We have received information with regard to another mega deal by the previous regime’s mega dealers. The biggest commission taker of that rule, the then economic development minister Basil Rajapaksa and former livestock development minister
Arumugam Thondaman had swindled money from the importation of milk cows.
As a joint project by the two ministries, 10,000 milch cows were imported from Australia. The value of one cow was 2,400 Australia dollars, approximately Rs. 249,600. But, the mega dealers bought them at Rs. 01 million per head, and pocketed three-times the value of the cows. The swindling lost Rs. 7.5 billion to the state. In addition, Basil had taken about 1,000 milch cows without permission to India, earning more ill-gotten money.
MP P. Digambaram and former MP Mano Ganeshan are to lodge a complaint with the bribery or corruption commission. They were due to visit the commission today, but the visit had to be put off due to the ongoing debate in the House. They will lodge the complaint within days.
BY SANJEEV MIGLANI AND RUPAM JAIN NAIR-Tue Apr 28, 2015 (Reuters) - People stranded in remote villages and towns across Nepal were still waiting for aid and relief to arrive on Tuesday, four days after a devastating earthquake destroyed buildings and roads and killed more than 4,600 people.
The government has yet to assess the full scale of the damage wrought by Saturday's 7.9 magnitude quake, unable to reach many mountainous areas despite aid supplies and personnel pouring in from around the world.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters the death toll could reach 10,000, as information of damage from far-flung villages and towns has yet to come in.
That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the Himalayan nation.
"The government is doing all it can for rescue and relief on a war footing," Koirala said. "It is a challenge and a very difficult hour for Nepal."
In Jharibar, a village in the hilly Gorkha district of Nepal close to the quake's epicentre, Sunthalia dug for hours in the rubble of her collapsed home on Saturday to recover the bodies of two of her children, a 10-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son.
Another son aged four miraculously survived.
HUNDREDS KILLED IN LANDSLIDES
In Barpak, further north, rescue helicopters were unable to find a place to land. On Tuesday, soldiers had started to make their way overland, first by bus, then by foot.
Army helicopters also circled over Laprak, another village in the district best known as the home of Gurkha soldiers.
A local health official estimated that 1,600 of the 1,700 houses there had been razed. Helicopters dropped food packets in the hope that survivors could gather them up.
In Sindhupalchowk, about 3.5 hours by road northeast of Kathmandu, the earthquake was followed by landslides, killing 1,182 people and seriously injuring 376. A local official said he feared many more were trapped and more aid was needed.
"There are hundreds of houses where our people have not been able to reach yet," said Krishna Pokharel, the district administrator. "There is a shortage of fuel, the weather is bad and there is not enough help coming in from Kathmandu."
International aid has begun arriving in Nepal, but disbursement has been slow, partly because aftershocks have sporadically closed the airport.
According to the home (interior) ministry, the confirmed death toll stands at 4,682, with more than 9,240 injured.
The United Nations said 8 million people were affected by the quake and that 1.4 million people were in need of food.
Nepal's most deadly quake in 81 years also triggered a huge avalanche on Mount Everest that killed at least 18 climbers and guides, including four foreigners, the worst single disaster on the world's highest peak.
All the climbers who had been stranded at camps high up on Everest had been flown by helicopters to safety, mountaineers reported on Tuesday.
Up to 250 people were missing after an avalanche hit a village on Tuesday in Rasuwa district, a popular trekking area to the north of Kathmandu, district governor Uddhav Bhattarai said.
FRUIT VENDORS RETURN TO STREETS
A series of aftershocks, severe damage from the quake, creaking infrastructure and a lack of funds have complicated rescue efforts in the poor country of 28 million people sandwiched between India and China.
In Kathmandu, youths and relatives of victims were digging into the ruins of destroyed buildings and landmarks.
"Waiting for help is more torturous than doing this ourselves," said Pradip Subba, searching for the bodies of his brother and sister-in-law in the debris of Kathmandu's historic Dharahara tower.
The 19th century tower collapsed on Saturday as weekend sightseers clambered up its spiral stairs. Scores of people were killed when it crumpled.
Elsewhere in the capital's ancient Durbar Square, groups of young men cleared rubble from around an ancient temple, using pickaxes, shovels and their hands. Several policemen stood by, watching.
Heavy rain late on Tuesday slowed the rescue work.
In the capital, as elsewhere, thousands have been sleeping on pavements, roads and in parks, many under makeshift tents.
Hospitals are full to overflowing, while water, food and power are scarce.
There were some signs of normality returning on Tuesday, with fruit vendors setting up stalls on major roads and public buses back in operation.
Officials acknowledged that they were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.
"The big challenge is relief," said Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudel, Nepal's top bureaucrat. "We are really desperate for more foreign expertise to pull through this crisis."
India and China, which have used aid and investment to court Kathmandu for years, were among the first contributors to the international effort to support Nepal's stretched resources.
(Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma, Ross Adkin and Christophe Van Der Perre in Kathmandu, Aman Shah and Clara Ferreira-Marques in Mumbai, Aditya Kalra, Frank Jack Daniel and Douglas Busvine in New Delhi, and Jane Wardell in Sydney; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Paul Tait)
Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumuran among eight executed as high-level campaign for clemency failed to sway Indonesian president
Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, Filipina Mary Jane Veloso and Nigerian Martin Anderson. Bottom row from left: Nigerians Raheem Agbaje Salami, Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, and Frenchman Serge Atlaoui. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images
Michael Safi in Sydney and Dina Indrasafi in Cilicap-Tuesday 28 April 2015
The Indonesian government has executed eight people for drug offences, including two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumuran, who were the subject of a years-long campaign for clemency.
It’s official, at least according to Chinese authorities: Officers for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) did not kill several CIA agents sent to Macau and Hong Kong to assassinate NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Wait, what?
Over the last year or so — it’s difficult to date the rumor’s exact beginning — a segment of the Chinese Internet has been trying to figure out why in March 2014 China’s military bestowed a top honor on a group of special forces soldiers stationed in Macau in peacetime. And so one of the more popular explanations is that this group of soldiers earned the honor by dispatching a group of CIA operatives sent to kill the world’s most famous whistleblower.
The Chinese Internet — particularly its military forums, powered by a relatively small but dedicated and paranoid coterie of fanboys — is no stranger to rumors and conspiracy theories. The Snowden assassination story, along with its Macau connection, is merely one of its gems, and it showcases the Chinese media’s willingness to traffic in unsourced reports and unnamed (and perhaps nonexistent) sources and to cater to the worst instincts of China’s reading public.
Now, what was once a rumor has risen to the level that Chinese security officials are batting down the report. In a widely syndicated article published Monday, the investigative outlet Southern Metropolis Daily reported that it reached out to security officials in Macau who said that after investigating the matter and verifying with the PLA’s Macau unit, the reports are “absolutely” not true.
So how did we get to a point where Chinese security officials felt obliged to respond to this outlandish tale? It’s not clear when the rumor first surfaced, but a March 2014 post on popular military forum Tiexue (literally meaning “iron and blood”) contained the purported “worldwide news” about the armed clash, citing unnamed official U.S. media. Searches show that the Hong Kong outlet Phoenix ran a similar story on April 24, though it has since been deleted.
The rumor’s eventual jump from the seedy edges of the Internet to the pages of a major online outlet like Phoenix showcases the Chinese media’s unfortunate aversion to proper sourcing. Neither the article repeating the rumors — nor the story debunking it — give proper names, dates, or web links for the individuals or articles cited. That makes it much harder for readers to sniff out nonsense and it allows the story to spread.
Indeed, on April 27, 2014, the all-purpose Chinese military news site Global Militaryreported that “recent intelligence” showed that in June 2013, shortly after fleeing the United States for Hong Kong, Snowden was “quickly transferred from Hong Kong to a safe place in Macau” while under Chinese protection. That report conveniently cited only unnamed “online mainline media outlets,” but no matter.
In response, the unsourced report continues, the U.S. military dispatched a group of 16 operatives to carry out the “attempted killing of Snowden.” En route to Snowden’s hideout, four CIA officers, all of Chinese descent, “exchanged fire with the Macau-based PLA unit,” resulting in the American officers’ deaths. One of those killed was a “high-level” official in the CIA’s Hong Kong office. For reasons the report does not explain, “neither the mainland Chinese nor the U.S. military has verified the matter.” Perhaps because there is nothing to verify.
So with facts having long ago been tossed out the window, the story of Snowden’s attempted assassination in Macau has now become a parable for how what you find online only confirms what you already know.
One popular comment to the Southern Metropolis Daily’s findings reads: “Isn’t everyone clear by now on the United States? Even the Pakistanis don’t know how bin Laden died.” The most up-voted comment on that article on the Chinese social media site Weibo insists the shootout indeed happened, with China and the United States agreeing to keep quiet.
And the second-most popular: “I used to think this was false; but now that [the authorities] have come out to deny it, I think it’s true.”
After Freddie Gray’s funeral on Monday, violence erupted in Baltimore as protestors clashed with the police. (Editor's note: Video contains graphic language.) (Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)
By John Woodrow Cox, Justin Jouvenal and Emma Brown-April 28 BALTIMORE — This wounded city assumed a defensive crouch Tuesday, one day after looters and rioters wreaked havoc on West Side neighborhoods. Malls, museums, courts, federal offices, universities, shops and a baseball stadium all locked their doors out of fear that the mayhem would resume — and potentially spread — despite the hundreds of National Guard members and police officers pouring into the city. After a Night of Rioting in Baltimore, Fear of Violence Leads to Closures by Thavam Ratna
In response to criticism from Mozambican writer Mia Couto, the president arguesthat the actions of a minority should not be used to stereotype 50 million people A protester at an anti-xenophobia march in Johannesburg last week. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images
Jacob Zuma hosts an anti-xenophobia press conference in Pretoria, South Africa. Photograph: News Agency/REX Shutterstock/News Agency/REX Shutterstock
Daily Maverick, part of the Guardian Africa network-Tuesday 28 April 2015
My dear brother,
It’s a pity that we are reconnecting under sad and painful circumstances, which have prompted you to write an open letter to me.
I remember you from our days in Mozambique, and I cannot forget the friendship that your country accorded my comrades – and to me personally.
China’s leader Xi Jinping seems to have shifted the focus of his regime’s foreign policy including that towards South Asia from core interests to economic interests. Xi’s statement that China is prepared to sign friendship treaties with the country’s neighbors and the PRC’s willingness to adopt a ‘trilateral’ ( i.e China, India and the concerned South Asian country) approach towards tackling issues in South Asia , signal Beijing’s new conciliatory thinking. Nonetheless, in terms of strategy, China under Xi Jinping shows no sign of any change – balancing India by supporting Pakistan appears to be the corner stone of Xi’s regional policy; suggesting it, is the China- Pakistan agreement on the need to have a ‘strategic balance’ in South Asia. In a broader sense, through his regional initiatives, Xi seems to be conveying a firm message to Asian nations- China will use its increasing power to create an Asian order which is favorable to it.
( April 27, 2015, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) To understand the latest position with regard to South Asia policy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under President Xi Jinping, one has to pay close attention to what the leader has said on the subject during his visits to New Delhi (September 2014) and Islamabad (April 2015). In New Delhi, Xi, referring to South Asia’s probable emergence as the new growth pole powering the economy in Asia and even the world, stated that “a peaceful, stable and prosperous South Asia conforms to China’s interests. China is willing to align its development strategies with those of South Asian countries to achieve mutually beneficial development and common prosperity”. He considered China’s “ one belt and one road “ proposal as one in joint interests of the PRC and South Asian nations and expressed the hope that the proposal would lead to boosting the interconnectivity of countries along the traditional land and maritime Silk road, making their economies prosperous and trade complementary. Xi added that China will cooperate with South Asian nations in lifting the two-way trade to US$ 150 billion in the next five years and that the PRC will invest US$ 30 billion in South Asia, along with preferential loans of US$ 20 billion to the region. [1]
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – OREGANO, from the Greek “joy of the mountains,” has been celebrated in folklore as propitious plant grown near the home to shoo away evil forces, as herb used to invoke happiness, tranquillity, luck, and as additive to herbal bath to soothe sore muscles or as a drink to regulate the menstrual cycle.
Too, generous dashes of oregano—botanists call it Coleus aromaticus– oozing with natural antihistamines lend an exquisite smoky flavour to pork sausages that Lucban town in Quezon province has become famous for.
Oregano has been found to be child-friendly, too, after “a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial” showed that herb extracts were effective against impetigo, a contagious skin infection that afflicts children with blisters or sores on the face, neck, hands, and diaper area. The disease can also be seen in adults and occur commonly “in the warm, humid atmosphere in crowded living spaces, in populations with poor skin hygiene.”
A topical anti-bacterial medication has been recommended in 2005 by the Infectious Disease Society of America for impetigo treatment in infants two months and above. But with increasing rates of anti-microbial resistance being recorded, health research has turned attention to natural medicinal plants for alternative ways to control disease, including impetigo.
Dr. Lou Jay Ortiz-Villareal of the Quezon City-based East Avenue Medical Center’s dermatology department notes in a presentation that in the Philippines, oregano leaves are “macerated and customarily applied to treat skin infections (and has been used in other countries) for sore throat, indigestion, fever, and cough.”
“Oregano’s anti-bacterial properties, celebrated in folk cures for ages, have yet to be affirmed in clinical studies.”
Oregano’s anti-bacterial properties, celebrated in folk cures for ages, have yet to be affirmed in clinical studies.
Dr. Ortiz-Villareal points out that the current two-part study involves “in-vitro testing and the clinical trial.”
For a “meaningful and ethical statistical analysis,” the sample size involved 18 patients per group. Too, “written informed consent was obtained from all patients while evaluation and documentation were done on baseline on days 2, 4 and 7 of the follow-up visits,” she notes.
Test subjects were randomly distributed in two groups, A and B in which “block randomization was done using a computer-generated set of random numbers.
After in-vitro analysis, oregano extract was compounded and repackaged into 95% (oregano) cream—both oregano and another medication were identically stored in 10-gram tubes. Patients and guardians were instructed to apply the medication thrice daily for seven days. If no sign of improvement was evidenced on Day 4 of the trial, or the lesions increased in number and severity, patients are classified under treatment failure, she explained.
At Day 4, patients who were given either oregano-based cream or mupirocin ointment “had very marked drop in the skin infection ratings scale. At the end of the seven-day treatment phase, the infections were markedly reduced,” she cites.
“On Day 4, 16 of the 18 patients in the oregano group had lesions which are at least 75% cleared while two had 100% clearance. For the mupirocin group, three of the 18 participants had their lesions 50% cleared, 12 evidenced 75% cleared, with three fully cleared,” she reports.
By Day 7, all of the lesions are cleared in both groups.
“Oregano was well tolerated as mupirocin during the study, and it can be concluded that it is a safe and efficacious treatment for mild impetigo. Moreover, with its availability and cost-effectiveness, one can consider oregano as a potential alternative to anti-bacterial medications available in the market,” she concludes.
Newswise — While the phrase “an apple a day” is a popular saying, a new study suggests that pears as part of a healthy diet could play a role in helping to manage type 2 diabetes and diabetes-induced hypertension.
The results of research published in Food Research International show potential health benefits of Bartlett and Starkrimson pears. Building on their previous studies, the research team from North Dakota State University, Fargo, and the University of Massachusetts studied whether the peel, pulp and juice of pears could impact the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, which plays a role in intestinal ulcers.
The research team includes: Kalidas Shetty and Dipayan Sarkar, now at North Dakota State University, Fargo, previously at the University of Massachusetts with co-authors Chandrakant Ankolekar and Marcia Pinto. Shetty, professor of Plant Sciences at NDSU, serves as the director of the Global Institute of Food Security and International Agriculture (GIFSIA), as well as associate vice president for International Partnerships and Collaborations.
The in vitro (test tube) lab experiments by researchers in the study provided metabolic insights into how two varieties of pears could play a role to better manage early stage diabetes and associated hypertension, commonly called high blood pressure. More research would be needed to determine if the results of the in vitro studies can be replicated in humans.
Naturally occurring phenolic compounds found in fruits may provide a variety of health benefits, as this study shows. More varied and higher phenolic content is found in the skin of the pear than in its flesh or pulp. The study showed that Starkrimson peel had the highest total phenolic content, and that peel extracts had significantly higher total phenolic content than pulp. The pulp extracts of the Bartlett cultivar had higher total phenolics when compared with Starkrimson.
“Our results from in vitro assays suggest that if we consume Bartlett and Starkrimson pears as a whole fruit (peel and pulp) it may potentially provide better control of early stage diabetes as part of an overall healthier diet,” said Shetty.
“Such dietary strategy involving fruits, including pears, not only potentially could help better control blood glucose levels, but also reduce over dependence on drugs for prediabetes stages, or complement a reduced pharmacological dose of drugs with side effects to combat very early stages of type 2 diabetes,” said the study authors in their article.
World Health Organization statistics show that diabetes affects approximately 387 million adults worldwide, with the number expected to jump to 592 million by 2035. Some references consider type 2 diabetes a rapidly emergingepidemic in children due to unhealthy diets.
Effects on blood pressure
Researchers also examined whether the pears studied might provide benefits to controlling high blood pressure. ACE (angiotensin-I-converting enzyme) inhibitors are medications that are sometimes used to help treat elevated blood pressure. The study showed that the watery extract of Bartlett pulp had low to moderate ACE inhibitory activity. The pear peel and pulp did not show any ACE inhibitory activity in this study.
“Our results suggested that Bartlett pulp could be utilized as a potential mild ACE inhibitor following further evaluation with different concentrations and extraction processes,” said the study authors.
Pears and gut bacteria
Researchers also studied whether fermented whole pear juice of Bartlett and Starkrimson pear extracts could inhibit the bacteria H. pylori. This bacteria found in the gut often is associated with gastritis and stomach ulcers. No pH adjusted samples after fermentation inhibited H. pylori.
Starkrimson pear without pH adjustment inhibited H. pyloriafter 24, 48 and 72 hours of fermentation. Fermented samples of Bartlett pear inhibited H. pylori only after 48 and 72 hours, when pH was adjusted before fermentation.
Results suggest that fermented pear extract can inhibit H. pylori without affecting the growth or function of probiotic bacteria and has the potential to sustain probiotic function of beneficial bacteria.
More studies are needed, said Shetty, to further investigate the bioactive compounds in the peel and pulp of these pear varieties. Study of other properties such as fiber content, amino acids, and vitamin C could provide additional insight on the role of pears in a healthy food system.
Results show opportunity for agriculture
Shetty said results of this study and others point to the use of foods that can help combat disease, which in turn, can impact agriculture around the world. “This research helps make the case to build better ‘food crops for health,’” he said. He sees additional opportunity for agriculture, particularly in North Dakota. “We now can develop a wide diversity of crops in North Dakota that not only meet global food security and nutritional security, but also are wholesome to counter chronic diseases from poor diets,” he said. More information will be available at a Food for Health conference to be held in Fargo on July 5-8.
Currently, NDSU students in Shetty’s research group are working not only on pear research, but also on a range of crops grown in North Dakota, including beans, squash, and cereal grains.
Results of this study suggest that eating Bartlett and Starkrimson pears as whole, fresh harvested fruits can provide higher health benefits, due to their phenolic-linked high antioxidant activities.
So when you reach for that apple a day, maybe grab a pear too. Just remember to eat the peel.
Additional Information
Funding for early work on the study was provided by USA Pears, with support for studies on probiotic and antimicrobial benefits supported by the University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station and by student Marcia Pinto on a Brazilian government scholarship. Research on health benefits is continuing at North Dakota State University since 2013, with support from the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station.
NDSU, Fargo, North Dakota, USA, is notably listed among the top 108 U.S. public and private universities in the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education’s category of “Research Universities/Very High Research Activity.” NDSU is listed in the Top 100 research universities in the U.S. for R&D in agricultural sciences, chemistry, computer sciences, physical sciences, psychology, and social sciences, based on research expenditures reported to the National Science Foundation. As a student-focused, land-grant, research university, we serve our citizens.www.ndsu.edu/research
It is crystal clear that President Sirisena won the Presidential election with the
overwhelming support of Tamils in the North, East and the upcountry – obviously Muslims as well. The fact of the matter is that although Tamils are a numerical minority, they are capable of determining the political future of Sri Lanka. It was proved not only in the last Presidential election but also on several other occasions since independence. The Sinhala racist parties and individuals like the Rajapaksas in the South are well aware of this and are paranoid because of it!
by S. V. Kirubaharan, France
( April 27, 2015, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) I am one of those who believed that bringing back Mahinda Rajapaksa as President was the only way forward for the people in the North and East to find a durable political solution – with the support of the International Community, especially the help of India. I wrote extensively on this subject during the last Presidential election.
Civil wars can go on for decades, but when they do come to an end they are like thieves in the night. They just end, leaving entire generations of people orphaned, confused and traumatized. Everyone talks about the death tolls, and the war crimes, the winners and the losers, the heroes and fallen villains. But nobody talks about that invisible third party; the children. I know this, because I was one of them. And we were lost, abandoned, amidst more “important” things like bombs and bullets, political propaganda and blind nationalism.
They said they were fighting for the nation’s future. Nobody stopped to think if they had gotten it all wrong. Weren’t the children the future of the nation? What good did the war give the children in return for their stolen childhoods, their abandoned education and the things they’ve seen, that will stay with them for a long, long time? Nobody cared. Nobody wants to talk about PTSD because the entire nation suffers from it. We live in a world that tends to believe that if something hurts everyone it’s not a problem, there’s no significance to it. There are no two sides. Just victims. We were and still are all victims in denial. Victims of a system that makes us blind to the fundamental causes of our own errors.
You know how they say Wall Street is too big to fail? That’s kind of how our country views its problems: too big to solve. From the ethnic conflict to climate change to its education system we refuse to believe that these issues are penetrable if we start from their very fundamental causes. An island just barely larger than the Maldives, we will most probably be one of the first few to go under water. But hey, to us, there are more important problems, like “are we saying goodbye to being a “unified state” by letting our minorities have a decentralized local government in the Northern Province?” “Are we taxing the rich too much?” And I won’t lie, sometimes in the utter madness of it all, I do feel that the problems may really be too big to solve. The people are too traumatized to believe again, to have faith in change, or to fight for it. They’ve fought enough already, for the wrong causes.
Sometimes I wonder if I should stay as far away as I can from home for anything to make sense, to not feel as broken as everyone else, to feel “normal”. The more I travel, the more I expose myself to “normalcy”, the more I want to make sure that my children will never be exposed to that unspeakable violence that my generation was exposed to. It almost seems a naive dream to have; to look for alternatives to war and violence through education. But I believe it’s worth a try. It may not turn the world around. It may not stop the racist and the religious extremists from taking their inferiority complexes out on the country. It may not heal 30 years of trauma. But it will give my kids and their kids a fighting chance to what my generation never had.
I was one of the lucky ones. Not only did I survive, but I was privileged enough to receive an education. I mastered the evacuation drill (in case of an attack) in my middle school syllabus. Studying at a Roman Catholic convent in Colombo, I learnt to pray to God, Jesus and Mary every morning although I was a Buddhist. I pretended to be thrilled to do extra-credit projects for history class although I knew our textbooks were published by the government and were mostly just a chapter by chapter explanation of extreme nationalism, justifying the need for war. And I carried those history books and other belongings in a fully transparent schoolbag designed by the government “for my own security.” I was asked by a nun to memorize this prayer that we could say whenever we heard an ambulance. Police and ambulance sirens give me chills even to this day, and I hear my eight year old self say that prayer. What I find fascinating about this is that even decades later I still remember that prayer, word to word. It reminds me that, what you’re taught as a child stays with you. And some children in the world are taught the wrong things or nothing at all, and it stay with them. That wrong stays with them. That nothingness stays with them. It haunts them, their communities, their nations, the industries they step into, the children they raise and the whole world they live in. So if we want to fix our problems, if we want sustainable solutions, shouldn’t we start by educating our children about the fundamental causes of them?
I don’t want you to misunderstand me. My faith in education did not spring from my lack of one. Even with the little resources that were available, I did learn the fundamentals. I learned to speak and read in three languages. I learned calculus and geometry. I learned to be fascinated by the beauty and vastness of science through biology, chemistry and physics. I learned to read literature and appreciate theatre. Despite all the chaos that surrounded it, my country’s education system taught me the basic skills I needed to communicate, to question, to calculate and to digest it all. It gave me the curiosity to read literature of other cultures, of peaceful societies. I read biographies of Mandela and Gandhi and also those of Hitler and Prabakaran. I learned to empathize, to see the world through their eyes. As a teenager I read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, the first book I fell in love with. While the ambulance sirens made the rest of Colombo lay sleepless at night I engulfed myself in the story of Santiago and his journey through the Sahara dessert. I was patient as he searched for his treasure for days and weeks. Through him I learnt that resilience pays off. And through Gandhi (as cheesy and overused a quote as it is) I learnt that I should “be the change that … (I)… want to see in the world.” And Paulo Coelho assured me that “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
If someone were to ask me what I would be most thankful for in my education, I would tell them that I’m thankful I was taught to read. Because it is through books I learnt to understands and feel what I couldn’t feel or understand; to empathize, and to respect. My entire life was shaped by what I experienced and read as a kid. Most of my college friends in America lived their childhood in a peaceful country and learnt about war and violence through books; for me it was the opposite. And I’m thankful that I had the luxury of reading about peace, that I was able to familiarize myself with it. Because without the ability to read, I would have been just another child of war. And when the war ended in 2009 I would have been an orphan of war, lonely and craving for its warmth.
But once again, I was one of the lucky ones.
###
Thisuri Wanniarachchi, 21, is the author of novels The Terrorist’s Daughter and Colombo Streets. She is Sri Lanka’s youngest State Literary Award winner and the world’s youngest national nominee to the Iowa International Writers’ Program. She is currently an undergraduate student of Bennington College on full scholarship and studies Political Economy and Education Reform.
“The wars of the next century will be fought over water” – Ismail Serageldin, World Bank Vice President in 1995(1)
Water shortage has become an escalating problem globally because of the increasing demands from agriculture, expanding population, energy production and climate change (2). It was estimated that in 2007 around 1.2 billion people, or almost one in five people on the planet lived in areas of water scarcity (3). It is further predicted that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population would live under water stress conditions (4). This year United Nations declared the theme of “Water and Sustainable Development” for the World Water Day held on 22nd March 2015 (5). Sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (6) and the selected theme of the UN emphasize creating awareness on water conservation and minimizing water pollution to ensure habitable planet for the future generations.
In developing countries, 70 percent of the industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters, polluting the usable water supply (7). Joint ventures by global corporations such as Panasonic, Pepsi and Nestle were among 33 multinational companies that the Chinese government has blacklisted for causing water pollution (8). It is no secret that the multinational companies prefer to expand their ventures in developing countries because unlike developed world developing countries do not have strict regulations restricting industry and agricultural operations from pouring pollutants into lakes, streams, rivers and other water resources (7). It was reported that some multinational companies have paid bribes to government officials in order to get around obstacles erected against profitable operations of their enterprises (9). It is in this backdrop we have to view the water pollution issues in SrI Lanka.
Two major water pollution incidents caused by industry led to civil unrest and mass protests in Sri Lanka (10). First major protest was reported at Gampaha District in 2013 against the rubber glove factory of Dipped Products PLC belongs to the Heyleys Group located at Rathupaswala ended up in three people sacrificing their lives (11) (12). No State testing institution expressly held the private company responsible for Rathupaswala’s low water quality and state institutions may have been prevented by political influence from holding the company responsible (13). Though government agreed to pay compensation (14) opposition moved a motion in the parliament alleging that there was no freedom for the government agencies responsible for the protection of environment to perform their duties (15). Finally the company involved got off scot free without paying any penalty or compensation to the affected people.
(Reuters) - People stranded in remote villages and towns across Nepal were still waiting for aid and relief to arrive on Tuesday, four days after a devastating earthquake destroyed buildings and roads and killed more than 4,600 people.
Photo via 
