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Any person who crosses district borders in violation of curfew will be compulsorily sent to quarantine centers for a 14-day quarantine process.
DIG Ajith Rohana said that this decision will be in effect from tomorrow (April 10).
When I was talking to people in Sri Lanka as well as those who were overseas, they expressed that Sri Lanka needs a partial dictatorship for efficient and clean administration. Major news items in print and web media at present are mainly focusing on corruption, misappropriation, cheating, and information related to the dishonesty of politicians and government employees. If the public sector is so corrupt it would not difficult to assume that private sector and Non-government institutions popularly called NGOs, may also in a similar corrupt situation despite the general belief of people that they are clean organizations. Sri Lankans are frustrated with so corrupt information are being reported in the existing democratic operation and people expect corruption-free efficient and effective environments in the country. Coronavirus pandemic may give a signal to temporarily forget past corrupt practices but it doesn’t mean that it should forget forever and ever.
It seems that democratic political operation supports the corrupt administration despite political rhetoric that democracy is the best administration representing peoples’ participation. When it looks back on the government administration mechanism since independence in 1948 corruption and maladministration have been gradually increased and they have an upward trend without political party differences. Administrators under all political parties have recorded relations to corruption and malpractices. The investigation process relating to various cases appears delaying justice and people are discomfort about this situation and they assume that politicians wilfully delay the bringing justice or support for delaying tactics. The perception of the public in this arena is negative and many people are of opinion that Sri Lanka needs a partial dictatorship to achieve expectations of people.
After the presidential election in 2019 people are full of hope that elected president, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa will do the needful to eliminate corruption and change the malpractices in the government sector. Now, people are observing the operations with precarious minds what are going on and news media report that corrupt practices are active and when people hear such information, they disturb about new administration too.
When news spread on the election of Mr. Rajapaksa many Western commentators attempted to spread negative opinions especially referring to ethnic problems, which is a possible issue of less than 5% of the population or a tiny group of people in the country. Recently, I read a BBC report, it was a completely negative opinion and I have a question of why this reporter sent negative opinion when many people of Sri Lanka reject such a negative way of reporting. I had a suspicion that the report aimed at the Geneva Human Rights Conference and ideas were not authentic views of BBC. Reports on BBC have ignored the issues of more than 95% of people and during the LTTE war and just after the war these negative commentators had an organized attempt to undermine the Rajapaksa administration giving the wrong impression that Sri Lanka might be a failed state. There is no doubt that reporters need to show what they have done for the payments, but providing unreliable information may be a clear undermining of the credibility of the news agency. They were the only opinion, but not true information and readers of the report might misunderstand the government of Sri Lanka. The yahapalana regime recorded more dishonest work but not a single point about the regime has mentioned in the reporting process.
In history, people of the country without any ethnic difference adapted to a dictatorship in political administration and people preferred to dictatorship as it was less corrupt and attempted to fulfill the aspirations of common people. The public of Sri Lanka hadn’t the idea of any other style of political philosophy when they gained democratic administration to compare the differences.
[D1] The exercise of democratic administration had been effective since the State Council in 1931 and the administration was strictly scrutinized by the British rule. When Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 people had democratic experience only for 20 years and the knowledge and experience gained from a short period have not been sufficient to exercise clean administration and the freedom has been misunderstood by elected representatives as well as supporters of political parties. The active participation of people in administration at the regional level had been lower and people did not want to be engaged in or participate except voting in elections.
The impartial opinion about this matter is that people of the country had a short period to learn democratic administration, its operational pattern and its consequences. If it looks at the British democratic operations, the UK has no written constitution but conventions had been developed throughout centuries and people learned well about democratic traditions so they respect them.
The clear evidence under the dictatorship in history was nobody wanted to divide the country neither wanted to implement different styles of administration except cultural or religious practices, democratic administration promoted to go beyond the cultural and religious practices and mark borders withing the small island.
Many English Dictionaries define democracy as a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of the country typically through elected representatives. The question is when there are no differences in ethnic, religious, caste or any other differences exist, could the rule of majority be accepted as Democracy when there is a violation of human values? This is a vital point that people need to understand when applying a democratic rule in a country. It was not educated in Sri Lanka before introduce the democratic system. Broadly democracy involved in different concepts such as representative democracy, social democracy, and many others.
The short period of administration of the president Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa showed that a partial Dictatorship is the most suitable and appropriate administration to Sri Lanka and many academics confirmed it. The struggle to control the COVID 19 proved that how a partial Dictatorship is suitable for efficient and clean administration.
The academics of Sri Lanka expressed the following points.
The opinion of academic and ordinary people is that Sri Lanka needs a partial dictatorship.
මාක්ස්වාදය යනු මේ ලෝකය හා ස්වභාවයේ හැසිරීම සම්බන්ධව සාකච්චා කරන තවත් දර්ශනයකි. මේ දර්ශනය තුලින් සමාජයේ පරිනාමය සම්බන්ධව ඉතා ගැඹුරින් සාකච්චා කොට අනාගතයේදී බිහිවන සමාජක්රම හා ඒවායේ ව්යුහයන් ඉතා පැහැදිලිව ඉදිරිපත් කොට ඇත.
අපි දන්නවා චාර්ල්ස් ඩාවින් විසින් සත්ව පරිනාමවාදය ඉදිරිපත්කොට සමාජය හා මිනිස් මනස නව තලයකට ඔසවා තැබූ බව. ඒ දාර්ශනිකව පහල තලයක මනසකින් හෙබි බටහිර ලෝකයේ සිතුවිලි රටාව වෙනස් කල විප්ලවීය චින්තනයක් විය. ෆ්රෙඩ්රික් එංගල්ස් විසින් ඩාවින්ගේ සත්ව පරිනාමවාදය සම්බන්ධව අධ්යනය කොට වානරයාගේ සිට මිනිසා දක්වාවූ ක්රියාවලියේදී, එම කාර්යය ඉටු කිරීමට ඉවහල් වුයේ ශ්රමය බවත්, සමාජ පරිනාමයන් සිදු කරන්නේද මිනිස් ශ්රමය බවත් පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.
කාල් මාක්ස් හා ෆ්රෙඩ්රික් එංගල්ස් එකතුව, මිනිස් ශ්රමය විසින් සමාජ පරිනාමය සඳහා විශිෂ්ඨ කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටුකරන බවත් එය අතීතයේ, වහල් සමාජයේ, වහලා විසින් සිදුකට බවත්, වැඩවසම සමාජයේ, ප්රවෙනිදාසයා විසින් සිදුකල බවත්, දැනට පවතින ධනවාදී සමාජය පරිවර්තනය කරන කාර්යය, සිදුකල යුත්තේ කම්කරුවා විසින් බවත් පැහැදිලිකර දෙන ලදී.
ඔවුන්ගේ මුලික ඉලක්කය වුයේ, තමන් අවබෝධ කරගත් මේ දර්ශනයෙන් කම්කරු පන්තිය පෝෂණය කොට ඔවුන්ගේ බලය ඔවුන්ට පෙවාදී, මුලුමත් ලෝකයේ කම්කරුවන් ඒකරාශී කොට ධනවාදයට එරෙහි සටන කඩිනම් කිරීමට සියලු පෙරමුණු සකස් කිරීමයි. ඔවුන් මේ කටයුත්ත සිදුකිරීම ආරම්භ කරන ලද්දේ, මිට වසර 150කට පෙරදීය. ධනවාදී ලෝකය සමාජවාදී ලෝකයක් බවට පරිවර්තනය කිරීම කාල් මාක්ස්ගේ හා ෆ්රෙඩ්රික් එංගල්ස්ගේ අරමුණ විය.
මාක්ස්වාදයෙන් පෝෂිතවූ කම්කරුවන් යුරෝපය පුරා ක්රියාත්මකවීම ආරම්භවීමත සමග, මාක්ස්වාදයේ ඇති ප්රබලත්වය අවබෝධකරගත් ධනවාදීන්, කම්කරුවන්ට වඩා හොදින් මාක්ස්වාදය හදාරන්නට විය. මාක්ස්වාදය යනු ස්වභාවය විසින් සමාජයේ ඉටුකරන කාර්යභාරයක් බව වටහාගත් ධනවාදීන්, පළමුව මර්ධනයත්, පසුව ඊටවඩා ඉදිරියට විත් කම්කරු සංවිධාන නිර්මාණය කිරීමේ කටයුත්ත ඔවුන් විසින්ම සිදු කොට වෘත්තීය සමිතියත් ධනවාදීන්ගේ උපාංගයක් බවට පත්කර ගත්හ. පළමුව මෙය යුරෝපයේත්, මේ වනවිට ලංකාව ඇතුළු ධනවාදී සමාජ ක්රමයන් ඇති ලොව සියලුම රාජ්යන් තුලත් නිර්මාණය කිරීම තුලින් ස්වභාවය ඉටුකළ යුතු කාර්යය බලහත් කාරයෙන් අවහිර කොට ඇත. ඒ අනුව ධනවාදීන් සියලුම මාක්ස්වාදින්ව පඩි ගෙවමින් පෝෂණය කරමින් සමාජ පරිනාමය නවතා දමා තිබේ. කවුරු කෙසේ නවතා දැමුවද, සමාජ පරිනාමයවිම අවහිර කල නොහැක.
මිට වසර 150කට පෙරදී, කාල් මාක්ස් හා ෆ්රෙඩ්රික් එංගල්ස් විසින් අපේක්ෂා කලේ, ධනවාදය බිඳ වැටීම, හා සමාජවාදය ගොඩනැංවීම, ධනවාදය ආරම්භවූ යුරෝපයෙන්ම සිදුවිය යුතු බවයි. නමුත් ඒ තත්වය එදා ඔවුන් අපේක්ෂා කල ආකාරයට සිදු නොවුන අතර, වර්තමානයේදී, කොරෝනා වෛරසය ව්යාප්තිය තුලින්, ධනවාදය ඉමහත් අර්බුදයකට ලක්ව ඇති බව අපි දකිමු. මෙය අපිට දකින්නට තිබෙන තත්වයට වඩා විශාල අර්බුදකාරී තත්වයක් ධනවාදී ලෝකය පුරාම නිර්මාණය කර තිබේ. මුළු මහත් බැංකු ක්රියාවලියම බිදවැටි, නව පෙරලියක් ඉල්ලා සිටින අතර තව දුරටත් ස්ථාපිත ජාත්යන්තර බැංකු ක්රියාවලිය පවත්වාගෙන යාම නොහැකි තත්වයක් ඉදිරියේදී නිර්මාණය වෙනු ඇත. මෙය, ජාත්යන්තරය පුරාම රාජ්ය නායක හොරුන් නිර්මාණය කර ඒ ඒ රටවල රාජ්ය නායකත්වය ඔවුනට ලබාදී, එම රටවල ධනය යුරෝපිය බැංකුවල තැන්පත් කර යුරෝපය පෝෂණය කල ක්රියාවලියට තිත තැබීමක් වෙනු ඇත. මේ තුලින්, මෙරට හා ජාත්යන්තරය පුරාම විසිරි සිටින රාජ්ය හොරුන්ට ස්වභාවය විසින් එම ධනය කළමනාකරණ කිරීමේ බලය ඔවුනට අහෝසි කරනු ඇත. මේ දිනවල මෙරට සිටින පාදඩ යහහාලන හොරුන් ගල් ගැසී නිහඬව සිටින්නේ, වසර ගණනාවක් තමන්ට ගලා ආ ඒ ධනස්කන්දය අතුරුදහන්ව ගොස් ඇති නිසාය. ඉදිරියේදී ධනවාදයට හා ජාතික හොරුන්ට ඇත්තේ ඉතා අපල කාලයකි. එය ස්වභාවයේ තීරණයයි. අප වහ වහාම මුළු රටපුරාම Digital finance system හදුවාදීමට පියවර ගත යුතුය. ඉදිරි ලෝකයේ මුදල් සංසරණ ක්රියාවලිය එය වන අතර එම කාර්යයේ මධ්යස්ථානය ශ්රී ලංකා මහා බැංකුව බවට පත් කොට අනාගත් ලෝක නිර්මාණයට සුදානම් වෙමු.
බ්රිතාන්යයේ රජයෙන් COVID 19 positive ආසාදිතයින් මරා දමන්නේ නැහැ ..
පුලුවන් තරම් උත්සාහ කරන්නේ අමාරු ලෙඩ්ඩු සුව කරන්න ..
මට ගසා තිබුණ මැශින් එකත් මගෙන් ගලවා මට වඩා අසාදිතය රෝගියා ට ගැසුවා ..
මට ඒකට ලොකු සතුටක් දැනුනා …
මගෙ ජිව්තය නැති උනත් ඔහුව බේරා ගන්න පුළුවන් කියා සිතුනා ..
විටින් විට අසාදිතයන් ගෙනවා …
ඒ ගෙන ලෙඩුන් වාට්ටුවට ගේන කොට පරන ලේලංඩ් ඇංජිමක සද්දෙ කියා දැනුනා ..
මොන මැශින් ගැසුවත් ගසා සෙම ඇද්දත් මරණය නවත්තන්න බැහැ කියලා හිතුනා … ඒත් වෛද්ය වරුන්ගේ යුතුකම සහා වගකීම තත්පරයක් හරි ජීවත් කරවන්න කියා ඇස් දෙකට දැක්කා .. මම හිටපු මොහොත තුල 3 දෙනෙක් මිය ගියා ..
මිය ගිය පසු ඒ මොහොතෙම සුදු පාට ඉට් බෑග් එකක දමා සීල් කරනවා ..
ඉන් පසු තමයි වාට්ටුවෙන් ගෙනියන්නෙ … කොහේ ගෙනියනවා ද කියා මා දන්නෙ නැහැ ..
අපේ ගෙදරින් මාව ගෙනාවෙත් බිරිඳ ට දරුවන් ට මම සුව වී ගෙදර එනකම් බලන්න එන්න බැහැ කියලා ..
ඉතින් මම මැරුනත් කිසිම කෙනෙක් ට බලන්න බැහැ … ජත්යන්තර නීතිය අනුව ක්රියාත්මක කරනවා ..
පවුලේ අයව දැනුවත් කරනවා මිය ගියා කියලා එපමනයි ..
මගේ බිරිදගේ නම ගම දුරකථන අංකය ගෙදරිදීම ඉල්ලා ගන්නවා ..
ඒකට අපේ රටේ පවුලේ ලගම කෙනෙකුට පෙන්වනවා ..
අපේ රටේ සහා රාජ්යය නායකත්වයෙ තියෙන මනුෂ්යත්වය ට කාරුණිකව භවයට ..
අනික තමයි විශේෂ වැදගත් දේ
අපේ රටේ සංස්කෘතිය තුල අපේ කම තියෙන හැගීම සිත් වල තියෙනවා ..
මට COVID 19 positive කියා දැන ගත් විගස බ්රිතාන්යයේ පදිංචි ශ්රී ලාංකික සහෝදර ජනතාව පක්ෂ ජාති ආගම් කුල බේද පාට බේද නොසිතා කෑම බීම ගේ ලගට ගෙනත් දුන්නා .. උදව් උපකාර මොනවාද කරන්නෙ ඕනේ කියා අසනවා..
ආගමික නායකයන් පවා ආගම් බේද නොසිතා ආශිර්වාද කරා පන්සල වල මගේ නම කියා පිරිත් කීවා ..
විශේෂයෙන් බෙදුම්වාදීන් වන LTTE එක පවා දුර කථනයෙන් කතා කර මට සුභ පතා ආශිර්වාද කලා ..
ඔහුන් තුලත් ශ්රී ලාංකික මනුෂ්යත්වය තියෙනවා ..
මම ඔහුන්ට විරුද්ධව බ්රිතාන්යයේ සටන් කරන කෙනෙක් ..
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සහා සියලු රටවල ඉන්න ශ්රී ලාංකිකයෝ සුභ පතා ආශිර්වාද කරලා තිබුණා ..
බ්රිතාන්යය ජාතිකයෙක් ට මේ සහනාධාර නැහැ …
ඔහුන්ට රජයේ න් කෑම බීම ලගට ගෙනත් දෙන්නේ නැහැ ..
මට කීවෙත් on line supermarket වලට කතා කර කෑම බීම ගෙනත් ගන්න කියලා ..
බ්රිතාන්යයේ පදිංචි ශ්රී ලාංකික වෛද්යවරුන් පවා උපදෙස් දුන්නා ..
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සිට ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ වෛද්යවරුන් මාහාචාර්යවරුන් පවා වීඩියෝ තාක්ෂණය ඔස්සෙ සජිවී උපදෙස් දුන්නා සොයා බලනවා ..
ඇත්තෙන්ම මේ අවස්ථාවේ ශ්රී ලාංකික සහෝදර ප්රජාවට මාගේ උත්තමාචාරය පුද කරනවා ..
මිය ගිය කෙනා ලංකාවේ ද බ්රිතාන්යය ජාතිකයෙක් ද ඉතාලි ජාතිකයෙක් ද වෙන රටක ජාතිකයෙක් ද අරාබි ජාතිකයෙක් ද වෙනසක් කියා නිතී නැහැ ..
එකම නීතිය කොයි කාටත් පොදුවේ ක්රියාත්මක කරන්නේ ..
මගේ ආදරණීය බිරිඳ ට පුතා ට බලන්නවත් දෙන්නේ නැහැ ..
අන්තිමට මතකයේ තියෙන්නෙ ගෙදරින් ගෙනියනකොට බිරිදගේ පුතා ගේ කදුලු සමග දුන්න හාදුව පමණි ..
එකම ප්රශ්නය ප්රමානවත් තරමට ගිලන් රථ නැහැ …
මට අමාරු උන වෙලාවෙ NHS දැනුවත් කලාම ඇම්බියුලන්ස් එක ආවේ පැය 3 ක් ගිහින් …
එයාල ගෙදර එන්නේ සියලුම උපකරණ අරගෙන ..
ගෙදර සියලුම පරික්ෂණ කරලා හොස්පිටල් එකට ගෙනියන්නෙ .
අමාරුම නැත්නම් ගෙදර නිරෝධානය වෙන්න කියනවා ..
බ්රිතාන්යයේ රජයේ COVID 19 වලින් ජනතාව බේරා ගැනීම ගැන මට ප්රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා …
නමුත් NHS එක මගින් ගන්න උත්සාහය ඇස් දෙකෙන් දැක්ක මම
අපි ඇත්ත කතා කරමු”
හොස්පිටල් වල ඇදන් නැහැ …
ඇන්දක් තිබුණා නම් මාව ගෙදර යවන්නෙ නැහැ …
ඒකත් මගෙන් අසා කැමැත්ත අරගෙන ගෙදර යන්න දුන්නේ ..
ගෙදර ඉන්න මම ආවෙ මට වඩා අසාදිතයන් හොස්පිටල් එකට ගේන නිසා . එයාල ට ඇන්ද දෙන්න මම සතුටින් දුන්නා …
අනික මෙහේ හොස්පිටල් වල ලංකාවේ දේශීය ක්රම වේදය කරන්නේ නැහැ ..
ඒක මට ගෙදර කර ගන්න පුළුවන් ..
අපේ ගෙදර කාමර තුල දොර වහගෙන කිසිම කෙනෙක් සමග සම්බන්ධයක් නැතිව නිරෝධානය වෙන්න පුළුවන් … කාමරයේ විදුලි පහනත් මට එරෙහිව ඉන්නවා .. ඒකත් මේ රෝගය වැලදුනාම කරදරයක් ..
Tv එකේ කොපමණ මම ආස වැඩසටහන ක් තිබුනත් ඇසෙන කොට කරදරයක් ..
ඉතාමත් ආසවෙන් බලන විමල් සහෝදරයා ගේ අද දෙරණ 360 බැලුවේ අද … ඒකත් ඉතාමත් අමාරුවෙන් බැලුවේ ..වෙනදාට ඒ මොහොතෙම බලා විමල් සහෝදරයා ට සුභ පතනවා ..විශේෂම කොටසක් අරගෙන ඒ මොහොතේ ම මුහුණු පොතේ දමා ප්රසිද්ධ කරනවා ..
නැවත හුස්ම ගන්න අපහසු උනොත් 999 කතා කරන්න කීවා ඇම්බියුලන්ස් එක එනවා කීවා .. වෙන්ටලේෂන් මැශින් එක ගෙදරට ගෙනත් දෙනවා කීවා …
හොස්පිටල් එකට ගෙනිච්ච විගස මැශින් ගැසුවා ..
හුස්ම ගැනීම ටිකක් පහසු උනාම ..
Xray . ECG , Tag එකට දැමුවා ..
උගුරට ලී කැල්ලක් වගේ දමා සෙම වගේ ගත්තා ..Blood කීප වතාවක් ගත්තා ..Test දෙකක් කර තමයි COVID 19 positive කියා දැන ගත්තේ ..
ඉන් පසුව COVID 19 වෛරසයෙ සිම්බල් එක තියෙන ෆයිල් එක හදා මගේ නම ලියා තිබුණා ..
මාව වෙන් කර තුබුණ ඉදිරිපිට රටේ ජාතික කොඩිය දමා One Person කියා මගේ නම ගසා තුබුනා …
හුස්ම ගන්න අපහසු වෙන කොට හිතනවා බෙල්ල මිරිකා ගෙන තත්පර කීපයකින් මිය යන එක සැපයි කියලා .
විඩියෝ තාක්ෂණය ඔස්සෙ සජිවී මා සමඟ NHS එක විටින් විට සම්බන්ධ වෙනවා . .. එයාල දෙන උපදෙස් පිලි පදින්න ඕනා ..
Paper Work එකක් දීලා තියෙනවා ඒක පැය 4 න් 4 සටහන් කරන්න ඕනා ..
ඔක්සිජන් බලන ගැජට් එකක් දුන්නා …
මේ සියල්ල ම සජීවී පෙන්වන්න ඕනා … මේ රෝගය වැලදුනාම දුරකථන වලට උත්තර දීම ත් කරදරයක් ..
කතා කරන විට හතිය කැස්ස එනවා උගුර හිර වෙනවා වගේ දැනෙනවා ..
විශේෂයෙන් දුරකථනය නිදහස් ව තබන්න ඕනා ..
NHS එකෙන් කතා විටින් විට කතා කරනවා ..
ඉතින් මා යම් තරමට සුව උනොත් කතා කරන්නම් ..උත්තර දෙන්නම් ..
මෙහෙම ලීවාට සමාවන්න ..මේ සටහන ලියන්නෙත් විටින් විට .. එක දිගටම ලියන්න අපහසුයි ..
COVID 19 වාට්ටුව භාරව හිටියේ ඉන්දියානු සම්බවයක් තියෙන බ්රිතාන්යයේ ස්ථීර පදිංචි වසංගත රෝග මහාචාර්ය ඩොක්ටර් ප්රපාත් කියලා කෙනෙක් ..
ඉංග්රීසි ඇන්ටිබයිටික් බොන අතර තුර ශ්රී ලංකාවේ දේශිය ක්රම වේදය ගෙදර ගිහාම කරන්න කියලා උපදෙස් දුන්නා ..
ගෙදර මම ඉන්නේ කාමරය වහගෙන .. මගේ පුතාව එක කාමරය ක වහලා .. දවස් කීපයකින් පුතාගේ මුහුන දැක්කෙ නැහැ . ..
කට හඩ විතරයි අහන්නෙ …
පුතා ට වයස 18 යි එයාට හැදුනොත් මා කර ගන්නා ලොකුම පාපය වෙනවා ..
නොදන්නා කමට බොරු ප්රචාරය කරන්න එපා ..
බ්රිතාන්යය ආණ්ඩුවේ COVID 19 න් මර්ධනය කරන්න ගන්න පසුගාමී ප්රතිපත්තිය අපි විවේචනය කරමු”
ඒක ගැන තවත් විවාදයක් නැහැ ..
අපේ රටේ COVID 19 පරාජය කරන්න වැඩ පිලිවෙලක් තියෙනවා .. ඒ සදහා රාජ්යය නායකයා උපරිම කැපවීම සහා මුල් තැන දිලා තියෙනවා රජයේ සෞඛ්යය අමාත්යාංශය ට සහා සියලුම විද්වතුන් ට ..
ඒ සදහා රෝහල් දවස් කීපයක් ඇතුලත ගොඩ නගනවා ..
අපේ රටේ රෝගියා ව ගෙදර යවන්නෙ නැහැ ..
රජයේ වගකීම ඉටු කරනවා
ඒක තමයි විය යුත්තෙ ..
බ්රිතාන්යයේ එහෙම වැඩ පිලිවෙලක් නැහැ ..
රෝහල් වල ඇදන් නැහැ කියලා ගෙදර යවනවා ..
ඒක NHS එකේ වරදක් නෙවෙයි ..
නමුත් 2019 නොවැම්බර් 16 වෙනකම් අපේ රටේ විරුද්ධ පක්ෂය ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපති තුමාට බොරු ලේබල් නින්දා අපහස කර එකාධිපතියෙක් .. හමුදා නායකයෙක් ..ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය නොදන්න එකාධිපතියෙක් .. ඇමරිකන් ගැති පුද්ගලයෙක් ..මිනීමරු පාලනයක් ගේනවා කියා අභූත චෝදනා කරපු අය ..
අද සද්දයක් නැහැ ..
අද ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය රාජ්යය නිලධාරීන් ට භාර දිලා තියෙනවා ..
බ්රිතාන්යයේ එහෙම ප්රතිපත්තියක් නැහැ ..නමුත් රාජ්යය ආයතනයක් වන NHS එකේ තියෙන ගුනාංගය අපි අගය කරමු”
COVID 19 අපිට ඇටෑක් කරන්නේ පොකුරු පිටින් …
නමුත් අපිට COVID 19 වලට ඇටෑක් කරන්න වෙන්නේ තනි තනිව ..
යුද්ධයක නම් හතුරෝ මර්ධනය කරන්න හමුදා කාණ්ඩ යොදනවා .. එහෙම මදි උනොත් තවත් අනු කාණ්ඩ යොදවා වට කර පහර දෙනවා ..
තනි හතුරා මර්ධනය කරන්න ත් හමුදා කාණ්ඩ යොදනවා ..
එක්කෙනෙක් ඒ වෙනුවෙන් යොදවන්නේ නැහැ …
නමුත් COVID 19 පරාජය කරන්න වෙන්නේ තමන්ටමයි..
මේකට කාණ්ඩායම් යොදවන්න බැහැ .
වට කරලා පහර දෙන්නත් බැහැ .කිසිම කෙනෙක් ට බිරිඳටත් අන්ඩ ගහන්න බැහැ ..
අපි අපි විසින්ම අපිටම නීති පනවා ගත යුතුයි ..
ඒක තමයි කාමරය වසා ගෙන කිසිම මිනිස් සම්බන්ධයක් නැතිව දොර අගුල් දාගෙන දින කීපයක් ජීවත් වන්න වෙන්නේ ..
බොරුව සමග අප ජීවත් වන කාලය අඩු වෙනවා …
අපිට වැලදි ඇති කොරෝනා වෛරසය පරාජය කරන්න පුළුවන් වන්නේ සත්යවාදීයෙක් විදිහට සත්ය ප්රකාශ කිරීමත් විශෙෂයෙන් දැඩි ආත්ම ශක්තිය ක් කර ගත යුතුයි . ජාතික කොඩිය හදවතට තුරුලු කරගෙන.. උපන් පින් බිමට කොන්දේසි විරහිතව ආදරය කරමු”
ඒ කර ගන්නා මහගු පින ඇති සොභාදහමෙන් කොරෝනා වෛරසය පරාජය කරන්න …
ඒ ශක්තිය මට තියෙනවා …මම කොහොම හරි COVID 19 පරාජය කරනවා ..
ඔබ සැමට සියලු ශක්තිය දහිරිය ලැබේවා
වජිර කමල් සමරක්කොඩි බ්රිතාන්යයේ ලංඩන් නුවර සිට
Even before the Portuguese’ arrival, Pettah had been a major trading place. Due to its proximity to Colombo Port (Kolom Thota), the Kotte kings erected warehouses in Pettah to store spices, vegetables, fruits, grains, ivory and timber geared for export. Pettah (also, Fort) used to station tusker elephants that Sri Lanka (then Sinhale) exported to the world.
During the Dutch and the British periods, Pettah emerged as the country’s main trading hub. It continues to be the case.
In and around Pettah, the British built such institutions as the Central Bus Stand, Fort Railway Station, Tram Station, Manning Market (fruits and vegetables), St John’s fish market, Tripoli Market, Chalmers Granary, Main Street’s textile and Sea Street’s gold centres, Front Street’s electrical appliances, bags and clock/watch centres, food wholesalers around Bankshall, Keyzer Streets and Gabo Lane areas, many small shops and boutiques in Pettah’s various Cross Streets and the small eateries and tea boutiques in St Sebastian Road, plus, ample opportunities for pavement hawkers who traded from trinkets to motor vehicles! Then, the nearby Hultsdorf Court complex where several thousands converged daily. Due to these, Pettah has always been an exceptionally busy place.
It is Pettah’s busyness that it has become such an interesting/lively place.
In fact, it is a world famous place. Overseas visitors to this country flock to see Pettah. They love the hustle and bustle there. The many street food outlets, the Dutch Period Museum and the Red Mosque are favourite tourist attractions.
But since recently, the authorities rather than building Pettah have been more concerned about dismantling Pettah. It has gradually lost important landmarks/institutions. Examples include the St John’s Fish Market, Tripoli Market, Chalmers Granary, shops/boutiques in St Sebastian Road, removal of pavement hawkers and the iconic Manning Market (soon to be removed).
It seems that they had felt that Pettah is too busy and it should instead be a tranquilled, calmer place?
Relocating St John’s Fish Market from Pettah to Peliyagoda is a major failure. It was a foolish thing to do. Business in Peliyagoda (which place becomes flooded during heavy rains) is not brisk. It is a difficult place to reach, as no public transport is available to the site. Those days, after work, office workers used to patronise the St John’s Fish Market. It is feared that once the Manning Market is shifted to Peliyagoda (very soon), it could face the same fate. Closing down of the Tripoli Market, which was very lively on weekends, is sad.
If Manning Market MUST be closed (which would be a shame), there will be a public outcry if the land is divided and sold to private property developers to build luxury apartments (such transactions are the ‘new fashion’ by governments). That type of a scheme would allow unscrupulous politicians to make money. The precious Manning Market land belongs to people, it should continue to remain with the people.
The writer suggests that that land should be converted to a public park with trees planted and benches, water ponds/fountains erected. People could sit and enjoy/relax in busy Pettah. Part of the area may be used to build a children’s play area, also a large multistorey car park (in the Railway Station end) as parking is a major problem in Pettah/Fort. After Vihara Maha Devi Park we do not have any good parks in Colombo. Such a new Park would also become a huge tourist attraction.
It is good that the pavement hawkers have now returned to Pettah, though in a limited way.
It is ludicrous to think that Pettah should be a calm/quiet place. It was never intended to be so.
Due to its close proximity to Fort Railway Station and the Central Bus Stand (both SLTB and private), Pettah will continue to grow and stay busy. And we should build Pettah in that context. The authorities should allow trade and commerce to flourish in Pettah steadily. Again, they should reconsider the decision, they must try to preserve the Manning Market in the current location.
The areas around the SLTB and private bus stands are unclean and unhygienic. They are eyesores. The offensive smell that emanates from the Beira Lake especially from around Customs Office/Lake House areas is unbearable. It is sad that the authorities do not pay attention to these (we want Sri Lanka to become the ‘Wonder of Asia!).
Many thousands frequent Pettah daily, including tourists.
It is good that new toilets (paid) have been built, but they do not seem to be clean.
The recent establishment of the ‘Pettah Floating Market’ (PFM) is a good concept. It gave Pettah a new dimension, with its magnificent waterfront becoming exposed. However, there seems to be lack of commercial activity there (except the Bake House). The current shops have less business. This area can be developed into an open food court (Hela Bojun/Diyatha Uyana styles). The eateries in Olcott Mawatha are not up to the standard; also, they do not have variety. Some of the shops by PFM’s railway track side can be converted to trendy cafes. It will be good to encourage people to use the PFM promenade also as a walking track (for exercise). For this, the areas up to Technical Junction and thereafter to Maradana Junction (opposite Elphinstone) should be well paved. More shady trees and benches would be needed. The authorities must ensure that water in this area of the PFM Beira Lake is not toxic/harmful.
The recent establishment of the small shop owners’ stalls where items like clothes, caps and footwear are sold may be a good thing. True they are highly congested, but Pettah’s ‘crowded’ identity allows that. The only drawback is that this new erection has resulted in the permanent shut down of the road behind the Bo Tree. Due to this, Pettah’s traffic congestion has worsened.
The condition of the new vegetable/fruit market (retail) established closer to Gaspaha Junction is of menial standard. In an open, empty building vendors keep items on the floor as no proper stands/stalls have been erected. Erection of benches should be considered; keeping food on the floor is unattractive and un-hygienic. This is a very basic facility, it resembles a village pola. There is no running water there. Compared with what Pettah used to have, what it needs is a better, high standard retail vegetable/fruit market.
Again, what the authorities should do is to build/develop Pettah. By doing this, if Pettah becomes busier, so be it. We should not dismantle institutions and restrict crowds there, but allow Pettah to grow; freely, lively and uninterruptedly.
We all are educated and warned over and over by authorities that a fair physical distance should be maintained at all times
So a group has initiated a WhatsApp group to practice meditation remotely at home from 6 to 7 in the morning and evening.
The only message the members was supposed to get is a reminder to start the practice and Maithree Bhavana for 10 minutes at the end of the session
I also joined to recommence vipassana meditation which I practiced for a while and stopped a few years back
Everything was good during the first few days until some members started sending messages about the corona and also total irrelevant videos etc to the WhatsApp group addresses
It looked like people were trying to get closer socially which they cannot do physically
The idea of pursuing meditation practice to get rid of all defilements and unnecessary thoughts
But people start to achieve using social media what they cannot achieve by having physical close association
It may be a good idea in case of a professional group to do so which can help work – from – home concept
But for a meditation group, this may not be the best practice
Social media messages will be flying all over the cosmos like the Coronavirus which may make people sick due at a hitherto unknown Extraterrestial invisible virus
Dr. Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka
Another COVID-19 death confirmed in Sri Lanka today (08) has brought the fatalities count to 7.
The Ministry of Health said the deceased is a 44-year-old male who was being treated at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Angoda.
He is reportedly a gem businessman from Mount Lavinia, who had returned to the country following a visit to Germany.
In the meantime, the confirmed cases count reached 189 this evening as another patient tested positive for the virus.
According to the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry, a total number of 44 patients have completely recovered from the deadly virus.
One more patient has tested positive for coronavirus, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 189 as of 6.00 p.m. today (8).
Meanwhile two COVID-19 patients have recovered and have been discharged from hospital. This bring the total number of patients who have recovered to 44.
According to the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health, 138 patients are currently under medical care while over 220 suspected patients under observations at selected hospitals.
Sri Lanka’s 7th coronavirus death was confirmed earlier today by the ministry.
Earlier Two more COVID-19 positive patients have hiked the total count of cases in the country 188.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry said 2 more patients tested positive for the virus a short while ago.
Collectively, 3 patients have been confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus as of 4 pm today.
The three new patients identified today had close contact with a patient recently reported from Ratnapura District, the ministry said.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 140 coronavirus patients are currently under medical care.
Out of the total number of confirmed cases in Sri Lanka, 42 patients have recovered completely while 6 persons succumbed to the virus.
Over 255 individuals who are suspected to have contracted the virus are under observations at selected hospitals.
The deadly virus has so far claimed more than 82,000 lives and infected over 1.4 million population worldwide.
There is an increased risk of coronavirus infections if the current system implemented in the country is relaxed, says Director-General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
Therefore, it is important to continue the curfew in order to maintain social distance, he said.
Dr. Jasinghe mentioned this joining the ‘Derana Aruna’ Breakfast Show on TV Derana this morning (08).
The number of Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests carried out to identify COVID-19 infections will be increased in the coming days, he further said.
There is much hullabaloo over the pardoning of Corporal Sunil Ratnayake by President Gotabaya Rajapake. The usual set of culprits are 24×7 preoccupied in carrying out a globally hyped campaign against the decision. Everyone does make mistakes. People are afterall human. There is no 100% perfect entity. No one is not unbiased. Plenty of Judges have given questionable verdicts. Plenty of lawyers have misled the jury. Plenty of witnesses have misled the Court too. In such a scenario we must be able to use our common sense to derive our own conclusions. Let us compare the Mai Lai massacre with the Mirusuvil massacre though the US illegally bombed & invaded Vietnam while Sri Lanka was dealing with a non-international armed conflict against non-state actors who were terrorizing the citizens fighting in uniform and in civilian clothing while engaging combatants as young as 7 years with even a trained civilian armed force.
US in Vietnam
US decided to deliver democracy to Vietnam during 1962-1971 resulting in the killing of 400,000 people and left 500,000 babies born with birth defects with some 2million continuing to suffer cancer & related illnesses from the 20million galloons of chemicals including Agent Orange dumped by US military on Vietnam.
The Mail Lai village massacre took place on 16 March 1968 by some 100 American soldiers led by Lieutenant William L Calley. 11th Brigade Charlie Company is alleged to have killed over 500 civilians ordered by Calley. Among them is the name of Private First Class Paul Meadlo who took part with Calley in the shooting.
182 women – 17 were pregnant
173 children – 55 infants
60 – old aged men
In 1968 Meadlo was 19years, married with 2 children while William Calley was just 28years.
Calley’s 3 day court martial ended on 29 March 1971 (3 years after the Mai Lai Massacre)
At the Army inquiry it was disclosed how Calley allegedly even ran after a 2 or 3 year old boy, caught him and after shooting him dead threw him into the ditch where all other dead were.
The Army jury convicted ONLY Calley of mass murder of 22 persons. The charge sheet however accused Calley of premeditated murder of 109 ‘oriental human beings’.
Calley was sentenced to life of hard labor but President Nixon intervened and ordered Calley’s release from Army prison. Calley was put under house arrest and then freed 3 months after Nixon left office.
Calley was a free man by 1974.
Even songs were written for Calley ‘Set Lt. Calley Free’
https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/10/the-ballad-of-my-lai-mp3s.html and hymns were also written ‘Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JoacW7woBY sold 2million records.
How did Calley become a freeman? Evie Saloman’s March 2014 article claims Nixon attempted to cover up the Mai Lai massacre evident in the release of hand-written notes of meetings with his Chief of Staff H R Haldeman in 1987. On 1st December 1969 the ‘Task Force’ was asked to adopt ‘dirty tricks’ and ‘discredit one witness’ in order to ‘keep working on the problem’ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/document-points-to-nixon-in-my-lai-cover-up-attempt/
Who were the ‘dirty tricks’ meant to discredit? None other than pilot Hugh Thomson and gunner Larry Colburn who from their helicopter saw the massacre in progress and tried to stop it and even saved a 8 year boy from the ditch and took him to hospital.
But when they returned to US they were treated as traitors.
Colburn says “The U.S. claims to be concerned with collateral damage with civilians that are caught up in war zones, but I don’t believe that,”
Colburn says. “That’s lip service.”
The Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharaib detention camps and the scores of illegal invasions and bombings prove how correct Colburn’s statement is.
Their story came out in 1998 – Back to Mai Lai” produced by Tom Anderson, reported by Mike Wallace & aired on 29 March 1998.
Both travelled back to Mai Lai in 2001 and met the 8-year old boy they saved who was now 41 years. Thompson died in 2006.
Among the many articles on Mai Lai the series of articles by Seymour M Hersh are of interest. He had visited Vietnam in the 1960s as a rookie journalist and again in 2015 at 78 years.
His 1971 article on Mai Lai was first published by the New Yorker and reissued in 2015.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/30/the-scene-of-the-crime
Ironically the US Army filed charges against 14 officers just like the 14 Sri Lanka Armed Forces personnel arrested in connection with the Mirusuvil murder in Sri Lanka in 2000.
Some soldiers claimed to have disobeyed Calleys orders but Private First Class Paul Meadlo had joined Calley in the shooting. The next day Meadlo had stepped on a land mine and his right foot had blown off. Instant karma.
A GI also recalls Meadlo cursing Calley when he was being evacuated to be treated God will punish you for what you made me do,”
Meadlo’s mother was to say I sent them a good boy and they made him a murderer.”
Another relevant detail in Hersh’s article is the unpublished August 1967 report by retired Pentagon Official W Donald Steward at the request of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (later became President of World Bank)
The report showed that US troops in South Vietnam did not know the Geneva Conventions. The soldiers, felt they were at liberty to substitute their own judgment for the clear provisions of the Conventions. . . . It was primarily the young and inexperienced troops who stated they would maltreat or kill prisoners, despite having just received instructions” on international law.
Stewart tells Hersh that he understood why the report was suppressed
People were sending their eighteen-year-olds over there, and we didn’t want them to find out that they were cutting off ears.”
This takes us to another important point for discussion. Everyone is quick to condemn military personnel claiming them to be a professional force and should act like one. That paradigm is not applicable when the military is fighting a non-state actor not bound to uphold laws except their own. Therefore, those quick to quote the Conventions and Law Books must first imagine if they could act with professionalism against a brutal terrorist group? The soldiers are not sent as guinea pigs to tabulate how successful the law manuals work during hostilities. While the soldiers go to defend the nation & the citizens the goal of the terrorists is to only kill and become martyrs by killing. So no law can judge a national army on the same benchmark as that of terrorists. Terrorists supporters are today manipulating this area to draw for their terrorist groups undue publicity and empathy.
Let’s also not forget that President Trump in November 2019 pardoned 3 US military personnel 2 US soldiers (who served in Afghanistan) & 1 sailor (served in Iraq) who committed war-zone crimes. But the condemnation against that was primarily simply to target President not so much based on any acts of crime committed by the 3 US military personnel.
Mirusuvil Massacre Sri Lanka
Now let us go to Sri Lanka’s Mirusuvil Massacre in Jaffna which allegedly took place on 19 December 2000 of 8 Tamils including a 5year old child.
Unlike the Mai Lai massacre which involved an entire military unit of 100 soldiers, and soldiers who admitted they committed shooting based on orders, there is no evidence to show anyone witnessing Corporal Sunil Ratnayake committing the murders or even holding the weapon with which the murders were committed.
Sunil Ratnayake’s verdict was based on CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE GIVEN BY A SOLE SURVIVOR (Maheshwaran)
Maheshwaran’s testimony only accused Ratnayake of assault not murder.
Maheshwaran has not said that he saw Sunil Ratnayake killing anyone or even holding a weapon.
Maheshwaran’s account of the incident as sole ‘witness’ is an exercise in imagination.
Only he was lucky to get blindfolded and beaten unconscious despite other men being present.
Only he had been carried by 2 Sri Lankan soldiers and tossed over the fence and he was so lucky that the blindfold got caught to the barbed fence so he could see but he didn’t see Sunil Ratnayake commit the crime.
He was the lucky one to be even taken to the supposed sight of the ‘murders’ and shown the crime and we have to next imagine him running clad only in his underwear ¼ mile to his aunts where the next morning he was again lucky enough for his father to come search & find him & both to complain to EPDP office
Corporal Sunil Ratnayake was arrested under a UNP government in 2002
Corporal Sunil Ratnayake was convicted of murder in June 2015 also under the same Govt that arrested him which had come to power to form a legally questionable ‘national government’ cobbled after a Presidential Election in January 2015.
Corporal Sunil Ratnayake was convicted under the same government in June 2015 while the Court acquitted the other 4 soldiers though all 5 were charged under penal code sections 32, 146 and 296.
Nowhere in the judgement does it state that Ratnayake personally killed any of the 8 victims.
If same charges were brought against all 5 armed forces under penal code 32, 146 and 296 – why did 4 suddenly get acquitted on the ground that their identities could not be established and only Sunil Ratnayake was convicted.
The answer lay in the ‘interpretation’ of Penal Code Section 32 that a criminal act done by several persons with common intent is equivalent to a single person committing the act of crime alone.
How fair is it to declare death sentence based on an interpretation sans concrete evidence of anyone actually seeing him commit the murders?
How possible is it for ONE PERSON to commit all 8 murders, dig a large hole to hide dead bodies and dig another large enough ditch to bury the bicycles while all others stood watching – even the Supreme Court admits this was ‘highly improbable’?
If so, is it fair to release all others and pass all blame to one man based merely on a penal code interpretation?
President Maithripala Sirisena released the very LTTE suicide combatant who had attempted to kill him and the media clapped hands chirping the act to be an embodiment of reconciliation. The same media are howling against the pardoning of a soldier based on circumstantial evidence without any proof that he committed the murders. They have completely character-assassinated him as a ‘murderer’ and ‘butcher’ without any thought for the long-term repercussion to him & his family.
If Penal Code Section 32 was applied to LTTE it is more than possible that some Tamil politicians linked to LTTE may also find themselves behind bars!
The Abrahamic justice of eye-for-an-eye as against compassionate justice of Dharmic philoshophy is the reason why close to 12,000 surrendered LTTErs have not been charged for their crimes & why 594 child soldiers were also given a presidential pardon.
However, if justice is what is being sought then definitely it is LTTE and all those connected to LTTE who must end up being charged for their crimes.
The Sri Lankan President’s powers to pardon comes tagged to a process that passes through the Attorney General, to the Minister of Justice for recommendation and thereafter to the President. Therefore, all those barking should first read Article 34(1) of the Constitution before howling. The howlers should ideally question the system that has actually failed Corporal Sunil Ratnayake instead of demanding his death!
Have any of the entities issuing statements condemning the pardon even read the judgement? Probably not!
Shenali D Waduge
A word of praise is due to our President Gotabhaya, his team and the doctors of the Health Service for the excellent manner they are tackling the Coronavirus Epidemic.
Sri Lanka stands far ahead in the manner they are tackling the epidemic. We have so far had six deaths while the UK has some six hundred dead almost daily. Premier Boris Johnson seems lost and I hope he recovers and also regains the necessary strength.
President Gotabhaya and his team need no introduction to Sri Lankans. He is the leader that destroyed the monster LTTE that caused carnage in the entire island on a daily basis for three decades. That was when his protagonists chided him of fighting the battle in Pamankada. My own opinion is that he is the only person that can do that task.
Our health service has been always very efficient. I recall the afternoon when I had the occasion to carry the corpse of a lad I had fished out of the sea at Polhena. In my bathing trunk, I carried the corpse, barged into the consultation room at Matara Hospital, laid him down on a stretcher. I knew all the doctors and I requested them: “Please do what you can to bring him around.” In a corner of my mind, I was a bit worried that I had to give him a blow or two to bring him under control when he grabbed me. But I managed to control him and to swim with him to the shore. We did the tricks we laymen knew, but to all intents, he looked dead. The doctors attended at once. Consultants on duty rushed in to help. By four in the evening, I was informed that the lad’s life was saved. We did have a great Health Service and I am happy to note the yeoman service being provided today.
My humble message both to our Excellency and our Health Service is congratulations. The people are with you.
Coronavirus is taking its toll and there seems to be no end in sight. It may even cause the loss of our civilization.
Our President is at the forefront and we are extremely thankful for action being taken.
It is hoped that a vaccine will soon be found. Generally, when a remedy, a vaccine is found in our capitalist world today, the pharmaceutical company obtains a patent and sells the product at a fanciful price. The firm is entitled to fix any price. Generally, the price fixed is so high that it is beyond the reach of ordinary people. No other company can even produce a similar version. Though a vaccine is found the Masses yet die because they cannot afford.
It so happens that my experience covers many areas of work both in Sri Lanka and abroad and have had the occasion to make decisions re innovations unearthed by officers who worked under my direction.
Coop Crayon. When I worked as the G.A. at Matara in 1971, the craze in me to establish an import substitution programme entirely on my own, because the Ministry of Plan Implementation was shy to approve any new programme, I directed my Planning Officer, Vetus Fernando, a chemistry graduate, to make a myriad of experiments to find the art of making a crayon. This was accomplished in three months of hard work, working from six to midnight every working day for three months. I decided that it should be a cooperative venture and authorized Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament of Deniyaya to establish it using cooperative funds as he was the President of the Morawak Korale Coop Union. Sumanapala established the Coop Crayon in three weeks, working day and night. I and the Katcheri stalwarts worked day and night with the workers, training them. We made it equal to the Reeves of those days. Though We administrators and Sumanapala developed it to have islandwide sales, President Jayawardena saw to its closure. Firstly he sent NT Ariyaratne Deputy Director of Cooperative Development to audit and find something wrong to hang Sumanapala. The Deputy Director had to report after a few days of auditing that the industry was sound and paying. However, the industry was run down on the IMF dictate that the public sector should not attend to any trade or industry. Though an excellent industry we failed to take a care-a loss to our country.
The Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh was designed and established by me when I worked as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor on Youth Development to the Ministry of Labour and Manpower. The details of the programme-the peculiar basic economics involved in guiding drop out youths who had forgotten even to read and write, the basis of nonformal education – active participation, the art of guiding youths to build up their abilities and capacities as they struggled and strove to establish their commercial ventures to become successful commercial entrepreneurs and get trained in short special sessions, were all decided by me in two hours of intense debate between me and the Secretary to the Treasury of Bangladesh, the highest officer in the country
when he objected to my suggestion that a youth self-employment programme should be approved. He vetoed it because an ILO attempt in the earlier years had resulted in a massive loss to the Treasury. I designed an established programme and trained the staff of youth directors to continue it and today it is the premier programme of youth employment creation that has guided three million to become self-employed. When I met Mr Asafuddowlah, the Additional Secretary of the Ministry in London, some ten years later, he told me that the “World Bank has made several attempts to take over, fund and control the YSEP which was firmly resisted by the administrators in charge” (2006:p.423). Today this Programme is firmly guarded by the Government as their own.
While Coop Crayon was sacrificed at the instructions of the IMF, the YSEP is today the guarded programme of the Government of Bangladesh.
May I humbly request our President Gotabhaya to direct the MRI and our Universities to find a vaccine to counter this coronavirus before it eats up our civilization and more let me plead of him to establish the making of this vaccine under state control, managed by the most respected scientists and the ablest of administrators so that it will help humanity and not be used for the cause of making fanciful profits. Our experience has been that though vaccines have been found Masses die because they cannot afford to buy it.
May I close with a word of thanks again to our President and our Prime Minister for their
the yeoman service in tackling the coronavirus.
Garvin Karunaratne,
Ph.D. Michigan State University
Former G.A.Matara
Author of:How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success,(Godages:2006)
How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/ Godages: 2017)
07/04/2020
In the cities and villages people in Sri Lanka have lived harmoniously helping each other and enjoying good times and share the sorrow
I have sadly noted that our neighbors do not even talk to each other let alone distancing physically
People have become selfish like in the Western countries where they do not even know who your Neighbour is
When a bread van, grocery van or vegetable van comes some people do not call their neighbors and share the information
I am afraid that we will take a long time to revive our close relationship in the society which had been in existence for many centuries, after the cessation of Corona Hostility
Dr. Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka
හෙළ ජාතික අභිමානේ
වැඩු විරුවන් සේ පොරණේ
දිනු මව්බිම සව්සිරියෙන් සරසව්
පිබිදෙව් පිබිදෙව් සැරසෙව්…//
වීර විකුම් පෑ පෙර දරුවෝ, දෙස රැස මුර කෙරුවෝ
ඒ ලෙය ඇති ඔබ සුරවිරුවෝ – නොමවව් ණයකරුවෝ
දැය දියුණට පැද යන නැවියා
ගොවියා බිම දෙවියා
විපතෙහි සැපතෙහි නොසැලෙයි නොතැවෙයි අටලෝදම හුරු හෙළයා
විපතෙහි සැපතෙහි නොසැලෙයි නොතැවෙයි අටලෝදම හුරු හෙළයා
හෙළ ජාතික අභිමානේ…/
මුහුදට ඈදෙන මහ ගංඟා – කුඹුරට යලි හරවා
ධාන්ය වගා කොට සිරිලක මේ – පෙරදිග කෙත කරවා
අරපිරිමැස්මට පුරුදු වෙලා බිඳලව් දුක සංකා
පැරකුම් යුගයක් නැවතත් අරඹව් නිජ භූමි තලේ ලංකා
පැරකුම් යුගයක් නැවතත් අරඹව් නිජ භූමි තලේ ලංකා
හෙළ ජාතික අභිමානේ…/
(ගායනය: සී. ටී. ප්රනාන්දු)
කොරෝනා තන්ත්රවාදය (කැටැස්ට්රොෆික් තියරි ඔෆ් ප්ලෑනින්)
මෙම ලිපි මාලාවේ කලින් කොටස් දෙකෙන් පෙන්වා දීමට තැත් කලේ ලංකාවේ ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයක් නැති බවත් ඇත්තේ ප්රජා-නාස්ලණු-වාදයක් බවත්ය. කොරෝනා සිද්ධියෙන් පෙනීයන්නේ, මේ යුද්ධය නම් කවදාවත් දිණන්න බෑ කියූ කල්ලි, සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයින් හා ආණ්ඩුවේ නොවන ඩොලර් සංවිධාන මුස්ලිම් මළමිනී පස්සේ යමින් සිටින බවය. බිමාල් රත්නායක නම් ජේවීපීකාරයා කියන්නේ මළමිනී මුස්ලිම් අයගේ යයි සඳහන් කිරීම ජාතිවාදය කියාය! මුස්ලිම් මිනී වලලන්න දියයුතුය කියන පෙත්සමට අත්සන් කල 164 දෙනා හා සංවිධාන 17, සුප්රකට මහාවංශ විරෝධී කල්ලියමය (කලම්බු ටෙලිග්රාෆ්, අප්රියෙල් 5). සජිත්ලා කාවින්ලා වෙනුවට දැන් හකීම්ලා අල්ලාගේ නීතියක් ගැන කතා කරයි. හලාල් දිනාගත් ඔවුන් දැන් වෛද්ය විද්යාව, චන්ද දේශපාලනයෙන් යටකරන්නට සිතයි. මෙහිදී ඉම්තියාස් බකීර් මාකර්, අලි සබ්රි පවා ඉන්නේ වැට උඩය. සමහර මුස්ලිම් පල්ලි හැසිරෙන ආකාරය අනුව සිතාගත හැක්කේ වැඩියෙන් ඔවුන් ඉන්නා ගම්, නගර වල මුස්ලිම් බලකොටු හදාගන්නා මනසක් ඔවුන්ට නොතිබේද යනුය. ඒ අස්සේ අතරමංවී ඉන්නා සුමන්තිරන්ලාගේ ආශාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව යලි කැඳවීමය. හරියට මේ හොර ගුහාව කොරෝනාව නිසා දැන් මහෝෂධ පණ්ඩිතයන්ගෙන් පිරී ඉතිරී ගිය ආකරයක් යයි සිතාය.
දුගී බව තවත් වැඩි කරණ සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාර!
පාස්කු ප්රහාරයෙන් නිසි පාඩම් ඉගෙන නොගත්, සිංහල දේශපාලකයින් මෙවරවත්, ප්රඥාවෙන් නොහොත් සම්මා දිට්ඨි හා සම්මා සංකප්ප (නිවැරදි දැක්ම, නිවැරදි කල්පනාව) යෙන් ක්රියාකරතැයි කළු සුද්දන් නොවන ජනතාව ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය ගෙන් බලාපොරොත්තුවේ. කොරෝනාවෙන් උගත් පාඩම් වශයෙන් දේශීය කර්මාන්ත පුනරුදයක් ඇතිකිරීම දැනටමත් අරඹා ඇතැයි මීගමුවේ රෙක්ස් ඉන්ඩස්ට්රීස් ආයතනය විසින් දැඩි සත්කාර ඒකක ඇඳන් නිෂ්පාදනය කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී (අප්රියෙල් 4) ඇමති විමල් වීරවංශ විසින් කල ප්රකාශයෙන් පෙනෙනුයේ මුළු රටේම මානසික වෙනසක් සිදුවෙමින් පැවතීම, කොරෝනාව ගෙනා වෙස්වළාගත් භාග්යයක් ලෙස පාලකයින්ට අවභොධව ඇති බව නොවේද? ගම් වල කෙල්ලන් පැක්ටරි වල ගාල් කර ශ්රමය සූරාකා සුද්දියන්ට ජංගිමස්සවා, සංචාරකයින්ට බීරපොවා හා ගණිකාවන් සපයා, රාත්රී සමාජ ශාලා දමා, ගම්වල දුප්පත් ස්ත්රීන් අරාබියේ වැඩකාරකමට යවා, ලුනුමිරිස් බෝතල් රට යවා, මිනිරන්, ඛනිජ වැලි ආදී සම්පත් අමු අමුවේ පිටරට පටවා රටක් සමෘධිමත් කල නොහැකිය. දුගී බව අඩුකිරීමට යයි ලෝක බැංකු ණය ලබාගෙන කරණ සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරම දුප්පත් රටවල දුගීබවට හේතුවන අන්දම ප්රසිද්ධ ලාංකික භූගෝල විද්යඥයෙකුවූ ඇමෙරිකාවේ වසන ලක්ෂ්මන් යාපා විසින් විග්රහ කර ඇත.
මේවායින් සිදුවූයේ තිරසර සංවර්ධනයක් නොව තොග පිටින් සිංහල සමාජය පිරිහී යාමය. මේ ජේ. ආර්. විසින් රටට පැටවූ, ගෝලීය-ධනවාදී-වානිජ-ආර්ථික ක්රමයෙන් හොද්ද බොරකර ගත්තේ කුමණ පිරිස්ද? එසේම, මේ රට ගලවා ගැනීමේ ව්යායාමයේදී සිංහල, විශේෂයෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්ද උඩ මිස, ඒ වෙනුවට සුළු ජන වර්ගවල නායකයින් පස්සේ හිඟමනේ යෑම, සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්ද අඩුවීමට හේතුවන බව 2014 චන්දයේදි පැහැදිලි විය. මෙහිදී මතකයට එන්නේ ජනාධිපති මහින්දගේ පරාජයට හේතු දක්වමින්, දයාන් ජයතිලක, නාලක ගොඩහේවා හා රජිව විජේසිංහ ඒ දිනවල ලියූ ලිපිය.
ඇස් පාදන නස්පැත්ති
ප්රජා-තන්ත්ර-වාදය නම් කළු සුද්දන්ගේ බොරුව හරිමඟට ගැනීමට පොදු ලෝක සංසිද්ධියක් වන <යම් විනාශයක් සිදුවූ විට ඇස් පෑදීම නොහොත් නිසි සැලැස්මක් සැදීම> යන සංකල්පය යොදා ගැනීමට අවස්ථාවක් උදාවී ඇත. එහෙත් වෙන රටවල මෙන් නොව ලංකාවේ මේ සංකල්පය පවා කෙළෙසා ගන්නා බව මීතොටමුල්ල කුණු කන්ද අරුවක්කාලු හුණුගල් වලකට ගෙනයාමේ ව්යාපාරයෙන් පැහැදිලි විය. ඩිමාන්ඩ් මැනේජ්මන්ඩ් යන උපක්රමය කෙටිකාලීනව චන්ද මත යැපෙන උගත් හා නූගත් කියන දේශපාලකයින්ට අරහංය. සී ටී ප්රනාන්දු ගේ සිංදුව ඉදිරියේ එනවා යයි දුටු කොරෝනා වයිරසයට කල ස්තුති කිරීමක් සේය! නෝම් චොම්ස්කි නම් කියන්නේ, අනාගත විනාශ වැලැක්වීමට ක්රියාකිරීමෙන් ලාභ (වාසි) ලබාගත නොහැකි බවයි. මේ නිසා ඒ කරුමයට පව් ගෙවන්නේ යම් යම් ලෝකල් ජන කොට්ඨාශ විසින්ය. කොරෝනාව මේ සූරාකෑමේ විපාකය ලෝකයේ හැමෝටම සමසේ බෙදා දුන්නේය. ඒ නිසා දැන් කොරෝනා ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයක් අපට ඇත. මුහුණු පොත සල්ලි ඇති නැති ලෝකයේ හැම දෙනාටම සමාන වේදිකාවක් සදා දුන්නත්, බොහෝ අය එය වඳුරන්ට දුන් දැලි පිහියක් සේ අයුතු ලෙස භාවිතා කරනවා මෙන්, කොරෝනාවෙන් ඥානවන්ත ලෙස නිසි ප්රයෝජනයක් ගැනීමට ලෝක දේශපාලන සංස්ථාවලට දැන් අවකාශයක් ලැබී තිබේ.
බුදු දහම හා විනය
තවත් පෙන්වා දීමට සැදූ කරුණක් නම් රට හරිමඟට ගැනීමට ගතයුතු පියවරවල් බෞද්ධ රාජ්ය ප්රතිපත්ති වලට පටහැනි නොවන බවය. බෞද්ධ සූත්රවල, ජාතක කථාවල ඇති ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය, සමානාත්මතාවය, නීතියේ ආධිපත්යය වෙන ලබ්ධිවල නැත. 69 ලක්ෂයක් චන්දය දුන්නේ රටේ විනයක් (විනය හා ආරක්ෂාව කාරණා දෙකකි) ඇති කිරීම, අනිත් හැම දේටම වඩා අත්යාවශ්ය යයි දැන දැනම නොවේද? බෞද්ධ රාජ්ය පාලනයක් යටතේ, සමාජයේ විනය නැවත ගොඩනැඟීම නොකර, රට ගොඩ ගත නොහැකිය. ජේවීපී තුණ්ඩු නීති යටතේ 1971/88-89 කාලයේ තිබූ විනය (ලැජ්ජාව නොව භය) දැන් නැත්තේ ඇයි? දණ හිසෙන් පහලට වෙඩි තියන්න දන්නා පොලිස් භටයින් නැද්ද? ඇඳිරිනීතිය කඩකරණ අය මහ ඉලුප්පලම වැනි ගොවිපලකට හෝ ආමි කෑම්ප් වලට හෝ ගෙන ගොස් ටෙන්ට් වල දමා ආමි මුර ඇතිව වගා කිරීමට යොදවා ගත යූතු නොවේද? රාජෝ හරණන්, රාජෝ හරණන් පදය හා කිසා ගෝතමී හොයා ගිය අබ මිටත් මීට සමානය කියා මට සිතේ.
මිලිටන්ට් බුඩිසම්?
බොදු බල සේනාවේ ලංජනය වූ නාගයා මෙහිදී වැදගත්ය. මැහැළිය ගැරඬියා කියා ගත් දර පොල්ල නැවතුනේ නාගයා පෙනේ පිප්පූ විටය. මඩිහේ පඤ්ඤාසීහ නාහිමියන් ජේ. ආර් ට යැවූ සංදේශවත්, සෝම හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ බණමඩුවත් නොකල දෙයක් ඥානසාර හිමිඳුන් ඉටු කලේ මුළුරටම කලඹවමින්ය. අසරණවූ මහානායක හාමුදුරුවරුන් පවා කුමක් හෝ කරණ ලෙස උන්වහන්සේට කියනවා මා අසා ඇත. සිංහල බෞද්ධයින්ට හරිහමන් නායකයෙක් නැතැයි වේදිකාව වල කියමින් මිලිටන්ට් සමාජ (පටිසෝතගාමි) ව්යාපාරයක් ආරම්භවිය. මිලිටන්ට් යනු ගාන්ධි හා මාටින් ලූතර් කිං කල දේමය. දැඩි විනය, ප්රතිපත්තිය, අවංකකම (උජූච) හා අහිංසාව (පහරට පෙරළා පහර නොදීම) ඊට අයත්ය. රොනල්ඩ් රේගන් විසින් ගඩාෆිගේ කූඩාරමට බෝම්බ දැම්මේ ගඩාෆි දන්නා භාෂාව එය යයි කියමින්ය! ආණ්ඩුව මොනදේ කර හෝ කොරෝනාව ජය නොගත්තොත්, බොරු ප්රජා-තන්ත්ර කාරයින් කෝරෝනා තන්ත්රකාරයින් වීමට නොිවසිල්ලෙන් බලා සිටී. චන්දය මිස, විද්යාව-රට ගැන නොසිතීමේ ආනිශංස අවුරුදු 72 ක් පුරාම රට වැසියා භුක්ති වින්ඳේය. 1978 දී ඉන් ගැලවී උඩුගං බලා පීණූ මට, අවුරුදු තුනක් යද්දීම මගේ අරමුණට ලඟාවිය හැකිවූයේ සුදුස්සාට සුදුසු තැන දීමේ ඇමෙරිකන් සංස්කෘතිය නිසාය. ලංකාවේ අදටත් නැත්තේ මෙය නොවේද? මෙය නීතියේ බලයෙන් සමාජයේ ඇතිකල හැකි දෙයකි.
බෞද්ධ විප්ලවය
කලක් කතෝලික පාදිලිවරයෙක්ව සිටි නලින් ස්වාරිස්, ද බුද්ධාස් වේ ටු හියුමන් ලිබරේෂන්: අ සෝෂියෝ-හිස්ටොරිකල් ඇප්රෝච් (1999, 2011) යන ආචාර්ය උපාධි නිබන්ධනයේ බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ ක්රියාවලියේ සාමාජික විප්ලවීය අංශය ගැන පෙන්වන, සුත්රයකින් උපුටා ගත් එක් වාක්යයක් නම්, බ්රාහ්මණ කුලයේ අය ලොවට පහල වන්නේ වේදවල කියා ඇති පරිදි මහා බ්රහ්මයාගේ ශීර්ෂයෙන් නොව ස්ත්රියගේ යෝනියෙන් බවය. පසුකලෙක බුදුන්ද එක් හින්දු අවතාරයක් කලත්, බලවත් හින්දු බ්රාහ්මණ ආධිපත්යය යටතේ බුදු දහම ඉන්දියාවෙන් අතුගෑවී ගියේය. බාබර් ගෙන් ඇරඹුණ මෝගල් මුස්ලිම් ආක්රමණිකයින්, දැන් ලංකාවේ මුහුදු මහා විහාරයේදී මෙන් ඉන්දියාවේ බෞද්ධ නටබුන් හෑමක් කලේය. ස්ත්රීන් මුදා හැරීමට ඒ කාලයේ සිදුකල විප්ලවය මෙන්, බෞද්ධ ජනාධිපති කෙනෙකුට, ලංකාවේ ඒකීය රටක්, එක නීතියක් හදන්නට නම් කාති උසාවි, ශාරියා, වහාබ් වාදය හා මුහුණ වැසීම, හෙල්මට් නොදැමීම, මළමිනී ගිනි නොතැබීම, හලාල්, බහු භාර්යාසේවනය යන මේ දුර්මත, පොදු සමාජයට තර්ජනයක් වන්නේ නම්, ඒවා නීතියෙන් පාලනය කළ යුතුමය. වෙනත් ජන කොටස් වලට හානිකර මානව අයිතිවාසිකමක්, යම් තනි ජන කොටසකට තිබිය නොහැක.
අතීතයේ සිදුකල අසාධාරණකම් නිවැරදි කිරීම
මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඩී. එස්.-අයිවෝර් ජෙනිනිංස් 29(2) භාධකයට ප්රතිවිරුද්ධ මතයක් තම ආචාර්ය උපාධියේ දේවනේසන් නේසයියා (ඩිස්ක්රිමිනේෂන් විත් රීසන්?: ද පොලිසි ඔෆ් රිසවේෂන් ඉන් යූ.එස්.ඒ., ඉන්ඩියා ඇන්ඩ් මැලේසියා, 1997) විසින් විග්රහ කලේය. ඓතිහාසිකව වෙනස්කම් වලට, අසාධාරණයට, ලක්වූ ජන කොටස් වලට යුක්තිය ඉෂ්ට කිරීම, එතෙක් වරප්රසාද භුක්ති විඳි ජනයාට කරණ හානියක්, ඔවුන්ගේ මානව අයිතිවාසිකම් උඳුරා ගැනීමක් නොවන බව නේසයියා පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. 29(2) වගන්තියෙන් කළු සුද්දන් කලේ 1815 ගිවිසුම අළුත් කිරීමය! සිංහල ජාතියට කල මේ හිරිහැර යුක්ති සහගත ලෙස නිවැරදි කිරීම ප්රජාතන්ත්ර විරෝධීද? 1972 වනවිට මේ 29(2) ඒ වනවිට ඇතිකල මානසික තුවාලය උඩුදුවා අවසානය. 1956 අපේ ආණ්ඩුවට වූයේද එයමය. මෙවැනිම ආකාරයේ වෙනස්කම් කිරීම් වලට ලක්වූ රුවන්ඩාවේ මහජාතියවූ හුතු ජනයා, සුද්දන් යටතේ එහි වරප්රසාදලත් ටුට්සි සුළු ජනයා ලක්ෂ 5-10 අතර සංඛ්යාවක් 1994 අප්රියෙල්-ජූලි මාස තුල සමූල ඝාතනය කරනලදී! ලංකාවේ 1983 ජූලි කොළඹ දෙමළ ජනයාට වූ විපත, බෞද්ධයින් කල දෙයක් නොව ජේ ආර් ගේ ආණ්ඩුවට සම්බන්ධ තග්ස්ලා විසින් දෙමළ දේපල ගිනිතැබීමකි. ඉන් පසු එවැනි දේ සිදු නොවීමෙන්ම එය පිටිපසින් තිබූ රාජ්ය හස්තය එලිකරන්නේය.
ලංකාවේ තිබෙනවාය කියන ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය කෙළෙසූ තුන්වන විධිය
කලින් කොටසේ සඳහන් කල, ලංකාවේ කළු සුද්දන් විසින් සුද්දන් ඔවුන්ට අටවාදී ගිය ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය කෙළෙසූ විධි දෙකට අමතරව (නීතියේ ආධිපත්යයේ මුල්ගල් ඉදිරීම, තමා කැමති නියෝජිතයෙකු තෝරාගැනිමේ අයිතිය විනාශ කිරිම), 1978 න් පසු සිදුකල තවත් විනාශයක් නම් බිම් මට්ටමේ සිවිල් සේවය ජතතා මර්ධනය සඳහා දේශපාලන ආයුධයක් කර ගැනීමය. මෙය දෙයාකාරයකින් සිදුවිය. කිසි විද්යාත්මක පදනමකින් තොරව ග්රාම සේවක වසම් සංක්යාව 4,000 සිටි 15,000 දක්වා වැඩිකර, ඒ තනතුරු සඳහා නූගත් දේශපාලන හෙංචයියලා දැමීමය. මේ නිසා එම තනතුර සඳහා තිබූ ගෞරවය කෙළෙසුන අතර, බල ප්රදේශය කුඩාවීම නිසා වැසියාට සිදුවිය හැකි අනිසි බලපෑම වැඩිවිය. ජන ජීවිතයට කෙළින්ම සම්බන්ධ වැදගත් තනතුරක්, බලයට පත්වෙන දේශපාලන පක්ෂයේ අතකොළුවක් කරගත හැකිවිය.
ගමේ ජනයා බලවත් කිරීම
ගම්මට්ටමින් ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය ගොඩනැඟිය හැක්කේ රාජ්ය නිලධාරියාගේ අනිසි බලපෑමෙන් හා ගමේ පක්ෂ දේශපාලනයෙන් තොර ජන සභා/ජන මූල සභා මඟිනි. 1971 ජේවීපී කැරැල්ලට පසුව ඇතිකල ජනතා කොමිටි සංකල්පය (රට පුරා කොමිටි 9,000 ක්?) අසාර්ථක වූයේ එය පක්ෂ දේශපාලන ඉත්තන්ගෙන් පිරවීම නිසාය. මෙය සමානකල හැක්කේ ජනසතු කල තේ වතුවල පාලනයට වතු කොන්දොස්තරලා වෙනුවට බස් කොන්දොස්තරලා පත් කිරීමටය. කඳුකරයට දේශපාලන හරකුන් කල විනාශය ගැන ඛේදනීය වාර්තා කිහිපයක්ම විශ්රාමික සිවිල් නිලධාරී සිදත් ගුණසේකර විසින් ලංකාවෙබ් අඩවිය මඟින් ඉදිරිපත් කලේය. ලංකාවේ හදබිම්, මේ දේශපාලකයින් පටු චන්ද වාසිය බලා සදහටම විනාශකරමින් සිටී. ශ්රී පාද කන්දට අතතැබීමට භයවීම නිසා මහවැලි, කළණි, වලවේ හා කළු යන ගංඟා හතරේ ජල පෝෂක ප්රදේශ ඉඩම් මංකොල්ලයෙන් බේරුණේය. නැත්නම් මේ ගංඟා හතර නැති ලංකාව කාන්තාරයක් වන්නේය තවද, සුද්දා කැලෑ රැක ගැනීමේ අගය දැන සිටියේය. එහෙත් මෝඩ දේශපාලක කළු සුද්දන්ට අද මිස හෙටක් නැත. මේවා නිවැරදි කල හැක්කේ චන්දය නොව, නිසි බලය හරහා ස්වභාව ධර්මයට යුක්තිය ඉෂ්ට කිරීමෙනි.
ඕල්කොට් ප්රාතිහාර්යය
1840 ස් ගණන්වලදී, ජේම්ස් දි අල්විස් විසින් දශකයක, දෙකක කාලයක් තුල බුදු දහම ලංකාවෙන් මැකී යනවා යයි කිව්වත්, 1873 පානදුරා වාදයෙන් රටේ හාමුදුරුවරු මේ මතය පරාජය කලේය. එහෙත් 1880 දී, ලෝකයේ ප්රථම සුදු බෞද්ධයා යයි හැඳින්වෙන ඕල්කට්තුමා ලංකාවට ආවාට පසු ගුප්ත ලෙස මෙන් පන්සල් තිරයෙන් පිටුපසට ගියේ ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයින් නිසාද? මෙහිදී මතුවන ලොකු ප්රශ්ණයක් වන්නේ ආනන්ද විද්යාලයට ඕල්කොට් ගෙනා ලෙඩ්බෙටර්, විශ්රාම ගත් පසු ලන්ඩන් ගොස් ආපසු සිය පරණ පාදිලි වෘත්තියට බැසීමය. ඔහු රීස් ඩේවිඩ්ස් කෙනෙක් වූයේ නැත. සුමංගල නාහිමියන්ට නොතේරුණත්, ගුනානන්ද හා ධර්මපාල තරුණයාට ඕල්කොට් චරිතය වැඩිකල් නොගොස්ම වැටහුණාද? ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයින්, පසු කලෙක ධර්මපාලතුමා ලංකාවෙන් එලවා ගැනීමට හවුල් වුනාද? මේ මාතෘකාව ගැන පොතක් කොලට් සේනානායක හා නාරද කරුණාතිලක විසින් ලියා ඇත.
කළුකොඳයාවේ නාහිමියන් කල විප්ලවය
ධර්මපාලතුමාගෙන් ආභාෂය ලත් හාමුදුරුවරුන් අතරින් කැපී පෙනෙන්නේ කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්රඥාශේඛර නාහිමියන්ය. හිටගෙන බණ කියන, නිදාගෙන බණ කියන හාමුදුරුනමක් වශයෙන් ප්රචලිත මේ හිමිඳුන්ගෙන්, කළු සුද්දන් විසින් ධර්මපාලතුමාව ලංකාවෙන් එලවා ගැනීමෙන් පසු, ලංකාවට සිදුවූ සමාජ සේවය දන්නා අය අද සිටීද? උන්වහන්සේ විසින් 1933 සිට සැලැසුම් කර 1940 දී කෑගලු දිස්ත්රික්කයෙන් ඇරඹූ, ඉතාමත් සාර්ථකවූ. ග්රාම ප්රතිසංස්කරණ හා අපරාධ මර්දන ව්යාපාරය, සෙසු දිස්ත්රික් 20 ට ද ව්යාප්තකිරීම උන්වහන්සේගේ අරමුණ විය. එහෙත් ඩී. බී.ජයතිලක, ඩී. එස්. සේනානායක, බණ්ඩාරණායක යන ඩොනමෝර් ඇමතිවරු ඊට සහයෝගයක් දුන්නේ නැත. සූරියමල් විකුණමින් ලොරි වලින් මැලේරියා ප්රදේශවල බඩු බෙදු මාක්ස්වාදීන්ට මේ ව්යාපාරය නයාට අඳුකොළ සේ වෙන්නට ඇත. මේ කාලයේ ගම් පෙරළිය, දිවි නැඟුම කියමින් ගමට ආවඩන උදවිය මෙම කළුකොඳයාවේ මොඩලය, ජන සභා, ජන මූල සභා අදහසම නොවේදැයි සිතා බැලිය යුතුය (ප්රඥාශෙඛර ස්වයංලිඛිත චරිතාපදානය, 1970, පිටු 119, 371-76, 407).
මෙහිදී බොහෝ අය නොදන්නා කරුණක් ඊට සමානම පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයාගෙන් තොර මහජනයා මූලිකවූ ගැමි දිවිය නම් ව්යාපාරයක් 1999 දී පොලොන්නරුවෙන් අරඹා 2014 සැප්තැම්බර් වනවිට දිස්ත්රික් 11 ක ග්රාමීය සංවිධාන 1,844 වශයෙන් වර්ධනය වීමය. ඒ මඟින් යටිතල පහසුකම් යෝජනා 9,400 ක් යටතේ, නිශ්පාදක සමූහ 433 ක් පිහිටුවන ලද අතර ඒ හරහා ජීවන මට්ටම ඉහළ නංවීමේ ව්යපෘති 386,622 ඇති කරණ ලදී (ද අයිලන්ඩ්, 2014 ඔක්තෝබර් 14). එහෙත් මෙම ගැමි දිරිය දේශපාලකයින් විසින් කඩාකප්පල් කර දමන ලදී. දේශපාලකයාගේ ඇඟිලි ගැසීම් වලට ඉඩ තිබ්බොත්, ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභයගේ ජනමූල සභාවලටද මේ ඉරණම අත්වීමේ අවදානමක් ඇත
පවතින ක්රමය උඩු යටිකුරු කිරීමේ යෝජනා
2019 නොවැම්බර් ජනාධිපති මැතිවරණයේදී පවතින ක්රමය නොහොත් ප්රජා-තන්ත්ර-වාදය හාස්යයට ලක්කල අය අතරින් කැපී පෙණුනේ නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කුය. විශ්රාමලත් ගණකාධිකාරී ගාමිණී විජේසිංහගේ අදහස් වලට හා රොහාන් පල්ලෙවත්තට අමතරව හදිසියේ කඩාවැදුන මහේෂ් සේනානායක ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ අපේක්ෂකයා වූ බව ඔප්පු විය. ශ්රී සද්ධර්මය හා පන්සලේ ඓතිහාසික කාර්යභාරය පටලවා ගත්තා මිස නාගානන්දගේ පණිවුඩය කිරි ගහට ඇන්නා වැනිය. මේ පණිවුඩය පවතින තන්ත්රවාදය යටතේ ක්රියාවට නැංවිය හැකිද? මීට අමතරව, බ්රදර් චාල්ස් තෝමස් හා පිටිදූවේ සිරි සද්ධම්ම, කාගම සිරිනන්ද යන හිමිවරුන්ද තම තමන්ගේ දෘෂ්ටි කෝණයට අනුව රටේ වියයුතු විප්ලවීය වෙනස්කම් පෙන්වා දෙමින් සිටී.
තුන්වන බලවේගයක් යයි කියා එකතු කරගත් කළු සුද්දන් පිරිසක් සමඟ දියාරු ගමනක් ජේවීපී කාරයින් යෝජනා කරයි. නාගානන්ද මෙන්ම මොවුන්ද පන්සලට අකමැතිය. 1988/89 කාලයේ ඔවුන් හාමුදුරුවරු 724 ක් ඝාතනය කලේය (ධර්මන් වික්රමරත්න, ලංකාවෙබ්, 2015, අගෝස්තු 10). විලේගොඩ ආරියදේව හිමි, විමල් වීරවංශ හා අන්තිමේදී සෝමවංශ අමරසිංහ මෙම පිරිස යහමඟට ගැනීමට අසමත්ව වෙන්වී ගියේය. සමහර විට තාමත් ඉතිරිව ඇත්තේ සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්තිද කියා මට සිතේ.
විශේෂයෙන් කොටි ත්රස්තවාදය කාලයේ මායිම් ගම්මානවල සිටි හාමුදුරුවරුන් කල අසීමිත සේවය, හාමුදුරුවරුන් දේශපාලනයෙන් ඈත් කිරීමට කුමණ්ත්රනය කරණ කළුසුද්දන්ට මේ වනවිට අමතකවී ඇත. එක අතක තුවක්කුව තබා ගෙන දවල් දන් වැළදූ හාමුදුරුවරු, කොටින් පපුවට තුවක්කුව තැබුවාට භය නොවූ හාමුදුරුවරු (වව්නියාව මඩුකන්ඳ දළදා රජමහා විහාරයේ ආනන්ද හිමි (දිවයින ඉරිඳා සංග්රහය, අප්රියෙල් 5), (අදටත් මඩකලපුව මංගලාරාමයේ අම්පිටියේ සුමනරතන හිමියන්) එසේ කළේ තම දේපල රැකීමටද? ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හාමුදුරුවන් වෙඩිතැබීම් වලට මුහුණ දුන්නේ කා වෙනුවෙන්ද? අතුරැලියේ රතන හා බොදු බල සේනාවේ ඥානසාර හාමුදුරුවරු පෙන්වා දෙන ප්රතිකර්ම, පවතින ක්රමය තුලින්ම නිහඬ විප්ලව ලෙස යම් යම් ශල්යකර්ම මඟින් ලඟාකර ගත හැකි ඒවාය.
මෙම ශල්ය කර්ම බොහොමයක්ම (උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් වැව් පිළිසකර කර, වස විසෙන් තොර ගොවිතැන, සූර්ය බලය, හෙල-නිල වෙදකම) ජන මූල සභා මඟින් ක්රියාවට නැඟිය හැකිය. ඒවාට අවශ්ය විනය හා මඟ පෙන්වීමේ මිනිස් බලකාය මෙම දෙනම මූලිකව පිහිටුවා ගත් අපේ ජන බල පක්ෂ සංවිධානය හරහා රටේ පන්සල් (පල්ලි/කෝවිල්) යුදහමුදාව හා සිවිල් ආරක්ෂක බලකාය එකතුව සැපයීම ඒකාධිපතිවාදයක් නොවේ. එය යම්තමින් හෝ තිබෙනවා යයි කියන ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය රැක ගැනීමේ මඟය. විනය පිටකය නැති ත්රිපිටකයක් නැතිවා වැනිය. ඒකීය රාජ්යයක්, එක නීතියක් යන අදහස් ක්රියාත්මක කල යුත්තේ ගම් මට්ටමේ සිටය. මෙහි විද්යාත්මක තේරුම නම් යම් රටක නීති පද්ධතිය ඒ රටේ භූගෝල විද්යාවට (ඉතිහාසය යනු අතීත භූගෝල විද්යාවය) අනුකූළ විය යුතුය යන සිද්ධාන්තය අනුගමනය කලයුතු බවය.
පොසොන් කියන්නේ ලංකාවට විශාලම ආක්රමණය සිදූවූ දවසටය!
ඉහත සඳහන් ප්රකාශය කරන්නේ රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ විසින් උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගලටය. සන්නස්ගලගේ මේ වීඩියෝව (මාර්තු 6, 2020) ලංකාවේ ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය නමැති නරාවල වටහා ගැනීමට කැමති හැම දෙනා විසින්ම අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම බැලිය යුතුයයි මම සිතමි. අතේ පිරිත් නූල් බැඳගත් උපාසකයින් සාක්කුවේ පිහි ඇති අය නොවේදැයි ඉන් පෙනී යන්නේය.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u2dMEOH3Cs
(මතු සම්බන්ධයි)
A news item today indicates that police headquarters will be issuing curfew passes for employees of companies having 50 or more workers
Having bitter experience with area police officers in obtaining a curfew pass for myself as a CEO o export-oriented shipbuilding industry, I have to watch and see how new procedure can help the industry
I do not think that law enforcement officers have any idea about the fact that the. Companies who apply for permits and whether they are eligible for the permits
When I sent a letter to obtain a curfew permit for one of my engineers who went to police in Galle to get a curfew permit
A police office in Galle had sent him to MOH of Galle and get his recommendation
He went to MOH who had no clue about export-oriented business had bluntly told him that they give permission only for food transporters etc
He told my engineer to agree in writing that when he returns from Colombo after some days of work in our yard he should be ready to go on quarantine for 21 days !!
The reason he cited was that Galle has been so far safe and he does not want Colombians” to spread Corona in the south !!!
The point I am trying to make is whether anyone in the government or police or health department understands the importance of earning foreign currency to the country to buy oil, food, medicines, etc
I fervently hope the DIG in charge is well conversant with the importance of earning foreign currency for the country and take positive action to revive the dying industries
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
Colombo
Sri Lanka
The oldest form of systemic risk, which is that arising from viruses and pandemics” Ian Goldin & Mike Mariathasan, The Butterfly Defect (Princeton 2014)
‘Pain of one nation is the pain of another; as we are all interconnected’ was the opening sentence of my 2015 book ‘Towards a better world order’. We are experiencing this today as the collective pain of humanity.
Geopolitics and Interdependence
Pandemics have no respect for borders nor individual social status. Pandemics killed world leaders including Pharaoh Ramses V of Egypt, Emperor Marcus Aurelius of Rome, Ferdinand IV of Spain, Emperor Fu-Lin of China, Queen Mary II of England, King William II of Orange, Tsar Peter II of Russia, and King Louis XV of France. In the present context Coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected close to a million including the British Prime Minister. Pandemics can infect anyone anywhere.
The 21st Century has faced four pandemics. The first case was in February 2003 as SARS was reported in Guangdong province in China. SARS spread in four months to 26 countries with 774 deaths and 8000 cases. The second was the H5N1 Bird Flu triggered in 1997 during a poultry outbreak in Hong Kong. The third near pandemic was H1N1 Swine Flu which emerged in April 2009 in Mexico City and New York spreading to 30 countries in weeks. Unlike the previous two, the Swine Flu pathogen originated in the West rather than in the East Asian provinces. This was a clear early warning to how dangerous supercities and airport hubs can be in terms of health risks- it was a warning ignored. The virulence and severity of H1N1 influenza killed 570,000[iii]. The fourth is the Coronavirus that has killed more than 40,000 people around the world as of 2nd April according to WHO.
Larry Klayman [i] , a former federal prosecutor under the administration of President Ronald Reagan, said in an interview that he was willing to work with Sri Lankans and others to build international pressure on China. He was accusing China that the novel coronavirus was designed to be a biological weapon of war… creation and release, accidental or otherwise, of a variation of coronavirus known as COVID-19 by the People’s Republic of China and its agencies and officials as a biological weapon in violation of China’s agreements under international treaties, and recklessly or otherwise allowing its release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology into the city of Wuhan”. These are baseless allegations. It will create geopolitical tensions and disunity at a time of human distress.
One may wonder who was behind or which nation released the past outbreaks in our human history? It is a time for trans-national cooperation and coordination since national governments alone will not be able to manage the magnitude of this global challenge. While the exchange of physical goods and services will be reduced due to the Pandemic you cannot halt the globalization and the globalized interdependent world we have created. According to Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, ‘complex interdependencies[ii] is what the world has experienced during the past few decades. If managed insufficiently will lead us to overly complex interdependencies and will trigger systemic risks such as the present Pandemic.
Interdependence in such times is evident even from the past. One of the first epidemics in the recorded history which started in Athens in 430 BC did not start in Athens but in Ethiopia and travelled to Egypt and then to Athens. Spanish Flu did not start in Spain, Spain was open to reporting the cases. Globalisation is not a new phenomenon. It has transported pathogens to many nations. The Spanish Flu in 1918 came in three increasingly deadly waves with nine months intervals between them, killing 50 to 100million people worldwide. This deadly outbreak killed 17 million in India alone.
Butterfly Effect to Butterfly Defect
American mathematician Edward Lorenz[iv] work in Chaos theory which found the ‘Butterfly Effect’, explaining how a hurricane formation is influenced by minor perturbations such as flapping of the wings of a distant butterfly several weeks earlier. A small change in one place can lead to major differences in a remote area. In the same manner negative unintended ripple effects of Coronavirus that triggered in Wuhan ended up affecting many nations including Iran, Italy, Spain and USA currently holding the highest infected cases.
I was introduced to the concept of the ‘Butterfly Defect’ by Prof Ian Goldin at the University of Oxford[v]. It is a remarkable work of scholarship co-authored with Mike Mariathasan and published by Princeton University which predicted in 2014 that the next financial crisis will arise from a Pandemic. His book examines how globalization creates systemic risks from
micro distresses from the closely-knit systems and connections we have built and the importance of significant investment in mitigating the risk factors arising from such a system.
Prof Goldin explains, ‘Systemic risks cannot be removed because it is endemic to globalization. It is a process to be managed, not a problem to be solved’. Out of the risks, he identified Pandemics and the health risk from Globalization. What triggered in Wuhan ended up in so many countries so fast due to globalization. Despite the immense health benefits we have felt from globalization, world health officials did not identify the systemic risk from a Pandemic such as Coronavirus. According to Goldin and Mariathasan ‘Globalization, population growth, and urbanization have facilitated the transmission of infectious diseases. The complexity of Global travel and global integration any patient zero is now but a few degrees of separation from formerly isolated communities’ was clear from the present Pandemic we all are facing. There are three lessons to be learned for systemic thinking regarding the health risks arising from globalization according to Prof.Goldin. First, to identify risks, mechanisms for early detection are essential. Second, once a pandemic is detected mechanisms for early response must be enacted. Third, systemic risks require systemic responses. The COVID-19 was picked up too late, the communication was late and systemic responses to fix was late. This is a wake-up call to WHO and global leaders.
Multilateralism during Pandemic
While national borders are shut, each nation has adopted their way of containing the Coronavirus. After Italy’s death rate, all of Europe was on Curfew and lockdown. According to Judy Dempsey, Senior fellow at Carnegie Europe ‘Whenever there is a crisis, European Union leaders have the habit of saying that the bloc will emerge stronger. They have been repeatedly
disproved of this slogan, which has lost all meaning[vi].’
The importance of Multilateralism is discussed from Europe to South Asia where leaders have dismantled multilateral organisations such as SAARC in the past is now finding ways of discussing activating health funds and strengthening regional cooperation. The ultra-nationalist narrative is weakened by the Pandemic showing a direction towards cooperation and promoting multilateral efforts are the only way forwards. Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia who is a Distinguished Fellow from Gateway House identified four main points which is relevant and timely. First, COVID-19 is a global challenge and needs to be addressed on a national and international level. Second, The Government of India has been studying the approach of affected countries and assimilating elements that apply to India in its strategy of containment. Third, India is adopting a sober view vis-à-vis China, maintaining a constructive spirit, sending assistance where required – rather than falling prey to disputes – as the pandemic has affected all of mankind. Finally, Prime Minister Modi is proactively initiating multilateral cooperation through the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and G20. Appreciating the multilateral directive taken by ‘Prime Minister Modi’s prompt convening of a video summit of SAARC countries for a more coordinated containment response to the pandemic was, therefore, a bold diplomatic step: other countries are now replicating this in combating the geopolitical, economic and health dimensions of the disease’[vii].
At the video conference as a blanket security measure, PM Modi pledged US$10million while Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa contributed US$5 million the second-highest contribution from South Asia even at a time when Sri Lankan economy is the lowest-performing in the region. Sri Lanka’s exports and tourism sector have been affected by multiple risk factors starting from the Easter Sunday terror attack in April 2019.
A twice slapped economy from Easter attack and Pandemic- Sri Lanka will need to navigate a global recession this year. Hopefully, another wave of the Pandemic will not trigger in the coming months. While developed nations such as Singapore will prepare for the next several waves the developing countries with their squeezed health budgets will find its limitation in facing the next several waves of the Pandemic if it triggers.
Local to Global leadership to manage systemic risks
Sri Lankan authorities started taking strict measures to contain and manage the virus from 19th March, after soft-pedalling until election nominations were submitted for the upcoming Parliament election. As explained by S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole member of the election commission, ‘Mr. Deshapriya was insisting that April 25 is possible. It seemed that he was afraid to disagree with the President. Here is the strategy that was finally agreed upon. It was decided to accept nominations as announced, and then gazette the names of candidates and polling booths as required in Section 24(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981……The country is functioning with Votes on Account without a Parliament’ [viii].
If we had the Parliament functioning, we would have many stakeholders including the opposition discussing the mitigating strategy and perhaps would be able to recalibrate a better strategy than the curfew in place. How long does the Government wish to continue the Curfew strategy? What are the short and long-term impacts to the economy from a lockdown or curfew strategy? Importance of a mitigating strategy rather than a suppression(curfew) strategy? How do we protect the elder community the most vulnerable? How can we sustain as a nation if there are multiple waves of the Pandemic in the future? How do we have better sustainable debt management practices during and post Pandemic? Are some critical questions that could have been discussed in the Parliament by enabling and echoing multiple expert stakeholder advice from our society.
The number of infected cases exceeded 100, at 143 by 31st March and curfew has been declared with the international airport shut. Sri Lankan citizenry is now aware of the significant threat while some senseless politicians started distributing face masks in public for popularity and certain individuals violating curfew laws, what people should understand is the effort taken by the authorities to bring the numbers down. People typically think of a linear sequence such as 2,4,6,8,10.. of growth but Coronavirus has a slow exponential growth rate 2,4,8,16,32,64..which needs to be understood by the public. Human beings are social creatures who admire to group in packs and crowds naturally rejecting social distancing would have to practice against their natural behaviour especially in the month of April where they get-together for Easter falling on 12th April, followed by Sinhalese and Tamil New Year in Sri Lanka and on 23rd April Ramadan. It is the first time in century every faith will be practised in isolation and quarantine. Practicing social distancing and the quick adaptation of the polity towards best practices will be a key factor for the success to bring down the curve of the outbreak in the Island.
Sri Lanka is far behind testing when compared to nations like Australia as compared by a Sri Lankan medical Dr Ravi P. Rannan-Eliya, Sri Lanka has done nearly 2280 tests as of 30th March and of these tests, 115 persons were positive which is 5.5% of tested cases found positive. ‘This is a relatively high rate compared to other countries such as Australia which has a population similar to ours has done 160,000 tests and found 3,966 positive cases– positive case rate 2.47%’ [ix]. Sri Lanka and many South Asian nations need to get the testing capacity increased to efficiently manage the spread of the outbreak, curfew and lockdown alone will not help.
While we suppress and manage the local threat we must prepare for the next wave or several waves of the Pandemic. Due to complex interdependencies of the global arena triggering systemic risks to our Island nation it’s time we prepare for such risks. The transition of the political environment from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic will require the national leaders who were inward-looking with their ultra-nationalist and populist agenda to move away to a global and multilateral agenda and understand the complex systemic risks we face. Not only the top leadership the next lot of Parliamentarians who will be elected in few months would need to understand that ‘we could harvest the benefits of globalization while building resilience and mitigating against the inevitable interdependency and vulnerability arising from increased connectivity and complexity’[x] .
The world we live has its complex interdependencies due to globalization. Managing these interdependencies is the key challenge which will get us ahead of the curve. Most leaders found a direction towards confining their focus and energy to local issues more than addressing global challenges to create a sustainable environment. It’s time to rediscover ourselves while nature is reset. While industrialists mourn, wildlife will be left in peace. Was this a lesson to the fragmented human race?
End Notes
[i] Klayman, Sri Lanka must ensure China is held accountable:US Lawyer
[ii] Keohane and Nye, 1977, Power and Interdependence: world politics in transition
[iii] Jonathan Lynn,2010, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-flu-who/who-to-review-its-handling-of-h1n1-flu-pandemic-idUSTRE5BL2ZT20100112
[iv] Lorenz,1963,”Deterministic
Nonperiodic Flow”, Journal of the Atmosphearic Sciences 20(2):130-141
[v] Goldin, https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691154701/the-butterfly-defect
[vi] Judy Dempsey Carnegie Europe, https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/81352
[vii] Rajiv Bhatia Gateway House, https://www.gatewayhouse.in
[viii] Hoole, Democracy In Crisis: Avoiding Dictatorship,https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/democracy-in-crisis-avoiding-dictatorship/?fbclid=IwAR2K2nKiIA-BHblxYwIKLpDT7_HdEaRFfaqs-VGYrMATbBjXB4e3I5C7mr8
[ix]Dr Ravi P. Rannan-Eliya, Daily Mirror,
http://www.dailymirror.lk/news-features/Sri-Lanka-needs-rapid-expansion-of-testing/131-185909
[x]Goldin,https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691154701/the-butterfly-defect
Study co-authored by Indian-American cancer surgeon comes even as clinical trials on the efficacy of BCG vaccine for Covid-19 are underway.
San Francisco, California (UroToday.com) Countries that do not have a BCG vaccination policy saw ten times greater incidence of and mortality from Covid-19, compared with those who do, a forthcoming study from medical researchers in the US and UK, which analysed data from 178 countries, has found.
BCG, or Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, is a vaccine for tuberculosis and is administered at birth in countries that have historically suffered from the disease, such as India. Many rich nations, such as the US, Italy and Holland, have never had a universal BCG vaccination policy.
The study looked at Covid-19 instances and mortality for 15 days between 9 and 24 March in 178 countries and concluded that incidence of Covid-19 was 38.4 per million in countries with BCG vaccination compared to 358.4 per million in the absence of such a program. The death rate was 4.28/million in countries with BCG programs compared to 40/million in countries without such a program.” Out of the 178 countries studied, 21 had no vaccination program, while the status was unclear in 26 countries. The latter group was treated as not having a policy for the purpose of this study.
While we expected to see a protective effect of BCG, the magnitude of the difference (almost 10 fold) in incidence and mortality (of Covid-19) between countries with and without a BCG vaccination program was pleasantly surprising,” said Dr. Ashish Kamat, a co-author of the paper and professor of Urologic Oncology (Surgery) and cancer research at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
In recent weeks, BCG has emerged as a candidate vaccine for Covid-19, and a 4,000-person clinical trial to test its efficacy against the disease is currently underway in Australia. But what that means for populations that were inoculated with BCG vaccine in their childhood is not yet clear as SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread around the world, having now infected more than a million people.
There exists a plethora of evidence from well conducted studies in prestigious peer reviewed journals, as well as through randomized control trials about the effectiveness of BCG vaccine, to confer protective immunity against viral infection,” Dr Kamat said, speaking with ET on the phone from the US.
The question of whether populations that have received BCG vaccination are more resistant to Covid-19 is a critical one as countries put in place lockdowns and economies grind to a halt, hitting people at the economic margins hard, especially in countries such as India. Every day of the ongoing lockdown will cost the Indian economy $4.64 billion, Acuité Research said in a report. But having witnessed the morbid dance of the disease in countries such as Italy, where more than 13,000 people have died, governments are disinclined to take a chance.
Countries with national program of whole-population BCG vaccination appear to have a lower incidence and death rate from Covid-19. This may be due to the known immunological benefits of BCG vaccination. In the absence of a specific vaccination against Covid-19, population-based BCG vaccination may have a role in reducing the impact of this disease,” says the paper,
currently available on ResearchGate, a portal where scientists share studies, and is being reviewed for publication by multiple scientific journals. It’s co-authored by Paul Hegarty and Helen Zafirakis of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland and Andrew DiNardo at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
Dr. Kamat says his institution is now also embarking on its own clinical trial by vaccinating healthcare workers. We are commencing a study in the near future, initially planned for about 1,000 healthcare workers, but with plans to rapidly expand to multiple sites as the demand increases. We will vaccinate healthcare workers at highest risk first, such as those who work in emergency centers, ICUs and watch for how protective the vaccine proves. Clearly the data will be monitored and will be done under the auspices of regulatory bodies including the FDA.” He added that talks are on with institutions in India to take part in the study.
BCG vaccine is used in early stage immunotherapy in bladder cancer and Dr. Kamat is a top authority in that field. He is also the president of the International Bladder Cancer Group.
The study says while there might be confounding factors in the correlation, the trend is striking. We recognize that these data are observational and based on a single time-point and that there may be several confounding issues such as limited testing and reporting in many countries. However as these data are derived from 178 countries, the trend is striking and supports the mechanistic data that exists for BCG as a protective agent not only for viral and other infections but also against cancer.”
But childhood inoculation doesn’t necessarily mean life-long immunity. But a PPD (purified protein derivative) test can indicate whether or not a person still has BCG-induced immunity or needs to be revaccinated. This could be used to selectively revaccinate high-risk groups or to decide who among the population might be safer against SARS-CoV-2 and could potentially go back into the workforce, for instance,” Dr. Kamat said, adding that any policy decision relating to Covid-19 should wait for what the clinical trials say.
Earlier this week, a study from the New York Institute of Technology also noted that countries with a universal vaccination policy, such as Japan and Brazil, seemed to be impacted less by Covid-19 compared with those that did not, such as Italy, US and The Netherlands.
The results from clinical trials involving BCG vaccination for Covid-19 will be closely watched. Indians have always been at the forefront of advances in medicine; here it is ironic that one of our oldest immunotherapies (BCG, used in India for decades) might help against the newest threat facing our civilization,” Dr. Kamat said.
Author: Sruthijith, KK, ET Bureau, Editor, The Economic Times
On Monday, scientists in Melbourne, Australia, started administering BCG vaccine or a placebo to thousands of healthcare workers.
More striking” evidence has emerged that the BCG vaccine given to counter TB may provide protection against Covid-19 and significantly reduce death rates in countries with high levels of vaccination.
A study of 178 countries by an Irish medical consultant working with epidemiologists at the University of Texas in Houston shows countries with vaccination programmes – including Ireland – have far fewer coronavirus cases by a factor 10, compared to where BCG programmes are no longer deployed.
Map displaying BCG vaccination policy by country. A: The country currently has universal BCG vaccination program. B: The country used to recommend BCG vaccination for everyone, but currently does not. C: The country never had universal BCG vaccination programs.
This translates into a death rate up to 20-times less, according to urologist Paul Hegarty of the Mater Hospital, Dublin.
Their correlation” study, expected to be published shortly by PLOS journal, is largely a statistical one and comes with caveats because of possibility of confounding factors. But it is more comprehensive than an initial one conducted in New York, which prompted a scaling up of clinical trials on people with Covid-19.
To reduce the possibility of error, the researchers re-evaluated cases during the course of the pandemic and made country-by-country comparisons including between Ireland and the UK, Mr Hegarty said. We did not expect to see such a marked difference.”
Over the 15 days, incidence of Covid-19 was 38 per million in countries with BCG vaccination whereas the incidence of Covid-19 was 358 per million in the absence of such a programme. The death rate was 4.28 per million in countries with BCG programmes and 40 per million in countries without such a programme,” he added.
He trained in Houston but continued to work with colleagues there as BCG vaccine is used to treat bladder cancer and reduces its recurrence – another indication it has broader benefits beyond TB.
A global shortage of BCG vaccine prompted the Department of Health to end blanket immunisation in 2015 though it is believed there is a high degree of immunity within the Irish population. It is still widely used in developing countries, where it prevents infant deaths from a variety of causes. The UK ran a more modest BCG vaccination programme to Ireland’s, starting in 1953 and ending in 2005.
BCG-vaccinated older people experience decreased respiratory infections while in bladder cancer patients BCG boosts immunity, reduces tumour size and decreases mortality.
Mr Hegarty said they were heartened by similar results to the New York study and were in discussion about a clinical trial in the US. This would be targeted at healthcare workers experiencing shocking” rates of infectivity – accounting for one in four cases in Ireland.
As the pandemic unfolds clinical trials were critical, given a coronavirus vaccine is expected to take a minimum of 12 to 18 months to develop. In the meantime, repurposing existing and safe vaccines that induce non-specific immune benefits may be an additional tool”.
On Monday, scientists in Melbourne, Australia, started administering BCG vaccine or a placebo to thousands of healthcare workers. A clinical trial of 1,000 healthcare workers started recently in the Netherlands, said Dr Mihai Netea of Radboud University Medical Centre.
He said he expected results within three to six months. He did not advocate giving the vaccine to populations until that was completed because of the possibility of side effects as a novel virus was involved, and because not enough vaccine was available – though production could be scaled up quickly.
Immunologist Prof Luke O’Neill of Trinity College, who has worked on the vaccine for years, confirmed at least seven trials had begun or were about to begin but stressed the need for physical distancing and hardwashing proven ways to curb transmission.
The non-specific immune benefits of BCG are known for decades. Introduced to Ireland in 1937, it has a strong safety record. Recent studies show revaccination is safe.
US virologist Robert Gallo of the Institute of Human Virology in Maryland has confirmed he is working with a team who will make an announcement shortly that will have a major effect” on global efforts to tackle Covid-19.
Best known for his role in the discovery of HIV as the infectious agent responsible for AIDS, Prof Gallo did not go into detail other than to indicate it involves deployment of an adjusted existing vaccine” that will be available within months.
Countries with mandatory policies to vaccinate against tuberculosis register fewer coronavirus deaths than countries that don’t have those policies, a new study has found.
The preliminary study posted on medRxiv, a site for unpublished medical research, finds a correlation between countries that require citizens to get the bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine and those showing fewer number of confirmed cases and deaths from Covid-19. Though only a correlation, clinicians in at least six countries are running trials that involve giving frontline health workers and elderly people the BCG vaccine to see whether it can indeed provide some level of protection against the new coronavirus.
Gonzalo Otazu, assistant professor at the New York Institute of Technology and lead author of the study, started working on the analysis after noticing the low number of cases in Japan. The country had reported some of the earliest confirmed cases of coronavirus outside of China and it hadn’t instituted lockdown measures like so many other countries have done.
Otazu said he knew about studies showing the BCG vaccine provided protection against not just tuberculosis bacteria but also other types of contagions. So his team put together the data on what countries had universal BCG vaccine policies and when they were put in place. They then compared the number of confirmed cases and deaths from Covid-19 to find a strong correlation.
Among high-income countries showing large number of Covid-19 cases, the U.S. and Italy recommend BCG vaccines but only for people who might be at risk, whereas Germany, Spain, France and the U.K. used to have BCG vaccine policies but ended them years to decades ago. China, where the pandemic began, has a BCG vaccine policy but it wasn’t adhered to very well before 1976, Otazu said. Countries including Japan and South Korea, which have managed to control the disease, have universal BCG vaccine policies. Data on confirmed cases from low-income countries was considered not reliable enough to make a strong judgment.
With nearly 900,000 cases and 45,000 deaths, the world is struggling to control Covid-19. Any vaccine for the disease is more than a year away from being available and the effectiveness of drugs under trial won’t be known for months to come. That’s why it’s reasonable to look at whether BCG vaccine could provide protection against Covid-19, said Eleanor Fish, professor at the University of Toronto’s immunology department. Otazu’s study is yet to undergo review by peers, a strict criteria for science studies.
I would read the results of the study with incredible caution,” Fish said.
Otazu, who said he’s already received comments from other experts, is working on a second version of his study that will address some of their concerns. He has also submitted the study for a formal review process with the journal Frontiers in Public Health.
‘It’s like the BCG vaccine creates bookmarks for the immune system to use later’
One of the first to conduct the trial of BCG vaccine’s effectiveness against coronavirus is Mihai Netea, an infectious-disease expert at Radboud Universty Medical Center in the Netherlands. Netea’s team has already enrolled 400 health workers in the trial—200 got the BCG vaccine and 200 received a placebo. He doesn’t expect to see any results for at least two months. He’s also about to start a separate trial to study the effectiveness of the BCG vaccine on those older than 60. Other trials are taking place in Australia, Denmark, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.
Scientists are still working to better understand why the BCG vaccine may be effective against not just tuberculosis but other disease microbes. Netea’s decade-long work shows that BCG vaccine sensitizes the immune system in such a way that, whenever any pathogen that relies on the same attack strategy as the tuberculosis bacteria attacks, it is ready to respond in a better way than the immune system of those who haven’t received the vaccine.
It’s like the BCG vaccine creates bookmarks for the immune system to use later in life,” Netea said.
Even if BCG vaccine is shown to be effective, that’s no reason to stockpile.
People should not hoard or try to get BCG vaccine like they did toilet paper,” Otazu said. There is a small chance that the BCG vaccine could increase the risk of coronavirus, but scientists won’t know until after the clinical trials.
In any case, the BCG vaccine shouldn’t be the only tool to fight Covid-19.
No country in the world has managed to control the disease just because the population was protected by BCG,” Otazu said. Social distancing, testing and isolating cases will need to be implemented to manage the spread of the disease.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has urged the general public to give utmost support to the government’s efforts to save the country from COVID-19 outbreak.
He stated this today (07), delivering a special statement on the situation that prevails in the country.
In his address to the nation, the Premier outlined the measures taken by the government to mitigate the pandemic outbreak and appreciated the sacrifices made by health workers, security forces and other public servants who are on the COVID-19 frontline.
In the face of a pandemic like this, our attentiveness, commitment and discipline decide whether we will survive,” the PM also stressed.
Speaking on the preventive measures taken to face the local outbreak of the virus, PM Rajapaksa said, since the evacuation of the group of Sri Lankans who were stranded in Wuhan, many quarantine centres equipped with all required amenities were established across the country. In addition, a special hospital was erected in Welikanda just within 6 days to treat patients who test positive for COVID-19. He also mentioned the use of state intelligence service to trace those who evade the quarantine process.
In order to keep children safe from the virus outbreak, schools and other educational institutions were closed off as soon as Sri Lanka confirmed its very first coronavirus patient, he added.
As the curfew was imposed, the government has taken on the responsibility of providing essentials to the general public, the Premier said adding that the government has already provided direct relief to 5.3 million citizens.
We will not give up this fight,” PM Rajapaksa reassured the citizens while requesting their support for government’s endeavours to keep them safe from the COVID-19 outbreak.
He also noted that all political party leaders have keenly come forward to support the government in the fight against coronavirus.
We have only one common enemy at the moment and it is the coronavirus,” the Prime Minister said urging the general public to set aside any divisions among them.
A decision has been taken to close the Dambulla Dedicated Economic Center until further notice.
The lack of proper hygiene procedures followed by the public who visit the center is the reason behind this decision, according to Chairman of the Economic Center Trade Association Channa Arawwa.
He added that there is a risk of the virus spreading due to the large number of people visiting the economic center.
The economic center, which had been closed in the past few days, was scheduled to re-open tomorrow.
Two more patients have been confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus earlier this evening (07), said the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry.
Seven new patients have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus as of 7 pm today.
Accordingly, the confirmed COVID-19 case count in Sri Lanka rises to 185.
A total of 147 COVID-19 patients are currently under medical care while 42 patients have recovered from the virus and have been discharged from hospital.
Over 255 suspected patients are under observations at selected hospitals while the death toll due to coronavirus in Sri Lanka stands at 06.
Twenty-eight days have passed since the detection of the first COVID-19 patient in Sri Lanka while 185 patients have been identified since then.
Three more patients who have contracted the Coronavirus have been identified, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 183, the Ministry of Health said.
Five new patients were identified within today while three of them are from the quarantine center in Punani, according to the Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
As of 4.00 p.m. today (07), a total of 145 COVID-19 patients are currently under medical care while 42 patients have recovered from the virus and have been discharged from hospital.
Over 255 suspected patients are under observations at selected hospitals while the death toll due to coronavirus in Sri Lanka stands at 06.
Twenty-eight days have passed since the detection of the first COVID-19 patient in Sri Lanka while 183 patients have been identified since then.
It has been decided that all persons who undergo the quarantine process at quarantine centers will be subjected to a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, said Specialist Physician Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
He mentioned this speaking at a special live discussion telecasted on TV Derana on overcoming the COVID-19 challenge together. The discussion was joined by Specialist Dr. Amal Harsha De Silva, Deputy Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Jayaruwan Bandara, Director of Medical Research Institute of Sri Lanka, Prof. Neelika Malavige, Director of Centre for Dengue Research and Specialist Physician Prof. Arjuna de Silva.
During the discussion, the medical professionals focused on the importance of testing, testing procedures and on the various methods of testing recommended on social media.
According to Prof. Malawige, antibody testing or rapid testing is not effective in identifying the COVID-19 virus in a person’s body.
She pointed out that the coronavirus is different from a dengue virus and the antibody generation against the COVID-19 virus inside a body takes at least 10 since the infection. Therefore, the blood sample may test negative if tested before 10 days have passed, providing inaccurate results.
Thereby, PCR testing is the recommended and accepted method of testing for the coronavirus. However, rapid testing can be used for other purposes such as contact tracing, she added.
Drive-through testing, as seen in South Korea and Dubai, also utilizes the PCR testing method. Drive through testing is useful in certain ways that it could prevent the infection spreading in hospitals and to effectively utilize PPE gear as there is a shortage of such protective gear in the world, said Prof. Arjuna de Silva.
Although there may not be issues with the [PCR] machines in the country, inaccuracies may occur due to sensitivity issues over errors in sample handling, says Prof. Neelika Malwige. Therefore, the sample quality and the method of transferring the samples to the laboratory is important in accurately testing a sample.
Meanwhile, in order to re-open the country, further, expanded testing is needed. Yet, the country is currently lacking in resources to carry out a large amount of testing within a short period, said Dr. Amal Harsha De Silva.
Specialists’ calculations have estimated that at least 5000 tests should be carried out per day. However, there is an issue of practicality, pointed out Prof. Arjuna de Silva.
However, the districts that indicate no issues can be opened for activity within the district after proper testing, he added. The chancellors of the 6 medical faculties have written to President with a plan to systematically reopen the country.
Prof. Malawige said, Currently, Sri Lanka has the ability to carry out about 1500 tests through the 7 PCR machines. By next week, the Colombo, Kelaniya, Rajarata, KDU and Karapitiya medical faculties can easily commence testing.
If PCR machines of medical faculties and the private health sector are utilized, 3000 single-sample tests can easily be carried out per day.”
Sample pooling can further increase the capacity, added Dr. Amal Harsha De Silva.
Lack of proper protective gear, such as N95 masks, for persons who carry out the testing, has also slowed down the testing process.
Local manufacturers of N95 masks can test if their products are up to standard through the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC), noted Prof. Malawige.
The N95 masks should be there for the use of persons who work in testing laboratories, Intensive Care Units or directly handle patients. The surgical masks should be used by healthcare workers, patients or persons who take care of the patients. The general public, need not wear N95 mask and may use homemade cloth masks, unless infected or is showing COVID-19 symptoms, according to Prof. Arjuna de Silva.
The reason why only a few deaths are reported from Sri Lanka while thousands die in other countries, is the effective measures taken by the health ministry, security forces and other authorities in order to curtail the spread of the virus, says Dr. Jayaruwan Bandara.
However, a limited number of individuals without discipline have infected by socializing and not following protocol, he added.
If a person fears that they might have contracted the infection what they should do is call ‘1390’ and follows the instructions instead of visiting a hospital immediately. Further, not withholding information on your condition from the doctor is vital in this situation.
Although there are many test kits or equipment recommended to combat COVID-19 through social media, they have not been tested practically for their validity; their effectiveness is only calculated on paper, points out Dr. Jayaruwan Bandara.
Meanwhile, Prof. Malawige added that the Nawinna Ayurveda Research Center has approached her with a scientifically developed method to combat the virus and she has agreed to conduct research on this solution as well.
DIG Ajith Rohana says that spreading misinformation in social media on COVID-19 prevention can lead up to 5-year imprisonment.
Speaking to Ada Derana this morning (07), he said cases will be filed against such persons.
DIG Rohana also urged any individual showing coronavirus symptoms to inform the nearest police station, health authorities or paramedic ambulance services before getting admitted to a hospital.
Providing false information for hospital admission can put medical staff at risk and eventually lead them to self-isolate, he stressed, urging people to adhere to the preventive measures.
Ministers had hoped tests would pave way for an easing of lockdown restrictions
None of the antibody tests ordered by the government is good enough to use, the new testing chief has admitted.
John Newton said that tests ordered from China were able to identify immunity accurately only in people who had been severely ill and that Britain was no longer hoping to buy millions of kits off the shelf.
Instead government scientists hope to work with companies to improve the performance of antibody tests. Professor Newton said he was optimistic” that one would come good in months.
However, Dame Deirdre Hine, the public health expert who chaired an official review that criticised failures of modelling in the 2009 swine flu pandemic, said that it was difficult to understand” why the government had not planned for more testing.
The scientist tasked with evaluating the antibody tests for the government said that it would be at least a month until one was good enough to offer to millions of people.
Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, wrote: Sadly, the tests we have looked at to date have not performed well. We see many false negatives (tests where no antibody is detected despite the fact we know it is there) and we also see false positives.
None of the tests we have validated would meet the criteria for a good test as agreed with the MHRA [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency]. This is not a good result for test suppliers or for us.”
Sir John acknowledged that large-scale testing is therefore a strategy which will be crucial for getting us back to our normal lives in the coming months”. He wrote: The government will be working with suppliers both new and old to try and deliver this result so we can scale up antibody testing for the British public. This will take at least a month.”
Professor Newton, of Public Health England, was appointed to oversee testing last week as Matt Hancock, the health secretary, responded to criticism of the failure to increase checks quickly enough by promising to use private labs and hit 100,000 daily tests this month.
Professor Newton said that his priority was three mega labs” for testing NHS staff and that he did not expect university and commercial labs to be much help in hitting the target.
That’s a very clear message: we are not relying on lots of people coming forward to help us to achieve what’s required and we shouldn’t get too distracted by that,” he said. There’s a big, big ask at the moment which is quite specific [on testing NHS staff]. So a lot of these companies who are offering their capacity may not be directly related to that ask and therefore they might not be as helpful at the moment.”
The antigen test to see who has the virus will be crucial in allowing NHS staff back to work if they do not have the virus, and a separate test that tells who has recovered from infection is seen as crucial to ending the lockdown.
The government has ordered millions of antibody tests but yesterday Mr Hancock said that we still don’t have any that are good enough”.
Professor Newton said that all of the tests failed evaluations and are not good enough to be worth rolling out in very large scale”.
Some of the tests have not been total failures, but Professor Newton said: The test developed in China was validated against patients who were severely ill with a very large viral load, generating a large amount of antibodies . . . whereas we want to use the test in the context of a wider range of levels of infection including people who are quite mildly infected. So for our purposes, we need a test that performs better than some of these other tests.”
The government is still looking for commercial tests but it has accepted that rollout is months away.
Previously officials had spoken of sending millions of home test kits in days, but Professor Newton said the idea that we might have it in days was based on the fact that we might just buy the existing test, and at the moment the judgment is that that wouldn’t be the best thing to do. It would be better to try and improve the test”.
He added: The scientists in Oxford who have been evaluating them are working with manufacturers to say, ‘We’ve tested your test, and it doesn’t seem to perform quite well enough, but we think we can work with you to improve it.’ So it is a little bit uncertain but there are commercial partners able to work with us. I’m optimistic.”
Dame Deirdre, who chaired the official review into the swine flu, said: I am finding it difficult to understand why both the antigen testing and the antibody testing is taking so long to get off the ground.”
In 2010 Dame Deirdre’s report said that ministers and officials had unrealistic expectations of modelling, which could not be reliable in the early phases when there was insufficient data. Once better data was available, modelling became extremely accurate.”
She said: I think that if there is anything perhaps where the response could have been better this time it is on the whole question of testing.”
The government also risks losing an opportunity to buy 400,000 tests a week from South Korean manufacturers, because of officials’ failure to respond to the offer, it has been claimed. Ten days ago a British businessman approached health officials after a Korean investor who has connections with LG helped to persuade five manufacturers to sell their diagnostic tests to the UK. Steve Whatley, who runs a financial technology business, said: We just need a letter saying, ‘Subject to the tests being proven, then the UK will take x amounts of kits per week for x long.’ ”
At-risk doctors kept waiting
Less than a third of doctors with symptoms of Covid-19 are able to get tested for the disease, according to a survey by the Royal College of Physicians (Kat Lay writes).
It also found that one in five did not have access to the personal protective equipment they need to safely treat coronavirus patients.
Andrew Goddard, the RCP president, said the findings of the survey of 2,513 respondents, were a stark indication of the incredibly difficult situation facing our members working in the NHS”.
Matt Hancock told Sky News yesterday that 8 per cent of NHS frontline staff were self-isolating and off work. However, the RCP’s survey suggested the figure could be as high as 14 per cent.
Many of those off work are thought to be in isolation because of a member of their household with symptoms. The poll found almost nine out of ten doctors could not access Covid-19 testing for someone in those circumstances.
Professor Goddard added: The government’s current strategy to deliver testing that would support NHS staff to return to the workforce as quickly as possible clearly isn’t working.” He called for the government to publish its plan, timeline, and the challenges that it expected.
A number of distinguished medical professionals led by Dr. Ruvaiz Haniffa , Head, Dept. of Family Medicine, University of Colombo, published an appeal (see the Island , 1st April, Daily Mirror and other newspapers) emphasizing the Need for rapid expansion in testing for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka”.
While creating a data base is essential for constructing epidemiological models, another very effective approach uses information-based intervention. Detectives examining social media or gossip learn about Covid-19 contacts, religious gatherings etc., and aggressively follow every lead. Sri Lanka is currently in stage 3A (WHO classification) where clusters are being identified. To avoid deteriorating to stage 3B, authorities have to trace contacts and isolate cases. This is an intelligence-driven attacking approach” (IDAA). The military in Sri Lanka was thus able to identify over 20,000 people and enforce self-quarantining. Direct sampling would not have found these people, or if found, it would be too late.
So we need BOTH the IDAA and direct TESTING of optimally selected samples.
Even people who seem perfectly healthy may be carries of the virus. Testing suspected cases” may not be enough. But no country can test even a significant fraction of the population? But what is that significant fraction? How can we get away with testing even smaller fractions? How do we sample populations?
Test kits for the new virus are in short supply and now reserved for priority cases. Leading companies are scrambling to provide test kits to countries buckling under the virus. There are also cheap wonder test kits” that quick-buck inventors and alternative-medicine Gurus have put out, claiming fast test results. These should be avoided and only kits using proven methods must be used.
According to Health Canada guide lines, a person with a confirmed virus infection” must have positive nucleic acid amplification tests on at least two specific genome targets or a single positive target with nucleic acid sequencing.
Many Western governments (e.g., France) had comprehensive plans for dealing with Pandemics, put in place after the SAARs epidemic. But the rise of neo-liberals and Human-Rights lobbies with their belief in minimal government intervention and devolution (e.g., in Spain) led to the disbanding of all such programs, leaving matters to the private sector” and to local authorities”. USA is still in that mode and lagging behind in fighting Covid-19. Today, many governments are scrambling to re-assemble those safety nets at great cost.
The article by Dr. Haniffa and his learned colleagues suggests the use of existing laboratories in the country to do the testing. Even if we had 25 such labs, and even if each lab did several hundred tests a day, it is clear that even if test kits are available, the time delay in getting useful answers, coordinating timing and data processing a huge number of samples reliably under emergency conditions is impossible. We need good data in real time. A further six months delay for peer review can be avoided if the program is under medical and scientific experts.
So, testing boils down to the crucial question of what is the smallest sample needed to get at a reliable answer”? The medical professionals had not addressed this most crucial question, but their involvement is needed. Otherwise we can only address the basic statistical question of how big a sample should be, without additional wisdom.
Ramanayake’s Audio files.
Take a simpler problem. For instance, actor turned MP Ramanayake’s now notorious telephone recordings run into, say 10,000 audio files. It takes too long to review ALL the tapes. What is the minimum number (sample size) of files that we should listen to, to have a very good chance of picking up the most juicy one? Elementary mathematics shows that the sample should be a fraction 1/e of the total, where e” is the number 2.7182 which is the base of Napier’s system of natural logarithms. So, it is probably enough to listen to approximately 10,000 divided by 2.7, i.e., about 3704 audio files to pick up the most interesting one! As the attached graph shows, increasing the sample size even to 50% does not strongly increase the chances of catching the incriminating case significantly.
The same sampling technique can be used if you have to select the best candidate from 1000 applicants to a job. Your best candidate is most likely to be within the first 370 that you interview!
The audio tapes, or candidates for a prescribed job, presumably all form a set of similar objects or individuals. But human populations are not uniform. Even the individuals in the population of each district are still too dis-similar to form a statistically uniform sample”. It is here that judicious planning is needed. Judging that the Covid-19 is most likely to be found in urban populations than in rural populations (say), one may take samples from each city population in a given district. One doesn’t even have to take a census of each city to know their proportions – they follow a mathematical law known as Zipf’s law. In any case, once the uniform demographic to be tested” (having a normal distribution) is identified, one can use the inverse of Napier’s number and so take about 37% of each demographic to make the test samples for each district.
Of course, a good team of statisticians can work out a better statistical models to minimize the sample size, improve the gathering of data and deal with non-normal, multi-modal and other distributions. The data provides an empirical basis for constructing a trustworthy epidemiological model for Covid-19 affecting the country. However, one really needs a time dependent model taking account of the amount of virus (viral load ) absorbed by the patient during the process of infection. The interaction between the virus and the immune system is a race in time. If you get a large dose, you get higher viremia, more dissemination, higher infection, and worse disease.
So, the suggestions by the health professionals must be taken seriously, but using a good sampling scheme rapidly deployed to make the testing affordable and meaningful. This will also be an important research contribution to the epidemiology of the disease. No country should rely on the Covid-19 growth curves of other countries. For instance, the rate of growth of Covid-19 in a country with a large demographic of young people will be quite different from that of an European country with a large demographic of old over-fed people. Furthermore, once a patient is identified as having the virus, there is still no clear way of predicting if the disease will become acute. The British government under Mr. Boris Johnson used a limited epidemiological model constructed by Imperial College, London, and is said to have paid the price in money and lives on being misled on how Covid-19 will develop in the UK.
Sri Lanka should also attempt making its own vaccines. Time-tested techniques for making SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are by inactivating whole virus particles with formaldehyde and adding a booster like alum, and doing clinical trials.
All this can be derailed by a politically powerful Natha Deiyyo devotee” who may come forward with a quick revelation of what the status of the epidemic is, after claiming that Western Science is a Patta Pal Boru” fabrication, as happened with the investigation of the Chronic Kidney Disease Endemic affecting the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. Similarly, die-hard Muslim groups have already risen asking for Mulsim burials (bathing the corpse etc.), showing the ever persistent power of faith over reason.
By Chandre Dharmawardana.
කොරෝනා වසංගත තත්වය තුළ වර්තමාන දේශපාලනය පිළිබඳ ලිට්මස් පරීක්ෂාවක්ද කරන්නට හැකිව තිබේ. රුවන්වැලි මහා සෑය ඉදිරිපස දිව්රුම් දුන් ජනපතිවරයෙකු මෑත කාලීන දේශපාලනයේ දක්නට ලැබීමේ ආශ්වාදයෙන් සිටි මෙරට බහුතර ජනතාව බලාපොරොත්තු කඩ වේ දෝ යන බියකින් පසුවෙති.සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්ද බහුතරය යනු පරම්පරා ගණණාවක සිට ශක්තිමත් වුණු සිංහල ජාතිකත්වයේ අපේක්ෂාවන්ය. තමන්ගේ ජීවන රටාව නිදහසේ කර ගෙන යෑමට සහ තමන්ගේ ජාතික උරුමය ආරක්ෂා කර ගනිමින් ඒ තුළ අනාගතය උදෙසා ශක්තිමත්ව නැගී සිටීම මේ අපේක්ෂා අභිලාශයන් අතර විය. රට පුරා වසංගතයක තත්වය ඇතිවන කල්හි වැඩි කලබලයක් නොමැතිව මේ බහුතරය නිවාස අඩස්සියට පත් වූහ. ඔවුහු යලි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්නට හෝ මැතිවරණයක් විගැහින් තබන්නට උද්ඝෝෂණ නොකළහ.රටේ ජනනායකයාට දී තිබූ විශාල ජනමතය කෙරෙහි ඔවුහු විශ්වාසය තැබූහ. විශේෂයෙන්ම තිස් වසරක යුද්ධයෙන් රට මුදවා ගත් හමුදාව කෙරෙහිද විශ්වාසය තැබූහ.
රාජ ධම්මෝ ප්රජා රක්ඛා යනුවෙන් පැරණි පොත පතේ සඳහන්ව තිබෙන්නේ රජෙකුගේ නැතිනම් පාලකකයෙකු ගේ යුතුකම් පහදවා ලීම පිණිසය. රාජ ධර්මයෙහි හැසිරීම ලෙහෙසි පහසු නැත. මනා පුහුණුවක් දැඩි තීරණ ගැනීමේ හැකියාවක් සහ කාරුණික හදවතක් නොහොත් බෝසත් චර්යාවක් පාලකයෙකුට පිහිටා තිබිය යුතුය. චන්දයෙන් පත්වන බෙහෝ පාලකයන් හට මෙවැනි ගතිගුණ එකක් හෝ පිහිටන්නේ නම් කලාතුරකිනි. හේතුව එම පුද්ගලයා ප්රජා පාලනය පිළිබඳ මනා අන්තර්ඥානයකින් පුහුණුවූවකු නොවන බැවිනි. නමුත් වාසනා ගුණය හෝ පැවති දේශපාලන බලය මත පත්වන ජනප්රිය දේශපාලකයා සැබවින්ම ජනතාවගෙන් දුරස්තරව කටයුතු කිරීම ස්වභාවිකය.
ජනතාවගේ මූලික අවශ්යතාවයන් අතර ආහාර සහ බෙහෙත් මුල් තැනේ ලා සැලකිය හැකිය. ආහාර නිපදවා ගනිමින් යම් ආනයනික ආහාර ද පරිභෝජනය කරලීම මේ රටේ ජීවන චර්යාව විය. නමුත් විවෘත ආර්ථිකයෙන් පසු ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාවය ගැන සැලකිල්ලක් යොමු නොකරමින් ආනයනික ආහාර ගැන පමණක් ප්රවර්ධනය කර තැබීමට රජය කටයුතු කළහ. ජනතාවගේ බඩ ගින්න නිවීම සඳහා හොඳම විකල්පය රටින් ආහාර ගෙන්වීම යැයි මේ දේශපාලකයන් කල්පනා කරන්නට ඇත. නමුත් පසුගිය කාලයේ දී ඇති වූ සුනාමිය ගං වතුර වැනි ආපදා සම්පන්න අවස්ථාවලදී ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාවයේ වටිනාකම යලි යලි මතක් කර දුන් බව පැවසිය යුතුය. එහෙත් ආණ්ඩු කරනවුන් මේ තත්වය තේරුම් නොගත්හ.එසේත් නැතිනම් රටින් ගෙන්වන භාණ්ඩ වලින් ලැබෙන කොමිස් මුදලට ගිජුව සිටියහ.වර්තමාන වංසගත තත්වය හමුවේ නැවත එම යථාර්තය දැඩිව පෙන්වා දෙමින් පවතී.
නිරෝගීව ජීවත් වීම උදෙසා බෙහෙත් හේත් සපයා ගැනීමට නිදහස තිබිය යුතුය. තමන් රුචිකරන විශ්වාස කරන වෙද හෙදකම් ලබා ගැනීම හැකි විය යුතුය. සිංහල බහුතරය අතීතයේ පටන් ස්වභාවික වෙදකම් තුළින් තමන් ට වැළඳෙන ලෙඩ රෝග සුව කරගත් පිරිසක් විය.එයට අවශ්ය වෛද්යවරුන් සංඛ්යාවක් ගම්බදව ජීවත්වි සිටියහ. ලන්දේසීන් සහ ඉංග්රීසිහු මෙම ජීවන රටාව වෙනස් කළහ. ඔවුහු ඒ කාලයේ පැතිරුණු වසංගත රෝගීන් ගාල් කරලීම පිණිස රෝහල් සහ කඳවුරු තනා මේ රටට ආගන්තුක බෙහෙත් වර්ග ලබා දුන්හ. මැලේරියාවට ක්වීනීන් ලබා දීම උදාහරණයකට ගත හැකිය. නමුත් බෙහෝ රෝග වලට දිව්ය ඖෂධයක් වන ත්රයිලෝක විජය පත්ර නොහොත් කංසා පැළැටිය වගා කරලීම තහනම් කළහ. සිංහල වෙද මහත්වරුන් ගේ ග්රමීය නායකත්වය අහෝසි කරලීම පිණීස ගම්වල ඇපොතිකරිවරු පිටත් කර හැරියහ.එසේම පොලිස් කාරයන් මෙන් හැඳ පැළඳ ගත් මහජන සෞඛ්ය පරීක්ෂකවරු නොහොත් සැන්ටිපෝට් වරු සනීපාරක්ෂක නීතිය ක්රියාත්මක කරලීමට යෙදවූහ.වසංගත වලින් හෙම්බත්ව අසරණව සිටි ගැමියන් අතරට ක්රිස්තියානි මිෂනාරීන්ද පැමිණීම සුලභ දර්ශනයක් විය.
එහෙත් මදක් අතීතයට ගොස් බලන කල්හි සිංහලයන් ගේ සෞඛ්ය පිළිවෙත් වල වටිනාකම අවබෝධ කරගත හැකිය. වසංගත ඔවුන් හැඳින්වූයේ අම්මාවරුන් ගේ ලෙඩ සහ දෙයියන් ගේ ලෙඩ වශයෙනි. මේ ලෙඩ වලින් මග හැරීමට පත්තිනි මෑනියන්ට මෙන්ම අවලොකිතේශවර නාථ දෙවියන්ට භාරහාර වූහ. ගම්මඩු දෙවොල් මඩු නැටූහ. මළ ගෙදරකට ගොස් පැමිණි විට නා පිරිසිදු වී ඒමට පොදු ළිඳක් වෙත ගියහ.කිළිහරණය උදෙසා විවිධ තහංචි අනුගමනය කළහ. ගමේ වෙදනා සහ පන්සලේ ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ එකට එකතු වී වදකහ ඉඟුරු සුදුලූණු කොහොඹ කොළ වන්ඩුවේ තම්බා කොටා මිරිකා පෙරුන්කායම් අනුපාන කොට දමා (ගැබිණියන්ට මී පැණි) ගමේ සියලු දෙනට කෝප්ප කාල බැගින් බොන්නට සැලැස්වූහ.අම්මාවරුන්ගේ ලෙඩ සෑදී ඇති නිවෙස් වල කොහොඹ අත්තක් එල්ලා තැබූහ.අදටත් ඒ සිරිත් වලින් සමහරක් ජන සමාජය අතර ජීවමානව පවතී. පැරණි සිංහල ගෙදරක වැසිකිලිය පිහිටා තිබූයේ නිවසට මදක් ඈතිනි.නිවස තුළම එය පිහිටා තිබුණහොත් වාස්තු දෝෂ ඇති වන බවද විශ්වාස කළහ.මේවා නූතන සමාජයට විහිලුවට කාරණයක් විය. ඒ උපහාසය නූතනයන් තුළට පැමිණෙන්නේ සුද්දන් ගේ අධ්යාපනය හරහා බව සිහිපත් කළ යුතුය.
කොරෝනාව(Sars-Cov-2RNA) ලෝකයට අලුත් දෙයක් නොවන බව විද්යාඥයන් දනී. ඔවුහු තමන්ගේ බල අවශ්යතාවයන් පිණිස මෙම වෛරස නඩත්තු කරති. වසූරිය වසංගත කාරකය පවා තවමත් විද්යාගාර වල සුරක්ෂිතව පවතින බව දක්වා ඇත. වරින් වර විවිධ එන්නත් හඳුන්වා දෙමින් ලෝක සෞඛ්ය පිළිබඳ තීරණ ගැනීමේ ආධිපත්ය පැතිරවීම කරන අතර ගෝලීය තත්වයකට හැඩ ගැසීමේ හේතුවෙන් බෙහෝ රටවල් මේ සම්මුතීන් හට හිස නමති. නමුත් 2008 බීජිං නුවර දී මුලු දුන් සෞඛ්ය සමුලුවකදී ගත් තීරණ අතර වැදගත් එකඟතාවයක් විය. එනම් ඒ ඒ රටවල පවතින දේශීය වෙදකම් සෞඛ්ය සංරක්ෂණය සඳහා යොදා ගැනීමේ පහසුකම් ඇති කිරීමට පියවර ගත යුතු ආකාරයයි. චීනුන් මේ සම්මුතිය අකුරටම පිළීපදින අතර එහි රෝහල් වල දේශීය වෛද්ය ක්රම වලින් ප්රතිකාර ලබාගන්නන් හට පහසුකම් සලසා දීතිබේ.ඔවුන් වූහාන් වල කොරෝනා මර්දනයට මේ වෙදකම් මැනවින් දායක කරගත්හ.
ලංකාවේ තත්වය මෙය නොවේ. හැට ගණන් වලින් පසුව මේ රටේ දක්ෂ වෙද පරම්පරාවන් අභාවයට ගියහ. 1950 දී සිංහල වෙදකම පිළිබඳ පැවැත්වූ කොමිෂන් සභා වාර්තාවක් ඇති අතර රජය අද පිළිගනු ලබනුයේ 1947 වසරේ මුලු දුන් ආයුර්වේද කොමිෂන් සභා වාර්තාවේ නිර්දේශයන්ය. ඒ අනුව අද ආයුර්වේද රෝහල් වල වෙදකම් කරන්නේ වෛද්ය වරු නොවේ. දොස්තරලාය. නාඩි පරීක්ෂාව වෙනුවට ඔවුහු ලෙඩ නලාව භාවිත කරති. ටයිපටි පළඳිති. බටහිර වෛද්යවරු මෙන් සිවිල් බලය ලබා ගැනීමට සහ ධනය ඉපැයීම මූලික අරමුණ කොට ගනිති. දහනව වන සියවසේ වසූරිය හා මැලේරියා (කැලෑ උණ ) එන විට නව බෙහෙත් සොයා ගත් සිංහල වෙදපරම්පරාවේ දක්ෂතාවයන් මොවුන්ට නැත. ලෝක සෞඛ්ය සංවිධානය මගින් ප්රකාශ කරන සියලුම දේ යහපත් යැයි පිළිගනිමින් තමන් සතුව තිබෙන අගනා මූල ධර්ම නොසලකා හරිති. අද කොරොනා සඳහා බෙහෙතක් නොමැතිව බටහිර වෙදකම් අසරණව සිටින අවස්ථාවක සාර්ථක ප්රතිකාර පන්තියක් ඉදිරිපත් කොට රෝගීන් සුවපත් කරලීමට මේ අනුකාරකයන් ඉදිරිපත් නොවෙති.ඒ වෙනුවට ටයිපටි පැළඳ ගත් බටහිර වෛද්ය නිළධාරී සංගමයේ අතැමුන් වාෂ්ප මුට්ටිය (වේදුව ) ගැන කතා කරති. නමුත් සිංහල ප්රතිකාර පන්තිය මත සිට පර්යේෂණ ඇරඹීමට මැලිවෙති . සිංහල වෙදකම ගැන කතා නොකරන ඔවුහු ලෝක සෞඛ්ය සංවිධානයේ මිනී වළලන ක්රමවේදය අනුමත කරති. මේ ලිපිය අවසන් කරලිමට ප්රථම මැදමුලනේ කතාවක් කිව යුතුව තිබේ. ඒ මෙසේය.
පනස් ගණන්වල බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතා සමග විපක්ෂයට ගිය
ඩී.ඒ.රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ගේ පුතුන් සිවුදෙනෙක්ම ජනප්රිය දේශපාලනඥයන් වූහ. දෙදෙනෙක්ම
ජනාධිපති තනතුරුට පත් විය.මේ සහෝදරයන් සිවුදෙනා හැට ගණන් වලදී කොළඹ විද්යාල වල
ඉගෙනුම ලබන කළ සති අන්තවල දී ඩී.ඒ.රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සමග මැදමුලනට පිටත්ව යන අතර මාතර වෙද
මහත්මයෙක් හමුවී යන බව පැවසේ. මේ වෙද මහත්මයා කලු වෙදමහත්මයා
යන නමින් ප්රසිද්ධ විය. රාජපක්ෂ මන්ත්රීවරයා
සමග තිබෙන හිතවත් කම නිසා ඔහුගේ ළමුන් හොඳට පරීක්ෂා කර විරේක බෙහෙත් කෂාය එහෙම
නියම කරයි.සිංහල කමට සිංහල ආහාර වලින් පෝෂිතව සිංහල වෙදකමෙන් නිරෝගී වූ ළමුන්
සිවු දෙනෙකු එලෙස පසුකලකදී රටේ දේශපාලනයෙහි මූලිකත්වය ගත්හ.
බැසිල්
රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ගම්පහ වික්රමාරච්චි ආයුර්වේද ආයතනයට පැමිණි අවස්ථාවක වෛද්යවරු
ඉදිරපිට මේ කතාව ප්රකාශ කරන ලද බව ආයුර්වේද වෛද්ය නිමල් කරුණාසිරි මහතා දක්වා
ඇත..කලු වෙද මහත්මයගෙ තිත්ත බේත් බිව්ව එක තිත්ත වෙච්ච හැටියි ඔහු සඳහන් කලේ.
අද වෙන කොට මේ සහෝදරයන්ට සිංහල වෙදකම තිත්ත බේත් වගේ තිත්ත වී ඇති බව පෙනේ.සිංහල
කම හොඳට ඇගේ තියෙන මහින්දට මේ වටිනාකම් ඉඳහිට මතක් වුණත් ඒවා ස්ථාවර කරන්න වෙහෙසෙන්නේ
නැහැ.මේ කොරෝනා කාලෙ වත් සිංහල වෙදකම මතක් වුණොත් රටේ රෝබිය දුරු කරගන්න
පිළිවන් වෙන බව නිසැකයි.නමුත් අනුරුද්ධ පාදෙණිය මහතා විශ්වාස කරන වාෂ්ප මුට්ටියට
එහා ගොස් පැරණි වට්ටෝරු වලින් ප්රත්යක්ෂ බෙහෙතක් සොයා ගැනීම තුළින් පමණයි ඉදිරි
වසංගත තත්වයන්ට පවා මුහුණ දීමට හැකිවන්නේ.දැනටමත් රට තොට පතල වෙද මහත්වරු කීප
දෙනෙකුම එවැනි බෙහෙත් සාදා තිබේ. ඔවුන් කැඳවා සිංහල බෙහෙතට තැනක් ලබා දිය යුතුයි.
මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්
The novelist on how coronavirus threatens India — and what the country, and the world, should do next
Who can use the term gone viral” now without shuddering a little? Who can look at anything any more — a door handle, a cardboard carton, a bag of vegetables — without imagining it swarming with those unseeable, undead, unliving blobs dotted with suction pads waiting to fasten themselves on to our lungs?
Who can think of kissing a stranger, jumping on to a bus or sending their child to school without feeling real fear? Who can think of ordinary pleasure and not assess its risk? Who among us is not a quack epidemiologist, virologist, statistician and prophet? Which scientist or doctor is not secretly praying for a miracle? Which priest is not — secretly, at least — submitting to science?
And even while the virus proliferates, who could not be thrilled by the swell of birdsong in cities, peacocks dancing at traffic crossings and the silence in the skies?
The number of cases worldwide this week crept over a million. More than 50,000 people have died already. Projections suggest that number will swell to hundreds of thousands, perhaps more. The virus has moved freely along the pathways of trade and international capital, and the terrible illness it has brought in its wake has locked humans down in their countries, their cities and their homes. But unlike the flow of capital, this virus seeks proliferation, not profit, and has, therefore, inadvertently, to some extent, reversed the direction of the flow. It has mocked immigration controls, biometrics, digital surveillance and every other kind of data analytics, and struck hardest — thus far — in the richest, most powerful nations of the world, bringing the engine of capitalism to a juddering halt. Temporarily perhaps, but at least long enough for us to examine its parts, make an assessment and decide whether we want to help fix it, or look for a better engine.
The mandarins who are managing this pandemic are fond of speaking of war. They don’t even use war as a metaphor, they use it literally. But if it really were a war, then who would be better prepared than the US? If it were not masks and gloves that its frontline soldiers needed, but guns, smart bombs, bunker busters, submarines, fighter jets and nuclear bombs, would there be a shortage?
Night after night, from halfway across the world, some of us watch the New York governor’s press briefings with a fascination that is hard to explain. We follow the statistics, and hear the stories of overwhelmed hospitals in the US, of underpaid, overworked nurses having to make masks out of garbage bin liners and old raincoats, risking everything to bring succour to the sick. About states being forced to bid against each other for ventilators, about doctors’ dilemmas over which patient should get one and which left to die. And we think to ourselves, My God! This is America!”
The tragedy is immediate, real, epic and unfolding before our eyes. But it isn’t new. It is the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years. Who doesn’t remember the videos of patient dumping” — sick people, still in their hospital gowns, butt naked, being surreptitiously dumped on street corners? Hospital doors have too often been closed to the less fortunate citizens of the US. It hasn’t mattered how sick they’ve been, or how much they’ve suffered.
At least not until now — because now, in the era of the virus, a poor person’s sickness can affect a wealthy society’s health. And yet, even now, Bernie Sanders, the senator who has relentlessly campaigned for healthcare for all, is considered an outlier in his bid for the White House, even by his own party.
The tragedy is the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years
And what of my country, my poor-rich country, India, suspended somewhere between feudalism and religious fundamentalism, caste and capitalism, ruled by far-right Hindu nationalists?
In December, while China was fighting the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, the government of India was dealing with a mass uprising by hundreds of thousands of its citizens protesting against the brazenly discriminatory anti-Muslim citizenship law it had just passed in parliament.
The first case of Covid-19 was reported in India on January 30, only days after the honourable chief guest of our Republic Day Parade, Amazon forest-eater and Covid-denier Jair Bolsonaro, had left Delhi. But there was too much to do in February for the virus to be accommodated in the ruling party’s timetable. There was the official visit of President Donald Trump scheduled for the last week of the month. He had been lured by the promise of an audience of 1m people in a sports stadium in the state of Gujarat. All that took money, and a great deal of time.
Then there were the Delhi Assembly elections that the Bharatiya Janata Party was slated to lose unless it upped its game, which it did, unleashing a vicious, no-holds-barred Hindu nationalist campaign, replete with threats of physical violence and the shooting of traitors”.
It lost anyway. So then there was punishment to be meted out to Delhi’s Muslims, who were blamed for the humiliation. Armed mobs of Hindu vigilantes, backed by the police, attacked Muslims in the working-class neighbourhoods of north-east Delhi. Houses, shops, mosques and schools were burnt. Muslims who had been expecting the attack fought back. More than 50 people, Muslims and some Hindus, were killed.
Thousands moved into refugee camps in local graveyards. Mutilated bodies were still being pulled out of the network of filthy, stinking drains when government officials had their first meeting about Covid-19 and most Indians first began to hear about the existence of something called hand sanitiser.
March was busy too. The first two weeks were devoted to toppling the Congress government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and installing a BJP government in its place. On March 11 the World Health Organization declared that Covid-19 was a pandemic. Two days later, on March 13, the health ministry said that corona is not a health emergency”.
Finally, on March 19, the Indian prime minister addressed the nation. He hadn’t done much homework. He borrowed the playbook from France and Italy. He told us of the need for social distancing” (easy to understand for a society so steeped in the practice of caste) and called for a day of people’s curfew” on March 22. He said nothing about what his government was going to do in the crisis, but he asked people to come out on their balconies, and ring bells and bang their pots and pans to salute health workers.
He didn’t mention that, until that very moment, India had been exporting protective gear and respiratory equipment, instead of keeping it for Indian health workers and hospitals.
Not surprisingly, Narendra Modi’s request was met with great enthusiasm. There were pot-banging marches, community dances and processions. Not much social distancing. In the days that followed, men jumped into barrels of sacred cow dung, and BJP supporters threw cow-urine drinking parties. Not to be outdone, many Muslim organisations declared that the Almighty was the answer to the virus and called for the faithful to gather in mosques in numbers.
On March 24, at 8pm, Modi appeared on TV again to announce that, from midnight onwards, all of India would be under lockdown. Markets would be closed. All transport, public as well as private, would be disallowed.
He said he was taking this decision not just as a prime minister, but as our family elder. Who else can decide, without consulting the state governments that would have to deal with the fallout of this decision, that a nation of 1.38bn people should be locked down with zero preparation and with four hours’ notice? His methods definitely give the impression that India’s prime minister thinks of citizens as a hostile force that needs to be ambushed, taken by surprise, but never trusted.
Locked down we were. Many health professionals and epidemiologists have applauded this move. Perhaps they are right in theory. But surely none of them can support the calamitous lack of planning or preparedness that turned the world’s biggest, most punitive lockdown into the exact opposite of what it was meant to achieve.
The man who loves spectacles created the mother of all spectacles.
As an appalled world watched, India revealed herself in all her shame — her brutal, structural, social and economic inequality, her callous indifference to suffering.
The lockdown worked like a chemical experiment that suddenly illuminated hidden things. As shops, restaurants, factories and the construction industry shut down, as the wealthy and the middle classes enclosed themselves in gated colonies, our towns and megacities began to extrude their working-class citizens — their migrant workers — like so much unwanted accrual.
Many driven out by their employers and landlords, millions of impoverished, hungry, thirsty people, young and old, men, women, children, sick people, blind people, disabled people, with nowhere else to go, with no public transport in sight, began a long march home to their villages. They walked for days, towards Badaun, Agra, Azamgarh, Aligarh, Lucknow, Gorakhpur — hundreds of kilometres away. Some died on the way.
Our towns and megacities began to extrude their working-class citizens like so much unwanted accrual
They knew they were going home potentially to slow starvation. Perhaps they even knew they could be carrying the virus with them, and would infect their families, their parents and grandparents back home, but they desperately needed a shred of familiarity, shelter and dignity, as well as food, if not love.
As they walked, some were beaten brutally and humiliated by the police, who were charged with strictly enforcing the curfew. Young men were made to crouch and frog jump down the highway. Outside the town of Bareilly, one group was herded together and hosed down with chemical spray.
A few days later, worried that the fleeing population would spread the virus to villages, the government sealed state borders even for walkers. People who had been walking for days were stopped and forced to return to camps in the cities they had just been forced to leave.
Among older people it evoked memories of the population transfer of 1947, when India was divided and Pakistan was born. Except that this current exodus was driven by class divisions, not religion. Even still, these were not India’s poorest people. These were people who had (at least until now) work in the city and homes to return to. The jobless, the homeless and the despairing remained where they were, in the cities as well as the countryside, where deep distress was growing long before this tragedy occurred. All through these horrible days, the home affairs minister Amit Shah remained absent from public view.
When the walking began in Delhi, I used a press pass from a magazine I frequently write for to drive to Ghazipur, on the border between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
The scene was biblical. Or perhaps not. The Bible could not have known numbers such as these. The lockdown to enforce physical distancing had resulted in the opposite — physical compression on an unthinkable scale. This is true even within India’s towns and cities. The main roads might be empty, but the poor are sealed into cramped quarters in slums and shanties.
Every one of the walking people I spoke to was worried about the virus. But it was less real, less present in their lives than looming unemployment, starvation and the violence of the police. Of all the people I spoke to that day, including a group of Muslim tailors who had only weeks ago survived the anti-Muslim attacks, one man’s words especially troubled me. He was a carpenter called Ramjeet, who planned to walk all the way to Gorakhpur near the Nepal border.
Maybe when Modiji decided to do this, nobody told him about us. Maybe he doesn’t know about us”, he said.
Us” means approximately 460m people.
State governments in India (as in the US) have showed more heart and understanding in the crisis. Trade unions, private citizens and other collectives are distributing food and emergency rations. The central government has been slow to respond to their desperate appeals for funds. It turns out that the prime minister’s National Relief Fund has no ready cash available. Instead, money from well-wishers is pouring into the somewhat mysterious new PM-CARES fund. Pre-packaged meals with Modi’s face on them have begun to appear.
In addition to this, the prime minister has shared his yoga nidra videos, in which a morphed, animated Modi with a dream body demonstrates yoga asanas to help people deal with the stress of self-isolation.
The narcissism is deeply troubling. Perhaps one of the asanas could be a request-asana in which Modi requests the French prime minister to allow us to renege on the very troublesome Rafale fighter jet deal and use that €7.8bn for desperately needed emergency measures to support a few million hungry people. Surely the French will understand.
As the lockdown enters its second week, supply chains have broken, medicines and essential supplies are running low. Thousands of truck drivers are still marooned on the highways, with little food and water. Standing crops, ready to be harvested, are slowly rotting.
The economic crisis is here. The political crisis is ongoing. The mainstream media has incorporated the Covid story into its 24/7 toxic anti-Muslim campaign. An organisation called the Tablighi Jamaat, which held a meeting in Delhi before the lockdown was announced, has turned out to be a super spreader”. That is being used to stigmatise and demonise Muslims. The overall tone suggests that Muslims invented the virus and have deliberately spread it as a form of jihad.
The Covid crisis is still to come. Or not. We don’t know. If and when it does, we can be sure it will be dealt with, with all the prevailing prejudices of religion, caste and class completely in place.
Today (April 2) in India, there are almost 2,000 confirmed cases and 58 deaths. These are surely unreliable numbers, based on woefully few tests. Expert opinion varies wildly. Some predict millions of cases. Others think the toll will be far less. We may never know the real contours of the crisis, even when it hits us. All we know is that the run on hospitals has not yet begun.
India’s public hospitals and clinics — which are unable to cope with the almost 1m children who die of diarrhoea, malnutrition and other health issues every year, with the hundreds of thousands of tuberculosis patients (a quarter of the world’s cases), with a vast anaemic and malnourished population vulnerable to any number of minor illnesses that prove fatal for them — will not be able to cope with a crisis that is like what Europe and the US are dealing with now.
All healthcare is more or less on hold as hospitals have been turned over to the service of the virus. The trauma centre of the legendary All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi is closed, the hundreds of cancer patients known as cancer refugees who live on the roads outside that huge hospital driven away like cattle.
People will fall sick and die at home. We may never know their stories. They may not even become statistics. We can only hope that the studies that say the virus likes cold weather are correct (though other researchers have cast doubt on this). Never have a people longed so irrationally and so much for a burning, punishing Indian summer.
What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus. Some believe it’s God’s way of bringing us to our senses. Others that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to take over the world.
Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
Arundhati Roy’s latest novel is ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ Copyright © Arundhati Roy 2020
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