ASIA: Three great protests - In Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and the Omkareshwar Dam in India

Contributors: Basil Fernando-September 6, 2012

When people are hurt by the actions of authorities, they protest. When the hurt is deep and widespread it could give rise to collective modes of protest. Three such protest movements are now taking place in Asia. One is in Hong Kong, where the protesters are young students, supported by parents and a large section of society. They are protesting against proposed curriculum changes, which the government claims have been introduced to cultivate positive moral values and patriotism. However, students and parents see it as a to move to brainwash the young and to undermine Hong Kong's deeply held democratic values.

Another protest is going on amongst the university students and their teachers in Sri Lanka, against the attempt by the government to reduce expenditure in education and limit the opportunities for education under the guise of modernization. They demand that the percentage of expenditure on the education budget should be increased to 6% of the GDP. The government is resisting this protest by closing down all the universities indefinitely.

A third protest of the most unusual nature is taking place in India, where a group of indigenous people have submerged themselves neck deep in water for over 12 days now, protesting against eviction from their land without compensation. They are being evicted for the construction of the Omkareshwar Dam, and they are protesting against the illegal increase in the water level, beyond that which was allowed by the Supreme Court of India. There protest is called Jal Satyagrah.

In this unique form of protest held in East Nimaar region in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh state, the villagers have been sitting within the dam's catchment area, claiming that they are willing to drown to death rather than be denied their rightful claim for adequate rehabilitation for the lands they have lost.

All three protests are supported by large sections of people, who see the protests as justified.

All these protests are conducted in a most peaceful manner and are spontaneous movements. The protesters are persons who are directly afflicted by the problem who feel compelled to act.

In all three instances, governments are slow to address the demands of the protesters. However, such powerful protests cannot be ignored. Thanks to modern technology, these are no longer are local protests; the whole world is watching.

India and Sri Lanka-

Jayalalitha's gambit

Banyan-Asia-Sep 6th 2012

ARE relations between India and Sri Lanka falling to bits, as various news outlets have suggested in the past few days? On the face of it, tensions are growing across the Palk Strait. Perennial problems over the harassment of Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka’s navy cause intense anger in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Now Sri Lankan pilgrims have been attacked, their buses stoned, by Indian Tamils suspected to be sympathisers of the now-defunct rebel army in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka’s government this week issued a travel advisory warning against visits to Tamil Nadu, where, in turn, the vociferous chief minister, Jayaram Jayalalitha, has been inveighing against anyone who dares show a friendly face to Sri Lankans. That a junior Sri Lankan football team was recently allowed to play in Tamil Nadu, she believes, was utterly unacceptable. She also is furious that a couple of Sri Lankan military types have been allowed to get some training and advice in India.

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Full transcript: Sri Lankan envoy on Tamil Nadu tension

September 06, 2012 

Click to Expand & Play

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu fishermen should avoid crossing International Maritime Boundary line to avoid dispute, says Sri Lankan envoy to India, Prasad Kariyavasam. He says that it is time Sri Lankan Tamil fishermen who were deprived of the fishing during the conflict period get to fish in the Lankan waters.

Mr Kariyavasam speaks to NDTV's Nitin Gokhale and here's the full transcript of the interview:

NDTV: Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to India Mr Prasad Kariyawasam is busier man than before. Some of the incidents which have occurred involving Sri Lankan citizens especially in Tamil Nadu has created new tensions between Colombo and New Delhi. The relationship is robust but certainly this has introduced a new element of tension, which both governments surely do not want escalated. What are the issues and how both the governments are trying to solve these new issues is what we are going to ask Mr Prasad Kariyavasam himself. Thank you for giving us this time and talking to us.

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Tell us we had this incident in Tamil Nadu yesterday where the Sri Lankan pilgrims were under pressure, they were attacked in couple of cases. What is your government's view on that incident or even the incidents earlier?
 
Prasad Kariyavasam: First of all I want to clarify that there is no tension between Sri Lanka and India. Sri Lanka and India are old friends and we have historical relationship and these incidents, these sort of episodes happen on and off and we two are mature democracies and our leaders are fully capable of handling these issues without any tension. What happened in Tamil Nadu is very unfortunate, regrettable especially because few fringe groups who are pro-LTTE obviously and who were supporting LTTE and who continue to support that ideology have resorted to violence.

We thought we have eradicated violence from our part. I mean from Sri Lanka we have eradicated. They seem to be engaging in violence, our pilgrims were harassed, attacked and some were injured even and that's something we are very concerned and I must say the Indian government, specially the Central government, was very very prompt in helping us and providing safety and security to our pilgrims, for them to be taken back to Sri Lanka we had to bring special aircraft and do that. Law and order machinery in Tamil Nadu was also very helpful to us. But this sort of action by pro-LTTE groups is a major concern for us. I am sure it's a concern for India as well.

NDTV: What has Indian government told you? How are they going to handle this?
 
Prasad Kariyavasam: Well, they are equally concerned like us and they have provided support for us, provided security and took care of the pilgrims for their evacuation... quick evacuation.

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Midweek Politics: Monsoons And Elections

By Dharisha Bastians -September 6, 2012

Dharisha Bastians

The much-longed-for monsoon rains are lashing at the capital Colombo and other parts of the south west as Sri Lanka gears up for yet another provincial election and international challenges pertaining to its post-war accountability and reconciliation plans in the days and weeks ahead.

With election campaigning having officially ended at midnight yesterday, political parties led by the UPFA and the UNP are vying for supremacy in the battleground provinces of North Central and Eastern, although the results of the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council are almost a foregone conclusion, with the incumbent UPFA likely to carry the council with a comfortable majority.

Political analysts feel that the only Province that is really in play at the September 8 election is the East, which is likely to be clinched by the Tamil National Alliance. However with 37 council seats up for grabs, predictions are that while the TNA may obtain a majority, it will have to garner the support of other opposition parties if it wants to form a provincial government. Current predictions are that the TNA will gain 12 seats, with six seats going to the UNP, giving the two parties combined 18 seats, still one short of the council majority. Here, opposition analysts feel, is where the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress will come into play.

The SLMC decided to contest the east separately from the UPFA after an original decision to contest under the ruling party banner divided the party membership. The SLMC is likely to clinch the second or third largest number of seats in the council and will then in a uniquely tough position as it decides whether to throw in its lot with the UPFA or the combined opposition. The UPFA has offered its Chief Minister slot to Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan if it wins the Eastern Provincial Council. The greatest carrot that the combined opposition could in such an event offer the SLMC is the potential of a Muslim Chief Minister of the Council, something the UPFA simply cannot offer due to the Pillaiyan factor in play.

Polls violence              Read More

Fifteen years holed up in an embassy

By Alex Last-5 September 2012-Cardinal Mindszenty worked on his memoirs during 15 years of political asylum in the US embassy
Assange has been in the embassy since 20 June

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said he may remain in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for up to a year - but even that would leave him far short of the record holder, a Hungarian cardinal who spent 15 years in the US embassy in Budapest.

The Cold War drama began in the cold pre-dawn of 4 November 1956. An anti-communist uprising was under way, but the head of the Catholic Church in Hungary, Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, had just learned of the arrival of Soviet troops in the city to put it down. He faced a stark choice - flight or arrest.

Imprisoned by the pro-Nazi authorities during World War II, Cardinal Mindszenty had then become an outspoken critic of the post-war communist government. As a result, he had spent eight years in prison on treason charges. He had been freed only a few days earlier by the anti-government forces involved in the uprising.

He decided to flee.

Not far away, at the American legation, Sgt Gerald Bolick, a US Marine guard, was finishing his morning rounds when he looked out of the window and saw four people approaching: two in army uniforms and two in clerical black. "I saw that one was Cardinal Mindszenty," he says.

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Chinese - Lankan engineers in tug of war over Norochcholai

Sunday 02 September 2012

By a Special Correspondent

The engineers of the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Chinese engineers have been clashing over the breakdown of the Norochcholai power plant.
Chief engineer of the Norochcholai coal power plant, Zhao Wenxue, last week issued a press release which stated, “The Norochcholai coal power plant had passed all the performance tests and was in operation continuously from February 2012 till end July 2012. The Norochcholai coal power plant is not as bad as one makes it out to be. It is just overused, tired, and needs a rest like any other equipment does.” 
But CEB Engineers Union (EU) spokesman Ajith Vithanage dismissed these statements by the Chinese chief engineer that a major cause for the continuous breakdown of the Norochcholai power plant was due to it being overused to sustain a continuous power supply to the nation.
Ajith Vithanage said that similar to the operation of any other commercial power plant, this power plant too had been operated within the limits of its capacity and that it was wrong of the Chinese chief engineer to state that it had been overused.
“This is being operated within the warranty and liability period, just like any other product. Once a product is purchased and not used during the warranty period, and if it is used after the warranty period and problems arise, we cannot complain. It is wrong to say that we have not given this plant a rest and that it has been operated 24/7.”
“No plant can last like that. We can say confidently that this plant has been operated within its capacity and within the guarantee period,” he asserted.
He also said that though there were no major shortcomings in the design of the Norochcholai power plant, problems if any, could have been detected.

Still in a learning curve
The Engineers Union spokesman also found fault with many trade unionists who had criticized its commissioning, and asked whether such people were professionally qualified to pass judgment on such issues. He added that if the Chinese chief engineer had not found any fault with the local officials, then that would reflect adversely on the Chinese who had undertaken its commissioning.
“We are not surprised by the comments made by the Chinese chief engineer,” said Ajith Vithanage.
“He has been forced to do so in order to save face. Otherwise, it would be a bad reflection on the Chinese firm that had undertaken its commissioning. As I have already said, we have at no time exceeded the limits of capacity since the coal power plant was commissioned and we can also vouch for it,” he added.
“When a machine is brought, usually problems arise within the liability period and that is what is actually happening at the Norochcholai power plant,” Vithanage went on to say. “There could be some issues connected to the motors but we can firmly say that there is no major issue concerning the plant, per se,” he observed.
‘We are still in a learning curve and our aim is to sort out all these teething problems and surge ahead as the EU affiliated to the CEB. We are confident that with time we will be able to tune it up and see it functioning without a glitch,” he said. 
He also said that the CEB engineers were trained by their Chinese counterparts before the commissioning of the power plant though initially there were problems related to language.                      
He added that the continuing breakdowns at the Norochcholai power plant were being rectified and they had completed the repairs to a large extent.
Speaking to LAKBIMAnEWS on August 28 evening, he said that most of the repairs were completed and that a few filters were being cleaned up and were being repaired at the time. Vithanage said that if the Norochcholai coal power plant was not in operation the entire country would have been plunged into total darkness.
He further said that if not for this coal power plant the government would have had to impose power cuts for a minimum of six hours; such is the gravity of the situation. In view of the predicament the country is put into due to adverse weather condition, drought in this instance, this plant should have come into being some 12-15 years ago, he opined. 
“The CEB EU always stood for the commissioning of this power plant. This plant should have been commissioned during the time of the Chandrika Kumaratunga regime. But due to the political situation – those that were both beneficial as well as disadvantageous they did not look at it in all seriousness,” he averred.
“If this power plant had been in operation we would not have had to put up with a power crisis today and we could have saved trillions of rupees as well,” Vithanage noted. 
“However, once Mahinda Rajapaksa took office as president he had the confidence to take a firm decision and it was as a result of such bold decision-making that the Norochcholai coal power plant came into being,” he further said. 
The CEB EU spokesman commented that since the said power plant had come into being the local engineers have been exposed to a new technology as well. He said the commissioning of this power plant was not a wrong move on the part of the government. 

No cause for alarm
Ajith Vithanage said that though the plant has broken down 12 times since it was commissioned his personal view is that it should not be shut down considering the power crisis faced in the country in addition to the demand for electricity in the future as well.
“While there have been around 12 breakdowns, these are teething problems that arise during the initial stages of its commissioning. These are nothing new and in my view there is no need to make a big hue and cry over them. Such instances are common and nothing that should cause any alarm.”
Vithanage also rubbished suggestions that the Norochcholai power plant has become a liability to the country, and stressed that once the teething problems are resolved and the failures rectified, it should function without any issues. 
He refused to be drawn into comments made by Power and Energy minister Patali Champika Ranawaka who said in parliament that the location, the method used and the style of the construction of this plant were all faulty.
Vithanage said that whatever comments the minister had made, problems would arise at any coal power plant during the embryonic stages of its commissioning and that politicians should not pass judgment in haste.

WikiLeaks: Both Gota And Basil Were At The Elections Commissioner’s Office – Mangala To US

By Colombo Telegraph -September 6, 2012

“Mangala argued that by obtaining the copies of the tally sheets and then comparing those totals sent by the districts to the totals announced in Colombo, it could be shown that changes were made. He also claimed they were trying to get statements from state employees working in the Elections Commissioner’s office, to provide evidence that both Basil and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa were at the Commissioner’s offices while counting was going on and that results were changed there.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

A Leaked “CONFIDENTIAL” US diplomatic cable, dated February 3, 2010, recounts the details of a meeting the US officials in Colombo has had with opposition leaders including Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database which is written by then Ambassador to ColomboPatricia A. Butenis.

“In a February 2 meeting with diplomatic heads of mission, leaders of the opposition including Ranil Wickremesinghe, General Fonseka, Mangala Samaraweera, and Ravi Karunanayake, argued their case that the election was rigged and cataloged a long list of government repressive actions against Fonseka, the media, and others. The opposition leaders claimed the election was ‘far from free and fair’ and entailed violations by the Rajapaksa government during the pre-election campaign, on voting day, and — most significantly — in the counting of ballots. (NOTE: Samaraweera provided further details on these accusations to PolOffs in a private meeting. See paragraphs 5 and 6 below. END NOTE.) On this basis, they said the election was a “complete fraud” and that they would be filing suit with the Supreme Court, though they confessed they had little faith in the court to rule in their favor, given its members were hand-picked byRajapaksa. General Fonseka also went into a long listing of complaints about his treatment by the government, including the arrest and detention of his personal security guards, raids on his office, inability to travel, and more.”

Under the subheading “MANGALA: RAJAPAKSA CHEATED, BUT STILL GATHERING THE PROOF” Butenis wrote “In a follow-up to the briefing by the joint opposition leaders on February 2 for the diplomatic community, PolCouns and PolOff met privately on February 3 with Mangala Samaraweera to probe further details on the opposition’s fraud case and political plans for the upcoming general election. Mangala repeated some of the arguments he had made to the diplomatic community the day before, focusing on what he believed was a pre-planned effort to intimidate the opposition representative observers at the ballot counting centers, coupled with adjustments to the vote totals as they came in to the main counting office of the Elections Commissioner in Colombo. He said the opposition was in the process of gathering affidavits from their observers, which would show many of them had been chased out of the counting centers by thugs prior to observing the final counts and receiving signed and certified tally sheets. Mangala argued that by obtaining the copies of the tally sheets and then comparing those totals sent by the districts to the totals announced inColombo, it could be shown that changes were made. He also claimed they were trying to get statements from state employees working in the Elections Commissioner’s office, to provide evidence that both Basil and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa were at the Commissioner’s offices while counting was going on and that results were changed there.”

“When pressed, Mangala admitted that the legal route of contesting the election results was not likely to lead to an overturning of the election results. He cited a previous elections-related case, which took over three years to complete, and reconfirmed that Rajapaksa had too many friends on the Supreme Court to lose this case.” she further wrote.

Placing a comment the ambassador wrote “The opposition seems slow and disorganized in the wake of Rajapaksa’s victory. Although they think they have an idea of how Rajapaksa might have stolen the election — and are convinced that he did — they appear to have been disoriented as a group by the margin of the president’s victory (and thus the scale of fraud required) and by the full-scale harassment of Fonseka after election day. It appears that the president is moving ahead at full speed with his second-term planning and is likely to keep the opposition back on their heels if they do not recover and regroup quickly.”

Read the cable below for further details;    Read More

Psychiatric Disorder: An Analysis Of Gotabaya Rajapaksa

By Brian Senewiratne -September 5, 2012 

A Possible Psychiatric Disorder At The Top Of The Government,  An Analysis Of Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Dr. Brian Senewiratne

This is a serious analysis of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary, effectively the de facto President of Sri Lanka, brother of the elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is only the de jure President.

A country with two Presidents

It is erroneously claimed that Mahinda Rajapaksa is the most powerful person in Sri Lanka. There is evidence that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the most powerful (and certainly the most feared and ruthless) person in Sri Lanka.

A single (but crucial) example will suffice. With mounting international pressure to devolve some power to the Tamil areas (North and East), President Mahinda Rajapaksa initiated the All Party Representative Council (APRC) to look into a constitutional political settlement. The APRC limbered on from 2006-2009 and submitted a Report. This was never published.  It was buried, as have so many Reports of Commissions of Inquiry and the like, in Sri Lanka.

With increasing pressure, particularly from India, the President initiated (yet another) ‘Committee’ – the Parliamentary Select Committee – to look into a constitutional settlement (that had just been done by the APRC).

In stepped de facto ‘President’ Gotabaya Rajapaksa. On 16 August 2012, in an interview to India’s Headlines Today television, he said that Sri Lanka would not devolve any more powers to the minorities in spite of the promises it made in the past. He said:

“The existing constitution is more than enough…..Devolution-wise I think we have done enough. I don’t think there is a necessity to go beyond that”.

And it has not gone “beyond that.” Q.E.D (quod erat demonstrandum – a Latin phrase which translates  as “which was to be demonstrated”. The phrase is placed in its abbreviated form at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument when what was specified in the enunciation has been proved.

There are numerous other examples of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a mere Public Servant,  telling the President and the Government to go to hell. What will be done is what he wants done. If that is not a de facto President, I do not know what he is.

Several people/groups, in and outside Sri Lanka, have expressed concern. Col R Hariharan, an Indian specialist on South Asian military Intelligence, in his “Sri Lanka: Gotabaya larger than life”  (9 July 2012) said, “President Rajapaksa would be well advised to distance himself swiftly from his brother…. on sensitive issues that are not his business”. Yes, indeed, it is not his business.

The Head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives – a human rights group in Colombo– in an article, “Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Too full of power to exercise it”, has called for his resignation or dismissal, not once but three times.

Friday Forum, a group of much respected members of civil society in Colombo, which includes Jayantha Dhanapala, an internationally respected diplomat, in a damning indictment, “Arrogance of Power”,  asked, “Is it acceptable for His Excellency the President to keep in high office a person who demonstrates an incapability to control his temper?”

Interview with a senior journalist

One of the serious incidents (among others) which merit careful analysis, was his recent response  to the senior editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper, Frederica Jansz. To dismiss Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s language and the contents of what he said as, “he is crazy”, is neither accurate nor appropriate. On the contrary, I think it is an important interview which sheds light on his psychopathology. I will analyse it sentence by sentence and give it the importance it merits.

I will not deal with his other outrageous statements such as the one on British TV. He said, with a straight face, that it is acceptable to bomb hospitals (in violation of the Geneva Convention). I have dealt with this in detail in my dvd, “Sri Lanka: Genocide, Crimes against humanity, Violation of International Law”  (which is on the net),

The recent Incident

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in court to answer to conflict of interest claims

National Post

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford wipes his forehead as he speaks at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Tuesday, June 5, 2012. Toronto's mayor is expected to take the stand today in a conflict-of-interest case that could cost him his job.

Natalie Alcoba 

Mayor Rob Ford insisted in open court on Wednesday that he does not believe he broke provincial law when he voted to reverse a council order that he reimburse donations to his private football foundation, in a case that lawyer Clayton Ruby said centres on the chief magistrate’s “integrity.”

“I define a conflict of interest if it’s both financially beneficial to the city and financially beneficial to myself,” Mr. Ford told his lawyer Alan Lenczner in a packed courtroom at 361 University Avenue, that included his brother Councillor Doug Ford, city hall activists and students.

“There is no interest for the city. This is just my personal issue.”

Mr. Ford is answering to allegations he broke the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act when he voted and spoke about a matter that had to do with reimbursing $3,150 in donations to the Rob Ford Football Foundation. The city’s integrity commissioner ruled the donations were obtained improperly from lobbyists and one corporation that had dealings with the city. Council had demanded he pay the money back in 2010. Having not done so, the city’s integrity commissioner was before city council on Feb. 7 asking for proof of payment.

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Court on Wednesday watched a video of the Feb. 7 debate in which the mayor spoke passionately about the charity that raises money to buy football equipment for youth who can’t afford it, and that it did not make sense to ask him to pay back money that he does not see a cent of.

Prominent lawyer Clayton Ruby represents Paul Magder, the Toronto resident who launched the lawsuit against the mayor.

“Mayor ford wants this hearing to be about kids and the good work he does” with his football program, Mr. Ruby told Justice Charles Hackland in opening remarks.

“That is not what this hearing is about… The issue is the integrity of what Mayor Ford did.”

In his opening statements, Mr. Lenczner, Mr. Ford’s lawyer, argued the mayor had a right to get up and defend himself on a matter that had to do with him breaching the code of conduct.

“This is not a conflict, in the proper term, as it’s understand with a piece of city business. There is no lack of transparency, which is what the municipal conflict of interest is all about,” said Mr. Lenczner.

Mr. Ruby left it to Justice Hackland to decide “whether it is an honest and good faith belief, or just a smoke screen for determined defiance of the integrity commissioner’s continuing critical examination of [the mayor's] affairs.”

If found guilty of breaching the act, the judge must boot the mayor out of office, unless he believes he violated the act inadvertently, through an error in judgement or deems the money insignificant.

Though the proceedings could see the mayor ousted from his position, Councillor Doug Ford was candid yesterday about his contempt for the case against his brother.

“All the shenanigans, all the backroom deals [at city hall] for years after years and they are going to go after a guy who donates money to needy kids in priority neighbourhoods? It’s a joke,” he said on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t about a city contract. It wasn’t about city money. This is an individual supporting kids, they will twist it any way they can,” said Councillor Ford, who accused the left of “chasing him down” with a legal fight.

Councillor Ford said Torontonians should be more worried about sole-sourced deals — he listed the renovation of Nathan Phillips Square and the new streetcar purchase as two examples — over what his brother voted and spoke to on Feb. 7. The city said the Nathan Phillips Square contract was not sole sourced.

But Councillor Adam Vaughan, a critic of the mayor’s, says the case is about more than the mayor’s efforts with disadvantaged youth.

“The football program, quite frankly, is a red herring. It gives him great cover to do this,” said Mr. Vaughan, arguing that the mayor uses the foundation to advance his reputation and political career.

“It’s a serious issue, it should be in front of the court,” he said. “Otherwise what’s to stop anybody starting a foundation for the arts, or cricket or theatre and use that money to help build a mayoralty campaign.”

2,100 needles in the head: Markham man breaks his own Guinness record

Tuesday September 04, 2012
Katie Daubs -Staff Reporter

Mohanathas Sivanayagam marked the long weekend by sticking 2,100 acupuncture needles into his head.

The 37-year-old is a father of three young boys and works in the trucking industry. He came to Canada from Sri Lanka when he was 23. He has a pleasant smile, a calm demeanour, and a love of record breaking.

He already holds the Guinness world record for “most needles inserted into the head.” It was a joyous celebration on Dec. 3, 2011, when he stuck the last of 2,025 acupuncture needles into his scalp, capturing the title from China’s Wei Shengchu, who stuck 2,009 needles into his head in 2009. Draped in a Canadian flag, Sivanayagam posed for photos, accepted a bouquet of flowers and a small trophy, smiling as the needles poked out of his head and the sides of his face.

The certificate for the 2011 spectacle arrived last week. He already has it framed but decided to break the record with a 48-hour needle-sticking extravaganza to raise money for cancer treatment.

Sivanayagam has vitiligo, a skin condition characterized by a loss of pigmentation, and he wanted to acknowledge the suffering of others with more critical problems.

“It helps him understand what other people are going through, and a lot of people have cancer throughout the world,” his friend Kanujan Sriskantharajah said, translating Sivanayagam’s Tamil to English.

Starting Sunday at 2 a.m. at Pleasant Banquet Hall in Markham, he sat down and inserted each needle at a depth of 1.5 centimetres so it would not fall out. He took breaks so his hands wouldn’t cramp. He ate sparingly because when his jaw moved, he could feel the needles moving — “slight pains,” explains Sriskantharajah. Everything was carefully documented, as per Guinness standards.

After doing this for a while, the “head feels heavy,” but he couldn’t lie down or waver — passing out with thousands of needles in the scalp is admittedly dangerous. He drank 10 extra-large coffees. His friends came by and a homeopathic doctor checked his blood pressure. (The same doctor taught him how to insert the needles carefully before his 2011 attempt.)

The pain is similar to a pinch, he said. He practises yoga, and tried to meditate during the exercise. When all the needles were out again, he swabbed his closely shorn head with rubbing alcohol.

He raised $12,000 and will now decide which organization to give it to.

Sivanayagam has always dreamed of breaking or creating a Guinness world record. In 2005, he glued 12,000 pennies to the walls of a pizza shop at Birchmount Rd. and Lawrence Ave. He was going to call the restaurant “Penny Pizza” — but when he found out Guinness wouldn’t accept that type of record, he decided to abandon the plan without selling a slice.

His next attempt was a seashell collection. On beach vacations in Malaysia, Cuba and Mexico, he collected interesting shells. He had 1,200 when he discovered that record wouldn’t count, either.

“All of our records must be measurable, verifiable, breakable and of worldwide interest. Both of those records were a bit too specialized for us to monitor,” a Guinness World Records spokesperson wrote in an email.

The 2011 needle record was accepted, and he will send off the paperwork to have his new record approved. He would like to break more records and gain a profile so he can raise money for charities.

Sivanayagam, who lives in Markham, says he is also trying to show the world that acupuncture needles are not painful.

“When it comes to needles, people are scared,” Sriskantharajah said. “If he can do 2,000, it will be really easy to insert 10 or 15.”