HIV Stigma : Ganemulla School Girl Granted New National School

METHMALIE DISSANAYAKE-05:15 PM APR 18 2018

The Education Ministry has decided to grant a new national school to the 10 year old school girl in Ganemulla who had to gone through a stigma at her school, because her mother had been diagnosed as being HIV positive.

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam announced this decision during his meeting with the school girl and her parents at the Education Ministry yesterday (18). Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake also participated in the meeting.

Kariyawasam said that the girl’s father would be given a job based on his educational qualifications.
Moreover, an independent investigation committee will be established to probe into incidents like this to ensure school children not facing any kind of harassment in their schools in the future. All the schools, even private and international schools will be regulated by this proposed independent committee, the minister said.

The school girl came under harassment of her school authorities, other children and their parents when the fact that her mother was diagnosed as being HIV positive was revealed in 2017. She was studying at Ganemulla Kudabollatha Sri Sumangala Vidyalaya, Gampaha at that time.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) had to interfere with the matter to ensure the school does not harass the child. She resumed her studies at the same school after that. However, the girl on 22 February wrote to President Maithripala Sirisena, complaining that the principal of her school was allegedly harassing her.

The girl in her letter to the President mentioned that the principal showed media reports about her story from 2017 to other children using a projector on 22 February.

Disability, the Cabinet Reshuffle and time for change 

By Dr. Padmani Mendis, Adviser on Disability-

April 17, 2018, 12:00 pm

The long anticipated Cabinet Reshuffle brings a much awaited and rare opportunity for people with disabilities to have their aspirations addressed. The United Nations Convention for Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) was ratified by Sri Lanka on 08th February 2016, but until now the Government has taken no action to demonstrate that it is serious about making it a reality.

Disability has always been the responsibility of Social Services/Welfare as a subject of service provision. This may have been acceptable when action on disability (except in the instances of Health and Education) called for Government only to deliver services to meet the needs of disabled people such as supplying them with technical aids, providing vocational training, granting financial assistance for housing, medical care, education, income generation and so on. But now, with the commitment by Government to implement the UN Convention on Disability, action on Disability calls for two cabinet functions – namely the new subject of "Disability Inclusion" in addition to the subject of "Disability Service Provision". The new subject of "Disability Inclusion" is essential to make ratification of the UN Convention Disability a reality.

Simply put, the new subject is a strategy which includes disabled people in the mainstream of our communities, allowing them to participate in all the country’s development activity wherever they live, seeing them as equal citizens with the same access to all the rights and responsibility available to other citizens of our country. Ratification of the UN Convention must move Government action away from seeing people with disabilities as a special group who need special isolated and segregated services to seeing them equal citizens with equal rights in all things. This includes such programmes as children with disability being detected early and having the early interventions they need through our existing primary health care system; children participating in the same primary and secondary schools which have been adapted and made inclusive including teachers who can meet the varying needs of all children including theirs; young adults attending the same higher education and skills training centres which have again been suitably prepared and adapted to meet their needs alongside those of other young people; and children, youth and adults, both girls and boys, women and men participating in the same workplaces, the same social, sports, recreational, political and cultural activities as their neighbours.

People with disabilities supported by disability workers and activists have been lobbying for this change for well over a decade, ever since changes were visible globally. A radical shift was taking place throughout the world in thought and action related to disability and to the situation of people with disabilities. Sri Lanka responded early, with a Cabinet approved National Policy on Disability in 2003 and a Cabinet approved National Plan of Action on Disability in 2012 focussing on ensuring opportunities for disabled people in our country’s mainstream. Alas these well-intentioned documents were usually unread and unused but were considered to be attractive documents for distribution. They remained in the desks of administrators in the Social Services Sector.

Persistent efforts by disabled people and those who support them to have a dialogue with those responsible in Government have come to no avail. Disability is jealously guarded by the Social Welfare Sector. This is perhaps due to a misunderstanding that is resistant to discussion. It must be made clear to those who have fears, that the Ministry of Social Welfare will not have to lose its responsibility for Disability Services. This Ministry will always have an important role to play and continue its mandate from Government to provide the special services required in the field of disability. This needs to be made very clear.

What should be equally clear to those who hesitate is that ratification of the UN Convention calls for an additional role by Government. It calls for another Government Body, to ensure that the Convention is implemented through disability-inclusive policies, legislation, planning and action. To include disabled people in the many dimensions of the country’s development mainstream calls for most, if not all, ministries and sectors to play their part. If this "Disability Inclusion in Development" is to be done effectively and efficiently then this Government Body is also called upon to provide oversight and coordination for the many actions being implemented for inclusion. No one Government Ministry can carry out these functions of oversight and coordination of disability inclusion. These functions must be carried out at the highest level of Government. What could be most effective in our country is a single Body (say a Disability Rights Commission) situated within the Secretariat of the President or Prime Minister and directly responsible to one of them. Only then will multiministerial and multisectoral oversight and coordination be possible in our country.

This is why Government action on Disability must be seen as two entities. One, the continued provision of "Disability Services" by the Ministry of Social Welfare, and two, a single Governmental Body such as a Disability Rights Commission with the mandate for "Disability Inclusion" responsible directly to the President or Prime Minister.

Has the time come for Sri Lanka’s People with Disabilities to be truly recognized as citizens with equal rights and responsibilities? The Opportunity is certainly here with a cabinet reshuffle due very soon. Allocation of subjects is done by the President. It is our experience that once subjects have been allocated, administrators are obstinate about "losing" something that they consider they own. This perhaps is their privilege. So for our people with disabilities this may well be a "Now or Never Moment" in their hope for a better life. Will a National Body such as a Disability Rights Commission be set up within the Secretariat of the President or Prime Minister to ensure that they really do become Sri Lanka’ citizens on an equal level? Or will they be ignored once more and remain as neglected, isolated, segregated and discriminated against second-class citizens?

Dr. Padmani Mendis, Advisor, Disability and Rehabilitation

phone:    011 2587853; 

e-mail:    mendisnl@sltnet.lk;  

padmanimendis@hotmail.com;

address:    7/1 Prince Alfred Tower, Alfred House Gardens, Colombo 03

BlogSpot;  http://padmanimendis.blogspot.com/

The glyphosate story – CKDu, food security and national economy

• Time-tested weed control techniques/tools such as glyphosate have been removed without scientific proof, affecting our food security and national economy
• The ban has opened up avenues for business crooks to import the product illegally
• Glyphosate ban should be lifted and we should continue research on effective and economically viable alternatives

Thursday, 19 April 2018 00:27

We in Sri Lanka have a history to be proud of. According to our historical record, the golden age of Sri Lankan agriculture production centres around Polonnaruwa during reign of King Parakramabahu the Great (1153-1186 AD).

At that time, Sri Lanka was known as the Granary of the East and the nation’s prosperity expanded substantially during this era – mainly owing to the epic scale of rice cultivation and reported exports. This flourishing peasant agricultural sector was later destroyed during different ancient regimes, and through the colonial invasions of the Portuguese (1505), Dutch (1658) and British (1796) thus shifting the country’s agriculture to a plantation-based model.

In colonial and post-colonial Sri Lanka, we witnessed the shrinking of the country’s agriculture sector, where Sri Lanka went from being the Granary of the East to a nation that in the 1940s, was importing as much as 60% of our rice even from Myanmar to feed a population of just six million. At that time, we were proudly using traditional technologies, without any agro-chemicals and the average yield stood at approximately 0.65 tons per hectare.

By 2015, our population had grown to 20.7 million people, yet we were able to increase productivity to 4.5 tons per hectare, representing an increase in total paddy production in the magnitude of 15.8 times compared to that of 1940. This was despite only marginal increases in extents of rice cultivation which expanded by only 1.85 times over the past 75 years, meaning that the bulk of this increased production was almost exclusively a result of new agricultural technologies.

This massive improvement was made possible due to improved education, research, extension, and adoption of new technologies including agrochemicals (fertilisers and pesticides) together with the extension of health and education services. This is a classic example how we have continued to feed our nation, minimising foreign exchange drain on import of the major staple, and surviving global food and food-price crisis experienced in the past.

In the past two years (2016-2017), Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector has been negatively affected, partly due to drastic climate change and partly as a result of policy changes made without scientific evidence. The impact of climate change has been discussed at length in previous articles written by the author.

However, the recent policy changes made without any consideration of scientific evidence – including the removal of time-tested weed control tools due to their alleged involvement in Chronic Kidney Disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) – have exacerbated the negative impacts of climate change affecting both food and plantation crops. Given that weeding remains the most troublesome biological constraint to any crop production, it is evident that these types of short sighted policies cannot last much longer.

The glyphosate saga

Glyphosate was imported to Sri Lanka with the intervention of the Tea Research Institute (TRI) of Sri Lanka in 1977, with initial use being confined to experimental use on roadsides, ravines, boundaries and abandoned tea fields for the control of weeds such as torpedo grass (Panicum repens).

A year later, in 1978, following evaluations on preliminary experimental use and following TRI recommendations, Sri Lanka started using the herbicide on such areas at a national scale and by 1983/84, the Mahaweli Development Authority of Sri Lanka was involved in experiments using the herbicide in zero tillage systems, which were later abandoned. Glyphosate was later recommended by TRI to be used in pruned tea fields and mature plucking fields (after three pruning cycles) to control troublesome weeds in 1988 after successfully completing the herbicide residue trials in tea, and for general weed control in tea in 1994.

The Department of Agriculture (DOA) evaluated the herbicide for weed control during land preparation of rice in 1995 and recommended the herbicide for pre-plant weed control in rice in 1998. However, the herbicide did not initially attract paddy farmers due to availability of the low cost and quick-acting herbicide paraquat at that time.

When paraquat was banned in 2014through a phased-out process following several incidents of suicide utilising the herbicide, and expired patent rights by Monsanto for their popular glyphosate-based herbicide, numerous second-makers flooded the international market with such herbicides at a cheaper cost. Consequently, glyphosate became popular among paddy and maize growers, in addition to those in tea plantations. According to CropLife – Sri Lanka, of the glyphosate imported in 2014, tea consumed 36%, maize and other field crops 33%, wet zone paddy 25.8%, and dry zone paddy 4.4%.

Glyphosate was restricted for use in December 2014 in five main districts where paddy was cultivated in Sri Lanka. This decision was mainly based on a “hypothesis” paper published by a group of Sri Lankan scientists in February 2014that first considered a hypothetical link between glyphosate and CKDu. The herbicide was banned from importation and use in June 2015.

The impact of the absence of effective weed control technique in tea cultivation has been discussed and debated heavily. Recently, the Planters’ Association (PA) has estimated a loss of Rs. 10-20 billion per year due to the ban of glyphosate mainly owing to increased cost of production arising out of high cost of labour intensive alternate weeding techniques or abandoning weed control in tea fields due to scarce and costly labour resources. It is our economy that has been threatened due to this unwise, non-scientific decision in banning glyphosate.

The FAO of UN and World Food Programme (WFP) produced a Special Report on Food Security in Sri Lanka in June 2017 and stated: “Until recently, farmers relied heavily on the use of the herbicide glyphosate (‘Roundup’) to control weeds in their paddy fields. In 2014 a presidential decree banned its use in most agricultural sectors in the belief that it was responsible for the high incidence of chronic kidney disease amongst paddy farmers, especially in North Central, North Western, Uva and Eastern Provinces. In the absence of glyphosate, paddy fields often have a high weed population. In a year of reduced rainfall this is especially harmful as the weeds, which are often more adapted than the crop to dry conditions, use a large proportion of the available soil moisture.”

It is clear that our national food security has also been challenged as a result of this ad hoc decision to ban a proven weed control technique.

Increasing incidence of CKDu in dry zone of Sri Lanka has drawn the attention of many scientists and medical practitioners and researchers. Given that the causal factor of CKDu remain unknown, it has been dubbed as having a multi-factoral origin by medical professionals from Peradeniya and Kandy who with long years of experience of this disease in the country. There is no argument that the affected communities should be treated and no new incidence of the disease should emerge.

At a recent press conference held on 22 March 2018 organised by the National Research Council (NRC) to commemorate the World Water Day, the scientists including a well-respected Nephrologist has made it clear that there is no conclusive evidence to say that pesticides are linked with the disease. Moreover, the WHO’s International Expert Consultation on CKDu held in Colombo in April 2016 – where the author of this article was also invited as an agronomist – reported that there is no conclusive evidence to implicate glyphosate and other agrochemicals as a cause for the disease.

CKDu was first recorded in early 1990s in the North Central Province, where paddy cultivation is dominant. However, the herbicide glyphosate was recommended to be used in paddy fields only in 1998. Therefore, associations explained by some researchers between glyphosate and CKDu stand out as being highly questionable.

Deviating away from the hypothetical links of the herbicide to CKDu, some scientists claim that the herbicide ban should be continued as it is categorised as a probable carcinogen (class 2A) by the WHO since March 2015. This was based on the recommendation of the French-based organisation called International Association for Research on Cancer (IARC). This highly-debated and controversial categorisation has been challenged by many countries and organisations. There were even claims for conflicts of interest of those involved in decision-making.

In May 2016, the joint report of FAO-WHO meeting on pesticide residues clearly states that “The meeting concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to be genotoxic at anticipated dietary exposures”. If further noted that: “glyphosate is not carcinogenic in rats but could not exclude the possibility that it is carcinogenic in mice at very high doses.” Further, the report states “In view of the absence of carcinogenic potential in rodents at human-relevant doses and the absence of genotoxicity by the oral route in mammals, and considering the epidemiological evidence from occupational exposures, the meeting concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet.”

Considering these results and other studies conducted by independent research groups, the EU voted in November 2017 to renew the license of glyphosate for another five years with 18 countries supporting, nine opposing, and one abstaining. This is despite the fact that many anti-glyphosate lobbies have been waiting impatiently to see the product banned. Moreover, among the nine countries voted against, four have opposed as they wanted the glyphosate license renewal for a period less than five years. Essentially, 22 out of 28 countries in the EU wanted the herbicide at least in the short run.

The EU with strong regulatory measures and human toxicological and environmental concerns still gave the green light to use the herbicide to ensure their agriculture progresses and the continued food security of member nations. In contrast, Sri Lanka – without any reliance on even a fraction of scientific data available – has banned a time-tested product without even pausing to propose an effective alternative. Instead, based on a hypothetical argument, we have compromised our food security and national economy. It is high time that we reverse the decision taken. Instead of banning the product government should have promoted using it judiciously, wisely, and in accordance with recommended dosages, application techniques, and timing.

Using alternatives

We need effective alternatives for herbicides and we have been using alternate techniques where possible. Flooding lowland paddy fields is considered as an effective age-old technique to control weeds, by reducing their competition with the crop and negative impact on crop yield. However, lack of adequate water in a changing climate still causes problems to the farming community. Manual weeding or use simple implements such as mammoties and grass cutters are alternatives, provided that the economic benefits are assured.

The situation is different with respect to other crops, for example: maize and tea. Both being up-land crops and grown in different terrains with no options for water logging (the upland crops are sensitive to stagnant water) more labour intensive technologies are the only option thus, affecting the economic returns from crop cultivation. Mulching may work out to be a viable option to control weeds provided that large quantities of the materials are made available.

Overall, practical application of available alternatives has not yielded the expected results, except for some locations including small scale agriculture. Scientists are still working out, and need time, to come up with viable alternatives that provide effective weed control, minimised non-target effects and required economic gains.

Having a bird’s-eye view

We have failed to look at issues taking the totality into consideration. The complex problems in agriculture have no single and simple answers, especially with regard to national level food security. Forces with political and spiritual ideologies have always succeeded in the recent past in over-ruling even the most basic scientific principles. This is a pathetic story.

We have to analyse our production systems in concert with our food security in order to ensure that our growing population will be fed overcoming hunger, without depending on food supplies from neighbouring countries. Food security is a National Security issue that cannot be ignored.

Hence, any policy that negatively affects national food security should never be tolerated as it will without a doubt lead Sri Lanka into becoming a food beggar nation. Our policy makers must follow science and make evidence-based decisions considering the big-picture rather than focusing on one-end of the problem.

Scientists, too, need to support the policy makers by being open and providing conclusive and scientifically valid data to facilitate decision making. However, they have to be careful not to bombard decision makers with half-baked information or information based on whims and fancies of a select few, especially where the outcome is potentially disastrous. Our country has already experienced the negative impacts of the latter.

Misinformation is worse than not providing any information at all to the public and policy makers. Unfortunately, many seek to grow influence by stoking unnecessary and oftentimes irrational fear among the general public on incidents/substances without any scientific evidence. This has now become a common method to rally people to achieve unscrupulous political or personal motives, and I believe our most pressing concern is now to ensure that such tactics are dispensed with. Science and rationality must prevail.

The ban on glyphosate has been imposed without scientific evidence. The recent claim that we need to go by the precautionary principle itself proves that the original decision to ban the product made in 2014/2015 hypothesising that the chemical causes CKDu is baseless. Three years have lapsed since this erroneous decision was made and in that time, the agriculture sector has taken the brunt of this disastrous policy. Climate change further exacerbates these dynamics. Weeds tend to thrive and compete vigorously with crops when resources are limited. That is their nature. We need to understand this behaviour to make sure the crops survive and the country reap richer harvests.

Regular challenges continue to be made to those who support the ban to clearly state their justification with scientific evidence and to date, none have stepped forward. Hence, there is no necessity for new reasons. Interestingly, many who supported the ban also claim publicly that glyphosate-based products are imported illegally and are available freely in the country. This is yet another reason for lifting the ban.

Previously, we have been bringing in pesticides under stringent Government control through the Registrar of Pesticides (ROP) who operates as per the Pesticides Control Act No 33 (as amended) of 1980. We have now blocked the entry of quality-assured glyphosate to the country but opened up avenues to crooked businessmen to bring in products illegally with no quality control.

Just a few days ago, Sri Lanka Customs reportedly confiscated an illegal consignment of glyphosate. This seems to be the third occasion, but who is responsible for such imports? Who uses these illegal products? They are the same cohort that some others assume to have been affected due to the use of the herbicide. Does this make sense?

On one hand, those who forced the policymakers to impose the ban without scientific evidence should take the responsibility for this unfortunate situation. On the other hand, was it a deliberate effort to provide business/political opportunity for a select few? We must now ask who stands to benefit, since clearly it is not the agriculture sector.
[A qualified expert in weed

science, Professor Buddhi Marambe serves as a Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture and Chairman of

the Board of Study in Crop Science at the Postgraduate Institute

of Agriculture (PGIA) of the University of Peradeniya.]

Climate and food security~I

Madhusudan Ghosh | April 10, 2018 1:13 am

The agricultural system the world over is under tremendous pressure on the use of resources. This is largely due to the burgeoning population, urbanisation, climate change and environmental decline.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has estimated that food production will have to be raised by at least 60 per cent to meet the needs of the world’s expected population of 9 billion by 2050.

This is a formidable challenge for global agriculture given that one in eight persons is insecure in terms of food. Agriculture is largely influenced by climate change and variability.

The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its Fifth Assessment Report (2014), has warned that global climate has been changing and this will continue to happen in the foreseeable future.

The global mean surface temperatures are predicted to increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C by the end of this century… relative to 1990. There would also be changes in the variability of climate and in the frequency and intensity of some extreme climatic developments, leading to uncertain monsoons and more frequent floods, drought, cyclones and gradual recession of glaciers.

Climate change is a major threat to agriculture, leading to instability in food production and adversely affecting food security and the livelihood of millions of people in many countries.

IPCC has noted that increasing temperature and increased frequency of floods and drought will have direct and adverse effects on crops, fisheries, forestry and aquaculture productivity.

The yield loss due to climate change could be up to 35 per cent for rice, 20 per cent for wheat, 50 per cent for sorghum, 13 per cent for barley, and 60 per cent for maize. Climate change and climate variability are critical challenges for global food security, particularly in underdeveloped and developing economies.

South Asia, as one of the most densely populated regions in the world, is among the most vulnerable to climate change and climate variability. Both can have major consequences in terms of food security, poverty and other developmental goals in the absence of adaptation and mitigation.

India is particularly vulnerable to climate change due to widespread poverty, dependence of about 50 per cent of its population on agriculture for livelihood, excessive dependence of agriculture on natural resources, and limited strategies to cope with a crisis.

Despite the success of Green Revolution technologies in transforming agriculture, food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty and hunger are persisting unchecked. Among 119 countries, India ranked 100 and was classified in the ‘serious category’ with a score of 31.4 in the 2017 global hunger index.

As per FAO estimates, India had the largest number of undernourished people in the world ~ 190.4 million in 2009-11 and 190.7 million in 2014-16, though the proportion of undernourished persons declined marginally from 15.8 to 14.5 per cent.

Moreover, continued intensive use of the same technologies and the consequent environmental problems such as groundwater depletion with the declining quality of water due to its over exploitation, deteriorating soil health, etc. are considered responsible for the slowing down of growth in crop production.

The problem is further aggravated due to global climate change and increasing climatic variability. The surface air temperature in the South Asian region was predicted to rise by 0.5-1.2 degrees C by 2020, 0.88-3.16 degrees C by 2050 and 1.56-5.44 degrees C by 2080 depending on the future development scenarios. The Indian Meteorology Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (Pune) have projected a similar trend for temperature, precipitation, heat waves, glaciers, drought, floods and rise in the sea level.

The predicted increase in temperature and precipitation is likely to change land and water regimes that have significant implications for agricultural productivity, and in turn, the food security and livelihood of farming households.

There is a probability of 10-40 per cent loss of crop production due to the increase in temperature by 2080-2100. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has indicated that food production could decline by 4.5-9.0 per cent in the medium term (2010-2039) under the impact of climate change.

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has indicated the possibility of loss amounting to 4-5 million tonnes in wheat production with every rise of 1 degree C temperature by 2020-2030. While climate change is likely to reduce yields of most crops in the long-run, increased climatic variability could increase fluctuations in production in the short-run.

The agricultural production system could be further worsened by climate change through increasing water scarcity, frequency and severity of floods, and declining soil carbon. The adverse impact of frequent and severe drought and floods on crop production in many parts of the country has been reported in several studies.

Thus, climate change and increasing climatic variability will lead to greater instability in food production and threaten the food security of millions of farmers and pose a serious challenge to poverty alleviation by exerting tremendous pressure on the agricultural system.

The agriculture production system will need to adapt to these changes in order to ensure food security and maintain economic activities and the livelihood of farming communities.

Efforts to achieve food security entail building resilience of rural households to climate shocks and strengthening their adaptive capacity to cope with increased climatic variability.

Agricultural systems including crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries need to be transformed without degrading the natural resource base to ensure adequate quantity of quality food to the rising population and to promote economic growth and alleviate poverty.

FAO has recognised that agriculture must be “climate-smart” to achieve these goals. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an integrated approach that increases agricultural productivity and incomes, adapt and build resilience to climate change, and reduce and/or remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Food security has been defined by FAO as “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

As the availability of foodgrain is essential for security, the primary necessity is to improve foodgrain production. The small landholders with an average landholding size of less than two hectares constitute a key group that needs special attention.

It represents more than 80 per cent of farmers and contributes more than 50 per cent of total agricultural output, cultivating 44 per cent of agricultural land. The system supports the livelihood and food security of millions of people.

The CSA approach contributes towards achieving food and livelihood security and other developmental goals by (i) increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, (ii) adapting and building resilience to climate change, and (iii) reducing and/or removing GHG emissions, where possible.

It integrates climate change into the planning and implementation of sustainable agricultural strategies, and focuses on developing resilient food production systems that can lead to food and livelihood security under climate change and variability. Naturally, an integrated approach that is receptive to specific local conditions is required for CSA to become a reality.

The most challenging task is to adopt appropriate strategies that enhance climate-smart agriculture. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), in its Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), has been working with rural communities in collaboration with national programmes to develop climate-smart villages (CSV) as models of local action that ensure food security, promote adaptation and build resilience to climatic problems.

CSV is a community approach to sustainable agricultural development where farmers, researchers, local partners and policy makers collaborate to select the most appropriate technological and institutional interventions on the basis of global knowledge and local conditions to increase productivity and incomes, achieve climate resilience, and enable climate mitigation.

It integrates village development and adaptation plans along with local knowledge and institutions. The major strength of the CSV approach is its inclusiveness in bringing together farmers, policy makers, researchers and local organisations to work on a set of climate-smart technologies and practices with a view to adapt agriculture to climate change in order to ensure food and livelihood security of farmers in vulnerable regions.

(To be concluded)

The writer is Professor of Economics, Visva-Bharati University. He can be reached at msghosh123@rediffmail.com

Inside Story: Welikada Prison Massacre in 2012 — Recommends Charging Gota

Recommends charging Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Chandra Wakishta, Indika Sampath, Kodippili, Shantha Dissanayake

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Warning: This investigative report contains graphic contents that some may find disturbing – Editors

by Ruwan Laknath Jayakody, Kavindya Chris Thomas and Kavindya Perera-Apr 19, 2018

Apr 19, 2018

( April 19, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The prosecution of six high ranking officials previously attached to the Ministry of Defence, the State Intelligence Service, the Prisons Department and the Sixth Gajaba Regiment of the Army in relation to the Welikada Prisons incident of November 2012, has been recommended by a Committee of Inquiry which probed into the matter.

Inside Story Welikada Prison Massacre in 2012 — Recommends Charging Gota.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Mahindananda M.P. who caused a loss of Rs. 39 million to state on carom and draughts board distribution scam remanded and released.!

(Lanka-e-News - 17.April.2018, 6.30PM)  Mahindananda Aluthgamage M.P. a notorious crook of the Blue brigand of deposed ex president Mahinda Rajapakse during the corrupt lawless reign  of the latter was arrested by the FCID  yesterday (16) on charges of causing a loss of Rs. 39 million to the government . Though he was granted bail  when he was produced before courts , he was later remanded owing to issues in connection with fulfilling the bail conditions .

Mahindananda was arrested by the FCID on charges of cheating in a colossal sum of Rs. 39 million and causing that amount of loss to the government in the purchase of carom and draughts boards for distribution during the run up to the presidential elections in 2014 . Prior to this former Sathosa chairman Naveen Ruwan was arrested in the same case. He is now out on bail.

As Sathosa which imported the carom and draughts boards is registered under the companies Act , magistrate Lanka Jayaratne  saying this offence does not come under the public property Act granted bail to Mahindananda. He was released on a cash bail of Rs. 35000.00  and two personal bails in sums of Rs.500,000.00  each.

The culprit was also ordered to surrender his passport to the court . However since Mahindananda could not fulfill that condition  , he had to be remanded. Though his lawyer claimed  the passport was already impounded by the court in another case , no document  could be produced  in support of that statement . 

Mahindananda who came prepared to walk into  remand custody had a  polythene bag in which he carried the necessary things in readiness for that . Unlike many  other fraudsters  he proved he is a ‘man  of vision’ , and knows ahead what preparations he must make when he is trapped after  his crooked missions.

Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who was remanded yesterday(16), was released on bail by the Fort Magistrate’s Court today(17). He was released today after he submitted evidence to prove that the passport is with the High Court.

---------------------------
by     (2018-04-17 13:07:54)

Kaduwela Municipal Councilor arrested for shooting at SAITM CEO


Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 12:02 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.


Apr 18, Colombo: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Wednesday arrested a Municipal Councilor of Kaduwela in connection with the shooting at the Chief Executive Officer of South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) Dr. Sameera Senaratne last year.

Kaduwela Municipal Councilor Wilathgamuwage Don Aruna Lakmal Kushantha, 43, was arrested by the CID early this morning at his residence in Welivita, Kaduwela.

Dr. Senaratne was shot at while travelling in his car by two armed men on a motorbike wearing full-face helmets on Chandrika Kumaratunga Mawatha near the SAITM campus in Malabe on 5 February 2017. He escaped the shooting unhurt.

The CID obtained a 48-hour detention order to interrogate the suspect after producing him before Kaduwela Magistrate today.

Since police suspect that the shooting was orchestrated by Dr. Senaratne the case has been handed over to the CID.

According to the police, investigations have revealed that the suspect, who is a close friend of Dr. Senaratne has orchestrated the shooting along with a driver of a local government institution. The duo has escaped following the shooting and the police were on the lookout to apprehend them.


The suspect would be produced in Kaduwela Magistrate�s Court tomorrow after interrogations.

Psychologists reveal reasons for sexual violence of the country

KALANA KRISHANTHA- APR 16 2018

Psychologists have revealed the underlying reasons for the increase in sexual violence in the country which according to them was primarily due to the media, the influence of Indian movies and dramas, the misusage of the internet, sexual depression in relation to cultural restrictions, lacunas in the legal structure, drug abuse and the lack of sexual education.

Psychotherapist and a Director of the Institute of Mental Health Dr. Romesh Jayasinghe revealed the many reasons which could contribute to increasing gender disparity and the intensification of sexual violence including gang rape in Sri Lanka.

According to Dr.Jayasinghe, “Indian movies and dramas which attract many Sri Lankans are full of such type of incidents. When people watch more and more of those things, this becomes normal to their mindset and it leads them to emulate those incidents.”

Another contributory factor, he explained is the media.

“The unethical reporting of media has been paving the way for copycat behaviour in audiences. And also the way they are reporting, stimulates the spread of such incidents. Also the internet is responsible for the wave of rapes. Pornographic films have contributed a lot to make Sri Lankans maniacs when it comes to sexuality.” 

He suggested blocking access to pornographic websites in Sri Lanka. 

When Ceylon Today queried as to whether it would not restrict internet freedom, Dr. Jayasinghe said that if people don`t know how to behave with other people and instead behave like animals, such had nothing to do with “internet freedom” and therefore that the banning of internet porn sites in Sri Lanka is the need of the hour within the current context.

Culture, also plays a role in generating the prevailing ill weather when it comes to culture and sexuality, he noted.

“Due to cultural issues even victims do not like to reveal the truth. And also sexual suppression is prevailing in Sri Lanka, due to the lack of sexual freedom.”

According to Dr. Jayasinghe, prostitution should be legalized in Sri Lanka. “I don`t think it can create much damage to our culture. Thailand is also a Buddhist country, however prostitution is legalized there.“

On the other hand, on many occasions, offenders are obtaining bails or escaping from the law using the gaps in the legal system, he explained. The legal system should be restructured to punish the offenders, he opined. ”The number of convicted people is relatively low in this respect. This condition should change.” According to him, when offenders are not punished, people don`t have any fear to engage in such brutal acts.

Sexual literacy is terribly low and that leads people to behave in an abnormal manner, Dr. Jayasinghe pointed out, suggesting therefore that initiating more regularized sexual education from Grade Nine onwards to all school students, is the way out of this malaise.

According to Dr. Jayasinghe, drug abuse is also contributing to the increase in the number of abnormal behaviours exhibited by people. “People used to drink alcoholic drinks excessively. But, now the percentage of alcohol users is becoming low. Instead of alcohol, now they are getting addicted to more poisonous drugs like heroin, which can negatively impact on the nervous system.”

Cannabis haul seized in Pooneryn

Thursday, April 19, 2018 

The Pooneryn Police nabbed three suspects who were transporting a stock of over 36 kg cannabis along the A32 road at Sangupitiya yesterday.

Northern Province Senior DIG Roshan Fernando said based on a tip-off that he had received, that a stock of cannabis is being transported to Puttalam in a mini van, he had notified the Killinochchi Police and set up a roadblock near the Sangupitiya bridge on the A32 road to intercept the van transporting the illegal substance.

It is suspected that the stock of cannabis had been brought to Jaffna by boat from India.

The Pooneryn Police had intercepted the van and arrested three suspects, including the driver and seized the stock of cannabis.

The suspects would be produced in court.

Israel at 70: Why democracy is now in retreat

Eyal Chowers-Wednesday 18 April 2018 

In a speech at the "Globes" Israel Business Conference in January, Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu outlined his worldview of Israel’s sources of power.

First and foremost, he said, Israelis had learned to defend themselves, developing military capabilities that are increasingly based on new, inventive technologies and on experience of years combating terror.

Second, he argued, Israel has a growing, healthy economy with low taxes, a flourishing private sector and is undergoing intensive deregulation. Netanyahu mentioned, with pride, particular industries such as cybersecurity, computer parts for cars, digital health, and water technologies.

Israel at 70 Why democracy is now in retreat.docx by Thavam on Scribd

LIES, HYPOCRISY AND USE OF CHEMICAL WARfare

Israel indiscriminately used air-burst white phosphorus artillery shells in Gaza (Israel accused of indiscriminate phosphorus use in Gaza - Human Rights Watch 25 May 2009)

2018-04-17

In the early hours of April 7 news agencies around the world broke the news of an alleged chemical weapons attack on the city of Duma in civil-war-torn Syria. The last city controlled by western-backed rebels in Syria. 
According to reports, the attack left around 70 –including women and children- dead and many hundreds hospitalised. 

LIES, HYPOCRISY AND USE OF CHEMICAL WARfare.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Chemical weapons inspectors' security team fired on in Douma

OPCW chief says UN team came under small-arms fire and an explosive was detonated

A man walks near the site of the chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

Kareem Shaheenin Istanbul and Patrick Wintour-Wed 18 Apr 2018 

A UN security team doing reconnaissance at the site of an attack in the Syrian town of Douma has come under gunfire, the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has said, further delaying the arrival of chemical weapons inspectors.

The OPCW director general, Ahmet Üzümcü , told a meeting at the organisation’s headquarters in The Hague on Wednesday that the security team had been forced to withdraw.

Üzümcü said that when a reconnaissance team arrived at one site, a large crowd gathered and the team withdrew. At a second site “the team came under small-arms fire and an explosive was detonated. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus.”

The delay in the inspectors’ arrival, 10 days after the attack, will raise fresh concerns over the relevance of the OPCW investigation and possible evidence-tampering.

The efforts to investigate the attack, which has been blamed on Bashar al-Assad’s government and sparked a joint operation by the US, Britain and France to bomb chemical weapons facilities near Damascus, has been repeatedly delayed despite Syria’s claim to have established full control over Douma and the surrounding region.

OPCW investigators arrived in Damascus on Saturday, the same day as the bombings by the three western powers. The Syrian government said they were bound for Douma, just outside the Syrian capital, on Tuesday.

The source of the gunfire is unclear. The Syrian government said on Sunday it had “purified” Douma and the broader area of eastern Ghouta, which had been under siege for years and subjected to a number of chemical attacks, of “terrorists”.

Under the terms of a surrender deal negotiated after the chemical attack, Douma was to be emptied of heavy and medium weaponry, but those who stayed behind were allowed to keep light arms.

The OPCW does not usually comment on operational matters, such as details of when it would be able to visit a site, for security reasons.

The Syrian White Helmets has pinpointed the locations where the victims of the attack are buried for the inspectors, the rescue organisation’s head, Raed Saleh, said.

The OPCW team will seek evidence from soil samples, interviews with witnesses, blood, urine or tissue samples from victims and weapon parts. More than a week after the attack, however, hard evidence might be difficult to trace.

The attack in Douma killed at least 42 people, and western powers have said they have credible evidence that Assad’s forces carried out the attack. The city was the last holdout in eastern Ghouta, which surrendered after a two-month scorched-earth campaign by the Syrian and Russian forces that killed about 2,000 civilians.

Medics and aid officials told the Guardian that staff who treated victims of the attack were subjected to “extreme intimidation” if they spoke out.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he was exploring whether the renewed focus on Syria could prompt a relaunch of the deadlocked UN peace talks in Geneva.

He said in a statement that he was holding talks with officials from Turkey, Iran and Russia following meetings last week with foreign ministers at the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

The prospect for talks largely rests on whether the Syrian government delegation are put under pressure by Russia to engage with the process. The Syrian opposition delegation at the last round of talks in Geneva said it was willing to hold talks without preconditions, a means of stating that Assad would not have to stand down at the start of any transitional government.

The last serious exchanges over talks turned on the composition of a UN-supervised committee to oversee the process of devising a new constitution for Syria. 

How Social Media Built the Case for Trump’s Strike on Syria

Evidence of chemical weapons used to require a chain of custody. Now, open-source intelligence is often enough.

Portraits of the Russian and Syrian presidents are displayed at the government-held Wafideen checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus on April 3. (Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images) 

BY COLUM LYNCH, ELIAS GROLL

 | APRIL 17, 2018, 10:25 AM

Social media has emerged as a key battleground in the U.S. and Russian media campaign to promote their sharply divergent accounts of chemical weapons in Syria.

The intelligence assessments presented over the weekend by the United States and France to justify missiles strikes against Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb relied to an unusual degree on information gleaned from open source material and social media. Russia, meanwhile, is mustering an army of internet trolls to shift blame for the chemical weapons attack.

The development reflects the evolution of social media as a key source of propaganda on Syria but also as a critical source of evidence in building a case for airstrikes.

“I can’t think of any other examples where so quickly online footage has been used as one of the main justifications for military action,” says Ben Nimmo, who studies disinformation as a fellow at the Atlantic Council.

The heavy reliance of President Donald Trump’s administration on publicly available information marks a shift from his predecessor’s, which insisted on obtaining physical evidence of chemical weapons use with an established chain of custody before considering the use of force. It also highlights the difficulties Western intelligence agencies have faced in obtaining such evidence — blood, hair, or soil samples — from the Damascus suburb of Douma in the days following the April 7 chemical weapons attack that left nearly 50 dead and hundreds wounded.

Access to the battlefield in Syria has become increasingly difficult to obtain over the past year, particularly in areas under the control of Syrian, Russian, and Iranian forces, according to diplomatic sources.

“In general, access has become more restrictive over the past year as the Syrian government has intensified its military campaign on the ground,” one U.N. Security Council diplomat says. “There is less access and less information than there used to be.”

That has left Western policymakers relying on open-source material to make the case for Syrian culpability. The White House hinted that it may have obtained intercepts or possibly satellite imagery documenting Syrian planning of the operation. But the administration’s publicly released justification rested heavily on social media, press reports, and local and international organizations, including the World Health Organization and a local NGO whose aircraft spotters detected Mi-8 helicopters circling Douma during the attack.

The U.S. conclusion, according to a White House assessment issued after the airstrikes, is largely based on a review of news sources, public reports detailing victims’ symptoms, and video and photographs showing two barrel bombs allegedly used in the attack. The accounts are buttressed by unspecified “reliable information indicating coordination between Syrian military officials before the attack.” All together, the evidence “points to the regime using chlorine in its bombardment of Duma.”
U.S. authorities also obtained some unspecified information that “points to the regime also using the nerve agent sarin,” the assessment says.

A separate assessment by the French government notes that it has yet to analyze any chemical samples in its laboratories: “The French services analysed the testimonies, photos and videos that spontaneously appeared on specialized websites, in the press and on social media in the hours and days following the attack. Testimonies obtained by the French services were also analysed. After examining the videos and images of victims published online, they were able to conclude with a high degree of confidence that the vast majority are recent and not fabricated.”

In an address to the British Parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia was currently backing a “wider operation to conceal the facts” of what happened in Douma and cited reports that Syrian authorities have been “searching evacuees from Douma to ensure samples are not being smuggled from this area.”

But she also acknowledged that Britain’s case against Syria was built on open-source reports — including videos and photographs — that were reviewed by British medical and scientific experts, as well as firsthand accounts by NGOs and aid workers. “The World Health Organization has received reports that hundreds of patients arrived at Syrian health facilities on Saturday night with ‘signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals,’” she said. “Based on our assessment, we do not think that these reports could be falsified on this scale.”

These assessments, which acknowledge the limits of Western intelligence agencies’ knowledge, represent a departure from previous decision-making on military action in Syria, where U.S. policymakers have typically sought to obtain physical evidence of chemical weapons use before launching a retaliatory strike.

When the United States last year fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for its role in an April 4, 2017, sarin attack against the rebel-controlled town of Khan Sheikhoun, Western officials had begun to amass a wealth of evidence tying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to the attack.

Within days of that attack, Western operatives had obtained soil samples containing the nerve agent sarin, according to Jean Pascal Zanders, a chemical weapons expert. “The British had samples of the agent itself,” he says.

Later that month, the French government declassified a report claiming it had also analyzed soil samples indicating that a strain of the nerve agent sarin developed by Syrian scientists had been used in the attack.

Syrian victims, meanwhile, slipped across the nearby border with Turkey, where foreign doctors were able to take blood samples of those exposed to the chemical agent. U.N. inspectors subsequently confirmed that Syrian forces had attacked Khan Sheikhoun and three other towns with chemical weapons.

Following the latest chemical attack, Ahmet Uzumcu, the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, deployed a fact-finding mission to Syria over the weekend to look into allegations of chemical weapons use. But Russian and Syrian authorities on Monday blocked the inspectors’ access to Douma, citing “pending security issues.” Instead, they offered to bus victims into Damascus to be interviewed by the inspectors.

Syria and Russia’s monthslong siege of Douma has complicated the challenge of obtaining proof.
“Douma has been completely surrounded by the Syrian government and has been subject to intensive bombardment as part of the regime offensive since February,” says Gregory Koblentz, the director of the biodefense graduate program in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. “The problem is that the territory is now occupied by the Syrian government and the crime scene is no longer secure.”

“It doesn’t lend itself to a credible investigation,” he adds. “It’s like the criminals came back to the scene of the crime and they can do whatever they want with the evidence before the cops show up.”
Still, the lack of hard physical evidence has contributed to an air of uncertainty over precisely what kind of nerve agent was used in the attack. U.S., British, and French officials claimed with confidence that Syria dropped chlorine bombs on Douma; they were less sure about the use of a nerve agent in the attack.

Before the U.S. airstrikes, NBC News cited two unidentified officials claiming Washington has obtained smuggled blood and urine samples from a victim in Douma that show traces of poisoning by chlorine and a nerve agent.

But the U.S. assessment, released immediately after the U.S.-led missile strikes, did not include that specific claim, citing only unspecified information indicating that sarin may have been used.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, meanwhile, voiced uncertainty during his Friday press briefing over the use of sarin, saying, “We are not clear on that yet.”

“We’re very confident that chlorine was used,” he added. “We are not ruling out sarin right now.”
The Trump administration’s willingness to embrace the allegations of chemical weapons use contrasts sharply to that of President Barack Obama’s administration, according to François Heisbourg, a French security expert who frequently advises the French government on security matters.

The Obama White House, Heisbourg says, had initially expressed deep caution after French officials shared the results of blood, hair, and urine samples collected by French reporters. The administration at the time insisted on establishing the chain of custody of such samples, something that was virtually impossible without on-the-ground inspections by international inspectors.

Obama, Heisbourg says, was reluctant to cross the “red line” he had previously drawn in threatening a military response to the use of toxic agents.

“We literally had to shove the samples in the face of the Americans,” he adds. “The response from Washington was, ‘No, we need more proof.’ But the proof was there.”

This time around, if the Russian or Syrian authorities cleaned up the crime scene, the inspectors should be able to detect tampering and report it, according to Heisbourg.

“Will everybody accept it? Of course not,” he says. “The Russians can pretend that this was done by a band of Swedish clowns, and some people will believe it.”