මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

             ඇමරිකාවේ කොන්ග්‍රස් සභික ඩෙබෝරා රෝස් නම් කාන්තාව ලංකාවට එරෙහිව සකස් කළ බරපතල ලියවිල්ලක් එහි කොන්ග්‍රස් මණ්ඩලයට ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබේ.කරුණු ගණනාවකින් සමන්විතව තිබුණද එම ලියැවිල්ලේ ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් ඉස්මතු කරවන කාරණය නම් ලංකාවේ  උතුරුකරය ද්‍රවිඩ නිජභූමියක් බවයි. එම භූමිය ලංකා හමුදාවේ මිලිටලීකරණයට ලක්ව ඇතැයිද ඇය වැඩිදුරටත් චෝදනා කරයි. මෙම චෝදනා වල කිසිම අලුත් බවත් නොමැත. කොටි ත්‍රස්තවාදය පැවති සමයේ ද ඉන් පෙර තමිල් අරසු කච්චිය විසින් ගෙන ගිය මතවාද තුළද මෙම ප්‍රකාශ අඩංගු වී තිබුණි.නමුත් මේ අවස්ථාවේ දී සිදු වන්නේ මෙම ප්‍රකාශ ඇමරිකානු රජය විසින් පිළිගැනීමට උත්සාහ දැරීමයි.. ලංකාවේ ඉතිහාසය ගැන නොදන්නා ඇමරිකාව මෙම ප්‍රකාශ යම් විදියකින් පිළිගැනුමට ලක් කළහොත් පුදුමයට කරුණක් වන්නේ නැත. එහෙත් පුදුමය වන්නේ මේ තාක් පත් වූ ලංකාවේ කිසිම ආණ්ඩුවක් උතුර හෝ නැ‌ගෙනහිර දෙමළුන් ගේ නිජ බිමක් නොවන බවට කිසිම ප්‍රකාශයක් නොකිරීමයි.

        වර්තමාන උතුර  නාගද්වීපය ලෙසට හැඳින්වුණි. උත්තර පස්ස යනුවෙන් වංශකතාවල දැක්වේ. පාචීන පස්ස යනු නැගෙනහිරයි. කඩයිම් පොත් වලට අනුව නාගද්වීපය පමණක් නොව පාචීනපස්සයට අයත් කුරුඳු ගමු රට කනුකින්නියා රට කොටසර ගන්තලා රට මෙන්ම මඩුවල්ලියාරට මෙන්ම මන්නාරමද පිහිටි රටට අයත්ය. ත්‍රීසිංහලය නම් වූ පැරණි භූමියේ විශාලතම බිම්කඩ පිහිටි රට වෙයි. නාග ද්වීපය පිළිබඳව  සිංහලයන්ගේ පාරම්පරික භූමි අයිතිය කියාපන වැදගත්ම සාධකය වන්නේ යාපනයේ වඩමාරච්චි ප්‍රදේශයේ වල්ලිපුර ගමෙන් ලැබුණු රන් සන්නසයි. වසභ  රජු ගේ කාලයේ ඉසිගිරිය නම් ඇමතිවරයෙකු නකදිව නොහොත් නාග ද්වීපය පාලනය කළ බව පැහැදිලි සිංහල බ්‍රාහ්මී අක්ෂර වලින් එහි කොටවා තිබේ.ඊළඟට අපට හමු වන වැදගත්ම සාක්ෂිය යාපන විශ්ව විද්‍යාලීය පරියේෂණ කණ්ඩායමක් විසින් 1980 දශකයේ දී වඩමාරච්චි ප්‍රදේශයේ ආනකෝට්ටේ දී කරන ලද කැණීමකින් සොයා ගන්නා ලද අක්ෂර සහිත ලෝහ මුද්‍රාවයි. කෙවෙත යනුවෙන් සිංහල බ්‍රාහ්මී අක්ෂර තුනක් මෙහි කොටවා තිබෙන බව මහාචාර්ය රාජ සෝමදේව මහතා විසින් පෙන්වා දී ඇත.ඊට අමතරව කෙවෙත යන්නම පැහැදිලි කරවන සංකේත අක්ෂර තුනක් එම මුද්‍රාවේ ම දක්වා තිබේ යැයි සැක කල හැකිය..පූජ්‍ය මානෑවේ විමලරතන හිමියන් දක්වන පරිදි මෙම සංකේත තුන පැරණි නාග ද්වීපයේ පාලනය ගෙනගිය කෙවෙතස්ථ නම් අධිපතියාගේ නාමය දක්වන්නකි.නමුත් මෙම මුද්‍රාව සොයාගත් මහාචාර්ය ඉන්ද්‍රපාලන් මෙම අකුරු තුන විග්‍රහ කර තිබෙන්නේ කොවෙටාන් යනුවෙනි.අද වන විට මෙම මුද්‍රාව ඔහු විසින් මදුරාසි විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය වෙත රහසේම පන්නා ගෙන ගොස් තිබෙන්නේ ද්‍රවිඩ නිජ භූමිය පිළිබඳ මිථ්‍යාව සනාථ කරවන සාක්ෂියක් ලෙසටයි.

       ඉන්දීය මහද්වීපයට ඉතා ආසන්නයේ තිබුණු බිම් කඩක් හෙයින් නාග ද්වීපය සියවස් ගණනාවක් සිට නිරන්තර විදේශ ආක්‍රමණ වලට ලක් විය. ඇතැම් විදේශ බලපෑම් නිසා මෙම බිම්කඩේ ඇති වූ බෞද්ධ ප්‍රබෝධයද ඉතා විශාලය. වර්තමාන කන්දරෝඩය නොහොත් පැරණි කදුරුගොඩ එවැනි ස්ථානයකි. ඉන්දුනීසියාව දක්වා පැතිරුණු බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරයේ ආභාශය ලබමින් කදුරුගොඩ විහාරයේ සිට අපවත් වූ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා සැට නමකගේ භෂ්මාවශේෂ තැන්පත් කොට කුඩා කුඩා ස්ථූප ගණනාවක් හිරිගලෙන් බඳවා තිබේ.

    මෙම වාස්තු නිර්මාණ බෝරෝබුදූර් සිහිකරන්නකි.කදුරුගොඩට අමරතරව යාපනයේ හුණුගම නොහොත් චුන්නාකම්වලින් ලැබුණු බුදු පිළිමයක්ද යාපනයේ කෞතුකාගාරයේ තැන්පත් කරතිබේ.එසේම යාපනයේ තුනුකායි නිලාවරෙයි මෙන්ම වල්ලි පුරම් ප්‍රදේශවලින්ද බුදු පිළිම ලැබී තිබේ.පෘතූගීසීන් ලංකාවට පැමිණෙන විට නාග ද්වීපයේ තිස්ස විහාරය දඹකොළ පටුන ඇතුලු බෞද්ධ විහාරස්ථාන රාශියක් තිබුණු බවට සාධක හමුවෙයි. පෘතුගීසීන් ගේ සහ ලන්දේසීන් ගේ ආගමික ආක්‍රමණ හමුවේ. මෙම විහාරස්ථාන බිමට සමතලා කිරිම ඇරඹුණි. එම විහාරස්ථාන කඩා ඒ අමුද්‍රව්‍ය භාවිතා කොට ලන්දේසි පල්ලි තැනවූ ආකාරය ලන්දේසි පූජකයෙකු වූ බල්දෙයස් සිය ග්‍රන්ථයේ දක්වා තිබේ.

       කාලිංග මාඝ ආක්‍රමණය ලංකාවට සිදු වූයේ නිශ්ශංකමල්ල රජුගේ අභාවයෙන් පසුවය.ඒ පරපුරේ උරුමය පතා පැමිණි කුමාරවරු උතුරුකරය හරහා දිවයිනට කඩා වැදී රට අවුල් කළහ. කාලිංග මාඝ මෙන්ම චන්ද්‍රබානු ද එසේය. පසුව සිංහල රාජධානිය දුර්වල වී කුරුණැගල හරහා ගම්පළට පසුබසින කල්හි. උතුරේ මෙම පරපුර බලවත් විය.බ්‍රාහ්මණ සම්බන්ධයක් සහිතව පැමිණි මේ පිරිස ඉතිහාසයේ හඳුන්වා දී ඇත්තේ ආර්ය චක්‍රවර්තී වරු යනුවෙනි. මේ පරපුරේ රජවරු සිංහල අග රජුට එරෙහිව ස්වාධීන වන්නට ගත් උත්සාය පරාජයට පත් කරන ලද්දේ සපුමල් කුමරු විසිනි. සපුමල් කුමරු මේ රජ පවුලෙන් කුමරියක්ද ලබා ගත් අතර සයවන පරාක්‍රමබාහු රජුටද බිසවක් ආර්ය චක්‍රවර්තී වරුන්ගෙන් ලැබුණි.පසුව කුමාරසිංහ සහ විජේපාල යන කුමාරවරුන්ටද කුමරියන් ලාබා දී ඇත්තේ මේ පරපුරෙනි.1560 දී පළමුවන සංකිලි පරාජය කල පෘතූගීසීන් තෙන්මාරච්චි පෙදෙසේ බලය පිහිටුවාගත්හ. අනතුරුව වඩමාරච්චියේ තනිවුණු රජපවුල අභිබවා එවක සිටි රදළ පන්තිය නැගී ආ හෙයින් 1591 දී පරංගීන් සමග ගිවිසුමකට එළඹුණි. .  එය සකස් කර තිබුණේ සිංහල බසින් බව ප්‍රකටය. මෙයින් සිදු වූයේ දෙවනි සංකිලි ගෙන් මේ පරපුර අවසන් වීමයි. අවසානයේ යාපනයේ සිටි අවසන් පාලකයන් තම ග්‍රහණයට ගනිමින් පරංගීන් කළ සංහාරය නිසා යාපනයේ සිටි රජ පවුල සැඟවී වන්නියටත් පසුව මාතලයටත් පැන ගත් බවට තිබෙන සාක්ෂි රාශියකි..

       ලන්දේසීන් සහ කීර්ති ශ්‍රී රාජසිංහ රජුගේ නිලමේ වරු අතර අත්සන් කරන ලද හඟුරන්කෙත ගිවිසුම නිසා 1766 න් පසු මුහුදේ සිට ගව්වක දුර ලන්දේසී පාලනයට අයත් විය. මේ නිසා යාපනය  ස්වාධීන විය. එහි සිටි සිංහල ජනතාව උඩරටට සේන්දු විය. අවසානයේ දුම්කළ වගාවටත් වෙනත් සේවා කුලී සඳහාත් දකුණු ඉන්දියාවේ සිටි වහලුන් වශයෙන් ගෙනා විවිධ ද්‍රවිඩ ජන වර්ගයා උතුරේ පදිංචි කරන ලදහ. අද දක්වා සිංහල ජනතාව යටපත් කොට යාපනයේ සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත් වල බලය අල්වා ගෙන සිටින්නේ මේ විදේශික කම්කරුවන් යැයි කිව යුතුය.1819 දී මිෂනාරීන් ලංකාව දෙකට බෙදා උතුර දෙමළ ජනයාටත් දකුණ සිංහල ජනයාටත් අයත් යැයි සම්මත කරගත්හ.මිෂනාරීන් ගේ ක්‍රමයට අනුව පුද්ගලයන්ගේ වාසගම් වෙනස්කළහ. අනුරාධපුර පළාතේ ජීවත් වන සිංහළයන්ගේ වාසගම් වල පැරණි හුරුව පවා වෙනස් වන්නේ මේ නිසාය.

      බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පාලනයෙන් පසු සිංහල ජනතාව නැවතත් උතුරට සේන්දු වී විවිධ ව්‍යාපාර කරමින් ජීවත් වූහ. 1981  ජන සංගණනය අනුව ඔවුන් ගණනින් හයදහසක් පමණ විය. වන්නි ප්‍රදේශයත් සමග ගතහොත් හතලිස්පන්දහසක් පමණ සිංහල පිරිසක් එහි ජීවත් වූහ. මන්නාරමේ පමණක් අටදහසකට වැඩිය. නමුත් 1987 දී කොටි ත්‍රස්තයවාදය විසින් සිංහලයන් සමූළඝාතනයට ගත් තැත නිසා අද වන විට මෙම ප්‍රදේශ වල දිවි ගෙවමින් සිටින්නේ ඉතාමත් සුලු සිංහලයන් පිරිසකි.

  කෙසේ වෙතත් නන්දි කඩාල් කලපුවේ දී ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ පරාජයත් සමගම නැවත මේ සිංහල ජනගහනයට උතුරේ වාසභූමි ලබා ගැනීමට අයිතියක් තිබුණි..එවකට සිටි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුවද ඉන්පසු පැවති ආණ්ඩුද කිසි විටක උතුර දෙමළ නිජ බිමික් නොවන බව ‌ ප්‍රකාශ නොකරති. සිංහලයන් ඉදිරියේ ව්‍යාජ ලෙසට යම් යම් ප්‍රකාශ කලද ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් එසේ කියන්නේ නැත. ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් සමුලුවේ දී මේ ‌ෙඑතිහාසික සත්‍යය කියාපෑමට කිසිවිටක රජය උනන්දු වී නැත.එසේම දෙමළ නිජබිම් මිත්‍යාව මත පදනම් වූ 13 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය උඩ ඇති කළ පළාත් සභා දිගින් දිගටම පවත්වා ගෙන යෑමට ද උත්සුක වෙති.

      එවැනි තත්වයක් මත විදේශගතව සිටින ගෝලීය කොටි සංසදයේ ඊලාම්වාදී අදහස් වලට වටිනාකමක් ලැබීම පුදුමයට කරුණක් නොවේ.මේ කොටි නඩය විසින් නඩත්තු කරන කොන්ග්‍රස් සභිකයන් අතින් ඉහතකී යෝජනා කරළියට පැමිණෙන්නේ ඒ නිසාය.  වර්තමාන රජයද යුධ අපරාධ පිළිබඳ යෝජනාවන් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළද සිංහල ජනතාවගේ පාරම්පරික අයිතිය ජගත් තලයේ තහවුරු කරලන්නට උනන්දු වන්නේ නැත. කොටින්ම දෙමළ ජාතිවාදය ඊලාම්වාදය පරාජය කොට ලංකාවේ බෙදුම්වාදය අවසන් කර ගැනීමට පවතින රජයටද කිසිම උපාය මාර්ගික සැලැස්මක් නොමැති බව පැහැදිලිවම පෙනී යයි..

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

By Laura Millan Lombrana  Courtesy Insurance Journal

Contaminants released from the wreckage of a container ship off the coast of Sri Lanka could be dragged thousands of kilometers by ocean currents, impacting wildlife and humans in far-reaching latitudes.

Authorities and salvage crews are now working to prevent the more than 300 metric tons of oil transported by the MV X-Press Pearl from spilling out of the ship’s fire-damaged hull. But significant damage has already been done. Chemicals and tiny plastic pellets that were once onboard the 186-meter vessel have already entered the ocean, causing one of Sri Lanka’s worst environmental disasters to date.

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Oil, chemicals and plastic pellets are probably the worst combination you can have,” said Delphine Lobelle, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in ocean plastics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. It’s really unfortunate that the ship was carrying so many harmful materials.”

Millions of plastic pellets have washed up on Sri Lanka’s southwestern coast, a tourist destination famous for its golden-sand beaches, fringed by palm trees and coconut groves. Debris from the vessel has already affected about 150 kilometers (93 miles) of shoreline, and the Singapore-based ship operator, X-Press Feeders Ltd., faces criminal charges for pollution, the Straits Times reported earlier this week.

Images from the beaches in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, show the sand covered in a layer of white plastic pellets and people in blue scrubs and white boots shoveling them in bags.

Pellets the size of a grain of rice can easily be mistaken for food by birds or fish, Lobelle said, but consuming them can be deadly. If the animals don’t die and are instead eaten by predators, the plastics can move up the food chain until they eventually reach humans. With time, the pellets break into even smaller pieces, known as microplastics, which are even more difficult to detect and control.

The real danger of having plastic on a beach is if it’s brought back into the ocean by tides,” Lobelle said. If it moves further offshore then it’s impossible to clean up. Currents spread plastic everywhere and there’s no way to collect it.”

The ship was carrying 1,486 containers holding chemicals such as nitric acid, a highly corrosive mineral acid, methanol, sodium hydroxide and about 400 containers of small plastic pellets known as nurdles, according to ITOPF, a nonprofit set up by the shipping industry that’s assisting the Sri Lankan government in the emergency response to the incident.

How many pellet containers have either burned or fallen off the ship isn’t clear, said ITOPF’s technical director Richard Johnson. At least four containers have washed ashore and many more are thought to have sunk. About 1,000 people are participating in cleanup efforts, Johnson said, with the rest of the city under a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

About 11 million metric tons of plastic find their way into oceans every year, causing damage to wildlife habitats, humans and animals, according to a report on ocean pollution last year. If no action is taken, plastic litter will almost triple by 2040 as humanity increases the use of hydrocarbon-based plastics, which don’t degrade naturally. The cumulative amount of plastic in the ocean could reach 600 million tons in 20 years’ time.

Studies done by Ifremer, the French institute for research and exploitation of the seas, show that fish can actually expel small pieces of virgin plastic like the ones in the Sri Lanka shipwreck, according to project manager François Galgani. If local bacteria and plankton get stuck in the plastic and wash up in other countries and continents, it can disrupt existing ecosystems. That phenomenon occurred in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, said Galgani, who also advises the International Maritime Organization on shipping-related environmental issues.

Some potential damage can be avoided by loading pellets at deck level or below instead of on top, according to Galgani. But ship owners tend to put these containers on top because they’re the cheapest load, and they leave the most expensive goods at the bottom. We know that certain ship owners load ships with more containers than they should,” Galgani said. Then captains throw the containers on top off board because they can endanger the safety of the whole ship.”

Even if authorities manage to seal the oil containers aboard the X-Press Pearl, the fuel will remain at the bottom of the ocean and could start leaking any time.

Maybe a black tide doesn’t touch the Sri Lankan coast in the next days or months,” Galgani said. But in 30, 40, or 50 years, there will be a leak, and the hydrocarbons will end up getting there. Even if it looks like the problem is fixed today, it’s just pollution being delayed through time.”

Photograph: The container ship MV X-Press Pearl sinks while being towed away from the coast of Colombo on June 2. Photo credit: Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images.

Courtesy INDAILY

A man who contracted the infectious Delta COVID-19 strain mistakenly opened his room door soon after entering hotel quarantine in Melbourne, but Victorian authorities are downplaying the chances this incident caused transmission.P

Health officials have linked an outbreak of the Delta strain in Melbourne to the hotel quarantine case, a man in his 40s, who returned from Sri Lanka on May 8.

They are now scrambling to work out the connection, with health officials believing it is most likely the man transmitted the virus to a staff member while in transit or to a fellow guest.

Genomic sequencing shows his infection is identical to one of two families linked to the North Melbourne Primary School, which has emerged as the epicentre of the West Melbourne outbreak.

But it remains unclear how the virus was transmitted from the returned traveller – who lives in the suburban Glen Eira area in Melbourne’s southeast – to the infected family.

The man initially stayed at the Novotel Ibis Hotel before testing positive and transferring within 24 hours to the Holiday Inn health hotel”.

During his stay at the Ibis, the man opened his door while a staff member was in the corridor.

But Emma Cassar, the head of COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria, says this incident is unlikely to be the reason for the Delta variant spreading.

The only IPC (infection prevention control) breach is when this resident opened (his) door for less than a minute – he thought there was a knock on the door (but) it was a room further up,” Cassar said.

He even acknowledged the staff member on the floor was more than six metres, so it’s not enough for a transmission event … he would have had very low levels of infectiousness at that point.”

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She added the worker in the corridor was wearing an N95 mask and a face shield.

The City of Whittlesea cluster, which triggered Melbourne’s current lockdown and is separate to the Delta cluster, is linked to a Wollert man who caught the virus at Adelaide’s Playford medi-hotel.

An SA Health report said the man most likely caught the virus because of the opening and closing of doors in the hotel corridor.

Meanwhile, acting Premier James Merlino says Melbourne and regional Victoria remain on track” for eased restrictions at 11.59pm on Thursday.

BY JON JACKSON  Courtesy The Newsweek

State prosecutors in Sri Lanka‘s Colombo Magistrate’s Court on Monday accused the operators of the ship that caught fire with 25 tons of acid onboard of a cover-up. The Deputy Solicitor General alleged that Sea Consortium Lanka, the local agent for the ship, deleted several emails exchanged with the vessel’s captain that were characterized as important to the investigations.

The Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl cargo ship caught fire on May 20 and burned for 13 days while anchored in the waters near Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. As a result, tons of chemicals spilled into the Indian Ocean. Potentially toxic debris and plastic pollutants also washed ashore the nearby beaches in what’s been called one of the worst ecological disasters to hit the island nation.

Authorities are still bracing for a potentially larger problem. The International Maritime Operation is monitoring the stranded ship in case the 278 metric tons of bunker oil and 50 metric tons of gasoline aboard leak into the ocean.

When the case was taken up before a Colombo magistrate on Monday, Deputy Solicitor General Madhawa Tennakoon—appearing on behalf of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)—sought an order naming seven individuals as suspects of the case and to issue notices ordering them to appear before the court. One individual named was the managing director of Sea Consortium Lanka.

President’s Counsel Sarath Jayamanne, who represented the cargo ship’s chief engineer and the first assistant engineer (whose names were also among those named by the Deputy Solicitor General as suspects) appealed the order. He said the Magistrate’s Court had no jurisdiction to hear the case, and that any proceedings should be carried out by the country’s High Court.

The magistrate sided with the President’s Counsel and dismissed the request, stating the Magistrate’s Court does not have the jurisdiction to issue notices to the said individuals. The magistrate, however, did accept a request made by the CID to order the Navy to protect the vessel’s submerged wreckage.READ MORE

• Environmentalists Sue Sri Lanka After Sinkage of Ship Loaded With Acid
• Sri Lanka Disaster Could be Devastating for Whales, Endangered Turtles
• Sri Lanka Prepares for Possible Oil Spill After Cargo Ship’s Sinking

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Perhaps the biggest development from the court hearings came when Deputy Solicitor General Tennakoon said Sea Consortium Lanka had deleted several emails exchanged with the X-Press Pearl’s captain. The magistrate called for the original emails to be recovered and handed over to the CID.

Tennakoon also said probes have found that the acid leak onboard the vessel that caused the fire was first reported on May 10. Tennakoon alleged the captain and the crew were aware of the situation and gave false information in order to enter Sri Lankan waters. He also claimed that Sea Consortium Lanka informed the Colombo Harbor Master of a fire onboard the vessel after it had already entered Sri Lankan waters and was awaiting permission to anchor.

President’s Counsel Jayamanne denied the allegations that the crew concealed the truth about the acid leak when the vessel entered Sri Lankan waters.

The case is scheduled to resume on June 15.

By Colonel R HARIHARAN (retd) Courtesy Rediff.com

Xi Jinping is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).

IMAGE: Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, right, bumps fists with China’s State Councilor and Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe in Colombo, April 28, 2021. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

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Many would consider the passing of the controversial Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill by the Sri Lanka parliament, with a comfortable margin on May 20, as a victory for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

President Rajapaksa’s personal reputation was at stake, after supreme court scrutiny had found both constitutional and procedural anomalies with the draft.

In the end, the government accepted all the amendments suggested by the supreme court, though it bypassed suggestions for referendum and two thirds majority for certain sections, to rush it through parliament.

The Act empowers the Sri Lankan president to create a commission for the special economic zone to manage the SEZ, accord tax and duty concessions for investors.

Concerns of ‘foreigners’, euphemism for Chinese, being inducted into the commission were assuaged after President Rajapaksa appointed President’s Counsel Gamini Marpana to head the Port City Commission with six other Sri Lankans including Treasury Secretary S R Attygalle as members.

The Economic Commission, which was mooted as an independent body, will now function under the country’s regulatory authorities and constitutional bodies including the parliament.

The companies in the Colombo Port City will have to operate under Sri Lankan laws and judiciary and conform to financial and customs regulations applicable to elsewhere in the country.

This has taken some sheen off the original proposal, depriving the Colombo Port City much of the hype to become an international financial hub on the lines of Dubai or Singapore.

Reconciling the demands of the SEZ to attract investment with the constraints imposed by the Act, must be worrying the Rajapaksas.SponsoredMore from around the web

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The project is being developed by CHEC Colombo Port City Pvt Ltd with an initial investment of $1.4 billion.

Reclamation of 269 hectares of land was completed by January 2019.

The development of common infrastructure underway now is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

According to a PwC report, in the next 20 years, real estate development, including commercial, financial, hospitality, residential and social infrastructure, is expected to be completed.

In this period, a total of 160,000 jobs are expected to be created.

After that in the operational stage when the project matures, in all 210,000 jobs are estimated to be created.

The PwC report also envisaged the value addition to the GDP due to the project at infrastructure, lease of land and construction stage at $4.16 billion and $13 billion respectively.

During the debate in parliament Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa spoke of $15 billion investments flowing into the project in the next five years.

He also touched upon the huge potential for creating 200,000 jobs during the construction phase of the project.

These claims have given rise to huge expectations about the project among the people, though many have expressed their concern over sovereignty of the project, because of increasing Chinese domination seen everywhere.

The Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act coming into being may be considered a victory for China as it gains yet another strategic foothold in the heart of Colombo.

In the larger context of China’s global image building under President Xi Jinping, the CColombo Port City project promoted by the state-owned China Heavy Engineering Corporation (CHEC), is set to showcase the success of the Bridge and Road Initiative.

Quoting what it claims to be a cabinet paper submitted by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 17, Nimal Ratnaweera writing in the Web-based Colombo Telegraph, averred, ‘Over the next two years, the government plans to sell hundreds of acres of prime State-owned land in Colombo Fort and its adjacent Slave Island area, including property currently being used by the Sri Lanka Air Force and Sri Lanka Army.’

The Colombo Telegraph, known to be critical of the Rajapaksas, said it learnt ‘the bulk of these properties have been reserved for the China Harbour Engineering Corporation, through an intermediary local firm created specifically for the purpose of easing the path for transfer to the Beijing-owned entity and other affiliated investors.’

The report further added the state owned Selendiva Investments ‘has been tasked with transforming several underperforming state-owned assets into ‘viable, profitable and marketable’ assets.’

The Urban Development Authority was seeking approval to move ahead with three investment portfolios: The Colombo Fort Heritage Square, The Immovable Property Development and The Government-owned Hospitality Sector under Selendiva Investments.

The earlier Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government was known to have listed many of these government properties in a bid to transform Colombo City into a commercial and financial capital.

According to the Colombo Telegraph, ‘that diversification was to be streamlined under a competitive bidding process for interested investors.’

But given the speed at which the Chinese operate, the competitive bidding process may be given the go by as it happened recently.

Close on the heels of the enactment of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission, the cabinet decided to award the contract to build the 17 km Kelaniya-Athurugiriya elevated highway project, estimated to cost $1 billion to the CHEC, without competitive bidding.

The Chinese company will build, own and transfer the major highway after 17 years, adding yet another feather in Xi’s BRI cap.

While Chinese investors would probably bid for ‘choice property’ in the Colombo Port City, will the investors from the West and India be keen to invest in the CPC? Any international investor other than local or from China, is likely to have two concerns before opting for the Colombo Port City.

First, the ability of the government to provide a safe and corruption-0free environment with good governance both within and outside the economic zone.

The Sri Lanka government under Rajapaksas carries a legacy of total disregard for international concerns since the end of the Eelam War in May 2009.

These include issues of governance, rule of law, restoring ethnic peace and human rights, which continue to figure in the UN Human Rights Council deliberations.

The Sri Lankan judiciary has not covered itself in glory in quite a few cases. The state of law and order has been subject to severe political influence.

Corruption is endemic. The mess created in handling the COVID-19 pandemic speaks poorly of the administration’s ability to handle critical situations facing the country.

Cumulatively, these issues could make international rating agencies think twice before recommending the Colombo Port City as a favourable investment destination.

The Rajapaksas have become increasingly dependent upon China to bail them out, not only in the UNHRC and the UN Security Council, but to ward off financial crunch.

They are paying the price for it by taking decisions favouring the Chinese, to the detriment of other nations.

They cancelled the memorandum of cooperation the previous government had signed with India and Japan to jointly develop the Eastern Carrier Terminal at Colombo port, on the specious ground of Sri Lankan sovereignty.

Such concern was markedly absent when it came to the Colombo Port City project, actively and publicly promoted by the CHEC.

The Rajapaksas also decided against signing $480 million investment plans of the Millennium Cooperation Corporation on similar grounds, though in his earlier term as president, Mahinda Rajapaksa had mooted the proposal.

Both the US and India are unlikely to forget such conduct, when they deal with Sri Lanka.

With both the US and India recasting their relations with China, Sri Lanka could face the flak of their reaction.

Lastly, one wonders how President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would stick to his assurance to India’s concerns on security, with the Chinese literally breathing down his neck.

The situation reminds us of the visuals of the Singapore-registered cargo ship MV X-press Pearl burning off the Wwest coast of Sri Lanka for over two weeks, polluting the environment around, while Sri Lanka, India and international fire fighters douse the fire.

They learnt rather too late that the ship was carrying 25 tons of a toxic chemical: Nitric acid.

2021 is the Chinese Year of the Ox, considered good for those born in the Year of thr Snake, like Xi Jinping (born in 1953); Mao Zedong was also Snake year-born.

So far it seems to be working for him in Sri Lanka. Xi is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka.

Colonel R Hariharan, a retired military intelligence officer, is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies and the South Asia Analysis Group.

ජනාධිපති මාධ්‍ය අංශය

කාබනික පොහොර භාවිතයට එළඹීමේ දී පැමිණෙන අභියෝග නොතකා මහජන නියෝජිතයන් ජනතා සුභසිද්ධිය පිණිස ඉදිරියට යායුතු බව ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා පවසයි.

නිරෝගී සහ ඵලදායී පුරවැසියෙක් බිහිකිරීමට වස විසෙන් තොර ආහාර වේලක් සඳහා වූ ජනතා අයිතිය සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම” ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශනයෙන් තහවුරු කර තිබේ. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් කාබනික පොහොර භාවිතයට කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය රැගෙන යාම රජයේ දැඩි ස්ථාවර වී තිබේ. එම වැඩපිළිවෙළ ඇතැම් පාර්ශ්වයන්ගේ විවේචනවලට ලක් වුවද අනාගත දරු පරපුරේ යහපත උදෙසා ක්‍රියාත්මක විය යුතු බව ජනාධිපතිතුමා අවධාරණය කරයි.

හිඟයක් ඇති කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගත්ත ද ඉදිරි කන්නය දක්වා අවශ්‍ය පොහොර ප්‍රමාණවත් තරම් ගෙන්වා තිබේ. එම නිසා සියලු වගා කටයුතු බාධාවකින් තොරව කරගෙන යා හැකි බව ජනාධිපතිතුමා පෙන්වා දෙයි.

දිස්ත්‍රික් සංවර්ධන කමිටු සභාපතිවරුන් සමග ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලයේ පැවති සාකච්ඡාවේදී ජනාධිපතිතුමා මේ බව පැවසීය.

කාබනික කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට යොමුවීම රජය හදිසියේ ගත් තීරණයක් නොවේ. සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම” ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශනයේ මෙන්ම පසුගිය අය වැයේදී මේ පිළිබඳ රජයේ ස්ථාවරය ඉදිරිපත් කෙරිණ . එහෙත් කාබනික පොහොර සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගොවීන් දැනුවත් නොකිරීම අනිසි බියට හේතු වී තිබේ.

කාබනික පොහොර කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය සඳහා ලංකාවේ විශාල විභවයක් පවතී. සංක්‍රාන්ති කාලය තුළ ගොවියාට මුහුණ පෑමට සිදුවන අසීරු අවස්ථා කළමනාකරණය කිරීමට උපරිම සහන සලසා දීම රජයේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය බව ද ජනාධිපතිතුමා පැහැදිලි කළේය.

දශක කිහිපයක සිට රසායනික පොහොර භාවිතයට ගොවියා පෙළඹීම හේතුවෙන් විශාල පිරිසක් විවිධ බෝ නොවන රෝගවලට මුහුණ පෑහ. එම තත්ත්වයෙන් අනාගත පරපුර ගලවා ගැනීම රටවැසි සියලු දෙනාගේ වගකීම විය යුතු බව ජනාධිපතිතුමා පැවසීය.

අමාත්‍ය ඩග්ලස් දේවානන්ද, ජනාධිපති ලේකම් පී.බී. ජයසුන්දර සහ අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්වරු ඇතුළු පිරිසක් මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව සිටියහ.

– ජනාධිපති මාධ්‍ය අංශය

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov who had a telephone conversation with his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardane said Russia was fully cooperative of the initiative to co-produce its Sputnik V vaccine here and asked the Sri Lankan authorities to expedite the process.

Minister Gunawardane told Daily Mirror that the Russian Minister assured him of the supply of Sputnik V vaccine to Sri Lanka as committed.

Besides, the two countries are expected to resume their trade dialogue as early as possible.

Sri Lanka has given regulatory clearance for emergency use of this vaccine against Covid-19.

Russia is keen to send its tourists to Sri Lanka once the situation is normal. This is another aspect we discussed ,” he said. 

He said he, on behalf of Sri Lanka , thanked the Russian Minister for support at the UNHRC. (Kelum Bandara)

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While claiming that five committees have been appointed to work on the procedures to demand claims from the X-Press Pearl vessel, Ports and Shipping Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardane said today steps were being taken to seek assistance of the international legal experts on the matter.

The Minister told parliament that international legal procedures would also come into play in this process in addition to the domestic legal framework.

He said legal assistance of the international legal experts would be sought in a transparent manner.

The Minister said the matter with regard to the claiming of compensation from the vessel was discussed with the Justice minister and the Attorney General.

“We have identified five areas such as environment pollution, marine pollution, air pollution,lagoon pollution and damage caused to the fishing community. We have appointed five committees to study these affected areas,” he said.

He said steps would be taken to compensate those directly affected due to the incident initially and secondly the institutions such as Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), Sri Lanka Navy, air force and the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) that engaged in dousing the fire would claim compensation.

He said compensation would be sought for marine pollution as well. ()

Chaturanga Samarawickrama Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The reason for the flood situation in the Gampaha district was caused by reckless actions taken by the previous government during the construction of the segment from Kadawata to Gampaha of the Central expressway,  Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said.

He told the Daily Mirror that the proposed segment from Kadawata to Gampaha of the Central expressway was to be constructed as an elevated highway.

However, the previous administration did not follow the proposed plans, and they used it to fill the ground with earth for the construction of the highway, he said.

“The Central expressway was a combination of selected segments of previously proposed two Expressways. The segment from Kadawata to Gampaha remains the same alignment on the previously proposed Colombo – Kandy Alternate Highway (CKAH) trace (2001 – 2011) and beyond Gampaha, the trace is the Northern Expressway trace (2011 – 2014) up to Dambulla and Kandy (Galagedara). After that, the previous government had decided to change the starting point of the NEP and also to implement it with the assistance of Donor Agencies. Then it was decided to change the project name to Central Expressway in 2015,” he said.

Minister Ranatunga said a meeting was held today to review the construction work of the Central Highway from Kadawata to Gampaha. 

During the meeting, it was discussed to review the appropriation of the number of estimated culverts used during the construction.

When running the expressway parallel to and in line with the existing railway line, the culverts should be placed according to the recommended sizes and to the approved numbers of culverts.

He pointed out that the outlets of those culverts were not equal to the size of the inlets. According to the Minister, the expressway was discovered to be parallel to the existing railway line, and the outlet sizes of the culverts under the railway track were smaller than the inlet size of the culverts under the expressway.

Therefore, the culverts can not hold the water capacity running through them during high rain fall. As a result, the current flood situation in Attanagalla, Magalegoda in Veyangoda, Meerigama, Ganegoda, and Gampaha town had been created.

Instructions were given in this regard to the Highways Ministry Secretary, Irrigation department and the Expressway Operation Maintenance And Management Division of the Road Development Authority to seek solutions and procedures for the recent floods in Gampaha. 

No flood situation would occur in Gampaha if the previous government built the expressway as an elevated highway, the Minister said. ()

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena today sought the immediate intervention of the US State Department to convey the concerns and the position of the government on the proposed resolution No. H.Res.413, which was introduced by Congresswoman Deborah Ross,to the Chair and members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as well as the respective Congresspersons in order to withdraw or amend it.

The Minister made this appeal when Charge d’ Affairesmof the US Embassy in Colombo Martin T. Kelly called on him at the Foreign Ministry today.

The Minister explained that the said Resolution will not be useful for reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka. 

The Foreign Minister thanked the government and people of the United States for the continued support extended to Sri Lanka. 

He particularly appreciated the US President’s recent announcement that Sri Lanka will be one of the countries receiving COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX programme.

He also thanked for the consignment of USAID emergency medical supplies which arrived on 04 June 2021 and possible US technical assistance to mitigate adverse environmental impact caused by the MV X-Press Pearl disaster.

A wide range of bilateral matters, including convening of Partnership Dialogue and Joint Commission of Trade & Investment Framework Agreement, were also discussed.  

Joining the meeting, Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage elaborated on the government’s efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic and the status of the on-going national vaccination programme.

TORU OTSUKI, Nikkei staff writer Courtesy NikkeiAsia

Kankyo Daizen’s fertilizer wins over farmers in Vietnam and Cambodia

ASAHIKAWA, Japan — An organic products company based in northern Japan hopes its environmentally friendly fertilizer made from cow urine will catch on with farmers in Southeast Asia.

The liquid fertilizer, Tsuchi Ikikaeru — or “soil comes back to life” — is sold in five countries including Vietnam and Cambodia. Farmland in much of Southeast Asia faces degradation and declining fertility, the result of longtime overuse of agrochemicals.

Kankyo Daizen collects the urine from dairy farmers in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, where the company is located. In 2012, it began exporting Tsuchi Ikikaeru to agricultural producers through two Japanese trading houses.

Cow urine, which is often dumped into rivers or sprayed over farmland, contaminates water sources and has an offensive smell. Kankyo Daizen has turned this nuisance into a valuable resource for Hokkaido farmers. Now the natural soil conditioner is winning new customers abroad.

Kankyo Daizen, which also makes organic deodorizers, estimates that its overall sales rose 11% to 230 million yen ($2.13 million) for the 12 months ended in January. Its overseas business has grown and now accounts for 10% of total revenue, as the company has expanded its sales channels.

“Southeast Asia has a young and growing population,” Kankyo Daizen President Makoto Kubonouchi said. “It is a promising market as long as we can meet registration requirements in different countries.”

Kankyo Daizen’s environmentally friendly liquid fertilizer is making inroads in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Growing incomes in Southeast Asia have spurred interest in more natural farming practices in the region. Kankyo Daizen’s organic fertilizer, for example, is a good substitute for conventional agrochemicals. The company says the product, which is diluted with water when applied, is an effective growth booster for a wide range of crops including rice, vegetables, flowering plants and farmed shrimp. It also helps maintain soil fertility when the same crop is grown on the same plot of land year after year.

Kankyo Daizen also plans to sell Tsuchi Ikikaeru in Malaysia and the Philippines, but it is not limiting its ambitions to Asia. In February, Kubonouchi traveled to Brazil as part of a research tour organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, inspecting large farms growing crops such as soybeans and sugar cane. The company plans to explore market opportunities there after receiving a positive response from local farmers. One challenge to overcome is the shipping cost, given the distance between Japan and Brazil.

In Japan, the company works with a number of dairy farmers in Kitami and areas along the Sea of Okhotsk. The manufacturing process starts by fermenting cow urine using a special mix of microbes. The liquid is collected in a tanker truck and then fermented some more in six 18-ton tanks at Kankyo Daizen’s headquarters. The company believes lactic acid bacteria and yeast grown with cow urine inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria in the soil.

Kankyo Daizen sells 50 products in all, including a clear, colorless liquid designed to eliminate household odors. The fertilizer and the deodorizer look different but the bacteria that they contain work the same way. The company provided the deodorant free of charge to evacuation shelters and temporary toilets in areas hit by recent earthquakes in northern Japan.

Kankyo Daizen verified the effectiveness of its cow urine-derived products in tests conducted at the Kitami Institute of Technology. But mysteries remain, including how the active ingredient forms through fermentation and how it reduces odors and increases soil fertility. The company plans to work with a private research group to solve these puzzles.

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

Ministry of Health has launched an investigation into the irregularities at COVID vaccination program at Unawatuwa in Galle, following the exposé by Ada Derana ‘Ukussa’ on Monday (June 07).

State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals, Prof. Channa Jayasumana brought the matter to attention during the parliamentary session convened earlier today (June 08).

As per ‘Ukussa’ revelation, a group of individuals from the Western Province had attended the vaccination program in Galle to receive the second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

State Minister Prof. Jayasumana said a team from Health Ministry has already been deployed to Galle to look into the matter.

Legal and disciplinary action will be sought against those the individuals who attended the vaccination program violating the protocols, he stressed.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka on Tuesday (June 08) registered 54 more victims of COVID-19, marking the highest number of deaths recorded in a single day.

The latest fatalities have moved the country’s death toll to 1,843, the, the Department of Government Information said.

The Department of Government Information stated that 15 of the victims had succumbed to the virus infection between the period of May 10 – May 31. The rest of them have died between June 02 – June 07.

The deceased were identified as residents of Katana, Uduwela, Mawanella, Aranayake, Maligawatta, Eravur 02, Kadawatha, Moratuwa, Alubomulla, Wadduwa, Walasmulla, Kolawenigama, Colombo 15, Ja-Ela, Wattala, Bathgammulla, Thalathuoya, Badulla, Kilinochchi, Nikaweratiya, Maradankadawala, Medawachchiya, Athurugiriya, Elpitiya, Karandeniya, Periyaneelavanai, Kantale, Matale, Rattota, Horampella, Batugoda, Veyangoda, Kandy, Akurana, Udispattuwa, Lunuwatta, Thorapitiya, Mahiyanganaya, Ragama, Colombo 13, Kandana, Avissawella, Wathupitiwala, Pannipitiya and Marawila areas. 

As per official data, 26 victims in total were aged over 70 years. Eleven victims were in the age group 61-69 years and ten were aged between 50-59 years. Remaining seven victims were in the age group of 30-49.

COVID pneumonia and complications from chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease have been recorded as the cause of death of the victims.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 514 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 2,637.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 210,661.

As many as 178,259 recoveries and 1,789 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 30,613 active cases are currently under medical care.

EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Competition is a helpful disposition in the dynamic environment and might help for social and economic progress if it works well in society concerning the broader spectrum. The concept of competition entered politics as a feature of democracy, and many opinions that competition in politics would be harmful to society when competition animates, dividing people in society. In connection with Sri Lanka, it observed that the competition in politics has divided the society as every matter of human life has been invaded by politics. This idea may not be accepted by many who engage in competitive politics, people with historical knowledge gratifying the view comparing social experience in the current society and the past might have different points of view. Sometimes, diverse people might argue about competition with the broader view as it can find supportive and contrary panorama.

However, the pure competition gradually turned into an oligopoly that defined in the game theory that zero-sum two persons will be achieved when entered an unusual competition, especially in economic activities, many firms dissolved or sold out because of lack of ability to compete. During the past several centuries people haven’t had a concrete experience like the Covid-19 pandemic that forced them to change attitudes toward social, economic, political, and religious aspects. G8 countries have agreed to increase tax for multinational firms because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The concept of competition had been working engendering society and creating massive disadvantage to the poor, but political administration in the capitalist system elevated competition stating it will create benefit to society. It is the pluralist problem.

During the reign of Kings and Queens, a cut-thought competition was not animated in a liberal format by a political administration that had direct or indirect support to rich people. Most probably such competition could have led to destroying the capitalist class. Despite the deep analysis of the competitive environment, it showed that monopolistic competition embarked on the market, reducing the spirit of competition. As monopolistic competition was among few, it disadvantaged the poor than pure competition. Business giants in the reign of royals may have a difference in strategy in terms of royal advisors to secure the capitalist system and protect the capitalist approach from communist ideology. The visible nature of the world was a competitive environment was working, dividing people and creating disadvantages for the poor. Powerful countries in the world are gradually understanding the truth at present and attempt to make some decisions and the determination of the success of such decisions is too early.

In the modern era, it observes that cut-thought competition is being a part of a business, and firms promote products in a market economic system highlighting the products that are closer to the desires of consumers, and many accept that the market economic system has been supported creating disadvantages to the poor despite a few ratios of the community look opposite way. Entrepreneurs and capitalists are generating massive benefits which are not reflected as profits but in other formats such as share options, housing, and many others. People who have capital in hand or capable of borrowing may able to get market power in this situation and competition keep in hand. Political focus and economic policies in many countries could be seen either have refuge in the two aspects of competition secretly manipulate to show justice to the mass community.

Another repercussion of modern competition is the declining trend of product quality. People observe much cheating in price slashing, product quantity changes, quantity changes in product ingredients, and many others in modern competition. A notable example shows in Sri Lanka arts have entered a competition and the quality of products such as teledrama, cinema, and many products are being declined and use the market of drama to promote business.

The traditional society had been efficiently operated and aligned to competition with reasonable routes. In modern society, regulations have become an instrument to show justice whilst they become a constraint providing limited opportunities, however, the mass community accepts that regulation provides justice to a certain extent as they support minimizing disadvantages. Another vital point in the traditional society was that entry-exit abilities for business were free and people had very limited concern on the matter. Regulations in the modern business environment show support justices, however, many instances show that they support limiting entering new investors to the market.  

When critically evaluate socio-economic, political, and religious evolution, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a turning point of changing society when compared to evidence found in the past several centuries. It came to this world in 2019 as an epidemic and quickly infected people in China. WHO later revealed the epidemic was a pandemic that spreads all over the world. No doubt that the pandemic can infect people in any country and spread without discrimination. Since 2019, businesses have been suffered from the pandemic relating to factors of production, distribution of production, and selling productions. Producers and consumers are suffered from various areas of production and consumption-related issues. The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced human life than any other incident except world wars in history. However, governments, political, social, and economic organizations reluctant to openly talk about the real impact of the pandemic as they assume, open talks would be harmful to society 

After the spread of the pandemic, notable changes in attitudes of people are visible in the socio-economic environment, as many countries have recognised social distancing as an effective way of controlling the spreading of the virus, it is seen in many countries lockdowns and opening frequently and the situation has become perilous experience, some instances difficult to adapt.  

Since the 1980s developed as well as developing countries gave priority to service industries in which social gatherings were a common feature such as in sports, nightclubs, and many other services that promoted social integration. Poor people and the middle class associated with social and economic integration that has been generated economic and social benefits such as employment, small business opportunities, subcontracts, and understanding each other for business promotion. From the religious point of view, social integration is forced to reject social values and promote the immoral behavior of the young generation, making a society forcing the governments to spend more funds for policing and controlling illicit drugs, alcohol, prostitution, and conflicts. Social integration has generated advantages and disadvantages. Rich people in all countries gained massive advantages and market opportunities from social integration and the social distancing began with the covid pandemic created massive losses to the rich.  

Now it seems developed countries attempt to manipulate the market by misleading people. The best example is market manipulation in the property market and media supports fabricating land and house prices massively increased when many people are suffering without money to buy a piece of land to build a house. It is like the statement made by the French queen if there is no bread to eat cake. When poor people have no shelters to live in, capitalist governments say land and house prices have gone up. If it thinks from the point of view of religion, governments sell lands that were created by God for people ignoring the poor. The covid pandemic forces to change market manipulation and do justice to the poor.

I visited a place where the government organised to jab covid vaccine and people haven’t had smiling faces as they were concerned about the effect of the pandemic. People need to change attitudes towards many aspects. The capitalist system used price mechanisms to answer basic economic problems, and after the Russian Revolution, Central Planning Systems in communist countries fixed to answer basic economic problems, and many countries attempted to follow a mixed economy that has a mixture of capitalist and communist systems. These systems ignored genuine issues of the poor who represent over 70% of the world population.

COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to invent an alternative method that would be reasonable to the rich and poor in consumption, investment, and saving. The higher rate of profits generate from enterprises goes to capital owners and executive management of firms. Poor workers push behind the rich class and to gain a small benefit the families need to struggle that creating problems society. Many small countries are blotted to spreading the myth of modernization in the market and certain fashion forces young people to accept immoral behavior and addict vicious narcotics. Technology has been an innovative aspect, but it has failed to give justice to society. All activities in the modern market safeguard the principles of a capitalist system and changing attitudes of people to force the rulers to make a new market approach is directly or indirectly by the covid pandemic. However, rulers of large developed countries have no agreement on this matter. They want to hang in capitalist approaches.

Innovation in the social system and promoting human values based on science and technology are needed but not converting them to make massive profits to rich class and promoting these attitudes to change society is reminded by the Covid pandemic. The current system of treatments in the economic and social system might not be useful for the post-pandemic environment. Justice in society will be achieved by conserving together economy and society with justice.

Religious attitudes of people are disciplined by public behavior of people than thinking about religions (philosophical and social aspects) are not from the point of view of scientific discoveries. Beliefs of people on religious concepts have ingrained looking at discoveries on the planet Mars. When religions began in the world, people had a mere belief about the planet Earth and now people believe about the universe which comprises billions of galaxies, and the power of almighty God creating the universe and controlling it. Although people think almighty God is like a human, it is not. The role of religions is to convince those humans in a fallen stage upgrading to convincing grace is an essential task. People were relegated to the fallen stage because of various reasons, religions give reasons for committing sins, and all religions, irrespective of what religion is, support people, to come on convincing grace.                                                                                       

By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communications Researcher, SLFP/SLPP Stalwart, Convener The Muslim Voice” and Member Viyathmaga”, June 7^th., 2021.

ARE THEY MISUSING THE POWER OF THE PEN”/INTERNET TO MISGUIDE PEOPLE?

Content about Sri Lanka’s relationship with China and the newly developing Colombo Port City Project with Chinese engagement has been subjected to a lot of scrutiny by the print, electronic, digital and social-media freelance journalists since the Colombo Port City Bill was presented to Cabinet by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for approval on the 4^th., January 2021.  The bill once approved will become legislation on being gazetted and passed in Parliament.

The Parliament of Sri Lanka on Thursday May 20^th., passed the Port City Economic Commission Bill with 149 votes in favour and 58 against, as reported by the local media and which has been gazette officially. An Economic Commission has already been established for the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City enabling it to attract investment and function as an international financial city. In the Keynote Address at the inauguration of the Sri Lanka Investment Forum 2021 held on 7^th., June 2021 – His Excellency Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka had this also to state:

We now stand on the cusp of a national transformation that can not only uplift Sri Lanka but have positive impacts on the entire region while creating tremendous value for investors across multiple sectors and through diverse instruments.

I invite you to join us on this transformational journey by investing in Sri Lanka.”

FACTS HAVE TO BE STUBBORN.
JOURNALISM IS THE ONLY WAY TO BRING OUT FACTS.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE STRENGTH OF THE PEOPLE THAT CAN VOICE THE TRUTH.

The forces that are and the West ” WERE ” very much concerned to STOP this Bill from getting passed in Parliament. China’s support to Sri Lanka cannot be stomached by the West and the USA, including the EU, because Sri Lanka will be in the One Belt One Road” project and will later join the CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Commission) as invited by Hon. Imran Khan, PM of Pakistan, a must for Sri Lanka to become a prosperous and developed Nation, economically and socially to achieve Peace and Harmony in the coming decades. The Colombo Port City will become a Financial Hub and an investment center in the region and this will accelerate the growth of all the nations in South East Asia and the Asia Pacific, with China being the guiding light. If the verdict of the Supreme Court is that certain amendments should be in coopted to the Bill, then the government acted accordingly and got this Bill passed at the very earliest for the benefit of our Mathruboomiya” and the next generation. 

It is a pity that our law makers, MAJORITY of the 225 in parliament are all idiotic fools who sit in parliament consuming our tax money being elected by the innocent people who are hoping for a better future. I do not think that even 25 of these fool (MP’s) would have read the bill or have resourced content/knowledge material in print or the internet to take a look/understand what is the larger picture of both these major Chinese projects are (Hambantota Habour and the Colombo Port City) in respect to the REALITY it will be for Sri Lanka.

Look at the KARAKORAM HIGHWAY” that China has built jointly with Pakistan, a road that is now linking Pakistan and China – 1300 km long which had taken 20 years to accomplish and claimed today as the 7th., wonder of the world. These MP’s who are trying to criticize should have visited Pakistan and taken a trip (drive) from Pakistan to China on this highway to see for themselves the development and socio-economic development this project has brought to the rural and remote villages/urban towns and the people through which the Highway has been built. THE FREELANCE JOURNALISTS, SHOULD ALSO TRY AND MAKE A VISIT TO PAKISTAN, YOURSELVES TO SEE FOR YOUR SELF the reality. The Pakistan High Commission in Colombo may be too pleased to help you out if needed, I am sure. This Karakoram HW link has benefited Pakistan with Sterling pounds 14 billion annually from trade alone.

The KARAKORAM HIGHWAY” and rail links will reach out to all the CIS countries and reach the Mediterranean Sea in the near future and become part of the One Belt One Road” project. Sri Lanka cannot lose this great opportunity because our law makersand “Freelance Journalists” cannot SEE FAR”. The Government has got this bill passed in parliament on the foundation of the support of the people, by the grace of God AllMighty.

SLUNA

O5th June 2021

Dear SLUNA members and friends,

As you all are aware, the bill 104, namely Tamil Genocide Education bill has become a law in Province of Ontario on 12^th May 2021.

The law alleges that a Tamil Genocide, has taken place in Sri Lanka since 1948, and it says it is necessary to educate school children about its history to remember.

 Under these circumstances, I presume that all of you very well understand the situation our young kids would face in schools in the future. Canadian born young Sinhala kids would be mentally harassed for no fault of themselves. They would not know anything of these ugly made-up stories with full of hate.

Under this unfortunate situation, we strongly believe that SLUNA should take a lead in protecting our young children from this sad situation. Though, this year they were silent, we are sure that they would do a well-planned Tamil genocide education week by 2022. It will be much easier for them carry on with such a task with the support of many Tamil trustees in school boards.  

For 35 long years SLUNA fought a very tiresome battle against Tamil terrorism propaganda which was designed to destabilise our Mother country, Sri Lanka. Therefore, we strongly believe that it is our duty to fight this discriminatory piece of legislature of Ontario with the legal system of Canada.

Few Sri Lankan community organizations, namely,

Sri Lanka Canadian Action Coalition (SLCAC)

Sri Lanka United National Association of Canada (SLUNA)

Canadian Sri Lankan Center for Social Harmony (CSLCSH)

Sri Lanka Canadian Action Coalition Brampton (SLCAB)

We now have come together and planned to launch a legal battle against this discriminating piece of legislature of the Ontario government.  We do not see any other remedy to overcome this discriminatory situation.

Our group have discussed this matter with eminent lawyers and sought their advice and they said the chances are very good for us to win the case. We have now chosen the most suitable legal firm of lawyer to represent us in the court. The company is well experienced in constitutional matters.

I very earnestly appeal to you, on behalf of SLUNA executive committee, to be a strong force in protecting our children’s future in Canada.

Your generous contributions / donations purely would be going to meet the cost of this legal battle. We only know the initial cost $25000 but not the follow ups. It could be much more depends on the time it would lead in the future.

Your generous contributions could be sent to the bank account of SLUNA of which the details are given below. Every contribution would be duly acknowledged.

Name of the bank account: Sri Lanka United National Association of Canada.

Account number: TD Canada Trust:  03302 004 5000275

Or you can mail your cheque to the SLUNA address find on this letter head.

Once you make your contribution please send us an email or text massage. The details are given below.

Email: sarath.lokuliyana@gmail.com or slunacanada83@gmail.com or to SLUNA treasurer Sarath Kumarasinghe : s_kumarasinghe@hotmail.com

Phone:  Sarath Lokuliyana: 416 540 1950

 Sarath Kumarasinghe: 647 271 8724

It is important for us to maintain records and issue receipts for the donations. 

We believe in united fight for this unwarranted piece of law. That would be the strength to fight for justice.

Thank you

Sarath Lokuliyana

President on behalf of the SLUNA Exco.

C.C : Mr. Sarath Kumarasinghe Treasurer SLUNA

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

මිනිසා යනු සංස්කෘතික සත්ත්වයෙකි. තමන් පිළිගන්නා පොදු සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම්වලින් මිදී තීරණගැනීමේ හැකියාවක් ඔහුට නැත. යමක හරි – වැරැද්ද, යෝග්‍ය – අයෝග්‍ය බව, හොඳ – නරක මිනිසුන් විසින් තීරණය කරන්නේ මෙවැනි ඇගැයීම් මත පදනම් වීමෙනි. සමාජයක ආර්ථික කාර්යයන් කෙරෙනුයේ ද ඒ සඳහා අදාළව ගනු ලබන තීරණ අනුව ය. ඉහතින් පෙන්වා දුන් ආකාරයට මෙවැනි ආර්ථික තීරණගැනීම සඳහා ද සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම් බලපායි.

සංස්කෘතීන් එකිනෙකින් වෙන්කර හඳුනාගැනීමේ දී ඒවා සතු පොදු ඇගැයීම්වල වෙනස්කම් ද සළකා බැලෙයි. මේ උදෙසා මාන ස්වරූපයකින් සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම් හඳුනාගැනීමක් ද සිදු කරයි. අදාළ සංස්කෘතික පර්යේෂකයන් විසින් මෙ ලෙසින් හඳුනාගත් ඇගැයීම් මාන ගණනාවක් ම වෙයි.

පුද්ගලාන්තික – සමූහාන්තික ඇගැයීම් මානය යනු එවැන්නකි. එම මානයට අනුව සංස්කෘතීහු වර්ග කෙරෙති. යම් යම් සංස්කෘතීන්වල මිනිසුන් පුද්ගලාන්තික ඇගැයීම්වලට වඩා සමූහාන්තික ඇගැයීම් පිළිගනු ලබන බව ද තවත් සංස්කෘතීන්වල මිනිසුන් එයට පටහැනි ලෙසින් කටයුතු කරන බව ද මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පර්යේෂණ කරන විශේෂඥයෝ පවසති. දිගුකාලීන නැඹුරුව යනු තවත් එවැනි සංස්කෘතික මානයකි. ඇතැම් මිනිසුන් අනාගතය වෙනුවෙන් තම වර්තමානය කැප කරනුයේ මෙම සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීමට අනුව ය.

මෙවැනි සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම් ආර්ථික කාර්යයන් කෙරෙහි බලපායි. සාමූහික ඇගැයීම්වල ඉහළ තැනැක් ඇති සංස්කෘතියක ආර්ථික කටයුතු එම ඇගැයීම මත පිහිටා සංවිධානය කළ හැකි ය. එ මෙන් ම, අනාගතය වෙනුවෙන් තමන්ගේ වර්තමානය කැපකිරීමේ නැඹුරුව ද ආර්ථික කාර්යයන්ට අදාළ කරගත හැකි ය.

යම් සංස්කෘතියකට අයත් ඇගැයීම් හඳුනාගැනීම සඳහා බාහිර පර්යේෂකයන්ගේ නිරීක්‍ෂණ මත ම රඳා පැවැතිය යුතු නොවේ. ඒ ඒ සංස්කෘතීන්වල වසන අයට ද මේ කාරණයට අදාළ පර්යේෂණ මෙහෙයවිය හැකිය.

ධුරාවලියට වැඩි ඉඩක් දෙන සංස්කෘතියක් සිංහල සමාජය තුළ ඇති බව බාහිර පර්යේෂකයෝ පවසති. එය සැබෑවකි. අපි අපේ සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම්වලට අනුව භික්‍ෂුන්වහන්සේට, වැඩිහිටියන්ට, ගුරුවරුන්ට, උගතුන්ට, වෘත්තිකයන්ට සහ තවත් එබඳු අයට ගරු කරමු. කෙසේ වුව ද, ඉහළ අයගේ නියෝග පිළිපැදීමට අපි මැළිවෙමු. මෙම වෙනස බාහිර පර්යේෂකයෝ නො හඳුනති. එක් පසෙකින් ධුරාවලි පිළිගන්නා අතර ම ඉහළින් ලැබෙන නියෝග පිළිගැනීමට අදිමදි කිරීම අප සතු විශේෂිත සංස්කෘතික ලක්‍ෂණයකි.

මෙවැනි සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම් ආර්ථික කාර්යයන්ට ගලපාගත හැක්කේ කෙලෙසින් ද යන්න අප විසින් විමසා බැලිය යුතු වෙයි. එ මෙන් ම, වර්තමානයේ අප මුහුණ පා සිටින ආර්ථික ගැටලුවලට මෙවැනි සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම් බලපා ඇත්තේ කෙලෙසින් ද යන්න ද අප විසින් හඳුනාගත යුතු වෙයි.

ඉහළ ධුරවල සිටින අය ලබාදෙන නියෝග පිළිගැනීමට ඇති නිසග අකැමැත්ත නිසා බොහෝ ආර්ථික වගකීම් අප අතින් මග හැරෙයි. නිසි කලට, නිසි අයුරින් ඒවා ඉටු නොවෙයි. මෙම මිනිස් තීරණ ආර්ථික සාධනයට බලපායි. බොහෝ ආයතන තුළ අකාර්යක්‍ෂමතාව රජ කරන බවට චෝදනා කෙරෙනුයේ මෙම සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම නිසි පරිදි වටහා නොගැනීමෙනි.

යම් සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම් ඇති රටවල පවතින ආයතනික ක්‍රමවේද එයට වෙනස් සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම් රජ කරන සමාජයකට නො ගැලපෙයි. යම් යම් රටවල එම ක්‍රමවේද සාර්ථක වී ඇත්තේ ඒවා ඔවුනගේ සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම් සමඟ හොඳින් ගැලපෙන බැවිනි. සංස්කෘතික සාධක නො සළකා එම ආයතනික ආකෘති එ ලෙසින් ම වෙනත් සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම් ඇති රටවල ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ නො හැකි ය.

එහෙයින් අප විසින් සිදු කළ යුත්තේ අපගේ සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම්වලට ගැලපෙන ආයතනික ආකෘති, කළමනාකරණ ක්‍රම සහ ආර්ථික නිෂ්පාදන මාදිලි හඳුන්වාදීම ය. මේ අරභයා අප විසින් මුලින් ම කළ යුත්තේ අපගේ සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම් නිසි පරිදි හඳුනාගැනීම ය. සියලු ම ආයතනික ආකෘති, කළමනාකරණ ක්‍රම සහ නිෂ්පාදන මාදිලි අප විසින් ම නිර්මාණය කරගත යුතු බවක් මෙයින් අදහස් නො කෙරෙයි. සමාන සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම් ඇති රටවල ක්‍රම කෙරෙහි ද අපගේ අවධානය යොමු කළ හැකි ය. අපට ගැලපෙන ක්‍රමයක් වෙනත් මූලයකින් ලබාගත හැකි විටෙක එවැන්නක් නැවතත් මුල සිට ම නිර්මාණය කිරීම අනුවණකමකි.

කවර ආකාරයකින් වුව ද, අප කළ යුත්තේ අපගේ සංස්කෘතික හැසිරීම්වලට සරිලන ආයතනික ආකෘති, කළමනාකරණ ක්‍රම සහ නිෂ්පාදන මාදිලි භාවිතයට එක් කිරීම ය. කාර්යක්‍ෂමතාව යනු උක්ත කාර්යයන් සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම් සමඟ මනා ලෙස සුසරකිරීමෙන් අත්පත් කරගත හැකි ඵලයක් විනා එයින් බාහිර උපක්‍රමවලින් දිනාගත හැකි දෙයක් නොවේ. මේ අරභයා යම් ආකාරයක මගපෙන්වීමක් සිදුකිරීම ද මෙම ප්‍රවාදයෙන් සිදු කෙරෙයි.

අපගේ සංස්කෘතික ඇගැයීම් සමඟ මැනැවින් ගැලපෙන ආර්ථික ක්‍රම සහ නිෂ්ටාවන් විසින් බිහිකරනුයේ බෞද්ධ ජනරජයේ පොදු අරමුණු සාක්‍ෂාත් කරගත හැකි පරිසරයකි.

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

සමුද්‍රීය පරිසරයේ වැදගත්කම ගැන ලෝක ප‍්‍රජාව දැනුවත් කිරීම උදෙසා එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කළ ලෝක සාගර දිනය” වෙනුවෙන් සුබ පැතුම් එක්කරනුයේ ඉමහත් සතුටිනි.

සංවර්ධනය සහ  කාර්මීකරණය යන‍ මානව ක්‍රියාකාරකම්වල බලපෑම හේතුවෙන් සමුද්‍රීය පරිසර දූෂණය ද මේ වනවිට ඉහළ යමින් ඇති බව පරිසර විද්‍යාඥයන්ගේ අදහසයි.

ඉන්දියන් සාගරයට මැදිව පිහිටි ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමුද්‍රීය පරිසරය ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කිරීම ඉතා වැදගත්ය.

ඒ වෙනුවෙන් 2008 වසරේ දී සමුද්‍රීය පරිසර ආරක්ෂණ අධිකාරිය පිහිටුවීමටත් සමුද්‍රීය ආරක්ෂාව හා බැඳී පවතින නෛතික ක්‍රියාදාමයන්ට මුලපිරීමටත් අපට හැකියාව ලැබිණි.

අප ජීවත්වන මෙම පෘථිවි තලයෙන් සියයට 70 ක්ම වැසී ඇත්තේ ජෛව විවිධත්වයේ නිවහන ලෙස සැලකෙන සාගරයෙනි. ජීවින්ගේ පැවත්මට සෘජුව දායකවන සාගර පරිසර පද්ධතිය විවිධ මිනිස් ක්‍රියාකාරකම් මත දූෂණයට ලක්වීම කණගාටුවට කරුණකි.

සාගරයට අපද්‍රව්‍ය එක්වූ පසු ඒවා නිවැරදි කිරීමට ගත හැකි පියවර සීමාසහිත වන නිසා එම බලපෑම මත්ස්‍යයන් ඇතුළු සමුද්‍රීය ජීවීන්ටත් මුළු මහත් සමුද්‍රීය පරිසර පද්ධතියටත් සෘජුව බලපාන අතර දේශගුණික විපර්යාස බලපෑම් දක්වා එය දිගුවනු ඇත.

නෞකා සහ යාත්‍රා දියත්වීම සහ ඒවායේ අනතුරු සාගරය දූෂණයට සෘජුව බලපා ඇති අතර පසුගියදා කොළඹට නුදුරු මුහුදේ අනතුරුට පත් නෞකාවෙන් සිදුවූ හානිය වන්දි මුදලක් මගින් තක්සේරු කළ නොහැකි බව මාගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

ඒ තුළින් අපගේ වෙරළ තීරයටත්, සාගර ජීවීන්ටත්, සාගර පරිසරයේ ජෛව විවිධත්වයට සහ ධීවර ප්‍රජාවට එල්ල කළ බලපෑම ගණනය කළ නොහැකි තරම්ය.

ගංගා හෝ ඇළ මාර්ගවලින් මෙන්ම සෘජු ලෙස නාගරික ඝන අපද්‍රව්‍ය  සාගරයට මුදා හරින බව පසුගියදා පරිසර විද්‍යාඥයන් විසින් පෙන්වා දෙන ලදි. ඒ අනුව ගත්විට වෙරළ දූෂණයට ප්‍රධානම බලපෑම එල්ල වනුයේ ඒ තුළිනි.

ප්ලාස්ටික් සහ පොලිතින් මේ ආකාරයට සාගරයට එක්වුවහොත් එමගින් ඇතිවන බලපෑම නූපන් පරපුර දක්වා දිගුවනු ඇත. මේ පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු කළ රජය මේ වසරේ දී ඝන අපද්‍රව්‍ය කළමනාකරණ කරමින් විදුලිය නිපදවීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතියක් සඳහා මූලාරම්භය තබා තිබේ.

වෙරළ තීරයේ කඩොලාන ප්‍රතිශ්ථාපනය මෙන්ම, කොරල් පර ප්‍රතිස්ථාපන වැඩසටහන් සැළකිය යුතු මට්ටමෙන් ඉදිරියට ගෙනයාමටත් පාරසරික ආරක්ෂණ ප්‍රදේශ පිළිබඳව පශ්චාත් අධීක්ෂණයන් වඩාත් කාර්යක්ෂම කිරීමටත් විෂය භාර අමාත්‍යවරයා ලෙස මම උපදෙස් දී ඇත්තෙමි.

සාගර විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක් පිහිටුමින් මෙම විෂයට තිබෙන උනන්දුව සහ සාගරය පිළිබඳව අධ්‍යනයන් ඉදිරියට ගෙන යාමට මා එදා තැබු පියවර අදට වඩා හෙට තවත් කාලෝචිත වන බව මාගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

ධීවර ප්‍රජාව ඇතුළු සමුද්‍රීය පරිසරය ජීවනෝපාය කරගත් ලක්ෂ සංඛ්‍යාත ජනතාවගේ ජීවනෝපායන් ශක්තිමත් කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ද සෘජුව බලපාන සමුද්‍රීය පරිසරය ආරක්ෂා කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ගත හැකි සෑම පියවරක්ම රජය ගන්නා බව සිහිපත් කරමි.

 ජීවිතය හා ජීවනෝපාය සාගරයයි යන මෙවර ලෝක සාගර දින තේමාව ද මේ ආකාරයට සාගරය හා බැදුණු සියලු වටිනාකම් සිහිපත් කරයි.

ඉන්දියන් සාගරයේ මුතු ඇටය ලෙස විරුදාවලිය ලත් අපේ මාතෘ භූමියේ පැවැත්ම සහ සුන්දරත්වය වෙනුවෙන් සමුද්‍රීය පරිසර පද්ධතිය ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට පෙළගැසෙමු යැයි මම ඔබට ආරාධනා කරමි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ
ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය

Ms. Chandra Fernando Educational Consultant, USA

I write to you today as a US citizen of Sri Lankan descent, a teacher trainer, child advocate, and an advocate for peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Ever since the devastation of the Asian Tsunami,

I usually spend several weeks in Sri Lanka in January and February of each year.

Since the war ended, I have participated in efforts towards reconciliation through my role as an educational consultant, teacher trainer and peacemaker. Since 2009, when the 26 year -old conflict ended, I focused my attention on reconciliation efforts through several private organizations and friends in Sri Lanka.

First, I visited a rehabilitation center for 200 former child combatants and participated in several educational and recreational activities with them. My first visit was not long after the war ended. I visited these children ages 12 to 16 with a group of teachers who worked with them every week day afternoon. At that time, I observed their sad and untrusting demeanor and witnessed their physical and mental trauma. It was heartbreaking to listen to their stories of abduction, molestation and oppression by the LTTE. This was a heart wrenching experience.

From the first time I visited these children, I was struck by the kindness and the nurturing shown to these children by the staff of the Rehabilitation Center. Most military staff who worked with them

did not wear uniforms so they could make the children feel comfortable. The Commander of the rehabilitation center although in uniform, was so kind to these children that they called him Appa” which in the Tamil language means, Father”. Men and women who cared for them took great care to make the children comfortable both physically and mentally. It was a long road to recovery; but when I went back a year later, I was stunned by the success of this rehabilitation program. In my research on the plight of child soldiers in international conflicts, I had never come across such an amazing and effective undertaking in such a short period of time.

I wanted to focus on this venture to put a very important and positive light on the handling of a very significant burden of any war. Children are the worst affected in any armed conflict. The recruitment of young children as soldiers is a brutal and dastardly act. As an American, and humanitarian, I am conscious of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Although the United States has not ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child, it is still a signatory to it. I am sure you will agree this act of barbarism is totally unacceptable in civilized societies.

I am bringing this up at this time because on several occasions, the United States has humiliated Sri Lanka by sponsoring resolutions on human rights violations, and not once did the US Government

  mention the positive measures undertaken on the ground. Not once did these resolutions recognize important child protection initiatives undertaken by the Sri Lankan Government. As an eye- witness to some of these measures on my visits to the North in the past several years, I am disappointed at the way we in the US have acted towards a nation that has finally put a stop to the daily violence by the LTTE. The pro-LTTE diaspora may have billions to lobby congress but they have the blood of innocent children on their hands.

In the past couple of years, I have been involved with other children’s projects designed to promote reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka. We have had joint educational and social projects between the children of the North and South which have resulted in many heartwarming exchanges between the Tamil and Sinhalese children. Many groups in Sri Lanka have activated wonderful opportunities for reconciliation. These efforts by both the government and private organizations need to be recognized and encouraged. The US needs to listen to those people who want a united Sri Lanka. It is time to recognize Tigers in Sheep’s clothing; the Pro-LTTE Diaspora does not have a plan for a united Sri Lanka. They have economic interests in keeping a conflict going between the two communities. The pro-LTTE diaspora are creating a wedge between the local communities for their own benefit. However, there is a large silent majority of the diaspora and the Tamil citizens in Sri Lanka who do not agree with their ideas and tactics. 

If the goal of some Western powers is to divide the country along ethnic lines, this will certainly happen. What the UNHRC rand US esolutions have achieved indirectly up to now is the creation of distrust in the Sri Lankan community. The Pro-LTTE Diaspora has been emboldened by the results of the biased resolutions and they are doing their utmost to destroy a sovereign state and its gentle people. Most of the pro-LTTE diaspora have not stepped foot on Sri Lankan soil during or after the end of the conflict. We, who have regularly visited and worked with the people of the North have a very different view of things on the ground. Using doctored-material, these divisive individuals have spread false information about the people of Sri Lanka to members of Congress and to the international community, who in turn have fallen for it Hook, Line and Sinker.

Sri Lanka has made tremendous strides since the successful end of its war against terrorism in May 2009. Since the end of the conflict, Sri Lanka has:

• Resettled 300,000 people who were displaced by the conflict;
• Invested $1 billion annually on new infrastructure to help support livelihoods and the economy, especially in conflict-affected areas;
• Rehabilitated over 1,000 former LTTE child soldiers and re-united them with their families;
• Given amnesty and job and educational training to 12,000 former LTTE terrorists who have returned to civil society;
• Held Presidential, Parliamentary and Regional elections in formally terrorist controlled areas;
• Lifted conflict-era emergency regulations that were in place for 26 years;
• Have begun to adopt the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.

            I hope you will consider the view of those of us who have no affiliation with the Government       of Sri Lanka, no connection to any political party in Sri Lanka, and no hidden agenda. As a teacher, peace advocate and one who seeks peace for ALL children of Sri Lanka and beyond, I    respectfully ask you to consider these few facts I have noted:

Ms. Chandra Fernando
Educational Consultant, USA
Member, Peace and Social Justice Committee,
The American Montessori Society
(Author, A Little Book of Peace in Sinhala, Tamil and English)

US Congress

Text – H.Res.413 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Recognizing 12 years since the end of the war in Sri Lanka on May 18, 2009, honoring the lives lost, and expressing support for justice, accountability, reconciliation, reconstruction, reparation, and reform in Sri Lanka to ensure a lasting peaceful political solution and a prosperous future for all people of Sri Lanka. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/413/text?r=1

තිස්ස ජනනායක උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

කාබනික පොහොර ආනයනයය මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රවීණ උපකාරක පන්ති දේශක තිස්ස ජනනායක මහතා තම සමාජ ජාල ගිණුමේ මේ සටහනක් තබා තිබේ.

ඔහු එමගින් පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ කාබනික පොහොර විදේශ රටවලින් ආනයනය කිරීමෙන් සිදු වන්නේ කිහිපදෙනෙකු අතට කොමිස් මුදලක් ලැබීම සහ මෙරට මුදල් විශාල ලෙස පිටරටට ඇදී යාමක් පමණක් බවයි.

ඔහු තබා ඇති සම්පූර්ණ සටහන මෙසේය.

කාබණික පොහොර ආනයනයේ අවදානම
——————————–
රසායනික පොහොර ආනයනය නැවැත්වීමට රජය ගන්නා ලද තීරණය මහත් සේ අගය කරමි.නමුත් ලංකාවේ දී ප්‍රමිතියෙන් යුත් කාබනික පොහොර නිපදවීමට අවශ්‍ය දේශගුණික හා පාරිසරික තත්වයන්ද, අවශ්‍ය අමුද්‍රව්‍ය, ශ්‍රමය හා තාක්ෂණික දැනුම උපරිමයෙන් තිබියදීත් වෙනත් රටක නාගරික අපද්‍රව්‍ය වලින් නිපදවන ලද කාබනික පොහොර ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආනයනය කිරීම පිලිබද දැඩි ලෙස විරුද්ධත්වය ප්‍රකාශ කරමි.

ක්ෂුද්‍ර ජීව විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ උපාධිධාරියෙකු ලෙස එම කාබනික පොහොර සමග ශාක හෝ සතුන්ට හානි කර අප රටේ දැනට නොපවතින ව්‍යාධිජනක දිලීර සහ බැක්ටීරියා ආදිය ලංකාවට පැමිණීමේ දැඩි අවදානමක් ඇති බව පෙන්වාදෙනු කැමැත්තෙමි.

එසේම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පවා නාගරික කැලිකසල වල බැර ලෝහ යම් ප්‍රමාණයක් අඩංගු වන අතර විදේශ රටවල (චීනය වැනි) ඊටත් වඩා බැර ලෝහ අඩංගු විය හැකි බවද සඳහන් කරමි.

රට තුළදීම රටට අවශ්‍ය කාබනික පොහොර නිපදවීම මගින් නව ව්‍යවසායකයින්ට රැකියා අවස්ථා නිර්මාණය වන අතර රටේ මුදල් පිටරටට ඇදී යාම වළකියි .

කාබනික පොහොර විදේශීය රටවලින් ආනයනය කිරීමෙන් වන්නේ කිහිප දෙනෙකුට කොමිස් මුදලක් ලැබීම සහ අපේ මුදල් විශාල වශයෙන් පිටරටවල් වලට ඇදීයාම පමණකි.

– තිස්ස ජනනායක

Article by Adam Duckett Courtesy Chemical Engineer

EXPERTS have begun modelling how oil might spill from a cargo ship that caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka and then sank.

It had been transporting toxic chemicals and plastic pallets, and efforts are now underway to clean up the pollution that is washing up on the shoreline, in what has been described as the worst beach pollution incident in Sri Lanka’s history. While there are currently no signs that fuel oil has leaked from the ship experts have begun planning how they would respond.

The X-Press Pearl caught fire on 20 May while anchored around 18 km off the port of Colombo. The ship was carrying 1486 containers, including 81 with dangerous goods. This included 25 t of nitric acid, which had been leaking before the ship reached Sri Lanka. The owner says it tried to remove the leaking container but was prevented from discharging it at ports in Qatar and India as they did not have the facilities or expertise to deal with it. All 23 crew were evacuated from the ship, and the fires were declared put out on 31 May. Despite efforts to salvage the vessel it flooded and sank.  

The ship’s cargo included caustic soda, sodium methoxide, methane and around 350 t of fuel oil. Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Agency has posted pictures of its clean-up efforts, including workers bagging up huge volumes of HDPE and LDPE plastic pallets that have washed onto beaches.  

The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), which helps respond to marine spills, estimates that 150 km of shoreline has been impacted by cargo lost from the ship. Divers have attempted to survey the integrity of the hull, and there are currently no signs of oil leaking from the ship. ITOPF is working with Oil Spill Response Limited to model a spill, and are coordinating with the Sri Lankan Navy to plan how they would respond.

Dharshani Lahandapura, Chair of Sri Lanka’s Marine Protection Authority said: “This is probably the worst beach pollution in our history,” The Hindustan Times reports.

A criminal investigation has been launched into the incident; and the Prime Minister has ordered relief for the affected fishing industry. The Guardian reports that fishing has been banned within 50 miles of the wreck.

Courtesy  swissinfo.ch

The Swiss foreign ministry says it has shipped medical supplies to Sri Lanka to help the country combat the Covid-19 pandemic.This content was published on June 7, 2021 – 18:36June 7, 2021 – 18:36swissinfo.ch/ug

The supplies include half a million antigen tests, 50 ventilators, 150 oxygen concentrators and testing material worth CHF3.5 million ($3.9 million).

An aircraft bound for Colombo left Zurich with 16 tonnes of supplies on board on Monday, according to a foreign ministry statementExternal link.

The Swiss embassy to Sri Lanka is in close contact with the local authorities to ensure that the supplies are distributed fairly and in line with humanitarian principle”, it added.

Last year, Switzerland also contributed CHF1 million to Sri Lanka’s efforts to contain the pandemic.

It is the third Covid supply mission by the Swiss Humanitarian Aid unit to a country in south-east Asia.

In recent weeks, 13 tonnes of supplies were sent to India and 30 tonnes to Nepal.

The Swiss foreign ministry says its aid unit is ready to provide as much support as it can upon request.

Courtesy Prensa Latina

Havana, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Monday sent his deep condolences to the people and Government of Sri Lanka for the victims of the floods and avalanches caused by the monsoons.
On his Twitter account, the foreign minister expressed Cubans’ solidarity and asked to convey the condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased.

Since Friday, heavy rains have hit the Sri Lankan territory, killing at least 17 people throughout the country and displacing more than 160,000.

According to the Disaster Management Center, even though the situation seemed to be improving, many districts were still flooded and an alert was maintained for possible landslides.

Local authorities and the Army are making efforts to assist the affected populations through food distribution, rescue and evacuation.

Courtesy Mailonline

The MV X-Press Pearl was carrying hundreds of tonnes of chemicals and plastics when it burned for almost two weeks just off Sri Lanka’s coast

A Sri Lankan court hearing into the fire and sinking of a container ship off Colombo was told Monday that its local agent had deleted e-mails vital to the investigation.

The Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl reported an onboard acid leak to its representative Sea Consortium Lanka who in turn failed to alert local authorities, the state prosecutor said.

He said investigators found that Sea Consortium had wiped its e-mails with the Russian skipper Tyutkalo Vitaly.

“The magistrate ordered the local agent (of the ship) to provide the originals of the e-mails from mail servers located abroad,” a court official said.

Magistrate Chalani Perera also ordered the Sri Lankan navy to protect the wreckage lying submerged just outside the Colombo port.

Sri Lankan port authorities had said they were unaware that the vessel had been leaking nitric acid since May 11, nine days before the fire started in Sri Lankan waters.

Ports in Qatar and India had refused to offload a leaking acid container which had been loaded onboard in Jebel Ali, Dubai.

Sri Lanka’s navy recovered the ship’s black box over the weekend.

The Voyage Data Recorder, also known as a maritime “black box”, was found intact and is expected to help investigators review procedures and instructions ahead of the disaster.

Sri Lankan authorities hope the black box will provide details of the ship’s movements and its communications with the Colombo harbour, where it had been due to dock.

Sri Lankan police launched a criminal investigation, interviewing Vitaly and his Chief Engineer Sadilenko Oleg and Chief Officer Peter Anish, an Indian, and seizing their passports.

Authorities are bracing for a possible oil spill from the submerged wreck. However, there has been no sign of any leaks so far, they added.

Tonnes of microplastic granules from the ship swamped an 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch of beach declared off-limits for residents. Fishing in the area has been banned.

Sri Lankan environmentalists on Friday sued the government and the ship’s operators for allegedly failing to prevent what they called the “worst marine disaster” in the country’s history.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been tasked with investigating those who are misleading the public by spreading false propaganda on social media, Police said.

Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said a special police team has been appointed to investigate such false reports.

He said the public was facing various inconveniences due to such false propaganda on social media platforms.

DIG Rohana said it is an offence punishable under Section 98 of the Police Ordinance, that if anyone disturbs the public by publishing fake news.

Meanwhile, former UNP MP Ajith P. Perera said in his Facebook post that he is ready to provide free legal aid if anyone is being harassed by the police for expressing their opinion.

He said anyone can choose any media platform to express themselves and the police do not have the power to decide what is true.

“The right to freedom of expression is a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution. You have the right to praise and criticise the government of the country in which you live and no one can usurp that right,” he said.(DSB)

Courtesy Adaderana

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa says the government aims to oppress the general public through the chemical fertilizer ban imposed without a proper plan.

Issuing a statement today (June 07), Premadasa said that it is questionable as to whether the government has conspired to make Sri Lanka ‘one of the largest Garbage Mountains in the world’.

Criticizing the government’s decision to import organic fertilizer, the leader of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) points out that while it is also against the Fauna and Flora Ordinance, these imported ‘waste fertilizer’ could spread various fungi and harmful bacteria.

The Leader of the Opposition says, ‘Un-practical Decisions taken with no scientific basis will pave the way only for much peril.’

He added that farmers and cultivators have fallen ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’ through the arbitrary decision of the government to ban the import of chemical fertilizer.

Premadasa pointed out that a new COVID-19 case cluster, too, could emerge due to the competition created to get chemical fertilizer from the market at black market prices.

Stating that the government has brought about the fear of famine in the midst of fear of disease and death, Sajith Premadasa urges the government to take immediate action to withdraw ‘such irrational and objectionable’ decisions.

The full statement issued by Sajith Premadasa:

The chemical fertilizer ban without a proper plan makes it pretty much clear that the government aims to oppress the general public rather than enable them to live. This decision that the government has taken in a hurry would unavoidably make a food shortage which could worsen up to a famine in the country. We have no objection whatsoever about improvements that need to be introduced into the use of organic fertilizer. However, soon the government will have to experience the consequences of this deadly blow delivered on the entire community life in the country by this sudden chemical fertilizer ban imposed shortsightedly.

The government claims that it is going to import organic fertilizer by banning the importation of chemical fertilizer, which would bring hazardous consequences. It is highly questionable whether the government is in a conspiracy to make our country one of the largest Garbage Mountains” in the world. Importation of these waste fertilizers could also spread out different types of fungi and harmful bacteria. These importations are also contrary to the Fauna and Flora Ordinance.

This arbitrary decision of the government is also not one taken with the backing of a sufficient supply of organic fertilizer for use in the country. Seeds planted in this country for a long period of time are used to chemical fertilizer. Un-practical Decisions taken with no scientific basis will pave the way only for much peril.

We are already witnessing negative outcomes of the fertilizer ban, which has made paddy farmers quite helpless. They remain to wait for hours in queues before Agriculture Centers for their share of fertilizer. Not only that, potato cultivators, as well as other crop cultivators, have fallen to the fire out of the frying pan due to this arbitrary decision of the government.

There is a possibility of emerging a new Corona cluster due to the competition created to get chemical fertilizer from the market at black market price. First of all, people should live, for which food becomes the most important factor. The entire world has turned out to be a Visala because of this Corona pandemic. Along with the fear of disease and death, this government has also created the fear of famine thus, bringing all three fears to the people.

According to Aristotle, Hunger and Freedom are the parents of every revolution” and, the arbitrary activities and conduct of the government will only push people towards that revolution. Government should take steps to make people live and facilitate their livelihood and, we emphasize that it should take immediate action to withdraw such irrational and objectionable decisions.”

Courtesy Adaderana

The Director-General of Health Services confirmed that Sri Lanka has reported 47 more deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday (June 07).

As per the Department of Government Information, the reported deaths had occurred between May 17 and June 07.

They are identified as residents of Elpitiya, Wathugahamulla, Dankotuwa, Marawila, Walapane, Dedigamuwa, Waththala, Matara, Hatton, Galagedara, Wellampitiya, Uragaha, Horana, Gonapola – North, Paragasthota, Gonapola, Dehiwala, Colombo 09, Thlawakele, Nuwara Eliya, Trincomalee, Alawwa, Negombo, Galle, Kalutara, Darga Town, Angoda, Naththandiya, Walahapitiya, Haburugala, Moronthuduwa –Panadura, Maho, Polgahawela, Ibbagamuwa, Kandy, Bulathsinghala, Akurana, Dehiaththakandiya, Poogoda, Dompe and Veyangoda.

Accordingly, the total number of deaths due to Covid-19 infection in Sri Lanka has risen to 1,789.