Shenali D Waduge

Citizens of Sri Lanka should be mature enough to put politics & preference for political parties aside when it comes to issues concerning the Nation. In such scenarios, citizens must be able to separate their personal preferences & evaluate if anything or anyone is doing wrong by the nation. We do not need to remind the citizens of the lies & illegalities taking place in the UNHRC against a UN Member State. We have seen too many of our own fly to Geneva to betray the nation. Not many have flown to set the story straight. Many of these sponsored trips have an ulterior agenda & are often linked to international geopolitics. It is with this background reality that those dashing to Geneva are perceived with the question ‘what are they up to now’& ‘whose agenda are they attempting to fulfill”. What does the Cardinal – the UNP – the LTTE/TNA & its associates have in common?

History provides lessons & links to understanding the present. History will reveal that there were no ethnic rivalries prior to 1505. Incidents that emerged thereafter was part & parcel of colonial legacy from divide & rule policies of the invaders that pitched minorities against the majority encouraging a less than 10% minority to demand 50-50 representation & formulating ethnic-based political parties that demanded a separate Tamil state even before independence. Backing for unfair demands led to the 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution & emergence of Tamil armed militancy fanned & made worse because of international geopolitics.

Noteworthy is the manner these miscreants emerged during important historical events. The JVP & TNT (later LTTE) emerged when Sri Lanka formed its first republican constitution ending Queens rule as Head of State. This was followed by the separatist quest with the change of government in 1977 & a pro-West open economic policy.

Tamil militancy trained & funded by India emerged as India’s response to Sri Lankan president’s pro-US stand. An understanding of this is a must, given that it remains a puzzle why LTTE would assassinate Rajiv Gandhi, even if it was a hired job. But, it becomes clear that LTTE thereafter fell into different hands and was handled differently to serve geopolitical interests.

The LTTE diaspora handling the LTTE kitty became an all powerful bloc able to tap high profile international figures & even get them to stand on stage next to cut outs of Prabakaran or shed a tear or two at LTTE memorials while the TNA election manifestos clearly proves its support for LTTE.

It is important to be able to understand who supported LTTE militancy.

As we all know the Church is part & parcel of the Western bloc. It was a key component during colonial rule. Its mission to increase its flock remains on track. The bulk of NGOs that operated in the North were from faith-based organizations heavily funded by foreign governments or think tanks associated with them. None of these cared to save a single child from being turned into a child soldier though there were plenty of NGOs operating for children.

There are enough of instances that the Church openly sided with the LTTE. They even demonstrated for Prabakaran. The LTTE head quarters in UK was opened by none other than Rev. RayappuJoseph. Many a Church father initiated international petitions against Sri Lanka including Archbishop Desmond Tutu never bothering to hear the other version.

The LTTE was running its Voice of Tigers alongside Radio Veritas, a Catholic broadcasting station run by the Asian Catholic Bishops Conference based in The Philippines. The Tamil Service of the Radio Veritas is run by the Tamil Catholics of Tamil Nadu. 

Voice of Tigers had a coordinating office” inside St. Sebastian’s Church in Mallavi, Wanni; Radio Veritas (run by Asian Catholic Bishops Conference) which reached an audience of 850,000 people

Even Madhu Church was used by the LTTE & no one saw fit to run to Geneva or Vatican to complain.

https://www.shenaliwaduge.com/sri-lanka-church-demands-easter-sunday-justice-did-church-punish-church-priests-linked-to-ltte/

All of the attacks that Tamils quote had a UNP hand in them & that includes the burning of the Jaffna Library, 1983 riots & 1977 riots. These attacks enabled many Tamils to relocate overseas where they have built a powerful diaspora. Annually in Geneva they come together to attack Sri Lanka.

The same coterie is behind the Islamic terrorism prevailing world over. Terror incidents are used to justify interventions. Easter Sunday attack must be perceived as part of this unfolding bigger plot.

Now we come to answering what the Cardinal-the UNP-the LTTE/TNA & its associates have in common & what their goal was in Geneva. 

We totally empathize with the victims of Easter Sunday, but Catholics were not the only victims. Death & killings is nothing new to Sri Lanka we have suffered millions at the hands of colonials, thousands by JVP, many more thousands during JVP-UNP beeshana years & 30 years of LTTE terrorism.

Not a single bomb or assassination took place from May 2009 (after LTTE defeat) to April 2019 until 6 Jihadist suicide bombers decided to target churches & hotels in a mass murder. Therefore, like the Cardinal we too want to know who planned the attacks & how they tapped 6 suicide bombers to carry it out.

However, going to Geneva & reading out a script is not going to provide answers. It will bring greater damage to the country. Was this the plan?

The FBI took the mobile records of the suicide bombers & have not come up with anything. Foreign intel landed immediately but it was our own who quickly rounded up those linked & it was many of these Geneva visitors that wailed to release some of those arrested.

Geneva could never stop LTTE killings, LTTE recruitment of children or even international illegal money transactions of LTTE & would they, when some of their accounts are safely deposited in Geneva banks!

99% of world conflicts involve jihadi terrorism backed by Western proxies –has Geneva stopped these?Has Geneva ever looked at the anti-Sri Lanka elements that had been at play & the countries & organizations involved in sponsoring change including funding election campaigns? The US has even admitted to funding UNP election campaigns (ref Prof. Levin) The anti-Sri Lanka campaign has a ready list of usual culprits who are bandied together – we saw how that campaign succeeded to bring yahapalana to power. So these groups of people may function in isolation but when required they are pooled together.

So exactly what was the Cardinal’s real objective in trotting off to Geneva & adding a political twist to his speech?

Here’s where things get really complicated.

If the Cardinal had gone to Geneva because he genuinely desired to catch the culprits of Easter Sunday & he deemed the UNHRC better than Sri Lanka’s AG’s Dept or the judicial system to provide justice, then how or who arranged for him to speak representing a NGO (Kiham Rehabilitation). The Cardinals slot was however given to SJB’s Harin Fernando at the last minute. This resulted in the Cardinal’s speech having to be allocated under another NGO. Finding an alternative NGO was not difficult –Franciscan International NGO had allocated a slot for Ambika Satkunanathan to speak. Amika S the supposedly unbiased former Human Rights Commissioner of Sri Lanka resigned to be included to TNA national list, gave up her slot for the good Cardinal to speak. Notice the connections!

https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1mkrqz7th

https://franciscansinternational.org/news/news/urgent-appeal-provide-protection-for-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-in-sri-lanka/?no_cache=1&L=998&tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=ed86927b2d17a71901ebf7778234c4bb

Thus there are plenty of NGOs that allow anti-Sri Lanka speeches using their slots (NGO given 5 speaking slots). These so-called unbiased and transparent NGOs will never give a slot for a Sri Lankan war widow to question what happened to the 5000 missing Sri Lankan soldiers! Instead all are happy to search for LTTE dead!

Thus, it is not the demand for justice that we question but the coterie demanding the answers & the venue to seek that justice.

Shenali D Waduge

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, March 11 (newsin.asia): Sri Lanka and India on Friday signed an agreement to develop a solar power plant in Sampur as a joint venture.

The agreement was signed between NTPC Limited, India’s largest integrated energy company and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the Indian High Commission tweeted.

The High Commission in Sri Lanka said that the agreement will help strengthen the economic partnership between India and Sri Lanka for mutual prosperity, through cooperation in renewable energy.

Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, three other ministers, and the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay were among those present at the event.

Courtesy Adaderana

The move to devalue the Sri Lankan rupee was aimed at improving macroeconomic stability as the country struggles with its worst financial crisis in years, the country’s Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said on Friday.

The central bank earlier in the week introduced a flexible exchange rate framework, which saw the rupee depreciate by around 30% to 260 rupees against the dollar on Thursday.

The decision to impose a flexible exchange rate has caused challenges but we are confident these can be managed,” Cabraal said in a short video uploaded on Facebook.

However, it was a step taken to maintain macroeconomic stability and ensure financial system consistency,” he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) says it has approved the request of the Ceylon Electricity Board for emergency power purchase subject to the conditions given by the PUCSL.

Considering the existing fuel shortage of the country and electrical energy capacity shortage of the CEB, coupled up with the long term forced outage of all thermal power plants at Kelanithissa, Sapugaskanda and Kerawalapitiya due to no fuel with severe depletion of water resources in reservoirs that led to experience more than 7 hours daily power cut to the electricity consumers, the cabinet has declared an emergency situation’ in the energy sector as required under section 43(4) (c ) (ii) of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act in keeping with the directive of the President have made on 02nd March 2022.

With that CEB has requested the approval of 93 MW of capacity under short term power purchase agreement from ACE Power (Embilipitiya) power plant for 6 months in order to reduce the long hours of power interruptions immediately. 

We approved the request given the priority of the fuel supply to CEB power plants,” the Chairman of Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka Janaka Ratnayake said. 

In the same time, we empathized having a steady long-term plan to ensure continues supply of electricity to Sri Lanka. We have approved 600 MW of LNG power plant already in supporting that.”

The head of the country’s electricity sector regulator stated that adequate supply of fuel to power plants could immediately resolve the rolling power outages in the country that has caused 200–400 MW loss to the national grid.

Lack of funds to buy enough fuel to fire power plants is the main reason for continues power interruptions in large parts of the grid in Sri Lanka. We also have run down hydro reservoirs and the hydro storage were used excessively in the months of December last year and January this year to provide electricity,”

The CEB forced to shut down 350 MW of Thermal power plants for past two weeks due to lack of fuel supply. We have generated 76 percent electricity from thermal power plants 19 percent electricity from hydro and 5 percent electricity from renewable for this month so far. Hydro generation has increased to 22 percent during the month of February this year due to unavailability of fuel for thermal generation plants which stood at 18 percent in the same month last year,” he said.

Apart for the lack of fuel supply, we also have a technical constraint in the Southern grid where we have advised the Ceylon Electricity Board to find immediate solutions way back in 2017 which has not been materialized yet,” he added. 

The currency crunch that the country is facing at the moment has delayed the imports of fuel, which has led to power cuts island-wide, says Mr Ratnayake. 

We currently are in the forex crisis where we do not have sufficient funds to buy fuel. We can end this power cut if we get sufficient fuel stocks to operate our power plants,” Mr Ratnayake said, adding the PUCSL is also aware of the financial issue that the Ceylon Electricity Board is going through. 

We are aware. We have asked electricity consumers to pay their bills on time to reduce the financial burden for the CEB to a certain extent. But the issue is bigger. The electricity generation cost has increased 120 percent from the last tariff hike. The generation cost per electricity unit is at the moment is 37 rupees. But we are providing the electricity unit at a cost of 16 -17 rupees on average, which not reflects the right generation cost. Also, the price of a crude oil barrel in the world market has increased to 113 dollars this year. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka also had taken a decision to float the rupee given the current economic conditions which have caused a higher market volatility at present. All these reasons have a much larger impact on the generation cost of electricity. We believe in a cost reflective tariff to strengthen the CEB and the economy of the country while not burdening the electricity consumers,” Mr Ratnayake said. 

Commenting on the Southern grid issue, the Chairman of PUCSL said that CEB was instructed to find long term solutions for the issue where 100-150 MW of capacity is being lacking at present. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has denied media reports which stated that the meetings between Sri Lankan authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials over the next few weeks are for the purpose of debt restructuring.

Taking to his official Twitter account, Cabraal said Meetings of Sri Lankan authorities with @IMFNews officials over the next few weeks are NOT for the purpose of #debt restructuring as stated by some news agencies. @CBSL #SriLanka #GoSL

Earlier today, Reuters news agency, quoting sources, reported that Sri Lanka is expected to begin discussions with the IMF on a plan to help the country, including assistance with debt restructuring and managing its foreign exchange shortage.

It also said Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa would travel to Washington D.C. in mid-April to present Sri Lanka’s proposal to senior IMF officials.

To find a way out of the crisis, the government will seek assistance with debt restructuring, the foreign exchange crisis, bolstering revenue generation and reforming state-owned enterprises, Reuters said further quoting sources

Courtesy Hiru News

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal says that the economic plans of Sri Lanka had to be changed due to the Ukraine-Russia war crisis.

He made this statement to the media regarding the current economic situation.<br /><br />The purchase price of one US dollar was 256.22 rupees today (11) and it is reported that it has been decided to increase the prices of many goods and services including medicines.

Accordingly the Drug Price Control Committee has given permission to increase the price of drugs by 29%.

State Minister of Pharmaceuticals, Supplies and Regulation Channa Jayasumana said in Parliament today that he had been informed of the decision by the committee’s chairman, Dr. Palitha Abeykoon

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry says that another 467 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today, as the daily count of new cases continues to rise in the country.

This brings the tally of Covid-19 cases registered in the country thus far to 655,383. 

According to official figures, 618,697 positive cases have recovered.

Following the new development, the number of virus-infected people who are undergoing treatment moved to 20,305. Meanwhile, the death toll stands at 16,381

The Director-General of Health Services has confirmed another 07 coronavirus-related deaths for March 11, pushing the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 16,381.

This figure includes 05 males and 02 females, according to the Department of Government Information. 

One of the deceased patients is between the ages 30-59 years and the remaining 06 are in the age group of 60 years and above.

.

Garvin Karunaratne,

Professor Susirith Mendis’s A Short Essay” and Sena Thoradeniya’s Where are Soul and Spirit of Peradeniya” (The Island.lk:18/2) took me back to my days at Peradeniya in the Fifties.

Truly Professor Ediriweera Sarathchandra walked tall at Peradeniya. I happened to be in his first batch of Sinhala Hons students. His greater contribution was to the country in drama. I have happened to write in his favour when he was unduly criticised.(Saratchandra’s Maname : Is it that bad?” : Lanka Web 1/2/2018)

My Master’s Degree was also under Professor Srathchandra and that ended with the publication of the dissertation: Modern Sinhala Poetry.

As Sena states the University was in the forefront in the Fifties. Dr GVS de Silva, a Lecturer in Economics serving as the Private Secretary to Minister Philip Gunawardena contributed heavily for agriculture through the Paddy Lands Act. It was GVS’s ideas that came through. Though Minister Philip and GVS had a short stay in the Government the Paddy Lands Act offering security of tenancy to tenants has come to stay permanently. Peradeniya shon all round with personalities like Professors Malalasekera and Hettiaratchi. Economics too moved in with Professor HAdeS Gunasekera as the Permanent Secretary of the Plan Implementation Ministry that implemented the Divisional Development Councils Programme of 1971-77, which brought employment to 33,200 youths. It was unfortunate that this Programme was dropped by President Jayawardena. However this Programme stands to the credit of Peradeniya, the last real development programme to date,

Subsequently as Sena says we saw entropy or utmost decay in the system of humanities and social sciences at Peradeniya.”

I too was involved with my University- Peradeniya. I came back to Sri Lanka in 1995. Working with peasants in the Administrative Service for eighteen years, I had long forgotten my Sinhala though my Master’s Dissertation is a text in moderen sinhala poetry today and marched over to economics with a Ph.D in Ag Econ and Non-Formal Education from Michigan State University. I had also designed and implemented the Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh, where I worked as a consultant and by then it had guided over a million youths to become commercially viable entrepreneurs. Back in Sri Lanka, I wanted to make a contribution in Economics and sent in an application for a Visiting Lecturer’s position to my contemporary Professor Hewawitarana. I was appointed a Visiting Lecturer and told to prepare a lecture on any topic in econ and deliver it to the Staff in the economics department. I selected the subject of Microenterprise Development as the means of poverty alleviation and employment creation: the path out of the World Bank and IMF Stranglehold. I did deliver that two hour lecture to all dons at Peradeniya detailing how the IMF had enticed our country to follow the neoliberal economics of running a country on borrowed money, squandering the money in a non developmental manner-giving up all controls on imports and freely using the borrowed dollars to enable the rich to cruise, send off children for foreign study, leading to a situation where Sri Lanka was gathering a foreign debt- in 2005 our foreign debt was $ 11 billion, while till 1976 Sri lanka through careful planning lived within our means without falling into any debt. None of the dons raised a single question at the end of the lecture , but the lecture also sealed the fate of my Visiting Lectureship. Perhaps my critique of the IMF was forbidding. I edited that lecture and got it published: Microenterprise Development: A Strategy for Poverty Alleviation and Employment Creation in the Third World: The Way Out of the IMF and World Bank Stranglehold.(Sarasavi:1997). This book happens to be the first book critiquing the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme which was forced on President Jayawardena in 1977, when he requested Aid and which has today brought Sri Lanka to the brink of being a bankrupt country with a foreign det of $ 56 billion.

The dons not only at Peradeniya but all our Universities ignored what was happening to our country which was running the economy on loans, not gearing funds to bring about development. If only our economic dons had written that running a country on loans, without any plans to repay will someday bring us to bankruptcy, it would have been a contribution.

Today, when our country has by living on loans from 1977 come to a point where our Motherland, so full of resources- a fertile land, blessed with rain,and an array of excellent climates has become bankrupt and cannot find dollars even to import essentials, it is perhaps incumbent that our dons, the most qualified in economics in the country, should address the subject: Neoliberal economics of Milton Friedman, commence research and studies, and grope for the economic endeavour that can deliver our country out of the mess we are in today. Any of our Universities that embark , will surely shine among Universities and also make a major contribution to our Motherland.

Garvin Karunaratne,

Author of:

Microenterprise Development: A Strategy for Poverty Alleviation and Employment Creation in the

Third World: The Way Out of the IMF and World Bank Stranglehold (Sarasavi:1997)

How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages:2006

How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Godages:2017)

How the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Destroyed Sri Lanka(Godages:2022)

09032022 garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

ජයන්ත හේරත්

ස්පයිසි ෆූඩ් කටට සැරය

උයද්දි හැමතැන විහිදෙන්නේ ප්රණීත රමණීය සුවඳය

අනුභව කරද්දි රස නහර පිනා යන්නේය

ඇහෙන් කඳුළු වැක්කෙරෙන්නේය 

නාහෙන් දියර ගලන්නේය

සමහරුන්ට ඉහින් මුනින් දහඩිය ගලන්නේය

තවත් සමහරුන්ගේ මුහුණු, කන් රතුපාට වෙන්නේය

කෝකියන්ට හිනා යන්නේය

රස විඳින්නා ඉතා සතුටින් රස ලබන්නේය.

Wasabi

ඉඟුරු

තුනියට කැපූ

අමු Salmon Tuna මාළු

සමඟ ඉස්තරම්ය,

කද්දි Wasabi  සැර

කෙලින්ම දැනේනේ මොලයටය

එතකොට දෙය්යන් මතක් වෙන්නේය.

ජපානයේ ගිය අලුත

රෙස්ටොරන්ට්  එකකදි

ස්පයිසි ෆූඩ්

නොමිලේ කන්න ලැබුනේය,

ජපන් Chef ලා

හිනා පහල කලේ 

අපි කිසි ගානක් නැතුව

මිරිස්, ගම්මිරිස් Spices  කන හැටි දැකලාය.

විකටයෝ

නරඹන්නෝ

හිනස්සවන

ගමන් හිනාවෙන්නෝය,

අපට කිසි රසයක් නැති විහිළු වලට

හිනා යන්නේ නැතිය

ඒත්

උන් හිනා වෙන නිසා 

අපද ඔහේ හිනහ වෙන වෙලාවල් ඇත 

තවත් සමහරු අඬ අඬා

හිනහ වෙන්නෝය.

යුක්රේනයේ

Zelensky

Comedian ය.

විකට ශිල්පියෙකි 

එහෙමත් නැත්නම්

ජෝකර් කෙනෙකි

කාලයක් තිස්සේ

යුක්රෙනුවන්

හිනහ ගස්සවා

ජනාධිපති මැතිවරණයට

ඉදිරිපත් වී

එරටේ ජනාධිපති වීමේ වරම

එක පයින් ලබා ගත්තේය

Reagan වගේ

නළුවෝත් 

කලාතුරකින්

ජනාධිපතිලා වෙති.

Jackie Chun  ලා

joker + fighter + actor ලාය. 

දැන්

Zelensky

හිනාවෙන්නේ

අමෙරිකානුවන් හා යුරෝපියයන්

දෙස බලාය,

ඇමෙරිකානු යුරෝපියානු පොකැට්ටු වලට

හීන් නූලෙන්

විද්ද සතුටට

ඔහුට

නිකමුත් මුඛයෙන් හිනා යන්නේය.

අපේ

බස්වල pick pocket කාරයෝද 

මේ වාගේය.

යුක්රේනයට

ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය

සහ

NATO

ලබා දීමට

දුප්පත් ඇමෙරිකන්කාරයට ද

දායක වෙන්නට වෙලාය,

ඒ බිලද ගෙවන්නේ දුප්පත් එකා ය.

13 Billion ය.

මේවා දැකල මටත් හිනාය.

මේ වන විට

ලක්ෂ ගණනක්

යුක්රෙනුවන්

ඉන්න හිටින්න නැතිව 

අවතැන්ව දුක් විඳින්නෝය

දැන්

ඇමෙරිකාවේත්

උද්ධමනයය 

තෙල්,

ගෑස් මිල

බඩු  මිල

ඉහල ගොසින්ය.

කෙසේ නමුත්,

මේ යුද්ධයෙන්

එක හොඳක් සිදුව තිබේය

ඒ

Venezuela වලටය.

මේ තාක් කාලයක්

උතුරු ඇමෙරිකාව,

දකුණු ඇමෙරිකා රටවල්

ගණන් ගත්තේ නැත,

සතයකට මායිම් කලේ නැත

දැන්

උතුරු ඇමෙරිකාව

ගෑස් නිසා

Venezuela ව

සොයා දුවන්නට පටන් ගත්තේය.

Sanction කැලේය.

ඉරානයටත් දීප්තිමත් කාලයක් වගෙය. 

මේවා අහල මටත්  හිනාය.

අද

Noise Generators වලින්

තොරතුරු ගලා එන්නේ

වක්කඩ කැඩුවාටත් වඩා වේගයෙන්ය

අන්තර්ජාල

TV

කරන්නේ

සීමා විරහිතව

පුවත් සැපයීමය.

මනස අවුල් කර ගන්නට

මේ තොරතුරු ප්රමාණවත්ය,

අනවශ්ය තොතුරු දා ගැනීම

කිසිසේත්ම සෞඛ්ය සම්පන්න නැත

මනස අසනීප කර ගන්නට හොඳ නැත

හිතට

විසබීජ එකතු කර ගෙන

මානසික රෝගීන් විය යුතු නැත

වතුරට

ලුණු එකතු කල විට

ලුණු වතුරය,

මනසට

විස එකතු කල විට

මනස විස වේය. 

එකම තැන කැරකෙන විට

කැරකිල්ල හැදේය

Merry Go Round ය.

මින් මිදීමට

චක්රය කැඩිය යුතුවන්නේය.

විදුලි කප්පාදුව ආවේ

හොඳ කාලයටයයි

මට හිතේ.

BY MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ Courtesy The Real News Network

Just like in the dark days after 9/11, corporate media have responded to the war in Ukraine with a craven ‘bloodlust’ that is making all of us less safe.

From the moment Russian troops invaded Ukraine the entire corporate media apparatus in the US moved to 24-7 coverage, filling airwaves with talking heads relentlessly beating the drums of war. Combined with Big Tech’s sophisticated means for silencing and punishing dissenting voices, the increasingly hostile and propaganda-filled discourse that is taking shape today is eerily reminiscent of the Russiagate” fervor and the cultural hysteria that permeated the post-9/11 years. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with longtime journalist and activist Abby Martin about how the media’s manufactured bloodlust” for war makes us all less safe and how we must use independent media to advance the cause of peace.

Abby Martin is an American journalist, show presenter, activist, and artist. She helped found the citizen journalism website Media Roots and is the host of the investigative documentary and interview series The Empire Files. Martin has been involved in numerous film projects, including producing the recent feature documentaries Gaza Fights for Freedom, and she is currently producing another feature entitled Earth’s Greatest Enemy.

Abby Martin: How the media manufactures ‘bloodlust’ for war

Courtesy Sputnik

CC BY 2.0 / Tony Webster / BIOHAZARD

The Russian Defence Ministry earlier announced that the United States had poured money into biological research facilities in Ukraine, alleging they may have been used in order to create biological weapons and conduct bat coronavirus-related experiments.

Among the goals of the biological research laboratories in Ukraine suspected of having been funded by the United States was the creation of bioagents that would be capable of targeting certain ethnic groups, the Russian Defence Ministry revealed on Thursday.”The available documents confirm numerous cases of the transfer of biological samples of Ukrainian citizens abroad. With a high degree of probability, we can say that one of the tasks of the United States and its allies is the creation of bioagents that can selectively affect various ethnic groups of the population”, said Igor Kirillov, the head of the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces.

Kirillov said that 350 cryocontainers with blood serum samples were transferred from the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to a reference laboratory for infectious diseases at Australia’s Doherty Institute under the pretext of determining antibody titers.The Russian Defence Ministry has obtained documents confirming that the high-risk biological research in Ukraine is led by US specialists. According to Kirillov, the documents also showed that the US Defence Department funded the biological research in Ukraine.He also said that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland “indirectly” confirmed American participation in the Ukrainian biological research when she said that Washington was concerned about the Ukrainian biolabs being taken over by the Russians.The biological research funded by the US in Ukraine, according to Kirillov, included the projects “UP-2, UP-9, UP-10, aimed at studying the pathogens of anthrax and African swine fever”. The UP-4 project, in particular, is said to have been in development in laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa, and was scheduled until 2020.

Studying the spectrum of pathogens spread by bats© Photo : Russian Defence MinistryPer Kirillov, the Pentagon was also interested in insect vectors that can spread dangerous infectious diseases.”The analysis of the received materials confirms the fact that more than 140 containers with ectoparasites of bats – fleas and ticks – were transferred from the biological laboratory in Kharkov abroad”, he elaborated.

Peculiarities of conducting military-biological research© Photo : Russian Defence MinistryMost of the documentation related to the research has already been evacuated from Ukraine by the Americans, Kirillov noted.”According to the available information, the Americans have already managed to evacuate most of the documentation from the laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa, including databases, biomaterials, and equipment to the Lvov Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene and to the American Consulate in Lvov. It is possible that part of the collection will be moved to Poland”, he said.Additionally, biological laboratories in Ukraine and Georgia are working on a project involving bats as carriers of bioweapons, Kirillov said.Similar concerns were earlier voiced by Major General Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman of the Russian Defence Ministry. He said that the US-funded biological labs in Ukraine were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples and studying the possible spread of pathogens via wild birds, migrating between Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in the region.

Study of the possibility of spreading especially dangerous pathogens through migratory birds© Photo : Russian Defence MinistryWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki has denied that the United States is engaged in the development of biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine.”This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent”, she said.According to Psaki, Washington is in “full compliance” with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and has no plans to develop or possess such weapons anywhere.Victoria Nuland, whose statements were referred to by Igor Kirillov, said on Tuesday that “Ukraine has biological research facilities” and noted that Washington was “working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach”. She, however, did not elaborate on whether the US participated in the biological research in Ukraine.

Prof. Asoka Bandarage

Alas, many outstanding Sri Lankan scholars, journalists and social change activists have passed away in recent months. Here, I would like to honor a few of them personally known to me, some known more closely than others. While I am not able to do justice to the breadth and depth of each of their respective contributions, I will mention just a few of their works specifically focused on building peace, justice, and harmony in Sri Lanka.

Sirima Kiribamune

Beloved teacher and long-time friend, Sirima Kiribamune, a professor at the University of Peradeniya, passed away on December 27, 2021.

One of the foremost historians on ancient Sri Lanka, she wrote a number of seminal articles based on extensive archaeological and literary evidence demythologizing popular concepts on the origin of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. For example, in Tamils in Ancient and Medieval Sri Lanka: The Historical Roots of Ethnic Identity”, she discussed the falsity of the Aryan-Dravidian dualism: The division of people speaking these two groups of languages into distinct racial types is not valid even for India and less so for Sri Lanka” (Ethnic Studies Report, January 1986).

Ananda Wickramaratne

Ananda Wickramaratne, also a former University of Peradeniya professor, subsequently based in the USA, passed away in September 2021.

He was a leading scholar on the British colonial period in Sri Lanka. In publications such as The Roots of Nationalism: Sri Lanka (Karunaratne and Sons, 1995), he explored how British divide and conquer policies, especially in education and religion, reinforced communal consciousness and identities creating structural imbalances that led to conflicts in post-independence Sri Lanka.

S.W.R. De Samarasinghe

S.W.R. De (Sam) Samarasinghe, who passed on November 24, 2021, was also a former faculty member of the University of Peradeniya, subsequently based in the USA.

An economist, he published numerous papers with insightful observations on the costs of the armed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE and the need for peaceful resolution. For instance, in ‘The Political Economy of Internal Conflict in Sri Lanka”, he concluded that …the Sri Lankan case supports the theory that it is not grievance but viability of rebel groups that determines the duration of rebellions” (Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 2003).

Hassina Leelaratne

Generous colleague and a graduate of the Department of English at the University of Peradeniya, veteran journalist Hassina Leelaratne departed on October 31, 2021.

After moving to California, she co-founded the Sri Lanka Express newspaper in 1980 with her husband, well-known journalist, Deeptha Leelaratne. Sri Lanka Express provided Sri Lankan Americans a sense of community through news and analyses of developments in both Sri Lanka and the United States. After Deeptha’s death in 2006, Hassina, a courageous writer and community activist, continued to publish Sri Lanka Express, reporting on a wide range of important issues not covered elsewhere. Articles, such as “Southern California Buddhist Temples Hit by Thieves in Middle Eastern Garb” (Sri Lanka Express, March 29, 2021) and US interfered in 4 elections in Sri Lanka to help the UNP says American professor” (Sri Lanka Express, April 30, 2017), are examples that highlight her wide ranging-concerns.

Bandula Jayasekara

Bandula Jayasekara, who died on March 5, 2021, was both a seasoned journalist and an outspoken diplomat.

Jayasekara served as chief editor of the Daily News from 2006 to 2007, as Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, and as Sri Lanka’s Consul General in Toronto, where he played a crucial role during the final stage of the Sri Lankan armed conflict. Upon his return to Sri Lanka, he worked as a host of the influential Pathikada program on Sirasa TV, helping to broaden perspectives on important issues.

In the last stage of his life, while stricken with leukemia, he called on young journalists to, Get out of the internet. Don’t just copy and paste. Go to the field, do research, and raise awareness; give something beneficial to the society.”

He also courageously shared thoughts and emotions on dying that are rarely heard in the media. He left saying, My last appeal is to raise awareness, help improve palliative care and help medical specialists to improve the quality of life of poor terminally ill patients and their families” (Daily News, February 12, 2021).

Kamal Rajapaksa

London-based Kamal Rajapaksa was active since the 1980s in several organizations working to protect Sri Lankan interests. He passed away in May 2021.

Although public reports of his contributions are absent, his communications and commitment to Sri Lanka were widely known on Sri Lankan internet forums. As one of his fellow activists put it: Kamal was the epitome of the silent warrior patriot who never engaged in arguments in any Public Forum; he made his concerns and complaints objectively and directly to the Highest Destinations without any party-political fear or favor.” 

Jivinida De Silva

Jivinida De Silva, who resided in both Staten Island, New York, and the wilderness areas of Sri Lanka, passed away on November 28, 2021.

A community activist and naturalist, he contributed to numerous Buddhist organizations. He also engaged in communication and public efforts to counter LTTE propaganda and broaden international understanding of the Sri Lankan conflict.

Douglas Wickramaratne

Douglas Wickramaratne, who died on December 1, 2021, was a London-based public figure.

Wickramaratne was the founder-President of the Sinhala Association in the UK, which he organized to promote Sinhala culture and, more importantly, to provide the ‘international community’ with a balanced perspective on Sri Lanka. A well-informed, eloquent speaker and a courageous activist, he participated in innumerable media interviews, debates, and forums in the UK and elsewhere to challenge LTTE terrorism and the Tamil separatist movement. An indefatigable worker, he traveled to Geneva many times to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions to help safeguard Sri Lanka’s interests.

His efforts led to a period of needing protection by Scotland Yard, due to threats from the LTTE for his single-handed exposure of LTTE falsehoods and propaganda. Wickramaratne also helped form the Overseas Sri Lankans’ Organization for National Unity in Melbourne in 1983, and the World Federation of Sri Lankan Associations in Toronto in 1984, serving the latter as its first President.

Collective legacy

Each of the recently departed colleagues mentioned above held different professional and ideological perspectives on Sri Lanka. Yet they shared a common commitment to peace, social harmony, and service to the country.

May their collective legacy of concern and action prevail to help others overcome apathy and despair over the current realities in Sri Lanka and the world.

Shenali D Waduge

It is no secret that one of the key impediments to Sri Lanka’s ability to function as an ‘independent’ & ‘sovereign’ nation is no one else but India. There is not an area that India has not influenced & put pressure on Sri Lanka. It is no different to the pressures suffered by India’s other neighbors. Knowing the pressures exerted by India, a government elected by the people should devise ways of reducing these pressures instead of encouraging them. In such a scenario, when calls by the general public to annul the provincial councils is ignored, we see no reason for a new constitution if we are to continue PC system in the new constitution. There is no requirement to hold PC elections if we are not going to continue it in the new constitution. Thankfully, the present provincial council system incorporated into the constitution in 1987 has failed to give the land & police powers that India demands through its Sri Lankan proxies to fulfil its greater Tamil Nadu quest bringing North under India’s sphere of influence. Demand for re-merger of NE is to bag Trinco Port.

We do not need to continuously remind Sri Lanka’s policy makers & advisors that with India joining Quad, together with the current court proceedings pushed by Sri Lanka’s so-called Indian friend, demands India’s right to Sri Lanka’s territorial waters. This aligns to the eccentric wisdom of our backdoor PM who wants to build a bridge joining the two nations. It also aligns with the US corporate goal to join two key ports of Sri Lanka via an electric train securing this land right for 100 years. Readers will recall the manner India has incrementally secured distribution of petroleum rights across Sri Lanka to also include operating an economic zone in Trinco & also given Trinco Oil Tanks. These areas now secured by India are declared exclusive zones where even Sri Lanka’s military cannot enter without permission. Having immediately secured this, India next uses its local proxies to demand merger of the North & East (part of the Indo-Lanka Accord & 13a) which also aligns with the US maneuvers in the East of Sri Lanka which increased since the yahapalana government with many US ships arriving & Sri Lanka’s navy put through numerous training programs all preparing our forces for a different mindset. All these take place with a plan & questions Sri Lanka’s plans to counter them & not simply walk into these traps taking place openly & with impunity. An appreciation of the ground scenarios should make Sri Lanka’s policy makers & military strategists worried.

What is the sole reason for doing away with the present constitution? To remove all of the clauses that have not served the nation or its people.

We identify the 13^thamendment as key impediment in terms of India’s ability to exert influence over Sri Lanka, the possibility of it being used to separate Sri Lanka & the likelihood of a future terrorist hotspot (taking lessons from the past) Additionally, the provincial council system that was introduced alongside the 13a has been nothing but a worthless & costly system providing little or no relief to the tax paying masses. The work of the PCs can easily be done by the Urban Councils & Municipalities. Therefore, if a government desires to cut its expenses & bring greater relief to the people, a government should remove the PC system instead of continuing it just to please India. That India demands its continuance is clearly seen by the manner it plugs the continuance of the PC system & 13a to the loan conditions it gives. Knowing how India functions, what is the response of the politicians to these unfair demands infringing on our sovereignty?

How did 13th amendment become part of Indo-Lanka Accord & India’s role in it

Indo-Lanka Accord – 13th Amendment & India

We have argued that the Indo-Lanka Accord is no longer valid as India did not uphold its end of the assurances given. Moreover, 13a was never part of the Indo-Lanka Accord. There is no line in the Accord that states 13a or Provincial Council system. The 13a, the PC system & the merger of the North & East were all birthed by India & not Sri Lanka’s Tamil leadership or LTTE

This is clearly evident in a letter 3 Tamil leaders sent to the Indian PM. It is also noteworthy that TULF had been negotiating with GoSL through the Govt of India on a devolution program since 1983. All these had been taking place in secret & without the knowledge of the Sri Lankan public. Noteworthy too is that the draft 13a & PC legislation had been gazetted without making available to India. This means, if Sri Lanka can gazette 13a & PC Bill without showing India, Sri Lanka should also be able to remove 13a & PCs without informing India.If Sri Lanka could suspend India’s role in talks in January 1986 – why can’t politicians take similar decisions now?

Sri Lanka’s advisors have always followed a policy of fear regarding relations with India we cannot anger India”. It is as a result of following a ‘fear of India’ policy that India deems it their right to tread on Sri Lanka as it sees fit. Do we need to elect leaders if they agree to do anything that India orders them to? As per TULF 1987 letter, India exerted pressure on President JRJ to agree to the unification of North-East & to create one PC, one governor, one chief minister & a board of ministers. One key area which we continue to ignore & which our legal luminaries pretend to be deaf, dumb & blind about is that it was required to have a referendum to decide on the continuance of the merger in Eastern province by 31 December 1988 which had been postponed & was never held. This clearly means the merger was an impermanent arrangement. But it was only in 2006 that the N-E was legally demerged after a petition.

TULF & GoSL held discussions on devolving provincial subjects as far back as July/Aug 1986. If this was done without India’s direct involvement, Sri Lanka’s government should be able to take bold decisions even though India blows hot or cold. As per TULF the 13a Bill & PC Bill retains power for Parliament to amend or repeal chapter pertaining to PCs, lists of subjects & power of Parliament to legislate subjects transferred to PCs by a 2/3 majority. If the JRJ govt could ensure the subject of Ports in particular Trincomalee Port was included to Reserved List & under Central Govt control, why are successive governments bargaining with Trinco?

India has been riding on the bogus concern for Tamils’ as a means to exert influence over Sri Lanka. The inclusion of Tamil as an official language with the 13a was not out of any love for Tamils but a pawn for India to use. India could have eliminated LTTE immediately after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, but it chose not to do so.

Let it also not be forgotten that it was the TULF that as far back as December 1985 that called for the merging of North & East & one Tamil linguistic state & not the LTTE. Noteworthy too is the manner Tamil political parties are promoting insertion of UNITED” instead of UNITARY” primarily because it is a term associated with confederation/confederacy & not an unitary state. Presently too, there are many efforts to replace UNITARY with UNITED.

It is clear that India is able to armtwist GOSL into agreeing to its wishes whatever Sri Lanka’s public demands to the contrary. The GoSL even agreed to devolution of power (within unitary framework) to PCs in May/June 1986 but without merging north & east. How did the merger take place then? Either GoSL representatives & advisors are not reading the documents they are being given as drafts or they recommend the leaders to sign knowing but ignoring the dangers at hand.

What we need to understand is that India has been manipulating not just Tamil political parties, the LTTE & other Tamil militant group but the GoSL/the Opposition as well as a plethora of others openly & freely in Sri Lanka.The dangers of this can be seen in the manner that these toys” are being manipulated for India’s political advantage. India will place these toys in one basket when necessary or have them fight each other where necessary too. We become mere spectators. However, looking back from the 1980s all that can be said is that India has made inroads into Sri Lanka with each coming year. There is no denying India played a key role in Tamil militancy & a big question mark remains regarding India’s role in Easter Sunday too. The tall & short of this is the manner Sri Lanka has been weakened & made vulnerable by our own.

There is little point in ushering a new constitution if we are not going to throw out the elements that make Sri Lanka vulnerable.

If 13a & the PC system is not going to be removed, then we do not require a new constitution.

If a new constitution is being peddled to plug the loopholes that disallows all of Sri Lanka’s enemies from taking Sri Lanka into further decline, then we do not wish for that new constitution. 

Since 1987, we have only had ‘demands to fully implement 13a’ but we have managed to weather these demands with the present constitution – thus it is not half as dangerous as a new constitution that may see our enemies influence what gets included & what doesn’t – from the manner India exerted pressure upon Nepal when it was told to change its constitution by the West should be a good example for Sri Lanka not to knowingly walk into traps.

Shenali D Waduge

Hussain Shazzad

The official journey of Bangladesh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) relations started in 1975 when the KSA recognized newly born Bangladesh as a sovereign country. Since then, these two countries have been maintaining cordial and closer friendship prioritizing mutual understanding, deep sense of fraternity, and cooperation in multilateral sectors. State-level official visits from both sides have contributed to the further development of their bilateral bonding. The current Foreign Minister of the KSA, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, is expected to visit Bangladesh on March 16, 2022. Marking this historical visit, Bangladesh expects that the bilateral relations could be taken to a new height by ensuring more economic cooperation.

Bangladesh, being a Muslim-majority country, attaches a special priority to its relations with Saudi Arabia as the birthplace of Islam. Both countries have common social norms and cultural values derived from their religious practices. Also, they share similar views on many regional and global issues especially those are directly related to the Muslim world. Their common interest led them to cooperate in different regional and international platforms such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), UN, etc. Their current ties have further been reinforced by ever-deepening cooperation in the fields of investment, trade, investment, manpower, defense, education, culture etc.  As Bangladesh perceives KSA as one of its trusted friends, it is the need of the hour to analyze the expectations of the mass Bangladeshis from the KSA Foreign Minister’s Visit to Bangladesh.

The tremendous economic growth of Bangladesh in the last 50 years has made the country a financial and industrial hub of South Asia. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies of the world supported by its consistent growth in ready-made garment (RMG) exports, demographic dividend, and stable macroeconomic conditions. Because of the economic success, the KSA now perceives Bangladesh, going beyond religious dimension, as one of the lucrative investment designations. The KSA is now one of the most reliable bilateral development partners of Bangladesh, the relations dynamics of which have evolved from one-layered to multi-dimensional cooperation over the time.

Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) is planning to allocate some 300 acres of land to Saudi investors in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar in Chattogram. It is expected that both countries will sign billion-dollar worth investment proposals, from the part of Saudi Arabia, including some energy sector related projects. Apart from energy sectors, Saudi investors can invest in Bangladesh’s 100 special economic zones, large-infrastructure undertakings, textiles, IT, Agro-based industries etc.

The KSA is the largest and most valued destination for the Bangladeshi expatriates. From 1976 to 2021, Bangladesh exported a total of 45.81 lakh migrant workers to the Kingdom which is almost 34 percent of the country’s total manpower export. Even amid the pandemic gloom in 2020 when most of the labor markets remained shut down, the Kingdom employed 1.61 lakh Bangladeshi workers. Last year, Bangladesh exported 6.17 lakh migrants to abroad of which 4.57 lakh, almost 76 percent of total overseas employment, were sent to the KSA. In the last five years, Saudi Arabia has become the top destination for Bangladeshi migrant workforces. The Gulf country is implementing a number of megaprojects under its Vision-2030” which may turn the country a better job destination for Bangladeshis if proper steps are being taken targeting the upcoming visit.

Bangladesh is on the highway to be graduated from the Least Developed Country (LDC) group by 2026. After the graduation, Bangladesh will not be eligible for many preferential treatments that are exclusively available for the LDCs in global trade. Limited access to these preferential facilities will have adverse impact on the balance of payment of Bangladesh especially with the unavoidable negative impact on its total export earnings. To counter these challenges, Bangladesh may negotiate with KSA for ensuring duty-free access to the Saudi market even after the LDC-graduation.

Since the genocide orchestrated by Myanmar military on Rohigya community in 2017, Bangladesh has been hosting 1.2 million Rohingya refugees. Besides, Bangladesh had been experiencing a negative trend in the international humanitarian assistance funds for supporting these refugees. Being the leader of the Muslim world, Bangladesh may expect that Saudi Arabia will take initiative to end the plight of Rohingyas, the deprived Muslim minorities, by ensuring safe and dignified return to their homeland. Also, Bangladesh may talk with the KSA Foreign Minister for more financial support to ensure life-saving assistance required to support the Rohingya refugees.

Marking the visit of the KSA’s Foregin Minister, Bangladesh should prepare itself to convey the message that it can cooperate with KSA in implementing its Vision-2030” by cooperating in the field of manpower, trade, investment, agriculture, and education.  Also, Bangladesh requires Saudi’s extensive engagement and economic cooperation to materialize the country’s Vision-2041”. Apart from state-level visits, economic and investment-related delegations and cultural and defense cooperation can play a crucial role in taking the ties to a new level. Greater economic engagement from both sides can fundamentally change the overall relationship dynamics between these two countries in future” which should get preference in the upcoming visit.

High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India

High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda met with the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs of India Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, (10th March) at the Ministry of Urban Affairs in New Delhi.  

At the outset, High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Minister Puri for the assistance that India has provided to Sri Lanka as envisaged under the four-pillars of cooperation, agreed during the visit of Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa to India in December last year, in particular the USD 500 million line of credit to purchase petroleum products. Additional assistance too has been provided by India to enhance Sri Lanka’s petroleum stocks.

High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda also briefed Minister Puri on the challenges that Sri Lanka is currently facing as regards to the supply and distribution of petroleum products and their impact on the country’s energy sector. The High Commissioner and the Minister discussed modalities through which India and Sri Lanka could further expand cooperation in the petroleum sector to help overcome the present crisis.  

The discussion also focused on a range of issues pertaining to the energy sector, including ways and means through which Sri Lanka could establish long-term strategic ties in the petroleum, oil, gas and related logistics sectors. Minister Hardeep Singh Puri was a distinguished career diplomat prior to joining politics. He had served at the High Commission of India in Colombo during the period 1984-1988

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කාන්තාව සමාජීය,ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් ඓතිහාසික කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කර තිබෙන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති වික්‍රමසිංහ රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය පැවසුවාය.

ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ කාන්තා සවිබල ගැන්වීම් සහ ළමා ආරක්ෂණ අමාත්‍යාංශය (MoWECP) ජකර්තා නගරයේ සිට අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ මෙහෙයවූ “බලවත් කාන්තාවන් කතා කිරීමට නිර්භීතයි” මැයින් වූ ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දින සැමරුම -2022 අන්තර්ජාතික සැසිය සඳහා වීඩියෝ තාක්ෂණය ඔස්සේ එක්වෙමින් ප්‍රධාන දේශනය පැවැත්වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති වික්‍රමසිංහ රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය ඊයේ (09) මේ බව සඳහන් කළාය.

“සවිබල ස්ත්‍රිය සියලු බාධා බිඳ දමා අයිතිවාසිකම් වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වෙයි” තේමාවෙන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යාව සිය දෙසුම ඉදිරිපත් කළාය.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ආර්යා ශිරන්ති වික්‍රමසිංහ රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මිය  කළ කතාව මෙසේය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට කාන්තාවන් සවිබල ගැන්වීමෙහිලා ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ ඉතිහාසයක් තිබෙනවා. ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කාන්තාවන් සෑම විටම තීරණ ගනු ලබන්නේ තම පවුලේ අවශ්‍යතා සුරක්ෂිත කිරීමෙහිලා පෙරමුණ ගනිමින්. එහෙත් ආසියාතික කාන්තාව පොදුවේ පවුල කේන්ද්‍ර කරගත් සමාජයීය කාර්යභාරයේ දී ඉතා දුක්ඛිත අවස්ථාවන්ට මුහුණ දෙන බව සත්‍යයක්.

එහි අවාසනාවන්ත තත්ත්වය නම් කාන්තාව පවුල වෙනුවෙන් ඉටු කරන කාර්යය භාරය ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රධාන සහකරුවන්ට නොදැනීමයි. ඒ නිසා බොහෝ විට වාර්තා  නොවන ගෘහස්ථ හිංසනයට අපගේ කාන්තාවන්ට  මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවෙනවා.

අපගේ කාන්තාවන් පවුල සුරක්ෂිත කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ආර්ථික අවශ්‍යතා සපුරාලීම සඳහා සංක්‍රමණික රැකියාවලට යොමුවන අවස්ථා බොහොමයක් තිබෙනවා. එසේ නිවස හැර යන කාන්තාව අනිසි ලිංගික අපයෝජනයන්ට ලක්වන අවස්ථා කොතෙකුත් තිබෙනවා.

අප සමාජයේ මෙසේ අසරණ වන කාන්තාව වෙනුවෙන් කළ හැකි කාර්යය වන්නේ ඔවුන්ට ආරක්ෂාව හා යහපැවැත්ම සහතික කරන විශ්වාසනීය රාජකාරී පැවරීමයි.‍

මෙහිදී ඓතිහාසික වශයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කාන්තාවන් සමාජීය ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් වැදගත් කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කර ඇති බව සිහිපත් කළ යුතුයි. ලොව ප්‍රථම කාන්තා අගමැතිනිය වූයේ අතිගරු සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිනියයි. ඇය කාන්තාවන් සැමට ආදර්ශමත් නායිකාවක්.

කාන්තාවන් සවිබල ගැන්වීමේ දී කාන්තාව සහ පිරිමි එක්ව ක්‍රියාකිරීමයි වැදගත් වන්නේ. තනිව නොව ගම්මාන සහ සමූහ වශයෙන් සවිබලගැන්වීම ශක්තිමත් පදනමක් ඇතිකරනවා. මෙම සැසියේ දී මම ඔබ සමඟ බෙදා ගැනීමට කැමති පාඩම  මෙයයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අපට උගත හැකි පාඩම් රැසක් අපේ සංස්කෘතිය  තුළම ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවා. සමාජයීය ගෞරවය උපයාගන්නා ක්‍රියාශීලී කාන්තාව නිරායාසයෙන් බලය දරන බවයි මාගේ විශ්වාසය. ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් ලෙස අපට සම අවස්ථා ලැබීමත් ඒ සඳහා ඉදිරියට ඒමත් කළ හැකි කාර්යයක්.

අපේ සමාජයේ කාන්තාව සවිබල ගැන්වීම යනු  සමස්ත පද්ධතියටම  අවශ්‍ය  අවකාශය සවිබල ගැන්වීමයි. අධ්‍යාපනය, රැකියාව හෝ වෙනත් ඕනෑම කාර්යයක දී කාන්තාවන් තෝරා  ගන්නා ඕනෑම මාර්ගයක් වෙනුවෙන් ඔවුන්ට නිදහසේ පිවිසීමේ අවකාශය තිබිය යුතුයි. අපේක්ෂා කරන උසස් රැකියා අවස්ථා ඇත්නම් ඒ සඳහා කාන්තාවන් දිරිමත් කිරීම පවුල තුළින්ම සිදුවිය යුත්තක්.

ඊළඟ පරම්පරාවට දරුවන් දායද කරන්නේ කාන්තාවන්. ඒ නිසා ඔවුන් නිසි අධ්‍යාපනයකින්  සහ යහපත් සෞඛ්‍යකින් හෙබි පරපුරක් බවට පත් කිරීම සියලු දෙනගේ වගකීමක්. ආගමික විශ්වාස මත වෙනස් නොවී සියලු කාන්තාවන්ට එම අයිතිවාසිකම් හිමිවිය යුතුයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නම් සංස්කෘතික වශයෙන් කාන්තාවන්ට බාධ ඇත්තේ ඉතා සුළු ප්‍රමාණයක්. එහෙත් ඔවුන් ආර්ථික වශයෙන් විවිධ බාධා වලට මුහුණ දෙනවා.

කාන්තාවන්ගේ ජීවන  තත්ත්වය සහ ඔවුන්ව ස්වයං සවිබල ගැන්වීම  සඳහා ඔබ අප වැනි රටවල් එකට එක්ව ක්‍රියා කළ හැකියි. කාන්තාවන් අපේක්ෂා කරන්නේත් එයයි.

ඉහළ ගුණාත්මක අධ්‍යාපනයක් සහ රැකියා පහසුකම් ලබා දීමෙන් තරුණ  ගැහැණු ළමුන්ගේ අනාගතය සවිබල ගැන්වීමට හැකියි. එමෙන්ම උසස් තත්ත්වයේ ළමා රැකවරණයත් වැඩ කරන මව්වරුන්  සඳහා පහසුකම් තිබීමත් ප්‍රමුඛ අවශ්‍යතා වෙනවා.

කාන්තාවන් සවිබල  ගැන්වීම සඳහා එක් එක් ජාතීන් ගන්නා පියවර සහ යොදවන කාලය ඉතා වැදගත්. එම පියවර ඉදිරියට ගෙන  යන ආකාරය පිළිබඳව  දැනුම බෙදා ගැනීමට අපේ ජාතීන් එක්ව කටයුතු කරනු දැකීමට මම කැමතියි.

කාන්තාවන්ගේ පූර්ණ හැකියාව අවබෝධ කර ගන්නේ ද හිරිහැර හා ගෘහස්ථ  කෲරත්වයට ලක් වූ  කාන්තාවන්ම ය. පවුල තුළ ඇය ට නැගී සිටීමට අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම සලසා දීම විශ්වාසනීයත්වය තීව්‍ර කරයි.

ඒ නිසා කාන්තාව ශක්තිමත්ව බල ගැන්වීමට අපි එක්ව කටයුතු කරමු, යැයි මම ඔබට යෝජනා කරනවා.

ලෝකයේ සියලුම නිර්භීත කාන්තාවන් සමඟ එක්ව කාන්තාවන්ට එරෙහි ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය පිටු දැකීමටත් කාන්තාව  සවිබල ගැන්වීම සඳහාත් අපි නැගී සිටිමු.

ගෘහ සේවිකාවගේ පටන් ඕනෑම රටක ඉහළම  තනතුරක් දරන කාන්තාවටත් සම අයිතිය ලැබෙන  ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දිනයක් වේවා! යැයි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමි.

නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය

‘Connection Glory Future’ තේමාව යටතේ  ශ්‍රී ලංකා නව නිපැයුම්කරුවන්ගේ කොමිසම සහ Huawei ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාගම එක්ව පැවැත් වූ Huawei ICT 2021 -2022 තරගාවලියේදී විශිෂ්ට දස්කම් දැක්වූ ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුන් අතරින් ජාතික මට්ටමේ මුල් ජයග්‍රාහකයින් විසිදෙනා ඇගයීමේ සම්මාන ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය ගරු රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය, විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය සීතා අරඹේපොල මැතිණියගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් ඊයේ  (09) දින පැවැත්විණ.
මෙම වසරේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත මෙම තරගාවලියේ කලාපීය අදියර සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නියෝජනය කරමින් මෙම ජයග්‍රාහකයින් කණ්ඩායම් දෙකක් ලෙස තරග වැදෙනු ඇති අතර ගෝලීය වශයෙන් පැවැත්වෙන අවසන් මහා තරගය සඳහා ද සහභාගී වීමට නියමිතයි.
ඉදිරියේදීත් මෙවැනි ජාත්‍යන්තර මට්ටමේ තරගාවලි පැවැත්වීමට එකඟතාවය පළ කරමින් Huawei ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාගම සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නව නිපැයුම්කරුවන්ගේ කොමිසම අතර අවබෝධතා ගිවිසුමක් ද මෙහි දී හුවමාරු කර ගැනිණ
ශ්‍රී ලංකා නව නිපැයුම්කරුවන්ගේ කොමිසමේ කොමසාරිස් මහාචාර්ය එන්.එම්.එස්.සිරිමුතු මහතා, Huawei ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාගමේ ප්‍රධාන විධායක නිලධාරී Liang Yi මහතා, Huawei එන්ටර්ප්‍රයිස් ව්‍යාපාර අංශයේ උප සභාපති ඉන්දික ද සොයිසා මහතා සහ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලවල සිසු සිසුවියන් ඇතුළු පිරිසක් මෙම අවස්ථා සහභාගී විය.
මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය
නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන පර්යේෂණ හා නව නිපැයුම් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය

-ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමය-

ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දිනයට සමගාමීව, ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමයේ හැටන් සහ ලක්ෂපාන ශාඛාවල සාමාජික සාමාජිකාවන්ගේ සහභාගීත්වයෙන් පැවැත්වුණු වැඩසටහන් මාලාවක් ඊයේ (09) ගිනිගත්හේන නගරය කේන්ද්‍ර කොට ගනිමින් පැවැත්විණ. ඒ සඳහා ගෘහස්ථ ශ්‍රමිකයන් ඇතුළු අවිධිමත් අංශයේ සහ ස්වයං රැකියාවල නියුතු කාන්තාවන් විශාල පිරිසක් සහභාගි වී සිටියහ.

එම වැඩසටන් මාලාවේ පළමුවැන්න ලෙස ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමයේ හැටන් සහ ලක්ෂපාන ශාඛාවල සාමාජිකයන් විසින් අඹගමුව ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලය වෙත ලිපියක් බාර දෙමින්, සංගමය විසින් අවිධිමත් අංශයේ සහ ස්වයං රැකියාවල නියුතු වන කම්කරුව්න් වෙනුවෙන් පවත්වනු ලබන පුහුණු වැඩසටහන්වල දී අවශ්‍යය කරන සහයෝගය ලබා දෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටියේ ය.

ඉන් අනතුරුව අඹගමුව ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ සිට ගිනිගත්හේන නගරය වෙත පා ගමනින් පැමිණි පිරිස ගිනිගත්හේන නගරයේ පොදු ජනතාව දැනුවත් කරමින් ඔවුන්ට ආරාධනා කළේ, ‘තිරසාර හෙටක් සඳහා අද ස්ත්‍රී-පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය වෙනුවෙන් නැගී සිටීමට’ පෙරට පැමිණෙන ලෙසයි. ඒ අතරවාරයේ ම ‘වැඩබිම් තුළ කාන්තා අයිතිවාසිකම් සහ ස්ත්‍රී-පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය වෙනුවෙන් පෙළගැසෙමු’ යන මැයෙන් අත්සන් ව්‍යාපාරයක් (Signature campaign) ද සංවිධානය කොට තිබිණි.

ඉන් අනතුරුව ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමය විසින් සංවිධානය කළ ජාත්‍යන්තර කාන්තා දින සැමරුමක් ගිනිගත්හේන සී/ස විවිධ සේවා සමූපකාර සමිති ශාලාවේ දී පැවත්විණි. එහි දී කාන්තා අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ පැමිණ සිටි පිරිස වේදිකා නාට්‍යයක් ඇසුරෙන් ද දැනුවත් කරන ලදි.  මෙම අවස්ථාවට ගිගත්හේන පොලීසියේ කාන්තා සහ ළමා ඒකකය නියෝජනයනය කරමින් නිලධාරිනියක්, ප්‍රදේශයේ මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය පරීක්ෂක නිලධාරීවරයා, ගිණිගත්හේන- පවුල් සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා නිලධාරිනියත් යන නිලධාරීන් පැමිණ සිටි අතර ලංකා වතු සේවා සංගමය ඇතුලු වෘත්තීය සමිති නියෝජනය කරමින් එහි නියෝජිතයන් සහ සිවිල් සමාජ සංවිධාන නියෝජිතයන් පිරිසක් ද සහභාගි වී සිටියහ.

-ප්‍රොටෙක්ට් සංගමය-

සමස්ත ලංකා ප්‍රවාහන සේවක සංගමය

ගරු ප්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍ය,
දිලූම් අමුණුගම මැතිතුමා,
ප්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍යංශය,
07 මහල,
‘‘සෙත්සිරිපාය’’,
බත්තරමුල්ල.

ගරු ඇමති තුමනි,

බස් රථයේ ඩිකියේ හොරෙන් ගමන් කළ පාසල් සිසුන් පදනම් කරගෙන අදාල බස්රථයේ කොන්දොස්තර මහතාට කිසිදු දඬුවමක් ලබානොදෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටීම.

2022 මාර්තු 07 වන දින මොණරාගල පහතරාව අතර ගමන් කළ ශ්‍රී ලංගම බස්රථයක ඩිකියේ පාසල් සිසුන් කිහිප දෙනෙක් හොරෙන් ගමන් කර ඇත. අදාල බස්රථයේ කොන්දොස්තර මහතාට බසයේ පිටුපසින් ශබ්දයක් ඇසීම නිසා බසය නවතා ඔහු එම බස්රථයේ ඩිකිය පරීක්‍ෂා කර ඇත. එවිට පාසල් සිසුන් ඩිකියේ ගමන් කරන බව ඔහු දැක ඔවුන් ඩිකියෙන් බස්වා බස් රථයේ ඇතුලට නංවාගෙන ඇත.

එම සිසුන් ගමන් කළ අදාල පාසල් බස් රථය අතරමඟ ආපදාවකට ලක්වූ නිසා එම සිසුන් මෙම රථයට නංවාගෙන ඇත. එම මොහොතේ පවා මොණරාගල පහතරාව බස් රථයේ අධික මගීන් ප්‍රමාණයක් ගමන් කරමින් සිටින ලදී. බස් රථයේ මගී ප්‍රමාණය අධික වූ නිසා පාසල් සිසුන් හට බස් රථයේ ඩිකියේ ගමන් කිරීමට සිදුවී ඇත. මෙම සිද්ධිය පදනම් කරගෙන මොණරාගල පහතරාව බස් රථයේ කොන්දොස්තර මහතා දැනට පොරොත්තු සේවයේ යොදවා ඇති බවට අප සංගමයට තොරතුරු ලැබී ඇත.

ගරු ඇමතිතුමණි, අධික ලෙස බස්රථයේ මගීන් සිටිය නිසා පාසල් සිසුන්ට එම ක්‍රියාව සිදුකිරීමට සිදුවී ඇති අතර, මගී ප්‍රවාහනය සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංගම බස්රථ වැඩිපුර යෙදවීම ශ්‍රී ලංගමයේ සහ ඔබතුමාගේ වගකීම වේ. ඒ අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංගමයට අවශ්‍ය බස්රථ ලබාගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර කඩිනමින් ගන්නා ලෙසත්, අදාළ කොන්දොස්තර මහතා පොරොත්තු සේවයෙන් ඉවත්කර ඔහුගේ සුපුරුදු සේවය ඔහුට ලබාදෙන ලෙසත් අප සංගමයට ඔබතුමාගෙන් කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටින්නෙමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
සේපාල ලියනගේ
සමස්ත ලංකා ප්‍රවාහන සේවක සංගමය.

පිටපත් :
1. ශ්‍රී ලංගම ගරු සභාපති, කිංස්ලි රණවක මැතිතුමා.
2. ජා.වෘ.ම. සභාපති, – කේ. ඩී. ලාල්කාන්ත මැතිතුමා.
3. ශ්‍රී ලංගම සියලූම වෘතීය සමිති වෙත
4. ප්‍රාදේශීය ප්‍රධාන කළමණාකාරතුමා – ඌව ප්‍රා.කලාපය
5. ඩිපෝ කළමණාකාරතුමා – ශ්‍රී ලංගම මොණරාගල
 ඩිපෝව

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය

මැතිවරණ ක්‍රම සංශෝධනය පිළිඳව පාර්ලිමේන්තු තේරීම් කාරක සභාව වෙත පොහොට්ටුව පක්ෂය විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති පළාත් පාලන ඡන්ද ක්‍රම සංශෝධනය තුලින් කාන්තා නියෝජනය 25% සිට 16% දක්වා අඩුවනු ඇත. පළාත් පාලන නියෝජනයයේ මේ වන විට  23% ක කාන්තා නියෝජනයක් පවතී.  නව මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයේ නිර්මාතෘවරුවරුන් කුමක් කීවත් නව ක්‍රමය ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ නම්, කාන්තා නියෝජනය 16% ක් දක්වා පහත වැටීම නොවැලැක්විය හැකිය.  මේ රටේ සියළුම කාන්තා සංවිධාන, සිවිල් සංවිධාන පළාත් පාලනයේ කාන්තා නියෝජනය අඩු කරන පලාත් පාලන ඡන්ද ක්‍රම සංශෝධනය පරාජ කිරීමට එක් විය යුතු යැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් පවසයි.

පලාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි සභික සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩි බවට වන ජයප්‍රිය තර්කය මත පදනම්ව කාන්තා නියෝජය පහත දමමින් 35%ක ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණයක් ලබා ගන්නා පක්ෂයකට පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයේ 60% ඉක්මවන සභික සංඛ්‍යාවක් ලබා ගැනීමට නව ඡන්ද ක්‍රමයෙන් උත්සහ දරයි.  1965 වන විට ලංකාවේ පළාත් පලාන ආයතනයනි හි සභිකයින් 9000 ක් සිටි අතර, අද වසර 55 කට පසුව රටේ ජනගහනය මිලියන 10 ක් පමණ වැඩිවී ඇති නමුත්, සභික සංඛ්‍යාව 8711 කි. වත්මන් පලාත් පාලන ක්‍රමය තුල නොමැති අර්බුදයක්/ප්‍රශ්නයක් මතු කරමින් ඡන්ද ක්‍රමයේ සමානුපාතික නියෝජනය විකෘති කිරීම ඡන්ද යෝජනාවේ අරමුණ වී ඇත.

මහාචාර්ය සුදන්ත ලියනගේ ගේ කාන්තා නියෝජන සංකල්පය ‘කතාව දෝලාවෙන් – ගමන පයින්‘ ආකාරයේ නෙයියාඩගමකි.  සමානුපාතික ක්‍රමය, කාන්තා නියෝජනය සුරංගනා කතා කියමින් සමානුපාතික නියෝජනය විනාශ කරමින්, කාන්තා නියෝජය හකුලා දැමීමකි.

පලාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි කාන්තාවන් 2002 ක් සභිකාවියන් ලෙස කටයුතු කරයි.  එය ප්‍රතිශතයක් ලෙස සභාවල මුළු සභික සංඛ්‍යාවෙන් 22.98% කි.  වත්මන් පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි ද, කාන්තා නියෝජනය 25% ක් ලෙස පවතින්නේ නැත.   

පලාත් පාලන කොට්ඨාශ 5077 කින්, කාන්තාවන් ජයග්‍රහණය කරනු ලැබ ඇත්තේ කොට්ඨාශ 554 ක් (10.9%) ක් පමණී. සභාවන් හි කාන්තා නියෝජනය 23% දක්වා ඉහළ නංවා ගැනීමට හැකි වුවේ, සමානුපාත ක්‍රමය යටතේ හිමිවන සභික ධූර අනිවාර්ය කිරීමෙනි.  තෝරාපත්කර එවනු ලැබූ සභිකයින් 3634 ක් අතර සභිකාවියන් 1448 (40%) ක්ම කාන්තාවන් ය.  දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයින්/මහ ලේකම්වරුන්ට, තෝරාපත් කර එවන සභික සංඛ්‍යාවෙන් 40%ක් කාන්තාවන් පත් කිරීමට සිදු වූවේ කැමැත්තකින් නොව, එය අනිවාර්ය කිරීම නිසාමය.

2018 පලාත් පාලන ඡන්දයෙන් දෙවන, තෙවන, සිව්වන ස්ථානවලට පත්  එජාපය, එජනිස, ජවිපෙ, මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගෙන් බහුතරය කාන්තාවන් වී ඇත්තේ ඒ නිසාය.

නව ඡන්ද සංශෝධනය තුල එල්ලන ලද මන්ත්‍රී සංඛ්‍යාව (Over Hang) ඉවත් කිරීම තුල මහ ලේකම්වරුන්ට කාන්තාවන් පත් කිරීමට ඇති ‍අවකාශයෙන් ආසන 385 ක් ඉවත් වී යයි.   

මහාචාර්ය සුදන්ත ලියනගේ විසින් පාර්ලිමේන්තු තේරීම් කාරක සභාවට  ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති  යෝජනාවෙන් සභික සංඛ්‍යාව 20 ට විට 1 ක් ද,  20 ට වැඩි සභිකයින් සහිත ආයතන ජයග්‍රාහකයින්ට සභික ධූර දෙකක් ද, බෝනස් වශයෙන් ලබාදීමට යෝජනා කර ඇත. මෙය සමානුපාතික නියෝජනය ක්‍රමයේ පදනම විනාශ කිරීමකි. 

කොට්ඨාශ මට්ටමින් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලබන කාන්තා අපේක්ෂිකාවන්ගේ සංඛ්‍යාව 20% දක්වා ඉහළ නැංවීමකින් පමණක්, කිසිදු ආකාරයකින් 25%ක කාන්තා නියෝජනයක්  සභාව තුල ස්ථාපනය කළ නොහැකිය.  ඒ සඳහා කොට්ඨාශයවලින් 40%ක කාන්තාවන් ප්‍රමාණයකට නාම යෝජනා ලබාදීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වනු ඇත.  

දිගු කාලීන අරගලයක ප්‍රතිඑලයක් ලෙස ස්ථාපනය කරනු ලැබූ පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයන් හි කාන්තා නියෝජනය ආණ්ඩු බලය සහිත දේශපාලන කණ්ඩායමට අවශ්‍යතාව මත විකෘති කිරීම පරාජය කිරීමට සියළු කාන්තා සංවිධාන හා සිවිල් කණ්ඩායම් එක් විය යුතුව ඇත.

සමගි ජනබලවේගය, එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ ඇතුළු සියළුම දේශපාලන පක්ෂවල කාන්තා සංවිධාන කාන්තා නියෝජනයේ 25%ක කෝටාව හෝ රැකගැනීමට පෙරමුණ ගත යුතුව ඇත.

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය

James Conca Courtesy Forbes

Again and again, new solutions for the environment and human society fail if not properly planned and executed. Whether it’s widescale use of renewables, closing nuclear plants with no plan to replace the generation, or big infrastructure builds just to make jobs, if the rush to emplace is more important than their success, then they will fail.

The latest example of this is organic farming. Ted Nordhaus, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Institute, and Saloni Shah, Food and Agriculture Analyst, provided a dismal picture for organic farming on a large scale, especially when done without care.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election campaign to transition the country’s farmers to organic agriculture over a 10-year period. Last April, Rajapaksa’s government jumped ahead of themselves, and imposed a national ban on the import and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and ordered the country’s 2 million farmers to go organic – eight years ahead of schedule.

The result was brutal and swift. Contrary to claims that organic methods can produce similar yields as conventional farming, domestic rice production fell 20% in just the first six months. Sri Lanka, long self-sufficient in rice production, has been forced to import $450 million worth of rice even as domestic prices for this staple of the national diet surged by 50%.

The ban also devastated the nation’s tea crop, its primary export and source of foreign exchange, accounting for 70% of total export earnings. Just yesterday, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka devalued its currency as its foreign reserves dwindled, potentially accelerating the worst inflation surge in Asia as the nation struggles to service its debt and pay for imports.

Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka has cancelled their poorly-planned national experiment in organic agriculture. By November 2021, with tea production falling, the government partially lifted its fertilizer ban on key export crops, including tea, rubber, and coconut. The government is also offering $200 million to farmers as direct compensation and an additional $149 million in price subsidies to rice farmers who incurred losses.

Which hardly makes up for the damage and suffering the organic order produced. The drop in tea production alone will result in economic losses of over $400 million.

Human costs have been even greater. Prior to the pandemic’s outbreak, the country had proudly achieved upper-middle-income status (see GDP figure below). Today, half a million Sri Lankans have sunk back into poverty. Soaring inflation and a rapidly depreciating currency have forced Sri Lankans to cut down on food and fuel purchases as prices surge. The country’s economists have called on the government to default on its debt repayments in order to buy essential supplies for its people.

Rajapaksa might be forgiven if the orders had arisen from a firm belief in organic farming practices and concern for the environment, but Rajapaksa seemed to just want some notoriety as a president overseeing an agricultural revolution”. Rajapaksa also wanted excuses to slash fertilizer subsidies and imports as well as finding a nice-sounding banner for his election campaign.

Of course, when he fired those honest ministers who acknowledged the failure, the jig was up.

This horrible turn in Sri Lanka’s fortune began in 2016, with Rajapaksa’s formation of a new movement called Viyathmaga. Promising everything from national security to anticorruption to education policy to fully organic agriculture, Viyathmaga was the perfect election platform.

Unfortunately, most of Sri Lanka’s leading agricultural experts and scientists were kept out of the planning, which included promises to phase out synthetic fertilizer, develop 2 million organic home gardens to help feed the country’s population, and turn the country’s forests and wetlands over to the production of biofertilizer.

To add insult to injury, right after Rajapaksa’s election, the COVID-19 global pandemic arrived, devastating Sri Lanka’s critical tourist sector. By the early months of 2021, the government’s budget and currency were in crisis, the lack of tourist dollars so depleting foreign reserves that Sri Lanka was unable to pay its debts to Chinese creditors following a binge of infrastructure development over the previous decade.

Since the Green Revolution of the 1960s, Sri Lanka, like much of Asia, subsidized farmers to use synthetic fertilizer. The results were startling – yields for rice and other crops more than doubled. Sri Lanka became food secure while exports of tea and rubber became critical sources of exports and foreign reserves. Rising agricultural productivity allowed widespread urbanization, and much of the nation’s labor force moved into the formal wage economy, culminating in Sri Lanka’s achievement of official upper-middle-income status in 2020.

But by 2020, the total cost of fertilizer imports and subsidies was close to $500 million. Rajapaksa’s organic push seemed to him a win-win, ending the costly $500 million-a-year government subsidy and improving the nation’s foreign exchange situation.

But wishful thinking is no substitute for expertise. From the moment the plan was announced, agronomists in Sri Lanka and around the world warned that agricultural yields would plummet. The government claimed it would increase the production of manure and other organic fertilizers in place of imported synthetic fertilizers.

Unfortunately, i

it’s not possible for the nation to produce enough fertilizer domestically to make up for the shortfall since that would require five to seven times more animal manure, which would require a huge and costly expansion of livestock holdings, with its own environmental damage.

The loss of revenue from tea and other export crops dwarfed the reduction in currency outflows from banning imported fertilizer. The bottom line turned even more negative through the increased import of rice and other food stocks. And the budgetary savings from cutting subsidies were more than outweighed by the cost of compensating farmers and providing public subsidies for imported food.

Farming is a fairly straightforward energy in, energy out process. For most of recorded human history when global populations were less than a billion, the primary way humans increased agricultural production was by adding land to the system.

Contrary to popular notions that preindustrial agriculture existed in greater harmony with nature, three-quarters of total global deforestation occurred before the industrial revolution. As recently as 200 years ago, more than 90% of the global population labored in agriculture. There was no Middle Class.

A true transformation came with the invention of the Haber-Bosch process in the early 1900s, which uses high temperature, high pressure, and a chemical catalyst to pull nitrogen from the air and produce ammonia, the basis for synthetic fertilizers. Synthetic fertilizer remade global agriculture and, with it, human society. Crop yields increased dramatically and allowed human labor to shift from agriculture to sectors that offered higher incomes and a better quality of life.

Synthetic fertilizers have allowed global agriculture to feed nearly 8 billion people. These fertilizers, combined with other innovations such as modern plant breeding and large-scale irrigation projects, allowed global population to more than double, and allowed agricultural output to triple on only 30% more land.

Without synthetic fertilizers and other agricultural innovations, there would be no urbanization, no industrialization, no global working or middle class, and no secondary education for most people.

On the other hand, all of organic agriculture production serves only two populations at opposite ends of the income spectrum. At one end are the 700 million or so people globally who still live in abject poverty, practicing old fashioned subsistence farming, barely eking out a living, not able to afford fertilizer or any modern technology. This is now termed agroecology to make such poverty sound good.

At the other end of the spectrum are the world’s richest people, mostly in the West, for whom consuming organic food is a lifestyle choice with romanticized ideas about agriculture and the natural world. Who else would pay five bucks for a cup of coffee made with organic shade-grown coffee beans shipped up from the Amazon?

As a niche within a larger, industrialized, agricultural system, organic farming works reasonably well, especially since its small scale is easily supported by existing animal manure. But it has to stay small-scale.

Rajapaksa continues to insist that his policies have not failed, but as farmers begin their spring harvest, the fertilizer ban has been partially lifted. Unfortunately, the fertilizer subsidies have not been restored.

Much of the global sustainable agriculture movement have turned a blind eye and have not come out to denounce Rajapaksa’s policies. Food Tank, an advocacy group funded by the Rockefeller Foundation that promotes a complete phase-out of chemical fertilizers and subsidies, has been mum now that its favored policies have taken such a disastrous turn.

There is no example of an agriculture-producing nation successfully transitioning to fully organic or agroecological production. The European Union has promised for decades such a full-scale transition but has failed.

In Sri Lanka, as elsewhere, there is no shortage of problems associated with chemical-intensive and large-scale agriculture. But there are solutions to these problems – innovations that allow farmers to deliver fertilizer more precisely to plants when they need it, bioengineered microbial soil treatments that fix nitrogen in the soil and reduce the need for both fertilizer and soil disruption, or genetically modified crops that require fewer pesticides and herbicides to begin with.

GMOs are not not-organic. They are just a quicker way to cross-breed which we’ve been doing for ten thousand years.

These innovations will allow countries like Sri Lanka to mitigate the environmental impacts of agriculture without impoverishing farmers or destroying the economy. Proponents of organic agriculture, by contrast, committed to naturalistic ideologies and suspicious of modern agricultural science, can offer no credible solutions.

What they offer, as Sri Lanka’s farmers have found, is misery.

Courtesy MailOnLine

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Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence has led to fuel and electricity rationing across the South Asian nation of 22 million

The Sri Lankan rupee fell sharply against the dollar Thursday, after the country’s central bank ordered a 15 percent depreciation in a bid to stave off a looming economic collapse sparked by a shortage of foreign currency.

The country’s worst economic crisis since independence has led to fuel and electricity rationing across the South Asian nation of 22 million, crippling public transport and causing long queues for food and medicine.

The coronavirus pandemic battered the island’s tourism sector — a key foreign currency earner — sparking fears the country may not be able to repay its $51 billion foreign debt.

Traders said the rupee Thursday sank 11.53 percent against the US dollar, the island’s main foreign trading currency, as authorities struggled to raise cash to finance desperately-needed oil imports.

The state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has asked the government to urgently raise the retail price of oil in a bid to save itself from bankruptcy.

This week’s depreciation added another 198 billion rupees ($760 million) to service the firm’s foreign debt of $3.3 billion, official figures showed.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Monday night announced it would allow “greater flexibility” in the exchange rate, which had been pegged at 197 rupees to the dollar since last April.

But it then backtracked, telling commercial banks that it would not intervene to shore up the rupee.

The remarks led to a sharp depreciation when markets opened on Thursday, traders said, with exporters expecting a further fall in the currency’s value.

The CPC is losing 120 rupees on every litre of diesel sold at the current government-regulated price, chief Sumith Wijesinghe said.

“If we had the authority to increase (the price), we would have done it already,” Wijesinghe told reporters.

The government has said it hopes to soon import $500 million worth of oil under a credit line from India to address the local shortages.

On Wednesday, the government tightened restrictions on a wide range of imports — from whisky to kitchen appliances — to save foreign exchange and finance essential imports such as oil, food and medicines.

An import ban was already introduced in March 2020 on big-ticket items such as cars, in an effort to stop the outflow of dollars needed to pay Sri Lanka’s debts.

Milk powder, sugar, lentils and wheat, as well as medicine, are in short supply.

The International Monetary Fund last week urged Colombo to devalue its currency and raise taxes, warning the cash-strapped country that its foreign debt was “unsustainable”.

Courtesy Adaderana

The ten party alliance of the government is planning for a public rally in Nugegoda in similar lines with ‘Mahinda Sulanga rally’ (Bring Back Mahinda) conducted way back in 2015 after the electoral defeat, Daily Mirror learns.

A date has not yet been fixed. However, sources close to the alliance said March 29 would be the likely date.

These parties have decided to sit independent of the government in Parliament.

The National Freedom Front led by MP Wimal Weerawansa, the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya led by MP Udaya Gammanpila, the National Congress led by MP A.L.M.A. Athaullah and the Democratic Left Front led by Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara are among the parties of this alliance. (Kelum Bandara)

Courtesy Adaderana

China once again kept silent on Sri Lanka’s request for debt restructuring but said it has been assisting the island nation to the best of its ability to overcome its forex crisis.

Sri Lanka is currently reeling under a severe foreign exchange crisis with falling reserves and the government is unable to foot the bill for essential imports.

Last December, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa requested Beijing’s assistance in mitigating his country’s deepening forex crisis and spiralling external debt.

In his meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the President raised Sri Lanka’s deepening forex crisis and spiralling external debt and sought Beijing’s assistance.

He had pointed out that it would be a great relief to Sri Lanka if attention could be paid to restructuring the debt repayments as a solution to the economic crisis that has arisen in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is estimated that Sri Lanka owes debt payments to China in the region of USD 1.5 to 2 billion this year. Overall China’s loans and investments in Sri Lanka were estimated to be more than USD eight billion in the last few years.

But Beijing has not made a public commitment for debt relief assistance to Sri Lanka so far.

Asked about Sri Lanka’s pending request for debt relief, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing on Wednesday that China has been providing assistance for Sri Lanka’s socio-economic development as its capability allows, and will continue to do so going forward”.

With the efforts and solidarity of the Sri Lankan government and people, the country is believed to overcome the temporary difficulties soon and embrace even greater development,” he said.

Excerpt from China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on March 9:

Question: Sri Lanka has asked China to consider restructuring its debt repayment during a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Is China planning to provide debt relief?

Zhao Lijian: On your second question, since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China and Sri Lanka have shown mutual understanding and rendered each other support. China has been providing assistance for Sri Lanka’s socioeconomic development as its capability allows, and will continue to do so going forward. With the efforts and solidarity of the Sri Lankan government and people, the country is believed to overcome the temporary difficulties soon and embrace even greater development.

–With agencies inputs

Courtesy Adaderana

The Health Ministry reports that another 580 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 today (March 10), pushing the tally of confirmed cases of the virus registered in the country to 654,916. 

Nearly 20,000 patients infected with coronavirus are currently undergoing treatment island-wide while total recoveries has risen to 618,616.

The Director General of Health Services has confirmed another 13 coronavirus related deaths for March 09, increasing the country’s death toll due to the virus to 16,374. 

Shenali D Waduge 

Sri Lanka’s post-independence has been flavoured by spice & ice – all of our momentous moments were erased by a handful that chose to go crying tale tales overseas. The noteworthy aspect of these tale carriers is the selective nature of their so-called justice”. They deem fit to decide what should be defined as ‘justice’ within the prism of their belief. We have seen many a character scooting off to Geneva to deliver speeches to embarrass the nation, not shirking once that their statements are distorted & full of innuendos. Not only do they take pride in painting a bleak overview about Sri Lanka internationally, they think they can return as heroes for doing so. No country in the world garlands their traitors but Sri Lanka has an uncanny knack of doing so. This is creating more traitors who think they can emerge as heroes & heroines by betraying their nation.

The newest entrant to the annual Geneva circus is peddling a new notion regarding the Easter Sunday attack. If his claim is that the attack is politically motivated, is his trip to Geneva politically motivated too. If his claim is only God can provide answers, why go to Geneva & not seek an explanation why so many died inside Churches where they went to prey. There are other answers we seek from the Cardinal. A key question remains the unanswered question of the Church role in LTTE terrorism where a plethora of players were involved in indirectly fostering terror in Sri Lanka simply to advance the agendas of their foreign head-quarters as well as to fulfill a historical unfulfilled objective. Thus is the trip also to satisfy head quarters?

Ironically, we have had direct foreign presence for 443 years and indirect foreign intervention since 1948 via groups of puppets camouflaged in different forms. It has been all of these players who have been despatched overseas from time to time, to the halls of Geneva when their concocted lies appear not to be working locally. They take turns to betray the nation or when things hot up they clamor together to build a combined force.

If many have not noticed, while plugging a political motive for the attacks, the innuendos behind the Cardinal’s appeal for intervention is to CONTINUE” the UNHRC investigations, illegally & falsely launched since 2011. Having produced no dead bodies, no names of dead to claim 40,000 or more died & relying only on annual tamashas and well-sponsored fake reports & invisible hidden witnesses – it becomes laughable to have the Cardinal even suggest that UNHRC plugs Easter Sunday into their scope of lies. This is indeed a grand move on the part of the script writers for obviously their lies are getting internationally exposed with countries also questioning the methodology of the UNHRC against a UN Member state.

What is interesting about the Cardinal’s request is that while he claims not to trust or have faith in local investigations, he wants to plug Easter Sunday investigations into the UNHRC investigations which even after 10 years has failed to prove any of their claims except trying to trap Sri Lanka into UN terminology & international legal googly’s. If one looks at the UNHRC reports it is clear that they are out to weaken Sri Lanka at every level & has little or nothing to do about any accountability for the last 3 months of the conflict which was the sole reason for UNHRC crocodile tears against Sri Lanka.

Let the Cardinal be once again reminded that while the Church remains silent about its role in LTTE terror where Church fathers & sisters have openly supported the LTTE so far as to go on street protests holding placards for Prabakaran & even running orphanages from which children were taken & turned into child soldiers, while missionaries were seen carrying out the historical quest of conversions which was why all LTTE dead were buried and not cremated (if we presume majority of LTTE were Hindus & should have been cremated) All of the LTTE diaspora are functioning from Western countries and majority of these entities were only created after the death of Prabakaran which is a clue to showcase the foreign influence over LTTE while another clue comes in the manner West-funded NGOs were quick to come to LTTE rescue using their staff & reports, while the west-sponsored media also did their role.

These same players are now being re-tasked to function within a newer script, obviously drawn up by the same invisible players. What role our closest neighbor plays in this we cannot tell but there is only a wafer thin line between fulfilling its self-interest & fulfilling its duties as a strategic partner. But the good Cardinal must explain why he is ignoring this neighbor’s role in the Easter Sunday scheme of things.

As for the people of Sri Lanka, all that we can wonder in surprise is the manner the Church flies off to Geneva when such trips were never forthcoming to save a child from becoming a child soldier, to stop LTTE bombing 24×7, to tell the truth about LTTE to the world, to even praise Sri Lanka’s military against the lies to justify R2P (another form of intervention camouflaged by the West)

As for the other characters presently in Geneva, they should explain why they did not bother to warn the churches when they knew of an imminent threat the day before the actual attacks.

If the ‘maha molakaru’ are the usual culprits, we should not be too surprised at the newest Geneva soliloquy. It’s all part of the plot! Ironically, the suicide bombers were just as victims as the hundreds they were brainwashed to kill.

Far more dangerous than them are those that pretend to be our heroes but are diabolical traitors, never hesitating to betray the nation & its people for 30 pieces of silver!

Shenali D Waduge 

Dr Sudath Gunasedkara Mahanuwara

Easter attacks was a ‘grand political plot’, Sri Lanka cardinal tells UNHRC” Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith Fernando.

Rev Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, could you please reveal this political plot for the benefit of the general public so that we will know who the real culprits are behind this Grand plot, without leaving room for unnecessary speculations and confusion both at Home and abroad that will worsen the image of Sri Lanka which is already at abysmal depth. The God will bless you on behalf of all victims, once the real culprits are caught. And punished.

How gracious and dignified it would be, if it had been revealed at home on your part as the onetime national idol of all Sri Lankan people, before you told the Pope and the UNHRC going all the way to Geneva as a person who strongly opposed for international mediation in our domestic affairs?

Anyway, I earnestly request your Honor to reveal it at least now so that the sinners could be brought to book early and justice and fair play is meted out for the victims, as both you and we pray.

By Tilak S. Fernando

We are so unfortunate that bribery and corruption in every Institution, particularly in the Government sector is dishonest. The Media has exposed the venality of Parliamentarians, members of Town and Provincial Councils, Chairpersons of Government Corporations, and Administrators as deceitful and corrupt. Still, there is no proof against them, as they are very clever in concealing their dishonest practices. 

It is tragic that officers elected to serve the public behave in a scandalous and disgraceful manner. The newspapers and TV news give us an ear-full daily. So, the public has no choice except to be disgusted and frustrated to see their hard-earned money wasted as direct and indirect tax payments. It is undoubtedly our mistake in appointing such people through the universal franchise.

Each Government had slow economic progress even when the country had resources with engineers and artisans. From time immemorial, our forefathers were engineers admired and praised by foreigners for their ingenuity. They constructed canals with a gradient of one inch to a mile. Our forefathers did everything with the sole aim of preserving their nationalistic premise.

Unfortunately for us, the qualified and capable engineers, technicians, and artisans migrated to boost the economy of foreign countries. When Governments change every five years or so, they don’t define a Government policy structure to adhere to. New administrations then change the policy structure according to their whims and fancies rather than adhering to a national policy. 

Earlier our average IQ was very high. However in 2015, we went down to 79 in the Asian IQ rankings. Today Japan has an IQ rate of 106.48 with 125, 584, 838, and Taiwan stands at 106.47 with 23,888,595 population and Singapore at 105.89 with 5,943, 546. It shows how Sri Lanka has deteriorated in social and intellectual capabilities.

What did Sri Lanka lose?

Because of the gluttony of two former Ministers, Sri Lanka lost a network of electric trains. Media wallahas pulled skeletons out of the cupboards of a former senior Minister and State Minister concerning an electric train project with a foreign company. The foreign firm was unwilling to grant the staggering commissions demanded by the two previous Ministers. Their greed affected the development of the country’s rail system and lost thousands of employment opportunities.

The irony was how such transgressions were covered up rather than holding an inquiry by the Criminal Department to bring the perpetrators to justice. They should have been punished by law. For the sake of transparency, the previous Government should have investigated whether their two Ministers were corrupt or were the Media, allegations false.

Ceylon gained Independence on 4 February 1948; since then, politicians’ fragmented society into various political groups and hues. The politicians’ egocentric aim was to grab power but not work for the nation’s development. It is ruinous even today to see such views and patterns continuing in the same trend to devalue the country’s overall values, progress, and development.

During the Presidential Election, the Government repeatedly announced that when they came to power, the wrongdoers of the previous Government would be severely dealt with. The Government has still to adhere to their pledge at the election podia. The Government tried to escape by adopting a procrastination process and hiding behind the term ‘democratic‘. This kind of television drama makes the present Government sill unpopular. 

Towards progress    

On 2 March 2022, a  conference of eleven coalition parties of the Government was held at a Hotel in Kotte to unveil their proposals titled ‘Mulu Ratama Hari Magata’. The forum intended to overcome the economic crisis in the country’s long-term and short-term solutions. Still, after the conference, two prominent Cabinet Ministers lost their jobs, which the populace thought was a rash decision!

Blaming others

The administrators constantly point fingers at the residue of corrupt officials entrusted to deal with the files of the miscreants. The public hears the files containing evidence against offenders were either misplaced, or that lawyers did not present facts accurately. This process is a total waste of the taxpayers’ money and the Government’s time in courts that sends so many scot-free.

Police 

A police force deployed in any country is to maintain Law and Order. However, if a police officer is found guilty, he gets transferred to another district rather than being dealt with. Such situations become indecorous incidents, but the whole issue becomes a laughingstock. 

The public consensus is that reorganising the Cabinet of Ministers will not help the Nation’s development or come out of the present economic crisis. Yet, the head of the Government needs to consider the overall Cabinet Ministers’ capabilities rather than being emotional before taking any drastic steps.

Dispensing of medicine

A state of affairs exists when the registered pharmacists entrust the business to entrepreneurs to run their licensed pharmacies by employing cashiers with no knowledge of pharmaceuticals, except a few branded names.

It is a severe problem. The Pharmacy Act in Sri Lanka dictates the licence holder to be present on-site when dispensing drugs to the public. Suppose the licence holder is not available at any time in the pharmacy, the Law dictates to close the pharmacy during the pharmacist’s absence. Even when Health Ministry inspectors do flying visits to pharmacies in the absence of the licence holder, the cashier usually comes out with the excuse that the boss just has gone out”. 

 In Sri Lanka, it has become habitual to place drugs in small envelopes without mentioning the drugs’ name or strength. The ignorant patient does not know what he consumes at all. It applies primarily to antibiotics. Unless one buys a complete packet from a pharmacy of the branded drug, no one knows what they swallow.  All local private clinics adopt this system placing drugs in separate envelopes. After all, a person’s life is their responsibility. They should have the right to know what medications they consume.

Contrary to these practices in developed countries, such as Chemists in the UK, the senior pharmacist always double checks the drugs before dispensing it to the public by checking the name and address of the prescription, the list of drugs and the strength of the medicine and the dosage marked as TDS, etc.

Living conditions

Unfortunately, the public is facing hard times with the economic calamity and the consumer prices rocketing because of the dollar crisis. People are in darkness for up to 7 hours a day due to power outages while the Ministers and VIPs are not affected.  The public are frustrated to the hilt. With the release of funds to clear cargo in Colombo harbour, one hopes the power outage will be limited. At present, what people see on TV news is how the public express their frustrations. Can any Government politician visits the voter now pleading to be reelected?

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Embassy and Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka Bangkok, Thailand

Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Kingdom of Thailand and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), C.A. Chaminda I. Colonne called on Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation of Thailand, Prof. Dr. Anek Laothamatas on 07^th March 2022, at the Ministry.

While recalling long standing excellent relations with Sri Lanka, Minister Prof. Dr. Laothamatas warmly welcomed the Ambassador Chaminda Colonne and assured to accelerate bilateral cooperation through speedy implementation of signed bilateral Memoranda of Understanding under the purview of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation of Thailand.

Both further discussed the avenues of future cooperation mainly in the fields of medicine, engineering, vocational training and language training.

Prof. Dr. Anek Laothamatas warmly accepted the invitation extended by Ambassador Chaminda Colonne to visit Sri Lanka at a mutually convenient time.

Permanent Secretary Prof. Sirirurg Songsivilai, Deputy Permanent Secretary Assoc. Prof. Pasit Lorterapong of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Dean of the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, Rangsit University, Prof. Sompong Sanguanbun, and First Secretary Saritha Ranatunga from the Sri Lanka Mission in Bangkok joined the discussion.

Embassy and Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Bangkok, Thailand

08^th March 2022