසි අයුරින් මතු නොවුණු බවත් විශ්‍රාමික නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති පාලිත සිරිවර්ධන මහතා පොලිසියට පැමිණිල්ලක් කරමින් සඳහන් කළා. මේ පිළිබඳ පොලිස් විමර්ශනයක් සිදු කර ඔහුගෙන් සිදුවුණු සාපරාධි නොසැලකිල්ලට දඬුවම් කරන මෙන් පොලිස්පතිතුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියා. මේ පැමිණිල්ල විමර්ශනය කරන්න භාර වුණේ සී අයිද්ධියේ ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතාට, තමන් කළ වරද තමන් දන්න නිසා බොහොම කලබල වුණු රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් නඩුවක් ගොනු කරලා තමන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමේ සුදානමක් තිබෙනවා ඒක වලක්වන්න කියා ඉල්ලීමක් කළා. ඒ නඩුව තවම විභාග වෙනවා. ඒ අතරේ තමයි රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා පොලිසිය භාර අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් වෙන්නේ.

රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් වුණත් පොලිස් විමර්ශනය දිගටම කරගෙන යන්න තරම් ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතා නිර්භීත වුණා. රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා මොකද කලේ? මැතිවරණ කොමිසමෙත් කනෙන් රිංගලා රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත කියලා ඉන්දුක ද සිල්වා මහතාව සීඅයිඩියෙන් පොලිස් මුලස්ථානයට මාරු කළා. රාජකාරි අවශ්‍යතා මත කියලා කිව්වාට කිසිම රාජකාරියක් පවරලා නෑ කියලා තමයි අපට නම් ආරංචි.

ජයවර්ධන ජනාධිපතිතුමා කෙතරම් හිතවතෙක් වුණත් ගෝනවල සුනිල්ව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් කලේ නෑ. ප්‍රේමදාස ජනාධිපතිතුමා කෙතරම් හිතවතෙක් වුණත් සොන්ති උපාලිව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් කලේ නෑ. චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක ජනපතිතුමිය තමන්ගේ කොතරම් හිතවතෙක් වුනත් බැද්දගානේ සංජීව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් කලේ නෑ. මොකද ඒ අය පොලිස් විමර්ශන වල සැකකරුවන් නිසා. නමුත් ඉතිහාසයේ ප්‍රථම වතාවට පොලිස් විමර්ශනයක සැකකරුවෙකුව පොලිසිය භාර ලේකම් බවට පත් කලේ වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිතුමා. ඉතින් අපි සැක කළ අයුරින්ම දැන් තමන්ට එරෙහිව තිබෙන විමර්ශනය කඩාකප්පල් කරන්න රවි සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා තමන්ගේ ලේකම් ධූරය භාවිතා කරනවා.”

Cracks are showing already!

November 4th, 2024

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana Courtesy The Island

When I wrote Will SL govt. do better than the UK Labour administration?” (The Island, 18 October), I never imagined that there would be the need for a follow-up anytime soon but, as it happens, a downward spiral seems to have started already and cracks are appearing in the new administration of Sri Lanka. On top of the fracas about the Easter Sunday bomb attack probes, the pretty mask of the NPP, which won votes from even those sceptical about the JVP, seems to be coming off revealing the real JVP underneath.

Many who supported Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) to win the presidency, in the belief that he was a true democrat committed to changing the political culture of Sri Lanka, would have been surprised and felt let down when AKD said at a public rally that there was no need for an Opposition and Parliament should be filled with only NPP members. For sceptics, that call came as no surprise at all, as the JVP is showing its true colours as a Marxist party. Afterall, they believe in the dictatorship of the proletariat!

Worse still is the fracas about the two committees set up by the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe to investigate two aspects of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks. The reports have cast doubts about the judgement of the president and his two ministers responsible for appointing to high positions two retired senior police officers, who are found to have neglected their duties by one of the committees. These two police officers—one arrested last October after crashing his jeep on to a tourist bus and a car, presumably due to inebriation and the other exposed by Ranjan Ramanayake’s audio recordings of telephone conversations—actively campaigned for the NPP.

We do not know what motivated them to play such a prominent role in the AKD presidential campaign; maybe it was because they were convinced by the policies of AKD or maybe they joined the winning side to get into positions of power or may be even avoid being charged with dereliction of duty while they were in the CID. Whatever it is, they got more than adequately rewarded and seem well protected as Minister Vijitha Herath has declared that they would not be removed under any circumstances. His skewed logic is well exposed and heavily criticized in the editorial Probe reports, skewed logic and emerging threats” (The Island, 24 October)

Salvos fired by the veteran politician, Udaya Gammanpila, and the awkward responses, not only from the government but also from the Catholic Church are well analysed in two previous Island editorials; ‘Mastermind at large; Udaya in crosshairs’ on 21st October and ‘Of that damning report’ on 22nd October. Gammanpila claimed that he was in possession of two reports; one headed by former Justice S. A. Imam, who was tasked with probing some allegations UK Channel-4 levelled against Sri Lanka’s military intelligence in respect of the Easter Sunday carnage and the other, chaired by former judge A. N. J. de Alwis, whose purview was to inquire into intelligence coordination and investigative processes related to the Easter Sunday bombings. Gammanpila challenged the government to release these reports and Minister Herath threw a counter-challenge and issued a veiled threat of legal action.

When Gammanpila released the Alwis committee report, as he said he would, on 21 October, Minister Herath’s response was that they rejected the report, which is puzzling. What one would have expected a government that came to power on the promises of transparency and elimination of corruption to publish the report in keeping with their demand whilst being in the Opposition. Interestingly, initially it was the spokesman of the Catholic church, Father C G Fernando, who gave the reason: that Justice Alwis had conflict of interest as her brother had been disciplined by the two police officers concerned and, subsequently Minister Herath carried out a personal attack on her. Why weren’t those objections raised, if valid, when she was appointed? And, why did her critics wait until they found the committee report was critical of their two favourite ex-cops! Is this good governance that was promised?

Gammanpila released the Imam report 28 October, and one wonders what Father Fernando, who lamented about the loss of that report at a book launch on 01 October, has got to say? Meanwhile, JVP supporters have mounted a massive social media campaign ridiculing Gammanpila. Perhaps, it is the shape of things to come!

Interestingly, at a ceremony held at one of the affected sites, St. Sebastian’s church in Katuwapitiya, conducted by Cardinal Ranjith, President AKD was questioned emotionally by a bereaved mother/wife what action the government was planning to take. His response was that as he was not a judicial officer, he would leave it to the judiciary to take action. As there is an element of doubt, for the sake of the promised transparency and eradication of corruption, he should get the Attorney General to file action against these two officers, as recommended in the Alwis report. If they are cleared by the judiciary, then they can resume their jobs. This would help prevent embarrassment for the government. It looks as if the new government is unaware of the dictum Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done”.

Then came the sudden issue of the US travel advisory. The government’s response that it had been aware of the threat and had already taken action, seemed an excuse. Had the government liaised with the foreign diplomats, a less damaging advisory could have been issued as the way they had been issued is likely to damage the tourist sector which is reviving. Of course, it is quite possible that this was done purposely, as it was issued the day after the government announced that it had signed the resolution, spearheaded by Chile, supporting the UN Secretary General who had been declared a persona non grata by Israel. If so, the government is heading for a very turbulent period engineered by foreign viceroys!

The credibility of the government is falling fast as they seem to be doing just the opposite of what its leaders preached while they were in the opposition.

ITAK denies secret pact with NPP

November 4th, 2024

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

The Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) yesterday (03) dismissed Sarvajana Balaya claim that it had reached a post-general election understanding with the NPP government on the setting up of a federal structure in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the inclusion of ITAK frontliner M. A. Sumanthiran, PC, in President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s cabinet as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

A senior party spokesperson said so when The Island sought the ITAK response to Sarvajana Balaya Colombo District candidate Udaya Gammanpila’s recent accusations regarding a clandestine agreement between the two parties. We wouldn’t have responded to Gammanpila’s baseless claim on our own,” the official said, alleging that this was nothing but the former Minister’s figment of imagination.

Sumanthiran is contesting Jaffna on the ITAK list under the ‘House’ symbol.

Attorney-at-law Gammanpila also alleged that the government had reinstated SSP Shani Abeysekera and brought in retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne as Secretary to the Public Security Ministry to kick-start investigations in terms of the Geneva accountability resolution adopted in 2015.

Another ITAK source pointed out that they had not accepted ministerial portfolios during the Yahapalanaya administration (2015-2019) though it backed the government. Obviously, a blatant lie was being propagated ahead of the General Election scheduled to be held in less than two weeks,”

he said. In fact, at every national election since the end of the war in May 2009, various interested parties alleged secret agreements between the ITAK and the party in power, the ITAK source said.ITAK is contesting on its own in Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa and Digamadulla districts whereas ITAK and Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) fielded a joint team in Trincomalee. The DTNA consists of former ITAK-led TNA members EPRLF, TELO and PLOTE. DTNA is in the fray under the Conch’ symbol.

ITAK sources said such unsubstantiated allegations wouldn’t have a negative impact on their election

Parliament consists of 196 elected and 29 appointed members. ITAK sources said they were confident of securing the majority of seats from the five northern and eastern electoral districts. Of the 29 elected from Jaffna (07), Vanni (06), Batticaloa (5), Digamadulla (07) and Trincomalee (04), we would definitely have the majority, they said.

In the last Parliament, five Tamil political parties shared 16 seats, including National List slots with the ITAK-led TNA having 10 seats.

Gammanpila accused the NPP of having reached a secret understanding with the ITAK in the wake of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake meeting S. Sritharan of the ITAK and EPDP’s Douglas Devananda.

President Dissanayake is on record as having said that after the NPP’s triumph in the presidential election Tamil political parties were under pressure from voters to work with the government.

NPP never made allegations of hidden money in Uganda: Tilvin

November 4th, 2024

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, November 04 (Daily Mirror)-  NPP member Tilvin Silva refuted making any allegations of hidden money in Uganda, while saying that such claims were made by the SJBers.

He told a news conference that it was the NPP which said the so-called containers of US Dollars were printed here and taken to Uganda.

“We did not say any Uganda story. It was the SJBers who said that. We said those days that there could be hidden money in Uganda and other countries. We said the alleged containers full of dollars were printed here and taken to Uganda. Their policy is that they themselves utter lies and say those lies were uttered by us,” he said.

https://youtu.be/BL-qE67Q3uo

Great Development Programmes that show us the way out of today’s economic meltdown:

November 4th, 2024

by Garvin Karunaratne

The Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing(Marketing Department)

My desk at Tripoli Market had three telephones. Tripoli Market was a very large hanger, perhaps the largest hanger fixed by the British Armed Forces during the Second World War, taken over by the Marketing Department where the headquarters of the vegetable and fruit marketing scheme was housed. This was in 1957 when there were no hand phones and it was even difficult to get a phone connection. It was rare for three telephones to sit on a single table, but so it was and they always rang- at times two or all three at the same time from all directions and often Divisional Marketing Officer Livera rushed in to help.

There were fifteen Assistant Commissioners in all parts of the island and around thirty five or more Marketing Officers purchasing vegetables at fairs all over the island every day. They were all active workers whose day on at least four days in the week started at around four in the morning. That was to be at the fairs that began early in the morning by five or six. The Marketing Officers, with a lorry or two, with weighing scales and a few Assistants were active in purchasing; they . were required to purchase in competition with the traders..

In charge of the Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme at Tripoli Headquarters I had a senior Marketing Officer at the Wholesale Vegetable Market in Colombo. His task was to see what quantities came in and to find the prices at which the wholesalers sold their produce. This was actually a listening exercise, listening to people buying and the wholesalers quoting prices. These had to be kept in the head and reported to me on the phone. The Marketing Officers at the fairs would also report the prices at which the traders bought and me- my task was to fix the buying prices for all our units in the entire island- prices that had to be always above the prices at which traders bought the produce at the fairs. The idea was to enable the producers to get a high price. That was always a difficult exercise- however we got used to it. If the COPE were now to inquire about how I decided the purchasing prices- I would find it difficult to explain because the system had no rules to follow. It was based on hind sight, flash decisions based on information that poured in every minute, more kept in my head, never written down. There was no time to write it down as within a flash another telephone call came in or a problem occurred in one of the sections that accepted goods and I had to be eternally on the move..

The guideline of the Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing was firm and definite- offer a higher price to the producer, always higher than the prices offered by the traders and simultaneously fix selling prices as low as possible- keeping a margin of around fifteen to twenty percent to cover up wastage and handling. The aim was to get the traders who purchased goods at the Fairs to offer higher prices and simultaneously to offer the goods at cheap rates in some fifty or more small sales outlets all over the City of Colombo and in other main cities.. That compelled city traders too to offer goods at competitive rates. We were compelling all private shops sell at low rates

Tripoli Market was the hub that ran the country’s purchasing and selling of vegetables and fruits. Twenty or more rail wagons and the same number or more lorries would roll in every morning. Many producers in Colombo would also bring in some veg and fruits that were bought and put up for sale. Veg and fruit . were being unloaded, weighed, sifted and repacked and sent off in minutes to around fifty small sales shops of our own for sale- at rock bottom prices- generally fifteen percent over the buying price. At the sales units the good were whopped up by people. The rock bottom prices made the private retailers too to sell at low rates, otherwise there will be no buyers. That entirety was aimed at controlling inflation, caused by traders fixing high prices. This was a method I have never seen anywhere else in my world wide travels in the USA, UK, Europe, Canada, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico —etc.

It was all done under the strict eyes of the Commissioner BLW Fernando, a chartered accountant who had all eyes on every detail that did happened in the entire island. In my year at Tripoli he never turned up but knew every detail that did happen. All Assistant Commissioners were summoned for a conference in the first week of every month when the performance of every district and Tripoli Market was carefully looked into. For every unit a profit and loss had to be prepared and presented and if a loss was recorded or if the profit was over fifteen percent the Assistant Commissioner was held responsible. We got used to walking on this tight rope and on the second day of the conference all Assistant Commissioners were invited to dinner at the Commissioner’s residence.

It was always a hive of activity. The telephone will ring eternally.

It was once a call from the Marketing Officer who had gone to the Hanguranketa Fair. He was expected to buy around two thousand pounds of tomatoes- the amount that was essential for our shops.

There is an enormous amount of tomatoes. Traders will buy some and the rest will go waste.”

How many lorry loads?”

Around Four.”

Hold the line.” I said, dropped the phone on the table and grabbed the other telephone.

Fonseka, can you get me three lorries now.”

Fonseka the Transport Officer said yes. I could depend on Fonseka. He had some one hundred or more lorries in good order.

Get the three lorries to go to the Hanguranketa Fair straight away.”

Then back to the Marketing Officer at Hanguranketa,

Buy everything. Three lorries will leave in minutes . They will roll in some four hours. Do you have enough cash to pay.”

Hardly sufficient.”.

I dropped the phone again, grabbed another phone and dialled the Assistant Commissioner in Kandy.

Your Marketiing Officer at Hanguranketa Fair is purchasing all the tomatoes- three lorry loads- lorries are on their way from Colombo. The Marketing Officer needs cash send cash now.”

I spoke back to the officer at Hanguranketa, I phoned the AC at Kandy. He will send you cash which will get to you in around an hour.”

Then a call to our Canning Factory at Narahenpita.

Three lorry loads of tomatoes will come by day break. ”.

It was lucky to be tomatoes as the Canning Factory could make it into Tomatoe Sauce and Juice.

That was the end of an episode and similar episodes were many; before one had the time to write down the phones rang again. This time it was the Assistant Commissioner at Jaffna,

Instead of the normal five waggon loads of Red Onions, I am increasing it to ten waggon loads per day. This will go on for at least a month. I have to buy red onions-there is a bumper crop and I have to clear my stores. .”

OK done.” I dropped the phone, called Adhikari, another Marketing Officer.

We will be getting ten waggon loads of Red Onions from tomorrow morning. Increase the amount of red onions to each shop from now and get five lorries ready to do van sales of red onions. We will fix a rock bottom price tomorrow morning. Get Fonseka to have the lorries ready. Find the men. Tell them that they have to work selling till late at night till the entire stock is sold.”

In the meantime a known party- a mother and a daughter came in to purchase vegetables. I greeted them offered the mother a seat and offered my seat to the daughter. It was a revolving chair and she looked delighted. Revolving chairs were rear those days. I called one of the Assistant Managers and asked him to attend to their request-purchases. .A message came from one of the sections inside and I rushed out. Before I could reach that section an officer comes chasing behind me,

Sir, a call on your phone..” from London.

I rushed back, found Divisional Marketing Officer Livera and told him to go to that section to which I was going. Back in my room, I grabbed the phone.

It was Tikka, Oswald Tilekeratne the Assistant Commissioner who had gone to Europe- his task was to find buyers for our pineapples.

I have clinched a large order for pineapple pieces. Get the Factory to get going three shifts a day .We have to send off a thousand tins next week to London.” In Tikka’s absence I was also in charge of the Cannery.

I phoned Pathmaperuma, at the Cannery told of the order and instructed him to get three shifts- 24 hour working from the next day on pineapple pieces..

The phones would go on sounding for ever, and people would come buying, friends dropping in to buy and that was an unending story till I clocked off somewhere at around six though I should I had been away by five.

Two years later I was stationed at Ambalantota. Covering all activities in the Southern Province. It was the red onion season when waggon loads of red onions purchased from producers in Jaffna and would be loaded and despatched all over to Galle in the south, to Tripoli Market, to Kandy, to Badulla and everywhere where the Railways went. It was a task for the Assistant Commissioners to get sales done. I was stationed at Ambalantota and Galle was handled by a Divisional Marketing Officer.

One day I had been to our Shop and stores in Galle and they had cleared all the waggon loads of red onions in time and were actively selling at retail prices to the people and at wholesale prices to shops. I casually dropped in at some private shops and saw them too selling red onions. I was satisfied that red onions were available to people and drove back to Ambalantota and slept. That was my day’s task. The next morning as I sat at my desk, a telegram was delivered. All urgent messages were then telegraphed. The phone at my desk never worked. It took at least two hours to get a call. I had to wind it to the postmaster and I could get a connection in at times an hour or two. The telegram said; Member of Parliament for Galle Dahanayake complains to the Minister that there are no red onions for sale in Galle shops. Investigate and report”. I was angry. This was false. But I had to take action. I left for Galle at once racing along as fast as my Peugeot 203 would take me. I raided my shop and found them selling red onions and found the store full, like what I saw the earlier day. Then I went to many private shops to observe whether they had onions and they were selling onions briskly. I then went to meet the member of parliament that had complained, Mr Dahanayake. It was around six and I went to his residence. He was not in. I was offered a seat and I waited. It was a long wait. He came in at around ten and inquired why I was there,

‘Sir, you reported to the Minister that my shop did not have red onions and that there is a shortage in Galle and I got a telegram. I was in Galle yesterday and have been to shops mine and private shops and all have red onions for sale.”

, Mr Dahanayake did not answer at once. He was rolling his eyes.

You should have informed me first if there is a shortage.” I added.

Yesterday one of my supporters came and said that there are no red onions for sale in the shops and to satisfy him I sent a telegram. I have to keep my supporters happy as I face an election next year and I need them. ”

But my boss will have a poor opinion of my work. It will be a black mark. There is never a shortage. I am here every week checking the situation and there never was a shortage.”

What you say is true. I will inform the Minister of the circumstances why I sent that telegram. You need not worry.”

That was all. I drove back to Ambalantota by night reaching there by about four in the morning.

I was late to get to my office. I never heard from Head Office again about this complaint. Mr Dahanayakae had kept his word to contact the Minister. That episode ended.

We Assistant Commissioners were on pins. We had vast areas to cover and had to be everywhere to ensure that marketing officers were purchasing properly and despatching vegetables and fruits.

An important task was to meet main producers and advising them about what varieties to grow.

Another aspect was our fifty or more small shops in Colombo that were stocked with vegetables and fruits several times a day. In addition the shops were full of essentials- sugar, flour, dhall, red chillies had to be there- that was the method to ensure that the traders did not sell at increased prices. This was a shrewd method of making all the private shops sell at reasonable prices. If they sold at high prices people will come to our shops and buy and the traders would not have any sales. There were no hordes of inspectors prying whether the traders sold at high prices. No cases of prosecutions in courts. Our MD shops will full stocks was a deterrent- it ensured that the traders automatically fell in line, selling at reasonable prices.

That was in a nutshell the working of the Marketing Department, It began in the days of our founding father DS and continued to serve the producers by making traders buy from them at reasonable rates and also staved off high prices against inflation without resorting to prosecutions etc. The first Commissioner was an English member of the Civil Service R.H. Basset. It was perhaps the idea of Basset, varied by our founding father DS, whose imprint is there on the sands of time.

This Marketing Scheme was lost as the IMF axed the Marketing Department with the rule that the Government was not to attend to any commercial activities. That was the Structural Adjustment Programme forced upon us when President Jayawardena sought financial assistance in 1977.

The ethos of the Marketing Department system was not to supplant the private sector, but to influence the private sector traders to offer higher prices to the producers and also influence the retailers in the cities to sell at low rates. It was a system built up in Sri lanka and found in Sri lanka only.

It was a great department which has to be brought back- with its Cannery that made Sri Lanka self sufficient an all jam and juice within the three years 1955 to 1958. Recently it was flashed that the farmers in Mahaweli had no sales for their crop of pumpkin. In the days of the Marketing Department lorries would have rolled and the Red Pumpkin would have become Golden Mellow Jam at the Cannery. It is important to note that the Cannery established in 1956 made Sri Lanka self sufficient in all fruit products- jam jelly and juice within three years 1956 to 1958,

The Marketing Department is a development system that needs to be brought back to serve our producers and consumers.

Over to our new leader, President Anura Dissanayake for kind consideration.

Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara, 051124 garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

Kamala’s Mother & the ‘Coolie’ Trade to Sri Lanka

November 3rd, 2024

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

Before you study the economics, study the economists!

e-Con e-News 27 October – 02 November 2024

History is a joker who slaps us awake while its paid-up historians (anaesthetists, really) try to dope us asleep. Yet history is also recorded in our muscles & memories. More & more Sri Lankans are forced out of the country to seek more dollared work. The state keeps being obstructed from enabling skilled employment. We end up having to contend with the wage slavemasters of the world. And history, if we do not recognize it, wishes us to turn the other cheek, to give us another slap.

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     One candidate for next week’s s/election for President in the USA – the most powerful imperialist state the world has ever known – turns out to be the child of parents both linked to the profiteers off England’s slave trading from Africa, and from India. Linking the 17th-21st centuries, chattel to indentured to wage slave, Atlantic to Indian Ocean – this ee awakens us to a future we can’t refuse.

     Trafficking in labor, free and unfree, remains the most lucrative capitalist industry, more profitable than weapons & opium. Its roots pierce deep into our bodies. Our failure to track it, trips us. What they are deliberately showing us of Gaza, is also of their ‘settler success’ stories through genocide. Chattel slavery came next. Indenture, after that…

     This ee examines the ‘coolie trade’ out of South India, and the great machinery that arose from it for the displacement & recruitment & exploitation of workers. We also look at the consequences of imposing a plantation system & ‘alien’ workforce on the peasants & workers of Sri Lanka.

     One of the favorite top-of-the-pops songs of our economists is the laziness of Sinhala workers, and their riotous indiscipline. The English called the Tamil worker in India lazy too, but miraculous baptism in the cool waters of the Palk Strait scrubbed them diligent in Sri Lanka. Another favorite pop-song has been to play plantation workers against rural workers, whose lands were stolen for the plantations. Land acknowledgements are the latest fad in white settler countries. But no such acknowledgement is forthcoming here.

     The plantation economy, like some crippling dye, corrodes and shrivels the rest of the body politic. The JVP was charged at one time of wishing to uproot and fling the tea bushes into the Arabian Sea. Indeed, if we really wish to root out so-called ‘corruption’, we could first haul up English multinationals Unilever and Ceylon Tobacco Co, and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI-CIC). We could invite the Congo to join in the trial (the biggest funder of the butcher Leopold was William Lever of Lever Bros fame) and maybe invite Zimbabwe to sue CTC. Let us examine, where their profits have gone, and into what?

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As this ee Focus recalls, indentured populations have helped colonial government to expand territory. The power of the multinationals to pay plantation workers the most minimum of wages has also operated as a brake on the rest of wages in the economy. Colombo’s rich do not have to venture far to encounter this phenomenon. Look at the terms & conditions under which supermarket workers are employed, by Keells & Cargills etc. See which villages these workers hail from? Foolish is the employer who does not play ex-plantation workers against urban worker, and vice-versa. Then again such is the nature of an economy dependent on exporting raw materials and low-level assembly of garments & electronics, plucking tea, serving tourists. As SBD de Silva (to whom this blog is dedicated) pointed out:

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The predominance of labour-intensive sectors of production, in which

any given wage increase has a substantial impact on production costs,

also makes employers more averse to granting wage increases…

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So why are we not permitted to perambulate beyond the ‘labor intensive’ to the ‘capital intensive’? Instead, we are destined to be relegated to the media’s fake ‘manufacturing’ and ‘assembly’ as ‘industry’. Meanwhile most of Sri Lanka’s so-called art ‘industry’ extols handicraft etc – acts amounting to quasi-necrophilia – fornicating with the half dead. The Sunday Times has an almost regular paean to such ancient acts, like this:

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‘Ruk Kala: Preserving traditional wood carving in a modern world’

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These features are usually accompanied by a photo of a long-bearded, bald, thickly bespectacled sarong-wearing shirtless hairy-chested denizen amidst ancient tools. Who made those tools? What happened to those makers of tools? Dripping with the melodrama of dubious despair, we are told, this ‘art’ is facing ‘growing pressure from mass production & modern manufacturing’. Oh really? Since when? So, what does the Sunday Times propose we do about it? Nothing. Weep and turn the page. Judging from their glossy 4-color ‘Education’ supplement – the weightiest of their news sections – we should all get the hell of out of town, posing as ‘foreign students’ to deliver almost-frozen burgers in the freezing subarctic (see ee Random Notes, Canada Restricts Brown Immigration?)

*

• The white man never hands over ‘aid’ without the alms-getting beggar having to endure severe sermons. The US envoy, a brainwashed Korean mandu (dumpling), who apparently has to pay out a lot of dollars to keep her photo & name & dire wardrobe in the news, informed us once again this week that ‘transparency & governance reforms’ are ‘key to attracting manufacturers to Sri Lanka’. And who are these manufacturers? The Indiana-based Shield Co wishes to shift its seatbelt factory from China to Sri Lanka – ‘a testament to the growing interest of US investment in Sri Lanka’. Really? And why is this?  What skills will they impart? No idea? Instead:

‘The USA is already the largest export market for Sri Lanka…

From boosting farmers’ crop yields to, expanding the school lunch

program to address the urban poor in Colombo, to strengthening

Sri Lanka’s maritime security, our collaboration is driven by a common vision.’

Really! And what, pray, is this vision? Will we make the machines that make seatbelts, or even a button? Will our vision keep being blinded by further largesse?

     As a local ‘assembler’ of seatbelt-related accessories, Rohan Pallewatta pointed out about Toyota, there are certain operations modern industrialists will not outsource ‘to a labour-intensive country such as Sri Lanka’. Any outsourcing needed the approval of the Automobile Association of Japan (see ee 16 Oct 2021).

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‘Sri Lanka’s Central Bank responds to reports of ‘money printing’.’

– AdaDerana

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‘Govt Denies Claims of New Loans & Money Printing’

– Financial Times, News1st, The Morning, The Island

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‘Sri Lanka prints Rs100billion through open market operations’

– Bellwether, EconomyNext

*

Much of this week’s economic news headlines were dedicated to whether the government was secretly printing billions. The ease with which such accusations are made (rarely in a court of law), and the sheer amounts (who has seen a billion?) involved, are only meant to dish out cynicism and distrust in its wake. The JVP’s detractors argue: they are getting what they dished out. But the overall purpose is to keep preventing the government guiding investment in modern industrialization.

     This is why the Central Bank has been declared ‘independent’ of the need to invest in our real independence. The World Bank, their mentor, has also always diverted local policymakers from large-scale industry and promoted ‘peasant colonization, services, & micro-entrepreneurship’ (fake cutlis-making MSMEs) instead. Meanwhile, we hear that the World-Bank funded Commercial Bank’s Chairman met the Central Bank Governors of Bangladesh & Maldives in Washington, to check on the private bank’s investments in those countries’ industries. The Commercial Bank is supposedly Sri Lanka’s largest so-called local private bank, which gets a lot of funds from so-called development (read: imperialist state) banks.

     The pseudonymous Bellwether column (see above) invokes the word ‘print’ as in ‘printing money’ 14 times in his/her recent column! Now this word ‘printing’, is a trigger word, meant to invoke profligacy, inflation, devaluation! Colonized governments like the poor are to be always accused of living beyond their means. The idea is that the state must not invest and guide the economy, but rely only on the so-called private sector. What this covert printing of money by the new administration is for – industrial investment? – is not mentioned.

     Bellwether goes on to blame the ‘malnutrition of children (which led to start the Thriposha program)’ in the 1970s on ‘import controls, import substitution & price controls which created blackmarkets & hit the food production base.’ Bellwether only loves his Miss Margaret: ‘Thatcher… kept tight monetary policy, cut direct taxes, boosting individual freedoms and raised VAT.’

     Indeed, if we are to remain an import-export colonial appendage of the USA, maybe Bellwether’s prognoses are the way to go. A recipe for further colonization. Bellwether is the pseudonym behind which the main columnist of the US government’s Colombo newsmonger EconomyNext hides. Bellwether echoes all the shibboleths of the Advocata Institute, & Cato Institute, thinktanks set up by the Atlas Network, founded by Exxon’s Rockefeller-funded Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) (see ee 16 March 2024: Economists in SL Echo White Atlantic’s War on the World).

     So how will our children (not to mention adults) learn about the need for modern machine production? The Ministry of Education bribed by the World Bank will not tell us. We did hear this week that a ‘shift from state- to donor-funded higher education (including the World Bank & Asian Development Bank) started in Sri Lanka in the late 1990s, specifically with the 1997 educational reforms’ under the earnest Tara de Mel (now Executive Director, Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership & Public Policy, BALPP).

    We are indeed confused about all the brouhaha about travel advisories & tourism. We imagine intelligence services are constantly sending each other warnings. These particular warnings came in the run up to the 16th BRICS Sunmit, and a UN resolution against the USA’s favorite parked aircraft carrier, Zionist Israel, the IMF & World Bank Annual, and that gloriously misnamed Commonwealth meeting in Samoa, again signalling virtue about reparations by non-dollar apologies! Two of these meetings the USA would have liked us to desist from? And desist we kind of did.

     But was the warning a fake alert to observe and chart the chain of command in the new government’s security apparatus?  Also, is tourism, really ‘local’ and an ‘industry’? Most of the profits that accrue to this tourism business always stay outside the country. We make no airplanes or ships or cars or buses to transport tourists. Iron & steel and most hotel construction material & machinery, linen and cutlery are imported. It bends backs bent by lifting over half-a-millennia of colonialism, and bends them even further, as service workers often have to do, to do what they do best – serve

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• For Sri Lankans, elections are the number one sport, with cricket a distant number 2. So, it is said. And bookies (the turf accountants & stock exchange mavericks) are involved in both. US & European elections provide the most elaborate performances of capitalist democracy that power & money can buy. In US elections, the identity of mega rich donors are hidden, while in Sri Lanka, the USA many envoys give us lectures on transparency.

     The nominally Nikkei-owned Financial Times of London portrays the US election as a battle of billionaires. Billionaires appear now to be a dime a dozen, so 5 minutes ago, etc. They even appear on unpaid television channels as ‘celebrities’ & ‘entrepreneurs’ begging for our attention. As far as we can count, zillionaires are the new trillionaires.

            Financial Times lists the names of some of these billionaire donors. The Mellon bankers of Pennsylvania, a so-called swing state, are listed among Mr Trump’s biggest donors. The Mellons financed the Duponts (who sell us paint for our walls). The Duponts were 19th century refugees from 2 revolutions: in France & in Haiti. Napoleon’s rainmaker & PM, and later architect of his employer’s downfall, Charles de Talleyrand gave the Duponts the contract to make dynamite for the French in Delaware (De la War!). Delaware is now the USA’s main inland corporate tax hideout, which their demented President Biden represented. Dupont is also linked to India’s polyester prince, Dhirubhai Ambani, whose war over DMT had certain ‘side-effects’ on Sri Lanka (see ee 11 Sept 2021: How to Buy a News Editor). Yet Mellon’s Pennsylvania is all about oil, and industry. And so it turns out that the billionaires (& bankers) on both sides of this battle, are satraps of Rockefeller’s Exxon. Recall that Exxon demanded Trump change laws promoting corporate bribery before they allowed their CEO Rex Tillerson to become US Secretary of State (see ee 28 Sept 2019 – Making Made-in-Sri-Lanka)

     The Mellons financed the white-supremacist ‘Black Legion’, ‘an armed anti-labor terrorist group active in the 1930s, reputedly also financed by sections of the automotive industry’ – so recalls the George Jackson, one of the theoreticians of Black liberation in the USA. Jackson was assassinated by prison officials in San Quentin prison in 1971. ee publishes excerpts of his 1971 classic Blood in My Eye, which discuss the rise of industrialization in the USA, and how it helped bring white supremacism into sharp focus for Black workers. We should recall how Europe’s WWI caused a shortage of European migrants to the Americas. Also, European workers had built unions in industrial North America and the US state responded by bringing 500,000 rural Black workers from the south to the north where they encountered about 30,000 migrants from the Caribbean.

     SBD de Silva observed the relationships between the employment of Black (& migrant) workers in ‘unproductive’ sectors where automation was yet to take place. Black industrial workers, who were a considerable section of the overall working class & trade union movement, formed the core of the US Black liberation movement, whose leadership was imprisoned and killed, midst the move to offshoring, de-industrialization, dis-unionization, biological (health) & chemical (drugs, food) warfare, and imprisonment.

     Half of Asia, most of Africa, almost all of Europe & the rest of the Americas, remain colonized, now under the USA. The Americas includes the Caribbean. The soil and culture of resistance is rich.  The situation is as much then as now. But the world keep changing… and surprises are always brewing…

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This ee concludes our recent look at the industrial path taken by the USSR, the first socialist country in the world. 20 years after independence, by 1937 the USSR’s industrial production was first in Europe and second in the world. By 1940, the share of means of production in gross output of all industry was over 60%. In 1928, on the eve of the first 5-Year Plan, the USSR imported one-third of all its machinery. By 1940, they not only ceased to import automobiles, tractors and other agricultural machinery from the capitalist countries, but exported them.

     We understand why the US Treasury and its underlings, IMF et al, have been so concerned about any lessons we may still learn from the USSR. There were many even then, Soviets, who opposed the USSR Communist Party’s path to industrializing the country. They were accused of wishing to return the USSR into ‘an agrarian appendage of imperialist countries’ – just as has been done with Sri Lanka.

     The Soviet Union had to mainly rely on itself to build socialism amidst capitalist invasion, and quickly develop all the basic branches of heavy industry. They learned: ‘A large-scale machine industry is the material basis of socialism’, and ‘heavy industry is of decisive importance for building socialism’.

     Meanwhile, ‘the process of industrialization in each country taking this path depends on both internal & external conditions’, as China had to learn after 1949. China did not have much industry and its agriculture was underdeveloped, ‘at a low cultural and scientific level’. China set out to ‘learn all that is genuinely good in the political, economic, scientific & technological fields and in literature & art’ from other countries.

     On the other hand, as ‘a colonial & semi-colonial country’, yet ‘not an imperialist power’, who ‘was always bullied by others’, there were still in China, ‘people who, having been slaves too long, feel inferior in everything and don’t stand up straight in the presence of foreigners’.

     ee therefore also concludes our recent look at the lessons China learned from the USSR, on the need to seek criticism so as to learn, and to criticize people while being aware that people have 2 sides and can correct themselves. ‘How to deal with people who have made mistakes’…

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The world consists of contradictions.

Without contradictions the world would cease to exist.

*

‘Since it is easier for those who have not erred to become cocky,

they are prone to make mistakes. Let us be careful, for those

who fix people guilty of mistakes will more often

than not end up finding themselves in a fix.’

(see ee Focus)

*

_________

Contents:

New Front on War & Peace on 5th Nov 2024!

November 3rd, 2024

Prof. Hudson McLean

Today is 3rd November when All Saints (1st Nov) & All Souls (2nd Nov) are Peacefully-in-Slumber in Heaven when the Results of USA Elections Tumbled them from Slumber!

The Two Options – Who Wins!

1: Donald Trump Wins!

*Democrats Accept Defeat and Walks away with their Tails between their Legs!

*Kamala Harris decides to open Mc Harris Potato Fries with Spicy Indian Fish Curry chain!

*Elon Musk becomes the Globally First Trillionaire!

*Vladimir Putin Announces that he will Unilaterally Declare Cease Fire subject to Russia Keeps what Russia Won in Ukraine.

*Volodymir Zelensky retires to a Chalet in the Swiss Alps, with NATO granting him unlimited Swiss Cheese For Life!

*Israel releases one Nuclear Device to Iran, and flattens Beirut, and Gaza, and declares Peace!

2: Donald Trump Loses!

*The Red Hat Brigade MAGA declares Civil War in USA!

*President Kamala Harris is loaded into Air Force One surrounded by a Fleet of USAF and takes off to safer skies!

*Vladimir Putin releases a massive array of Drones to attack Ukraine, brings North Korean soldiers to the front, threatens NATO Members with Nuclear War in case NATO decided to venture forth.

*Volodymir Zelensky crippled without direct NATO support ,decides to capitulate, to save Ukraine and citizens.

*Iran responds directly to Israel Nuclear threat and releases its own devices on Israel with support from Houthis, Hamas & Hezbolla, creating a giant flame in the Middle East!

*His Holiness the Pope Francis Prays at the Vatican!

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Gates Foundation’s Diplomatic Shield in Kenya: A Troubling Precedent

November 3rd, 2024

By Rocco Caldero Courtesy RIO TIMES

(for Sri Lanka and Sovereignty amid Digital Hype?)

November 1, 2024

(Opinion) The Kenyan government’s recent decision to grant diplomatic immunity to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has sparked significant controversy and raised alarm bells about power, accountability, and the timing of this move.

This unprecedented decision shields the foundation and its staff from legal consequences for actions taken in their official capacity, a privilege typically reserved for diplomatic missions and international organizations.

The timing of this decision is particularly noteworthy, as Bill Gates faces mounting legal challenges worldwide. He is set to stand trial in the Netherlands over alleged COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

This coincidence has led critics to question whether Kenya is providing a convenient legal shield for Gates at a time when he needs it most.

The Gates Foundation’s agricultural programs in Africa, particularly through the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), have faced severe criticism.

AGRA, which received at least $872 million from Gates, has been accused of promoting industrial agriculture methods that benefit large corporations at the expense of local practices and ecosystems.

Reports indicate that these programs have increased food insecurity rather than alleviating it. Under the new status, the foundation and its staff are exempt from legal proceedings for actions taken in their official roles.

They are also exempt from taxes on their salaries and have the right to own property in Kenya. This level of immunity is unusual and has raised concerns about accountability and national sovereignty.

Critics argue that this decision sets a dangerous precedent, potentially encouraging other wealthy philanthropists to seek similar protections.

Concerns Over Agricultural Practices in Kenya

Daniel Maingi from the Kenya Food Rights Alliance warned that this immunity could turn Kenya into a testing ground for controversial agricultural practices. He cautioned that such developments could undermine the country’s food sovereignty and democratic processes.

The announcement comes just after farmer associations and religious leaders across Africa demanded reparations for damages. These damages were caused by the foundation’s Green Revolution” program.

The foundation’s practices have been criticized by human rights and environmental groups globally for prioritizing corporate interests over local needs.

Independent investigations have shown that AGRA-supported initiatives have failed and sometimes led to increased hunger.

The Gates Foundation‘s involvement in public health initiatives has also been contentious. Gates has been a major funder of vaccine programs, including those for polio, HPV, and COVID-19.

However, these programs have faced significant controversies. One notable issue is the use of a dangerous DPT vaccine in Africa, which had been banned in the United States.

Additionally, experimental HPV vaccine trials conducted in India resulted in severe side effects and even deaths among participants.

The foundation is advising Kenya on the introduction of a new digital ID system called Maisha Namba. This system aims to assign a digital ID to every newborn and will track them throughout their lives.

This initiative has raised additional concerns about privacy and the potential for misuse of personal data. In response to the criticism, the Gates Foundation stated that their agreement to operate in Kenya complies with the country’s Privileges and Immunities Act.

They also noted that they work within standard agreements for nonprofits in Kenya. However, this response seems ironic given that they now operate beyond the reach of Kenyan laws.

The decision to grant diplomatic immunity highlights the significant influence of wealthy philanthropists in developing countries.

As Tim Schwab, author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire,” noted, this move underscores the antidemocratic influence and power of Gates.

He can shape policy decisions affecting millions without any democratic mandate. This situation raises serious questions about accountability, transparency, and the role of private philanthropy in public policy.

The implications for national sovereignty and democratic processes are deeply concerning. It remains to be seen whether this will be remembered as a pivotal moment in Kenya’s development or as a cautionary tale of unchecked philanthropic power.

RIO TIMES

https://www.riotimesonline.com/gates-foundations-diplomatic-shield-in-kenya-a-troubling-precedent/

Fifteen heads of Sri Lanka missions overseas urgently recalled

November 3rd, 2024

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, November 3 (The Island): The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urgently recalled 15 ambassadors and high commissioners appointed based on political affiliations to Sri Lanka. According to sources within the ministry, Secretary Aruni Wijewardena has issued this directive.

Among those recalled are Mohan Peiris, a former ambassador who served as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York; Rohitha Bogollagama, a former foreign minister appointed as the High Commissioner to the UK; Kshenuka Senewiratne, a former ambassador appointed as the High Commissioner to India; Chitrangani Wagishwara, appointed as the High Commissioner to Australia; and Rodney Perera, appointed as the ambassador to Japan.

Also recalled are Sumangala Dias, a former Air Force Chief appointed as the High Commissioner to Malaysia; Sudarshan Pathirana, a former Air Force Chief appointed as the ambassador to Nepal; Nishanth Ulugethenna, a former Navy Chief appointed as the ambassador to Cuba; Ravindra Wijegunarathna, a former Navy Chief appointed as the High Commissioner to Pakistan; Uday Indrarathna, appointed as the ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and V. Kanakanadan, appointed as the High Commissioner to Kenya.

A brother-in-law of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Shimal Wickramasinghe, appointed as the High Commissioner to Seychelles; and former Navu chief Admiral Jayanath Colombage, the Lankan Ambassador to Indonesia, along with Ranga Gunawardena, the Lankan High Commissioner to the Maldives, and Mohammad Shahid, appointed as the ambassador to Iran have also been recalled.

මේ වන විට වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව ගත් සමස්ත ණය ප්‍රමාණය කෝටි 95, 875ක්… මෙවැනි ණය ගැනීමක් ඉතිහාසයේ කවදාවත් වාර්තා වී නැහැ – ගම්මන්පිල හෙළිකරයි (වීඩියෝ)

November 3rd, 2024

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

ආණ්ඩුවේ මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක විජිත හේරත් ඇමැතිවරයා ආණ්ඩුව ණය ගෙන නොමැති බව ප්‍රකාශ කළ ද ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව මගින්  තම වෙබ් අඩවියේ ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ණය ගත් බව පැහැදිලිව සඳහන් කර ඇති බව හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා පවසයි.

රූපවාහිනී සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් ඒ මහතා පවසන්නේ ඉකුත් 29 වැනි දා ආණ්ඩුව විසින්  කෝටි 14,500ක ණය ගෙන ඇති බව හා මහ බැංකුව එය සනාථ කර ඇති බවත්ය.

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව එක් මසක දී කෝටි 76,875ක් ණය ගෙන ඇති බවත්, මේ වන විට සමස්තයක් ලෙස ආණ්ඩුව කෝටි 95, 875ක් ණය ගෙන ඇති බවත්, එවැනි ණය ගැනීමක් ඉතිහාසයේ කවදාවත් වාර්තා වී නැති බවත් ඒ මහතා පවසයි.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan awards 200 scholarships to Sri Lankan students

November 3rd, 2024

Courtesy Business Recorder Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan has awarded 200 fully and partially funded scholarships to the 6th batch of Sri Lankan students under the Allama Muhammad Iqbal Scholarship Programme. Around 500 Sri Lankan students, apart from these awardees, are already pursuing their undergraduate, MS and PhD studies in leading universities in Pakistan.

According to a HEC statement issued on Sunday, HEC in collaboration with the Pakistan High Commission, Colombo held a ceremony for the newly selected students in Colombo. General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defense Staff was the chief guest. High Commissioner of Pakistan to Sri Lanka Maj Gen Faheem Ul Aziz (retd) also graced the occasion.

Speaking on behalf of the Chairman HEC, the Project Director, Pakistan Sri Lanka Higher Education Cooperation Programme Jehanzeb Khan congratulated the Sri Lankan students and briefed the participants about various aspects of the scholarship programme. He highlighted the importance of education in bringing regional economic stability and enhancing collaboration between the two friendly countries.

In his remarks, the high commissioner said that awarding these scholarships to Sri Lankan students is yet another testament to the excellent brotherly relations between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He urged the students to embrace this opportunity with determination and resilience.

As you pursue your studies, remember that you are ambassadors of your country and culture. Engage with your peers, share your experiences, and be a bridge between our two nations.

Country will crash like the KDU bus if experienced persons not elected: Ranil

November 3rd, 2024

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The country will crash like the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) bus which toppled along the Dunhinda-Badulla Road if you don’t elect experienced persons to Parliament, former President Ranil Wickremeisinghe said over the weekend.

Wickremesinghe, who was responding in lighter vein to a question during a forum held at the Arcade Independence Square, said the country will crash like the bus which toppled along the Dunhinda-Badulla Road if the people fail to elect experienced persons to Parliament.

I refused organic vegetables grown in Nuwara Eliya specially for President’: AKD

November 3rd, 2024

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, November 03 (Daily Mirror)- Former Presidents used to enjoy unlimited perks and privileges where they used to get organic vegetables that were grown in Nuwara Eliya every week for their consumption, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake revealed today.

Speaking at an election rally in Nuwara Eliya, the President said he instructed the officials at the Presidential Secretariat to use the vegetables received from Nuwara Eliya to prepare food for security officials.

“I learnt that organic vegetables had been grown in the land belonging to the President’s House in Nuwara Eliya for the consumption of the President. I noticed that two bags of vegetables weighing 60 Kgs were received by the Presidential Secretariat from Nuwara Eliya every Friday. Then, I got to know that the organic vegetables were sent from Nuwara Eliya every week. I asked them to use those vegetables for the food prepared for security officials,” he said.

The President said those leaders did not eat even vegetables grown for the common man adding that they even expect such perks and privileges even after losing the elections.

Does it matter to the world who becomes the next President of the USA?

November 3rd, 2024

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Paradox of Power: Militarily it is a unipolar world of U.S. hegemony; economically it is a multipolar world with U.S. leadership; but on many transnational issues – such as international terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the migration of people, epidemic disease, drugs, and environmental degradation – we live in a world only a step or two short of chaos (https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/american-power-the-world)

The world awaits the decision of the voters of the USA on the 4th of November as to who will be their next President. Will it be Kamala Harris or Donald Trump? A question does arise as to why the world should await this decision. This is explored a bit more later in this article.

Undoubtedly, the USA wields immense power in the world, militarily, politically and economically. The executive powers assigned to the President of the USA are substantial although checks and balances are there to ensure, at least constitutionally, that such powers are exercised wisely and judiciously for the benefit of the people. The question though for the people of the world is whether the global power of the USA has been used wisely and productively for the greater prosperity of people globally, giving greater opportunities to usher in a better future for the current and future generations, whether there is peace in the world or more violence and discord, and displacement of millions of people from their lands, whether the environment has a sustainable future or whether it is on track to make the world inhabitable in the not too distant future. There are many more queries to be posed to the USA which claims to be the first in so many political, economic and military spheres.

The answer in a way has been provided by the Wilson Centre as cited above, on many transnational issues – such as international terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the migration of people, epidemic disease, drugs, and environmental degradation – we live in a world only a step or two short of chaos”

The Wilson Center goes on to mention the necessity of American Leadership: America must lead- So, in today’s world, the U.S. is simply too big and too important to sit on the sidelines. It must lead. It really cannot do otherwise. If the U.S. does not step forward, nothing happens. The Wilson Centre document, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/ article/american-power-the-world) although written in 2003, presents some options as to how the US should exercise their power for the benefit of its own citizens and for the benefit of the world. Readers could refer to this document and make their own judgements as to whether the US has been successful in chartering a trajectory as suggested in the document.  

However, considering the Wilson Centers own contention that we live in a world only a step or two short of chaos”, one could well ask whether the leader of the USA, its President, has led the country effectively and whether that person’s leadership has moved the world away from the chaos referred to by the Wilson Center.

Considering the turmoil in Isreal, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and the impotency of the US in not being able to bring the warring parties to a negotiating table, the unsettled conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, in Yemen, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, in various parts of South America, and Africa, and in the light of ongoing environment disasters throughout the world, it does lead one to think that the President of the USA has not been able to display the leadership qualities to lead the world away from the chaos, no longer potential, but ever present and ongoing. While it is not the only measure, the fact that the estimate of United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), that there are over 31.6 million refugees under its mandate, and another 6 million Palestinian refugees. In total, the number of people forcibly displaced is estimated to be over 117.3 million, which is the first time in recorded history that this has happened, presents a picture of a world already in chaos.

One could argue that it is not fair to look only towards the US for this sad situation in the world. On the other hand, considering their own contention that they are in fact the major superpower of the world and the general acceptance by others that they in fact are, it does make it not just fair, but right, to ask this question of the US.

In the context of the Wilson centre’s own statement that we live in a world only a step or two short of chaos” , the following points mentioned by the Wilson Centre about American Power in the world is contradictory at best if one were to assess the situation in the world today using these points.

Alternatively, one could form a view that a world at large being in a chaotic situation or only a few steps away from such a situation, without directly harming or impacting on the US, has in fact been the real objective of some within the USA as chaos leads to profit.

  • It is the strongest military force the world has ever known. The U.S. defence budget is more than the next 15 nations spend combined. U.S. weapons technologies have opened a yawning gap between the American armed forces and other countries – precision guided missiles, supercarrier groups, overwhelming airpower, tremendous firepower, unmanned aircraft, military space dominance, and advanced satellite systems all allow enormous flexibility and awesome capability in military planning. We are projecting this power abroad as never before. We have military personnel in about 140 nations. The massive intervention in Iraq, basing in Afghanistan and Central Asia, and joint operations in countries like Colombia and the Philippines are just a part of our aggressive military posture in the wake of 9/11.
  • The American economy is as large as the next three – Japan, Germany and Britain – combined. With only 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. accounts for 43% of the world’s production, 40% of its technological production, and 50% of the world’s research and development. We also speak with the loudest voice in international monetary institutions like the WTO and IMF.
  • Cultural: American power includes the exportation of American culture. People from all over the world come to American schools and universities. Increased media and technology have spread American popular culture and the English language around the world – teenagers now listen to American pop music in Iran, go to American movies in China, drink Coca-Cola in Indonesia, and study the English language in Egypt.
  • Soft Power: American power includes soft power”. Likewise, our soft power – our capacity to get others to want what we want, without coercing them, because they admire our achievements and want to emulate us – is unparalleled. This is the power of example and of persuasion. People admire American prosperity, freedom and technology. We have ascended to our position of pre-eminence in part because nations do trust us to work for the values of democracy, the rule of law, market-economics, and human rights. These values are the moral cornerstones of American power; and they are widely admired and sought after, even by people who disagree with American policies.
  • Necessity of American Leadership: America must lead. So, in today’s world, the U.S. is simply too big and too important to sit on the sidelines. It must lead. It really cannot do otherwise. If the U.S. does not step forward, nothing happens. There is consensus in this nation that the U.S. should use its power vigorously to reshape the world.

While the turmoil and chaos in the world has been progressively increasing, the US and its prosperity has not been directly affected judging by its ongoing supremacy in military and economic power, giving rise to possible justification of the real interests of some within the USA who possibly are the real power centers in the US who in fact create the ground work for ensuing chaos, which in turn provides opportunities for profit. This gives rise to the question whether it matters to the world as to who become the President of the USA on the 4th of November.

While the noble ideals of the US constitution We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” are still valid as they were in 1787, the political and economic state of affairs of people within the US itself and in the wider world, begs the question whether US Presidents in general have been able to deliver on these ideals. At times, the powers vested in the President and the checks and balances related to exercise of such powers, particularly on socio economic policies, has made President look like Emperors without clothes. There have been occasions where such checks and balances have been exercised in political partisan ways and not necessarily in the national interest. The difference however is the substantial, unchallenged executive authority given to the President when it comes to defence and foreign policy.

While it is unlikely that any well-meaning President would have exercised such powers indiscriminately and without good reason, the overall global situation today of a world near chaos, and the instances of US involvement in numerous countries and in conflicts and their failure to exercise their powers to prevent conflict or at least to minimise them and take the leadership in finding solutions through discussion and negotiation, have left open the question on the effectiveness of the US President when it comes to world affairs.

It also raises the question whether the President, with the executive powers assigned to the office of President, is effectively a rubber stamp that endorses real policy decisions taken by a behind the scenes establishment that creates and thrives on chaos in the world while leaving the US itself as the mighty superpower.

There is not a lot that countries, especially the less affluent could do to address these situations. The political, economic and military power of the US and the western world is so immense, and there is no other effective alternative to that power. Although China is touted as the alternative, it is in effect not, although it is stronger economically and militarily today than they were 10 years ago. However, they are dependent on the Western world for their economic growth and prosperity as the consumer base for what is produced in China is in the Western world. So, countries have to forge their political and economic policies and priorities within these overarching realities while pursuing historical and cultural sensitivities in their own countries. In the technologically and avarice driven world today, there are no bounds and there is no room for socialistic policies.

The World Bank says that (https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview#:~:text =Global%20poverty%20reduction%20has%20slowed,relevant%20for%20low%2Dincome%20countries) 8.5 percent of the global population – almost 700 million people – live today on less than $2.15 per day, the extreme poverty line relevant for low-income countries. Three-quarters of all people in extreme poverty live in Sub-Saharan Africa or in fragile and conflict-affected countries. 44 percent of the global population – around 3.5 billion people – live today on less than $6.85 per day, the poverty line relevant for upper-middle-income countries. The total number of people living under this poverty line has barely changed since 1990 due to population growth.

Around one-fifth of the world’s population lives in economies with high inequality, concentrated mostly in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Only 7 percent of the global population lives in countries with low inequality.

Climate change poses a fundamental risk to poverty and inequality reduction. Nearly 1 in 5 people globally are likely to experience a severe weather shock in their lifetime from which they will struggle to recover. Climate change also threatens to increase global inequality, as poorer countries and people are likely to suffer more from the negative consequences.

Can the next President of the USA make even a dent towards addressing this disastrous situation that a majority of people in the world are facing today?

LIVE NOT BY LIES – History of the Gender Ideology

November 3rd, 2024

Manuka Wijesinghe,

WHAT IS GENDER IDENTITY.  Wikipedia states that ‘gender identity’ is an individual self-conception of perceiving oneself as man or woman, as fluctuating between man and woman or being something outside of man and woman. Gender identity, despite political, social and lexical prominence, given to it, especially it in the last years; is an imagined state of selfhood. It is not science. It is an ideology.

Empirically, there exists ONLY two biological sexes. Yet, gender ideology’s Denial of Reality is not only being pressed upon children, but been taught and proselytized through western institutions in our country. Since our economic crisis, this ideology has begun to inundate our vocabulary, the corporate climate and even our political leadership.

If an affluent parent wishes to send its child to study in an American or Canadian university, its chances of entry are higher if he or she has a gender identity differing from its biology.  Prestigious foreign universities no longer enroll Asian students for their aptitude, rather for a concept of self that is not based on empirical reality.

Governmental and non-governmental western organization and embassies, ranging from the USAID; the GTZ, EU, west European, American and Canadian embassies are spreading the gospel of gender ideology and fund a multitude of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) that proliferate this ideology with the zeal of missionaries. Gender confusion is being introduced to estate pre- schools and to elite Colombo schools, making children into confused mental patients, being made uncertain about the only certainty of human existence; its biological sex.

Instead of deifying this absurdity, which has been craftily packed into the rhetoric of human rights, have we ever tried to understand why this religion is being spread? Why are children are being encouraged to deny reality? And damned for not doing so?

Perhaps we are confused by the new vocabularies that have been cleverly created to confuse and desist those who try to make sense and rectify the madness inundating human existence whose language and ideas had, until recently, been based on empirical reality. Non-binary, diverse, Woke, trans, gender fluidity, gender dystopia, LGBT, LGBTQ. LGBTQplus, and many more.

Non Binary – Binary is a word taken from arithmetic (now called number theory) describing a numbering scheme with two possibilities. Male and Female. Hence, non-binary in gender ideology is the denial of the two biological sexes.  

Gender dystopia – An imagined state of suffering caused by assigned gender

Diverse – Used to describe gender identities (the fluctuating idea of self) beyond male and female. A synonym for non-binary

Woke – A sense of having awakened to the variabilities of gender identities. (Denying biology)    

Trans – One whose gender identity is different to the one to which he/she was born

Transgender – One who does not conform to the sex he/she was assigned at birth

Gender Fluidity – A non-fixed gender identity that shifts over time, depending on situation. (If a man feels like a woman, he can use a woman’s toilet if he considers himself gender fluid)

Gender Dystopia – An imagined state of suffering caused by assigned gender

LGBT – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender

LGBTQ – Queer added to the above (queer theory first began delinking gender to biology)

LGBTQIA- The addition of intersex and Asexual to the above

LGBTQIA+ – The ‘plus’ sign denotes the idea of further questioning into identity

The above is just a few. Hence, while parents and others chew this salad of words, another more dangerous agenda is being pushed. And that is the deliberate NUDGING* of our kids into taking puberty blockers and other dangerous hormones that cause a myriad debilitating new diseases, while leading them to the abattoir of breasts and reproductive organ amputation (castration), rendering them sterile.  

From there, there is no turning back. No Reversal. Gender ideology is medical opportunism and the instruction manual for the castration and sterility of our children; the nation’s future parents.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF GENDER THEORY? Gender theory began with a man called Dr John William Money. Dr Money was a professor of Sexology at the Johns Hopkins research university in Baltimore and the first to use the word ‘gender’ as a substitute for biological sex. He manifested a theory (with no empirical evidence) that gender was a social construct determined by upbringing. He proclaimed that ‘Nurture’, and not ‘Nature’ established male or female behaviour in humans.

This was soon after the World War 2. The United States had emerged victorious and its post war omnipotence gave its scientists the liberties to proclaim any fallacy as truth.  Dr Money was one such God like scientist who taught a generation of medical students that his hypothetical gender theory was absolute truth. That Nurture, and not Nature was the foundation sexual behaviour.

A young graduate student, Milton Diamond dared to contradict John Money. But the young man was no match for the mighty John Money and was lost to immediate history. Meanwhile John Money’s theory filled medical textbooks and thousands of male babies, whose internal sexual organs were intact, but the external organs were ambiguous (which would not have prevented them from becoming fathers) were castrated.

It was also the heyday of feminism. Thus, based on Dr Money’s theory and in the spirit of fervent feminism, male babies were castrated, although Dr Money had not presented a single case study proving his theory. 

But, in the mid-sixties Dr Money struck Gold. In 1965, a young woman from Winnipeg, Canada, gave birth to two healthy male twins; Bruce and Brian Reimer.  The babies had difficulty urinating and at the age of 8 months circumcision was advised. The electrical cauterizing machine malfunctioned and baby Bruce’s penis was burned. The young mother was now with a male baby who had no penis. The woman got no help from the medical establishment and was pretty desperate when one day, she saw Dr Money on TV, confidently claiming his ‘nurture’ and not ‘nature’ theory. She called Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and made and appointment with Dr Money.

It was Dr Money’s chance in a life time to prove his theory and he intended to use it. He told Mrs. Reimer he would take on the babies only if she would satisfy two conditions. First; the baby must NEVER know the truth of his biological sex and secondly, he should be dressed, ONLY in girls’ clothes and given only girls toys to play.

She agreed. So, baby Bruce’s testicles were surgically removed and he was castrated. Then, he was given the name Brenda.  Thereafter the mother and the boys were returned to Winnipeg with the promise that the twins visited Dr Money annually.

The annual visits confirmed that Bruce was a misfit as Brenda. He was tremendously unhappy. But that was of no interest to Dr Money. He published scientific articles claiming his success in the ‘John and Joan’ case (the names he used for Brenda and Brian). ‘So normal that of an active little girl and so clearly different by contrast from her twin brother’.

But it was not so. Brenda was not different from her twin brother. She wanted to do the same things he did, wear the same clothes he did and even urinate the way he did. Brenda felt like a boy, acted like a boy, hit like a boy and even preferred to urinate standing, like a boy. In their community she was known as the cave girl.

Mrs. Reimer mentioned all this to Dr Money. Also, that Brenda was becoming depressed and suicidal, but he disregarded her and continued to lie in scientific literature about his success. Thus, through his proliferate scientific publications, ‘Nurture and not Nature’ became the Doctrine of Faith for the medical community. And still is.

Finally, when he was about 14 years of age, Brenda Reimer refused to visit John Money. And the parents, after consulting the boy’s psychiatrist in Winnipeg, suggested that Brenda be told the truth about her birth.   

The truth made Brenda feel relieved and she immediately returned to being a boy and called himself David (David against the medical Goliath; John Money).  His missing penis and the castration through which he would never be a father distressed him, but he managed to get into a relationship with a woman who had her own children and lived, despite physical and psychiatric problems caused by medical malpractice, an almost ordinary life.

Meanwhile, when the boys stopped coming, Dr Money’s articles stopped. The medical world may not have bothered any further, but that erstwhile medical student, Milton Diamond, who was now a doctor in Hawaii, curious as to why John Money no longer wrote of his successful ‘Joan and John’ case, set about finding the twins. He found them in Winnipeg, Canada and was witness to the fallacy surrounding John Money’s theory and the destruction it caused, not just to one child, but to the whole Reimer family. The parents were devastated and guilt ridden, the brother was neglected and jealous and David was still traumatized from the medical experimentation of 14 years. The family was one gaping phycological wound. Dr Milton exposed it in a famous US magazine which was seen by a Canadian journalist; John Colapinto, who, after consultation with Milton Diamond, wrote the book, ‘As Nature Made Him’. It was the sad fate, not only of a child, but an entire family, damaged by a western medical establishment trying to act God. And it still continues.

GENDER THEORY IS FAKE – Gender affirmation is an experiment on our children.  Psychiatric associations, even in Sri Lanka; like ‘Navodya’ in Angoda, under the leadership of the president of the Psychiatrist Association of Sri Lanka, instead of making the effort to identify the difference between true gender dystopia, the social platform influenced dystopia or familial stress caused gender dystopia, are pushing all, with nearly no long-term evaluation towards the gender affirmation agenda of sterilization drugs.   

In Sri Lanka, the gender dystopic services at ‘Navodya’ in Angoda, despite claims of assessment, but in verity with bare or no evaluation or understanding the triggering of gender dysphoria, recommends dangerous treatment protocols forced upon them by the psychiatric association whose president has obviously been won by pharmaceutical interest groups.

In too short a time, dangerous hormone therapy is begun, followed by referrals for surgery, further followed by new identification through the gender recognition certificate (H1257) – a general circular certificate, 01-34/2016 DGHS from our Ministry of Health.     

GENDER DYSTOPIA IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITION.  It should be treated with counselling, not the misnomer called ‘gender affirmation’. This misnomer ‘affirmation’ is an act of criminal intent. For, the protocol concealed under Gender affirmation destroys the normal development of the young body. It recommends the castration of lactating, gestating and reproductive organs, followed by lifelong hormone intake that retard bone density, causes cardiac issues, cancers, depression, diabetes, blood clots, early menopause, strokes, infertility, aggression and suicidal depression; just to name a few. Gender affirmation does not make a man a woman or a woman a man. It causes chronic disease and untimely death.

In recent years, many countries have discontinued gender affirmation We are just beginning. After our economic collapse, we have been plagued by United Nation (UN) missions sending women to teach our women empowerment. We have had the world’s first woman prime minister, let us consider who should teach whom empowerment! But, beneath all this women’s rhetoric is also the dogma of gender ideology. The UN is using women to confuse our children for in our societies, women are still trusted, they are mothers first. Britain just shut its clinic for child transition. Sweden has done a complete reversal on gender affirmation and recently produced an insightful film called ‘Sweden’s U-Turn on trans kids’, where a gender affirmation victim says, ‘I was a guinea pig. The health care system hasn’t got a clue, there is no science backing it. They are experimenting on young people, whose lives are ahead of them. It makes me angry and it is incredibly irresponsible’.

HOW COULD IT GO SO FAR? Gender affirmative invasions are validated by a single study known as The Dutch Protocol. + Done about 20 years ago, it was a study conducted on a cohort of 1766 children suffering gender dysphoria (unease with biological sex) in the Amsterdam region.

Until the Dutch protocol, sex changing medical therapies were initiated only after puberty and despite medical intervention, gender dysphoria continued to prevail. The Dutch Protocol emerged out of an idea that, if transition was begun before puberty, it could be of greater success. 1766 children with gender dysphoria from the Amsterdam region were chosen. After intensive assessment it was concluded that a substantial number did NOT have gender dysphoria as a primary cause and were removed from the cohort.  Only those with severe dysphoria, which had begun with early childhood, were used from the study.

Unfortunately, that is not what happens today. Today, children referred for gender affirmation do not have a lifetime of gender dysphoria. They are influenced through peer pressure, Woke activism, social media influencers and US billionaire philanthropists working through international organizations, packaging their criminal intent under social justice slogans such as decriminalization; appealing to us emotionally, and not rationally. That is how propaganda media works.

The psychiatrist Dr Miriam Grossman, the author of ‘Transnation’ says, ‘once parents used to come to me with the fear that their children, who having left home contracted vaginal herpes or gonorrhea, they are now fearful that they now will cut off their breasts or grow beards’.

Data indicates that girls are more susceptible to transitioning than boys. Instead of claiming that girls are weaker, should we not instead ponder as to why girls are targeted? Perhaps we should draw parallels to the mRNA Covid vaccines which have caused the cessation of menstruation in young women, which makes them menopausal and infertile. Which, according to the Pfizer documents, the company knew. Yet we were inducted into vaccinating, with mRNA technology, all our school going children. These jabs have already caused a decreased birth rate. Do we want to cause a further drop caused by gender ideology campaigns? Instead of swallowing the western paradigm, would it not be wiser to consider if these euphemisms are actually sinister plans to lessen our human population? And if, what better way to do so than destroy the reproductive organs of future mothers? And, while we are at it, let us not forget that it was not too that long ago that the same people pushed sterilization under the euphemism of family planning? Today, we like to make allegations that Muslim doctors give Sinhala women pills to reduce fertility (a readily believed lie during the Rajapakse era). The Muslims are not our enemies, they are our brethren and fellow citizens. But we do indeed have a habit of blaming the innocent and worshipping the guilty. Those who have been reducing our nation’s childbirths since the dawn of Independence was western intervention; not the Muslims.

Gender Ideology perpetrators use prominent women and women’s groups to promote their agenda. One such organization is the Parliamentary Women’s Corpus. Its head, Sudarshini Fenandopulle was the totalitarian power behind the draconian policies of Covid 19. Furthermore, our current Prime Minister, Harini Amarasuriya, a gender theory graduate, a LGBTQ advocate and a toxic Male champion, was jetted to parliament upon the wings of the Parliamentary Women’s Corpus. These corpuses are funded by the western institutions and represent their interests. As the Health Minister, the mutilation or the preservation of our children is in her hands. Will she preserve them or encourage their mutilation, with her LGBTQ advocacy?    

Upon election, her first promise was to support the LGBTQ rights bill. In our country, we have had a near 30 year war and government brutality that has made many women bereft of sons, brothers and husbands. They are still expecting the state to inform about the life and death of their loved ones, whom the state took for questioning and never returned. They ask for justice from a state in which they are all citizens.  Are they not entitled to it?

Are they of lesser importance to the Prime Minister? And what about those suffering from the Covid policies, lock downs and vaccinations.  Should she perhaps not pledge to hold an inquiry, especially since the head of their Parliamentary Women’s Corpus, Sudharshini Fernandopulle was the administrator of Sri Lankan’s Covid policy? What about the costs incurred, causing the economic plunder through the purchase of exorbitantly expensive patented mRNA vaccines, when cheaper Chinese and Russian vaccines were readily available? And, was the Women’s Corpus not responsible for the unnecessary closure of schools, the masking of children and their forced injection by mRNA gene manipulating technologies? Instead of investigating into such matters, does the prime Minister intend to cause greater burden to our already highly corrupt national health care system through the purchase of puberty blockers and hormones intended to sterilize our children?  When studies do indicate, when ignored and influencing factor removed, most children’s gender dysphoria vanishes.

WHY DO PARENTS NOT PROTEST? Parents fall into the trap laid to them by psychiatrists. A psychiatrist lies to the parent with the words, ‘it is either a trans child or a dead child’. Not wanting to have a dead child, they opt for the trans child. But, data shows that the rate of suicide is higher amongst transitioned children than the non-transitioned.

The generation of kids who buy into this agenda are silver spoon kids. They have done nothing, achieved nothing and lived off the wealth of parents. They feel they are doing something greater than themselves by supporting gender affirmation. It is transcendental hype in a life that has no meaning.  They are confusing criminal intent with decriminalization. In our country, no one is stoned for sexual preference. We need no laws to decriminalize, custom has done so. Laws are not a creation of petri glass culture, but born from custom. These gender ideologists are incapable of making a distinction between real life and the digital realism of social media. They should be taught dialectic; the art of investigating, or thinking through; instead, they are being taught dogma packaged as social justice. And they swallow it, with the credulity of a generations whose God is Consumerism; a generation of children whose parents have failed them.

LIVE NOT BY LIES. I know a person, to whom a client came with two teenage children for haircuts. Before the kids sat for the haircuts the mother whispered to my friend, my children are non-binary, don’t address the as ‘he’ and ‘she’ call them ‘they’ and ‘it’.

Without blinking an eyelid, my friend told the mother, ‘I know only two biological sexes. They are male and female.  The pronouns for rendering biology into language is ‘he’ had ‘she’. I will address your children with what I see, not what they imagine’.

Parents, LIVE NOT BY LIES. The title for this essay was borrowed from Rod Dreher’s book, ‘Live not by Lies’ which was borrowed from Solzhenitsyn who survived the Gulag. Dreher says, ‘The dictatorship of thoughts and words is a regime based on lies and propaganda. Political correctness corrupts one’s ability to think clearly about reality.  With the advance of consumerism and individualism, we have built a social ecosystem in which the function of the family has been reduced to producing autonomous consumers with no sense of connection or obligation to anything greater than fulfilling his own desires. Conservative parents do spot threats to family from progressive ideologues, but are uncritically accepting of the free market’s logic and say nothing to the mindless surrendering of their child’s minds to smartphones and the internet.’

These children are living in a digital Gulag. And they don’t know it. They don’t need jailors to torment them, they do it themselves with the collaboration of a murderous medical establishment. Dreher gives guidance to parents.

If you perceive a system runs on lies, stand firmly upon the foundation of what you KNOW to be true and real. (like the hairdresser)

Refuse to let media and institution propagandize your children. Teach them to identify truth from fiction:

Try not to be party to the lie. Show civil courage, for that is what children emulate.

ESPECIALLY MOTHERS must ensure that families do not succumb to patriarchal tyranny or crazy feminism and above all, reject the worshipping of children and catering to their every desire. Your consent to the system may buy you safety, but at an unbearable cost for you are a complicit to the evil attempt of destroying the last surviving community in a globalized world; the family. As Orwell says, ‘it is not by winning an argument but keeping yourself grounded in reality that you carry on the human heritage’.

The human heritage is not bearded women, it is not breasted men, it is not sexual rights. Human heritage is a composition of rituals, duties, civic, moral and ethical conduct that have passed from one generation to the next. It is a spiritual journey from birth until death. Do it justice and teach those who do not.

David Reimer put a gun to his head and killed himself. The malpractices done to his body was too much or his mind to bear. Let it not happen to our children. For that, we must Live Not live by Lies.

Manuka Wijesinghe, October 2024

*Nudge theory was developed in 2008 by economist David Thaler, where small or personal stimulation (nudges) are done by media, social media, politicians, corporations, NGO’s and public institutions that guide individuals towards making decisions that may be detrimental to them but of advantage to interest groups and production companies.  Nudge theory won the Nobel prize in 2017, two years before it was used in the Covid agenda.

+The Netherlands was the first country to use puberty blockers on teenagers.

The Challenge to get Sri Lanka on the right track to face  the economic problems of today.

November 3rd, 2024

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University

Posted on February 11th, 2022

One of my earlier papers which is appropriate for the moment- Garvin Karunaratne

The Editorial of The Island tells it all: The challenge before us is to retrace our steps, figure out where we took wrong turns, and forge ahead in the right direction as many other nations have already done. Easier said than done, but there seems to be no other way.”

The problem is that even to retrace our footsteps there is no consensus in learned opinions. Addressing the Tenth Annual Conference of the Sri Lanka Forum of University economists on 27 th January 2022, Professor Premachandra Atukorale has said that it is impossible to heavily rely on import and exchange controls without compromising on a massive economic collapse and social upheaval.”(Ceylon Today01022022)

Perhaps some detail of how we once handled the economy of Sri Lanka, may be useful to think of how we can retrace our footsteps to the days when we did not have food queues and social upheaval, all the while handling development very  successfully..

In 1968 February I was posted as the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla District. I worked there for two years. I knew of no queues for any essential food during that period. In fact,  I was in charge of providing essential food- as the Deputy Food Controller for the District. At that time every area was covered with a cooperative society and in each division there were Cooperative Unions that were equipped with stores and lorries and on a clockwork basis all essential food was distributed through the cooperatives. This included a measure of rice per person per week, entirely free, under the Rice Ration Scheme, which was done away by President Jayawardena in 1978. Then there was a major Department at work- the Food Commissioner’s Department,  managed at the helm by a senior civil servant, a department that had very large stores full of rice and flour and also attended to imports when necessary.  At the district level there was an Assistant Food Controller who worked directly under me and it was our duty to see that food was always available without any interruption. Importing essentials like dhall, chillies etc was handled by the CWE because depending on the private sector has proved unreliable – the private sector has making a profit as its aim, service to the people comes next.

For full article

LankaWeb – The Challenge to get Sri Lanka on the right track to face  the economic problems of today.

UNHRC’s brand of justice relating to external evidence gathering

November 2nd, 2024

by Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island

UNHRC in session (file photo)

During the 57th Session of the UNHRC, Sri Lanka restated its opposition to HRC Resolution 51/1; a carryover of Resolution 46/1. These Resolutions were consistently rejected” on grounds that the evidence gathering mechanism within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is an unprecedented and ad hoc expansion of the Council’s mandate and contradicts its founding principles of impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity”.

The OHCHR’s mandate under Resolution HRC 46/1 states: In March 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council, through its resolution 46/1, recognized the importance of preserving and analyzing evidence relating violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka with a view to advancing accountability…” (OHCHR, Frequently Asked Questions). This document states that its scope addresses four specific tasks”. The first task is to: collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze information and evidence of violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes committed in Sri Lanka”.

FACTORS AFFECTING EVIDENCE ANALYSIS

Since the focus is only on the first specific task, the comments below are based on the following parameters: 1 Armed Conflict and 2 Declaration of Emergency

ARMED CONFLICT

During the period February 2002 to May 2009 the conflict in Sri Lanka was categorised as an Armed Conflict by none other than the OHCHR in their report of 2015. Thus, as an Armed Conflict, the report states that the applicable law is Common Article 3 to the four Geneva Conventions, which means that any violations or abuses committed during the armed conflict must be judged under provisions of International Humanitarian Law and to derogated Human Rights Law during an Emergency.

Consequently, evidence gathering and its analysis should take into account provisions of Humanitarian Law as provided in Additional Protocol II of June 1977 relating to Non-International Armed Conflict as part of Customary Law.

Article 6 of Additional Protocol II of 1977 – Penal prosecutions”

1. This Article applies to the prosecution and punishment of criminal offences related to the armed conflict”.

2. No sentence shall be passed and no penalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by a court offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality. In particular:

(a) The procedure shall provide for an accused to be informed without delay of the particulars of the offence alleged against him and shall afford the accused before and during his trial all necessary rights and means of defence;

(b) No one shall be convicted of an offence except on the basis of individual penal responsibility;

(c) No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under the law, at the time when it was committed; nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than that which was applicable at the time when the criminal offence was committed; if, after the commission of the offence, provision is made by law for the imposition of a lighter penalty, the offender shall benefit thereby;

(d) Anyone charged with an offence is presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law;

(e)Anyone charged with an offence shall have the right to be tried in his presence; (f) No one shall be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt”.

3. A convicted person shall be advised on conviction of his judicial and other remedies and of the time-limits within which they may be exercised”.

4. The death penalty shall not be pronounced on persons who were under the age of eighteen years at the time of the offence and shall not be carried out on pregnant women or mothers of young children”.

5. At the end of hostilities, the authorities in power shall endeavour to grant the broadest possible amnesty to persons who have participated in the armed conflict, or those deprived of their liberty for reasons related to the armed conflict, whether they are interned or detained”.

DECLARATION of an EMERGENCY

Since an emergency operated from May 2000 to June 2010 throughout Sri Lanka, Human Rights are derogated during this period as declared by Article 4 of ICCPR.

Article 4 of ICCPR states: In times of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed, the State Parties to the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their other obligations under international law…”.

Derogated Human Rights under emergency rules as permitted by ICCPR provisions stated in OISL Report are:

Articles 9 (2); 9 (3); 12 (1); 12 (2); 14 (3); 17 (1); 19 (2); 21 and 22 of the ICCPR.

Article 9 (2): Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest the reason for the arrest…”.

Article 9 (3): Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought before a judge….”.

Article 12 (1): Everyone lawfully within the territory of State shall have the right to liberty of movement…”.

Article 12 (2): Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own”.

14 (3): In the determination of any charge, everyone shall be entitled to the following guarantees: to be informed promptly; time to prepare defence; tried without delay; tried in his presence; to examine witnesses against him; access to an interpreter; not to testify against him”.

Article 17 (1): No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence nor to unlawfully attack his honour…”.

Article 19 (2): Right to freedom of expression …”.

Article 21: …right to peaceful assembly…”.

Article 22: …right to freedom of association…”.

The OISL report concludes the list of derogated human rights during the period of the Armed Conflict by stating: Measures taken pursuant to derogation are lawful to the extent they comply with the conditions set out in international human rights law as provided in Article 4 of ICCPR. In keeping with this provision, successive Sri Lankan Governments have derogated over a period of 10 years, 9 Articles out of a total of 19 Articles in Part II of the ICCPR that the OISL has declared as being lawful.

CONSOLIDATE, PRESERVE AND ANALYSE INFORMATION AND EVIDENCE

The OHCHR Sri Lanka accountability project will collect information and evidence from all sources willing to provide it, including Government authorities, other Member States, victims, witnesses, civil society stakeholders and any other sources. Various UN bodies have already gathered extensive documentation of serious violations and abuses of human rights and violations of humanitarian law committed in Sri Lanka, particularly during and after the conflict, which ended in 2009. Information and evidence collected will be reviewed and analyzed by OHCHR Sri Lanka accountability project…” (Frequently Asked Questions from OHCHR).

Therefore, by OHCHR’s own admission, the sources that gave information and evidence will fade into oblivion and the information and evidence that would be left would only be the reviewed and analyzed version formulated by OHCHR”.

This in essence amounts to a tampered version of what the witnesses and other source furnished; a procedure that not only trivialises the sanctity of evidence but also denies access to witnesses; a fundamental right called for by Article 14 (3) of the ICCPR. Furthermore, the witnesses and sources that furnished information and evidence are NOT in a position to verify whether the evidence furnished by them accurately reflects the analyzed” version of the evidence in the possession of the OHCHR. Thus the procedure adopted by the evidence gathering mechanism violates natural justice as understood by the community of nations.

Consequently, those responsible for alleged violations and abuses are denied the opportunity to challenge the authenticity of the evidence presented, because the procedure does not provide for an accused before and during his trial all necessary rights and means of defence” as called for by 2 (a) of Part 6 of Additional Protocol II of 1977 that today is accepted as Customary Law. Furthermore, the procedure does not permit whether the evidence presented guarantees that alleged violations assure that no one is convicted of an offence except on the basis of individual penal responsibility” as stated in 2 (b) of Part 6 of Protocol II. Under the circumstances, the fact that UNHRC Resolution 46/1 followed by Resolution 51/1 was endorsed by the HR Council and the Co-Chairs is not only beyond belief, but has also become jointly a party to what amounts to UNHRC’s Brand of warped justice because it violates International Law.

CONCLUSION

As stated by the OHCHR the information and evidence collected will be reviewed and analyzed by OHCHR Sri Lanka accountability project ….” However, what is not disclosed is the extent and scope of the analysis undertaken by the OHCHR. For instance, what is not disclosed is whether the information and evidence under the evidence gathering mechanism takes into account the special circumstances associated with the Armed Conflict and the fact that certain Human Rights are derogated during the Emergency that operated from May 2000 to June 2010.

Consequently, the evidence analysed by the OHCHR would drastically differ from the evidence furnished by witnesses and other sources in the event the OHCHR took into account the special circumstances of the Armed Conflict and the imposed Emergency. On the other hand, if the evidence gathered is the raw evidence furnished by witnesses and other sources, the need for the OHCHR to analyze” the evidence does NOT ARISE. Therefore, the outcome of the analysis is to tamper with the raw evidence presented; a task that not only far exceeds the mandate under which the UNHRC is authorized to operate but also trivializes the sanctity of evidence on which Justice depends. This makes the evidence gathering mechanism initiated by the UNHRC justified grounds for rejection; a fact that Sri Lanka should bring to the attention of the Member State of the HR Council and take joint action for the benefit of all. Furthermore, co-sponsoring such an exercise casts a deep shadow on the brand of justice that is being attempted jointly by the UNHRC and its sponsors at a time when the credibility, competence and relevance of the UN and its Institutions are in serious question

Has Sri Lanka Got a Professionally Trained Diplomatic Service?

November 2nd, 2024

Prof. Hudson McLean

At least and at last President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is Getting the Stick Out!

The Sri Lankan Ambassadors & High Commissioners have been a Joke !

Most of these “His Excellencies” were enjoying High Life in their “Castles” overseas, pretending to be like jumped-up “Kings” at the expense of the country.

One Ambassador, on the 4th February ordered his staff to position all the Sri Lankan guests at the bottom of the stairs, when the Ambassador & wife walked down the stairs, slowly, whilst the National Anthem played, the guests were ordered to Clap!

16 politically appointed ambassadors, high commissioners to be recalled with immediate effect
Posted on November 1st, 2024

I hope the party is now over.

Let the professionals take over the responsibility on a given Mandate and Targets to increase the Return on Investment!

-Increase Value Added Tourism!

-Create more Tourist Applications

-Promote Sri Lankan Cultural Products & Projects

-Promote Diverse Applications for Tourist Industry

-Increase Exports & Diversify Products & Projects

-Increase Employment for Youth Overseas

-Increase Educational Scholarships for Students

And Lots More!

Get the Ambassadors to Realize that they are Servants of their Country and are expected to do a Professional Service, and on-call 24×7!

Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
The Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.

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Fake Profiles & ID on Following Sites-;  (Source Google)

November 2nd, 2024

Prof. Hudson McLean

Linkedin – In the second half of 2023, over 46 million fake accounts that were removed from LinkedIn

Facebook-; Estimates that 4-5% of those accounts are fake, meaning there may be as many as 150 million fake accounts.7 Feb 2024

Google-;  Prevented over 170 million policy-violating reviews and removed 12 million fake business profiles

X – Twitter-; 20 million fake Twitter accounts. With a reported 500 million registered users, that comes out to roughly 4% of all Twitter accounts being fake (bots).

Which Dating Site has the most fake profiles?

Facebook was mentioned the most as a Google Search suggestion for the topic of fake profiles; Tinder was the second most mentioned platform. Comparing only dating platforms, Tinder had the highest number of mentions—12—while Badoo came in second place with just 4 mentions.

YouGov has revealed that around 78% of female users on such platforms encounter fake profiles.5 Sept 2024

When Ashely Madison was hacked, a few reporters had the data analyzed, it was about 96% fake, and you can assume Tinder isn’t too far off.

Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
The Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.

Please visit -: http://www.lankaweb.com/

Starmer’s spy flights over Gaza risk complicity in Israeli torture

November 2nd, 2024

Declassified UK

It comes as Keir Starmer suspended some arms exports to Israel last week, which the government said was partly due to credible claims of the mistreatment of detainees”. However Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance flights continue almost daily over Gaza to help Israel locate hostages held by Hamas. Campaigners fear the flight paths may be informed by intelligence Israel obtained through torture. Declassified has seen testimony from three Palestinian civilians who allege Israeli troops interrogated them about the location of hostages and tunnels while under extreme torture. Sharing such intelligence with Britain would breach rules designed to prevent a repeat of the extraordinary rendition scandal, which saw MI6 collude with CIA abuses after 9/11. Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe is a lawyer at the Global Legal Action Network. She also represents Palestinian rights group Al-Haq in its lawsuit to stop UK arms exports to Israel. She told Declassified: In our view it is possible, if not probable, that information and assurances Israel gives to the UK are founded on information derived from torture”. Freedom from Torture, a British medical charity, also expressed concern, commenting: The UK must take all steps in its power to ensure that it does not take receipt of or make use of intelligence provided by any authorities where there is a real risk that it has been obtained by torture or other ill-treatment.” When contacted by Declassified, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) avoided our questions about whether RAF surveillance of Gaza was informed by Israeli intelligence that may have been derived from torture. A government spokesperson would only say: Our focus remains on securing an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, a rapid increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, and compliance with international humanitarian law.” Israel’s Ministry of Defence said it was unable to comment when asked about intelligence sharing with the RAF.

Measles raising its head again, special vaccination drive to be launched

November 2nd, 2024

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Sri Lanka as a country free of measles, the country has been hit by cases once again since 2023, prompting the health authorities to declare a special vaccination week from November 4 to 9, according to a press release from the Health Promotion Bureau of the Health Ministry.

The newly emerged cases are mostly reported in the 20-30 age group. The press release said the disease is then transmitted to children, particular to infants below nine.

Those in the age 20-30 will be vaccinated for measles and Rubella, and children aged between nine months and 19 years will be vaccinated against measles.

The WHO announced in 2019 Sri Lanka has eliminated measles, interrupting transmission of the indigenous virus that causes the killer childhood disease.

Japanese assistance sought to complete Central Expressway: President

November 2nd, 2024

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, November 2 (Daily Mirror)- The government has taken steps to complete the construction of the Central Expressway where discussions were held with the Japanese Ambassador to seek their assistance to complete its constructions, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today.

Speaking at an election rally in Kandy, he said the government will take steps to find solutions to the traffic congestion in Kandy.

He said a discussion was held recently to review the progress of the projects which have been launched in Kandy and that the government will take steps to resume the projects which have been halted at the moment.

“Most of the projects such as construction of the Good Shed Bus Stand have been halted. Plans were afoot to construct bus terminals in Katugastota, Peradeniya and Tennakumbura also. They are also halted. We will find money soon and resume the constructions,” he said.


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