January 1st - the first day of the year is a day of traditional religious feast and an occasion for celebration. This time it is the dawn of the year two thousand and eighteen, the year during which all of us hope peace throughout the world and particularly harmony and economic prosperity in our motherland –Sri Lanka.
January first came to be fixed as the first day of the year- New Year day in 158 B.C. Years were named and numbered after two Roman consuls. The date was chosen for military reasons. Throughout the middle ages a variety of Christmas feast days were used while the calendars often continued to display the months columns running from January to December in the Roman fashion and in most countries in the Western Europe January first was officially adopted as the New Year day even before they adopted the Gregorian calendar.
New Year in the universe
In the Eastern Orthodox churches, the New Year falls on January14, the first in the Julian calendar which has been adopted. Both in Gregorian and Julian New Year holidays are celebrated in most of the countries where Eastern Orthodox predominates. As such New Year is celebrated both as a civic holiday or the Gregorian day and as a religious holiday or the Julian day.
God Janus with two faces
Romans derived the name for the month of January from their god Janus with two faces, one looking forward and the other backward. The practice of making resolutions to rid oneself from bad habits which were followed during the old year and to adopt better ones during the New Year. This practice is also dated to earliest times. This means that one should look back to realize the mistakes done during the year that is ended and to look forward to select better ones to be adopted during the New Year,
New Year in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka January first is regarded as the beginning of the New Year administratively. Sinhala and Tamil New Year falls on April 13 or14 with the transition of the Sun from Pisces to Aries. The New Year in Khmer, Thai, Laos and Burma falls due from 13 to 15 April and often concedes with the Sinhala and Hindu New Year.
The tournament of Rose parade in California dates back to 1886. In this parade the bowl of cut roses was carried. In that year members of the valleys hut club decorated their carriages with flowers. It resembles the ripping of the orange crop in that country. As part of the Rose bowl New Year foot ball game was played in 1902. In the following year it was followed by chariot races but the foot ball game returned in 1916 as the sports centrepiece of the festival. Many customs of the New Year festivals note the passing of the time with regrets for errors and mistakes during the old year and anticipation for luck and prosperity in the New Year.
Now New Year is celebrated in Sri Lanka
We in Sri Lanka prepare milk-rice and oil cakes for the New Year feast. New Year dawns with the sound of crackers mixed with music, blessings and greetings. Many people mark the New Year with religious observations. Buddhists offer Dana and puja to the monks and Hindus make oblations to the deities. Christians go to the church for The Year prayers and Muslims attend to religious rites in their mosques.
Saturday, 30 December 2017
DNA: After establishing a strong foothold in the tea industry of Sri Lanka over the past 25 years, the Tatas are exiting the business as part of the group’s ongoing strategy to review its global businesses and alliances under its new Chairman N. Chandrasekaran.
Tata Global Beverages has divested its full 31.85% stake in the three-way joint venture Estate Management Services Ltd. (EMSPL) to founding partner Sunshine Holdings Plc for Rs. 120 crore, the company told stock exchanges.
EMSPL is the holding company that managed Sri Lankan tea business consisting tea estates and brands. It manages one of the largest plantation properties of Sri Lanka and holds 53.75% shareholding in Colombo Stock Exchange-listed Watawala Plantations PLC and has a 100% shareholding in Watawala Tea Ceylon Ltd., a marketing company owning brands like Zesta, Watawala and Ran Kahata which together command over 30% market share of the branded tea market in Sri Lanka.
Sunshine Holdings would now be holding a 60% stake in EMSPL with the rest with the third partner Pyramid Wilmar Plantations Ltd., a joint venture of Asia’s leading agribusiness group Wilmar International, Watawala Plantations PLC has told Colombo Stock Exchange.
Year 2017 has been a year of divestments for Tata Global Beverages, which earlier exited its faltering overseas ventures in Russia and China to cut losses amid bleak revival scenario. In Russia, it sold off its popular coffee brand that it had acquired in 2012. It has also disposed of its 90% stake in Zheijiang Tata Tea Extraction Co to its joint venture partner Zheijiang Tea Group.
The process of review of its weak global businesses started during the tenure of Cyrus Mistry, and under the current chairmanship of Chandrasekaran, the strategy to exit the businesses is now being executed.
The sale of Sri Lankan business comes at a time when that country’s tea industry is witnessing falling crop and exports which started since the middle of 2015 due to continued adverse weather including drought condition of 2016.
Tea exports in January-November period dropped to 265 million kilograms, its lowest since the year 2000 and even lower than the poor shipment of 266 million kg last year when production was severely impacted by drought.
On a personal note, 2018 should be an year in which we embrace our triumphs and happiness but find meaning in our challenges and losses. It is time for new life. To start with the freshness of hope and all the happiness that our hearts can take.
by Ruwantissa Abeyratne -
The greater part of our happiness or misery comes from our dispositions and not from our circumstances ~ Martha Washington
( December 31, 2017, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) As we wake up on the first day of January, our thoughts could be twofold: how can I make this year better for myself (in other words, what are my new year resolutions?); and will this year be better for me than last year (in other words, will some unseen hand of providence hand me down some good fortune or luck?). For many of us, neither attains fruition and the world goes on. During the year, some of us may find our future partner; get married, and some of us may retire. But one fact would remain: our character would be our fate in 2018 with regard to factors within our control.
This essay is not a forecast of what will happen in the world in 2018. For that, one has only to visit the website www.businessinsider.com and the predictions of Azeem Azhar, a strategist and product entrepreneur at https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609868/18-exponential-changes-we-can-expect-in-the-year-ahead and its all there, much of which looks like a continuum of what took place in 2017. 2018 will see a proliferation of “crypto this” and “cyber that” and artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence will be the buzzwords. Individually, one cannot influence the world and the megatrends that continue to affect us politically, demographically, technologically, environmentally and economically will flow regardless. But we can contribute to a collective effort to make the world a better place. I offer the following in this context.
Incontrovertibly, 2018 will bring its own challenges to the world both in whole, or part thereof. One of my friends in Sri Lanka has written to me saying that 2017 brought even more misery than in 2016. Let us hope this trend is not a sign of things to come. Inevitably, we would all be facing our own challenges as the year unfolds and it would depend on how we, individually, cope with the challenges we face. We can begin with Martha Washington’s famous statement: “Every body and everything conspire to make me as contented as possible in it; yet I have seen too much of the vanity of human affairs, to expect felicity from the splendid scenes of public life. I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learnt, from experience, that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us, in our minds, wheresoever we go”.
A good example is found in my own profession – air transport. The Economist, in its annual The World in 2018 predicts that in 2018, Americans will take 554 million business trips, which would be an increase of 3.1% more than trips taken in 2017. This portends good, in that the increase will add to productivity and prosperity and people will have more money to spend. On the other hand, increase in travel will add to the misery of the traveller with the risk of premature ageing and increased risk of cardio vascular disease. Added to the misery will be the inevitable loneliness in hotel rooms, isolation from family and the decrease in participation in family life. It would be an egregious combination of emotional stress and overwork as well. The Economist goes on to say: “In large organizations frequent business travellers can be three times more likely to make a claim on their health insurance for a psychological problem than their desk bound colleagues”.
There is also little doubt that the use of smart phones and social media will increase at least by one third over 2017 bringing exponential connectivity and discontent. This is a dichotomy we must continue to grapple with in 2018. On the one hand, as Nikola Tesla said: “If we want to reduce poverty and misery, if we want to give to every deserving individual what is needed for a safe existence of an intelligent being, we want to provide more machinery, more power. Power is our mainstay, the primary source of our many-sided energies”. In this sense, artificial intelligence will continue to flourish. It is estimated that there are currently more than 1700 AI start-ups with over $14.6 billion in total funding from 70 different countries. Revenues from AI applications are expected to reach $47 billion by 2020, from $8.0 billion in 2016. However, on the other hand, social media will bring people unhappiness through “Facebook Envy” according to a study carried out by the University of Copenhagen. Millions of people use Facebook each day. The study, which involved 1095 people revealed: “Those who admitted suffering high levels of Facebook envy, the tendency to be jealous of your friends’ activities on social media, benefited most from going teetotal”.
One of the most inspiring books I read in 2017 is Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, And Finding Joy Written by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. Sandberg – a high profile and high functioning technology executive, activist, and author who is also the chief operating officer of Facebook and founder of Leanin.org., – lost her husband unexpectedly and suddenly during the celebration of a friend’s birthday in a resort in Mexico. It was a profound shock which left her in extreme grief and isolation. The book is about how Sandberg coped with the tragedy and its aftermath with a positive attitude. One reviewer called the book “a critical guide to reclaiming life”. Sandberg wrote in June 2015 in Facebook about her loss: “I think when tragedy occurs, it presents a choice…You can give in to the void, the emptiness that fills your heart, your lungs, constricts your ability to think or even breathe. Or you can try to find meaning.”
The key is to “find meaning” as Sandberg says. One interpretation would be, as Nassim Nicholas Taleb says in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, to be “Antifragile” or the opposite of fragile that makes you succumb to circumstances because you have no plan or flexibility to adapt. Taleb defines antifragile as: “a convex response to a stressor or source of harm (for some range of variation), leading to a positive sensitivity to increase in volatility”. A similar analogy is found in Naomi Klein’s book No is Not Enough where Klein says we need to be “shock resistant” and be prepared. Although both authors are alluding to our reaction to global circumstances, their philosophy can easily be transported to our disposition when dealing with our individual circumstances.
Disposition versus circumstance and “finding meaning” is also a growing corporate trend where companies are shifting business investment to research, software and branding. Called “intangible assets” these help companies grow and enhance their profile. Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, in their book Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of The Intangible Economy offers entrepreneurs advice on how to make the intangible economy thrive and overcome investment ambiguity and circumstance.
On a personal note, 2018 should be an year in which we embrace our triumphs and happiness but find meaning in our challenges and losses. It is time for new life. To start with the freshness of hope and all the happiness that our hearts can take. The change of an year inevitably brings to bear life as a continuing illusion of gentle faces in cracking mirrors, their images clouded by too many tears. As the new year dawns, we could only hope that the new dawn would teach us to tread gently into the future. We should not despair since we know that life gives us, together with misery and exploitation, love and hope to cherish forever memories of our courage that would never fade.
It is only our disposition that can ensure this. And this is one resolution we can make, and keep.
By Dilshani Palugaswewa-2017-12-31 Ceylon Today Features
As Christmas has come to an end and the New Year is just around the corner, of course, everyone is all geared up to step into the year 2018 while mulling over what their new year's resolution will be. A New Year's resolution which is rightly defined as a promise one makes to oneself – usually means either the ending of a bad habit or the developing of a good habit from the very first day of the year, which one intends to carry out throughout the year.
Although, we have many examples of resolution failures to our credit, most of us resort to the same strategic plan every December before being ambushed by the numbered days as we clock out of 31 December and arrive at the magical fizz that we hope 1 January holds, hankering on that this time, it will do the trick.
But then every year, 12 months down we find ourselves in the same old rabbit hole, forgetting why we couldn't follow through our previous resolutions. So we hop on it again, on to the very next January believing that this time, it has the energy of change. While optimism is a good thing, remember the best possible, and most productive level of change is when it happens organically or at least when you have the fundamental understanding of why something was unsuccessful, rather than when it's enforced upon you. Thus, when it comes to New Year resolutions it can be tricky, because the only reason you're following through with your grand plan is because the digits of the year are going to change. Thus, keep in mind - your brain is partially unprepared to welcome the change that you have set with a new beginning of hope and evolution.
Otherwise, what unfolds is a three-ring circus. The goals you've set for yourself and the coming year will lose steam a few months into the 365 days, likely depicting you, as a failure along with reverberating a negative message in the ears of people you've confidently blown the trumpet, giving testament to how strong you are on your word. Because of course, at the beginning of the year, you plastered it all over social media and you're surroundings – "My New Year Resolution is ...." So, to avoid such happenings and in order to understand this baffling belief we have in New Years that occurs time and time again, despite multiple failings - analyze.
Ever heard of False Hope Syndrome? If you haven't, then its time you did. In fact, this is the root causation for any failed resolutions you've had before. False Hope Syndrome is basically when one sets a goal higher than their achievable capabilities along with miscalculating the speed of the execution of that task.
Moral of the story - look before you leap and think through the contingencies in order to cut the mustard. Without any consideration of strategies and viability, if one reaches for unattainable objectives, they are bound to fall short. As most resolutions are lifestyle and self-improvement changes, they have to be systematically aligned and tailored with one's potential. Self-change methods can be effective if done right. Steps taken to improve one's mind, body and soul can be invigorating and optimistic. However, unrealistic expectations narrow the chances of any productive sustainability. While there is no problem in wanting a healthy lifestyle and wanting to wake up to a better version of yourself every day, overcoming fears and weaknesses - and just starting afresh, there lies a problem which occurs due to the aptitude we humans have of not learning how to walk before we start to run.
Own it! Change doesn't come easy. It has to be painstakingly thought through and acted out. Especially if you're trying to change negative attributes into positive ones. (There is no point in burning out a fire that you once kindled in order to bite the bullet.) And that is exactly what you need in order to sustain the same enthusiasm throughout the year. It is when you take those small steps first that you'll have a pretty good chance to make it further down the year than you would by taking longer strides with larger than life expectations.
The end result is a two way possibility. Either, (and this is the most likely possibility) you will be unsuccessful as you may lose sight and press the pause the button on the stairway to your resolution.
In which case, you will end up losing your marbles while you remain despondent for the months subsequent to that, with no hope of attempting to trace back the steps to re-resolution. Left with the belief that there is no possible way you can achieve that goal you had once set, it gives you no valid reason to go back to the drawing board. Or you could still be riding on that same fuel of optimism – so full of vim and vigour that you'd re-try the same algorithm with no changes made to the path you chose to go down the first time around.
But here's what you need to know to be on the ball.
Resolution = Change, thus you have to analyze why and how your resolutions fail. If you're unaware of the three stages of changes, you are bound to fail. Pre-contemplation Contemplation Preparation
Pre-contemplation is the first stage of change. Meaning - at this point you're probably wondering if or not to make the desired change and if it is worth the time and effort you plan to put in.
Contemplation - which is the second stage of change, is when you mentally experience the desired change without actually experiencing it. This way, you go through the pros and cons to mentally draw the picture and prepare yourself for the uphill battle. Visualizing your desired results, could pump up your enthusiasms and dedication levels to get things
started.
The third step of change is preparation. At this point, you understand that the desired change is essential to your life and thus will commit to go that extra few miles to see it through. This eventually turns into action which would be followed by productive results.
Bottom line - it is not pragmatic for you to take a leaf out of someone else's book to make changes to your life. Why twist your own arm, just as the year commences right? The way you kick start a new beginning is all in your hands.
Change in life will happen on the fly. So pull up your socks to learn and grow all year round. If there is no rhyme or reason to make new changes – then so be it. Nevertheless, you have 365 new days which comes with 365 new opportunities.
Here's to hoping that 2018 won't suck as much this year might have for you.
In our last editorial for 2017, the Daily Mirror analyses the positives and the negatives of what happened this year in the socio-political, economic and other areas.
It is good to begin with ourselves and speak about media freedom. With the election of President Maithripala Sirisena on January 8, 2015 and the formation of the National Unity Government in August that year, media freedom was restored.
On the political front, one of the major events was the decision to change the system of elections and the announcement of elections to 341 local councils on February 10.
The Ward System has been restored, and in terms of this, 60 percent of candidates will be elected according to the Ward System and 40 percent according to the Proportional Representation System. The new mixed system also demands 25 percent representation of women among the elected candidates.
For the first time since independence, the two major parties - the UNP and the SLFP- have been governing together in the National Unity Government. There have been disputes and divisions between them mainly on economic issues and the two parties are due to decide by tomorrow whether they will renew their Memorandum
of Understanding.
Most analysts believe that whether an MoU is signed or not, the two parties are expected to govern together in a coalition, because 2018 is likely to be a vital year especially for the economy, with foreign direct investments coming in and growth rates rising.
Analysts also believe it might be good for the country and the people, especially for the villages, if parties worked together in the Local Councils also.
On the economic front, we saw the restoration of Generalised Scheme of Preferences, known as GSP Plus on exports to the European Union.
The EU also lifted the fish import ban which had been imposed because of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing practices during the former regime.
This year alone, Sri Lanka exported about 18,000 metric tonnes of fish to Europe.
One of the main allegations against the former regime’s VIPs and top officials was corruption.
Though the new Government promised immediate and effective action to bring them to justice, it did not happen. The only significant incident that came to courts was the alleged misuse of Sil cloths to the value of Rs. 600 million, during the 2015 Presidential Election.
The former presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunga was remanded for two weeks but released on bail while the case continues.
The Government decided late this year to appoint three special three – judge High Courts to hear cases relating to corruption, fraud or other political crimes. Thereby the cases are likely to be completed within months instead of years.
But corruption continues and a bombshell hit the Government itself with a Presidential Commission being appointed to probe the alleged bond scam in the Central Bank.
Senior Minister Ravi Karunanayake was virtually forced to resign because of allegations made against him during the Bond Commission sittings, and the Commission’s report is expected to be handed over to the President during this weekend.
The Commission’s recommendations and the February 10 Local Council election results are expected to be key factors in what happens or does not happen in 2018. Most analysts believe it would be good for the vision 2025 programme to be continued with the goal of creating a peaceful, just and all inclusive society.
According to the Agganna Sutta, the evolution of the world, the appearance of greed and moral degradation caused the environment to decline. With each successive moral decline, the beings and their environment devolved presenting an increasing challenge to feeding themselves.
by Ven. Aggamaha Pandita Dr. Walpola Piyananda-
( December 31, 2017, Los Angeles, Sri Lanka Guardian) In recent years, more and more people in Sri Lanka have been affected by drought, floods, landslides, and countless other varieties of natural disasters. Of course, climate change is wreaking havoc all across the globe. The punishment inflicted on the natural environment by human beings is, like anything else, subject to the law of kamma. There is cause; there is effect.
The Buddha spoke of the effects of not taking good care of the environment, which includes its living beings: “Bhikkhus, when kings are unrighteous, the royal vassals become unrighteous…. (Likewise) Brahmins and householders…people of the towns and countryside… …The sun and moon proceed off course, the constellations and stars… day and night…seasons and years blow off course….” He goes on to point out how this affects rainfall, and therefore crops, and therefore food supply.
As I wrote in my book Away from L.A., the Buddha’s intention was to eradicate human suffering, so it stands to reason that he would speak about the natural environment and our close relationship with it. According to the Agganna Sutta, the evolution of the world, the appearance of greed and moral degradation caused the environment to decline. With each successive moral decline, the beings and their environment devolved presenting an increasing challenge to feeding themselves.
For a country to be happy, it must have a just government. How this could be realized is explained by the Buddha in his teaching of the “Ten Duties of the King.” Of course this teaching is applicable to “Governments” and therefore, applies today to all who constitute the government. The first of these duties is liberality, generosity, and charity; the wealth and property should be used for the welfare of the people. The second is that those in government should have high moral character, at least observing the Five Precepts of a layman. Third, he should be prepared to give up all personal comfort, name and fame in the interest of the people. Fourth honesty and integrity is important; he must be free from fear or favor in the discharge of his duties. He must be sincere in his intentions, and must not deceive the public. Fifth, he should possess a genial temperament; to be kind and gentle. Sixth: He must have self-control; not indulging in a life of luxury. Seventh: He should be free from hatred, ill-will, enmity and not bear a grudge against anybody. Eight: Non-violence is important; he should try to promote peace through the avoidance and prevention of war and everything which involves violence and the destruction of life. Ninth: He must be able to bear hardships, difficulties and insults without losing his temper with patience, forbearance, toleration and understanding. And finally ten; he should not oppose the will of the people, should not obstruct measures that are conducive to the welfare of the people. In other words, he should rule in harmony with his people.
As the leading Theravada country in the world, Sri Lanka should be the embodiment of the Buddha’s basic instructions for the living, viz. the four Brahma Viharas, known in English as Lovingkindness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita), and Equanimity (upekkha). Successive governments in the history of our country have been sometimes more observant of these principles, sometimes less observant. But the last few years, the rampant disregard of these principles has become critical, to a point where those of us who love our country cannot keep silent about it.
In Western psychology, there is a disease of character known as sadism, where one derives pleasure from the infliction of evil. Unfortunately, this is the current state of affairs in Sri Lanka under the current government. Three years after taking office, the government is still devoting countless resources to avenging perceived slights or offenses. As soon as the government came into power a secret police unit was established with some officers loyal to current regime. Their ultimate goal was to go after political opponents in a vindictive manner; detaining and questioning them using unprofessional tactics. The secret police unit, FCID hunts its perceived enemies even abroad.
Not only had they detained the politicians that didn’t support current regime but also the government officers who had worked with past ministers. It is ironic that the FCID unit has become an obstacle to government’s day to day activities. High ranking government bureaucrats are now reluctant to perform routine duties fearing that someday they too will be called by FCID. Because of this, most of the allocated budgets for ministries are unspent. It is correct to state that the FCID has boomeranged on the people who formed it.
Let me tell you a little story about the Wolf and the Lamb, a tale from Ancient Greece by Aesop in which the wolf reminds me of the FCID.
A wolf was drinking at a spring on a hillside. On looking up he saw a lamb just beginning to drink lower down. “There’s my supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize.” He called out to the lamb, “how dare you muddle my drinking water!”
“No,” said the lamb, “if the water is muddy of there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.”
“Well, then,” said the wolf, “why did you call me bad names this time last year?”
“That cannot be,” said the lamb, “I am only six months old.”
“I don’t care, snarled the wolf, “if it was not you, it was your father,” and with that he rushed upon the poor little lamb and ate her all up.
What does this have to do Sri Lanka? This current government devotes itself of its attachment to past perceived slights, instead of devoting itself to improving the country by addressing our numerous problems. These people are indeed sadists, and will face something like the “10 states” as explained by the Buddha in the Dhammapada, 137-140.
”He who inflicts punishment upon those who do not deserve it, and hurts those who are harmless, such a person will soon come to face one of these ten states: he may soon come to terrible pain, great deprivations, physical injury, deep-rooted ailment or mental disorder, the wrath of the monarch or a dreadful accusation, loss of relatives, the complete destruction of wealth, or a sudden fire may break out and burn his houses. After the dissolution of his physical body, he will surely be born in hell.”
This is a waste of time, energy and resources. It is antagonistic to all our common goals of wanting a better country with a stable, democratic government that represents all the people, and which, out of love for the motherland, want to develop it. I appeal to the government to come to its senses and serve the country by doing the job for which you were elected.
( The writer is the Chief Sangha Nayake of America )
For many years, the polythene menace has caused havoc in the environment and has resulted in deaths of both animals and humans. But, despite the serious damage caused to the environment by the irresponsible use and disposal of polythene, no measures were taken to minimize its usage until recently.
The ban on some products of non-degradable polythene that came into effect recently was accepted quite positively by the public and has, to a certain extent reduced the usage of non-degradable polythene products in the market.
The ban on lunch sheets, grocery bags, shopping bags and polystyrene or rigifoam lunch boxes came into effect on 1 September 2017 after the Central Environment Authority (CEA) Chairman Prof. Lal Dharmasiri informed President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of the serious problems caused to the environment by the use of polythene.
Polythene everywhere
"The President who is also the Minister for Environment and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe asked us to find a solution to control the polythene and plastic menace. The Universities of Sri Jayewardenepura and Kelaniya conducted a research on polythene usage in the country. The research revealed that 6.7 kilos of polythene is used by a single person every day. Polythene and plastic are spreading rapidly and polluting the environment. People were in the habit of just walking into a shop and buying something and taking it away in a bag made out of polythene because they had easy access to polythene shopping bags," Prof Dharmasiri explained.
He added that lunch sheets were also used by the public because they were readily available in the market and because they were cheap. "The use of polythene became a problem in the country because it was not disposed of properly. Polythene and plastic don't degrade and as a result, the environment started getting polluted.
Polythene was dumped by the side of the road and in drains. When people went on trips they ate their food and threw the lunch sheets into nearby forests. When polythene is disposed of in an irresponsible manner, it gets stuck in drains. I have seen pieces of polythene stuck on top of trees after been blown away by the wind. When polythene is thrown into the forests and into garbage dumps, wild animals feed on it. Many animals have died after eating polythene from garbage dumps near forests," Prof Dharmasiri said.
He went on to say that people are also affected by the irresponsible disposal of polythene and that when it gets thrown on roads and in garbage dumps, it can collect water.
"Stagnant water is a good breeding ground for the dengue mosquito and so many people have already died from dengue. A decision was then taken by CEA with the approval of the President to ban the use of lunch sheets, grocery bags, shopping bags and polystyrene or rigifoam lunch boxes from the market. Polythene manufactured under 20 microns is not degradable and causes serious damage to the environment. When polythene is produced with less than 20 microns calcium carbonate is added. The overuse and continued use of calcium carbonate in polythene is not good for our health and the environment. Vendors want to make maximum profits so they sell polythene that is non-degradable. Polythene used for decor and other functions such as weddings, political rallies and religious events are also banned.
The CEA will tell all politicians not to use polythene for decorations during political campaigns, because most often the polythene used for the decor is just left behind after the rallies and pollutes the environment. Some politicians are already adhering to the polythene ban and not using polythene for their political campaigns," Prof Dharmasiri explained.
Changing attitudes
He added that there is only one company in Sri Lanka that produces rigifoam lunch boxes and this company produces 75, 000 of them per day. "Even though this rigifoam box is banned from the local market, the company can produce this product and sell it overseas.
As an option for rigifoam lunch boxes, a cardboard box can be used instead. Cardboard boxes are very cheap and can be recycled easily. Some people are asking us why we are not banning the yoghurt cup. It is not practical to ban all types of polythene from the market at once. Burning polythene in public is also banned because the fumes that spread from the burning polythene can cause cancers and breathing problems for people. However, some people still continue to burn polythene in public. High Density Polythene (HDP) is banned in the country while Low Density Polythene (LDP) can be produced and used. HDP can be produced in a thin form which is why people prefer to buy that product over the LDP," Prof Dharmasiri said.
He explained that there is only a small difference between the prices of the degradable polythene and the bio-degradable polythene. "But some people are complaining about the price difference in the degradable and bio degradable polythene. When the Government increases the prices of cigarettes and liquor, people don't complain. After the polythene ban in September 2017 we didn't start raiding places to check if polythene manufacturers are still producing non-degradable polythene because we wanted to first create awareness among people of the harmful effects of using this type of polythene. CEA has informed the Police, Government institutions, religious places and universities about the ban and the importance of co-operating with the Government to stop using polythene that is harmful to the environment," he said.
Going green
Polythene and plastic can be recycled. However a proper plan has to be in place to collect polythene and plastic bottles that need to be disposed from houses and offices.
Polythene manufacturers who want to convert their polythene manufacturing machines from HDP to LDP will be given some concessions by the Government. The public has to co-operate and start using these environmentally-friendly products. They have to put in a small effort to use bio degradable polythene products. But, the co-operation of the public will have a big impact on the country. CEA is planning to introduce an Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) where the producers of polythene have to take responsibility for the polythene that they produce and dispose of it in a responsible manner.
"We cannot say when we can completely stop the usage of banned polythene products. However, we are working on minimising the usage of polythene in the local market." Prof. Dharmasiri concluded.
Air pollution has become a very serious and very visible burden on humanity. The WHO estimated that it was responsible for 3 million premature deaths worldwide per year in 2012; much of this mortality is due to exposure to small particulate matter of 2.5-10 microns in diameter (PM10), which cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers.
Even healthy people experience health impacts from polluted air, the effects include respiratory irritation or breathing difficulties during exercise or outdoor activities. The current health status and the pollutant type and concentration, or and the length of exposure to the polluted air, determines the rate of cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers. High air pollution levels can cause immediate health problems.
The air in Colombo is already of poor quality. The PM10 has an annual average of 36 µg/m3 of these particles. That’s 3.6 times the safe level set by the WHO. While the well- being of the citizens of Colombo seem the least important to the planners of our future, we need to inform ourselves on the cost we have to pay, so that we could defend ourselves from the consequences of ill-informed decision making.
The current air pollution level in all of Sri Lanka has an annual average of 22 µg/m3 of PM2.5 particles, which is 2.2 times the WHO safe level. It has also been estimated that in 7,792 people died from air pollution-related disease and that the rate is increasing each year. The top illness caused by air pollution is Ischemic heart disease. Further, 33 children die of air pollution-related diseases every year. Currently, the main source of ambient air pollution in Sri Lanka is vehicular emissions, which in Colombo contributes to over 60% of total emissions. But, lurking in the activities of the proposed Port City, there is a huge hidden danger. The danger that uncontrolled construction debris will pose to air quality and to the health of the residents of Colombo city.
Construction activities that contribute massively to air pollution include: land filling, operation of diesel engines, demolition, burning, and working with toxic materials. All construction sites generate high levels of dust (typically from concrete, cement, wood, stone, silica) which can carry for large distances over a long period of time. Construction dust is classified as PM10 or particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter, invisible to the naked eye.
Research has shown that PM10 penetrates deeply into the lungs and cause a wide range of health problems including respiratory illness, asthma, bronchitis and even cancer.
Another major source of PM10 on construction sites comes from the diesel engine exhausts of vehicles and heavy equipment. This is known as diesel particulate matter (DPM) and consists of soot, sulphates and silicates, all of which readily combine with other toxins in the atmosphere, increasing the health risks of particle inhalation.
We have witnessed a lame, shameful excuse for an EIA and SEIA on the Port City landfill that was accepted by the Environmental Ministry. The landfill was facilitated without responding to any of the public concerns. While the legality of these actions will be discussed into the future, current public interest should focus on the Phase 2 EIA: Construction of the buildings and infrastructure of the Port City. This EIA will be based on the concept master plan and infrastructure requirements submitted to the UDA (and described in Chapter 2 of the SEIA ). The construction of permanent structures/built environment on the landfill will take place only upon receiving necessary approvals for the Phase 2 EIA study.
As we have learnt to expect from past performance, there will be a secret Phase 2 EIA which will be approved out of the public eye and construction will be allowed to begin. Land will be sold and we will be told that they cannot control the development activity. Before this happens, we must demand a public hearing of the Phase 2 EIA of the Port City to be conducted before any approvals are given. But irrespective of that, there should be a maximal allowable limit on air pollution set at today’s level. Any activity that contributes to pollution exceeding these levels must be penalized by the Government.
The price of increasing the air pollution burden will be, accelerated aging of the lungs, Loss of lung capacity and decreased lung function, development of diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and possibly cancer, shortened life spans etc. Is this what we want for ourselves when we breathe?
Long-term exposure to polluted air will have permanent health effects, those most affected will be, Individuals with heart disease, coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure, Individuals with lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pregnant women, outdoor workers, older adults and the elderly, children under age 14, athletes who exercise vigorously outdoors.
Can we expect the Municipality or Ministry of Health to follow the example in the United states, where eight northeastern states sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force it to impose more stringent controls on a group of mostly Midwestern states whose air pollution they claim is being blown in their direction and creating public health problems in their communities. The airborne pollution was being created by burning fossil fuels and through the use of cement and construction chemicals in the Midwestern states. They should place stringent controls on air quality now.
As the skyline to the sea around Colombo will be increasingly blocked bycurrent construction happening today, the through flow of air will be reduced. We can already see this happening. Allowing another barricade to airflow to be created in front of that, should be seen as an infringement of one’s basic right to a healthy breath. It seems tragic that no politician wants to act of the defense of public health, our only hope is that it is the president himself who is the Minister for the Environment, can direct his ministry to act in the defense ofthe quality of air. If not, we will begin to lose our health, with every breath we take.
Palestinian local media reports indicate discussions will be about future steps PA will take in response to Trump’s move
President Mahmud Abbas refuses to meet US Vice President Mike Pence (AFP/file photo)
Sunday 31 December 2017
The Palestinians said on Sunday they were recalling their envoy to the United States for consultations in a move that follows US President Donald Trump's designation of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki decided to recall PLO envoy to Washington Husam Zomlot, official Palestinian news agency WAFA said, without providing further details.
Palestinian local media reports indicated that discussions will be about the future steps the PA will take in response to Trump’s announcement, according to the JerusalemOnline website.
Trump's 6 December announcement regarding the disputed city deeply angered the Palestinians and led to weeks of unrest.
Palestinian officials had earlier said President Mahmud Abbas would refuse to meet US Vice President Mike Pence during a visit to the region that had been planned for December but which was later cancelled.
He has also said he would accept no further role for the United States in the Middle East peace process.
Violence since Trump's announcement has left 13 Palestinians dead, with most killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
On Sunday, while marking the 53rd anniversary of his Fatah movement, Abbas called Jerusalem "the eternal capital of the Palestinian people".
Jerusalem's status is perhaps the most sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel sees the entire city as its capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.
Aseel Nawas is passionate about football. After school and homework, the first thing this 15-year-old will do is catch up on the latest football news, especially about Real Madrid, her favorite team.
And she plays. Every Monday and Thursday, Aseel trains for the Khadamat al-Nuseirat junior women’s team in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
“I used to play football with my friends in the neighborhood,” Aseel told The Electronic Intifada in explaining a passion that started when she was 8. “Football is the best thing that has happened to me and I wish one day that I can go to Brazil where women can play freely.”
Aseel, whose family wound up refugees in Nuseirat after being expelled from the now demolished Huj – a village northeast of Gaza – by Zionist forces in 1948, is one of a burgeoning number of Palestinian girls and women in who are taking to sport with a view to making it a professional career. It’s not an easy choice, less so in the more conservative Gaza Strip.
Her junior girls’ team comprises some 20 players and was established in 2016 when the club announced an effort – in part spurred by the success of women’s sports in the occupied West Bank – to enroll girls.
The effort was coordinated with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, but the first obstacle was to convince families, according to Hussam Abu Dalal, the club’s public relations officer.
“At the beginning, it was difficult for us due to the social misconceptions that this game is just for men, and the refusal of families to let their daughters participate,” said Abu Dalal.
Club members then took the initiative to make home visits to families to gain their trust and motivate them to allow their daughters the opportunity to break these social stigmas. Eventually, a number of girls were signed up, said Abu Dalal, and now families regularly turn out to training sessions to encourage their daughters.
Turning a corner
Palestinian women’s football began in earnest in 2004, when the first national women’s football team was established. From 2005 to 2008, local teams began springing up in the West Bank,
including Sareyyet Ramallah, Baladna in Jericho, and al-Assema. In 2008, the first women’s football tournament was organized in the West Bank with the participation of six teams.
According to the Palestinian Football Association, there are 12 women’s football teams in the West Bank, but just six junior teams for players aged between 12 and 16 in Gaza.
Ghadir Shalabi, 16, plays midfield for Khadamat al-Nuseirat but had to battle her family long and hard to be able to do so.
“I had to to argue strongly, persist and promise that playing football would not affect my studies,” said Ghadir, whose family is originally from Isdud, northeast of Gaza.
Ghadir’s father Muhammad Shalabi, 42, said he had not been keen on the idea of a women’s football team, especially one that included his own daughter.
“Now, I can see the difference in her,” Muhammad told The Electronic Intifada. “She is so active, she has organized her time to make room for studying and for football. I am proud of her. I’d advise my friends and everyone else to let their sons and daughters practice the sport they love.”
Ghadir’s team includes twins Maysa and Jumana al-Tawil, 12, whose family originially is from al-Maghar, a village in historic Palestine destroyed by Zionist forces in 1948. Both are defenders and both want nothing more than to bring home an international cup.
“We wear the same strip,” said Maysa. “It carries our club name. And all we talk about is to win an international tournament and return back with the cup.”
Obstacles for all
But national, let alone international, competitions remain a distant dream. The ability to travel is one of the biggest obstacles to sport in the West Bank and Gaza: for both women and men. While funding, especially in the impoverished Gaza Strip, is a perennial problem, access to the outside world condemns Palestinian sportspeople to a life of isolation.
Israel regularly prohibits travel, whether abroad or between Gaza and the West Bank, and has arrested several athletes when they tried.
In February, Khadamat al-Nuseirat won a local tournament and attracted attention from West Bank clubs. The team remains confined to Gaza, however, since Israel has not granted permits for travel to the West Bank through the Erez checkpoint. No team from Gaza, therefore, contests the Palestinian national league.
And Israel is not the only obstacle. In September, Khadamat al-Nuseirat was invited to train and play in Egypt. But the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing on Gaza’s southern boundary remains largely closed and is difficult to cross even when open, and such participation also remains a pipe dream for the ambitious youngsters.
“We need to build the capacities of our sportswomen in the Gaza Strip,” said Ahmad Haroun, the sports supervisor with Khadamat al-Nuseirat. “The girls are very passionate about the game and after winning the tournament here, are very eager to participate in the West Bank league. But due to the siege imposed by the occupation, this is not possible.”
Haroun said Khadamat al-Nuseirat, in spite of the difficulties, is hoping to expand female sport with plans for tennis and volleyball teams. And Suha Abu Dalal, the coach of the girls’ team, said this was about more than just sport.
“The girls love football,” said Abu Dalal. “But their playing it, here in Nuseirat camp, with all the financial difficulties we face, is also a message to the rest of the camp of how spirit can prevail over circumstances.”
Devin Nunes, targeting Mueller and the FBI, alarms Democrats and some Republicans with his tactics
Rep. Devin Nunes, once sidelined by an ethics inquiry from leading the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, is reasserting the full authority of his position as chairman just as the GOP appears poised to challenge special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
The California Republican was cleared in December of allegations he improperly disclosed classified information while accusing the Obama administration of exposing the identities of Trump affiliates on surveillance reports. Since clearing his name, Nunes has stepped up his attacks on Mueller’s team and the law enforcement agencies around it, including convening a group of Intelligence Committee Republicans to draft a likely report on “corruption” among the investigators working for the special counsel.
Republican lawmakers and Fox News question the integrity of the FBI, as special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe intensifies.(Joyce Koh/The Washington Post)
Though Nunes has not officially wrested his panel’s Russia probe back from the Republicans he deputized to run it, the chairman’s reemergence as a combative Trump loyalist has raised alarm among Democrats that the future of the investigation may be clipped short or otherwise undermined. Even some of Nunes’s GOP allies have expressed concern about his tactics, prompting rare public warnings that he should temper his attacks on federal law enforcement.
Nunes, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks on Capitol Hill in October. Surrounding him are Rep. Peter King, (R-N.Y.), left, and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). (Susan Walsh/AP)
“I’m interested in getting access to the information and not the drama,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said earlier this month, when Nunes began threatening contempt citations for FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein in the wake of revelations former Mueller team members had exchanged anti-Trump texts.
Gowdy, a member of the Intelligence panel who also chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, suggested that Nunes has taken some of these steps without the express blessing of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.),who has been involved in crafting the GOP’s multipronged approach to examining a string of allegations from Russian election interference to alleged mismanagement at the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment.
But Nunes’s moves coincide with what Democrats say is a coordinated GOP effort to shutter the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, publicly absolve President Trump of the most serious allegations against him, and refocus the House’s resources against the law enforcement officials, such as Mueller, who continue to investigate Trump.
For months, Democrats have kept an unofficial count of the ways they say Nunes worked behind the scenes during the time he was under ethics investigation to slow or stymie the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe. Nunes never relinquished his sole, unchecked authority to sign off on subpoenas even as he handed the day-to-day operations to Reps. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), Gowdy and Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.). People familiar with the Intelligence committee’s work estimated Nunes’s effective veto cost Democrats dozens of requests for interviews and documents that were never sent out, despite repeated entreaties from the minority side.
This includes requests for subpoenas to obtain additional testimony from key figures in the probe who Democrats say were not forthcoming enough in interviews — among them Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. Democrats surmise they might have compelled them to return if not for Nunes’s resistance.
Republicans have dismissed such complaints as political posturing. Conaway said that he has received every subpoena approval he has requested from Nunes, while others pointed to the steady stream of witnesses who sat for interviews with the House Intelligence Committee — and challenged Democrats to name who they say is missing.
“Adam’s list is pretty much every character in any Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy novel,” Gowdy said, referring to the Intelligence panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California. “I get the intrigue and the mystery of these unusual-sounding names, but at some point you have to tie it back to what we’re looking at.”
“You can interview anybody that’s ever met a Russian in the government and it’s not going to get you any closer,” said Rooney. “Ten months, how many witnesses? I want to know, ask them how much longer they want to go. How many more witnesses do they need to hear, and specifically which witnesses, and why?”
But to Democrats, the march of witnesses in and out of the committee’s secure interview facility in the Capitol building basement has provided little assurance the probe is being run properly.
The packed schedule, sometimes featuring two or three overlapping interviews per day, has sparked complaints from Democrats that it is impossible to fully prepare for or monitor the investigation’s progress. Even when members are able to focus on one witness at a time, people familiar with the probe said, relevant requested documents often fail to materialize until after the interview has concluded — and the interviewees are hardly ever invited back.
The order of interviews has also been a point of ongoing dispute. While Senate Intelligence Committee leaders boast of a methodical process that starts with peripheral players and builds to key witnesses, the House Intelligence Committee’s order is comparatively haphazard and unstructured — almost designed, critics say, to give the probe a “veneer of respectability” while effectively giving investigators whiplash.
Nunes’s hand in such decisions was never direct, people familiar with the probe said. During the period he was under an Ethics Committee investigation, he never once attended a closed-door meeting at which the Russia probe was discussed — something both his allies and critics attest to. But at least one of his senior committee staffers was always present at such sessions to help update members, question witnesses and otherwise run the probe, multiple people said. Even Republicans acknowledge it was difficult to distinguish between staffers’ allegiance to the committee and their loyalties to Nunes.
“I don’t know where his staff ends and HPSCI” begins, Gowdy said, referring to the House Intelligence committee by its official acronym. “Some of them are apolitical nonpartisan members of his staff, and I’m not smart enough to know who’s what.”
Once the House Intelligence Committee concludes its investigation, it is unclear what precise role remains for Nunes in the House GOP’s continued push to investigate allegations of bias and other misconduct in law enforcement. The House Committee on Oversight and the Judiciary Committee have already launched an inquiry into the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe. And a joint investigation by Nunes and Gowdy into the Justice Department and FBI’s review of circumstances surrounding an Obama-era deal giving Russia a stake in the American uranium market seems to have lost its initial momentum.
If there is one aspect of the Russia probe that seems destined to outlast the House Intelligence Committee’s preferred timeline, it is Nunes’s investigation of Fusion GPS, the firm behind a dossier detailing Trump’s alleged connections to Russian officials, financiers and exploits in Moscow. Nunes’s subpoena of the firm’s bank records is caught up in a court battle, and the chairman’s staff is in touch with the office of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), according to the senator, who is also looking into reports that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party paid for research that ended up in the dossier’s pages.
The dossier continues to be a focus of the president’s in tweet storms seeking to discredit Mueller’s probe. Most recently, he blasted the FBI for focusing on the “Crooked Hillary pile of garbage” dossier “as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign.” In recent weeks, he has also tweeted encouragement of Nunes’s efforts to unearth information about the dossier from the “deep state.”
Nunes, meanwhile, appears to have made up his mind about the House Intelligence Committee probe into the allegations surrounding Trump and Russia, expressing his convictions in an interview with Fox News.
“We have no evidence of Russia collusion between the Trump campaign” and Russia, Nunes said.
2018-01-01
January 1st - the first day of the year is a day of traditional religious feast and an occasion for celebration. This time it is the dawn of the year two thousand and eighteen, the year during which all of us hope peace throughout the world and particularly harmony and economic prosperity in our motherland –Sri Lanka. 
