Third of Earth's soil is acutely degraded due to agriculture

Fertile soil is being lost at rate of 24bn tonnes a year through intensive farming as demand for food increases, says UN-backed study

Soil erosion in Maasai heartlands, Tanzania, is due to climate change and land management decisions. Photograph: Carey Marks/Plymouth University

Jonathan Watts-Tuesday 12 September 2017

A third of the planet’s land is severely degraded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24bn tonnes a year, according to a new United Nations-backed study that calls for a shift away from destructively intensive agriculture.

The alarming decline, which is forecast to continue as demand for food and productive land increases, will add to the risks of conflicts such as those seen in Sudan and Chad unless remedial actions are implemented, warns the institution behind the report.
“As the ready supply of healthy and productive land dries up and the population grows, competition is intensifying for land within countries and globally,” said Monique Barbut, executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at the launch of the Global Land Outlook.
“To minimise the losses, the outlook suggests it is in all our interests to step back and rethink how we are managing the pressures and the competition.”

The Global Land Outlook is billed as the most comprehensive study of its type, mapping the interlinked impacts of urbanisation, climate change, erosion and forest loss. But the biggest factor is the expansion of industrial farming.

Heavy tilling, multiple harvests and abundant use of agrochemicals have increased yields at the expense of long-term sustainability. In the past 20 years, agricultural production has increased threefold and the amount of irrigated land has doubled, notes a paper in the outlook by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European commission. Over time, however, this diminishes fertility and can lead to abandonment of land and ultimately desertification.

The JRC noted that decreasing productivity can be observed on 20% of the world’s cropland, 16% of forest land, 19% of grassland, and 27% of rangeland.

“Industrial agriculture is good at feeding populations but it is not sustainable. It’s like an extractive industry, said Louise Baker, external relations head of the UN body. She said the fact that a third of land is now degraded should prompt more urgent action to address the problem.

“It’s quite a scary number when you consider rates of population growth, but this is not the end of the line. If governments make smart choices the situation can improve,” Baker said, noting the positive progress made by countries like Ethiopia, which has rehabilitated 7m hectares (17m acres).

The impacts vary enormously from region to region. Worst affected is sub-Saharan Africa, but poor land management in Europe also accounts for an estimated 970m tonnes of soil loss from erosion each year with impacts not just on food production but biodiversity, carbon loss and disaster resilience. High levels of food consumption in wealthy countries such as the UK are also a major driver of soil degradation overseas.

The paper was launched at a meeting of the UNCCD in Ordos, China, where signatory nations are submitting voluntary targets to try to reduce degradation and rehabilitate more land. On Monday, Brazil and India were the latest countries to outline their plan to reach “land degradation neutrality”.

However, the study notes that pressures will continue to grow. In a series of forecasts on land use for 2050, the authors note that sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, the Middle East and north Africa will face the greatest challenges unless the world sees lower levels of meat consumption, better land regulation and improved farming efficiency.

The Relationship Between the Modern Western Diet and Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's may ultimately be the result of metabolic disturbances similar to those seen in type 2 diabetes.

Photo Credit: pathdoc/Shutterstock

By Amy Berger / Chelsea Green Publishing-September 3, 2017, 11:00 AM GMT

The following excerpt is adapted from Amy Berger's new book The Alzheimer's Antidote: Using a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet to Fight Alzheimer’s Disease, Memory Loss, and Cognitive Decline (2017, Chelsea Green Publishing).

Alzheimer’s disease is frightening. It instills fear because other than generally striking older individuals, there seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. Families face economic strain due to the expenses of assisted living, long-term care, or abandoning careers to provide fulltime caregiving for affected loved ones, but these financial burdens pale in comparison to the emotional, psychological, and physical tolls Alzheimer’s exacts from afflicted individuals and their caregivers. There are currently no effective treatment strategies for this most dreaded condition. Every pharmaceutical drug developed to date for it has failed to have an appreciable impact on disease progression. It’s time to stop waiting for a silver bullet discovery or “magic pill” in the fight against this formidable disease. It’s time for a new approach.

The research is unambiguous. Alzheimer’s disease results primarily from a failure of parts of the brain to harness sufficient energy from glucose. As a consequence of this insufficient fueling, neurons in the affected brain regions degrade and degenerate, leading to a loss of communication among them. This breakdown in neuronal communication results in the confusion, memory loss, and behavioral changes characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The connection between glucose handling, insulin signaling, and AD is so strong that many researchers now refer to AD as “diabetes of the brain,” or “type 3 diabetes.” Although type 2 diabetes and AD are closely associated, we must not be fooled into believing that type 2 diabetes causes AD. Many people with type 2 diabetes will never go on to develop AD, and many Alzheimer’s patients are not diagnosed diabetics. The relationship between the two is more like that of physiological cousins; that is, they result from the same underlying metabolic disturbances, but they manifest differently depending on which parts of the body are affected. In type 2 diabetes, for example, insulin resistance and disturbed carbohydrate metabolism affect the muscles, organs, and periphery (the rest of the body aside from the brain and central nervous system); in AD, damage is mostly localized to the brain.

Using a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet to Fight Alzheimer’s

If Alzheimer’s is ultimately the result of metabolic disturbances similar to those seen in type 2 diabetes—namely, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia (elevated levels of insulin in the bloodstream for extended periods of time)—then the same causes as are seen in type 2 diabetes are likely to be behind AD. While there are many factors that contribute to dysregulated insulin signaling, one of the most powerful is a diet that is mismatched to basic human physiology.

The pattern of eating that has become the “standard American diet” and that has morphed and spread into the “modern Western diet” in many other parts of the world, is very different from the one on which our human ancestors are theorized to have evolved. Although the current commonly accepted dietary recommendations from government health agencies and medical organizations are slowly shifting, over a half-century of fear-mongering regarding saturated fats and dietary cholesterol in the modern industrialized world has led to recommendations to consume a diet low in total fat and cholesterol, with an emphasis on carbohydrates—specifically, grains, such as wheat, corn, and rice—as the primary source of calories. The few fats that are recommended are vegetable oils (such as soybean and corn oil), which are high in fragile, easily oxidized polyunsaturated fatty acids; we have been cautioned away from the saturated fats found predominantly in animal foods and tropical plants (such as butter, coconut, and palm oils), which are more chemically stable and better suited for cooking.

The modern industrial diet is also generally lower in phytonutrients and antioxidant-rich dark green and brightly colored vegetables and fruits than the diet our robust, healthy ancestors likely consumed.

 The majority of the plant foods we now consume are starchy carbohydrate sources, such as wheat, potatoes, and corn. This evolutionarily discordant diet has been linked to conditions as diverse as heart disease, acne, obesity, poor eyesight, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and cancer. When the physiological and biochemical effects of these foods, coupled with a lack of micronutrient-rich vegetables and whole, unprocessed, naturally occurring fats start affecting cognitive function later in life, we can add Alzheimer’s disease to the list of conditions likely caused by this dietary derailment.

There are ways to address the dietary and lifestyle factors that affect the aberrant insulin and glucose dynamics believed to underlie Alzheimer’s without pharmaceutical drugs or other expensive and ineffective interventions. Certainly, many unanswered questions remain and there are many decades of research ahead of us, but that doesn’t mean we are completely without actionable information right now. The Alzheimer’s Antidote is a layperson-friendly translation of the scientific literature intended to arm individuals with this condition and their loved ones and caregivers with information so that they can take control of their health destiny.

UN human rights chief calls for exercise of universal jurisdiction on Sri Lanka

11 Sep  2017

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein noted frustration over the “slow pace of reforms” in Sri Lanka and said the absence of action on accountability meant exercising universal jurisdiction was “even more necessary”.

Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva, the human rights chief called on Sri Lanka to live up to commitments it had made to the international community.

“I encourage the Government to act on its commitment in Resolution 30/1 to establish transitional justice mechanisms, and to establish a clear timeline and benchmarks for the implementation of these and other commitments,” he said.

“This should not be viewed by the Government as a box-ticking exercise to placate the Council, but as an essential undertaking to address the rights of all its people,” he continued.

“The absence of credible action in Sri Lanka to ensure accountability for alleged violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law makes the exercise of universal jurisdiction even more necessary.”

His comments come after Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Brazil, former military general Jagath Jayasuriya, fled to Sri Lanka after human rights groups filed lawsuits accusing him of overseeing war crimes.

Mr Al Hussein also called on the Sri Lankan government to “swiftly operationalize the Office of Missing Persons and to move faster on other essential confidence building measures, such as release of land occupied by the military, and resolving long-pending cases registered under the Prevention of Terrorism Act”.

“I repeat my request for that Act to be replaced with a new law in line with international human rights standards,” he added.

He also noted that the lack of credible action on these important issues had been felt by Tamils on the island. “In the North, protests by victims indicate their growing frustration over the slow pace of reforms,” he stated.

The High Commissioner concluded his address by stating,

"In the first three years of my current term, the world has grown darker and dangerous. My vision for the work of my Office has become more determined, drawing even more deeply on the lessons which come to us from our forbears: human rights principles are the only way to avoid global war and profound misery and deprivation. In continuing to lead this Office I am inspired by movements of people standing up in many countries in defiance of the indefensible. They seek, not power or personal profit; what they seek is justice".

See the full text of his statement here.

Darker and more dangerous High Commissioner updates the Human Rights Council on human rights issues in 40... by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Significance Of Vision 2025 Goes Beyond Economic Development

 

Yahapalana leaders, President Maithripala Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe at the recent launch of V 2025 at the
BMICH (Pic courtesy President’s media)

by Jehan Perera-September 11, 2017, 8:22 pm 

Much was expected of the government when it came to power in 2015. An immediate boost to the economic growth rate was anticipated but this has failed to materialize. The failure to attract foreign investments has been a notable disappointment. This has been attributed to the uncertain policy environment with the government not being of one mind in creating the necessary environment for foreign investment to come in. The level of public disenchantment with the government has been on the rise due to its failure to deliver on its election promises in other areas too. It is not only in the area of the economy that the government has been underperforming.

The dual character of the government of national unity has meant that the government has not been of one mind in respect of transitional justice with regard to war time issues, constitutional reform and even anti-corruption action. The general public, especially those who voted for the government in the hope that it would change the political culture of the country, and put an end to corruption, had been feeling badly let down by the government. However, it now appears the government is getting mobilized to act with greater unity of purpose. The sentencing of the most influential public official of the past period, Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga to three years rigorous imprisonment together with a fine of Rs 52 million in total is an indication of a turning point.

The same punishment has been meted out to the Anusha Palpita, Director General of the telecommunication commission. They have been found guilty of misappropriating government funds for political purposes in the run up to the 2015 presidential elections. The finding of guilty made against the former presidential secretary and head of the telecommunications regulatory authority of grossly and massively misusing government property will send a warning signal to those who have been accused of corruption during the period of the former government. Prior to the announcement of the verdict there apprehension that those accused of corruption would find some way out of the charges against them. Although the main election slogan in the 2015 election campaign was getting rid of corruption, change has been slow in coming. So slow in fact that many thought it would not come at all.

BEYOND 2020

In obtaining action that is meaningful, the key issue to deal with has been to get the two main parties that form the government of national unity, the UNP and SLFP, to be of one mind with regard to the problems that need to be solved. Significant developments that have taken place in the past month suggest that this unity of purpose is taking hold, albeit slowly and sector by sector. The economic arena is the one to which the government leadership has given priority. The combining of the Finance Ministry and Media Ministry under Mangala Samaraweera is an indication of this priority which is yielding the necessary results. The passage of the tax bill which saw major tax reform seeks to expand the tax net and stamp out evasion, though it was opposed by the opposition and those sections who will get within the tax net, was due to the two parties reaching agreement at the leadership level.

The launch of the government’s economic programme for the future, Vision 2025 took place last week in a similar manner. President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe launched an eight-year economic development plan Vision 2025 which outlines a series of development programs focused on the entire economy. The plan maps out the development journey of Sri Lanka in the coming years - and over the next three years the government will implement a comprehensive economic strategy to address constraints to growth. According to Vision 2025, the government aims to raise per capita income to USD 5,000 per year, create one million new jobs, increase foreign direct investment to USD 5 billion per year, and double exports to USD 20 billion per year. The launch event of the plan for economic development also had a political dimension as it highlighted the corruption, shortcomings and wrong turns taken by the previous government in this area.

However, the greater political significance of the launch of the government’s new economic programme was the implied message that the President and Prime Minister were thinking of a future together that goes beyond the 2018 deadline of its detractors and even beyond the 2020 target of its supporters. Those who wish to see the collapse of the government are looking for signs that the unity agreement of the UNP and SLFP will lapse at the end of the year and not be renewed. However, both the President and Prime Minister on several occasions have said that they will work together till the next round of national elections are due in 2020. But Vision 2025 to which both of these leaders signed on to suggests a further five years together.

REPLICABLE MODEL

The launch of Vision 2025 by the government provides a model that the government can replicate in those other important areas where it needs to be acting in more decisively. The government’s progress in the area of transitional justice and implementing the promises it made in Geneva to the international community has been slow. In October 2015 and again in March 2017 the government promised to establish four key institutions—a truth commission, an office of missing persons, an office of reparations and a special court for accountability purposes. Only the legislation for the office of missing persons has been passed by parliament and gazetted by the president. But to date none of these has been set up, not even the office of missing persons. The government could consider using the Vision 2025 model to take the big picture about transitional justice and dealing with the past to the people.

The problem that the government is having in establishing the office of missing persons is that there is miscommunication about its purpose. This is due to the lack of transparency about the transitional justice process in which the office of missing persons is one element. As in the case of the economy, people need to know what the transitional justice mechanisms are about and how they relate to one another. If they are only presented as single entities separated from each other, it is easy for detractors of the government and of transitional justice to make their own worst-case interpretations of them. Currently the four transitional justice mechanisms are being given a distorted interpretation of being aimed at the punishment of security forces personnel who won the war.

A similar problem holds true of the constitutional reform process. So far the government has not presented the broad framework of the envisaged reforms. It is only giving out bits and pieces of its thinking as articulated by its various spokespersons. This has enabled the opposition to claim that the government is going to do controversial things such as reducing the status of Buddhism or creating a federal state. The government needs to put out its broad frameworks for both transitional justice and for constitutional change on the table. The President and Prime Minister need to join hands as they did at Vision 2025 to explain what these mean to the people. Political leaders who aim to be statesmen should have confidence that people will be prepared for constructive change that they understand.

European Union Officials Visit To Sri Lanka

By Kumarathasan Rasingam –SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Kumarathasan Rasingam

European Union made it a pre condition in the last minute, requesting Sri Lanka to at least “replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act before granting the GSP+ and also make the Office of the Missing Persons fully operational, all to be delivered by Sri Lanka within clearly established time limit”. Sri Lanka sensing a way out of the hurdles, due to the softened stand by the European Union, hurriedly sent its Deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Harsha de Silva, who earlier blasted European Union by saying that “Sri Lanka is under no obligation to any foreign body”. He took a half-baked secret draft copy of Counter Terrorism Act as the replacement of PTA to the European Union’s attention, the contents of which are still shrouded in secrecy unknown to the world and public.

European Union expressed its satisfaction and supported Sri Lanka to defeat the motion of 52 European Members who recommended rejection of GSP+ after an onsite in depth study and assessment of the ground realities in Sri Lanka, which were obviously disappointing.

The present President HE Maithripala Sirisena remain and continue to remain as another typical Sinhalese politician with an eye on his post and future. He has already indicated his stand on the following issues which are hostile to Tamils while underscoring the Sinhala-Buddhist supremacy:

1. No withdrawal or reduction of the Army in the North. About 160, 000 soldiers are living among 700,000 civilians; thus keeping the Tamils under Army surveillance and control.

2. No complete handing back of the lands to Tamil civilians. Out of 6200 acres seized by the Army in the North, only 400 acres have been returned to civilians so far.

3. No conferring of powers and/or allowing the Northern and Eastern Provincial Council to function with their powers over land and police.

4. No stopping of the illegal seizure of lands belonging to civilians by over-zealous monks who build Viharas and erect Buddha statues when there are only a few Sinhalese living around.

5. Refused to hold an Independent International Investigation into war crimes etc.

6. No halt to future Sinhalese settlements in Tamil areas.

7. No speedy re-settlements of the thousands of displaced Tamil civilians.

8. No proposals to solve the 60 year old ethnic problem have been laid out so far.

9. No commitment to release the Tamil political prisoners languishing in jails for more than 20 years. Now they are dubbed as convicted criminals under the legal system with no prospects for release.

10. No investigation or information as to the fate of 90,000 disappeared Tamils.

11. Appointing alleged war criminals and conferring them with titles and ranks:  E.g.: Jagath Dias and Jagath Jeyasuriya

The latest visit by UN Special Rapporteur reveals the following:

The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson who visited Sri Lanka from 10th July to 16th July 2017: bares the various acts of violation and the systems prevailing in Sri Lanka. It is to be noted that this is the first occasion when a United Nations Official felt the necessity to refer Sri Lanka to the Security Council or face a range of measures if it fails to honor its commitments to the UNHRC Resolution. Among other matters the following are worth mentioning:

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TAMILS SEEK FEDERALISM, NOT SRI LANKA’S DIVISION: WIGNESWARAN

10/09/2017

(PTI) The Tamils want their distinct identity recognised by the majority Sinhalese, the Northern Province CM says.

Sri Lanka’s Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has said the Tamil minority community’s demand for a federal solution to meet their political aspirations was not aimed at dividing the country.

“You [the South] think we [Tamils] are all terrorists. We do not want to divide this country. When we ask for federalism we are being accused of trying to divide the country,” Mr. Wigneswaran said.

He said the Tamils want their distinct identity recognised by the majority Sinhalese.

Mr. Wigneswaran made the remarks on September 9 in Kandy where he had gone to meet the Buddhist clergy to highlight the grievances faced by the Tamils. He met Mahanayake Thera of Malwatta Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala.

He said the Malwatta sect chief, one of two leading Buddhist sects, acknowledged the issues faced by the Tamils.

Mr. Wigneswaran is being seen as towing the hardline Tamil nationalism in contrast to his party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The TNA shows a conciliatory attitude towards the current government.

Tamils favoured the incumbent Maithripala Sirisena in the presidential election held in 2015 against the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the favourite among the Sinhala Buddhists.

Despite supporting Mr. Sirisena in the election, the Tamils have begun to feel uncomfortable with the slowness in reconciliatory steps taken by him.

They claimed that only symbolic steps had been taken over the last two years to address Tamils’ grievances.

The Hindu

Irony of SLFP members pulling out of Govt. over corruption

217-09-12

Last week the Daily Mirror reported that a group of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians have informed President Maithripala Sirisena that they would be leaving the government and that to discuss their next step they would soon meet Mahinda Rajapaksa, their former supremo.

According to the report, there are twelve prospective pole vaulters including Ministers Susil Premajayantha and Anura PriyadarshanaYapa and Deputy Ministers T.B. Ekanayake, Dulip Wijesekara, Nimal Lansa and Arundika Fernando.

The reason for their defection is that they have found it increasingly difficult to be in the government amid corruption allegations such as the bond scam and questionable highway projects…

The irony is not missed. They were not born yesterday. They were members of the former regime, who dared not utter a word against mega corruption that permeated the then government. They were sycophant acolytes of the Rajapaksas under whose orders they placed their signatures on a blank paper which was later annexed to the No-Confidence Motion against the then Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. They voted with both hands for the 18th Amendment, the most regressive constitutional making exercise in recent history. They were also hapless victims of an all-powerful autocrat who oversaw the concentration of power in his office and in his family at the expense of Parliament and independent institutions. The Rajapaksa regime was run by the Rajapaksas -- Basil, Gotabaya and the ministries that were under the purview of then president Rajapaksa gobbled up more than 70 per cent of the government’s budget. The others in his Cabinet did not have a voice. Their existence did not count, except, to vote and bark when they were told. There was a bit too much barking since all the poodles competed for the master’s attention. (Arundika Fernando even narrated an imaginary meeting with disappeared journalist Pragreeth Ekneligoda.) Some others volunteered to be proud nannies of the Rajapaksa scions, soon G.L. Peiris, foreign minister monopolized that, becoming nanny Peiris, while Rajapaksa sidekick Sajin Vas ran the foreign ministry and the Sri Lankan Airlines, both to the ground.

Those were of course not the best of times to fall foul of the powers that be. Former army chief, Sarath Fonseka, whom the Rajapaksas called ‘the best army commander in the world’ in his glory days learnt that in the hard way. Thus, the absence of open discontent was understandable, but, it was not just coercion and fear, there was voluntary servitude of abundance. Most members of the Rajapaksa regime were willing participants of a ritual of self-debasement. In truth, they were a sorry excuse of elected representatives and undermined the public trust in the elected office.  

Now, their crying ‘wolf’ over corruption sounds hollow, simply because they are hypocritical cants. Corruption of course is a problem in this country, however difference is that, unlike during the former regime, allegations of corruption are now being probed. Take for example the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the bond scam, of which findings have caused embarrassment to the government and cost the job of a former finance minister, who surely deserves that. The Rajapaksas would have taken the judges for a white van ride or got the MPs to sign on another blank paper for the mass dismissal of judges.  

Sri Lanka should foster and nurture those new found freedoms and judicial independence. The starting point should be acknowledging that there is a qualitative improvement. However, Sri Lanka’s habit of denouncing the entire system for rectifiable minor imperfections has often tempted the people to overlook the good side of things, which effectively created the groundswell for three insurgencies.

SLFP’s problem is two-fold: First there is virtual anarchy in the party due to the President’s failure or reluctance to put his foot firmly down. If he opts to play a J.R Jayawardene or R. Premadasa and pull strings, he could still regain authority in the party. The UNP’s deliberate delaying of investigations into the Rajapaksas is gradually taking its toll on the President and SLFP. Sooner the UNP will feel the bite.

The other is that SLFP members are already feeling disgruntled for having to play second fiddle. Though that is understandable for any political party, the SLFP has a history of doing politics at the expense of the country, a practice that dates back to its founding father S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

That habit is now making a comeback. It has so far played an obstructionist strategy on economic development. Now, its constitutional proposals smacks of the same machinations. In its proposals submitted to the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly, the SLFP has opposed the abolition of the executive presidency, which was the main election pledge of President Sirisena’s campaign. Instead, the SLFP contends: “The opinion of the SLFP is that complete abolition of the Executive Presidency, that is present today is not wise. Considering various terrorist and extremist activities that happen in various countries in the world, the SLFP believes a President should be elected directly from the public mandate with a certain amount of powers to protect the unitary status of the country and to keep and to protect the stability of the country specially in a situation where a large volume of power is granted to the Provincial Councils.”

On face value, the proposal has its own logic which cannot be dismissed. It argues for the interests of national security and political stability, which are paramount for any country, and especially for us given our social economic conditions and the recent history of separatist violence.

However, then, about the already existing constitutional provision incorporated under the 19th Amendment, which prevents the president from dissolving Parliament within the first four and half years, which has an equally significant bearing on the political stability in the country, the SLFP has a different take.

It states: “We agree to the fact that (in the 10th Paragraph) of the draft, that not to dissolve Parliament during the first four and half years of the Parliament, except for a special situation. But it should be further discussed under which circumstances Parliament can be dissolved in between that time period. However, while implementing the concept that a government made of a majority of public representatives should govern the country, the constitution should be made ensuring opportunities for the public representatives to remove a government democratically.”  

Almost all functioning electoral democracies preclude the president from arbitrarily dissolving Parliament for that itself is an impingement of the democratic rights of voters. Too many elections also distract the country from its developmental priorities. However the SLFP wants to crawl back to power by any means possible and the existing constitutional provision is a handicap. And its removal could provide an illusory hope for SLFP grassroots of the possibility of forming a SLFP government. In the same vein, it wants to empower the executive presidency, because Maithripala Sirisena is the holder of the office. Get the President to dissolve Parliament, and then run the circles around the President himself and remove the term limits of presidency and bring back the Rajapaksas, who will then release all crooks on one large presidential pardon.

SRI LANKA ARMY HOLDING ABOUT 85,000 ACRES IN NORTH AND HAS 150,000 SOLDIERS. – CM C.W. WIGNESWARAN

Image: File photo of Army in Jaffna ( credit: Sanjoy Ghosh)

11/09/2017

Alleging that the army continued to hold about 85,000 acres of land in the North, Northern Province Chief Minister has sought the intervention of most Ven. Tibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera of Malwatte Chapter to shift troops out those lands, reports The Island.

CM Wigneswaran  has told  that only about 5,000 acres had been so far released to their original owners.

Further the Chief Minister placed the strength of the army deployed in the Northern Province at 150,000. Asserting that there was no requirement to maintain such a large force in the Northern Province, Wigneswaran has called for their removal.The Mahanayake thera had told the CM to make representations to President Maithripala Sirisena as he could solve the problem.

The prelate emphasised that the army could not be removed from the Northern Province, according to the Island.

Wigneswaran has told the  Mahanayeka that there were at least 89,000 widows in the north as a result of the war. Rehabilitated LTTE cadres were unemployed as employers were reluctant to hire them.

Asked by the media for his views regarding war crimes allegations Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka recently levelled against former Army Commander General Jagath Jayasuriya, Wigneswaran had said that minister Sarath Fonseka might have had legitimate reason to make that statement. What he said might be true. The matter should be investigated, he said.

09/11 – A Historical, Ill-Fated Game Changer !

By Mohamed Harees –SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

Lukman Harees

Sixteen years ago, on that fateful day in September, most of those who watched the passenger planes crashing into the World Trade Centre twin towers and the Pentagon may not have known that the world was about to change. And it has. It became “the day that virtually changed everything”, the 21st century’s defining moment, the watershed by which we would forever divide world history: before, and after, 9/11. If the hope of a terror–free world was born in 1945, it virtually died on 9/11. From that point on, the everyday lives and daily comings and goings of not just Americans, but of all the people around the globe were forever altered by what one scholar calls a historical “game changer” akin to that of the attack on Pearl Harbour.

This attack (regardless of who planned and carried them out as there are some conspiracy theories as well!)  was indeed a despicable and a barbaric act which killed about 3000 innocent people, shattered lifestyles of millions of people, changed the way we travel, the way we are governed, and the way we view and experience life, and how governments confront the terrorist threat. The 9/11 attacks shattered more than lives and property. The attacks, and the US government’s response, also shattered the boundaries between war and peace. By definition, a “war on terror” can have no clear boundaries in time or space, and no clear boundaries between combatants and civilians. In the post-9/11 era, Americans can no longer define the battlefield or the enemy with any clarity. According to author and York University politics professor James Laxer, ‘what 9/11 did was end a brief “borderless world” of sorts that had emerged following the fall of Soviet communism and the end of the Cold War.

However, the question is being asked: which of the many changes are genuine consequences of 9/11? Although Bush Jnr. arrived in the White House in January 2001, with plans of “regime change” in the Arab-Muslim world, it could not carry out those plans without a pretext. The 9/11 attacks provided the needed pretext. Wilfried Gerhard in his book on ‘American Exceptionalism and the War in Iraq’ says, ‘Upon digging deeper it becomes evident that there was a huge effort underway to redesign not only Iraq, but the entire Arab world’. Regime change in Iraq seemed the only way out and at the same time was considered a hopeful undertaking because of the anticipated spill-over effects for the whole region’

There is thus overwhelming evidence that the US policies of pre-emptive strike and regime change started not with the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001 but with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Beneficiaries of war dividends, that is, the military-industrial-security complex, were alarmed by the demise of the Soviet Union,by the end of the “communist threat” as the ready-made justifier of continued escalation of the Pentagon budget, and by the demands for “peace dividends.” Major post-Cold War US military strategies such as regime change were formulated not after the 9/11 attacks, or under President Bush Jr., but under President Bush Sr., that is, soon after the demise of the Soviet Union. According to many critics, including some distinguished figures like Noam Chomsky,, the evidence thus clearly shows that, contrary to the popular claims, 9/11 served more as an excuse, or bogeyman, than a “trap” laid by Osama bin Laden in order to bleed and disgrace the US by prompting it to wage war and military aggression against the Arab-Muslim world.

Anatol Lieven of King’s College London’s department of war studies, says “that the Bush administration would have tried to invade and occupy Iraq anyway. Much of what has happened since would obviously have happened anyway”. The extreme anger of the Muslim world, the blow to US military prestige, the rise of Iran – all of that would have happened.” Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, feels it is questionable whether the US hawks would have won the day on Iraq without the “extreme shock” of 9/11. But he notes that much else in the broader world picture would have happened regardless.

According to Phyllis Bennis writing in Al Jazeera 10 years after the attack, it wasn’t however the crime of September 11 that threatened US’s survival, that destroyed its’ democracy, it wasn’t September 11 that expanded the devastating impact of those attacks far beyond those already directly affected. It was the events of September 12, when the Bush administration made the decision to take the world to war, that changed the world, and that continued to threaten the world’s security and shred US democracy. In the post 9/11 period, we witnessed this so-called war on terror launched by the so-called ‘holier than thou’ developed nations led by US ,turning to a war of terror. In the rush to punish terrorists, the tried and tested principles of democracy and the rule of law were thrown to the winds, and contrary to its principles, international law was used asymmetrically, to favour only dominant countries.

Bush proceeded to initiate two military invasions in which thousands of American soldiers died and probably millions of  civilians died too, without even UN approval along with his faithful ally Blair. One war, was waged in Afghanistan, and US bombed that under-developed country back to stone age. The other war was in Iraq and, as we all know, was manufactured out of lies and hubris; the Bush’ White House thus used 9/11 to advance a geopolitical chess game barely anyone else in the world wanted to join. It was a war that unprecedentedly had protesters in the streets before it had even begun, looting the national wealth of Iraq leaving a much shattered land to its’ people. Perhaps, the greatest promise made after Sept. 11 by Bush and  Blair,(to cover up their dubious military/economic plans) was that the West would no longer tolerate failed and failing states or extremism. Today ,there are more failed states than ever From Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya to Syria and extremism in all forms. The creation of that monster ISIS clothed in Islamic garb, which has become a global threat too could be traced back to the military and economic strategies of the West. 

In the post Cold War era, the world has to deal with an arrogant sole super power the US, whose sense of ‘American Exceptionalism’ has made the world a much worse place to live in, of course with the threat of consequential terrorism and their intervention in affairs of other countries in their assumed role as the ‘global policeman’. All things considered, with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States needed to rethink not only the strategy behind its foreign policy but also to consider finding a new enemy in order to justify its continuing internationalism. It is in this context that the so-called Muslim bogeyman comes into play, and US brings in the ‘Islamic threat’ into their military strategic equation, considering ‘political Islam’ as its’ prime adversary.

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US rhetoric on ‘freedom of navigation’ Sri Lanka should beware of becoming another South China Sea

USS John S. McCain  sailed within six nautical miles off Mischief Reef, part of the disputed Spratly Islands in the China sea

2017-09-11

The Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) held at Temple Trees recently, organized by the India Foundation, was billed as a gathering of IOR countries and ‘other concerned nations’ with a view to advancing ‘Peace, Progress and Prosperity” in the Indian Ocean. While this is no doubt a laudable goal, the absence of perspectives from regional players like China and Pakistan points to somewhat more partisan objectives than those advertised.  

 
The delegate described as ‘Principal, Ambassadors’ LLC Group, China’ was actually an American citizen, and while there was ambiguity as to the interests she represented it would be safe to surmise that she did not represent the People’s Republic of China. However, the US, also an external power, was represented by its Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia, Alice Wells.   
A post on the Conference’s social media page points to objectives not revealed elsewhere. It describes the gathering as being “part of India’s efforts to rejuvenate ties with IOR countries and increase its outreach in the region to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.” The IOC’s real purpose is candidly stated: “The event can be seen as an effort to counter China’s growing influence in the IOR.”   

India’s worries over China’s growing maritime footprint are shared by the US, resulting in converging interests in the IOR

India’s worries over China’s growing maritime footprint are shared by the US, resulting in converging interests in the IOR. “Given its economic downturn, the US seeks like-minded democracies in the Indo-Pacific region to balance China” says Indian Ocean researcher Lindsay Hughes. “It has strong relationships with Australia, Japan and South Korea” but “It lacks a similar partner in the eastern Indian Ocean ...” Referring to Washington’s agreement with Delhi to share military facilities and its efforts to sign an intelligence-sharing agreement as well, this analyst says that a close partnership with India “suits Washington’s strategy of passing some of the responsibility for maintaining security in the Indian Ocean Region to regional partners.”  

In view of the US’s eagerness to strengthen military ties with Sri Lanka, the question arises as to whether the US agenda of containing China has been taken on as well

Wells in her Colombo address unequivocally asserted that “the United States is and would continue to be an Indo-Pacific power.” It may be noticed that the terms ‘Indo-Pacific’ or ‘Indo-Asia Pacific,’ combining the two oceans as if they are a single entity, is increasingly used now by American officials. The terminology may be intended to make the increasing US assertiveness in the IOR seem ‘normal’ although the US lacks presence in the Indian Ocean comparable to its massive build-up in the Pacific theatre. The US’s deepening ties with the Sri Lanka Navy in recent times are also worth noting in this context. At the conference, Alice Wells announced the first ever US-Sri Lanka naval exercise to be carried out in October (in Trincomalee, and to be conducted by the US’s Seventh Fleet according to reports).   

The US has increasingly referred to ‘Freedom of Navigation and Over flight’ in its rhetoric, seeking to enlist the support of partners in its enforcement. While in her speech Wells called on others to “adhere to a common vision that respected international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention,” it is ironic that the US itself has not acceded to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). All the same the US has been in the habit of challenging other states when they act in ways that the US believes pose a threat to ‘freedom of navigation,’ by sending its warships into the waters concerned. These ‘Freedom of Navigation (FON) assertions by the US have dangerously racked up tensions with China in the South China Sea. In the latest incident reported last month, that the USS John S. McCain sailed within 12 nautical miles (the internationally recognized territorial limit) of Mischief Reef in the Spratly islands, causing Beijing to express displeasure over what it called an act of provocation. The incident took place in disputed waters where China’s claims are contested by neighbours. The volatility of the situation is compounded by the fact that this was a time when China’s help was being sought to defuse tensions with North Korea over its missile tests.

In an incident reported last month, USS John S. McCain sailed within 12 nautical miles (the internationally recognized territorial limit) of Mischief Reef in the Spratly islands, causing Beijing to express displeasure over what it called an act of provocation

 
Armitai Etzioni of The George Washington University, Washington DC says the US is acting, as it is often accused, as the world’s policeman. “ .. as far as FONA (Freedom of Navigation Assertions) is concerned, the United States decides on its own which new restrictions introduced by any nation in the world are ‘‘excessive,” and what it considers the correct interpretation of international law and UNCLOS” he said in a 2015 paper. “And it unilaterally applies its military force ..... to enforce the rules. In short, in these matters the United States acts as accuser, judge, jury, and executioner.” Etzioni warns that these types of actions add a security risk “as they can quite readily escalate into dangerous clashes between the forces of the super powers.”  

It is in this context of ambiguity as to the motives of various parties, that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe pledged at the IOC that Sri Lanka would take the lead in initiating a discussion “to deliberate on a stable legal order on freedom of navigation and over flight in the Indian Ocean.” In view of the US’s eagerness to strengthen military ties with Sri Lanka, the question arises as to whether the US agenda of containing China has been taken on as well. The language used by India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, by comparison, was more circumspect, and did not refer to ‘freedom of navigation’ but rather President Modi’s vision of ‘Security and Growth for All in the Region’ (SAGAR). Given the prevailing tensions in the IOR Sri Lanka will need to beware of being used as the cat’s paw of any big power in its games of brinkmanship – it does not need to become another South China Sea!  

Asked to comment, Palitha Kohona, former head of the UN Treaty Section in New York expressed the view that Sri Lanka must again take a high profile position in discussions relating to the oceans and the blue economy. Dr. Kohona was also Chair of the UN Sixth Committee (Legal), Chair of the UN Committee on Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction and Chair of the Indian Ocean Committee. He made this assertion “given that Sri Lanka, with its 200-mile EEZ and potentially vast continental shelf would increasingly turn to the ocean for its future prosperity (fisheries, petroleum and mineral extraction, environmental protection, including coral reefs, dolphins and whales, migratory fish species, tourism, etc).” On an optimistic note he added that Sri Lanka’s input will be respected “where the Convention on the Law of the Sea needs further elaboration or clarification, including in the formulation of codes.”   

“Of course, like many rules of international law, the provisions of the LOSC also tend to be interpreted to suit the convenience of those relying on them. Some major powers are not parties to the LOSC but subscribe to its provisions as reflecting customary international law - the US, Turkey and Venezuela among them” he said.    

Sri Lanka: Danger of Closed Economy: Lesson learned from Pre-1977

by Elmo de Silva-Sep 10, 2017

( September 10, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This article is composed from what the writer could recollect when functioning as the Deputy Controller Imports and Exports during the pre-1977 period. It is intended to draw attention to the negative effects of a closed Economy which we may be heading for. The need to have a strategy to balance between liberalisation and control, with adjustments from time to time, and close monitoring, has to be recognized.

Sri Lanka Danger of Closed Economy Lesson learned from Pre-1977.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd