Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Monday, July 28, 2014

Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Publicizes Personal Information Of Over 25,000 Individuals

Colombo TelegraphJuly 28, 2014 
Making a public display of the pathetic state of cyber-security unawareness in the state sector, the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) at the heights of their ignorance had publicized personal information including ID/passport numbers of over 25,000 individuals.
Dilan Perera - Minister Foreign Employment
Dilan Perera – Minister Foreign Employment
The publicized data had been uncovered by Suchetha Wijenayake – an employer of Linux Center in Colombo. He had stumbled upon the files while looking up two names who used to be ardent listeners of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). One of the Google listings that popped up had led him to a 2.5 MB Microsoft Excel file that contained full names, ID/passport numbers of over 25,000 individuals that had been dated from July-September 2013 indicating the information was in the public domain for over a year.
Instantly recognizing the gravity of the situation, Suchetha had attempted to contact SLFEB Chairman Amal Senadhilankara, but to no avail. Finally he had been directed to SLFEB’s IT Consultant, who had confirmed the records were indeed public and were ‘supposed to be out there’. Without accepting the mistake on their part, he had turned around and accused Suchetha of attempting to hack the SLFEB website.
Suchetha had thereafter contacted Senadhilankara’s Secretary, to whom he had explained the situation. She had requested him to write an email to her, explaining the situation and fortunately, she had understood the gravity of the situation and the files had been taken down 30 minutes later.
However, Suchetha has written that even afterwards his numerous attempts to contact Senadhilankara and explain to him that their site is insecure was not successful.
This incident ironically reflects on the sorry state of the lack of IT knowledge among those who administer manage government owned websites, despite the Rajapaksa regime’s aspirations of making Sri Lanka an IT hub. Against this backdrop, it is no wonder government sites are being constantly targeted by hacker groups.

The Oslo Forum And The Elephant In The room


Colombo TelegraphBy Rajiva Wijesinha -July 28, 2014 
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP
I was privileged last month to attend the Oslo Forum, an annual gathering of those engaged in mediation and conflict resolution. I had been invited, along with Mr Sumanthiran, to debate on whether it was correct to talk to extremists. The concept paper referred in some detail to recent developments in Nigeria and Afghanistan, but we were in fact the only participants in the debate from a country which had recently been in grave danger from extremists. We were able however to benefit during the Forum in general from informed inputs from several delegates from countries now suffering from extremism, such as Nigeria and Syria and Yemen.
Our own debate was chaired by Tim Sebastian, and though it was generally accepted that I came off well, I told him afterwards that I was glad my Hard Talk interview had been not with him, but with Stephen Sackur. Interestingly, that interview still raises hackles amongst those who seem stuck in an extremist agenda, so I presume they are grateful to our government for no longer using the services of anyone who can engage effectively in Hard Talk. In turn I am grateful to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, based in Switzerland, which organizes the Oslo Forum, and more recently to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for giving me a forum in which to argue the case for what the Sri Lankan government has achieved. Contrariwise, those now with the mandate to represent us internationally seem busily engaged in undoing that achievement day by day.                       Read More

Basil, Hudson undercut Wimal!

hadson basil2

Giving an interview to yesterday’s (27) Silumina newspaper, economic development minister Basil Rajapaksa has said,
“Now Hudson….think my child is studying for the exam with the light of a kerosene lamp. When I go to the town, I can see children in big houses with 10 to 12 air-conditioners and lighted with bulbs. But, my child does not have electricity to study for the exam. Then, I will definitely begin to hate and oppose.”

Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation chairman Hudson Samarasinghe has not questioned the minister about whose children he was speaking. Because, Hudson knows that Basil’s children are all leading luxurious lives in luxury homes in the US. Hudson has not at least asked as to who were the children in big houses with 10 to 12 air-conditioners and lighted with bulbs, because the entire country knows that they are Wimal’s children.
In the interview, Basil goes on to say,
“See, on the other hand, from the media. In the past, there were competent authorities. Newspapers were banned. Sealed. Set on fire. Then, censorship was imposed on newspapers. Today, those do not happen. Today, there are daily newspapers. There are weekly newspapers. There are rag-sheets. In the past, rag-sheets were written on a piece of paper and pasted. Today, these are in the internet. In the websites. Today, there are no more rag-sheets than that. There is no right to oppose. There should be opposition only if these rag-sheets are halted.”
It is very clear that minister Basil is not commenting about newspapers in Sri Lanka. That is because, he should not be unaware of the number of journalists murdered and the media institutions set on fire and the censorship imposed during their regime. In a country where arms were taken up in a situation in which democracy is impossible, minister Basil is a baby who cannot understand that rag-sheets appear in the internet due to censorship and repression of the media.
Hudson has begun the interview by asking – Lanka’s opposition does not behave like an opposition in a democracy? Really, there is no opposition in Sri Lanka? The opposition has broken up? The opposition is split?
This Hudson Samarasinghe who is asking these question is the same person who had contested the 1989 general election from Colombo on the UNP ticket by claiming himself to be the ‘little Premadasa’ in his poster campaign. Economic development minister Basil Rohana Rajapaksa is the only UNP member in the Rajapaksa family. During the UNP regime he was a public relations officer at the Mahaweli Development Ministry of which the late Gamini Dissanayake was the minister.
As such, two renowned UNP members have spoken about the present tragedy faced by the SLFP, a senior minister of the SLFP told us.

World’s Fragile States: Sri Lanka should not ignore being classified as an alert state


  • Sri Lanka a failed state according to Fragile State Index- July 28, 2014 
On the basis of the country’s score in 12 broad indicators, Sri Lanka is being continuously ranked, from 2006 – the year in which the country was included in the Index – as a fragile state, earlier a failed state, by USA based Fund for Peace or FFP. The ranking in the index is done like the ranking of the students in a class from best to worst. Thus, in respect of each indicator, the best country is ranked at number 1 and the weakest at number 10. Accordingly, countries that get a score of 12 or close to it are ranked as strong. In the opposite, those that get scores of 120 or close to that number are ranked as fragile.
The world is doomed by Western insouciance
The world is doomed by Western insouciance

European governments and the Western media have put the world at risk by enabling Washington’s propaganda and aggression against Russia.
European governments and the Western media have put the world at risk by enabling Washington’s propaganda and aggression against Russia.European governments and the Western media have put the world at risk by enabling Washington’s propaganda and aggression against Russia.
 
Monday Jul 28, 2014
Washington has succeeded in using transparent lies to demonize Russia as a dangerous aggressive country led by a new Hitler or a new Stalin, just as Washington succeeded in demonizing the Taliban in Afghanistan, Qaddafi in Libya, Assad in Syria, Chavez in Venezuela, and, of course, Iran.
The real demons–Clinton, Bush, Obama–are “the exceptional and indispensable people” above the reach of demonization. Their horrific real crimes go unnoticed, while fictitious crimes are attributed to the unexceptional and dispensable people and countries.
The reason that Washington demonizes a leader and a country is to permit the creation of circumstances that Washington can use to act with force against a leader and a country.
Washington’s incessant lies alleging “Russian aggression” have created Russian aggression out of thin air. John Kerry and the State Department’s Marie Harf issue new lies daily, but never any supporting evidence. With the stage set, the US Senate, the NATO commander and the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff are busy at work energizing the wheels of war.
Senate bill 2277 provides for beefing up forces on Russia’s borders and for elevating Ukraine’s status to “ally of the US” so that US troops can assist the war against “terrorists” in Ukraine. NATO commander Breedlove is preparing his plans for stockpiling war material on Russia’s borders so that US/NATO troops can more quickly strike Russia.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, is at work preparing American opinion for the upcoming war. On July 24 Dempsey told the Aspen Security Forum, a high level group where US opinion is formed, that Putin’s aggression in Ukraine is comparable to Stalin’s invasion of Poland in 1939 and that the Russian threat was not limited to Ukraine or Eastern Europe but was global.

The intellects in the Aspen Forum did not break out laughing when Dempsey told them that Russia’s (alleged but unproven) involvement in Ukraine was the first time since 1939 that a country made a conscious decision to use its military force inside another sovereign nation to achieve its objectives. No one asked Dempsey what Washington has been doing during the last three presidential regimes: Clinton in Serbia, Bush and Obama in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen, Obama in Libya and Syria.
Here are Dempsey’s words: “You’ve got a Russian government that has made a conscious decision to use its military force inside another sovereign nation to achieve its objectives. It’s the first time since 1939 or so that that’s been the case. They clearly are on a path to assert themselves differently not just in Eastern Europe, but Europe in the main, and towards the United States.”
Washington’s view that the world is its oyster is so ingrained that neither Dempsey nor his upper echelon audience at the Aspen Forum noticed the absurdity of his statement. Washington and the brainwashed US population take if for granted that the “exceptional, indispensable nation” is not limited in its actions by the sovereignty of other countries.
Washington takes for granted that US law prevails in other countries over the countries’ own laws–just ask France or Switzerland, that Washington can tell foreign financial institutions and corporations with whom they can do business and with whom they cannot–just ask every country and company prevented from doing business with Iran, that Washington can invade any country whose leader Washington can demonize and overthrow–just ask Honduras, Libya, Serbia, and so forth, and that Washington can conduct military operations against peoples in foreign countries, such as Pakistan and Yemen, with which Washington is not at war.
All of this is possible, because Washington has claimed the title from Israel of being “God’s Chosen People.” Of course, Israel’s loss of the title has not stopped Israel from acting the same way.
Washington now has in motion the wheels of war. Once the wheels of war begin to turn, momentum carries them forward. The foolish, indeed utterly stupid, governments and media in Europe seem unaware of Washington’s orchestration of their future or lack thereof, or they are indifferent to it. They are dooming themselves and all of humanity by their insouciance. Heaven help if the British PM or French president or German chancellor were not invited to the White House or the Polish nonentity did not get his Washington stipend.
Readers who cannot tolerate problems without solutions always request solutions. OK, here is the solution: The only possibility of avoiding war is that Putin take his case to the UN. If Washington can send Colin Powell to the UN unarmed with any truth to make Washington’s case for war against Iraq, Putin should be able to take his case to the UN against Washington’s war against Russia. The case that the emperor has no clothes is an easy one to make.
Unlike Washington, Putin is willing to share the evidence that Russia has about who is doing what in Ukraine. It is a simple matter to establish that Washington organized a coup that overthrew an elected government, supports violence against those who object to the coup, and has turned a deaf ear to Russia’s repeated pleas for Kiev and the separatists to negotiate their differences.
Putin should make it clear to the world that Washington continues with provocative military steps against Russia, with force buildups on Russia’s borders and calls for more buildups, with S.2277 which reads like a US preparation for war, with provocative actions and accusations by top US generals and government officials against Russia, and with efforts to isolate Russia and to inflict economic and political injury on Russia.
Putin should make it clear to the world that there is a limit to the provocations that Russia can accept and that Russia believes that Russia is in danger of preemptive nuclear attack by Washington. Putin can describe Washington’s withdrawal from the ABM treaty, the construction of ABM bases on Russia’s borders, and the announced change in Washington’s war doctrine that elevates US nuclear forces from a retaliatory role to a preemptive first strike role. These actions are clearly directed at Russia (and China–wake up China! You are next!).
Putin must state clearly that the likely consequence of the world continuing to enable Washington’s lies and aggression will be not merely another disastrous war but the termination of life.
The governments of the world, especially Washington’s vassals in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan, need to be told that it is their responsibility to stop their enabling of Washington’s aggression or to accept their responsibility for World War III.
At least we could all have the enjoyment of watching the arrogant Samantha Powers and the craven British lapdog rise and walk out of the UN proceedings. There is no doubt whatsoever that Washington is unable to answer the charges.
Here again is the Wolfowitz Doctrine that controls US foreign policy and that condemns Planet Earth to death: “Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that posses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.”
A hostile power is defined as any country that is not a Washington vassal.The Wolfowitz Doctrine commits the United States, its peoples, Washington’s gullible EU allies and those peoples to war with Russia and China. Unless Russia and China surrender, the world will be destroyed.
The destruction of the world is what the idiot EU governments and the presstitute Western media are fostering by their enablement of Washington’s lies and aggression.
AHT/DT

Laws In The Middle East Nations For Non-Muslims


| by Shenali D Waduge
( July 28, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Reciprocity is a debatable subject for Muslims and Islam. When people are divided as believers and non-believers there is little to argue or defend the status of equality. What is not reciprocated should not be demanded. The status of non-Muslims in majority Muslim nations comes with strict rules and regulations. Non-Muslims are guaranteed protection in the Muslim society as long as they pay a head tax and abide by the specific legislations mentioned in Islamic Law.

Dozens of Canadians have gone to Israel to take up arms for the Jewish state

Rafi Broer, 22, right, is pictured with his mother, Audrey Shecter. Broer was discharged after 27 months of service in an IDF combat engineering corps.

The children of Gaza

Rafi Broer, 22, right, is pictured with his mother, Audrey Shecter. Broer was discharged after 27 months of service in an IDF combat engineering corps.
Family photo; Courtesy of Ilan Mann

 | 
If things had turned out differently, Orli Broer would be starting her second year at Montreal’s McGill University, spending her days studying and her nights dancing.
Instead, the 19-year-old moved to Israel and joined the Israeli Defence Forces. Now, she spends her days in the West Bank and her nights with a gun under her pillow.
She is one of thousands of lone soldiers, young adults from around the world who come to Israel to fight for the Jewish state. Some are Israeli citizens who grew up elsewhere, others visited on school trips and felt compelled to take up the Zionist cause. Few have close family in the country.

Gaza fighting abates as diplomatic tension flares

Palestinians mourn at the graves of their relatives, who medics said were killed during the Israeli offensive, during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at a cemetery in Beit Lahiyah in the northern Gaza Strip July 28, 2014
Palestinians mourn at the graves of their relatives, who medics said were killed during the Israeli offensive, during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at a cemetery in Beit Lahiyah in the northern Gaza Strip July 28, 2014. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
Reuters
BY NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI AND MAAYAN LUBELL-Mon Jul 28, 2014
(Reuters) - Israel eased its offensive in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave declined sharply on Monday, with both the United States and United Nations calling for a durable ceasefire.
As international pressure mounted to end a 21-day conflict in which more than 1,000 people have been killed, an Israeli military official said the army would only respond to attacks for an indefinite period.
"The situation now is an unlimited truce," Israel's chief military spokesman, Brigadier General Motti Almoz, told Israel Radio. "The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) is free to attack after any fire if there is any."
The Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip said on Sunday it wanted a 24-hour truce to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which started on Monday. In the hours after its announcement, Gaza gradually fell quiet.
However, the lull appeared fragile amid diplomatic tension between Israel and its main sponsor, the United States.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said parties to the fighting had "expressed serious interest" in his request for a further 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire, but "have not yet agreed on the timing of its implementation".
Israeli troops continued to hunt and destroy cross-border militant tunnels inside Gaza, and it was not clear if Hamas was ready to agree to a prolonged pause.
At least 12 rockets were fired out of the battered coastal territory at Israeli towns on Monday, according to the Israeli military, which said it struck two rocket launchers and a weapon manufacturing site in the northern and central Gaza strip.
Gaza residents reported Israeli shelling in east and northern Gaza and the health ministry said two people, including a five-year-old boy, were killed in one of the attacks. An army spokeswoman said she would look into the incident.
Jibril Jnaid, the boy's father, said his son, Sameeh, was playing with his cousins when a bullet fired from Israeli forces operating on the edge of Jabalya, the biggest refugee camp in northern Gaza, hit him and he fell bleeding to the ground.
"At the day of Eid, I am proud to sacrifice my son for the sake of victory of the resistance and the victory of the will of the Palestinian people," the father told Reuters as the boy's mother and other mourners kissed his cheeks before burial.
Hamas's armed wing said it killed two Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip. An Israeli military spokeswoman said a soldier was wounded there but she knew of no fatalities.
Some residents in Gaza reported they had received a recorded telephone message on Monday which said in Arabic: "Listen Hamas, if you are still alive, you should know that if you continue, we will respond, we will respond violently."
Israeli leaflets dropped over Gaza listed dozens of names of gunmen from Hamas and its ally, Islamic Jihad, that the military says it has killed since the start of the offensive.
"This list is part of the names of those who thought they could face the might of the Israeli Defense Forces," read the leaflet, which included a map to a graveyard where it said the militants were buried.
OBAMA APPEAL
International efforts to secure a long-term ceasefire have so far faltered with Israel and Hamas presenting almost irreconcilable demands. The Gaza militants want an end to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of their enclave.
Israel has said an easing of the siege would only come if the armed groups were stripped of their weapons. An opinion poll broadcast by Channel 10 tv showed overwhelming Israeli support for continuing the Gaza offensive until Hamas is "disarmed".
Deputy Islamic Jihad chief Zeyad Al-Nakhala said mediation had made progress and the group was working with Egypt to craft a deal.
"We are days away from the end of the battle, the clouds will clear and you (Palestinians) will see victory," he told Islamic Jihad's radio station Al-Quds, "We will not accept anything less than ending the blockade."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the region last week to try to stem the bloodshed, his contacts with Hamas - which Washington formally shuns - facilitated by Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel wants Egypt, which also borders the Gaza Strip and views Hamas as a security threat, to take the lead in curbing the Palestinian Islamists. It worries about Doha and Ankara championing Hamas demands.
After Israeli sources vented anger at Kerry's ideas, U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday to urge Israel hold fire unconditionally. The U.N. Security Council called on both sides to implement a humanitarian truce that stretched beyond Eid.
Netanyahu's security cabinet met into the early hours of Monday to debate ceasefire proposals and also a possible escalation of the offensive, which Israel says was needed to halt Hamas rocket fire and destroy its tunnel network.
Israeli air, sea and ground attacks have killed some 1,037 Palestinians, mainly civilians and including many children, Gaza officials say. Israel says 43 of its soldiers have died, along with three civilians killed by rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.
Tension between Netanyahu's government and Washington has flared over U.S. mediation efforts, adding yet another chapter to the prickly relations between the Israeli leader and Obama.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, challenged media leaks by unnamed Israeli officials damning as too accommodating to Hamas a draft accord attributed to Kerry. The official said U.S. efforts had been mischaracterised.
Obama appeared to link Israel's core demand for Hamas to be stripped of cross-border rockets and infiltration tunnels, to a peace accord with the Palestinians that is nowhere on the diplomatic horizon.
Repeated U.S.-led negotiations over 20 years have failed to broker a permanent deal. The most recent round collapsed in April, with Palestinians livid over Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank and Israelis furious that Abbas had signed a unity pact with old foe Hamas. Qatari Foreign Minister, Khaled Al-Atteya, told Al-Jazeera TV that Israel had not respected a ceasefire agreement that ended the last Gaza war in 2012 and it was time the blockade of Gaza was lifted.
"We have worked with the U.S secretary of state and we were about to achieve substantial results, and the brothers in Hamas acted positively, but the one who rejected the Kerry proposal was Israel," he said.
Israel says the Palestinians have lost around half of their rockets during the fighting - an account disputed by Hamas - and that army engineers have located and destroyed many of the tunnels from the territory. Those excavations will continue under any short-term truce, Israel says.
The main U.N. agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said more than 167,000 displaced Palestinians had taken shelter in its schools and buildings, following repeated calls by Israel for civilians to evacuate whole neighbourhoods ahead of military operations.
(Additional reporting by Amena Bakr in Doha; Writing by Maayan Lubell and Dan Williams; Editing by Toby Chopra and Paul Taylor)

Ukraine forces capture rebel territory close to Malaysia Airlines crash site

The Ukrainian military on Monday captured a strategically important swath of territory close to the debris field of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a spokesman said, dealing a blow to pro-Russian rebels but raising new questions about whether an investigation at the site will ever yield conclusive evidence about the attack on the airliner.

Japan to step up sanctions against Russia amid Ukraine unrest

Pic: AP.
By  Jul 28, 2014 
TOKYO (AP) — Japan is stepping up sanctions against Russia over the unrest in Ukraine.
Asian CorrespondentChief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday the sanctions include the freezing of assets held in Japan by individuals and groups supporting the separation of Crimea from Ukraine, and a ban on Crimean imports. He said the steps are in line with measures taken by European Union and Group of Seven nations.
The move follows the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The U.S. and Ukraine accuse pro-Russia rebels of firing a missile that brought the plane down, killing all 298 people on board.
The U.S. and EU have debated imposing tougher sanctions against Moscow because of its support for the rebels.
Japan has been modest on sanctions against Russia, previously imposing only travel bans on 23 people.
Derailed on the Death Train

For every Central American migrant who makes it to the U.S. border, countless others are stuck in the purgatory of Mexico City on the long journey north.

BY ALEX HORTON-JULY 23, 2014
MEXICO CITY — It's officially a Salvation Army operation, but for the Central American migrants who huddle there to escape torrential monsoon rains, it's just La Esperanza, or Hope House.
Derailed on the Death Train by Maria Anderson

Qatar World Cup: migrants wait a year to be paid for building offices

Workers who fitted out lavish offices used by tournament organisers say they are trapped after collapse of contractor


, and  in Doha-Monday 28 July 2014 14
worker al bidda tower
Migrant workers who built luxury offices used by Qatar's 2022 football World Cup organisers have told the Guardian they have not been paid for more than a year and are now working illegally from cockroach-infested lodgings.
Officials in Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy have been using offices on the 38th and 39th floors of Doha's landmark Al Bidda skyscraper – known as the Tower of Football – which were fitted out by men from Nepal, Sri Lanka and India who say they have not been paid for up to 13 months' work.

FactCheck: is air travel getting more dangerous?

Channel 4 News
The claim-July 28, 2014
“Getting on an aircraft is still among the safest activities that one can do.”
Tony Tyler, International Air Transport Association, 25 July 2014
The grim news that there were no survivors from the Air Algerie passenger jet that crashed in Mali means that almost 1,000 people have died in air crashes so far this year.
25 baaa FactCheck: is air travel getting more dangerous?

23 Natural Herbs for Gout

imagesGreen Yatra BlogGout can be classified as a form of arthritis that causes severe pain in the joints. Gout is a result of excessive uric acid in the blood. This uric acid solidifies to form tiny crystal like particles. These crystals are formed in and around the joints which causes lot of discomfort and pain. The common joints that are affected by gout are hands, wrist, fingers, knees, ankles and feet. Excessive intake of vitamin B3 or Niacin also results in Gout. Males are more prone to this disease. In case of females, the occurrence of Gout is seen mostly after menopause.