Solar wind 'increases lightning on earth'
THURSDAY-15 MAY 2014
Research published in the journal Environment Research Letters suggests that there is a link between the activity of the sun and lightning on earth.
Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Friday, May 16, 2014
10 dead, 70 wounded amid new Kenya terror warnings
By Associated Press,
NAIROBI, Kenya — Two blasts hit Kenya’s capital on Friday, killing 10 people and injuring 70 more in the latest in a string of increasingly frequent terror attacks.The blasts came the same week the United States and the U.K. issued renewed warnings about possible terror attacks in Kenya, leading to a bristling response from the country’s president Friday, who said such warnings strengthen the will of terrorists.
Nairobi Police Chief Benson Kibue, who announced the casualty figures, said two improvised explosive devices detonated in a market area near downtown Nairobi. One blast hit a mini-van used for public transportation.
Before the blasts, the U.S. embassy sent out a new travel alert Friday to American citizens warning of a continued terrorist threat in a country where the U.S. Embassy suffered a devastating attack in 1998.
An earlier U.S. warning this week said for the first time that the embassy itself is taking new steps to increase security “due to recent threat information regarding the international community in Kenya.”
Britain’s government also warned its citizens this week to avoid the coastal city of Mombasa and beach towns nearby, prompting a travel company to cut short the vacations of hundreds of British citizens and fly them home.
Security concerns have long been high in Kenya because of its proximity to Somalia and the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group that operates there. In September, four al-Shabab gunmen attacked an upscale mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67 people. The 1998 embassy bombing killed more than 200.
The U.S. Embassy says that more than 100 people have been killed in shootings, grenade attacks and small bombs in Kenya over the past 18 months.
Since the mall attack, Kenya has suffered numerous smaller bombings in Nairobi and Mombasa. Kenyan authorities, with the help of the FBI, also discovered a huge car bomb that could have caused massive damage.
Armed Marines now patrol the U.S. Embassy grounds in Nairobi in bullet proof vests and helmets. Increasingly frequent emergency drills tell embassy staff: “Duck and cover, duck and cover.”
“We know from experience whether it’s been in Yemen where embassies have been attacked or in Benghazi where our consulate and ambassador was attacked, anything that is a symbol of a foreign country is a potential target,” said Scott Gration, the immediate past U.S. ambassador in Kenya.
Gration, a retired U.S. Air Force major general who runs a technology and investment consultancy in Nairobi, said embassies “are always a target, whether you have a warning out or not, they tend to be a magnet for people that have ideological intentions.”
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who began a previously planned news conference only minutes after the Nairobi blasts, offered his condolences but dismissed the U.S. and U.K. travel warnings, saying that terrorism is a common problem, including in New York and Boston.
Kenyatta said he was aware of Britain’s warning and the decision to evacuate tourists.
“I don’t want to refer to anybody in particular. Acts like were done yesterday, by the people you just mentioned, only strengthens the will of terrorists as opposed to helping us defeat that war,” Kenyatta said.
Kenya sees a big drop in tourism activity — a major money maker here — whenever such alerts are issued. Kenyatta said the government would install 2,000 security cameras in Nairobi and Mombasa to help combat terrorism.
TUI Travel, which owns the British tourism companies Thomson and First Choice, canceled all flights to Mombasa until October because of the security alert. The company also evacuated customers in Kenya on flights Thursday and Friday.
Gration said many tourism companies have insurance policies that don’t allow travelers to be in high-risk locations. He said Kenya’s coast is a beautiful and mostly safe location.
“My belief is that everywhere there are issues and we all need to be prudent in when we go and where we go,” Gration said. “So I don’t travel at night, avoid big crowds and lock my doors. Whether you are in Newark, New Jersey or Nairobi, Kenya, we can all fall victim to crime or terrorism.”
You could be forgiven for thinking the Cold War has returned with a vengeance, what with the United States imposing sanctions on Moscow and big-power envoys like Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and her Russian counterpart, Vitaly Churkin, regularly hurling Syria- and Ukraine-related insults at each other across the horseshoe-shaped U.N. Security Council table.
India-Pakistan border flare-up a zero-sum game
By S K Chatterji-OCTOBER 30, 2013
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily of Thomson Reuters)
At places along the Line of Control (LoC), barely a wire separates the Indian soldier and his Pakistani counterpart. The genesis of the recent flare-up was the killing of five Indian soldiers on the Indian side of the LoC. The media blitz in Delhi found more fodder with a spike in infiltration attempts and exchange of fire beyond the LoC at posts across the international border.
Hostilities reached their peak with the detection and elimination of a rather large group of infiltrators in the Keran sector north of Srinagar. In between, the militant groups in Kashmir valley seemed to have drawn inspiration and staged a well-executed attack on a police post and an army unit in Jammu and Kashmir, deep inside Indian territory.
What are the possible reasons for this spurt? Are these tactical with local commanders acting in isolation, or do they reflect a strategic design?
The first assessment, well-nigh obvious, is that these are not localized incidents exacerbated by the enthusiasm or retaliation of junior commanders. Their sheer spread and intensity are indicators of the plot having been written deep inside Pakistan; possibly at the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Further, the use of mortars at the LoC would have required permission from the headquarters of the Pakistan army.
The obvious strategic rationale for orchestrating violence across the LoC is internationalizing the Kashmir issue. As the graph of violence rises, the concern of the international community about this hot spot, lying astride the borders of two nuclear states, escalates. Incidentally, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was in the United States at the time, seeking U.S. intervention in Kashmir.
For the new democratic dispensation at Islamabad, there was perhaps also the necessity of reassuring the power blocs in Pakistan: the army, ISI and the jihadi establishment; of the government’s continued tolerance, if not patronage.
The terror establishment in the Kashmir valley hasn’t had a spectacular success for long. The attack on an army unit refurbishes its image and rejuvenates morale, although it might be inadequate for boosting recruitment in its ranks.
On the Indian side, media pressure seems to have influenced the response and created a catch-22 situation. If punitive retaliation was not declared, the media-instigated frenzy would have led to citizens baying for the government’s blood.
The question that arises is what should be the Indian response in terms of the bilateral relationship. The answer is that even nations at war have kept channels of communications open, and so should it be; however, at a substantially lower level.
Both parties can pursue trade and commerce as India awaits a stronger Pakistan government to pull the nation out of the grip of terror. Meanwhile, the hopes that Nawaz Sharif had generated in the Indian polity and informed citizenry have gone up in smoke.
Narendra Modi and BJP sweep to power in Indian election
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party appears to have exceeded all expectations, coming close to outright majority
Indian supporters BJP celebrate while wearing masks bearing the image of party leader Narendra Modi. Photograph: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images
Jason Burke in Delhi
The controversial Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi has won a historic landslide election victory in India, the world's largest democracy.
Varieties of Violence
May-14-2014
Our society with its fixation on the physical focuses on direct violence and ignores the structural and cultural. Our leaders know that making changes on those levels would threaten their whole system. But as radicals we focus on the structural and cultural because we know that change has to begin at the roots.
freevector.com
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(OLDENBURG, Germany) - Terrorists, serial killers, domestic murderers -- their ghoulish deeds fill our news and popular entertainment, interspersed with wars, riots, and brutal repressions. Violence surrounds us.
Where does it come from? The answer propagated by the mass media is that violence is human nature. It's just the way people are.
That view ignores anthropological evidence about societies which have lived in relative peace and primate studies which show our biological nature doesn't force us to violence but just gives us the potential for it. This research indicates that societies and individuals have to be under massive stress before they resort to violence, and much of that stress has roots in the social structure.
The Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung denies that human nature condemns us to violence; instead he gives another explanation of its etiology based on three interacting forces: structural, cultural, and direct.
Structural violence is injustice and exploitation built into a social system that generates wealth for the few and poverty for the many, stunting everyone's ability to develop their full humanity. By privileging some classes, ethnicities, genders, and nationalities over others, it institutionalizes unequal opportunities for education, resources, and respect. Structural violence forms the very basis of capitalism, patriarchy, and any dominator system.
Cultural violence is the prevailing attitudes and beliefs that justify and legitimize the structural violence, making it seem natural. Feelings of superiority/inferiority based on class, race, sex, religion, and nationality are inculcated in us as children and shape our assumptions about us and the world. They convince us this is the way things are and they have to be.
Direct violence -- war, murder, rape, assault, verbal attack -- is the kind we physically perceive, but it manifests out of conditions created by the first two invisible forms and can't be eliminated without eliminating them. Direct violence has its roots in cultural and structural violence; then it feeds back and strengthens them. All three forms interact as a triad. Cultural and structural violence cause direct violence. Direct violence reinforces structural and cultural violence. We are trapped in a vicious cycle that is now threatening to destroy humanity.
Our society with its fixation on the physical focuses on direct violence and ignores the structural and cultural. Our leaders know that making changes on those levels would threaten their whole system. But as radicals we focus on the structural and cultural because we know that change has to begin at the roots.
Our best chance to break this cycle is through socialism. Economic democracy and social equality will reduce the structural and cultural violence, which will reduce the direct violence. By approaching it from these fundamental levels, socialism can wind down the syndrome of violence. This may not create utopia, but it will create a society vastly better than the one we now suffer under. We really can have peace, but not under capitalism.
*
William T. Hathaway is an adjunct professor of American studies at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. His latest book, Wellsprings, concerns the environmental crisis: http://www.cosmicegg-books.com/books/wellsprings. He is a member of the Freedom Socialist Party (www.socialism.com). A selection of his writing is available at www.peacewriter.org.
UN urges Canada to hold national inquiry on missing aboriginal women and girls
Law professor James Anaya, the UN’s special rapporteur on indigenous rights, spent nine days in Canada last year meeting with First Nations representatives and government officials
FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Bernard Valcourt, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, shown in this file photo, acknowledges more work needs to be done, but highlighted steps the government has taken.
OTTAWA—A United Nations watchdog is raising red flags about the Conservative government’s “strained” dealings with Canada’s First Nations with warnings about a housing crisis, sub-par education and a call for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
James Anaya, the UN’s special rapporteur on indigenous rights, added his voice to the calls on Ottawa to launch a formal inquiry into the nearly 1,200 aboriginal women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada in the past 30 years.
Opposition MPs jumped on his finding to press their own demands for the government to reverse its long-standing opposition to such an inquiry.
“This is not an aboriginal issue, it is not a women’s issue, it is an ongoing Canadian tragedy,” Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett said in the Commons.
“Will the prime minister, who claims to be tough on crime, claims to stand up for victims, do the right thing and call a national public inquiry now,” she said.
Justice Minister Peter MacKay turned aside the demand, saying the government is already acting on the recommendations of past reviews.
But Anaya noted that aboriginal women and girls are disproportionately the victims of violent crime and said there remained a need for a broad investigation into the “disturbing phenomenon” of those murdered and missing.
“The federal government should undertake a comprehensive, nation-wide inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal woman and girls, organized in consultation with indigenous peoples,” he said.
Anaya’s report is based on research done during a visit to Canada last October when he met with government officials and First Nations representatives.
While Anaya flags some improvements, his report reaches sobering conclusions about the state of aboriginal people in Canada, a reality the law professor blames on a failure by governments to invest more.
He said the human rights problems facing aboriginal people in Canada have reached “crisis proportions” and says the relationship with the federal government is “strained.’
“Canada faces a continuing crisis when it comes to the situation of indigenous peoples of the country,” he said.
He said initiatives by the federal and provincial governments to improve the well-being of aboriginals have proved insufficient and the issues deserve higher priority “within all branches of government.”
On education, for example, he said aboriginal people lag “far behind” the general population and said government should work to enhance educational opportunities. The Conservatives have put on hold its proposal to improve on-reserve education after divisions appeared among aboriginal leaders about the plan.
Anaya sounded the alarm about the housing in Inuit and First Nations communities, which he said has reached “crisis” levels. “Overcrowded housing is endemic. Homes are in need of major repairs, including plumbing and electrical work,” he said.
Added to this is the worrisome water quality on reserves, where more than half of the water systems pose a medium or high health risk, his report said.
The health of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada remains a “significant concern, the report says. While acknowledging improvements in recent years, “significant gaps” remain compared to non-aboriginal Canadians in measures such as life expectancy, infant mortality and suicide, the report said.
Anaya highlights what he calls the “dramatic contradictions” of aboriginal people living in abysmal conditions yet living in territories full of valuable natural resources.
But negotiations around land treaties and claims have bogged down and many First Nations have “all but given up,” he said.
“Many negotiations under these procedures have been ongoing for many years, in some cases decades, with no foreseeable end,” he said.
Underpinning those delays is the government’s attitude that the interests of aboriginals are counter to the best interests of Canadians, the report said.
In a statement, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt said that while Anaya concluded that challenges remain, the special rapporteur also highlighted positive steps taken by the government.
“While more work needs to be done, the report notes the important steps that have been taken to ensure progress in providing equal access to First Nations, as all other Canadians, to safe housing, education and matrimonial rights,” Valcourt said.
“We will review the report carefully to determine how we can best address the recommendations,” Valcourt said.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Left, a man stands before tanks in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, while right, Tamils mourn their dead in early May, 2009. Pics: AP.
By JS Tissainayagam May 15, 2014
The parallels are stark. As the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre approaches, Chinese police have begun detaining activists who might be planning to stage protests against the government for the bloody killings that left hundreds dead and unleashed a wave of repression 25 years ago. Meanwhile, last week, Beijing’s dedicated acolyte, the Sri Lanka government, announced that anyone publicly mourning the dead in the country’s Tamil-dominated North, on the fifth anniversary of a slaughter which ended the military campaign, could be arrested for terrorism.
The Future Of The Tamils And The Challenge For The Tamil Diaspora
By Brian Senewiratne -May 15, 2014
Dr. Brian Senewiratne
This dual title has a reason. When I was first asked (3 April 2014) by theTamil Writers Guild (of which I was a member) whether I would come and deliver the 2014 C.J.T. Thamoderam Memorial Lecture, I was asked to speak on the first of these. When I found that it was physically unsafe for me to do so because of the long reach of the murderous Rajapaksa regime, I was asked to send a 12 minute recording on the second of these titles.
I will try and deal with both.
Let me sum up each one in a sentence.
The Tamils have no future under the Totalitarian virulently chauvinistic regime that now runs Sri Lanka. Those who think otherwise are not on the real world.
As for the Challenge for the Tamil Diaspora, the answer is that they have a crucial role to play, if the Tamil people are to be saved from extinction (a word used by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts).
I would like to slightly expand this to “The Challenge for ALL of us – Tamils, Sinhalese (such as myself), Muslims and non-Sri Lankans (such as Geoffrey Robertson QC, Professor Francis Boyle and many others) who have supported the right of the Tamil people to live with equality, dignity and safety (and now to live at all) in the country of their birth.
The upsurge of islamiphobia in Sri Lanka
BY ATHITHAN JAYAPALAN-
Throughout the 20th century, a predatory Sinhala nationalism developed as both the state and the Sinhala political elite consolidated power through chauvinistic nationalist mobilization. The ideology was predatory as it sowed animosity and sanctioned violence in its narrowest form against non-Buddhist and in its broader form against non-Sinhala speaking communities in the island. In 1915 the Muslim communities in the South braced themselves for a major pogrom as a direct consequence of the ascending aggressive Sinhala national consciousness. What began as attacks on the commerce capital establishments of South Indian Muslims in Kandy, spread quickly against all Muslims in the South. Moreover the growing nationalism which in the course of independence found a patron through the nation-state, increasingly incited Sinhala mobs to indulge in systematic attacks on Tamils and their property in the sporadic but numerous anti-Tamil riots which ravaged the island. The overall effect of these successive riots was that of destabilizing the Tamil speaking communities who lived in the southern regions of the island.
BY ATHITHAN JAYAPALAN-Throughout the 20th century, a predatory Sinhala nationalism developed as both the state and the Sinhala political elite consolidated power through chauvinistic nationalist mobilization. The ideology was predatory as it sowed animosity and sanctioned violence in its narrowest form against non-Buddhist and in its broader form against non-Sinhala speaking communities in the island. In 1915 the Muslim communities in the South braced themselves for a major pogrom as a direct consequence of the ascending aggressive Sinhala national consciousness. What began as attacks on the commerce capital establishments of South Indian Muslims in Kandy, spread quickly against all Muslims in the South. Moreover the growing nationalism which in the course of independence found a patron through the nation-state, increasingly incited Sinhala mobs to indulge in systematic attacks on Tamils and their property in the sporadic but numerous anti-Tamil riots which ravaged the island. The overall effect of these successive riots was that of destabilizing the Tamil speaking communities who lived in the southern regions of the island.
Break dancing Buddhist Monks – Who Gonna Believe This!
This is an amazing dance video and everyone should watch it at-least for once. This is not just a dance video, but a tribute to Late. Adam Yauch, frequently known by his stage name MCA. The video is uploaded by a YouTube channel just a week ago and people from all around the world are watching this video. In addition, the video is receiving so many likes as well. In this video you will watch four guys dressed as Buddhist Monks and dancing to Beastie Boys music. Beastie Boys hip hop group was found by Adam along with his friends.
At Manhattan’s Union Square, small space has been occupied for the boys to dance at in honor of the Late. Adam Yauch. They all do amazing dance steps and stunts such as handstand, headstand, head-roll and many other amazing steps. They come at center to perform one after another. They finish their dance performance in style by making different and attractive dance poses. So many people are gather around them to watch their dance and few of them are capturing their dance into their phone cameras. This is really one of the best dance video i have ever seen on internet.
Let’s talk little about Late Adam as well. He was born on August 5, 1964 and died on May 4, 2012 at the age of just 47. He was a rapper, musician, film director and human right activist. He played a big role in the movement for Tibetan independence, that is the reason these guys dressed as Buddhist Monks. His father was also a social worker. He died of cancer, and because of illness he could not appear in music videos for his album. He fought with salivary grand cancer for 3 years but could not win, and died. He left his wife and a daughter, Tenzin Losel, behind. I read a lot about him on internet, he was a great personality and a kind human being.
Thanks for watching this wonderful dance video and i hope you guys enjoyed it.
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