Internal Change Is The Best And Maybe Only Hope
By Jehan Perera -August 19, 2013 |
Jehan Perera
With a month remaining before Provincial Council elections to the Northwestern, Central and Northern provinces, the trends are clear. In the two ethnic majority Sinhalese provinces, the main battle appears to be within the government alliance itself. Most if not nearly all of the incidents of election-related violence being reported by election monitors are intra-party ones. It appears that the government candidates see each other as being the bigger threat to their personal victories rather than the opposition parties. This also indicates how marginalized the opposition parties continue to be in the larger part of the country in the face of the government juggernaut.
The situation in the Northern Province is different. There are no reports of election-related violence at the present time. Instead there are allegations of efforts by candidates of the government alliance to provide material incentives to the people in the form of promises of employment and economic development. A unique feature of the run-up to elections in the North is the activity of the government’s intelligence services who are busily, and visibly, involving themselves by checking on the backgrounds of the prospective candidates belonging to the opposition.
It appears that the government is aware that it cannot win the provincial elections in the North. This accounts for the difference between the behavior of the government candidates in the Northern Province and in the other two provinces. In the Northern Province, the government candidates are aware that they will not be able to hold elected office whatever they may do. On the other hand, in the Sinhalese-dominated provinces the government candidates feel that they are assured of victory. Therefore the government candidates compete against each other to obtain the important positions of office after the elections.
On Protecting Mother Earth
By Vagisha I. Gunasekara -August 19, 2013 |
Dr. Vagisha Gunasekara
We live in a time of severe ecological and economic challenges. In 2012 the world crossed a dangerous limit. A reading of 400 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric carbon dioxide was recorded by monitoring stations across the Arctic. This figure is at least 50ppm higher than the maximum concentration during the last 12,000 years, a threshold that granted us the privilege to develop agriculture and civilization. We have already begun to experience a substantially more chaotic climate that demonstrates this altered architecture of our atmosphere.
Extreme heat, dustbowl drought, stunted crops, climate change, and massive wildfires have resulted in major food crop losses in Russia in 2010, and the U.S. in 2012. In many countries in the West, increased costs for animal feed mean higher prices for milk, meat and processed foods based on corn and soy. Price rises on the international grain market will have a major negative impact on poor countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, where many people spend most of their personal income on food. Rocketing bread prices, food and water shortages have all plagued parts of the Middle East and analysts at the Center for American Progress in Washington say a combination of food shortages and other environmental factors exacerbated the already tense politics in the region. Recent studies in Sri Lanka indicate that predicted changes in rainfall, temperature, and the soil moisture deficit, will demand additional irrigation water to compensate for the crop water requirement now and in the coming years. Therefore the climate change effects on maha and yalaseasonal rains will cause serious problem for agricultural activities, such as paddy and other field crop cultivations in the north, north central and eastern regions (Prof Shanthi De Silva 2012, Open University of Sri Lanka). 4 million Sri Lankans are already malnourished and the World Food Programme (2012) cautions anything up to 200 million more food-insecure people by 2050. Just as much we accept these hard facts about the creeping disaster of climate change, we must also recognize that environmental chaos represents an imminent threat to a multitude of human rights: the right to food, to water and sanitation, to social and economic development. This is only a sliver of evidence that tells us to ‘care’ about the environment, if not for its own sake, but for humanity’s sake (a`la Nalaka Gunawardena). Read More
