Thursday, February 16, 2017

In Serbia, a Protest and a Presidential Run

BY EMILY TAMKIN-FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Serbians are fed up with corrupt local officials.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Belgrade on Wednesday, Serbia’s national day of statehood, to call for the resignation of the city’s mayor, Sinisa Mali. This came two days after reports surfaced implicating Mali in the “midnight demolition” of a neighborhood last April, in which roughly 30 masked men with baseball bats knock down buildings, tying up and mistreating residents in the process.

It seems that Mali had other plans for the neighborhood, which was to become the “Belgrade Waterfront” with the help of a company from the United Arab Emirates, according to his ex-wife Marija Mali, who was interviewed by the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK). “Sinisa had the task to clean out that area because he had negotiated the construction of the ‘Belgrade Waterfront’ there with the Arabs,” Marija Mali said in the interview, which was published Monday.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic had already said the highest city officials were involved. But after the ex-wife’s remarks came out, the prime minister tried to distance himself from the mayor, saying he’d never been in his home. The public isn’t likely to buy it: Vucic has previously called Mali a friend and the mayor served as the prime minister’s economic adviser.

Wednesday’s protests had some effect. Mali said he would not be the party’s candidate for mayor during the next elections. But he didn’t say he would step down. “Nobody resigns in Serbia,” said KRIK’s Dragana Peco, who conducted the interview with Mali. She argued that Vucic would not call on the mayor to resign because it would be tantamount to admitting a larger problem.

The protesters were also, per Peco , calling on institutions to do their jobs independent of politics. “Because in two months it will be a year after demolition. And nothing’s happened,” she said. The police who did not respond to calls from citizens on the night of the demolition have not been held responsible. The prosecutor’s office is still in the stages of “pre-investigation.”

“Institutions in Serbia, independent institutions or courts or police they just — they are not independent, they are working under control of the government,” she asserted.

If Vucic gets his way, that government will include him a little longer. He announced this week that he is running for president, which he had said he would do by the national day of statehood. “I am going from the most powerful position to one which hasn’t got a tenth of that power only to ensure continuity and stability,” he said in an interview.

But continuity of what? Peco said that, while the government seemed capable enough of dealing with Serbia’s foreign affairs, “when it comes to the basic things — like human rights — nobody’s taking care of it.”

Photo credit: OLIVER BUNIC/AFP/Getty Images

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong arrested in bribery probe

Lee Jae-yong is first leader in electronics firm's history to be held on criminal charges as part of a corruption probe.

Lee had been interrogated several times until his arrest on Thursday (EPA]

16 Feb 2017
The heir of South Korean company Samsung has been arrested as part of an investigation into corruption and influence-peddling that caused President Park Geun-hye to be impeached.

The Seoul Central District Court's decision on Friday to issue a warrant to arrest Lee Jae-yong, 48, makes him the first leader in Samsung's history to be arrested on criminal charges.

Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and son of the Samsung group head Lee Kun-hee, is accused of paying nearly $40m in bribes to Park's secret confidante to secure policy favours.

"It is acknowledged that it is necessary to arrest [Lee] in light of a newly added criminal charge and new evidence," a court spokesman said in a statement on Friday.

He was already being held at a detention centre after appearing in court on Thursday as judges deliberated whether to issue an arrest warrant.

Samsung is South Korea's largest business group and its revenue is equivalent to about a fifth of the country's GDP.

Second arrest bid

Lee had been interrogated several times over his alleged role in the scandal that has rocked South Korea in recent months.

He had narrowly avoided being formally arrested last month, after the court ruled there was insufficient evidence.

South Korean prosecutors seek arrest of Samsung heir

But prosecutors on Tuesday made a second bid for his arrest, saying they had collected more evidence in recent weeks.

His arrest is likely to send shock waves through the group, which is a major part of the South Korean economy.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone maker, is already reeling from the debacle over the recall of its Galaxy Note 7 device and reports have suggested it could face sanctions from overseas authorities if Lee is punished.

The scandal centres on Choi Soon-sil, who is accused of using her close ties with Park to force local firms to "donate" nearly $70m to non-profit foundations which Choi allegedly used for personal gain.

Samsung was the single biggest donor to the foundations. It is also accused of separately giving millions of euros to Choi to bankroll her daughter's equestrian training in Germany.

The court is also deliberating an arrest warrant for another Samsung executive, who is also the head of Korea Equestrian Federation, over bribery charges.

Controversial merger

Samsung said in a statement on Wednesday it had "not paid bribes nor made improper requests to the president seeking favours".

Lee has effectively taken the helm of Samsung since his father suffered a heart attack in 2014.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Samsung had paid Choi to secure state approval for the controversial merger of two Samsung units seen as a key step towards ensuring a smooth power transfer to Lee.

The merger in 2015 of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was opposed by many investors who said it wilfully undervalued the former unit's shares.

But the deal went through after Seoul's state pension fund - a major Samsung shareholder - approved it.

Counting the Cost: South Korea's chaebol - Economy at a crossroads

Philippines senator claims Duterte’s common-law wife stashed millions in bank accounts

THE common-law wife of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has reportedly stashed nearly PHP200 million (US$4 mil) in separate accounts, according to documents released by a senator on Thursday.

The revelation by the senator adds to previous allegations that Duterte, who adopted a hard-line stance against corruption, made PHP2.2 billion (US$44 mil) in personal bank transactions over a certain number of years.

During a press conference, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, released a 18-page document which showed Duterte’s partner, Cielito “Honeylet” Salvador-Avanceña, had a total of PHP187,159,085.90 (US$3.7 mil) in bank transactions from July 14, 2004 to March 4, 2016, the Inquirer reported.

According to the news site, the biggest recorded transaction amounting to PHP4,349,709 (US$87,090) was made Dec 29, 2014. The money was deposited in Avanceña’s account at the Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI) in its main branch in Davao, Duterte’s hometown.

Philippines: Duterte denies having millions in undeclared cash

On May 13, 2015, Avanceña’s account at the BPI main-Davao had also recorded P3,112,010.54 (US$62,246) and another PHP3,085,136.54 (US$61,708) in inter-account transfers, the document alleged. It also said between Jan and Feb 2016, Avanceña’s account at the bank saw the movement of several millions of pesos in transfers.

In April last year, Trillanes alleged that Duterte had made PHP2.2 billion in bank deposits in the span of a decade.

Duterte denied having amassed huge sums of money from graft activities that have largely gone undeclared over recent years.

In December last year, Duterte made a public confession of a summary execution, claiming he had once thrown a suspected kidnapper out of a helicopter mid-flight during his time as Davao city mayor.

His admission was a warning to corrupt officials who he threatened would suffer the same fate in the government’s anti-corruption drive, referring to how he dealt with criminals in the past.

“If you are corrupt I will fetch you with a helicopter and I will throw you out on the way to Manila,” Duterte was quoted as saying.

Philippines: Rodrigo Duterte facing coup rumors as senator files corruption complaint

“I have done that before, why should I not do it again?”

Duterte made the threat against corrupt officials during a speech at the Camarines Sur provincial capitol following his visit Typhoon Nina-hit disaster areas. He said much like his war on drugs, the anti-corruption campaign will be a main focus during his six-year term.

Since Duterte entered office in June, more than 7,000 people have been killed in his war on drugs, some half of which at the hands of the police and the remaining number by vigilante groups.

Woolly mammoth on verge of resurrection, scientists reveal

Scientist leading ‘de-extinction’ effort says Harvard team could create hybrid mammoth-elephant embryo in two years

Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), a model of an extinct Ice Age mammoth. Photograph: Andrew Nelmerm/Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley

Hannah Devlin Science correspondent-Thursday 16 February 2017

The woolly mammoth vanished from the Earth 4,000 years ago, but now scientists say they are on the brink of resurrecting the ancient beast in a revised form, through an ambitious feat of genetic engineering.

Speaking ahead of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston this week, the scientist leading the “de-extinction” effort said the Harvard team is just two years away from creating a hybrid embryo, in which mammoth traits would be programmed into an Asian elephant.

“Our aim is to produce a hybrid elephant-mammoth embryo,” said Prof George Church. “Actually, it would be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits. We’re not there yet, but it could happen in a couple of years.”

The creature, sometimes referred to as a “mammophant”, would be partly elephant, but with features such as small ears, subcutaneous fat, long shaggy hair and cold-adapted blood. The mammoth genes for these traits are spliced into the elephant DNA using the powerful gene-editing tool, Crispr.

Until now, the team have stopped at the cell stage, but are now moving towards creating embryos – although, they said that it would be many years before any serious attempt at producing a living creature.

“We’re working on ways to evaluate the impact of all these edits and basically trying to establish embryogenesis in the lab,” said Church.

Since starting the project in 2015 the researchers have increased the number of “edits” where mammoth DNA has been spliced into the elephant genome from 15 to 45.

“We already know about ones to do with small ears, subcutaneous fat, hair and blood, but there are others that seem to be positively selected,” he said.

Church said that these modifications could help preserve the Asian elephant, which is endangered, in an altered form. However, others have raised ethical concerns about the project.

Matthew Cobb, professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, said: “The proposed ‘de-extinction’ of mammoths raises a massive ethical issue – the mammoth was not simply a set of genes, it was a social animal, as is the modern Asian elephant. What will happen when the elephant-mammoth hybrid is born? How will it be greeted by elephants?”

Church also outlined plans to grow the hybrid animal within an artificial womb rather than recruit a female elephant as a surrogate mother - a plan which some believe will not be achievable within the next decade.

“We hope to do the entire procedure ex-vivo (outside a living body),” he said. “It would be unreasonable to put female reproduction at risk in an endangered species.”

He added that his lab is already capable of growing a mouse embryo in an artificial womb for 10 days - halfway through its gestation period.

“We’re testing the growth of mice ex-vivo. There are experiments in the literature from the 1980s but there hasn’t been much interest for a while,” he said. “Today we’ve got a whole new set of technology and we’re taking a fresh look at it.”

“Church’s team is proposing to rear the embryo in an ‘artificial womb’ which seems ambitious to say the least – the resultant animal would have been deprived of all the pre-birth interactions with its mother,” said Cobb.

The woolly mammoth roamed across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America during the last Ice Age and vanished about 4,000 years ago, probably due to a combination of climate change and hunting by humans.

Their closest living relative is the Asian, not the African, elephant.

“De-extincting” the mammoth has become a realistic prospect because of revolutionary gene editing techniques that allow the precise selection and insertion of DNA from specimens frozen over millennia in Siberian ice.

Church helped develop the most widely used technique, known as Crispr/Cas9, that has transformed genetic engineering since it was first demonstrated in 2012. Derived from a defence system bacteria use to fend off viruses, it allows the “cut and paste” manipulation of strands of DNA with a precision not seen before.

Gene editing and its ethical implications is one of the key topics under discussion at the Boston conference.

Church, a guest speaker at the meeting, said the mammoth project had two goals: securing an alternative future for the endangered Asian elephant and helping to combat global warming. Woolly mammoths could help prevent tundra permafrost from melting and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

“They keep the tundra from thawing by punching through snow and allowing cold air to come in,” said Church. “In the summer they knock down trees and help the grass grow.”

The scientists intend to engineer elephant skin cells to produce the embryo, or multiple embryos, using cloning techniques. Nuclei from the reprogrammed cells would be placed into elephant egg cells whose own genetic material has been removed. The eggs would then be artificially stimulated to develop into embryos.

Church predicts that age-reversal will become a reality within 10 years as a result of the new developments in genetic engineering.

Football headers 'linked to brain damage'

By Smitha Mundasad-15 February 2017

Repeated headers during a footballer's professional career may be linked to long-term brain damage, according to tentative evidence from UK scientists.

The research follows anecdotal reports that players who head balls may be more prone to developing dementia later in life.

The Football Association says it will look at this area more closely.

Experts said recreational players were unlikely to incur problems.

Damage "covered up" says Ian St John

Dawn Astle, the daughter of former England and West Brom striker Jeff Astle, who died aged 59 suffering from early onset dementia, said it was "obvious that it [his dementia] was linked to his footballing career".

The inquest into his death in 2002 found that repeatedly heading heavy leather footballs had contributed to trauma to his brain.

Ms Astle told BBC Radio 5 Live: "At the coroner's inquest, football tried to sweep his death under a carpet.

They didn't want to know, they didn't want to think that football could be a killer and sadly, it is. It can be."

She said her father was 55 and physically very fit when he went to the doctor, who diagnosed him with the early onset of dementia.

By the end he "didn't even know he'd ever been a footballer", she said, before adding: "Everything football ever gave him, football had taken away."

Researchers from University College London and Cardiff University examined the brains of five people who had been professional footballers and one who had been a committed amateur throughout his life.

They had played football for an average of 26 years and all six went on to develop dementia in their 60s.

While performing post mortem examinations, scientists found signs of brain injury - called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in four cases.

CTE has been linked to memory loss, depression and dementia and has been seen in other contact sports.

Prof Huw Morris, of University College London, told the BBC: "When we examined their brains at autopsy we saw the sorts of changes that are seen in ex-boxers, the changes that are often associated with repeated brain injury which are known as CTE.

"So really for the first time in a series of players we have shown that there is evidence that head injury has occurred earlier in their life which presumably has some impact on them developing dementia."

In the study, published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, the report's authors make it clear they were not analysing the risks of heading by children.

Jeff Astle won five caps for England and played in the 1970 World Cup Finals

But the science is far from clear-cut.

Each brain also showed signs of Alzheimer's disease and some had blood vessel changes that can also lead to dementia.

Researchers speculate that it was a combination of factors that contributed to dementia in these players.

But they acknowledge their research cannot definitively prove a link between football and dementia and are calling for larger studies to look at footballers' long-term brain health.

SPLImage caption--There are many different types of dementia - Alzheimer's is the most common form

Dr David Reynolds, at the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "The causes of dementia are complex and it is likely that the condition is caused by a combination of age, lifestyle and genetic factors.

"Further research is needed to shed light on how lifestyle factors such as playing sport may alter dementia risk, and how this sits in the context of the well-established benefits of being physically active."

He added that for people who are recreational footballers, football injuries are unlikely to cause long-term problems and he pointed to expert advice that the benefit of exercise is likely to outweigh the risks.

A number of previous cases involving boxers and American footballers have suggested that repetitive blows can cause long-lasting and progressive brain damage.

But until now there have only been a few case reports of individual footballers with CTE in the UK and the extent of the issue is still unknown.

The Football Association welcomed the study and said research was particularly needed to find out whether degenerative brain disease is more common in ex-footballers.

Dr Charlotte Cowie, of the FA, added: "The FA is determined to support this research and is also committed to ensuring that any research process is independent, robust and thorough, so that when the results emerge, everyone in the game can be confident in its findings."

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Eastern University students protest in solidarity with Pilavu

15 Feb 2017

Students from the Eastern University held a demonstration on Monday to show solidarity for the Pilavu protestors.

In a demonstration organised by students of the Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Eastern University students gathered outside the institute in Kallady, Batticaloa and called for the Sri Lankan government to release the Pilakudiyirippu lands.

UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE LAUNCHES USD 253M FUNDING APPEAL;USD 648,000 SRI LANKA WORK

16/02/2017

GENEVA (15 February 2017) – The UN Human Rights Office today launched its most ambitious funding appeal yet, urging States and private donors to bolster the Office’s ability to work and stand up for human rights for all people, everywhere.

The estimated budged for work in Sri Lanka is USD 648,000.

“Our world has entered a period of profound uncertainty. In numerous countries, even the rules are under attack – xenophobia and calls for racial and religious discrimination have entered mainstream discourse and every day, seemingly, are more widespread and more deeply rooted,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said. “A collective failure to prevent, minimize and resolve conflicts and proxy wars is feeding brutal extremist groups and creating wave upon wave of the most shocking human suffering, including forcing millions of people to flee their homes and everything they have ever known.”

“This is cause for grave alarm – but not dejection. It is a cry not to despair but to action. And, it is evidence of the pressing need for broad based compassion, stability and inclusive development that human rights underpin. Investment in human rights today makes for prevention tomorrow – prevention of escalating violations and of the shattering impacts of conflict. Human rights upheld returns stability to entire countries and regions by advancing justice for all.”

The UN Human Rights Office, through some 60 field presences and through partnerships with other international and local organizations worldwide, works to ensure that human rights principles have a real impact on the lives of people.

“Through human rights advocacy, advice on laws and constitutions, training of State authorities as well as of non-Governmental organizations, fact-finding and hard-hitting investigations that lay the groundwork for accountability and amplify the voices of victims of human rights violations – through these and other means, the UN Human Rights Office helps in the push for better human rights protections for all,” Zeid said.

“More than ever, we need strong partners to stand with us. My Office is dramatically and chronically underfunded. We need to broaden our financial support base to include more Member States, and encourage participation from a much broader range of private donors.”

The UN Human Rights Office is this year seeking USD 252.9 million in extra-budgetary funding for its 2017 programme of work, including in-country assistance, support to UN independent human rights experts and the UN Human Rights Council, as well as a number of trust funds to support work on issues such as torture, contemporary forms of slavery and the rights of indigenous peoples. This extra-budgetary funding would be in addition to the UN regular budget funding of USD 107.56 million provided to the UN Human Rights Office.

“With your support, we can help to prevent human rights crises from escalating. We can advocate a broad, open democratic space and impartial rule of law institutions in every country. We can contribute to sound governance of migration and continue to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Agenda. We can push back against the current assaults on values, and act swiftly to uphold the human rights laws and principles we fought so hard to build,” the High Commissioner said.

“More and more people are suddenly realizing we can no longer afford to be complacent about human rights, and that the erosion of other people’s human rights will sooner or later lead to the erosion of our own,” Zeid added.

“The time to stand up for human rights is now. We are counting on your support.”

– – ohchr.

See the UN Human Rights Office’s Annual Appeal 2017 here (in English): http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/AboutUs/UNHumanRightsAppeal2017.pdf

UNHumanRightsAppeal2017.pdf by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

War Crimes Probe: TNA Miffed With Government’s Time Buying Tactics

February 15, 2017

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is miffed with the government’s latest time buying tactic in its attempt to further postpone the war crimes probe, sources said.

Sampanthan

During several forums, the TNA MPs, including its leader R. Sampanthan had expressed both disappointment and annoyance following the government’s recent declaration that it will seek more time from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to probe war crimes.

The TNA which has from time to time both directly and indirectly supported the Yahapalanaya government, has also been ‘upset’ by a recent statement made by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga that a war crimes probe was not necessary. Kumaratunga, is the head of the Office for the National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR).

Meanwhile, Sampanthan who is also the leader of the opposition in parliament, has accused the government of trying to evade its responsibilities by buying time from the UNHRC. He had also reportedly said that if the Sri Lankan government seeks for more time at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva this month, then the UN must monitor and scrutinize the government’s activities ‘more closely’ to ensure they are genuinely working towards fulfilling its pledge, or was looking at ways of stalling the probe.

Last week, foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera said that he will seek for more time from the UNHRC session this month, to probe war crime charges. He had assured that this government will not go back on its pledge, but instead needed more time to set up the judicial mechanisms, to probe war crimes committed during the final stages of the war between the military and the LTTE. The 34th UNHRC sessions will commence on February 27 in Geneva.

…. but Tamils are more concerned about their future

by Zacki Jabbar-February 15, 2017, 9:56 pm

Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga says that somebody would have to be held responsible for crimes committed during the last stages of the war that ended in May 2009, but the Tamils were more concerned about their future.

The near three decade long separatist conflict waged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, ended with its defeat by government forces on May 19, 2009.

Tamils allege that over 40,000 civilians in the North were killed by the previous Rajapaksa regime, during the closing stages of the war.

Kumaratunga who is the current Chairperson of the Office For National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) told a meeting with the Foreign Correspondents’ Association at her office in Colombo on Tuesday evening, that it was the Tamil diaspora that kept harping on a war crimes probe. "I am not saying that an investigation into the alleged atrocities is not relevant, but Tamils in the North and East are more concerned about the future well being of those among the living."

She emphasised that the immediate priority, which the international community too agreed with, was to establish a National Policy on Reconciliation for which a new Constitution was necessary.

Accountability was only one aspect of the reconciliation process. Reparations would commence, no sooner the Missing Persons Commission was established, Kumaratunga said.

She explained that the National Policy on Reconciliation formulated by ONUR and approved by Cabinet, encompassed a political solution to the ethnic issue, economic, transitional and social justice.

Obtaining approval at a referendum for the proposed new constitution would not be easy with extremist forces such as the Bodu Bala Sena and the group of parliamentarians led by former President Mahinda Rajpaksa hell bent on opposing even the good that the government did, Kumaratunga said adding "but not all Buddhist monks are horrid."

Responding to a question she pointed out that there was " no need for foreign judges, if our judiciary can do it properly. It is more important to enact a new constitution than get down judges from abroad."

Kumaratunga: Sri Lanka war widows face sexual exploitation

Good governance commander in chief

At least 100,000 Sri Lankans lost their lives during the conflict that saw horrific abuses by both sides

February 15, 2017

Tamil women who survived Sri Lanka’s civil war now face widespread sexual exploitation by officials in their own community as well as from the army, the head of an ethnic reconciliation body said Wednesday.

Former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, the chairman of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation, said women who were widowed during the 37-year conflict were among the victims of abuse by officials who frequently demand sexual favours just to carry out routine paperwork.

“There is a lot of sexual abuse still going on by officials, even Tamil officials and even at lower levels, the grama sevakas (village officials),” she told Sri Lanka’s Foreign Correspondents’ Association. “Even to sign a document, they abuse the women and of course some people in the (armed) forces” continue to commit sexual abuse, she said.

Kumaratunga, who lost an eye in a Tamil Tiger suicide bombing when she was president at the height of the conflict, said the best way to make women less vulnerable was to improve their livelihoods. “We feel that when women have livelihoods, they will be empowered… they feel safer and they don’t have to be exploited,” she said.

Kumaratunga said many women had been traumatised as a result of the sexual abuse and needed psychological support but the authorities lacked qualified experts to treat them. “We cannot bring counsellors from abroad because they won’t know the language,” she said.

Many women, particularly widows, have struggled in the war’s aftermath to obtain identity papers and birth certificates which are essential to obtain government handouts and other aid.

Prosecutions of military personnel or officials for sex crimes are rare in Sri Lanka, although four soldiers were jailed for 25 years for the gang-rape of a young Tamil mother in 2010, a year after the war ended.

What Do We Own ?

By Ranil Senanayake –February 15, 2017

Dr Ranil Senanayake

Land provokes visceral reactions. It is said that the land you are born in creates an indelible identity in a person and of course land has been the basis of innumerable wars fought by humanity. Property or individual ownership land has diluted this sense of ‘place’ as defined by land. But, while the commodification of land has become a feature of ‘development’, it seems difficult to erase those links of identity. It was the loss of our right to land through the infamous ‘waste lands ordinance’ that evoked such fierce resistance in the 1980’s. Now, as we stand on the brink a repeat of that tragedy, it is incumbent for all Sri Lankans to question both the motive and the right of the current crop of political leaders. A fundamental question that arises in the modern context is “ Can a person elected for five years, negotiate away the rights of many generations of our children? Thomas Jefferson, a President of the United States of America, asked: “Can one generation bind another and all others in succession forever? He also answered this question, “I think not. The Creator made the earth for the living, not the dead”. We could extend this notion of intergenerational responsibility and ask ‘can a politician, elected for 5 years, give away the land rights of five generations to come?

In a nation whose forefathers had created one of the most sophisticated water management systems as a gift to future generations, the current rush to hand parts of our land to various foreign entities, not questioning for a moment, their intent and the poisonous processes that they will bring to our nation, can never be accepted as a patriotic move. In fact such a process is just the opposite. The ultimate act of betrayal of a nation is for its leaders to sell the birthright of its citizenry. Access to clean land, access to clean air, clean water and safe food is our birthright no amount of political ‘spin doctoring’ can change that.

The landscapes of Sri Lanka are unique, an island with central mountains to catch the rain and drain it radially to a sophisticated system of about 30,000 reservoirs in the lowlands. An amazing engineering effort that created sophisticated ‘cascades’ of reservoirs an agricultural and engineering effort not seen anywhere else in the world. The long history as human association with the land resulted in the evolution of stable agroecosystems that maintained agricultural sustainability. The ability of such systems to co-evolve whilst maintaining core functions is referred to as socio-ecological resilience. Our farming communities maintained this resilience until the advent of ‘modernization’. Where the traditional agricultural landscapes were dispensed with to promulgate the modern ‘green revolution’ with its consequences of non-communicable diseases, loss of sustainability and loss of biodiversity.

This loss is encapsulated in N&H Harrison’s conceptual art piece on Sri Lanka:

“ Yet in some places the buffalo and its wallow still continue
their several thousand-year-old discourse
their collaboration
and one of the consequences of redirecting their discourse
into the technological monologue
will be a peculiar subtraction of possibilities
For gone will be the fish
That eats the larvae of the Malaria mosquito
While itself serving as a source of protein
And gone will be the vermin eating snake
That breeds in the wallows surrounds”

Yes, it is true that much of the landscapes that made this land resplendent have been turned into fields of commerce. Their sustainability traded for corporate profit. The mountain forests were opened up for ‘investment’, much in the manner that our land is currently being offered up for investment. The consequence of changing the montane ecosystems was realized even at the moment of their destruction. Fredrick Lewis an early Coffee planter describes the morning after the forests were set alight:

“When morning broke upon the day following the events recorded at the conclusion of the last chapter, I found myself gazing upon a scene not altogether unfamiliar to me. All around me lay hundreds of charred black logs, stumps in fantastic shapes and outlines: fallen branches, broken and distorted by fire: cinder heaps, and little rivulets of sodden ash: all indicative of the fierce, merciless fire that but a few weeks ago, had raged over a spot that so lately had been a beautiful forest land.   It was now a blackened wilderness, to be changed into fields of coffee, by the labour and patience of man. A strange picture; fascinating in one respect: fearful in another and yet so full of a strange mixture of possibilities was this wild heap of ruins, this uncouth mass of slaughtered giants of an inarticulate, yet eloquent world, to be transformed by, industry in the pursuit of fleeting wealth.”

It was for this end that the lands of the peasants and the farmers preserved and protected for millennia became destroyed. These forests were not just ‘waste lands’ as the Rt.Hon. D.S. Senanayake pointed out :