Importance Of Preserving Language Rights In Sri Lanka

by Lionel Guruge- Sunday, March 27, 2016

Tamil version of the National Anthem of Sri Lanka was sung at the country’s 68th Independence day celebrations

Sri Lanka’s Constitution has undoubtedly undergone many revisions because of its Amendments. Of all these Amendments, perhaps one that carries a most significant weight is the 13th Amendment, which not only established a new form of sub-national governance, but also introduced a crucial legislation that respected minority rights and validated their identity. The Amendment reads as follows:

“(2) Tamil shall also be an official language.

(3) English shall be the link language.

(4) Parliament shall by law provide for the implementation of the provisions of this Chapter.”

This Amendment, introduced in 1987, was widely recognized as the pivotal point for language equality in Sri Lanka and soon paved the way for the establishment of the Official Languages Commission (OLC) in 1991, tasked with the mandate of protecting and promoting the needs of a bilingual Sri Lankan population. Building on this Amendment, the former regime also established a Ministry for Official Languages and Reconciliation, which was consolidated and re-named as the Ministry of National Co-existence Dialogue and Official Languages by the current regime.

Article 23(1) of the Constitution mentions the language of administration with regards to legislation:

“[23. (1) All laws and subordinate legislation shall be enacted or made and published in Sinhala and Tamil, together with a translation thereof in English”

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Was Sobitha Thera ‘done in’ to stop him singing the Yahapalana blues?

SOBITHA THERA: Yahapalana architect

UDUWE DHAMMALOKA THERA: Ven. Sobitha Thera confided in me of his heartbreak.--ELLE GUNAWANSA THERA: Arrests of monks must stop

Monk makes startling claim from Mahinda’s office in political temple
‘Don’t come to play around with the Buddhist robe’ warning to Govt

Sunday, March 27, 2016

When a Buddhist monk belonging to the Rajapaksa chapter suddenly stands up and says there is something fishy in the way the chief architect of the Yahapalana movement, the Venerable Sobitha Thera, died; and casts an aspersion that he may have been ‘done in’ by forces who feared he would speak of his growing disappointment with the government he helped create to give true effect to the democratic ideals he advanced; it is time for the President and Prime Minister to take careful note of the dangerous diatribe levelled against them and appoint an independent commission whose findings, hopefully, will nip this canard in the blooming bud.

For it seems as though the ‘Bring Back Mahinda’ mafia have temporary laid down their worn out Sinhala chauvinistic drum aside and instead of the Bodu Bala Davula made a different set of monks pick up the Ruhunu Drum also known as the Yak Beraya to thump out the no less potent ‘ Save Buddhism ’ warning; and come up with a ‘mystery’ element in the death of the Venerable Sobitha Thera to serve as the rhythmic theme to whip up protests against the Yahapalana doctrine of which, ironically, the Ven. Thera was the prime promoter, the seer and sire.

In a surprise outburst coming four months after the death of the venerable Sobitha Thera who died of heart failure at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital on November 8 last year, Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera, now released from his remand cell after a judge freed him on bail three weeks ago, claims that there was a conspiracy behind the Thera’s ‘sudden’ demise. Speaking from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political office at the Abayaramaya Temple in Narahenpita on Monday, he added a sinister touch to his delayed yet timely charge when he said that Ven. Sobitha had visited him several days before his ‘sudden’ death and had expressed his disapproval at the direction the country was moving in.

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TNA to take up Sampur Power Plant issues with India

2016-03-27
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) chief R.Sampanthan has said that he will discuss with the Indian High Commission the “substantial” environmental problems that will be created if India sets up a 500 MW coal-fired power plant at Sampur in Eastern Sri Lanka. 

“The people of the area have been telling me about the substantial pollution and environmental damage which will be caused and have accused me of not taking any action on it. A solar powered plant in place of the coal-fired one is very much in my mind,”  he told Express on Saturday.

 Lankan environmentalists quote the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists to say that a 500 MW coal fired plant will release, every year, 10,000 tons of Sulfur Dioxide (the main cause of acid rain); 10,200 tons of Nitrogen Oxide, which causes smog; 3.7 million tones of CO2, a leading cause of global warning; 500 tons of small particles which cause lung damage; 720 tons of Carbon Monoxide, which causes global warming and 2.2 billion tons of warm water, which when released into the sea will bleach corals and destroy marine life. 

According to observers, India may already be thinking of setting up a solar plant at Sampur. Since the National Thermal Power Corporation, which is to set up the coal fired plant, had not been enthusiastic about the Lankan venture, others in the Indian solar energy sector may have to be tapped.

Both government and opposition becoming hither and thither

It’s looking quite Kafkaesque

The indispensable link for stability of the government Won’t the opposition love to disrupt it!

by Kumar David-March 26, 2016, 5:53 pm 

Let’s start with the government side. Yes any explicit rift between President and PM is being very carefully and intelligently managed and avoided; anything like that will be suicidal, both know that and to a degree they may be playing good-cop bad-cop. Nevertheless one would have to be blind to miss that on two matters they are taking contradictory stands. Sirisena is playing straight to the Sinhala nationalist gallery and struggling to keep his head above water in the SLFP survival game. In the ‘foreign judges or no foreign judges’ tribunal issue he is trembling before these champions. He has firmly declared that no war-crimes were committed, human rights were not violated on a large scale and the military is sacrosanct. In that case why HIS government agreed in Geneva to any investigative process at all beats me. Why not come clean and declare: "We were pushed into investigations, but we have no intention of doing anything serious about it; watch and see how we sweep everything under the carpet"?

Ranil and Mangala have a different take on the matter. They are prisoners of undertakings they gave the entire world standing on the Geneva podium. Their problem is how to wiggle out but still retain at least a shred of Sri Lankan credibility. "B-C Pact, Dudly-Chelva Deal", some people mutter, "just doing it one more time." Well it is more difficult for two reasons; first the sucker to be taken for a ride this time is the whole international community though now that regime change is done Western governments, not human-rights activists, are more concerned to protect that gain than commiserate with sniveling Tamils. The second difference is that Sinhala chauvinism is comparatively weaker now than it was in 1958, 1977 and 1983 and the new government less accommodating. If only the race mobs come on to the streets to loot, rape and burn they can be soundly thrashed. Pity they prefer Hyde Park rallies!

To return to my theme, yes there is a game of good-cop bad-cop, but that is not all. There seems to be a mild parting of ways between Sirisena and Ranil-Mangala. So the processes will drag and a via media will be worked out without cashiering war-criminals. Have no doubts about that.

The other issue on which bedlam prevails is chaos in the SLFP. The Sirisena faction threatened to fire anyone who attended Mahinda’s mutinous Hyde Park rally, then backed down in a funk when about 30 SLFP ‘Joint Opposition’ MP’s defied the threat. Point and set to the Rajapaksa side and egg on the face of Maithripala Sirisena, President of the SLFP and Sri Lanka. The SLFP is about evenly split - one corrupt, opportunistic lot in cabinet raking in the stuff, another corrupt chauvinist lot, baying for the blood of their President. There is some speculation that the UNP, or at least sections, are glad of the crisis in the SLFP and are promoting chaos so as to weaken or split it. This is very unwise; if the Sirisena faction declines to a shadow of itself it will be fatal for the government both in parliament and outside.

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Vehicle Bonanza For MPs As Country Plunges Into Economic Crisis

March 27, 2016

In an obvious mix up in priorities, the Yahapalanaya government led by Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe continued to shower the 225 parliamentarians with bonanza after bonanza, while slapping the public with more taxes and price increase in essential items. In the latest bonanza, the Cabinet approved a proposal to provide an extra vehicle each to the Parliamentarians, which is expected to cost the government a colossal sum running to several hundred million.

The additional vehicle for which approval was given, is in addition to the vehicle they receive through the permit which they are entitled to. The proposal for an additional vehicle for each parliamentarian was submitted by the Minister of Media and Parliamentary Affairs, Gayantha Karunathilaka.

The latest move comes in the midst of another proposal to provide an additional monthly allowance of Rs.175,000 to parliamentarians, which will cost the government a further Rs. 472.8 million a year. Theproposal received wide opposition from civil society organisations including the National Movement for Social Justice, Purawesi Balaya and Decent Lanka.

The back to back bonanza offers to parliamentarians come in the wake of the government facing a severe financial debacle, and as the country continued to plunge into economic chaos.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed that in a period of just one year the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government had obtained a staggering US $ 6361 million in loans. While Wickremesinghe has been continuously blaming Rajapaksa, saying due to the loans taken during the past decade, the current government is in debt to the tune of almost Rs. 10 trillion.

Speaking in Parliament last Wednesday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe disclosed that within the next six weeks, his government will have to decide if the government had the capacity to absorb US $ 1 billion debt, else the future course of action that should be taken to address this issue. The debt ridden national carrier, SriLankan airlines is dragging an equally debt ridden government into a fresh crisis having no way of paying up a nearly US $ 1 billion debt.

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A Meaningful Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination: Recognising Sexual and Gender Identities

Image from 30 Years Ago

• by Groundviews 
• - on 03/28/2016

In response to the call by the Public Representations Committee (PRC) for public submissions relating to proposed constitutional reforms, the following submission was made to the PRC on March 15th 2018. Titled ‘A Meaningful Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination: Recognising Sexual and Gender Identities’ this submission focused on specific challenges faced by members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) communities. The signatories bring together self-identifying members of the LGBTIQ communities, their family and friends and others who support these rights.

[Editors note: A glossary of terms used in this submission, kindly provided to Groundviews by the authors, can be found at the bottom of this article.]

###

We present this submission as individuals self-identifying as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ), as family members and friends of LGBTIQ people, and as individuals/communities coming forward in support of a community of Sri Lankans who wish to acknowledge and break the silence surrounding a people whose rights have been denied through the mechanisms and institutional structures of a democratic state.  

While we categorically insist that the rights of the individual to equality, dignity and non-discriminiation need to be recognised and strengthened in the new Constitution, there needs to be specific reference to ‘sexual orientation and gender identities’ in the Fundamental Rights Chapter along with ‘race, religion, language, caste, sex.’ Claiming specific mention in this Article is not a claim to ‘special rights’ but to claim equal rights to protection under the law and the right to non-discrimination. Without detailed mention of specific communities that are persecuted in our society, we will not be able to achieve the goal of holistic equality for all citizens of Sri Lanka. As the Sri Lankan Constitution is the supreme law of the land, the acknowledgement of these equal rights in the Fundamental Rights Chapter will have a cascading effect, allowing for a reading down of the provisions of the Penal Code, which in turn will have a real impact on the lives of LGBTIQ members, their families, their friends and society at large. This demand by the LGBTIQ communities is one that seeks to pave the path for ALL Sri Lankan citizens to live life with freedom, integrity, dignity and equality.

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CID Turns To The TID

• Lasantha Wickrematunge murder probe

by Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema- Sunday, March 27, 2016

Lasantha Wickrematunge

The probe into the murder of the founding Editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge has taken a new twist with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) turning the investigation towards the Terrorism Investigations Division (TID), which was handed over the inquiry by the former regime.

The CID has already interrogated a former Inspector General of Police (IGP) and several senior police officers in connection with the assassination.

Be that as it may, the investigators are yet to take the interrogation process to the heads of the country’s defence establishment as well as the head of the military during the period Wickrematunge was brutally assassinated. A former Defence Secretary has already posed a challenge to the government to carry out what he termed as a proper investigation into Wickrematunge’s murder and apprehend those responsible for the heinous act.

It is in this backdrop that the CID last week summoned former head of the TID ASP Prasanna Alwis in relation to Wickrematunge’s murder probe. Wickrematunge’s murder investigation was handed over to the TID after the initial inquiries carried out by the police.

The Sunday Leader learns that the CID’s latest move in interrogating the officers of the TID who were part of the investigation is mainly aimed at inquiring about the arrest and the release of several military intelligence officers by the TID in 2010 in connection to Wickrematunge’s murder.

In February 2010, when the TID arrested 17 army soldiers attached to the Army Military Intelligence Unit and also identified as having worked closely with former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, investigators at the time had looked into the possible involvement of Fonseka in Wickrematunge’s murder.
The TID investigators had studied the activities of five mobile telephones that had operated on the same routes used by Wickrematunge on the day he was murdered. These investigations revealed that these five phones were only ever used on the day of Wickrematunge’s assassination, and only to communicate with each other. Of the 17 soldiers who were arrested, the detectives narrowed the number of suspects down to seven prime suspects.

Interestingly, after detaining the military personnel for a brief period, they were released. It was speculated at the time that the soldiers had been released following comments made by them incriminating some senior members of the former regime along with senior military officers at that time.
Another Fonseka aide, Major General Duminda Keppetiwalana then a brigadier was also detained and statements by him were recorded about Wickrematunge’s murder. However, he was also released after a brief detention.
Meanwhile, the former army intelligence officer Kandegedara Piyawansa who was arrested in connection with the murder was released on bail after he made a statement in open court during a previous hearing of the case. Piyawansa had reportedly stated that one OIC Prasanna de Alwis of the TID had tried to influence him into making a statement implicating a senior military officer in Wickrematunge’s assassination, with the promise of being made a state witness and given overseas employment.

However, TID Sub Inspector A. E. Adhikari at the time had rejected the statement made by Piyawansa and informed court at the time that the investigating officer concerned would appear in court on the next hearing date to explain the details.
The Mount Lavinia Magistrate at the time had later recorded a statement from Piyawansa in the official chamber, a process which had lasted over three hours.

Piyawansa’s lawyer, Upul Anuradha Wickremaratne at the time said that the courts had provision to take appropriate action if there is an inducement or threat made by an investigating officer to a suspect in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code. In such an event, the Magistrate can record a statement from the suspect and hold an inquiry.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General has permitted the CID to also summon former head of the state intelligence service senior DIG Chandra Wagista in order to obtain a statement over an alleged attempt to cover-up evidence related to Wickrematunge’s murder.

The CID has already questioned former IGP Jayantha Wickramaratne in connection with the murder along with Prassana Nananaykara who was a Senior DIG at the time of the murder and former Mount Lavinia police SSP Hemantha Adikari were also questioned.

The senior police officers were questioned by the CID over the notebook belonging to Wickrematunge that had gone missing while in police custody.  The CID also hopes to obtain advice from the Attorney General to question army intelligence officer Kandegedera Piyawansa, who was released by court. The army intelligence officer it is learnt is back with the military intelligence unit.

There have been many questions by members in the media fraternity over the need for the CID to interrogate former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Field Marshal MP Sarath Fonseka over Wickremetunge’s murder.

While former Army chief Sarath Fonseka has told the media that investigation into the Lasantha murder were on a wrong line the former Defence Secretary posed a challenge to the current good governance administration.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa a few weeks back called on the authorities to investigate the murder of the founding Editor of The Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickremetunga.

Speaking to reporters after making a statement at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate and inquire into serious acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power (PRECIFAC) a few weeks back, Rajapaksa said that while there is a push to investigate the alleged ‘white flag’ incident there must also be a proper investigation on Wickremetunga’s murder.

Rajapaksa was responding to comments made in Parliament by former army Commander Sarath Fonseka who had called for an investigation into the ‘white flag’ incident.

Amidst these interesting twists, Wickrematunge’s case remains unsolved and investigators are still unable to even identify the murder weapon. Wickrematunge was killed on January eighth, 2009, hours after the arson attack on the MTV/MBC station in Depanama.

Right to Information Bill: A defeat of public aspirations for transparency in the Central Bank?

Pledge to allow citizens to get information from public bodies

Monday, 28 March 2016

There was an important pledge given by the current government in its Manifesto seeking election to power at the General Elections held in August, 2015. That was to introduce measures to assure the right of the people to information, a demand that had been there in the air quite for some time. To fulfil this pledge, a draft bill, after it had been approved by all the nine Provincial Councils in terms of the Constitution, has now been presented to Parliament (available at: http://www.media.gov.lk/images/pdf_word/Right_to_information_English.pdf ). If the Bill is enacted, Sri Lanka would be one among 100 countries globally and the 7th country in South Asia to add such a legislation to its law books. Given the current concerns about the fiduciary responsibilities of the rulers, rights of citizens in an economic democracy and the need for maintaining full disclosure and transparency in public affairs, the enactment of such legislation, though somewhat belated, could be viewed as a step taken in the right direction. It is specifically important in the current context since the previous government had vehemently opposed its enactment despite the pressure exerted by civil society organisations for such a law in Sri Lanka. However, the examination of the draft bill shows that it falls short of the aspirations of the citizens on many counts.

Public’s right to have information to express their views effectively 

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Colombo’s Coffee Shop Liberals & The New York Radical

By Hafeel Farisz –March 27, 2016

Hafeel Farisz

Although born and bred in the Island of Serendib, ‘Serendipity’ is a word I picked up from the New York ‘left’. It was on an afternoon in Cooper Square, in the famed and fabled East Village in lower Manhattan that I met Ryan.

New York is a funny place. You could bump into a stranger and, more often than not, find something in common. He was having lunch, and so was I, at the small ‘garden’ on the bend of 8th Street, right opposite the Astor Place subway station. The area is called Cooper Square, owing to some building with a similar name. Union Square is a few hundred meters from where we were. Ryan tells me that he is an adjunct Professor, a poet, and social activist.

Curiosity got the better of me. I had to know what the term ‘social activist’ meant to a 29-year-old New Yorker. I prodded him on.

“You see New York is filled with people who love life. They love people too. But they don’t know what to do with all this love,” he said. I didn’t quite understand what he meant by ‘love’. It’s a word that can connote many emotions, and is often subjective. “ People are very passionate about what they do. They want to help. They see an issue with the system,” he explained, seeing my reaction. 

This was a narrowing down I could deal with. But I wanted to know more.

“So how do they express this love?” I asked. “That’s a bit of a tricky question. Some rant and rave online, some try and make donations to whatever cause they want to, others drop in a dollar or two when they see the homeless, and a some others gather at Union Square and protest every once in awhile,” he said matter-of-factly.

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One side has water, the other is denied

A Farmer points to the sluice gates of the Hakwatuna Oya reservoir that had several leaks. Pix by Indika Handuwala

Nikaweratiya: Deduru Oya running dry

By Sandun Jayawardana reporting from Kurunegala and Puttalam-Sunday, March 27, 2016

The drought setting in is set to create a major water crisis, particularly for farmers as they prepare for the coming Yala cultivation season.

Water levels in tanks and reservoirs are dropping.

A visit to the Kurunegala and Puttalam districts provided a glimpse of the hardships faced by the farmers and residents.

The ancient Hakwatuna Oya reservoir lies some 45km from Kurunegala town and is the second largest in the province after the Deduru Oya reservoir. Constructed by King Mahasen in the 4th century AD, Hakwatuna Wewa was restored by the Irrigation Department in 1964. There are 14 divisions of farmer settlements in the area and a total population of about 30,000.

When the Sunday Times visited the Hakwatuna Oya area this week, farmers were holding their harvest festival, or Aluth Sahal Mangalya.

This gathering, in the shadow of the Hakwatuna Oya reservoir, was significant for another reason: farmers’ representatives of all 14 divisions, and local officials from the Irrigation Department had gathered there to reach an agreement on when to open the sluice gates of the reservoir to enable paddy cultivation for the Yala season.

Officials and farmers had both expected rains by the end of March. “We decided at the harvest season meeting on March 15 to release water to the farmers on March 25. We were working on the assumption that there would be several days of heavy rain in between. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any rain up until now,” said P.K. Sriyananda, Resident Project Manager of the Hakwatuna Oya Irrigation Scheme.

In the light of this situation, the officials told the farmers that water could only be released to one part of the Hakwatuna Oya Scheme. The meeting held after the Aluth Sahal Mangalya was meant to decide on which part that would be.

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NALAKA GUNAWARDENE RECEIVES LIFETIME AWARD AT NELUM YAYA SRI LANKA BLOGGER AWARDS

28/03/2016

At the second Nelum Yaya Blogger Awards ceremony held at the Media Ministry Hall last afternoon, the organisers presented me with a Lifetime Achievement Award in New Media.The award was presented by Karu Jayasuriya, Speaker of the Lankan Parliament and a champion of the right to information. As he presented the trophy, he told me that he is a regular reader of mine!

The citation (in Sinhala, trying to obtain exact text) said that it was to recognise and salute my long-standing efforts to promote blogging and social media use in Sri Lanka.

I didn’t get to say any words of acceptance, so this is what I would like to have said…

It’s always nice to be recognised by peers — and I do count myself as part Sri Lanka’s diverse and informal blogging community.

However, to use a cricketing metaphor, I am more like a cricket commentator than a star cricketer. I do know the craft but my most useful contributions have been as a cheerleader and populariser of blogging and social media in Sri Lanka.

My own blogging, started in early 2007, was entirely in English for the first few years until I started republishing my weekly Sinhala columns (Sivu Mansala Kolu Getaya) written for Ravaya newspaper from 2011. That made my blog bilingual, albeit a low intensity one: I don’t get the kind of visitors or comments like leading Lankan bloggers do. But I’m contented with that.

Where I have contributed more, I believe, is in documenting, trend-spotting and demystifying the Lankan blogosphere in Sinhala and English (sadly, I don’t have Tamil proficiency to do the same). Over the years I’ve addressed many and varied audiences – from university dons/students and govt officials to civil society groups and journalists – on the public interest potential of social media including (but not limited to) blogging.

Parallel to this, and sometimes in collaboration with my friend Chanuka Wattegama, I’ve been a chronicler and commentator on the social, cultural and political impacts of new media in Sri Lanka. A simple Google search would bring up many of my op-ed articles, book chapters and speeches on Sri Lanka’s emerging information society.

I’m encouraged and honoured by this award, but I have no intention of quitting. Using my blog as well as Twitter and Facebook social media platforms, I will continue to ask inconvenient questions, express unpopular opinions and kick-ass when I need to.

One day, I hope, I’ll finally be able to figure out the demarcation between playing and working in this realm. Does it matter?

* * * * *

One other Lifetime Award was presented at yesterday’s event – to Rasika Suriyaarachchi, engineer turned blogger who has been a pioneering and popular personality in the Sinhala language blogosphere for many years.

Creative and perceptive young writer Yashoda Sammani Premaratne, who blogs as Bassi, was honoured as the Blogger of the Year 2015.

Over three dozen other category winners and commended bloggers were also saluted at the informal, privately organised blogging awards ceremony.

Depriving The Poor Of Water!

By Emil van der Poorten –March 27, 2016

Emil van der Poorten

When one of the elements necessary for the very survival of any being is toyed with, it is time to cry halt to corruption at every level, particularly the local one where a simple task becomes a life-threatening one.

I live near a settlement of what can accurately be described as displaced persons and, since that term is going to raise a few hackles among those who believe that Sri Lanka is in fact Nirvana, let me relate some relatively recent history.

When the great Kobbekaduwa, as a Minister of Agriculture who had probably not planted so much as a bean seed unless the tenant farmers who his kind had parasitized did it for him, decided to wreak political vengeance on, among others, the van der Poorten family, his minions took over a swath of land that belonged to several bearing that last name, included it as a part of “Trafford Hill” group so that nothing of that family’s heritage would survive, even in name, and proceeded to run it as one of the State Plantation Corporations’ monuments to the employment of crooked sycophants without an atom of agricultural knowledge. Anyway, the edifice ultimately collapsed under the weight of the corruption of Hector K’s stooges who were widely known to arrive with a simple piece of hand luggage and require several lorries to move their personal possessions if, for any reason, they had to depart for another plantation or other destination.

The trickle escapes!

When the collapse occurred, subsequent to this country having rid itself of the parasitic radala regime, all the workers, including many who had been, literally, born and bred on that land, were summoned to a meeting to be informed that they had no jobs the next day. An interesting concomitant to this fact was the fact that several families would also cease to have a roof over their heads at the same time, because they had estate-provided “lines” or other lodgings on the land that was, to all intents and purposes, being abandoned, except, of course for those politicos and their friends who through goodness-knows-what means acquired chunks of it from which they proceeded to exploit the timber, rubber trees (as firewood) and, ultimately, even the cocoa trees which went to the same “end use!” Pretty near 1500 acres of productive mid-country plantation land has been reduced to the on-going “take-over” of “Guinea A” grass which was originally introduced as cattle fodder and, in the absence of any bovines, has become the most invasive plant species in the mid-country.

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