Courtesy Adaderana

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says elections or constitutional amendments at this point will not solve the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka.

In a statement made today (April 13), the United National Party (UNP) leader stated that Sri Lanka is unable to make a USD 200 million loan repayment next week as the government decide to suspend all external debt repayments. This will place further pressure on the banking sector, he added.

This decision is an announcement by the government that the country is bankrupt, Wickremesinghe said further, noting that the responsibility is now on the new Finance Minister to discuss the prevailing situation with the International Monetary Fund during the discussions scheduled for next week in Washington DC.

By mid-May, the Indian Line of Credit will be over and by June, private businesses will be unable to operate due to a lack of foreign exchange, the former prime minister pointed out.

He said the incumbent government must take full responsibility for the bankruptcy of the country.

They must now engage all other political parties without any conditions. Last week in Parliament as the Opposition we apologized to the public for the failing. However, elections or constitutional amendments at this point will not solve the crisis in the country.”

After discussions are held with the Government and a plan is formulated conditions can be laid down. It is our responsibility to give everyone an equal hearing. In Lebanon the IMF agreement was reliant on it being tabled in Parliament for their approval. This must happen in Sri Lanka as well.”

The former prime minister, stating that Sri Lanka is in a very difficult situation, said the country is ending the year as a bankrupt country. He, however, expressed confidence in overcoming the crisis. It will take a national effort to do so. We will face a tough period, but we must face it. We can overcome this crisis and strengthen our economy. But this can only be done if we work together and to a plan.”

We will end this year as a bankrupt nation, but begin the New Year on a new journey. This can be done if everyone joins together. I wish you and your loved ones a happy Sinhala and Tamil New Year.”

Corporate Communications & Digital Marketing Specialist Lanka Property Web (Pvt) Ltd

According to the recently released House Price Index of LankaPropertyWeb that is based on asking prices for Q1 of 2022, the overall selling prices of apartments have soared by 36.08% from Q1 of 2021 while the overall residential land prices of Sri Lanka have reduced by 29.77%. 

Further analysis of the Colombo apartment prices showed that average prices of a 3 bedroom unit have increased from LKR 49.93 million in Q1 of 2021 to LKR 69.14 million in Q1 of 2022 accounting to a 27.28% increase in just over a year. Meanwhile, the average value of a 4 bedroom house in Colombo had reduced by 5.08% between the first quarters of 2021 and 2022.

A study on the foreign visitors to the LankaPropertyWeb website revealed that over the past 3 months, the foreign traffic increased by 20.6% especially after the government started floating the Rupee in the open market. Most visitors are from the United States (USA), UK, Australia, Canada and UAE and many have been on the lookout for houses for sale in Colombo followed by apartments for sale in Sri Lanka.

The search behavior patterns of these foreign visitors to LankaPropertyWeb also revealed that the highest number of searches for properties were in areas such as Colombo, Negombo, Jaffna, Kandy and Galle. This indicates similar local buyer patterns, where a high number of searches are for the suburbs away from the hustle and bustling city life.

With the pandemic and economic instabilities, the average USD value against LKR from 2020 January to 2022 March increased from LKR 180 level to LKR 295. This is a 64% rupee value depreciation in just 2 years. While this has negatively impacted the cost of living in Sri Lanka, for expats, this has opened an opportunity for investments in the country.

House Price Index 2021 vs Foreign Traffic

LankaPropertyWeb Research further analyzed the changes in property prices over the past year in relation to the foreign traffic hike. According to the House Price Index over the past 4 quarters of 2021, the overall selling prices of houses increased by 19.3%. The average 4 bedroom house that was priced at 45.17 million in Q1 was recorded as 53.9 million in Q4. Meanwhile, the value of apartments during the same period increased by 15.5% while land prices saw a reduction of 7.3%.

Given the increase in construction prices and US dollar value fluctuations, property prices are expected to increase further in the future in LKR. The Central Bank’s housing cost measure ‘Housing Index’, showed that house construction costs had risen by 909 points in Q2 of 2021 from Q1 of the same year. However, for expats, investing in property in USD during this time proves to be one of the most profitable investments.

Commenting on the current local market trends and buyer behavior, Bimasara Gamage, Managing Director of BIMSARA – Safetynet (Private) Limited said, Individual house constructions are on the decline with the escalated construction costs and now a majority tend to show a reluctance into building. But the demand for apartments is expected to grow and may even surpass the demand for houses, given the current situation.”

A study of the House Price Index further showed that the demand for houses and apartments in Q4 of 2021 had increased by 22.53% and 17.68% respectively. These were an all-time high compared to the previous records with the selling price of a 3 bedroom apartment unit in Colombo rising by 24.11%.

Most of the visitors are looking for apartments between Colombo 02 to 08 and the demanded price range is LKR 30-60Mn. Apart from the greater Colombo area Dehiwala, Mount Lavinia, Piliyandala and Battaramulla are highly regarded by the buyers who search for apartments between the price range of LKR 20-50Mn.

With developers offering monthly installment basis payment plans in partnership with commercial banks in Sri Lanka, buyers can now invest in property without having to pay in full at once.

For more details on the invest options available in the real estate market, contact us on 011-7167 167.

Courtesy Hiru News

Due to several reasons including the COVID-19 pandemic, global political imbalances and gradual erosion of fiscal position of the country, Sri Lanka is now facing social, economic and financial distress leading to disturbances to normal lives of our people.

Although the authorities are taking measures to address the current situation of the country including taking steps to actively manage its debt obligations, finding immediate financial assistance from friendly nations and progressing with the discussions with the International Monetary Fund for a comprehensive programme, the positive impacts of such measures will be enjoyed by our people only in the medium to long term.

However, urgent measures are needed to enhance the country’s foreign reserves position to meet day-to-day essential imports including food, fuel and medicines.

In this background, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) warmly welcomes the communications made by the Sri Lankans living abroad expressing their willingness to support the country at this crucial juncture by donating much needed foreign exchange to the Sri Lankan’s foreign reserves.

The well-wishers may make foreign exchange transfers to the following accounts maintained at respective banks by the CBSL, and the CBSL assures that such foreign currency transfers will be utilized only for importation of essential imports including food, fuel and medicines.

Courtesy Hiru News

The finance ministry in a press release said that the Sri Lankan government is suspending normal debt servicing of all affected external debts.  Sri Lanka is entering into a ‘pre-emptive negotiated default’ by giving notice ahead of time and asking lenders to come to the negotiating table, which is not a ‘hard default’ Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

The Sri Lankan government announced it would default on its external debt (estimated at $51 billion ) pending a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

For record-keeping purposes (and for purposes of determining the outstanding principal amount of Affected debts in the eventual restructuring), all principal and interest payments falling due after 5.00 p.m. local time today (12 April), under Affected Debts shall be deemed to have been capitalized (that is, added to the outstanding principal of the relevant debt) and such amounts shall bear interest during the interim period at the normal contractual rate applicable to that credit. Promptly after the scheduled due date for each amount of principal or interest affected by this policy, the Ministry of Finance shall send to the creditor (or to the relevant trustee or fiscal agent) written confirmation of the new principal amount of the Affected Debt as shown on the Ministry records.

The Finance Ministry said it would stand ready to execute a short-form instrument confirming the capitalization of maturing amounts for creditors that may require such documentation for regulatory or accounting purposes.

The holder of an Affected Debt that wishes to receive the Sri Lankan rupee equivalent of an amount falling due during the interim period in lieu of the capitalization of that amount, should contract the Finance Ministry as soon as practicable, but no later than one month from the day on which such amount fell due.

The Finance Ministry said it would attempt to accommodate such requests provided that doing so is consistent with the Central Bank’s monetary policy and is feasible under the relevant credit documentation.

The finance ministry said creditors, including foreign governments, were free to capitalise any interest payments due to them from Tuesday afternoon (12) or opt for payback in Sri Lankan rupees.

Sri Lanka will temporarily suspend foreign debt payments to avoid a hard default, the central bank governor said today(12), with its limited foreign reserves required for imports of essential items such as fuel.

“It has come to a point that making debt payments are challenging and impossible. The best action that can be taken is to restructure debt and avoid a hard default,” Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe told reporters.

Sri Lanka is due to start talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a loan programme next week, with the country suffering from prolonged power cuts alongside shortages of food and medicines.

Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves stood at a paltry $1.93 billion at the end of March, with foreign debt payments of around $4 billion due this year, including a $1 billion international sovereign bond maturing in July.

The governor said the action was being taken in good faith, emphasizing that the country of 22 million people had never defaulted on its debt payments.

“This will be on a temporary basis until we come to an agreement with creditors and with the support of a programme with the IMF,” said Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, who took office last week.

“We need to focus on essential imports and not have to worry about servicing external debt,” he said.

“It has come to a point that making debt payments are challenging and impossible. The best action that can be taken is to restructure debt and avoid a hard default,” Central Bank Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe told reporters.

https://www.treasury.gov.lk/api/file/54a19fda-b219-4dd4-91a7-b3e74b9cd683

Courtesy Hiru News

Finance Ministry Secretary says that they will issue a new circular to line ministries to reduce expenditure. 

Budget deficit has risen sharply due to high govt spending and lower revenues, therefore revenue has to be increased significantly and various methods will be introduced to achieve the target.

Courtesy Adaderana

The World Bank has agreed to provide an emergency funding of USD 10 million to Sri Lanka for the purchase of essential pharmaceuticals by next week.

In an exclusive interview with Ada Derana, Finance Minister Ali Sabry, PC, said Sri Lanka has additionally sought an aid of USD 500 million from the World Bank, for the provision of chemical fertilizer and paddy seeds to the farmers with the aim of alleviating the issues they are facing.

Minister Sabry noted that the government is also looking to provide a monthly allowance for poverty-stricken people, and to find an intermediate solution for the liquefied petroleum gas issue until the economy of the country is put back on track.

Responding to a question brought up on the government’s plan of action to resolve the fuel and LP gas crises, the finance minister said, It is very challenging. We cannot deceive the people by saying there is no issue at all.”

The government, at present, is trying to extend the Indian credit line and looking into the possibility of debt restructuring, Sabry explained, adding that Sri Lanka does not have to repay its debts, if attempts for debt restructuring are successful.

In response to a question, Minister Sabry said the Sri Lankan delegation is expected to engage in discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 18-23 April, adding that many rounds of talks with the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and representatives of foreign countries are also expected in the future.

We will have to take multiple unprecedented radical decisions in the future, or else we’ll head towards a crash-landing.”

Many important decisions will have to be made to prevent long-term damage to the country’s economy and to protect some of the country’s key locations, and to protect the banking system, Minister Sabry added.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

 The study on the economic history shows that there have been fluctuations in economic growth from time to time and people in the world experienced negative and positive economic outcomes resulting from fluctuations. The changes in economic prosperity either positively or negatively impact human lives. This reality could be seen in all countries and people in Sri Lanka narrowly think that the impact of economic downturns affects only Sri Lanka and political parties use these changes for gaining publicity and this situation became politics in Sri Lanka equalizing to rubbish than a valuable process of policymaking.  International news focuses on economic downturns and the negative results impact on poor people in many countries. I saw in Australian news irrespective of whether they are owned by the government or private firms they consider human difficulties    

The media attempts to show that an economic downturn is an isolated event in Sri Lanka, but the truth, it is associated with many countries and how people look at the event is disagreed from one country to another. Talking about economic difficulties is a reflection of the short sight of the news system in Sri Lanka and the motivation of certain political parties.  

The story expressed in data might be lies and we learnt that data is also a kind of lie or a system to use for misleading people. People in Sri Lanka must note that economic achievements have limits and whatever the data express the reflection of the human condition may be changed from time to time. Generally, more than 97% of people believe in a religion but the behaviour of people seems to be contrary to religious teaching.

The protest against the president of Sri Lanka consists of less than 20000 people and it is reflected as a valid public opinion.  If it wants to convert to a valid public opinion minimum of 10 million must be participated in protest rallies, the total participation of rallies was less than 20000 people and it is not equal to the total university’s student population.

The human condition in Sri Lanka is comparatively better than in many poor countries and the people of Sri Lanka have not improved in thinking power, knowledge and attitudes. They think they are educated but they have no analytical power to think logically and they are stuck with allegorical views and whoever says fabricated lie they believe it. For example, protest rallies against Gota consisted of less than 20000 people in Gall Face Green but it was not true and people believe that millions of people participated in protest rallies.

The economic difficulties of Sri Lanka were contributed by the economic condition of the world, fabrication of people, misuse of information and many reasons.  Economic managers were responsible for a downturn in economic undermanagement.

The following constitutional and policy action is required to properly manage the country.  International politics seems to be associated with the problem especially the problems between India and China have complicated problems and the superpowers may be behind the issue.

• The parliament in Sri Lanka including elected and appointed members should be limited to 90 or 100.
• The cabinet should be limited to 15 and they should not be provided other than monthly payments.  They should not be given a pension. Payment of ETF and EPF for the period of working is acceptable.
• It should stop appointing party members to director boards of government corporations.
• Government contracts of any form should not be offered to politicians or nominated people.
• If the country could ban political parties, it would be better and party politics must be eliminated in the country.
• Gota should be allowed for two terms and the role should be closely monitored.
• The Central Bank is the regulatory authority of the financial system of Sri Lanka and no market operations should be done by the central bank. New institutions must be established to operate the superannuation market and EPF, ETF, other funds should incorporate with the proposed institution. 5000 unemployed graduates should recruit to a new institution they should be given one year finance and accounting diploma with strong mathematics, statistics and econometrics. Unemployed graduates with a degree in whichever subject can work in a new institution.
• 50% of all public enterprises must be privatized and borrowing should be stopped by the government.
• The government must submit balanced budgets or excess budgets
• Free education and health service should be provided only to unaffordable people.
• All political parties based on religion and ethnic-based must be stopped.
• Religious clergy should not allow representing the parliament and other administrative institutions.
• If the government cannot pay a debt restructuring and reducing repayment are essential and those who left the country are not sending money, they should not be given any facilities including duty-free purchases.

ජයන්ත හේරත්

ලෝක ගම්මානෙට

ප්රබල මුදල් සංචිත

වර්ග කීපයක්

අවශ්යය.

ගම්මානේ

ශක්තිමත්ම මුදල් list එකේ

US dollar එක 10 වෙනියාය.

චීනයේ

යුඅං 6.37 ක්

ඩොලර් එකකට දෙන්නේය.

යුඅං

මුදල් සංචිත නායකත්වයට

හොඳ contender කෙනෙකි.

ඉන්දියන් රූපී ද ශක්තිමත්ය.

මුදල් සංචිත නායකත්වයට

හොඳ contender කෙනෙකි.

ලෝක ගම්මානේ

ශක්තිමත්ම මුදල KWD Kuwait Dinar ය.

Dollar 3.28 ක් KWD එකය.

අපේ

සතේ

මක බෑ වී  ගිය එක

ලොකු දෙයකි.

සතේ

විතරක් තිබුනා නම්

හාල් කිලෝ එකක් ගැනීමට

සත

ලොරියක දමා ගෙන

යන්න වෙන්නේය.

දැන්

අපේ රුපියල් 330 ක්

US dollar  එකය.

ජපානය

71 දී 

Yen 350ක්

US dollar 1 ට දුන්නේය.

අපි

නිෂ්පාදනය නොකරන නිසා

රුපියල් 600 ක්

උනත් ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැත.

රුපියල් 350ක

වටිනාකමක් නියම කල

නව ලංකා-ඩොලර

මුදල් ඒකකයක්

හදන්නට ඕන නම් පුළුවන.

අංක විජ්ජාවකින්

උද්ධමන සංඛ්යා

එහා මෙහා

අඩු වැඩි කල හැක.

මිල අධික භාණ්ඩ

ගැනීම වැළකී සිටීමෙන්,

පරිභාවිත කරන ප්‍රමානය අඩු කිරීමෙන්

උද්ධමනය අඩු කර ගත හැක.

ලෝක ගම්මානේ

ගං-මුලෑදෑනින්

තනි අයිතිය

සහ

පාලනය ලබා ගන ඇත.

ක්‍රීඩාව monopoly ය.

යුඅං ට බයය,

සෞදි රියාද් වලටත් බයය.

Euro ටත් බයය,

රූබලයට බයය,

ඉන්දියන් රුපී ටත් බයය.

සවුදිය එක්සත් රාජධානිය සමග සිටි කාලයේ

පවුම බලවත්ය

සවුදිය එක්සත් රාජධානිය අත හැර

එක්සත් ජනපදය සමග

සිටි කාලයේ පටන්

US Dollar බලවත්ය.

සවුදිය චීන යුඅං සමග එක්  උනොත්

යුඅං බලවත් ය.

සවුදිය + චීන යුඅං + රූබල් එකතු උනොත්

අලුත් බලවතුන්ය.

Monopoly බකල්ය.

ඒ නිසා

උන්

මුන් ටික

ඉහළ සිට

පහලට 

පාලනය වන

නූල් සූත්තර

මගින්

හෝ

ඇතුළත ඇති

අතකින් චලනය කරයි

කුලප්පු කරයි.

ගෝලීයකරණ

යාන්ත්‍රනය

එහෙමය.

යුක්රේන-රුසියා

අවුලෙන්

මිලියන් 4  පමණ

මිනිස්සුන්

දැනට

රට හැර ගොස් ඇත.

යුද්ධය

අවුලවන්නේ

වටේ සිටින උන්ය.

cheer leaders ලය.

අවතැන් වූවන් ගෙන්

මේ මොහොතේ

ඇමරිකාව

භාර ගන්නේ ලක්ෂයකි.

මේ ගාන මදිය.

අඩුම තරමින්

මිලියන් 1 වත් ගත යුතුය.

අපට

අවශ්ය new blood ය.

කමලා

ඇමෙරිකාවේ ඩෙපියුටි ලොක්කිය

රිෂි

එංගලන්තයේ Chancellor of the Exchequer

බජට් ලොක්කාය.

සජීඩ්

එංගලන්තේ  හෙල්ත් ලොක්කාය.

එංගලන්තේ  විදේශ කටයුතු ප්රීතිට බාරය.

අපේ උන්ට

කෙල උනේ

JVP-NPP කාරයෝ 

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

නිපදවීමට අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

හරහා

dollar සංචිත

නිපදවීමට අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

හරහා

විදෙස් සම්පත්

නිපදවීමට අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

නිපදවීම හරහා

විදේශ වල

පාලන තන්ත්‍රයන්ට  

ඇතුළු වීමේ

මග අහුරා අකුල් හෙලූ නිසාය.

Puppeteers ලාගෙන් 

නැටවෙන අපි 

රූකඩය.  

මුදල්

dollar සංචිත

වැඩි කරන්නට නම් 

හැමදාම

බණ්ඩක්ක

වට්ටක්ක

තේ රබර් පොල්

වවා මදිය.

පුහුණු ශ්‍රමිකයින්

නිපදවීමේ වේගය වේගවත් කල යුතුය.

අලුතින්

නිෂ්පාදන

කල යුතුය.

අලුත්

යුධ අවි

නිෂ්පාදන කල යුතුය.

විකිණිය යුතුය.

වටේට 

ගිනි අවුළුවා

යුද අවි ආයුද

විකිණිය යුතුය.

Shenali Waduge

Protestors who sincerely wish to end corruption must divert their demands to a key area that goes unnoticed.

How many Secretaries/Envoys & Senior Public Servants have betrayed the nation being spineless party to preparing treacherous agreements. The excuse that they are only doing their job CANNOT be accepted. Secretaries before 1978 resigned & refused to do anything outside of their mandate.

The current secretaries are in reality more corrupt than the politicians & they escape people’s radar as a result their corruptions go unnoticed.

Now that we are trying to clean up the system, while the current attacks are against ALL POLITICIANS the next attack should be on Secretaries (former and present) Envoys (former & present) Senior Public Servants (past & present) who were party to treachery.

There is little point in cleaning up the stables of corrupt politicians if the corrupt public officials continue the dirty work with the next government.

DEMAND LEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST THEM FOR THESE TREACHERIES & LAWYERS MUST COME FORWARD TO TAKE THESE CASES

Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel and former Ambassador to UAE and Israel. A former Chairman of Consumer Affairs authority. President Ambassador’s Forum

World Consumer Day

World Consumer Day is remembered on 15^th March every year worldwide by governments and organizations, in order to raise global awareness about the consumer needs and their rights. They have a right to know of the information on price quality and standard of the consumer items and services. The current world consumer day is celebrated since 1983 initiated by the inspiring speech by the President John Kennedy to the US congress on March 15^th 1962 spoken on safety, right to be informed, choose, and many rights today recognized by the United National  nations and other institutions  worldwide. Every year a topic is chosen to discuss and give publicity to the chosen topic to educate and make the voice heard of the citizen to the rest of the world on the consumer and the connected information as an eye opener of the governance.. Annual events worldwide has a ripple effect on the consumerism activism worldwide reaffirming the rights available to the consumer awaiting for the assistance of the consumer organizations and the active and alert consumers in dealing with the unfair and errant traders, and industrialists exploiting the consumer.  Some of the topics chosen for the world Consumer Day are timely useful and current to the entire world. The names are chosen carefully depending on the needs of the society at the time of the given year.  2013 it was Consumer Justice, 2014 Fix the Phones Right,2015 Healthy Diet ,2016 Antibiotics in the Menu 2017 building a Digital World, 2018 Trusted Smart Products,2019 Sustainable Consumer and 2020 Tackling Plastic Pollution that has made the world known of the needs and awareness programs connected to the event worldwide. Theme chosen this year is most relevant to the entire world and the member nations with living beings and the earth the existence is threatened due to pollution which has aggravated due to plastic pollution which is not a degrading materials sometimes do not decay over millions of years and the threat is ever increasing due to indiscipline of the human beings damaging the environment the health of the human and animal kingdom including the environment you live in.

Theme of this Year – Tackling Plastic Pollution

The annual celebrations on the theme are followed by various projects worldwide led by the World Consumer Federation with branches all over the word.  This year the topic chosen is ‘’Tackling Plastic Pollution’’ which is a timely and a current topic which is a theme that has become to the threat to the future of the earth and animal kingdom including the human being threatened by the environmental destructions, pollution, deforestation and the threat of extensions and imbalance of water levels threatening large scale environmental catastrophes,  and now  over usage and manufacture of plastic is excessive and use cannot be controlled due to free availability a  cheaper in  price and convenience in day to day life and industries. The event is remembered in over 250 outlets worldwide including Sri Lanka when the Consumer Affairs Authority and Central Environment authority Information Department OPA BASL and Ambassadors’ Forum are expected to be actively involved. Ambassador’s Forum based in Sri Lanka and UK is organized  a Webinar  with the participation of the Ministry of Information and CAA with expert Panel including Professor ‘Prathiba Mahanamahewa’, Sarath Wijesinghe Presidents’ Counsel and a former Chair CAA, CAA officials, Dr Anil Jayasinghe the Secretary Ministry of Environment ,‘Dilantha’ an activist  and many other activists worldwide. The links could be obtained from the five sites hosted by the Ambassadors’ Forum and Mrs Gaya Siriwardens the administrative Secretary of Ambassador’s forum will liaises with the public on ‘0094771327909’ , dilkiv@gmail.com.

Effects of Plastic Pollution

80% of marine debris is plastics and 5.25 Trillian micro plastics and in the ocean ever increasing rapidly. Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the earth environment that adversely effects human wildlife and habitat that  effects the waterways environment and ocean It is estimated 8.8 million tons of plastics waste enters the ocean every year it is estimated that in 2050 there could be more plastics than  first in the ocean by weight. As in 2019 368 million tons of plastics is poured each year. Impact of Plastic on our health and environment is huge and disastrous in the destruction of earth and the lives of the living being. The few basic information indicates the imminent and future dangers to the earth and the living beings on the excessive and uncontrolled use of plastics by the human. As of 2019 368 million tons of plastics is poured to the can and earth every year and 12 million tons of plastic are poured to the ocean alone every year, ad 80% of marine debris is plastic, and there are 5.2 Trillian micro piece units are hovering in the environment floating in weighing up to 26, 90000 tones killing the lives of 100,000mamals, and turtles annually. The vast damages to the environment and in return to the world are ever increasing with no or limited controls due to the developments taking place at an unprecedented rate worldwide. Pollution and destruction is caused due to action and inaction of the human behaviour selfish conduct and lifestyle, which is controlled by some disciplined societies. In many western countries the waste disposal is streamlined and controlled with different garbage containers at residencies and public places. World suffers and the danger is in your doorstep harming all members of the family and the pets. Even Elephants, fish and many in the living kingdom are victims with harrowing images and stories published on media often with most disturbing images. Water in major and other water streams and public places are polluted due to bad habits of the undisciplined citizen. Main rivers from ‘Kelani’ river is polluted due to waste by councils, industries, and private households. The catalogue is endless with ever increasing pollutions in all respects which is a health hazard and ugly when we are about on achieving booming tourism after the drawback on ‘Covid Pandemic’ given us the highest blow to our economy.

Origin of World Consumer Day

World consumer day is an annual event on 15^th March every year for celebrations, activism, and solidity among the consumer and consumer organizations worldwide. Consumerism has a historical significance until WCD was originated in 1983, and subsequently the consumer rights were elevated to a position of international recognition and legitimate by adopting guidelines by the United Nations. John F Kennedy said in 15/2/1962 that consumer by definition includes the largest economic groups affecting and effected by almost every public and private economic decisions yet they are the very important group whose views are often not heard. Today things have changed as in the west where the consumer is organized and powerful. WCD is one of those events of showing strength and powered of the consumer. Seminars shows and workshops and shows of activism give a sense of power and strength to the consumer. Junk food generation which has adverse effect of the health of the human being especially children have been a popular important topic of the day. Some topics chosen before of unethical drug promotion, GM food, Consumer and water, control of food chain, selection of the same topic junk food consecutively for two years indicates the importance of the topic. Twenty million children around the world are already overweight. Most children are targeted to multinational organizations as victims. As a result there is a strong campaign to urge world to introduce an international code on marketing unhealthy food to children Consumer rights day depends on   initiatives  planned functions  and projects carried by  consumer organizations on every country, This takes the shape of a special campaigns press conferences exhibitions workshops  and similar events. Unfortunately Sri Lanka there is less activism leaving the helpless consumer alone in the hands of the errant trader in industrialist continues to exploit freely despite inactive regulatory led by the Consumer Affairs Authority which is established by the act no 9 of 2003 with highest expectations to protect the consumer, regulate trade, from consumer organizations and shoe the strength of  the consumer to the governance and the trader, and compel the regulator to regulate the trade and get the government machinery to provide e the consumer quality food and consumer items  of quality at a reasonable price.

Consumer and Consumer Day in Sri Lanka

Consumer is defined simply in the dictionary as one who consumes or buy or uses goods or services when  act no 9 of 2003 gives a more detailed definitions as an actual or potential user of any goods or services made available for a consideration by any trader or manufacturer. It can be considered that almost every citizen is a consumer and the main regulator the CAA regulates the price and the quality of consumer items with other regulators namely the Public Health inspectors, Local Authorities, and statuary bodies meant to regulate trade when the concept of price control is shifted to regulation by abolition of acts 1/79 consumer Protection Act, 1/87 Trading Commission Act and Control of Prices Act. Pollution is a dangerous health hazard and Plastic pollution is a more dangerous and long term hazard that is to be tackled by the state, private sector and individuals. It is timely and opportune for the consumer International to choose the theme tackling plastic pollution because it affects the health of the living beings and standards of all consumer items consumed by the consumer. Consumer day is celebrated but the main regulator CAA other interested group academics and concerned citizen individually as a part of the world awareness projects which has a ripple effects of the member countries and responsible governments. Unfortunately the average Sri Lankan consumer (citizen) appear to be  still irresponsible conducting the waste disposal habits that increases the sangers to the environment on garbage collections hap- hazily  and irregularly. In UK, Netherlands and many western countries the citizen is disciplined to dump waste in separate garbage containers giving priority to environment and the health of the citizen long and short term.

Way Forward for a Clean and Healthy Environment to benefit the Citizen and the World

The state and UN has resolved to look after the interest of the consumer in need of help and also the ruling governance is bound to regularize trade business and economy of the country keeping the balance among the trader regulator industrialist and the consumer. Consumer is vulnerable and needs assistance and help of the governance and the non-governmental organizations worldwide. UN has resolved 29/248 on 16/4/85 and 70/186 dated 22/12/2015 UNCGOD guidelines for access to essential goods, to vulnerable groups of consumers, prevent giving hazardous consumer items, access to information, consumer education and on dispute resolutions. All kinds of environmental disasters are an imminent threat to the world over including Sri Lanka the most careless victim of undisciplined groups responsible for deforestation, sand mining, and various kinds of destructions taking place uncontrolled plastic pollution being the main course with little or no control. The main statutory bodies to check destructions are CAA consumer Affairs Authority a main regulator on consumerism The Central Environmental Authority the state has allocates millions for environment protection, department of forestry, wildlife, trade, environment, Ministries of defence and many others including local authorise are expected to be partners in protecting environment including large scale pollutions appear to be dormant and inactive. Non-Governmental organisations and civil society has a mail role to play in this war against pollution and destruction and meet the threat of plastic pollution in order to tackle it against the tide. There should be a concerted effect by all the parties concerned to work together to minimize pollution in all kinds such as marine, water, earth, and environment general. Sri Lanka is vulnerable as it is an Island exposed to sea and the disasters that has affected by polluting the sea due to disasters in the sea. Sri Lanka is  a part of the world family exposed and most vulnerable unless precautionary matters are taken in all respects with a disciplined society with international standers of precautionary matters successfully adopted by the many states in the west. It is estimated that the sea will have more debris than fish if precautions are made and many images are emerging the fish full of plastic materials inside and animals including elephants with full of plastics in the digestive system which are not perishable an degradable. Therefore it is high time the member states take the threat seriously and resolve on the word consumer day to save the earth to save our generation to come.

Pollution (Plastic) in Sri Lanka / alternate solutions for plastic menace

Pollution in Sri Lanka is rampant and rapidly increasing in all sectors. Deforestation is taking place in large scale with sand mining destroying the environment and damaging the river banks and lands at a repaid phase. In Sri Lanka pollution is mostly manmade due to various reasons as overfishing, logging forest degrading mangroves damaging coral reliefs’ soil erosions due to digging and sand mining air pollution water pollution and mismanagement of waste disposal and common factors of causing environmental destructions by the human. Air pollution is due to over unplanned industrialization and waste disposal is unplanned and primitive. Rivers are polluted due to releasing industrial and human waste in large scale by individuals companies and local authorities. Waste is collected with only 24% household has waste disposal mechanism. In a country of21.4 million the generation of waste is 7000 metric tons with 800 waste daily by Colombo Municipality which are not properly regulated with waste mountains and polluted rivers creating mountains of waste all over with ‘’Meethotamulla’’ in mind. 50% of plastic products are of single use and will not degrade at times over millions of years. In other countries the Ministry of Environment is the most active and in the front seat, but in Sri Lanka it is hardly heard of. Sri Lanka produces 1.59 ‘MMt’ a year which is poorly or not managed as in the west top priority is given to scientific and orderly waste disposal with the cooperation of the community and the local bodies. Sri Lanka has over 500 companies producing plastic products with 1600000 metric tons imported per year which is not properly regulated ( may be not at all) giving free hand to the industries citizens to use it freely with no control or discipline. 800,000metric tons of plastic is imported and 1600000 metric tons of plastic is used locally on industries released to the environment at same stage in some way. Oil spills are causing tremendous damages and it is good news that UN is planning a new Treaty on Plastics which is on the way covering many areas.350 tons of oil was released to the sea with wanton damages to the sea environment and the living creators of all kinds. The ship wreck has released 500000 metric tons of plastic products will be in the sea for millions of years damaging the environment and the living beings in the sea. 20^th may 2021 the X- Press Perl rejected by two countries arrived our sea causing the wanted damages to us for generations to come releasing 348 tons of oil, 25 tons of Arsenic, and 75 billion pellets to our clear best sea converting it to be the worst pouted sea in the ocean – a tragedy indeed.  What are the alternative resolutions and steps to be taken to protect our environment and the lives of living beings? We must improve our waste disposal methods to international standards by maintaining discipline among ourselves collectively and individually. We must have innovators and innovative methods to find alternatives for plastic which we have with us traditionally based on our traditional handicrafts made from local degrading   materials. It is affordable beautiful and environmental friendly. Educating on good habits from schools and community with the assistance of the media is vital for the campaign to save our life and environment. A through study and strict implementation a legal system is paramount to compel the citizen to be disciplined coupled with education. Media has a vital role to play in this by educating and give correct picture to the citizen faced with imminent danger or perish together if no proper steps are taken immediately. Plastic pollution continues every second worldwide and it is the duty of the world citizen to act individually and together to stop the menace for the existence of the earth and the living beings. The author could be contacted on sarath28dw@gmail.com and whats app 00947777880166 active in UK

Prof. Hudson McLean

Weligama Sri Lanka: New flats start from £114k

Weligama Sri Lanka: New flats start from £114k Myra Butterworth Southbeach Weligama is a new development of 106 flats in Sri Lanka, with prices ranging from £114k for a one-bed…

When I saw this Advertorial, I could not believe if this is true!

Soon after Covid-19, followed by Ukrainian Russian conflict balancing towards a Nuclear conflict, with Sri Lanka in political upheaval,  riots in the news, and Holiday Homes investment at a mouth-watering price.

Anyone who could afford close to a million dollars has many other choices.

Just two years ago, Sri Lanka suffered a bloody Easter massacre killing many in Catholic Churches and luxury hotels.  How safe can a private holiday home be away from security?

Mind boggles!

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

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

Chula Rajapakse MNZM Wellington, New Zealand

Dear Editor ,

The very laudable efforts of many organizations and individuals world wide to raise funds to help SrI Lanka with obtaining the essential wares that have become unavailable to Sri Lankans through the current economic debacle, is much appreciated.

However The intervention that is likely to have the quickest result to gain the much wanted Dollars , with dignity would be the return of tourist that was happening in droves even In March , that saw over 100,000 thousand .

Since 3/4/22 these have rapidly dried up. 

This is the unfortunate negative outcome of the demonstrations seen in SL and world over expressing the justifiable abomination against its rulers that presided and does still preside over this most recent slide in Lanka’s economy.

This loss going by 2018 figures of $4 billion in the year is worth $40 million a day.

Pointing out this enormous negative consequence to these well intentioned demonstrators on the roads and side walks of Sri Lanka and internationally is the obligation of all who want the tourist Dollar 

back to SL  to supply the much needed gas, oil, electricity and food to it’s much deprived citizens. 

This will outdo by far what could be raised by any fund raiser or donation any organisation could make.

I call upon the leadership  and participants of these laudable fund raising efforts to not shirk this obligation , by not making any effort to at least begin raising awareness among the demonstrators of this enormous negative consequence of their well intentioned actions.

With much compassion and Metta

Chula Rajapakse MNZM

Wellington, New Zealand

KAMALIKA PIERIS

President J.R.Jayewardene (1978 – 1989) had as his close advisors, two leaders of the Tamil Separatist Movement, A.J.Wilson and Neelan Thiruchelvam. Professor A.J. Wilson served as a constitutional advisor to J.R. from 1978-83.  And Neelan Thiruchelvam was associated with Wilson in discussions with JR.

JR would undoubtedly have come under their influence. We had a carefully planned operation, to arrest Tamil terrorists, said Army Commandeer Cyril Ranatunga. The operations were conducted on a low key with no publicity; JR was many times on phone to inquire about the release of the arrested Tamils. Obviously the TULF was standing beside him.

JR helped to further entrench the Tamil ethnic group. JR ignored the Sirima- Shastri Pact and   gave citizenship to the 93,000 estate Tamils still in Sri Lanka at the time.  To do this, the government revised the Citizenship Act,   to include the Grant of Citizenship to Stateless Persons of Indian Origin.

JR initiated the 16th amendment of 1988 which made Tamil the language of administration and legislation across the island .The right to speak in Tamil was now extended to whole country. The 7^th amendment of 1983 created the Kilinochchi district.

  JR had met Prabhakaran in secret in Bangalore, around 1987. Prabha was living there, reported Shantha Kottegoda. But according to Ranatunga, the JR government did not consider the LTTE threat a serious one. During the JVP insurgency, Cyril had reported directly to Sirimavo, In the JR government, there was no one to whom Ranatunga could report directly.

When I informed the authorities, that the first batch of LTTE trainees were going to India, they ignored it, said Ranatunga. He had informed Secretary, Defence that he had reliable information that Tamil separatist youth were leaving for various unknown destinations in India via Katunayake for military training. Defence Secretary Colonel C.A Dharmapala was indifferent.  He had said only few were going and they would not make any difference to the LTTE fighting capacity.

Commander Ranatunga had displayed photos of 35 Tamil terrorists all over the island, caught 27 and sent them to Colombo. This was in Operation Round up, in the mid- 1980s probably.   They were wanted for bank robberies, highway robberies and murder. They were freed by DefEnece Secretary and returned to Jaffna, without even informing Ranatunga.

Colonel C.A Dharmapala was Defence Secretary from 1977 to 1983. He was also Security Adviser to JR. The appointment of Col Dharmapala was one of the worst decisions taken by JR, said Ranatunga. There was no point in complaining against him to JR either. They were old friends.

JR heads the list of Presidents who helped to advance the cause of Eelam by obstructing the Eelam war and preventing a military victory. He stopped the Vadamarachchi operation which would have helped to crush the LTTE in 1987. Can JR be considered a traitor after Vadamarachchi, asked Izzeth Hussain.

 President Jayawardene started by agreeing to eliminate the LTTE. He supported the Vadamarachchi operation of 1987, which would have crushed the LTTE and stopped any further war. LTTE were surrounded and were about to be defeated.

In 1987, the Sri Lanka Army under the command of Major General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Brigadier Vijaya Wimalaratne had broken out of their defensive positions in the general area  of Vadamarachchi and were steadily advancing towards Jaffna town which was held by the LTTE. LTTE were surrounded and were about to be defeated. They contacted India and asked to be saved. India rose to the occasion.

The Government of India had  told our President J.R. Jayawardene to cease this operation or face dire consequences. When Sri Lanka turned back Indian boats carrying food, India did a food drop by air.

Before the Sri Lanka army could advance to the next stage of the  Vadamarachchi campaign, the operation was stopped on the orders of J.R. who said that he could not fight India. General Ranatunga had two hours to stop the war. He had no option other than to order the ceasing of this advance.  When the soldiers were informed  I saw the disappointment on their faces.’

The Indian Air Force transport aircraft escorted by four Mirage 2000  fighter aircraft  were   para dropping supplies to the Jaffna area, recalled Ranatunga. .Air Force Commander asked me to  inform Palaly that our aircraft, which in fact were only helicopters, were not to get airborne, recalled Ranatunga.

I requested permission to get a helicopter airborne to video this gross infringement of our air space. He very curtly told me nothing is to get airborne”. He said that the four  Mirage 2000 fighter bombers had the capability of flattening almost half of Colombo, said Ranatunga.   I went up to the control tower and watched the ‘parippu drop’. I recall J.N. Dixit, who was the then Indian High Commissioner, telling me, “India will never permit Jaffna to be taken over.”  

JR Jayewardene  also carried out another historic maneuver. He  merged the Northern and Eastern  provinces. The two provinces were merged in 1988 under Emergency Regulations. This was a  significant step towards the creation of Eelam. Varatharaja Perumal then declared an UDI for the merged North-east.

JR had exceeded his powers in making this merger. He had  assumed legislative powers which parliament alone possessed.  This merger was declared ‘unconstitutional, illegal, and invalid’ .

A five-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Sarath Silva held that President Jayewardene could not invoke Emergency Regulations to effect the merger. According to the constitution, only Parliament could merge provinces, and not the President, Court said. The merger was to be ratified in a referendum, but this was not held. Successive governments had been postponing the referendum.  The two provinces were de-merged in 2006.

Ven. Kitalagama Seelalankara ,better known as Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo and Ven. Ellawala Medhananda decided that the best way to prevent  LTTE coming into the East was to settle Sinhalese in the Maduru Oya area. Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo led a movement to settle some    40,000 landless Sinahla peasants  in Maduru oya.

  ‘We settled the excess population from Hingurakgoda  and Minneriya, numbering 40,000 in Toppigala, Kunchanamalai,  Nelugala,  Atubandigala,  Vesibandigala and  Piyangala.     We informed President  JR  Jayewardene that we were going to settle Sinhalese there. JR was against this, but we  continued  with the project, recalled Medhananda .

The proposed settlement of Sinhalese on Maduru oya right bank  came under opposition from  Tamil separatists and international donors.  JR had sent Ranil Wickremasinghe  for a first hand report on ‘what the Dimbulagala priest is doing out there.’

Under their growing pressure JR ordered the forcible removal of all settlers. The settlements were dismantled and the Sinhalese displaced. Subsequently Maduru oya and 20 other small projects were closed down, reported Asoka Bandarage.

 The settlers were assaulted and chased away, on JR’s orders, by Paul Perera, said Medhananda    UNP Minister Paul Perera was  the invisible leader of the Gampaha underworld, observed Dharman Wickremaratne. The houses of the settlers were set on fire. The settlers  took refuges in Dimbulagala pasala. They were later sent to Dollar and Kent farms  where they were  killed, said  Medhananda. ( Continued)

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwara

And, instead, put all the Sri Lankan politicians, who have robbed and destroyed the motherland since 1977 in these cages, if you want to rediscover and restore, that was Sri Lanka, once hailed as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean and the Granary of the East”.  Because such drastic punishment to corrupt and rogue politicians will teach a good lesson for them and those who come to politics hereafter will never rob public money in future or do anything detrimental to the Motherland or the people so that it will also create world history, another first to Sri Lanka.

Such action will also ease congestion in jails in the country and provide a human zoo for exhibition of a unique  kind of animals for the citizens as well as tourists.

Talking about the animals in the Zoos they should never be put in a zoo for public exhibition or any other purpose, for the following reasons

1 It is inhuman for us to keep these animals imprisoned for life like this for they also have a right to live free in their natural habitat as much as humans have as our ancient Kings had said.

2 Sri Lanka never had animal zoos in its entire history other than a bird reared at homes as a pet (Oh king animals in the jungle also have the right to roam freely in their natural habitat as humans do Mahinda Mahaathera to King Devaanam piyatissa who was on a hunting spree 307. BC)

3 This is a sinful practice blindly copied from the European Colonial invaders.  

(I remember how SWRD released his fathers private zoo kept to entertain his Colonial friends)

4 As there is no need to have imprisoned animals for people to see as people anywhere in the world can view them at home freely moving around in their natural habitats thanks to modern technology.

5 In view of the colossal expenditure annually incurred to maintain them particularly at a time like the present, when every cent saved is crucial for our survival in this country and where the state has no money even to provide the basic needs of the people like food, water, medicine, cooking gas, electricity, fuel needed for transport and industry and where the whole country has gone bankrupt due to theft, waste and extravagant expenditure by the government[S1] 

(The total expenditure incurred by the Government consolidated fund at the end of 2019 was Rs. 457.891 million as capital expenditures and Rs. 457.815 million as recurrent Expenditures (Total 915,706 M) How on earth we can justify spending such a colossal sum of money annually to keep an innocent set of animals imprisoned for life when its citizens are starving

6 What is more is after all we inherit a rich culture for over 2500 years as  a Buddhist country where all sentient beings are treated as our equal, when it comes to freedom and right for life and compassion and love for all sentient beings is cardinal.

The article referred to above.

Shut down the Dehiwala Zoo for helpless animals imprisoned for life denying h teir freedom to life and Bir Senaka Weeraratna

It is time that right thinking people take a strong stand against the establishmentand maintenance of Zoos.

In today’s world with so many modern gadgetry available such as computers, videos, internet, broadband, Youtube, and the like, there is no justification for keeping animals incarcerated in cages and small enclosures for the rest of their lives in Zoos maintained purely for the benefit and pleasure of human beings.

Animals are made to serve a life sentence in miserable conditions in zoos without having committed a single crime. Had any human being been placed in that situation he or she would become a cause célèbre around the world. We price the freedom of fellow humans and disregard the claims for freedom of other sentient beings.

Animals are sentient beings and like humans they too would like to have their freedom to roam in the fields, jungles etc. without restrictions. Zoos deny them this freedom.

It is man’s inhumanity and insensitivity towards other living beings that makes some people perpetrate abusive conduct and the rest of us (with exceptions) to look the other side without sticking their neck out to help save the life of another living being e.g. animal.

Today anyone can watch any animal anywhere in the world including some even at the bottom of the sea and their natural behavior with the latest technology. With the availability of such modern technology it is morally indefensible to incarcerate animals for life in a zoo.

What joy can anyone get by seeing the sad sullen faces of caged animals staring into empty space. They live in small enclosures. They are all mental wrecks. Many of these animals suffer trauma and are pathologically mentally unsound being deprived of their freedom and scope for natural behavior.

What moral lessons can visitors especially children learn from seeing animals in captivity pleading in silence for someone to rescue them. This scenario is human cruelty at one of its worst. Compassion to animals is one of the great lessons of humanity. But this is hardly visible inside a Zoo.

Let us join hands and put an end to animal prisons for good. We must try to make Sri Lanka a better place not only for humans but animals as well. They are also morally entitled to a better existence like us. Let us make it happen.

Wrongful imprisonment of humans is a crime under the Penal Code. It is unequivocally a manifestation of an injustice. Likewise the imprisonment of animals in cages in Zoos is equally wrong. A travesty of Justice. 

The Rule of Law must extend also to the protection of animals.

The Human Rights Discourse is being viewed cynically not only because the pedlars of HR are people with soiled hands dishing out HR with self serving agendas but because of their lack of empathy for the cause of animals. When it comes to pain and suffering, both humans and animals are in the same boat.

Let us work together to phase out Zoos and end Zoo culture in Sri Lanka. Animals do not exist for human abuse or human entertainment. They are entitled to our respect as we are all united, from a Buddhistic point of view, of being fellow travellers in the Sansaric journey.

Under these circumstances, we urge the Govt. of Sri Lanka, to consider taking the following steps, without delay:

1) Relocate all Zoo animals to sanctuaries or open parks in Rideegama and Pinnawela, thereby giving them greater freedom of movement,

2) Allow the uncaged free roaming birds that visit the Dehiwala Zoo regularly to fly in and fly out as in the past, without hinderance,

3) Convert the Dehiwala Zoo to an urban jungle by transplanting indigenous plants that will grow into large shady trees. This will add to making the former Zoo area into an ‘ urban lung ‘ thereby enabling the dense population of Colombo and adjacent outstation areas to breath in the Oxygen produced by these Trees and in turn for the Trees to absorb the Carbon di Oxide (CO2) exhaled by humans and other living beings.

4) Establish a modern centre for the study of Plants (Botany) and Pharmacology, among others, at the Dehiwala Zoo once it is no more a Zoo,

5) Discard the ill informed decision to establish another similar type of Zoo in Kahapola, Piliyandala. Instead follow the example of Buddhist Bhutan which have closed down all Zoos except one or two kept open for the specific purpose of preserving and looking after the welfare of endangered animals that have their roots in Bhutan.

6) Refrain from exchanging local born animals specific to Sri Lanka with foreign countries. Animals born in Sri Lanka have a right to exist in this country until the end of their natural life. They should not be forcefully seized and exchanged as gifts or chattels with foreign zoos, particularly those that are located in temperate climates. Harsh cold climates are totally unsuited for animals such as Elephants that require a tropical climate for healthy living. Place the interest of the animal as paramount in any deals with foreign zoos.

7) Introduce Animal Protection as a subject in schools from the pre – school stage. The younger generation has to be taught their responsibility and historic obligation to re – establish an Animal Friendly Culture in Sri Lanka.

We must reconnect ourselves with our pre – colonial heritage which conceded greater respect for animals than the post – colonial generations.

There is no record of Zoos being established to keep caged animals as a matter of public policy by our former Kings except in one or two instances. This is a unique historical achievement and cause for pride for Sri Lanka even in the international arena.

It is time that Sri Lanka reverts back to the ancient practice of giving freedom to animals respecting their sentience and caring for them rather than imprisoning them in Zoos, a practice which we have uncritically acquired from our former colonial masters and now find ourselves incapable of decolonizing our minds and lifestyles as a prelude to giving freedom to innocent animals imprisoned in Concentration Camps deceptively called Zoos.

Justice for Animals and Nature

---

 [S1]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

කොළඹ ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලය ඉදිරියේ විරෝධතාවේ යෙදෙන පිරිස සදහා බුරියානි බෙදා දීමක් සිදු කර තිබේ.

ලොරි රථයකින් පැමිණ බුරියානි බෙදා දෙන ආකාරය සමාජ ජාලාවන්හි පින්තූර හුවමාරු වෙමින් ඇත.

ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වන බල කරමින් මෙම පිරිස් විරෝධතාවය.

මිලියනයේ විරෝදතාව ලෙස නම් කර ඇති මෙය පැවැත්වෙන්නේ සිවු වන දිනටයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

කොළඹ ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලය ඉදිරියේ විරෝධතාවයේ යෙදෙන විරෝධතාකරුවන් සඳහා ඊයේ රාත්‍රියේ අරක්කු ලොරියක් ලබාදී ඇති බව එම විරෝධතාවේ ඉදිරිගාමියෙකු වන උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගල මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

විරෝධතාවය ඇතුලෙද ආණ්ඩුවේ ඔත්තුකරුවන්ට සිටිනා බවත් ඔවුන් සියලු රහස් රජයේ පාර්ශ්වයන් වෙත ලබා දෙමින් සිටින බවත් ඔහු චෝදනා කළේය.

තමන් ළඟ සිටින සියලු දෙනාම අවිශ්වාස කරන ලෙසත් එමෙන්ම විශ්වාස කරන ලෙසත් ඔහු ඉල්ලා සිටියේය.

සමාජ ජාලා ක්‍රියාකාරීන් යයි කියාගන්නා පිරිස් අරගලය පාවිච්චි කරමින් ජාවාරමක් සිදු කරමින් සිටින බවද තවදුරටත් චෝදනා කළේය.

අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ වීඩියෝවක් නිකුත් කරමින් ඒ මහතා මෙම චෝදනා එල්ල කරන ලදී.

Sri Lanka’s street protests over soaring inflation and lengthy power cuts have shaken President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s hold on power, with government ministers resigning while the opposition called for fresh elections in the South Asian nation. The political turmoil is complicating efforts to manage the island’s foreign exchange crisis and secure more funds to keep its tourism-reliant economy running, having already been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

1. How did the crisis start?

Rajapaksa carried out populist tax cuts in late 2019, reducing revenues just months before the pandemic devastated the economy, with international flights grounded and successive lockdowns ordered. Remittances from overseas Sri Lankan workers dried up as well as many lost their jobs. With foreign-exchange earnings plunging, Sri Lanka struggled to manage its external debt, which had grown in part due to loans from China to fund ambitious infrastructure projects. Even though Sri Lanka has received credit lines from neighbors like India, it has been unable to regularly pay for imports of fuel and essential foods. Making matters worse was Rajapaksa’s pivot last year to organic farming with a ban on chemical fertilizers that triggered farmer protests and saw production of critical tea and rice crops decline. 

2. What’s happening to the economy? 

The $81 billion economy is under severe pressure, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raising global oil prices. Sri Lanka’s growth is slow and inflation is at multiyear highs. The authorities have since raised interest rates, devalued the local currency and placed curbs on non-essential imports. But with a meager $2 billion in foreign exchange reserves and $7 billion in debt payments due this year, restoring the country’s economic health remains an uphill battle. Consumer prices rose nearly 19% in March from a year earlier, the fastest rate in Asia, after a 15% jump in February. 

3. Why are people protesting?

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Sri Lankans, who voted Rajapaksa into the presidency three years ago, are finding themselves in increasingly difficult living conditions. Households and businesses have endured daily power cuts since March, with the duration stretching to 13 hours in April, as the government struggles to pay for energy supplies. There are long lines at gasoline filling stations and daily shortages of essential food items, which if available, are becoming prohibitively expensive. On March 31, protesters clashed with police outside Rajapaksa’s private home after a crowd surged past the barricades, screaming for him to step down.

4. How has the government responded?

Rajapaksa, who usually reacts with issuing extraordinary gazettes late at night, declared an emergency and imposed a weekend curfew through April 3. The government also restricted access to social media platforms including YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook for about 13 hours, a move it said was needed to preserve social order. Critics said it was to prevent the protests from spreading. Demonstrations continued despite the curfew as Sri Lankans kept chanting Gota go home,” which became a trending hashtag on Twitter. Rajapaksa, who holds sweeping executive powers based on a 2020 constitutional amendment, has reached out to the opposition with an offer to work together to resolve the crises. Opposition leaders were instead talking about holding fresh elections and repealing the amendment. 

5. What’s the bigger picture?

The country, off India’s southern tip, has struggled with conflict since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. Civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam went on for decades and killed 100,000 people. The war ended in 2009 with a government victory — and allegations of human rights violations on both sides. There was a lull in violence until the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombing attacks, which killed more than 200 people and the government blamed on a little-known Islamic group. Rajapaksa, a former military officer whom many voters view as a hero of the civil war, was elected president months later. Sri Lanka has also become a battleground in which China and India compete for influence. Rajapaksa and his family members in government have shifted the country closer to Beijing. However with approaching maturities and interest repayments keeping policy makers on their toes, Sri Lanka has reached out to India for aid. On April 12 it warned creditors of a possible default and suspended payments on some foreign debt. The finance ministry also said it would expedite talks with the International Monetary Fund for an aid package. The Rajapaksa government has had a deep-seated reluctance to ask for IMF help since it can involve unpopular austerity measures.

Courtesy Frnace 24

Consumer prices in the US surged by 8.5% in March, the fastest pace since 1981. The inflation spike was fuelled by a 32% jump in energy costs, linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Many American consumers are struggling to keep up with the price rises. Also in the show – Emmanuel Macron appears to waver on his pledge to raise France’s retirement age to 65, and Sri Lanka enters default as its economic crisis deepens. 

It will not be imposed on farmers but the choice will be left to them: Minister K. Govardhan Reddy

Environment-friendly organic farming will be promoted in the State to ensure premium price for the farm produce, Agriculture Minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy said, adding: However, the switch to organic farming will not be a sudden one as in Sri Lanka that has been plunged into an economic crisis.”

Enough precautionary steps would be taken based on the bad experience of Sri Lanka, where the ban on chemical fertilisers became one of the reasons for an unprecedented economic crisis, he explained, adding that under no circumstances organic farming would be forced on the farmers. The choice will be left to the growers who will be encouraged to cut costs and adopt best agronomic practices including organic fertilisers and pesticides,” he said.

The State government would act as a facilitator so that the enterprising farmers took to organic farming on their own to protect the soil health and get a remunerative price in the market by going for branding of organic food, he explained.

The Rythu Bharosa Kendras(Farmer Assurance Centres) would be made more vibrant to ensure timely farm inputs to farmers including quality seeds and fertilisers. The RBKS, in coordination with the Civil Supplies department, would also make best efforts to ensure a remunerative price for the farmers’ produce, he added.

Meanwhile, P. Anil Kumar Yadav, Irrigation Minister in the outgoing Cabinet, told reporters that he would extend full cooperation to Mr. Govardhan Reddy who is the only MLA to get a Cabinet berth from SPSR Nellore district.

He would again get an opportunity to serve as Minister in the Cabinets of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the future, Mr. Anil Kumar expressed confidence. Replying to a question, he said he did not receive any invitation for the swearing in ceremony.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

China on Tuesday reiterated that it is doing its ”utmost” to provide assistance to debt-ridden Sri Lanka.

Asked about the reported request of Sri Lanka to China for monetary help to tide over the present crisis, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Tuesday reiterated his ministry’s previous remarks that China has been doing its utmost for Sri Lanka and will continue to do so.

”Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Sri Lanka, the two countries have lent mutual support and understanding to each other,” Zhao told a media briefing in Beijing.

”China has been doing its utmost to provide assistance for the socio-economic development of SL and we will continue to do so going forward,” he said, reiterating what his ministry said on March 9.

Courtesy Hiru News

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට පෙර සහරාන් හෂීම් ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායම විසින් පටිගත කරන ලද එම ප්‍රහාර එල්ල කිරීමට හේතු දැක්වෙන වීඩීයෝවක් අද මාධ්‍ය වෙත නිකුත් කරනු ලැබුවා.

අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරයා කියා සිටියේ පාස්කු ඉරු දින ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් පුද්ගලයින් 735 දෙනෙකු අතරින් 196 දෙනෙකු රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කර ඇති බවයි.

Courtesy Adaderana

Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne says that a total of 735 persons have been taken into custody so far over the Easter Sunday attacks. 

He said 27 cases have been filed against 79 of them under 25,653 charges.

The Defence Secretary revealed this during a press briefing held today at the Department of Government Information to brief the media on the progress of investigations into the terrorist attacks. 

The Defence Secretary stated that various individuals are making various statements regarding the Easter Sunday attacks and that as responsible public officials it is their responsibility to inform the public on the true facts.

He rejected the claims that the investigations into the attacks are not being carried out properly. 

Detailing the progress that authorities have made with regard to the attacks, Gunaratne said that 735 individuals have been arrested in connection and that 196 of them are currently in remand custody. 

He said cases have been filed before various High Courts in the country against 81 of the suspects. 

He said that another 29 suspects are being held under detention order by the police and the CID while 493 of the arrested have been released on bail this far. 

The Defence Secretary said the number of arrests made in connection with the attacks since the incumbent government came to power is 170 out of which 45 have been remanded, 13 are currently under detention orders while indictments have been filed against 06.  

A total of 30 accused have been granted bail by the courts, he said. 

The Defence Secretary said that this goes to show that the officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Terrorist Investigations Division (TID) have not been simply sitting idly by. 

Courtesy Hiru News

The first consignment of 11,000 tonnes of rice from a total of 40,000 metric tonnes imported under the Indian loan scheme targeting the Sinhala and Tamil New Year arrived today (12). This includes 7,000 tons of Nadu, 2,000 tons of Samba & 2,000 tons of raw rice.

Accordingly, a kilo of Samba rice will be sold at Rs. 130 / =, Nadu rice at Rs. 110 / = and a kilo of raw rice at Rs. 110 / = through Lanka Sathosa outlets and Co-operatives island wide. 

Another consignment of rice is due to arrive in the country in the coming days under this credit line and that consignment will also be made available to consumers at the lowest possible prices through the government outlet chain.

An Anguished Citizen

Recently Ranil has been going around the country doing Pooja’s and celebrating his 40 years in politics. As far as I can see he was a miserable failure as a politician. It was like 40 years of mayhem. He failed to win elections 29 times, tried to win in 2010 with Sarath Fonseka in front and failed. Then in 2014 he and CBK started a campaign of lies via social media against incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa with funding from foreign NGOs. He promised cars for all, WiFi for the youth and free cell phones. Our idiotic voters fell for it and elected My3 the SLFP traitor who had hoppers with MR and then left him to contest as President of a joint front. They had secret talks with TNA and the Tamil diaspora attended by Mangala Samaraweera in Singapore and at the elections had 94% turn out of Tamils for the joint party. In spite of all these efforts, they won by a very small margin (449,072 votes). There was a lot of cheating as was shown by Dilrook Kanangara and Ravi Randeniya. 

See: https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/14/cheating-at-the-election/

See Maithripala then and now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvntVXWtoII

My3 broke the law when he appointed RW as the Prime Minister while the Parliament already had D. M. Jayaratna. The reason he gave was that “the West wanted it so”. I assume the West was Britain/USA nexus. In turn, Ranil changed the Cabinet when there was an existing cabinet and appointed his own henchmen. He brought the Finance Ministry under his control and then appointed Arjun Mahendran as head of Central Bank while he was still a Singaporean citizen. He also appointed Paskaralingam whose bad reputation is well known by all Sri Lankans, as head of Treasury. Arjun then did the Rs. 5,000 Million insider trading bond scam. Very little has been done to investigate this matter and bring the miscreants to justice. Ranil is the chief perpetrator since he appointed Arjun Mahendran. My3 could have prevented the gigantic second bond scam that took place in 2016 if he had removed Arjun Mahendran. He is too weak to say no to Ranil.

See: https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/02/07/bond-scam/

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd43BclpYWo

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogefGxwseWg

See: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/arjuna-mahendran-is-innocent-another-betrayal-by-yahapalanaya/

Even in the August Parliamentary election, My3 broke the law. First, My3 brought a court action to prevent the CC of UPFA from a meeting. Then he got information from National Intelligence that UPFA is going to win 113 seats. According to his own words in order to prevent his own party SLFP/UPFA from winning and to ensure that UNP wins, he wrote a 5-page letter to MR telling him that he will not be appointed as Prime Minister under any circumstances. He then went on tv and read it out to the public to reinforce his letter. He then removed the General Secretaries of both parties (UPFA & SLFP) and appointed his own. He removed the 13 members of the CC and appoints his own. All this was done during the period where the Election commissioner has said there should be no electioneering.  Was this not electioneering by My3 for the UNP during that period? All these actions confused our voting public. On top of that many have pointed out false ballot papers, counting errors etc. Democracy is a laugh in Sri Lanka. Nowhere else in the world will the party leader work for the opposition so strenuously. The election in January was flawed due to an unbelievable number of voter increase in North, East and Nuwara Eliya. As far as I can see both elections have been cheated. After the elections, the members of the gazetted National List were removed and My3 appointed people who had lost the vote to the National List. 

See:  https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/25/i-wrote-that-letters-sacked-secretaries-because-i-received-intelligence-reports-that-upfa-is-on-the-verge-of-winning-president-%E0%B6%BD%E0%B7%92%E0%B6%BA%E0%B7%94%E0%B6%B8%E0%B7%8A-%E0%B6%BD/

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX_RF6_jQzw

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Z2fwfgC8s

Prof. Nalin de Silva proves that My3 only got 40% of the Sinhala vote. See:  https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/01/14/press-conference-of-chinthana-parshadaya-held-on-13th-january-2016-on-the-new-constitution-and-theravada-kathikavatha/

Some of the crimes against the Sinhalese committed by CBK, My3 and Ranil are as follows:

• When 1000 soldiers were cut off without water at Elephant Pass, CBK and her nephew Rohan Daluwatte who was the army commander, did nothing to help those men who died of thirst. She could have done so many things to help these men. Instead as Chief Commander, she did nothing !! When the LTTE blew up 11 air Lanka planes the insurance money is supposed to have gone straight into her personal account. This is unforgivable. Also read about CBK’s robbery. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/081012/News/sundaytimesnews_20.html With all this money she gathered she was able to go abroad and live in U.K. for 10 years and educate her children. She is a member of Club de Madrid which is an international group with ex-leaders from all over the world. You can read a full account of her crooked activities in Victor Ivans brilliant book “Rogue Queen”.
• RW kept trying to hand over the North and East to appease Prabhakaran. He even stopped a crucial military operation in 2001 where the army knew the exact location of Prabhakaran and was ready to take him out. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZWO5fWDikQ  See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjmw8kxbMPU
• Between him and CBK they prolonged the war by listening to the so called mediators from Norway who were brought in by CBK. The Norwegians were more interested in making the LTTE win than bringing a peaceful resolution. Under their direction container loads of equipment and may be even armaments were brought in through the customs without inspection on Ranils instructions and send directly to the LTTE. Ranil demoralized the army be limiting them to the barracks and ensuring that they were not given enough money to even maintain the vehicles and munitions. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxbGojMb1xc
• Ranil tried to give 2/3 of the land to LTTE along with the Norwegians on a bogus Peace deal which was used by the LTTE to strengthen their defense systems. Entire container loads of equipment were allowed to go to the Wanni to LTTE on Ranil’s instructions. See: http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=1146733. 
• He was involved in the release of the names of the 80 odd long range Military Intelligence group to the Parliament which resulted in the names going public. The LTTE then hunted them down and killed every one of them. Some of them were captured and tortured by them to get more names. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_City_incident
• Gonawela Sunil was in jail for 10 years for rape of a doctor’s daughter. As soon as JR came into power, on the advice of RW, he released G’Sunil. After that wherever RW went Gonawela Sunil went too as his “body guard”. Sunil was collecting “kappam” from the bagging plant operators at the Fertilizer manufacturing plant. Was he sharing this with RW? Since he was protected by RW he must have, at least to buy voters? Gonawela Sunil also managed to drill into a pipeline from the refinery which was sending gasoline to Kolonnawa. He was sucking it up and selling it on the black market. Again who protected him from prosecution? !!  Finally, a rival gang member shot him. That was the end of the strange relationship between Gonawela Sunil and RW. 
•  During the uprising of the JVP both in the 1970’s and the 1988-90 period it is estimated at almost 80-90,000 youth was killed most of them who were innocent. Most of the killing was done by the UNP regime while Ranil was one of the Ministers who was in charge of bringing the JVP uprising under control. He is supposed to have set up the Batalanda torture chamber under one Douglas Pieris. It is estimated that at least 15,000 youth were tortured in the most bestial manner and then killed supposedly under the direction of Ranil Wickremasinghe. The commission which was set up to inquire into these crimes recommended that Ranil’s civic rights be removed. This was not implemented by CBK. Why? All these innocent Sinhala children are crying out for justice. There are no UNHRC officials to inquire into these crimes by the UNP and Ranil. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9t4Tv9cy60
• He was also involved with Batalanda murders of mostly JVP lawyers, I believe, from what I heard. At the Fertilizer plant housing scheme one of the houses was acquired by RW for interrogating suspected JVP members. Many people apparently heard the screams from this house in the middle of the night when people were tortured. People also used to see bodies floating down Kelani river. The Batalanda Commission report recommended that RW’s civil rights be removed. As usual, in Sri Lanka, nothing happens to Colombians and those with memberships in International Organizations like the International Democratic Union of which Ranil is a member. 

See Maithri talking against RW in 1994:  https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/01/10/batalanda/

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqSW3cKNb7k

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Av-d2qJ0Ys

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6_o9txURc

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgVyaHJGhc45. 

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9t4Tv9cy60

• Ranil has been insulting to Buddhism. He pretends to be Buddhist but is actually neither Buddhist or Christian when one looks at his actions at Batalanda. Anyone with an iota of humanity would not have what he is supposed to have done. 

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RddXfSU0aSE

• Ranil has always been trying to sell Sri Lanka to foreigners. Every time he got some power into his hands he set about trying to convert our economy to a capitalist economy not withstanding the fact that Sri Lanka is designated as a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. When he was elected as the PM he started privatizing almost 991 profit making state enterprises. Some places like the Sevanagala Sugar factory was privatized and the new owners removed the assets and ran it to the ground. Then when MR came into power he brought most of them back to being state enterprises. Now before Ranil leaves he wants to sell the most important strategically important ports to Chinese and Indians. As soon as he came into power the first step he took was to change the law which prohibited the sale of land to foreigners so that foreigners could buy large acreages of land. 
• Pure Capitalism does not work. There are many top economists who have written on the topic. One of the most outspoken has been Dr. Richard Wolf. His famous talk Capitalism hits the fan is given below. His solution for ills of pure capitalism is to have democracy in the work place. The Mondragon Corporation in Spain is actually a large number of Co-operatives under the umbrella of Mondragon. This was set up with the blessings of the Catholic Church. In the USA there are many companies which are run as co-operatives where the employees participate in the decision making of the company affairs by being on the board. In Germany which has been very successful any company with over 2000 employees have to have at least 50% of employees on the board. This is why unlike USA Germany is very successful. In 2008 when the recession hit many companies in the USA laid off people in millions. In Germany, the Govt informed the companies not to lay off any one. They suggested that they can reduce the number of hours of employees but keep all employed. In return, the German Govt paid the wages of the companies who had reduced the number of hours of employees so that no one lost any money. The net result was that the people had money in the pocket and were spending it thereby keeping the economy rolling. They hardly felt the recession, unlike the stupid USA Corporations.

Please watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZU3wfjtIJY ( Capitalism Hits the Fan – Richard Wolff)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WhZXhRS3F4 ( Austerity and Neoliberalism in Greece with Richard Wolff and Barry Herman | The New School)

• Ranil is supposed to have agreed to a bridge to Sri Lanka from India in 2002. We can be sure it is on his agenda if he remains as PM. In an export-oriented economy which is what Ranil wants one of the main requirements is cheap labor. In order to do that, he has destroyed the agrarian economy and impoverished the rural folk. MR was trying to make the country self-sufficient in food and most commodities. In fact, before the Yahapalanaya came into power Sri Lanka was self-sufficient in rice. Now we are importing rice from Thailand, Burma, and even Bangladesh. How pathetic. 

See:http://www.atimes.com/article/sri-lankans-oppose-bridge-with-india/

• The UN has become just a puppet of powerful countries to bully small defenseless countries. Sri Lanka has been pummelled by the UN and the UNHRC on bogus War crimes charges without any proof. Please see this excellent article on this subject: https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/09/06/who-monitors-the-monitors-iii/ On his instructions presumably, Mangla Samaraweera co-sponsored a resolution against Sri Lanka. 
• It is very obvious that Ranil Wickremasinghe has no love for the country or the people. He has been a stooge of the powerful countries right from the beginning. He came into power as the PM illegally on Jan 8’15 after the Presidential election when the spineless My3 was elected as President and he then appointed RW as PM when there were an existing PM and a Parliament with a cabinet. 
• Ranil then caused the Central Bank bond scam by appointing a foreigner as the Governor of Central Bank who proceeded to do a bond scam which has cost Sri Lanka a massive amount of money. Part of this money was used by him for the General Election in Aug 2015 which the UNP won only narrowly. Again the spineless My3 created a so-called National Govt as a coalition of the UNP and all the MPs who were rejected by the people who were brought in under the National List by the spineless My3. 
•  The current Parliament is a comedy since the TNA which got only 16 seats is the Opposition while the 52 SLFP members who did not join the coalition are in the wilderness without any official recognition. All the JO group members are harassed at every turn by another illegal group called the FCID created by RW. He seems to get all these brilliant ideas which are obviously coming from the think tanks of the powerful countries. 
•  Ranil is supposed to be trying to bankrupt the country so that we are helpless like Greece and he is also supposed to be trying to lease out 5000 acre lots of land to foreigners for 100-year leases. This will enable the Tamil diaspora to lease out most of the North and East for exclusive use by the Tamils thereby creating a separate state. He has already given 15,000 acres on a 99-year lease to a Chinese company based in Hong Kong presumably with British interests. This is a great crime against the country since if it was managed the way MR was doing it would have paid for itself in about 5 years. In the days of the King of Kandy traitors like this were pulled apart to pieces by elephants which is what he deserves.

The biggest problem Sri Lanka has is that the entire Colombo group is more or less very Westernized. They are so Westernized that they are more Western than the Westerners themselves! They talk with a big accent and if you go to any of the clubs you find the men and the women are like from another age of the West. They drink only whiskey, brandy, and imported liquor. You see girls dancing and with girls and kissing each other trying to emulate the West. They travel in luxury limousines like BMWs and Benzes. The children are sent to International Schools, as a result, they are completely divorced from the realities of Sri Lanka. The poor go to the middle east to make the foreign exchange which is used by these Colombians to maintain their lifestyle at the expense of the development in the country. If you look at the number of luxury vehicles you cannot imagine that the country is paying 94% of its earning to pay the foreign debts. These parasites are the biggest supporters of the UNP and Ranil. 

The other groups are the Christian Catholic groups who want to convert the entire island to their religion (which is mythology) as has been done in South Korea, etc. The foreign companies who have now put deep roots in Sri Lanka also want to make sure they are secure so they support the UNP and Ranil. One of these days the dominoes will fall and when that happens there will be a massive upheaval hopefully for the better for all who are truly patriotic and love Sri Lanka. 

Any other Govt which comes into power after this ridiculous puppet Govt must carry out a plan to correct all the mistakes that have been done over the years by successive Govts. We must rename the country as “Sinhale” which was the name of the country in the Treaty the British signed with the Chieftains of Sri Lanka in 1815 when they handed over the country to them.  They must have an inquiry into the activities of Ranil Wickremasinghe over the years and prosecute him. When the Batalanda commission found him guilty and removed his civic rights how did he manage to run for PM? Why is that no one raised any arguments against him? 

ජයන්ත හේරත්

ගවයා පූජනීය වස්තුවකි.

ඉන්දියානුවන් ගරු බුහුමන් කරයි.

සරසයි.

වඳියි.

ගස්

පර්වත

ගෞරවණිය

පුජණිය වස්තු බවට හරවා

අපිත්

බිම පෙරලි පෙරලී

වඳින්නෙමු.  

ජපානයේ

ආචාරය

දෙපාර්ශවයම

ඔලුව සමාන දුරක් පහත්  කිරීම පමණි.

ආචාරයට සමාචාරයය.

කිසිම ගවයකු

තවකෙකුට වඩා

උසස් හෝ පහත් නැත.

ඇඳ සිටින ඇඳුමින්

කෙනෙකු

උසස් හෝ

පහත වන්නේ නැත.

ගවයින් රැලක්

එක ගව දක්කන්නෙකුට

cow boy

කෙනෙකුට

දක්කා ගෙන යා හැක.

ඕනා කෙවිටය.

කසයය.

සමාජ ජාලා

තොරතුරු

ඉතා වේගවත්ව

සම්ප්රේෂණය කරයි.

සමහරක්

දේශපාලනික වැරදි තොරතුරු

මතවාදී නැඹුරු තොරතුරු

හිතාමතා වෙනස් කල තොරතුරු

ප්රති සම්ප්රේෂණය කරයි.

අන්තර් ජාලයට

ඇබ්බැහි වීම

මතට සමානය.

අනතුරුදායකය.

කවුරුන් හෝ

කී පලියට

අන්ධානුකරණයෙන්

internet තිබුන පලියට

e-mail forwarding කල යුතු නැත.

ජීවිතයේ

විපිරියාස

සඳහා සූදානම් වී

සිටිය යුතුය.

තවමත්

නොමැති නම්,

දැන් කාලයයි.

වැස්ස

පටන් ගෙන ඇත.

කැළණි-මහවැලි

ගංඟා පද්ධති

වැව්

ජලාශ පිරී ගොස්

ජල විදුලි බලාගාර සක්රීය වූ

සැනින්

අඳුරු මුහුණු ආලෝකමත් වනු ඇත.

air conditioning  වැඩ කරනු ඇත.

මුළු රටම

විදුලි ආලෝකයෙන්

ආලෝකමත් වනු ඇත.

විමලසුරේන්ද්‍ර

එහා ලෝකයේ

සිට

සිනහවනු පෙනේ.

Go Gota Go

කියන්නේ

තව දුරටත්

කර ගෙන යන්න කියන එකය.

Gota Go Home කියා

යම්කිසි

දේශපාලන

ගවයකු කී පලියට

අනෙක් ගවයින්

පුනරුච්චාරණ

කිරීම අවශ්ය නැත.

Gota ඉන්නේ

ගෙදරය.

ත්රස්තවාදය

සුන්නත්දුලි

කල නොහැකි යයි

කිවූ අය

නොකරන්න

අවවාද කල අය

බොහෝය.

අනපේක්ෂිත දේ

බලාපොරොත්තු වන්න.

අපිට ඕන ගෝඨා දැන්ය.

වෙන කවරදාටත් වඩා.

අපිට ඕන නියම

Original Military Gota ය.

OMG ය.

ශක්තිමත් නායකයෙක්ය.

ප්‍රජාතන්ත්රයෙන් වැඩක් නැත.

74ක් වැඩ කලේ නැත

ඉස්සරහට

තව 74ක්

වැඩ කරන්නෙත් නැත.

71

මිලිටරිය දිනුවේය

89ත්

මිලිටරිය දිනුවේය

2009ත්

දිනුවේ මිලිටරියය.

ඇමරිකාව

මිලිටරි ප්‍රජාතන්ත්රය.

සමහරකට ඇමරිකාව

අප්පිරියය

ඇසූ පමණින්

කලිසන් තෙත් වන්නේය

මුනුත් එකයි උනුත් එකය.

තායිලන්තය මිලිටරිය.

බුරුමයත් මිලිටරිය.

අපිටත් ඕනා one-man show එකය.

Long-Term solutions ය.

Short ඒවා නැත.

ක්ෂණික ත් නැත.

විසඳුම Xi Jinpin ය.

මිලිටරිය ය.

චීනයය.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වන ලෙස බල කරමින් ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය අසළ විරෝධතාවයේ යෙදෙන විරෝධතාකරුවන් අතර ආධාර මුදල් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගැටලූකාරී තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවී තිබේ.

මෙම මිලියනයේ විරෝධතාවයට ආධාර සදහා විදේශයන් මගින් ලැබෙන මුදල් යූ ටියුබ් ක‍්‍රියාකරුවන් විසින් වංචනික ආකාරයෙන් භාවිතා කරන්නේ යැයි ඔවුන් එකිනෙකා චෝදනා කරමින් සිටිති.

විරෝධතාවයේ ප‍්‍රමුඛ සාමාජිකයෙක් වන උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගල මහතා ද තම සමාජ ජාල ගිණුමේ එම තත්ත්වය අවවාදාත්මකව සටමනක් පල කර ඇති අතර පසුව එය ඉවත් කර තිබේ.

ඇතැම් යූටියුබ්කරුවන් දන්සැල් මුවාවෙන් දන්සැල් මංකොල්ල කන බවටද සන්නස්ගල විසින් චෝදනා කර තිබේ.

යූ ටියුබ්කරුවන් තවත් දෙතුන් දෙනෙකුම් මෙන්ම විරෝධතාවට සහාය දෙන ෆේස්බුක් පිටු කිහිපයක් විසින්ද මෙම අනතුරු අගැවීම කර ඇත්තේ මුදල් ආධාර ලබා දෙන්නේ නම් විශ්වාසවන්ත අයෙකුට පමණක් ලබා දෙන ලෙසයි.

මේ අතර විරෝධතා ස්ථානයට ආධාර ලෙස ලැබුණු ජලබෝතල් විකිණීමක් සිදුව ඇති බවත් ඒ ගැනද ගැටලුකාරී තත්ත්වයක් පැන නැගී ඇති බවත් දැනගන්නට ඇත.

මෙම මිලියනයේ විරෝධතා කරුවන්ගේ ලෙස ප්‍රධාන සටන් පාඨයක් වනුයේ හොරු එලවිය යුතු බවත් සොරකම් කල මුදල් ආපසු ලබා ගත යුතු බවත්ය.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ගේ ප්‍රෞඩ උරුමයක් වන සිංහල හා දෙමළ අලුත් අවුරුදු උදාව නිමිත්තෙන් සුභාශිංසන පළ කරනුයේ ඉමහත් සතුටිනි.

දුක්ඛ දෝමනස්සයන් පහ කොට සතුට ළඟාවීමේ අපේක්ෂාව සංකේතවත් වන සිංහල හා දෙමළ අලුත් අවුරුද්ද අප සියලු දෙනාගේ මහා සංස්කෘතික මංගල්‍යයයි.

කෘෂිකර්මය පදනම් කරගත් ඓතිහාසික සමාජ සංස්කෘතික වටිනාකම් පරපුරෙන් පරපුරට දායාද වන අලුත් අවුරුදු උත්සවය සිංහල දෙමළ ජනතාවගේ අතීත සබැඳියාව  සිහිගන්වයි.

නැකත් චාරිත්‍රයන්ට මුල් තැන දෙමින් අප සියලු දෙනාගේ අපේක්ෂාව අලුත් අවුරුද්දේ යහපත් බලාපොරොත්තු ඉටුකර ගැනීමයි.

පවතින දුෂ්කර කාලය පසුකර යෑමට වුවද අප සියලු දෙනා එක්ව, එක් ජාතියක් ලෙස සමගි සම්පන්නව ක්‍රියා කළ යුතු වේ.

අභියෝගාත්මක කාලයේ අනපේක්ෂිතව ඔබ අප මුහුණ දුන් පීඩාවන් එකිනෙක මගහැරලීමට අවශ්‍ය අනාගත සැලසුම් රජය දැනටමත් ක්‍රියාවට නංවමින් සිටියි.

ඔබට, ඔබේ පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන්ට මෙන්ම සමස්ත රට වැසියන්ට උදාවූ අලුත් අවුරුද්ද සාමය, සතුට පිරි සුබ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා!යැයි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

Prime Minister’s Media Unit

Friends and citizens of Sri Lanka.

I speak to you at a crucial time as we grapple with many challenges that have overcome our people. These challenges are not new to me having overseen the journey our nation has undertaken in my fifty plus years of politics.

Friends, I am sure by now that you are very aware of the deep economic crisis that has befallen our country following the battle we fought, to keep our citizens safe from the Coronavirus pandemic.

Although we ensured the safety of the lives of the people from the pandemic, we were unable to avoid falling into this economic abyss.

Needless to say, with the closure of our international borders and the travel ban within the country, foreign exchange inflows were halted and subsequently, foreign reserves dried up as they were used up for sustenance.

You know the situation has become serious when tankers providing fuel have arrived at the port, but we are unable to clear it for want of foreign exchange.

My mind goes back to when I addressed you following the 2010 presidential election after the culmination of the war.

I promised you a future free of power cuts.

Power plants were built for this purpose in an effort to ensure the fulfillment of those promises. However, because the previous government stalled the development of these projects, we were not been able to fulfill those expectations and upkeep those assurances.

That is the truth.

I understand the fatigue of the people who have been queuing for days in the fuel queues and empathize with the pain of our citizens queuing up for gas. I feel that pain.

We intimately understand the suffering of the people in the face of the skyrocketing price of goods.

Friends, although we have extended an invitation to all parties to come forward in unity to address the current situation, they have not stepped forward. This is not a time to prioritize party affiliations over the resurrection of the country’s economy. With this call being unanswered, we as the party commanding a majority have taken up this responsibility. We will overcome these challenges.

30 years of a terrorist threat and the fear of death that existed among the people of this country was eradicated; not to further endanger the people and to relegate them to a fate of hardship and pain.

We built highways, modern roads and infrastructure – not so that you can stand in queues on those roads.

We built ports, not to suffocate supply chains and halt tankers carrying fuel because we’re unable to pay for it.

When thousands died in neighboring countries due to the Coronavirus, treatment centers equipped with facilities were mobilized. Indigenous medicines such as Koththamalli were dispensed, medicines were given and the whole country was largely vaccinated.

All this was done, not so that our people would be victimized by tear gas and bullets.

Historically, we have spared no sacrifice to protect our people from every challenge. As in times past, we will make every effort to overcome this crisis.

Friends, this government restricted taking loans from international stakeholders and prioritized working with and empowering our people to make Sri Lanka a debt free country.

This government has always strived to protect the independence of the country even from international influences under trying circumstances, to the point that at times, we withdrew opportunities to bring in large scale investments to Sri Lanka when public opinion dictated so.

Friends our responsibility is to uphold the sovereignty of the people. We will never take decisions that will undermine the democracy, the country’s governance structure or its Supremacy.

We work with that purpose in mind. In politics we are accustomed to letting go.

Friends, the chant ‘No 225 in Parliament’ today echoes through the streets. That immediately translates to a rejection of this democratic system. While it may sound good, I urge you to understand its danger from a historical perspective.

We have witnessed the tragedy of the bombing of Parliament and attempts to destroy it. The blood of our youth flowed along the streets as those parties rejected democracy. Thousands of young people were burned alive in tires as that movement took wind. So much so that 1988/1989 proved to be the darkest age in our history as this rebellion claimed over 60,000 young lives.

Your elders will remember the massive effort we put in to saving those young lives then. I want to remind the youth of the North as well as the South about it.

Your parents will attest to the bloody past that shrouded our history.

A movement was birthed in the North of our country during the 1970s and 1980s by the youth who killed elected people’s representatives on the streets as they protested governance, by declaring their refusal for elections and a parliament. The ensuing distress affected not only those in the North but also those in the South of Sri Lanka for over 30 years due to that political movement. Tens of thousands paid with their lives as landmines and bullets claimed Sri Lanka’s children.

People lost their homes and gradually, school children began to take to the streets in protest. The next inevitable step was to forcibly conscript school children into this evil war.

I urge our sons and daughters this evening to consider this carefully and protect our nation from once again slipping into a time as dark as that in our history, through these actions.

Friends, we are embarking on an enormous program to overcome the crisis we face today. Every second spent by the President and this government is used up exhausting avenues to rebuild our country.

This government has historically imbued our farmers with the highest relief packages to aid their industry. However, today the farmers stand against us.

No matter how honorable the notion of organic fertilizer is, it is not the time for it to be implemented. As such, we will be reinstating the fertilizer subsidy to once again equip our farmers to optimize their craft.

The country needs to urgently recover from this debilitating crisis which includes the unbearable cost of living and the requisite shortages.

Even if it is not possible within the next two or three days, we have initiated action to address these crises with the highest urgency.

Friends, every second you protest on the streets, our country loses opportunities to receive potential dollars. The reform that is being sought is currently secondary to the collective responsibility and the urgency that is required to stave off this crisis.

To facilitate this, we have extended an open invitation all those who have the courage to join us in serving our great nation. Remember that the country right now needs the patience of all of us to endure this hardship a little while currently.

Dear Daughter, Dear Son, we know that you all love your homeland passionately. I undertook many miles of protest walks in the past for the sake of the youth who were being oppressed from the violence that was prevalent. However, the infinite grains of sand that I trampled do not begin to compare with the humiliation and insults that my family and I have been levelled with.  We can bear it. We can face it.

My one humble plea is that you do not harass or insult those who serve in the police of the tri forces who have dutifully served our country.

Remember that today you walk the streets without fear of oppression protesting, because those war heroes sacrificed their lives to save this country for you.

Keep in mind that these very same war heroes came back to battle for you during the recent pandemic.

My Sons and Daughters, I see how proudly you wave our national flag during your protests, and it fills my heart with joy. However, do not forget those who laid the foundation for that flag to be freely hoisted anywhere in our homeland.

Today, despite the many challenges, there is one thing is not lacking -our courage, and determination to once again fight this crisis together. We will fight and we will overcome, as we have in times past.

May the blessings of the noble Triple Gem be with you.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

මිත්‍රවරුණි,

අපේ රටේ ඉතාම තීරණාත්මක මොහොතක ඔබ අමතන්නට මට සිදුව තිබෙනවා. මගේ පනස් වසරකට අධික දේශපාලන ජීවිතය තුළ ඉතාම තීරණාත්මක දේශපාලන සන්ධිස්ථාන රාශියක් පසුකර තිබෙන බව මම කියන්න ඕනෑ.

මිත්‍රවරුණි,

කොරෝනා වසංගතයෙන් පස්සේ අපිට මුහුණ දෙන්න සිදුවුණු ආර්ථික ප්‍රශ්නය අපේ රටේ ජනතාව හොඳින් තේරුම් අරගෙන තිබෙන බව මම විශ්වාස කරනවා. මේ වසංගතයෙන් ජනතාවගේ ජීවිත බේරා ගන්න අපට පුළුවන් වුණත් දැන් අපේ රට විශාල ආගාධයකට ලක්වෙමින් තිබෙන හැටි අපට දැනෙනවා. රට වසා තැබීමත් එක්ක විදේශ විනිමය එන මාර්ග ඇහිරුණ හැටිත්, විදේශ සංචිත සිඳී ගිය හැටිත් මම අමුතුවෙන් කියන්න ඕනෑ නෑ. තෙල් නැව මුහුදේ පෙනි පෙනී තියෙද්දී ඒක බා ගන්න ඩොලර් නැති නිසා ජනතාවට විවිධ ප්‍රශ්න වලට මුහුණ දෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙලා තියෙනවා.

යුද්ධය ජය අරගෙන 2010 ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් ජයගත්ත මොහොතේ ජනතාව අමතලා කළ කතාව මට මේ මොහොතේ සිහිපත් වෙනවා. අනාගතයේ විදුලිය කපන්නේ නැති රටක් බිහි කරනවයි කියලා” එදා මම කිව්වා. ඒ සඳහා බලාගාර ඉදිකරගෙන වැඩ කළත් ඒ බලාපොරොත්තු අපට ඉටු කිරීමට නොහැකි වූයේ පසුගිය රජය අපේ වැඩපිළිවෙල ඉදිරියට ගෙන නොගිය නිසයි. ඒක තමයි ඇත්ත.

තෙල්, පෝලිම්වල දින ගණන් රස්තියාදු වුණ ජනතාවගේ වෙහෙස අපට තේරෙනවා. ගෑස් ගන්න පෝලිම්වල රස්තියාදු වුණ කාන්තාවන්ගේ වේදනාව අපට තේරුම් ගන්න පුළුවනි. බඩු මිල අහස උසට නැගලා තියෙන තත්ත්වය හමුවේ ජනතාව විඳින දුක්ගැහැට ගැන අපි කාටත් හොඳ අවබෝධයක් තිබෙනවා.

මිත්‍රවරුණි,

අපි හැම පක්ෂයකටම ආරාධනා කලා එකතු වෙලා රට ගොඩ ගමු කියලා ඒත් ආවෙ නෑ. මේ වෙලාවෙ  පක්ෂ ගැන හිතනවාට වඩා රටේ ආර්ථිකය  ශක්තිමත් කරගැනීමයි අප සියලුදෙනාගේම වගකීම වන්නේ.

කවුරු වගකීම බාර නොගත්තත් බලයේ ඉන්න පක්ෂය හැටියට අපි ඒ අවසාන වගකීම භාර ගත්තා. අපි මේ ගැටළුවලට විසදුම් ලබා දෙනවා.

30 වසරක ත්‍රස්තවාදී තර්ජනය නිමා කරලා මේ රටේ ජනතාව තුල තිබුණ මරණ භය තුරන් කළේ මේ වාගේ ඉරණමකට, වේදනාවකට ජනතාව පත් කරන්න නෙවෙයි. අපි අධිවේගී මාර්ග හැදුවේ, නවීන පාරවල් හැදුවේ තමුන්නාන්සේලාව ඒ පාරවල්වල පෝලිමේ තබන්න නෙවෙයි. අපි වරායන් හැදුවේ, සල්ලි ගෙවා ගන්න බැරිව තෙල් නැව් වරායන්වල රස්තියාදු කරවන්න නොවෙයි.

වෙන රටවල කොරෝනා වසංගතය නිසා දහස් ගණන් මැරෙද්දී සියලු පහසුකම් තියෙන කොරෝනා මධ්‍යස්ථාන හදලා, කෑම බීම, බෙහෙත් ටික, කොත්තමල්ලි කෝප්පයක් දීලා රටම එන්නත් කරවලා ජනතාවගේ ජීවිත රැක ගත්තේ කඳුළු ගෑස්වලට, වෙඩි උණ්ඩවලට බිළි කරන්න නෙවෙයි. අපේ රටේ සෑම ප්‍රශ්නයකදීම ජනතාව රැක ගන්න උපරිම කැප කිරීම් කරපු ඉතිහාසයක් තමයි අපට තියෙන්නේ.

අපි මේ අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩ එන්නත් සෑම උත්සාහයක්ම ගන්නවා.

මිත්‍රවරුණි,

මේ ආණ්ඩුව විදේශවලින් ණය ගැනීම සීමා කළේ ජනතාවත් සමග ධෛර්යයෙන් වැඩ කරලා ලංකාව ණය නැති රටක් කරන්න.

ඉතාම දුෂ්කර තත්ත්වයක් යටතේ වුණත් විදේශවලින් උදව් ගන්නකොට රටේ ස්වාධීනත්වය රැකගෙන උදව් ගන්නයි මේ ආණ්ඩුව නිතරම උත්සාහ කළේ. ඒ නිසාම විශාල ආයෝජන ලංකාවට ගෙන්න ගන්න තිබුණ අවස්ථාත් ඇතැම් අවස්ථාවල ජන මතයට ගරු කරලා අපි පස්සට ගත්තා.

මිත්‍රවරුණි,

මේ රටේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පාලන ව්‍යූහය කඩා බිඳ නොදැමෙන විදිහේ තීන්දුවක් ගැනීමයි ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍ය ලබාගත් අපේ වගකීම වන්නේ. ඒ අරමුණ ඇතිව පමණයි අපි වැඩ කරගෙන යන්නේ. මතක තියාගන්න අහිමි වීම වාගේම අතහැරීමත් දේශපාලනයේදී අපට හොඳට පුරුදුයි.

මිත්‍රවරුණි,

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දෙසීය විසිපහම (225) එපා කියන සටන් පාඨය දැන් ඇහෙනවා. එයින් අදහස් කරන්නේ මේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ක්‍රමය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීම නම් එහි භයානකකම ඉතිහාසය දිහා බලලා තේරුම් ගන්න ඕනැ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට බෝම්බ ගහලා මුළු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවම විනාශ කරන්න හැදීමෙන් වුන විපත අපි දෑසින් දැක්කා.

එදා පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරපු නිසා පාරවල් දිගේ තරුණ ලේ ගලා ගියා. ටයර් සෑ මත දහස් ගණන් තරුණයෝ පණ පිටින් පිච්චුනා. 1988/89 අඳුරු යුගයේදී 60 දහසකට අධික තරුණ ජීවිත අපේ රටට අහිමි උනා. අපි එදා තරුණ ජීවිත රැක ගන්න දරපු මහන්සියේ තරම ඔබගේ වැඩිහිටියන්ගේ මතකයේ තියෙන බව අපි දන්නවා.

දකුණට වාගේම උතුරේ තරුණයන්ටත් මම ඒ ගැන මතක් කරලා දෙන්න ඕනෑ. ඒ අතීතය ඔබගේ අම්මා තාත්තාගෙන් වැඩිහිටියන්ගෙන් ඇහුවොත් කියලා දේවි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව එපා, ඡන්ද එපා කියලා මහජන නියෝජිතයෝ මහමග මරා දාලා තමයි 1970 – 80 කාලේ උතුරේ තරුණයෝ පටන් ගත්තේ.

ඒ ආරම්භ කළ දේශපාලන ව්‍යාපාර නිසා වසර තිහක් උතුරේ පමණක් නොවෙයි දකුණේ ජනතාවත් දුක් වින්දා. බිම් බෝම්බවලට, වෙඩි උණ්ඩවලට දස දහස් ගණන් ගොදුරු වුණා. උන්හිටි තැන් අහිමි වුණා. ටිකෙන් ටික පාසල් දරුවනුත් විරෝධතාවලට පාරට ඇදගෙන යන්න පටන් ගත්තා.ඊළඟට කළේ පාසල් දරුවන් බලෙන් යුද්දෙට ඇදගෙන යන එක. එදත් පටන් ගත්තේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවම එපා කියලයි. ඒවායේ විපාක දන්න අපි ආදරණීය දූ පුතුන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා ඒ අඳුරු අතීතයට ඔබ ඉපදුන, ජීවත්වෙන මේ මව්බිම ආයෙත් සැරයක් ගෙනියන්න එපා කියලා.

මිත්‍රවරුණි

අද අපි මුහුණ දී තිබෙන අර්බුදය ජය ගන්න අපි දැවැන්ත වැඩපිළිවෙලක යෙදිලා ඉන්නවා. ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේත් ආණඩුවේත් හැම තත්පරයක්ම ගෙවෙන්නේ මේ අර්බුදයෙන් අපේ රට ගොඩගන්නයි. ගොවියාට ඉතිහාසයේ වැඩිම සහන දුන්න අපිට දැන් ගොවියා විරුද්ධයි. මොන තරම් රටට හොඳක් වුණත් කාබනික පොහොර  වැඩපිළිවෙළ ගෙනියන්න මේක වෙලාව නොවේ. ඒ නිසා අපි පොහොර සහනාධාරය යළි ලබා දෙන්න තීන්දු කරලා තිබෙනවා. දරාගන්න බැරි ජීවන වියදම වගේම කඩදාසි හිඟ වීම දක්වා මුහුණ දීලා තිබෙන අර්බුද වලින් රට ගොඩ ගන්න ඕනේ. දවස් දෙක තුනකින් බැරිවුනත් හැකි ඉක්මනින් මේ අර්බුදයට යන ගමන නවත්වන්න අපි කටයුතු කරනවා.

මිත්‍රරවරුනි,

ඔබ පාරේ විරෝධතා දක්වන සෑම තත්පරයකම අපේ රටට ඩොලර් ලැබෙන්න තියෙන අවස්ථා අහිමි වෙනවා. මහා ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ කරන්න කලින් ජාතියට  අත් වී ඇති මේ විනාශයෙන් රට බේරා ගැනීම අප කාගේත් වගකීමයි. ඒ සඳහා ශක්තිය තිබෙන ධෛර්යය තියෙන හැමෝටම අපි දැනටමත් ආරාධනා කරලා තිබෙනවා. ඔබ සියලු දෙනාගේම ඉවසිලි වන්ත ධෛර්යය මේ මොහොතේ රටට උවමනා බව මතක තියා ගන්න.

ආදරණීය, දුවේ පුතේ, අපි දන්නවා ඔබ කවුරුත් උපන් බිමට අසීමිතව ආදරය කරන බව.

එදා තරුණයන් භීෂණයෙන් බේරා ගන්න පාද යාත්‍රාවේ යනකොට පයේ පෑගුණ වැලි කැටවලට වඩා වැඩියි මටත් පවුලේ අයටත් මේ වන විට කියලා තියෙන නින්දා අපහාස. ඒවා අපට දරා ගන්න පුළුවන්.

එහෙත් රට වෙනුවෙන් රාජකාරියේ යෙදෙන ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවේ පොලිසියේ සේවයේ යෙදෙන අයට හිරිහැර, අපහාස කරන්න එපා. අද ඔබ නිදහසේ බය නැතිව මහ මග ගමන් කරන්නේ විරෝධතා දක්වන්නේ රණවිරුවන් තම ජීවිත පරිත්‍යාගයෙන් ඔබට රටක් ඉතිරි කර දුන් නිසා බව මතක තබා ගන්න.

ඒ වාගේම කොරෝනා වසංගතයෙන් ඔබව බේරාගන්න මහා පරිත්‍යාගයක් කළ විරුවන් බව ඔබ කෙළෙහි ගුණ දත් අය හැටියට මතක තබා ගන්නා ලෙස කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

දුවේ, පුතේ,

විරෝධතාවලදී ඔබගේ අතේ ජාතික කොඩිය ලෙල දෙනවා මම දකිනවා. ජාතික කොඩිය අපි උපන්න මේ බිමේ ඕනෑම තැනක ඔසවන්න පුළුවන් රටක් හදා දුන්නේ අපි. එදා ඒ අභියෝග වලට මුහුණ දුන්න ධෛර්ය වගේම පන්නරය තවමත් අපට තියෙනවා.

තෙරුවන් සරණයි!

Dhinesh Kallungal Courtesy The Hindu

Huge increase in transshipment volume at ICTT

The economical and political turmoil in Colombo coupled with the congestion at the Colombo port has come as a blessing for ports in south India, especially the International Container Transshipment Facility (ICTT), Vallarpadam, Kochi, where the cargo traffic has increased by over 62% in March with the mother vessels calling at Cochin port.

According to the statistics available with the Cochin port, the transshipment volume at the ICTT has increased to 13,609 TEUs (Twenty-foot equivalent unit) in March 2022 compared to 8,394 TEUs in March 2021.

M. Beena, chairperson of the Cochin Port Trust, told The Hindu, Obviously Cochin port will be the major beneficiary in the event of an uncertainty in Colombo. However, there has been a gradual shift in transshipment volume to Cochin port in recent years especially from the end of 2020. The volume increased to 86,761 TEUs in 2020-21 from 36,183 TEUs handled in 2019-20, a growth of 140%. It increased to a record high of 1,56,159 TEUs in 2021-22, registering a growth of 80% against the previous fiscal. The growth was mainly due to the arrival of new services, apart from some ‘ad-hoc’ vessels calling at the port during this period,” said Ms. Beena.

There were reports recently that some shipping lines have started skipping Colombo for reasons beyond port congestion there. The process of shifting the business to another port would take some time due to the existing contract terms of shipping lines and partner alliances with other shipping lines. The current developments in Sri Lanka indicate that the growth path is likely to continue at least this year too, added Ms. Beena.

Vizhinjam will benefit

Jayakumar, CEO of Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd. (VISL), said the crisis in Colombo would give more opportunities to the ports in Kerala. The under-construction Vizhinjam port, when completed, would be a major beneficiary, due to its proximity to the international sea route.

N.S .Pillai, who took over as chairman of the Kerala Maritime Board, said the reconstituted board had decided to upgrade its coastal infrastructure at mini ports in tune with the rise in traffic to the major ports in the State. There were also reports that ports like Thoothukudi, Chennai, and Mundra have become beneficiaries with traffic being diverted from Colombo due to various reasons.