Indian rail projects outweigh rivalry before Modi visit to China

Prime Minister Narendra Modi listens to a speaker ahead of launching three new national social security schemes at a function in Kolkata May 9, 2015.REUTERS/RUPAK DE CHOWDHURi

Beijing has been pushing India to accelerate work on a multi-billion dollar rail link from New Delhi to Chennai ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China this week, as the Asian giants put economic ties before regional rivalries.

China, which is conducting a feasibility study into a $36 billion bullet train project from the capital in the north to Chennai in the south, has asked for work to begin on a pilot project covering part of the route, officials said.

The two sides have also agreed to speed up implementation of a shorter high-speed rail corridor from Chennai to Bengaluru, as China seeks to cash in on Modi's vision of modernising a creaking train system that 25 million people use daily.

Such cooperation could help ease tensions between the neighbours caused by a Himalayan border dispute and Chinese naval forays into the Indian Ocean as well as India's strategic tie-ups with Japan and the United States.

Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to address the border issue, a major irritant that overshadowed Xi's visit to New Delhi last year and has proved impossible to resolve despite 13 years of negotiations.

But progress on the economic front is more likely, officials said, as China eyes a greater share of India's $2 trillion economy. Thanks in part to a statistical revision, India is now the world's fastest growing major economy, outstripping China.

Modi, who arrives in China on Thursday, appears happy to encourage such investment, despite reservations among India's powerful security community which has not forgotten a brief border war the countries fought in 1962.

"Modi is abandoning the old approach to China," said C. Raja Mohan, an influential Indian foreign policy analyst.

"He has recognised that India can't construct a serious business relationship with China, the world's second largest economy and a major exporter of capital, by giving the security establishment a veto over economic policy," he added.

$10 BILLION IN DEALS

China's ambassador to India, Le Yucheng, told CNN-IBN that deals worth $10 billion were expected to be signed during Modi's three-day visit.

He urged the Indian government to focus on cutting red tape to ease investment flows, the channel said in a press release.

During Xi's visit to India last year, China announced $20 billion in investments over five years, including setting up two industrial parks.

Since then progress has been slow, in part because of the difficulties Modi has had in getting political approval for easier land acquisition laws.

Only a fifth of the necessary land has been acquired for a $5 billion industrial park in Pune that the two sides announced last year, said a Chinese official.

In Modi's home state of Gujarat, only 28 percent of the land has been purchased for a proposed $1.8 billion Chinese-built industrial park in Vadodara.

That is not likely to blunt China's appetite for investments in India, according to experts.

"China's attitude toward this investment is extremely positive," said Ma Jiali, executive deputy director of the China Reform Forum's Centre for Strategic Studies and an India expert.

RAIL IN FOCUS

Japan and France are the other countries bidding for a share of modernising India's rail system, the world's fourth largest, in which India is seeking investment of $137 billion over the next five years.

Indian Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said last week that India and China were finalising agreements in the rail sector in the run-up to Modi's visit.

Prabhu gave no details, but a railway official said India was considering a Chinese proposal for a pilot project on the Delhi-Agra stretch of the proposed 1754 km high-speed corridor to Chennai running through the heart of India.

"China has been asking that they start work up to half-way along the line even while the feasibility study is going on," the official said, adding that a memorandum of understanding could be signed during Modi's visit.

China has offered to provide India financing for building the high-speed network.

A notice on China's national railway bureau website last month said a delegation visited India from April 25-29 at the invitation of India to talk about accelerating the Sino-Indian railway cooperation document.

Talks were positive and the sides reached broad consensus, it added.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Megha Rajagopalan and Brenda Goh in BEIJING and Nigam Prusty in New Delhi; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Sea level rise accelerated over the past two decades, research finds

IPCC climate modelling proves right as scientists find a glitch in satellite led to inaccurate records in 1990s suggesting rate of sea level rise was slowing

Bare trunks of trees, believed to be of a forest claimed by rising sea levels, exposed on Assateague Island in Virginia, US. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Karl Mathiesen-Monday 11 May 2015

Sea level rise sped up over the last two decades rather than slowing down as previously thought, according to new research.

Records from tide gauges and satellites have shown sea level rise slowing slightly over the past 20 years. But as the ice sheets of West Antarctica and Greenland shed ever more water into the ocean, climate models show it should be doing the opposite.

“The thing that was really puzzling us was that the last decade of sea level rise was marginally slower, ever so subtly slower, than the decade before it,” said Dr Christopher Watson from the University of Tasmania who led the new study.

Watson’s team found that the record of sea level rise during the early 1990s was too high. The error gave the illusion of the rate of sea level rise decreasing by 0.058 mm/year 2 between 1993 and 2014 , when in reality it accelerated by between 0.041 and 0.058 mm/year 2 . This brings the records into line with the modelling of the UN’s climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“We see acceleration, and what I find striking about that is the fact that it’s consistent with the projections of sea level rise published by the IPCC,” said Watson. “Sea level rise is getting faster. We know it’s been getting faster over the last two decades than its been over the 20th century and its getting faster again.”

Professor Jonathan Gregory from the University of Reading and a lead author of the IPCC’s most recent climate report said the study was “interesting and useful” and shored up the predictions of the models.

“The better agreement of the altimeter record after the correction ... is a reason for greater confidence in the projections,” he said.

Sea level rise is measured using tide gauges on shorelines around the world and, since 1993, altimetric satellites. But both sets of data are imperfect.

The land the tide gauges sit on is constantly shifting. For example, said Watson, measurements in Alaska are thrown out by the continent rebounding upwards after being covered in a heavy ice sheet during the last ice age. While in Perth, Australia, the continental plate is subsiding.

The satellites orbit 746 miles above the Earth at 4 miles per second, firing beams of radar at the sea’s surface and recording the time it takes to bounce back. Watson said their accuracy was “staggering”. But the level of precision required to measure the slight but significant changes in sea level driven by climate change is very high. During the 1990s the satellite instrumentation degraded, losing some of its accuracy.

Watson’s team were able to compare the two data sets and identify where each was going wrong. The results revise downwards the average rate of sea level rise since the 1990s. The IPCC’s landmark report in 2013 found the sea had risen on average by 3.2 mm per year since 1993. Waston’s study found the rate was slightly slower, between 2.6 and 2.9 mm per year.

“I have no doubt there are members of the community who may wish to reevaluate [the predictions for sea level rise]. But as a scientist I come back to the data,” said Watson, preempting claims that the study was a scaling down of the threat of climate change to coastal communities.

“A single number implies that that rate is constant over time. And I think what is emerging here is that that’s not the case. That rate of change is actually increasing. For everyone that lives around the coastal margin, that’s a really concerning fact.”

In 2013, Gregory’s report to the IPCC predicted that sea level could rise between 28cm and 98cm by 2100 depending on how much carbon human industry emits this century.

“There is no reason to change the projections,” said Gregory.

If you Drink Water From These Bottles, you May Poison Yourself 

Healthy Life Vision

IBY ADMIN · APRIL 29, 2015

We all have a habit when we go out of home during the summer, especially on a longer walk to catch the first empty plastic bottle that will find and fill it with water. Look as quite common and normal thing, and in fact lies a great danger.

Perhaps you have not at noticing, but if you check the bottom of the bottle, you will notice some of the signs which indicate that the bottle is disposable, otherwise you may be toxic and cancerous.

Bottles that must throw away after the first use:

Almost all the bottles of mineral water, carbonated and non carbonated drinks that you buy every day are labeled PET or PETE.

They are intended only for single use. There is potential in each new water filling, plastic to emit heavy metals like antimony, a chemical compound EPA, which interfere with the action of the hormone. Such bottles can discharge carcinogens.

 

Bottles that are safe to use:

You will recognize them with these marks: HDP or HDPE, LDPE and PP or the numbers 2, 4, 5.

LDPE is a type of plastic which unfortunately is not used as much for producing bottles, but is more used for bags for packaging products.

HDP and PP are mainly white, and they are used for preparation of cups for yogurt.

Bottles that should be fully avoided:

It is a plastic with marks such PVC, PS, PC or numbers in the triangle such as 3, 6, 7. PVC releases two dangerous chemicals that interfere with the functioning of hormones in the body. Against that, this plastic is used for the production of bottles.

PS emits carcinogenic substance – styrene. Commonly used for making plastic coffee cups for single use or disposable packaging for the fast food.

PC (or no tags – no. 7) is the worst plastic for the packaging of food products because it emits dangerous chemical BPA. Unfortunately, it is used for baby containers, bottles for sportsman and dishes for preparing food.

After these warnings, it is better to check the casings before use.

Six Foods and Drinks That Destroy Your Sleep

Six Foods and Drinks That Destroy Your Sleep

by Dr Janardhana Hebbar - Oct 21, 2013

Sleep problems are near epidemic in modern society.  You already have heard many of the tips to create the ideal environment for sleep–a darkened room, no light from electronics like computers or cellphones, reserving the bedroom for sleep and keeping out work and entertainment clutter.  But if you are taking all these steps and still having trouble going to sleep or staying asleep, you might take a look at your inner environment for some sleep-killing culprits.  Here are six food categories to avoid in the evening hours, if you want a good night’s sleep.

1.  Coffee in All Forms

 

We already know that it is a bad idea to have a cup of joe at bedtime.  However, it is surprising how little caffeine it takes to give you a jolt, and how long that jolt can last.  Even a late afternoon cappuccino can cause wakefulness at bedtime, as can coffee-flavored desserts such as ice cream.  And skip the decaf as well–even decaffeinated coffee contains low levels of caffeine.

2.  Alcoholic Beverages

While a glass of wine seems to make you sleepy, it actually lowers the quality of sleep you get.  Because it metabolizes quickly into the bloodstream, it causes you to wake up multiple times during the night, and the periods of wakefulness mean that you spend less time in deep REM sleep of the kind that makes you feel the most rested in the morning.  Moreover, alcohol before bed can increase your tendency to snore!

3. Chocolate

Chocolate contains caffeine, and the darker the chocolate, the more caffeine it has.  A Hershey’s milk chocolate bar holds as much caffeine as a cup of decaffeinated coffee, and Hershey’s Special Dark has the equivalent of a half a shot of espresso.  Chocolate also contains theobromine, a stimulant that raises the heart rate.

4.  Cheeseburger and Fries

After a long night at the club, a trip through the drive through seems like just the thing, but the high fat content in typical fast food like burgers and fries puts stress on the digestive system and causes production of stomach acid that can cause heartburn.  Lying down to sleep can allow the acid to back up into the esophagus, increasing that burning sensation.  For the same reason, you will want to leave that leftover pizza in the fridge alone as well!

5.  Citrus Fruits

Many fruits like cherries and bananas contain nutrients that help promote sleep.  However, steer clear of citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruit.  The high acid content, especially on an otherwise mostly empty stomach, can lead to heartburn and acid reflux.  For the same reason, avoid orange juice at bedtime.

6.  Water

While water is generally good for you, too many calls from nature in the middle of the night will disrupt the critical REM sleep cycle.  A good rule of thumb is to cut back on fluid intake about two hours before bedtime to ensure restful sleep.

In general, our bodies are not meant to be digesting food while sleeping.  So if you do need a bedtime snack, stick to a small amount of an easy to digest carbohydrate like bananas, a cup of applesauce, or a small bowl of cereal with milk.  This places minimal stress on the digestive system and allows your body to reserve energy for the important healing and maintenance processes that healthy sleep promotes.

EU Seeks Solution For Tamils

By Camelia Nathaniel-Sunday, May 10, 2015

The European Union (EU) has called on Sri Lanka to address the issues faced by the Tamils, as the country prepares to celebrate six years since the end of the war.

The EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka David Daly said that the EU would like to see Sri Lanka finding mechanisms to be able to work through complicated issues with all of the stake holders.

“I think there needs to be some sort of process that works on these issues at a political level. Nobody expects that the Sri Lankan army would move totally out of the North, and we recognise that what we are talking about is finding a solution to a complicated situation within a unified Sri Lanka. But on the other hand there are reports from many in the North about how they feel that the militarisation and the military presence is considered in an oppressive manner.

Therefore it is clear that balances have to be struck and we urge there would be a reconciliation process to find solution to these complicated problems and these have to come from within Sri Lanka itself,” Daly told The Sunday Leader.

He also said that the EU and other actors from the international community can help and perhaps there might be parts of the European experience that can be useful to Sri Lanka.

“But we have seen successive Sri Lankan governments also looking at the South African experience and perhaps other experiences. We urge that Sri Lanka find a good path for these complicated issues and if there are aspects of the South African model that would work, then we approve that. We have no selfish interest that only European experience should be used. But of course we do have a vast experience, and we have the peace process in Northern Ireland and we have the reconciliation in the Balkans and many we can offer. But ultimately the solutions have to come from within Sri Lanka,” he said.

Tamil lunatic fringe anti-Muslim racism

Observations on Muslim-Tamil relations -3

by Izeth Hussain-May 8, 2015, 6:49 pm 

I am going to write this concluding part of my article partly in notation form, for brevity because many newspaper readers are impatient with articles that extend into several parts. My focus in this part is on the reasons why the Tamil attacks on me should be regarded as racist. I will begin by setting out facts, most of which point unambiguously to racism. 1) They were concerted attacks, not random. They did not begin with my first article but after some weeks. After several weeks they subsided, to revive again with the old fury. In the present phase they have subsided again, but attacks are continued with the old fury by a lone straggler and a couple of newcomers. The lone straggler recently wrote, "Reading you, Sir, against our wishes so boringly often …..", which gives the impression that he has been acting under instructions. These Tamils have given the impression that they are expatriates who are devotees of the LTTE, which of course has been utterly racist.

2) Since people are nowadays deeply concerned about foreign meddling in our internal affairs, the question has arisen whether RAW has been behind the concerted attacks. I doubt it. But I must say that for some reason that is still beyond my comprehension the Tamil racists have always been grimly determined to project me as anti-Indian. It seems to be an obsession with them. I certainly have been critical of India when that has been necessary, but my stance on India has been far removed from that of the so-called Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists. 3) One point has emerged in the exchanges over my articles that points to an implicit racism. The point has been frequently made – not only by Tamils – that as a Muslim I should write on the IS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, and the horrifying spread of fundamentalism in parts of the Eastern Province: therefore It is not for me to pontificate to the Tamils on how their problems should be solved. I claim the right to deal with national problems just like any other Sri Lankan national. I am horrified, and disgusted, by the assumption that I should not deal with the Sinhalese-Tamil ethnic problem even though it led to the genocidal eviction of Muslims from the North and grim butchery in the EP.

4) One fact that in my view points very clearly to racism is the intensity of the Tamil hatred directed against me, not matched by anything from the Sinhalese. Soon after the attacks began I asked the question "Why such hatred?" because there was nothing in what I had said or written to justify it. I found myself using the phrase "a total annihilating hatred" but did not revise it because there did seem to be a genocidal rage behind the Tamil attacks. I am not being thin-skinned because there is nothing comparable in the attacks on other articles in the CT. For instance frequent articles by a well-known political analyst almost invariably attract flak, even when they are of the highest quality. But for the most part the flak consists of sneers, jeers, and imputations of ulterior motives with little or nothing of the hysterical hatred and mad dog rage inspired by my articles. It is legitimate to conclude that there is racism behind a hatred that cannot be explained on any other rational ground.

5) The most frequent allegation against me by the Tamil racists is that I am and have been for decades anti-Tamil. The only evidence cited by them to substantiate that allegation is that I had advocated the use of famine as a weapon to subdue the Tamil rebels. I protested that I had in fact advocated the opposite and they kept on repeating the charge. Recently I made it clear that I had the documentary evidence to support my position, and they have not repeated that charge. But one of the worst of the Tamil racists a few days ago referred to my "inhumane recommendations to GOSL during the war" without daring to specify what they were. It’s all nonsense. In an earlier article I have mentioned that sometime before the air-drop two lorry loads of rice were sent to Jaffna, the result of my persuading Foreign Minister Hameed to take such action. The Tamil racists have been reduced to blatantly concocting evidence to show that I am anti-Tamil.

6) They could try to distort the import of my article Rationale for 13A minus plus in the Island of April 18, about which I must make some clarifications. Some improvements and extensions may be possible on 13A, but a wide extension up to federalism and more is not a realistic expectation in the foreseeable future. Let the Tamils by all means continue to struggle for that extension. But let us at the same time try to implement 13A minus as thoroughly as possible, mounting a crash program like Dudley’s Green Revolution or the Mahaveli Accelerated Program. In addition let us establish a fully functioning democracy with special safeguards for the minorities such as Race Relations Boards etc. I can’t see anything anti-Tamil in any of that.

7)So far from being anti-Tami; I have in fact been regarded as pro-Tamil, even to the extent of endangering myself. A) I have consistently berated Sinhalese racism against the Tamils, and Muslim support for that racism. B) I have refused to regard the LTTE as a terrorist movement. I have written two articles arguing that it should be regarded as a nationalist movement. I have written many articles on the ethnic problem over the decades, but I don’t think I have used the term "terrorist" about the LTTE even once. C) I am probably the only non-Tamil who has acknowledged in writing that the genocidal eviction of the Muslims from the north was preceded by Muslim Homeguards getting together with the STF to drive out Tamils from allegedly sixteen villages in the EP. D) I have been in favour of a common commemoration of our dead soldiers and the dead LTTE fighters. In that connection I had the temerity to cite the inscription on the tombs built by the ancient Chinese to honor the bravery of their fallen enemies: "May you be born among us in your next birth".

8) It seems bizarre in the extreme that I of all people have come to be perceived as anti-Tamil, even though it is only by lunatic fringe Tamils. A clue to an explanation is provided by an episode in the world of cricket. Umpire Darrell Hair of Australia could see evidence of ball tampering where none else could. Cricketing legend Geoff Boycott provided the explanation: racism. Tamil racists perceive me as having been an anti-Tamil racist – and notoriously so – over many decades. No one else shares that perception. The Boycott explanation applies: racism. 9) I cannot go into theories of racism to set out the grounds on which that explanation applies. I will here provide a few pointers only. The racist perceives the Other in terms of stereotypes, which are seen in essentialist terms as virtually unchanging. The Other is also seen as inferior and/or threatening.

10) The stereotype of the Muslim is that he shines at trade, the gem business, and illicit trafficking in narcotics. He is a very poor performer in practically every other field. He is educationally backward and is seriously under-represented in the upper echelons of the State and the professions. Intellectually and culturally he is null and void. In politics he produces politicians who have been utterly self-seeking and devoid of principle. He holds himself apart, and has not much of a national sense. He is conservative, particularly in religion except that he is taking to fundamentalism in a big way in the Eastern Province 11) I am talking only of the stereotype about the Muslims, not of the changing realities that now make the stereotype largely irrelevant except in a few particulars. This factor of change is crucial in understanding Tamil anti-Muslim racism. The point is that the Muslims are getting more educated and could become competitive in practically every field. This is a time of socio-economic decline for the Tamils, which could make them apprehensive that the Muslims might gain ascendency over them, particularly in the Eastern Province. 12) Why have I in particular become the focus of so much Tamil hatred and rage? I am in most ways the diametrical opposite of the stereotypical Muslim drawn out above. I could be the forerunner of a new type of Muslim whom it would be impossible to hold in contempt as essentially inferior.

13) My purpose in this article is severely pragmatic. As I have stated earlier the Tamil lunatic fringe anti-Muslim racists are a tiny segment of the Tamil people, but we have to bear in mind that the lunatic fringe can easily slide into the center, and furthermore that it can serve as a catalyst to ignite a conflagration in the Eastern Province. On the other side, the Muslims there are increasingly falling prey to Wahabism and its clones, which means that they are among the most stupid and potentially violent of human beings on earth. In earlier articles I have several times referred to Islamic fundamentalism as Yanko Zionist Petro Islam. I rather doubt that a new Government will take effective action to prevent a conflagration in the EP. Since 1948 the basic policy of our Governments has been to allow ethnic problems to fester. Therefore action has to be taken by the TNA and the SLMC, and the civil society. I would like to end this article on a bright note by pointing out that it would not be over-sanguine to expect the civil society to play a significant role in the EP: it did play such a role in bringing about the revolutionary transformation of January 8. – Concluded.

Izethhussain@gmail.com

Sweltering conditions keep people indoors, in baths – and shopping less

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Despite the intermittent rains and thunderstorms being experienced temperatures continued to soar in the past two weeks, leaving many people huffing and puffing during the day. According to the Colombo Meteorological Department (CMD) the temperature in Colombo is around 33C with the relative humidity ranging from 75-100 per cent, prompting several complaints from the public on the extreme heat conditions being experienced.

A helping shawl to beat the heat

CMD Director-General Lalith Chandrapala said although there was a slight shift in the weather pattern the south-west monsoon would only break in the third week of this month. He said the country was experiencing the inter-monsoonal season and that the spate of heat waves was common at this time. “The south-west monsoon will bring in a cooling effect,” he added.

Sales of bottled water and soft drinks have skyrocketed and thambili sellers were seen having a field day selling at Rs. 60-70 a nut.  Many vendors selling goods on the pavements and in marketplaces said business was dull as people did not want to stop in the intense heat. “They just brush past,” said Somasiri, who sells plastic household items and toys in Pettah.

Another small business in Dehiwela selling ladies’ fancy items said people were not walking into the shop as it did not have air conditioning. “They want cool places to shop,” a salesman said. While office workers thankfully opt to remain within their office environment house-bound members of the public are keeping themselves cool by having frequent baths. “I bathe up to five times a day and keep the fans on but still feel hot,” Rukshana, a housewife, complained.
The Ceylon Electricity Board said despite the extreme weather conditions there would be no power cuts. CEB General Manager C. Wickremasekera said hydropower reservoirs remained more than half-full in capacity and the power supply would not be interrupted.

Thambili: The thirst quencher that is much in demand these days (above and left).Pix by Indika Handuwala

He said the main reservoirs, Castlereagh, Moussakelle, Victoria and Randenigala are up to 66 per cent full and could last up to the start of the monsoonal rains. “We shouldn’t have any problems,” he said. He said that interestingly power consumption in the last few days has remained static despite the Vesak illuminations all over the country.

According to CEB statistics, on a normal day consumption during peak hours is around 1870 megawatts and the reading recorded during the Vesak week was around 2000 megawatts, showing only a slight upward change. This he attributed to the closure of offices and factories during holidays while many households in Sri Lanka do not have air conditioners the power requirement was stable.

Meanwhile the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) said that there has been an overall increase of 6-10 per cent in the usage of water islandwide with districts in the southern province recording the highest. “The districts of Kalutara, Matara and Bandarawela have increased consumption by nearly 10 per cent,” he said.

In Colombo, several complaints of low pressure in the pipelines have been received. NWSDB Chairman K.A. Hanza said high-rise buildings and condomoniums in Colombo area have been badly affected with households complaining of trickles coming through their taps. He said the NWSDB was releasing the same volume of water every day to consumers, but due to the excess usage of water by people living in low-level areas who are at the beginning of the supply line, the tail-enders suffered.

Colombo National Hospital Director, Anil Jayasinghe warned that the heat and humidity could exacerbate chronic health problems such as skin diseases and arthritis. He advised the general public to stay indoors as much as possible and take plenty of liquids and have frequent baths. He also advised people to wear hats, sunglasses and light-coloured cotton clothes when going outdoors.

Sending out a special warning to the sick, elderly and children, he said that they should take more care and avoid going outdoors. “Their skins are sensitive to heat and dehydration can occur easily,” he said.

For A Civilised Parliament – A Decent Government

By Kusal Perera –May 10, 2015

Kusal Perara

Abolition of the Executive Presidency was proposed as a solution to almost all evil issues from mega corruption to fraud, to nepotism to crony capitalism, to breakdown of rule of law to dictatorial rule.19th Amendment that would include the establishment of Independent Commissions was thus projected as the main solution for ills and was campaigned for over an year resulting in a Common Opposition Candidate at the presidential polls. During the presidential elections the urban middle class rallied round 19A expecting the executive presidency to be abolished for an accountable, transparent good governance rule to begin with the corrupt in the previous regime duly punished.

Proving purely arithmetical calculations done by “Experts” in how a two thirds majority in parliament could be secured wholly absurd and a-political, abolition became a non starter. Their “expert” ignorance that argued the ‘abolition’ was possible with just a 2/3 majority in parliament was rejected by the SC. The next important reform in the electoral system that is promised as 20th Amendment is being greased the same way, compromised to exclusively suit political party leaders and not democracy and not wider people’s representation. In fact there are “experts” whose only work on electoral reforms is to satisfy a majority of MPs in this deformed and illegitimate parliament and not the democratic needs of people.

These go to prove, it’s not just politicians who are corrupt and everything bad. These go to prove even the urban middle class is not wholly committed for a clean and a fair government. To prevent nepotism, fraud, corruption and cronyism. For the educated, the professionals, the administrators and even the academics are also gnawing at different advantages in being within this heavily corrupt and profitable system. We are certainly living through intellectual poverty and ignorance in this society. Intellectually lethargic, we don’t get into serious discussions in finding what really ails us. We are happy raking the superficial, the most visible. We are being caged in intellectually and culturally dead city life.Read More

John Kerry’s visit: The changing dynamic of US-Lanka relationship

President Maithripala Sirisena greets visiting US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Colombo recently.

by Rajan Philips-May 9, 2015, 5:40 pm 

It has been a calm week in Colombo after the 19A storm of the previous week. It is a different story in Britain, where the Tories have won a stunning majority after all the predictions about a hung parliament and Scottish king makers going to London. The Liberal Democrats who were David Cameron’s coalition partners have been decimated. The Labour has been gutted with the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) sweeping 56 out of the 59 seats from Scotland, which have traditionally gone to the Labour Party. But the SNP must also feel robbed of its glory by the Tory majority, which will cut them to size in London despite their swelling in size in the Highlands. The notorious UKIP (the new Independent Party of the United Kingdom that wants the UK out of Europe and immigrants out of the UK) has fared disastrously, and deservedly so, retaining just the solitary seat it won in a by-election after 2010. Stars are smiling on David Cameron, even without astrological help, as he now gets to stay put at 10 Downing without any coalition prop. The Labour unions are left to rue for picking the wrong Miliband brother (Ed instead of David) to lead their party. There will be much to write about Britain for next week.

The week in Colombo saw the US Secretary of State John Kerry come and go, as did the meeting between MS and MR, the current and former Presidents of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Nothing came out of the meeting for all the ballyhoo that preceded it. MR is becoming a phenomenon in seemingly futile search of lost power, while MS has become a different phenomenon – exercising power by shedding it. The difference between the two set the backdrop to the visit of Secretary Kerry. Colombo is not a regular port of call for top drawer American politicians and officials. And Sri Lankan politics has traditionally been disproportionately more exercised about the US than the extent of the American government’s interest in Sri Lanka. Americans, enjoying absolute advantage more than any other people on the planet, know very little even about Canada, their geographically vast neighbour to the north; so they can be excused for not getting excited about far way islands like Sri Lanka. But are things changing?

Diplomatic Significance

Mr. Kerry perhaps alluded to these changes in his prepared statement of diplomatic significance at the end of his visit. Talking about changes, John Kerry is not John Foster Dulles, the 1950s Cold War Secretary of State under President Eisenhower. And today’s connected world is very different from the Cold War world. There are conflicts in spite of, and may also be because of, connections, but today’s conflicts are different from the conflicts of the Dulles era and the decades that came after. Post World War II American imperialism, which became the ritual burden of the annual ‘external resolutions’ of Sri Lanka’s Old Left, is now for all intents and purposes a collectors’ item in the world. One cannot use the old yardstick to measure or understand anything today. This is not to suggest that the US has suddenly become the white knight in world affairs. Far from it. But in the dynamic between Sri Lanka and the US, it is fair to say that Sri Lanka can gain much from the power of the American example as a constitutional democracy without ever becoming a victim of American power.

Secretary Kerry spoke of today’s world where "everyone and everything is connected", and in this connected world, he offered help for Sri Lanka to succeed in its own plan for the future without trying to "usurp that or evade that or dismiss that." And "as friends", he went on to "offer four possible areas for co-operation": reconciliation; justice and accountability; advancement of human rights; and the strengthening of democratic institutions. Sri Lankans may not be unanimous about the topicality of the four areas for the island’s future, but few will disagree that the results of the January 8 election have brought these areas into emphatic political relief from what they were before the election, and under the previous government.

Before January 8, these areas were not of concern to the Rajapaksa government. The then government dismissed them as external interference and unpatriotic collusions. That led to the Sri Lankan government’s isolation in the world and its indictment in Geneva. What is also becoming evident is that the mantle of patriotism was abused by the previous regime as a cover for the spread of systemic corruption and nepotism in government. It is this evidence and the experience of it that is preventing the further abuse of patriotism to protect the wrongdoers of the previous government. Not for the lack of trying, patriotism is not finding the critical traction beyond the orchestrated rallies to bring back Mahinda Rajapaksa to power. There were no rallies or protests against the visiting Secretary of State, because there is no Rajapaksa government around to organize them. Under the Rajapaksas, it was a case of "rocking the cradle and pinching the baby at the same time", in regard to the government’s relationship with the US (and the West). They sent their storm troopers to raise hell in front of the US Embassy in Colombo, while spending huge amounts of money to retain American lobby firms to influence US policy in Washington. For all the allegations of western conspiracy to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January election, there was not a hum on the road against the visiting Secretary of State. Only an odd placard, "John Kerry, go home. Don’t turn Sri Lanka into Libya", was seen at the pro-MR May Day rally, the same rally where a university academic was attacked.

Traditionally, political attitudes towards the US in Sri Lanka have followed the class and status contours of our society. The elites and the upper classes, and their political party, the UNP, were identified as pro-American, while the politics of anti-American imperialism was a key plank in the platform of the Old Left and its coalitions with the SLFP. These differences, while they may have not totally disappeared, have lost not only their political representation but also their relevance. Sri Lankans of all social strata are now ‘interacting’ with America in increasingly large numbers as individuals, without any political baggage, in education, in professional practice, trade, and through extended families. The Rajapaksas can only blame themselves for triggering a politically successful alliance between the UNP and a section of the SLFP. And the new UNP-(half) SLFP alliance seems to be more representative of the changing Sri Lankan society than diehard patriots and old school anti-imperialists.

The comprador class that sustained the UNP is long gone. It has been replaced by waves of new arrivals in business, and the newer than new among them nurtured the Rajapaksas and were in turn nurtured by the Rajapaksa government. The symbiosis of corruption between the two that was established in government before January 8 is now the provider for the pro-Rajapaksa opposition to the new government that came after January 8. In a twist of irony, the new Sri Lankan government is going to rely on American expertise, among others, to track and expose the financial corruption of the previous government and its business cronies. That is all well and good, except for the claim of the Minister of Foreign Affairs that he has ‘spreadsheet’ evidence of past swindling to the tune of $18 billion. The people might be excused if they are taking the Minister’s word with a pinch of salt after his sensational allegations about a Rajapaksa coup on that long election night, that seem to have gone nowhere.

The main purpose of Secretary Kerry’s visit is not about the area of Rajapaksa corruption, but the four areas of co-operation which the Rajapaksas spurned and which the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe government is determined to deliver on. The fact of the matter is that the four areas where Mr. Kerry is offering American co-operation are not a Western imagination or imposition. They became an issue because the Rajapaksa government irresponsibly and intransigently refused to do anything about them. With a new government in place and given its willingness to positively act in regard to reconciliation, justice and accountability, human rights, and democratic institutions, the US government has to change direction from UNHRC confrontation to inter-governmental co-operation.

John Kerry’s visit and his offer of co-operation are an indication of the US changing directions in response to political changes in Sri Lanka. That is my reading of the visit from a bird’s eye view. Others more at home taking worm’s eye views might read differently, but such negative readings, I contend, would be at odds with current realities and emerging trends. Needless to say, taking a worm’s eye view is not a prerogative of Sinhalese extremists only. They will find good, or bad, company among their Tamil counterparts. President Sirisena’s challenge is to democratically marginalize the extremists and reinforce the moderates in all communities. To that end, he should take the US Secretary of State on his offer of co-operation in the four areas.

Go fly a kite


2015-05-11

This is the reality he is facing for abuse of power and violation of Avirodha- the madness of a deposed king

y No one trusts politicians in Sri Lanka anymore. In addition to a growing budget deficit there is also a growing ‘trust deficit’ between the “politician” and the “citizen” which extends and permeates into every level and relationship in society.
Victims of Human Rights violations consider politicians to be responsible for the violence and pain they have undergone and continue to experience daily.

Go fly a kite by Thavam Ratna