By Garvin Karunaratne former GA Matara

The twitter statement made by Kristilina Georgina, the Managing Director of the IMF, quoted by Adaderana on 22/6 is to be admired. She said that I warmly welcomed the strong ownership by the Sri Lankan government to address current economic challenges. We are committed to support Sri Lanka’s economic reforms to improve living standards for its people,” (Lanka Web23/06/23) She has to be warmly congratulated for thinking of the living standards of our people.

Do any of the current plans of our leaders aim at improving the living standards of the people in Sri Lanka?

The improvement of the living standards of the people of is crucial importance today. The World Food Programme of the United Nations has said that 6.3 million are Food Insecure and that 5.3 million are skipping meals.(Daily Mirror: 21/6/23) It is reported that prices of food are beyond the majority of the people. Starvation is inevitably written into this situation.

It is even reported that the country has no buffer stocks of rice or paddy and that that Paddy Marketing Board has been refused Rs 6 billion that they have requested to purchase rice(Sunday Times,25/6/23). We are yet suffering from President Gotabhaya’s ill advised venture of forbidding inorganic fertilizer. The lack of a buffer stock signifies a total calamity. It is hoped that remedial action is taken immediately. As a Deputy Food Controller in Districts where I worked, maintaining buffer stocks of rice or paddy was our duty and we would have been sacked if we had failed.

This situation comes while banks that take in foreign funds freely finance people- the rich for holidays abroad. The rich are having a heyday of foreign travel all on foreign funds that come into the country, while the masses have to live hand to mouth and forego meals.

Meanwhile the Government goes on talking of restructuring the debt, both foreign and domestic. It is also , liberalizing the economy, attract more foreign investments” and states that the only viable solution in the long run is a programme driven by the private sector” and talks of a market oriented credit integrated growth strategy- the only available option”(Ceylon Today: 23/6/23)

In my opinion, the economy is already libearalized. Foreign investments are hard to come by to a country in chaos, where people are starving. The private sector has closed down due to increased interest rates. They have parked funds in banks and enjoy the high interest.

Meanwhile the citizens are leaving in droves.

It is a sad situation that requires immediate action by the Government. It is true that we are an indebted country, saddled with repayments- We have to repay $ 2.6 billion in the first six months of 2023”.

We are talking about restructuring debt payments. Debts have to be paid in dollars and as long as the bulk of the dollar intake of the banks are issued to the people(the rich) for foreign use, naturally there are no dollars collected to repay our foreign debts.

There are plans to raise funds through privatization of assets. Has the sale of assets ever worked in the interests of any country. It is well known that once the State of California privatized the electricity transmission system. Later the Governor of California found that the companies that had bought the transmission system were making California rolling in blackouts. It all ended with California buying back what they had privatized. This is true of the privatization of railways in the UK. The private companies pay fat dividends and fantastic salaries but neglect the service. Safety features in French Railways are not found in the UK because the company cannot afford!.( Ref pages 106.. of my 2006 book)

We always stand to face a loss on the privatization of assets. It is rife in the Air that out foolish leaders are about to privatize Sri Lanka Telecom. It is the country that will lose its sovereignty. Telecommunication signifies the sovereignty of a country and should always be the guarded sacred property of the Country. In the hands of an outsider Sri Lanka stands to face DEATH. I hope our present leaders do stand to reason.

Let us look at what happened to our tyre factory. According to the Chief Chemist the later Hector Perera who was trained in Russia to fix the tyre factory, it had the capacity to make all our tyres. It was a factory given totally free by Russia and we sold it for a song and it ended in the hands of CEAT a multinational. Yet we import our tyres and CEAT makes tyres and enjoys profits. We fools produce rubber- the best in the world but we do not make our tyres.

It is time that we rethink our strategies.

In living memory, before 1977- the date we followed the IMF neoliberal concept and started living on loans, we did manage our finances. There were no private money changers. An important point is what happens to the dollars collected by money changers today? They collect far more than all the banks. Before 1977 every dollar that came into the country was collected and first priority was given to import essentials and thereafter small allocations were allowed for the import of cars etc. . In 1957 I had to wait two months to buy a new peugeot. In 1953 only a few Austin cars were imported and a person well known to me had to buy a new car from another who had paid up and had a car reserved. No funds were allowed for any foreign travel unless such travel was required for the country. It may sound really odd for such restrictions today but the only remedy available is for the collection of every dollar that comes in and some restrictions in use.

Reading through what proposals the Government has- restructuing debts both foreign and domestic….a market oriented integrated strategy,” Restructuring debts can be planned, privatization of assets is forbidding and not in the national interest, foreign investment can be courted and anyone with any thinking capacity will agree that no investors are coming. Thus all our plans will amount to mere exercises on paper.

I may please suggest for kind consideration that what is missing, and very feasible is a programme for creating production within the country, bringing employment and incomes to people and also reducing the import bill.

It is important to note that for this programme we need very little foreign funds, as it is done locally with Rupees. I speak from sheer experience. Before 1977 we ran everything in the country with local Rupees. All our colonies were established with local rupees. All major tanks- reservoirs were repaired and and built with local rupees. All government departments were run with local rupees. I may mention that there were severe restrictions in printing money.

In the days before 1977, the Government had major development programmes that were aimed at producing what we needed.

We were self sufficient in all textiles- we had handlooms that made bespoke textiles. No Colombo 7 ladies ever went abroad for elegant sarees. They instead went to a handloom textile demonstrator and had an exquisite bespoke pattern done. Our powerlooms were manned by local staff and the Hakmana Powerloom made suiting that was in high demand even in London. We abandoned our powerlooms and sold off textile factories all done on the IMF advice to make us poor. Since 1977 all our leaders were fooled by the IMF.

I may mention a few details of the last producing cum employment creation programme we had- the Divisional Development Councils Programme of 1970-1977 to convince anyone that such a programme is the only way ahead for the present Government to follow. This programme recruited unemployed youths, paid them a stipend and trained them on small farms and they produced vegetables and all crops. They became scientifically trained farmers in the process. In industry there were many small industries like making sago out of manioc, making farm implements etc. The Divisional Secretary at Kotmale established a paper making small factory using waste paper. Do we have any government programme making paper other than Valacheni paper mill. The answer is no. In he meantime farmers even burn the straw, which can be used to make paper.

In the Matara District, where I was in charge as the Government Agent, in addition to small farms and small industrial projects we established a mechansied motor boat industry making seafaring fishing boats. This was a great success. I also established a Crayon Factory. The art of making crayons was found by my Planning Officer locked up in the science lab of Rahula College every night from six to mid night for three long months, doing a myriad experiments. He succeeded and a Cooperative Crayon Factory was established at Morawaka, executed by Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of parliament who happened to be the president of the cooperative union. It was a handmade crayon equal in every respect to the Crayola crayons imported by us from the USA. It is easily equal except for the elegant paper covering. This DDCP created 33,300 jobs and most of the youths ended as trained farmers and entrepreneurs- a great achievement. The Crayon Factory needed dyes imported and the Ministry of Industries refused as it was a cooperative. Days later, I came to know that the Import Controller was about to approve the import of crayons and moved in. I concinced him that our Crayon Factory could make all the crayons we needed if only a small allocation of foreign exchange is allowed to import dyes. The Controller agreed but required the approval of the Minister Mr Illangaratne. I approached the Minister and explained. The Minister looked at our crayons, scribbled it on paper, approved an allocation of foreign exchange to import dyes and shouted in glee that all imports of crayons should be stopped. He also ordered me to establish a crayon factory in his electorate at Kolonnawa.

Such a production oriented, employment and income creation programme is the only opition available and it is high time that our President and Prime Minister considered such a programme. It can commence within days and can be worked to be a great success within a year.

It would behove our leaders to immediately direct that such a production and employment creation programme be established immediately. That is the only way ahead.

Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara

29/06/2023

LankaWeb Editorial

 Finally In the face of sweeping genocide allegations against Sri Lanka, Canada takes a firm stand, debunking the claims and highlighting political opportunism as succinctly reported in prominent recent News Media.

The Canadian Government has officially communicated to the Sri Lankan  Government that there is no credible evidence supporting the  occurrence of genocide in Sri Lanka. This information was reaffirmed by reliable sources within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo and, surprisingly, only one local newspaper in Sri Lanka  apparently covered the news. It is astonishing that such a significant development did not receive broader coverage from the country’s mass media.

The false allegations of war crimes and genocide against Sri Lanka  have had a detrimental impact on its reputation and created many issues in many areas. Opportunistic individuals, both local and foreign, with ulterior motives, have  exploited these accusations for personal gain. Politicians in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada have leveraged the perceived plight of Tamils of Sri Lankan origin and other migrant populations to secure and maintain their power, capitalizing on  reduced voter turnover of natives in their constituencies. It should  be acknowledged that among these Tamils, there are individuals who have taken advantage of the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka for personal gain and financial opportunities.

 Regrettably, even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has embraced this falsehood as inspiration. These individuals are inclined to accept false information as truth and strive to prove the existence of a misconceived genocide in Sri Lanka. Their basic strategy revolves around propagating ideas created by various parties without considering the  truth or supporting data.

 Officials who have served in Western embassies in Sri Lanka have  repeatedly confirmed that no genocide took place in the country. They  acknowledge the sacrifices made by the Sri Lankan security forces to  end the war in May 2009, which could have concluded much earlier. The  primary objective of the Sri Lankan security forces was not the elimination of civilians, as seen in the history of the United States, its allied forces and may other dictatorial countries around the world. Their focus was on safeguarding and serving the maximum number of unarmed civilians. However, these statements have been disregarded and replaced with manufactured falsehoods by several parties which are truly incredible!.

 Various parties, driven by their political goals, have attempted to  conceal information and disseminate false narratives. Ban Ki-moon, the  former Secretary-General of the United Nations, is one such leader who  engaged in such deceitful practices.Erik Solheim former Norwegian  Ambassador to Sri Lanka is another guilty of misrepresentation in a  combined list of many perpetrators with similar objectives. While documenting unsubstantiated data, they propagated false information about Sri Lanka, presenting  themselves as  guardians of humanity within the international  community. It is ironic that such  individuals were warmly welcomed into our parliament, along with opportunistic politicians who have embraced false ideologies.

 However, this welcoming approach was not extended to Imran Khan, then  Prime Minister of Pakistan, a leader whose country has  historically stood in solidarity with Sri Lanka. This discrepancy  further underscores the unfortunate politicization of our local  politicians, revealing their disgraceful motives.

 While the pursuit of unaccountable power and personal wealth seems to  be the motivation for these politicians, it is commendable that the Canadian state, the bureaucracy, has responded rationally to the false  accusations against Sri Lanka, distancing itself from opportunists at  various levels. We do not deny that there were casualties among  unarmed civilians during the war against the Tamil Tigers, which is an  unfortunate reality in any conflict albeit in the case of Sri Lanka never one sided as the Sinhalese too suffered heavy casualties.

Nevertheless, it is important to maintain a balanced perspective and avoid undue exaggeration regarding  the overall extent of damage caused. Regrettably, certain politicians and Western-funded NGOs have amplified these issues beyond proportion.

 However, we hold the belief that the Canadian Bureaucracy has come to a discerning realization, acknowledging the need for a more nuanced understanding of the situation.

What seems to have been missed  is the rank disregard towards  co-relating facts to align with what  the reality of the situation was and that the   Government Sri Lanka was from every perspective within its bounden and constitutional right towards  the people of Sri Lanka to defend her Sovereignity and Territorial Integrity from armed terrorists insurgents whose objective was to overcome the Nation of  Sri Lanka causing turmoil and its smooth functioning as a Democratic Country in the name of Tamil Tiger Terrorist Dogma and a misconceived plight of so called  minority Tamil sufferers and that  the mass hysteria caused by those who failed, on the international scene are still being catered to by unscrupulous politicians weaponizing it towards their own agendas both globally and locally and is  indeed a travesty of justice which has been to all intents and purposes finally acknowledged.

ආචාර්‍ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර මහනුවර

ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමනි,

 මේ සමඟ ඇති

ආචාර්ය ටිකිරි බණ්ඩාර ඇටිපොළ සම ලේකම් – සත්ව අවිහිංසා ජාතික එකමුතුව ගේ ලිපියට ඔබතුමාගේ ක්ශනික සහ දැඩි අවධානය යොමුකරණු කැමැත්තෙමි. එම ලිපියෙන් දක්වා ඇති යථාර්තවාදි අදහස් සහ මවිසින් යෝජනාකොට ඇති කරු ණුද සැලකිල්ලට ගෙන  මේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ රටේ සත්ව ඝාතනය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම තහනම් කරනමෙන් මම ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.
ආචාර්‍ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර මහනුවර. 2023.6.2023..

වසර 2500 ක් පුරා.
“සබ්බේ තසන්ති දණ්ඩස්ස -සබ්බේ තන් ජිවිතන් පියන්
අත්තානන් උපමන්කත්වා -නහානෙයිය නඝාතයෙ’

යනුවෙන්  සියළු සතුන් වෙත මෙත් පතල මේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ රටේ මෙවැණි ම්ලේඡ්ච සත්ව ඝාතනයන්ට ඉඩදීම නින්දාවකි, මහපොලව නුහුලන අපරාධයකි
එමනිසා දිවයින පුරා ආගමක මුවාවෙන් සිදුකෙරෙන මේ සත්ව සන්හාරය වහාම තහනම් කරණ මෙ අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිමු. ඉතිහාශය පුරාම පෙර රජදවස සත්ව ඝාතනය මේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ රටේ තහනම් කර තිබුණු අවස්ථා ගැන මහාවන්ශයේ එමට ෂාක්ශි ඇත. ඔබද එම සින්හල බෞද්ධ උරුමයේ අයිතිකරුවෙකු බැවින් මෙ ම්ලේඡ ඝාතනයන් වහාම තනම්කොට ඉතිහාශගතවන මෙන් අපි ඔබ තුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලමු.

වසර 2500 ක් පුරා.
“සබ්බේ තසන්ති දණ්ඩස්ස -සබ්බේ තන් ජිවිතන් පියන්
අත්තානන් උපමන්කත්වා -නහානෙයිය නඝාතයෙ’

යනුවෙන්  සියළු සතුන් වෙත මෙත් පතල මේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ රටේ මෙවැණි ම්ලේඡ්ච සත්ව ඝාතනයන්ට ඉඩදීම නින්දාවකි, මහපොලව නුහුලන අපරාධයකි
එමනිසා දිවයින පුරා ආගමක මුවාවෙන් සිදුකෙරෙන මේ සත්ව සන්හාරය වහාම තහනම් කරණ මෙ අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිමු. ඉතිහාශය පුරාම පෙර රජදවස සත්ව ඝාතනය මේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ රටේ තහනම් කර තිබුණු අවස්ථා ගැන මහාවන්ශයේ එමට ෂාක්ශි ඇත. ඔබද එම සින්හල බෞද්ධ උරුමයේ අයිතිකරුවෙකු බැවින් මෙ ම්ලේඡ ඝාතනයන් වහාම තනම්කොට ඉතිහාශගතවන මෙන් අපි ඔබ තුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලමු.

Dilrook Kannangara

Sri Lanka’s central government long term debt, excluding the debt of government entities, amounts to $84 billion as of 2023. About half of it is foreign debt and the other is domestic debt. After months of negotiations, foreign debt holders agreed to debt restructure. However, holders of domestic debt are dragging their feet on restructuring their debt! Worse still, they have turned it in to a political football and hired SJB and JVP politicians to disrupt the process. This is shameful and shows how greedy they are and how unreasonable.

The government simply cannot repay their debt at this stage. A five-year reprieve is needed. The economy has been shrinking for the past 3 years in a row and priority must be given to economic turnaround so that there is some hope of repaying debt and their interest. If this process is disrupted, no debt (other than foreign bilateral debt) can be repaid as there is no money.

There is no connection between a domestic debt restructure and the collapse of the banking sector. In fact, restructuring domestic debt will have a positive impact on banks in the long run as bank returns would be higher than investing in government bonds and bills. However, if depositors are terrorized with concocted horror stories, that can disrupt the banking industry. Holding the banking industry to hostage over domestic debt restructure by greedy local debt holders and their paid political lackeys is shameful especially when the average man on the street has sacrificed so much to turnaround the economy. They deserve no more than a default.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

මෙරට නවසීලන්ත මහකොමසාරිස් මයිකල් ඇපල්ටන් මහතා  2023/06/28 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා හමුවිය. ‍

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමග කෙරෙන ද්විපාර්ශික ආර්ථික සහයෝගිතාව ඉහළ නංවන ලෙසත්, කොළඹ සැලැස්ම යටතේ ලබා දෙන සහය වැඩි කරන ලෙසත්  අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා මෙහිදී නවසීලන්තයෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කළේය.

මහරගම ශ්‍රී ලංකා දන්ත වෛද්‍ය  විද්‍යාලය නවසීලන්ත රජය ලබාදුන් ප්‍රදානයක් බව සිහිපත් කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා එම ආයතනයට ලබාදෙන පහසුකම් තවත් වැඩිකරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. එය පිළිගත් මහකොමසාරිස්වරයා එම දන්ත වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාලය යළි නිරීක්ෂණය කොට ඊට සහය ලබාදෙන බවට එකඟ විය.

මෙරට රාජ්‍ය අංශයේ ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ වැඩසටහන සඳහා විශේෂඥ දැනුම ලබාදීමට ද නවසීලන්තය සූදානම් බව මහකොමසාරිස්වරයා සඳහන් කළේය. ඊට සහාය වීම සඳහා නවසිලන්තයේ හිටපු රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමසාරිස්වරයාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් යුත් කණ්ඩායමක් ලඟදීම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණීමට නියමිතව තිබේ. යල්පැනගිය ඉඩම් ආඥා පනත සංශෝධනය කිරීමටද ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සැලසුම් කර ඇත. එහිදී ආදිවාසීන්ගේ ඉඩම් අයිතිය පිළිබඳ  ගැටළු විසඳීම සඳහා නවසිලන්තයේ අත්දැකීම් හුවමාරු කර ගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය සහ යල් පැනගිය ඉඩම් ආඥාපනත සංශෝධනය කිරීමේ වැදගත්කමද  අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා   පෙන්වා  දුන්නේය. වත්මන් ආර්ථික අභියෝග ජය ගැනීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ගන්නා පියවර, ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගතකරණය, වෙළඳ හා ආයෝජන, මැතිවරණ ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණයට අදාළ කරුණු ද ඔවුහු සාකච්ඡා කළහ.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී යදාමිණී  ගුණවර්ධන, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය අතිරේක ලේකම් මහින්ද ගුණරත්න, නවසීලන්ත මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති උපදේශක  සුමුදු ජයසිංහ යන මහත්වරු ද මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.  

දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජය

ලොව පුරා විසිරී සිටින මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව ඒකරාශීව සිය ආගමික පිළිවෙත් ඉටු කරමින් හජ් උත්සවය සමරයි.

ඉමහත් හරසරින් සැමරෙන ආගමික පිළිවෙතක් වූ හජ් උත්සවයේ ප්‍රමුඛ  පරමාර්ථය වන්නේ සමානාත්මතාවයෙන් හා  සහජීවනයෙන් දිවි ගෙවීමයි.

එකී අධ්‍යාත්මික වටිනාකම්වලින් ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය සමාජය තව තවත් පෝෂණය කොට පටු භේද අතැර සියලු දෙනාම මිත්‍රත්වයෙන් හා සහෝදරත්වයෙන් ජීවත්වීමට මේ හජ් උත්සවයේදී අධිෂ්ඨාන  කරගනිමු.

දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජය

2023 ජුනි මස 28

Courtesy Malay Mail

COLOMBO, June 29 — The World Bank approved US$700 million (RM3.27 billion) in budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka today, the biggest funding tranche for the crisis-hit island nation since an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal in March.

About US$500 million of the funds will be allocated for budgetary support while the remaining US$200 million will be for welfare support earmarked for those worst hit by the crisis.

Through a phased approach, the World Bank Group strategy focuses on early economic stabilization, structural reforms, and protection of the poor and vulnerable,” the World Bank’s country director for Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos, said in a statement.

If sustained, these reforms can put the country back on the path towards a green, resilient and inclusive development,” Zervos said.

Sri Lanka is struggling with the worst financial crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948 after the country’s foreign exchange hit record lows and triggered its first foreign debt default last year.

The IMF approved a bailout of nearly US$3 billion in March, which Sri Lanka expects will bring additional funding of up to US$4 billion from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other multilateral agencies.

The island nation will release a domestic debt restructuring program this week to push forward reworking its debt with bondholders and bilateral creditors including China, Japan and India. — Reuters

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Sri Lanka’s crippling debt crisis and the long wait it had to endure until receiving a bailout from international creditors forced emerging markets to re-evaluate the existing global financial structure, according to economists and diplomats at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.

They also noted that the world needs a more efficient financial architecture, where China can play a more prominent role in terms of solving emergencies and amplifying the voices of developing countries.

Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry said that since negotiations started in September 2021, it took almost eight months to receive assurances from creditors before the South Asian nation eventually received the first payment as part of the US$3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April.

By that time, countries are under real stress, and countries could fall apart. So it’s important that something ready-made has to be there,” Sabry told a panel on the second day of the World Economic Forum’s 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.

Despite a US$600 million loan from the World Bank in April last year, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt for the first time in its history in May 2022, eventually becoming the first country in the post-coronavirus era to declare bankruptcy in July.

The coronavirus pandemic pushed world debt to over an unprecedented level of US$300 trillion in 2022, according to the Institute of International Finance, with developing countries particularly vulnerable due to the large amounts accumulated, as well as depreciating currencies and interest rate increases.

However, the fundamental problems in the IMF and other international financial institutions remain, according to Jin Keyu, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The issues include a mismatch of credit cycles, as well as the insufficient global emergency liquidity for developing countries, which has left a gaping hole to be filled, Jin told Wednesday’s panel.

The international global credit cycle is pretty much based on US monetary policy. But US monetary policy is designed to serve US domestic conditions, not the international arena,” she said.

So I think this is a place where China can play a role … [with] China being the second largest economy and not synchronised credit cycles with the US and often a big provider to emerging market liquidity.”

As the developing world’s single largest creditor after the World Bank, China has lent huge amounts of capital to fund projects via its Belt and Road Initiative – Beijing’s strategy to link more than 60 countries into a China-centred trade network, largely through investments and infrastructure projects.

In August, China announced plans to cancel a series of interest-free loans to 17 African countries amid a growing rivalry with the West and accusations that it is creating debt traps” on the continent.

China also said it would also rechannel US$10 billion of its IMF special drawing rights – an international reserve asset managed by the international financial institution – to African countries to help with the recovery from Covid-19 pandemic and the debt crisis.

It is time that [different types of creditors and economies] pull their resources together and come out with some sort of an architecture, which immediately addresses this kind of an emergency to prevent a cascading effect on many of the economies and ultimately leading into a global slowdown,” Sri Lanka’s Sabry added.

China and the United States also have to coordinate better among their central banks and be real global financial anchors, Jin added.

But the current problem is that the domestic challenges in China are also great, it would like to do more international lending, but it has to be substantially cut back because of the domestic debt issues and because the economy, pretty much everywhere around the world, is doing very poorly,” she said.

But Jin stressed that despite China’s role as a substantial creditor to lower income countries, around 60 per cent of the debt flows are from the private sector, while a significant portion originates from financial institutions.

The current issue is really a global shock and global structural problems like demographics that are pressing down on these issues. And it’s not up to China alone to resolve it,” she added.

Jin also pointed to a better design of international financial architecture, a greater representation of emerging markets voices in the coordinating process, and a greater role for China’s central bank and yuan denominated lending as crucial elements.

Global economic growth is universally slowing down, which will affect the repayment ability of relevant countries and China’s lending ability,” said Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, a think tank connected to the provincial government.

Large-scale projects may be put on hold. In particular, the geopolitical environment is uncertain, and domestic recovery is weak. It is wise to slow down the pace of development.”

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Education Minister Susil Premajayantha held a discussion with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Assistant Administrator Ms. Anjalie Kaur and its executive officials in Washington DC, on the development and collaboration requirements of Sri Lanka’s education sector.

The Minister pointed out that plans are being made to expand the teaching of educational technology, science and technology and English language, in order to carry out a structural and qualitative transformation of education.

Furthermore, during the discussion, the progress of USAID assistance to Sri Lanka was reviewed and new approaches were explored to enhance the existing mutual cooperation. 

Moreover, since USAID, a long-term development partner of Sri Lanka, provides support for sustainable development activities in Sri Lanka, this discussion has effectively contributed to the education sector in Sri Lanka, especially for the continuation of the school mid-day meal programme.

Minister Premajayantha participated in this discussion while on his way to participate in the 40th meeting of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning.

Minister Premajayantha was selected to represent the Asian region on the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning in April this year. During the meeting, he expects to gain support for many reforms in the education sector in Sri Lanka, including distance education, IT subject and curriculum development. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Central Bank on Wednesday presented possible domestic debt restructuring scenarios to the Cabinet of Ministers, which indicated that restructuring/optimization will apply only to Treasury bills held by the Central Bank and the bonds held by superannuation funds.

Interestingly, it appears that banks have been excluded in the process. 

However, the details of the DDR/DDO plan approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday are yet to be disclosed.

Under indicative terms of DDO, the Central Bank proposed to convert T-bills held by the Central Bank to T-bonds with no haircut but with a step-down coupon profile from 12.4 percent to 5 percent. 

On the T-bonds held by superannuation funds, exchange against longer term maturity T-bonds is proposed, again with no haircut but with a step-down coupon profile from 12 to 9 percent.

After the special cabinet meeting held on Wednesday afternoon, MP Gamini Lokuge told reporters that despite DDR, returns paid to Employees’ Provident Fund members will not fall below 9 percent.

It has also been proposed to increase income tax to 30 percent from the current special treatment at 14 percent for superannuation funds that do not meet the minimum DDR participation requirement.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Cabinet of Ministers have approved the domestic debt restructuring programme.

Accordingly, the proposed restructuring of the country’s local debts was approved at the special Cabinet meeting which concluded a short while ago.

All Government MPs were notified a short while ago at the Presidential Secretariat, the Presidnet’s Media Division (PMD) reported, adding that the proposal will now be submitted at the next Parliament session for discussion.

Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena issued a Gazette Extraordinary on Tuesday (27 June), convening the parliament on Saturday (01 July).

During this special parliamentary session, which will commence at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday, at the request of Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the proposal for domestic debt restructuring will be presented for adoption.

Meanwhile, the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) in Parliament today summoned officials of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), the Ministry of Finance and the Auditor General for the first session of discussions on proposed domestic debt restructuring process. 

In a tweet, COPF chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva said that the commercial banks, the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and other relevant institutions have been summoned for the second session tomorrow (29 June).

He added that they will meet on Friday (30 June) once again to resolve outstanding issues. The COPF chairman said he was looking forward to constructive sessions. 

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is also expected to meet with the Members of Parliament representing the ruling party this evening, following the special Cabinet meeting.

Political sources revealed that the ruling party MPs have been notified to remain in Colombo by cancelling all other visits outside Colombo including overseas travels, since the debt restructuring proposal is scheduled to be tabled in the parliament.

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry has stated that it is ‘good to have’ multiple ‘big players’ in the world, as opposed to a single monopoly-like player, and has called for the West to come to terms with this.

During an interview with CGTN reporter Zhou Yiqiu in Beijing about China’s role in global economic growth, Sabry said people are getting tired of only one big player in the world.

The West should come to terms that the unipolar world has come to an end, and now this is the multipolar world. In that, people should get used to it, it’s good to have two or three big players in the world rather than one player, people are tired of it”, he said.

Speaking on China’s role in the recovering economy, Sabry expressed his confidence that China will step up to the plate, and successfully play the integral role he anticipates they will have in the relevant process.

I think China has a great role to play, and China will play that role”, he emphasised.

Sabry, is currently in China to participate in the World Economic Forum being held in Tianjin from 27 to 29 June.

During his visit, Sabry met had also met with the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gan, the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China and China’s Finance Minister.

Nanda Abeywickrama Auckland

It is quite by accident that I came to know that my dear friend and colleague  Shyamon  ( Jayasinghe –stage name Saparamadu) had passed away in Melbourne recently. In recent times Shyamon has figured more as a regular Facebook –YouTube commentator than anything else and the appreciations and public comments too seem to be coloured by such ‘political’ rather  than sustentative considerations.

To me and my contemporaries at Peradeniya campus and in the public service Shyamon was a stage artist incomparable, a compassionate public servant of the highest integrity and above all a lovable friend.

Shyamon entered my life and career in mid -1956 with the Maname rehearsals at Dr. Sarachchandra’s residence on Sanghamittha Hill Peradeniya University Campus. He was one year my junior and read a combination related to  Western Philosophy. By the time I joined the Maname crew Shyamon was already selected for the unique and unchartered role of Potheguru in the new experimental drama which later proved to be the breakthrough in the history of Sri Lankan theatre.

For Maname as an art form , similar to opera, human voice that could reach the other end of the hall was crucial and the artists were selected on voice criteria, We had three powerful voices that made Maname unique and successful; Ben Sirimanne as Prince Maname, Trillicia Abeykoon as Princess and Edmund Wijesinghe as Veddah King; and then there was Shyamon as Potheguru, whose role by all accounts was a  more subdued and formal one as distinct from those of the main actors. Hence it was not defined or guided strictly by the dramatist who focused more on the key roles. Shyamon was not very fluent in Sinhala – reading or delivery either. From nearby Ramanathan Hall apart from Shyamon and me , we had quite a crop in the Maname crew;Ben Sirimanne, Kithsiri  Amaratunga  M B Adikaram, Sathischandra, Pastor Peiris, Nawagamuwa, Wimal Diyasena, Hemapala and L B Dissanayake all led by Arthur Silva

It was only on the opening evening of 3 November 1956 that  to everyone’s pleasant surprise that the character Potheguru”  came alive and   became a legend. To my mind it was largely on account of Shyamon’s own unique talent, rich voice and interpretation of the role as he got on to the stage and faced the audience in full regalia that the character blossomed and turned out to be legendary.. From then on, although there were many successors in that role, it is accepted that Shyamon was the quintessential Pothegura and  stands out unrivalled to this day and in to the future.

In one of the reviews Shyamon himself has clarified how he got the inspiration to design and interpret his role, while on his feet as he faced the audience under the flood lights inside a dark auditorium at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. As Shyamon himself recounted, There was something in the air that night”. Reggie Siriwardana in his opening review of Maname   highly commended Shyamon’s histrionic talenst and  his imaginative contribution.

Off-stage like most of us, Shyamon was the easy-going  rebel undergraduate of the 50’s and for the next few years we  had memorable events and occasions to savour  everything good innocent and pleasant on the many Maname tours in all parts of Sri Lanka where we were welcomed by audiences and by patrons of theatre.. And the Potheguru was a star attraction. AS Gunasena Galappatthy quipped later on there was a ‘Niyama Jollythwayak’

My association with Shyamon continued long into the public service where he upheld the highest standards of service and probity and went on to hold the highest possible positions before he migrated to Australia.

Our last event  together, was  at  the first  Maname Re-union  held at my house in mid – 1993(3 decades to the day)  with Dr Sarachchandra participating and where we as veterans re-enacted Maname with Trillicia present but sans Ben and Edmund; Lionel Fernando and I had to apologetically stand in for them.

Today and in to the future n our collective memory of Shyamon  lives on as a creative and inoffensive soul mate.

Nanda Abeywickrama

Auckland

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

 චීනය, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ලබාදෙන අඛණ්ඩ සහය ඉතා ඉහළින් අගය කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා පවසයි.

 ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපති  කි ෂෙන්හොං (Qi Zhenhong )මහතා 2023.06.26 දින  කොළඹ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී හමුවූ අවස්ථාවේදී  අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා සදහන් කළේ  ආර්ථික ප්‍රශ්නවලට දීර්ඝ කාලීන විසඳුම් වෙනුවෙන් චීනයෙන් සෘජු ආයෝජන මෙන්ම කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය, පුනර්ජනනීය බලශක්තිය, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ, අධ්‍යාපන සහ ජල සම්පාදන ක්ෂේත්‍රවල ආයෝජන  අපේක්ෂා කරන බවයි.  

නව ආයෝජන ව්‍යාපෘති, චීනය සමඟ වෙළෙඳාම පුළුල් කිරීම, කොළඹ වරාය නගරය, හම්බන්තොට වරාය, දරිද්‍රතාවය පිටුදැකීමේ වැඩසටහන්, අධ්‍යාපනය, කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය, සංස්කෘතික හුවමාරු , ඉහළ පෙළේ සබඳතා  සහ අඩු වරප්‍රසාද ලත් අයට ආධාර සම්බන්ධ කරුණු මෙම සාකච්ඡාවේදී ආවරණය කෙරිණී.

චීනයේ යුනාන් ප්‍රාන්තයේ නිෂ්පාදනය කරන ලද ඉහළ අස්වැන්නක් සහිත සහල් වර්ග හඳුන්වා දී මෙරට වී නිෂ්පාදනය ඉහළ නැංවීම සඳහා  ග්‍රාමීය ජනයාට  සහාය වන ලෙස අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා  මෙහිදී චීන තානාපතිවරයාගෙන් විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමක් කළේය.

තානාපති කිව් ෂෙන්හොං මහතා දුෂ්කරතා මඟහරවා ගැනීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දරණ ප්‍රයත්නය දැකීමෙන් සතුටු වන බව පැවසූ අතර  ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීම සහ ආර්ථික අභියෝගවලට මුහුණ දීම සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වත්මන් ප්‍රයත්නයන් සපුරාලීම සඳහා චීනයේ අඛණ්ඩ සහයෝගය ලබා දෙන බවට සහතික විය.  බදුල්ල සහ බුත්තල වැනි දුෂ්කර ප්‍රදේශවල පාසල්වලට ගොස් අධ්‍යාපන අවශ්‍යතා ලබා දීමට සැලසුම් කර ඇති බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වත්මන් ආර්ථික අර්බුදය සමනය කිරීම සඳහා චීනය ලබා දෙන සහය පිළිබඳව ස්තූතිය පළ කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා, එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය ඇතුළු ජාත්‍යන්තර සමුළුවලදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ස්වෛරීභාවය වෙනුවෙන් චීනයේ ස්ථාවරය පිළිබඳව විශේෂ සඳහනක් කළේය.

දෙරට අතර ඓතිහාසික ද්විපාර්ශ්වික සබඳතා පිළිබඳ සතුටුදායක සඳහනක් සහිතව සාකච්ඡාව ආරම්භකෙරිණි.  දීර්ඝ කාලීන සංස්කෘතික සබඳතා තවදුරටත් ශක්තිමත් කර ගැනීමේ වැදගත්කම මෙම හමුවේදී චීන තානාපතිවරයා  සඳහන් කළ අතර චීන බෞද්ධ සංගම් මගින් විහාරස්ථානවලට සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් වැදගත් ථෙරවාදී බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පිහිටුවීමට අඛණ්ඩව උපකාර කරන බවත් පැවසීය. මෙම යෝජනා කඩිනමින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටුවක් පිහිටුවීමට අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා එකඟ විය.

මෙම රැස්වීමට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලේකම් අනුර දිසානායක මහතාද එක්ව සිටියේය.

 අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.  

 Cricket News

https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/12909999/english-cricket-deep-rooted-in-racism-sexism-and-classism-report-by-icec-finds

This is true not only of English Cricket but also of ICC. 

Senaka Weeraratna is the inventor of DRS. Google and Wikipedia recognize him as there is no other challenger. ICC, however, is always in a state of denial when it comes to attributing due credit to the inventiveness of non-white authors. 

Money talks and ICC has shut the mouth of all affiliated bodies particularly in Sri Lanka and the Indian subcontinent and the Black African and Caribbean cricketing countries from raising the issue of authorship of DRS. It would not be wrong to say that the ICC has contempt for claims of high intellectual achievement beyond the boundary of people from non-white countries. 

These attitudes are rooted in a pathological condition. 

Cricket commentators talk about every aspect of DRS in their commentaries except the origin of DRS. It is a taboo subject. ICC does not want its hirelings in the commentary box to mention the name of Senaka Weeraratna even as a contender despite worldwide recognition.  The reason is obvious. 

see

When was DRS introduced in Cricket? 

Senaka Weeraratna has revolutionized the game of cricket with his conception of ‘ Player Referral’  which is the substratum of DRS.

The ICC lacks integrity and intellectual honesty, and moreover lacks cogent evidence admissible in a Court of Law, to establish authorship of DRS. It is working on a pure bluff in the hope that the true author of DRS, Senaka Weeraratna, will get fed up and withdraw from further engagement in a ‘ David and Goliath’ contest in a scenario where the ‘ Spirit of Cricket’ is markedly absent. 

Shame on ICC

see also

Why do Most Indians believe ONLY Blue-eyed Whites Can be inventors? 

EMAIL Inventor Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Kurundi Vihara, situated in Mullativu district, is today at the centre of a battle for supremacy between the crafty Tamil Separatist Movement and the sleepy, lethargic Buddhist lobby. The Tamil Separatist Movement is objecting to any extension of the Kurundi Vihara forest reserve. Tamil Separatists have been objecting to Kurundi since 2018, but work is going on at Kurundi and soon the boundaries will be set and Kurundi declared a huge archaeological reserve. Therefore, in June 2023, Tamil Separatist Movement asked the President to intervene in the matter and put a stop to Kurundi expansion.

 President Ranil Wickremasinghe convened a meeting with the Archaeology Department authorities and gave them orders, with the TNA MPs  listening. He said some inacceptable things, including howlers and the debate went viral.  The Director of Archaeology promptly resigned in retort and that went viral too. Kurundi vihara’s future has now gone public. The Buddhists have been rudely woken up to what is happening in the north to the Buddhist viharas there. It is not pretty.

 Kurundi vihara belongs to the Anuradhapura period of Ceylon’s history. The vihara was originally Kurundavashoka Viharaya or Kurundashoka Viharaya. Kurundawashoka was a shortened form of Kurundavapi Ashoka, which means that the monastery was built near the Kurundu wewa or tank, said Ellawala Medhananda.

Kurundi temple is mentioned in the  Mahavamsa. According to Mahavamsa, the Kurundavashoka Monastery has been built by king Kallatanaga (109-104 BC) and received donations by king Aggabodhi I (575-608) and king Vijayabahu I (1070-1110).  Agbo  I had set out  a  coconut plantation   ‘thun gawwa’  in extent and had appointed  100 employees to the vihara.  Mahinda III (801-4) had visited to settle a problem in the area.

Three British officials have recorded their observations of Kurundi vihara. Henry Parker, an irrigation engineer, speaks of Kurundi   in Irrigation in the Northern Province: Mullativu and Vilankulam” (1886). J.P. Lewis, Government agent, Northern Province, wrote about Kurundi in his Manual of the Vanni districts (Vavuniya and Mullaitivu), of the Northern Province, Ceylon” (1895).  H.C.P. Bell, Commissioner of Archaeology has described the Kurundi site in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Northern Province” (1905).

 Kurundi has been the largest monastery in Mullaitivu. The ruins indicate that    hundreds of Buddhist monks had lived in the monastery. J.P. Lewis said in 1895 that the most extensive ruins in the whole Province are those at Kuruntanurmalai. Bell said in 1905 that Kurundumale had the most extensive ruins in the Province.  Ellawala Medhananda said the same thing in 2003. Medhananda said that Kurundammalai was the place where he saw the most ruins.  I have not seen so many ruins in any other place I have gone to, he said.

Kurundi has been an important monastery in the Anuradhapura network of monasteries. It has had close   scholarly links with Anuradhapura. Kurundi Attakatha was written in Kurundi vihara.  Kurundi Attakatha are now lost but there are many references in the literature to Kurundi Attakatha.  Pussamitta thera   is mentioned in   Manorathapurani     as Kurundaka Wasi, which means he was a resident monk of the Kurundi temple. 

Kurundi was an active monastery. Lewis had found an Inscription by Mahinda III (937-1013), who visited the tank with his mother and daughter in the eighth year of his reign. He had come there to settle a dispute relating to the use of use of water in Kurandagama Reservoir.

 It is on a large slab, and is one of the largest inscriptions in the Island. It is chiefly a series of rules like those on the Mihintale tablets, to be observed by the monks who were stationed here, but a few references of more general interest are included in it, and allusion is made to Tannirmurippu Lake, said Lewis.

It appears that the king himself had carved the inscription. That is probably another first for Kurundi. The king appears to have had some doubts regarding his  rock carving ability, observed Lewis. He commands that the rules given in the inscription  shall continue in force, and not be upset or reconstructed if letters are missing in the inscription . However, Lewis said the letters on it are very fairly and evenly cut, each one separated by horizontal lines cut as straight as if they had been done with a ruler, and there is a raised border round the stone.

Kurundi  had been   populated in the early ancient period. The  black and red  ware of the early historical period has been found.   In 1905,  Bell  said Kurundi area was the largest settlement he had seen in the province.  He estimated it to be about 100 acres.  The ruins showed that there was a   huge settlement at Kurundi in the   middle Anuradhapura period, said Ellawala Medhananda.. There was a town, Kurundagama.  The area has been prosperous, he said.

Kurundi  was not simply the site of an important monastery, it was also an industrial zone. A Rajarata-Peradeniya research team  had explored the area  over a period of two years. They stated in a video presentation  on July 2022, that  there had been an industrial zone  of around  1000 square meters, south of Kurundi wewa. This has been a metal manufacturing zone. [1]

This industrial zone had been destroyed  by the Tamil Separatist Movement when they enlarged the wewa, bulldozed the forest and converted the area into paddy fields. The soil from this cleared area has been piled up against the tank bund. This soil provides clear evidence that there was metal manufacture in the area.

 In 1905  HCP Bell gave  a detailed report on the   layout  of  Kurundi monastery .Many of the ruins lie within a quadrilateral space perhaps 200 acres in extent, which is surrounded on three sides by a bund that was topped by a wall of stone blocks, the fourth being the bund of the tank, said Bell.

The top of the hill covering about 20 acres is filled with ruins of ancient buildings. There has been a kabok wall encircling the top of the hill and remains of this wall are still seen at some places. Below the hill, on the south-west, stretched the thousands of acres of the tank called Tannimurrippu.

North, south, east, and west lies a fertile country of tanks and rice fields innumerable, .But in place of the great tank and the pleasant fields there is only forest, which reaches the horizon on all sides but the east, dark and unbroken. By climbing the dagoba, and thus rising above the jungle, one can gain a beautiful prospect even now. Far to the east lay the pale blue waters of the shallow Nayaru lagoon and beyond it the bright line of the sea, said Bell.

Bell reported that the buildings are placed approximately one in each corner, as follows. The Dagoba in the north-east, the Vihare in the north-west, the Wata-da-ge in the south-east, and a large building of good finish in the south-west. This last is probably a Pilima-ge. Bell had also I found a long deep pokuna about 80 ft. by 60 ft. From the edge of the terrace a grand flight of 100 steps, cut out of stone, each 17 ft. by 1 ft. 4½ in. by 6½ in., descends the hill unbroken into the forest below , said Bell.

I have never at any place seen so many large fragments of pottery. They stick out of the banks and bed of the stream everywhere. One very nearly complete pot I picked up was of very thick heavy make, and measured 8 inches across ; another fragment had a design of flowers stamped on it, concluded Bell.

The present day  investigators said much the same thing. They confirmed that Kurundi monastery  is located on a hill, and its building follow the Pabbata Vihara  pattern. There are also buildings on the sides of  the hill, around it and below. 12 buildings were found in the  second level.There is a large pokuna, with lots of viharas by the pokuna..  

There were  cells for monks, and a long  flight of  steps   going down to the Kurundi wewa. Each step  is about 14 feet in length said the present  archaeology team.  It will look a lovely  flight of steps when  conserved. Three inscriptions  were found on a stone bridge, one was dated to the 9^th  century .

Archaeologists found an exquisitely carved octagonal Yupa Gala, at Kurundi, but  broken  with some parts  missing.The Yupa Gala  was part of   the central pillar  in the early stupas. They also found a vajrasanaya, which was used to  depict the Buddha  through symbols, in the days when they did not depict Buddha in human form. These two elements indicate that Kurundi  was built  in very ancient times.

But  several bodhisattva heads were  also found   at least one was Avalokiteshvara.This shows that Kurundi had later became a Mahayana monastery. It would have been part of the chain of Mahayana  temples on the East coast. This means a continuous history for Kurundi monastery from Anuradhapura to the medieval period.

Architecturally too, Kurundi is special.   The Kurundi stupa, 75 feet tall,  is in the Padmakara style (lotus flower). This is a  rare style. Kurundi is said to be the only monastery which is built fully out of Kabok.  All buildings, including dagoba  and   aramaya   were built of kabok. The pond  also had kabok wall. The kabok blocks were    about 10 in. by 12 in. by 4 1/2.   The only source of kabok available at Kurundi was in the forest reserve and therefore could not be used. Present day kabok blocks are nowhere near the old ones, they break easily, said the conservationists , they  appear reluctant to use brick .

The Pilimage delighted the archaeology team. Almost all the pillars were available and it would be possible to do a complete reconstruction of the building, including the roof,  they said . The pillars showed that it was a wooden roof.  Some pillars, which were not load bearing, were filled with shells inside. These shells could be seen  inside the broken pillars.

Kurundi showed exceptional skill in sculpture. The few pieces of the broken Buddha  image  that they were able to recover showed that the whole statue would have been very special in style and execution.A beautifully carved door lintel was found.  One wall had a frieze of elephants  at the bottom.

 Earlier,  Bell  had found a fallen lintel with a double row of carved ganas quite unlike the ordinary ganas of the Sinhalese carvings, and have what appears to be high brimless hats on their heads. The  archaeology  team found    terra cotta heads similar to these.  They could be  seen  in the Youtube clip on  the Bauddhaloka Foundation seminar  (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSdj7YRjbDM). They look like the dwarfs in the Disney film Snow White.

The excavation team said that   they had found  a  lot of  small items at Kurundi, some were in metal and  one in marble. The marble plaque  carving is in a  style that   has not been seen before. ( Continued)

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJmWd43QIxk&t=368s 2022 ජූලි 23  වසර දෙකක පමණ කාලයක මුලතිව්, කුරුන්දි විහාරය හා තදාසන්න කලාපයේ සිදු කල පුරාවිද්‍යාත්මක අධ්‍යයනයේ ප්‍රථිපල. සම්පත් දායකත්වය චන්දිම අඹන්වල, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජරට විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය සුමේධ වීරවර්ධන, පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය නදීර හර්ෂජිත් දිසානායක, පුරාවිද්‍යා පර්යේෂක ඉන්දික රුවන් ජයසේකර, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජරට විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය සංවිධානය හා මෙහෙය වීම පුරාවිද්‍යා හා උරුම අධ්‍යයන ආයතනය

by A. Abdul Aziz, Press Secretary Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at – Sri Lanka.

In a grievous violation of basic human rights and religious freedom, circulars by the Lahore Bar Association and the Gojra Bar Association instruct local police forces to take pre-emptive and preventive” measures to ensure Ahmadi Muslims neither participate in Qurbani (animal sacrifice ritual carried out by Muslims the world over on the occasion of Eid) nor congregate for prayer on this special day for the Islamic world. 

 The Lahore Bar Association says such violations” would necessitate taking strict, iron-handed and preventative” measures. 

 State institutions like these were once thought of as the unbiased and open minded final resort for the oppressed and standard bearers of justice, working for the people regardless of caste, race or religious belief. Other messages have been circulated across the country urging people to report Ahmadi Muslims caught carrying out animal sacrifice to the police. Eid celebrations and animal sacrifice on this occasion is a long-standing tradition of Muslims the world over since the inception of Islam. Ahmadi Muslims have always been part of this tradition. 

This is the latest in a long series of restrictions and oppression by state authorities in Pakistan against the marginalized and persecuted Ahmadi Muslim Community. 

The plight of Ahmadi Muslims has caught global attention. In recent days U.S. congressman Michael McCaul tweeted: We continue to be alarmed by the uptick in violence against Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan. An Ahmadi man was reportedly arrested for having a Muslim name, & his lawyers were beaten in open court. Such brazen persecution must cease. Ahmadi prisoners of conscience should be released.”

 The United Nations and global human rights groups have long expressed serious concern over the poor treatment of Ahmadis in Pakistan which continues unabated. In view of such hate-filled propaganda, there is a likelihood that Ahmadis would be deprived of fulfilling this fundamental practice associated with this event and many would have to face criminal prosecution just because of practicing their faith. 

The Eid ul Azha Festival is going to be celebrated in Pakistan in the end of June 2023 and, as the situation of Ahmadis living in Pakistan is precarious and Mullahs as well as police are trying to persecute them only because of performing their religious rituals, hence, once again we plead to the International Community to take urgent action to urge the Government of Pakistan to safeguard the civil and religious freedoms of Ahmadis and provide them with the safety and security in order to observe and practise their faith. 

We once again urge the international community to pressure the Government of Pakistan to honor its responsibility to provide protection to all its citizens, ensure freedom of religious practice to Ahmadis, and bring perpetrators of such vicious attacks to justice. The Government of Pakistan must also bring its laws and practices in conformity with international standards as ordained by Article 2, 18 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 25, 26.

Source: International Human Rights Committee, U.K.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Kandy

Mr President and the Minister in charge of Internal Security, please see the following incident where an ethnic extremist  politician in the hill country, who is also not a legitimate Bhummiputra of this Island nation has taken the law into his hand and intimidated and obstructed the police officers who were only  carrying out their  duties on behalf of the  state

Please take immediate action to sack him from the Cabinet and charge him for unlawful assembly. intimidation and obstructing the police that was carrying out its legitimate duties of maintaining law and order. Also, charge him for abuse of political power against the very government where he is supposed to be a Minister. Maybe the post of Minister is too heavy for him.

This is not the first time these Tamil politicians behaved like this. I remember how once his father also sat on the table of the OIC of a police station threatening him over some issue.. Had the then government taken action against him and put him in his place his son would never have behaved like this.

It is high time that these politicians of the plantation sector realize that this is not Taminadu. Even there if he had behaved like this  he would have been behind bars by now. These politicians whether they are Sinhala,Tamil or Muslim they should know that, as the lawmakers of the country  they are the first people who should cooperate with the law enforcing officers.But isn’t it shameless and ridiculous  for them to take the lead as thugs to break the very law they are supposed to have made.

 Kudos to SP Hatton and the police officers who stuck to the law

I wish the IGP commend the Hatton SP and other officers who have resisted  a mad politician and stood by the law.

Minister Thonda confronts police over arrest of suspect, demands transfer of officers

Island on 2023/06/26

Minister Thondaman with the police at Bogawanthalawa on Saturday (pic courtesy Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Ministry)

By Nalaka Ratnayake and Norman Palihawadana

Police and Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Minister Jeevan Thondaman have traded accusations over the latter’s intervention with the Bogawanthalawa Police, following the arrest of a 28-year-old person involved in a dispute with the manager of a state bank in the area. The police arrested the suspect in Bogawantalawa town on 22 June, hours after the bank manager lodged a complaint.

Police said Minister Thondaman and a group of supporters had arrived at Bogawantalawa on 24 June in the late afternoon and berated police officers for taking the suspect, named Kalaichelvam, into custody. Hatton District Judge and Magistrate M Farookdeen has remanded the suspect till 27 June, pending investigations.

When The Island raised the issue with Minister Thondaman’s Office, a spokesperson said that the Minister had called for an impartial inquiry as the police had allegedly assaulted the suspect when he was taken into custody. The Minister had taken up the issue because the police had allegedly committed an excess, he said.

Jeevan Thondaman successfully contested the Nuwara Eliya District at the last general election on the SLPP ticket. The CWC MP was accommodated in the Cabinet in January this year by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Sources said that Minister Thondaman had summoned the OIC of the Bogawanthalawa Police Station Chief Inspector Sampath Bandara and three police officers who carried out the arrest.

The Minister has demanded the immediate transfer of the three policemen out of the Bogawantalawa Police Station and to assign one of them to the CWC main office at Kotagala.

Minister Thondaman has threatened to discontinue water supply to the Bogawantalawa Police Station, unless his demands are met.Hatton SP H.N. M. Dehigama, who arrived at the scene, had told Minister Thondaman that the officers couldn’t be transferred until the conclusion of an internal investigation. The senior officer said that the investigation was based on video footage of the arrest now on social media platforms.

Sources said that the suspect had inquired about the bank balance of another person and an argument had erupted when bank workers declined to grant his request, pointing out that it was illegal to release such information to a third party.

ආචාර්ය ටිකිරි බණ්ඩාර ඇටිපොළ සම ලේකම් – සත්ව අවිහිංසා ජාතික එකමුතුව

ගවයින්, එළුවන් ඇතුළුව තවත් අහිංසක සතුන්ගේ ජිවිත ඉතා ඛේදනීය අයුරින් බිලිගන්නා තිරස්චීන ආගමික උත්සවයක් ‍ඉදිරියේදී එළැඹෙන්නට නියමිත බව දින දර්ශනය කියාපායි. දහස් ගණන් සතුන්ගේ ජිවිත බිලිගනිමින්, එම අහිංසක සතුන්ගේ රුධිරයෙන් තම දෑත් හා නිවෙස් සෝදා දමන මෙම දිනය, ගවයින් ඇතුළුව ලොව පුරා කෝටි සංඛ්‍යාත අහිංසක සතුන්ගේ දුක් වේදනා ගුවනට මුසුවන ඛේදනීය දිනයකි. දියණු කාර්මික යුගයේ සිටින කාලයක පවා තවමත් මෙවන් ගෝත්‍රික සිරිත් විරිත් සිදුකරමින්, සොබාදහමත් කම්පා කරවන, නොදියුණු ආගමික සංස්කෘතීන් තවමත් සමාජය තුළ මුල්බැස තිබීම ඉතා කණගාටුවට කරුණකි.

එක්තරා ආගමික විශ්වාසයකට අනුව, තම දරුවන්, බිරිඳ, ඥාතීන් බලා සිටියදීම ගෘහ මූලිකයා ගේ සියතින් අහිංසක සතුන්ගේ පණ නල වේදනාත්මක අන්දමින් උදුරා ගැනීම අනුමත කර තිබේ. මෙම කෲර දර්ශනය සහ සතුන්ගේ රුධිරය ගලායන අයුරු දකින දරුවන්ගේ මනසට ඇතිකරන බලපෑම නම් ම්ලේච්ඡත්වය සහ කෲරත්වය මිස වෙනකක් නොවේ. අනේකවිධ වධ හිංසාකර පසුව බෙලි කැපී, ප‍්‍රාණය නිරුද්ධ වන තෙක් වේදනාවෙන් දඟලන සතුන් දෙස බලාසිටීම මෙන්ම තම දෑත් හා නිවෙස් එම සත්වයාගේ රුධිරයෙන් සෝදා දැමීම වැනි දෑ මිලේච්ඡත්වය මිස අන්කවරක්දැයි විමසිය යුතුව තිබේ. පුරාතනයේ පටන් උතුම් සංස්කෘතික ගුණාංගවලින් හෙබි මෙම දිවයින තුළ මෙවන් ම්ලේච්ඡ ආගමික චාරිත‍්‍ර හෝ සංස්කෘතියක කොටස් ඔවුන්ගේ උතුම් සංස්කෘතියක් ලෙස, දේශපාලනික උවමනාවම මත අප පිළිගත යුතුදැයි ද ප්‍රශ්ණ කළ යුතුය. ආගමික උවමනාව මත කුරිරු ලෙස සතුන් ඝාතනය කිරීම, එම ඝාතනයන් නැරඹීමට සැලැස්වීම හා ඒවා උත්සවශ්‍රීයෙන් සැමරීම කොතෙක් දුරට ශිෂ්ට සම්පන්නද? සාදාචාරාත්මකද? මිනිසත්කමට ඔබිනවාදැයි බුද්ධිමත් ඔබ සිතා බලන්න.

එබැවින්, ඉදිරි දින කිහිපය, විශේෂයෙන්ම ගවයින්ට හා එළුවන්ට ඉතා අනතුරුදායක කාලයකි. ගවයින් සොරකම් කිරීම, උපක්‍රමශීලීව පැහැර ගැනීම, නීති විරෝධී ලෙස ප‍්‍රවාහනය කිරීම හා සතුන් සඟවා ගැනීමට ඉඩඇති කාලයකි. ගෙවීගිය දින කිහිපයේත් ගවයන් මෙන්ම, වසු පැටවුන් හොරකම් කිරීම් පිළිබඳව දසතින් පුවත් වාර්තා වී තිබිණි.

මේ හේතුවෙන් ඉදිරි දින කිහිපය තුළ නිවෙස් වල, ගව පට්ටිවල, තම ගම්බිම් වල සැරිසරන ගවයින් හා එළුවන්ගේ ජිවිත ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීම සඳහා දැඩි අවධානය යොමු කරන ලෙසත්, අහිංසක සතුන්ගේ ජිවිත හානිය වළක්වා ගැනීම සඳහාත් ගතහැකි සෑම පියවරක්ම ගන්නා ලෙසත්, සත්ව අවිහිංසා ජාතික එකමුතුව ආචාරධර්ම හා ශිෂ්ටත්වය අගයන රටවැසියන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී. 

ආචාර්ය ටිකිරි බණ්ඩාර ඇටිපොළ
සම ලේකම් – සත්ව අවිහිංසා ජාතික එකමුතුව

Written and compiled by Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge- Associate Professor 

Educational underachievement is a major problem among children. Many children struggle in school with learning difficulties. Some learning difficulties relate to neurobiological factors and alter brain functioning.

The term” learning difficulties” is used to cover a wide range of problems. Children who have difficulty with handwriting or in learning to read and spell often manifest problems such as memory recall blocks, attention deficit, speech delay, clumsiness, poor coordination, and other health problems. Each child’s difficulties are unique, and these difficulties are a combination of auditory, visual, muscular, chemical, emotional, and neurological imbalances.

According to Dr Thiloka Sundari Kariyawasam a renowned Educational Psychologist, nearly 30% of Sri Lankan children show learning difficulties. Learning difficulties are sometimes considered a form of infirmity that needs therapy. Many children with learning difficulties continue to struggle with learning in the classroom, from isolation or withdrawal to clowning or acting out.

Children who struggle with learning are especially vulnerable. Their difficulties may be hard for them to understand and may go unrecognized by others. Many soon experience the embarrassment, confusion, and humiliation that go hand in hand with falling behind their peers in school. 

Often learning difficulties are frequently not recognized early. The following signs may also be clues that an individual is experiencing difficulties with learning:

1. ·        Having difficulty paying attention
2. ·        Hiding, losing, or avoiding schoolwork or homework
3. ·        Being especially sensitive to criticism, mistakes, or poor grades
4. ·        Giving up easily, appearing poorly motivated
5. ·        Showing anger and frustration when engaged in schoolwork,
6. ·        Having attendance problems, becoming school phobic
7. ·        Avoiding schoolwork through over-involvement in other activities
8. ·        Becoming withdrawn, shy, anxious, helpless, hopeless, or depressed
9. ·        Lowering personal expectations for performance
10. ·     Demonstrating lowered self-esteem, difficulty taking risks, devalued sense of personal worth

Slow Learners

According to the International Literacy Association, children with an IQ level of 70 to 85 are considered slow learners. A child can be described as a slow learner if his or her thinking skills develop at a notably slower rate than that of his or her peers. These children need more resources from their teachers to grasp new academic concepts. 

Slow learners tend to be left behind because they are expected to learn at the same rate as the average student. Pressure from time limits can hinder their thinking capacity. Parents tend to get overly stressed about their children being slow learners and sometimes they are being subjected to excessive punishments. Slow learners must be dealt with with patience, empathy, and understanding. It’s important to maintain a positive attitude and consistently support slow-learning children. Sometimes oral learning over visual learning can be helpful to these kids. It is important to set small targets that are achievable with them. 

Learning Difficulties and Vision Problems

Learning is accomplished through complex and interrelated processes, one of which is vision. Vision and learning are closely related. Visual problems are contributing to learning problems. Determining the relationships between vision and learning involves more than evaluating eye health and clarity of sight. Problems in identifying and treating children with learning-related vision problems arise when such a limited definition of vision is employed. Children with undetected vision problems complain of headaches when they try to read, and they often avoid reading exercises.

Learning Difficulties and Hearing Problems

Listening is the most basic skill required for verbal communication and a weakness in listening ability may hinder the development of a strong language base. Some children with learning difficulties are having impaired hearing, The potential for hearing impairment should be investigated in children with learning difficulties. Due to hearing impairments, children can have poor language development and lower educational achievements. A child who can’t hear well will struggle to keep up, may get restless and act out in class, or disengage from lessons. Assessment of a child with suspected hearing impairments should be carried out by an ENT specialist.

Malnutrition and Learning Difficulties

There are links between malnutrition and learning difficulties. Maternal malnutrition can affect the development of the fetus, cause intra-uterine growth delay, and increase the risk of the infant developing impairments. Young children who are malnourished as defined by underweight (low weight-for-age) and stunting (low height-for-age) are also more likely to screen positive for learning difficulties. These children have nutrition-related health problems as well. Malnutrition can result in long-term neural issues in the brain, which can impact a child’s emotional responses, reactions to stress, learning disabilities, and other medical complications.Vitamin andnutrient deficiency can affect a child’s ability to learn, concentrate, and vision.

Anxiety and Learning Difficulties

Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress.  It’s marked with anticipation of a future concern and avoidance behavior. Also, involves persistent and excessive worry. The ongoing worry and tension may be accompanied by physical symptoms, such as restlessness, feeling on edge, or easily fatigued.

Children can be prone to anxiety. The child’s ongoing anxiety can impact the learning process. Following anxiety children have difficulty learning, remembering, and recalling new information. Students with excessive anxiety may have difficulty paying attention. Also, the information is not processed, and Information is not stored appropriately. On the other hand, children with learning difficulties are significantly more likely to have challenges with anxiety. It is important to know that there is a strong connection between anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Depression and Learning Difficulties

Childhood depression can cause learning difficulties. Furthermore, Children with learning difficulties are prone to chronic depression. Children tend to exhibit non-verbal clues and express their emotional struggles more by their behavior than by talking These children can show alienation, agitation sometimes aggressive behavior. Their low self-esteem is observable, and it is frequently expressed through self-deprecating and negative talk. Their ongoing depression can interfere with academic, family, and social functioning.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities experienced by children. Dyslexia was originally called word blindness” and was thought to be a visual problem. The neuropsychologists indicate that dyslexia is characterized by dysfunction of the normal left hemisphere language network and also implicates abnormal white matter development. Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by slow and inaccurate word recognition. It has been reported in every culture. However, Dyslexia is not due to problems with intelligence, hearing, or vision. When dyslexia goes undiagnosed and untreated, childhood reading difficulties continue into adulthood.

Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand number-based information and math. The symptoms of this disorder usually appear in childhood, especially when children learn how to do basic math. Experts estimate it affects between 3% and 7% of people worldwide. Individuals with dyscalculia have difficulties with all areas of mathematics — problems not explained by a lack of proper education, intellectual disabilities, or other conditions.

 Learning Difficulties in Children with Epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the commonest neurological disorders in childhood. Approximately 50 percent of children with epilepsy have some form of learning difficulty. Epilepsy in childhood can impair cognitive functions. Often these children are having attention problems, learning disabilities, and other cognitive weaknesses, such as difficulty with memory or problem-solving skills it is important to note that children with seizures are at increased risk for mental health, developmental, and physical comorbidities, increasing needs for care coordination and specialized services.

 Conduct Disorders and Learning Difficulties

Conduct disorder is a serious behavioral and emotional disorder that can occur in children and teens. A child with this disorder may display a pattern of disruptive and violent behavior. They have a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that involves a violation of the basic rights of others and of the major age-appropriate social norms. The conduct problems are evident at school at home, within the community, and with peers. A common feature of conduct disorder is physical verbal aggression, damage to the property, stealing, lying, and cheating. Children with conduct disorders, often initiate physical fights, intimidate, or insult others. There are some case studies that indicate involvement in sexual activities. Many children with conduct disorders have learning difficulties. They need counseling, psychotherapy, and medical interventions.

Treating Learning Difficulties

Children with learning disorders often need extra help and guidance. Wide-ranging treatment is essential when dealing with learning difficulties. Childhood depression and anxiety can negatively affect the learning process in children. Emotional trauma especially parental derivation, and child abuse can cause diminished learning abilities in children. Treatment interventions are crucial for a child’s mental health Apart from psychological therapies drug therapies are also needed. Medication can improve their ability to focus and concentrate.

Counseling helps to build trust, self-esteem, and confidence in children. Bottled-up emotions often get dispersed after successful counseling sessions and children feel more positive in the classroom. Similarly, the cognitive mode of therapy helps to improve brainpower and concentration. Psychotherapy helps to deal with emotional issues and develop coping skills. Some children need speech and language therapy.

Children with learning difficulties are benefited from special education services and they need Individualized education programs. Intensive teaching techniques, like one-on-one instruction help to curb their difficulties. Multi-modal teaching is important.

Parent behavior training is important, and it teaches parents to use positive reinforcement methods to improve the behavior of children with learning difficulties. Home-based support is essential. Using motivators like goals, encouragement, and positive reinforcement is effective.

Many children face obstacles at school. The teachers should help the children to handle these obstacles without becoming discouraged or overwhelmed. It is essential to focus on strengths, not just weaknesses. Every child is equipped with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. The children have their own unique learning styles. Some slow learners show improvements in later years. These children need love, encouragement, and support. The teachers and parents should uplift their sense of self-worth and confidence.

Written and compiled by Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge- Associate Professor 

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

චීනය, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ලබාදෙන අඛණ්ඩ සහය ඉතා ඉහළින් අගය කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා පවසයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපති කි ෂෙන්හොං (Qi Zhenhong )මහතා 2023.06.26 දින කොළඹ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී හමුවූ අවස්ථාවේදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා සදහන් කළේ ආර්ථික ප්‍රශ්නවලට දීර්ඝ කාලීන විසඳුම් වෙනුවෙන් චීනයෙන් සෘජු ආයෝජන මෙන්ම කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය, පුනර්ජනනීය බලශක්තිය, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ, අධ්‍යාපන සහ ජල සම්පාදන ක්ෂේත්‍රවල ආයෝජන අපේක්ෂා කරන බවයි.

නව ආයෝජන ව්‍යාපෘති, චීනය සමඟ වෙළෙඳාම පුළුල් කිරීම, කොළඹ වරාය නගරය, හම්බන්තොට වරාය, දරිද්‍රතාවය පිටුදැකීමේ වැඩසටහන්, අධ්‍යාපනය, කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය, සංස්කෘතික හුවමාරු , ඉහළ පෙළේ සබඳතා සහ අඩු වරප්‍රසාද ලත් අයට ආධාර සම්බන්ධ කරුණු මෙම සාකච්ඡාවේදී ආවරණය කෙරිණී.

චීනයේ යුනාන් ප්‍රාන්තයේ නිෂ්පාදනය කරන ලද ඉහළ අස්වැන්නක් සහිත සහල් වර්ග හඳුන්වා දී මෙරට වී නිෂ්පාදනය ඉහළ නැංවීම සඳහා ග්‍රාමීය ජනයාට සහාය වන ලෙස අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මෙහිදී චීන තානාපතිවරයාගෙන් විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමක් කළේය.

තානාපති කිව් ෂෙන්හොං මහතා දුෂ්කරතා මඟහරවා ගැනීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දරණ ප්‍රයත්නය දැකීමෙන් සතුටු වන බව පැවසූ අතර ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීම සහ ආර්ථික අභියෝගවලට මුහුණ දීම සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වත්මන් ප්‍රයත්නයන් සපුරාලීම සඳහා චීනයේ අඛණ්ඩ සහයෝගය ලබා දෙන බවට සහතික විය. බදුල්ල සහ බුත්තල වැනි දුෂ්කර ප්‍රදේශවල පාසල්වලට ගොස් අධ්‍යාපන අවශ්‍යතා ලබා දීමට සැලසුම් කර ඇති බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වත්මන් ආර්ථික අර්බුදය සමනය කිරීම සඳහා චීනය ලබා දෙන සහය පිළිබඳව ස්තූතිය පළ කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා, එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය ඇතුළු ජාත්‍යන්තර සමුළුවලදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ස්වෛරීභාවය වෙනුවෙන් චීනයේ ස්ථාවරය පිළිබඳව විශේෂ සඳහනක් කළේය.

දෙරට අතර ඓතිහාසික ද්විපාර්ශ්වික සබඳතා පිළිබඳ සතුටුදායක සඳහනක් සහිතව සාකච්ඡාව ආරම්භකෙරිණි. දීර්ඝ කාලීන සංස්කෘතික සබඳතා තවදුරටත් ශක්තිමත් කර ගැනීමේ වැදගත්කම මෙම හමුවේදී චීන තානාපතිවරයා සඳහන් කළ අතර චීන බෞද්ධ සංගම් මගින් විහාරස්ථානවලට සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් වැදගත් ථෙරවාදී බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පිහිටුවීමට අඛණ්ඩව උපකාර කරන බවත් පැවසීය. මෙම යෝජනා කඩිනමින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටුවක් පිහිටුවීමට අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා එකඟ විය.

– අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

Courtesy Nikkei Asia

Funding would be biggest infusion for crisis-hit nation since IMF deal

COLOMBO (Reuters) — Sri Lanka will enter into an agreement with the World Bank for $500 million in budgetary support after the cabinet approved it on Tuesday, the biggest funding tranche for the crisis-hit nation since an International Monetary Fund deal in March.

The island nation of 22 million is emerging out of its worst economic crisis in seven decades and its economy is expected to shrink 2% this year before returning to growth next year, following last year’s record contraction of 7.8%.

Reuters reported last week that the World Bank is likely to approve $700 million in budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka at its board meeting on June 28, out of which $200 million will be for welfare programs.

The government said on Tuesday that funding from the lender will come in two tranches.

Lanka Lead News

අරගලය අවස්ථාවේ නිතිඥයන් බහුතරයක් සිටියේ අරගලකරුවන්ගේ පාර්ශවයේ බවත්, අරගලකරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් නොමිලේ පෙනීසිටින බව පැවසූ නිතිඥයන් අද සොයා ගැනීමටවත් නැති බවත් නීතිඥ මනෝජ් ගමගේ මහතා පවසයි.

අමරකීර්ති අතුකෝරළ මන්ත්‍රීවරයාව එදා මහමග ඇදගෙන ගොස් මලේච්ඡ ලෙස මරා දැමූ අරගලකරුවන් 42 ට විරුද්ධව මහ අධිකරණයේ අධිචෝදනා ගොනුවෙද්දී අරගලකරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් නොමිලේ පෙනීසිටින බව පැවසූ නිතිඥයන්ගේ දුරකථන ප්‍රතිචාර නොදක්වන බවත් ඒ මහතා පවසයි.

මෙසේ සිදුවන බව එදා තමන් පැවසූ බවද, සියයට 3 පක්ෂයට රට ගිණිතියන්න ඉඩ දුන්නා නම් අද රටක් ඉතුරු නොවන බව ද නිතිඥවරයා වැඩි දුරටත් පවසයි.

Courtesy The Morning

The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka, the Mahavamsa”, has been listed among the 64 new items of documentary heritage inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Memory of the World (MoW) International Register in 2023.

It is one of the world’s longest unbroken historical accounts, and the first of its kind in South Asia, initiating a mature historiographic tradition, presenting Sri Lanka’s history in chronological order from the 6th Century Before the Common Era (BCE) to 1815 CE. The authenticity of the facts provided in the document has been confirmed through archaeological research conducted in Sri Lanka and India. It is an important historical source in South Asia containing crucial information about the lifetime of the Buddha, the emperor Asoka, and the rise of Buddhism as a world religion. The document played a significant role in popularising Buddhism in South East Asia and contributed singularly to the identity of Asoka in Indian history. The existence of a number of manuscripts of the Mahavamsa in several countries as well as the transliteration and translation of the text to several South East Asian and European languages stand testimony to its immense historical, cultural, literal, linguistic, and scholarly values.

The Memory of the World Register lists documentary heritage that has been recommended by the International Advisory Committee and endorsed by the Director General of UNESCO as corresponding to the selection criteria regarding world significance and outstanding universal valu

Courtesy Adaderana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe assured that the restructuring of domestic debt will have no impact on the membership balance of any public funds, including the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). He emphasized that the rate of return for superannuation funds will not be affected in any way.

Furthermore, the President stated that the restructuring of domestic debt will not pose any threat to the stability of the country’s banking system, whether it be public or private banks. He specifically mentioned that the deposits of more than 50 million bank depositors will remain unaffected, and there will be no changes to the current interest rates paid on bank deposits.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe also announced that proposals for restructuring both foreign and domestic debt will be presented to the Cabinet tomorrow (28).
The President made these statements while inaugurating the Gampaha District Secretariat Administrative Complex, ‘Laksiyane Mandiraya,’ which has been constructed with the aim of providing efficient and regular government services to the people of the Gampaha district. The complex, with an expenditure of nearly Rs. 4 billion, stands at seven stories tall.

It was highlighted that Sri Lanka’s total public debt, comprising both domestic and foreign debt, amounted to $83,700 million by the end of 2022, representing 128.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of this amount, the foreign debt totalled $41,500 million, accounting for 63.6% of the GDP. The President also noted that the domestic debt at that time stood at $42,100 million, which constituted 64.6% of the GDP.

The President highlighted the urgency of restructuring the country’s debt, stating that without such measures, the public debt would exceed 100% of the GDP by 2035. He emphasized that foreign creditors have already expressed their agreement to participate in the debt restructuring process.

To ensure debt sustainability in Sri Lanka, the President emphasized the need for restructuring both external and domestic debt. 

Acknowledging the significant burden carried by foreign creditors, he mentioned that the country is set to receive 17 billion US dollars from them in the next five years. The President emphasized the importance of local creditors also contributing to this effort.

The proposed debt restructuring plan has been designed with the primary objective of safeguarding the public’s bank deposits. The President underlined the responsibility of protecting the depositors of all banks regulated by the Central Bank. 

He assured that the proposed domestic debt restructuring method poses no harm to bank depositors and will not lead to a collapse of the banking system. On the contrary, it will pave the way for a restructuring process that can rebuild the economy.

The President further stated that the country’s economic recovery, reduction in interest rates, the government’s ability to provide subsidies easily, and the reduction of both domestic and foreign debt burden in the next decade will yield positive results benefiting the people of the country.

During his official visit to France, the President engaged in discussions with Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Netherlands Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag, American Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi regarding foreign debt restructuring. The President highlighted the progress being made in Sri Lanka’s financial sector during these discussions. He expressed satisfaction that they were all eager to assist in reversing the crisis in Sri Lanka and affirmed their commitment to contribute significantly to the country’s economic recovery.

The President also said that during a recent telephone conversation with the Indian Finance Minister, Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, she had expressed her country’s intention to positively contribute to Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring and economic stability. The President said that he would hold detailed discussions on the matter during his upcoming visit to India.

The President also mentioned that Foreign Minister Ali Sabri, who is currently on an official visit to China, has agreed to enhance bilateral relations and strengthen economic ties between the two countries. Minister Sabri held fruitful discussions with China’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Qin Gang, sharing their views on deepening cooperation.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe further revealed that, during a meeting with the Chinese Finance Minister, Liu Kun, in Beijing, he was briefed on the economic stabilization and progress plan of the country. Minister Ali Sabri expressed gratitude for China’s special contribution during the previous crisis.

During the visit, the President held discussions with the Chairman of the Chinese Exim Bank, Wu Fulin, and other Chinese officials appointed for the purpose of restructuring Sri Lanka’s foreign debt. They assured their commitment to contribute to the debt restructuring process in the best possible manner.

The event was attended by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Ministers Prasanna Ranatunga, Nalin Fernando, State Ministers Shehan Semasinghe, Prasanna Ranaweera, Sisira Jayakodi, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Janaka Wakkambura, Gampaha District Development Committee Chairman and Members of Parliament Sahan Pradeep, Nimal Lanza, Sudarshanee Fernandopulle, Milan Jayathilaka, President’s Senior Adviser on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardena, Western Province Governor Roshan Gunathilaka, and other dignitaries.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry has called for a ‘global debt restructuring architecture’, in a bid to prevent smaller countries and emerging economies from ‘embroiling in controversy forever’.

Speaking to CNBC during his visit to China, Sabry spoke of several matters of concern, including the potential ways in which China could aid Sri Lanka’s propelled growth.

The foreign minister, who is in China to participate in the World Economic Forum being held in Tianjin from 27 – 29 June, met with his counterpart and Chinese State Councilor Qin Gang, the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China and China’s Finance Minister, and deemed all discussions held with these individuals as ‘very fruitful and cordial’.

All those discussions were very very fruitful and very cordial and they have given us the undertaking that they will continue to support Sri Lanka’s next space of development”, he said.

Speaking further on Zambia’s recent deal with China to restructure USD 6.3 billion in loans, Sabry emphasised that the deal in question gave Sri Lanka a lot of ‘optimism and hope’, adding that it was time for a global debt restructuring architecture.

I think it’s time that we need to have a global debt restructuring architecture’ which would help smaller countries, emerging economies and frontier countries so that they could quickly get out of the trouble and get into the next space without being embroiled in controversy forever”, he said in this regard.

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s current economic situation, Sabry acknowledged that while the country has made moderate gains over the last 10 months, there is a still a ‘long way to go’.

Things are looking better compared to what it used to be, but we have a long way to go”, he said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs also noted that discussions are underway with several parties including bilateral, multilateral and local creditors and bond holders, including private and commercial creditors, in order to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt, as part of working in accordance with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) debt sustainability analysis, in order to obtain he agreed Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of USD 2.4 billion.

Courtesy The Telegraph

Vladimir Putin said blackmail attempts” were doomed to failure” in an angry address after an aborted mutiny by Wagner mercenary fighters over the weekend. 

The Russian President claimed the mutineers wanted Russians to fight each other” but had badly miscalculated” as he thanked those who had stood down to avoid bloodshed.

Mr Putin said he would honour his promise to allow Wagner fighters to relocate to Belarus if they wanted, or to sign a contract with the Defence Ministry or simply return to their families.

He made no mention of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the mutiny.

The address to the nation had been heavily trailed by the Kremlin, which earlier said the speech would determine the fate of Russia”. 

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s chief spokesman, said the Russian president would make  a series of important statements”.

He added: These statements, without exaggeration, will determine the fate of Russia.”

In his speech, which lasted around five minutes, Mr Putin did not reference any potential prosecution for Mr Prigozhin or his future at all but he sought to portray his fighters as victims.

We do know that the overwhelming majority of the Wagner group are also operators of Russia. They proved it by their courage on the battlefield. They were being used,” he said.

I thank those soldiers who prevented bloodshed, who stopped at the final line: Now you have a chance to continue your service to Russia by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defence or any law enforcement agencies or go back to your families. Those who wish to will be able to go to Belarus. I will keep my promise.”

The aim of the mutiny was to avoid the destruction of the Wagner group of mercenaries, which Mr Prigozhin said was going to be terminated on July 1.

Dilrook Kannangara

The Vallipuram Inscription or Vallipuram Gold Plate is an important ancient artifact that busted fake homeland claims of a certain ethnic group found. It was unearthed as part of archeological excavations carried out during the British era. It states that the Sinhala Buddhist temple in the area now known as Vallipuram (Veli Pura or Veheli Pura in the past) and the area were directly under the rule of the Sinhala King Vasabha in the first century AD which he governed through a governor he appointed which is the normal practice. It also symbolizes state patronage of Sinhala Buddhist shrines in the past.

Sadly, these facts became unpalatable for tribal-minded separatists. They distorted the inscription with changes made to the letters on the inscription. Tamil Nadu language letters were introduced into the inscription which were not there in the original.

Thankfully Most Venerable Walpola Sri Rahula Thero took a photograph of the original inscription and preserved it. Decades later the inscription was recovered by the government of Sri Lanka and is now preserved at the museum. However, that has been distorted maliciously.

The fifth letter of the top row has been changed to a Tamil Nadu language letter which was not there in the inscription. The seventh letter in the second row and the third last letter of the last row have also been distorted to Tamil Nadu language letters.

A comparison of the two is displayed in the following picture. Credits to the owners of these images which is acknowledged along with the images.

Photo credit: Amazinglanka.com

Manusha Media

විදේශ රැකියා ක්ෂේත්‍රය ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කරන ලෙසට ඉල්ලා සිටිමින් සිංහල රාවය සංවිධානයේ අක්මීමන දයාරතන හිමියන් ඇතුළු එම සංවිධානයේ නියෝජිතයින් පිරිසක් අමාත්‍යාංශයට පැමිණ කළ ඉල්ලීමට කම්කරු සහ විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා සුබවාදී ප්‍රතිචාරයක් ලබාදුන්නේය.

සිංහල රාවය ජාතික සංවිධානයේ නියෝජිත කණ්ඩායම පෙර දැනුම්දීමකින් තොරව අමාත්‍යාංශයට පැමිණ තිබුණත් අමාත්‍යවරයා ඒ වන විට පැවති සාකච්ඡාවක් මදකට නතර කර එම නියෝජිත කණ්ඩායම හමුවිය.

රටට වැඩිම විදේශ විනිමයක් ගෙන එන මාර්ගය වෙන්නේ විදේශ ගත ශ්‍රමිකයින් මෙරටට ගෙන එනු ලබන විදේශ ප්‍රේශණයි. විදේශ ගත ශ්‍රමිකයා විවිධ අවස්ථාවලදී ගැටලුවලට මුහුණ දෙන විට ඒවා කළමනාකරණය කිරීම සදහා ක්‍රමවත් වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙන්නේ නෑ. ඒ නිසාම ශ්‍රමිකයින් විවිධ අවස්ථාවලදී නොයෙක් ගැටලුවලට මුහුණ දෙනවා. ඒකට තියෙන විසදුම තමයි විදේශ රැකියා ක්ෂේත්‍රය ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කිරීම. විදේශ රැකියා ක්ෂේත්‍රය ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කළොත් කිසියම් රටක ඉන්න ශ්‍රමිකයෙක් මොකක් හරි ගැටලුවකට මුහුණ දුන්නොත් එක බොත්තමක් එබුවම අදාල සියලුම බලධාරීන්ට ඒවා බලාගන්න පුලුවන්. මේ වගේ විසදුමක් විදේශ ගත ශ්‍රමිකයින්ට ලබාදෙන්න”අක්මීමන දයාරතන හිමියෝ ඉල්ලා සිටියහ. විදේශ රැකියා ක්ෂේත්‍රය කඩිනමින් ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කරන ලෙසද එවැනි පියවරක් ගතහොත් එය විශාල පිංකමක් බවද දයාරතන හිමියෝ පැවසූහ.

එයට සුභවාදී ප්‍රතිචාරයක් ලබාදුන් අමාත්‍යවරයා පැවසුවේ විදේශ රැකියා ක්ෂේත්‍රය ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කිරීම සදහා අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගනිමින් සිටින බවය. 

කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් ආර්.පී.ඒ. විමලවීර මහතාද මෙම සාකච්ඡාවට එක්ව සිටි අතර ඔහු පැවසුවේ 

විදේශ රැකියා ක්ෂේත්‍රය ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කිරීම මගින් මේ තියෙන ප්‍රශ්නවලින් සියයට 99ක් විසදන්න පුලුවන්. විදේශ රැකියා ඩිජිටල්කරණය කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන අනුමැතීන් ලබාගැනීම මාසයක් දෙකක් ඇතුළත අවසන් කිරීමට හැකියාව ලැබේවි. ලබන අවුරුද්දේ ජනවාරි මාසයේ ඉදලා මේ ඩිජිටල්කරණ ක්‍රියාදායම ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න පුලුවන් වේවි කියලා අපි විශ්වාස කරනවා. 

මේක පුංචි ඩිජිටල්කරණයක් නෙමෙයි. කිසියම් රැකියා ඇනවුමක් ලැබුණ දිනයේ සිට ශ්‍රමිකයා රට ගිහින් එන තුරු සියලුම කටයුතු ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කළ යුතුයි. මේවා ඩිජිටල්කරණයට ලක් කිරීම සදහා වන විශාල කටයුත්තක් කරන්න තියෙනවා” අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්වරයා සදහන් කළේය.

සමහර රටවල කාන්තාවන්ට කරදරයක් වුනාම ජංගම දුරකතනය අරගෙන දුක් සහිත මුහුණ ලකුණු කරන්න තියෙනවා. එතකොට ඒ රටේ තානාපති කාර්යාලය, ඉදලා සියලුම තැන් දැනුවත් වෙනවා.  තානාපති කාර්යාලය මැදිහත්වීම් නොකරන විට ඒවා අමාත්‍යාංශයට දැනගැනීමට හැකි ක්‍රමවේදයක් හදනවා. දැන් විදේශ රැකියාවලට ගිහින් නොයෙක් ගැටලුවලට මුහුණදෙන කාන්තාවන්ට හොරුන්ට අහුවෙලා ඉන්නේ. රවට්ටලා අරගෙන යන්නේ. පවුල් පසුබිම් වාර්තා, වෛද්‍ය වාර්තා බොරු. ඩිජිටල්කරණය හරහා මේ සියල්ල වලක්වා ගන්න තමයි අපි උත්සාහ ගන්නේ. අපි මේ වගේ වැඩක් කරගෙන යන විට සමහර අමාත්‍යාංශවලින් අනුමැතීන් ගැනීම සදහා යම් යම් ප්‍රමාදයන් එනවා. හාමුදුරුවන් අපිට නිතරම මේවා කරලා මතක් කරන එක අපි අගය කරනවා”අමාත්‍යවරයා සදහන් කළේය.

මේ අතර සිංහල රාවය ජාතික සංවිධානයේ ලේකම් මධුභාෂණ ප්‍රභාත් රණතුංග මහතා ඉල්ලා සිටියේ  විදේශ රැකියා ඒජන්සි ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම සදහා ක්‍රමවේදයක් සකස් කරන ලෙසය. ඒ සදහා වන ක්‍රමවේදයක් සකස් කරන ලෙස අමාත්‍යවරයා එම අවස්ථාවේදීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යාංශයට උපදෙස් දුන්නේය. 

විදේශ රැකියා ජාවාරම්වලින් ජනතාව ආරක්ෂා කරගැනීම සදහා ජනතාව දැනුවත් කිරීමට, දැනුවත් කිරීමේ වැඩසටහන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමේ වැදගත්කම පිළිබදවද මෙහිදී අවධානයට ලක්විය.

විදේශ රැකියාවක් සදහා පිටත්ව යන විට අත්සන් කරනු ලබන ගිවිසුමට සිංහල හා දෙමළ පිටපත් ඇතුළත් කර ඇති බව අමාත්‍යවරයා සිංහල රාවය සංවිධානයේ නියෝජිතයින්ට දැනුම් දුන්නේය. මේ අතර සංචාරක වීසා මගින් විදේශ රැකියා සදහා ශ්‍රමිකයින් රැගෙන යාමේ ජාවාරම් වැලැක්වීම සදහා විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති කාර්යංශ පනත වෙනස් කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන බවද අමාත්‍යවරයා කීවේය.

Malinda Seneviratne

Human beings are curious. Their curiosity prompts them to explore the unknown, venture into unmapped territory and test their own capacities to endure. They climb, they sail and they dive to depths never reached before.

Exploration itself is a challenge. Explorers encounter the unknown which could take the form of species and peoples never seen before as well as territories and environmental vagaries they are ill-equipped to handle. So there are costs, monetary and otherwise. Some pay with their lives.

Discovery is a happy byproduct of exploration. We get to know things we never knew before and in the process we, as a species, learn something more about ourselves. Science invariably keeps pace. Those who climb Everest today are far better equipped technologically than was Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. The discovery of the Titanic wreck in 1985 a joint French-US expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel and Robert Ballard in 1985 spurred others to think of further exploration and even commercial ‘visits.’ Scientists and engineers were commissioned by interested investors to develop vessels that could reach those depths and navigate any and every anomaly that could scuttle such efforts.

Obviously there are risks involved. There were at least 14 attempts to ascend Everest before Norgay and Hillary finally succeeded in 1953. Seven Sherpas were killed in an avalanche during an attempt led by Brigadier-General Charles Bruce in 1922. In 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared. The former’s body was discovered only 75 years later.

These tragedies/failures didn’t dissuade other explorers. Since Norgay and Hillary, more than 6,000 people have reached the summit of Mount Everest. And who can tell how many tried and failed and how many actually reached the summit long before it became ‘a project’ that was recorded?

We don’t know if all the determined people who attempted what had never been achieved before Norgay and Hillary were cautioned by friends, family and experts. It’s safe to say that some of them may have been told, ‘it has never been done before, so it cannot be done.’ A bit like ‘THE Revolution.’  Never been done therefore impossible, some would say. 

Just the other day we had James Cameron, director of the 1997 blockbuster ‘Titanic,’ drawing parallels between the wreck of the ship and the implosion of the submersible ‘Titan’ a few days ago. The Titanic had been warned about ice; the Titan was warned that since the vessel did not meet voluntary industrial standards there was the possibility of ‘minor to catastrophic’ outcomes.

The end? No. Tragedy is taken as a challenge by some people. There will be others convinced they could do better. There will be other investors who will commission other engineers and other experts to build a better submersible and they will no doubt learn from the mistakes of those who designed the Titan.

There were Sherpas, many of them in fact, and explorers who used their expertise to ascend Everest. The experience of the likes of Bruce, Mallory and Irvine would certainly have been invaluable to Norgay and Hillary. Every scientist who came up with an invention that has made life easier for all of humanity, stood on the shoulders of giants who came before, learnt from his or her numerous failures. Therefore, in a sense, those who designed and those who died on Titan have not really failed. They were ‘crazy,’ one could argue, but then again anyone who attempts or envisions that which has never been done before is invariably dismissed or vilified. Crazy, stupid, frivolous, unreasonable etc etc. They all earn such tags.

They inspire, nevertheless.

The Titanic was not the last ship, passenger liner or otherwise, British or otherwise, to venture into the North Atlantic Ocean.  It is unlikely that the Titan would be the last commercial submersible to attempt a Titanic wreck look-see.  The need to design a better vessel will probably generate technological innovation that could be used in other situations as well, some good and, invariably, some bad. That’s how it goes.

So, even as we are sad about the fate of the Titan’s passengers and appalled by media preferences that result in far worse tragedies being ignored, let us spare a moment at least to meditate on the fact that their efforts, dreams, adventurous spirit and, yes, even frivolous insanity may not be in vain. Let us spare a moment to be appreciative of those who attempted and failed to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Let us spare a moment for the unnamed and unknown who were crazy, creative and absolutely courageous and thereby added value to the human spirit.