Trump is killing the Republican Party

By Joe Scarborough July 16 at 6:02 PM

I did not leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left its senses. The political movement that once stood athwart history resisting bloated government and military adventurism has been reduced to an amalgam of talk-radio resentments. President Trump’s Republicans have devolved into a party without a cause, dominated by a leader hopelessly ill-informed about the basics of conservatism, U.S. history and the Constitution.

America’s first Republican president reportedly said , “Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” The current Republican president and the party he controls were granted monopoly power over Washington in November and already find themselves spectacularly failing Abraham Lincoln’s character exam.

"Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski joined Stephen Colbert on "The Late Show." Scarborough announced that he could no longer support the Republican Party because of its allegiance to President Trump. (Erin Patrick O'Connor/The Washington Post)

It would take far more than a single column to detail Trump’s failures in the months following his bleak inaugural address. But the Republican leaders who have subjugated themselves to the White House’s corrupting influence fell short of Lincoln’s standard long before their favorite reality-TV star brought his gaudy circus act to Washington.

When I left Congress in 2001, I praised my party’s successful efforts to balance the budget for the first time in a generation and keep many of the promises that led to our takeover in 1994. I concluded my last speech on the House floor by foolishly predicting that Republicans would balance budgets and champion a restrained foreign policy for as long as they held power.

I would be proved wrong immediately.

As the new century began, Republicans gained control of the federal government. George W. Bush and the GOP Congress responded by turning a $155 billion surplus into a $1 trillion deficit and doubling the national debt, passing a $7 trillion unfunded entitlement program and promoting a foreign policy so utopian it would have made Woodrow Wilson blush. Voters made Nancy Pelosi speaker of the House in 2006 and Barack Obama president in 2008.

After their well-deserved drubbing, Republicans swore that if voters ever entrusted them with running Washington again, they would prove themselves worthy. Trump’s party was given a second chance this year, but it has spent almost every day since then making the majority of Americans regret it.

The GOP president questioned America’s constitutional system of checks and balances. Republican leaders said nothing. He echoed Stalin and Mao by calling the free press “the enemy of the people.” Republican leaders were silent. And as the commander in chief insulted allies while embracing autocratic thugs, Republicans who spent a decade supporting wars of choice remained quiet. Meanwhile, their budget-busting proposals demonstrate a fiscal recklessness very much in line with the Bush years.

Last week’s Russia revelations show just how shamelessly Republican lawmakers will stand by a longtime Democrat who switched parties after the promotion of a racist theory about Barack Obama gave him standing in Lincoln’s once-proud party. Neither Lincoln, William Buckley nor Ronald Reagan would recognize this movement.

The Post’s Ruth Marcus explains why Donald Trump Jr. is in legal jeopardy. Hint: stupidity is not a legal defense. (Adriana Usero, Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

It is a dying party that I can no longer defend.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham has long predicted that the Republican and Democrats’ 150-year duopoly will end. The signs seem obvious enough. When my Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994, it was the first time the GOP had won the House in a generation. The two parties have been in a state of turmoil ever since.

In 2004, Republican strategist Karl Rove anticipated a majority that would last a generation; two years later, Pelosi became the most liberal House speaker in history. Obama was swept into power by a supposedly unassailable Democratic coalition. In 2010, the tea party tide rolled in. Obama’s reelection returned the momentum to the Democrats, but Republicans won a historic state-level landslide in 2014. Then last fall, Trump demolished both the Republican and Democratic establishments.

Political historians will one day view Donald Trump as a historical anomaly. But the wreckage visited of this man will break the Republican Party into pieces — and lead to the election of independent thinkers no longer tethered to the tired dogmas of the polarized past. When that day mercifully arrives, the two-party duopoly that has strangled American politics for almost two centuries will finally come to an end. And Washington just may begin to work again.


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India: Underpaid garment workers demand $7.6m compensation


Indian worker sowing in a clothing factory in Dharavi slum, Mumbai, India, 12 January 2015. Source: Shutterstock/Paul Prescott--Denim jeans washed and hanging out to dry in the Indian midday sun in, Dhobhi Ghat, Mumbai. Source: Shutterstock/Arfabita

The Madras High Court ordered that the garment workers should receive a pay rise of up to 30 percent. Source: Shutterstock/Suraj Designs

17th July 2017

ON A SWELTERING summer morning in the southern Indian city of Chennai, a dozen garment workers crowd into a small courtroom for the latest hearing in a protracted battle over low wages in factories supplying global fashion brands.

The women are among tens of thousands of workers in Tamil Nadu state – the largest hub in India‘s $40 billion-a-year textile and garment industry – who are seeking millions of dollars in compensation following a landmark court ruling last year that declared they had long been grossly underpaid.

The Madras High Court ordered that the garment workers should receive a pay rise of up to 30 percent – the first minimum wage hike for 12 years – and that they could claim arrears going back to 2014.

But 12 months on, many factory bosses have failed to pay up.

SEE ALSO: Eight billionaires own same as poorest half of the world – Oxfam

Squeezed into a corner at the back of the stuffy Chennai courtroom, a middle-aged woman leans against the blue walls, clutching polythene bags full of documents to prove her claim.

Normally she spends her days hunched over a sewing machine, stitching skirts, shirts and dresses destined for high streets around the world.

But for months she has been taking days off work to attend court.

“I forgo a day’s salary to come for these hearings. It may not seem like a big amount, but for us it is hard earned money,” said the 48-year-old seamstress, who did not wish to be identified fearing it would impact her case.

“I am only asking for what is rightfully mine. And they won’t even tell me how they are calculating my dues.”

More than 150 claims have been filed against tailoring and export garment manufacturing units in the Chennai region alone, according to data requested by the Thomson Reuters Foundation under the Right to Information Act.

The claims, which would benefit at least 80,000 workers at factories around the port city, add up to more than 490 million Indian rupees ($7.6 million).


But workers’ unions say these claims are probably the tip of the iceberg as they only represent cases filed by government labour inspectors.

Salary cuts

Under the 2016 Madras court ruling, Tamil Nadu’s garment and textile workers should see their pay rise from a monthly average of 4,500 to 6,500 rupees – which campaigners say is comparable to wages for textile jobs in most other states.

But workers say managers have defaulted or delayed on payments since the ruling, with some even introducing pay cuts.

Despite the state’s minimum wage laws, salaries continue to be “grossly low” for thousands of workers who are still not given pay slips or are often hired only as apprentices, campaigners say.
“Instead of paying workers their correct salaries, companies are finding ways to surreptitiously squash their rights,” said Selvi Palani, a lawyer helping workers’ unions fight their cases.

“There is a court order but the money is not on the table. Workers continue to be underpaid.”

Sujata Mody of Penn Thozhilalargal Sangam, a women workers’ union, said some companies that had raised wages were now docking pay for sick days, and for factory meals and shuttle buses which were previously free, meaning many workers had seen little or no change in pay.

Some factories were also firing more expensive workers on trivial grounds, she added.

“The workers are struggling to be heard and the managements are coming up with new forms to deduct their income,” Mody said.

Repeated delays

Under the 1948 Minimum Wages Act, state governments are required to increase the basic minimum wage every five years to protect workers against exploitation, but textile manufacturers have repeatedly challenged pay rises in Tamil Nadu.

The state’s labour commissioner, Ka Balachandran, said inspectors were verifying every company’s records to check that wages were now in line with last year’s ruling.

“We are doing everything to ensure workers get fair wages, and get it quickly,” he added.

But manufacturers in Tamil Nadu say the hike is too high, putting them at a disadvantage to competitors in other states.

Some say they are already paying workers more than the minimum wage.

“The new norms are not distinguishing clearly between skilled and non-skilled workers,” said S Shaktivel of the Tirupur Exporters’ Association.

He said some companies had launched an appeal against the order at the Madras High Court.


In the Chennai labour court, case numbers are called out in quick succession.

SEE ALSO: Struggle for a decent wage leaves Cambodia’s garment workers in limbo

The seamstress, who is expecting arrears of up to 5,000 rupees, strains to listen over the slow whirring of the ceiling fan.

“My financial situation is not very good,” she whispers.

“My husband had surgery a few months back, we have a loan to pay back and a house to run. The company owes me arrears for almost one year. I need that income desperately.”

Her case is called. The lawyer representing the company asks for more time. Another date is set, with the judge warning against further delays.

“I hope I get a good settlement,” the seamstress said as she left court.


“After all these years, I would like to stop working, but that looks unlikely. At least if they paid me properly, I would feel a little better.” – Reuters

If You Love Peace!

Do you remember the two darkest rather cruelest days in the modern history of mankind; August 6 and August 9, 1945 when at the order of American President Harry S. Truman the United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed at least 129,000 people and left countless injured.

by Ali Sukhanver-Jul 17, 2017

( July 17, 2017, Islamabad, Sri Lanka Guardian) Internationally, the friends of today might be foes of tomorrow and enemies of yesterday might be friends of today. There is nothing like true-love in relationship between two countries because this relationship revolves only around interests and benefits and nothing else. At international level, the other name of friendship and love is ‘necessity’ and the basic ingredients which make the relationship everlasting are forgiveness, forbearance and tolerance.

Do you remember the two darkest rather cruelest days in the modern history of mankind; August 6 and August 9, 1945 when at the order of American President Harry S. Truman the United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed at least 129,000 people and left countless injured. Various reports on the incidents say, “Within the first two to four months following the bombings, the acute effects of the atomic bombings had killed 90,000 to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 to 80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition.”

But astonishingly today the United States is Japan’s closest ally and Japan relies on the U.S. for its national security to a high degree. The two countries have very strong and close economic ties and stand side by side at every crucial juncture. Today the United States and Japan have firm and very active political, economic and military relationships.

The United States considers Japan to be one of its closest allies and partners. It is said that Japan is one of the most pro-American nations in the world. This all shows that Japan has turned a blind eye to the nuclear bombing incident in its own larger interest. In other words we may say that Japan is acting upon that famous saying, ‘love me love my dog’. Same is the case with Russia and the Soviet states which once used to constitute the USSR.

Internationally there is no bond of ‘true love’ among the countries and the nations. All depends upon needs and requirements. Sometimes, we, the people of Pakistan are also misguided by the false notion of ‘inter-nations true love’ but sooner or later, facts and circumstances bring us back to the world of bitter realities. Be it the Arab Kingdom, Iran, Turkey, UK or USA and even China, all our relationship with them revolves around a system of mutual needs and requirements. Practically there is no rule of ‘do good, have good’ when we analyze relationship between two countries.
If it were the practical rule, Afghanistan would have been the closest friend of Pakistan and certainly the most obliged one. Let us cast a look at Pak-US relationship in the same context. Even a blind man can understand the reality that Pakistan and USA are so much needed and required by each other that they could never be at logger’s head even if they desire. In other words this Pak-US marvelous ‘friendship’ could never be broken unless until US’ dream of sustaining its position as World’s only Super Power is alive. For some people in Pakistan this news could give birth to some apprehensions that Trump administration is planning to harden its approach towards Pakistan.

The Reuters has recently published a detailed report on the issue. According to the report the Trump administration intends to expand U.S. drone strikes, redirect or withhold some aid to Pakistan and perhaps eventually downgrade Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally. The aim and objective of this shift is to crack down on so-called Pakistan-based militants who are allegedly launching attacks in neighboring Afghanistan. Commenting upon the report, Abid Saeed, Pakistan’s press minister in US said, “Singling out Pakistan and pinning the entire blame on Pakistan for the situation in Afghanistan is neither fair nor accurate, nor is it borne out by the ground realities.”

Abid Saeed is very true in his analysis; stamping Afghanistan as an innocent country and branding Pakistan as a rogue country is neither fair nor accurate and certainly not true to the ground realities. Such actions of the Trump administration would do nothing but widen the distances between US and Pakistan temporarily. It seems that Mr. Trump in his heat and haste has forgotten that Pakistan continues to occupy a strategic position in the United States’ interests in Central and South Asia and is extensively engaged in vital social, economic, scientific and military relations with Pakistan.

Moreover the US is one of Pakistan’s largest donors of foreign assistance and after China, the second-largest supplier of military equipment to Pakistan. In case the US withholds some aid to Pakistan and tries to downgrade Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally, it would cause a severe damage to US’ own interests in the region. As far as the matter of drone attacks is concerned, there is no difference between drone-attacks and suicide-bombing; both kill a lot of innocent ones along with a few targeted ones. The faces behind suicide-bombing and drone attacks are widely hated particularly by the relatives of the innocent ones. Surely, the Trump administration is as sincere in making the world terrorism-free as that of Obama. Hatred against US would simply mar the US’ efforts against terrorism.

From ego to eco: Strengthening sustainability

Monday, 17 July 2017

We are plagued with multiple environmental challenges. While garbage disposal is still chaotic, dengue mosquitoes continue to inflict misery upon millions. Do we see eco-friendly initiatives or egos clashing with individuals adamantly clinging to their positions and opinions? It is time to revisit sustainability with its associated implications. Let me label it a clarion call to shift from ego to eco in strengthening sustainability.

Overview

I just returned from the Netherlands where we had a one-week-long study program at the Maastricht School of Management for senior public administrators of Sri Lanka, organised by the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM).

Amidst this valued exposure, we gained much insight through the concept of strengthening sustainability through a Triple Helix approach with ecosystems.

Let’s be clear about the key concepts. Ecosystems are essential for nature. The typical biology textbooks call it a community of living organisms that provide the basis for survival and sustainability. A helix can be considered an object having a three-dimensional shape like that of a wire wound uniformly in a single layer around a cylinder or cone, as in a corkscrew or spiral staircase.

Mathematically, it is a curve in three-dimensional space. It has the property that the tangent line at any point makes a constant angle with a fixed line called the axis. In that sense, a Triple Helix (or helices) is a set of three helices with the same axis and located in an intertwined position. Scientists reveal the presence of such formations in our DNAs.
Triple Helix approach to sustainability 

The name sustainability is derived from the Latin ‘sustinere’ meaning to maintain, support or endure. Since the 1980s sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on Earth and this has resulted in the most widely quoted definition ofsustainability as a part of the concept of sustainable development, that of the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on 20 March 1987: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be viewed as a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. It can be described as an organisation’s sense of responsibility towards the described community and environment (both ecological and social) in which it operates. CSR policy functions as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards and international norms. In essence, sustainability and CSR speak of the same priorities from an organisational point of view.

The concept of a Triple Helix applied to sustainability began in the mid-nineties. It was initiated as an intertwined approach connecting university, Government and industry. The Triple Helix movement, launched by Prof. Henry Etzkowitz and Prof. Loet Leydesdorff began in 1996 when a workshop was organised in Amsterdam to discuss the Triple Helix model. This first workshop brought together 90 researchers and attracted participants from Latin America, Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. The workshop was subsequently referred to as the first international conference on the Triple Helix.

Figure 1 depicts the intertwined nature of Triple Helix involving university, government and industry.

Veterans such as Etzkowitz (1993) and Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (1995), encompassing elements of precursor works by Lowe (1982) and Sábato and Mackenzi (1982), interpret the shift from a dominating industry-government dyad in the ‘Industrial Society’ to a growing triadic relationship between university-industry-government in the ‘Knowledge Society’.

As the Triple Helix research group of Stanford University states, “The potential for innovation and economic development in a Knowledge Society lies in a more prominent role for the university and in the hybridisation of elements from university, industry and government to generate new institutional and social formats for the production, transfer and application of knowledge.”

This vision encompasses not only the creative destruction that appears as a natural innovation dynamics (Schumpeter, 1942), but also the creative renewal that arises within each of the three institutional spheres of university, industry and government as well as at their intersections.

Through subsequent development, a significant body of Triple Helix research has grown over the last two decades that provides a general framework for exploring complex innovation dynamics and for informing national, regional and international innovation and development policymaking.
Emergence of Triple Helix Research Group

The growing number of participants demanded the coordination of intensified annual events and Triple Helix conferences after 2009. The growing interest and participation in the Triple Helix movement led also to the idea of creating an association that is able to pull together and facilitate interactions among international scholars sharing common research interests.

In 2009 the creation of the Triple Helix Association (THA) took place in Turin, Italy, where the TH Association is headquartered at Fondazione Rosselli, and is chaired by Prof. Henry Etzkowitz, with Prof. Loet Leydesdorff and Prof. José Manoel Carvalho de Mello serving as Vice-Presidents. (www.triplehelixassociation.org)


The creation of the association and the organisation of the subsequent annual conferences, opened space for engagement on an annual basis with multiple stakeholders, academics, scientists, policymakers and practitioners with interests in the Triple Helix model. The annual conference in Madrid, Spain (2010) was focused on the cities of knowledge and the expanding knowledge and connecting regions.

The annual event in 2011 was held in the Silicon Valley, California, USA and shifted the emphasis to the global aspects of the Triple Helix model, while the 2012 annual event in Bandung, Indonesia, extended the emphasis to developing countries.

The London event in 2012 brought the issue of open innovation and invited participants to challenge the Triple Helix model, while extending and deepening the application of the conceptual apparatus, created as part of the evolution of the Triple Helix academic community. The large number of participants (over 300) from 35 countries indicated the emergence of a Triple Helix movement, anchored by the THA and spinning into numerous academic and practitioner domains.
An Entrepreneurial University 

As the Stanford university sources advocate, the Entrepreneurial University is a central concept to the Triple Helix. It takes a proactive stance in putting knowledge to use and in creating new knowledge. It operates according to an interactive rather than a linear model of innovation. As firms raise their technological level, they engage in higher levels of training and knowledge sharing. A government acts as a public entrepreneur and venture capitalist, in addition to its traditional regulatory role in setting the rules of the game.

“As universities develop links, they can combine discrete pieces of intellectual property and jointly exploit them. Innovation has expanded from an internal process within and even among firms to an activity that involves institutions not traditionally thought of as having a direct role in innovation such as universities. The academic ‘third mission’ - involvement in socio-economic development, next to the traditional missions of teaching and research, is most salient in the Entrepreneurial University.”

The Entrepreneurial University also has an enhanced capacity to provide students with new ideas, skills and entrepreneurial talent. Students are not only the new generations of professionals in various scientific disciplines, business, culture etc. but they can also be trained and encouraged to become entrepreneurs and firm founders, contributing to economic growth and job creation in a society that needs such outcomes more than ever.

Moreover, entrepreneurial universities are also extending their capabilities of educating individuals to educating organisations through entrepreneurship and incubation programs and new training modules at venues such as inter-disciplinary centres, science parks, academic spin-offs, incubators and venture capital firms.

Entrepreneurial universities also have an enhanced capacity to generate technology that has changed their position from a traditional source of human resources and knowledge to a new source of technology generation and transfer. Rather than only serving as a source of new ideas for existing firms, universities are combining their research and teaching capabilities in new formats to become a source of new firm formation, especially in advanced areas of science and technology. Universities, increasingly becoming a source of regional economic development, and academic institutions are reoriented or founded for this purpose.
Relevance to Sri Lanka

The Triple Helix approach in utilising the research strengths of universities with experiential insights of the industry within a conducive policy framework of the Government has paved the way for sustainable results in several developing and developed countries around the world. Sri Lanka is no exception. In fact, we can appropriately adopt best practices. The dire need is to start from somewhere with supportive leadership. That requires a conversion from ‘ego to eco’.

I recall a series of seminars conducted in Sri Lanka by Dr. Wayne Visser, the Chair of Sustainable Business at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa, where similar sentiments were echoed. As he observed: “A doctor judges his/her success by whether the patient is getting better (healthier) or worse (sicker). Similarly, we should judge the success of CSR by whether our communities and ecosystems are getting better or worse. And while at the micro level – in terms of specific CSR projects and practices – we can show many improvements, at the macro level almost every indicator of our social, environmental and ethical health is in decline.”

It reminds me of what Dr. Vaisser mentioned while quoting Josiah Charles Stamp. “It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.”

(Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri can be reached at director@pim.sjp.ac.lk, president@ipmlk.org, ajantha@ou.edu or www.ajanthadharmasiri.info)

Surgeons remove 27 contact lenses from woman's eye

BMJ-"A bluish foreign body" turned out to be a "hard mass" of 17 lenses stuck together with mucus

• 17 July 2017
 
• From the sectionHealth

Surgeons have removed 27 contact lenses from the eye of a 67-year-old woman who had come to Solihull Hospital for routine cataract surgery.

"A bluish foreign body" turned out to be a "hard mass" of 17 lenses stuck together with mucus, and 10 more were then found under further examination.

A report in the BMJ said she had worn disposable lenses for 35 years, and had not complained of any irritation.

But after they were removed, she said her eyes felt a lot more comfortable.

'Shocked'

Specialist trainee in ophthalmology Rupal Morjaria told Optometry Today: "None of us have ever seen this before.

"It was such a large mass. All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together.

"We were really surprised that the patient didn't notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there.

"She was quite shocked. She thought her previous discomfort was just part of old age and dry eye."

'Hiding'

The case report said the patient had poorer vision in her right eye and deep-set eyes, which may have been a factor in the lenses becoming lost.

Association of Optometrists spokeswoman Ceri Smith-Jaynes said losing contact lenses in the eye was a common problem but they usually worked their way out.

"They are normally hiding, folded up under the top lid of the eye," she said.

"They can't go any further up than that because there is a pocket.

"It's the same under the bottom lid - the lens can only be in one of those places."

She said it was important to see an optometrist or optician regularly to avoid any issues when using contact lenses.

Top tips for contact lens wearers:

• Don't wear your lenses for longer than you have been told to, and not for more than 16 hours in a day - you should never sleep in them, unless specifically designed for wearing overnight
• Wash and dry your hands thoroughly before putting anything in your eye
• Never apply eye make-up before putting in contact lenses
• Don't go swimming when wearing contact lenses
• Replace your contact lens case regularly to reduce the risk of infection
• If you spot any signs of redness, pain or loss of vision, consult your optometrist or optician immediately
• Make sure you go for regular check-ups
• If in doubt, take them out

Govt. to go ahead with terrorism bill: Rajapakshe

War Heroes or criminals?

 
 Justice Minister, UN official in heated argument Special Rapportuer Emmerson, QC to brief media today

By Chandani Kirinde-Sunday, July 16, 2017

The Government will not take instructions from the United Nations on how the new Counter-Terrorism Bill is drafted and will go ahead with the bill approved by the Cabinet, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said yesterday.

“The laws have to be made here and they have to be approved by our Parliament. We cannot have others doing it for us,” Minister Rajapakshe said.
He was responding to comments made by Ben Emmerson, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the “promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism”. Mr. Emmerson said on Friday that the Government wanted to engage in a process of constructive dialogue to improve the draft legislation before it was presented in Parliament.

The UN official said the Foreign Affairs Ministry had undertaken to consult his team in Geneva within the next two weeks to start a dialogue to identify the flaws in the current draft, and put them right. The contradictory claims come after a stormy meeting between Minister Rajapakshe and the UN Rapporteur.

Mr. Emmerson and Minister Rajapakshe met on Tuesday during the UN envoy’s our day visit to Sri Lanka. They clashed over several issues including the proposed new legislation. While the UN Rapporteur had insisted that the new draft must meet “contemporary international best practices” in anti-terror laws, Minister Rajapakshe had retorted that in Britain, the home country of Mr. Emmerson, Prime Minister Theresa May was planning to change human rights laws to punish terror suspects and keep them longer in prison.

When asked about the acrimonious meeting with Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister, Mr. Emmerson said he did not wish to comment on “private conversations” but was strongly critical of the proposed Counter-Terrorism Act, a copy of which was given to him prior to his visit to Sri Lanka.He said that many of those who spoke to him expressed dismay at the lack of ministerial, parliamentary or public consultation over the proposals. “Indeed, even the Human Rights Commission has not been informed or consulted on the draft framework.”

Mr. Emmerson said the present draft made some significant improvements to the current anti-terror law, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). These include allowing unfettered access to detainees and abolish the Attorney-General’s right of veto over the grant of bail and also create an improved framework for administrative and pre-trial detention, with greater scope for independent judicial review.

He said he, however, saw a number of central flaws in the current draft which, if enacted, would violate the human rights of terrorism suspects.
“Foremost among these is a provision preserving the admissibility of confessions made to a police officer while in custody. In a country with such a grave and widespread problem of torture and ill-treatment in custody, the only means by which counter-terrorism legislation could conform to international human rights standards would be the prohibition altogether of the use of confessions made to the police,” he said.

The UN envoy said there were also problems with the definition of terrorism. These problems posed the risk that the legislation could be used in circumstances far removed from acts of real terrorism, or used against minorities or human rights defenders. This could happen in a discriminatory and sectarian manner.

“The progress of this legislation to date has been painfully slow, and this has, in turn, delayed the wider package of transitional justice measures that Sri Lanka committed to deliver two years ago. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that this inertia reflects the continuing influence of certain vested interests in the security sector, who are resistant to change, and to accountability,” the UN official said.

Cemeteries as Caste-Markers

"Caste discourse is inevitably hijacked by chauvinist forces. Backward upper caste Tamil elites attempt to consolidate their social power through caste oppression"

2017-07-17

In caste-ridden societies, dominant castes claim privilege through birth, but as evident from recent caste conflicts in Jaffna, death provides no relief from caste, and places of cremating the dead are also sites of caste oppression.   
Since late last year, there have been increasing agitations against upper caste cemeteries located within oppressed caste villages. While many of these cemeteries were not used for years if not decades during the war, efforts to again start cremating in those cemeteries culminated in a significant protest numbering to hundreds in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand on May 13, 2017.  
During the first two weeks of July, the situation has further deteriorated. In Thidatpulam village in Punnalaikadduvan North, the upper castes hurriedly forced a cremation to make a point. In Kalaimathi village in Puttur, a continual Satyagraha protest has been launched following the arrest of villagers strongly opposed to rebuilding a cemetery in their village.  

Post-war re-consolidation 

In Jaffna society, as with much of South Asia, caste was the predominant social structure. Furthermore, the unique demographics and small-holding landed relations of Jaffna, with the dominant Vellala caste constituting a numerical majority, characterised an extremely strong caste structure.   
In the 1960s and into the 1970s, there was a powerful movement for temple entry by oppressed caste people excluded from caste-ridden temples, including the Mavittapuram temple, as well as determined struggles for equal seating in public spaces, particularly tea shops where oppressed caste people were humiliated. While these struggles led by the Communist Party, and at the cost of a number of activists’ lives, did not eradicate caste, they were nevertheless a major blow to untouchability in Jaffna.   
In the post-war years, with resettlement and return to village quarters, caste is re-consolidating through stealth in Jaffna. While caste is hardly discussed in public, subtle forms of caste exclusion characterise social institutions such as temples and community centres.   
The economic conditions of the oppressed caste communities, who are often landless and depend on day wage labour, aggravate the dynamics of social exclusion. Oppressed caste village quarters are the last to receive rural roads, electricity and water supply, as caste exclusion is embedded in the workings of local officials. Furthermore, the most deprived oppressed caste children remain in the village schools, while other villagers who have the wherewithal send their children to urban schools. Thus many rural schools in Jaffna today consist exclusively of oppressed caste children, whose future is trapped in cycles and spaces of exclusion and depravity.   

Cemetery struggles

Over the last year, such subtle form of caste exclusion, have become more visible through a series of caste confrontations around upper caste cemeteries located at the centre of oppressed caste villages. In October 2016, in Thidatpulam, the Vellala community from Punnalaikadduvan North attempted to reassert their control over a cemetery after decades. The Thidatpulam villagers, many of whom continue to depend on wage labour in the landed upper caste villages, refused the use of the cemetery, where a few families had encroached and built houses over the years. The Vellala leaders got hired sword-wielding gangs to camp out in the cemetery and attempted to build the wall around the cemetery.   
Eventually, the confrontation turned violent, and the community centre and reading room of Thidatpulam was defaced with used oil, even as the villagers claim bias by local officials and the police in not addressing their complaints. In the course of heated exchanges, the oppressed caste villagers were reminded by the Vellala perpetrators of the two young men from Thidatpulam who were murdered in 1982. The fear evoked by incidents over three decades ago reflect the depth of caste oppression and violence, which can haunt generations into the future.  

"Such calls on officials to change the locations and character of cemeteries have fallen on deaf ears"

Starting in March 2017, a similar cemetery in Puttur has become the site of a major struggle. The people in this relatively larger Kalaimathy village, a left stronghold, are far more determined. The confrontations that ensued when the neighbouring villages, both upper caste and oppressed caste, attempted to cremate in a cemetery adjoining Kalaimathy village, has led to police action. Currently, 28 villagers were arrested allegedly of breaking the cemetery wall, remain in custody for over a week, and the villagers in recent days have launched a continual Satyagraha struggle to bring awareness to the issue of cemeteries amidst people’s dwellings and are demanding that the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) address the issue.   
The main grievance of these oppressed caste villages against such cemeteries are environmental concerns and health hazards as well as the social taboo and indignity they suffer when bodies are cremated in such proximity to their homes. The affected villagers claim that even animals run with body parts in these poorly maintained cemeteries, and the experience of cremations near their homes cause severe psychological stress, particularly to their children. Indeed, there are many more cemeteries isolated from people’s houses that can be used instead. At the heart of insisting on cremating in these oppressed caste villages is an arrogant imposition of tradition relating to caste identified cemeteries, which have now become important caste markers.   

Political response

Local officials are not immune from caste prejudice. In fact, the Pradeshya Sabhas, which in turn come under the NPC, have done little to address the problem. In fact, without proper maintenance, most of these cemeteries are environmental hotspots in a time when the spread of dengue is a serious concern.   
A review and reduction of the large number of cemeteries in Jaffna could concentrate cremations in a few locations away from people’s dwellings. The scarcity of land in Jaffna is another reason to limit such cemeteries, where such land can be used for housing and public spaces for social activities including as sports grounds.  
Such calls on officials to change the locations and character of cemeteries have fallen on deaf ears. And instead, the courts have been called to adjudicate, where court judgements merely call for building a high wall and implement electric incinerators, which is impractical in terms of the cost given the infrequent cremations. 

Chauvinist forces

Caste discourse is inevitably hijacked by chauvinist forces. Backward upper caste Tamil elites attempt to consolidate their social power through caste oppression. On the other hand, as some recent interventions in the media illustrate Sinhala Buddhist nationalists also attempt to use the caste issue towards their own chauvinist project of attacking Tamil society and undermining devolution.   
While solidarity from the other communities should be welcome when there is oppression within one community, the terms of that solidarity are important. If progressive Sinhala actors can begin a dialogue on caste exclusion in Sri Lankan society, including in the Sinhala community, of how for example it affects marriage, social life and electoral politics, it can contribute towards meaningful and new avenues of discussing the severity caste oppression in Tamil society.   
Solidarity with people struggling against caste oppression is urgently needed, but in supporting these struggles such solidarity should also challenge the nexus of state power and class power that sit comfortably with caste power. The ongoing cemetery conflicts in Jaffna and the response of different actors are important signals of how the deeper dynamics of caste oppression are going to be addressed in the years ahead.   

Jaffna Tamils Still Receive Police Summons In Sinhala Language

JULY 16, 2017

Sri Lanka’s police have given scant regard to a basic right of a Tamil journalist in Jaffna and have issued summons to him in Sinhala, a language he is not proficient in.

In a summon dated July 12, 2017, issued at 9.39 am, Jaffna based journalist has been summoned to be present at the Organized Crime Division Colombo over a media event he covered of Northern Provincial Council Member M.K. Sivajilingam.

The summon has been issued under the seal of the OIC of the Achchuveli police.

An observer pointed out that it was highly unethical for the police to issue such summons in the Sinhala language to a person who is not proficient in the language. He noted that as the Tamil language is considered an official language in the country, this summon should have been issued to the journalist in Tamil, so he can clearly understand what it said.

Read More

Murder of unarmed man confirms Sri Lanka still not safe for Tamils

Key eyewitness, lawyer threatened with death

Unarmed Tamil man shot dead by Sri Lankan police in Vadamaradchi(Yogarasa Thines)

16 JULY 2017

The murder of Yogarasa Thines at the hands of Sri Lankan police on 9 July shows that Tamils are still not safe in their country, says the Tamil Refugee Council.

Thines, aged in his 20s, was shot several times by officers in Vadamaradchi East, in the Jaffna district of the country’s Northern Province, which is majority Tamil. He reportedly had been hitchhiking home from a Hindu temple.

Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who visited Australia in February, has urged Tamils seeking asylum here to return. “All is forgiven,” he said. “They are welcome to return to Sri Lanka and we won't prosecute them.”

But this latest act of violence against an unarmed Tamil is more confirmation that the Sri Lankan regime cannot be trusted.

Thines’ death follows the gunning down by police of two Jaffna University students in October. In December, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment noted the lack of even “minimal guarantees of protection against the power of the State, in particular its security forces”.

“Torture and ill-treatment, including of a sexual nature, still occur, in particular in the early stages of arrest and interrogation, often for the purpose of eliciting confessions”, he wrote.

Despite the well-documented dangers facing Tamils in Sri Lanka, many Tamil asylum seekers continue to languish in Australian detention centres and are threatened with deportation.

The Tamil Refugee Council is calling on the Australian government to release all Tamil asylum seekers currently held in Australian detention centres, grant permanent protection visas to all Tamil asylum seekers and end collaboration with the Sri Lankan regime.

There is a need to change the Constitution - Tamara Kunanayakam 

Tamara Kunanayakam - 'Inspirational Woman of the Year'

Tamara Kunanayakam was the recipient of ‘Inspirational Woman of the Year’Award in this year’s ‘Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards’ organized by Women in Management, in partnership with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group. The 50 winners from Sri Lanka and the Maldives received their awards at a glittering ceremony held at Hotel Taj Samudra on Friday. Ms. Kunanayakam, best known for her defence of Sri Lanka’s independence and sovereignty as Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva 2011-2012 when a resolution was brought against the country at the Human Rights Council, said “the fact that I won this award, for me is a recognition of the values and principles I stood for.” The Daily Mirror  talked to her about the less-known aspects of her background and career. Excerpts from the interview:

Tamara Kunanayakam receives the award from Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Chairman - Panel of Judges

How do you feel about winning this award – were you surprised?

2017-07-17

It was a totally unexpected surprise. The award for ‘Inspirational Woman’ is not open for nomination,the recipient is selected by the panel of judges. Throughout my life I’ve been guided by values and principles of social justice, solidarity, equality – humanist values, freedom from exploitation, peace, independence and sovereignty. You don’t expect to be rewarded for doing things you believe in! .

There is a need to change the Constitution - Tamara Kunanayakam.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd