Palestinian doctors train in Canada to help sick kids back home

Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship seeks to provide Palestinian doctors with specialised paediatric training, raise level of care in West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem

Amir Atawna has been training for almost two years to care for premature babies (MEE/Jillian D'Amours) 

Jillian D'Amours-Saturday 30 April 2016

Toronto, Canada – When Amir Atawna returns to Hebron in July, he will be one of only four Palestinian physicians specially trained to care for premature babies.

Atawna has spent almost two years as a fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, training with the best in neonatal health care. It’s an area of paediatrics that the doctor says is lacking in Palestine – and one he hopes to improve upon his return.

“The main mortality rates among children [are] in the newborn period, due to prematurity itself,” he told Middle East Eye at the cafeteria at Sick Kids, as the hospital is commonly known. “We need this specialty to improve.”

Atawna, 33, came to Canada in July 2014 to participate in the Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship, which seeks to provide Palestinian doctors with specialised paediatric training, and in turn, raise the level of care in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Atawna, who did his residency in paediatrics at Al Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem, said that while about five in 1,000 babies die when born prematurely in Israel, that number is four times higher in Palestine, at 20 deaths per 1,000 births.

He said he was drawn to neonatal care after meeting a mother at a hospital in Bethlehem in 2008 who had given birth to twins only 28 weeks (seven months) into her pregnancy. The newborns weighed around one kilogramme each.

“I liked the way [the doctors] managed to care for those babies. They got bigger and older and they became very healthy. It was something that pushed me towards [this specialty],” Atawna said.

“A lot of those premature babies who are born [at] less than one kilo die early on because of a lack of specialists, because of a lack of technical support [like] ventilators and incubators. When I go back, I hope that I can help.”

Making a ‘fundamental’ change

Dr. Rand Askalan, a Palestinian doctor who came to Canada in 1995, launched the fellowship program for Palestinian paediatric doctors six years ago after noticing a gap in services in the West Bank.

Both Askalan’s parents fled Nablus, in the West Bank, during the war of 1967.

She returned to the West Bank in 2002, during the height of the Second Intifada, with a group of volunteer doctors. At the time, she had just finished medical school at the University of Toronto and was in her first year of paediatric neurology at Sick Kids Hospital.

Askalan navigated Israeli checkpoints and closures to provide primary health care to Palestinians in the West Bank, many of whom were living under strict, Israeli army-imposed curfews and had no access to medical care.

“We went to villages where they hadn’t seen doctors for months … It was terrible,” she said.

“All the villages were under curfew. We had every day to negotiate our way with the Israeli army to enter the villages, despite the fact that our cars were very well-designated as [being from] a Canadian medical mission.”

That experience stayed with her, and when she returned to Canada, she began fundraising to bring Palestinian children to Toronto for treatment. When she finished her studies, she returned to Palestine more often to hold clinics and teach students.

“I realised how bad the situation was when it comes to sub-specialties in paediatrics. We have general paediatricians, but then when children need a specialised [treatment] … then things fall apart,” she said.

She told MEE that when children need specialised treatment, they either succumb to their disease because Palestinian paediatricians don’t have the needed expertise, or are forced to travel to neighbouring countries at a high cost to their family.

If Palestinian children secure permits to enter Israel for treatment, then they worry about having their treatment interrupted as a result of checkpoint closures or permit problems.

“I started thinking, ‘OK, we have to address this in a more fundamental way, which is basically invest in people,’ and train the Palestinian paediatricians so that they won’t depend on help from the outside,” she said.

‘A domino effect’

The first Palestinian doctor to come to Toronto on a Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship arrived in March 2011. “He was from Nablus,” Askalan said, laughing, “honestly by chance.”

The first two doctors to be trained were from the West Bank, but Palestinian physicians from Gaza have also taken part.

Generally, two doctors begin the two-year fellowship each year and it costs about $350,000 to support four fellows annually. That money is collected through donations from individuals, Askalan said.

Three new fellows will arrive this July. “They really work hard. They are very dedicated. They know this is a chance of a lifetime and they really take it seriously,” she said.

“You’re not just affecting the life of one individual. The impact is like a domino effect.”

Askalan said a past fellow from Hebron who returned to the West Bank has since expanded the intensive-care unit at the local Red Crescent Hospital. He also introduced a cooling system to aid infants that are born without oxygen to their brains.

“This was never done in Palestine,” she said about the cooling system. “When we see this, we say, ‘Yes!’ That is exactly what the program is aiming to do. You have invested in people and … they are making an impact when they go back.”

Askalan stressed, though, that the fellowship’s goal is to improve the lives of children in Palestine.

“If [the doctors] don’t go back, what’s the point? It’s great that you’re training Palestinians, that’s fabulous, but [if] then they go and work elsewhere, the Palestinian child living in Palestine didn’t benefit from this,” she said.

“The program is for the Palestinian child living in Palestine. These kids need their doctors to be there, to be with them in the community, and have access to them when needed.”

Bringing innovation home

Mahmoud Shbair is from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The 37-year-old father of two is finishing his Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship at Sick Kids Hospital in paediatric haematology and oncology, the study of blood-based diseases and cancers.

Mahmoud Shbair is from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip (MEE/Jillian D'Amours)

He told MEE that the sector is severely under-developed in Gaza. As a result, Palestinian children diagnosed with these types of cancers are often forced to seek treatment in Egypt, Jordan or Israel, if they can leave the territory at all.

“Kids may need to wait for three or four weeks with leukemia, for example, without receiving any treatment,” he said.

Shbair said he wants to establish the first specialised unit for cancer treatments in the Gaza Strip when he returns home. But securing the necessary equipment to treat these diseases, including machines that diagnose blood cancer types and conduct genetic analyses, is crucial.

Despite the challenge, he said he’s hopeful about being able to provide better care for Palestinian children, and helping build a self-sufficient health-care system in Gaza.

“Here [in Canada], a child diagnosed with leukemia will start treatment the next day … It’s difficult for any [Palestinian] family to look at their kids having leukemia for three weeks, waiting for security approval to go wherever he can be treated,” Shbair said.

“It’s a great [amount of] suffering on the families and on the kids and everybody.”

14 people fatally overdose on ‘painkiller’ in California

This undated photo released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration shows seized counterfeit hydrocodone tablets from an investigation involving at least a dozen people in the Sacramento, Calif., area who have fatally overdosed on a pill disguised as a popular painkiller.-U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP

By Sudhin Thanawala-April 26, 2016 

SAN FRANCISCO – Fourteen people in the Sacramento, California, area have fatally overdosed on a pill disguised as a popular painkiller, and now the drug has turned up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bay Area hospitals have treated seven patients who ingested what they thought was the painkiller Norco in recent weeks, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The patients all survived, though at least some experienced nausea, vomiting and difficulty breathing.

The pills were adulterated with fentanyl, the powerful opioid.

READ MORE: Fentanyl, take-home antidote kits featured at opioid conference

Sacramento County health officials have reported 52 Norco-connected poisonings since late March, with 12 of those cases resulting in deaths. Neighboring Yolo County reported another two deaths.

Law enforcement officials investigating the source of the pills will be looking to see whether the Sacramento and Bay Area cases are connected, said Casey Rettig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent based in San Francisco. She said she could not discuss details of the DEA’s ongoing investigation, but she noted that the Bay Area and Sacramento County illnesses occurred around the same time and that pills in the two areas had the same markings.

“It is our number one priority based out of San Francisco,” she said of the investigation. “We definitely want to connect the dots where we can.”

Rettig said she was not aware of other cases in California or elsewhere in the country in which fentanyl was sold as Norco.

Norco is a painkiller that contains acetaminophen and hydrocodone. Hydrocodone, also an opioid, is among the most abused prescription drug ingredients in the country.

Fentanyl abuse is also a problem around the country. On the East Coast, dealers have laced heroin with fentanyl and sold fentanyl as heroin, Rettig said. The drug is made in China, sent to Mexico and smuggled across the border, she said.

READ MORE: Could marijuana help treat painkiller and heroin addiction?

The pills ingested by the seven Bay Area patients also contained promethazine, said Kathy Vo, a medical toxicology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco who co-authored the CDC study. Promethazine heightens the high that an opioid can provide, Vo said.

Friends and street dealers were among the sources of the pills for the California overdose patients, officials said.

© 2016 The Canadian Press

Worsening depression 'may predict dementia risk'

A link between depression and dementia has been known for some time

30 April 2016

Symptoms of depression that steadily increase over time in older age could indicate early signs of dementia, scientists have said.

Other patterns of symptoms, such as chronic depression, appear not to be linked, a study found.

Dutch researchers looked at different ways depression in older adults progressed over time and how this related to any risk.

They concluded worsening depression may signal the condition is taking hold.

The research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, followed more than 3,000 adults aged 55 and over living in the Netherlands.

All had depression but no symptoms of dementia at the start of the study.

Dr M Arfan Ikram of the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam said depressive symptoms that gradually increase over time appear to be a better predictor of dementia later in life than other paths of depression.

"There are a number of potential explanations, including that depression and dementia may both be symptoms of a common underlying cause, or that increasing depressive symptoms are on the starting end of a dementia continuum in older adults," he said.

Only the group whose symptoms of depression increased over time were found to be at increased risk of dementia - about one in five of people (55 out of 255) in this group developed dementia.

Others who had symptoms that waxed and waned or stayed the same were not at increased risk.

For example, in those who experienced low but stable levels of depression, around 10% went on to develop dementia.

Prevention strategies?

The exact nature of depression on dementia risk remains unknown.

They often occur together, but the Dutch study is among the first to look at different patterns of depression symptoms.

Dr Simone Reppermund from the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, said more studies were needed to understand the link.

"A focus on lifestyle factors such as physical activity and social networks, and biological risk factors such as vascular disease, neuroinflammation, high concentrations of stress hormones, and neuropathological changes, might bring new treatment and prevention strategies a step closer," she wrote in a linked editorial in the journal.

Depression varies greatly from one person to another. Some experience depressive symptoms only briefly, others have remitting and relapsing depression and some people are depressed all the time.

Dr Simon Ridley, director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said anyone concerned about either condition should seek help.

"The findings suggest that low levels of depression or fluctuating symptoms may not affect dementia risk but that a worsening of symptoms in the over-55s may be an early indicator of diseases like Alzheimer's," he said.

"It's important to remember that only a relatively small number of people experiencing symptoms of depression went on to develop dementia during this 11-year study, but anyone concerned about either condition should talk to their GP."

Samantha Power Misses the Mark on Sri Lanka (Again)

The Obama administration’s messaging on Sri Lanka misses the mark yet again.

By Taylor Dibbert-April 29, 2016

On Thursday in Washington, the United States and Sri Lanka held an important meeting focused on trade, investment, and the broader direction of bilateral economic relations. Samantha Power, U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, even flew in from New York City to attend the event. Power’s prepared remarks are as upbeat as ever.

Like the author of this piece, some readers may be wondering (quite reasonably) why Power was attending a meeting focused on economic issues. According to a media advisory note from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Power’s participation would “highlight how the U.S.-Sri Lanka Joint Action Plan [the agreement inked Thursday] represents continued progress for human rights, as well as democracy and accountability, on the part of the newly elected Sri Lankan government.”

It’s no secret that the United States has been keen on resetting the relationship with Sri Lanka since Maithripala Sirisena won the presidency in January 2015. Nevertheless, the Obama administration’s rhetoric continues to be wildly out of step with reality. Let’s take a closer look at Power’s statement.

Here’s a one paragraph:

Of course, the fact that we [the U.S. and Sri Lanka] are all here in an incredibly positive atmosphere reflects just how much has changed in Sri Lanka since January 2015. That was the month where Sri Lankans cast their votes for a new era: one in which their leadership committed to seeking a durable peace, an accountable democracy, a new relationship with the outside world, and expanded opportunities for all.

Sri Lanka watchers will notice that instead of the United States clearly calling for accountability for wartime abuses (a hugely controversial issue in post-war Sri Lanka), the language seems to have shifted to “accountable democracy.” This is something to watch going forward. Is Washington still genuinely pushing for wartime accountability?

Power talks about the “extraordinary progress” that Sri Lanka has made under Sirisena’s leadership. “Sri Lanka has, since January 2015, emerged as a global champion of human rights and democratic accountability,” she says.

Global champion of human rights and accountability? That’s quite an assertion.

Sri Lanka’s new government has ruled in a less authoritarian fashion than the administration of Mahinda Rajapaksa, though it’s unclear how or when Colombo became a “global champion” of human rights and accountability. The truth is that we’re still waiting for the government to move toward deeper reform. 

Besides, the recent spate of arrests and abductions across the Tamil-dominated Northern and Eastern Provinces should set alarm bells ringing in Washington. That’s the type of anti-Tamil behavior that became increasingly common during Rajapaksa’s divisive decade in power.

“The United States will seek to leverage our assistance this year to further support broad-based economic growth,” Power says. Well, sure, everyone can get behind economic growth. The problem is that it looks like Obama’s team is no longer prioritizing the more important (and more controversial) war-related issues that had been a longstanding concern for the United States. In Power’s remarks, there’s only a fleeting reference to “transitional justice.”

Washington is “very clear-eyed about the challenges ahead,” Power says. Unfortunately, others – including the Sirisena administration – may have already drawn a very different conclusion.

Jaffna steel houses not suitable for human occupancy

Apr 29, 2016

Findings in a report by a team of local experts say 65,000 steel houses to be constructed in Jaffna by India is a failed project. The report says these houses are without any standard and are not good for human occupancy.

A University of Moratuwa’s civil engineering faculty team headed by Prof. Priyan Dias has prepared the report. Other members of the team are Dr. Rangika Halwatura and architect Varuna de Silva.

 

The report says, the  steel  houses are around at  least  double  the  cost  of  a  block  wall  house and have poor or non-existent capacity for extension or repair.

 

The steel houses suffer from inadequate foundations, insufficient roof support, risk of steel corrosion despite the coatings provided and poor ventilation.

 

Constructed by an Indian company with Indian aid, the entire cost is more than 200 million US dollars.

 

There have been views expressed to the effect that these houses are not suitable for human occupancy. Northern chief minister C.V. Vigneswaran was one of those who had expressed those views. However, rehabilitation and resettlement minister D.M. Swaminathan has maintained they were up to standards. 

 

Read the report by the Moratuwa University team’s report:

Jaffna University Sexual Harassment: AL Students Demand UGC Inquiry

By Ruba Ratnasingam –April 29, 2016

As has been reported in Colombo Telegraph Dr. S. Dharshanan, Head of the Department of Music and a close relative of Jaffna VC Vasanthi Arasaratnam, was suspended from service without pay following numerous accusations of sexual harassment by his students and staff colleagues at the Ramanathan Academy of Fine Arts (RAFA). These accusations had been there from 2011 but the Council inquiries had asked the accusers to cooperate with their accuser. Action was forced only when numerous students complained in writing and were ready to riot, and one student was on the verge of committing suicide.

Prof. Vasanthi Arasaratnam

The four years of licence to do anything with the women under his authority that the Council effectively gave Dr. Darshanan is now showing its consequences. These consequences are undermining the academic standards of the university. Darshanan is gone, albeit temporarily, but the effects of his stewardship of the Department of Music refuse to go away. His ghost is haunting the university.

University admissions are based on the z-score, a normalized system of marks that allows a comparison of performance in subjects where it is easy to score with that in subjects where it is difficult to score. Unlike raw marks, the z-score yields a 1.0 for the medium of the raw marks and forms a common basis for comparison. Those on the merit lists for say engineering and medicine get a z-score of around 2, way off the norm on the upper side. In subjects that no one wants to do, even a z-score under 0.5 may merit admission. The RAFA is a place where the score is well off the norm in subjects like music that few want to do. As such the students too are from families where there is no culture of protesting when there is injustice.

Generally the z-score system gives a good way to base admissions on. However, there are some subjects where it is claimed that aptitude is important and has to be measured as a part of the admission process. Thus Architecture is a subject where academics measure aptitude to depart from the strict use of the z-score and it is common and not surprising to see the children of academics being assessed to have high aptitude and getting admission. Although many recognize this as unfair, it is difficult to change because academics run the university system and want that system retained. However, keenly competitive subjects like medicine and engineering also demand aptitude but it is never assessed because favoritism there will result in a riot.

Read More

Tamil protestors beat back Sri Lankan military surveyors 29 April 2016 Tamil protestors in Puthukkudiyiruppu managed to deter Sri Lankan military surveyors from acquiring a tranche of privately owned land on Wednesday. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence has been demanding the Tamil villagers hand over the deeds to 38 acres of land, which is situated by the Puthukkudiyiruppu provincial secretariat, stated protestors. The land is currently legally owned by 42 different villagers, yet since the end of the armed conflict in 2009 the Sri Lankan military has set up an army camp in the area. Field officers from Sri Lanka’s survey department accompanied by security forces personnel attempted to inspect the area on Wednesday to permanently occupying the land, said protestors.

Sri Lankan protest demands new probe of Tamil journalist's killing

Sri Lankan journalists shout slogans holding a portrait of killed journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram during a protest in Colombo. AP

AP  Apr 29, 2016 

Colombo: Hundreds of journalists and media rights activists protested on Friday to demand Sri Lanka's new government start a fresh investigation into the abduction and killing of a prominent ethnic Tamil journalist 11 years ago, during the country's civil war.

Those demonstrating in front of Colombo's main railroad station said Dharmeratnam Sivaram was targeted because of uncompromising coverage of political and military matters.

Media rights activist Lasantha Ruhunage said even 11 years after, the law enforcement authorities have failed to find the killers and "therefore they should start a fresh investigation and bring the culprits before law."

Sivaram was found dead on 29 April, 2005, in the capital, Colombo, after being abducted the previous evening.

The 30-year civil war ended in 2009 after government troops defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought to create a separate state for minority Tamils. Scores of journalists and media workers were killed during the war, and several dozen journalists fled the country.

The government has promised to implement a compensation plan for 44 journalists and other media workers killed under the former government, but Ruhunage said "more than compensation, the attacks on journalists, media workers and media institutions should be properly investigated and those responsible for the attacks should be punished, in order to ensure justice to the media community."

The new government that came into power last year promised to ensure media freedom and to investigate attacks on media under the previous government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who lost last year's presidential election. While Rajapaksa was in power, a prominent opposition newspaper editor and scores of journalists were killed and some others were assaulted while some private TV stations were attacked.

They march on May Day

Puck, in the Shakespearean comedy Midsummer Night’s Dream, thought that we mortals are fools. Had he had the benefit of observing the tragi-comedy of our May Day rallies he may well have used a stronger word than that

.Saturday, 30 April 2016

Whatever the disputed number or density of bodies at the different rallies held to commemorate the workers’ day, one thing is certain; on May Day, all the meetings added up, there will be a good million Sri Lankans marching, shouting themselves hoarse in the burning sun.

If the climate prevailing now holds, it will not be their ally, tormenting the weary marchers with a sweltering day of extreme humidity. After all the sound and fury, the day will end like most their days, bone weary, hollow, signifying nothing.

They have been marching from pre-independence days, going back to early 1930s, when A.E. Gunasinghe led the labour movement. In 1935 came the left parties, giving more militancy to the parades in line with the ideology of class conflict. So backward was our economic/social development, this was nearly a century after the publication of the epoch making Communist Manifesto in 1848, a stirring call to arms by the then 30 year old Karl Marx.

“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to gain. Working men of all countries, unite!” was the clarion call.

Whole new world

With colonisation came a whole new world of ideas and ways of thinking. But things can be studied, copied or imitated and yet remain foreign, partially perceived and only imperfectly understood. It is good for all concerned to have competing businesses. But the idea of competition, if interpreted wrongly, could lead to the ruin of all.

In Sri Lanka, you open a kindergarten, the next day there will be another, and yet another, opening right next door. Inevitably the idea becomes meaningless, losing all credibility, the process leading to mutual destruction.

Even when it came to May Day rallies, before long, every political party began to stage their own. In some instances, particularly in the estate sector, large-scale employers also led the workers unions! The political clout that the unions gave them allowed them to acquire more economic power, enabling them to command still more political power. Now, this self-serving cycle would apply to most politicians addressing the rallies on May Day.

Class struggles

Arguably, in some form or the other, we are all workers. No one just vegetates. Even to meditate, one must use human faculties. The politician, the judge, the doctor, the architect; they are all workers, presumably more intellectual than physical. But that is not what Marx meant. It is in relation to the means of production that the class is defined.

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild – master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”

The bourgeois proved to be a much harder nut to crack than Marx anticipated. Combined with liberal democracy, the free enterprise system has given its citizens a standard of living and a sense of freedom far superior to anything enjoyed hitherto. Contrary to the anticipated mass impoverishment, the efficiencies of the system have opened up a prospect of plenty while making it possible to enjoy more leisure than was possible in any other epoch. 

The average worker in the Developed world perhaps leads a life style far superior to a rich man in a poor country. In the everyday services like education, health, transport he could assume a standard, which will only be a rare exception in a poor country. His supermarkets will carry the best of foods. His bakery will produce the best of bread. He could travel freely. He may take for granted the sense of well-being and security that a rich and orderly society provides. 

Quite justifiably, these countries could tell the putative socialist States like China and Vietnam that ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Meanwhile, the more hard-line North Korea, while mouthing Marxist slogans, has degenerated into a derelict torture chamber run by the founders’ family. 

Capitalism

In our little country, capitalism was late in coming. Both the Dutch and the British only promoted a non-industrial type of capitalism in the form of plantations. Even today our industrial base is small and relatively backward. 

Whatever industry that has been established are by and large those using the lower range of technology, supported by a high in-put of labour. These are industries which are relatively easy to get in to; competition is high, margins low and extremely vulnerable to market fluctuations. 

The advance working class Marx was writing about hardly exists here. In terms of productivity, whether it is the plantations, rice paddies or the factories we lag behind. To put it in another way, per person, our workers are definitely not among the most productive.

On the other side of the divide, the so-called capitalist in the country, owe their success to either a crime or unashamed cronyism. There is no businessman who can claim success without having had political patronage. With the political swings, his fortunes also rise and fall. Among the local entrepreneurs one sees little creativity or innovation, imitation and copying being the easy way to do business. By all accounts, corruption, bribery and commissions form the essence of our business methods.

The political establishment

We then go to the leaders, the political establishment. Since 1948, we have never achieved the sustained rate of economic growth that enabled newly-industrialised countries to break the shackles of poverty. Under their watch, there is no institution which has not been degraded, nor is there a service which can claim to be superior to what was say thirty years ago, leave alone international standards. 

Reflective of a deep rooted feudalism, their governance style is more ceremonious than being effective and target oriented. The long drawn out religious ceremonies that precede any public function, when there is not a jot of spirituality in them, tells the story. It is with the form of governance they are preoccupied with; mode of address, method of approach; not the substance thereof. With no past performance to talk of, little to show for the present, it is in the art of drawing a rosy future they thrive at. 

Salvation will come with the next constitution, a new law to be passed or an agreement with a foreign agency to be signed. Everything is airy fairy, a bluff to fob off the anxious public, while they just carry on, concentrating on self-enrichment, consolidating their position and taking care of the future careers of kith and kin. Meanwhile, crisis to crisis we go, insurrections, separatist movements, riots, to constant unrest standing starkly before a background of economic stagnation; an uninspiring tale in a region with many inspiring stories.

The workers will march

Like all the previous years, once again, the workers will march on this May Day too.

They will be summoned by a political busybody, packed into a hot uncomfortable bus, given a packet of rice, some money; perhaps a cup or two of a cheap alcohol and that will be called a political action.

In their perception, so humble is the position they occupy in the universe, they will not be heard to say to the busybody ‘Sorry, on this day I have children to attend to, family matters to take care of, a house to repair, a book to read, an education to follow, a hobby to indulge in….’

Puck, in the Shakespearean comedy Midsummer Night’s Dream, thought that we mortals are fools. Had he had the benefit of observing the tragi-comedy of our May Day rallies he may well have used a stronger word than that.

No new VAT on any education service; MR misleading people


April 29, 2016

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva today said that no new Value Added Tax (VAT) has been imposed on any education service and accused former President Mahinda Rajapaksa of attempting to mislead the people.  

“MR please don’t mislead the people. There is NO new VAT on any education service,” he wrote on his official Facebook page, replying to a statement issued by Rajapaksa.

 He charged that the Kurunegala District MP has once again issued a statement “containing a number of untruths.”

 “Knowing very well there is no imposition of new VAT on education services (removal of VAT exclusions) he attempts to mislead people by saying that fees from “nursery school to tertiary level as well as private tuition classes” will see an increase.”  

“Come on... be honest... let us debate based on the truth Mr Ex President,” he charged. 

In a statement issued yesterday, Rajapaksa alleged that while benefitting from lower global commodity prices, the government is now trying to increase the VAT rate from 11% to 15% and widen its applicability to hitherto exempt sectors like telecommunications, health and education.  

“This will cause a 4% increase in the prices of goods on which VAT is already being charged and a sudden 15% increase in the costs of telephone and internet services, medical specialist channeling services, medical tests, private hospital care, private education from nursery school to tertiary level as well as private tuition classes,” he claimed. 

Public Service Under Yahapaalanaya: Episode 

Featured image courtesy theecologist.org

The Ceylon Electricity Board.

SHADRACH F-on 04/29/2016

I can imagine the range of emotions the mere mention of this public institution will inspire in a number of you. Particularly those of you who, like me, do not have a generator, and have sweated it out through the power cuts over the past few weeks. But this article is not aimed at grumbling about the power failure per se. It is concerned instead with the total inefficiency of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) in performing its duties.

The episode I am about to describe is the first hand experience of a close friend.

The scene was set at a house in Layards Road, that was under the supervisory care of my friend. Fear of an electrical fire set in when a fuse inside the property began to spark and set off some mini-explosions. The tenant informed my friend and called up the CEB’s emergency hotline and requested the mobile van to attend to the matter on site.

This was at roughly 8pm on the 4^th of April. They promised to be there in an hour. My friend went over to the house, as the matter seemed dire, and made another call at 9.22pm. Clearly, the emergency service seemed to take the former part of its title as a mere suggestion. When asked for a reference number from the hotline, the reply was that the system was broken and they were not able to generate a reference number. When my friend pleaded for the emergency mobile service to arrive quickly, the hotline – ever so generously – repeated what it had said an hour and a half earlier – that it would be there in an hour.

In what situation does a 2.5 hour long wait constitute the provision of an emergency service? Pizzas get made and delivered in Colombo in one fifth of that time. And, why should taxpayers have to plead for a public service to keep its promises? Or in this case, plead in vain? My friend hung up in dismay.

The second part of my friend’s experience is irritatingly similar to my recent experience at the Ministry of External Affairs. You see, an ordinary citizen would have had little choice but to wait helplessly for yet another hour until the emergency mobile van may or may not have turned up. That is the reality for someone with no access to power. However, and this is not an attack on those with connections, my friend just happened to know a person in the Ministerial ranks. My friend made the call we all wish we could make, and lo and behold – the mobile van was at the doorstep within 15 minutes.

This is not a criticism of the Ministerial intervention. This is a lamentation of the reality that is our public service. If the CEB is able to provide a service for those with access to power in a timely manner, what reasonable excuse does it have for unreasonably delaying their services for those who don’t? It is doubtful that it was one of capacity. The CEB – perhaps a microcosm of the public sector at large – lumbers forth in its elephantine way with no concrete attempts to improve itself. 

The Yahapaalanaya government speaks of good governance. It can start with its own Electricity Board.

Undiplomatic Practice of the Foreign Ministry – Observations of an old guard

My inquisitive mind forced me to look for reasons for the present sorry state of affairs of the place we loved so much many years ago. Many of the people whom I saw in the corridors wore grim look and did not display anything to impress me as “Diplomats.”

by A retired Foreign Service Officer

 

( April 30, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Recently, I had to visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after nearly a decade to get a certificate of my daughter authenticated from the Consular Affairs Division. This note contains what I observed during my visit and comments on the state of affairs at the Foreign Ministry, today. Of course, the Consular Affairs Division, where many hundreds of people visit every day is somewhat similar to a cattle house. It is highly disorganized. Although a reasonable income for the government is generated, even toilet facilities have not been provided for the visitors. During the few hours there I found many people, who visited the place for various reasons have been very critical especially on the highly illogical way of handling the applications, attending to the people and responses given by the officers to some sensitive questions. During our time even though the Consular Division was at a corner of the Ministry, people were treated decently and nicely.

 

After spending few hours I walked through the main gate of the Ministry as my mind urged me to see the “old place.” Once again I have to use the word cattle house to describe the outer appearance of the Ministry. The building has not been maintained properly and it is in a shabby condition. The temporary rooms erected in the place have already destroyed the very beauty of this splendid historical building. No one has realized the historical value of it before making illogical changes and alterations. This itself is a testimony to the type of administration at the Ministry today.  On the onset, I felt something is missing. I soon realized that lack of interest in the people housed in this building is the reason for the dismal situation.

 

My inquisitive mind forced me to look for reasons for the present sorry state of affairs of the place we loved so much many years ago. Many of the people whom I saw in the corridors wore grim look and did not display anything to impress me as “Diplomats.” I recalled the days when those decent looking professional Diplomats like Jayanath Rajapakse, Rodney Wadergert, Bernard Thilakeratna, Author Basnayake, Manel Abeysekara were graciously walking on the corridors of the Ministry with an impressive look. You feel that they were a set of real professional Diplomats as soon as you see them. That was not because many of they are tall and handsome, but they were serious, serious about their work.

 

I have no word to describe the only place I was allowed to enter the Overseas Administration Division of the Ministry. It is full of ladies in fancy dresses and handy phones but the lack of professionalism. They were unable to provide the information I requested. Fortunately, I managed to obtain a copy of the booklet entitled “Diplomatic, Consular, and other Representatives Abroad.” Unfortunately, it proved to me how undiplomatic the Foreign Ministry is. The way details about the Missions are arranged is highly unprofessional and it proved the low quality of people manning the Ministry. It is a classic example for how poor the knowledge of the officers about the basics of Diplomacy. I am sure that they have read not even Satow’s Diplomatic practice but the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Practice too. Listing the officers in the Missions has not done according to their seniority. For example, a Second Secretary is placed above a Counsellor. You never call Ambassador-Designate, His Excellency or H.E. Yet, in front of such names, the title H.E. has been placed. I know Secretary too is ignorant about these matters.

 

I also had a chat with an officer whom I know for some time. His first complaint was divisions and grouping in the Ministry. According to him, groups have been formed according to ethnicity and loyalty to various individuals such as politicians. This has avoided the most important component togetherness or team sense among the officers. He also lamented about favoritism, lack of transparency in making appointments within Ministry and in the Missions. I was informed that period of service in abroad is not applicable to certain groups. Although the usual term of service abroad is three years, there are many serves over five years while some are in Colombo waiting for postings over three years. He asked me an interesting question, will Sri Lanka close down some of the Missions if some individuals identify themselves as “professionals” suddenly ceased to exist.

 

This question made me understand the core of the issue i.e. administrative lapses. As opposed to the period of the previous regime, today, it is my understanding that the Ministry is free of some undue political interference. Yet, administrators have not yet ready to exercise their powers in the new era. I may put this in a different context. The reality is the administrators are weak. This weakness has surfaced on different occasions, according to people I had an opportunity to talk. The recent incident was administrators’ inability to take proper action against one of the newly recruited Foreign Service officers, who submitted a forged university certificate. If a proper administration is in place in the Ministry, this person should be in jail, I was told. I was enlightened on similar cases where some officers were promoted although they have not fulfilled necessary requirements. I was caught by total surprise when I hear an officer is serving in the Ministry for over ten years without passing a single departmental efficiency bar examination. The officer talked to me tied up this incident with a favor granted to a top administrator of the Ministry by the brother of this lady officer in an operation.

 

Although my accidental tour in the Ministry is very interesting, I felt really, really sorry about the present situation. Now I can understand why the Prime Ministry is angry about the Foreign Service. I know that he has seen the veteran diplomats of our time. However, the poor junior officers are not the party responsible for this debacle; it is the top administration and the senior officers running the show. I personally believe that unless the political leadership displays any enthusiasm towards revamping the Foreign Ministry, it will not be able to expect any tangible result from this highly disorganized and poorly managed organization. I wonder what happened to some of the very bright officers who joined many years ago during our time. There had been a group of serious Diplomats but none of them can be seen today. More interestingly, the Minister has still unable to find a career officer to replace the present Secretary who has already passed her retirement age. This is a serious matter.