Some cities are taking another look at LED lighting after AMA warning

An LED fixture, bottom, is displayed next to an older streetlight, top, in Las Vegas, Nev. on Aug. 3, 2011. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

By Michael Ollove September 25

If people are sleepless in Seattle, it may not be only because they have broken hearts.

The American Medical Association issued a warning in June that high-intensity LED streetlights — such as those in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Houston and elsewhere — emit unseen blue light that can disturb sleep rhythms and possibly increase the risk of serious health conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. The AMA also cautioned that those light-emitting-diode lights can impair nighttime driving vision.

Similar concerns have been raised over the past few years, but the AMA reportadds credence to the issue and is likely to prompt cities and states to reevaluate the intensity of LED lights they install.

Nearly 13 percent of area/roadway lighting is now LED, according to a report prepared last year for the Department of Energy, and many communities that haven’t yet made the switch plan to do so. LEDs are up to 50 percent more energy-efficient than the yellow-orange high-pressure sodium lights they typically replace. They last for 15 to 20 years, instead of two to five. And unlike sodium lights, the LEDs spread illumination evenly.

[Blue light from electronics disturbs sleep, especially for teenagers]

The Energy Department released this video in 2012 explaining the difference between various types of lightbulbs and the energy costs associated with each option. (U.S. Department of Energy)

Some cities say the health concerns are not convincing enough to override the benefits of the first-generation bright LED lights that they installed in the past three to eight years. New York is one of them, although it has responded to resident complaints by replacing the high-intensity, white LED bulbs with a lower-intensity bulb that the AMA considers safe.

Scott Thomsen, a spokesman for Seattle City Lights, which is responsible for the city’s exterior illumination, dismissed the health concerns about bright-white LED lights, noting that they emit less of the problematic blue wavelengths than most computers and televisions.

After a year and a half of discussion and sampling, Lake Worth, Fla., is replacing its sodium streetlights with about 4,150 LED lights with an amber glow. “We found a color that made sense for the health of our city, and we’re proud of the choice we’ve made,” Michael Bornstein, the city manager, said.

Mark Hartman, Phoenix’s chief sustainability officer, said the city might go with a mix of the intense lights for major intersections and ballpark areas that need very bright light and a softer light for residential areas. He said the city would consider the health arguments, although he too mentioned the glow from computers and televisions. “Nobody says don’t watch television or use your computer after 9 p.m. because of blue lights,” he said.

The first generation

Almost as soon as outdoor LEDs were made available, the federal government encouraged states and municipalities to use them, calling LEDs highly efficient for applications such as traffic lights and exit signs. But critics say federal authorities were too quick to endorse LEDs.

[What you need to know about OLED lighting]

The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency “put a lot of push into them,” said Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California at Davis. “I call it a rush.”

Las Vegas replaced 6,600 existing lights with the new energy-efficient LEDs. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Siminovitch said the light from early-generation LEDs “really negatively impacts people’s physiological well-being.”

Lighting is measured by color temperature, which is expressed in “kelvin,” or “K.” The original LED streetlights had temperatures of at least 4000K, which produces a bright white light with a high content of unseen blue light.

Now, however, LEDs are available with lower kelvin ratings and roughly the same energy efficiency as those with higher ratings. They don’t emit as much potentially harmful blue light, and they produce a softer, amber hue.

When 4000K and 5000K LEDs were installed, they drew mixed responses. Police and traffic-safety officials and many motorists liked them because they created a bright light that sharply illuminated the ground they covered.

But in many places, including New York City and Seattle, residents complained that the bright white light they emitted was harsh, even lurid. People described them as invasive, cold and unflattering.

Even before the AMA warning, some researchers raised health concerns. Some noted that exposure to the blue-rich LED outdoor lights might decrease people’s secretion of the hormone melatonin. Secreted at night, melatonin helps balance the reproductive, thyroid and adrenal hormones and regulates the body’s circadian rhythm of sleeping and waking.

“As a species, we weren’t designed to see light at night,” Siminovitch said.

Meanwhile, the “dark sky” movement criticizes LEDs as a major contributor to what it calls the “light pollution” that humans cast into the night sky.

Effect on sleep cycles

In its warning, the AMA cited the melatonin issue, noting that studies have linked bright LEDs to reduced sleep time, poor sleep quality and impaired daytime functioning.

It referred to evidence that exposure to high-intensity light at night might increase the risk of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. And it cautioned that intense LEDs have been associated with “discomfort and disability glare,” which might impair nighttime vision for drivers.

[Nobel Prize in physics goes to three men who gave us blue LEDs]

Finally, the AMA cautioned about the harmful effects of bright LEDs on wildlife, particularly nocturnal animals, birds and insects.

“These lights aren’t just bad for us,” said Mario Motta, one of the authors of the AMA report, “they’re bad for the environment, too.”

The AMA did commend LEDs for their energy efficiency and effectiveness, but it urged cities to minimize blue-rich outside lighting and recommended the use of LEDs no brighter than 3000K.

Tony Dorsey, a spokesman with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said that the organization’s environmental committee is studying the AMA’s report but that association members haven’t seemed concerned about the use of 4000K LEDs on roadways.

The Department of Energy said LEDs should be used with “prudence” butpraised their overall performance. It said the AMA had added “another influential voice” to the issue.

Others, including the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., said the lights pose less risk than the AMA suggests. The research center pointed out that the AMA report is based on extended exposure to high-intensity LEDs, and said the blue-light hazard of LEDs “is probably not a concern to the majority of the population in most lighting applications.”

Motta stood by the AMA’s concerns about high-intensity LEDs and said there is no downside — either in cost or efficiency — to choosing a lower-intensity light.

Sleeping in Seattle

Some cities are satisfied with their higher-intensity LED streetlights.

In Seattle, which has installed about 41,000 new lights since 2010, Thomsen, the spokesman for Seattle Light, attributed the early complaints to residents’ surprise at the sharp difference in brightness between the old sodium lights and the new LEDs.

[What to order when you’re buying new (and pricey!) eyeglasses]

Light from the new fixtures is comparable to moonlight and provides excellent visual acuity for drivers, Thomsen said. Police especially like them, he said, because they enable people to distinguish colors at night. “The police say they get much better witness descriptions,” Thomsen said.

Thomsen also noted that even though the Seattle LEDs are rated at 4100K, significantly lower than most computer screens, laptops and televisions.

But Pete Strasser, technical director at the International Dark-Sky Association, said moonlight contains far less blue light than high-intensity LED lights.

A little more than a year ago, Gloucester, Mass., was on its way to replacing its sodium streetlights with new 4000K LEDs. But then city planner Matt Coogan began reading about health and environmental warnings. He also had residents sample the 4000K lights against 3000K models.

Next month, the city is expected to finish installing its LEDs, but they will be 3000K rather than 4000K.

Coogan knows the debate over the health risks of LEDs rages on. But he doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of history.

“I didn’t want to get 10 or 15 years down the road and find out we had exposed our people to a health risk,” Coogan said.

— Stateline

Sri Lanka’s President Misses an Opportunity at the UN

The president could have made the case for deeper reform.

By Taylor Dibbert-September 23, 2016

Sri Lanka’s Maithripala Sirisena spoke at the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday. Mr. Sirisena touched on economic development, poverty, drugs and more. It was a brief speech. However, Mr. Sirisena could have at least attempted to make a clear, articulate case for the most important aspects of the coalition government’s reform agenda, especially transitional justice. Regrettably, the president failed to do that.

For example, here’s an area that deserved more attention:

In the domestic front, my government has taken effective measures to strengthen democracy, rule of law and good governance in the country paving the way for a positive change to ensure that there will be no more wars on the soils of my country, Sri Lanka. The reconciliation process that is underway today has learnt from the bitter experience of a brutal war of three decades. It will guarantee that my country will not see the cruelty of war and terrorism again and that all communities will live peacefully in a rational and a free-thinking Sri Lanka. For this noble purpose, Sri Lanka welcomes the collaboration and the blessings of the world.

Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.

This was a fairly weak performance from the president – particularly when one recognizes that Colombo continues to drag its feet on a host of war-related issues: the detention of Tamil political prisoners, the military’s continued occupation of civilian land, pervasive militarization across the country’s north and east, among other matters. Leaving the government’s sincerity toward deeper reform aside for a moment, one could argue that the environment to implement a credible, comprehensive transitional justice package does not yet exist, especially in the northern and eastern provinces.

In other international settings, Mangala Samaraweera – the country’s foreign minister – has issued soaring, exuberant speeches that don’t reflect reality, although at least Mr. Samaraweera has attempted to talk about some of the more controversial components of the government’s reform agenda. To a large degree, the foreign minister’s remarks have been intended to express what Colombo thinks the international community wants to hear. But then, usually, similar messages are neither conveyed to a domestic audience nor backed up with concrete action.

Frankly, Mr. Sirisena’s UN speech serves as yet another reminder that, even at the highest levels of government, Colombo remains afraid of making a persuasive case for transitional justice or healing the wounds of war. Unless Mr. Sirisena and others start talking more consistently about the requisite reforms (especially within Sri Lanka), it’s hard to imagine that the government would ever get around to properly implementing them.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Mr. Sirisena on Wednesday as well. Mr. Kerry reminded us that the United States is “very encouraged by the steps that the president is taking and Sri Lanka is taking with respect to reconciliation, and they’re also making important economic reforms.”

Here again, another U.S. official speaks about “reconciliation” in Sri Lanka, but “accountability” (for wartime abuses) is not mentioned. That said, the secretary’s brief remarks could have been worse. In April, Samantha Power referred to Sri Lanka as “a global champion of human rights and democratic accountability.” Power’s remarks were way off base, although a range of senior U.S. officials have been excessively congratulatory too. “So the story of Sri Lanka is a great one and we’re really happy to be able to meet,” said Mr. Kerry on Wednesday.

A “great” story, really? If you’re looking for an accurate depiction of the current state of affairs in Sri Lanka, be sure to steer clear of Washington’s rhetoric.

Editor’s Note: After the publication of this article, the President’s Media Division released a different English version of Mr. Sirisena’s speech.

SWRD Bandaranaike and the paradox of Sri Lankan federalism

SWRD Bandaranaike

by Rajan Philips-September 24, 2016, 8:31 pm 

Tomorrow, the 26th of September, will be the 57th death anniversary of Sri Lanka’s fourth Prime Minister, SWRD Bandaranaike. The shocking circumstances of his death in 1959 and the subsequent electoral successes of the political party that he founded ensured his posthumous political significance and the commemoration of his death as an annual state event for the next two decades. Even tomorrow there will be commemoration ceremonies at the Horagolla Samadhi, but not at the same scale of splendour as they were during the 1960s and 1970s. A silver tongued orator, Mr. Bandaranaike was also a rare political figure outside the two Left political parties, who could actually ‘write’ and did write on politics. The subject of my commemorative piece today is what Mr. Bandaranaike (SWRD) wrote in 1926 to The Ceylon Morning Leader that was published in Colombo at that time. SWRD wrote six Letters to the Morning Leader on the subject of federalism in May-June 1926, and in July the newspaper carried an extensive report on a speech he delivered in Jaffna on July 17, 1926, on the topic: ‘A Federal System for Sri Lanka.’

At the time of his writing, SWRD was 27-years old, had just returned home after his studies at Oxford, and was cutting his teeth in the practice of law and testing the waters in politics. The Letters and the speech are now more known for their historical originality than any impact they might have had at that time. They constitute Chapter 1 in the 2008 compilation of nearly 1000 pages, by Rohan Edrisinha, Mario Gomez, VT Thamilmaran and Asanga Welikala, and entitled: ‘Power Sharing in Sri Lanka – Constitutional and Political Documents 1926-2008.’ SWRD was the first to write about federalism in Sri Lanka. But, to my surprise, I could not find any reference to them in James Manor’s otherwise well-researched biography of SWRD Bandaranaike: ‘The Expedient Utopian.’

According to KM de Silva (A History of Sri Lanka), although Bandaranaike advocated federalism, in 1926, as the "main plank" of the Progressive Nationalist Party, "his party" at that time, his "ardour for federalism cooled somewhat over the years". But 30 years later in 1956, in de Silva’s view, "it was a grim irony that he should be called upon, at the moment of his greatest political triumph, to articulate the strong opposition of the Sinhalese to any attempt to establish a federal constitution."

The federal genealogy

It is true that Mr. Bandaranaike did not pursue the goal of federalism in later years so single-mindedly as his 1926 articulations would have suggested. Equally, it is not correct to say that he categorically rejected federalism as unsuitable for Sri Lanka after cogently arguing in 1926 that federalism was the only solution to Sri Lanka’s political problems. On the contrary, his specific ideas and initiatives in a number of instances in later years, such as local government reform, decentralization of administration, and devolution of power, were always consistent with his philosophy of federalism that he espoused in 1926. The celebrated B-C Pact of 1957 falls within the same genre of political ideas and initiatives. It was not a rejection of federalism, nor was it a launching pad for federalism. Therein lie the paradox of Sri Lankan federalism. There is another dimension to this paradox that I will address later on.

It is also an exaggeration, even a lie, to suggest that everyone worthier than Chandrika Kumaratunga, in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, has rejected federalism as unsuitable for Sri Lanka. The 2008 Documents I referred to earlier, gives the lie to this spurious contention. Not long after SWRD’s espousal of federalism, the Kandyan National Assembly, a political organization representing the Kandyan Sinhalese, picked up the idea and argued before the Donoughmore Commission for "the creation of a federal state (in Sri Lanka) as in the United States of America." The "Kandyan Claim" as it came to be known was based on the premise that the "amalgamation of Government in 1833" has been detrimental to the people of the former Kandyan Kingdom, and advocated a federal solution creating "three self-governing areas" in Sri Lanka, comprising: "(1) the Northern and Eastern Provinces in which the Tamils predominate, (2) the Kandyan Provinces, (3) the Southern and Western Provinces peopled mainly by Low Country Sinhalese."

The Donoughmore recommendations did not go as far as to accommodate the Kandyan Claim in its entirety, but included a number of "federalizing features" to address Kandyan concerns and to decentralize the state structure and government administration. The main feature was the establishment of Provincial Councils, a task the Commissioners left to be fulfilled by future State Council governments that would be established under the Donoughmore Constitution. Alas, that fulfillment never materialized, but that is another of an enormously missed opportunity.

After the Kandyans, the (Ceylon) Communist Party championed the idea of federalism in its internal deliberations and in its representations to the Ceylon National Congress, calling for an All Party Conference to "forge a united demand for independence and a free constitution" from the British rulers. Based on resolutions passed unanimously at a rally of 5,000 people at the Colombo Town Hall, on 15 October 1944, The Communist Party appealed to the Congress and all political organizations to take united stand and avoid making unilateral representations to the Soulbury Commssion that had just been set up to navigate the final phase of colonial rule. The appeal fell on deaf ears.

In the scheme of things, the Tamil Federal Party was the last to take to federalism, three years after independence, and not coincidentally the Tamil association with federalism rendered the concept politically toxic and un-implementable in Sri Lanka. To the credit of Chandrika Kumaratunga, she demonstrated bullish political courage, unfortunately not strategic persistence, in resurrecting her father’s original idea for new public discussion after her historic ascent to power in 1994. Now, to the new dimension of the federalism paradox. It will be utopian for anyone to think that a new constitution even remotely suggesting federalism could be adopted in Sri Lanka in the current political circumstances. At the same time, for very practical reasons that have only multiplied since the Donoughmore Commissioners first formulated, Sri Lanka cannot avoid the implementation of measures that could all be categorized as features of federalism.

In a one-page masterpiece published in the Lanka Guardian (around 1985 – I could not get my hands on my copy of that article to give full reference here, in the rush to meet my editor’s time constraints), Dr. Colvin R. de Silva demonstrated the continuum linking unitary and federal constitutions. One could formally name a constitution unitary and have several federalizing features, and vice versa. It is now known that the insertion of the unitary clause into the 1972 Constitution, and later retained in the 1978 constitution, was at the stupid insistence of Felix Dias Bandaranaike against the saner counsel of Colvin R. de Silva. We are stuck with that insertion, a very silly one without constitutional parallel anywhere, in letter, but that need not preclude our political leaders and even judges working around it, out of practical necessity, in specific instances. 13A is a living example. It has proved to be more durable than the Rajapaksa enterprise to entrench family power through 18A.

Commemorative note

To end on a commemorative note, Mr. Bandaranaike’s advocacy of federalism in 1926 was more a reflection of Sri Lanka’s situation in the British Empire and changing world circumstances than its internal circumstances. The six Letters, that preceded the lecture in Jaffna, primarily dealt with what he called "Ceylon’s external relations". Interestingly, given the circumstances of his time, SWRD envisaged different ‘external federal’ options for the island: as a self-governing member of the British Empire; federation with India; as a Mandate from the League of Nations that had come into being after the "Great War" (i.e. World War I). It was in the Lecture in Jaffna, that SWRD advocated federalism to address the island’s "internal relations." He argued in anticipatory refutation of future historians, and the stupidity of his nephew Felix Dias, that the "whole land was a loose federation" based on the twin systems of "Nindagama" and "Gansabawa", until … "when the British came to the island they introduced a centralized form of Government."

Where did Mr. Bandaranaike get the federal idea from? We can only speculate. The Documents on Power Sharing (referred to earlier) include as Chapter 3, the Memorandum of Leonard Woolf, the celebrated British Civil Servant and author of "The Village in the Jungle". Written in 1938 during considerations of reforming the Donoughmore Constitution, Woolf advocated an unabashed federal system, based on the Swiss model, and comprising five cantons, one each for the Kandyan Sinhalese, Low Country Sinhalese, Tamils of the North, Tamils of the East, and a potential fifth one for Tamils of Indian origin in the plantations. I am not referring to Woolf’s advocacy to suggest any relevance to the present time, but to indicate the support of the federal idea among well-known British political theorists, even though it could seem counter-intuitive given the so called unitary character of the unwritten British Constitution.

It is commonplace that the British utilitarian philosophy (i.e. the greatest good for the greatest number) was the inspirational motive behind the political, constitutional and judicial reforms that British colonial officers implemented in Sri Lanka from 1833 onward. At any point in time since 1833, colonial Ceylon was far ahead of every non-white colony in the British Empire in progressive reforms. What has not been pointed is that a part of utilitarian philosophy was the advocacy of federalism, as a way of resolving the rising tensions between political states and the emerging nations, by leading 19thcentury British political theorists such as John Stuart Mill and Lord Acton. It would seem that SWRD Bandaranaike was the only Ceylonese of his time, if not even later times, to have been influenced by such thinking. In that light, Chandrika Kumaratunga is more than qualified to advocate her father’s original idea to her generation of Sri Lankans. Politics, while being the art of the possible, is also a great deal more than electoral success. Worthwhile ideas should not be abandoned just because they are not in popular currency.

WOUNDS OF FAMILIES OF THE DISAPPEARED REMAIN OPEN UNTIL THEY FIND TRUTH AND JUSTICE

(Two WGEID  members, Mr. Dulitzky and Mr. Tae-Ung Baik who visited Sri Lanka shared their finding at the side event ©s.deshapriya)

24/09/2016

On Tuesday 20th September, during the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), jointly with Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances and Franciscans International, hosted a side event titled “Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka”.

As a keynote speech, Mr. Dulitzky from WGEID shared the Working Group’s findings from the official visit to Sri Lanka in November 2015. He described that the country visit was characterised as “mistrust” and “frustration” to describe the feelings of victims and civil society in Sri Lanka due to the history of failed domestic mechanisms and culture of impunity.

He stressed that wounds of families of the disappeared are open until they find truth and justice.

At the same time, the Working Group found a hope with the new Government in initiating measures including the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, the policy on the issuance of certificates of absence and the OMP. Yet, he stressed that more needs to be done.

He highlighted the importance of OMP as a specific institution in searching for the disappeared which is independent from the judicial process, since searching and investigation are separate processes. He shared concerns on the OMP. The Government must conduct proper consultations with affected families and civil society.

The Office’s name failed to include enforced disappearances which can send a wrong message, since it makes the crime of enforced disappearances invisible, dilutes the State’s responsibility and searching for missing persons and forcibly disappeared persons are different. The importance of appointment of professionals, allocation of resources and the OMP’s link to the accountability mechanism are important. The certificate of absence should be issued as a certificate of absence due to enforce disappearance.

The discussion was moderated by Ms. Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso from (AFAD) ©s.deshapriya

The Working Group strongly believes that international participation is necessary to address the issue of enforced disappearances due to the culture of impunity, the lack of will of the security forces to cooperate, the lack of independence and impartiality of the office of Attorney General and the lack of national capacity to address the crime against humanity. International involvement can also help overcoming the mistrust of families of the disappeared.

More needs to be done for reparations for sufficient economic and psycho-social support. In conclusion, he emphasised the need for a State policy to memorise the victims of enforced disappearances and that fact that no justification is available for the crime of enforced disappearance.

In response to the question from the floor whether the Government’s measures are genuine or not, Mr. Tae-Ung Baik from the WGEID answered that this is a good opportunity for the GoSL and international community to collaborate to make real changes. He also told the participants that international elements should be included.

– Courtesy IMADR

Countering Sexual Harassment in the work place: Interview with Mihiri de Silva

Featured image courtesy Beyond Borders

AMASHI DE MEL on 09/25/2016

Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared on the blog Cloud9onearth. We are publishing an edited version which preserves the victim’s own testimony, as sexual harassment in the workplace is an important issue which is often underreported. A 2014 report by the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs noted “sexual harassment in the workplace is… insidious and brings into play unequal patriarchal power relations that are not dealt with in any seriousness either in the public sector or in the private sector.” As such, harassment on the street and in the workplace is perceived as ‘a normal occurrence’ the report found. Currently, the Human Rights Commission has developed guidelines for state sector institutions, and the International Labour Organisation and the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon have developed a Code of Conduct and guidelines, but the Ministry’s own report acknowledges that “the extent such policies are being instituted and implemented within the state and private sectors are unclear.”

Sexual Harassment in the work place is seen as a common occurrence. Compounding the issue is the fact that when sexual harassment victims do report such instances, they do not have a fair channel that would take definitive action on such reports.

This is the case with Mihiri de Silva, a Head of Design who underwent sexual harassment at a reputed business organisation in Sri Lanka.

Though she stood for her rights, and filed a complaint with the company, she was ignored and ultimately forced to quit her job and start anew. In this interview, she hopes to elaborate why it’s important to report instances of sexual harassment and stand up for your rights, to give other women hope.

Q: What was your initial reaction to this incident?

A: I tried to play it down as he first made a “pass” at me when he was intoxicated. Yet I was also taken aback as my friendship with him dated back to before he started working at this company. He had never made such indications back then. At the time, I thought if I ignored it, he would never remember that he said or did such a thing in his state.

Q: What action did you take to address this issue, and how was it received?

A: As he was a friend as well as a work mate, I made light of the incident and tried to convey to him that I was not interested in having anything more than a professional relationship with him. However he didn’t accept this and said “so many do it”. I had to remind him that he had a family, to which he immediately responded saying he could always “get out of it.” Over time, he kept saying how much he liked me, and wanted to be in a relationship with me. I reiterated that it wouldn’t happen, ever.

I reached out to the company Human Resources Director initially, as my boss was making working with him very uncomfortable and unreasonable.The HR Director, seemed very surprised of this overture and said he would “resolve it” and to “keep it quiet” until he did the needful – i.e. speak with my superior. He even asked me not to speak to certain Directors as they may “speak out of turn and embarrass him”.

However, nothing ever resulted from that conversation and I doubt he really took my complaint seriously, as I feel there was a “boy code” operating at that level.

As the HR Director took no action, I then spoke with our Managing Director who was shocked on hearing this revelation and asked me not to make any rash decisions. He said he would attend to this as soon as he returned from an overseas trip the next day. However my conversation with him seemed to have fallen between the cracks of the airport floor tiles after his trip.

As a final resort, I wrote to the Chairman of the company, well advised by my parents along with friends in the legal field as I was just an individual going up against a large company making such an allegation. In detail I wrote as to why I was quitting a well loved job, that they offered me. I mentioned that I was curtailing my career for something I hadn’t done or planned.

 Excerpts of my final letter written to the Company Chairman 

Perhaps you are aware that my contract was originally intended to be from period [redacted] . However, I have been compelled to curtail this due to the inappropriate and uncomfortable working environment my CEO has created for me. I have always loved my work, and passion was an essential component of my work in my entire Design career at this company and elsewhere.Sadly it came to a point that I no longer enjoyed working for my CEO due to my being a woman who refused to fall prey to the inappropriate advances made by him. This unfortunate turn of events commenced in September; I do not think it appropriate to bring all the sordid details that transpired to your attention but suffice it to be said that the inappropriate advances manifested themselves verbally, physically, and by SMS at work.
What really shattered my faith is the fact that I tried to meet with you to speak to you of this after having brought this to the attention of both the Human Resources Department and the Managing Director. It only ended up with the realisation that “might is right” and eventually leaving me to deal with this most delicate situation at work by myself. I am leaving a job I loved and a company I love dearly, as a result.

Q: What made you finally decide to quit?

A: I soon realised my boss was making good on what he had told me, “If you don’t want to have a relationship with me because we work together, then I will make your life hard until you want to leave this job and once you leave, I will pursue you” .

He willfully started excluding me at high level meetings and decisions that I had been a core part of before. He left me out of the loop in almost every work related event. At one point I realised this job wasn’t worth the effort given the way I was being treated and decided to throw in the towel.

I had no back up plans but I hated what I was going through for 5 days of the week, from 9 am – 5pm.

However I also knew I was financially more secure and qualified than many others in order to make such a decision, which made it easier to walk out. Although, looking back, I should have not done this for the sake of others who did not have this advantage.

Q: How did this experience impact your life afterwards?

A: I think I left on my terms. In hindsight though there should have been a formal exit with compensation and an apology, not just a letter of resignation given in out of frustration. I know I quit based on moral grounds and on what I believed was right. I had no qualms to give up a good job for that. This impacted me financially, yet I would not sleep with my boss to ensure I had a secure career.

Q: What is your advice for victims of sexual harassment in a work place?

A: Report it to your superiors immediately if not to a Senior.
Save or record any form of verbal or written harassment from the onset and keep it for future reference. Speak to as many people about it at work as you can. Make as many people aware of your situation as possible.

Q: Why is it important to report such an issue?

A: Women have every right to come to work, do their jobs, get paid and feel secure.

They should not need to feel under obligation to grant sexual favours to secure career growth.

Hence such incidents must be reported. Ask yourself these questions:

1) How often do you hear of this situation happening to a man?

2) If your daughter was facing this situation, what would your response be?

Q: What is your advice to victims who are afraid to report such instances?

A: There is nothing to be afraid of when reporting such incidents. You are not at fault. You are not the perpetrator.

Q: How and where can a victim of sexual harassment gain support at a time like this?

A: Ideally from the company itself – either from Human Resources or Senior Management. If not perhaps external women welfare units – or a lawyer.

Q: What do you feel has caused sexual harassment to be seen as commonplace?

A: Some women do consent [under pressure] to the demands of their harassers- either [editor’s addition: because it is perceived that there is no other option] for career growth or for their own pleasure. These instances have normalised harassment at the workplace. In the case of men, some seem to think “monogamy is not for them”, and they have almost a right to make advances on a female work colleague and consider it normal – even if she refuses his advances. Her refusal is then seen as an attack on the man’s dominance; she is seen as being ‘insubordinate’. Hence the harassment which follows, which could be seen as vindictive.

Q: What are your suggestions on curbing sexual harassment in the work place?

A: Making both men and women aware of their rights as employees
Making both men and women aware of consequences of such incidents, and that definitive, stern and swift action will be taken against the perpetrators.

Costly short-circuit at Sampur

Part II of III: Colossal overruns will open-circuit the fiscal deficit 

FSRU: Floating Storage and Re-gasification Unit; rental $50 million per annum.

by Kumar David-September 24, 2016,

Criticism is an opportunity for correction; Britain just revoked its stop order on the 3200MW, GBP 18 billion, Hinckley Point C nuclear power station. It will be tougher in Lanka due to multiple pressures, some reasonable, some naïve, others venal. The government has no clue what it is doing and is in a muddle. Following last week’s piece on principles of planning I will devote this one to current concerns; next week’s finale will be on sector restructuring.

The authorities confessed in court last week that they would dump the proposed joint venture coal-fired project with India. This may also be the first step to privatising the CEB and opening the power market to the private sector as in the infamous oil power scams of the 1990s. It’s naïve to think it is only loss making state enterprises the government plans to privatise; it’s the most profitable ones that the private sector salivates after. Domestic and foreign LNG lobbies seem to have influence in the Power Ministry and at even higher levels. I am not opposed to private participation in power as Part III will clarify next week, but 1990s style subterfuge is not acceptable.

The Sampur Coal Power Project (SCP), which is ready to take-off, is a joint venture between the CEB and India’s NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation). It is a 50:50 joint venture named Trincomalee Power Company (TPC). It has been incorporated and financing agreed ($75 million from each side, $600 million to be raised in capital markets). Engineering designs have been finalised and environmental approval partially secured. It was ready to go; now it is kaput!

Short-circuit at Sampur

Had SCP gone ahead the private sector would have been cut out for a decade. Domestic and foreign LNG vendors, now circling for huge turnkey contracts, would have been setback. Had vested interests been the only issue I would have opposed cancellation outright, but there is another reason for ambivalence: environmental concerns. (Arrogant and self-righteous environmental high priests, driven by indigestion to colic, and simple minded tunnel-vision evangelists, can be prudently disregarded and attention steadfastly focussed on real environmental worries). There is a better tactic than termination of SCP though arguably it should be our last coal project, unless coal gasification or ultra supercritical combustion with sequestration or pressurised fluidised bed combustion become economically viable.

The monumental blunder will cost Lanka a cumulative Rs.200 billion (not million!). Tax payers or electricity consumers will eventually pay; in the meantime debt will mount. SCP has been deferred repeatedly (as Norochcholi was in the 1990s oil power scams) but had this 2016 knockout not been administered and a green light given, two 250 MW units would have come on stream in 2020 and 2021. Now Lanka faces power shortages in 2018 if the economy blossoms, 2019 otherwise. So old Satan, oil power, is to be rushed into service; 170 MW of diesel engines and 105 MW of oil fired turbines; both presumably private power contracts. There will be huge fuel cost overruns compared to what SCP electricity would have cost. Electricity price increases are as inevitable as sunset.

The Rs.200 billion is made up as follows – Rs.180 billion for oil power (over and above the cost of coal power) up to 2025, and Rs.20 billion capital for the diesel engines which have to be mothballed when LNG comes on stream. The turbines can be converted from oil to gas if LNG reaches the West coast – but not if LNG is landed in Sampur. Actually 2025 is an optimistic date since power-plant and harbour location disputes have to be settled, financing found ($480 million for a land-based harbour, $350 million for a 300MW gas-fired power station cum basic transmission), environmental approval secured, engineering designs executed, and harbour and power plant construction completed. It would surprise me if the plant delivers power by 2025 and the additional cost attributable to oil over coal or gas for each year of delay beyond 2025 is Rs.37 billion.

There is no dispute that coal should be eased out. This is why China and India which plan to install hundreds of thousands of MW of coal power in the next 20 years, nevertheless, will reduce the increments to zero and eventually decommission all. They take a balanced long-term view despite being the world’s largest and third largest gross greenhouse gas emitters – the US is second. Per capita China emits 6.6 tons of carbon dioxide per year, the US 16.2, Germany and Japan about 9.5 each and India 1.5 tons. Sri Lanka’s per capita emission is a mere 0.7 tons per year; 60% from the transport sector and 30% from the electricity sector. Even if we double our emissions, which I certainly do not advocate, we would still be way below our international obligations.

The problem is not greenhouse gases; we make a minuscule contribution to global warming. The problem is local; it is the misery of people living in the immediate vicinity (up to 3km downwind of Norochcholai). The CEB has unpardonably neglected this environmental obligation. The horrible truth is fine fly-ash (alu like when you completely burn down firewood) which is carried by the wind from the five acre ash dump beside the power station. With the right waste management tools the CEB could have circumvented the problem. World class plant (Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan) control ash and eliminate coal dust. Locals from Sampur who visited villages downwind of the Norochcholai ash dump will never agree to live near a power station even if the CEB promises the sun and the moon about new technology. "Why should we trust them?" they rightly ask. Once bitten twice shy.

(Heavy metals like mercury residues of coal firing, and particulate emissions are a health hazard. They can be trapped and prevented from getting into groundwater and soil as done elsewhere. This pushes up cost; ash, coal dust and heavy metal control adds about 15% to electricity prices).

We have to take an overview; a cumulative cost of Rs200+ billion, no greenhouse gases above Lanka’s international obligations, advanced containment technologies at a price, but a life distressing calamity for the local population, or what? If we cut the crap the options are candid; either scarp the project or pay to resettle local people in good quality alternative homes and lands.

What would that cost? Let’s calculate on a per 1000 family basis (Minister Swaminathan estimated 825 families in June 2015). If it takes Rs 1 million per family to relocate to new homes and lands (plus schools, health and transport services), 1000 families will require a Rs 1 billion commitment. That’s two orders of magnitude below Rs200+ billion. Even if the number of families and cost per family were two or three times higher, the total cost is still comparatively tiny. Some families may prefer to take the money and make their own plans. Ignore the evangelicals; they are engaged in great battles of principle nearer nirvana. The point is what’s better; SCP with tighter environmental controls plus one or two billion rupees for resettlement, or no SCP and Rs200 billion in added power costs? You the public choose; I can only lay out the options. It’s your problem!

The longer term

The Simplified Table provides a comparison – for a Full Engineering Table see:

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Comparison-of-Coal-at-Sampoor-with-LNG-at-West-Coast.pdf

The tables compare a remote coal station (not necessarily at Sampur) with West coast LNG. But before that I must make a point about greenhouse effects. Research shows that coal and gas fired electricity have equally bad greenhouse effects. Methane is many times worse than carbon dioxide in greenhouse entrapment. Even in the US it has not been possible to reduce methane leakage to below 3%; hence the damage per kWh is no different between a gas-fired power station and a modern high-tech coal plant. The differential environmental dispute is the aforesaid effect on nearby populations.

I take responsibility for the data in the tables though much of it and the calculation procedure follow a CEB Excel program. However I am not dependent on this stakeholder; algebra and the laws of physics are invariant, results are data driven. Column 1 is for a traditional coal plant like SCP, column 2 is for one unit of a four-unit high-efficiency environmentally clean coal plant proposed by the Japanese as Sampur stage-2. The third and fourth columns are for LNG located in the Western Province (only a nincompoop will locate an LNG power plant in Sampur). Column 3 is for a cheaper floating terminal (which entails $50 million annual rental) while column 4 is for a large land based terminal. Sensitivity of electricity price to gas prices is included in the Full Engineering Table. By matching FET results with those in the Simplified Table in this text the effect of small difference in assumptions can be seen to be inconsequential.

The choice between the two types of LNG terminal depends on whether gas will be found in exploitable quantities in the Gulf of Mannar. If ‘yes’ a floating terminal which can be folded up and returned is better. The switch of electricity generation to gas cannot be economically justified because of large harbour investments entailed unless a switch of transport and industry to gas is envisaged. This is crucial but not sufficiently appreciated.

Financially coal is cheaper than gas; roughly speaking coal power will cost Rs10 to Rs11.50 per kWh, LNG power Rs12.50 to Rs15.00. But the great unknown is the unpredictability of fuel prices in the next decades, so it’s a bit of a toss up. Fuel prices may move in tandem, so comparative estimates are more reliable than absolute ones. Taking the median and current prices as a rough guide, coal power is Rs10.50 per kWh, LNG power Rs13.50 per kWh. These financial costs are not much changed if the costs of human resettlement discussed previously are included.

One further matter warrants mention; consequences of careless decision making on relations with India. When the Indian PM was asked "Please abandon coal and agree to LNG as an alternative" he is reported to have responded to this capricious tinkering with the diplomatic equivalent of "This is not like flipping your breakfast order between scrambled eggs and omelette". Mr Mody had been briefed by professionals, our leader by novices and quacks. I don’t know if fences have since been mended.

The Rajasingam Legacy: A Quest For Quality

By Rajan Hoole –September 23, 2016

Dr. Rajan Hoole

After nightfall on 21st September 1989, Rajasingam Master called on his bicycle at my mother’s home quite unexpectedly and delivered his pithy message, “Rajini has been shot.” His voice showed no evident emotion. After a brief exchange of words, he turned back. That was the man; stoic, incorruptible, who lived by his strong sense of duty. Master, his wife Mahila Acca, and their daughters, Nirmala, Rajini, Sumathy and Vasuki were familiar to us from childhood days in the St. James’ Church choir. Had Master been more ambitious during his university days, he would have left his mark as an outstanding mathematician in our university. What he did as a school master at Hartley and Jaffna College was no less important. His zeal for catching hold of students who seemed to be in need of inspiration and getting them to work Mathematics problems remained a passion with him to the end of his life.

As a man called upon to manage church and school finances, he remained sharp and knew well the foibles of those he worked with. Having stuck on in Jaffna through times that saw the worst of moral and physical turpitude, he saw through people and their hypocrisy and opportunism, but kept things to himself. At best a wry smile might have escaped him. Whenever he undertook a commitment, he carried it through to the end and brooked no interference. As a trade union man, not only did he take up the cases of three teachers dismissed from St. John’s College in the late 1960s, against strong pressure from the Church, but did the impossible in ferreting out the money to meet the legal fees, using his knowledge of miscellaneous accounts.

Alvapillai Rajasingam – Retired Vice Principal, Jaffna College, Vaddukoddai (8th May 1926 – 14th August 2016)

Rajasingam Master’s personality would have been impoverished, but for Mahila, a superb classical pianist, singer and violinist in both the Western and Carnatic traditions. She trained choirs and during the war years, taught English Literature to Advanced Level students at Chundikuli Girls’ College. Despite these graces and accomplishments, she was not the withdrawn housewife. Her combative no-nonsense approach could be seen in her daughters. The word that one most readily associates with the Rajasingams, is Quality. Ben Bavink of Vaddukkottai and Amsterdam, a close friend of the Rajasingams, about a year after Rajini’s death presented to me his copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Letters and Papers from Prison’, which has the words, “Nobility springs from and thrives on self-sacrifice and courage…it demands a recovery of a lost sense of quality and of a social order based upon quality. Quality is the bitterest enemy of conceit in all its forms.”

Bonhoeffer, a prisoner of the Nazi regime, was thinking of recovery of quality in a post fascist society, the kind of society we are in now. A dominant feature of loss of quality is puruda – a word close to chicanery and farce, whose meaning in Tamil has been enriched through association with Tamil life and society during especially the fascist period (1986 – 2010), particularly when reverence was demanded under threat for the horrific and ridiculous. The Rajasingams were sticklers for quality and the ability of a society to lift itself back to quality depends on the presence of families strongly rooted in it. Rajini was killed because she would not compromise with puruda in politics that claimed the divine right to purify the ‘nation’ through murder.

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WIGNESWARAN CALLS FOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE HANDS OF ELECTED TAMIL REPRESENTATIVES

 

Traitors who?-யார் துரோகிகள்?

(“Ezhuga Tamizh” -Tamils Arise- rally at Jaffna, image by Tamil Guardian)

By PK Balachandran.-24/09/2016

COLOMBO: The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran, on Saturday gave a clarion call for a people’s movement to raise issues pertaining to the Tamil people and thereby strengthen the hands of their elected representatives.

Speaking at the “Ezhuga Tamizh” (Tamils Arise) rally at Jaffna, Wigneswaran said that the problems of the Tamil people cannot be solved just by getting elected to parliament or the provincial councils. They can be solved only by a people’s movement. Elected representatives cannot deliver the goods unless backed by a peoples’ movement, he said.

Wigneswaran said that he agreed to co-chair the Tamil People’s Council (TPC) because he saw the need for a non-partisan peoples’ forum to discuss and highlight the common problems of the Tamils. The “Ezhuga Tamizh’ rally and movement also have the objective of creating an awareness of the Tamils’ problems among the Tamils, the Sinhalese majority, and the international community.

Wigneswaran made it clear that the “Ezhuga Tamizh” movement is not against the Sinhalese people, the Central government in Colombo or the leaders of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK). Its only aim is to highlight the grievances of the Tamils, sensitize Sri Lankans to issues troubling the Tamils and ask for a solution, he said.

Referring to the ITAK’s argument that agitations of this sort will activate the anti-Tamil sections of the majority Sinhalese community and force the government to go back on its promises to the Tamils, Wigneswaran said that this argument for restraint does not hold water.

“Ezhuga Tamizh” (Tamils Arise) march at Jaffna; Image by Tamil Guardian

Wigneswaran pointed out that since the war ended, and even after the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government was established in 2015, the condition of the Tamils has not improved. Vast tracts of lands are still in the hands of the army. Army has entrenched itself by indulging in civilian activities. Buddha statues are mushrooming in areas where there are no Buddhists. Ten thousand Sinhalese families have been settled in Tamil areas with an intention to change the ethnic ratio. Myliddy harbor is still out of bounds to Tamil fishermen. Fishermen from the Sinhalese South are being settled in Mullaitivu with the Security Forces’ help.

No effort has been made to release LTTE cadres even seven years after the war. The Prevention of Terrorism Act is still in the statue book. After the war, there have been 17 registered cases of torture. There is no sign of an hybrid Judicial Mechanism to try war crimes cases. The Office of Missing Persons is still to take a concrete form.

The Central government does not consult the NPC on any projects. Circumventing the NPC several projects like the Kerativu salt manufacturing facility has been established, Wigneswaran said.

According to reports, 3,000 to 5000 people took part in the “Ezhuga Tamizh” rally held outside the Jaffna Fort. All shops in Jaffna were closed, even though the Jaffna Chamber of Commerce, headed by an ITAK sympathizer, had opposed the strike call.

The rally and the strike have exposed the weakness of the ITAK ,the dominant party in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). “Ezhuga Tamizh” is a wake up call to the ITAK to get its act together. It has reasons to ask for time to tackle the Tamils’ problems and to see that the friendly Sirisena government is not put in a tight corner politically. But it has to find ways to get round this constraint and effectively take up the Tamils’ issues if it is not to lose the people’s trust.

However, ITAK supporters say that the rally only showed the existing and well defined strength of the TPC and its co-chair, Wigneswaran, which is not much as past elections have shown. As an independent political analyst put it, in the past too, people had criticized the ITAK and blamed it for their woes, but when it came voting, they always voted for the ITAK, the oldest surviving Sri Lankan Tamil party.

Express News Service