Courtesy Adaderana

The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reported that 543 more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka on Sunday (May 16), as the daily count of new cases moved to 2,275.

According to the Government Information Department, 2,212 of the new cases reported today are associated with the New Year coronavirus cluster. The remaining 63 were identified as arrivals from foreign countries.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 142,746.

As many as 118,322 recoveries and 962 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 23,462 active cases are currently under medical care.

Courtesy Adaderana

A request has been made to prioritize Divisional Secretaries, Divisional Staff Officers, Samurdhi Development Officers, Agriculture Officers, and Grama Niladharis in the country’s COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Speaking to the media in Dambulla today (16) the Minister of Public Services, Provincial Councils, and Local Government Janaka Bandara Tennakoon stated that he had made a written request to the Minister in charge of the subject.

He further says that under the current situation in the country, the aforementioned officers do a great service whilst taking risks.

Meanwhile, the All Ceylon Government Medical Officers’ Association has also written to Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi urging her to put an end to all political influence that violates the priorities in administering the COVID-19 vaccine.

General Secretary of the Association, Dr. Jayantha Bandara says that family members – at least those who live in the same house – of all health staff should be considered as risk groups and prioritize in the vaccination process.

He further says that the COVID-19 vaccination program in Sri Lanka has become a highly corrupt operation with various interventions.

Dr. Bandara added that politicians, as well as high officials, are using their powers to vaccinate their relatives and friends outside the priority lists.

H. L. D. Mahindapala 

When the first Israeli airstrike hit Gaza on Monday nine children and 13 others were killed, according to Washington Post. (Monday 10, May, 2021). By Saturday the  death toll had risen to over hundred and 33 of them were children. Simultaneously, Taliban bombs exploding in Kabul on Tuesday killed 85 Muslim school girls, according to CNN. What’s the difference? How can we condemn the Israelis when the Muslims are committing the same crime of killing Muslims?  Can Muslim violence descend to a more inhuman level than in Kabul? In Africa? In Sri Lanka?

How can we condemn the Israelis when our  own Tamils committed the biggest crime  of their history : they killed more Tamils than all the others put together? How can we condemn  the Israelis when the Sinhala terrorists in the fascist JVP showed  no mercy in killing the Sinhalese? One has to expect beastly behaviour from the enemies but not from your own kind. In moral metrics, the crime of Muslims killing Muslim children is greater than the Israelis killing  the children of their inveterate enemies. This principle applies to Tamils and Sinhalese as well.

This is written not to exculpate the Israelis of  their heinous  crime of deliberately killing civilians to punish Hamas sending rockets to Jerusalem. Those who watched the Israeli airstrikes bringing down  civilian high-rise buildings where civilians, including children, live will agree that Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister  of Israel,  has been and continues to be a cold-blooded killer. The Jews who were the victims of ethnic hatred throughout Christendom – just not under the Nazis — have no moral right to engage in war  crimes, crimes against humanity and, specifically, crimes against another ethnic community. They were victims who suffered continuously in Christian Europe because  the  Christians hated the Jews as Christ-killers.

The irony is in the way the Jews have turned their wrath against the Muslims who are not guilty of such crimes against  the Jews and with whom  they have to live in the Middle East, particularly in Palestine,  whether  they like it or not. Ethnic crises invariably remind us of the central  issue that is plaguing global politics: how can communities competing  for territory, power, dominance, equality, dignity, justice, liberty etc., co-exist peacefully?  Invariably it boils down to a minority vs majority issue. Is there a recipe  to resolve the tensions and conflicts between these two competitors? Each zone of conflict comes with causes and personalities specific to its time and place. History repeats itself in each case but with variations.

As for Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of a minority that became a majority, is going down the same path of the Nazi majority that oppressed and persecuted his minority when they were living in the holocaustic past. Of course, he is displaying not his power but the power  of his ally, America. American morality stinks to high heaven when it says that Israel has right  to defend itself. Does that right include killing children and non-combatant housewives indiscriminately? Also, why didn’t America apply the same principle to Sri Lanka? Why did Ambassador Robert Blake ask the Rajapakse regime to stop the war or face charges  of war crimes? Will the American ambassador in Israel apply the same bullying tactics to restrain Netanyahu? Besides, why is it vindictively pursuing a policy of punishing Sri Lanka for restoring  peace and ending a brutal war saving thousands of lives? Why hasn’t the foreign minister of France and UK jointly rushed to Tel Aviv to stop the war like the way they did when the Sri Lankan  forces were at the gates of the Tamil Tigers? Why is Israel, condemned umpteen times  by the UN and yet face no serious  consequences? Why is Israel given favoured treatment and why is Sri Lanka given the middle finger by the US? Is American foreign policy driven by morality or by stupid — not enlightened — self-interest?

In all this what is most unbearable and heart-rending is the plight of the children. Why must children pay for the sins of the adults? Why must children be abducted from schools  in Africa by Muslim terrorists? Why did the Tamil terrorists too go to the extreme of forcibly abducting Tamil children and throwing them as fodder into the frontlines of their futile war? Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, that vexatious  litigant, never took  the Tamil leadership to court  holding  them accountable for committing  war crime and crimes against  humanity. The paper Tigers in the Tamil diaspora are passing resolutions of genocide in Ontario, accusing the GOSL, when the killer of the greatest number of Tamils was the leader they backed all the way. They financed the biggest massacre of Tamils by Tamils.

The genocide of Tamils is unacceptable. But that was committed by the Tamil Pol Pots with the consent of Tamil diasporans who financed it from the beginning to Nandikadal. Boosted by the backing of the Diaspora, Tamil Pol Pots ran berserk with blind hatred of the other”. They began by decimating the established, conservative Tamil leadership and unable to face the horror of it the Tamil diaspora the Tamil diasporans have accused the Sinhala state” of killing Neelan Tiruchelvam and even Appapillai Amirthalingam. They also financed the massacres  of Muslims and Sinhalese. They knew that S. C. Chandrahasan, the son of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam had said that Prabhakaran had killed more Tamils than all the others put  together. V. Ananadasangaree, the head of the TULF,  too had confirmed that Prabhakaran  had killed more  Tamils than anyone else. And now that their guilt  has caught up with them, after losing the war they financed,  they are making a desperate bid to wash their guilt away by passing  the buck to the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL.)

Muslims targeting their co-religionists in divided sects, or perceived enemies like the Christian worshippers on Easter Sunday 2019 in Sri Lanka, too are driven by blind hatred which knows no limits. In their minds killing is  pathway to heaven and virgins therein, waiting  to open their legs. Killing is pursued as a signature sign of their prowess to dictate terms to their enemies. It is a mindless strategy that has taken them nowhere, so far. For instance, where has it taken them in Sri Lanka except into the bad books of the nation? They have successfully degraded the respected the word Muslim” into  the equivalent of Tamil Tigers – a dirty word.

Killing because they have money to buy the wherewithal and mobilise fanatics willing to kill or die in  the process of killing is not a tactic that will deliver them their caliphates or glorify Islam. Glorification of Islam with territorial conquests is a thing  of the  past. Israel too is  employing this tactic. The latest explosion in Palestine  was caused by the far-right Jewish activists moving to capture Sheik Jarrah, the territory occupied by the Muslims in Jerusalem. They were out to evict the  Arabs forcibly from East Jerusalem in  the hope of making the whole of Jerusalem their capital, freed from Arabs. It is pure ethnic cleansing. It is unacceptable. It  is unpardonable. They became the Wandering Jews because they had no home, or territory to call their own. Now that they have some territory, they are doing to the Arabs what the Christians did to them. How fair and just is that?

Once I spent one night in the kibbutz of Kiryat Shmona. In the morning my Jewish  escort told me, pointing. quite proudly, to the open fields without any people, that the Jews opened fire on the fellaheen who were farming  in the  neighbourhood and drove them away. The Jews then took over their  lands. Well, that is similar to the expulsions of the Muslims from Jaffna by the LTTE in 1990. The Muslims did not go to Maldives, or Saudi Arabia. They came to live with the Sinhalese in the south – and they still do.

This is not an essay to explore the whole gamut of the ethics of violence. Dayan Jayatillleka has made a daring attempt to do so in his book Fidel’s Ethic of Violence, exploring, as he says, the moral dimensions of the political thoughts of Castro. That, of course, needs a separate  chapter on another day. But this theme of  violence being played out in Palestine right now opens the opportunity to explore some aspects  of the violence that had rocked Sri  Lanka in the post-independent period and even before because it is a theme exploited by the intellectuals to add fuel to fire with their tendentious theories and partisan politics. It has been a very controversial issue  in which some schools of thought have identified only one  party  — namely, the Sinhala-Buddhists — and flayed them as  the sole provocateur, promoter, perpetrator and pursuer of violence. The general argument of these schools goes like this: Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country  and why  is there so much violence  in  it? It is this question  that  launched the  controversial book from Harvard University written by Prof. S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka.

Coming with the imprimatur of authoritative Harvard it had a  clout which other public intellectuals did not. It was to be the definite reference point for other scholars  and they did fall for the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist line spelt out by Tambiah. By the time he wrote his text demonising Sinhala-Buddhist history and culture, there was nothing original in his selected theme. The original authorship of demonising Sinhala-Buddhist culture goes to G. G. Ponnambalam who caused  the  first ethnic conflagration in 1939 with his crude denunciation of Sinhala-Buddhist culture. All Tamil politics and ideologies operated within the framework laid down by him. No Tamil ideology operated  outside his  triad of (1) demonising Sinhala-Buddhist culture (2) demanding disproportionate territory and power and (3) crying their heads out, claiming to be victims of majoritarianism. Tambiah too adhered to  this pattern. In other words, he fell in line with the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist politics of the NGOs, left-wing academics, and the applauding Tamil claque. He was aided and abetted by Lal Jayawardana and his  wife Kumari Jayawardana, the inveterate anti-Sinhala-Buddhist academic. Lal Jayawardana, who was  then the head of the World Institute   for Development Economic Research (WIDER) of the United Nations University rewarded Tambiah  handsomely, with funds from WIDER.

Tambiah did a cheap job which any sophomore  could have done. Putting together anti-Sinhala-Buddhist data was not a difficult task considering the fact that most of the research  was done  for him partly by Kumari Jayawardana and her fellow-travellers like H. L. Seneviratne and C. R. de Silva. They saw a Sinhala-Buddhist under every bed waiting to spoil their political honeymoons. Everything went wrong, everything that failed was blamed on Sinhala-Buddhism. Here’s what a fairly competent historian like Nira Wickramasinghe wrote about the failure of the Left movement: The trajectory of the left, as movement and as idea, can also  be  read as  the gradual decline in  ideological terms of a democratic and secular project unable  to sustain the assault  of the  hegemonic forces  of Sinhala Buddhist exclusivism.”  — Pathways of the Left in Sri Lanka, Marshall Fernando and B. Skandakumar, Editors.

This ignores the basic fact that the Left died of self-inflicted  wounds. The splits that divided the  Left into micro-mini fragments on fake theoretical  differences, which, in reality, were masks to cover the  self-serving  power struggles of the aspiring leaders, were one of the primary bases that led to the collapse of the Left.  The working class too were led astray with strikes of rival unions that were politically oriented more than  feeding  the economic needs of the  workers.     Marxist leaders  were hoping to climb  into power on the back  of the workers. Their revolution was confined to paralyse elected  governments with strikes. In the end the Marxists  joined the very capitalist class they condemned. They misled the workers from the beginning. The promised revolution never came and when  the perverted version  of the revolution came through the  fascist JVP the Marxist fathers of the Revolution condemned it as a CIA plot. When the revolution came they were hanging on to seats in  the SLFP cabinet and  they were naturally inclined  to protect their ministerial position than the revolution. The people disillusioned  with their alliance with the capitalist class threw them out lock, stock and barrel. But our Left-wing intellectuals, wearing tinted glasses, blame it on the hegemony of Sinhala Buddhism”.

Demeaning and demonising the majority has been the standard stock in trade of our public intellectuals. It was not so all the time. There was a time in the pre-Vadukoddai Resolution period when some leading Tamil theoreticians recognised the value, power and glory of Sinhala-Buddhism. Prof. A. J. Wilson, for instance, commended Sinhala-Buddhism as the  force that sustained democracy. It was Calvin Woodward, an American scholar, in his review of Wilson’s book, Politics in Sri Lanka, 1947 – 1973, states: The uniqueness of Sri Lanka, Wilson points out, is that it (Sri Lanka) has faced challenges without veering from the democratic path. Certainly then, the key  to the future lies in  an understanding of the past. How and why, in other words, has the democratic experiment been able to work so well in Sri Lanka? The author investigates this and concludes that the  political stability so far maintained in Sri Lanka is due mainly two factors, one of indigenous origin and the other the result of Western implantation. Primary is the Buddhist ethos and the doctrine of tolerance. This, according to Wilson, has acted to dissuade the majority community from unduly imposing itself on the minorities and encouraged it to respect the fundamental rights and distinctions of others in the plural society.” (p. 72 – The Ceylon Journal of Historical and  Social Studies – Vol III, July-December, 1973, No.1.)

But he too flipped. He too later joined the mob and blamed Sinhala-Buddhism as a force inimical to minorities, peace and progress. Another one who somersaulted was Prof. K. Indrapala, the  first  professor of  history in Jaffna University. He obtained his Ph. D by writing a thesis on history in which he acknowledged that  the Jaffna settlers arrived  in 12 – 13^th centuries from S. India. This was not acceptable to the Tamils who  claimed in the  Vadukoddai Resolution – the  most authoritative political manifesto of the Tamils – that  they were there  from  the dawn of time. He was virtually chased out of the Jaffna University. He later attempted to make amends by producing another  history in which the Tamils go  back to  prehistoric  times.

They were re-writing history according to the needs of contemporary politics and  not according the way it happened. History has been an explosive force both in Sri Lanka and Israel. For instance, the move to evict the Arabs by far-right Jews began when  the  courts declared that  the  land occupied by the Arabs in  Sheik Jarrah belonged to the Jews before 1948. Disentangling the knotted threads of history is not  an  easy task even to the  courts  or the experts. History looms large in politics. Netanyahu’s military manoeuvres are aimed at   erasing the history of the Arabs and make Jerusalem the exclusive capital of  the Jews. Each move he makes  is also to diminish the two-state solution for the two communities. Inch by inch  he  has been gaining ground. Donald Trump gave him  the greatest gift that any Jew could expect  : Jerusalem as their capital. Now the far-right Jews are moving to clean up the whole city. They are bent on ethnically cleansing Jerusalem to make it the exclusive sacred city of  the Jews. The Palestinians have been retreating reluctantly and helplessly accepting  each  gain of the Israelis as the new normal. The two-state theory too is diminishing its force. Israel has succeeded in normalising relations with a string  of Arab states to  the dismay of Palestinians. Trump administration did the backdoor work to strengthen Israel’s position in the Middle East. The emerging scenario is not the  most positive for the Palestinians. They end up  getting  the  worse  end  of the deal  with each military offensive. Their misery increases. So, does the glory of Israel. To be an Arab in Israel today is like being an insect in  one  of Kafka’s novels. It is nightmarish, humiliating and positively  oppressive. Muslims in Sri Lanka should go down on their knees  and thank God that they are not in Israel, in particular Jewish-occupied Palestine.

by Cassandra Willyard Courtesy Technologyreview.com

The hype around scariants” is overblown. But we also shouldn’t be too complacent.

On May 10, the World Health Organization added a new virus to its list of covid-19 variants of global concern. The variant, B.1.617, is being blamed for the runaway infections in India. It is the fourth addition to a list that also includes variants first identified in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil. There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on covid-19, at a briefing. 

With each new variant comes growing unease. News stories about double mutants” and dangerous variants” stoke fears that these viruses will be able to evade the immune response and render our best vaccines ineffective, sending us back into lockdown. But for the moment the virus hasn’t fundamentally changed,” says Kartik Chandran, a virologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Vaccines may become less effective over time, but there’s no evidence that we’re on the brink of catastrophe. I don’t think that there’s an imminent danger that we’re going to go back to square one,” says Thomas Friedrich, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. We should be concerned, but not freaked out.” 

Here are five reasons why we can be cautiously optimistic.

1. Vaccines work, even against troublesome variants

Early reports suggested that the current crop of covid-19 vaccines might not work as well against some of the variants, including the one first identified in South Africa (B.1.351). In lab tests, antibodies from vaccinated individuals couldn’t neutralize the virus as effectively as they could the original virus. But real-world data out of Qatar suggests that the Pfizer vaccine works quite well, even against B.1.351. Full vaccination offered 75% protection against B.1.351 infections; that’s less than the 95% efficacy reported in the trials for the original virus but still a miracle,” says Andrew Read, a disease ecologist at Pennsylvania State University. These vaccines are so good. We’ve got so much room to play with.” 

Some variants do seem to be better at dodging our immune system, at least in lab experiments. For example, a small study posted on May 10 shows that the newest variant of global concern — B.1.617— is more resistant to antibodies from people who have been vaccinated or have previously been infected. Despite that, all 25 people who had received shots from Moderna or Pfizer produced enough antibodies to neutralize the variant.

2. The immune response is robust 

Scientists testing vaccine efficacy often focus on antibodies and their ability to block the virus from infecting cells. In lab experiments, they mix blood from people who have been infected or vaccinated with cells in a dish to see if antibodies in the blood can neutralize” the virus. These experiments are easy to perform. But antibodies are a very narrow slice of what the immune response might be” in the body, says Jennifer Dowd, an epidemiologist and demographer at the University of Oxford. 

Immune cells called T cells also help keep infections in check. These cells can’t neutralize the virus, but they can seek out infected cells and destroy them. That helps protect against severe disease. And data from people who’ve had covid-19 suggests that T-cell response should provide ample protection against most of the SARS-CoV-2 variants.

3. When vaccinated people do get infected, the shots protect against the worst outcomes

A vaccine that can block infection is wonderful. But the most important thing is to keep people out of the hospital and out of the ground,” says Friedrich. And there’s good evidence that the current vaccines do exactly that. In South Africa, one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine provided 85% protection against covid-19-related hospitalizations and deaths. At the time, 95% of cases were caused by the B.1.351 variant. In Israel, where B.1.1.7 has become the dominant strain, two doses of Pfizer offered 97% protection against symptomatic covid-19 and hospitalizations linked to covid-19.

4. The same mutations keep popping up 

Once the virus enters a cell, it begins to replicate. The more copies it makes, the greater the likelihood that random errors, or mutations, will crop up. Most of these copying errors are inconsequential. A handful, however, might give the virus a leg up. For example, a spike-protein mutation known as D614G appears to help transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Another, E484K, might help the virus evade the body’s antibody response. If the viruses carrying these advantageous mutations get transmitted from one person to the next, they can start to outcompete the viruses that lack them, a process known as natural selection. That’s how the B.1.1.7 variant, which is more transmissible, became the predominant strain in the US. 

In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the mutations that improve the virus keep popping up in different parts of the globe, a phenomenon known as convergent evolution. We are seeing the same combinations evolving over and over and over again,” says Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh. Imagine a game of Tetris, Cooper writes in a recent story for Scientific American. A limited number of building blocks can be assembled in different ways, in different combinations, to achieve the same winning structures.”

Cooper and some other researchers see this evidence of convergent evolution as a hopeful sign: the virus may be running out of new ways to adapt to the current environment. It’s actually a small deck of cards right now,” he says. If we can control infections, that deck of cards is going to remain small.”

5. If the effectiveness of the vaccines begins to wane, we can make booster shots. 

Eventually, the current vaccines will become less effective. That’s to be expected,” Chandran says. But he expects that to happen gradually: There will be time for next-generation vaccines.” Moderna has already begun testing the efficacy of a booster shot aimed at protecting against B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa). Last week the company released the initial results. A third dose of the current covid-19 shot or a B.1.351-specific booster increased protection against the variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil. But the new variant-specific booster prompted a bigger immune response against B.1.351 than the third dose of the original shot. 

That’s a relief for a couple of reasons. First, it demonstrates that variant-specific boosters can work. I think the feasibility of these RNA-based vaccines to produce boosters is the achievement of our lifetime,” Cooper says. 

But there’s another, more obscure reason to celebrate these early results. Some researchers have worried that a booster shot aimed at one of the variants might amplify the immune response against the original virus instead. This phenomenon, known as original antigenic sin, sometimes occurs when the body is exposed to a virus that is similar, but not identical, to one it has already encountered. This can happen with repeated influenza exposures. It can also occur in response to vaccination. So the fact that the Moderna booster worked better than a third shot of the original formula provides some grounds for optimism that antigenic sin won’t be as much of a hurdle in fighting SARS-CoV-2. 

New trials on mixing different types of vaccines are underway. Could vaccine combinations help stop variants from bypassing our immune systems?

But while we don’t need to panic, now is also not the time for complacency. Just because the current crop of variants seems to be relatively tame doesn’t mean every new variant will be. The odds are that we’re going to see a lot more of the same kinds of thing that we’ve already seen,” Chandran says. But very rare things can happen and do happen,” he adds. And if those rare things confer a tremendous improvement in success, they may only need to happen a couple of times.” 

The surge in India is especially concerning. That’s giving the virus a lot of chances to pull the evolutionary slot-machine handle and maybe come up with a jackpot,” Friedrich says. And while vaccine rollout has been going well in many rich countries, poorer countries may not have widespread access to vaccines until 2022 or even later. We have these amazing vaccines,” Chandran says. We need to figure out a way to get them to everybody.”

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තරගාවලිය ජයගන්නා 300 කට අධික ක්‍රීඩක ක්‍රීඩිකාවන්ට සියලුම තෑගි සහ Data ලබාදීමට SLT මොබිටෙල් ආයතනය ඉදිරිපත්වී සිටියි.

ජාතික මට්ටමෙන් පැවැත්වෙන මෙම Hyper Casual – eSports තරගාවලිය අද සිට දින 02 ක් පුරා පැවැත්වෙන අතර ක්‍රීඩික ක්‍රීඩිකාවන්ට ක්‍රීඩා තරග 06 ක් ඔස්සේ මෙම තරගාවලියේ ඉදිරියට යාමට සිදුවනු ඇත.

අදාළ ක්‍රීඩා තරග අභියෝග 06 ඔස්සේ ඉදිරියට යන සියලුම ක්‍රීඩික ක්‍රීඩිකාවන්ට අවසානයේ ජාතික ලකුණු පුවරුවට පැමිණීමේ අවස්ථාව උදාවන අතර එහිදී වැඩිම ලකුණු ලබාගන්නා ක්‍රීඩකයා හෝ ක්‍රීඩිකාව ජාතික ශූරතාවයට උරුමකම් කීමේ හැකියාව උදාවනු ඇත.

Hyper Casual ක්‍රීඩාව මෙරටට හඳුන්වාදුන් IMI Games මෙම තරගාවලියේ සියලු තාක්ෂණික සහ සංවිධාන කටයුතු ඉටු කරන අතර මෙමගින් ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය සයිබර් ක්‍රීඩක ක්‍රිඩිකාවන්ට ජාතික මට්ටමේ නවමු අත්දැකීමක් හිමිවනු ඇත.

වෙබ් අඩවි පාදක කරගත් පරිශීලක මිතුරු අවකාශයක් ඔස්සේ නවතම ඩිජිටල් ක්‍රීඩා අවකාශ හඳුන්වාදීම තරුණ හා ක්‍රිඩා අමාත්‍ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පසුගිය ජනවාරි මාසයේ දී සිදු වූ අතර අමාත්‍යතුමා මෙවැනි තරගාවලියක් සංවිධානය වීමේ වැදගත්කම එදිනම පෙන්වා දී තිබිණි.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යාංශය

By A. Abdul Aziz

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad calls on Muslim nations to show a united front and to stand against the cruelties and injustices being perpetrated on the Palestinians

The World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim, Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad has strongly condemned the cruelties being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people by Israel during his Eid-ul-Fitr Sermon delivered on 14^th May 2021.

Speaking from the international headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, at the Mubarak Mosque in Islamabad, Tilford, His Holiness condemned the use of unjust force inflicted in recent days by the Israeli State against Palestinians and their attempts to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Today, we must sincerely pray for the Palestinian people who are currently being subjected to grave cruelties. In recent days, when they went to pray in the Al Aqsa Mosque they were brutally attacked and beaten by the state authorities. Similarly, they are being forced out of Sheikh Jarrah, a small neighbourhood, which is their own land.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

The (Israeli) police are using tear gas and bullets and now airstrikes have started. They say they are targeting their enemies and militants but in reality, horrific and unjust cruelties are taking place and innocent civilians are being attacked. There have also been media reports that that the Israeli police have denied wounded people access to medical aid and treatment.”

Praying for the Palestinians, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

May Allah have mercy on the oppressed and may He bring the oppressors to justice.”

His Holiness also spoke of how the United States State Department had thus far failed to condemn the killings of nine innocent children on Monday by Israeli airstrikes. Since then, many more innocent Palestinians had been killed.

His Holiness referenced reports published by Human Rights organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International highlighting the discriminatory policies and cruel treatment inflicted upon the Palestinian people.

His Holiness also referred to media reports describing the current situation.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad further said:

An article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz states: ‘This is the unique version of justice that is practiced around here: What’s mine is mine forever, and what’s yours – is also mine forever.’ This is exactly how the rights of the Palestinians are being usurped. May Allah the Almighty have mercy upon them. This Eid (Ramazn Festival) has brought mountains of grief, rather than joy for the Palestinians. May Allah transform their grief into joy and may they be able to live their lives in peace and serenity.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

May the Palestinian people find leaders who can guide them in the right way. Certainly, Muslim countries should come together and play their role to protect the Palestinians and other Muslims who are being oppressed in the world. However, the Muslim world is divided and there is a complete lack of unity amongst the Muslim nations. Certainly, in this instance, the Muslim countries have failed to show the reaction they ought to have. They have given weak statements, whereas if they had all come together and given a united statement it would have had far greater impact and carried much more weight.”

Concluding, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

May Allah grant sense and wisdom to the Muslim leadership. May He also give sense to the Israelis that they may refrain and withdraw from their injustices. Further, may Allah guide the Palestinians who are suffering from a lack of leadership if there is any injustice from their side – though in reality, this is not the case. If they (the Palestinians) are using sticks they are being subjected to heavy missiles and sophisticated weaponry, which is something I have mentioned before as well. There is no comparison in terms of the force being used by both sides. We must therefore pray for the Palestinians. May Allah the Almighty better their situation and create the means for their freedom and may they continue to hold on to their rightful places and land that were allotted to them in the initial treaty.”

His Holiness also reminded Ahmadi Muslims to pray for the wider world during his Eid sermon and said that they should pray for all needy people in the world and those being subjected to injustices.

Source: www.alislam.org

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 15 (Bloomberg) – Sri Lankan government debt is leading gains in Asian dollar bonds this year as investors bet that the nation will avoid defaulting on its short-term notes, with the help of a Chinese funding facility.

Italian investment manager AcomeA SGR S.p.A., which added to its holdings of the nation’s debt securities last quarter, sees the bonds as continuing to offer attractive yields, even if most of the gains have already been made.

The Sri Lankan notes have returned 15% this quarter, extending year-to-date gains to 25%, the best performance for any Asian nation’s U.S. currency debt in 2021, a Bloomberg Barclays index shows. They lost 31% last year, the worst showing in the region.

Sri Lanka received a $1.5 billion currency swap line from China in March that eased fears over the government’s ability to pay its debt after having been cut deeper into junk in 2020 by S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service. The nation, which is struggling with a resurgence in Covid-19 cases that threatens its tourism industry, has at least $2.5 billion of dollar notes maturing before the end of July 2022, including a $1 billion bond due in a little over two months.

The yield on that debt security is indicated around 16%, while a July 2022 note offers 20%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Given the latest improvement in the short-term liquidity conditions, we prefer to hold the shorter-end tenors,” said Piero Cingari, fixed-income strategist in Milan, who helps manage 2.9 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of assets at AcomeA.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka has vaccinated a total of 61,882 individuals with Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine on Friday (May 14), says State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana.

The first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine has been given to 276,762 people so far after it was rolled out among Sri Lankan nationals on May 08, according to the Epidemiology Unit’s progress report on COVID-19 immunization program.

The Sinopharm vaccine was first administered to Chinese nationals residing in Sri Lanka after a consignment of 600,000 doses arrived on the island on March 31.

As many as 2,865 Chinese nationals have been vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine’s first dose so far while a total of 2,435 among them received the second dose as well.

Meanwhile, a total of 14,673 individuals in the country have received the Russia-made coronavirus vaccine’s first dose so far.

Sri Lanka received the first batch of Sputnik V vaccine containing 15,000 doses on May 04.

Meanwhile, Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi said yesterday the vaccination program will be expanded to Kandy, Kurunegala and Ratnapura districts after the process is concluded in Western Province.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director-General of Health Services confirmed that Sri Lanka has reported 20 more deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday (May 15).

As per the Department of Government Information, the reported deaths had occurred between May 07 and May 15.

Among the deceased are 09 female patients and 11 male patients.

They are identified as residents of Panwila, Kelaniya, Bulathsinhala, Gonapola, Gampaha, Kalawana, Polonnaruwa, Ambatenna, Kundasale, Kalutara-North, Nawuththuduwa, Maggona, Colombo 13, Colombo 14, Ruwanwella, Vavuniya, Neboda, Diyatalawa, and Passara.

Accordingly, the total number of deaths due to Covid-19 infection in Sri Lanka has risen to 941.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 585 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 2,371.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 140,471.

As many as 117,220 recoveries and 921 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 22,330 active cases are currently under medical care.

By Jonathan Amos 
BBC Science Correspondent

China has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars, state media announced early on Saturday.

The six-wheeled Zhurong robot was targeting Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in the planet’s northern hemisphere.

The vehicle used a combination of a protective capsule, a parachute and a rocket platform to make the descent.

The successful touchdown is a remarkable achievement, given the difficult nature of the task.

Only the Americans have really mastered landing on Mars until now. All other countries that have tried have either crashed or lost contact soon after reaching the surface.

Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the mission team on its “outstanding achievement” in a special message.

“You were brave enough for the challenge, pursued excellence and placed our country in the advanced ranks of planetary exploration,” he said.

Thomas Zurbuchen, the head of science at the US space agency (Nasa), was quick also to add his own congratulations.

“Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity’s understanding of the Red Planet,” he said.

• China succeeds in putting a probe in Mars orbit
• UAE space mission returns first image of Mars
• Remarkable photo of Mars rover during landing

The robot officially landed at 07:18 on Saturday, Beijing time (Friday 23:18 GMT), according to state media.

It took 17 minutes to unfold its solar panels and send a signal back to Earth.

Zhurong, which means God of Fire, was carried to Mars on the Tianwen-1 orbiter, which arrived above the planet in February.

The probe then spent time surveying Utopia, taking high-resolution images to pinpoint the safest place to put the rover down.

The aim with all such ventures is to pick a spot that is devoid of imposing craters and where the landscape isn’t covered in large boulders.

Chinese engineers would have had to follow the landing effort with a time lag.

The current distance to Mars is 320 million km, which means radio messages take almost 18 minutes to reach Earth.

Every stage of the Zhurong robot’s approach to the surface therefore would have been conducted autonomously.

The landing architecture was a familiar one.

The rover was encased in an aeroshell for the initial phase of the nine-minute descent. This capsule’s dive to the surface was slowed by pushing up against the Martian air.

The heat this generated was managed by a forward-facing shield.

At a predetermined time, a parachute opened to reduce the velocity still further.

Finally, the Zhurong robot broke away on a rocket-powered bench for the manoeuvres that took it safely to the ground.

Landing on Mars is always a daunting challenge but China would have had confidence going into the procedure, given the great competence it has shown in its space endeavours of late.

This is a nation that has been putting rovers on the Moon, and bringing lunar samples back to Earth. This month it launched the first segment of a space station above our planet.

Now that Zhurong has got down successfully, scientists will try to get at least 90 Martian days of service out of it, studying the local geology. A day, or Sol, on Mars lasts 24 hours and 39 minutes.

The robot looks a lot like Nasa’s Spirit and Opportunity vehicles from the 2000s. It weighs some 240kg and is powered by fold-out solar panels.

A tall mast carries cameras to take pictures and aid navigation; five additional instruments will investigate the mineralogy of local rocks and the general nature of the environment, including the weather.

Like the American rovers, Zhurong has a laser tool to zap rocks to assess their chemistry and a radar to look for sub-surface water-ice.

Utopia Planitia is where Nasa landed its Viking-2 mission in 1976.

It’s a colossal basin – more than 3,000km across – that was formed by an impact early in Mars’ history.

There is some evidence pointing to it having held an ocean long ago.

Remote sensing by satellites indicates there are significant stores of ice at depth.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57122914

KAMALIKA PIERIS

 A National Physical Plan for 2011-2030, was prepared under President Mahinda Rajapaksa   and gazetted in 2011. When the Yahapalana puppet government took over in 2015, this plan was discarded. Yahapalana said that the 2011 plan was now outdated as several key national and international developments have taken place since then. The Yahapalana government of 2015 produced an updated National Physical Plan 2017-2050     in 2019.

 Yahapalana was a puppet government installed by the USA.   USA was hoping to take over  the island using Yahapalana .  USA used the National Physical Plan to prepare a military plan for USA bases in Sri Lanka .This plan was tucked away at item 5.2.1. of the National Physical Plan (2019).  It has therefore escaped the attention of the public. The intelligentsia and the public should take a good look at this plan, becausewhen Yahapalana returns to power, this plan will become a reality. Here is the plan given in   Maps no 1 and 2. There is no need for explanation. The plan says it all.

MAP NO 1

 Map no 1 is the original Yahapalana plan. This is  shown in  the National Physical Plan  2017-2050 as item 5.2.1 with the heading  Proposed Spatial Structure”. 

Figure 5.1.2. Proposed spatial structure 2050  (https://www.itpsl.lk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/6.-The-National-Physical-Plan-2050.pdf)

MAP NO 2

HERE IS THE SAME MAP  GIVING ONLY THE AIRPORTS AND PORTS

MAP NO 3

 Map no 3 shows the position of Sri Lanka and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos islands,. USA  has a secretive, strategically vital US military base in Diego Garcia. The base has served as a launch pad for US military operations in the Middle East and as a refueling point for Air Force patrols headed to the South China Sea, and it was even designated an emergency landing spot for space missions by NASA.. USA’s position in Diego Garcia has now become shaky.   It may have to leave Diego Garcia. Even if it stays, its autonomy is  over. If USA has to leave Diego Garcia, the obvious next location is Sri Lanka .

MAP NO 4

Maps  4 and 5 show the plans of the earlier National Physical Plan (2011)

MAP  NO 5

International and Domestic Air Ports for 2030. 

  Http://www.acesl.org/download/conference/tp_Lakshman%20Jayasekera%20and%20Veranjan%20Kurukulasuriya.pdf ( continued)

Sarath Wijeisnghe President’s Counsel, former Ambassador to UAE and Israel and President Ambassador’s Forum

Foreign Policy

(Henry Kissinger – America has no permanent friends or enemies- Only interests)

Foreign policy is the set of rules or practices followed by a nation as a member of the global forum linked by the UN today as guidelines to the international organizations and the member states. This is the simplest definition in addition to detailed academic definitions. Set of rules could be written, direct, and indirect or in the form of speeches or declarations of the head of the state generally the formulator of the policy implemented by the Foreign Minister or the group of ministers. In any event any state enters into agreements, conventions and treatises which are part and parcel of foreign policy which is intact in the system on foreign policy. Some countries give special attention and emphasises on foreign policy and some are not. USA, UK, Russian Federation, China, are some giving priority to foreign policy and sensitive to the foreign policies of other countries may be due to their interests on other countries and their policies. One of the first duties of the new USA President to perform was to revamp, reform and reactivate the foreign policy of USA, in line with his policies of other countries, especially in dealing with the rest of the world and other nations by taking a complete U-turn from that of the policies of the predecessor on human rights and war. He put the foreign policy in order as has been done by his predecessors which has a bearing on Sri Lanka and the Geneva process. Member nations today are giving top priority on economy connecting directly to the foreign policy giving full power and responsibility to the network of Ambassadors who are guided and trained on promoting economy and financial needs of respective countries, giving targets and strict guidelines. Unfortunately this trend has no ripple effect on our network of Ambassadors around the globe enjoying the perks at the cost of the tax payer, and the cradle of the network of the representatives of the country expected to showcase the country to the world which is so easy as Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful countries in the world with human resources, water in abundance and excellent climatic conditions unappalled as an ideal tourist destination. Foreign policy is the strategy and the future line of action of a nation on other nations and the world at large is a broader definition in terms of economic, defence, and all other areas which are so important and sensitive to the world over. This brief explanation shows how important it is for a country like Sri Lanka desperately in need of good friends and backers considering the weak economic structure deteriorating gradually in need of FDIs, and other economic backings including the goodwill of friends in need when the economy is in bad shape, debt riddled and in need of foreign reserves when acing the covid 19 crisis, just next to India one of the most affected. No nation can live in isolation in the new world interconnected digitally with physical barriers not taken serious when, interrelations and interconnections are essential for all for existence showing foreign policy is a necessity for a nation connected to each other through the network of  the United Nations. The statement of Henry Kissinger above may apply to many countries as the interest of any nation is their own country giving top priority is a reality all the other states must remember. This is a classic example and a lesson for those countries who are aligned to groups or clicks based on various considerations. There are theories and pronouncements and suggestions on look Asia, India first, Asia first, and Sri Lanka first etc. from various sources without the direct attention of the head of the state the formulator and creator of the policy. Leaders and governance of any country consist of human beings with human weaknesses when the human qualities are supressed with power, due to greed and pride. The above quotation indicates how selfish they are as any other human being vested with power! It is the interests of the respective country is what matters other than other considerations for a member of the nations in the world family too.

Foreign Policy and Covid 19 Pandemic

Covid 19 has shown the world the need to be ‘’friendly with all and angry with none’’ the main motto of Sri Lankan foreign policy. Indian foreign policy is one of the most professional, advanced and sophisticated- yet has not been able to attract friends and world in the need of desperate help from friends. We watch India with utmost sadness helplessly watching the TV footages which are worrying. We have now forgotten all previous issues and enmities during pandemic when all are in danger (reminder  of the Cobra and Mongoose- arch enemies- clinging into the same wood during floods until it reaches a land for protection- a famous village adage ) awaiting for the worst to come. Entire world including world powers are engulfed in the worst stages of pandemic with highest number of deaths and disasters expecting the worst not to reach. It may be that the world may rethink on a new thinking and way forward for foreign policy formations and applications the way UN was formed in place of League of Nations after the disastrous Second World War with so many killings and disasters. It is our wishful prey that the Pandemic will not override the Second World War but unfortunately the signals that we receive seems to be unsatisfactory and dangerous. Therefore this is the best era to extend loving kindness, sympathy and ‘’Mettha’’ to all nations by rich and powerful, especially those poor and unfortunate who have still not received a single vaccination when some powerful and rich nations have excess vaccinations about to be expired! Expecting and wishing a new chapter on foreign policy for a new world foreign policy order. There is no expectations to see to an end to the pandemic in the near future and we will have to live with it for a considerable unknown period. This is the time you will find the friends in need, in this disaster when everybody is going through the misery. Apart from the WHO it is only China who came forward to help us followed by financial by Korea and vaccinations from India. Unfortunately India had her own problems and unable to give us the promised second vaccination which is understood. Situation on pandemic is unchanged and escalating worldwide as wildfire. There appear to be no immediate end to the pandemic and the world is compelled to live with it for a considerable period.

Foreign Policy, Human Rights and United Nations

Foreign policy and human rights and United Nations are interwoven and interconnected. Charter of the United Nations was brought in to reaffirm the fundamental and human rights to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in lifetime has brought unfold sorrow to the mankind as the main human right document followed by Universal Declaration of Human rights. Human rights are rights human beings enjoy being human which is more fully described in the two main documents and subsequent jurisprudence, which is protected and jealously guarded protecting individual and collective human rights equally by a battery of subsidiary legislation, Geneva process being a by-product of the legislation and procedure. United Nations Organization is the link and the centre of the human rights mechanism managed and monitored by number of conventions and instruments. Human Rights Commission and the committee that  are by products of the legislation which has certain powers and duties in monitoring the human rights of member nations alleged to be in contravention of violation of human rights in member counters. It is alleged that there were human rights violation during the last phase of the thirty year war in Sri Lanka that fortunately ended in May 2009 with relief to the entire SAARC region and the world in inhalation of the most ruthless and feared tersest outfit in the world as said by the USA and man international organizations. At the 47 member Council in the UN 22 voted in favour, 11opposed, 14 abstained for the resolution on deep concern on the human right situation in Sri Lanka, wanting to accelerate the reconciliation process and improve human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It is noted with concern that our immediate neighbour India and close friend Nepal abstained without voting in favour of Sri Lanka, reminding us of the theories abovementioned on foreign policies of nations and the impact on world affairs which are so important. It seems that we have to rethink, reform and readjust our foreign policy with the word close neighbours and friends for our benefit and safety and foreign policy is to be considered seriously and to be taken care of. Even though the Human Rights Council has no power of implementation of suggestions, there impact is to be considered seriously in making recommendations to the General Assembly and the Security Council despite sovereignty Sri Lanka maintains under the UN Convention. United Kingdom initiated the resolution against Sri Lanka and Canada in the forefront is contemplating a resolution namely Genocide Education resolution bill no 104, which is worrying and affects the friendly relations between the two counters. Hon Minister has had a meeting with the Canadian Ambassador on the issue and it is doubtful the initiators will abandon the moves. Add to injury Sri Lanka has still not appointed High commissioners for India (one year) and Canada which are supposed to be crucial stations, and one wonders whether Sri Lanka lacks top qualified personalities, ambassadors to represent the Nation. It is time the Human Rights omission in Sri Lanka, takes care of the matter with the backing and strength of enormous staff and funds available with all facilities.

Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka

Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka well-funded independent body by the state and international organization which is headed by a powerful highly connected former Minister who does not seem to be active and inert at this crucial juncture when it should be in the forefront defending and promoting Sri Lanka in the Geneva process. The only book that was published on this area is the Geneva Crisis the way forward by the Ambassadors Forum assisted by world Sri Lankan bodies including the London initiative based in London. Geneva issue is brewing and the second and third wave on the way is going to be dangerous, and it is time for the Minister and Ministry to act fast with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission to defend and promote Sri Lanka. Commission should be proactive and live up to the expectations and the facilities given with enormous local and foreign funds.

SAARC, ASEAN, BIMSTIC, and regional and international organizations and foreign policy

Sri Lanka is a member of the above and many other regional, and international organizations as an active and senior member of the United Nations playing a pivot role in international affairs that need promotion of Sri Lanka in areas of national and international interest. Regional groupings are important and an integral part of the foreign policy making on regional basis when UM deals with internationally. SAARC the South Asian Association for regional cooperation was established aiming to be another EU in Asia, had a natural death due the enormity between India and Pakistan giving birth to BIMSTEC with another group of Asian countries, whilst ASEAN was active with another vibrant group with different intentions organizing aria in the world stage meeting the competition of the west. All the groups are worst hit with India most effected with no joint and cooperative efforts to meet the main challenge Covid19 which is a main drawback. International and regional relations should play more important and active role in these matters.

Historical aspects of foreign policy

Foreign policy is a part of the history and interactions of the rulers with other nations in the past. We are supposed to have a written history over 2500 years, and unwritten over 5000 or more with legends such as Rama and ‘Ravana’’ substantiated with Asian History which cannot be ruled out and among the written are the arrival of ‘Arhath Mahinda’ as an Emissary of his father King Asoka a most powerful King sent son and daughter to propagate Buddhism to Sri Lanka on 3^rd Century BC. Chinese Monk ‘’Fa-Hsian’’ visited Sri Lanka in 426BC with other monks and developed a close relations with the King and ‘Sangha’ Monks in Sri Lanka and written extensively on Buddhism and Sri Lanka. In BC22-7AD during Claudius of Rome Ambassadors exchanged from Sri Lanka and them are recorded in Rome showing the historical prints on developments of foreign policy with Sri Lanka and many countries, in Rome, Middle East, China and India. Pre and post-colonial era’s agreements entered into with foreign posers and Sri Lankan rulers until in 1815 when the British entered into the ‘’Kandyan Convention’’ with some Kandyan Leaders and British  surrendering the sovereignty to British until regained in 1948.

Network of Ambassadors in the forefront in showcasing and protecting the interests of the Nation

Ambassadors are the forerunners of any nation implementing and promoting the country they represent based on the foreign policy and directives, and are learned active men of honour promoting trade, investments, and policies of the country they represent to the word over assisting the leader of the country and the leader they represent. In Sri Lanka Ambassadors in many countries appear to be active and at times overdoing and reacting in crucial matters but do not appear to be active at the times of need such as defending the malicious propaganda against Sri Lanka especially on Geneva issue. We do not hear of any documents, webinars or articles by our ambassadors in defending and promoting the country which is expected of them. Are they promoting the country and the policies defending the nation are questions raised by the concerned citizens and student of international relations worldwide. It is agreed that they should be more proactive and forthwith with other ambassadors worldwide.

Way Forward to Save the Nation and get out of the difficulties confronted with

We are in a grave danger in all areas, especially the Pandemic front – the entire world is rounded up with. It is the duty of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the able and energetic state Minister to consider the issue more seriously and draw up a plan to mobilize the Ambassadors, the able Ministry staff and the international organizations such as London Initiate and many awaiting and eager to help mainly on the Geneva Process brewing daily fast reaching the wave two and three approaching faster than expected and the covid19 the entire country and the world is engulfed with. It is the duty of the professionals and likeminded concerned persons worldwide to rally rough the Minister and the Ministry in fighting against covid 19 and helping Sri Lanka. Economy is in bad shape and it is time to give priority to economic diplomacy and open a separate desk in all Embassies for economic promotions including tourism, exports, agriculture, and learn from success stories of our colleagues and apply it to us. It is also a good idea for the Ambassador of the host country to be responsible for all governmental institutions in the country they represent themselves.  Israel has successfully clamped down the pandemic menace and our relations with Israel are excellent, when they are awaiting to help us. Current Prime Minister in Israel, and former President in Sri Lanka met with each other and discussed matters of mutual benefits and interests given rise to main developments. We have close diplomatic relations with Israel, and it is a matter of initiatives to go forward for the benefit of all. There are other success stories and our representatives by now may have reported to the Minister on the success stories and methods to learn from others. Other areas we can work in cooperation with Israel is agriculture where they are the leaders on the subject advising even world powers, on drip irrigation seeds fertilizer related matters. China is always a friend helping us over thousands of years, and others need not be ruled out such as India and even the west in trouble these days will like to reactivate friendship with us out of sheer necessity including world powers ailing from beating s form pandemic nobody could escape. A joint effort is required with the cooperation of the world body UN, all small and major powers, and international organizations to launch a consolidated joint effort as human beings and a human community taking our giant neighbour as an example of mismanaging the situation (including Sri Lanka). It seems we have to give top priority to fight the Covod19 menace as the indications are it is going to take a long period for a complete clampdown with dangers of new variants based on the behaviour of unseen danger Covid 19 growing faster and steadily. Foreign policy and relations play a pivot role in harnessing the efforts and resources of the world community in combating the menace as now things are dangerously escalating with most stringent rules which obviously should have been implemented before, being the language some Sri Lankans will understand. Even this period of uncertainty and danger, we must sit and relax to educate ourselves on a new life line life and a vision on a new roadmap for foreign policy based on mistakes made and future plans on all aspects of governance. The Foreign Minister and the State Minister has the responsibility and a pivot roll in mobilizing the Ambassadors in the fight against Covid19  using the good will and good offices of Ambassadors to gather assistance from the Sri Lankans in respective countries obviously in highest positions to fight the Pandemic fast spreading. Sri Lankans worldwide especially in UK, USA, Europe and powerful countries and international organizations are eagerly awaiting to help with inviting  leadership to the Sri Lankans overseas, and other groups, and it is time the two Ministers and the Ministry give the necessary leadership, whilst discussing with the President and Prime Minister new strategies  foundations and roadmaps  for a Sri Lanka Friendly Foreign Policy as suggested in the five volumes on Foreign Policy Books published by the Ambassador’s Forum. Sarath7@hotmail.co.uk

BY MIKE ADLER Courtesy Toronto.com

Tamil Canadians support bill, while some Sri Lankan Canadians say ‘there is another side to the story’

Anura Ferdinand of the Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition, and other members of the community objecting to Ontario’s passage of Bill 104, are shown during a Zoom call on May 10, 2021. – Zoom screenshot

Tamil Canadians hailed its passage as a historic event, but other Ontario residents from Sri Lanka see unfairness in a bill proclaiming a Tamil Genocide Education Week.

Members of the Sinhalese community reacted with dismay after Scarborough MPP Vijay Thanigasalam’s Bill 104 received third reading at Queen’s Park on May 6.

In a May 10 news conference, some said they expected a legislature committee to hear their deputations against the Progressive Conservative MPP’s bill, which declares a decades-long Sri Lankan civil war a genocide that the Sri Lankan state perpetrated against the Tamils,” and proclaims May 11 to 18 an annual week to educate Ontarians about it.

The committee on May 5 heard no debate, sending the bill back for a final reading with a speed Sinhalese community members say was meant to help PC MPPs get re-elected next year in Greater Toronto ridings with large numbers of Tamil voters.

Related Content

• Scarborough MPP’s bill passes, declaring Tamil Genocide Education Week in Ontario
• Scarborough MPP says bill on Sri Lankan ‘genocide’ will speed healing
• TIMELINE: Sri Lanka’s war and its effects on Toronto’s Tamil community
• Survivor says ‘genocidal crimes’ of Sri Lanka’s civil war ‘keep me up at night’

Tamil-Canadian groups lobbied for the bill’s passage, but other Sri Lankans lobbied against it, including Anura Ferdinand of the Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition. Ferdinand said that in 2019 his community met 71 MPPs who, he said, had no idea there is another side to the story here.”

Ferdinand said the bill makes no mention of Sinhalese or other ethnic groups harmed in Sri Lanka during the war, which has not been called a genocide by the United Nations or Canada.

Ramila Senanayake, from Maple, said she sent Premier Doug Ford statements from Sinhalese-Canadian schoolchildren in Greater Toronto already unfairly targeted with this false narrative” of genocide.

Proclaiming a genocide education week, Senanayake said, is like a bell you ring. You can’t unring it.”

She doesn’t deny Tamils suffered during the war, but said school boards have allowed the separatist Tamil Tigers, who were defeated in 2009, to be seen as heroes, a view she said passing Bill 104 will support.

To make them into heroes and to make us into villains is a totally inaccurate retelling of our history.”

Sanjee Perera said some children from his community identify themselves as Guyanese or Trinidadian at school to avoid being bullied over events in Sri Lanka.

An Ottawa man on May 10 launched a constitutional challenge against Bill 104 in Ontario Superior Court, arguing that declaring a genocide is up to the federal government, not the province.

Thanigasalam, whose family fled Sri Lanka during the war, could not be reached for comment.

A press release from the Scarborough-Rouge Park MPP, however, said the Conservative government, by passing the bill, demonstrated its commitment to fighting injustices and standing up for the Tamil people who call Canada home.”

කම්කරු අරගල මධ්‍යස්ථානය

සභාපති,
ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍ය ඉංජිනේරු සංස්ථාව,
අංක 130,
ඩබ්.ඒ.ඞී. රාමනායක මාවත,
කොළඹ 02.
2021/05/14.

සභාපතිතුමණි,

සේවක ගැටලූ කෙරෙහි අවධානය යොමුකිරීම
ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍ය ඉංජිනේරු සංස්ථාව එක් කලෙක මෙරට ඉදිකිරීම් ක්ෂේත‍්‍රයේ දැවැන්තයා ලෙස වැජඹුණු බව  සාමාන්‍ය පිළිගැනීමයි. එහෙත් එහි වත්මන් තත්ත්වය අතිශය ඛේදජනක ය. මේ වනවිට ඉංජිනේරු සංස්ථාව තුළ අර්බුද රැුසක් පැන නැගී ඇති අතර එහි ඉදිරි පැවැත්මද අභියෝගයට ලක් කෙරෙන පසුබිමක් නිර්මාණය වී තිබේ. ඊට බලපා ඇති බොහෝ සාධක පිළිබඳ අවබෝධයක් අප සතු වන නමුත් මෙහිදී එහි සේවකයන්ට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුව ඇති ගැටලූ කීපයක් කෙරෙහි ඔබගේ අවධානය යොමු කිරීමට අපේක්ෂා  කරමු.
02.  මේ වනවිට රටේ සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාව ආර්ථික වශයෙන් විශාල අභියෝගයකට මුහුණ දී ඇත. උද්ධමනය ඉහළ ගොස්  අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ආහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය ඇතුළු භාණ්ඩ හා සේවාවන්ගේ මිල ගණන් අඛණ්ඩව ඉහළ යමින්  ඇත. රුපියල වේගයෙන් අවප‍්‍රමාණය වෙමින් ඇති පසුබිමක වැටුපේ සැබෑ වටිනාකම  (මූර්ත අගය* ද පහත වැටී ඇත. ජීවන වියදම වැඩිවීමට අදාළව හෝ අවම වැටුප් වැඩිවීමක්වත් සිදුනොවූ පසුබිමක, ගෝලීය වසංගතයක අවදානම මැද, වැඩ කිරීමට ද ඒ හේතුවෙන් අමතර පිරිවැයක් දැරීමටද සිදුව තිබේ.
03.  සියලූ අවශ්‍යතා සපුරා ගැනීම සඳහා සේවකයන්ට  ඇති  මාර්ගය වැටුප පමණි. එමෙන්ම ඔවුුුුන් විසින් ලබාගෙන ඇති විවිධ ණය වාරික ගෙවීම, දරුවන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපන වියදම් ආදී නියමිත දිනයන්හි ගෙවිය යුතු බොහෝ දේ ඔවුන්ට තිබේ. මෙවැනි පසුබිමක සංස්ථාව සිය සේවකයන් මෙතෙක් භුක්ති විඳි සියලූ දීමනා කපා හැර තිබේ. අතිකාල කප්පාදු කොට ඇත. වසරකට වැඩි කාලයක් තිස්සේ ෑඡුත්‍රැුෑඔත්‍ ගෙවීම පැහැර හැර ඇත. එසේ කර තිබියදීද ඔවුන්ට හිමි වැටුප ගෙවීම පමා කිරීම කෙතරම් දුරට සාධාරණීකරණය කළ හැකිද? වසර දෙකකට ආසන්න කාලයක් තිස්සේ නිර්මාණය කර ඇති මෙම අස්ථාවර අවිනිශ්චිත තත්ත්වය තුළ ඔවුන්  දැඩි පීඩාවකට ගොදුරු කර ඇත.
04.  මෙම ගැටලූව විසඳීමට මැදිහත්වන ලෙසද අදාළ ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ග ගන්නා ලෙසද වෘත්තීය සමිති මාර්ගයෙන් පාලනාධිකාරිය වෙත ඉල්ලීම් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට සේවකයන් විසින් අවස්ථා ගණනාවකදී කටයුතු කර ඇත. එයට කිසිදු ප‍්‍රතිචාරයක් නොලැබුණ අතර සිය ගැටලූ ඉදිරිපත් කරන, ඒ ගැන කතා කරන සේවකයන්  ස්ථාන මාරු කිරීමේ පිළිවෙතක්  පාලනාධිකාරිය  විසින් අනුගමනය  කර තිබේ. මෙම ලිපිය යොමු කිරීමට හේතු වූ ගැටලූව නිර්මාණය වූ ආසන්නතම සිදුවීම සිදු වූයේ අපේ‍්‍රල් 29 දිනයේදී ය. අපේ‍්‍රල් 23 වන දිනට ලැබිය යුතු වැටුප අපේ‍්‍රල් 29 වනවිටත් ගෙවා නොතිබීම හේතු කරගෙන සේවක නොසන්සුන්තාවක් වර්ධනය වෙමින් පැවතුණි. වෘත්තීය සමිති මගින් එදින උදෑසනද සේවක කැළඹීමක් ඇති විය හැකි බවත් එවැන්නක වගකීම පාලනාධිකාරිය විසින් භාරගත යුතු බවත් වාචිකව මෙන්ම ලිඛිතවද දන්වා ඇත.
05.  සිංහල, හින්දු අලූත් අවුරුදු සමය  ජනතාවට අධික වියදම් දැරීමට සිදු වන කාලයකි ඉන්පසු සාමාන්‍යයෙන් මිනිසුන් අත මුදල් ඉතිරි නොවේ එමෙන්ම ජදඩසා වසංගතය පැතිරෙමින් පැවතීම හේතුවෙන්  සීමා පැනවීම පිළිබඳ පැවති කථිකාව විසින් සියල්ලන් තුළ නොසන්සුන්තාවයක් වර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින පසුබිමක ඔවුන්ට හිමි වැටුප ප‍්‍රමාද කිරීම සේවකයා පිළිබඳ අතිශය වගකීම් විරහිත ක‍්‍රියාවක් ලෙස අප දකිමු. අපේ‍්‍රල් 29 වන දින වැඩබිම්වල සහ  ප‍්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේ සේවකයෝ ප‍්‍රධාන කාර්යාල පරිශ‍්‍රයට රැුස්වූයේ සිය වැටුප ඉල්ලා සිටීමටය. එය සාධාරණ සහ සාමකාමී විරෝධය පෑමකි. එහිදී සාමාන්‍යධිකාරීවරයා එතැනට පැමිණ වැටුප් ගෙවීමටද විරෝධය පළ කිරීමට රැුස්වූ කිසිවෙකුට එරෙහිව කිසිදු විනය ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් නොගන්නා බවටද  සේවකයන් සහ මාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ පොරොන්දු විය. එහෙත් මේ වනවිට ප‍්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේ ආරක්ෂක අංශ සේවකයන් 4 දෙනෙකුට ස්ථාන මාරුවීම් ලබාදීමට සැලසුම් කර ඇත. තවත් පිරිස් මර්දනය කිරීමට සැරසෙන බවට තොරතුරු තිබේ. මෙය අයුක්ති සහගත ක‍්‍රියාවකි. ඉංජිනේරු සංස්ථාව මේ ඛේදනීය ඉරණමට ඇද දමා ඒ හරහා නිර්මාණය වූ අර්බුදයට සේවකයන් බිල්ලට ගන්නා මෙවැනි ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ග අප තරයේ හෙළා දකින්නෙමු.  
06.  ක්‍දඩසා 19 වසංගත තත්ත්වය තුළ සියල්ලන් වෙත ඇත්තේ එකම ජීවිත අවදානමකි. එහෙත් සංස්ථා ප‍්‍රධාන කාර්යාලය සහ වැඩබිම්වල සේවකයන් සේවයට කැ`දවීමේ දී ආකාර දෙකකට  කටයුතු කර ඇත. මේ පිළිබඳව සළකා බලන ලෙසද සියලූ සේවකයන්ට සාධාරණ පදනමකින් නිවාඩු ලබාදීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙසද ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.
07 . සංස්ථා සේවකයන් මුහුණ දෙන වැටුප් ගැටලූව ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් ගැටලූ විසඳීමට අදාළ පියවරයන් වෙත වහා එළඹිය යුතුව ඇති බව දන්වා සිටිමු. ඔබේ පියවරයන් දෙස අප අවධානයෙන්  යුතුව බලාසිටින බවද, අසාධාරණ ලෙස සේවක දඩයමකට සැරසෙන්නේ නම් එය පරාජය කිරීම සඳහා  අදාළ උපරිම මැදිහත්වීම කිරීමට සූදානමින් සිටින බවද දන්වා සිටිමු.
ස්තුතියි,
මෙයට,

………………………..
දුමින්ද නාගමුව
සංවිධායක ලේකම්,
කම්කරු අරගල මධ්‍යස්ථානය.

පිටපත්
ජනාධිපති
අමාත්‍ය – නාගරික සංවර්ධන හා නිවාස අමාත්‍යාංශය
රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය – ග‍්‍රාමීය නිවාස සහ ඉදිකිරීම් හා ගොඩනැගිලි ද්‍රව්‍ය කර්මාන්ත ප‍්‍රවර්ධන රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය
ලේකම් –  නිවාස හා ඉදිකිරීම් අමාත්‍යාංශය
සියලූම මාධ්‍ය ආයතන

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 14 (NewsWire) – The coronavirus vaccination programme will be conducted today, despite an islandwide travel restriction being enforced from today till Monday (17).

The vaccination programme will be carried out in 56 vaccination centres in the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara Districts.

The public will be permitted to travel to their nearest vaccination centre to receive their vaccine, despite the travel restrictions.

Nearly 145,000 people received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine within the last two days.

Courtesy Adaderana

The vaccination program will be expanded to Kandy, Kurunegala and Ratnapura districts after concluding the process in Western Province, Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi said today.

People in selected MOH areas of the aforesaid three districts will be administered COVID jabs, the she stated delivering a statement on the country’s inoculation drive.

As many as 1.1 million people in the Western Province have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus so far, the health minister said further. We intend to vaccinate a total of 13 million people in order to prevent this virus from spreading across the country.”

Sri Lanka has an elderly population of 2.3 million, who are above the age of 60, the health minister said adding that the country has a population of 5.3 billion between the age limits of 40-50 and 3.3 million between the age of 30-40.

As you are aware, we are inoculating people above the age of 30,” she explained.

Once the vaccination program in the Western Province concludes, we will start inoculating people living in the districts of Kandy, Kurunegala and Ratnapura. We also intend to extend this program to other districts but it will depend on vaccine supplies,” Minister Wanniarachchi noted.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reported that 1,380 more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka on Friday (May 14), as the daily count of new cases moved to 2,269.

According to the Government Information Department, the new cases reported today are associated with the New Year coronavirus cluster.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 138,065.

As many as 110,108 recoveries and 923 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Courtesy Adaderana

Passengers travelling on SriLankan Airlines to Australia are now required to provide a negative Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) prior to check-in for flights.

As per the latest health guidelines issued by the Australian High Commission in Colombo, the prerequisite will come be enforced from tomorrow (May 15), the national carrier said in a notice issued today.

The testing requirements will include:

• A negative COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test result is required for travellers to or transiting through Australia. Evidence of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken 72 hours or less before the scheduled departure must be produced to the airline.

• In addition, a negative COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) result is required when travelling to Australia. Evidence of a negative Covid-19 RAT taken 8 hours or less before check-in for scheduled departure must be produced to the airline.

Accepted RAT could be performed through Kings Hospital, Asiri Hospitals, and Nawaloka Hospital chains located in Colombo and Negombo, the notice read further.

Accordingly, a prior appointment with the hospital could be scheduled by notifying the purpose of the test.

SriLankan Airlines stressed that an email notification containing test results as well as a printed copy needs to be presented at the time of check-in.

Passengers are advised to contact their travel agent or contact SriLankan Airlines’ global call center on +94117771979.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 death toll surpassed the 900-mark today (May 14) as 31 more victims were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services.

This is reportedly the highest-ever coronavirus deaths Sri Lanka has posted in a single day since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

According to Epidemiology Unit’s data, new fatalities have moved the total to 923.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Government of Sri Lanka and the World Bank on Thursday (May 13) signed a USD 80.5 million additional financing to help Sri Lanka access and distribute COVID-19 vaccines and to strengthen the country’s vaccination system and pandemic response. 

Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Sajith Attygalle signed on behalf of the Government and Faris World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka Hadad-Zervos signed on behalf of the World Bank.

Solidarity and support of all stakeholders is key to fight this pandemic,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka. The World Bank remains responsive to the health priorities of Sri Lanka as well as emergency needs. Effective deployment of the vaccines will help Sri Lanka protect people, build human capital and facilitate inclusive economic recovery”

The second additional financing to the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Project is to purchase and deploy safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that meet the World Bank’s Vaccine Approval Criteria, to strengthen relevant health systems that are necessary for successful deployment, and to prepare for the future. 

The Government of Sri Lanka is committed to protecting our population from the impacts of the pandemic, and we have placed high priority on strengthening and expanding the COVID-19 vaccination programme” said Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi. This useful and timely resource will help us to ensure equitable vaccine deployment among the eligible population of Sri Lanka.”

The COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Project with a total of $298.07 million has contributed to Sri Lanka’s pandemic management and prevention efforts.

Project funds have contributed to the provision of essential works, goods, services and consultancies for emergency pandemic management and prevention activities, including the procurement of medical and surgical consumables.

-World Bank

Courtesy Adaderana

The government has decided to purchase stocks of vegetables the farmers had brought to the Dedicated Economic Centre in Dambulla today (May 14), says Matale District MP Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon.

The decision has been taken during a meeting with Minister of Public Services, Provincial Councils & Local Government Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Ministry, Agriculture Ministry and several other stakeholders.

The trade association of Dambulla Dedicated Economic Centre, Dambulla Divisional Secretariat and Dambulla Municipal Council have also taken part in the said meeting.

Farmers have brought nearly 500,000kg – 700,000kg of vegetables to the Dambulla Dedicated Economic Centre, however, they found themselves in dire straits as vendors did not come to purchase the produce.

Taking into account the situation, the government has decided to purchase produce from farmers.

Thereby, Dambulla Dedicated Economic Centre will remain closed from today until 5.00 am on Monday (May 17).

Courtesy Adaderana

A total of 30 individuals who are suspected to have attempted to illegally migrate to a foreign country via sea routes have been taken into custody.

The operation was carried out on the 13th and 14th of May by Sri Lanka Navy and the Coast Guard at Samindugama area.

Fourteen of the suspects and a house owner who had provided them with lodging facilities were apprehended on the May 13.

Expanding the operation with the assistance of Chilaw Police today (May 14), the Navy and Coast Guard managed to apprehend 15 more persons in connection with the illegal act.

The 30 males held during these operations were identified as residents of Jaffna, Batticaloa, Mullaitivu and Puttalam areas.

The accused have been handed over to the Chilaw Police for further investigations.

By Raj Gonsalkorale

The norms of society are the sum of our collective values and priorities – as society shapes us, we shape society. In addition to a sense of right and wrong for personal action, individuals possess a sense of right and wrong for collective action – what might be called social conscience. Individual conscience compels us to act morally in our daily lives, avoiding or helping to relieve the immediate suffering of others, whereas social conscience compels us to insist on moral action from the wider institutions of society and to seek the transformation of social structures that cause suffering. – Myshele Goldberg, University of Strathclyde and the Centre for Human Ecology

The wider society’s response and collective behaviour during the COVID pandemic in Sri Lanka, especially since the New Year period and in the last few weeks has cast doubts on the values of our society and its lack of a social conscience as a society.

The battle against COVID has been left almost entirely to the government and its many institutions, and hardly any civil society leaders, religious leaders, the media, and above all, political leaders outside of the government have appealed to what is left in us as a social conscience to behave responsibly and rationally to contain the spread of the COVID virus. It appears that the COVID containment issue has always been someone else’s responsibility and not that of the society itself.

Much of the publicity given and criticisms made, have been against the government and its entities charged with managing the spread. Where there have been lapses, it is within everyone’s rights to level such criticisms. However, no government, this government or any other could totally manage the behaviour of its citizens, and in a democracy this is more so than in authoritarian States. Societal behaviour is a value based phenomenon and misbehaviour is a reflection on the worth of its values and a clear sign of a question mark on the social conscience of a society.

What is social conscience, and why is it relevant asks Myshele Goldberg. She says conscience can be described as internalised values: a person’s intuitive ‘moral compass.’ While rational, philosophical, or religious arguments are often used as justifications, conscience itself is primarily emotional: we associate feelings of pleasure and pride with right action, and feelings of guilt and shame with wrong action. These emotions help to motivate choices and behaviour, playing an important role in the maintenance and transformation of social norms”

While it is understandable for small traders to have made use of the opportunities they have to sell their wares and earn a living during Aluth Avurudu, it was an unconscionable phenomenon to have witnessed the crowds that thronged to Nuwara Eliya and places like Horton Plains and to have created a breeding ground for COVID. Conducting Horse races certainly demonstrated that people were living by the adage Newa Gilunath Band Chune”, (let’s dance even if the ship sinks), symbolic of the Titanic catastrophe, which has now become a reality in the country. Besides the Nuwara Eliya revelry, neither did most ordinary folk observe any health guidelines relating to wearing masks or observing social distancing in this breeding ground and everywhere else in the country.

When idiocy overtakes logic and common sense, it says a lot about the state of mind of the Sri Lankan society during a critical stage of the Pandemic in the country.

The Opposition political parties and the phoenix that has risen from the dead, unlike the Phoenix in mythology where a new phoenix rises from the ashes of its dead predecessor, symbolising rebirth, hope, renewal, progress, end of oppression, and eternity, the Sri Lankan phoenix in the form of the defeated UNP leader is attempting to make political capital out of the plight of the pandemic without offering any hope to the people in the country. It is ironic that this leader who led his party to the worst ever election defeat of any major political party in the post-independence history of the country, polling less than 300,000 votes in the entire country, and which failed to win enough votes to secure a seat in Parliament, is now set to enter Parliament from the back door. If it comes to pass, it would be a macabre reward for ruining his party and it is a reflection of his values, that of his party and the values of the society in tolerating it. Neither the government nor or other political parties, nor the media has thought it appropriate to highlight this moral and ethical degradation of values, assuming of course that there are any values left.

In regard to the responsibility of the society to safeguard themselves, their loved ones and others around them, neither has the Opposition leadership ever appealed to the people to behave in a more responsible manner and heed the advice of health authorities in the country. Instead, the focus has been solely on the government action and inaction, and not once any appeals to the people of the country to observe the health guidelines and to act with caution and restraint.

It is indeed depressing that a country that boasts of the influence of four great religions and boasts even more loudly of the influence of its Buddhist heritage, have not been able to develop a social conscience and a moral compass to chart and manage its behaviour

If we did have a worthwhile social conscience and then understood that social conscience, we could have made better choices to help shape society according to our values. This extends not just in respect of the COVID response but very broadly to the status of the society as a whole. In the Sri Lankan society today, one could question its value base and whether the real teachings of the age old religions are practiced as the teachers intended. Many would argue that superficial manifestations dominate society although few would be willing or are able to move away from such superficial manifestations.

The Sinhala Buddhist heritage is all but cultural and not true to the philosophy of the teachings. There would be Buddhists who chant the five precepts but hardly practice them. Ignorance and lip service surrounds the Metta, Karuna, Muditha and Upeksha tenants. They are either not understood and therefore not practiced or they have become discussion topics only for academic pursuits. The world of Islam wishes to go back to what proponents term the real teachings” of the Prophet, and Sri Lanka too has witnessed a movement in this direction. The Easter bombing in Sri Lanka, and the very recent massacre of school children in Afghanistan defy any belief that the Prophet would have endorsed such murderous activity in His name.

Myshele Goldberg goes on to say that the words conscience and consciousness are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Consciousness, as used in expressions such as ‘raising consciousness,’ describes a person’s knowledge and awareness, and consciousness implies a process of value judgement, classifying situations broadly into right, wrong, or neutral”. 

One can argue that there cannot be a consciousness without a conscience and that consciousness is the expression of one’s conscience.  In the Sri Lankan context, if the behaviour of a significant segment of the wider society during the last few weeks, beginning with the Aluth Avurudu celebrations, and the behaviour of Opposition politicians, civil society leaders, religious leaders and other opinion makers including the media could be understood as an expression of their conscience, then, it does raise a significant question about the values and value judgement of the Sri Lankan society.

The COVID Pandemic is a health related issue and it needs to be directed by health authorities. Politicians of all hues, religious leaders, civil society leaders, the media, must appeal to the general public to heed the advice of health authorities, and assist the government of the day to manage the Pandemic on the basis of health advice while doing the utmost to ensure that the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people of the country are safeguarded while acting within health guidelines parameters. Dogs may bark while the Caravan keeps moving, but, the opinion leaders of the country should not bark like the Dogs but instead assist to move the Caravan forward for the benefit of the country.

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම

රංජන් අල්ෆොන්සෝ රාමනායක නමැති පංචස්කන්ධය පිළිඹඳව විමසා බැලිය යුත්තේ, ඕපා දූප කතා ලෙස නොව, මෙම බොහෝ දුරට අහිංසකව සිටි හා නොමඟ ගිය පෘතග්ජන මිනිසාගේ, ගුණ හා නුගුණ අයුතුලෙස අපහරණයකල, ලංකාවේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී කළු සුද්දන්ගේ ක්‍රියාකලාපය එමඟින් එලිදරව්වෙන නිසාය (උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් රන්ජන්ගේ අවුරුදු 4, බොදු බල සේනාවේ ඥානසාර හිමියන්ගේ 19 සමඟ සසඳන්නට කෙනෙක් සිටියාද?). මෙහිදී දෙයාකාරයක “පාවා දීම්” දෙකක් සිදුවිය. එකක් නම් දිරච්ච ලණු දෙමින්, රන්ජන්ව මුරුංගා අත්තේ නග්ගවමින් ඔහුගේ ආත්මය ඔහු ලවාම පාවා දෙවීමට සැලැස්විමය. අනික නම් රන්ජන් විසින් ඔහුව විනාශකල එකී නොකී මුළු කළු සුද්දන් රැළම ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභයට, නිරුවත්කර භාරදීම නොහොත් පාවාදීමය. මීට පෙර රන්ජන් ගැන මා ලියූ ලිපි තුනක්ම ලංකා වෙබ් වෙබ් අඩවියේ පල විය (ජනවාරි 23, 25 හා 26). ඉන් මුල්ම ලිපිය පමණක් මෙහි පහතින් ලින්ක් කර ඇත.

යහපාලන අගමැති රනිල්, ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපති කාර්යාලය, යූඇන්පී පඬරැල්, සජිත්ගේ නඩය, ජේවීපීකාරයින් හා, නා නා මාදිලියේ දෙස් විදෙස් එන්ජීඕ ඩොලර් කාක්කන් රන්ජන්ව බළල් අතක් කරගෙන, ඔහු රටේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ පදනමට ඝෘජුව හා වක්‍රව පහර දෙනවිට දුශ්ඨ ආශ්වාදයක් ලැබුවේය. ඔහුව දඩයම් බල්ලෙක් සේ උසිගැන්වූයේය. රන්ජන් විසින් රටේ සංඝ සාසනයට, යශොධරා දේවියට, සිද්ධාර්ථ කුමාරයාට හා, අසාධාරණ ලෙස රාජපක්ෂලාට හා නින්දිත ලෙස ගෝඨාභය ආණ්ඩුවට කල අපහාස, රූල් ඔෆ් ලෝ හා ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ කොටසක් යයි කියමින් රන්ජන්ව වීරයෙක් සේ පුම්ඹමින් ඔහු වෙනුවෙන් නොමිලයේ පෙනී සිටි ඒබ්‍රහම් සුමන්තිරන් රන්ජන්ගේ ලොකුම සාපය විය. සුමන්තිරන් තමන්ගේ ශක්‍ර දෙවියා නැතහොත් ලීගල් බොඩිගාඩ් යයි රන්ජන් එක්තරා මෝඩ සුදියක් ලබාගත්තේය. එහෙත් අන්තිමේදී සුමන්තිරන් කලේ කුමක්ද? රන්ජන්ගේ නඩුවේදී සුමන්දිරන් ශාක්ෂිකාරයින් 103 ක ලැයිස්තුවක් දුන්නත්, අන්තිමේදී ඉදිරිපත් කලේ ඉන් තුන්දෙනෙක් පමණය.

කළු සුද්දන් කලේ රන්ජන්ව පාවිච්චිකිරීම හා අපහරණය කිරීමක් නොවේද? රන්ජන්ට මෙය තේරුණේ හිරේට ගිය පසුවය. ඒ නිසා ඔහු තීරණය කලේ උන්ට පාඩමක් ඉගැන්වීමටය. ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපති ඉදිරියේ දණ ගැසීම වනාහි කළු සුද්දන් ගල උඩ ඉන්නා බළලුන් කිරීමක් නොවේද? ගීතා කුමාරසිංහ හැරෙන විට රන්ජන්ට සමාව දීම ගැන කතාකල හැම දෙනාම යම් “සැඟවුණ න්‍යායපත්‍රයක්” වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි අය විය. නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු මෙය ජිනීවා ගෙනියන්නට යෝජනා කලවිට, රන්ජන් සංඝයා වහන්සේලාට මඩගසද්දී නිහඬව බලාසිටි ක්‍රිස්තියානි, බෝන් අගේන් පාස්ටර්, ලිස්ට් මන්ත්‍රී, එරාන් වික්‍රමරත්න ඊට විරුද්ධ විය. ඔහු කියා සිටියේ ගෝඨාභය පාර වඩා සුදුසු ගැලවීමේ මඟ බවය.

රන්ජන් වෙනුවෙන් ජීනීවා යන්නට සිතූ නාගානන්දට ඊට වඩා බලවත් අසාධාරණ දඬුවමක් හා බොරු නඩුවක් බව පැහැදිලිවම පෙනෙන ඥානසාර හිමියන් වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින්නට නොසිතුනේ මක්නිසාද? සුදර්ශන් හඳුන්ගොඩ, සේපාල් අමරසිංහ, සුදත්ත තිලකසිරි යන අයද රන්ජන් යකා නටන කාලයේ ඔහුට ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ අනතුරු ඇඟ වූයේ නැත. රන්ජන්ට ශරීරයක් තිබුණාට මොළයක් නැතයි දැන් කීම රන්ජන් ඔවුන් පාවාදීමෙන් ඇතිවූ හිතේ අමාරුවට කියනා කතා නොවේද?

ජනප්‍රිය නළුකම හා කාය වර්ධනයද නිසා, විවාහක හා විවාහ නොවූ ස්ත්‍රීන් අතරේ අනංගයෙක්, රස්පුටින්, ඕමාර් කායම් කෙනෙක්සේ හැසිරෙන්නට තරම් ඉල්ලුමක් ඔහුට විය. හිරුනිකා ප්‍රේමචන්ද්‍ර, දිල් රුක්ෂි ඩයස් වැනි අය පවා ඔහුගේ ගජ මිතුරන් විය. මෙසේ කම්සැප ලබමින්, උද්දාමයෙන් පසුවූ රන්ජන්ට මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාව (කොයි දේකටත් සීමාවක් තිබෙන බව ) අමතක විය. මන්ත්‍රීකම ආභරණයක් නොව කඩුවක් විය. කැපී පෙනීම සඳහා එය භාවිතා කල හැකිබව ඔහුට අවභොධ විය. චිත්‍රපටිවල රඟපෑ වීරයා චරිතය රඟ පෑ ඔහු, සැබෑ ජීවිතයේදී ලෝභ, ද්වේෂ, මාන යන මිනිස් දුර්වලකම් විදහා පෑවේය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ජනයාට හාල් ගෝනි බෙදන ගමන්, පාලිත තේවරප්පෙරුම මෙන් නොව, ආණ්ඩුවට දේශපාලක පහරක් ගැසීමද ඔහු නොදැනම කටින් පිටවිය.

තිත්ත ඇත්ත කතාකරණ රටේ එකම වීරයා වීමේ බ්‍රැන්ඩ් නේම් එක ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා දිවා රෑ නොබලා වෙහෙසුනු රංජන් රාමනායක නමැති මේ පංචස්කන්ධය ගැන මට ඇත්තේ අනුකම්පාවකි. ලංකාවේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ පදනම විනාශකර රට කැබලිකිරීමේ, සමහර විදේශ සූද්දන්ගේ හා ලංකාවේ කළුසුද්දන්ගේ කුමණ්ත්‍රනකාරී ව්‍යාපාරයට රන්ජන් ක්‍රමයෙන් බිලිවූයේ ඔහුගේ කැමැත්තෙන්මද යන ප්‍රශ්ණය මතුවන්නේ කලකට පෙර මේ තරුණයා ගැන ගාමිනී ෆොන්සේකා තැබූ බලාපොරොත්තුව නිසාය. පුද්ගලයින් ගැන අප දන්නා දේට වඩා නොදන්නා දේ බොහෝය. ගාමිනී බෞද්ධයෙකු බව මා දැනගත්තේ ඔහු මිය ගියාට පසුවය. ඔහු සල්ලාල, හිතුවක්කාර, ඒකාධිපති චරිතයක් බව දැනගත්තේ ඇනජලීන් සෙනෙවිරත්න, ඔහුගේ දෙවන බිරිඳ ලඟදී දුන් යූටියුබ් වීඩියෝ සාකච්චාවකට පසුවය.

එඩිතර, ඇත්ත කතාකරන්නට භය නැති තරුණ නළුවෙක් යයි ගාමිණී හැඳින්වු රන්ජන් නොමඟ ගියේ කෙසේද? ඔහුගේ නූගත්කම, නොහැදියාව සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී බලවේග විසින් උපරිම ලෙස ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගත්තේය. අන්තිමේදී වඳුරාට කඩුවක් දුන්නා මෙන් මුළු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඔළුගෙඩි සියල්ලටම නෙලා, ඔවුන්ගේ රෙදිගලවා දමන්නට රන්ජන් ක්‍රියාකලේය. හරිහැටි කාරණා නොදැන ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ඔහු කල ප්‍රකාශ ඔහුගේ මෝඩ පැත්ත එලිකලේය. රන්ජන්ගෙන් ගතහැකි දේශපාලන වාසියට වඩා ඔහුගෙන් වෙන දේශපාලන හානිය වැඩිබව මන්ත්‍රී ප්‍රාණවලටද දැණුනා නිසැකය.

පස් හොරු, වැලි පර්මිට් හොරු හා සමාජයේ වෙනත් අක්‍රමිකතා ගැන කතාකලත් අඩුතරමින් එක පණතක් හෝ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගේන්නට ශක්තියක්, දක්ෂකමක් ඔහුට නොවීය. කලකට පෙර ගම්පහෙන් හා පබා මෙන් රන්ජන්ද මන්ත්‍රීකමකට සුදුසුද යන ප්‍රශ්ණය මතු නොවීද? රන්ජන් විසින් කර ඇත්තේ පුදුම ආකාරයේ රඟපෑමක් නොවේද යන්න එලිවූයේ හිර දඬුවම ඩුන් වහාම උසාවි භූමියෙන් පිටට ගෙනයාමටත් පෙර, මුන් හොරු. මං සමාව ගන්නේ නෑ යයි වහසි බස් දෙඩූ රන්ජන් හිර ගෙදරට ගොස් මාස දෙක තුනකින්ම ඉන් ගැලවීමට කල අඳෝනාව නිසාය. ගාන්ධි, මැන්ඩෙලා, මාටින් ලූතර් කිං නොව අඩුතරමින් සරදියෙල්, රොබින්හුඩ් කෙනෙක් ගනයට වත් සමාජයේ හෝ ඉතිහාසයේ තැනක් දැන් රන්ජන්ට නැත.

ලංකාවේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ පදනම රැකගත්තේ හාමුදුරුවරුන් විසින්ය. මෙම සංඝ සමාජයේ අඩුපාඩු බොහෝය. ඒවාට හේතුවූයේ සුද්දාගේ හා කළු සුද්දාගේ නීති රීති වලින් ඇටවුණ උඟුල්මය. පන්සලේ ඉතිහාස කතාව විමසා බලන විට හාමුදුරුවරුන් දමණය කිරීමට ගත් ක්‍රියා අතර ඔවුන් ඝාතනය කිරිමද එක ක්‍රමයක් විය. විශේෂයෙන් යහපාලන කාලයේදී සංඝ දමණය හා ඒ මඟින් බුදු සසුණට හානි කිරීමට කළු සුද්දන් යොදාගත් උපකරණය වූයේ රන්ජන් නමැති පංචස්කන්ධයය. ලොව සනාතන ධර්මයට අනුව යමින් රන්ජන් විසින් ඔහුව නොමඟට යැවූ, රට කැබලිකරන්නට මාන බලන කළු සුද්දන්ට ඉගැන්වූ පාඩම කදිමය.

මෙම කළු සුද්දන් ඥානසාර හිමියන් හිරේ දාන්නට කුමණ්ත්‍රනය කලේ, සිංහල බෞද්ධයාට හිත හොඳ ගෑණුන්ට සේ සළකමින් පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයින් ගෙනගිය < ගේම් එක > උන්වහන්සේ රටට එලිකල නිසාය. බොරු නඩුවක් දමා, අවුරුදු 19 ක බරපතල වැඩ සහිත හිර දඬුවමක් දුන්නේ සුප්‍රිම් උසාවියේ නීතිද කඩකරමින්ය. ඉන් පසු උන්වහන්සේ නිදහස් කරණ ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටි පිරිසට මුස්ලිම් මන්ත්‍රීලාද සිටියහ. එහෙත් රනිල්ගේ නෝනා මෛත්‍රී ඇතුළු එන්ජීඕ නඩ එසේ නොකරණ ලෙස ඉල්ලා ජනාධිපති සිරිසේනට පෙත්සම් ගසන ලදී. අනිත් අතට රන්ජන් හිරේ ගියවිට රටේ නීතිය වෙනස් කරන්නට සුමන්තිරන්ලා, කිරිඇල්ලෙලා, රාසමානික්කම්ලා දියවන්නා හෝටලයෙන් පිට ජීනීවා වලට පවා කෑගැසුවේය. මහාවංශ විරෝධී බලවේග වල තරම එසේය.

එහෙත් ධර්මය හා සත්‍යය ජයගන්නේමය. දේශීය හා විදේශීය කුමණ්ත්‍රන කරුවන්ට බොදු බල සේනාව මෙල්ල කිරීමට නොහැකි විය.2002 බුද්ධ සාසන කොමිෂන් වාර්තාව ක්‍රියාත්මක කරණ ලෙස එය කල ඉල්ලීම මෙන්ම අභූත චෝදනා වෙනුවට බොදු බල සේනාව ගැන පරීක්ෂා කිරීමට කොමිෂමක් පත්කරණ ලෙසට කල ඉල්ලීමද පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයින්ට අභියෝග විය. ලඟකදී ඥානසාර හිමියන් කල එලිදරව්වක් නම්, සාගර කාරියවසම් නම් පොහොට්ටුවේ ලේකම් උන්වහන්සේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට යාම වැලැක්වීම්ට කුමණ්ත්‍රනය කල බවය.

පාස්කු කොමිෂමේ වාර්තාව හාමුදුරුවන් දුන් ශාක්ෂි වලින් පිරිලාය. මේ වනවිට ගෝඨාභය-සරත් වීරසේකර දෙන්නා විසින් හාමුදුරුවන්ට පැය 24 පුරාම ආරක්ෂාව සපයාදී තිබීම සිංහල බෞද්ධයින් ලැබු ජයග්‍රහණයකි. දැන් කුරගල, දෙවනගල හා මුලතිව් කුරුන්දමලේද යලි බෞද්ධයින් අතට පත්වෙමින් පවතී. මේවා 2019, 2020 මැතිවරණ වලින් ලද ප්‍රතිපලය.

පෞද්ගලික සේවක මධ්‍යස්ථානය

අමාත්‍ය නිමල් සිරිපාල ද සිල්වා,
කම්කරු හා වෘත්තිය සමිති සබදතා අමාත්‍ය,
කම්කරු හා වෘත්තිය සමිති සබදතා අමාත්‍යංශය,
කිරුල පාර,
කොළඹ 05
2020/10/13

ඇමතිතුමනි,

කොරෝනා වසංගතය හමුවේ පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ සේවකයන්ට අඩ වැටුප් ගෙවීම හා කිසිදු සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂණ ක‍්‍රම භාවිත කිරීමකින් තොරව ආයතන පවත්වාගෙන යාම සම්බන්ධවයි
කොරෝනා වසංගතය මෙරට තුළ වඩාත් සීඝ‍්‍රයෙන් පැතිරෙමින් පවතී. මේ නිසා රාජ්‍ය අංශයේ සේවකයින් සදහා සේවා මුර ක‍්‍රමයක් මෙන්ම නිවසේ සිට වැඩකරන ක‍්‍රම වේදයන් හදුන්වා දී ඇත. රෝග ව්‍යාප්තිය වැලැක්වීම ස`දහා අවම වශයෙන් මෙවනි ක‍්‍රමවේදයක් පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ සේවකයන් සදහාද හ`දුන්වාදිය යුතු වේ.
02.  කෙසේ වෙතත් එවැනි රෝග ව්‍යාප්තියක් වැලැක්වීම සදහා ක‍්‍රමවේද සකස් කරනවා වෙනුවට සේවක වැටුප අර්ධ වශයෙන් ගෙවීම සදහා ආයතනවලට ඉඩදීමට පෞද්ගලික සේවක මධ්‍යස්ථානය ලෙස අප දැඩි විරෝධය පළ කරන්නෙමු. වසංගත සමය තුළදීද තම ලාභ ප‍්‍රතිශත ඉහළ නංවා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කර ඇති සමාගම් වලට අඩ වැටුප් ගෙවීමට කම්කරු ඇමතිවරයා ලෙස අනුමැතිය ලබාදීම පිලිකුල් සහගත වේ.
03.  තවද කොරෝනා රෝගීන් වාර්තා වුවද කිසිදු සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂිත ක‍්‍රමවේද භාවිත කිරීමකින් තොරව අනෙක් සේවකයන් ලවා ආයතනය පවත්වාගෙන යාම රෝග ව්‍යාප්තියටද හේතු වේ. සීඝ‍්‍ර ලෙස පැතිරෙණ මෙම කොරෝනා රෝගයට මෙවනි ආයතන වගකිව යුතු වේ.
04.  කම්කරුවන්ගේ ශ‍්‍රමය සූරා කමින් බිලියන ගණන් ලාභ ගොඩ ගසමින් සිටින සමාගම් හිමිකරුවන්ට මෙවන් ගෝලීය වසංගතයකදීවත් තමන්ගේ ලාභ පිපාසය වෙනුවට තම ආයතනයේ සේවකයන්ට මාසයක, දෙකක වැටුපක් ලබා දී වසංගතය මර්දනය කිරීමට සහය ලබාදීමට නොහැකි වීම මුග්ද කමකි. මේ නිසා කම්කරු ඇමතිවරයා ලෙස ජනතා ඡුන්දයෙන් පත්වූ ඔබතුමා සමාගම් හිමිකරුවන්ගේ අවශ්‍යතාවයට අනුව වැඩ කීරීම අපි හෙළා දකින්නෙමු.
05.  මේ නිසා අඩ වැටුප් ගෙවීමට අවසර ලබාදීමේ තීන්දුව වහාම නිවැරදි කරන ලෙසත් සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂිත ක‍්‍රම භාවිත කිරීමකින් තොරව පවත්වාගෙන යන ආයතන වලට වහාම නීතිය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලෙසත් අප බල  කරන්නෙමු.

ස්තූතියි
මෙයට
දුමින්ද නාගමුව, සභාපති
පෞද්ගලික සේවක මධ්‍යස්ථානය.

පිටපත්,
කම්කරු කොමසාරිස් – කම්කරු දෙපාර්තුමේන්තුව.                                                            
සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා අධ්‍යක්ෂක ජෙනරාල්
සියලූම මාධ්‍ය ආයතන

සමස්ත ලංකා වෛද්‍ය නිළධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය.

පවිත්රා වන්නිආරච්චි මහත්මිය
ගරු සෞඛ්ය හා දේශීය වෛද්ය අමාත්ය
සෞඛ්ය හා දේශීය වෛද්ය අමාත්යාංශය
කොළඹ 10.

මහත්මියනි,

සෞඛ්‍ය වෛද්ය නිළධාරීන් ඇතුළුව #කොවිඩ් නිවාරණ කටයුතුවල යෙදී සිටින සෞඛ්‍ය කාර්යමණ්ඩල මුහුණ දී සිටින අනවරත ගැටළු සම්බන්ධවයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුල #කොවිඩ් වසංගතය ආරම්භ වූ 2020 මාර්තු මාසයේ සිට අද වන තුරු කිසිදු දිරි දීමනාවක් හෝ විවේකයන් නොමැතිව තවදුරටත් නිවාඩු ලබා නොගනිමින් සේවය කරන සෞඛ්‍ය වෛද්‍ය නිළධාරී කාර්යාල වලට අනුයුක්ත සෞඛ්‍ය වෛද්‍ය නිළධාරීන් මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය පරීක්ෂකවරුන් ඇතුළු සමස්ත කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ සේවය තවදුරටත් ලබා ගැනීමට නොහැකි තත්වයක් උද්ගත වෙමින් පවතී. සෑම දිනකම පාහේ #කොවිඩ් වසංගත පාලනය කිරීමේ කටයුතු මධ්‍යම රාත්‍රීය වනතුරු වුවද කිසිදු මැසිවිල්ලක් නොමැතිව සිදු කරනු ලබන්නේ මෙම වසංගතය මර්දනය කිරීමට එම කාර්ය මණ්ඩලවල සියලුම සේවකයන්ගේ ඇති දැඩි වුවමනාව හා අධිෂ්ඨානය මතය. නමුත් තවදුරටත් මෙම වසංගතය පාලනය කිරීමට රජයට අවශ්‍යතාවයක් නොමැති බව ඔවුන්ට දැනෙමින් පැවතීම රෝග ව්‍යාප්තිය පාලනය සදහා ඔවුන්ගේ මැදිහත්වීම කෙරෙහි සෘජුවම බලපාන බව කිව යුතුය.
 
#කොවිඩ් ව්‍යාප්තියේ පළමු රැල්ලේ දී මෙම කාර්යමණ්ඩලය මුහුණ දුන් සියලුම ගැටළු මෙම තෙවන රැල්ලේදී ද එලෙසම නොවිසඳී පවතී. එමෙන්ම නව ගැටළු ගනනාවක්ද උද්ගත වෙමින් පවතී.

1. නියමිත කාලයට නියමිත ප්‍රමාණයට පී.සී.ආර්. පරීක්ෂණ කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පහසුකම් නොමැති වීම සහ ඒවායේ ප්‍රතිඵල දින ගණනාවක් ප්‍රමාද වීම. (මෙවැනි ප්‍රමාදයක් මගින් ආසාදිතයන් ප්‍රජාව තුළ තවදුරටත් වර්ධනය වීමට අවකාශ සැළසේ. – 2021/05/10 දින වන විට සමහර ප්‍රදේශවල පී.සී.ආර්. පරීක්ෂණ මුළුමනින්ම නවතා ඇති අතර සමහර දිස්ත්‍රික්ක වල සතියකට කල හැකි පරීක්ෂණ ප්‍රමාණය සීමා කර තිබේ. )

2. පී.සී.ආර් මගින් හඳුනාගත් රෝගීන් ප්‍රතිකාර මධ්‍යස්ථාන හෝ රෝහල් ගත කිරීමට සිදුවන ප්‍රමාදය හෝ අවස්ථාව නොමැති වීම නිසා රෝගයට අදාළ රෝග ලක්ෂණ සහිත පුද්ගලයන් සමාජය තුළ නිදැල්ලේ හැසිරීම හා ඔවුන් රෝහල්වලට යොමු කිරීම සඳහා ක්රමවත් වැඩපිළිවෙළක් නොමැති වීම. (ඒ සම්බන්ධ රාජකාරි කටයුතු දිස්ත්‍රික් මට්ටමින් ඉටු කරනු ලබන්නේ ප්‍රාදේශීය වසංගත රෝග විද්යාඥයන් විසිනි. ඔහුගේ සහායට තවත් වෛද්‍යවරුන් ඇතුළු සේවක කණ්ඩායම් යොදවා නැති වීම.) එමෙන්ම දින 10 ක ප්‍රතිකාර කාල සීමාවකින් පසුව නිවසට එවන රෝගීන් නැවතත් රෝග ලක්ෂණ පෙන්වූවද ඔවුන්ව යොමු කලහැකි ස්ථානයක් නැත.

3. සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයෙන් විටින් විට නිකුත් කරනු ලබන සෞඛ්‍ය මාර්ගෝපදේශ වැනි අත්‍යාවශ්ය තොරතුරු අදාල මොහොතේදී සන්නිවේදනය නොවීම.

4. දිස්ත්‍රික් සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටුව ගන්නා වූ තීන්දු තීරණ සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් ඇතුළු සෞඛ්‍ය බළධාරීන්ගේ තීන්දු තීරණ හා නොගැළපීම නිසා නෛතික කටයුතු වල දී ගැටලු මතුවීම සහ තීන්දු තීරණ ගැනීමේදී ඇතිවන දේශපාලන බලපෑම.

5. ප්‍රභූවරුන් සම්බන්ධ වන උත්සව හා ආගමික උත්සව වලදී ඒවායේ සංවිධායකයන් දේශපාලන අවශ්‍යතා මත සෞඛ්‍ය මාර්ගෝපදේශ කඩකිරීම නිසා සාමාන්‍ය පුද්ගලයන් සමග නීතියට අනුව ක්‍රියා කිරීමට යාමේදී ඇතිවන ප්‍රතිරෝධය හේතුවෙන් නිසි පරිදි රාජකාරි කිරීමේ අපහසුතාවය.

6. දෛනිකව තම ප්‍රදේශය තුල සිදුවන සියලු #කොවිඩ් මරණ හා ආසාදිතයන් සංඛ්‍යාවන් නිවැරදිව ප්‍රකාශ නොවිම නිසාම ජනතාව තුල රෝගයට පවතින ආකල්ප වෙනස් වීමෙන් ඔවුන් #කොවිඩ් පාලන මූලධර්ම වලට අනුගත නොවන තත්වයක් මතුව තිබීම.

7. පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ කර්මාන්ත ශාලා, සංස්ථා හා මණ්ඩලවලට අදාල සේවා ස්ථානවල සේවකයන් ආසාදිතයන් බවට පත් වූ විට ඔවුන් ප්‍රතිකාර මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙත යොමු කිරීමේ දී ගැටළු මතු වීම.

8. ආශ්‍රිතයන් හඹා ගොස් සොයාගෙන ඔවුන්ට පරීක්ෂණ සඳහා යොමු කිරීමටත් අදාල පරිදි ප්‍රතිකාර මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙත හෝ නිරෝධායන මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙත යොමුකිරීමේ වගකීම මේ වන විට සම්පූර්ණයෙන් පැවරී ඇත්තේ මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය පරීක්ෂක වරුන් වෙතය. ඔවුන් හැර වෙනත් රාජ්‍ය ආයතන/ ක්ෂේත්‍ර නිලධාරීන් කිසිවකු මේ වනතුරු සහභාගී කරවා නැත. තවද සෞඛ්‍ය සේවකයන් හා ඔවුන්ගේ පවුල්වල පුද්ගලයන් ආසාදිතයන් වූ විට ඔවුන්ව වෙන්කර තැබීම, නිරෝධායනය සදහා වෙනම පහසුකම් අවශ්‍ය වුවද ඒ සඳහා මැදිහත් වීමට නොහැකිවීම. අමතර වරප්‍රසාද රහිතව සියලුම සේවාවන් අඛණ්ඩව පවත්වාගෙන යන අතර තුර අමතර සේවාවන් ලෙස සිදුකරන පී.සී.ආර්. පරීක්ෂණ කටයුතු නිරෝධායන කටයුතු හා රෝගීන් ප්‍රතිකාර මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙත යොමු කිරීම වැනි සියලුම #කොවිඩ් මර්ධන කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් ක්‍රියා කරන සෞඛ්‍ය වෛද්‍ය නිළධාරීන් ඇතුළු සියලුම කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට වෙත මේ වන තුරු කිසිදු අමතර ගෙවීමක් හෝ පහසුකම් සැපයීමක් සිදු කර නොමැත. 

මේ සම්බන්ධව වහා අවධානය යොමුකරන ලෙසත් ඉහත ගැටළු සම්බන්ධව ඉක්මනින් මැදිහත්වී සෞඛ්‍ය වෛද්‍ය නිළධාරීන් ඇතුළු රෝග නිවාරණ අංශයේ සමස්ත කාර්යමණ්ඩලය තුල විශ්වාසය සහ උනන්දුව ජනිත කිරීම මගින් #කොවිඩ් වසංගතය මෙරටින් තුරන් කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් අවශ්ය පහසුකම් සපයන ලෙසත් ඉල්ලමු.

ස්තුතියි.

මෙයට,
වෛද්‍ය ජයන්ත බණ්ඩාර
ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්,
සමස්ත ලංකා වෛද්‍ය නිළධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය

පිටපත්
1. වෛද්‍ය එස් එච් මුණසිංහ මහතා, – ගරු ලේකම්- සෞඛ්‍ය හා දේශීය වෛද්‍ය අමාත්යාංශය
2. වෛද්‍ය අසේල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා, – ගරු සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා අධ්යක්ෂ ජ

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ,ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාත්‍රාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ,අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

රාමසාන් උපවාස කාලය අවසන් කරමින් ලොව පුරා විසිරී සිටින ඉස්ලාමීය බැතිමතුන් සමඟ එක්ව ඊද්-දුල්-ෆිතර් උත්සවය සමරන ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය මුස්ලිම් ප්‍රජාවට මාගේ සුභාශිංසනය පළ කරමි.

ඉස්‌ලාම් භක්‌තිකයන්ගේ ශුද්ධ වූ ග්‍රන්ථය ලෙස සැළකෙන අල් කුරාණයේ නියම කොට ඇති පරිදි මාසයක් පුරා ඉටුකරන රාමසාන් උපවාසය ආගමික වශයෙන් මෙන්ම අධ්‍යාත්මික වශයෙන් ද ලොවට ගෙනඑන පණිවුඩය ඉතා වැදගත් වේ.

උපවාස කාලයේ දී අන්‍යයන්ගේ කුස ගින්න පිළිබඳව නිවැරදි අදහසක් ඇතිවීම මගින් ඉස්ලාමීය බැතිමතුන් පරිත්‍යාගශීලී සමාජයක් උදෙසා උස් පහත් භේදයකින් තොරව පෙළගැසෙනු ඇති බව මාගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

ආගමානුකූල නිවැරදි ඉගැන්වීම් තුළ ශික්ෂණය ලැබූ ඉස්ලාමීය ජනතාව ඉතිහාසය පුරාවට ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය ජන සමාජය තුළ අනෙකුත් ජාතීන් හා ආගම් සමඟ අන්‍යෝන්‍ය සුහඳත්වයෙන් කටයුතු කර තිබේ.

මෙම විශ්වාසය පළුදු නොකරමින් ඉදිරියට යාම සඳහා ඉස්ලාමීය ජනතාවට තිබෙන අවශ්‍යතාව අප රජයක් ලෙස තේරුම් ගෙන ඇතිබව ද අද වැනි දිනයක සිහිපත් කළ යුතුය.

ලොව පුරා පැතිරයන කොවිඩ් වසංගත තත්ත්වය හේතුවෙන් පසුගිය වසරේ මෙන්ම මේ වසරේ දී ද ඊද්-දුල්-ෆිතර් චාරිත්‍රයන් උත්සව සිරියෙන් සැමරීමට නොහැකිවුව ද මේ හා බැඳී පවතින ආගමික චාරිත්‍රයන් සෞඛ්‍ය මාර්ගෝපදේශ සීමාවන්ට යටත්ව ඉටු කරනු ඇතැයි අපේක්ෂා කරමි.

උපවාස කාලයේ දී සෞඛ්‍ය පිළිවෙත් අනුව නැමදුම් සඳහා පල්ලිවලට විශාල පිරිස් වශයෙන් රැස් නොවීමට වගබලා ගනිමින් නිවෙස්වල සිට ආගමික චාරිත්‍ර ඉටුකිරීමට වගබලාගත් සියලුම ඉස්ලාම් බැතිමතුන්ට මාගේ ප්‍රණාමය හිමිවේ.

සමස්ත ලෝකයම මෙවන් වසංගත අර්බුදයකට මුහුණ දී සිටින කාල වකවානුවක රාමසාන් උපවාසයෙන් අර්ථවත්වන ආගමික සාරධර්ම අන් හැමගේ යහපත සඳහා යොදවන්නැයි මම ඔබ සැමගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

ඔබ සැමට අල්ලාහ් දෙවියන්ගේ ආශිර්වාදය සහිත රෝග බියෙන් තොර සාමය සතුට පිරි ප්‍රීතිමත් ඊද්-දුල්-ෆිතර් උත්සවයක් වේවා !

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ,

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාත්‍රාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ,

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

Action Team – SLCAC

Dear friends,

Bill 104, Tamil Genocide Education Week Act has been carried in the Ontario legislature and received assent by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and it is now a law in Ontario.

We will be convening a meeting on this Friday evening (14^th May) at 8pm, and we invite all law and pre-law students and lawyers within the Sri Lankan community or if you have questions on Bill 104 to join us to discuss the various options and next steps. We believe there is still hope of defeating this in court.

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUpdOChpz4tH9Lh39C2b5xuMYVZv0Oj7qwH

Contribute in whichever way to the ongoing costs of the legal actions. We thank those who have already contributed in many ways!
https://www.srilankancanadian.ca/index.php/donatenow/

Feel free to forward this invitation to your friends/networks.


Thank you!


Action Team – SLCAC

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director General of Health Services today confirmed another 24 deaths that had occurred during the period from 08th to 13th May, due to Covid-19 virus infection.

Accordingly, the total number of deaths due to Covid-19 infection in Sri Lanka has now moved to 892.#