Tuesday, April 11, 2017

SAITM has MBBS students with 3 ordinary passes in bio stream

2017-04-11

There are MBBS students at the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) with only three ordinary passes in the biology stream at the GCE (A/L), SAITM said today.

SAITM Registrar Husni Hussain told the Daily Mirror that these students had joined SAITM prior to the gazetting of the minimum standards by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) in August 2011.

“In 2011, the SLMC laid down the minimum standards for the private education sector as two credit passes and an ordinary pass. Till then we have enlisted students only with three ordinary passes. There are several students in three batches at SAITM with three ordinary passes for GCE (A/L),” she said.

Ms. Hussain said SAITM was enlisting students for the MBBS degree programme with minimum two credit passes and an ordinary pass since 2011 up to present and were willing to do so even in the future.

However, the SLMC has recently announced that the minimum qualification for student admission to a Government or Private medical college should be at least two credit passes and an ordinary pass in the biology stream at the GCE (A/L), according to the minimum standards prepared by them. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)

To SAITM Or Not To SAITM – Is That The Question?

By Ruvan Weerasinghe –April 11, 2017

Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe

For some it appears so. For any of them who are rational, it must instead be: can medical education be provided by the private sector? After all, SAITM also awards other degrees as a UGC recognized higher education institution. Many of the arguments for abolishing SAITM are actually calls for reversing some 25 years of private tertiary education in Sri Lanka! The issue has been so politicized, that for the uninitiated, the issue actually is: what is the question?

I’d like to take some space to try to address some of the arguments on both sides with a view to show why, once you’ve taken a side on this issue, your rationality takes a back seat. I also want to take this space to explore what a non-partisan approach to the issues may look like. Of course, I’m open to correction – but only to correction on rational grounds. So, if you are on one of the two sides already, you are either disqualified to respond – or welcome to point out some of the weaknesses of ‘your side’ of the argument only!

First to take on a moot point that both sides seem to be making (obviously to make exactly opposite ‘cases’), that Medicine is somehow NOT to be considered in the same manner as other disciplines (or professions?). This has been a typical elitist stand that the people of this country too appear to have largely accepted, owing to possibly the direct nature of the relationship between one’s physical health and the medical profession. As one of my learned Civil Engineering professor friends pointed out recently, Engineers probably save or in other ways affect the health of populations much more than medical doctors do! A serious look at many of the problems affecting the health of people of this country would cause us to realize that far more counsellors and therapists are probably needed to ‘heal’ our people than medical doctors. No doubt, many other professions including but not limited to law, finance, administration, teaching among others would also feel that their professions are critical to the functioning of a society. Apart from these ‘professions’, it is often the philosophers, scientists, psychologists, sociologists and even politicians that are (or should be) indirectly but much more critically involved in the long-term wellbeing of a nation.

So, what are the arguments surrounding the SAITM issue? Here I attempt to list the ones that have been made in the recent past, not least by the ‘My SAITM Story’ campaign and the state university protest march campaign.

1. The intake to the SAITM degree is deficient
2. SAITM students’ and their parents sacrificed much
3. SAITM charges exorbitant fees
4. State university students come through district quota
5. SAITM students aren’t serious about the medical profession
6. State university students are disruptive
7. SAITM owners represent the elite who get preferential treatment from authorities 8. GMOA is able to influence government
9. SAITM is ‘selling’ medical degrees
10. State university students are jealous of others
11. The clinical training provided at SAITM is inadequate
12. The medical doctors produced by the state system are superior

Even though I’ve mixed up the issues brought up by the two sides, even a novice would be able to figure out that every alternate issue is made by the ‘other side’. How is this possible? The reality is that, apart from a very few, our society has been forced to ‘take sides’ on this issue. In fact, these become issues after one has chosen one’s ‘side’ on it! For those who have not yet taken a side, the issue often is: so, what is the problem?

It would be so refreshing to see a state university medical faculty member making a case for SAITM and private medical education, and similarly a SAITM medical faculty member taking up some of the issues of equity that need to be addressed. But alas, that is too much to expect from a profession to which our society has bestowed so much prestige.

by Shamindra Ferdinando-April 11, 2017, 12:00 pm

Civil society groups are planning to intensify their campaign in support of constitutional reforms including the abolition of executive presidency.

Co-convenor of Purawesi Balaya Gamini Viyangoda yesterday told The Island that they would launch a campaign at the village level after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

Viyangoda emphasised that the abolition of the executive presidency was on top of their agenda and all those who had genuinely worked for common candidate Maithripala Sirisena’s victory at the January 8, 2015 presidential poll steadfastly pushed for abolition of the executive presidency.

When The Island pointed out that an influential section of the SLFP as well as other yahapalana elements strongly opposed the abolition of the executive presidency, Viyangoda said that President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the leader of the SLFP had recently reiterated his commitment to do away with executive powers.

Several SLFP Ministers including Social Empowerment and Welfare minister S.B. Dissanayake and Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera have already declared President Maithripala Sirisena as the SLFP presidential candidate at the 2020 poll.

Viyangoda said that a civil society delegation comprising Convenor of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) Prof. Sarath Wijesooriya, Ravaya editor attorney-at-law K.W. Janaranjana and him had met President Maithripala Sirisena last Wednesday to discuss constitutional reforms. Responding to a question, Viyangoda said: "Yes, we were reassured by President Sirisena that he was determined to abolish the executive presidency."

President Sirisena has told them that they shouldn’t be disturbed by various declarations being made in respect of constitutional reforms. President Sirisena has reassured the civil society organisations that he remained committed to the abolition of the executive presidency.

Those who had campaigned for Maithripala Sirisena at the presidential polls had received blessings to carry out an intensified project to secure the electorate’s support for a new constitution, Viyangoda said.

The Constitutional Assembly last year received the reports of the six sub committees pertaining to Constitutional reforms.

Viyangoda noted that the Geneva Resolution 30/1, too, had made reference to constitutional reforms and discussed the implementation of the project. Sri Lanka last month received two more years to fully implement the Geneva Resolution.

Viyangoda said that political parties represented in parliament couldn’t absolve themselves of the responsibility in finalizing the draft constitution by playing politics with the issue.

Sri Lanka a nation of cheats?

by Dr. Upatissa Pethiyagoda-Apr 11, 2017

( April 11, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This is too weighty and ponderous a question, that it would be presumptuous of me to try to answer it. So, I will present some of the evidence, and leave my readers to reach an answer.

We are a nation that has more than twenty million mobile phones and two million vehicles, but less than four hundred thousand income tax files. We may squirm at picking someone’s pocket, but think nothing of riding the train ticketless or posting a letter unstamped. But then, we are a nation that has elevated to Cabinet rank, a chain snatcher. Great robbers have been in positions of power from both sides of the political divide. Breaches of matrimonial fidelity among the lofty are more than we think. The State run Lotteries are a colossal fraud on the people. Every transaction – be it a restaurant meal or a medicine is subject to a VAT of varying percentage. Every purchaser of a good or service is charged this on their bill, but it would be extremely naïve to believe that it all accrues to the Exchequer, to whom it rightly belongs. In short, we seem to accept that what is common property (and therefore belongs to no one) is fair game. Massive kasippu distilleries and smuggled fags, elude excise duties.

We heard in the old days, of newspapers stacked at street corners, where those who take one, drops three pence into a tray alongside, of Lost and Found stores with thousands of retrieved umbrellas and hundreds of dropped purses. Of houses left empty and gates unlocked. Such countries are coincidently among the “Developed”. It is true that the desperate needs of poverty spur theft. But not invariably so. The well- heeled are not innocent. Much has been said, and amazingly, attempted to be justified, in the matter of Duty Waivers for MP’s vehicles. It is astonishing to know that no fewer than 215 such permits were issued in 2016, sustaining a loss of several thousand million Rupees. Considering the total number of members of parliament at 225, it is thrilling to note that there are as many as 10 decent, honest men (and women) who thought it wrong to abuse a specifically intended facility. Sadly, not a few presumed angels plummeted to earth and quit the ranks of “Clean”. Among the stellar examples, it is revealed that both the incumbent and previous Presidents have added luxury SUVs to their existing “meager” fleets. Consolingly, they have not directly hawked their permits.

We have become so conditioned, that expected rectitude, looks like massive virtue. If the butcher does not slip a bone or some offal under your “boneless” beef, if the fishmonger does not palm off yesterday’s stale as today’s fresh, if mature beans and unripe mangoes are not slipped into your grocery bag, and if any of them have been weighed correctly, we recommend them to our friends! If we are cheated of change (taxi drivers and bus conductors note) or are unfairly billed at the counter, it looks mean and stingy to complain. So, like an invasive fungus, such petty thefts continue.

This is certainly not all that ails us. The jury is out. I do hope that these few examples (there are many more) will allow many of us to glow in the belief that “we” are not among “them”. If such numbers are large enough, there is still hope.

President rejects request of Malwatte Asgiriya Anunayakes against the people’s mandate to continue with the executive presidency

(Lanka-e-News -10.April.2017, 7.40PM) The request made recently by the Ven. Anunayakes (next in command to the Mahanayakes) of the two chapters – Malwatte and Asgiriya ,that the ‘Executive presidency shall be continued’ was rejected by president Maithripala Sirisena.

Some time ago the Ven. Anunayakes made a request to the president that they wished to meet the president .The president replied , the prelates need not come to meet him , and as the president was scheduled to visit Kandy soon , he would meet them in Kandy. Accordingly , when the president went to Kandy he met them at the President’s palace ,Kandy.

The two Ven. Anunayakes and the registrars of the clergy met with the president . During the discussion a letter containing 21 topics prepared by them were presented to the president. The fourth topic among those was : executive presidency shall be continued.

(Various media published these 21 topics differently. Lanka e news however is not in possession of the official letter. Unscrupulous media of extremists published absolute untruths along with photographs of the Ven. Anunayakes saying that was the letter of the Ven . Theras. These reports had no official confirmation of the Ven. Theras ).

In any event the president in reply to the request of the Anunayakes had said , he had given a promise to the people to abolish the presidency , and he cannot therefore dishonor that pledge.

The unscrupulous ,mendacious media without publishing the statement of the president , distorted the true picture , and even reported the request of the Anunayakes as that of the Mahanayakes.

Meanwhile when the leaders of Civil Organizations met with the president and inquired about the request of the Anunayakes, the president elucidated, the undertaking he gave to the people that he would abolish the executive presidency and bring forth a new constitution will be honored , and there will not be any change to that .

‘ At that very moment I gave the reply to the Ven. Anunayakes’ said the president . ‘I have no necessity to say, the executive presidency will be abolished each time some individual says something. I will certainly stand by my promise. In order to do that , I need a draft of the new constitution soon ’, the president asserted.

The president also requested the Civil Organizations to enlighten and educate the people on the new constitution.

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by (2017-04-10 14:30:51)

LIOC holding on to Trincomalee oil tanks illegally

2017-04-11

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) today accused the Lanka India Oil Company (LIOC) of illegally holding on to the oil tanks in Trincomalee.

Party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a media briefing that this was clear when considering the Cabinet paper submitted by Petroleum Resources Minister Chandima Weerakody last year.

“According to this document, the Sri Lankan Government and the LIOC should have signed a tax agreement within six months after handing over the tanks in Trincomalee. However, that has not happened. In such a scenario it is obvious that the LIOC is holding on to the tanks illegally,” the MP said.

“Between 2005 to 2009 the CPC has paid the LIOC Rs 692 million as taxes while the LIOC has paid only Rs.75 million. “This is like renting a house for Rs.100,000 a month and obtaining a room from the tenants at a monthly rental of Rs.1 million,” he said.

He said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had meanwhile submitted a Cabinet proposal to hand over the oil tanks in Trincomalle to a public-private company with India despite what's happening with the oil tanks. The MP said National Policies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama was due to finalise an agreement with India by the end of this month.

“We will join the trade unions to defeat the moves being made by the government to handover the oil tanks in Trincomalle to this company,” he said.

Citing reasons to oppose this move, the JVP leader said the government would be able to save Rs.618 million annually if it distributed oil to filling stations in Anurdhapura, Polonnaruwa and the North from Trincomalle instead of transporting oil form Colombo as done currently. (Yohan Perera)

Three shipping alliances to control container shipping

Three shipping alliances to control container shipping

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

A complete restructuring of the container shipping business is about to begin. New analysis of the vessel sharing agreements has revealed the scope of the changes that are going to hit the market, while highlighting again the cut back in routes, port calls and options for shippers. From April four alliances will become three as the brand new Ocean Alliance and The Alliance start operations and the 2M Alliance with its slot sharing partner Hyundai Merchant Marine rolls out its new service offerings.

Three shipping alliances to control container shipping.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Customs seize illegally imported tobacco powder, beedi leaves

By Yusuf Ariff-April 11, 2017

Around 30,000 small vials containing tobacco powder (snuff) and over 2,000 beedi leaves, illegally imported to the country, have been seized by customs officers.

Sri Lanka Customs spokesman Dharmasena Kahandawa stated that the detection was made upon inspecting 61 packages which had arrived from the Chennai Harbour in India.

He stated that the tobacco powder and beedi leaves were declared as fabrics to the customs and imported to Sri Lanka by a businessman from Pettah. The estimated value of the imported items is estimated at around Rs 8 million.

He stated that the import of tobacco powder to the country is prohibited under the law as it has been identified as a gateway drug especially for the youth while a significant sum is charged as excise tax when importing beedi leaves.

The spokesman stated that the suspect is currently being interrogated by customs officers and that the goods have been confiscated.

Had we been consulted, Mahindananda wouldn’t have been in trouble – Kiriella

Sri Lanka: Rs. 600 million Cars for Maithri to “Enhance” Good Governance!

Mahindananda’s lies about London house

Apr 11, 2017

MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage claimed in parliament recently in response to a charge by deputy minister Ranjan Ramanayake that the controversial London house belonged to his brother, and not to him.

But, his lie was exposed after Lanka News Web proved with evidence that the deed for the house was in Mahindananda’s name. Later, Ramanayake produced the documentary evidence for the perusal of prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Wijedasa Rajapakshe, Ajith Perera and others.

They discussed Mahindananda’s lie and how evidence would prove his guilt. The above three were lawyers, and minister Lakshman Kiriella joined in and said something that left them bewildered.

He said, “I say, Had we been consulted, Mahindananda would not have been in trouble….. These should not be taken to the names of wife or children. They should be taken to the names of other relatives, or else to the names of drivers, domestic servants. After doing that, we should obtain their signature to a document. They do not understand. Also, they are afraid of us and things will never come out. Mahindananda does not know how to steal.”

Understanding what he said and its hidden meaning, the others showed their surprise, a backbencher who was there, told us. If Kiriella rejects this, its truth can be verified from Wickremesinghe, Rajapakshe or Perera

According to reports reaching us, Mahindananda did not take advice from Kiriella, but had done what he had advised, but even that did not help him. After selling the house for 470,000 pound sterling, he had given the nearly Rs. 90 million to Waruna Rajapakse, who had been his driver for long years. Out of a gunny bag full of Rs. 5,000 notes, the driver had stolen some of it. Unable to go to the police, Mahindananda had beaten him and broken his limbs, reports say.

Amidst all these, Mahindananda is due to get married on the 27th of this month. He will marry the daughter of the late prime minister D.M. Jayaratne, who was previously married to minister Duminda Dissanayake.

Wijeweera & Prabhakaran Are The Two Sides Of The Same Coin

By Vishwamithra –April 12, 2017

“Political leaders still think things can be done through force, but that cannot solve terrorism. Backwardness is the breeding ground of terror, and that is what we have to fight” ~Mikhail Gorbachev

Rohana Wijeweera was a remarkable man. At the height of the cold war in the international arena, when the United States was in constant confrontation with the then Soviet Union in every possible global forum, Wijeweera played his logical role as the leader of the first revolutionary political party in post-Independence Sri Lanka. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which Wijeweera started as a cellish-organization driven by indoctrination-oriented transformation of the minds and political thinking of the rural youth in Sri Lanka within a very short time of three years (1968-1971), managed and succeeded in transforming the prevalent political landscape; it inspired a sizeable segment of our youth population, both educated and semi-educated, to such an extent, Wijeweera at the beginning, just on the eve of the 1971 Insurrection, was a real hero among these indoctrinated youth. As a mob-orator, Wijeweera had no match. R Premadasa was a close second, but lacked the flow and stamina of Wijeweera.

Wijeweera

According to some close comrades-in-arms of Wijeweera, his dedication to the cause and the spirit of untiring commitment he displayed at the formative stage of the ‘movement’, alone was responsible for the graduation of the movement from a cellish organism to a well-funded, structured political entity in the late 1980s. Yet what began as a political think-organization in the late 1960s turned out to be a well-oiled killing machine in the late 1980s. The planned and plotted executions of leading political figures, mostly of the kind that had either associations or direct connections to the United National Party (UNP), except perhaps the killing of Vijaya Kumaratunga, assumed a macabre style with gruesome consequences to the victims. In 2017, after two score and six years, another April 5^thdawned and paled gently into the night. Today Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is a democratic political party with three parliamentarians. Although no match to Rohana Wijeweera, its present leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake is undoubtedly the best orator in Sinhala among a very lackluster set of parliamentarians. The other two JVP members, Handunhetti and Vijitha Herath, too are outstanding speakers and this JVP-trio dominates the local political platform shoving other parliamentarians into insignificance and men of no consequence. Speechifying in the local vernacular seems to be the monopoly of the JVP.

Yet Wijeweera founded a political organization whose philosophy bordered on the murderous path which was taken by Pol Pot in Cambodia. Whilst Pol Pot resorted to the massacres of his opponents more so after assuming power, Wijeweera resorted to it as his raison d’être. The romanticist aura that the ’71 Insurrection radiated died with the crushing blow it received at the hands of the government security forces. Leaders of the then SLFP-led government were Sirimavo and Felix Dias Bandaranaike. The Victor Ivans, Lionel Bopages, Kelly Senanayakes, Sunanda Deshapriyas, heroes of the ’71 Insurrection, and the lot that was attached to the JVP philosophy of governance and economic principles are gone from the JVP. Their departure from the epic vision of communist takeover of government machinery and implementing people-friendly policies is all history. Rohana Wijeweera, although immediately in the wake of the ’71 Insurrection was portrayed as a dedicated revolutionary in the caliber of Ho Chi Ming and Che Guevara, with the 1982 Presidential Elections, his stature sank to an unrecoverable low in that his posture of a revolutionary driven by idealism and ideology was shattered; his prowess to represent the downtrodden masses diminished and his appeal to the English-speaking elite as a romantic radical began waning by the day. But his appeal to the rural educated and semi-educated youth remained intact.

Prabhakaran

Saman Piyasiri Fernando alias Keerthi Vijayabahu who was primarily responsible for the establishment of Raathri Aandua (government at night time) gained momentum when Wijeweera launched his so-called Second Revolution in the wake of the assassination of Daya Pathirana, leader of Independent Students Union, University of Colombo. Despite attracting a lot of unwanted rivalry and peer-revenge, Wijeweera managed to lead a clandestine movement whose rank and file consisted of disillusioned youth bent on extracting their pound of flesh from whoever was in power. A social imbalance that had been caused by failure on the part of successive governments since Independence was waiting to be tilted in favor of anarchy and disorder. At the same time Wijeweera’s cunning and political strategizing embraced the most fundamentally flawed but dangerous base instincts of the masses. With the arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the pervasive nationalist sentiments of large sections of the Sinhala people, the JVP began to terrorize the country to an unprecedented level, consequently the entire nation became hostage to Wijeweera’s mad and perilously perverted thinking. In other words, Wijeweera, while enjoying the luxuries of a planter’s laidback life on an estate in Ulapane, put into motion a killing machinery that killed many and terrorized hundreds of thousands of innocent Sri Lankans.

Dengue on a dangerous rise

The rising menace of Dengue and the plight of the IDH Dengue Management Unit

Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama

2017-04-12

Witnessing a significant rise over the past couple of years, Dengue has become a rising menace in Sri Lanka with the eradication of mosquito breeding grounds appearing to be a losing battle under the current context. With over 30, 486 cases being reported over the past three months, Dengue has become a widespread epidemic with approximately over 41. 10 % cases being reported from the Western Province alone. Speaking to Daily Mirror, Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) Consultant Physician Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama explained the crisis Sri Lanka is facing with regard to Dengue fever; while explicating on the symptoms and precautionary methods the public could employ in the event someone contracts the disease. He highlighted the plight of the Dengue Management Unit of IDH,which is currently run by a shortlisted and overburdened nursing staff. He also pointed out the immediate need to absorb more nursing staff to the hospital complex.

Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama

The rising trend

“During the dry period of February and March, the number of mosquito breeding grounds is minimal due to less water collection in the environment,” said Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama. He pointed out that during the monsoon season, a high number of patients were being admitted to IDH.
“Based on statistics available, a gradual increase has been evident since the last couple of years in the number of Dengue patients reported countrywide. We simply can’t imagine to what extent this situation would increase by May and June. We had more than 25,000 cases on Dengue fever reported with more than fifty deaths.
“Generally, there are four types of Dengue viruses identified. Throughout the last five years, Sri Lanka has been affected mostly by Dengue virus serotype 1. To make matters worse, this trend has been gradually replaced by Dengue virus serotype 2 since mid-last year.
“Compared to last year, the number of cases reported this year has increased twofold. This year, the Colombo District had about ten thousand cases and more than sixty per cent of them were admitted to IDH. The involved number of Dengue patients daily for treatment at the Infectious Diseases Hospital is nearly 200 while the number of admissions is around 80 -100 daily,” Dr. Wijewickrama said.

"We simply can’t imagine to what extent this situation would increase by May and June. We had more than 25,000 cases reported on Dengue fever with more than fifty deaths"

He said despite experiencing a drought in February, Sri Lanka also experienced several episodes of rain. This is one possible trend that has given rise to the increased number of Dengue cases over the past couple of months. Moreover, he noted that the mosquito eradication programmes run throughout the country should be continued without failure. Adding that the public should also play a proactive role in eradicating Dengue breeding grounds, he said it was crucial to ensure garbage disposal was done in an intelligent manner.
“The symptoms of Dengue are mainly fever, severe head and body aches. A patient may experience loss of appetite, nausea, sore throat and mild loose motion. These symptoms observed in an individual could lead to the possible suspicion that the patient is diagnosed with Dengue. A physical test is important to ascertain if a patient is diagnosed with Dengue fever or not. Secondly, Dengue patients should not be administered any pill except Paracetamol in case they experience fever, bodyaches and pains. Pills such as Diclofenac,

Ibuprofen and Mefenamic acid should not be given to a Dengue patient under any circumstances. If a patient is suffering from fever, we strongly recommend that they do a full blood count at the end of three days, and if the report is positive, the patient should seek immediate medical advice. In case the first blood count report is normal, a second full blood count should be taken the following day regardless of whether the patient is experiencing fever or not. Such patients need to take ample rest while ensuring that the aforementioned drugs are not consumed. Most people suffering from Dengue fever are unable to eat due to the illness. However, it is vital that fluid intakes are given to patients to keep them hydrated. King coconut water, orange and lime juice, cunji, soup and Jeevani are generally recommended for this purpose. Also, it should be noted that apple juice is not going to have any special effect on the patient. Liquids like king coconut are comparatively a lot more cost effective and efficacious on the patient than apple juice. The common complications of Dengue fever may include plasma leakage and bleeding. If the bleeding is significant, it could eventually lead to the damage of vital organs in the body,” he added.

Plight of IDH Dengue Management Unit

According to Dr. Wijewickrama, Kolonnawa and Dehiwela were hotspots with the highest number for Dengue patients and Dengue breeding grounds reported during 2009, 2010 and 2011. It is in this backdrop that it was decided to initiate a separate Dengue Management Unit within the hospital. The unit was initially established with sixteen beds for each patient and as the number of patients grew, the number of beds increased to twenty.
“When we started getting more admissions for Dengue fever, we were compelled to put the patients in other wards as well. Finally, we decided to admit only the serious cases into special ward and patients who were not critical were sent to other wards. Also, a new ward built by the Army was recently added to the hospital complex to treat residential Dengue patients. It accommodates about twenty five beds. Unlike in the past, we now get too many critical cases and are compelled to accommodate two patients in each bed in the Dengue Management Unit due to lack of beds. Therefore, we currently face a serious shortage in the number of beds available for patients in addition to being short staffed,” he said.

“We are facing a serious problem due to the lack of sufficient nursing staff. The hospital is therefore facing a big crisis.The Health Ministry fails to take note of these problems. Lack of nursing staff is not a problem that is confined to this hospital only. However, considering the number of patients admitted to the hospital daily, our hospital is in dire need of more nursing staff. There is a group of nearly thousand nurses waiting for new appointments from the ministry. According to the ministry, these appointments were scheduled to be given on April 9. But, the ministry has taken lenient measures and have agreed to let them officially join duty after the New Year.
“The nurses who are already employed here have been working very hard despite being overburdened. We have been trying to convince the Health Ministry about getting these new appointees to officially join our hospital before the New Year,” Dr. Wijewickrama added.
In a final note, Dr. Wijewickrama noted that he expected the ministry would change its perspective on this matter and provide a favourable solution to address crisis faced by the hospital and its staff.

Wasting precious water for political propaganda

Wednesday, 12 April 2017

A couple of weeks ago I visited Polonnaruwa, travelling from Habarana road across the canal that transfers water from Minneriya Tank to Kantalai Tank and the canal was completely dry, indicating water received by Minneriya Tank from Amban Ganga was not sufficient. The fact was not surprising considering the unprecedented drought the country was facing.

Wasting precious water for political propaganda.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Tufts students vote to divest from Israeli occupation

Student governments at a growing list of universities have backed divestment from companies that profit from Israeli military occupation.

Wisam HashlamounAPA images

Charlotte Silver-11 April 2017

Tufts University’s undergraduate student senate passed a resolution on 9 April that calls on the university to divest from companies involved in Israel’s occupation and violation of Palestinian human rights.

The resolution, written by the Boston school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, passed by 17-6 with eight abstentions, despite strong opposition from pro-Israel groups.

It was endorsed by the school’s Jewish Voice for Peace chapter.

While Tufts’ specific holdings are not public, the resolution calls on the school to create “a human rights screen” to bar investments in companies involved in “human rights violations against Palestinians, non-US-citizens in detainment and deportation proceedings, and incarcerated individuals.”

It identifies Elbit Systems, G4S, Northrop Grumman and Hewlett Packard Enterprise as companies that provide military, surveillance and prison services to the Israeli and US governments.

While the resolution is primarily focused on companies violating human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, it cites a recent United Nations report that finds Israel guilty of maintaining an apartheid regime that “oppresses and dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.”

Organized opposition

Groups opposed to the divestment resolution protested that the vote was scheduled on the eve of Passover, thereby allegedly preventing Jewish students from mobilizing against it.

But Keren Hendel, a student member of Tufts American Israel Alliance, told the right-wing website The Algemeiner that pro-Israel students quickly mobilized at least 50 people to lobby representatives against the resolution or to postpone the vote.

“The simple answer is that the resolution was not intentionally put the day before Passover begins,” Molly Tunis, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, told The Electronic Intifada.

The vote took place at the senate’s final meeting of the year. Tunis said her group had been working on it all semester.

“We deeply regret that people traveling to celebrate Passover will be unable to make it, not just to discuss the BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] resolution, but also to discuss all of the other important matters,” Tufts’ Jewish Voice for Peace chapter said in a statement.

Despite the timing, Tunis said representatives of at least three student Israel advocacy groups attended, along with pro-Israel activists from off campus.

Scare tactics

A shadowy anti-BDS group also paid for targeted social media ads opposing the resolution, according to Tunis.

“It disappoints us to see the opposition using such blatant scare tactics like filming members of the Senate during the meeting and targeting members of our group through website blacklists like Canary Mission,” Tunis said.

While senate hearings are ordinarily livestreamed, there was a prior community agreement not to film the debate on the resolution due to safety concerns, Tunis said.

Canary Mission, a website linked to anti-Muslim demagogue Daniel Pipes, aims to tarnish the reputations of student activists and compromise their future professional careers.

Tunis says the resolution was the product of ongoing campus organizing about Palestine. Tufts SJP plans to meet with the university’s board of trustees to discuss it.

Tufts joins a growing list of universities whose student governments have adopted resolutions supporting divestment, including Stanford University, University of Chicago and seven out of nine University of California campuses.

Last month, California’s De Anza College became the first community college to pass a divestment resolution.

North Korea 'ready for war' after US redeploys navy strike team

Pyongyang cites ‘reckless moves’ by US as Donald Trump repeats threat of unilateral action if China does not put pressure on its neighbour

North Korea is vowing tough action to counter any moves by the US after it sent the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean peninsula. Photograph: Lee Jin-man/AP

Justin McCurry in Tokyo and Tom Phillips in Beijing-Tuesday 11 April 2017

North Korea has warned of “catastrophic consequences” in response to any further provocations by the US, days after a US navy battle group was sent to waters off the Korean peninsula, and was met by Donald Trump with a repeated threat of unspecified unilateral action.

The US president said on Twitter that he would “solve the problem” of North Korea if China did not provide greater help in exerting pressure on its neighbour.

The shrill rhetoric has been matched by a military build-up.

The decision to divert the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and other battleships from a planned visit to Australia to the western Pacific came after tensions increased over ongoing military drills involving American and South Korean forces that Pyongyang regards as a dress rehearsal for an invasion.

“We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying. “(North Korea) is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US.”

The spokesman cited Washington’s refusal to rule out a pre-emptive strike against North Korean missile sites as justification for its nuclear programme.

“The prevailing grave situation proves once again that (North Korea) was entirely just when it increased in every way its military capabilities for self-defence and pre-emptive attack with a nuclear force as a pivot,” the spokesman said, according to KCNA.

“We will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump took to Twitter to deliver his latest threat aimed at the Pyongyang regime.

The tweet came in the wake of a summit meeting with Xi Jinping in Florida at the end of last week, when the Trump administration tried to persuade the Chinese president to enforce existing sanctions on North Korea more rigorously. There is no evidence that plea succeeded.

However, the threat of unilateral action is weakened by the acceptance by most of the US national security establishment that any preventative strike aimed at North Korean missile and nuclear facilities could trigger devastating reprisals against South Korea, Seoul in particular, and US bases in the region.

Last week’s US strike against a Syrian base is also being seen as a warning to North Korea, after Donald Trump said Washington was prepared to act alone if China failed to exert more pressure on its neighbour to halt its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

North Korea again defied UN resolutions banning it from developing ballistic missile technology with another test-launch on the eve of Trump’s summit with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in Florida last week.

White House officials have signalled that all options – including pre-emptive strikes – remain on the table in addressing North Korea’s steady advance towards developing long-range missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as far as the US mainland.

The nuclear-powered Carl Vinson’s presence in the area coincides with speculation that North Korea could be preparing to conduct its sixth nuclear test to coincide with key dates in the country’s history, including the 105th anniversary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il-sung, on Saturday.

China’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, has played down reports that Beijing has deployed 150,000 troops to its border with North Korea.

Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters she was “not aware” of such a mobilisation by the People’s Liberation Army along the 880-mile border. In the past, similar reports had been proven “groundless and false,” Hua claimed.

However, with regional tensions building ahead of Saturday’s Kim Il-sung commemorations, Hua said China was “closely following” developments on the Korean peninsula.

“We believe that, given the current situation, all relevant parties should exercise restraint and avoid activities that may escalate the tension.”