Myths & Facts f COVID-19: Prevention of COVID-19 with vitamin D: Application of the knowledge of biology, biochemistry, and physiology of vitamin D for effective control of COVID-19.
The sunshine drug: vitamin D is created in the skin’s lower layers through the absorption of sunlight and plays a central role in immune and metabolic function Photograph: Getty Images
It’s cheap, widely available and might help us fend off the virus. So should we all be dosing up on the sunshine nutrient?
In March, as coronavirus deaths in the UK began to mount, two hospitals in northeast England began taking vitamin D readings from patients and prescribing them with extremely high doses of the nutrient. Studies had suggested that having sufficient levels of vitamin D, which is created in the skin’s lower layers through the absorption of sunlight, plays a central role in immune and metabolic function and reduces the risk of certain community-acquired respiratory illnesses. But the conclusions were disputed, and no official guidance existed. When the endocrinology and respiratory units at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS foundation trust made an informal recommendation to its clinicians to prescribe vitamin D, the decision was considered unusual. Our view was that this treatment is so safe and the crisis is so enormous that we don’t have time to debate,” said Dr Richard Quinton, a consultant endocrinologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
Soon clinicians and endocrinologists around the world began arguing about whether sufficient levels of vitamin D might positively impact coronavirus-related mortality rates. Some considered the nutrient an effective treatment hiding in plain sight; others thought of it as a waste of time. In March, the government’s scientific advisers examined existing evidence and decided there wasn’t enough to act upon. But in April, dozens of doctors wrote to the British Medical Journal describing the correction of vitamin D deficiencies as a safe, simple step” that convincingly holds out a potential, significant, feasible Covid-19 mitigation remedy”.
In the Newcastle hospitals, patients found to be vitamin D-deficient were given extremely high oral doses of the nutrient, often up to 750 times the daily measure recommended by Public Health England. In July, clinicians wrote to the journal Clinical Endocrinology to share their initial outcomes. Of the first 134 coronavirus patients given vitamin D, 94 had been discharged, 24 were still receiving inpatient care, and 16 had died. The clinicians hadn’t clearly associated vitamin D levels with overall death rates, but only three patients with high levels of the nutrient died, and all of them were frail and in their 90s.
Increasingly, others followed the lead of the Newcastle doctors and began taking the vitamin themselves. During the first months of the pandemic, up to 1,000 NHS staff received free wellness packs – including vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc – from a voluntary initiative called the Frontline Immune Support Team, after informal demand from clinicians. And as sales of vitamin D supplements significantly increased, some doctors informally recommended it to patients. In a letter, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin advised its members to take the nutrient, though it was not made official policy. We believe that vitamin D3 deficiency is a major risk factor for severe coronavirus infection, for which there is accumulating evidence,” the letter said. People born with darker skin receive less UV light in the deeper layers where D3 is made, and so are prone to more severe D-deficiency at the end of winter in northern latitudes than their fairer-skinned counterparts.”
‘All this evidence makes it very plain that vitamin D has a material effect’: Tory MP David Davis with Labour MP Rupa Huq. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer
By April, Public Health England had revised its vitamin D guidelines, wary of people’s reduced exposure to the sun during lockdown. Whereas once it had suggested only taking small doses in the winter, now it advised everyone to take a daily dose all year round, which was the pre-existing advice only for people of colour, those in care homes and children aged one to four. But it didn’t run an information campaign to inform the public of the change, nor tell those at greater risk to increase their intake, and the majority of people remained unaware of the nutrient’s potential effect.
In 1940, whenChurchill’s government feared people were particularly at risk of the musculoskeletal condition rickets, margarine companies were ordered to fortify their products with vitamin D to safeguard the nutritional status of the nation”. (Back then, the nutrient was universally thought only to impact bone and muscle health, rather than having any effect on immune or metabolic health.) Margarine was fortified with vitamin D until 2013, when the government decided that fortification was unnecessary gold-plating”. It became industry standard to include the nutrient within other fat spreads, but for six years there has been no legal obligation to do so.
To the former Brexit secretary David Davis, the failure to fortify a wider group of foods seems unacceptable. Like clinicians at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, he couldn’t understand why vitamin D wasn’t being pursued as a viable coronavirus treatment. Davis is a Conservative MP with a molecular science degree. In May, he urged the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to review the evidence and consider a free supplement scheme to reverse vitamin D deficiencies, citing the letter sent to the BMJ. Up to 40% of the population is estimated to be vitamin D-deficient this winter. Davis, who is 71, and who takes a high-strength vitamin D supplement daily, hoped the scheme could help mitigate risk, particularly among those most susceptible – the elderly, the obese and people of colour.
While he implored the UK government to take action, studies were continuing around the world and evidence of vitamin D’s efficacy was growing. A French experimental study at a nursing home with 66 people suggested that taking regular vitamin D supplements was associated with less severe Covid-19 and a better survival rate”. A study of 200 people in South Korea suggested that vitamin D deficiency could decrease the immune defences against Covid-19 and cause progression to severe disease”. Preliminary research by Queen Elizabeth Hospital foundation trust and the University of East Anglia found a correlation between European countries with low vitamin D levels and coronavirus infection rates. Broadly, countries closer to the equator have been less affected by Covid-19 than those further away from it, though Brazil and India are notable exceptions. Another study, at Singapore General Hospital, published in the journal Nutrition, found that treating patients with a combination of vitamin D, magnesium and vitamin B12 was associated with a significant reduction” in the worst outcomes.
Only one patient who received vitamin D required ICU admission, and they were later released
A number of other studies made similar reports, though it is only a Spanish study, conducted in early September, that came close to incontrovertibly proving low vitamin D levels have a pivotal role in causing increased death rates. There, 50 patients with Covid-19 were given a high dose of vitamin D, while another 26 patients did not receive the nutrient. Half of patients who weren’t given vitamin D had to be placed in intensive care, and two later died. Only one patient who received vitamin D required ICU admission, and they were later released with no further complications.
To Davis, all of this emerging research pointed towards vitamin D’s efficacy, which made the apparent reluctance across the world of governments, philanthropic organisations and the private sector to fund high- quality studies seem curious.
All the observational studies show strong vitamin D effects on infectiousness, morbidity and mortality,” Davis says. This disease exists seriously above 40 degrees latitude, because that’s where the UV light disappears in the winter.” All of this evidence together, he says, makes it very, very plain that vitamin D has a material effect”.
Still, both the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) and Public Health England, having reviewed the potential ability of vitamin D to reduce the risk of coronavirus, continued to announce that there was insufficient evidence to take action. The research was deemed to be of poor quality – not quite enough of it, not quite convincing enough. When the announcements came, Davis grew more frustrated. If you’ve got something that could potentially save tens of thousands of lives – worldwide, hundreds of thousands, if not millions – and you say there’s not quite enough evidence, but it’s indicating in a positive direction, then you do something about it, don’t you?”
In October, Davis made an unlikely alliance with Rupa Huq, the remainer Labour MP and a former sociology lecturer, who is also increasingly convinced of the merits of vitamin D, and the pair began to pile pressure on the government.
If you’ve got something that could potentially save tens of thousands of lives, then you do something about it
A month earlier, Davis had written an article for the Telegraph claiming that correcting Britain’s vitamin D deficiency could save thousands of lives. Huq later wrote in the Times that loudly telling people to take supplements should be an obvious piece of advice”. She pointed to countries where vitamin D levels are high, such as Finland (which fortifies dairy products with the nutrient) and New Zealand (which, since 2011, has prescribed vitamin D to all-aged care home residents, and where people live a more outdoorsy life), and said it was no coincidence that coronavirus cases and deaths in both countries had been rare. They have both also highlighted how black, Asian and ethnic minority people – who have higher levels of melanin in the skin, which tends to reduce the creation of vitamin D from sunlight – have been disproportionately affected by the virus, including an overwhelming disparity among doctors.Advertisement
For UK public health experts, perhaps wary of overstated claims of vitamin D’s benefits, the case for downplaying the link to coronavirus initially mostly depended on retrospective studies and there was no official call for more research. One such recent paper considered by Nice, using vitamin D levels measured up to 14 years ago, found no link between vitamin D levels and more severe illness or mortality from Covid-19, but in another paper the lead author called for high-quality trials to ascertain whether vitamin D plays a beneficial role in the prevention of severe coronavirus reactions. For now, recommendations for vitamin D supplementation to lessen Covid-19 risks appear premature and, although they may cause little harm, they could provide false reassurance leading to changes in behaviour that increase risk of infections,” they concluded. This baffles Davis and Huq. And they believe that now is the chance to begin to erode the UK’s deficiency.
Hancock agreed to meet with Davis and Huq a fortnight after the Spanish study was published. The health secretary had previously claimed, wrongly, that government scientists had run a trial on vitamin D that showed it did not appear to have any impact”, when in fact no such tests had taken place. In a meeting on 8 October, Hancock revealed he was facing resistance from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) clinicians, but that he was nonetheless minded to change government course, later saying publicly there were no downsides” to vitamin D supplements.
Hancock had been adamant there was no link for a long time,” Huq says. But you could see the penny drop and he agreed to do public health messaging recommending vitamin D.” In the meantime, coronavirus deaths continued to rise and, in the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said vitamin D deficiency impacted people’s susceptibility to coronavirus infection and: I would not mind recommending – and I do it myself – taking vitamin D supplements.”
Hancock was adamant there was no link, but you could see the penny drop
At the end of November, the government announced it would offer four months of free vitamin D supplements to all those in care homes and shielders – some 2.7 million people – beginning this month, with the prison service also providing free supplements to all prisoners. Hancock also ordered Nice (which sets NHS clinical guidelines) and Public Health England to produce recommendations on vitamin D for the treatment and prevention of coronavirus. The issue now seems so urgent to the DHSC that it has suggested people purchase their own supplements to ensure they have sufficient levels, ahead of the deliveries of the rations. A number of studies indicate vitamin D might have a positive impact in protecting against Covid-19,” Hancock said.
However, Nice again ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove a causal relationship between vitamin D deficiency and Covid severity, but, for what is believed to be the first time, PHE’s nutrition committee said vitamin D may provide some additional benefit in reducing the risk of acute respiratory infections.” While Nice belatedly called for more research.Advertisement
Without the action of Davis and Huq, many vitamin D advocates believe the government wouldn’t have acted as they eventually did. But Huq, who also takes vitamin D tablets every day, has mixed feelings. I feel, rather disappointingly, the government has dragged its feet on this. But I am pleased that there has been movement, however late in the day, and hope the advent of coronavirus vaccines will not now blow them off course.”
There remains marked frustration over a relative failure to fund vitamin D studies. Our problem has been that major funding bodies haven’t supported clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation to prevent Covid-19, despite the fact that several different research groups in the UK submitted proposals,” Adrian Martineau, a professor of respiratory infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London, who was able to launch a charity-funded clinical trial in October to investigate whether vitamin D protects against Covid-19, tells me. He was only able to get his own trial off the ground because charities and philanthropists gave us financial support and stepped in where the government didn’t”.
Writing in the Lancet in August, he said: It would seem uncontroversial to enthusiastically promote efforts to achieve reference nutrient intakes of vitamin D… There is nothing to lose from their implementation, and potentially much to gain.” Although extremely large sustained doses of vitamin D can cause toxicity, it is otherwise harmless.
Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and writer, has been disappointed over an absence of leadership to ensure people of colour have sufficient levels of the nutrient. Structural racism absolutely has an effect,” he says. But it should not be at the forefront of the conversation. The message should have been: ‘Everyone take vitamin D and cut out the junk food.’ I think it’s a no-brainer, because there is no harm from vitamin D and it’s cheap. It’s pretty scandalous that this hasn’t been dealt with until now.”
Davis now believes there will be increasing government focus on immunological health. Covid kills you if you’ve got a weak immune system,” he says. That’s why vitamin D has a much more general purpose effect than, let’s say, vaccines. We’re going to win this battle in the long run. I just feel for those who have died unnecessarily.”
Ten parliamentarians have been identified to have come in close contact with MP Rauff Hakeem at the parliament.
Tweeting this morning (10), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader MP Rauff Hakeem stated that he had contracted COVID-19 and that he will be entered into a quarantine facility. He also asked his contacts from the past 10 days to take necessary health and safety precautions.
As the parliamentarian had attended the parliamentary session on January 05, steps were being taken to identify the persons who closely associated with MP Hakeem using CCTV footage and direct them to quarantine activities.
Accordingly, ten parliamentarians have been identified to have come in contact with MP Hakeem at the parliament.
In addition, 2 staff members of the parliament have also been identified.
Serjeant-at-Arms Narendra Fernando stated that necessary steps were taken regarding the contacts.
Two Members of Parliament have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus so far.
Previously, parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
He is currently receiving treatment at a treatment center in Hikkaduwa and has posted a note on his Twitter account today stating that he is in good health.
Colombo, January 11 (Daily News): With the Sri Lankan cabinet granting approval to sign an agreement with manufacturers when allocating vaccines through the COVAX facility, vaccination against the dreaded COVID-19 is expected to commence shortly.
Sri Lanka has already joined the COVAX facility and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) which is accredited by the World Health Organization. The COVAX facility is a global initiative that brings together governments and manufacturers to ensure equal distribution among the various countries of the world. The production and development of the vaccines for COVID-19 are being accelerated and it will be ensured that it will reach every country in the world.
Senior Adviser to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, said the first group to be vaccinated would be the frontline health workers, including nurses. Currently, there are approximately 155,000 persons in the health sector. This has also been the recommendation of WHO.
Secondly, the vaccine will be made available to frontline Armed Forces and Police personnel who are actively involved in the pandemic control programme. That group comprises 127,500 persons.
Weeratunga said in a media interview that he was optimistic that a COVID-19 vaccine could be made available to Sri Lankans by end February or by early March the latest. Answering a question, he assured that the vaccine could be made available before the dawn of the 2021 Sinhala – Hindu New Year in April.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a committee headed by Weeratunga to determine the COVID-19 vaccine most suitable to Sri Lanka. The Committee, which included health experts who studied the anti-COVID-19 vaccinations produced by some countries, decided to recommend the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India (SII). Further recommendations were on vaccines manufactured in China and Russia.
The Committee ruled out the Pfizer/BioNTech manufactured in the EU, taking into consideration the cost factor as well as other issues such as the requirement to keep it at a temperature below minus 70 degrees Celsius. Weeratunga pointed out that the Pfizer vaccine cost US$ 20 per dose and it would require ultra-cold freezers for transportation and the cost would be much higher. Furthermore, there could be many delays in importing freezer trucks.
The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine would cost only US$ 3 per unit (dose) and it would be far easier to transport and keep in normal refrigerators. The Health Ministry has decided on a priority list of recipients for the coronavirus vaccine which consists of vulnerable groups. Among the recipients identified are people above 60 years, frontline workers and other essential workers.
Consultant Epidemiologist at the Health Ministry Dr. Deepa Gamage said Sri Lanka is to receive the vaccine through the COVAX program of the WHO to administer to 20 percent of the population. Initially we were told we had to pay for the vaccine. Later we were told that the vaccine for 20 percent of the population will be given free of charge. The rest we need to purchase if we require,” she said.
Weeratunga said the Treasury has already set aside funds to purchase the first consignment of the vaccine. The Government has initiated discussions with the World Bank to obtain a soft loan worth Rs. 10 billion (US$ 53 million) to purchase vaccines against COVID-19. It is also looking at the possibility of obtaining funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union for this purpose.
Sri Lanka joined the COVAX facility last year and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) has accredited the nation, making it eligible to receive the vaccines through the program. The Sri Lankan Cabinet has approved the Part 1 of the COVAX agreement, enabling the country to obtain a limited quantity of the COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter of this year. Eligible countries are required to submit request applications in two phases to receive the vaccine facility. The first part – which includes information regarding the target group, storage capacity and technical information – was submitted on December 7, 2020.
Confirming this, Additional Secretary of Public Health Services Dr Lakshmi Somatunga said technical sub-committees have examined various aspects of the COVID-19 vaccines including storage and the prioritization of target groups to receive the inoculation.
Weeratunga said 35 percent of the population could be excluded as children and pregnant mothers would not be vaccinated. People above the age of 60, people suffering from serious illnesses, doctors and medical staff and other frontline workers often dealing with coronavirus patients and staff employed at institutions crucial to the economy of the country like the international airports have been identified as those who will first receive the vaccine in Sri Lanka. The vaccine for 20 percent of the population will be received in two stages.
Indian vaccines
India’s drug regulating authorities have approved the AstraZeneca Covishield and Bharat Biotech Covaxin as vaccines for restricted use against COVID-19, paving the way for mass vaccination against the virus. Covishield is the Indian variant of AZD1222, the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Pune-based Serum Institute of India developed and manufactured Covishield through a license from AstraZeneca and Oxford. According to medical experts, it is a non-replicating viral vector” vaccine, which means it makes use of another weakened and genetically modified virus – in this case a common cold chimpanzee virus – to help the body develop immunity against the coronavirus. The vaccine carries just the code to make the spike protein (the spike on the virus’s surface). The body’s immune system is supposed to recognize this protein as a threat, and work on building antibodies against it.
Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology, uses a different platform. Medical experts say it is an inactivated” vaccine, which means it uses the killed SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has no potential to infect or replicate once injected and just serves to boost an immune response.
Both vaccines have received what is known as a restricted use approval in an emergency situation” – similar to an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) that countries like the UK and US have been granting to companies like Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca for their vaccines.
According to Indian health experts, the restricted approval to Covaxin has been given in clinical trial mode. Bharat Biotech will still have to complete vaccinating nearly 26,000 participants in its phase-3 trial, and then collect and analyze data from these people. Bharat Biotech was earlier testing its vaccine by giving half of its participants a placebo. According to the firm, everyone it is testing now will be given Covaxin and data on safety and efficacy will be analyzed from them over a fixed time period.
India has already approved the two vaccines and commenced its mass vaccination program. Stocks of the two vaccines have been transported to over 30 vaccination hubs, in places like Lucknow, Panchkula, Chennai and Delhi. Indian authorities announced that in the first tranche, the vaccination points will be healthcare facilities where nearly seven million public and private health professionals will be vaccinated over the course of three months. The next to receive vaccines are likely to be frontline workers and then people aged 50 years and above.
Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan earlier said the Government expected the first phase of vaccination – targeting around 300 million people based on priority – to be completed by August 2021.
The WHO declared the coronavirus a global pandemic more than nine months ago and since then, the illness it causes, known as COVID-19, has spread to nearly every country in the world. Sri Lanka, with more than 45,000 confirmed cases and 217 deaths, eagerly awaits the vaccine to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused much damage to the economy.
Tanzania has signalled that it is not intending to use any Covid-19 vaccine but instead will settle on local herbs for protection against the disease.
Speaking to the EastAfrican Gerald Chamii, a spokesman at the Ministry of Health said, There are no plans in place yet of importing vaccine for Covid-19, our health experts and scientists are still researching and undergoing clinical trials for the local herbs for covid-19.”
Chemii put doubt on the efficacy levels of the current global vaccines claiming the production duration was not efficient enough to warrant a maximum protection.
It takes not less than six months to find a vaccine or cure for a certain disease. We have fared on our own since the pandemic spread, I am not sure if it is wise to have a vaccine imported and distributed to the citizens without undertaking clinical testing to approve if it is safe for our people,” added Mr Chami.
Tanzania is among the first countries in Africa to order for the touted Madagascar Covid herb in the fights against the virus.
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina is the promoter-in-chief of the substance, marketed as Covid-Organics and sold in the form of a herbal infusion.
Artemisia annua has a long history in its native China, where scientists discovered an active ingredient that made the plant a front-line weapon in the fight against malaria.
The substance has proven effectiveness against malaria, but no clinical trials have tested it against COVID-19, either as a cure or as a preventative.
Little is known in Tanzania on the number of positive cases due to the government’s stun position on the virus.
Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli had declare the East African country as Covid-free and did not place any curfew or confinement to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
Countries like the United State have warned its citizens from traveling to Tanzania to avoid risks of contracting the virus.
In its update, the U.S. cautioned its citizen against traveling to East Africa, assigning Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi Level 4 alert.
Colombo, January 10: We are in a new year, nurturing hope for nation and mankind that the Covid-19 health crisis will pass away from our midst. However, judging by reports that there is yet another more virulent strain going around originated from Britain, rationality tells us that it remains a case of each nation to handle this continuing situation. We also hear of a brain eating amoeba spreading through water in the US which poses deadlier threats. The world may have to face even worse predicaments than coronavirus and the level of preparedness for these scenarios lies in each country maximizing its medical expertise, old or new, to fit the need of the hour.
Immunity
In Sri Lanka, although we followed the same process as the example laid by the Western world, wearing masks and shutting down locations on the detection of even one Covid-19 patient, it is clear that Sri Lankans as a whole are significantly immune to the virus. Many are largely asymptomatic. So why are we so resistant to it when the Western world, the purported hub of Western medical science and ‘development’ is brought to its knees?
The answer could be that although our Allopathic (Western medicine) driven health system has moved us away from much of our local wellbeing practices, such as the administering of the natural immunity boosting Ratha Kalkaya for infants practiced through our Deshiya Chikitsa Sinhala Wedakama, the Lankan ‘thuna paha’ infused traditional diet despite being threatened by the globalised food industry and chemical agriculture, still exists in our midst at least to a basic level which could be the key sustainer of our physical resistance to the virus.
The global media being driven by one particular ideology, we do not hear anything on possible counter narratives from different parts of the world to what is popularly peddled on this virus which Western medical science, is still trying to figure out. Thailand and several countries in Africa are promoting traditional medicine as a last resort for the Covid-19 pandemic.
A respected Allopathic Western medical expert, Dr. Roger Hodkinson, a senior general pathologist certified in 1976 by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has been under flak for calling the Covid-19 pandemic a ‘hoax’ in his address to the Edmenton City Council in November 2020.
There is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians. It’s outrageous. This is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public,” Hodkinson told the Council, opining that face masks and distancing were useless because aerosols; hosts of invisible microscopic droplets emitted through breathing already get to the air. Hodkinson proposed to treat Covid-19 as a mere bad flu season. While his medical expertise and stature has been acknowledged by fellow medical critics, he has received significant backlash from those who debunk these statements.
The purpose of using this example, is merely for intellectual pursuit of analysis and does not necessarily mean a justifying of this doctor’s views. Because diversity in Covid-19 narratives doesn’t exist, we will not know multifarious information, especially on immunity that we would like to explore, including knowing ‘medically’ why less vaccinated people, such as us are, resistant to the virus as opposed to distinctly over-vaccinated Westerners.
Chemical agriculture
We do not take flu vaccines every winter season as they do in Europe – such a thought would surely bring a smile to plantation employees who work outdoors, often without warm clothing in the blistering cold of Nuwara Eliya without the luxury of hot baths but never need ‘flu shots.’ Although Sri Lanka has been threatened by chemical agriculture introduced through the green revolution and has lost its authentic traditional diet which would surpass many food cultures in terms of nutrition, it is still in stark contrast to the poisonous fast food pandemic of the West.
What we should understand is that although we have tragically copied to perfection the West and their ‘progress’ if we reflect, shedding all our colonialisation, neo-colonisation and neo-imperialism infused baggage, our pragmatic mind would echo the wisdom of our indigenous knowledge priorities which were always centered around the health of the nation and the health of all living beings which included the soil and the trees. Chemical agriculture if introduced to our ancient ancestors would have been surely looked upon as a cruel abnormality that only fosters sickness.
The likes of Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, would be indeed overjoyed to see how well colonial machinations have worked. Macaulay was a British politician who had abysmal contempt for ancient knowledge of the people of the Indian subcontinent and funded amply the mission of educating Indians on the Western models of knowledge, and placed on the Minute on Education drafted in 1835 the despicable and ignorant opinion of his that, A single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia,” as an argument to bulldoze out the respect for ancient knowledge, such as Ayurveda and replace it with Western science.
Yet, for the island of Sri Lanka which was world renowned as a medical hub and other indigenous sciences, the challenge remains to eradicate the country of cognitive impairing viruses created by imperialists, such as Macaulay.
Modern education
We, today, talk of modern education conceptualised by the West as if it was manna from heaven without realising that before this white manna, countries such as Sri Lanka and India had an advanced education system – the Gurukula system that did not separate the spiritual from the worldly and where introspection, contemplation and respecting earth and its resources were a core component of maintaining the health of humans. Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) of today are linked to our warped way of living and producing food, including the heinous crime against living beings; factory farming through artificial means, breeding life for death, which we learnt from the West. From the Covid-19 deaths that we have in Sri Lanka, what does not get emphasised in the media is that they are connected with NCDs.
Sri Lanka’s Deshiya Chikitsa, as an ancient pre-Ayurveda system of preventive and curative healing could be described as being the closest to mother nature. If these traditional physicians were allowed to fight the Covid-19 battle, they would eliminate not only Covid-19 but also NCDs.
We have failed as a nation for seven decades after independence from the British to understand the value of recognising our Deshiya Chikitsa (Sinhala Wedakama) as a medical discipline, even now in the midst of a pandemic that has brought Europe to its knees.
The few members among the team of Ukranian tourists who came to Sri Lanka within the past fortnight and were detected with the Covid-19 virus had been not comfortable with getting medical treatment in Sri Lanka. Why? Because they associated us only with Allopathy and assessed our medical system comparing it with Western technology. The world does not know that we have at least 30,000 traditional physicians in the country, many of whom have been from March researching into how the many diverse herb combinations (different wattoru) could cure the different stages of this virus alongside NCDs. Yet we are talking about tourism and economic revival while the answers are staring at us in the face. Yet this may change with professionals chipping in to assist the Government.
Professionals alongside traditional physicians stress the importance of using traditional medicine before spending billions of rupees on a vaccine.
Integrated system
Although many of our doctors, Allopathy and Ayurveda, may have been on study tours to countries, such as China, we still have not been inspired to set in motion an integrated system such as one in that country which although being the first nation to be hit by the virus also is the first to control it and has not shied away from acknowledging the role traditional medicine has played in this task. China which maximised at the height of the spread of the Covid-19 virus, simple respiratory treatments common to Sri Lanka, such as vapour inhalation, had almost fully controlled the spread of the disease by May 2020.
On June 6, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping in a keynote address delivered at a symposium of experts and scholars had emphasised that the simultaneous and integrated use of Chinese and Western medicine has been a major highlight of the fight against the epidemic. Yu Yanhong and Yu Wenming writing in the Qiushi, a bi-monthly political theory periodical published in China referred to this speech which stated how China has given a full affirmation to the contribution of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the prevention and control of Covid-19 and how the Chinese President has asked TCM practitioners in China to ‘boost their national pride’ and explore the ‘best of what the treasure trove of TCM has to offer’, highlighting the need to preserve and develop that medical system.
The article also explained the need to foster China’s integrated system of medicine that has both the Western and Traditional system operating side by side for healing patients in whatever system that suits the ailment/s.
While we can look to such contemporary encouraging examples from Asian countries such as China, we should remind ourselves even at this belated stage that we are a civilisation that has the world’s first hospital in Mihintale. Despite such a history, we have done little to support, protect and foster traditional physicians and their families to safeguard and secure the passing on of this knowledge to the next generations.
Macaulayan mentality
This writer who started researching about traditional physicians and their problems two years ago is aware of a plethora of issues which is sometimes paradoxically within official structures set up to foster their knowledge. The root of the problem is because we carry forth the Macaulayan mentality that has seeped into every sphere of our education structure and possibly not even sparing Ayurveda. Many Ayurveda doctors are humble enough to admit that they have learnt valuable information about Sri Lankan traditional cures from these physicians.
Professionals of Sri Lanka who are now uniting with Ayurveda and traditional physicians as part of the Sinhala Weda Uruma Baraya call for the immediate use of traditional physicians in the Covid-19 battle, to ascertain if the need for purchasing foreign vaccines arises.
At a meeting of the Sinhala Weda Uruma Baraya held last week and attended by professionals, such as Dr. Nandadasa P. Narayana, one of Sri Lanka’s most recognised inventors of international stature and Tilak Kandegama, one of the most authentic voices of Lankan indigenous knowledge, the focus was on Sri Lanka’s immense potential to rise in this pandemic backdrop in an unprecedented world stature using its medical heritage.
I have made the blue print for up to 10 health based inventions connected with Covid-19 and the traditional medical system of Sri Lanka. However, the lack of systematic support for promoting local solutions for the virus does not enable persons like me to be of use to my country. Sri Lanka is losing billions per day with this current health crisis,” said Eng. Dr. Narayana.
We are not a country that needs vaccines for the virus. In one and a half months, we can control the pandemic. This can be done with a simple strategic commitment by using our indigenous knowledge resources,” said Thilak Kandegama who promotes biodiversity centered non-chemical agriculture and has a vast repository of knowledge on the ancient medical practices of Deshiya Chikitsa. What we need is the confidence in what is ours. We need to help the Government liaise with traditional physicians and others who still have diverse knowledge and the expertise in Lankan traditional medical heritage,” he said.
These professionals alongside traditional medicine physicians call for the ensuring of formal opportunity for traditional physicians who have months ago handed over samples of their anti Covid-19 medicines to the Health Ministry and related authorities to get a chance to provide them to Covid-19 patients.
We met Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and members of the Government and are confident that the people will be happy if the Government uses the skills of traditional physicians and get their medicines cleared by authorities for providing Covid-19 patients.
We can ensure that the world knows about the result before we commit as a nation to spending money on a vaccine,” said Eng. Harsha Kumar Suriyaarachchi, one of the founders of the Sinhala Weda Uruma Baraya.
Traditional physicians
There are many physicians throughout Sri Lanka, such as indigenous medical physician D. D. Hettiarachchi of Ganemulla whose Covid-19 curative and preventive medicines have been taken by hundreds of Sri Lankans in Dubai and Italy who had got them down through beneficiaries at the height of Covid-19 phase 1 and safeguarded fully from the disease.
Traditional physician Amila Sanjeewa in Gampaha who runs a traditional medicine charity said that he has treated around 18,000 persons against the Covid-19 infection (primarily preventive), (including military and police, other officials in the Covid-19 first and second phase and emphasised that he has written proof to provide).
Nilanka Jayasekera, traditional physician from Kandy has given his Covid-19 preventive/curative medicines to those who had wanted them and Sampath Kalutharage and an Ayurveda Shasthri qualified traditional physician had provided Covid-19 preventive and curative medicines to Dombagoda army camp in Kalutara where 692 military personnel came under quarantine alongside curing 11 Covid-19 positive patients.
There are as per information gathered by this writer, at least 37 indigenous physicians who have handed their Covid-19 targeted medicines the to authorities for approval.
By Saeed Shah in Islamabad and Jon Emont in Singapore/Wall Street Journal Courtesy Ceylon Today
Islamabad, January 9 (Wall Street Journal): Governments and religious leaders in Muslim-majority nations are talking to vaccine makers, investigating production processes and issuing guidance in an effort to make sure concerns about products prohibited by Islam don’t interfere with Covid-19 inoculations.
On Friday, the high clerical council in Indonesia, with the world’s largest Muslim population, said that China’s Sinovac vaccine is allowed by Islam, or halal. The decision came after council representatives visited Sinovac’s factory in China last year and conducted a halal audit.
Part of the challenge of rolling out vaccines world-wide will be persuading enough people to take them to reach herd immunity. In many countries, Muslim and non-Muslim, the efforts must overcome safety concerns, suspicions and conspiracy theories, as well as religious and ethical objections.
Gelatin taken from pigs and cells created using tissue from human fetuses, which are both common in vaccine production, are aren’t halal, Muslim scholars say.
Acceptance of vaccinations before the coronavirus pandemic varied widely among Muslim countries, with high trust in countries like Bangladesh and Uzbekistan, according to a study of opinion in 149 countries published in September 2020 in the Lancet medical journal. It found that of the 10 countries with the most marked drop in confidence in vaccines over the four years through 2019, seven were predominantly Muslim: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan. The other three were Japan, Georgia and Serbia.
In Pakistan, one of only two nations left on earth where polio is still endemic, the authorities have struggled for years to persuade people to let their children have the polio vaccine, with Islamic-related objections prominent among other concerns. Not only do some people contend that the vaccine isn’t halal—despite rulings from senior clerics there saying it is allowed—but an influential conspiracy theory contends that the West is using the inoculation to sterilize Muslims.
Two years ago in Indonesia, the official Muslim clerical organization that decides whether substances are halal ruled that a measles vaccine containing pig gelatin was permitted to be used in Indonesia owing to a lack of halal alternatives. Still, concern over the ingredients contained in the vaccine prompted some parents in conservative parts of the country to reject it for their children.
Those objecting to vaccines for various reasons are generally a minority among Muslims, but governments and religious leaders from Jakarta to Dubai are debating how best to address halal concerns to make sure they don’t become a significant obstacle to inoculating the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims.
This is a serious issue,” said Muhammad Munir, a virologist at Lancaster University in the U.K., adding that none of the Covid-19 vaccines that have so far reached late-stage trials ought to be a problem for Muslims because of the ingredients and processes involved. There is a responsibility on the [Muslim clergy] to have enough knowledge to guide the public properly.”
A vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and another by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE may offer a solution. They are synthetic, with no human- or animal-sourced ingredients, said Mr. Munir. However, these vaccines are in short supply globally and need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures, which will make distribution difficult in poorer countries.
The decision from Indonesia’s high clerical council Friday means that the Sinovac vaccine is ready for use in Indonesia as soon as the country’s food and drug regulator authorizes it, which is expected in the coming weeks.
Zulkifli Mohamad al-Bakri, the religious affairs minister of Malaysia, where Muslims make up more than 60% of the population, said in late December that a special religious committee had determined that Muslims should follow government instructions and take the vaccines, and noted that Muslims there have been encouraged to get inoculated for other diseases in the past.
A religious body in the United Arab Emirates last month issued an Islamic ruling, known as a fatwa, allowing Muslims there to receive coronavirus vaccines, even if they contain non-halal ingredients. The U.A.E. has already inoculated thousands for Covid-19 with a vaccine developed by Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm and has begun distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Such rulings on vaccination programs do not make the inoculations halal, but the vaccine can be used if there is no alternative available,” said Amrahi Buang, president of the Malaysian Pharmacists Society.
To be considered halal, manufacturers have to declare ingredients and give clerics the information they need to assess whether they comply with Islamic principles. To be halal certified, another level, the entire production line would need to be inspected, Mr. Buang said.
Aasim Padela, a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and head of the Initiative on Islam and Medicine, said that China could prove more responsive to the Muslim market, as it has in the past with other vaccines.
Anxiety has also been high enough in countries where Muslims are a minority, including the U.S. and the U.K., that Islamic groups there have felt obliged to issue rulings in recent weeks about which vaccines are halal.
Some Christians in the U.S. and elsewhere have also raised objections to the use of the fetal cell lines in Covid-19 inoculations. In December, the Vatican said it was morally acceptable for Catholics to receive such vaccines.
Even if a vaccine contains prohibited substances, Muslim scholars can also rule that the ingredients have been so transformed in the production process that their impure nature has been removed, Islamic experts say.
Rozi Osman, an independent halal consultant based in Malaysia, said that Islamic scripture makes clear that saving lives is more important than rigidly following rules.
Some Muslims are hung up about the halal part, which is ingrained from a young age,” Ms. Osman said. But to protect life is compulsory for Muslims. Some would rather listen to controversial voices rather than the truth.”
—Raffaele Huang, Chester Tay and Feliz Solomon contributed to this article.
Today, the Sri Lankan government announced that it will open its international airports once again. Flight operations will start from the 23rd of January of 2021. Foreign travellers visiting the country can now visit 12 of the country’s major tourist attractions once again; The moves comes following months of Coronavirus travel restrictions in place within Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Open Its International Airports From January 23.
Sri Lanka’s Tourism Minister officially announced that all international Airports will be open. He held a meeting on the 5th and said that the date of the opening will be 23rd January.
In a statement he said:
The SriLankan Government had originally shut down their airports and all operations last year due to the pandemic. Sri Lanka was one of the countries that suffered worse in the region, due to the effects of COVID-19. The opening is likely to begin the economic recovery of the country from the pandemic; A recovery which may take a good couple of years ahead.
Authorities Adhere To Strict COVID-19 Regulations
For instance, a group of 560 tourists recently visited Sri Lanka. This group came as a pilot project in December of 2020.
The Government implemented this project successfully and thus ensured the utmost safety of visiting tourists.
Based on this success, the decision was taken to allow foreigners back into the country, and thereby allowed the operation of airports once again.
However, Sri Lanka will allow international tourists into the country, while following strict WHO guidelines. The guidelines include the mandatory ‘Gold Standard’ PCR Tests prior to arrival to the country, and a few days upon arrival – With the aim of spotting and preventing transmission of asymptomatic cases.
There will be a total of 12 key tourism destinations open within the country, including:
Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Dalada Maligawa)
Yala National Park
Minneriya National Park
Sigiriya
Dambulla Temple
Udawalawe
Horton Plains
Sinharaja Forest
Peradeniya Botanic Gardens
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
Whale watching
Salusala- the State-owned handloom enterprise.
Minister Ranatunga said the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) should coordinate the visits of tourists to the sites and instructed to take further action in accordance with the health guidelines to prevent the contact of tourists and the general public in these sites.
The Current Covid-19 Situation in Sri Lanka
All flights of SriLankan airlines are currently grounded and are yet to become operational – Though this is expected to change in the coming days/weeks. SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka grounded its fleet in March 2020. The airline is yet to start back any operations.
Whilst SriLankan airlines have been grounded, a new startup, FlyLankan, received Government approval to begin operations.
Ten parliamentarians have been identified to have come in close contact with MP Rauff Hakeem at the parliament.
Tweeting this morning (10), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader MP Rauff Hakeem stated that he had contracted COVID-19 and that he will be entered into a quarantine facility. He also asked his contacts from the past 10 days to take necessary health and safety precautions.
As the parliamentarian had attended the parliamentary session on January 05, steps were being taken to identify the persons who closely associated with MP Hakeem using CCTV footage and direct them to quarantine activities.
Accordingly, ten parliamentarians have been identified to have come in contact with MP Hakeem at the parliament.
In addition, 2 staff members of the parliament have also been identified.
Serjeant-at-Arms Narendra Fernando stated that necessary steps were taken regarding the contacts.
Two Members of Parliament have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus so far.
Previously, parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
He is currently receiving treatment at a treatment center in Hikkaduwa and has posted a note on his Twitter account today stating that he is in good health.
Prime Minister’s Coordinating Secretary for Political Affairs, Kumarasiri Hettige has tested positive for COVID-19.
He has reportedly visited the parliament on Friday (January 08) and several staff members of the Leader of the House have been identified as close contacts of Mr Hettige.
Sergeant-at-Arms of Parliament Narendra Fernando said his close contacts and relevant heads of departments were informed on the matter.
Earlier today, it was revealed that Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader MP Rauff Hakeem has contracted the novel coronavirus.
In a tweet, the parliamentarian appealed to his contacts from the past 10 days to take necessary health and safety precautions.
As the parliamentarian had attended the parliamentary session on January 05, steps were taken to identify the persons who closely associated with MP Hakeem using CCTV footage and direct them to quarantine activities.
Accordingly, ten parliamentarians have been identified to have come in contact with MP Hakeem at the parliament. In addition, 2 staff members of the parliament were also identified.
MP Hakeem is the second lawmaker in the country to test positive for novel coronavirus.
Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Friday. He is currently receiving treatment at a treatment center in Hikkaduwa and has posted a note on his Twitter account today stating that he is in good health.
Director-General of Health Services has confirmed three more COVID-19 related fatalities in the country.
The new development has brought the death toll from the virus to 232, according to the Department of Government Information.
One of the victims was identified as a 62-year-old inmate who was incarcerated at the Negombo Prison. He was admitted to the Negombo Base Hospital and had passed away on Friday (January 08) after being transferred to the Mulleriyawa Base Hospital. The cause of death was cited as COVID-19 pneumonia.
In the meantime, an 80-year-old woman was residing in Colombo 14 fell victim to the virus today (January 10). She was under medical care at the Apeksha Hospital in Maharagama and was later transferred to the Pimbura Base Hospital. She has died of COVID-19 pneumonia and cancer.
A man from Ratnapura area, who was aged 64, meanwhile died of COVID-19 pneumonia and heart disease while receiving treatment at the Ratnapura Teaching Hospital yesterday (January 09).
The head of the World Health Organization says there is a clear problem” that low- and middle-income countries are not yet receiving supplies of COVID-19 vaccines and urged countries to stop striking bilateral deals with manufacturers.
Rich countries have the majority of the supply,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in strongly-worded comments on vaccine nationalism at a Geneva news briefing.
He asked countries and manufacturers to stop making bilateral deals and called on those who have ordered excess doses to immediately hand them over to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility.
While Tedros did not name countries, the European Union said it reached a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for 300 million additional doses of their COVID-19 vaccine in a move that would give the EU nearly half of the firms’ global output for 2021.
The scramble for shots has accelerated as governments also struggle to tame more infectious variants identified in Britain and South Africa, which are threatening to overwhelm healthcare systems.
Emergencies chief Mike Ryan echoed comments from Tedros, stressing the need to give doses to vulnerable groups and frontline healthcare workers first, no matter where they live.
WHO officials also urged vaccine manufacturers to provide it with data in real-time in order to expedite the rollout.
Until now, wealthier nations including Britain, European Union members, the United States, Switzerland and Israel have been at the front of the queue for vaccine deliveries from companies including Pfizer and partner BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
Nearly 88 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and around 1.9 million have died since it first emerged in China in December 2019, according to a Reuters tally.
The virus is spreading at alarming rates in some countries,” Tedros said. The problem is that not complying a bit becomes a habit. Not complying gives the virus opportunities to spread.”
Tedros also said he expects to fix travel dates as soon as next week for a long-awaited mission to China to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus.
Ryan urged countries to not politicised the vaccine and warned that the one distributed so far have zero impact” on transmission dynamics.
Assistant director-general, Mariangela Simao said the WHO has received 13 valid proposals” for possible emergency listing of COVID-19 vaccines since October, and some are at an advanced stage, adding that they expect to receive full data from Russia’s Gamaleya Institute on its vaccine by the end of January.
Sri Lanka’s Covid-19 numbers saw another surge today, as 236 more persons were tested positive for the virus.
Department of Government Information confirmed that all 236 of the newly-identified patients are close contacts of earlier cases linked to the Peliyagoda fish market.
Accordingly, a total of 536 new cases have been reported within the day.
As per statistics, the total number of Covid-19 infections confirmed in the country to date now stands at 48,376.
Recoveries from the virus meanwhile climbed to 41,325 earlier today, as more patients regained health.
However, 6,822 active cases are still under medical care at selected hospitals and treatment centres located across the island.
Sri Lanka has also witnessed 229 deaths related to Covid-19.
The University of Jaffna is a State university. It is funded by the Government of Sri Lanka and Faculty are paid salaries by the GoS. Therefore, all staff are bound by rules & regulations applicable to the Public Sector. Jaffna University is a university where children of all communities gain admission to. It is not a Tamil Only university. LTTE is an internationally proscribed terrorist entity militarily defeated in May 2009. Anyone who wishes to immortalize Prabakaran & his outfit are welcome to do so privately in their homes but not in public and certainly not in state universities. Maybe the ghost of Prabakaran may visit their homes!
The University Grants Commission took a bold decision to demolish the structures put up during previous government to commemorate LTTE and its combatants. These were not war victim memorials but LTTE victim memorials. This not surprisingly has led to numerous hartals and protests in North Sri Lanka & Tamil Nadu. For Tamil Nadu, even if anyone pees in Sri Lanka, it is a political campaign propaganda opportunity. We need not take these dramas seriously. The Indian Government knows how to handle them if they overstep their boundary. This explains the countless visits to remand prison by Prabakaran’s bosom pal- Vaiko.
Who in Sri Lanka are protesting against the demolition of monuments for Prabakaran & LTTE inside a state university? It would naturally be the bankrupt party TNA & its associated entities grappling to survive in politics as Tamils themselves are getting fed up of their lies. So probably they must have roped in a few youth, given them a few handouts and written the slogans for the drama choreographed by them. The police must take photos and compare to see if these are the same faces appearing for all TNA tamashas. The general public in Jaffna are now fed up and wish to simply get on with their lives without being used as guineapigs of Tamil political agendas. We knew this would happen naturally with time. Of course, there is another unseen element involved. There are foreign intel operatives funding and fueling trouble as their task is to ensure Sri Lanka remains unstable and unable to develop. This is the most dangerous player, as we don’t know who they are or what they look like and how they are brainwashing our people. But, this threat is the most challenging and one which requires the public to be alert to. Easter Sunday attack took place with the involvement of these foreign intel operatives. So we should realize that they are conspiring another operation probably using the burial issue as justification.
Linking Jaffna University – LTTE & the Separatist Ideology
Parents toil to somehow send their children to university to see them build a foundation for their future. No parent brings up their child to take up arms and kill people. The university faculty who allowed the LTTE monuments and facilitated LTTE celebrations and candle lit vigils must be taken to task and investigated. They have no right to be using a State University to immortalize terrorists and participate in these functions as well. There are enough of photos circulating of these faculty members singing hosannahs for the LTTE. They must each be asked to give written explanations for their conduct and the GoSL must seriously take action against them. This will serve as a deterrent to any future faculty members thinking they too can allow LTTE celebrations inside an university if a future LTTE friendly government comes to power. The Government and the AG’s department must revise laws to take action against these Public Servants if they are involved in terrorist activities and these must be clearly defined and communicated to all public servants.
The action of the UGC in demolishing the LTTE monuments inside the university will naturally provide oxygen to the plethora of NGOs and others waiting for something to make a fuss about and use with Geneva approaching. The Government must immediately issue a statement why the monuments were demolished and even ask if Western universities will allow Al Qaeda / Boku Haram / ISIS to erect statues of their leaders inside university compounds and hold candle lit vigils for them. This question has to be asked of every NGO/international media finding fault with the Sri Lankan authorities for demolishing a LTTE monument.
Instead the authorities must now invite designs for a Peace Monument that depicts harmony and the future for youth who have to take the mantle of leadership as they are the future leaders of the nation. No university can or should allow any terrorist related structure inside the university compound or celebrations in whatever form of terrorists. All candle lit vigils for terrorists must be banned even if some of these terrorists were once university students. Anyone can commemorate terrorists privately insidetheir homes. However, terrorists are not to be immortalized in public. Those that wish to do so are setting an ugly example to children and youth many of whom did not live during the terror reign of LTTE to see the heinous crimes LTTE committed even to Tamils and foreigners. LTTE or Prabakaran are no heroes. They are only heroes for the LTTE fronts operating overseas – for that is their ticket to making money by holding pro-LTTE events, selling LTTE souvenirs and even working for foreign intel to destabilize Sri Lanka. LTTE are heroes for bankrupt Tamil politicians who have only LTTE slogan to use to stay in politics. LTTE are heroes for a handful of others who are also working hand in glove with our immediate neighbor to eternally destabilize us.
So we must realize that LTTE served a bigger purpose than simply wanting to carve a separate territory. LTTE and terrorism is income generating business. It is the same for all other terrorist outfits too. Just follow their money trail to see the illegal businesses that operate within the terrorist movement – money laundering, monetary scams, illegal business rackets, human smuggling, prostitution Terrorism is nothing but a business.
Universities are centres of learning, to mould individuals to be good citizens not to pass out as terrorists.
The
BJP government need to recognize the rights of majority
Sinhalaese in the same spirit as they recognize the rights of
Hindus of India. Compared with the Congress Party, it is hoped BJP will review
its foreign policy in future dealings with the new Rajapakse Regime. .
The
recent visit of Indian External Affairs Minister Hon Jaishankar should be seen
in the light of above changes in approach by the Indian government.
However, during the press conference Mr Jaishankar touched on the
sensitive issue of principles underlining the 13A, expressing India’s
commitment for the full implementation with further devolutions to
Tamils.
It
would be foolish for the Sinhalese to expect that the visiting Minister
should have ideally extended an olive branch to Sinhalese during
his visit, to address the issue of so called minority
rights or 13A. . Unlike some of Sri Lankan Ministers ( Mangala
Samaraweera, Eran Wickremaratne, Jayampathy Wickremaratne, former
Opposition Leader Sambandan )and Prime Ministers ( Ranil Wickremasinghe) and
President ( Maithreepala Sirisena) who condemn Sri Lanka on foreign soil,
we have not witnessed any foreign dignitaries condemning their own country
whilst visiting Sri Lanka.
The
visiting Minister not only met with Sinhala Leaders, including the current
Sinhalese Opposition Leader, he also had closed meetings with Tamil and Muslim
leaders who advocate disintegration of Sri Lanka.
The
visiting Ministers comments during the press conference relating to the 13A
should and must not be ignored.The visiting
Minister was trying to walk on the eggs very diplomatically, without offending
Indian Tamils in India, Tamils in Sri Lanka and Tamils in the world.
But
Jaishankar has touched on an extremely sensitive issue and has
offended the majority Sinhalese. It is now clear,
his primary motive of the trip had nothing to do with assisting Sri Lanka
with Covid injections made in India. His visit had nothing to do with the
extension of economic co-operation between the two nations. But his visit
has the unique features of discussing the Tamils rights as a prelude to
the new draft constitution. This was his Agenda even before he left
India, other issues were painted to make it very glossy,
camouflage in order to appease ( or fool )Sinhalese.
Even
though we do not endorse the act of one courageous Sailor and an
astrologer Wijemini Vijitha Rohana on 30 July 1987, it should be
remembered that Sinhalese are not fools.
2.
HARD ROAD TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY:
2020
was an extremely bad year for Sri Lanka. Its economy contracted by 3.9%.
But unprecedented macro and micro economic reforms carried out by the
President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka did apply breaks on the
downward trend. According to World Bank Global Outlook
Report, Sri Lanka is projected to achieve a turnaround
of massive 7.2% GDP growth ( negative 3.9 plus positive 3.3) in
2021. The world bank projections for 2021 far exceed the GDP
% of 2017 and 2018, which were 3.6% and 3.3%. Larger economies like
India is projected to continue negative growth into 2021.
Large
volume of currency notes were printed by the current -government, mainly to
meet the demands of cash distribution of Rs 5,000 each for covid relief
period. If Rs 25,000 had been paid as suggested by the so-called
Clayton Economic Graduate of London School of Economics, Mr Sajith
Premadasa, the economy would have been ruined for many more years.
CONCLUSION:
United
Nations Human Right Council is to take up the issue of Tamils Rights once again
in March this year. Our unpatriotic Tamil Leaders are already sharpening
knives. The Indian External Affairs Minister’s comments during his visit
underscore the perpetual tension between Sinhalese and Tamils, attempting to
force the hands of new Leadership of Sri Lanka. India must stop trying to
get a leverage on Sri Lanka .
The
Sri Lankan government need to affirm that there will be no room for any
features similar to 13A in the proposed draft
constitution. The government must issue these policy directives to the
Romesh de Silva panel of experts. In the interim 21A should be brought in to
scrap 13A.
The
Rajapakse Regime is capable of running parallel two Agenda’s simultaneously,
namely economy and non-devolution of power. We are over-governed, not
only Sri Lanka should scrap outdated Circulars, Administrative and Financial
Regulations, it must also do away with excessive administrative institutions,
such as Governors, Chief Ministers, Provincial Councils. The
local governments and municipal councils are adequate for Sri Lanka,
directly supervised by the central government. Lets run a lean and mean
country, no fat-meat only!
The
projected economic recovery is a good news, but failure to scrap 13A will be a
bad news for the government.
Sri Lanka is
mainly concerned with American foreign policy, not America’s domestic policy.
From the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, the American Neo cons shifted their
focus from domestic issues to foreign policy. That is because they wanted a foreign
policy which would further US economic interests.
It is the neo cons who shape foreign policy in Washington, said analysts.
It is they who influence the direction of US foreign policy, not the President
of the US. The neo cons carry out the
foreign policy irrespective of who functions as President. American Neo-cons remain the dominant
foreign policy force in US, despite their record of unprecedented foreign
policy errors and disasters, such as the utter chaos caused by US interventions
in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
The foreign policy of the American Neo cons is very clear and
unambiguous. They want a world in which the US is the sole supreme power. They want
the global domination of the US to continue. The rise of any rival power must
be checked. Neo-cons claim that the US
does not seek to conquer and oppress, but rather to liberate and democratize.
US is a benevolent force, neo cons said. Its
foreign policy is intended to promote democracy and freedom. American leadership is good for the world. It is best for world peace.
William Kristol and Robert Kagan, two leading Neo cons, founded a
‘Think Tank’ in 1997 to promote the idea that American leadership is good for
the world and morally desirable as well. In 2010 TIME spoke of Pax Americana, which
TIME said, the world wants today. The American backed order has hitherto
offered protection of smaller players by binding more powerful states to agreed
rules of behaviour and process of dispute resolutions, TIME
said.
The Jewish population in USA is second only to that of Israel.
There are 6.8 million Jews in Israel and at least 5.5 million in USA. The Jews
have long exerted an enormous influence in the US. They are influential in finance, politics, science, architecture, literature,
music, and dance. But they all changed their names on emigrating to the US,
which indicates that non-Jewish America is very anti-Semitic. The name changing
continues, because anti –Semitism continues. Robert Allen Zimmerman became Bob
Dylan. Ralph Lifshitz became Ralph Lauren.
The Neo-con
movement was originally initiated by a group of intellectuals from the Jewish
community in New York and the majority of Neo-cons continue to be from the
Jewish community. Therefore, the protection of Israel against its enemies is a
leading objective of the neo-cons. That
is why the Neo-cons have focused so much on the Middle East, particularly
countries considered a threat to Israel.
The neo cons
have a belligerent approach. US domination is to be achieved through strong US
leadership backed by force. The use of
military force is seen as the main option in foreign policy. Positioning American forces in strategic
locations around the world to enable their rapid deployment is a part of this
strategy. USA has military bases
throughout the globe. US also gets military control of a country through its
agreements such as ACSA and SOFA.
Neo-cons want political control over countries which it considers
to be of strategic importance. They either obtain direct influence over the
governments or set up proxy regimes which the US could control. Neo cons advocate dictatorship. USA has cozy relationships with countries
that had right wing dictatorships, observed analysts. There were also backroom
deals with ‘neutral’ countries.
US does not
hesitate to change regimes in countries that are important to the US. US will try to destabilize a country which
is perceived as posing a threat to the interests of the USA or Israel. US
intervenes in foreign elections.
Regime change
has been followed by criminal
prosecutions of the old regimes. International Criminal Court was asked to
prosecute the earlier government of Ukraine for war crimes though there had
been no war at all under it, but not the new regime installed by the US. US also wanted to see Gaddafi, Saddam
Hussein, Milosovec punished. They also tried this for Rwanda. This punishment ethic” is now a
dominant characteristic of US foreign policy, said analysts.
US also uses
military intervention to achieve regime change. US also tries to tame a country through economic warfare. They impose
sanctions and say topple your government and economic sanctions will end.
US interferes
in internal affairs of other nations through its embassies and intelligence
agencies. These agencies create
divisions and conflicts. They send out
spurious narrative about regimes they want to target. They are also well known for toppling
governments.
The Neo-cons
also pursue their objectives through international non-governmental
organizations [INGOs] which are mainly funded by the USA. These INGOs have gained a foothold in
developing countries.
Special
mention is made of the interventions by George Soros, a prominent and leading
Neo con. When Soros-backed groups are entangled in the affairs of any nation,
massive upheaval tends to
follow and not for the better, said analysts.
Many Soros-linked organizations operate on behalf of the US agenda,
working to foment dissent and revolution.
Soros
utilizes a vast number of progressive organizations affiliated with Soros’ Open
Society Foundation. Soros-affiliated organizations across the world are deeply
connected to various color revolutions, the Arab Spring, and a number of other
political uprisings across the globe.
US has been
largely responsible for creating terror groups in various countries in the
latter half of the twentieth century and the early decades of the twenty-first
century, said analysts. These terror
groups have been created by the United States and its allies, they emphasized. US armed different Islamic groups and got
them to kill each other.
America kills. President Barrack
Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton watched from the White House
in Washington, in 2011, when Osama Bin Laden was killed in Abbotabad, Pakistan. Then they distributed
worldwide the photo of them seated in the White House, watching. On 3 January 2020, a United States drone strike near Baghdad
International Airport targeted and killed
Iran’s most powerful
military commander Qasem Soleimani. This was a triumph for USA.
Neo-con
agenda includes manipulating the United Nations. Currently USA is the largest single
contributor to the UN paying 22% of the budget. This gives them financial
clout. US makes the UN do as the US
wishes. From its Secretary General downwards the United Nations is strongly
influenced or controlled by the US . UN has been reduced to being a servant of
Western interests, and the US in particular, said critics.
We lead the world in part by leading at the UN said Samantha
Power. The United States needs the UN. The UN goes to places that the US will
not go. The UN is used to open doors
for US intervention in other countries.
US often throws its weight around at the UN ,
bullying and threatening those who did
not support UN policy. In 2017, US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley issued a veiled threat to member states who
defy Washington on US-sponsored resolutions. She
spoke of ‘taking names’ of those who don’t do as she says and singling them out for retribution”. If we are
strong and stand by those loyal to us more countries will want to be our allies
and those that challenge us will think twice before they challenge us, she
said.
US uses
its financial clout to threaten developing
nations who refuse to fall in line on critical UN voting in the Security
Council, the General Assembly and Human Rights Council. In 1990, when Yemen, an
American ally and member of the Security
Council, voted against a US-sponsored resolution to militarily oust Iraq from
Kuwait, US cut off its aid to Yemen.
US also dominates other UN agencies. US engineered the appointment
of a Japanese diplomat, Amano, to the leadership of the UN’s international
Atomic Energy Agency, which was a key player in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear
programme. The diplomatic cables leaked
by Private Bradley Manning included reports on Amano’s secret collaboration
with US and Israeli officials on the subject. The cables exposing Amano were
published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK in 2011.
Mary Robinson, a former Prime Minister of Ireland, was prevented
by the US from being re-appointed as UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights due to her criticism of human rights abuses
by Israel.
Everybody
knows that IMF is pro-US in its approach in matters of global finance and
economy, said analysts. In the 1970s, the IMF and the World Bank were
restructured to serve neo-liberalism. Neo liberal economics which the US and
Europe embraced and forced on the rest of the world, let loose
market forces which ravaged the
economies of the poor countries.
David Budhoo was an IMF
staffer whose job was designing Structural Adjustment Programs for Africa,
Latin America and the Caribbean. When Budhoo quit in 1988 he wrote an open letter to the Managing director of the
IMF. He accused the IMF of manipulating statistics.
He said he had been
involved in making Trinidad and Tobago look far less stable in the statistics
than they actually were, doubling labor costs and inventing huge unpaid debts.
The bogus statistics made the financial markets cut off their financing.
IMF then moved in with its remedies,
layoffs, wage cuts and the ‘whole gamut’ of structural adjustment. The letter
was turned into a Broadway theatre play and a review of the play was the only mention
ever made of Budhoo in the New York Times
said critics.
The Neo con movement, has a destructive agenda inimical to the
interests of the majority of the world’s population said critics.
Neo-cons have done untold damage not only through war, but by other
means as well. Also, Neo-cons are
indifferent to the suffering which results from the catastrophes they have caused.
USA‘s foreign relations have been heavily criticized. USA promotes
wars and destabilizes countries, critics said.
USA’s first target was Latin America. USA has engaged in direct military
interventions in most of the countries of Latin America, throughout the years making Latin America a
region of political instability and economic chaos.
Between 1945 and 2005 the United States has attempted to overthrow
more than 50 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30
populist-nationalist movements struggling against repressive regimes, continued
critics. In the process, the US has caused
the deaths of several million people, and condemned many millions more
to a life of agony and despair.
USA does not want
partnerships. It wants subjugation or submission, said angry critics. USA’s foreign policies and actions
are authoritarian and dictatorial. The
US foreign policy consists primarily of destroying the countries and their will
to survive. No other country has a
menacing foreign policy like this,
critics observed.
Today there
is a huge anti American sentiment sweeping the developing world mainly because
of its activity in the Middle East. US was the hidden
force in every war that took place in the world during the recent times, said
critics. As a result, USA is losing allies. Philippines is veering away
from the USA, its long time ally.
President Duterte visited Russia
in 2017.
Foreign countries love American technology, music, movies and fashion but not
interference in how they are governed, what their international friends should
be and how they should manage their
money, said TIME. ( Continued)
Hats off to
present office bearers of SLC led by President
Shammi Silva and the Tournament Director Ravin Wickramaratne for successfully
staging the first everLanka Premier League (LPL) cricket
tournament. They should be specifically lauded because this tournament was held
against all odds under trying circumstances. Apart from the threat from
COVID19 epidemic there were usual Sri Lankan style opposition too. However
young Minister of Sports Namal Rajapaksa supported the SLC to the hilt.
Five teams
named after various Sri Lankan cities played a total of 23 matches from 26 November to 16 December 2020. It was
Jaffna Stallions who became the champs on December 16 finals against Galle
Gladiators.
Interestingly,
Jaffna Stallions (JS) is owned by a consortium consisting of Sri Lankans and
Indians from all over the world including Australia, Canada, France, United
Kingdom, and the USA. A cricket enthusiast and avid cyclist, Anandan Arnold is
the Chief Executive Officer of JS. Arnold from Manipe, Jaffna and educated at
St John’s College Jaffna left Sri Lanka when his studies were disrupted by the
unrest preceding the outbreak of war in 1983. He qualified as a Chartered
Accountant and became a Senior Partner at BBK Partnership Chartered Accountants
in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, he has done yeoman service to the people in
the North like rehabilitating hospitals and setting up BBK offices to provide
employment mainly for underemployed educated youths from the North. He came
forward to help SLC to stage the LPL.
Arnold is
supported by Team Manager Ganeshan Vaheesan, who is also an Accountant by
profession lived in UK and Saranga Wijeyarathna Director of Communications and
Media of JS. Another important aspect is multi billionaire Rahul Sood,
creator of Microsoft Ventures M12, coming forward as a co-owner. Quoted
from Andrew Fidel Fernando’s article in ESPN cricinfo dated 12
December 2020 “Once
I heard the vision that Arnold had, I was on board straightaway,” Sood
said. “Using sport for reconciliation in a post-war setting, and giving
young kids who literally grew up in a war to play at a high level – who
wouldn’t want to get involved?”
With the
success story of JS there will be renewed enthusiasm for cricket in Jaffna and
other parts of Northern Province. SLC therefore can expect highly talented young
cricketers from the North in the future to augment ‘’the Lions.’’ When so many
of them start playing with the cricketers from the south in the same club or
school the feeling of
oneness, brotherhood and social unity under communities and society will
automatically take place promoting national integration.
Let’s hope Arnold and his team will continue to promote
cricket in the North.
Galle
Gladiators is owned by Pakistan Businessman Nadeem Omar, who owns
the Quetta Gladiators in Pakistan Super League. Omar has
always had a passion for cricket and sports of all kinds, whether indoor or
outdoor. As he stated after the finals, he is a lover of Sri Lanka and consider
it as the most beautiful island in the world.
While Colombo
Kings are owned by Dubai based Indian businessman, Dambulla Viikings are
owned by Bollywood actor Sachiin J. Joshi.
Bollywood actor Sohail Khan and Abbas Muni co-owned the Kandy
Tuskers.
According
to the Tournament Director Wickramaratne
Season 1 LPL had an unbelievable” viewership being broadcast to over 26
countries and a website published that 130 million viewers watched the final
worldwide. Encouraged by the success SLC has already made arrangements with ICC
to keep vacant July-August as the window for the LPL (Daily FT 22 December 2020).
Question is,
can the LPL go forward without audience or spectators at the grounds to
generate ticket revenue due to epidemic. A market research conducted by the
ICC, cricket has over a billion fans globally with the Indian sub-continent
alone constituting more than 90 per cent of them. This is the opportunity Sri
Lanka Cricket should capitalize.
Cricket
lovers are desperate to see competitions start again even if they are so-called
ghost matches” played in empty stadiums without a crowd. The fans need entertainment
in the comfort of their home in times of great stress, when
their towns and villages are lockdown due to epidemic. Many people worldwide
are now getting used to the concept of ‘entertainment at a push of a button’
with their TVs and digital media. There
are smartphone apps specifically designed for watching sports events remotely
called ‘Virtual stadiums.’
Some may
argue whether LPL can sustain when there is no on ground audience or spectators
and no ticket revenue. But it has been proved at IPL that ticket revenue does
not affect much the central revenue. Major part of the revenue is earned
through sponsorship, advertisement and broadcasting rights.
With the
success of LPL season 1, there will be a higher demand for the acquisition of sponsorship
and broadcasting rights together with advertisement slots and improve the non-ticket
revenue streams. However SLC must workout strategies to increase viewership.
A research
study conducted by Lancaster University Management School in 2007 found that in
soccer television viewers prefer close contests to more predictable contests by
the fans inside the stadium. This is true in cricket league matches too as can
be observed in the IPL (mother of all cricket league tournaments) matches over
the years. Up to IPL 2020 as many as five matches concluded with super overs
including one played over two super overs whereas in the first edition of LPL
there were four super over matches. They are thrilling encounters enjoyed by
cricket fan all over the world.
Indian Premier League (IPL) was inaugurated in 2008. Within a
few years it became the most lucrative annual sporting event of BCCI.
Similarly LPL also can be turned into a money spinner for SLC
if few more teams are introduced and attract more international Ícon’
cricketers especially from India. It also can be a springboard for promoting
national integration and as a means of fostering social justice, equality,
peace and stability for the Sri Lankans affected by 30 year war.
Three Sri Lankan men have
been charged in California with aiding a terrorist group blamed for 2019 Easter
attacks that killed 268 people in Sri Lanka, including five U.S. citizens
• LOS ANGELES — Three Sri Lankan men have been charged in California with aiding a terrorist group blamed for 2019 Easter attacks that killed 268 people in Sri Lanka, including five U.S. citizens, and injured hundreds, it was announced Friday.
Mohamed
Naufar, Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed were
charged last month in federal court in Los Angeles with conspiracy and
providing and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist
organization, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
The
men have no California connection, but the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force
that headed the investigation is based in Los Angeles, according to the U.S.
attorney’s office.
The
three men were linked to a group in Sri Lanka that supported Islamic State and
which is blamed for April 21, 2019, suicide bombings at Christian churches and
hotels in three Sri Lankan cities, prosecutors said.
Naufar
is accused of leading propaganda efforts for the group that called itself ISIS
in Sri Lanka,” recruited others to join the group and led military-type
training, authorities said.
Riskan
is accused of helping make explosive devices used in the attacks and Moahmed
allegedly killed a police officer in Sri Lanka to obtain a weapon, shot a
suspected informant and scouted a location for a separate terrorist attack,
prosecutors said.
The
men were being held in Sri Lanka and it wasn’t immediately clear whether they
had attorneys who could speak for them.
This
case clearly demonstrates that the United States will take decisive action to ensure
terrorists face justice when they target Americans anywhere in the world,” Nick
Hanna, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in the
statement. This complaint makes clear that we stand ready with these charges
in the event the defendants attempt to evade justice.”
Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The Government was making arrangements to provide COVID-19 vaccines to the people of Sri Lanka by mid-February, Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID-19 Disease Control Minister Sudarshani Fernandopulle said today.
She told Parliament that the government is engaged in talks with Russia to purchase Sputnik V vaccines, while talks are also underway with India to purchase Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. The Government is also considering the Pfizer vaccines as well,” she said.
Minister Fernandopulle also said the government has placed the orders to the World Health Organization (WHO) to obtain a vaccine through the COVAX facility.
The decision to remove the war monument at the Jaffna University was taken by Vice Chancellor of Jaffna University Professor Srisatkunarajah, as it was seen as an obstruction to unity and reconciliation, University Grants Commission Chairman Prof. Sampath Amaratunge said.
Issuing a statement Prof. Amaratunga said several groups in the Jaffna University attempted to construct a war monument within the university premises around the year 2018. It appears that this memorial statue was developed over the years. But honestly the monument can be an obstruction to the unity between the North and the South,” he said.
The Vice Chancellor of Jaffna University Professor Srisatkunarajah is an eminent scientist in Sri Lanka. He is also an excellent administrator. He had decided that the memorial statue does not suit the present or the future, so he instructed the statue to be removed from the university premises,” the UGC Chairman said.
Our students who are presently in the university system would have been 9, 10 and 11 years old when the war ended. Regardless of their race or religion, Tamil, Sinhala or Muslim, they are all our children. I’m happy to say that some 1,500 Sinhala students study at the Jaffna university today. Similarly, at least 600 to 700 Tamil students, especially from the North and East are studying in universities of the South. There are no problems among these students, and that is most important,” he opined.
Prof. Amaratunga said that the only factor that can ensure a repetition the problems of the past, is the unity of these students. They reside in common hostel facilities. They participate in common lectures, common sports events and other activities. As a country we are fortunate that these students have been responsible to experience no issues at these universities,”
The Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University has decided to remove the memorial from the university last night. I think it’s a timely decision. What we need is memorials of peace, not war. We should engage in these requirements together with our students,” he added.(Kalani Kumarasinghe)
The Government Information Department reports that 238 more persons have tested positive for Covid-19, increasing today’s tally of fresh cases to 535 thus far.
All new cases are close associates of Covid-19 patients from the Peliyagoda cluster.
The total number of Covid-19 cases reported in the country has increased to 47,840 while total recoveries are currently at 40,838.
Presently a total of 6,773 patients infected with the virus are under medical care.
