It's a low, ceaseless droning of unclear origin that rolls imperceptibly beneath our feet, impossible to hear with human ears. A researcher once described it to HuffPost as the sound of static on an old TV, slowed down 10,000 times.
It's comforting to think of Earth as solid and immovable, but that's false. The world is vibrating, stretching and compressing. We're shaking right along with it.
“The earth is ringing like a bell all the time,” said Spahr Webb, a seismologist at Columbia University.
The hum is everywhere. Its ultralow frequencies have been recorded in Antarctica and Algeria, and — as announced this week by the American Geophysical Union — on the floor of the Indian Ocean.
We still don't know what causes it. Some have theorized that it's the echo of colliding ocean waves, or the movements of the atmosphere, or vibrations born of sea and sky alike.
But if we could hear this music more clearly, scientists around the world say, it could reveal deep secrets about the earth beneath us, or even teach us to map out alien planets.
And the hum is getting clearer all the time.
Earth vibrates at different frequencies and amplitudes, for different reasons, and not all those vibrations are the 'hum'. Earthquakes are like huge gong bangs. When an enormous quake hit Japan in 2011, Webb said, the globe kept ringing for a month afterward. People sitting on the other side of the world bounced up and down about a centimeter, though so slowly they didn't feel a thing.
In 1998, a team of researchers analyzed data from a gravimeter in east Antarctica and realized that some of these vibrations never actually stop.
“They discovered features in the data that suggested . . . continuous signals,” a University of California at Santa Barbara researcher recounted in 2001. These seismic waves ranged from 2 to 7 millihertz — thousands of times lower than the human hearing range — and continued endlessly, regardless of earthquakes.
The phenomenon became popularly known as the “hum of the Earth.”
Webb was one of many researchers who searched for the hum's cause in the 21st century. Some thought interactions between the atmosphere and solid ground caused the shaking, though he discounts the idea.
Rather, Webb said, most recent research suggests the primary cause is ocean waves — “banging on the sea floor pretty much all the way around the Earth.”
Sometimes waves sloshing in opposite directions intersect, sending vibrations deep down into Earth's crust. Sometimes a wave on a shallow coast somewhere ripples over the rough sea floor and adds its own frequencies to the hum.
“I think our result is an important step in the transformation of mysterious noise into an understood signal,” an oceanographer with the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea told Live Science after publishing a 2015 paper detailing the ocean wave theories.
Whatever the origin, the result is a harmony of ultralow frequencies that resonate almost identically all over the globe — and that's potentially invaluable to those who want to know what goes on beneath its surface, where the core spins and tectonic plates shift.
Scientists already measure how fast earthquake waves travel through different regions of the underground to make detailed subterranean maps.
But earthquakes come randomly and briefly, like flashes of lightning on a dark night. A constant, uniform vibration could act like a floodlight into the underworld.
Some researchers believe the hum extends all the way down to the Earth's core, and some have even fantasized about using hums on other planets to map out alien geography.
And yet we're still only beginning to understand our planet's hum. And scientists have been limited for years because they only knew how to measure it from land, while nearly three-quarters of the globe is underwater.
That's where a team led by French researchers comes in, as described in a paper published last month in the American Geophysical Union's journal.
The scientists collected data from seismometer stations that had been placed in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar several years ago. These stations were meant to study volcanic hot spots — nothing to do with the hum — but the team worked out a method to clean the data of ocean currents, waves, glitches and other noise.
They “were able to reduce the noise level to approximately the same level as a quiet land station,” the Geophysical Union said in an accompanying article.
And when they were done, they were left with the first-ever underwater recording of the hum.
It peaked between 2.9 and 4.5 millihertz, they said — a tighter range than the first hum researchers in the 1990s had recorded. It was also similar to measurements taken from a land-based station in Algeria.
So — more evidence that the hum goes all the way around the world; and more hope that we may one day reveal all that goes on beneath it.
Asthma symptoms can be brought on by exercise in elite athletes
8 December 2017
Professional footballers should be screened for exercise-induced asthma, researchers say, after a study found three in 10 could be affected.
University of Kent scientists used lung tests to identify players with symptoms and improved their fitness after treatment.
Elite athletes are known to be prone to asthma-related problems because of their high-intensity breathing.
Experts said screening made sense and could prevent later problems.
In the study, presented at a meeting of the British Thoracic Society, 97 footballers in England from two Premier League clubs, one Championship club and a League One club had their lung health tested during pre-season.
Coughing and wheezing
Twenty-seven players tested positive for airway or breathing problems, also known as exercise-induced asthma.
Ten of those had no previous history of asthma or airway problems.
When they were treated with appropriate medication, their symptoms - such as tightness of the chest, wheezing and coughing after playing - reduced, and their lung function improved over time.
The researchers also found that their aerobic fitness and performance on the pitch improved.
Airway problems can be treated using lung health screening, experts say
Dr John Dickinson, from the school of sport and exercise science at the University of Kent, said although top football clubs were good at screening players for heart problems, they were not carrying out tests which could identify respiratory problems - which were much more common.
"Clubs can't rely on players reporting symptoms because they are not always that obvious and sometimes they are written off as poor fitness," he said.
The researchers used medical tests to assess the footballers' breathing, airway function and how efficiently they could empty their lungs.
They were then able to detect asthma-related symptoms accurately and tailor treatment for those affected.
Improving the health of footballers' airways also has other benefits, Dr Dickinson said.
"They are less likely to pick up coughs and colds." What is asthma?
It is a common lung condition caused by inflammation or swelling of the breathing tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs
It can cause wheezing, breathlessness, a tight chest and coughing
This can occur after exposure to a trigger, such as allergens (pollens, animal fur and house dust), cigarette smoke, gases, cold air, exercise and chest infections
Asthma can affect people of all ages and the severity of the symptoms varies from person to person
Exercise-induced asthma only happens during or after exercise
High rates of exercise-induced asthma have been found in other sports among elite athletes.
Experts believe it may be connected to athletes exercising regularly at high intensity which means their breathing rates are also high
When the air is cold and dry, and if there is exposure to air pollution or other allergens like pollen, this could worsen symptoms - but more research is needed to confirm this.
Dr Lisa Davies, consultant respiratory physician and chairwoman of the British Thoracic Society's board of trustees, said lungs were pivotal to exercise and life in general.
"In key sports, where the lungs are worked hard and are prone to repeat exposure to different and challenging internal and external conditions - it really makes sense to have lung health screening, so if there are any airway problems they can be treated."
The legendary Nelson Mandela whose fourth death anniversary was commemorated on Tuesday, has said, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Eleanor Roosevelt wife of the long serving United States President Franklin Roosevelt and described as the First Lady of the world played a key role in formulating the Universal Declaration of Human rights. She has said, “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he or she lives in; the school or college he or she attends; the factory, farm, or office where he or she works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
With such lofty visions in our minds the world tomorrow observes Human Rights Day with a year-long campaign being launched to mark the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being -- regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. It is the most translated document in the world and available in more than 500 languages.
Drafted by representatives of diverse legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration sets out universal values and a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. It establishes the equal dignity and worth of every person. Thanks to the Declaration, and States’ commitments to its principles, the dignity of millions has been uplifted and the foundation for a more just world has been laid. While its promise is yet to be fully realized, the very fact that it has stood the test of time is testament to the enduring universality of its perennial values of equality, justice and human dignity, the UN says.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights empowers us all. The principles enshrined in the Declaration are as relevant today as they were in 1948. We need to stand up for our own rights and those of others. We can take action in our own daily lives, to uphold the rights that protect us all and thereby promote the kinship of all human beings.
Unfortunately, though the then the US first lady and others played a key role in formulating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we see the present US President Donald Trump -- widely seen as dangerously unpredictable and inconsistent -- blatantly violating human rights. On Monday, arrogantly proclaiming that, “I have delivered” he violated the rights of millions of Palestinians and other Muslims by declaring that the US was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. With the whole Arab world including the close US ally Saudi Arabia speaking out against it, analysts wonder whether it could lead to something worse than the 1967 Middle East war. Mr. Trump has also got the approval of a Conservative Supreme Court for his ban on the entry of people from six Muslim-majority countries.
In Sri Lanka it is widely agreed that the human rights situation is much better than it was before January 8, 2015 but the independent Human Rights Commission appointed by the Constitutional Council on the recommendation of the President needs to be given much more power to act as it did in the recent case of the sacking of a Grade-10 Kekirawa schoolgirl. She was sacked on the false belief that she was pregnant after she vomited in school, though the real reason was that her parents had no money to give her breakfast.
As former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt says, “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.”
I find controversies have arisen due to my identifying Devanainampiya Theesan (Devanampiya Tissa) as a Tamil King. Let me briefly give my reasons for my conclusion. I use “Devanampiya Tissa” for easy understanding by the readers.
1. Sinhala as a language came into being after 6th Century AD. (Refer to Sigiriya graffiti). Devanampiya Tissa lived from 307 BC to 267 BC. His father was Mootha Sivan. Devanampiya Tissa lived about 800 years before the birth of the Sinhala language. Sinhalese are those who speak the Sinhala language. The Mahawansa refers to two Temples that existed over 100 years before Devanampiya Tissa. Professor Paranavitharana has identified one of the Temples as a Sivan Temple and the other as the living quarters of Brahmins. Thus even though Buddhism was introduced during the reign of Devanampiya Tissa the language in use at that time was a Dravidian language and certainly not Sinhala language. At least Devanampiya Tissa was a Demala Baudhaya!
The Sinhala language came about essentially on account of the influence Pali and Prakrit words had on the local Dravidian language.Such effects of Prakrit on the original Dravidian Tamil language produced Kannada after 5th Century AD, Telungu in the 6th Century AD; and Malayalam in the 8thand 9th Century AD. Even the Sangam Tamil underwent certain changes since 6th Century AD. The influence of Pali in the formation of the Sinhala language was considerable while it was the influence of Prakrit which produced Kannada, Telungu and Malayalam. Thanks to Professor Malalasekera and others Sinhala language today has Sinhalacised lots of Hindi words in order to make their glossary adequate to deal with the changing world scenario.
The use of certain words during Asoka’s time does not make those words Sinhala words. It only meant Tissa in Prakrit and Thisai in Tamil were used at that time. Sinhala language came centuries later.
2. The archaeological investigations that have taken place after 1970 have brought out the fact that the race, language, writing, religious beliefs and rituals, cultural history of the early people of Sri Lanka were similar to the South Indian cultural ambience of that era. Professor Sudershan Seneviratne has referred to the close resemblance between the Early Iron Age civilisation of South India and the early Sri Lankan civilisation. Kennedy refers to the people of that time as belonging to the same human species’ group. In 1999 certain Coins were excavated at Akkurugoda. Professor Iravatham Mahathevan has placed their time as before 2200 years. Professors Osmund Bope Arachchi and Raja Wickremasinghe have pointed out the “in” or “na’ sound as suffix to the names mentioned in the Coins which is peculiar to Tamil language. I am Wigneswaran. The name ends with “in” or “na”. This is peculiar to Tamil names. Some names on the Coins were Uthiran, Mahasaathan and Tisapura sada Nagarasan. It is significant that Mahawansa says Dutugemunu had to win over 32 Petty Tamil Kings in the South before meeting Ellalan in Anuradhapura.Thus Tamils and their language existed 2200 years ago even in the deep South of Sri Lanka. Hence King Devanampiya Tissa could by no stretch of imagination be called Sinhala speaking. There were no Sinhalese at that time nor Sinhala language. 3. At the time Buddhism was introduced into Sri Lanka in the 3rd Century BC, Prakrit and Pali were also introduced. Prakrit was the vernacular language used while Pali was scriptural. Such introduction took place in many countries where Buddhism was introduced in South Asia. While Prakrit was found in inscriptions elsewhere until about 5th Century AD, in Tamil Nadu the language used was essentially Tamil though the influence of Prakrit was at times seen. The unique literature of the Tamils flourished during this time around the birth of the Christian era. The Sangam literature is an example. The Purananooru refers to Poothan Thevanaar of Eelam, which meant Tamil poets from Sri Lanka too contributed to the literature of the Tamils at that stage. Thus Tamilian poets were existent around that period in the North – Eastern Sri Lanka. So were Tamil Kings. Thus it is no wonder that Devanampiya Tissa was a Tamil. 4. The name Theesaan was used not only in respect of Devanampiya Tissa but also with regard to many other kings. The word comes from the Tamil word Thisai – which means direction. One who ruled the area in a particular thisai or direction is what it meant. 5. Mahavansa never referred to any Sinhala King who ruled Anuradhapura. But it referred to Tamil Kings.
Professors Saddhamangala Karunaratna and Ariya Abeysinghe have concluded that even before writings from King Asoka’s period were introduced into this Island the mode of writing from South India had already been introduced here.
Early humans formed themselves into small groups so as to make it easier to hunt animals and secure other food more effectively. Such groups, by virtue of their necessity-enforced unity, were also usually strong enough to resist intrusions into their territories by rival groups. For more effective cooperative action, it became necessary for the members of a group to agree on simple rules of conduct to help avoid friction among themselves. The more experienced and skilled hunters led their hunting expeditions, whilst those possessing less physical endurance attended to less onerous tasks closer to their settlements. Similar arrangements and understandings, covering most of their interactions with one another, although not written down, were undoubtedly the earliest forerunners of the increasingly sophisticated, written Constitutions that have been developed over many millennia by every kind of society.
The key feature of early Constitution-making exercises would almost certainly have been to empower each member of the group concerned, probably after they reach a certain level of maturity, with an equal say in the decision-making process - until, perhaps, witch-doctors and priests appeared on the scene, like present-day politicians, and began to distort the genuinely democratic way in which the early rules were agreed.
Today, a good Constitution must, above all, maintain the equality of each citizen’s right to have his say in what should be included or excluded from their Constitution. There should be no room for individual citizens to be coerced into surrendering passively their sovereign power to any self-appointed, highly-vocal group with its own avaricious agenda. However, on account of the sheer impracticability of getting every citizen to convey their views to every other citizen, societies have learnt to delegate most of their rights and responsibilities to elected people’s representatives, but generally with some safeguards to ensure that these representatives do not take the people for a ride by robbing the community for their own benefit, and those of their kith and kin, friends and supporters.
So far as Sri Lanka is concerned, the 1972 and the 1978 Constitutions were, for all practical purposes, formulated by a few powerful people. The general public had no say in the matter, in strong contrast to what happens in better democracies, where all matters of constitutional importance are presented to the people over months or even years through the media so that voters may themselves evaluate the merits and or drawbacks of every proposal put forward, and cast their ballot accordingly. In particular, TV discussions concerning the pros and cons of important issues are programmed for peak viewing hours, leaving other programs to be broadcast before or later. In stark contrast, most of our televised political programs are timed for the early morning hours when the vast majority of people are rushing through their morning chores so as to get to work on time, or at such a late hour that it is only those who do not have to rise early that can spend their late evening hours listening to political debates. Self-evidently, the government is duty-bound to make acceptable arrangements to keep the public thoroughly informed on issues of national importance by allocating, say, 20-30 minutes a day during peak hours on all TV channels for the dissemination of diverse views on such issues.
For months, we have been inundated by an unending flow of ill-motivated statements by those who accuse the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe government of having surreptitiously finalised an unwelcome Constitution that will be imposed on the people of Sri Lanka. Whereas the Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance (CIMOGG) has been unremittingly critical of the current regime’s failure to honour several key promises made by it in its early days, it does not agree with the flood of blatant untruths against the government that are clearly designed to mislead the people in this regard by wrongfully attacking the efforts being made to replace the poor 1978 Constitution with a better one.
It is common knowledge that the Public Representations Committee for Constitutional Reform (PRCCR) collected the views of as many citizens and citizens’ groups as it could during the year or so that it was given to do so. Thereafter, the PRCCR had dutifully summarised the views collected by it and the resulting report was passed on to six or so sub-committees in Parliament for review and elaboration. The reports of these sub-committees were then studied and refined by the so-called Steering Committee, which then published its report for public comment. Hence, at this moment, all we have is the report of the Steering Committee – without even an outline draft of a new Constitution - for the public to study and review critically. Patently, there are several more stages of work left to be completed before a new Constitution could be developed to the point where it could effectively replace the 1978 Constitution - which, incidentally, has been reviled by so many over the years but is now being lovingly embraced by countless hypocrites making their voices hoarse shouting how perfect President J.R.Jayewardene’s opus is and that it does not need any change at all!
CIMOGG is of the firm view that the current Constitution lacks the structure and the features that would help Sri Lanka to become a united, progressive, prosperous and much less corrupt country than it is. On the other hand, there are perfectly honest and independent citizens who consider that, with a few amendments, the present Constitution could be improved sufficiently to obviate the need for a significantly improved new version. For example, the abolition of the Executive Presidency alone would satisfy some citizens. There are others who would like to change the electoral process to (a) make each people’s representative answerable to a particular constituency, (b) increase the proportion of women to reflect more accurately their numbers in the general population, (c) reduce the number of people’s representatives because there a far too many of them, (d) have a senate, and so on.
The question of whether Sri Lanka should be described as unitary, united or federal has become of paramount importance to constitutional experts and a number of citizens’ groups. Frankly, we are of the view that those parties which fear the word "unitary" should just cease to oppose its use after seeing what has happened in the UK, which is supposed to be a unitary entity, where this provision has not prevented a great measure of independence being extracted by Scotland and Northern Ireland by applying the right kind of peaceful pressure, short of a total parting of the ways.
CIMOGG has no doubt that the highly excessive emphasis on religion, race and language in writing our Constitution or legislative enactments is totally counter-productive when it comes to uniting all the peoples of Sri Lanka to think of themselves first as Sri Lankans. We maintain that the Sri Lankan Constitution should be so formulated that, except in connection with use of the three principal languages for communication, education and administration, there should no references to specific races, religions or languages.
We may also usefully look at a few other criteria to which every provision of the Constitution should conform if it is to help produce a society where even a distinct group of only a few citizens could hope to enjoy equal freedom, equal opportunities and an equitable share of the nation’s resources.
The terms "Sinhala", "Tamil" and "English" should refer solely to their function as means of communication and not have any associated privileges or disadvantages. Every child should be educated in its mother tongue and English, and be given a good grounding in Information Technology (IT) so that it could communicate freely with other citizens elsewhere in the country or those in the outside world. Sinhala and Tamil children and adults could, and will, communicate with each other once they get familiar with the basics of English and IT.
Religions should be left to be followed and fostered by their respective adherents just as much as each social or other group should look after it own interests without violating the rights of citizens belonging to other groups.
It is of paramount importance that there should be maximum separation of powers with well defined rules governing the interaction between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Without this, corruption cannot be contained nor justice delivered.
If the above basics are addressed, the rest of Constitution-making would become much easier.
(The writer is President of CIMOGG – Citizens’ Movement of Good Governance and may be reached at www.cimogg-srilanka.org or acvisva@gmail.com)
A correspondent for the Lankadeepa newspaper has lodged a complaint at the Moratuwa Police that she was allegedly obstructed from carrying out her duties by police and court officials when she went to report on the escape of a prisoner from the holding cell of the Moratuwa Magistrate’s Court.
Reka Tharangani Fonseka in her complaint said that she had gone to the premises of the Moratuwa Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after getting to know that a prisoner had escaped through the roof of the court’s holding cell. When she had arrived at the court premises, police officers who were on duty had implored her not to report the incident. The journalist had explained that it was her duty to report and asked them not to obstruct her in carrying out her duties.
At this point, one of the policemen had allegedly abused her in foul language and had grabbed her mobile phone. He had then attempted to seize her camera but was prevented by some lawyers who were present.
Police officers had then insisted that she delete all photographs she had taken at the court premises and threatened her that she would be taken before the magistrate and punished if she did not do so. Moratuwa Police Officer In Charge Jayashantha Silva said that an inquiry was underway into the complaint lodged by the journalist. He added that the Registrar of the Courts too had lodged a complaint that pictures had been taken within the premises.
Meanwhile the suspect who escaped from custody still remains missing. He had been produced in court over a narcotics case. The Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Union (FMETU) has strongly condemned the incident.
By Manekshaw-2017-12-09
I would rather obey a fine lion, much stronger than two hundred rats of my own species Voltaire
Turbulent weather prevailed in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in the past two weeks with the Department of Meteorology alerting the people in the two Provinces of a stormy atmosphere.
Special meetings were also held by the Government officials to discuss on the precautionary measures to be taken to deal with cyclone 'Ockhi' which had passed through areas covering the Southern part of South India and creating an inclement weather condition in the coastal areas of the Northern and Eastern Provinces in the Island.
However, cyclone 'Ockhi' had hardly done any damage in the two Provinces when it passed through the Bay of Bengal. Whereas the 'cyclonic' atmosphere prevailed in the North and the East, the Tamil political scene, in the past few weeks, has shaken the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), with gaps appearing in its unity.
The TNA which was formed in October 2001, is the second Tamil political alliance to be formed after the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) which was formed with the coalition of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) led by late S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) led by late G.G. Ponnampalam, the grandfather of Tamil National People's Front Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam.
The TULF which was formed in 1976 with the Vaddukoddai resolution calling for a separate Tamil State Tamil Eelam remained a formidable force in Tamil politics until the Tamil militants took the upper hand in the mid-eighties.
When the Tamil militants were active with their bases in India former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanithi took the initiative to bring the unity among the Lankan Tamil militants and an alliance was formed with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS) and Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) with the blessing of Karunanidhi.
It was within a period of one year, the coalition of five Tamil militants which was known as Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF) started in the early part of 1984 began to breakup with LTTE for its supremacy spearheaded a ruthless manhunt annihilating the cadres of rival militant outfits.
Therefore, it is evident whether among the Tamil moderates or the militants there was hardly any coalition or alliance that remained stable in the Tamil political scene.
TNA walks out criticizing ITAK
The EPRLF which remained as one of the four constituent parties in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has walked out criticizing the ITAK which remains the major political organ in the alliance with eleven out of sixteen seats in the alliance not being accommodative of other constituent parties.
The latest situation is that another constituent party in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) announcing a few days ago that it was not in a position to work with the ITAK in the alliance anymore.
However, the ITAK Parliamentarians, Mavai S. Senathirajah and M. A. Sumanthiran being confident of preventing further splits appearing in the alliance, the TNA Leader R. Sampanthan has announced that the present crisis situation in the TNA would be sorted out before the nominations are submitted for the forthcoming Local Government polls.
In the backdrop of EPRLF and TELO being in conflict with the TNA a new coalition has emerged with veteran Tamil politician and Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Leader V. Anandasangaree who had entered Parliament accommodating the EPRLF leader Suresh K. Premachandran.
Anandasangaree and Premachandran announcing their new coalition has even reached an agreement to contest the forthcoming LG polls under the TULF symbol 'Rising Sun'.
Premachandran was critical of the TNA leadership from the time he had lost his seat in the Parliamentary polls in 2015.
He, with the coordination of Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam had even created the Tamil People's Council (TPC) a year ago with the blessing of the Northern Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran and other civil society elites in Jaffna.
The TPC was even considered to emerge as a political front challenging the TNA.
However, Premachnadran's new coalition with TULF leader V. Anandasangaree has angered TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam who has been a critic of the TULF leader.
As far as the present situation in the TNA is concerned with EPRLF and TELO threatening to walk out from the alliance, the ITAK which remains as a formidable political party with eleven out of sixteen seats of the TNA in Parliament and with 33 seats in the Local Government bodies in the North and the East, constituent parties cannot be a threat at all for the ITAK which has very well rooted deep in the political scene in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Therefore, in a post-war atmosphere with the failures of the Tamil moderates and the hardliners in the past, it could be very well realized that the new development appearing in the Tamil political scene is making the people in the North and the East to cultivate thinking as it was told by Voltaire: "I would rather obey a fine lion, much stronger than two hundred rats of my own species".
[Part 1 of this series was published on December 8, 2017] III – Legacies of British Colonialism Conducing to our Constitutional Crisis
When the first colonizers, the Portuguese, arrived in the island around the year 1500, it was ruled in three separate kingdoms: the northern kingdom (the most powerful of the three), the Kandyan kingdom in the hills and the Sinhala kingdom in the south. If Lanka had not gone under colonial rule at all, we would have faced the modern age with three separate kingdoms. Being a small island, and given the improved transportation, trade and communications of the modern era, there is little doubt that the three kingdoms would have come together to be ruled as one. However, this would have been achieved through voluntary agreement, under specified rules (a constitution), with equal rights for all parties, under an arrangement whereby one could not rule over the other without its consent. This starting point would have obviated the danger we now face, of the state being ‘owned’/controlled by one community only, while another seeks federalism or self-determination even after 70 years’ of independence.
This predicament has been made possible by the British adopting three steps that have led to the current outcome. The first is the British decision to rule Ceylon as a separate unit, separate from India. This need not necessarily have been the case. In fact, Ceylon was ruled for some years by the Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu) as part of British India. The decision to rule Ceylon separately from India was made around 1805 for a colonial tax reason and not because the British felt that Ceylon was a separate nation with a special race or religion. If not for that British colonial decision, we would have got independence as part of India, such that our regional language would have been Tamil (instead of Sinhala Only), and our national language would have been Hindi! Thus ‘Ceylon’, as separate from India in the modern age, was purely a British colonial construct, forged only for reasons of colonial convenience. It is well known that the Sinhalese had a glorious civilization for many centuries; but it is also known that the Tamils of the north have not been ruled by the Sinhalese from the 11th century onwards: that is for over 1000 years – until now, because our current constitution almost guarantees it.
The second determining colonial factor is that when the British or French gave their colonies independence, they imagined or pretended that their colonial territories with their existing boundaries constituted true ‘nation states’. The absurdity of this notion is seen in Africa, where different tribes and nations have to contort and convolute themselves to fit into the geometrical shapes of their so-called nation states. Closer to home, the boundaries of Myanmar include the Shaan and Karen ‘states’ which are still fighting (after 70 years) for their independence. In Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese and Tamils have been locked together in one state. While we are lucky not to be locked up together with South India, this is an accident of colonial history and not a God-given right for the Sinhalese to rule the other communities according to the Mahavamsa’s communal fancies. This conceptual and constitutional decision of the British to treat Ceylon as one ‘nation’ resulted in the provision of a unitary constitution based on their Westminster model. This has given the Sinhala Parliamentary majority the power to change the nature of the state from a secular state to one that identifies itself with one race and religion – which is not what was agreed at independence.
The above colonial boundaries can, moreover, yield perverse results when exposed to so-called ‘democracy’. For example, would any Sri Lankan (Sinhalese or Tamil) accept the outcome of ‘democratic elections’ if the colonial boundaries included Sri Lanka as part of the Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu), as it was at one time? Thus elections within arbitrary colonial boundaries often result in a meaningless counting of heads within meaningless boundaries, whose outcome could be undemocratic or even dangerous, as in Rwanda, Burundi or Mali.
This danger is exacerbated by communal, ‘nationalistic’ developments in the ex-colonial territories. After years of suppression under colonial rule, many racial/religious/ communities/ nations feel a natural resurgence of their race, language or religion. This has resulted in elections being run along racial, religious or language lines (as in Sri Lanka) rather than along secular, policy lines. This in turn has had the result of particular ethnic or religious majority seizing the entire powers of the state through the vote: a conquest by the ballot and not by the bullet. In these circumstances, why even have elections now, since the communal majority was determined when the British or French drew up their colonial territorial boundaries some 200-400 years ago? This together with the British-type unitary constitution and Parliamentary sovereignty has empowered the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists to run away with the state, the same one that the Tamils and Muslims call their own.
Obviously, neither all Sinhalese nor all Tamils vote as one block for communal benefit. There are well known divisions of class, caste and creed within the Sinhala majority as well as among the Tamils. However, when it comes to macro politics and national elections the Sinhalese, like the Tamils, vote (overall) communally for the party that offers the most in terms of Sinhalese or Tamil rights. All past elections since 1956 have shown this to be true. Although the Tigers like the JVP started with perceived discrimination based on caste and class, while election to a particular seat may be determined by caste, it is disingenuous to pretend that the main factor determining our General Election outcomes (in a total sense) or the ‘civil war’[1] was based either on class or caste.
The Tamils too are not blameless in bringing about this bitterness between our communities. For it is their acquiescence in the Tigers assuming leadership of their community that led to years of ‘civil war’. Moreover, for argument’s sake, let us assume the opposite. If by some chance, the Tamils had the majority that the Sinhalese now have, they would probably have done the same. Hence, this is not a communal problem but a constitutional one: one that can only be solved by a sharing of power.
Or as a colleague from the United Nations recently quipped, more like front-door issues. The new UN Secretary General António Guterres is an engineer and academic. The second helps him understand complexity. The first makes him want to fix things. It’s a good combination. For the first time in many years, the UN is under-going a comprehensive, systemic reboot. It will take many years and will invariably frustrate even the best laid plans, but the optimism around revamping the institution is palpable. The thrust is twofold - one, to make the UN system better able to understand and respond to contemporary challenges; two, to inject institutional agility to a degree that enables the UN system proactively deal with contours of conflict, instability and disparities in the years to come. Combined with this is a desire to better understand the opportunities that new technologies bring to the mandates of UN agencies and departments.
I’ve had this in mind over the past two weeks, which have been unusually hectic. Over the previous weekend, I moderated a discussion on the future of digital conversations in Sri Lanka, looking at how new technologies are changing the way society sees and organises itself, and as a consequence, the political fabric of the country. I spoke on a UNESCO organised panel on fighting impunity against journalists in Sri Lanka, which also flagged how digital surveillance impacts the freedom of expression. I have on three occasions and in very different fora, including with diplomats based in Colombo, dealt with the growing challenges faced by Maldivian activists and independent journalists in their country and the need to create virtual networks of solidarity and content sharing resilient enough to withstand infiltration, disruption or systemic corruption. I’ve meet with several leading agencies in the United Nations system in New York and Geneva, including individuals at the cutting-edge of thinking around issues like Big Data, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, predictive analytics, data visualisation, ethics, data governance, human rights, change management and future scenario development. In an hour-long interaction with the Build Peace Summit held in Bogota, Colombia over Skype video, I dealt with how new technologies and social media, including the so-called ‘fake news’ phenomenon, will deeply impact peace negotiations, especially in the future.
Two things are worth noting. It’s when you leave Sri Lanka that you realise what a small island we are, and how what we are so completely consumed by when in the country, pales into insignificance when travelling outside of it. On the other hand, what we have endured in Sri Lanka and continue to live with is also ahead of the curve in many domains. What the West now considers a threat to democracy and electoral processes – fake news – is the same propaganda on steroids that we have suffered under for many years, under successive governments. What we did around the creation of sophisticated and secure digital communications networks to combat violence, illiberal governance and authoritarian rule are now templates for others, around the world, to follow and learn from. The innovation as a consequence of necessity, the resilience as a consequence of adversity, the challenges as a consequence of corruption, systemic failure of government and bureaucratic dysfunctionality – these are all things we are used to and take in our stride. Our insights now have trans-national value and application.
Which brings me to the UN Secretary General’s interest in what he terms ‘frontier issues’ – things that will define the operational context for the UN in the years to come, as both threats and opportunities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) features heavily in these discussions and at first glance, isn’t all that relevant in Sri Lanka. But take how 18-34-year olds in our country engage with the world and consume news and information. Anyone with a Google or Facebook account linked to their smartphone now can automatically get context-aware, location-sensitive, individually tailored messages in a timely manner – ranging from reminders to travel times, incorporating traffic congestion. AI already helps power rapid fire responses to emails and instant messages, based on their actual content. We all inhabit invisible cocoons that are generated by algorithms that now monitor and track our every mouse-click, glance and thumb press and swipe. Almost every aspect of our lives – actively generated or passively captured - now generates raw data, which is aggregated, commodified and sold to bidders which include governments. That can and does lead to more effective and efficient governance. It can also contribute directly to a degree of authoritarianism that binds those under it to a surveillance so pervasive, even opting out by disconnecting completely from everything would mark them out as miscreants. In a short span of time, what we see as photos, what we hear as sound, and what we consume as moving visuals can and will all be digitally manipulated in real time, in a manner indistinguishable to the human eye and comprehension. Imagine this future, with the sophisticated misinformation campaigns already conducted over social media in Sri Lanka using news feeds and social media accounts to mobilise a young demographic to rally, vote or violently react against something. And yet, there is rich opportunity here as well, to use the same algorithms to strengthen, secure and sustain dignity, diversity and democracy. The question is whether government and civil society are aware of what these opportunities are, and how to leverage them.
What binds the new UN Secretary General’s vision for a revamped UN with the discussions I’ve had with so many is, in the main, a global as well as local trust deficit around institutions, which are failing citizens. The resulting void is filled by commercial entities and solutions that often make us products, stripping us of basic rights even as we enjoy the convenience of technologies that respond to the way we live, think and work. There is no easy technocratic solution to what is essentially a growing democratic deficit, even in peacetime. Disenchantment with and distrust of political institutions continues even under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. Promises made in international fora, the 2025 economic vision, the technocratic bias – these only appeal to and stick mostly with those who are already benefitting from an architecture that alienates the vulnerable, the traditional farmer, the soldier, the ex-combatant, pockets of extreme poverty in the South, and entire communities in the North. How can AI help governments comprehend what they aren’t plugged into or cognisant of? How can citizen generated data like mobile reloads help us understand the impact of socio-economic policies? What impact does misinformation have on socio-economic progress, if left unchecked and allowed to grow amongst a population who cannot distinguish between fact and fiction? What investments are those who seek power making in the domain of social media that allows them to influence first time voters in ways they cannot easily identify as partisan propaganda? How are we protecting the privacy of citizens, even as we embrace the potential of enabling them with ID cards that allow them easier access to basic goods and services?
Small countries like Sri Lanka are a hotbed of conversations, tensions, fault lines as well as innovation, opportunities, ideas and experience that allow us to see beyond the obvious, including in envisioning the future. Maybe that’s where the UN also needs to start – to recognise that the frontier issues already identified are already old hat for many around the world, and that to truly reform, the UN needs to actively listen to those outside its usual concentric circles of advisors.
The Global South writ large has much to offer in this regard. Will the UN listen?
On November 8 President Maithripala Sirisena called the irregularities around the Central Bank bond issue a “maha vinashaya” (a huge destruction) and said that those behind it must accept responsibility. He was speaking at a commemoration event for Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, widely acknowledged as a driving force behind the citizen’s movement which brought Sirisena into power in 2015. A key promise made during election campaigns was to tackle ongoing and entrenched corruption.
In August 2016, the President himself, was implicated in a massive scandal. Company emails showed Sirisena, then a Cabinet Minister under the Rajapaksa regime, had along with aides demanded a political “donation” from Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC). At the time, the President’s Media Director promised a response would be forthcoming, and possibly, legal action. One year later, the story has faded from the headlines, and from people’s collective memories.
A year later, the reception of the Director General’s office at the CIABOC is a hive of frenetic activity. Legal officers juggle ringing phones and stacks of cardboard files. These files are then ferried off along rabbit-warren corridors, to other departments. Each file represents a different case, and the Commission handles hundreds of files every day.
Complaints arrive at the CIABOC one of several ways – either through a letter addressed to the Chairman, the Director General, or to the Commission itself. The CIABOC also receives complaints from other government institutions, or voluntary organisations such as the Anti Corruption Front (ACF). Some of the complaints on bribes paid are anonymous, or use a pseudonym.
The Commission also has the power to begin investigations through its own volition (following a newspaper report, for instance). However, this power has never been used, as the CIABOC revealed in response to an RTI request, publicised at the recent relaunch of the Right to Information advocacy website, RTIWatch.lk on September 28.
Once a complaint has been received, the next step is for the Commission to decide whether or not there is enough material in the complaint to begin an investigation immediately. If so, the case is handed over to an Investigating Officer to begin. If not, the person making the complaint may be called in to provide further information. If the complaint is anonymously submitted, this is a further obstacle to overcome – the Commission then has to call in its legal officers to assess whether there is enough information to begin investigation.
In some instances, after all these steps, it will be found that the complaint cannot be investigated further, or that it can be taken forward after feedback from another Government authority. As of September 30, over 300 complaints are pending reports from other institutions. It is only after every possible step is taken to investigate that a file is considered “closed.”
Those complaints can be taken forward will see the drafting of indictments by the Legal Officers. There are just 30 Legal Officers for the entire Commission, and they are expected to draft detailed reports on each complaint. Upon final approval by first the Director General and then the Commission itself, the indictment is finally filed in court.
The reason for the buzz of activity outside the Director General’s office is now apparent.
Groundviews was able to receive data on the total number of complaints, cases filed, and convictions over the past four years, courtesy a legal officer from the CIABOC, and created a number of infographics based on information received, in light of International Anti Corruption Day, which falls on December 9. Based on the information shared by the CIABOC, as of September 30, 2017 there were 2010 complaints received in total, of which 975 were forwarded for further investigation. The CIABOC also conducted 37 successful raids resulting in arrests.
Most of the cases investigated are for corruption, rather than for cases involving bribes.
Only a fraction of the investigated cases end up in court. This year, for instance there were a total of 63 cases. Overall the CIABOC says that there are around 121 cases ongoing in the Magistrates Courts, and a further 289 cases in the High Courts.
32 cases were filed in the High Courts in 2017 – 30 of them bribery related. A further 31 were filed in the Magistrates Courts (19 of them related to corruption).
Despite all the obstacles in process, 2017 has seen more convictions compared to earlier years – 32 convictions in the Magistrates and High Courts. This is compared to just 14 convictions in both the Magistrate and High Courts in 2016.
Former Minister of Justice, Law and Order and Buddha Sasana Affairs was also removed from his post by Sirisena, in part due to stonewalling cases of corruption. While this is laudable, the battle is far from over.
The activities of the CIABOC recently became a topic of discussion in Parliament, with both Government and Opposition MPs expressing dissatisfaction with the delay in taking action against corruption. For instance, MP Buddhika Pathirana said there had been no action taken with regards to two complaints made by him in 2015 and 2017, Chief Government Whip while JVP MP Bimal Rathnayake suggested setting up special courts to hear cases on corruption, in order to expedite the process.
When contacted, MP Ranjan Ramanayake said that he had heard from the Director General that they needed time to conduct proper investigations. However, Ramanayake said that there were clear issues especially when it came to accountability – for instance, former MP Sajin Vass Gunawardena was fined just Rs. 1000 for non-declaration of assets in the years 2011 and 2012, while former Director General, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Anusha Palpita and former Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunge received a sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment (RI) and then were granted bail in the infamous “sil redi” case, which involved the misappropriation of Rs. 600 million of funds.
Beyond the points Ramanayake raised, there have also been questions around the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Central Bank bond issue, most recently because detailed information on phone and WhatsApp calls was leaked to the media. The subsequent protests on this score forced the Commission to release a statement noting that they had not tapped any MP’s phones in order to receive the call logs. An order was also reportedly sent out to arrest Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, for building a museum to his parents using public funds. President Sirisena blocked the arrest, claiming that the visit of a group of monks raising concerns around the order did not influence his decision. These incidents illustrate that high-level cases investigating corruption are led by party and political interests, rather than on the evidence presented.
The headlines keep coming. On October 11, Sri Lanka was implicated in a massive corruption scandal involving Airbus.
Regularly, news items surface of local government officials arrested for soliciting bribes, for the inclusion of a name in the voter register, to smooth the import of vehicle spare parts, or for a traffic offence. As cases pile up, the CIABOC appears to be struggling to keep up, with staff constraints and bureaucracy ensuring that cases proceed at a slow pace. Given these obstacles, it is laudable that the Commission has been making progress, slowly but surely. Over 1,000 complaints were concluded in 2017, 410 of them after investigation. A further 410 cases are currently being heard in the Magistrates and High Courts. Given more resources, the Commission could be empowered to do much to combat corruption. However, in the absence of political will to do so, the situation will remain as is – with an ever-growing pile of files.
I won’t beat about the bush today. I don’t want to talk about stuff and nonsense when there are better things to discuss such as ‘enterprising’ budgets and how this Government’s growth and development initiatives are made of ‘star stuff’. I can’t however ignore the idiosyncratic and arguably irresponsible statements made by senior so-called statesmen about the alleged collusion of my colleagues with the legions of the demonstrably corrupt he so evidently despises but isn’t bothered enough about to bring to book.
Now enough about me! And don’t get me wrong: I do agree with our noble Premier’s compatriot, the honourable State Minister of Finance, that the media must grow up and get real and become a responsible arm of civil society and such starry eyed stuff. But it is equally incumbent on the powers that be – particularly those presently occupying the high moral ground – to walk the talk on this also… even if their stance has seen some backsliding (to put it mildly and kindly) of late…
There is every possibility that some segments of the Fourth Estate are in fact in favour of the former regime. And they are probably (rather unconscionably) plotting and planning on behalf of a former president and his estate which has (rather unpredictably) fallen into a state of disrepair. But that doesn’t make them traitors. Or anti-patriots who have lost their faith in neoliberal neoconservative doctrine. Or conspirators who have lost face upon being discovered and exposed by our ever-vigilant Prime Minister and his nanny state who eavesdrops on friends and foes alike. It simply makes the scribes who are sucking up to a sacked despot sad and pathetic. And their plight simply means that they have lost the plot. No one needs require them to lose their lives – as under the previous lot. Or lose their livelihoods – as under just about every government from JR to MR who treat the journalists who won’t, don’t, can’t, kowtow to the powers that be as scoundrels to be scorned.
Just let me get this off my chest (as the actress said to the bishop) and we’ll all be a happier bunch (as the bishop replied). There is no need for senior supposedly responsible political leaders to conjure the spectre of a media conspiracy to topple them when there is plainly enough going on in Government ranks to unsettle the most insensitive of senior so-called statesmen. The free media have reported rather openly and transparently on the less-than-honest (to put it mildly and kindly) goings on between the three other arms of Government for anyone to be in any doubt about how there has been a fall from erstwhile lofty pedestals occupied by pontificating patricians and pompous panjandrums. If human nature changes, I’ll eat my new political culture hat. My hat! There is nothing new under the sun. Only the smell of napalm in the morning or an editor’s blood on the high street in the afternoon is missing.
So here’s our plea to you to please cease and desist from pointing fingers vaguely in our direction. If there is anything illegal in the activities of any media house – whether head held high (Sinhala: ‘Sirasa’) thanks to Sirisena (Sinhalese: ‘Sira’) or any other low down nefarious scurrilous network online – let it be investigated openly and transparently. And if so let its less-than-honest dealings be brought into the sunlight where Sri Lanka’s politics-weary citizens like to live. And let the law follow its due process sans sanctimonious endorsements by presidents and prime ministers urging the IGP and AG to do their duty.
Feel free, while you’re about it, to bring to light – to say nothing of bringing to book – all the corrupt miscreants and cynical murderers still at large from previous regimes and leftover to wreak havoc in our post-war nation struggling to become a post-conflict society. Thank you so much.
MEDIA APPLICATION FORM
(If you’re not a member of the first three estates, you’re welcome to try out your hand at this. On the other hand, it isn’t unknown for Government in its many guises to try and fiddle with the free media’s script. So here’s us inviting you to consider the Fourth Estate as a lucrative optional career.)
A. Essays.
1.“The media is free today.” Write freely on how favoured you feel that a fundamental right of any halfway decent democracy is being hijacked to praise living politicos and bury half-dead ex-dictators. Discuss. Engage critically. Constructively hypothesise what a truly unfettered press and electronic station atmosphere would look like under republicans who minded affairs of state while journalists reported without undue constraints including vague allegations of conspiracy.
B. Short Answers.
1.As a practising journalist (if you haven’t lost your religion), are you thankful that you’re alive today, under the rule of men entirely great – who believe that the pen is mightier than a sharp stick or slaughter’s-bolt to stick into an errant editor’s head? (The short answer that is also the right one is, “Yes.”)
2.If your shorter answer to the above is “No”, why fore is it so? (If you have lost your faith in democratic-republicanism under the present dispensation, why not start thanking your lucky stars that you haven’t lost your head?)
C. MCQ.
1. The media was truly free and bereft of any petty politicking conspiracy under:
a. JR
b. MR
c. CBK
d. Where’s the “none of these” option?
2. So, who killed Lasantha, abducted Prageeth, brutalised Keith, murdered Taraki, did the dirty by dozens of unknown unsung heroes of a missing generation of journos?
a. The first citizen, the middle brother
b. The first bureaucrat, the younger brother
c. The kleptocrat of the first order, another brother
d. Won’t do to say, don’t know, can’t risk it, because big brother is watching you
3. What does the free media still have left to do to sort out the state of affairs in its own estate?
a. All of the below, before you ask, thank you mildly and kindly
b.Best practices benchmarks which are ideal but not idealistic or ivory tower
c. Commitment to a crime- and corruption-free civil society milieu
d. Determined, dared, and done … the full monty of the free media
From what I can see of the free media today, the industry – for that is what this arm of civil society is: a business as much as a profession – is taking proactive steps to critique and streamline its praxis. From seminars where its members talk to themselves about censorship to self-censorship, to the championing of marginalised segments of the populace with the adroit use of technology, journalists editors writers of this country are all challenging themselves to raise the bar and set a higher standard.
But the senior serious so-called statesmen won’t welcome all we have to say; don’t quite see eye-to-eye with us on democratic-republicanism because sadly too many of the supposedly statesmanlike leaders are less-than-honest; can’t see for themselves what dinosaurs they really are. But it does more than amuse – it aggravates – us when these silly straw-men (their headpiece filled with straw and their codpieces full to the brim with scams and shams) call us names. But still keep secret in private shameless places the names of those who killed boldly and brazenly in public spaces the errant editors of a not-quite-dead generation of journos. Whoever said sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me was an idiot. Or sheltered from reality by virtue of insanity. Or utterly insensitive. Or all three. For the truth is that the word kills. And the spirit of the word kills.
From history I can think of a great king but terrible ruler, Henry I of House Anjou and sovereign of England, who once mused (almost under his breath, but taking care that his loyal supporters heard well enough), “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?” Almost immediately foul loyal nobles rode out – like some latter-day Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – to assassinate the thorn in their monarch’s side… the martyr Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and occasional gadfly.
From home affairs that we’ve still not quite forgotten – or forgiven – I can think of a great woman but terrible president, who shall remain nameless for the nonce (because she is still among the living, and I would like to remain there too), who once mused (hardly sotto voce, for that was not her style if you will recall the reign of our very own Marie Antoinette), “Who will rid me of these troublesome media menaces?” And almost as if at her whim and fancy, her craven hangers-on volunteered for the grim task… and even if they did not carry it out under her ancien régime (that’s French for you, madame), her successor proved up to the grisly commission.
Today, the talk is all about punishing the impunity of journalist-killers. So, let the powers that be be the first to place their necks on the block before the guillotine of false accusations – or even unfair and unnecessary politically-motivated true ones – descends. Let the State – and especially the first estate of the Executive – walk the talk.
(A senior journalist, the writer was once the Chief Sub Editor of The Sunday Leader, 1994-8, and is ex-LMD, having been its Editor, 2004-8. He has made a career out of asking questions, and not waiting for answers.)
