NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is considering three options for a relief package to help farmers suffering because of low crop prices at a cost of as much as 3 trillion rupees ($42.82 billion), according to three government sources.
The possibilities are a direct payment to all landowning farmers, compensation for those who sold produce below government prices, and a loan forgiveness program.
Modi is desperate to claw back support among India’s 263 million farmers and their many millions of dependents after his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost power earlier this month to the opposition Congress in three big heartland states. A general election has to be held by May.
The government is keen to find a way to get money to farmers as quickly and simply as possible so that they can feel the benefits before the election. That could come at a major cost to its budget, which is already strained because of lower-than-expected tax revenues, and is likely to undermine its fiscal deficit target for the year ending in March.
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The BJP won much of the rural vote at the last election in 2014 but there has been increasing anger with the government in the countryside because Modi has tried to get the market to play a bigger role in setting prices and sought to reduce government intervention. Healthy crop production in the past two years and lower than expected exports have combined to drive prices down at a time when some farm costs have been surging.
The quickest option, and currently the most favored inside the government, is to directly pay landowning farmers 1,700-2,000 rupees per acre, said two of the sources, including one at the farm ministry. They spoke on condition they not be identified.
The finance ministry estimates such a scheme, which means farmers would get the money before next sowing season, could cost up to 1 trillion rupees.
The second option would be to compensate farmers for the difference they received by selling their produce in the market compared with the government price that is set for grains and some other products, one of the finance ministry officials said. That would be cheaper, costing about 500 billion rupees, the official added.
That option has some major drawbacks, though, as government support schemes have lost credibility because they don’t cover all farm produce and claiming from the government has often proven difficult. Middlemen have also taken advantage of such schemes by persuading the farmer to give them part of any subsidy or compensation.
The most expensive option - at a cost of as much as 3 trillion rupees - and the least favored inside the government, would involve writing off farm loans by up to 100,000 rupees per person. That is a policy that is being pushed hard by the opposition Congress party.
MODI IN SERIES OF DISCUSSIONS
“Broadly speaking, the government is considering three options – writing off some farm loans, introducing a price differential plan and direct transfer of cash to farmers,” said a source at the farm ministry.
All three sources, said that the government has not yet discussed the ways in which it plans to fund any of the schemes.
FILE PHOTO: A farmer channels water to irrigate his wheat field on the outskirts of Ahmedabad,
India, December 15, 2015. REUTERS/Amit Dave
In the last week Modi had a series of meetings with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture Ministry Radha Mohan Singh and officials from its top think tank Niti Aayog to weigh its options for a farm relief program.
BJP President Amit Shah also met Agriculture Minister Singh last night to discuss the proposals, according to a senior cabinet minister, who did not want to be named.
The government is also planning to buttress any package by revising the existing crop insurance policy to facilitate easier settlement of claims and also give greater non-collateralized credit assess to farmers, the minister said.
($1 = 70.06 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; additional reporting by Nigam Prusty; Editing by Martin Howell
Natural disasters hit the poor much harder than they do the better-off, so the poor should have priority when we reconstruct
This past week I’ve been acutely aware of what survivors in Indonesia were experiencing – their bewilderment and agony
2018-12-28
In October this year, The Guardian newspaper in the UK carried an article by Sri Lankan academic and author Sonali Deraniyagala on the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia in September 2018, claiming over 2000 lives. In December 2004, Ms. Deraniyagala lost her family to the Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed over 35,000 lives in Sri Lanka. The tsunami took away her two young sons, her husband, and her parents. Ms. Deraniyagala survived by clinging to a tree branch. In 2013, she released her award-wining memoir ‘Wave’, which recounts her experiences in the tsunami and the intense grief she felt thereafter. ‘Wave’ is used as a prose passage in the O/Level English Literature syllabus. Daily Mirror republishes below the article by Ms. Deraniyagala, which appeared in The Guardian, in memory of the victims and survivors of the 2004 tsunami disaster, and the current tsunami tragedy affecting Indonesia’s Java and Sumatra islands.
“I cannot imagine what happened to you” – people would often remark to me. I lost my world in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. We were on holiday. I survived the deadly wave that struck the South Eastern coast of Sri Lanka. My two young sons, my husband and my parents did not. “I can’t imagine the horror of it,” I’ve heard people say this week as news of the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia reached us. We heard about Rori, a 29-year-old woman who fled her home with her husband and baby daughter as the earth shook and the floor split and her mother got swallowed into the moving ground.
We often stop ourselves imagining when confronted by the unthinkable. We do this out of respect, and also fear. We may think it too presumptuous to imagine the suffering of an individual like Rori. We are also afraid. But the truth is, we can imagine. And we need to. Not out of moral obligation, but because, really, none of us is that safe. And accepting this can be life-affirming, not scary. When we see that we are not so different from the people caught up in these calamities, we are not numbed by their stories. We can understand, and help.
This past week I’ve been acutely aware of what survivors in Indonesia were experiencing – their bewilderment and agony. In those early months after the tsunami I was immobilised on a bed, shaking, pain crushing my chest, clueless about what I should do now, how could I possibly live. How do we recover, as individuals, communities and countries? There is no blueprint for healing and rebuilding. Each situation is unique. But there are common challenges that we can understand, and imagine.
Speed matters, when providing emergency help – food, medicine, safe shelter. Rori’s daughter got a fever soon after the earthquake, she needed treatment – a temperature so high is dangerous for a young child. Rebuilding infrastructure matters – schools, roads. Devastation provides opportunity to modernise and make buildings safer. But it’s equally important to rebuild usefully and with imagination. This does not always happen. In Sri Lanka, I’ve seen new houses built after the disaster used only for storing rice – people found the tsunami-resistant, dome-shaped new dwellings too bizarre to live in.
Natural disasters hit the poor much harder than they do the better-off, so the poor should have priority when we reconstruct. In Haiti, mortality from the earthquake of 2010 was highest among the urban poor of the capital Port-au-Prince. The loss of assets – farms, livestock, equipment – can be ruinous. I know too that psychological support is crucial. Some weeks after the tsunami in Sri Lanka, I heard of a man whose children were killed by the wave. His took his own life, throwing himself under a train. With the right psychosocial help, he might have had a chance.
With therapy I learned to tolerate the unbearable, and to process the unthinkable. And I was able to revive. Survivors in Sulawesi may be forever altered by this horrific geological event that caused the ground we assume to be safely solid to melt and liquefy. But they can recover and re-emerge. They can be happy and productive, and find meaning and joy again.
My sons would have turned 21 and 19 this year. I often imagine how they would now be. Two of their friends from London are in Sri Lanka right now, volunteering on a project that teaches music to rural children who don’t have teachers or instruments. It was started up with donations after the 2004 tsunami. And more than a decade later – when houses have been rebuilt and highways constructed – it endures. It excites young children who thump their drums and blow their trumpets too loud. They are learning new skills. And are learning to imagine.
RUPA, India — When Tallo Anthony joined the local forest department in 2011 as a computer operator after finishing high school, it wasn’t because he particularly liked computers. Nor did he have much interest in forests or wildlife. “I joined only because I was looking for a job,” he says.
In fact, despite having grown up in Rupa, a town just some 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the stunning Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, Anthony knew very little about the forests surrounding his home. He was content with having secured a job that gave him a stable income. This was important because he wanted to support his mother, who had singlehandedly raised him and his three siblings since his father passed away in 2008. His desire to help take care of his family was also why he hadn’t been able to pursue what he actually wanted to learn: photography and filmmaking.
Anthony, who belongs to the Apatani tribe, kept his interest in filming alive by watching YouTube videos. “I learned about cameras, what it means to edit, how to edit, and so on, through online videos,” he says. “I even downloaded an editing software on my computer. I would go to the office during the day and practice editing at night.” Often this meant leaving the videos to render through the night, a process that would take several hours, interrupted frequently by power cuts.
Juggling between his office duties and night-edited passion projects, little did Anthony know that he would soon become a celebrated name in the region.
Tallo Anthony began learning about photography via YouTube videos. Image courtesy of Tallo Anthony.
The opportunity
It started with a nature camp that Anthony was invited to observe a few months after joining the forest department. The camp, held near Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary and organized in part by the forest department, was meant to expose local schoolchildren to the biodiversity around them. It stirred Anthony’s interest in forests and wildlife, too. “It was then that I saw that there’s such a beautiful forest near Rupa,” he says.
It was also at the camp that Anthony first met Millo Tasser, a young forest officer who, the following year, would go on to head the Shergaon Forest Division, where Anthony worked. “Millo sir saw that I was taking pictures on my phone, so he understood that I’m interested in photography,” Anthony says. “Since then whenever there was a nature camp in Eaglenest, he would call me to take pictures.”
For three years, Anthony split his time between his office duties, studying for a bachelor’s degree in arts that he was trying to complete through a distance-learning course, and his video projects. In 2015, his passion received a significant boost.
Seeing that Anthony was talented, and interested in conservation, Tasser pointed him to Greenhub, a project that had recently been launched in the city of Tezpur in neighboring Assam state. Greenhub is a collaboration between Dusty Foot Productions, a New Delhi-based media company focused on wildlife and environment films, and the North East Network, a women’s rights NGO based in the city of Guwahati, Assam. The project was looking to train youths from India’s northeast region to use video as a tool to understand and document the area’s biodiversity and communities. And that year, Greenhub had put out its first call for applications. Anthony, encouraged and supported by Tasser,
applied. Two interviews later, he was one of the 20 people selected for a year-long fellowship.
Today, Anthony, 27, is one of Greenhub’s most exceptional fellows, says the project’s director, Rita Banerji, a wildlife filmmaker who’s worked in the northeast region for several decades.
“One thing is that he had done a lot of his own learning from YouTube,” Banerji says. “So we can’t take the credit for everything. But we were able to guide him to enhance his skills.”
For many of the fellows, though, Greenhub’s program presents their first foray into the world of filmmaking.
Making young filmmakers
That’s the case for 21-year-old Shaleena Phinya. Phinya lives in Singchung, the main village of the Bugun tribe, one of the indigenous communities living around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. Part of the latest Greenhub batch, Phinya is the first woman from the Bugun tribe to venture into wildlife filmmaking.
“From the Greenhub point of view, she’s a very, very important fellow because she can change perspectives about women in the field within her community,” Banerji says.
In fact, Tasser says they had to literally go door-to-door in Singchung to look for this year’s Greenhub candidates. “The patrolling team boys of the Bugun community reserve, who are all from Singchung, helped us find Shaleena,” he says. Researchers working around Eaglenest then helped Phinya prepare for the interview, and they continue to mentor her even now.
As for Phinya, honing her video skills in Eaglenest has proved exciting in many ways. Just last month, she encountered a lone elephant while traveling through Eaglenest by motorbike with two members of the patrol team. The elephant, visibly spooked, let off a loud trumpet, while Phinya and the boys dropped their bikes and ran for cover, spending the rest of the evening hidden by the side of the road until help reached them after midnight.
Shaleena Phinya is the first woman from the Bugun community to venture into wildlife filmmaking. Image courtesy of Shaleena Phinya.Like Phinya, all Greenhub fellows are exposed to practical training right from the start. They spend the first three months learning photography, videography, editing, storytelling, and sound-design skills from some of India’s noted filmmakers and photographers. They then spend the remaining months of their fellowship interning with different organizations and creating short documentary-style films, for a monthly stipend of 4,000 rupees ($54).
The process goes something like this: The fellows go to the field site of the organizations they are interning with; they shoot footage for a few weeks or a month; then they return to Greenhub where mentors help them edit their material. They repeat the cycle several times over the course of around nine months.
“We go through their entire footage to see how they are shooting,” Banerji says. “Only when they edit do they realize the mistakes they are making, and it is through the editing process that they understand the issue they’ve been shooting much better.”
Greenhub fellows have created films on a wide range of subjects. There have been films on threatened wildlife species found in the northeast, such as the pygmy hog (Porcula salvania), a critically endangered species found only in Assam, and the vulnerable black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) that winters in Zemithang, Arunachal Pradesh, and is considered sacred by the Monpa community. There have also been documentaries on saving traditional millets, reviving traditional music and dance, the practice of cultivating fish in rice fields, and examples of community-led conservation initiatives, among others.
During his time at Greenhub, Anthony, too, worked on a range of topics.
“I was lucky,” Anthony says. “Usually, most fellows intern with just one organization, but I ended up working with many different organizations, where I got to see what conservation actions on the ground actually look like. I also met a lot of people during the course of my internship and built a network.”
In October 2015, Anthony went back to Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary for yet another nature camp for schoolkids conducted by the forest department and the Bugun Welfare Society, an NGO run by members of the Bugun tribe living near the sanctuary. This time, Anthony was listed as the official photographer. And this time, the video he made showcasing the activities at the camp won him a Young Achiever Award at the Woodpecker International Film Festival held in New Delhi in 2016.
“I had gone to the film festival for the experience and good food, but when they called my name, I was very surprised,” Anthony says. It was only when the news of his award made it into the local newspapers in Arunachal Pradesh and was shared via WhatsApp that his mother realized that what her son had achieved was no small feat.
“Even then my mother called me and scolded me for wearing a T-shirt to the stage. She said, ‘you should’ve worn better clothes,’” Anthony says while trying to stifle his laughter.
Since graduating from Greenhub, Anthony has added several feathers to his cap. He was invited as a speaker at Nature inFocus, an annual nature and wildlife photography festival held in Bengaluru, the southern Indian city previously known as Bangalore, in 2016. This year, he was recognized by the government of Arunachal Pradesh for being a prominent young achiever in the state.
Tallo Anthony was recently felicitated by the Arunachal Pradesh government. Image courtesy of Tallo Anthony.Anthony has also teamed up with three other youths from his batch at Greenhub, one each from the states of Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya, with whom he has formed a group called Genesis4northeast. In 2017, the team won an award for making the best tourism film of the year at a tourism festival in Arunachal Pradesh. And this year, they wrapped up a film on the Bugun liocichla (Liocichla bugunorum), an extremely rare bird found only around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary on land governed by the Bugun tribe.
Commissions for wildlife-related films have, however, been few and far between. “It’s only when we get some projects from the forest department or conservation NGOs that we get to make
conservation-related films,” Anthony says. “For now, I’ve been doing mostly promotional tourism videos, or cultural videos featuring traditional festivals in the state.”
Anthony no longer works for the forest department, but continues to document the nature camp near Eaglenest every year. “He is an asset to the department,” Tasser says. “I keep reminding him that he should always do his bit to spread the message of conservation through his medium.”
Genesis4northeast won an award for their tourism film. Image courtesy of Tallo Anthony.
Empowering indigenous youths
That’s Greenhub’s ultimate goal, too.
Banerji acknowledges that not every Greenhub fellow will become a filmmaker. But at the end of it all, the Greenhub network should forward conservation and social change, she says.
Two Greenhub fellows are, for instance, working in Delhi with a web channel called Hind Kisan that covers rural India. In Mizoram state’s Dampa Tiger Reserve, fellow Zakhuma, a forest guard from a Mizo indigenous group, has made a film documenting Dampa’s biodiversity and threats, including the challenges of patrolling a park that shares an international border with Bangladesh. Similarly,
Greenhub fellows Chandan Patro and Paro Natung, both anti-poaching staff at Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh, have made films showcasing the park through the eyes of the people who patrol it.
Sital Dako, a field assistant with a research organization in Pakke, too, films the forest and villages surrounding the tiger reserve. Dako, who, like Natung, belongs to the Nyishi tribe, is one of the few female Greenhub fellows along with Shaleena Phinya of Singchung.
Phinya, despite her encounters with elephants, says she isn’t afraid to go into the forest; she usually goes with the patrol team and she feels safe. What irks her, though, is when people say she shouldn’t be out in the field simply because she’s a woman. “My family doesn’t say much, but other people do,” Phinya says.
At the same time, Phinya can see other young women and men from her village wanting to know more about her work. “One of my cousins, for example, now wants to do the Greenhub course,” she says.
Banerji says her organization gets 30 to 40 applications from women every year, which is encouraging. Two out of 20 seats in every batch are reserved for women, while more female candidates are always welcome, she adds. The Greenhub project is also very selective in choosing its fellows: it prefers people who live in remote areas, don’t have access to technology, and can’t afford to but are interested in and committed to using video as a tool for conservation.
Video showcasing highlights from the Greenhub Project. Video courtesy of Greenhub.
The project’s ultimate goal is to empower the youths from India’s northeast so they see the value in the natural resources around them. And video is a powerful tool to achieve that.
Banerji also hopes eventually to use the videos that the fellows make to create a digital library of biodiversity-related footage from the northeast. “For example, if someone coming to the northeast wants to look at butterflies, we will have a systematized footage on butterflies that’s easily accessible to people,” she says. But with only three batches of Greenhub fellows having graduated so far, this will take time to achieve.
Anthony, too, is taking baby steps at the moment. Since filmmaking and photography equipment is expensive, he’s been working on smaller projects and using the money from those to buy more equipment — although Greenhub does provide filming and editing gear at a subsidized rate for its alumni.
“When a client’s paying you good money, they expect good quality, but I don’t have very good equipment to take on such big projects right now,” he says. “When I have the necessary equipment, I’ll approach bigger clients for bigger projects.”
Banerji, who invited Anthony as one of the instructors for this year’s Greenhub batch, thinks he should also work on films that he really wants to do.
“Anthony is very good at his craft, he’s very good with people, and he has the ability to tell good stories,” she says. “Maybe it will take one or two more years before he can take out the time and get funding for a film that he’s been wanting to do for a long time. But he should. He’s a very special guy.”
Banner image of Tallo Anthony courtesy of Tallo Anthony. FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Building self-awareness, through things like meditation, can boost our mental and physical wellbeing
By Alex TherrienHealth -28 December 2018
If you are contemplating a new year's health kick, you could be forgiven for feeling a little overwhelmed.
Do yoga, run, lift weights, cut the carbs, or the fat (depending on the particular diet that's in vogue), ditch the booze, reduce your stress.
It is easy to feel like your life needs to be overhauled in order to be a healthy, happy human being.
But what if you were to make only one change?
We asked experts what single thing they would recommend people should do to improve their health, assuming they are an adult who is otherwise healthy and not a smoker.
Focus on the mind
Image copyright
It is easy to only think about our physical health.
But according to Dr Nadine Sammy, associate lecturer for sport and exercise sciences at the University of Exeter, we should also be focusing on improving our minds by building self-awareness.
You might think of this as something that prevents us from embarrassing ourselves, but, according to Dr Sammy, it is much more than this.
Self-awareness is the ability to recognise and understand your moods, emotions and drives, and building it can play a crucial role in improving mental and physical wellbeing over time.
"By understanding your feelings, motivations and behaviours in more depth, you can begin to act more consciously in order to make better choices for yourself," she says.
"For instance, what is your motivation to exercise? When are you most - and when are you least - likely to stick to your exercise routine and why?"
There are many ways to do this, she says, including journaling, meditating, practicing mindfulness or simply making time for self-reflection after certain activities or at the end of the day.
"Better understanding ourselves allows us to play to our strengths and build on our weaknesses, thereby spurring us on to be our best self," she adds.
Adopt a dog
There are particular health benefits in adopting a dog, says Dr Rhys Thatcher
A gym membership, a pilates class, or a morning run - just some of the things that might come to mind when we think of becoming physically more active.
But though going to the gym works for some of us, many will quit after a month or two, says Dr Rhys Thatcher, a reader in exercise physiology at Aberystwyth University.
Instead, he recommends finding ways to routinely incorporate exercise into our daily lives.
There are plenty of ways to do this, from avoiding the lifts at work to parking on the far side of a supermarket car park when you are doing the shopping.
But there are particular benefits to adopting a dog, he says.
If you make sure to walk it for at least 30 minutes twice a day, you will be boosting your activity while also getting the emotional benefits of dog adoption.
"This way you get to spend time outside, you get to exercise, you get a loyal companion and at the same time you get to improve the life of another living thing, all of which have been shown to improve physical and mental health," says Dr Thatcher.
Get your 30 a week
Experts say diversity of plant-based foods is also important
We have all heard about getting our five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
But according to Dr Megan Rossi, a research fellow at King's College London's department of nutritional sciences, it is not only quantity we should be striving for, but also diversity.
We should aim for at least 30 different plant-based foods per week, she says.
That is because plant-based diversity is thought to have a key role in good gut health.
The bacteria in our gut - collectively known as the microbiome - have a profound role in our health.
Allergies, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson's, and even depression have all been linked to the bacteria in our gut.
One way we can get more plant-based diversity in our diets easily is by being a little savvier about some of the foods we purchase, says Dr Rossi.
"Instead of just buying chickpeas go for the four-bean mix. Instead of buying one type of seed buy the four-seed mix," she says.
Smile more often
Do not spend so much time focusing on arbitrary matters, do something that makes you smile instead
After the excesses of the holiday season, many of us will be planning to lose a couple of stone or setting a target for how many times we go to the gym each week.
But the problem with "arbitrary" goals like these is that they are often difficult to achieve and failing to reach them can be demoralising, says Dr James Gill.
Instead, he recommends focusing first on trying to be happier.
"There are lists of specific things that you can do to actively make your life healthier, but if you are not enjoying your life you probably won't stick to any difficult or challenging changes for the coming year," says Dr Gill, a locum GP and researcher at Warwick Medical School.
But how do you go about becoming happier?
Dr Gill recommends making one change in your life that will make you smile more often. At the same time, identify one thing that makes you unhappy and try to do something to improve it.
"Get those two in the bag, and you'll be ready to look to other things to really give your health a boost further into the year."
And finally, get enough sleep
It may seem obvious, but we should all aim to get enough sleep (seven to nine hours a night for most healthy adults).
Even being mildly deprived of it (five hours a night) can affect a range of cognitive functions, including decision making, says Dr Gavin Buckingham, senior lecturer in sport and health sciences at the University of Exeter.
There are lots of things we can do to get a better night's sleep, from avoiding caffeine too close to bed to having a consistent bedtime.
But Dr Buckingham's top tip is to stop using electronic devices like phones and laptops well before bedtime or at least put on a filter that blocks the blue light in them.
Editor’s Note: The following is the text of a letter handed over to the President asking for the release of land in the North and East to original owners. It has been signed by 47 displaced people and 132 concerned individuals and organisations. A short briefing and summary of 15 cases related to displacement, submitted by the People’s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL), was handed over with the letter as well as a July 2018 submission made on the Reparations Act in relation to land.
27th December, 2018
President Maithripala Sirisena
Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe & Leaders of Political Parties
Keep the Presidential Promise – release land by 31st December 2018
On the 4th of October 2018, The Presidential Media Division reported that “President Maithripala Sirisena instructed the authorities to complete the process of releasing the lands in the North and East Provinces to their original owners, before December 31st, after resolving all the issues” , at a meeting of the Presidential Task Force to monitor development projects conducted in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
We, whose lands have been taken away from us forcibly and are still suffering immensely nearly ten years after the end of the war, demand that you keep this promise and ensure that authorities abide by instructions you gave them several months ago.
We also demand that the Prime Minister and leaders of all political parties and alliances support this fully and demand that the President implement this decision.
1. A. Benedict Croos – Mannar 2. A. Yogarany – Neethivaan Mukaam 3. A.L.M. Mispahu – Azraf Nagar, Oluvil, Addalaichenai, Ampara 4. I. Akila – Keerimalai 5. I. Rishab – Palamunai 6. I. Saraswathy – Urumpirai 7. I. Tharmarajiny – Urumpirai 8. I. Vithusha – Urumpirai 9. Jayananthini Kunaraththinam – Kilinochchi 10. K. Diroshan Croos – Mullikulam 11. K. Kokulan – Ampara 12. Kamsananthini Kunarathnam – Kilinochchi 13. Kunarthnam Thiruniraichchelvi – Kilinochchi 14. M. Mithushayini – Mallakam 15. M. Vellimayil – Sinthu Centre 16. M.A.A. Figurado – Mannar 17. M.B. Hakeem – Ampara 18. Malika – Kilinochchi 19. N. Inpanayagam – Urumpirai 20. N. Janusha – Mallakam 21. N. Reji Salo – Mullikulam 22. N. Vimala – Urumpirai 23. Punchirala Somasiri – Ragamvila, Panama 24. R. Ajantha – Ampara 25. R. Anushan – Urumpirai East, Puliyady 26. R. Dilakshana – Urumpirai East, Puliyady 27. R. Nilushayini – Ampara 28. R. Rawha Banu – Chilavathurai 29. R.F. Ramila Banu – Chilavathurai 30. S. Bandara – Ragamvila, Panama 31. S. Gunawathi – Ragamvila, Panama 32. S. Janany – Ampara 33. S. Kirushanth – Urumpirai 34. S. T. Kandeepan – Amban, Kudaththanai 35. S. Uthayasivam – Chundikulam 36. S. Vinitha – Urumpirai East, Puliyady 37. Selvi – 5th Vaajkkal, Kilinochchi 38. T. Abisha – Urumpirai East, Puliyady 39. T. Jeevitha – Urumpirai East, Puliyady 40. T. Jeyachithra – Urumpirai North 41. T. Kirusonth – Urumpirai 42. T. Latha – Neethivalaakam 43. T. Selvarani – Urumpiray 44. T. Thadshayini – Urumpirai 45. T. Thushanth – Urumpirai East, Puliyady 46. Vaasini – Kilinochchi 47. Vathani – Paravippanjan, Kilinochchi
Endorsed by;
Individuals 1. Abdul Cader Mohamed Rumaiz 2. Ajita Kadirgamar 3. Anberiya Hanifa 4. Angelica Chandrasekeran 5. Anithra Varia 6. Anthony Jesudasan 7. Anuka Vimukthi De Silva 8. Anushaya Collure 9. B. Gowthaman 10. Buddhima Padmasiri – Attorney-at-Law 11. Caryll Tozer – Women’s Rights Activist 12. Channaka Jayasinghe 13. Chintaka Rajapakse 14. Chulani Kodikara 15. Deanne Uyangoda 16. Deekshya Illangasinghe 17. Dharini Udugama 18. Dilan Ramanayake 19. Dinushika Dissanayake – Attorney-at-Law 20. Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu 21. Emil van der Poorten – Supporter of human and civic rights 22. Florine Marzook 23. Geethika Dharmasinghe – Liberation Movement 24. Godfrey Malarnesan – Maatram Foundation 25. Godfrey Yogarajah 26. Herman Kumara 27. Hyshyama Hamin 28. Ian Ferdinands 29. Ishara Danasekara 30. Isuru Perera 31. Jake Oorloff 32. Jansila Majeed – Women’s Action Network, Mullaitivu 33. Jena Jeyakanthi – Mannar 34. Jerat Jeyamala – Activist, Puthukudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu 35. Joanne Senn 36. Johathas Manomani – Activist, Puthukudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu 37. Josap Marisasikala – Activist, Alampil, Mullaitivu 38. Juwairia Mohideen 39. K. Nihal Ahamed 40. Kalani Subasinghe 41. Kasinathan Thavampihai – Activist, Puthukudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu 42. Keerthiseelan Kethusa – Activist, Uduppukkulam, Mullaitivu 43. Kumaran Nadesan 44. Lakmali Hemachandra – Liberation Movement 45. Lal Wijenayake – General Secretary, United Left Front 46. Linus Jayatilake – President, United Federation of Labour 47. Lucille Abeykoon 48. Lydia Gitanjali Thiagarajah 49. Mahaluxmy Kurushanthan 50. Mahendran Thiruvarangan – Lecturer (Probationary) – English Literature, University of Jaffna 51. Mario Gomez 52. Marisa de Silva 53. Megara Tegal 54. Nicola Perera – University of Colombo 55. Nilshan Fonseka 56. P. Selvaratnam 57. P.M. Mujeebur Rahman (LLB) 58. P.N. Singham – Maatram Foundation 59. Padma Pushpakanthi 60. Parakrama Niriella – Janakaraliya Cultural Foundation 61. Prof. Ajit Abeysekera 62. Prof. Kumar David 63. Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole – Jaffna 64. Rajaledsumi – Women’s Rights Activist, Batticaloa 65. Rajmohan Priyatharsini – Activist, Mankulam, Mullaitivu 66. Raseekka Nisa – Development Centre, Thanneeroottu, Mullaitivu 67. Rev. Bro. Thobias 68. Rev. Fr. G. J. G. Croos (Nehru) – Mannar 69. Rev. Fr. Jeyabalan Croos 70. Rev. Fr. M.V.E. Ravichandran 71. Rev. Fr. Nandana Manatunga 72. Rev. Fr. Sarath Iddamalgoda 73. Rev. Fr. Terrence Fernando 74. Rev. Fr. V. Yogeswaran 75. Rev. Sr. Chandra 76. Rev. Sr. Goretti Leon 77. Rev. Sr. Jenita 78. Rev. Sr. Jeyam 79. Rev. Sr. Nichola 80. Rev. Sr. Noel Christine Fernando 81. Rev. Sr. Rasika Pieris HF 82. Rev. Sr. Rita SCJM 83. Rev. Sr. Virgin 84. Rt. Rev. Dr. Daniel S. Thiagarajah – Jaffna Diocese, Church of South India 85. Ruki Fernando 86. Ruvini Jayaratne 87. Sabra Zahid 88. Sahira Lahir 89. Sampath Samarakoon 90. Sandun Thudugala 91. Shenali De Silva 92. Shreen Saroor 93. Srinath Perera – General Secretary, Free Trade Union Centre 94. Sugath Priyantha Rajapasha – Sramabimani Kendraya 95. Sunanda Deshapriya – Sri Lanka Brief 96. Swasthika Arulingam 97. Tanuja Thurairajah 98. Tehani Ariyaratne
Organisations
99. Alliance Development Trust (ADT) 100. Association for Friendship and Love (AFRIEL) Youth Network 101. Centre for Justice and Change (CJC), Trincomalee 102. Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) 103. Centre for Social Concerns, Ja-Ela 104. Child Development Initiative 105. Child Vision Sri Lanka 106. District Fisheries Solidarity (DIFSO), Ampara 107. District Fisheries Solidarity (DIFSO), Jaffna 108. Hashtag Generation 109. Human Elevation Organization (HEO), Ampara 110. Human Rights Organisation (HRO), Kandy 111. INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre 112. International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) 113. Law and Society Trust (LST) 114. Mannar District Fisheries Organization 115. Mannar Women’s Development Federation (MWDF) 116. Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) 117. Mullaitivu District Fisheries Organization 118. Muslim Women’s Development Trust (MWDT), Puttalam 119. National Fisheries Solidarity Organization (NAFSO) 120. Northern Muslims’ Forum (NMF) 121. Panama-Paththuwa Surakeeme Sanvidhanaya, Panama 122. People’s Movement Against Port City 123. Praja Abilasha Land Rights Network 124. Rural Development Foundation 125. Rural Workers Organization, Jaffna 126. Savisthri National Women’s Movement 127. Sri Vimukthi Fisher Women Organization 128. Trincomalee District Fisheries Organization 129. Voice of Trincomalee 130. Women for Justice and Peace in Sri Lanka 131. Women’s Action for Social Justice Network 132. Women’s Action Network (WAN)
Media is called the watchdog of democracy because it keeps the government active and public involved. Media is assigned this specific name as watchdog of democracy because it keeps its eye on the work of government and raiseawareness between public that is the reason they are referred to as “watchdog”.
Very regrettably, today’s “news” presentations by the media has been seen by many as arbitrary constructions, cleverly designed to achieve political interests. There are many examples to point to how media was instrumental in inciting and injecting hatred among people, violence and manipulating for an ethnic upheaval, violent disturbance and disorder.
This is an important reminder on how this type of evil political propaganda can cause damage to society.
These contemptible slime-ball media were hunting and interviewing those scumbags, low-life rotters, whose pieces and reports were simply spectacular lies, intended to incite hatred and violence and who, in their reports, pointed their filthy fingers at individuals, local groups of people and political parties who were not willing to run with them.
Although there is no doubt that the media really did play the key and dirtiest roles in these recent conflicts, they were only instruments of politics. There is no doubt that this real responsibility belongs to the greedy and power hungry politicians. The country experienced, on the 26th of October 2018, how the criminals nurtured by the President and the illegally appointed Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, invaded the state media and held them hostage while both President Maithripala and Mahinda Rajapaksa, kept absolutely silent. Nary a word did they utter.
After that, it was bedlam – every State Media was in a state of extreme confusion and utter disorder.
Continuing in the same tone, everything the media indulges in today is a farce. In a licentious and grotesque manner they are exposing their distorted immoral discipline and ludicrously exhibiting a mere false facade concealing a deep and implacable personal feud through which they seek to have vengeance.
Stories of conspiracy theories, fill the television screens, all proven by fake testimonies and online videos; always labeling their opponents, puppets of a foreign conspiracy and pawns of Western powers, became the mainstay of Maithripala- Mahinda propaganda.
In fact, one thing that we have noticed is that all of these conspiracy theories depend on the perpetrators thinking that they are being endlessly clever. It is all about our society believing anything you tell them; and you the media, assume everyone is endlessly stupid.”
We would like to tell the media : “That is your biggest mistake.”
Broadcasting, televising and printing the unmistakeable scream of “foreign conspiracy” supporting the joint opposition is a narrative which is not simply a denial of facts — it’s a deliberate political strategy with specific goals.
First and foremost they are propagating disobedience and dissent. They try to mimic dictators always calling itthe work of a foreign agency whose ultimate goal is to impose Western values and destabilize the country.
They are trying to embed securely into the hearts and minds of these people that these foreign agents bribe impressionable and otherwise loyal citizens to execute their dirty work, turning them into puppets susceptible to manipulation and seduced by the promise of wealth, name, fame, position and power.
These are the distortions what the local media are trying to hammer firmly into the hearts and minds of the unsuspecting people.
This has the function of painting the United National Front government, focusing on the United National Party, as inherently unpatriotic. This creates a distance between the existing government and the larger population by slandering dissenters as extremists, even as terrorists, that share nothing in common with ordinary people.
Such tactics condition people to distrust democratic action — or any kind of activism at all — creating an apathetic and cynical society, making the masses to believe in the worst of human nature and motives; and propagating a sneering disbelief in which corrupt authoritarians and tyrants thrive.
By blaming any and all dissent on foreigners, the Joint Opposition tries to convince the people, in an arrogant manner, that no one has any right to question its actions.
Furthermore, inventing a foreign adversary distracts people from domestic issues, further casting doubts on the regime’s stability. After all, the threat of a foreign invasion is much more frightening than high unemployment or corruption. A diversionary tactic employed by the black media.
Some media are in dire need of self-examination. We believe that propaganda is yet another ugly scar on the face of modern journalism. There is a need to cleanse journalism of fear, propaganda and routine frustration. In the absence of critical journalism, democracy suffers and deliberate misinformation becomes the norm – A pattern regarded as typical.
In order to raise the awareness to the dangers of this uncontrolled proliferation of propaganda, the people of this country must be made known, that propaganda is dangerous when it distorts pluralism where diversity of racial, religious, ethnic and cultural groups is tolerated.
We would also issue a warning to Mr. Maithripala Sirisena to refrain from antagonizing the public by him manipulating Governmental authorities to promote wrongly concocted news and banning and blocking radio and television signals; at the same time imposing other restrictions, such as ban on entry for journalists and their eviction from governmental press centers and public functions.
It should be made very clear that censoring by the President of this country for the sake of political expediency is not a democratic tool to counter information.
At all times, and especially in difficult times, blocking and harassing certain media who are reporting facts, is not an answer because it leads to arbitrary and politically motivated actions. Limits on media freedom for the sake of political expediency means subtle censorship by the president and, when begun, censorship never stops.
The media too should realize that when propaganda, when it is pervasive, massive and systematic, it is undoubtedly detrimental to the freedom of the media. This phenomenon destroys the core of the profession of journalism. It makes journalists hostages of the presidential power of some sort, and thus, hitting at the independence of the media.
Journalists are forced or bribed to be a mere conduit of the messages. If dominant in a given country, propaganda becomes an instrument to establish authoritarianism, thus, distorting not just pluralism of the media but other basic foundations of a democracy. Meanwhile, it affects the public trust in the free media, in the values and the meaning of the profession.
What the media is now indulging by their excesses, is that they are digging their own graves.
We have had enough of the lies, the sanctimony, the arrogance, the hatred, the pettiness and their disgusting fake news,
To maintain objectivity in journalism, journalists should present the facts whether or not they like or agree with those facts. Objective reporting is meant to portray issues and events in a neutral and unbiased manner, regardless of the writers’ opinions or personal beliefs.
We believe that in the modern world with new technologies and millions becoming involved in journalism through social networks, the weight of ensuring the ethics of the profession should be on the shoulders of editors and other gatekeepers of the news.
I call on editors and publishers; I call on governmental authorities wherever they own media outlets directly or by proxy, to stop corrupting the profession and to stop gaining influence on blood, hate speech and narrow-mindedness.Z
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is considering three options for a relief package to help farmers suffering because of low crop prices at a cost of as much as 3 trillion rupees ($42.82 billion), according to three government sources.
In the last week Modi had a series of meetings with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture Ministry Radha Mohan Singh and officials from its top think tank Niti Aayog to weigh its options for a farm relief program.
In the last week Modi had a series of meetings with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture Ministry Radha Mohan Singh and officials from its top think tank Niti Aayog to weigh its options for a farm relief program.
