By Dr harold Gunatillake-FRCS,FICS,FIACS,AM(Sing),MB,BS (Cey) –Health editor
Hoppers described as the love-child of a crepe & crumpet. It has become a very popular street food in Sri Lanka, in big towns and rural areas. It is now considered as a special ‘super staple food’
When Australia opened doors for Southern Asians in the late fifties and early sixties, it was a great opportunity for most Sri Lankans to migrate to Australia, those who disliked SWRD’s Sinhala only within 24 hour policy”
This gave a great impetus specially for the burgher community then, contributing to the good of the country, excelling on sports, athletics, trade, law enforcement, and so on, to leave her shores for greener pastures in Australia, and the loss this enterprising community is felt, even today in that developing country. Melbourne was the place preferred by many Migrants at the time, whilst a few professionals and others settled down in Sydney. Today, if you walk along the streets of Springvale in the city of Dandenong, Glen Waverley, Noble Park, Broadmeadows, no matter which way you turn, you are bound to bump-into” a Sri Lankan with a warm smile and a greeting of, Hello Machang, how are you?”
The Sri Lankan food industry in Melbourne is flourishing like no other; both Sydney and Brisbane run a poor second. In Sydney, to enjoy treats like hoppers you need to travel many miles, there is one place called the ‘Blue Elephant” in Pennant Hills, where you need to give them prior notice.
There are a few food caterers for home parties making hoppers on a circular device where at least ten hoppers could be cooked in one go. There is one lady by the name of Kumarika” fairly famous, catering hoppers cooked on the spot for home parties, in Sydney. Ask Dallas Achilles a talented musician, settled down in Melbourne for many decades, about Sri Lankan Courtesy: Walawwarestaurants.
He would say, Those living in close proximity to Clayton are blessed with an abundance of restaurants specialising in Sri Lankan Cuisine.” His favourite spots are Walawwa Restaurant, Café Ceylon, Kites, Merqury Inn, Fab and Cake Point, La Festiva under new management serving a variety of Sri Lankan and International Cuisine, Merqury Inn may have got their spelling wrong: It should read Mercury”. Sri Lankans love Pizzas just like the way they love hoppers.
Visit La Festiva in Springvale, they serve the best special Sri Lankan flavoured Gourmet Pizza, and for their dishes like Ambul Thiyal, Chicken devilled, Curry chicken and potatoes and Lamb Korma. Then there is the Corlam Kitchen in Glen Waverley for lunch. They serve a special Awadhi Dum biriyani, also called Pukka”.
Breath in the aroma of this princely mutton biryani, cooked the royal Awadhi style, a perfect delicious meal for your lunch or dinner feast with your family and friends. This spot” is available for birthday parties, celebrations, Graduations, weddings and Anniversaries, etc. The Chef’s special at Corlam kitchen is Chilli Crabs” only a few other restaurants, if any, serve this spicy dish.
Dallas would recommend ‘The Fab Curry & Pizza in Centre Road in Bentleigh for hoppers and pizzas. This is a rather little shop” at the far end of Bentleigh’s Centre Road, and primarily a take away” Business. It is fairly rare to see a combination- Sri Lankan Shop/Restaurant which serves both Hoppers” and also a Combination Curry Pizza”
When you visit this little place, you are always welcomed by a friendly Sri Lankan lady while being overpowered, at the same time with the enticing aroma of exotic spices. Dallas says that they serve 5 hoppers, an egg hopper and a bowl of chicken, beef or fish curry with sambol for $9. There are very good reviews on this Fab Curry & Pizza joint, and a worthwhile spot for a delightful tasty cuisine experience.
Awadhi Dum BiriyaniCafé Ceylon in Centre Road, Clarinda is another eatery. On their Menu” they feature Roti, Parata, Pittu with curry, wafer and Masala Thosai with fish, beef, chicken and vegetable curries. Vegans would love to patronise this joint. The nearby restaurants are- Champion in Clayton, Clayton Fish, Merqury Inn, Clayton and Kites in Clayton.
Walawwa”- ‘The Bungalow’ at Sandown Regency, Noble Park This is a favourite Eatery”, says Dallas. The best street foods of Sri Lanka are served here, at best prices in Melbourne for $ 25, and you could enjoy all you can eat. They have a dinner buffet with live music and entertainment. They have Set Meals” too, beginning with Starters” and snacks, soups, Main dishes like savoury rice, curry pasta with small pieces of roti stir fried with spicy vegetables and cheese, Chicken seafood and deserts.
They recently organised a Baila Masala Boogie Night with live music on one Saturday There are many other restaurants owned and run by Sri Lankans in Melbourne. Ask Dallashe will direct you. Dallas mentions a good Hopper Eatery next door to Curry & Chips” It is called Yamu” owned by Upali. There are many other Eateries” by Sri Lankan chefs other areas of Melbourne and outskirts, not visited to write about. Sydney as was mentioned earlier, boasts just a few Sri Lankan eateries and not within close proximity of each other, although they DO have more Chinese Restaurants than Melbourne. Is it any wonder then, that Melbourne has been nicknamed” Little Ceylon”?
What about Sydney Sri Lankan restaurants?
Sydney is also flourishing with Sri Lankan spicy food restaurants, focused to certain suburbs, such as Toongabbie, Seven Hills, Blacktown, Parramatta, where most of the recent Sri Lankan migrants live. Sri Lankans from all over Sydney make that long drive to these treat outlets, during weekends for a hearty spicy meal, to bring back memories of the foods cooked by their mothers and archies, at home.
Colombo, April 21 (AFP): Sri Lankan authorities on Wednesday (21) expelled an Antigua-registered ship that entered the island’s territory without declaring a radioactive cargo bound for China.
The country’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Council (AERC) said the MV BBC Naples was asked to leave after it was found to be in the Chinese-run port of Hambantota on Tuesday (20) night carrying uranium hexafluoride.
The ship failed to declare its dangerous cargo – uranium hexafluoride – and we decided to order it to leave our waters immediately,” AERC director general Anil Ranjith told AFP.
The ship had come from Rotterdam but authorities did not say where in China it was headed.
Ranjith said it was an offence to enter a port without declaring the material, which is used to enrich uranium, the fuel for nuclear power stations and weapons.
Sri Lanka’s opposition leader Sajith Premadasa demanded an investigation into the incident, describing it as a serious safety threat.
The navy has not been allowed to board the vessel to carry out an inspection,” Premadasa said.
There was no immediate comment from the government.
Hambantota port was leased to China in 2017 for 99 years after the Colombo government was unable to repay $1.4 million it had borrowed from Beijing to build it.
Hambantota, about 260 kilometres (162 miles) south of Colombo, is near key Indian Ocean shipping lanes.
The entry of two Chinese submarines into Colombo in 2014 angered neighbouring India, the traditional regional power which is competing with Beijing for influence in the Indian Ocean.
Since then, Sri Lanka has not allowed Chinese submarine visits.
The reigning Mrs. World has returned her crown of her own accord after she injured the winner of the Mrs. Sri Lanka beauty pageant over the Sri Lankan winner’s marital status, organizers said on Wednesday.
The woman who ranked second in the contest, Mrs. Ireland Kate Schneider, will be granted the title instead of Caroline Jurie, they added.
Jurie was arrested by Sri Lankan police earlier this month after allegations she injured the winner of the Mrs. Sri Lanka beauty pageant during a dispute about her marital status.
Jurie has refused to apologize to Pushpika de Silva, who won the Mrs. Sri Lanka pageant on Sunday.
Minutes after the winner was announced and crowned by Jurie, Jurie claimed that de Silva was disqualified as she was divorced. She then removed the crown and placed it on the first runner-up, declaring her the new winner.
De Silva alleges that Jurie injured her while trying to remove the crown. She was recrowned on Monday by organizers, who disputed Jurie’s claims that de Silva is ineligible.
De Silva lives separately from her husband, but has not been divorced, though court proceedings are continuing.
Contestants in both the Mrs. World and Mrs. Sri Lanka are required to be married. De Silva is eligible to compete for the Mrs. World crown after winning her national title.
The Sri Lankan health minister has informed parliament that the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has led to three deaths, as well as three additional cases of non-fatal blood clotting.
Speaking to the Sri Lankan parliament on April 21, Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi explained that there had been six cases of blood clotting after the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, and this has led to three deaths.
However, the government has not said it will stop using the vaccine. In fact, the health minister noted that it would be dangerous to scaremonger on the back of this statistic.
Instead of causing fear, the minister noted that there were measures in place for the rare minority that experience issues. Speaking to the Sri Lankan parliament, Wanniarachchi explained what these are. If you have headache, sore throat or chest pain four days after the injection, you should seek medical advice. A committee of specialists has also been appointed to identify patients with chronic complications.”
During this parliamentary meeting, officials also discussed the Covid-19 rates being faced by the country. There were 367 new cases identified in the country yesterday, taking the total number of infections to 97,471. After five Covid-19 related deaths yesterday, the country has seen a total of 625 deaths from the virus.
Nearly a million people in Sri Lanka have received a dose of the AstraZeneca jab to date.
The use of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been limited in some countries due to rare blood clots. But in the UK its use has been defended by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the government. Meanwhile, the director of public health in the UK, Carole Furlong, claimed it is safer than female contraceptive pills.
By KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press Courtesy abc news
A Sri Lankan Catholic archbishop has appealed to the country’s Muslims to reject extremism and join Catholics in determining the truth behind Easter Sunday suicide bombings in 2019 that killed 269 people.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan Catholic archbishop appealed to the country’s Muslims on Wednesday to reject extremism and join Catholics in determining the truth behind Easter Sunday suicide bombings in 2019 that killed 269 people.
Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith made the appeal during a commemoration of the second anniversary of the attacks.
Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim leaders joined the commemoration at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, where the first bomb exploded during its Easter service. They offered prayers and observed a two-minute silence to remember the dead.
Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have been blamed for the six near-simultaneous blasts at two Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church and three tourist hotels.
Ranjith said players in global geopolitics and their local agents find religious extremism a useful instrument in achieving their goals.
Therefore, be brave enough to reject extremism. You fully understand that there is no connection with religion and teachings to murder,” he said.
Islamic cleric Hassan Moulana, who also spoke at the service, said Muslims around the world condemn the attacks and that Islam offers no justification for the crime. He said the Muslim community in Sri Lanka has disowned the attackers and has not allowed their bodies to be buried in its cemeteries to show their acts are not part of Islam.
He thanked law enforcement authorities for banning several extremist organizations and warned Muslims to be on alert to ensure they don’t resurface.
Most of the people connected to the groups accused of carrying out the attacks have been arrested, but Ranjith has insisted the bombings couldn’t have been planned by the leader who committed suicide in one of the attacks.
The government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who came to power later in 2019 after promising to determine the truth behind the attacks, is under pressure to find the mastermind.
It accused an Islamic cleric arrested soon after the attacks of being the organizer, but the claim has not been accepted by the Catholic Church, which suspects there was larger foreign involvement.
We are surprised that even after two years, answers to the questions of who and why and what of these attacks have not been found by the relevant authorities,” Ranjith said. We often see that there are political reasons behind some of the investigations stalling,” he added, without elaborating.
Even though we wish to forgive all these things we would like to know what really happened,” he said.
Ranjith has said a presidential commission that investigated the attacks focused on failures by those in political power at the time to prevent the bombings, instead of on finding the people who were directly responsible.
Both Muslims and Catholics are minorities in Sri Lanka, where Buddhists make up 70% of the population.
While the country moves back to normalcy with schools, universities and companies re-opening, COVID -19 cases are simultaneously increasing, making the next few weeks extremely crucial and challenging in controlling and preventing the virus, Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera warned today.
He told the media that people would have to act with a sense of responsibility in the coming weeks if they were to prevent a devastating situation.
A huge responsibility lies on people as to how they should abide by the health guidelines when they venture outside,”
“Anyway, we will have to face the music for the irresponsible behavior of people during the festive season taking the health rules for granted. Consequently, several clusters of COVID-19 cases are being reported from different parts of the country,” he stressed.
However, we are not too late to prevent huge clusters from emerging in the country. What people have to do is to restrict unnecessary movement and strictly follow the health guidelines. If we failed to do so, it would again badly affect our economy, education of students and our day-to-day activities,” he added.
He also requested people to immediately seek medical treatment whenever COVID symptoms emerged and to refrain from mingling with society.
Meanwhile, he said the second dose of the COVISHILD vaccine would be given to the recipients of the first dose from the first week of May.
President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, appearing on behalf of President’s Secretary P.B. Jayasundara in the intervening petition on the Port City Economic Commission Bill, told the Supreme Court that the acts of the Colombo Port City Commission could be also subjected to judicial review and the aggrieved parties could file Fundamental Rights petitions or take legal measures if there is any matter occurred within the Commission.
He also informed the bench that he would recommend making amendments to it.
Making the submission on behalf of his client, he told Court that enforcement or set aside certain clauses under the chapter 7 of the Arbitration Act would be recommended to the Bill as an amendment.
The acts of the Colombo Port City Commission can also be subject to judicial review and parties can file Fundamental Rights petitions or can take legal measures if there is any matter occurred within the Commission,” he told the Court.
However, Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya pointed that the main objections were made by the petitioners regarding to the Section 63(2) of the Colombo Port City Commission Bill.
Making further submissions, de Silva PC said that 99% of the money earned by the project goes to the Consolidated Fund.
The Government get the money by leasing the land without spending a single amount and by leasing the land the country will receive 99% of the profit within the period of June 2023 to June 2028. After this period the Government will receive the total 100% profit by leasing the land and the amount will transfer to the Consolidated Fund,” Mr. de Silva said.
He further added that total land comes within the purview of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission and the members of the Commission appointed by the President.
However, Justice Murdu Fernando questioned Mr. de Silva as to whether the leased land managed by the Commission would be handed over to the Project Company in the future.
Replying to the question raised by Justice Fernando, Mr. de Silva said that point have to be checked with leasing conditions and he could not comment on that matter at the moment.
He also added that in the Bill it was not mentioned Provincial Council authority over the land and it was not necessary to mention it since the land falls under administrative district of Western Province.
Archbishop of Colombo Cadinal Malclom Ranjith today urged the Muslim community in Sri Lanka to rise up against those who try to instrumentalise Islam for their own purposes.
Rise up and defend yourself against those who try to instrumentalise Islam to fulfil their own purposes. Oppose Wahabism and organizations that promote such ideologies. This is my special request from the Muslim,” Cardinal Ranjith said at a program held to mark the second anniversary of deadly Easter Sunday attacks.
There would not have been any issue today if the Muslim community rose up strongly against extremism when the Easter attack took place. It seems that they did not rise up against extremism till yesterday. With the remarks made by Mawalavi Haashim Mawlana it is clear that Muslims reject extremism. These attacks such as the Easter Sunday mayhem is not what it claims they are but much more than what they are and that is why I make this request from the Muslim community,” the Cardinal added
We should know who carried out the attack and for what purpose and whether they repent what they did if they are to be forgiven. We must remember that we must not hit back at our distractors. We should not forget the support and solidarity shown by our Buddhist brothers. It is important that religions work with one another and not against each other,” he said
Burying the truth and embracing is not a part of Jesus Christ’s teachings. We will continue our struggle to get to know what really happened when it comes to the Easter attack. It is surprising that the investigations are carried out to suit day to day fortunes,” he also said.
Venerable Omalpe Sobith Thera who also participated in the ceremony said CID should investigate as to what had become of the Rs. one billion received from the Muslim organization three months after the Easter Sunday attacks. He said both the government and the religious leaders are duty bound to bring about unity. It is the duty of the government to ensure the security of the people as per the teachings of Buddha. The previous regime totally failed in this duty while the present regime is not fulfilling it adequately,” he said.
Sri Lanka has decided to postpone launching the proposed travel bubble” with India, in the wake of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in India, officials at the Indian Ministry of Tourism said.
We are just postponing the bubble, this is not a cancellation. When things get better in India, we look forward to launching the travel bubble,” an official at the Ministry told The Hindu. Sri Lanka has been preparing to open up the country for tourists in phases as earnings from the sector, a crucial foreign exchange earner, fell steeply in the pandemic year.
Special flights
Less than two weeks ago, the Civil Aviation Ministry in India announced setting up a bilateral air bubble” arrangement with Sri Lanka for operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries.
According to official sources, New Delhi had also conveyed to Colombo its interest in welcoming an inaugural flight from Sri Lanka to the Kushinagar airport in Uttar Pradesh that was recognised as an international airport last year.
The two governments have discussed ways to enhance connectivity with the airport to help Buddhist pilgrims in Sri Lanka visit important religious sites in India. Once the pandemic situation eases, we will be able to finalise that,” the official said.
Tourist source
India accounts for one of the highest sources of tourists in Sri Lanka. Following the virus outbreak in March last year, Sri Lanka closed its borders and reopened it only in December 2020, stipulating protocols for on-arrival testing, quarantine and travel within the country. Witnessing a gradual increase in the last four months, Sri Lanka recorded 4,581 tourists from select countries in March 2021. Just before the pandemic hit, Sri Lanka received 2,28,434 tourists in January 2020 and the highest percentage of arrivals was from India, at 18 %.
Sri Lanka has over 3,000 active cases of Covid-19, after reporting nearly 100,000 cases in total, and more than 600 fatalities. Public health experts have cautioned the public about a possible new wave of infections.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Airlines, the country’s national carrier, had planned to restart operations to several Indian cities, to create the travel bubble. With the surge in infections in India, the plans have been put on hold for now, a spokesman said.
Five more persons who were infected with COVID-19 have died, as Sri Lanka’s death toll reached 630, Director-General of Health Services confirmed today (April 21).
Details of the latest victims of coronavirus infection are as follows:
01. A 75-year-old man from Sewanagala area: He had been under medical care at the Embilipitiya Base Hospital when he tested positive for the virus. He was later transferred to Colombo North Teaching Hospital where he died on April 18. The cause of death was reported as COVID pneumonia, sepsis and acute kidney injury.
02. An 80-year-old man from Ja-Ela area: He passed away on April 19 while receiving treatment at the Colombo North Teaching Hospital. COVID pneumonia, heart failure and acute kidney injury were identified as the cause of death.
03. A 57-year-old man from Kelaniya area: He died at Colombo North Teaching Hospital on April 20. The cause of death was reported as COVID pneumonia, sepsis shock and acute kidney injury.
04. A 66-year-old man from Ratnapura area: He was transferred to Homagama Base Hospital from Ratnapura Teaching Hospital after testing positive for the virus. He died on April 19 due to COVID pneumonia, diabetes and dyslipidemia.
05. A 39-year-old from Gampaha area: He was tested positive while receiving treatment at a private hospital in Colombo. He was then moved to National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) where he died on April 20. Sepsis shock from COVID pneumonia was identified as the cause of death.
The Ministry of Health says that a decision has been taken to conduct at least 15,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests per day in the country.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Special Review Task Force of the Health Ministry, held under the patronage of Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi.
Three individuals who had received the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Sri Lanka have died of blood clotting, Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi told the Parliament today (April 21).
In response to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, the Health Minister stated that Sri Lanka has reported a total of six cases of blood clotting among those who were administered the AstraZeneca jabs.
Several countries including Norway, Thailand, Austria and Iceland temporarily suspended the rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine, but have now resumed the procedure. Meanwhile, Denmark recently announced that it would permanently stop administering AstraZeneca jabs.
Speaking further, Minister Wanniarachchi stressed that according to the health experts of the World Health Organization no direct links between the AstraZeenca vaccine and blood clotting have been found.
As per the estimates, blood clotting incidents were reported only in 4 – 6 people per million, the Health Minister added.
She went on to note that the World Health Organization has approved the administration of AstraZeneca vaccine.
The government has introduced a special 24-hour hotline (0112 3415989) for the members of the public to inform the authorities if they are suffering from any discomfort or side-effects after receiving the vaccine, Minister Wanniarachchi added.
Before
start work in Colombo Port City, I published several articles explaining how it
positively impacts the economy of Sri Lanka. The concept of port city
development has been attracted in many countries and some are successful others
are not successful as expected. Sri Lanka needs to invent new strategies for
its development and growth and, the port city may be one that could be
successfully used with many limits.
Before beginning it was a dream when it graduating a reality many
antagonisms emerged with different political opinions and unknown forces and
motives. When looks at many criticisms
of different personnel it shows that people have no good understanding of the
concept many are groping in dark. The highest risk associated with the concept
of the port city is economic socks which may come from internally or externally
in the future due to various reasons especially economic reasons. The government of Sri Lanka must plan how to
absorb socks and otherwise, the entire country may relegate to obscurities or
it may be a colony of bondholders. Many critics have not clearly explained this
situation people to understand.
The
Colombo Port City development should be in the way how Hong Kong had been
developed under British rule. Investors might not interest in the negative
attitudes of some people. The priority of investors in the port city will be
returns for the investment and the government needs developing policies for
satisfying investors. Some people may have an opinion that investors should
donate money, it would not happen. If
the government attempts to satisfy opposition it would not be an economic
development project and it should be a social service project.
Hong
Kong project had many features and even money laundering activities may have
befallen as a result of development and it is difficult to implement a project
which purely associates with saints’ activities. The administration process
needs to develop sharp teeth control malpractices. The opposition critics have
not questioned the control process and its strength the preventing malpractice.
However, the government has no purpose
to devote the project money laundering purposes, and when the project
monitoring if it identifies money laundering activities the government can
cover loopholes through amending legislation. This is the general practice in
the world.
The
other vital aspect is the government should plan to retire the debt burden
using the benefits of the port city and a higher rate of revenue generated from
the city must use for investment in the rural economy. People have no idea about has the government
planned for these purposes and as long as the government hides its plan the
port city will be a talking point of opposition and other analysts. The concept
of a port city should not give a negative message to people and it needs support
from people. When it looks at the history of Hong Kong’s development it cannot
find information that Chinese people had been considering the points that
opposition is looking at now in Sri Lanka. The attitudes of Sri Lankans are
criticizing matters that are unknown to them rather than studying points. Criticisms
are seeming to be assumptions, but not realities. The reality of the Colombo
Port city project could be known after five years. People must understand that
there is a global competition to attract investment and those who give more
encouragements to investors they would choose to invest.
The
most significant aspect of the project is what is the projected revenue and how
it planned to spend the revenue. This
information has not been presented to the public. According to my views, 25% of
revenue should be invested in rural infrastructure development, and 50% of
revenue must use to increase the volume of foreign reserves of Sri Lanka. If
75% of revenue will be generated from the project uses for the two areas it
would support solving structural problems of the country. The balance of 25% could be used to retire
debt. If this way uses the revenue from the project the Colombo Port City would
generate positive outcomes for Sri Lanka.
Compared
to many projects in the world, the Colombo Port city project is tiny and it is
opening the economy outside. Total employment opportunities would be generated
might be less than 25000 and it will not be a massive project that will be the
solution to all economic problems of the country. As it is reported that the
economic growth of China would be more than 15% in this year there is no doubt
the Chinese economy will be double within five years and Sri Lanka should
attract more benefits from Chinese growth and it should work like Taiwan to
strengthen the economy.
India
and Western countries may not like this vision and they aren’t like to possible
changes incur to Sri Lanka with the support of China and they may have
displeased toward Sri Lanka. However, the Colombo Port City Project will be
beneficial to India where can accommodate project supports and other services
such as exports to Sri Lanka. Therefore, India must look at the port city
development project as an indirect incentive for the country.
April 21, 2019 is destined to be marked as a date which will
live in infamy.
Paraphrasing President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he
delivered the famous infamy speech on December 08, 1941 soon after the attack
on Pearl Harbour by Japan,,
posterity may well designate April 21, 2019 as the
Blackest day and the ‘ Pearl Harbour’ moment in the contemporary history of Sri
Lanka.
A total of 267 people were killed, including at least 45
foreign nationals,three police officers, and eight bombers, and at least 500
were injured. Three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo were
targeted in a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist bombings.
This is the Second Death Anniversary of the biggest mass murder
on a single day in Sri Lankan History. It should be a day of reflection for
everyone living in this country and everyone of Sri Lankan origin living
overseas.
Where did we go wrong? How did this happen? are searching
questions many will ask.
It was a watershed moment. Those who had lived on a diet
of Multi- culteralism and Reconciliation, especially the security
forces were deluded to drop their guard and encouraged to do so by the
country’s top political leaders eternally greedy for the votes of the country’s
ethnic and religious minorities.
For Reconciliation to succeed there must be sincerity between
the contending groups. It will never succeed if one party is driven by the
scriptures and their belief system to look down on disbelievers and use
violence on them, if need be.
Zaharan and his co – suicide bombers were acting perfectly in
tune with their convictions of what their belief system and the holy scriptures
had wanted them to do as a matter of duty against the disbelievers.
In their twisted belief system there was no space for the
non – Muslim. Either you convert or you die.
It must be said that the vast majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka
are peace loving and have lived in harmony side by side with non –
Muslims.
Nothing should happen to them and they should be fully protected
by the State.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry conducted a thorough
probe, interviewed a large number of witnesses, including Cabinet
Ministers.
During the evidence gathering a Senior Police Officer has said
that about 15,000 people mostly from the Eastern Province had fore knowledge of
the impending attack. Almost all the Muslim Ministers probably knew of it and
several of them are believed to be ardent supporters of Zaharan.
The conflict between believers and disbelievers which is spelled
out in the Islamic scriptures and highly pronounced in the traditional Muslim
countries, has now entered Sri Lanka in a dramatic fashion.
The violence directed against disbelievers, their places of
worship e.g. attack on the Buddha Statue in Mawanella on December 25, 2018 are
all interconnected and can no longer be ignored except at the risk to one’s
life and the lives of dear ones of the disbelievers.
The aim of some radical groups in Abrahamic faiths is to achieve
in the current Theravada Buddhist countries the same result achieved in the
past thousand years in several former Buddhist countries of displacing Buddhism
and replacing it with either Islam (or Christianity)
Maldives, East Pakistan now Bangladesh, Indonesia, Afghanistan,
Malaya, Bactria, Taxila, were once Buddhist States.
But no longer.
Buddhism has lost much ground to Abrahamic religions in Buddhist
Asia.
The existentialist fears therefore among Buddhists in Asia are
quite legitimate and valid.
The security forces of the country must now become pro – active
instead of being reactive as in the past.
The country cannot afford another Easter Sunday Massacre.
Innocent disbelievers must be protected from violence at the
hands of radical believers of Islam who carry out even extreme commands set out
in their scriptures without a critical reflection.
Shirley D’Alwis, the first University Architect, died in harness. He was working day and night to complete the job entrusted to him – the preparation of the buildings he had designed and started constructing – for the university to be shifted to its intended site in Peradeniya. After a long and protracted battle of the sites” fought in the legislature and in the media, the State Council had finally decided in September 1938 that the proposed University of Ceylon was to be a unitary and residential university and that it should be sited in the land to be acquired from the New Peradeniya Estate, a tea and rubber plantation on the lower Hantana range on the banks of Mahaveli Ganga. It was a picturesque site with the tree clad hilly terrain sloping down from the Hantana range to the river bank.
The colonial administration in Ceylon enlisted the services of Sir Patrick Abercrombie, an eminent British architect who was serving in the Royal Institute of British Architects, to create the site plan for the university which he did tastefully, with an eye for a classical site design, obviously having Greek precedents in mind. It was such a wonderful site plan, created with such imagination that Sir Ivor Jennings, who had arrived in the island to take over the job of establishing a university was stunned by the envisaged architectural magnificence. Now let us hear this from Sir Ivor himself:
The first public holiday after my arrival in Ceylon in March 1941 was Good Friday and I seized the opportunity to pay my first visit to Peradeniya. I went alone and told nobody I was going…..I drove along the Old Galaha Road until I reached the plateau we now call the Convocation Hill. Climbing through the incipient jungle was no easy matter and I knew not whether there were snakes. Sitting on a tree stump on the banks of the Mahaveli Ganga I spread Sir Patrick Abercrombie’s site plan before me. I began at last to see the magnificence of the scheme. There was no doubt about it. Mr. D.R.Wijewardene was right. This would be a great university.” (The Road to Peradeniya, p.178)
Sir Ivor wanted to see the site from other angles as well and he crossed the river and went to the area where the New Gampola Road was being built. I climbed up to the railway bridge and walked along to Nanu Oya. It is from that point where the New Gampola Road is being driven through, that the finest view of the site may be obtained. In a few years’ time the view from the Nanu Oya Bridge will be one of the most famous in the world.” ( italics added)
That was Sir Ivor’s heartfelt view. He was categorical in stating that this would be one of the most beautiful university campuses in the world. Furthermore, the statement shows his great enthusiasm and the fervent hopes he had for the university he was going to create.
Let us now come back to our tribute to the man who built the university.”I borrow this phrase from Sir Ivor’s Obituary on Shirley D’Alwis which was published in the Ceylon Daily News of 24 September 1952. I quote below the last paragraph of Sir Ivor’s tribute:
He will have his monument which will last to the end of time. We often spoke of what would happen in a hundred years, not as an exercise in imagination, but as part of our normal jobs, for he was as conscious as the members of the University of the permanence of University institutions. He died knowing that centuries hence young men and women of his own people would ask themselves ‘who built this University’ and that since Universities are proud of their history and do not let it die, somebody would answer, ‘A man named Shirley D’Alwis’.” (Italics added)
In the tribute above to Shirley D’Alwis, it is clear that the ‘monument’ Sir Ivor mentions, refers to the University buildings themselves. We know from another source, namely, Ian Goonetillleke’sForeword to The Road to Peradeniya that Sir Ivor was known to his own family as a man who never displayed his emotions.” But obviously he was moved by the sudden demise of Shirley D’Alwis whose creative genius and untiring toil he would have admired. No doubt therefore, Sir Ivor would have taken the lead in proposing and constructing the sober and dignified monument in D’Alwis’ honour that is situated at the first roundabout in the Peradeniya Campus.
Heritage
In Peradeniya we have an architecturally proud set of buildings worthy of the traditions of this country and Shirley D’Alwis goes down in the history of modern architecture in Sri Lanka as the pioneer in blending the past with the present in architectural designing. Independent Sri Lanka in the post 1948 era was in fervent search of traditions and in restoring the cultural links we had lost during colonial times. We were looking for national idioms in painting, music, theatre and so on. Monumental works such as the drama Maname appeared only in the mid 1950’s. But Shirley D’Alwis had successfully recovered the strands of ancient architectural tradition way back in the 1940’s when we were preparing for independence.
Shirley D’Alwis was educated at S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Laviniaand proceeded to the University of Liverpool from where he obtained his training as an architect. He joined the Public Works Department in Sri Lanka on his return from the U.K.
Intellectuals in Sri Lanka in the early decades of the 20th century were agitating for the establishment of a university so that the young men and women of the country could receive their tertiary education in the country itself instead of going abroad for the purpose, which only a few could afford to do. Furthermore, the leaders of the university movement like Ananda Coomaraswamy, D.B Jayatilleke and Ponanbalam Arunachalam were keen that the envisaged university would be a repository of learning worthy of the cultural heritage of the land.
In order to address these agitations, the colonial government established a University College”, as an affiliate of the University of London in 1921. This was an interim measure. The subject of a national university was debated in the country’s legislature and as mentioned earlier, the Peradeniya site was finally selected.
It was in this context that Sir Patrick’s services were obtained by the colonial authorities in 1940 to prepare the site plan. Thereafter the Public Works Department of Ceylon was entrusted with the work of designing and constructing the University buildings and in 1946, ShirleyD’ Alwis of the PWD was appointed the University Architect”. This was a decision that proved to be a momentous one, for what D’ Alwis created became, in itself a symbol of Sri Lanka’s potential for creating anew from the foundations which we had inherited from the past.
National Identity
Writing about Ceylon’s first University” in 1948 (to The Souvenir 0f the Pageant of Lanka’) Shirley D’ Alwis calls the site an Amphitheatre of hills dominated by the majestic Hantana range…. An inspiring one with its rushing boulder hewn torrents, its highly moulded hills and varied foliage.”
Shirley D’ Alwis was trained in Liverpool , just as Sir Patrick had been, and his teacher was Sir Charles Reilly. By this time Shirley had already obtained his Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects. But above all he was inspired to look for indigenous models for the buildings he was to design for the first national university of Ceylon – which was on the threshold of independence in a few years to come.
D’ Alwis says in his article that the dominant note in the lay-out is the traditional Sinhalese openness and spaciousness as found in Anuradhapura” He adds further, Anuradhapura has often been quoted as showing the same freedom of grouping and planning as Ancient Greece. There is the same delight in the naturalistic setting, the same desire to place in it formal units of buildings in sharp contrast, but so freely and nicely placed so that the irregularity of the site is not lost”.
In fact he was thinking mostly of the Maha Vihara area, and perhaps the Vessagiriya site as well. But if we think further, isn’t the same dominant features of siting and the effortless blending with the natural surroundings apparent in Sigiriya, another creation of the Anuradhapura architects who were employed by King Kassapa in the 5th century. What is most striking in this context is the fact that D’Alwis with his sensitive feel for the national heritage, was able to identify the essential features of architectural designing in what has been called The golden age of Sinhalese art”
The university Architect was keen that the buildings he was designing should be sited, taking full advantage of what nature had provided in abundance in Peradeniy. The whole site was landscaped and turned into magnificent open glades planted with foliage, fruit and flowering trees”. Also, the valleys are planted with ferns and in the streamlets which fussily flow in them cascades and waterfalls have been designed. Occasionally a stream is trapped to form a pond where water lily and the lotus thrive.” All this goes to explain how much trouble the architect took to design a beautiful campus in which man made structures blend harmoniously with what nature could provide. I cannot help making the observation that even after so many years of neglect and unconcern about the care with which the University Park was conceived and constructed, a visitor could still enjoy the beauty of the place.
While D’ Alwis knew that going back to the roots was a desirable principle as a whole, he was aware of the pitfalls involved. He was alive to the need to cater to modern requirements. He added therefore to bedeck such essentially modern buildings with a thin veneer of archeological detail, would produce a grotesque sham.” He therefore chose to turn to the grand monuments of ancient Sri Lanka for inspiration, for which he had the freedom as the university architect. We learn from other sources that money was not a problem,as the university project received the fullest support from the Minister of Works, J.L Kotalawela and the Leader of the House D.S Senanayake who was soon to be the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon. It was Sir Ivor’s personal contact with these powerful politicians that helped in the matter. (K.M de Silva, D.S.Senanayake : A Political Biography. 2017 p-86)
It became necessary” wrote D Alwis, to turn to the mighty dagobas standing in their paved platforms” to design the larger buildings. If we are to mention some of these buildings designed by Shirley D Alwis’, the star products of his inspired designing are the Senate building and the A Room (Arts Theatre), and the B Room of the Arts Faculty. If we go by the drawings that are available, the Convocation Hall (which he designed but never came into being) was in the same grand design. The Senate building is raised on granite pillars – following the designing of the Lova Maha Paya, the Brazen Palace of Anuradhapura. The B Room with its double pitched roof typical of Kandyan architecture, is so pleasing in its appropriate blending of parts big and small and its pleasant overall effect that it reminds me of a classical poem such as the Selalihini Sandesaya.
The Mulachari
In my view, Shirley D’ Alwis was the first modern architect in Sri Lanka to attempt expressing the national identity through his architectural designs. He was persistent in his search for the most fitting feature for this or that detail in his buildings. For example, the grills in the Halls of Residence and the Senate building are reminiscent of some grills found in the Vata Da Ge, buildings of Medirigiriya and Polonnaruva.We can see the utilization of the Gajasinghe balustrades, the Koravak Gal and the railing motifs of Anuradhapura in the bridge spanning the Kuda Oya (near Arunachalam Hall) and so on. His sense of appropriateness, the principle of aucitya in Sanskrit aesthetics, was such that there is never any inappropriate blending of these classical motifs. One can only marvel at this man’s highly refined taste. (I think a separate illustrated volume should be compiled dealing with a detailed description of his art.) Even on the last day of his life he was planning to go to Anuradhapura to check on a certain structural detail he wanted to include in a certain building. Sir Ivor writes in the Annual Report for 1952, where he reports Shirley’s death (an unusual step, for the Vice Chancellor prefixes his report with the phrase Although he was not an employee of the university we should report the death of the University Architect, Shirley D’ Alwis”). According to Sir Ivor, he was working in the VC’s office when an urgent call came from the office of the University Architect, to where he rushed and found D’Alwis collapsed while at work. He was conscious, and his last words were some indistinct references to ‘my buildings’. This was the man who worked day and night to provide for us a set of buildings which, as things of beauty, will remain a joy for ever.”
In his autobiography, referring to the work of constructing the buildings in Peradeniya, Sir Ivor often writes about the laborious processes involved because there was hardly any modern machinery and work was mostly through manual labour. We must remember that D’Alwis was assigned the job in 1946 and was expected to complete it within a few years. Obviously, keeping to deadlines as the University Architect was compelled to do, would have pressed heavily on D’Alwis. At first the deadline was 1950, then it was postponed to early, 1952 and then to mid ’52 and finally to September when the most substantial shifting from Colombo took place with the students of the Faculties of Oriental Studies and Arts coming into residence, and the establishment of the Vice Chancellor’s office in Peradeniya . But D’Alwis did not live to witness that day.
The term mulachari refers, as we learn from Ananda Coomaraswami’s Medieval Sinhalese Art, to the the chief architect.” Here we are reminded of the legendary Devendra Mulachari who is accredited with the construction of the Magul Maduwe, audience hall of the Kandyan kings. If Shirley D’ Alwis was alive today, deeply respectful as he was for our cultural heritage, I believe that he would have loved this epithet being used after his name.
Acts of Vandalism
While dealing with the monumental contribution of Shirley D’Alwis I need to draw the attention of concerned readers to two acts of vandalism on the original plan that occurred in recent years. Although Sir Ivor believed that normally universities are proud of their histories”, some of the later university communities of Peradeniya, have been both ignorant and negligent of the proud history of their university. Why I call them ‘ acts of vandalism’ will be apparent when the reader goes through the accounts I have given. The first was the usurpation in mid 1990’s of the site that was designated for the Convocation Hall. D’Alwis wrote in 1948 …the University buildings are grouped in a logical sequence of academic function. The Convocation Hall was the climax of the group as it is for the students’ academic career. The dominating feature of the site is the plateau, which has been treated as the acropolis on which the principal buildings stand- the Convocation Hall at one end the Library at the other – connected by the long Administrative Building.”
The logical sequence is obvious: After studying in the Faculty and obtaining intellectual enrichment in the library, which is the repository of learning, the student goes through the examinations, facilitated by the administration, and he/she reaches the climax of the student career, the obtaining of the Degree which is formally awarded in the Convocation Hall. This highly appropriate‘ logical sequence’ envisaged by the original planners was wantonly shoved aside to build an extension to the Senate Building which is ugly inside as well as outside and totally incongruous with the dignified classical beauty found in the original section.
The second instance of vandalism, as I call it, came in the early years of the 21st century with the infantile ‘modernization’ of the Senate Room which brazenly destroyed the principles on which D’ Alwis based his work. The Senate Building was purposely designed on the principle of using natural ventilation which the Anuradhapura architects utilized so effectively in the Brazen Palace. Placed as it is parallel to the Mahaweli Ganga and the Hantane Mountain Range, the long administrative building raised on granite pillars, has, at its centre (on the second floor) the Senate Room. Here, when the large windows were open on either side, the winds wafting from the Mahaweli Ganga on the South and the breezes from the Hantane Range on the North would mingle to create natural ‘Air Conditioning’ as D’ Alwis would have intended. We who were fortunate enough to sit in that room, prior to the sealing off of the windows with blinds drawn, and the installation of artificial air conditioning, can only nostalgically think of the shutting off of a beautiful view and fresh air which was our privilege in the past.
Now I have to go back again to Sir Ivor, who had stated quite innocently, since universities are proud of their histories.” Was he mistaken as far as his own creation, Peradeniya was concerned? The above acts of vandalism seem to indicate that we have at times been remiss in this regard. In 2017, when we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Peradeniya, I can only have this pious hope: let the Peradeniya University Community wake up even now and start being concerned about their rich and unique heritage.
When we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the University of Ceylon (Peradeniya), there is another note that has to be added, particularly with reference to Sir Ivor’s remarks about Shirley D’ Alwis being fortunate enough to have a monument to remember him. Now in this Diamond Jubilee year, the grateful university community has made arrangements to erect a statue to commemorate Sir Ivor Jennings, the founder Vice Chancellor of this University. We should add something more. Not only is he the Founder Vice Chancellor of the first national university of our country, but he is also the father of University education in Sri Lanka and worthy of being commemorated by every university in our country.
A NOTE: The writer [dharmadasa.kno@gmail.com] gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mr. N.T.A de Alwis, former Deputy Librarian in Peradeniya, in tracing the Obituary of Shirley D’Alwis by Sir Ivor Jennings
Ivor Jennings’ final walk through Peradeniya Campus, 1954(?) and a statue recognizing his central palace in its conception & design at the
image captionSushil Kumar Srivastava was photographed sitting in his car, strapped to an oxygen cylinder in Lucknow city
India is reeling under a severe second wave of Covid-19 and many states are struggling to cope with the rising numbers. Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is among the worst affected in the country and its people are suffering even as authorities insist the situation is under control, reports the BBC’s Geeta Pandey.
Kanwal Jeet Singh’s 58-year-old father Niranjan Pal Singh died on Friday in an ambulance while being ferried from one hospital to another. They had been turned away by four hospitals for a lack of beds.
“It was a heart-wrenching day for me,” he told me on the phone from his home in Kanpur city. “I believe if he had received treatment on time, he would have lived. But no-one helped us, the police, the health authorities or the government.”
With a total of 851,620 infections and 9,830 deaths since the pandemic began last year, Uttar Pradesh had not done too badly during the first wave that ravaged many other states. But the second wave has brought it to the brink.
Authorities say the situation is under control. But disturbing images of overcrowded testing centres, hospitals turning away patients and funeral pyres burning round the clock at cremation grounds in the state capital, Lucknow, and other major cities such as Varanasi, Kanpur and Allahabad have made national headlines.
With 240 million people, Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state. Home to every sixth Indian, if it was a separate country, it would be the fifth largest by population in the world, just behind China, India, US and Indonesia – and bigger than Pakistan and Brazil.
The state is also politically India’s most important – it sends the largest number of MPs – 80 – to parliament, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, although from another state, contests from here. However, this political influence has brought it little development.
The state has 191,000 active cases at the moment and thousands of new infections are being reported daily – though numbers are believed to be much higher – and this has put the state’s creaky health infrastructure firmly in the spotlight.
Among the sick are the state’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, several of his cabinet colleagues, dozens of government officials and hundreds of doctors, nurses and other health workers.
Over the past few days, I have spoken to dozens of people from across the state, and heard grim stories.
Videos shared by a local journalist in Kanpur show a sick man lying on the ground in the parking lot of the government-run Lala Lajpat Rai hospital. A little distance away, an elderly man sits on a bench. They are both positive for Covid, but the hospital has no beds to accommodate them.
Outside the government-run Kanshiram hospital, a young woman wept as she said that two hospitals had refused to admit her sick mother.
“They’re saying they have run out of beds. If you don’t have a bed, put her on the floor, but at least give her some treatment. There are lots of patients like her. I’ve seen several people like me being turned away.
“The chief minister says there are adequate beds, please show me where they are. Please treat my mother,” she said, sobbing inconsolably.
‘No-one came’
The situation in the capital, Lucknow, is equally dire.
Sushil Kumar Srivastava was photographed sitting in his car, strapped to an oxygen cylinder while his desperate family drove him from one hospital to another. By the time they found a bed for him, it was too late.
When I called his son Ashish, he said he was too devastated to talk. “You know what’s happened. I’m in no condition to talk,” he said, his voice breaking.
Retired judge Ramesh Chandra’s handwritten note in Hindi, requesting help after the authorities failed to remove his wife’s body from their home, was shared by hundreds of people on social media.
“My wife and I are both corona positive. Since yesterday morning, I called the government helpline numbers at least 50 times, but no-one came to deliver any medicines or take us to hospital.
“Because of the administration’s laxity,” he wrote, “my wife died this morning.”
Personally, it’s come as no surprise to me that the state is struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic as it wreaks havoc on its people.
For years, I have despaired at the poor medical facilities in the state – it’s where my ancestral village is located and I know the struggles of finding a doctor or an ambulance even in normal times.
With a raging pandemic, the struggles have become harder.
In the holy city of Varanasi, which is also PM Modi’s constituency, long-time resident Vimal Kapoor, whose 70-year-old mother Nirmala Kapoor died from Covid in a hospital last Thursday, described the situation as “bhayavah” – frightening.
“I have seen too many people dying in ambulances. Hospitals are turning away patients because there are no beds, chemists have run out of essential Covid drugs, and oxygen is in short supply.”
Mr Kapoor said when he took his mother’s body to the cremation ground, he encountered a “lashon ka dher” – a pile of bodies. The cost of wood for the pyre has gone up three times and the wait for a spot for cremation has risen from 15-20 minutes to five-six hours.
“I have never seen anything like that before. Wherever you look, you see ambulances and bodies,” he said.
image captionCrematoriums in Lucknow have been busy with funeral pyres burning round the clock
Stories of deaths and families devastated by Covid-19 abound as infections continue to gallop – on Sunday, the state recorded 30,596 new cases, it’s highest-ever single-day tally.
Even that, activists and opposition politicians say, does not give a true picture of the infection’s spread. They accuse the state of keeping its case and death count low by not testing enough and not including data from private laboratories.
And there seems merit in their claim. Many people I spoke to said either they had failed to get tested or their positive results had not been uploaded on the state government site. From Lucknow, 62-year-old Ajay Singh sent me his wife’s positive test report which finds no mention in the state records.
And neither Mr Singh who died in Kanpur, nor Mrs Kapoor’s mother who perished in Varanasi, were included in the state’s tally of pandemic casualties – their death certificates did not mention coronavirus as the cause of death.
Indian media has also questioned the government data – with reports of a mismatch between the official number of deaths and the bodies at crematoriums in Lucknow and Varanasi.
Anshuman Rai, director of Heritage Hospitals – a private group that runs medical collages and hospitals in the state – describes the situation as “extraordinary”.
“The reason why services are cracking is because too many health workers, including doctors, nurses, ward boys and lab technicians are falling sick.
“At a time when we should be working 200%, we are not even able to do 100% because the health sector is totally manpower dependent.”
Critics, however, blame the state and the federal government for failing to anticipate the second wave.
They say there was a lull between September and February when the health services and infrastructure could have been augmented, the state could have created oxygen banks and stocked up on medicines, but they squandered the opportunity.
And with the virus spreading rapidly, things are unlikely to get better anytime soon.
image captionFamily members of a person who died of Covid-19 react during a cremation
In early March, India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan declared the country was “in the endgame” of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Vardhan also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership as an “example to the world in international co-operation”. From January onwards, India had begun shipping doses to foreign countries as part of its much-vaunted “vaccine diplomacy”.
Mr Vardhan’s unbridled optimism was based on a sharp drop in reported infections. Since a peak of more than 93,000 cases per day on average in mid-September, infections had steadily declined. By mid-February, India was counting an average of 11,000 cases a day. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths from the disease had slid to below 100.
The euphoria at beating the virus had been building since late last year. Politicians, policy makers and parts of the media believed that India was truly out of the woods. In December, central bank officials announced that India was “bending the Covid infection curve”. There was evidence, they said, in poetic terms, that the economy was “breaking out amidst winter’s lengthening shadows towards a place in sunlight”. Mr Modi was called a “vaccine guru”.
image captionHospitals are overflowing with patients, often two to a bed
At the end of February, India’s election authorities announced key elections in five states where 186 million people were eligible to vote for 824 seats. Beginning 27 March, the polls would stretch over a month, and in the case of the state of West Bengal, be held in eight phases. Campaigning had begun in full swing, with no safety protocols and social distancing. In mid-March, the cricket board allowed more than 130,000 fans, mostly unmasked, to watch two international cricket games between India and England at the Narendra Modi stadium in Gujarat.
In less than a month, things began to unravel. India was in the grips of a devastating second wave of the virus and cities were facing fresh lockdowns. By mid-April, the country was averaging more than 100,000 cases a day. On Sunday, India recorded more than 270,000 cases and over 1,600 deaths, both new single-day records. If the runway infection was not checked, India could be recording more than 2,300 deaths every day by first week of June, according to a report by The Lancet Covid-19 Commission.
India is in now in the grips of a public health emergency. Social media feeds are full with videos of Covid funerals at crowded cemeteries, wailing relatives of the dead outside hospitals, long queues of ambulances carrying gasping patients, mortuaries overflowing with the dead, and patients, sometimes two to a bed, in corridors and lobbies of hospitals. There are frantic calls for help for beds, medicines, oxygen, essential drugs and tests. Drugs are being sold on the black market, and test results are taking days. “They didn’t tell me for three hours that my child is dead,” a dazed mother says in one video, sitting outside an ICU. Wails of another person outside the intensive care punctuate the silences.
image captionIndia is facing a shortage of vaccines even as it ramps up its inoculation drive
Even India’s mammoth vaccination effort was now struggling. In the beginning, the rollout had been embroiled in a controversy over the efficacy over a home-grown candidate. Even as the country ramped up the drive and administered more than 100 million doses by last week, vaccine shortages were being reported. Serum Institute of India, the country’s – and the world’s – biggest vaccine maker said it would not be able to ramp up supplies before June because it didn’t have enough money to expand capacity. India placed a temporary hold on all exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, because the doses were needed urgently at home, and allowed imports of foreign vaccines. Even oxygen was likely to be imported now to meet the surge in demand.
Meanwhile, almost in a parallel universe, away from the death and despair, the world’s richest cricket tournament was being played behind closed doors every evening, and tens of thousands of people were following their leaders to election rallies and attending the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela. “It is beyond surreal, what is happening,” Shiv Visvanathan, a sociology professor, told me.
Experts believe the government appears to have completely dropped the ball on the second wave of infections that was about to hit India.
image captionRelatives performing funerals of Covid victims in the city of Bhopal
In mid-February, Tabassum Barnagarwala, a journalist with the Indian Express newspaper, flagged a seven-fold rise in new cases in parts of Maharashtra and reported that samples from the infected had been sent for genome sequencing to look for imported variants.
By the end of the month, the BBC reported the surge and asked whether India was facing a new Covid wave. “We really don’t know what the cause of the surge is. What is worrying is that entire families are getting infected. This is a completely new trend,” Dr Shyamsunder Nikam, civil surgeon of an affected district in Maharashtra, said at the time.
Experts now say that crowing about India’s exceptionalism in “beating” the epidemic – younger population, native immunity, a largely rural population – and declaring victory on the virus turned out to be cruelly premature. “As is typical in India, official arrogance, hyper-nationalism, populism and an ample dose of bureaucratic incompetence have combined to create a crisis,” said Mihir Sharma, a columnist for Bloomberg.
India’s second wave was fuelled by people letting their guard down, attending weddings and social gatherings, and by mixed messaging from the government, allowing political rallies and religious gatherings. With infections declining, fewer people were taking the jabs, slowing down the vaccination drive, which had aimed to inoculate 250 million people by the end of July. In mid-February, Bhramar Mukherjee, a biostatistician at the University of Michigan, tweeted that India needed to “accelerate the vaccination drive while the case counts are low”. Nobody quite took notice.
image captionDevotees at the Kumbh Mela festival on 14 April, when India recorded more than 184,000 new infections
“There was a feeling of triumphalism,” said K Srinath Reddy, the president of the Public Health Foundation of India. “Some felt we had achieved herd immunity. Everyone wanted to get back to work. This narrative fell on many receptive ears, and the few voices of caution were not heeded to,” he said.
A second wave may have been inevitable, but India could have “postponed or delayed it and lessened its impact,” said Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology. Like many other countries, India should have begun careful genomic surveillance in January to detect variants, Mr Menon said. Some of these variants could be driving the surge. “We learnt of new variants in February from reports from Maharashtra. This was initially denied by authorities,” Mr Menon added. “This was a significant turning point.”
What are the lessons of this public health crisis? For one, India should learn not to declare victory over the virus prematurely, and it should put a lid on triumphalism. People should also learn to adapt to short, local lockdowns in the event of the inevitable future spikes of infection. Most epidemiologists predict more waves, given that India is evidently still far away from reaching herd immunity and its vaccination rate remains slow.
“We cant freeze human life,” Professor Reddy said. “If we can’t physically distance in the crowded cities, we can at least make sure everyone wears a proper mask. And wear it properly. That’s not a big ask.”
Travel to England is banned for anyone who has been in one of the countries in the past 10 days, except for UK citizens and residents, who have to isolate on arrival at government-approved hotels for 10 days.
What are the criteria for going on the red list?
The decision is based on Joint Biosecurity Centre risk assessments, which include:
how good a country’s testing structures are, including checking for variants of concern
how many cases those systems have identified
whether people in that country have been catching new variants at home or the cases have come from overseas
evidence of whether that country has exported cases of new variants to other countries, including to the UK
how good the country’s travel links with the UK are
The first point on the list is important, because the genome sequencing needed to identify new variants is very sophisticated and relatively rare.
But just because a country has found new variants, or has many cases of coronavirus, it will not necessarily be on the red list.
On 13 April, the World Health Organization identified:
82 countries where the variant identified in South Africa had been found, of which only 21 were on the red list
52 countries with the variant identified in Brazil, of which 14 were on the red list
Why were Pakistan and Bangladesh put on the red list before India?
Bangladesh, which had the South Africa but not the Brazil variant, and Pakistan, which had neither, were added to the red list on 9 April.
But India, which had both as well as a new variant, was not added for another two weeks.
On 9 April:
Pakistan had a seven-day average of 21 cases per million people
Bangladesh had twice as many
India had four times as many
In late March, India’s health authority said 771 variants of concern had been detected in a sample of almost 11,000 positive cases – a fraction of the millions of cases recorded in the country.
India has a greater sequencing ability than Pakistan or Bangladesh, although it is far behind the UK, which does about half of the world’s sequencing.
We asked the government why India wasn’t added before. Its response did not directly answer the question but said the red list was kept “under constant review”.
“Nobody knows the full criteria – but there may be a political element because the UK wants a trade deal with India,” Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology, at the University of Reading, said.
“It’s not always a data-driven decision,” he added, giving the example of Somalia, which is on the red list but has one of the lowest official rates of infection and deaths in the world.
The Civil Aviation Authority said that in February 2021, 50,000 passengers travelled between India and the UK, which is an average of just under 900 a day in each direction.
How many cases of the new India variant have been found?
Announcing the decision on India, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government had now found 103 cases of this new variant in the UK.
He said: “the vast majority have links to international travel and have been picked up by our testing at the border”.
The samples are now being analysed to see whether this variant spreads quicker or whether it has resistance to vaccines.
The UK’s former chief scientific adviser Prof Mark Walport told the BBC that the new variant found in India was becoming the dominant variant and said: “what’s absolutely clear is that this variant is more transmissible in India”.
On adding India to the red list from Friday 23 April, he said: “These decisions are almost inevitably taken a bit too late in truth.”
“We don’t find pleasure in this,” he said. “We don’t celebrate a man going to jail. We would rather have George Floyd still here.”
Leading a group of civil rights leaders in prayer, Sharpton recalled other black victims at the hands of white police officers and noted the funeral of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, fatally shot by police just last week, is just two days away.
He said the verdict was proof that “if we don’t give up, we can win some rounds” and the fight will keep going until major police reform is passed at the federal level.
Yearlong talks yield $500m loan thought to carry ‘geopolitical conditions’
Signs advertise Colombo Port City: The development is said to give Beijing sweeping powers to oversee projects for the financial hub worth $1.4 billion. (Photo by Yuji Kuronuma)MUNZA MUSHTAQ, Contributing WriterApril 20, 2021 16:42 JST
COLOMBO — China appears to be tightening its strategic grip on Sri Lanka, wooing the debt-ridden South Asian nation with a fresh $500 million loan as Colombo wrestles with a deepening economic crisis.
In March, Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves dropped to $4.05 billion, their lowest in over a decade, with tourism plummeting following the onset of COVID-19. Public coffers also took a massive hit as export earnings and foreign remittances dropped drastically due to the pandemic. The dwindling foreign reserves also caused the currency to plunge to 203 Sri Lankan rupees to the dollar, a record low.
The island’s tightening financial straits, however, eased a bit last week after China Development Bank extended a loan of $500 million, the second tranche of a $1 billion bailout Colombo sought from Beijing last year as the coronavirus struck. The latest loan comes just weeks after China approved a $1.5 billion currency swap with Sri Lanka.
Negotiations for the second tranche took a year. According to Sri Lanka’s Secretary to the Treasury S. R. Attygalle, the signing of a memorandum of understanding was delayed because the pandemic prevented the two countries leaders from meeting to ink the deal. Sri Lankan Finance Ministry officials, however, attributed the delay to “intense” negotiations.
Although the loan agreement looks straightforward on paper, with a maturity period of 10 years and a grace period of three years, China appears to have obtained informal assurances from Colombo that it will drop any plans to renegotiate the 99-year lease of Port of Hambantota, and that it will fast-track controversial legislation thought to give sweeping powers to China to oversee Colombo Port City, a $1.4 billion “financial hub” to be built on an artificial island off the coast of Sri Lanka’s largest city.
Analysts believe the agreement for the second tranche may also have been delayed by a downgrade by all three big ratings agencies of Sri Lanka’s sovereign debt, and discussions over possible collateral for the loan. However, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to China, Palitha Kohona, maintained there was no discussion of collateral in the talks.
Just days after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected in 2019, he told an Indian journalist that the lease of the Hambantota Port for 99 years, a deal made by the previous administration under President Maithripala Sirisena, was a mistake and that he would renegotiate it.
But Kohona, who last week signed the $500 million loan agreement on behalf of Colombo, told Nikkei Asia that the Hambantota Port deal is a commercial deal, however ill advised, entered into by the previous administration, adding, “Any adjustment will need to take this and other politico-economic factors into account.”
“This type of bilateral assistance is not dictated by economic conditions but by geopolitical conditions,” the former deputy governor of central bank, W.A. Wijewardena, told Nikkei. “Seeking support from China is not an unusual move by the country. But given the magnitude of the problem — it must meet an external debt obligation of $8 billion within the next 12 months with a dwindled foreign reserve — this assistance is just a drop in the sea.”
Sergi Lanau, deputy chief economist of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, said that continuing to borrow from abroad is not a bad option if done in moderation as part of a plan to reduce overall vulnerability. In such a scenario, he recommends that Sri Lanka work with the International Monetary Fund. “Economic policy adjustments are needed in a world where issuing bonds and attracting tourists is much harder. Agreeing on a policy plan with the IMF gives confidence to investors and other official creditors, and makes it easier to borrow at reasonable cost,” he told Nikkei.
But Ambassador Kohona insisted that it was always a struggle to seek assistance from multilateral lenders, given their propensity to toe the line set by Western donors. “But, China does not impose such conditions for financial assistance,” he said.
As the government tried to fast-track passage of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill in parliament, at least 19 petitions were filed with the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the bill. Petitioners included opposition political parties, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Transparency International and several other civil organizations. They claim the Port City Commission set up by the bill is detrimental to Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Luo Chong, a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Colombo, stressed that Port City is crucial for Sri Lanka, calling it an important project to attract foreign investment. “We are waiting for parliament to pass the bill. I don’t know about the agenda of certain political parties and NGOs, which are also saying the Port City will be a Chinese colony, but this is a domestic issue and we are not concerned about it,” he told Nikkei.
Chong said that when special economic zones were set up in other parts of the world, including Singapore and Dubai, there were no such issues. He said that anyone can invest in Port City, and that the company handling the project has already signed more than a dozen memorandums of understanding with companies from China, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the U.K. and ASEAN countries.
LAHORE: A 14-member delegation comprising senior Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka arrived in the provincial metropolis Monday to undertake a week-long religious pilgrimage to various Buddhist heritage sites in the country.
The Buddhist monks started their journey with a visit of the Lahore Museum which houses some of the finest remains of the Gandhara civilization and rare Buddhist relics including the ‘Fasting Buddha’ and ‘Sikri Stupa’ dating back to the 2 BC.
The visit has been arranged by the High Commission of Pakistan in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with a view to promote religious tourism in Pakistan by showcasing historic city and warm hospitality of the host nation.
Pakistan is home to the ancient Buddhist civilization which has remained hidden from the eye of the world over the years. The senior Buddhist delegation is led by venerated Dr Walpole Piyananda (Abbot and president, Dharmavijaya Buddhist Vihara, USA) and will visit Islamabad, Taxila, Shahbaz Garhi, Takht-e-Bhai and Jehanabad (Swat) besides two-day visit to Lahore.
The Buddhist delegation will also hold meetings with the officials of the ministry of religious affairs and interfaith harmony and meet with President Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi during their visit to the federal Capital.
India supports the call of international community for the Sri Lankan government to fulfill its commitments on devolution of political authority including through early holding of elections to provincial councils, according to S. Jaishankar, India’s External Affairs Minister.
This also covers the commitment of ensuring that all the provincial councils are able to operate effectively in accordance with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, Dr. Jaishankar has stated in his letter sent recently to the AIADMK’s Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) M. Thambi Durai.
The Minister’s reply was in the context of the AIADMK leader raising the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in the Rajya Sabha last month in the context of a resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Pointing out that the position of India was conveyed during the deliberations on the motion at the Council, Dr. Jaishankar said the country voted in abstention at the UNHRC but it made a strong statement” as Explanation of Vote, stressing our abiding commitment to aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka for equality, justice, peace and dignity.” It had also urged the Sri Lankan government to carry forward the process of reconciliation, address the aspirations of the Tamil community and continue to engage constructively with the international community.”
During the consideration of the resolution at the Council on reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, he said India had remained closely in touch” with all countries and made a statement at the interactive debate on February 25, outlining its position.
Assuring Mr. Thambi Durai that all efforts are being made to ensure that the safety and interests of Tamils in Sri Lanka are fully safeguarded,” the Minister said the country attaches high importance” to the matter.
Sri Lanka confirmed 05 new COVID-related fatalities today (April 20) as the death toll from the pandemic climbed to 625, says the Department of Government Information.
Details of the victims are as follows:
01. An 85-year-old woman from Mattakkuliya area: She was tested positive for novel coronavirus while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital and was later transferred to Mulleriyawa Base Hospital where she died on April 16. The cause of death was recorded as heart attacks and blood poisoning along with COVID infection.
02. A 67-year-old woman from Panadura area: She had been under medical care at a private hospital in Colombo when she was confirmed to be coronavirus-positive. She was subsequently moved to the Mulleriyawa Base Hospital where she passed away on April 17. She died of COVID pneumonia, acute kidney damages, breathing difficulties, hypertension and diabetes.
03. A 66-year-old man from Ratnapura area: He was moved to the Homagama Base Hospital after testing positive for novel coronavirus at the Ratnapura Teaching Hospital. He died on April 19 due to COVID pneumonia, diabetes and high lipid levels in blood.
04. A 59-year-old man from Jaffna: He died on April 19 while receiving treatment at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. The cause of death was cited as complicated COVID pneumonia with bacteria infection and multiple organ failure.
05. A 90-year-old woman from Horana. She has passed away at her home on April 17. COVID infection was recorded as the cause of death.
The Cabinet of Ministers have approved the drafting of legislation to protect against the spreading of false and misleading statements through the internet.
The government says that the spread of false information on the internet poses a serious threat and is seen as being used to divide society, to spread hatred and to weaken democratic institutions.”
Various countries have already taken steps to legislate in order to address this problem, it said.
The government said that steps should be taken to provide access to accurate information to citizens and civil society by introducing a new law to protect society from the harm caused by false propaganda on the internet.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers have granted the approval for the resolution tabled by the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Mass Media to advice the Legal Draftsman to draft a bill for the relevant issue.
