New Indian Avatar Pleads For Chinese Understanding Of Her Sovereignty

By Rajeewa Jayaweera –January 29, 2017

Rajeewa Jayaweera

The Raisina Dialogue is a joint initiative by the Government of India and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), an independent think tank based in New Delhi. India has strived to organize the conference in the lines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. It is designed to be India’s primary conference on geo-politics and geo-economics.

Its inaugural edition was held in March 2016 and was inaugurated by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj. The theme was ‘Connecting Asia’. The second edition, with participants from 69 countries was concluded last week in Delhi and the theme was “The New Normal: Multilateralism with Multi-Polarity”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the second edition.

Being an Indian initiative, discussions over two and half days laid emphasis on the issue if today’s world was a multi-polar world and if India was one of the poles of the world. Three dominant questions which arose were;

• India’s capability of being a pole
• India’s readiness to be a pole
• India’s right to be a pole

A pole may be one or a group of countries with a group leader and other countries aligned behind the group leader. Therefore, it may be argued, a multi-polar world is one with several group leaders who obviously would be economically and militarily powerful with the remaining not so powerful and powerless countries aligned behind one of the several group leaders.
Until January 20, it was a given, the block leaders were US and Russia with China a group leader in waiting. Not to be forgotten are the sub group leaders Britain and France who still wield influence over former colonies. France and some of its former African colonies is a good example. India, judging by its conduct towards it neighbors since 1970 has been striving hard to portray the image of a sub group leader, which it now wishes to expand to that of a block leader.

The keynote speaker at the 2017 edition was India’s Foreign Secretary, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Some parts of his address are best described as perfidious, at least from a Sri Lankan perspective. There could be similar perspectives notably from Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan to name a few.

The Foreign Secretary requested China to be “sensitive to its sovereignty” and not to see India’s rise as a threat to China. Claiming China has till now, not shown any consideration for India’s sovereignty, he further stated, “China is a country which is very sensitive on matters concerning its sovereignty. So, we would expect that they would have some understanding of other people’s sensitivity on their sovereignty.” According to Jaishankar, ties between China and India, developed through trade and people-to-people contacts have been diminished due to differences on political issues. Describing terrorism as a “pervasive and serious” threat to global security, the Foreign Secretary lamented of the deficit in efforts by major powers in dealing with terrorism. He also referred to the decision making body of the UN as an ‘absurdity’ and touched on the need to reform the world body to enable the organization to deal with contentious issues confronting the world today. India’s quest for a permanent seat at the Security Council could not have been far away in the Foreign Secretary’s mind. Referring to the regional grouping SAARC, he stated, “Regional groupings are today one of the building blocks of the global order. Their driving force and commonality are perhaps the most obvious of all. India is a founder member of SAARC, an organization that has been made ineffective due to insecurity of one member. We hope to partially remedy this through the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) sub-regional grouping. It is also our expectation that the current level of enthusiasm among members of BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal) can be channeled towards far reaching initiatives.”

It is believed, a move is being promoted by a group of persons in the Indian establishment to jettison Pakistan from the SAARC regional group due to objections raised by Pakistan to some Indian initiatives. It has also been reported of moves to isolate and ignore Pakistan. The theory may have some substance in view of comments during interviews given by a Maldivian Minister and Nepalese Ambassador to India during the Raisina Dialouge to an India journalist. It may be recalled, the last SAARC summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad in 2016 was cancelled due to India pulling out from the summit, citing Pakistan’s involvement in terror attacks in India.

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Protests

January 29, 2017, 12:17 pm 

One protest march we approve of and applaud loudly was a fairly worldwide one! Just as the 45th President of the United States of America was being sworn in on the late morning of January 21, 2017, a couple of streets away a quarter million people, mostly women, gathered and marched against the new President. "Two million Americans poured into the streets for women-led demonstrations, the scale of which were unseen in a generation" mostly in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, apart from the Washington DC rally. Slogans were many, hoisted above the marches such as ‘Welcome to your first day. We will not go away’. 400,000 marched in New York past Trump Towers. The cries in London and other major cities around the world were ‘Dump Trump’, ‘Reject hate, reinstate politics’ ‘No to racism, no to Trump’ and such like.

These women-led protests in many cities around the US and the world would probably have been hurriedly organized or just took off on the spur of the moment to show solidarity against the new President of the USA.

In Sri Lanka

I need to categorically state that I disapprove of almost all protests in our country of the recent past, and even those to come. The majority Lankans feel likewise. Doctors have struck work. They say emergency services are attended to but hospitals and particularly OPDs have shut down with immense trouble to patients. Their reasons: asking for car permits; higher salaries and absurdly, against the ECTA Pact with India. Their protests are ill grounded and only a cause of disturbance.

The Federation of University Students are forever forsaking lectures; gathering together; battling the police and making a nuisance of themselves. Their reason these many months and years of protest was against SAITM, the private medical college. It’s courses have been approved of by the government so what are these students from other campuses shouting about? I ask pointedly is this the right time to cause mayhem on streets when the police are trying to instill sanity on vehicle drivers and elected leaders are striving hard to bring democracy and fair play back to the country? Also trying hard to right an economy destroyed by the previous government’s profligacy. Is it for these that our soldiers laid down their lives to bring peace to the country? Is it for these that their mothers suffered labour pains, hunger pangs, faced deprivation, yet strove and succeeded in nurturing them to adulthood and their fathers managed to facilitate their entry to medical college? To Menika, they are scum.

Then comes the Joint Opposition. The idea of writing about protests was because the mind is fearful this Friday as this group gathers to march in protest. Their slogan? What do they oppose? The burden of the COL on the poorer people for whom they care not a jot; but show false concern? Certainly not! We all know, barring the village idiot, that they strive to topple the Maithripala – Ranil government, seize power, share it with family and close friends and live as they please, sending us ever downwards in every way. If given half a chance they will surely return to rule even more tyrannically than in the previous decade or two.

Will we ever see people acting graciously en masse, living and letting live? Looking around at the tactics of many, one despairs. It is not a frivolous statement but a statement of fact that we Lankans are like no other: we have no loyalty to country; no gratitude to those we should be grateful to and no limit to greed.

Well known protests

I went back in world history. One of the most famous protest marches was the Storming of the Bastille and the arrest of Governor de Launay on the morning of July 14, 1789. A group formed of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to the Invalides in Paris to steal some weapons. The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille and so they stormed it and ignited the French revolution with the cry of Liberté, Egalaté and Fraternité. In the melee, prisoners escaped. The monarchy was overthrown and the royal family guillotined along with aristocrats. I did not study history as a subject in senior secondary school so knew about the French Revolution from Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities and Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel series. As young teenagers, my friends and I thrilled at the daring rescue of French aristocrats from the guillotine by the British pretend-fob of a Lord who signed off with the symbol of the pimpernel.

In Britain, they are rather restrained preferring probably the stiff upper lip to putting their grievances on public show. Also Margaret Thatcher put paid to the constant demands of labour with her strict rules. We remember seeing in newspapers pictures of protests in strategic places in London when the LTTE was present in force here in Sri Lanka. There was a massive protest in Westminster opposite Parliament. A rather rare occurrence of protests was over the Brexit decision. ‘March for Europe’ rallies were held across UK on September 3, 2016.  Thousands of pro-Europe protesters marched in London, calling for the UK to strengthen its ties to the continent following the Brexit business. This showed without doubt that the younger Britons and Londoners were for remaining in the European Union while the older, conservative persons voted to get out of the EU for fear of immigrants pouring in and the Brit economy.

In the US there have been marches by the African-Americans; more recently, consequent to police shooting of a couple of young African American men.

They also stage marches and rallies in Washington which are one-time events. Two exceptions are the March for Life and Rolling Thunder, both held annually. The March for Life is a protest against abortion held on January 22 marking the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case legalizing abortion. The march has been held annually since 1974, typically drawing several hundred thousand demonstrators. Rolling Thunder is a motorcycle demonstration held since 1987 on Memorial Day to raise awareness of issues related to American Prisoners of War/Missing in Action persons.

As I write this on Friday January 27 afternoon, I imagine people gathering in Nugegoda for the Joint Opposition rally – in protest of what or asking for what? I do not know what they have announced as their reason for protesting. It is of course against yahapalanaya and in the dim hope they can topple the existing government and save many skins now being investigated for corruption, causing disappearances and even murder most foul.

Our heartfelt sympathies are for those who will attempt reaching their homes in Nugegoda and beyond after a hard day’s and week’s work.

Mahinda Rajapaksa's air fares still pending to settle 

Jan 28, 2017

It is learnt that from the year 2011 up to the time Mahinda Rajapaksa was relinquished from the President's post all air fares due to the Sri Lankan Airlines for his air travel have been sent to the Presidential secretariat to be reimbursed.

The total of these bills add up to a colossal Rs 113,404,724.21.It is also reported that the air charges incurred by Mahinda Rajapaksa's family members,relatives and loyalists too have not been settled.It is reported that in this connection the authorities of the Sri Lanka airlines have added that there had been many instances when special flights were booked to travel .
 
It is also reported that during the period of the presidential elections the general secretary of the United National Party Tissa Attanayake who defected from the party and joined the SLFP had traveled to Thirupathy are also among the outstanding bills submitted for reimbursement to the presidential secretariat office.

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Lead with humility: Leadership lessons from Pope Francis 

Friday, 27 January 2017

The connection that exists between a leader and those being led is, like most relationships, seldom easy to understand or take out. The satisfaction that leaders derive from having an impact over others is not easy to unpack. 

Generally, there are two kinds of power. “Personal power” gathers energy and excitement from winning, from standing over and above others as champion and winner. This brand of power reflects a deep need for total control, for being the one who takes charge of things and gets things done.

A second kind of power is what is called “social power.” Social power is likewise consumed with having impact over others. But its primary intent is not to throw around one’s personal strength and influence. Instead, it aims to elevate others in a way that cultivates and help their followers to realise their full potential.

It draws on inspiring connections and symbolic actions to help people find their own power, both individually and collectively, and to use it to positively affect their world. Social power generates energy and enthusiasm to get things done but in a way that is collective and inclusive.

The current head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis exemplifies this second kind of power – what social power is and the impact it intends. In his time so far as leader of a fragmented church and a weakened hierarchy, his bold challenge to ignite social reform, reveal an untiring effort on changing hearts.

Apart from his words, his actions offer even clearer evidence of this driver at work. His choice of name and a more humble home reflect a simple recognition that change begins first and foremost from within – a stunning admission, even for a religious leader.

On the other hand President Donald Trump is a classic example of personal power. More than any other public figure in recent memory, his gleeful chants of “winning at the polls” alongside the endless revelling in his wealth and achievements and also conquests represents personal power disrobed and on full display. 

Meaning of leadership

Leadership is very hard to define, mainly because it means different things to different people. We know it requires knowledge, competence, courage and empathy. We expect leaders to be just, to share our values and provide direction. For me, it is what leaders like Pope Francis represent.

An encounter with Pope Francis leaves you inspired and spiritually moved. The Pope is warm, inviting, and sincere. From choosing to live in a simple apartment instead of the papal palace, to washing the feet of men and women in a youth detention centre, Pope Francis’s actions contradict behaviours expected of a modern leader.

He shows how his words and deeds reveal spiritual principles that have helped him to lead the Church in the past and present and also to influence our world—a rapidly-changing world that requires leaders who value the human need for love, inspiration and purpose. 

Father Jorge Bergoglio

Many people who knew Pope Francis as Father Jorge Bergoglio, talks of a man whose passion was to be with people, of all walks of life. He offers a stirring vision of leadership to which we can all aspire in our communities, religious institutions, companies, and families.

In our interconnected and complex world where so many complain about a crisis of leadership exist, Pope Francis, is a leader focused not on status but on a mission. He is an example for leaders of all types, religious and for political leaders, who recognise the need to cultivate character and the ability to hold competing values as we navigate change, whether in business, organisations or society itself. 

Inspiring leader

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as the 266th pope of the Catholic Church in March in 2013 — taking the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi — he immediately showed the world he would be different from that of his predecessors.

He said ‘no’ to the fancy red loafers favoured by Pope Benedict XVI, opting for simple black shoes. He declined the papal limo for a bus ride. For living quarters, he chose the Vatican guesthouse over an apartment in the Apostolic Palace.

Since his election, Pope Francis has defied all the papal traditions and charmed the world. He offers hope and insight into what an inspiring leader can look like. We have many politicians globally who don’t really govern but focus on self-promotion, with little thought of making the world a better place. And we have bosses and managers leading as a means to get ahead, ignoring the importance of the people they are expected to lead.

Pope Francis has shown the world that if you place your own self-interests aside, the people around you will work harder for you and loyalty will increase. Leaders would do well to take a leaf out of Pope Francis’ book on how to be a true leader by actions and not just words.

He welcomes the homeless for lunch, shows infinite patience to a child running around while delivering a keynote speech and responds personally to people who need him. He has so far shown the world that leadership is all about serving others faithfully and what good leadership should look like; as summarised below:

Six key lessons for leaders

1. Make others feel better about themselves ... he seems to make others believe they can be better after they meet with him.

2. Model what you preach ... he lives the values of service and charity... incredible personal example

3. Focus on a few things ... he is not trying to be all things to all people, but to focus on the few key things that the church stands for

4. Make tough calls... he has relieved some of the cardinals of their position when they don’t follow his example

5. Keep learning ... he is evolving church positions to adapt to changing times, but he keeps the traditional values

6. Inclusive... he does not want to exclude anyone from the blessings of his faith and message

In conclusion, inspiring leaders do not take the blind path of ignorance and are not afraid to lead by example, with conviction, visibility and honour and they clearly demonstrate that in leadership, humility is always more important than strategy. 

(The writer is a thought leader in HR.)

Ex president Rajapakse ‘s relative most wanted in the MiG jet racket has bolted to the UAE..! -FCID tells court

(Lanka-e-News -28.Jan.2017, 8.25PM) Udayanga Weeratunge  involved in the most corrupt MiG  jet deals (a most wanted suspect) during the Rajapkse regime  and of course a relative of ex president Mahinda Rajapakse  (buddies of the same feather  rob together) has fled from Ukraine , and is now hiding in the UAE (an Arab country), based on the investigations conducted by the Interpol . The FCID made this disclosure before the Fort magistrate cum additional district judge Ms. Lanka Jayaratne on the 27 th.  

The FCID  also told court already an officer has been dispatched to the US to investigate , and investigations are continuing to arrest the suspect.

On 25 th November 2016 , the Fort magistrate instructed the FCID to arrest the suspect via the  Interpol warrant  issued , and produce him in court. The FCID when informing the progress made in the investigations intimated the above details to court  on the 27 th.

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by     (2017-01-28 14:55:25)

Is robbing 48 gold sovereigns, Rs. 600,000 an act of war heroic?

Jan 28, 2017

A senior Navy officer is being accused of having abducted and detained a Tamil businessman of Colombo during the war and robbing 48 gold sovereigns and Rs. 600,000 in cash from him before making him to disappear. The Colombo magistrate’s court has severely reprimanded the CID for delaying the arrest of the accused and ordered the senior DIG in charge of the CID to appear before the court and explain as to why he was not yet arrested.

Thereafter, the CID has informed the Navy officer in question to report to the CID on February 01. Incumbent Navy commander Ravi Wijegunawardena and ex-commander Wasantha Karannagoda are exerting pressure on the government hierarchy that acting against the war heroes would affect their morale.

According to reports reaching us, the former Navy commanders are hiding behind the war hero label in order to prevent the exposure of the robberies and enforced disappearances that had been committed on their orders. The accused navy personnel have told investigators that they had committed those crimes on the orders of their senior officers.

Await a detailed report…

Thanks, Homosexual Government

By Thisuri Wanniarachchi –January 28, 2017 

Thisuri Wanniarachchi

It was simply disgraceful listening to our members of the opposition speak in Nugegoda yesterday, but let’s get some facts straight.

First of all, let’s be real about crowd size. MR was President of this country for almost a decade. Don’t be awestruck by the fact that he can bring 5,000 people to a rally. I mean this was a man who got 6 million votes in 2010 and and 5 million in 2015, if he can’t bring a fraction of that down to a supermarket car park that’s not normal, so let’s chill about the numbers.

Secondly, this country is a democracy. That’s all we’ve got. That’s why it stung really hard when MR changed the democratic terms in our constitution to run for an extra term of Presidency. In political science, that’s called a constitutional coup. It happened in Congo, it happened in Burundi, it happened in Zimbabwe, and it happened in Sri Lanka in 2014. That’s what we went down in political science textbooks as, a country with constitutional coups. That shifts us from a democracy to an autocracy. We restored our democracy through the 19th amendment in 2015 so a President won’t have those executive powers to blackmail a parliament into a constitutional coup again. And now to hear Kumara Welgama say “We will make Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa the Prime Minister in 2017” is a threat to our democracy. MR ran for President and Prime Minister and lost both elections. Not just once, but twice. The people rejected him multiple times but he just won’t give up. MR has gone from a king and a savior to the creepy ex-boyfriend who keeps following you down the Nugegoda bus stand. We just want to be like, “dude, stop following us, just give up and go start a new life and take your loser friends with you.” We have to agree that despite the many decades of corruption in this country, the racism, the sexism, the homophobia, all we have had is the fact that we can vote every 4/6 years and choose our representatives. And for someone to threaten the core principle this country is held together by is disgraceful. And we must not take that lightly.

Thirdly, the homophobia. There were kids coming home from tuition classes yesterday, there were kids watching the news last night, who heard the classless words of these full grown adults yesterday. The fact that they think calling someone homosexual is an insult alone shows their miseducation. You want to call this government a homosexual government? Great. Then, that’s what it is. And guess what our homosexual government got us GSP+, a $1.5 billion IMF allocation, restored our diplomatic ties, gave MR and his JO friends the the freedom to protest and disrupt people’s daily life just to make a political statement, without being blocked by barricades, shot at or picked up later that night by a white van. So I’ll take a homosexual government any day over your Rajapaksa-Welgama-Weerawansa straight masculine macho government that put us $64 billion in debt, killed teenagers when they protested for clean water and changed the words in the constitution to their benefit.

I know you have frustrations with this current government, most of us do. Politics is frustrating. Think about it, for the first time in our history two of the largest parties in the country, that have for many decades shared completely opposing political views, built on opposite values and have run against and attacked each other are working together; of course it’s going to be frustrating. And if we are to grow, we have to be frustrated, we have to be angry, and we have to demand more. But don’t make the mistake of mixing up the frustration you have with the current government with the fear you felt of the previous one. There’s a big difference and we have to acknowledge that.

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Muslim boy, aged 7, made monk revolts the Buddha’s vinaya tenet

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Dimbulagala chief incumbent hails it a historic event but will it be flashpoint to spark bigotry’s fires again?
Perhaps it is his karmic destiny to enter the Noble Order of the Sangha and follow the path of the Buddha at so young an age. Or perhaps it is his father’s good fortune to have found a convenient 24/7 care centre free of charge to relieve himself of his paternalistic duty of having to fend for the boy whilst the mother’s working abroad in the Middle East as a house maid.

MUSLIM BOY MONK: How Aslama became Rathnapure Siri Sudarshanalankaram whilst mother was away

Seven-year-old Ismail Aslama was recently ordained as a monk at the Dimbulagala Forest Monastery and given the new name Rathnapure Siri Sudarshanalankaram, the chief priest of the monastery, the Ven. Millane Siriyalankara Thera announced this week. He said that a certain Hameed Ismail, the father of the boy, whose wife was employed abroad had brought the child to the monastery and offered him to the Sangha. The chief monk hailed the ordination of the Muslim boy as a historic event and proudly declared: “This is the first time in the long history of the Dimbulagala Aranya Senasanaya that a Muslim has been ordained as a Buddhist monk.”

All very well. Except for one thing. Given the boy’s tender age and his mother’s absence from the country, does it revolt the Buddha’s Code of Vinaya tenets? Consider this.

Rahula was the only child, the only son of Prince Siddhartha. On the day of his son’s birth, Siddhartha realised another fetter, another barrier had risen to bar him renouncing the world to find the cause of universal woe. The more he lingered, the more he dilly dallied, the more would the tentacles of attachment grow to bind him to the world’s materialistic life and make it impossible for him to break free and leave his father Suddhodana’s Kapilavatthu kingdom.

That night he left. Under cover of darkness though lit by a pale yellow moon he embarked on an unknown path, on an unknown journey, in an unknown quest to find an unknown treasure.

Seven years later – one year after attaining the ultimate bliss of Enlightenment – he returned as Gautama the Buddha to his father’s Kapilavatthu kingdom. Yasodhara, his wife, who he had left behind in his search for the elusive Truth that would free mankind from accursed sorrow, was eagerly awaiting his arrival. She dressed the young prince, the Prince Rahula, in the best of clothes, and pointing the Buddha out to the young boy said thus:

“There is your father, the Prince Siddhartha, now known as Gautama the Buddha. Behold him son, behold that golden coloured ascetic resembling Brahma on earth. He is your father. And he has great treasures. Go, go to him, and ask for your inheritance. Say to him: I am Prince Rahula, your only child, the son and heir to your fortune. After my consecration as King of Kapilavatthu, I intend to become the Chakravartin, universal monarch. To become one I need wealth. Give me your great wealth: for the son is the owner of what belongs to the father.”

When young Rahula, aged 7, had walked up to his father, the Buddha, and said what his mother had bade him say, the Buddha remained silent. The boy persisted in repeating his request but still the Buddha gave no answer. When the Buddha finally left the palace after finishing his mid day meal as the guest of his father Suddhodana, young Rahula trailed behind, repeating again and again the refrain: “Give me my inheritance.”

No one stopped the young boy and neither did the Buddha prevent him from following him. When the Buddha reached the park with Rahula’s shadow still falling on his robe, the Buddha contemplated thus: “He desires his father’s wealth but it goes with the world and the world is full of woe. What I can give him is not the wealth of worldly riches, which I stood to inherit from my sire had I not renounced it all and taken the path I took; but instead I shall give him the infinite wealth of the Dhamma which I discovered all alone. I shall give him the noble wealth I received at the foot of the Bodhi by the banks of the River Neranjana. I shall make him a beneficiary of the transcendental riches I gained and bestow it ‘pon him as his rightful inheritance.”

The Buddha then called the Venerable Sariputta and asked him to ordain the seven year old boy as a member of the Noble Order of the Sangha.

When news reached the palace, Yasodhara was aghast. She had lost her husband who had left her and their new born son to go in search of some elusive truth. Now she had lost her son too, and was left bereft of the only joy she had left in the world. She rushed to her father in law, King Suddhodana, and grieved at his feet.

Suddhodana was also perturbed to hear the news. Along with Yasodhara, he had been the guardian of the boy during Siddhartha’s absence. Now he, too, was heartbroken to learn of the void created, grieved to face the loss of hope and happiness he had found in his grandson and pained to learn he had no direct heir to succeed his throne. The King, his world turning in turmoil, went to meet the Buddha; and told him thus:

“When thou renounced the world and left the palace, it was a source of great pain to me. It was the same when my other son, Nanda, left to join thee. And now my only grandson, Rahula, whose presence in our midst – Yasodhara’s and mine – had been the only ray of sunshine to light the darkness of these palace walls, whose voice had been the only lilting melody to resound with cheer through these long hushed corridors, whose childish mischief had been the only bundle of jollity to make us laugh, even in grief, both to me and to his mother Yasodhara, has been taken away from us without our knowledge, let alone our permission. We have been left entombed even before our bodies have run cold. Now it has been done. And it’s too late to reverse fate. But bear with me when I say this: The love of a father or a mother towards a son cuts through the skin, the flesh, the sinew, the bone and even the marrow. Grant, Oh Gautama, grant me as thy sire the request I make of thee: that henceforth the Noble Ones may not confer ordination on a child without the permission of his parents.”

The Buddha readily agreed to the King’s request. Even though he, as Siddhartha, was Rahula’s father, he had no right as a Buddha to ordain minors without the consent of both parents. He had unilaterally ordained Rahula only because he was his son and because the boy had been clamouring for his inheritance and this was the only inheritance he could give him, ordination being the only coronation he could bestow. But a child was not the sole property of a single parent. A child belonged to both parents equally. And the Buddha decreed and made it a Vinaya Rule that henceforth no ordination of minors could take place unless the voluntary consent of both parents had first been obtained.

Now take the case of Vessanthara. The legendary king of the Jatakas who for certain reasons, renounced his kingdom and went into exile to the forest with his wife and two children, a son and a daughter. One day, while the wife was away deep in the woods, gathering firewood to keep the home fires burning, an old man happened to stop by at Vessantara’s hamlet. When Vessanthara had nothing to offer him in terms of hospitality as custom demanded, the old man asked the exiled king whether he could take away the two children. Hardly batting an eyelid, Vessanthara obliged and handed over the children to the old stranger for good.

This selfless act of a Bodhisathwa, a Buddha to be, has been hailed through centuries as a supreme act of generosity. But the poet who wrote the masterpiece, the epic Vessanthara Kaviya, whilst praising the selfless act of Vessanthara as tradition demanded, also posed the question through the mouths of the two innocent children who were so freely given away, whether Vessanthara possessed the right to do so, without first gaining the permission of his wife and the voluntary consent of his two children to go with a total stranger, whom the poet through the use of innuendo conveyed to be a rather unsavory nasty character. In modern day parlance, a gonibilla or bogeyman at best or a pedophile at worst.

The question that arises now is whether, in the backdrop of the Buddha’s tenet contained in the Vinaya Code which regulates the admittance of the laity to the Buddhist order of monks, the ordination of a small Muslim boy, only 7 years old, without the express consent of the mother who is presently abroad and, like Vessantara’s wife, gathering the monetary firewood to keep the home fires burning, is correct and in keeping with the rules of admission to the Sasana?

Secondly, the chief incumbent of the Dimbulagala Aranya has hailed the Muslim boy’s ordination as evidence of religious harmony. He said: “This is the best precedent for religious harmony and national unity.” It’s no such thing. On the contrary, done in this cavalier manner, it will only have the opposite effect and may well indeed be the flashpoint to ignite bigotry’s flares again.

It is only natural that no followers of any religion, be they Muslims or Christians, will rejoice the loss of any one of their adherents to another faith and raise their faludahs after Friday’s Jumma prayers or sip their communion wine at Sunday mass in celebration that one of their flock, a lamb at that, had been snared and sneaked over the fence and is now grazing on a different pasture of an alien faith.

Not so long ago, certain sections of the Buddhist community, led by the Bodu Bala Sena were up in arms over the conversion of Buddhists to other faiths. Churches were stormed, mosques were attacked and, in the religious violence that erupted in Beruwela in 2014, one Muslim was even killed. Now that a Muslim boy has been ordained as a Buddhist monk, and, as it transpires, even without his mother’s knowledge or permission, will it not provide the justification for adherents of religions to do the same? How will it affect Buddhist sensitivities, if Muslim Muezzins were to trumpet from the turret tops of mosques or Catholic Bishops were to proclaim from their pulpits, the news that scores of little Buddhists boys have become Islamists or Catholics?

The Buddha was the first missionary. And, during his 45 years of missionary work, he converted thousands of Hindus and Jains to Buddhism. But he did so by preaching his Dhamma and those who followed him did so only after realising the validity of his message. There were no underhand conversions.

In present day Lanka, the right to preach one’s own gospel must be allowed. But not the right to kraal small ignorant children to the fold when the mother’s slaving away abroad. And then to hail it as a historic achievement and blare the bulletin from the Chuda Manikya at the pinnacle of the stupa atop Dimbulagala Rock.

Marketing blitz fails to stop slide in tourism to Israel

Israel’s expensive campaign aimed at drawing more tourists from Europe has not worked.

Ali Abunimah-27 January 2017

Tourism to Israel fell again in 2016, continuing a negative trend that began with the 2014 assault on Gaza that left more than 2,200 Palestinians, including 550 children, dead.

Figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics show that the expensive efforts to brand the country as a fun, carefree destination, especially for Europeans, are failing.

Overall, the number of visitors to Israel last year dropped by 1.2 percent. This comes after even sharper drops in previous years – 4.4 percent in 2015 and 8.2 percent in 2014.

Big budget

In December, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel’s tourism ministry “was granted its biggest marketing budget ever in the past year as it tried to change Israel’s image as a travel destination and expand the range of tourism offerings.”

The flagship “Two Cities, One Break” campaign was directed at European tourists to attract them to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

It cost more than $23 million, but ministry sources told Haaretz that “the campaign fell flat.”

Israel has also brought D-list celebrities over on free junkets in the hope that their social media postings would draw visitors.

But the number of visitors from Israel’s biggest market, Europe, fell 6.5 percent last year compared with 2015.

The largest number of visitors to Israel comes from France – and those numbers fell from 300,000 in 2015 to 293,000 last year.

There were 18,000 fewer visitors from Germany – a drop of nine percent. The number of visitors from Russia plummeted from 414,000 to 285,000.

Israel did make up some of its losses in Asia: it hosted 86,000 tourists from China, compared with 52,000 in 2015. It also saw about 37,000 more visitors from North America, mostly the United States.

Israel’s woes are not unique: Turkey, which suffered a military coup attempt in July and has been beset by horrific bombing and shooting attacks, saw tourist visits plummet by 21 percent last year.

Egypt continues to see double digit declines in visitors.

But a general sense of danger due to violence in the region is not the whole story.

Jordan managed to buck the trend, recording an increase in tourist arrivals of 2.6 percent in 2016, according to its tourism ministry.

Jordan attracted 3.8 million visitors, compared with just over three million to Israel.

Mixed message, harsh reality

Israel tries to market itself as distinct from the rest of the region – a gay-friendly outpost of “Western” civilization and fun in a tumultuous neighborhood.

But this branding is undermined by the fact that Israel is usually in the headlines because of its brutal occupation and aggressive colonization of Palestinian land, violence in the streets of the cities it is hoping tourists will visit, the racist declarations of its politicians and its underhanded efforts to sabotage the nonviolent boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.

Indeed, Israeli leaders continue to insist that the country is beset by dangers that could “wipe out every Israeli.” While this line is aimed at gaining political sympathy, it hardly makes it an enticing place for people who want to have a good time.

Meanwhile, destinations in Southern Europe, especially Spain, are smashing tourism records.

Incidentally, there’s another notable trend in Spain: since the 2014 attack on Gaza, more than 50 Spanish cities have declared themselves “free of Israeli apartheid.”

Yemen loyalists advance into Red Sea town of Mokha

Deadly clashes have shaken the town since loyalist forces launched an offensive nearly three weeks ago

A fighter stands watch in Yemen (MEE)

AFP-Saturday 28 January 2017

Yemeni government forces have advanced into the Red Sea town of Mokha, but Shia Houthi rebels are still putting up fierce resistance, a military official said on Saturday.

Forces loyal to President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, captured the police headquarters and several surrounding streets late on Friday, the official said.

Deadly clashes have shaken the town since loyalist forces launched an offensive nearly three weeks ago to oust the rebels and their allies from the southern part of the Red Sea coastline.

Since Friday alone, at least 19 rebels have been killed and 23 wounded, a medical source in the rebel-held port city of Hudaida further north said. Eight loyalist troops have been killed and 13 wounded, medical sources in the government-held second city of Aden said.

The rebels' only escape route is to the north after loyalist forces surrounded Mokha from the east and the south, the military official said. The waters off the port are blockaded by coalition warships and Apache helicopters.

Mokha was Yemen's main port serving as its export hub for coffee until it was overtaken by Aden and Hudaida in the 19th century.

Nearly 260 combatants have been killed since government forces launched their drive up the Red Sea coastline on 7 January. They have already retaken the Dhubab district further south in their biggest advance in months.

The offensive comes with the president and his coalition backers under mounting international pressure to agree to a UN ceasefire plan.

In a speech to the Security Council on Thursday, UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed criticised Hadi for rejecting his proposals for a transition that would see him cede much of his power to a vice president who would oversee a government of national unity.

"President Hadi continues to criticise the proposals without agreeing to discuss them, and this will hinder and impede the path towards peace," the envoy said.

The UN has also criticised the coalition air and sea blockade of rebel areas, warning that it is impeding the delivery of desperately needed aid to millions of civilians. The UN says about 14 million people, nearly 80 percent of the entire Yemeni population, are in need of food aid.

 More Republicans are speaking out against Trump’s refugee ban. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell aren’t among them.

President Trump, accompanied by Vice President Pence, shakes hands with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday at a congressional retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday. (Matt Rourke/AP)

By Kelsey Snell, Karoun Demirjian and Mike DeBonis-January 28 at 5:27 PM

Several congressional Republicans on Saturday questioned President Trump’s order to halt admission to the U.S. by refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, even as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) continued to defend it.

Ryan was among the first lawmakers on Friday to back Trump’s order, and his office reiterated his support on Saturday.

“This is not a religious test and it is not a ban on people of any religion,” said spokeswoman AshLee Strong.

The order blocks citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Libya from entering the country for at least 90 days. It also bans refugees from anywhere in the world for 120 days — and from Syria indefinitely. Trump said that the goal is to screen out “radical Islamic terrorists” and that priority for admission would be given to Christians.

[Trump signs order temporarily halting admission of refugees, promises priority for Christians]

President Trump signed an executive order halting all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days, among other provisions. Here's what the order says. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Republicans defending the executive order did so pointed to an exception for people already in transit and argued that some elements, including the religious minority preference, would not immediately be implemented. But as cable news footage brought scenes all day Saturday of chaos at airports around the country, where business travelers, students and even legal U.S. residents were being barred entry, other Republicans began weighing in.

“This is ridiculous,” said Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.). “I guess I understand what his intention is, but unfortunately the order appears to have been rushed through without full consideration. You know, the many, many nuances of immigration policy that can be life or death for many innocent, vulnerable people around the world

“I understand what his intention is,” of the president. “But the order appears to have been rushed though without consideration. This is life and death for people around the world.”

Dent, who represents a large Syrian community in the Allentown area, said he was contacted Saturday by a constituent who had family members turned away early in the morning at Philadelphia International Airport. Six family members who had secured visas and even bought a house in Pennsylvania arrived on a Qatar Airways flight but were returned back within hours, he said.

Dent called on the Trump administration to halt immediately action on the order.

“This family was sent home despite having all their paperwork in order,” Dent continued, “so this 90-day ban could imperil the lives of this family and potentially others, and it’s unacceptable ,and I urge the administration to halt enforcement of this order until a more thoughtful and deliberate policy can be reinstated.”

[Trump order barring refugees, migrants from Muslim countries triggers chaos, outrage]

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said Saturday that he backs the order but hopes for some resolution for those who were in transit as the order was announced.

“Pausing the intake of refugees from terror hotspots is the right call to keep America safe,” Royce said. “I hope cases of individuals with visas traveling as this executive action went into effect — including some who served alongside U.S. troops — will be resolved quickly.”

Some conservatives worried that denying entry to permanent residents and green card holders could violate the Constitution. Many worried privately that the order will face significant challenges in court. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) was among the few GOP members to air his concerns publicly. Amash posted on Twitter that the order “overreaches” and “undermines” the Constitution.

“It’s not lawful to ban immigrants on basis of nationality,” Amash tweeted. “If the president wants to change immigration law, he must work with Congress.”

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) credited Trump with properly focusing on protecting the country’s borders and said it is necessary to connect “jihadi terrorism” with Islam and particular countries. However, he also noted that the order is “too broad.”

“If we send a signal to the Middle East that the U.S. sees all Muslims as jihadis, the terrorist recruiters win by telling kids that America is banning Muslims and that this is America versus one religion,” Sasse said. “Our generational fight against jihadism requires wisdom.”

The statement from Ryan’s office came after several requests seeking comment on how the order differs from the Muslim ban that Ryan rejected during the campaign, whether such a ban is in line with American values and if Ryan is concerned that the order is a first step towards a religious litmus test.

Ryan has been a consistent advocate for increased vetting standards and has frequently said he opposes a complete ban on Muslims entering the country.

“Freedom of religion is a fundamental constitutional principle. It’s a founding principle of this country,” Ryan told reporters following a closed-door morning meeting at the Republican National Committee in December of 2015. “This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for. And more importantly, it’s not what this country stands for.”

The majority of Republicans in Congress were silent on the order Saturday — including Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Calls and emails to more than a dozen top GOP lawmakers were not returned. Only one Republican senator contacted for this story had responded at the time of publication.

Conservative advocacy groups, meanwhile, generally supported Trump’s actions.

In an interview Saturday with The Post, Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed defended Trump’s executive order, calling it an “entirely prudent move” and rejecting the notion that it amounts to a ban on Muslims or infringes on religious liberties.

“It makes perfect sense not to try to build the airplane in the air,” said Reed, who advocated hitting “the pause button” on current practices on immigration and refugee policies, over concerns about terrorism.

Congressional aides who did respond generally insisted that Trump was merely adopting a policy that passed the House last year with a veto-proof majority. The seven countries named in the order are currently included in the list of as “countries of concern” by the Department of Homeland Security. People who have traveled to or lived in those countries were already subject to additional scrutiny when applying for visa waivers.

One senior GOP aide said in an email that the executive order was “narrow, a faint shadow of the policy Trump ran on.”

The silence is a major departure from the outrage many Republicans expressed when Trump floated a Muslim ban during the campaign. At the time, several leading Republicans, including Ryan and McConnell said proposals to bar visitors based on religion are “completely inconsistent” with American values.

[ Ryan, McConnell denounce Trump plan to bar Muslims from the U.S. ]

Statements trickled in slowly Saturday as lawmakers and government agencies scrambled to make sense of how the order would be applied. Confusion over the directive played out at airports across the country as immigration officials attempted to decide how to handle refugees and travellers from those seven nations who were already in transit or on the ground when the exeutive order was issued.

Several news outlets reported instances of travelers being detained in airports, including Hameed Khalid Darweesh, a 53 year old Iraqi man who spent several years acting as an interpreter for the U.S. Army in Iraw. Darweesh was released from detention in New York’s John F. Kennedy airport after two New York Democrats, Reps. Jerry Nadler and Nydia Valazquez, intervened on his behalf.

Several Congressional aides who spoke on condition of anonymity said Saturday that the executive order itself does not single out a preference for Christians, and the temporary travel ban is focused on areas where terrorism is a particular concern. One senior aide dismissed as “false” accusations that the order constitutes a blanket policy against Muslims or Muslim-majority nations.

The House voted last year on legislation to suspend the admission of refugees from Syria and Iraq until the White House could certify that no person entering the United States would pose a security threat. Democrats blocked a vote on the legislation in the Senate and it ultimately failed to reach President Obama’s desk.

[ Republicans beat back attempt to hold vote on Trump’s Muslim ban proposal ]

Aides also said it is not uncommon for an administration to prioritize refu­gee requests on the basis of religious persecution. However, since the beginning of the ­Syrian civil war and the rise of the Islamic State, many more Muslims than Christians have been killed or displaced because of the violence.

Additionally, a 2015 Washington Post poll found that 78 percent of Americans favored equal consideration for refugees regardless of religion.

[Two Pinocchios for Trump’s claim that it is ‘very tough’ for Christian Syrians to get to the U.S.]

Ryan said Friday that while he supports the refu­gee resettlement program, he thinks it is time to “reevaluate and strengthen the visa vetting process.”

“President Trump is right to make sure we are doing everything possible to know exactly who is entering our country,” the speaker said Friday.

Other Republicans offered similar support for the order on national seceurity grounds.

“President Trump signed an order to help prevent jihadists from infiltrating the United States,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a statement. “With the stroke of a pen, he is doing more to shut down terrorist pathways into this country than the last Administration did in eight years.”

Evan McMullin, a former CIA officer and House GOP policy director who waged an independent presidential bid in 2016, was one of a small number of Republicans to publicly oppose the ban. McMullin tweeted a photo of the Statue of Liberty on Saturday morning, and was promptly mocked by the white nationalist Richard Spencer.

“That’s who they’re in league with — white supremacists and white nationalists,” McMullin said in an interview. “I’m not expecting much opposition from the vast majority of Republicans in Congress. There is anti-Muslim bigotry at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and it fundamentally un-American and tangibly damaging to our national security and strength.”

Most Republicans, McMullin predicted, would decline to criticize the executive orders. “Those who are silent on this will be defined by that silence,” he said.

Sean Sullivan and David Weigel contributed to this report.