President Donald Trump’s second major executive order on immigration bans people from six countries with Muslim majorities from entering the United States: Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Syria. The new order, scheduled to take effect on 16 March but frozen at the 11th hour by a federal judge, bars travelers from these six countries for 90 days and refugees for 120 days. Certain waivers could be applied.
Facing a bread shortage that is spawning massive lines and souring the national mood, the Venezuelan government is responding this week by detaining bakers and seizing bakeries.
In a press release, the National Superintendent for the Defence of Socioeconomic Rights said it had charged four people and temporarily seized two bakeries as the socialist administration accused bakers of being part of a broad “economic war” aimed at destabilising the country.
In a statement, the government claimed the bakers had been selling underweight bread and were using price-regulated flour to illegally make specialty items, like sweet rolls and croissants.
The government said bakeries are only allowed to produce French bread and white loaves, or pan canilla, with government-imported flour. However, in a tweet on Thursday, price-control czar William Contreras said only 90 per cent of baked goods had to be price-controlled products.
Two bakeries were also seized for 90 days for breaking a number of rules, including selling overpriced bread.
Juan Crespo, the president of the Industrial Flour Union called Sintra-Harina, which represents 9,000 bakeries nationwide, said the government’s heavy hand isn’t going to solve the problem.
“The government isn’t importing enough wheat,” he said. “If you don’t have wheat, you don’t have flour, and if you don’t have flour, you don’t have bread.”
He said the country needs four 30-tonne boats of wheat every month to cover basic demand.
The notion that bread could become an issue in Venezuela is one more indictment of an economic system gone bust. The country boasts the world’s largest oil reserves but it has to import just about everything else. Facing a cash crunch, the government has dramatically cut back imports, sparking shortages, massive lines and fueling triple-digit inflation.
Earlier this week, President Nicolas Maduro launched “Plan 700” against what he called a “bread war,” ordering officials to do spot checks of bakeries nationwide. In the plan, the government said it would not allow people to stand in line for bread but it’s unclear how it might enforce the order.
“The government is doing everything in its power to end the bread lines,” Crespo said, “but they’re looking at the whole thing backwards.”
Crespo said he’d been in touch with several union members in Caracas and that most said they’d passed the inspection by simply opening their pantries.
“The bakeries are showing the authorities that they have no bread inventory,” he said. “The government has to see the reality.”
Dr. Samoon Ahmad is a practicing psychopharmacologist and psychiatrist. He explains what happens to someone's brain and body if they take Adderall recreationally.
The ruling coalition includes chauvinist Sinhalese with scant interest in moving forward [reconciliation]?
| COLOMBO AND JAFFNA
“WE ARE like dogs in the street, while your men occupy our homes,” read one of the banners strung up by Tamil protesters, mostly women in saris and ragged children. They had been camping for more than a month in a jumble of makeshift tents on a baking, dusty roadside near a Sri Lankan air-force base in the country’s remote north-east. They said that the armed forces, consisting almost entirely of Sinhalese from the island’s south, nabbed their land at the end of a long-running civil war nearly eight years ago and have refused to give it back, despite the promises of a kindlier reformist government elected two years ago. The government recently said it would return some of the disputed property, but the protesters are unassuaged. It is just one of the many grievances of Sri Lanka’s disaffected Tamils, who feel that reconciliation between them and the Sinhalese majority is stalling.
Hopes of harmony rose two years ago when Maithripala Sirisena, who is Sinhalese, was elected president with the overwhelming support of the Tamils, who make up 15% of Sri Lanka’s population of 21m or so. The island’s Tamil-speaking Muslims, who are treated as a separate ethnic group and often feel done down by both sides, make up a further 10%—and also largely backed Mr Sirisena. The Tamils were particularly delighted by the shock defeat of Mr Sirisena’s chauvinistic and autocratic predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had exulted in the crushing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a Tamil separatist group, in 2009, despite the devastating loss of life and property in Tamil areas.
Mr Sirisena duly set about a raft of reforms. He aims to present a new constitution to parliament soon, and to the public in a nationwide referendum before the end of the year. Presidential powers are to be clipped in favour of parliament. Greater devolution to the provinces, including powers over police and land registration, is intended to satisfy Tamil demands for self-rule without resorting to full federalism, which is a dirty word for most Sinhalese.
Other legislative proposals are intended to tackle the vexed question of “transitional justice”: creating an office for missing persons to chronicle the thousands of people abducted or killed in the war (see article); replacing the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has allowed suspects to be held without trial for up to 18 months; providing for compensation for property seized or destroyed in the war; setting up a truth-and-reconciliation commission; and, separately and most controversially, creating a hybrid court involving foreign judges and lawyers, where those accused of perpetrating the worst atrocities may be tried.
On March 22nd the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, which issued a remarkably tough resolution in 2015 that lambasted the previous government and proposed most of the measures listed above, will assess progress towards reconciliation. It will probably issue a “rollover” resolution co-sponsored by Sri Lanka’s government, which will reiterate its promise to do all these things. The Tamils want to keep up international pressure. The government wants the world to stop chiding it.
The trouble is that on most of these fronts the Sri Lankan authorities have been, at best, marking time. Mr Sirisena’s government is a coalition of two normally adversarial parties, one of which was formerly in thrall to Mr Rajapaksa. His many Sinhalese-nationalist admirers care little for reconciliation and resent pandering—as they see it—to the sensitivities of the tiresome Tamils. The possibility of foreigners judging Mr Rajapaksa’s triumphant generals war criminals enrages most Sinhalese.
Mr Sirisena has let it be known that he cannot achieve both the tricky constitutional reforms and the even touchier business of transitional justice at the same time. He wants to be allowed to do them one by one. “Transitional justice will fail if war crimes becomes the pivot,” warns Jehan Perera, a prominent human-rights activist. Mangala Samaraweera, the foreign minister, admits that “people with the old Rajapaksa mindset in key positions are obstructing key reforms”, but pleads for patience, insisting that reform is still broadly on track. “The same torturers are still there,” laments a veteran of the UN’s Human Rights Council.
The Tamils are increasingly frustrated. The north and east, where Tamils predominate, are poorer than most of the south and depend largely on remittances from the diaspora of several million in Australia, Britain, Canada, Malaysia and the Middle East, many of them fugitives from the civil war. Few have returned to invest. There are no international flights from Jaffna, the main city of the Tamil region, even to nearby Chennai, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The local airport is run by the air force. The government has built new roads but spent little on social or agricultural development. Fishing, once a big source of employment, has slumped.
Indebtedness, especially among the disproportionately large number of families headed by single mothers, is rife. So are drugs—heroin as well as cannabis—smuggled across the narrow channel from India. An international banker, who has returned to retire in Jaffna, laments the Tamils’ demoralisation and loss of a work ethic. A bigwig in Jaffna’s chamber of commerce bemoans the lack of support from the central government: “It wants to enslave us, colonise us, get us to send our young men away abroad.”
Tamils pour scorn on the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), their main representative in the Tigers’ absence, which won most parliamentary seats in Tamil areas two years ago. Though technically in opposition to the coalition government in Colombo, the national capital, the alliance nonetheless seeks to co-operate with Mr Sirisena in his quest for constitutional reform and transitional justice. As the president falters, the alliance looks feeble, too.
Mr Rajapaksa’s supporters claim that the disaffected Tamils are about to regroup and plot a bloody new rebellion. That is improbable, since the Tigers’ military defeat in 2009 was so total. Indeed, in the short run the Tamils have few levers of any kind to secure better treatment, as witnessed by their straw-clutching hope that international pressure may somehow come to their rescue. But in the longer run Sri Lanka needs Tamil acquiescence. “If we fail to address transitional justice and Tamil youth feels that the Sinhalese south will never address Tamil grievances, there’s nothing to stop the next generation being pushed towards a new terrorism,” warns Mr Samaraweera.
“Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash: your picture in the paper nor money in the back either. Just refuse to bear them.” ~William Faulkner
The official website of the President of Sri Lanka, reporting on a statement recently made by Maithripala Sirisena says thus: ‘even though some sections of the society entertain the thought that the present government would collapse today or tomorrow, he would not allow any room for it and he further stated that the Government will fulfill its duties and responsibilities within the appropriate time frame in accordance with the mandate of the people’. For a fantasy promoted by the defeated set of political vagabonds of the last regime, the collapse of the present administration remains just that, a fantasy, a pipe dream of huge magnitude- sometimes too sweet from which the dreamers refuse to wake up.
Power is a great aphrodisiac. Its lure is irresistible and amateurs blunder in its presence and blunder again and again, for without it, those who had it, once lost, look undressed and helpless. That is exactly how Basil Rajapaksa, who was once reckoned as the savior of Sri Lanka’s economy, behaved when he was the de facto second-in-command in the last regime. His fantasy collapsed overnight and when power departed from him, within forty eight hours of that monumental downfall of his pipe dream, he departed from the country and the people who gave him that power. The man was primarily responsible for the infamous impeachment of the then Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayke. When the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice ruled that Basil’s pet project Divineguma could not be implemented as he wished, the corrective measure was not aimed at the project. Instead they pursued the Supreme Court and its Head who ruled that the contents of the Bill could not be put into effect as per the draft presented to the Court. Vengeance born out of indignity imposed by the Supreme Court’s decision was too strong for Basil to ignore. Hence, he managed to persuade his brother-President and his cohorts in Parliament to impeach the highest judicial officer in the country at the time.
Basil had too much at stake in the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, both personally and officially. He was dubbed the architect of the election victories in 2005 and 2010. He operated from the Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister. During the 2005 Presidential election Campaign, he actively worked for his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa’s victory and became an advisor to the President. In 2007 he was appointed as a National List MP for the Sri Lankan parliament. When the 2010 parliamentary election was announced, Basil contested the Gampaha district at which he secured a resounding victory.
Prior to his entry into Parliament, Basil claims to have worked for the late Gamini Dissanayake when Dissanayake was the Minister of Mahaweli Development and Lands and Lands Development. However, according to a very trustworthy source close both to Gamini Dissanayake and the Ministry of Mahaweli Development, this claim is grossly exaggerated. According that source, the story is thus: in the early nineteen eighties, when the Ministry of Mahaweli Development was in full swing, Mahinda Rajapaksa had approached Gamini Dissanayake and solicited assistance for Basil to be gainfully employed someplace. Gamini had placed him under a major sub-contractor in Mahiyangana as a coordinating officer. He did not have any office in the Ministry nor did he have any official channel to Minister Gamini Dissanayake.
Contemporary history being distorted by those in power is one of the commonest practices in any society. That distorted history about Basil Rajapaksa apart, it is unmistakably palpable that his elongated ego has played a crucial role in the way he conducted himself whilst in power. He was operating between more than two offices. In the Presidential Secretariat itself, he had an office immediately next to that of President, large enough to entertain even a party of visiting diplomats. What follows such egoistic longings is personal avarice and greed for more and more comforts. Resorting to whatever means, both. legal and illegal, legitimate and illegitimate, right and wrong, ethical and unethical, moral and immoral, as was exhibited by the President’s brother who was responsible for a sizeable chunk of the country’s annual budgetary allocations, would ultimately entail unsavory results. A manifestation of such unsavory results was Basil’s departure from the country within 48 hours of the elections- according to reports of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s own account Basil had not kept him informed of this sudden departure to the sunny Los Angeles, USA.
At the current 34th sessions of the UNHRC the draft resolution on ‘Reconciliation, accountability and human rights’, to be placed before the Council shortly, requests Sri Lanka to fully implement the measures identified in HRC Resolution 30/1 that are outstanding, while extending the time limit. In this context we have to once again look to the setting up of judicial mechanisms for accountability in respect of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and the question of Hybrid courts.
How do this new breed of Sri Lankan sudden wealthy, see themselves and how are they seen by others in the land?
by Victor Cherubim-
( March 17, 2017, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) We define a nation’s wealth in many ways. We can explore wealth from the reserves of currency we have in the Central Bank, from data and knowledge of our people, the quality of life we lead, the health and wellbeing, even the concern we show for welfare of our rural communities and the care we give our dispossessed,
When we look beyond past and present statistics to detect clues about ourselves and our assessment of wealth we find that we are concerned about our individual wealth rather than the wealth of the nation. After 69 years of independence, we find it difficult to appreciate that the wealth of the nation is the wealth of our people?
As the definition of a nation’s wealth implies it is the manifestation of “human happiness” or “well being” and our expectation today about the future, or tomorrow. This may be anchored in tangible things like land and natural resources, human capital and by intangible wealth. Intangible wealth can be high valuable assets produced by Government such as legal, administration and government infrastructure to make for a stable society. Likewise lack of an effective government in a country is the main source of a nation’s poverty.
A nation can provide its families with considerable financial security through education and health care. A nation can arrange for its citizens to be in relatively safe environment with high internal security without fear of the “white vans.” A nation can offer its citizens relatively clean environment, clean air and water. A nation can leave its citizens with a sense of fairness about the distribution of wealth and particularly economic privilege within society. A nation can leave its citizens with more leisure for recreation pursuits, other than work for pay.
Who rules Sri Lanka?
The days of the “mudalali” are nearly gone; the days of MR are almost gone, but the days of unspoken abject poverty or of greed and affluence stand out in stark contrast.
Financial wealth is only a fraction of the nation’s wealth. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is only one element of the social index.
If wealth is a sum of future human happiness that a nation benefits within its borders, human happiness is the source of many other factors besides GDP and financial wealth.
The wealth of the poor
9 out of 10 poor live in Sri Lanka in rural areas. More than 40 % of rural poor are small farmers. Malnutrition and more recently dengue fever are common particularly among children in rural parts. “In some areas in 6 of 7 Provinces” according to recent report, “people have no access to electricity or safe drinking water”. This perhaps, may be due to the recent severe drought or the want of infrastructure. Small scale farmers produce most of the agricultural output but their production systems are hampered by poor economies of scale, low investment, inconsistent product pricing, and worst of all poor harvests due to lack of rain. Can we do “something” for fighting the drought?
Sudden wealth syndrome
Look at the wealth of the “Rich.” in Sri Lanka. I mean the “sudden wealthy syndrome” people who have become stinking rich overnight. Everyone in this class wants to be “someone.”They want to be distinctive and exhibit significant psychological differences than the average population. They want to own not one vehicle but two, including the latest model of a Merc or a BMW, or even a Rolls, live a luxurious life style in a salacious condo or in a new three or more storey house with master bedrooms, send their children to posh Colombo schools and or for study abroad, go on shopping sprees to Dubai or Singapore, tour the world and have a fat bank balance at the end.
How do this new breed of Sri Lankan sudden wealthy, see themselves and how are they seen by others in the land?
Some not well off seek to pursue economic growth of the nation rather than redistribution of income. Some see it as relative poverty, being poor in relation to those around. Others see it as being as “moneypot poor”. Most people are unconcerned and somehow want to get on with their lives. Those who are abject poor are told that it is their fate and accept it? Blame poverty alleviation? Sri Lankan religious leaders may have a job on their hands to eradicate this gulf.
The new rich seriously believe that their money is not a corrupting influence. They say they wouldn’t dare taking advantage of the less wealthy or even the poor. They surround themselves with status symbols of wealth, one of which is money, others being privilege, power and also isolation. Among this class are many politicians.
“Money” they say “cannot buy happiness”. Has wealth become more of a burden than a comfort? Excessive consumption, lunches or dinners at posh restaurants, new expensive luxury items or even handbags among other things becomes commonplace. Constant luxury is in a sense or in essence, no luxury living?
The burden of private v national wealth
The Marxist instinct is there to criticise the overly rich for acquiring their wealth.
The wealthy defend themselves by blaming the poor for their indolence.
A lot of people among both camps are sincerely concerned about others and their welfare and are doing something about it. That is sincerely our tradition.
In our Buddhist tradition we are reminded of the Buddha who gave up a princely life –to achieve enlightenment.
While a poor farmer in Sri Lanka confronting the imponderable weather for his pitiful harvest asked his wife “Don’t we have enough for our meals?” For those in Sri Lanka who have suddenly become very wealthy, such wealth can feel like an inheritance – a “vasanawa” a lucky break. But as seen in the ending of a dream- investing in national wealth may not be as painful and worrying, as the effect of “becoming poor once again.”
Stephen Rapp, former United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice, called for a clear "time frame and benchmarks" for Sri Lanka to implementi its "commitments to accountability" in a press release issued this week.
“From discussions this week in Geneva it was clear that there is a consensus among Member States in favor of reaffirming the mandate for full compliance with the transitional justice provisions of Resolution 30/1 while providing Sri Lanka with more time to achieve compliance,” said Mr Rapp. “I therefore urge that Member States in the debate scheduled in the UNHRC for 22 March set forth their clear expectations of what needs to be done to keep faith with international partners, as well as the victims and survivors of serious human rights violations.”
He went on to outline three expectations:
1. The announcement by the Government of Sri Lanka of a specific time frame and benchmarks for implementing its commitments to accountability;
2. The immediate establishment of a special prosecutor’s office to begin gathering evidence and building cases that would be presented to the special court when it later begins operations. This will prevent the loss of evidence and testimony and will demonstrate to victims and survivors that the day of justice will arrive. This office should be independent of the Attorney General and include international lawyers, investigators and other staff as promised by the Government’s commitment under Resolution 30/1;
3. Amendment to the Victim and Witness Protection Act in accordance with international standards and the establishment of an effective system for vetting existing members of the national witness protection authority and associated bodies. The amendment should include procedures so that witnesses and victims can testify from abroad by means that will assure the integrity of the process while protecting the identity of witnesses from those not directly involved in the judicial proceedings.
The former ambassador also responded to the recently released International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) report on torture at the Joseph Camp.
“I am concerned about the continued “culture of impunity” in Sri Lanka that is evidenced by the acts of torture and sexual violence documented by the just-released report of the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) on past and present incidents at the Vanni Security Force Headquarters (commonly known as “Joseph Camp”) in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka.”
“The ITJP’s investigation has identified alleged perpetrators, interviewed scores of victims and established patterns. Sri Lankan authorities can use this report and many others as an immediate starting point for vetting and investigations. The survivors of brutal torture and repeated sexual violence have been permanently injured by these horrific acts and are entitled to justice. A strong message must be sent to perpetrators that they will be held to account to deter further acts of torture and sexual violence,” he stated.
A variety of topics and headlines surface on the economic and social set up of Sri Lanka from time to time. Learned people and others from different walks of life express their views based on the way such topics are highlighted in the Media. Whatever its final analysis may be, it is an essential feature of democracy. But it is necessary to re-analyse and revisit the particular issue, subject to such discussion in the country, to ascertain whether it is the ‘Real’ problem, which should be focused on. I hope to discuss this ‘Real Problem’ through the issue at hand, namely, the Private Medical College problem, or the SAITM issue. The SAITM issue has come to the forefront in the media, just as much as the Ragama Medical college issue which came under discussion a decades ago. One group expresses its view in its favour, while the other group speaks against it. It is unfortunate that these speakers focus on the symptoms of the ailment without making an effort to find out the cause.
We find a valuable example of this situation in Buddhist thought, thus:
“Asevanacha balanan
Panditanancha sevana…………..”
When we examine this saying from a conventional point of view, it interprets as ‘associate the wise and do not associate the unwise or the balaya’. The definition s of ‘Pandita’ and ‘Balaya’ are not clearly understood here, and it leads to much confusion. The philosophical meaning of ‘bala’ are out thoughts which lead to the ten defilements, while ‘pandita’ denotes the wholesome thoughts that arise in our minds. It is the exploration of our own mind. But the conventional interpretation leads to much confusion and conflict.
We can discuss the SAITM issue within this framework. When we analyse it based on above interpretation, I can be seen that two factions seem to debate and argue within the conventional framework while remaining insensitive to our educational, social and political problems which form the philosophical aspect of this issue.
As stated earlier, even the Ragama Medical College conflict ended up treating the symptoms and not to ailment(or real problem). But I think this problem has paved the way for a more philosophical and intellectual dialogue, with a broaden outlook on the economic and social aspects of our country and our nation.
We see that most problems in our country are looked at with one’s own political mindset. But the SAITM issue needs to be addressed with a more applied approach from a philosophical standpoint. There should be a proper assessment of the facts of our education and the way for ward of the system of education, woven into the solution of this problem. When 250,000 students seek entry to higher education only 25,000 are admitted to the universities. It is the result of our cultural and economic deformity based on the concept of free education. But there needs to be a broader social debate/dialogue which focuses on the learning methodology and the inability to merge with the needs of the country. We constantly discuss about the developed countries. But it is unfortunate that we have failed, during the past few decades, to link the abilities and skills of our students of the present, with the strengths drawn from the Anuradhapura, and Polonnaruwa civilizations of our glorious past.
Therefore it is vital for us to identify our problems as one Nation and one Country, without trying to fulfil our individual ambitions through media displays.
Our people are the lifeline of our country. The future lies with the younger generation. Therefore, it is the responsibility of those who govern, the learned and the educated, to move our country forward on a purely Sri Lankan Model, befitting today’s world, while drawing from our great civilizations of the past and ridding ourselves from the island mentality.
Educational reforms at this point, should cater to the educational and social changes that are taking place today. Leadership skills of the innocent third standard student who carries a seven kilo bag on his back, as well as the university undergraduate need to be developed through an appropriate educational pedagogy. It is the need of the hour.
The SAITM issue sends out strong signals that a change in the education sector of the country by looking at social ,economic factors within the framework of Glocalization (not globalization) in vital. We need to understand it philosophically (and genuinely) to create a sensitive generation which loves our country. This should be the role and responsibility of all intellectuals and citizens of Sri Lanka. It needs to be fulfilled without delay as it is positively bound with our country’s future.
“I STILL believe he’s alive,” says Tharsini Santhirabose with a glazed, fixed smile. She last saw her husband, a fellow guerrilla for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in the final days of the civil war that ended with the Tigers’ obliteration in 2009. Up to 40,000 civilians were killed, according to the UN, along with most of the remnants of the 10,000-strong separatist army and perhaps 5,000 hangers-on. The chances that Ms Santhirabose’s husband will reappear are virtually nil.
No one knows precisely how many died or disappeared in the war. A fervently Tamil-nationalist Catholic bishop claims that, after the 26 years of fighting, 147,000 people, civilians and fighters, remain unaccounted for. The foreign ministry says that more than 65,000 queries about missing people have been received since 1994.
A few thousand former Tiger “cadres”, as they are known, have re-emerged from government “rehabilitation” camps. Many Tamils believe that secret detention camps still exist. Others claim, bizarrely, that the government has sent thousands of defeated fighters to undisclosed destinations abroad. Many also say that the Sri Lankan army’s reluctance to give back land now used as army bases is because they do not want mass graves to be discovered.
One of 12 children of a poor fisherman, Ms Santhirabose, now 34, says she volunteered to join the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam when she was 15, along with three of her siblings, and married another fighter when she was 20. Her parents now live in Canada; several siblings are in France. As a registered ex-combatant scratching a living from farming, she says she is watched by the authorities and discriminated against. She still has shrapnel in her head from an old wound.
Her loyalty to the Tigers’ cause and to its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed in the final battle, is unshaken. She says she has no regrets about joining up, despite Prabhakaran’s record of brutality: the Tigers suicide-bombed buses and banks, forcibly recruited children and routinely assassinated any perceived foes, Tamil and Sinhalese alike. “The war was lost only because he was betrayed,” she laments, citing a close lieutenant who defected with several thousand fighters in 2004.
“In those days life was good. We slept safely. No crime. We had our own economy.” Like many Tamils, she suggests that foreign governments should intervene. “Does the world think it is right for the Tamils to be treated as slaves?”
Leaders of COC (Citizens’ Organizations’ Collection) expressed their oppose government’s decision on purchase vehicles for ministers at their weekly press conference held at CSR in Colombo yesterday (March 16).
Addressing the media Co-convener of Left Centre Chameera Perera said that government has been decided again to purchase of luxury vehicles for ministers.
“Ministers say that they need luxury vehicles to meet their voters in remote areas due to they will have back pain if they do not go by luxury vehicles.”
He added, “We do not know that which physician advice them to use a luxury vehicles as a remedy for their back pains.”
“Instead of demand luxury vehicles ministers should admit to Ayurvedic hospital and consult orthopedic doctors. If they have sickness of back pain why did they come to the parliament?” said Perera.
“According to Prime Minister, government has taken a decision to allocate one hundred thousand rupees to every law makers at the parliament as a special allowance for their expenses.” Co-convener of Left Centre pointed out the danger of the recent statement of former defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse.
“In a response to a query raised by a journalist Gotabhaya said that there are culprits for war crimes at the parliament. It is a serious issue. He himself confirmed that there were war crimes during the ethnic war. He should expose the name of the parliamentarian who responsible for war crimes. We urge the government to concern over his statement.”
Chamara Nakalanda, convener if Parapuraka Balaya criticized the shameful manner of young lawmakers.
“Even the young parliamentarians say that they need luxury vehicles due to they will get sickness of back pain if they use other vehicles. We suggest to the government to supply an ambulance and a doctor for every minister”
“We urge people to pressure the government to stop allocate money for buy luxury vehicles for ministers and work according to the January 8th peoples’ mandate,” said Akalanka Hettiarchchi, convener of Aluth Parpura.
Dr. Ravindra Kariyawasam and D. A. D Abeyratne also spoke out about environmental and manpower workers issues at the press conference.
I’m not one to share my personal stories, but it’s time to break the silence and clear up the misconceptions about SAITM where I’ve been studying for the past four years.
My family moved to Seychelles when I was 6, so I had my primary education at The International School Seychelles. When it was time to come back I was 14 and had to start my O’Level course here in Sri Lanka. Since I had never learnt Sinhala (having only gone to Montessori in Sri Lanka) I had no option but to enter an international school. So I completed my secondary education at Elizabeth Moir School.
I excelled in school and was made a House Captain and Senior Prefect within a year of joining. My GCE O’Level results were 7As and 3Bs and my GCE A’Level results were 4As (there were no A Stars at that time). I won Edexcel awards for both examinations. The purpose of this is not to brag but to educate those who think students that fail A’Levels go to SAITM.
I wanted to pursue a career in Medicine but unfortunately those who sit London A’Levels are not eligible to enter state universities in Sri Lanka and studying Medicine at a reputed foreign university is ridiculously expensive as most don’t offer scholarships for this course. In 2010 I decided to do a Bachelors in Medical Bioscience at Monash University. After completing this degree I still had not given up my dream of becoming a Doctor so I looked for more options. I could have chosen any university with my results, however, my father had already spent more than 4 million rupees on my BSc degree so I was looking for cheaper options. That is why I decided to join SAITM in 2013 as the degree is a fraction of the cost of doing it abroad. Also, as I live at home, I would have no additional living expenses.
So here are some of the answers to the FAQs and misconceptions about SAITM:
1) Why are we striking?
We are not striking; it is the state medical faculties who are on strike against us because we are a private medical college. According to them, all education should be free, and yet they go for private tuition classes and work in private hospitals.
2) Anyone with money can enter SAITM and “buy” their degree
No. There are students with excellent results; and I can assure you there is nobody who has failed or done A’Levels in Commerce or Arts. In fact, our results are available at the Ministry of Higher Education so please feel free to go and have a look. We do not “buy” our degree; we work hard for it. There were 120 in my batch when we started but only 98 remain today because, contrary to popular belief, not everyone is passed just because we pay for our education.
3) The standard of education is bad at SAITM
No, the standard of education at SAITM is equal to if not better than those at state faculties. We have the same lecturers as state faculties, and they are not teaching us anything different to what they teach students at the state faculties. Having studied in a foreign university myself I can vouch for the facilities and standards of SAITM.
If you think the standards are low, let us sit for a common exam so we can prove the level of our standards. If students who study medicine abroad can come back and sit for the ERPM (Act 16) exam and then work here why can’t we do the same? We are Sri Lankan citizens, so give us equal rights.
4) Private education should be banned
Open your eyes and look around. Private education has been around for centuries. Some of the best education is paid for. There is private education for every other course except Medicine in Sri Lanka. You can pay for Law, Engineering, Business, IT, Nursing and any other course but I don’t see anyone protesting that. Some people think that a private medical college will threaten free education but this is not so. The state universities will still have the same number of places for those who qualify to enter. Out of around 25,000 students who qualify to enter state universities, only about 1200 are taken in for Medicine due to limited resources. So the rest of the students can enter private colleges like SAITM to fill the shortage of approximately 25,000 doctors in our country (according to the WHO).
5) We are unqualified so we will “kill our patients”
We are not the ones protesting on the roads every day; our university staff is not on strike; we are continuing with lectures and clinicals; we are studying every day; so which of us do you really think will “kill our patients”?
6) We don’t have enough clinical exposure
It is not the number of patients we see but how much we can learn from each patient. In some foreign universities students can’t examine patients due to racial issues and language barriers. The Government has also assigned us with a base hospital where we get the required training.
7) Why is the Kotelawala Defence University accepted by the SLMC but not SAITM?
Friday, 17 March, 2017,
“WE ARE like dogs in the street, while your men occupy our homes,” read one of the banners strung up by Tamil protesters, mostly women in saris and ragged children. They had been camping for more than a month in a jumble of makeshift tents on a baking, dusty roadside near a Sri Lankan air-force base in the country’s remote north-east. They said that the armed forces, consisting almost entirely of Sinhalese from the island’s south, nabbed their land at the end of a long-running civil war nearly eight years ago and have refused to give it back, despite the promises of a kindlier reformist government elected two years ago. The government recently said it would return some of the disputed property, but the protesters are unassuaged. It is just one of the many grievances of Sri Lanka’s disaffected Tamils, who feel that reconciliation between them and the Sinhalese majority is stalling.
2017-03-18
At the current 34th sessions of the UNHRC the draft resolution on ‘Reconciliation, accountability and human rights’, to be placed before the Council shortly, requests Sri Lanka to fully implement the measures identified in HRC Resolution 30/1 that are outstanding, while extending the time limit. In this context we have to once again look to the setting up of judicial mechanisms for accountability in respect of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and the question of Hybrid courts. 
Financial wealth is only a fraction of the nation’s wealth. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is only one element of the social index.
18 Mar 2017
“I STILL believe he’s alive,” says Tharsini Santhirabose with a glazed, fixed smile. She last saw her husband, a fellow guerrilla for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in the final days of the civil war that ended with the Tigers’ obliteration in 2009. Up to 40,000 civilians were killed, according to the UN, along with most of the remnants of the 10,000-strong separatist army and perhaps 5,000 hangers-on. The chances that Ms Santhirabose’s husband will reappear are virtually nil.
Mar 17, 2017
