What Sex Means for World Peace

BY VALERIE M. HUDSON-APRIL 24, 2012

In the academic field of security studies, realpolitik dominates. Those who adhere to this worldview are committed to accepting empirical evidence when it is placed before their eyes, to see the world as it "really" is and not as it ideally should be. As Walter Lippmann wrote, "We must not substitute for the world as it is an imaginary world."

Well, here is some robust empirical evidence that we cannot ignore: Using the largest extant database on the status of women in the world today, which I created with three colleagues, we found that there is a strong and highly significant link between state security and women’s security. In fact, the very best predictor of a state’s peacefulness is not its level of wealth, its level of democracy, or its ethno-religious identity; the best predictor of a state’s peacefulness is how well its women are treated. What’s more, democracies with higher levels of violence against women are as insecure and unstable as nondemocracies.

Our findings, detailed in our new book out this month, Sex and World Peace, echo those of other scholars, who have found that the larger the gender gap between the treatment of men and women in a society, the more likely a country is to be involved in intra- and interstate conflict, to be the first to resort to force in such conflicts, and to resort to higher levels of violence. On issues of national health, economic growth, corruption, and social welfare, the best predictors are also those that reflect the situation of women. What happens to women affects the security, stability, prosperity, bellicosity, corruption, health, regime type, and (yes) the power of the state. The days when one could claim that the situation of women had nothing to do with matters of national or international security are, frankly, over. The empirical results to the contrary are just too numerous and too robust to ignore.

But as we look around at the world, the situation of women is anything but secure. Our database rates countries based on several categories of women’s security from 0 (best) to 4 (worst). The scores were assigned based on a thorough search of the more than 130,000 data points in the WomanStats Database, with two independent evaluators having to reach a consensus on each country’s score. On our scale measuring the physical security of women, no country in the world received a 0. Not one. The world average is 3.04, attesting to the widespread and persistent violence perpetrated against women worldwide, even among the most developed and freest countries. The United States, for instance, scores a 2 on this scale, due to the relative prevalence of domestic violence and rape.

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Roll over, male sushi chefs. In Japan, women challenge tradition.

Yuki Chidui makes tuna sushi at Nadeshiko, a Tokyo sushi restaurant with an all-female workforce. “I hope that some day it’s not ‘male sushi chef’ or ‘female sushi chef,’ just ‘sushi chef,’ ” Chidui says. (Koji Sasahara/AP)

By Anna Fifield-February 6

TOKYO — It’s Friday night in Tokyo and a bunch of men are lined up at a bar, drinking draft beer so cold the glasses have frosted over and eating plate after plate of sushi. So far, so normal.

Not normal, though: The chefs making the little slabs of rice and laying the fish on top are all women. In Japan, that’s a sight that’s even rarer than a late bullet train.

But a handful of women are challenging the age-old notion that their gender can’t make sushi.

“I hope that someday it’s not ‘male sushi chef’ or ‘female sushi chef,’ just ‘sushi chef,’ ” said Yuki Chidui, the manager of Nadeshiko Sushi, Japan’s first and only sushi bar run entirely by women.

Sushi chefs, like sumo wrestlers and geisha, are stereotypical personifications of Japanese culture.

According to the cliche, they should be old, serious and preferably bald men, as exemplified by Jiro Ono, the owner of a three-Michelin-starred sushi restaurant and the subject of the U.S. documentary film “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” Called “itamae” in Japanese — literally, “in front of the board” — the sushi chef is supposed to deliver a performance and some banter while wielding the knife.

[Obama dines at ‘Sukiyabashi Jiro,’ Tokyo’s venerable sushi restaurant]

Conventional wisdom has it that women can’t be sushi chefs because their hands are too warm or because they’re unreliable at certain times of the month. As Ono’s son Yoshikazu put it in a 2011 interview: “To be a professional means to have a steady taste in your food, but because of the menstrual cycle, women have an imbalance in their taste, and that’s why women can’t be sushi chefs.”

With her flowery blue kimono, long bangs and glittery eye makeup, 29-year-old Chidui certainly does not fit the stereotype. “Sometimes I feel like an animal that’s being watched, but I think of this as a performance and I need to prove myself to them by making good sushi,” she said from behind the counter.

Chidui thinks women have strengths that can work in their favor. “Women have better communication skills, so that helps us connect with our customers and to create a warm atmosphere,” she said. “And because our hands are smaller, our rolls are slightly smaller. So they’re cuter and easier to eat.”

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Migrants die as boat sinks off Turkish coast

More than 20 refugees drown while trying to reach Greece, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Turkey to discuss how to respond to the latest migrant surge caused by fighting in Syria.

MONDAY 08 FEBRUARY 2016
The migrants' boat capsized a short distance from the Greek island of Lesbos, with at least 23 people, including children, killed. Another 13 are missing, while four were rescued.

The Turkish news agency Dogan reported a separate incident in which it said 11 migrants were reported to have died when their boat sank.

In Ankara, Mrs Merkel said she was "shocked" and "appalled" by air strikes in the Syrian city of Aleppo, for which Russian forces, allied to the Assad regime, bore some responsibility.

Breach

She said the strikes were a breach of a UN Security Council from December, which calls on all sides in the Syrian civil war to avoid attacks on civilians.

The attacks in Aleppo have driven almost 30,000 Syrians to the Turkish border, where they are stranded. So far, the only people who have been allowed to cross are those have been injured. They have been receiving treatment in Kilis hospital.

Turkish aid agencies have been setting up temporary shelters and delivering food to Syrians waiting at the border.

At a news conference with Mrs Merkel, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said others would be allowed to cross "when necessary".

Benefits

Mrs Merkel said 3 billion euros was being made available to Turkey by the EU to improve refugees' lives and they "have to see the benefits quickly".

Mr Davutoglu said Turkey would inform Brussels next week how the money would be spent. The cash is designed to stem the record flow of migrants from Turkey to the EU.

On Sunday, France and Germany agreed an EU action plan that involves assistance to Greece to control its borders and combat people smuggling.

Drop in prostate cancer screening reveals split among doctors

BY LISA RAPAPORT- Mon Feb 8, 2016

(Reuters Health) - - After U.S. guidelines advised against routine tests, declines in prostate cancer screening have been sharper among primary care doctors than urologists, according to a new study that suggests the medical community remains divided over the best way to look for these tumors.

In late 2011, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a government-backed panel of independent physicians, recommended against routine prostate cancer tests for all men. They cited concerns that widespread screening often caught harmless tumors that didn’t need treatment and led to unnecessary procedures with side effects like impotence and incontinence.

The next year, testing rates for prostate cancer among men aged 50 to 74 years old dropped to about 16 percent among primary care physicians, from roughly 37 percent in 2010 before new guidelines took effect.

But among urologists, use of the test for a substance in the blood called prostate-specific antigen (PSA) decreased only about 4 percentage points to about 35 percent over the same period, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“There is much evidence that men with limited life expectancy do not benefit from PSA testing, and I think experts can agree on that,” said senior study author Dr. Quoc-Dien Trinh, a urologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“The rest is a matter of opinions and expert panels,” Trinh added by email. “I do feel strongly that some men are more at risk of prostate cancer and I’m concerned about what will happen to these men given the current USPSTF recommendations and trends in PSA testing.”

Both the American Cancer Society and the American Urological Association recommend that men discuss the benefits and harms of screening with doctors to make a joint decision. Among other things, patients should consider that black men and those with a family history of prostate cancer are at greater risk.

To see whether the type of physician patients see influences screening, Trinh and colleagues analyzed nationally representative survey data on 64 men who went to urologists for preventive care visits and 1,100 who saw primary care physicians. None had a history of tumors or other prostate problems.

The sample represents approximately 800,000 visits to urologists and 26 million visits to primary care doctors, nationwide, in 2010 and 2012.

One limitation of the study is that researchers relied on orders for PSA screening, which might not accurately reflect how many tests were performed, the authors note. They were also unable to see test results to assess how different doctors may have defined elevated PSA levels.

Even so, the differences in screening rates and changes in PSA testing over time likely reflect opposing perceptions among physicians about the benefit of screening as well as the conflicting guidelines, researchers conclude in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Recent decreases in screening have been associated with some decline in the detection of early-stage prostate cancer, journal editor Dr. Rita Redberg of the University of California San Francisco noted in an accompanying editorial.

It will take much longer, however, to understand how this impacts the number of men diagnosed with advanced tumors and prostate cancer deaths, noted Redberg.

The limited drop in PSA testing by urologists probably reflects a belief among specialists that they’re doing what’s best for patients, as well as a payment system that rewards more screening, not less, Redberg added by email.

Urologists may also see more patients who want aggressive treatment, while primary care physicians may see more older, sicker men who aren’t good candidates for screening, said Dr. Alexander Kutikov, a urologic oncology specialist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia who wasn’t involved in the study.

“Regardless of what specialist a patient approaches to discuss PSA screening, patients must understand that decisions regarding screening are exceedingly personal,” Kutikov said by email.

Though most men will die with and not of prostate cancer, some doctors and patients may still hesitate to forgo screening because the disease is curable only when it’s caught before it spreads, Kutikov added.

“What is the right decision for one person may not be right for another,” Kutikov said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/IZGqPC JAMA Internal Medicine, online February 8, 2016.

Human Rights Chief visits IDP camp in Jaffna

 07 February 2016
The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein visited Chunnakam IDP camp on Saturday, stating that he hoped the displaced Tamil villagers would be returned to their original homes the next time he visited Jaffna.

Speaking to families living at the camp, the Human Rights Chief said, “I hope that next time I come I will not be visiting a welfare centre, but I will come to visit you in your homes”.
Many of the residents have been displaced from their homes for decades, and remain unable to return due to Sri Lankan military occupation of their land. "It's very clear that people of the North have problems and are frustrated," said the High Commissioner, after meeting residents at the camp.

The desperation felt was highlighted when elderly residents of the camp, pleaded with UN officials to be resettled in their land. As the High Commissioner's convoy was leaving, villagers called on the High Commissioner to ensure their land is returned to them.

Residents at the Sabhapathipillai refugee camp also held banners calling on the High Commissioner to appoint a country specific UN rapporteur for Sri Lanka.

The camp has previously been visited by foreign officials, and despite promises of resettlement by the Sri Lankan government, many remain trapped.

Sobitha: The Real Architect Of The January 8th Revolution

By Sisira Jayamaha –February 7, 2016

Sisira Jayamaha

During the early years, late Rev. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero was best known as at most venerated prelate, uniquely eloquent in Dhamma discourses most appealing to the learned as well as not so learned audiences all over the island. Despite the resounding admiration and appreciation received, he never ever exploited them either to gain cheap popularity or fame and never ever for any personal benefits. It is possible that Rev. Sobhita Thero might have believed that most of the people remain poor undergo oppression or suffering mainly due to their ignorance of the Dhamma. Hence might have dedicated him to traverse the length and breadth of the country to guide them in the Dhamma leading them to acquire a better quality of life. However, Rev. Sobitha Thero , being a visionary, may have ultimately realized, particularly after the constitutional changes in 1978, that, despite the people’s adherence to righteous conduct, they are unable to improve their quality of life mostly due to the rulers who take turns to deceive the public. Hence, he ventured to directly request the politicians to adopt a more humanitarian attitude in their treatment of the public and to provide a just and equitable system of governance to provide the much needed relief to the poor masses of the country. For this purpose Rev. Sobitha Thero utilized every opportunity including public meetings, discussions, and through print and electronic media, to appeal to the politicians irrespective of party differences, to adopt such an approach. When his appeals were not adequately responded, Rev. Sobitha Thero commenced a stronger campaign to insist on a change of the attitude of the politicians; he was subjected to explicit and implicit obstructions, censorships, blockades and many types of harassments.

Once such direct and indirect obstacles, intimidations were aimed at him Rev. Sobitha Thero who became more determined on his mission, witnessed an unprecedented support from the general public irrespective of racial, religious or regional differences, spearheaded by many a civil society, university academic, and such other sympathetic activists. This was evident during the 17 year period commencing from 1978, when he led on behalf of the innocent and helpless masses, a number of forceful demonstrations against many social discriminations perpetrated on the poor masses. Rev. Sobitha Thero headed and personally led these movements quite sincerely for the sake of helpless masses but never with a slightest inclination to enter politics. There were many instances when the then rulers enraged by his movement subjected him and his supporters to many a cruel and inhuman treatments among which harassments at Abhayaramaya in 1986, at the Bodhiya in Pettah in 1987, and at the assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali in 1993 to name just a few. The clear display of fearless leadership, inspiration and guidance combined with and his uniquely effective eloquence clearly indicative of his undisputed potential to be a forerunner in the establishment of a future national level leadership. During the latter phase of the 17 year period, when many a lapse, including the deterioration of inter-racial relationships, and the emergence of a military environment, our Thero emphasized the urgent need for a national reconciliation process and effectively participated in the effort to end the 17 year rule. The action by Hon.Chandrika Bandaranaike’s to identify Naga Viharaya to make her first visit after assuming duties as the Prime Minister was a clear indication of her recognition of the significance of Rev. Sobitha Thero’s contribution to the political change.

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Meeting a deepening challenge of credibility

Sunday, February 07, 2016

The 20th century essayist and philosopher George Santayana’s caustic observation that ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ may well have been specifically tailored for Sri Lanka. This is true not only for politicians who are generally characterised by a singularly bovine stupidity but also for many others whose capitulation to political agendas is deplorable.

A common focus in securing justice

Last year, with the routing of the Rajapaksas, the several United Nations Resolutions committing Sri Lanka to securing justice for war time atrocities remained a foremost challenge. Ideally this should have been coupled with a strong law centered determination in bringing corruptors to justice. Both aspects may have been part of one process, bringing the people into the centre of change. Public support for this would have been overwhelming across the country, with the firm relegation of the Rajapaksa support base to the sidelines.

There is an important common focus in both processes. This is the cleansing of the defiled Augean stables of Sri Lanka’s police and prosecutorial agencies. In that regard, I do not use the term ‘defiled’ lightly. This is not to say that honourable individuals do not serve in these agencies. On the contrary, the system works in such a manner that honour and dignity have little place in decision making. Currently there is public scrutiny of the pending appointment of Sri Lanka’s Attorney General. The subversion of the prosecutorial role is neither recent nor intermittent. It has been well documented before courts as well as during Commissions of Inquiry, most recently by a senior police officer who pointed to the active role played by a particular senior state law officer in obstructing the inquiries of the 2006 Udalagama Commission.

The conflict of interest arising by a state law officer ‘advising’ failed police investigations and then assuming the role of chief legal ‘advisor’ of the very body mandated to inquire into those investigations was obvious. This was stressed by two retired judges of Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court who gave a legal opinion at the time. It is regretful, however, that none of the Commissioners possessed the basic courage to speak forthrightly on these matters, either then or later. This is what the culture of silence means in this country.

Isolation of honourable state and judicial officers     Read More

UN High Commissioner meets protesting relatives of the disappeared in Jaffna

07 February 2016

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, met with family members of the disappeared who were staging a protest as he arrived in Jaffna on Sunday.

The family members, who were holding photographs of their loved ones who had disappeared, were outside the Chief Minister of the Northern Province’s office as the UN Human Rights chief arrived.

“They could have shown us our children or they could have given us a decision,” said the weeping mother of a disappeared son. “They must give us an answer today. They have to give us our children backi

“Are they alive or dead?” she asked, as Sri Lankan soldiers watched on in the background. “They have to answer that at least. What else are we asking for?”

“We might as well die,” she cried. “There’s no other option. There’s no point in living without our children.”

“He (the High Commissioner) at least must search and give us back our children,” said the mother of another. “They have our children it’s not like they don’t."

Speaking through a translator the High Commissioner told the women that finding the whereabouts of those who had disappeared was an important issue for them and said he had set aside time to meet with them during his trip.

After Darkness At Noon, Deception In Daylight

By Sarath De Alwis –February 7, 2016

Sarath de Alwis

The best and the brightest of the academic and activists who supported the common candidacy of President Sirisena have decided to refresh Presidential remembrance of his covenant on good governance announced prior to the Presdential election.

The three page letter in elegant, eloquent Sinhala seems to suggest that promises not kept are deemed as ‘broken’. Their sense of disillusionment is expressed with extreme economy, an indication that they still cling to their pre-election aspirations for good governance and transparency.

This missive to the President exposes the dichotomy between the comprador and hierarchical economics of the administration and the indigenous, alliance economics of the reform centric civil society who claim a stake in the Maithrpala Sirisena Presidency.

What they advocate is to be secure in the enjoyment of our own means of subsistence and development first. External borrowing is not dictated by dogma but resorted to under unavoidable compulsions. The tone is aggrieved. The emphasis is on the sense of dejection and despair.

‘There is not the slightest apprehension in our minds that you have unremembered the solemn pledge you made before the Presidential Election on 8th January 2015 with regard to the corruption and wrongdoings in financing infrastructure development.

Read More

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Leaders Call for UN Help on 4,000 Missing

(Original Photo AP)

07/02/2016

U.N.High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein, leaves a hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. The top U.N. human rights official arrived Saturday in Sri Lanka on a four-day visit aimed at reviewing the measures taken by the island-nation to investigate alleged atrocities committed during the long civil war that left tens of thousands dead.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil leaders on Sunday asked the top U.N. human rights official to help determine the fate of more than 4,000 civilians reported missing in the country’s long civil war amid the government’s assertion that most of them are probably dead.

The U.N. official, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, met with the chief minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, the center of the civil war, which ended in 2009. Zeid is on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka to review measures taken by the government to investigate alleged war abuses during the war.

Both the Sri Lankan government and the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels are accused of serious human rights violations. According to U.N. estimates, up to 100,000 people were killed in the 26-year war, but many more are feared to have died, including up to 40,000 civilians in the final months of the fighting.

The U.N. Human Rights Council last year adopted a consensus resolution in which Sri Lanka agreed to an investigation with foreign participation.

Zeid said he discussed several issues with Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and other provincial officials, including the missing people, detentions without trial and military-occupied private land. He said he would take the issues up with the central government.

“The discussions very much focused on the challenges faced by the province, but also the plans and achievements in that regard, and the people who aspire to see more information in terms of those detained and those missing and the issue of release of lands,” Zeid said.

He said the discussions would continue during his visit.

Wigneswaran said he gave Zeid a list of the more than 4,000 people reported missing, with dates and places where they were seen last.

Many civilians have not been heard from since they were picked up by police or military personnel at their homes or abducted by pro-government militia during the war. Relatives say there are many whom they personally handed over to the military at the end of the fighting, after the military requested the surrender of anyone who had even the smallest link to the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, promising their early release.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was elected last year, has said most of those reported missing are probably dead. He said that the new government found no secret detention centers being run by the state, as suspected by families of the missing, and that there are only 292 people in government detention.

Wigneswaran said Zeid opposed the suggestion of negotiating an amnesty for Tamil rebel suspects detained for years without trial. Zeid said releasing innocents through a quick and proper legal process would be the best course of action.

Since defeating his nationalist predecessor last year, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has released some land and promised speedy trials for detainees. But Tamils have complained that the authorities are slow in fulfilling their promises.

By MARYATHAS NEWTAN AP

And now for the other independence

Sunday, February 07, 2016

Another independence day – the 68th since we gave the British the brush off or so some say – has come and gone. The bugles are silenced. The swords are back in their scabbards, the soldiers back in their barracks. The high and the mighty who sat on the stage on Galle Face Green have returned to their state – provided homes in Colombo or wherever, their duty seemingly done. The country’s freedom and sovereignty are in safe hands.

A Mirissa resort that refuses to serve local customers

There was some early flutter in the official dovecotes when it was deduced that the sun’s rays would get in the way of public appreciation of the nation’s great leaders as they sat on stage with the solemnity the occasion demanded or when they sang the national anthem in two languages for the first time since the days of Don Stephen Senanayake, independent Ceylon’s first Prime Minister.

The public of course might have a different view of things. The public might see it as a blessing in disguise had the faces remained unnoticed or unrecognisable. For then the citizenry would be spared looking at those who pledged from other platforms a year or more ago they would ensure the greatest good for the greatest number.

The rhetoric in independence day speeches would wish us to believe that the country is on the march to the sound of horn and drum to greater glory as a united nation where every race and religion and every individual would be treated equally and with dignity, in which the law will prevail over the lawless and political delinquency would be replaced by adherence to a strict code of moral values.

But as T.S Eliot said about the plays of John Webster one must look at the skull beneath the skin. Alas, the skull on view is not a pleasant sight. It seems that independence is not just a highly misunderstood term but deliberately twisted and turned to suit the cravings and desires of individuals and groups. Freedom to perform some actions is often equated with the independence to do anything.

Some days ago the Daily Mirror, the sister paper of the Sunday Times, carried two news reports of hotels and restaurants in southern Sri Lanka that cater only to foreigners and refuse to provide service to Sri Lankans. Last Sunday this newspaper carried a further report of the national/racial discrimination that Sri Lankans suffer in their own country at the hands of owners and staff of hotels and restaurants, especially in Mirissa which was the local area in the spotlight.                                            Read More

“What Independence For Whom?”

By Emil van der Poorten –February 7, 2016

Emil van der Poorten

I expect that today, February 4th, when I write this, is as good a time as any to hark back to the year, 1948, when this first became a day of significance in the Sri Lankan calendar.

As a tyke as I subsequently identified as being in the development phase of a contrarian, strongly influenced by my two almost-adult Trotskyist siblings much older than myself, I tended to take the popular leftist slogans of the time as being close to some kind of political gospel proclamation.

As I recall, while there were not as many lion flags in evidence as there seem to be in a time of “Sinha-Le”, there were more of these symbols of newly-emerging national pride than were usually displayed up to then.

Perhaps, the lack of foofaraw on the first independence days was because, unlike our neighbours in the giant subcontinent to our north we had not really had to struggle for our new-found political independence or what passed for that status. Ours had been a relatively sedate series of steps behind what became India and Pakistan, with the occasional hiccup such as the first communal riots in the early years of the 20th century. Mind you, it is not by accident that I do not give the Anagarika Dharmapala’s agitation a place in any such “struggle” for political independence because it has proved, if proof be needed, that it simply laid the foundation for something more insidious by far: “Sinhala Buddhist” chauvinism and the attendant bigotry and violence.

No, the “struggle” for political independence was driven more by the need of the local English-educated bourgeoisie to attain what they thought was their rightful place in the scheme of local things, piggy-backing on the struggles of those fighting the British raj in the earlier-mentioned sub-continent, many of whom paid with their lives for having the temerity to stand up to the Empire on which “the sun never set.”

The title of this column dates back to a booklet authored by, I believe, that pioneer firebrand Trotskyist, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, in which, if memory serves me right, he proceeded to dissect the brainchild of Ivor Jennings in the matter of constitution-making, claiming that it was little but window-dressing for the continuing imperial control that Clement Attlee’s Labour Governnment in Whitehall chose to practice in the outer reaches of the British empire. That control was epitomized by the fact that something like 90%+ of our foreign exchange earnings came out of the tea auctions conducted entirely in Mincing Lane in, (surprise! surprise!) London, England. A little story attached to that fact is that, when that most brash of Sri Lankan Prime Ministers, Sir John Lionel Kotelawala, was on one of his jaunts to the country in which he ultimately spent his retirement years, he expressed loud surprise at how very little Ceylon was being paid for a pound of tea and how much the British consumer was being charged for a cup of that brew that contained, at best, a teaspoon of that very product! The next day there was a significant expression of the displeasure of the British business community at such temerity on the part of a “colonial:” the price of Ceylon tea at the auctions in Mincing Lane took a precipitous dive without precedent! Lesson delivered, lesson learnt it seemed when, after some backroom “clarifications” things returned to normal and brash Prime Ministers ceased to make brash statements about the conduct of their Imperial “superiors!”Read More

Navy Commander guilty of breach of disciplinary code: As CSN colossal frauds surface its Broadcasting channel is sold to another

(Lanka-e-News -07.Jan.2016, 11.30PM)  Navy lieutenant Yoshitha Rajapakse has gone overseas about 70 times but has obtained the necessary permission from the Navy only on 27 times to make his foreign trips. Yet the Navy Commander has not taken any disciplinary action against him . Therefore it is the view of some Navy officers that the Navy Commander has aided and abetted in the violations committed by  Yoshitha.

Of course it is understandable since the Navy commanders were appointed by the Rajapakses and they were the shameless lackeys and stooges of the Rajapakses , disciplinary action was not taken against the culprit Yoshitha by them , but what is unimaginable and incomprehensible is the Navy Commander Ravindra Wijegunawardena appointed by the president of good governance taking no action whatsoever against Yoshitha . The same Navy officers have therefore justifiably arrived at the conclusion , for both the incumbent president and the navy Commander protecting and shielding the Rajapakses is much more important  than serving the genuine interests of the Naval forces.

Meanwhile , Yoshitha while functioning as the unregistered owner of the CSN has through the presidential secretariat taken the building located at No. 21, Sema Building, Janadihpathi mawatha , Colombo 01 on rent basis . Moreover , by commencing the CSN at this building without obtaining permission from the presidential secretariat , a grave offence has been committed by Yoshitha . What’s more ? two employees attached to the presidential secretariat have been working for the CSN while collecting salaries from the secretariat. 

The CSN has spent nearly Rs. 90 million and got down an OB truck and other ancillary equipments from a foreign country . For valuation purposes , an invoice with a lesser value had been fraudulently submitted  to the Customs. The actual invoice has been  by now taken into the custody of the police for investigation. Owing to this fraud , the massive duties due to the government have been deprived. At the same time the CSN has not made any payment in respect of this OB truck and its ancillary equipments, it has come to light. These payments have been illegally made through fraudulent channels , that is monies collected via wrongful channels have been diverted to make these payments using a foreign party.

While the CSN TV channel became the cynosure of all eyes , the CSN broadcasting channel that is associated with it had been sold to one Niranga Hettiarachi after blindfolding everyone. When the colossal frauds were surfacing of the CSN TV channel , the valuable goods  belonging to the CSN broadcasting channel had been moved out on the sly from the building .

The Directors of the CSN TV channel who are suspects in the colossal fraud are also Directors of the CSN broadcasting channel , and some of them are already in remand custody. They  have not only misused the CSN TV channel  but even the Broadcasting channel for the same purpose , as a result the broadcasting channel had to be closed down in vain. The Broadcasting channel had been also been made use of utilizing  state assets wrongfully .

By now the Broadcasting channel is closed , and Niranga Hettiarachi is getting ready to  re launch the perfidious cycle  under another name. Prasanna Jayasundara who jointly robbed with Yoshitha  and Nishantha Ranatunge is tipped to be the CEO of this new Broadcasting channel. 

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by     (2016-02-07 20:44:43)

Let’s work with PM to pulverise racism

It’s up to us stupid, not Ranil! 

February 6, 2016, 7:37 pm

Enjoy, but stick together till racism is buried

by Kumar David

One swallow does not a summer make, but then a swallow is a swallow (no pun intended). At last the PM lashed out in Parliament on 28 January; he should have done it long ago but one has to be thankful that he did take a stand. Will he keep it up? Indications are encouraging; Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero and Yoshitha Rajapaksa are cooling their backsides in the lock up (for a week or two at least), Wasim Thajudeen’s murders may soon be arrested. The national anthem was performed in Tamil at the formal Independence Day celebrations for the first time in 66 years. The PM says he will stand by Lanka’s commitments to the UNHRC (implied, notwithstanding President Sirisena’s contortions).

Now don’t get me wrong! Neither a PM nor anyone in any country can, single-handed, rout racism or fascism. That task, dear friends, is the duty of you and me and all of us. And who is this ‘us’? Democrats, liberals, militant leftists with an ember or two still burning in their belly, working or middle-class, or dammit even true bourgeois? There is little that Ranil or his great-grandmother can do to save us from misfortune worse than hell, unless we the people stand up and fight. Protecting freedoms is incumbent on the people themselves – I guess Thomas Jefferson and other quotable guys said all this centuries ago. The more jaded, the truer!

There are two reasons why this has more than a platitudinous ring at this conjuncture; one is to do with generations of racism, bigotry, chauvinism, call it what you will, in Lanka; the second is how steadfast the military’s loyalty to constitution and supremacy of the civilian is, and how sincere its commitment to human rights. These two matters need carefully reflection.

Racism has come a circle

Racism has come a full circle in the last two and a half generations and the opportunity is now ripe to smash it once and for all. This is not 1947-48 when the upcountry Tamils were ground into the dust, nor 1958 or 1965 when spineless prime ministers reneged on the B-C and Dudly-Chelva Pacts, nor is it Emergency `58, nor 1983 nor 1987. There was also the other watershed in 2009 when Tamil separatism was wiped out and mass Sinhala psychology relaxed.

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