President Obama will not consult Iranian Expats to make demands from Iranian President- why should O’Blake consult Sri Lanka Tamil Expats to make demands from Sri Lankan President.
By Charles.S.Perera
As the American Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O’Blake was already a sympathiser of the terrorists in Sri Lanka, along with Chilcot the Ambassodor of UK and Eric Solheim of Norway.
When Robert O’Blake was promoted from his position of the American Ambassador to Sri Lanka to Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, he also seem to have got promoted from his status of a sympathiser of the terrorists in Sri Lanka , to being the spokesman for the pro-terrorist Sri Lanka Tamil expatriates in America. For which of the two promotions he is better adopted , or for which he should be recognised only the time will tell.
Blake is not upholding President Barack Obama’s Foreign Policies. He is still in the days of the Bush era. During the period he was the Ambassador he had been telling the government of Sri Lanka at regular intervals that the only solution to the terrorism in Sri Lanka is a political solution, and that it cannot be solved through a military option. He got all local pro- terrorists elements recognised by the American State Department proposing people like Mano Ganeshan for an American award for defending human rights . They were strangely given visas to enter America, the paradox of it is seen now after elimination of terrorism.
The International Community led by America, and UK vowed to fight terrorism where ever it exists. And they refused any negotiations with terrorists. But, despite that being hoisted as their principal modus operandi in the face of terrorism, they inexplicably went soft towards the terrorists in Sri Lanka and were all out to save them at any cost, even seeking to enter into the area when the most ruthless of all terrorists Praphakaran and his cohorts were cornered in Mulaitivu.
That was a real change of attitude of the International community that had vowed to fight terrorists where ever they are. Further more even now when the Government Forces have successfully eliminated terrorism, they are deliberately taking revenge from the Sri Lanka Government and its Armed Forces, for this praise worthy military operations to eliminate the terrorism, by accusing them for violation of human rights, war crimes, and now for imprisoning the IDP’s in camps.
We now see the West as they really are bereft of their well publicised Christian justice and fair play. The paradox of their vowed anti terrorist principle is that the American Embassy in Sri Lanka it appears, may not issue visas for the members of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to visit USA on the ground of their part in the “violation of human rights”. Is America a Democracy ? One really begins to wonder.
Blake now an Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs with his own agenda different from that of President Barrack Obama’s foreign policies, is having a dialog with the terrorist sympathisers among the expatriate Tamils. Blake has shamelessly met with them in the State Department, in Wahsington, assuring them that they will not be allowed to be prosecuted by the Government of Sri Lanka for the part they played in aiding and abetting the terrorists in Sri Lanka, by providing the terrorists with Financial Aid, and carrying out pro-terrorist and anti Sri Lanka manifestations in foreign countries. In doing so he has become the spokesman for the pro terrorist Tamil expatriates in America, and their protector.
Blake’s departure from President Barack Obama’s foreign policy is in his collaboration with the expatriate Tamils in America, who openly aided and abetted the terrorists in Sri Lanka, to make demands from the Government of the Sovereign State of Sri Lanka on behalf of them -the Tamil expats for an early reconciliation with the Tamils.
The question to be asked in this circumstance is whether President Obama in trying to find a solution to have a dialogue with the political leadership in Iran , will call the expatriate Iranians in America to find out their point of view before he meets with Iranian leaders ?
I am sure he will not , and the President Barack Obama is a intelligent and a forthright statesman and he will rather enter into a direct contact with the political leaders of Iran and not cultivate a doubtful relationships with the expatriate Iranians who are opposed to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But surprisingly this is not what Robert Blake is doing behind the President Obama’s back with regard to Sri Lanka..
Of course there is no point in bring it to the notice of the State Department as the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Hillary Clinton is hand in glove with Milliband, Carl Bildt, Bernard Kouchner, Eric Solheim and the crowd. Perhaps the President Barack Obama has not paid attention to what is going on in the State Department and a stranger to the manipulations of Robert Blake to break up Sri Lanka ethnically, and if possible territorially.
What does Robert Blake take himself for, to tell the President of Sri Lanka when he should begin a national reconciliation in Sri Lanka. It is purely a matter for the President of Sri Lanka to decide. The expatriate Tamils were contributing to break up Sri Lanka, and never for any reconciliation, and Blake becomes their unofficial spokesman, and takes up the cause of the Expatriate Tamils. In doing so he interferes in to the affairs of a democratically elected Government of a Sovereign State, which he should not do in his present capacity of an Assistant Secretary of the State Department of USA.
Ever since he was the Ambassador of Sri Lanka , he began to find ways and means to break up Sri Lanka and bring discredit to the Sri Lanka Government. He prophesied that the military option will not be successful. But he was proved wrong. The only solution against terrorism is a military solution and that was proved to the world by Sri Lanka Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse, and his brave Armed Forces.
And Robert Blake now dares make another prophesy that if the government does not move to find a political reconciliation before January 2010,the people will become disaffected and that will give new impetus to terrorism. It is time that he stops making his prophecies, to please certain quarters, as he is proving himself to be a hoax and a false prophet.
He merely repeats the demands of the Tamil expatriates, who are strangers to Sri Lankan Tamils . They living in their cosy comfort in their foreign homes do not understand what the Tamil people had to go through being under a ruthless group of terrorists for the last 25 years. And they are people with fires of hatred within and cannot bring about much needed Communal Unity in Sri Lanka.
The pro-terrorist expatriate Tamils stand for dissention, hatred, and disunity. Sri Lanka has nothing to do with them as long as they do not come directly to the Government of Sri Lanka to discuss what role they would like to play in the development Sri Lanka as a Nation. Their going in search of people like Blake to be their spokesman shows their dishonesty and their continued effort to discredit Sri Lanka and if possible finance another terrorist group. Does Robert O’Blake wants that to happen ?
Robert O’Blake is now the Assistant Secretary of State. His office demands that he should forget his past affiliations in living up to the call of his new Office. He should not mingle with terrorists, rabble-rousers, disrupters, and nincompoops, when he has to deal with another Sovereign State. He should consult the leaders of those countries directly without sullying his hands dealing with non-state elements of doubtful origin .
What Blake never seem to have understood is that the Government of Sri Lanka which removed a 30 year old cancer of terrorism, without causing death and injury to the civil population, and rescued over 200,000 Tamil Civilians from the grip of the terrorists who had kept them as a human shield, has not got to learn any lesson from Blakes, Bildts, Millibands, Solheims or Kouchners, in dealing with the IDPs , removing obstacles to security, and finally settling them in their homes.
Monday, 31 August 2009
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
UNP’s Tissa Attanayake rejects Government’s invitation to the Opposition to work together
According to a recent report in the news media, Tissa Attanayake General Secretary of the UNP had made a very unwise and an undignified comment, on the invitation the General Secretary of the SLFP made to the UNP and the other Opposition Parties , to join with the government to carry out together, a programme of development for the country.
Attanayake had said that they would not join the corrupt regime. The regime of the President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse as people knows has just delivered the country from a thirty year old terrorism . It is only now the government is able to look around to see what progressive moves it has to make to take the country out of the present economic , social and cultural difficulties. The government had not been able to attend some of these important issues due to the priority it had given to remove the heaviest burden of continued terror by the LTTE terrorists..
To speak of this regime, which faced the most barbaric problems than any other regime before, as corrupt, shows Attanake’s political immaturity. This regime is attending to each problem at a time, and having solved it to its entire satisfaction , sets its eyes on yet unsolved problems to take them up in their turn. In that effort it has rightly requested the Opposition Parties led by the UNP to give it a hand.
But if UNP is led by wise men, or at least by men with a modicum of intelligence, they would have agreed to join with the government to help it carry out its development plans. Even the devil has to be given its due. Therefore, the UNP even if it really believes that the regime is corrupt, has to accept that it has so far done well, first in getting rid of terrorism, and secondly in launching many ambitious development projects, which it has either completed , or are being carried out. Sri Lanka does not belong to the President Mahinda Rajapakse alone, therefore the development of Sri Lanka is the work of SLFP, UNP and all other Political Parties and their followers- the people as a whole.
It has to be accepted that since Independence one area that had been neglected for development, by government after government had been the South. It is only now thanks to the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government that important projects had been initiated to develop the South.
Political corruption is not an unknown element even in the so called developed democracies. Therefore, corruption within a government cannot be the criteria to avoid helping it when it extends its hand for a concerted effort to work together, to develop the country as a whole. If UNP considers that it had not been corrupt when it was in power, this is time to join the Regime they think is corrupt to remove its corruptions, and bring it to the “pure” path of good governance to make them develop the country.
In not joining the Government when it invites the UNP and the Opposition Parties to join it, the UNP and the Opposition are letting down their own people , because every one no matter to what political party , each one of them belongs to , would like to develop Sri Lanka to make it a progressive, prosperous country, where every one could live happily together.
Tissa Attanayake knows very well that the Government is making a genuine and a sincere request for the Opposition Parties to join it to work together for the development of the country. But Tissa Attanayake, in refusing to work together with the government on the ground that it is corrupt, only shows that he is more interested in the political future of UNP and not of the welfare of the country as a whole.
Because, immediately after his refusal to join as he says a corrupt regime, he had said that the Government had started bribing the provincial level politicians to join the government. This is what irks Mr. Attanayake, and sees the political corruption of the Government in trying to lure away the members from his Party.
The solution to stop luring away the members of UNP, to the Government is not calling the Government corrupt, and refusing to work with it to develop the country. But the solution is in winning the confidence of its membership, so that they will refused to be lured away from the UNP. If the members of the UNP are leaving the party to join a corrupt regime, the fault is with the UNP and not with the Regime.
Now let us see whether, the President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Government is really corrupt. There had been verbal accusation of corruption, even of kidnapping and assassination of media personnel, improper use of government funds and material. But none of these accusations have still been proved to the satisfaction of the people. Some Army personnel and Police officers had turned out to be criminals but that could not be used to muddy the good name , the bravery, and heroism of the Army, or the Security Forces.
The Government while it was engaged in the greater task of elimination of terrorism, had also done lot of development projects which the UNP or any one of the Opposition cannot deny. To mention a few that I can think of are:
1. Weheragala Resevoir and the Dam
2. Fresh Water Aqua-culture in the North
3. Agricultural Development Programme in Kurunegala
4. Improvement to Meteorological Observation Net work
5. Production activities of the Elephant Pass Salterns,
6. Paranthan Chemical Factory
7. High-tech Language and IT Centre in Rajagiriya,
8. Upper Kotmale Hydro Power Project.
9. Homagama Sports Stadium,
10. Hambantota Port Development Project Assisted by China
11. Moragahakanda Development Project Assisted by Saudi Arabia
12. Kukule Ganga Hydropower Project
13. Sothern Transport Development Project
14. Development of the Galle Harbour
15. Olivil and Kankasenturai Harbour Projects
16. Weerawila Air Port Project
17. Solar Power Street Lighting Projects,
18. High Way Project
19. Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery assisted by Iran
20. Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project
21. Kaju Plantation in the North
22. Coconut Oil Milling Plants in the North.
These are a few of the many more development projects that have either been completed, under construction, or proposed . If the government is corrupt as Mr. Attanake says, would it have been possible for it to carry out so many development projects despite a difficult “war” against terrorists ?
Now it is time for Mr. Attanayake to mature into politics, and see Sri Lanka in its global setting. It is not with self centred political ambition that he should look at our motherland. Sri Lanka needs every one to get together to keep away the foreign marauders from attacking our country with the sole aim of breaking it up and keep Sri Lanka poor and under developed going to the white West begging for aid.
It is time that every patriot who loves the country stop attacking the Government all the time. It is not up to the UNP or the SLFP to change the minds of the people to chose their governments. When the people will understand when a government should be changed they will do it at the correct time when they are called upon to elect their representatives to form a new Government. In the mean time the UNP and SLFP and the rest of the Opposition Parties should get together first to keep away the Western Countries who wants to bring disrepute to Sri Lanka and keep it poor, and secondly to make progressive development plans become successful, and be of benefit to the people of the country.
People cannot be fooled any more they have the intelligence to understand who could be trusted to develop Sri Lanka. Tissa Attanayake, Lakshman Perera Kiriella , and Jayalath Jayawardhana are working into the hands of anti Sri Lanka elements the UK, Norway, France ,American States Department, and the Catholic Church. The people are quite aware of this and each time any one of these people speak against the Government, there are more followers of UNP willing to change camp to join the Government.
The only possibility for UNP to win back its lost prestige and popularity is by first getting rid of Ranil Wickramasinghe and then by work with the Government. It is only in that willingness to work in partnership with the government for the development of Sri Lanka, that UNP can win over the trust of the people for them to accept UNP as a possible alternative to form another government.
Attanayake had said that they would not join the corrupt regime. The regime of the President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse as people knows has just delivered the country from a thirty year old terrorism . It is only now the government is able to look around to see what progressive moves it has to make to take the country out of the present economic , social and cultural difficulties. The government had not been able to attend some of these important issues due to the priority it had given to remove the heaviest burden of continued terror by the LTTE terrorists..
To speak of this regime, which faced the most barbaric problems than any other regime before, as corrupt, shows Attanake’s political immaturity. This regime is attending to each problem at a time, and having solved it to its entire satisfaction , sets its eyes on yet unsolved problems to take them up in their turn. In that effort it has rightly requested the Opposition Parties led by the UNP to give it a hand.
But if UNP is led by wise men, or at least by men with a modicum of intelligence, they would have agreed to join with the government to help it carry out its development plans. Even the devil has to be given its due. Therefore, the UNP even if it really believes that the regime is corrupt, has to accept that it has so far done well, first in getting rid of terrorism, and secondly in launching many ambitious development projects, which it has either completed , or are being carried out. Sri Lanka does not belong to the President Mahinda Rajapakse alone, therefore the development of Sri Lanka is the work of SLFP, UNP and all other Political Parties and their followers- the people as a whole.
It has to be accepted that since Independence one area that had been neglected for development, by government after government had been the South. It is only now thanks to the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government that important projects had been initiated to develop the South.
Political corruption is not an unknown element even in the so called developed democracies. Therefore, corruption within a government cannot be the criteria to avoid helping it when it extends its hand for a concerted effort to work together, to develop the country as a whole. If UNP considers that it had not been corrupt when it was in power, this is time to join the Regime they think is corrupt to remove its corruptions, and bring it to the “pure” path of good governance to make them develop the country.
In not joining the Government when it invites the UNP and the Opposition Parties to join it, the UNP and the Opposition are letting down their own people , because every one no matter to what political party , each one of them belongs to , would like to develop Sri Lanka to make it a progressive, prosperous country, where every one could live happily together.
Tissa Attanayake knows very well that the Government is making a genuine and a sincere request for the Opposition Parties to join it to work together for the development of the country. But Tissa Attanayake, in refusing to work together with the government on the ground that it is corrupt, only shows that he is more interested in the political future of UNP and not of the welfare of the country as a whole.
Because, immediately after his refusal to join as he says a corrupt regime, he had said that the Government had started bribing the provincial level politicians to join the government. This is what irks Mr. Attanayake, and sees the political corruption of the Government in trying to lure away the members from his Party.
The solution to stop luring away the members of UNP, to the Government is not calling the Government corrupt, and refusing to work with it to develop the country. But the solution is in winning the confidence of its membership, so that they will refused to be lured away from the UNP. If the members of the UNP are leaving the party to join a corrupt regime, the fault is with the UNP and not with the Regime.
Now let us see whether, the President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Government is really corrupt. There had been verbal accusation of corruption, even of kidnapping and assassination of media personnel, improper use of government funds and material. But none of these accusations have still been proved to the satisfaction of the people. Some Army personnel and Police officers had turned out to be criminals but that could not be used to muddy the good name , the bravery, and heroism of the Army, or the Security Forces.
The Government while it was engaged in the greater task of elimination of terrorism, had also done lot of development projects which the UNP or any one of the Opposition cannot deny. To mention a few that I can think of are:
1. Weheragala Resevoir and the Dam
2. Fresh Water Aqua-culture in the North
3. Agricultural Development Programme in Kurunegala
4. Improvement to Meteorological Observation Net work
5. Production activities of the Elephant Pass Salterns,
6. Paranthan Chemical Factory
7. High-tech Language and IT Centre in Rajagiriya,
8. Upper Kotmale Hydro Power Project.
9. Homagama Sports Stadium,
10. Hambantota Port Development Project Assisted by China
11. Moragahakanda Development Project Assisted by Saudi Arabia
12. Kukule Ganga Hydropower Project
13. Sothern Transport Development Project
14. Development of the Galle Harbour
15. Olivil and Kankasenturai Harbour Projects
16. Weerawila Air Port Project
17. Solar Power Street Lighting Projects,
18. High Way Project
19. Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery assisted by Iran
20. Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project
21. Kaju Plantation in the North
22. Coconut Oil Milling Plants in the North.
These are a few of the many more development projects that have either been completed, under construction, or proposed . If the government is corrupt as Mr. Attanake says, would it have been possible for it to carry out so many development projects despite a difficult “war” against terrorists ?
Now it is time for Mr. Attanayake to mature into politics, and see Sri Lanka in its global setting. It is not with self centred political ambition that he should look at our motherland. Sri Lanka needs every one to get together to keep away the foreign marauders from attacking our country with the sole aim of breaking it up and keep Sri Lanka poor and under developed going to the white West begging for aid.
It is time that every patriot who loves the country stop attacking the Government all the time. It is not up to the UNP or the SLFP to change the minds of the people to chose their governments. When the people will understand when a government should be changed they will do it at the correct time when they are called upon to elect their representatives to form a new Government. In the mean time the UNP and SLFP and the rest of the Opposition Parties should get together first to keep away the Western Countries who wants to bring disrepute to Sri Lanka and keep it poor, and secondly to make progressive development plans become successful, and be of benefit to the people of the country.
People cannot be fooled any more they have the intelligence to understand who could be trusted to develop Sri Lanka. Tissa Attanayake, Lakshman Perera Kiriella , and Jayalath Jayawardhana are working into the hands of anti Sri Lanka elements the UK, Norway, France ,American States Department, and the Catholic Church. The people are quite aware of this and each time any one of these people speak against the Government, there are more followers of UNP willing to change camp to join the Government.
The only possibility for UNP to win back its lost prestige and popularity is by first getting rid of Ranil Wickramasinghe and then by work with the Government. It is only in that willingness to work in partnership with the government for the development of Sri Lanka, that UNP can win over the trust of the people for them to accept UNP as a possible alternative to form another government.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Human Rights Watch, please help ethnic communities in America , and President Obama’s social plans for America’s poor.
Human Rights Watch is Active Again. This is the vacation period and no wonder the Human Rights Globe trotters are looking out for vacations abroad. Human rights is their “gain pain” – their job. If there is no ethnic problem some where in the world specially in a place like Sri Lanka a coveted spot for vacation, they invent one. The monsoon rain that poured on to the IDP camps was the occasion for them to make a hue and cry.
Undoubtedly they are missing Sri Lanka, where else could they jump in to provide aid to the natives who would treat them like “white angels “ and allow them a stress free holiday. They shun Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Chad , because the beauty of the places and the climatic conditions are not ideal for a vacations. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine are too dangerous, Burma, China will not receive them. Therefore , they dream of an escalation of Sri Lanka’s ethnic problems to move in.
Given below is just a paragraph from an article by an Australian, about Sri Lanka. She is not a Human Rights activists. You will know it immediately because the Human Rights activists will never write of Sri Lanka in this manner. This Australian- a journalist says of Sri Lanka,
“…Sri Lankans are wonderful people, genuinely interested and happy to help out. Unlike other Asian countries, where asking for directions, or getting someone to take a photo of you will result in you being fleeced out of cash, Sri Lankans will go out of their way to ensure you enjoy their beautiful country. I've had a gentleman lead me across several pulsing roadways in order to ensure that I get settled onto the right bus, conversing with the conductor in Sinhalese on my behalf to ensure that I arrived at the right destination.”
So what better place is their for a holiday even if it were to look after the Tamil IDP camps much cleaner and orderly than those in Darfur, Somalia, or Chad (http://pereracharles.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html - for the images of the refugee Camps in Chad compared to ours in Vavuniya).
The Human Rights Watch based in America is a business run by a few white Americans. If they want to they can keep themselves more than occupied looking after poor Americans whose human rights are also constantly violated. There was a young man in America who knew of the serious problem of the poor suffering Americans of another ethnic community. He was a young Financial Writer to a Multi National Enterprise with a promising future.
He gave it up to mobilise the poor in places like Altgeld in Chicago. He Organised poor and working class people to fight for their rights to improve their living conditions. He worked with Community Churches to facilitate the task of getting people together. When there was no place to meet, he held meetings in street corners. He is Barack Obama-to-day the President of USA .
He writes of the condition of the people in Altgeld Gardens Public Housing Project, in his book “Dreams from My Father- A Story of Race and Inheritance”. It is about a residential area called the “Gardens”, abandoned due to stench emanating from a Sewage Treatment Plant and the closing down of factories, land used as a dump where the poor people had been housed .
The Author Obama the Social Worker describes the area as follows: ”……The stench, the toxins, the empty, uninhabited landscape……A dump-and a place to house poor blacks.
……Altgeld may have been unique in its physical isolation, but it shared with the city’s other projects a common history: the dream of reformers to build decent housing for the poor; the politics that had concentrated such housing away from white neighbourhoods, and prevented working families from living there….
……Every thing about the Gardens seemed in a perpetual state of disrepair. The ceilings crumbled. Pipes burst. Toilets backed up. Muddy tire tracks branded the small, brown lawns strewn with empty flower planters-broken, tilted, half buried. The CHA maintenance crews had stopped even pretending that repairs would happen any time soon. So that most children in Altgeld grew up without ever having seen a garden. Children who could see only that things were used up, and that there was a certain pleasure in speeding up the decay.”
And despites these conditions of pathos in which some of the poor American Blacks are made to live in America-the home of Democracy, the Human Rights Watch talks about Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem. Altgeld housing project had been many times worst than the IDP Camps in Manik Farm.
The President Obama is a man who worked with the poor people of Chicago. He knows the suffering of the American poor. There are more poor people in America than the rich. That is why the President Obama is so keen on the Health Care Reform Bill.
The Republicans, have no reason to oppose the Health Care Reforms Bill, other than to stop the President becoming more popular, so as to make the Republicans remain long in the political cold storage. The Health Care Reforms would greatly easy the anxiety of the less fortunate Americans who are burdened with heavy medical bills which keep increasing more than their incomes. Republicans who oppose the proposed Health Care Reforms have not given a single valid reason as to why they oppose it.
Human Rights Watch if they have any self respect should be helping the cause of the President of USA and work to collect support for the Health Care Reform Bill. Instead of attending to more important humanitarian work at home, Human Rights Watch is looking outwards lashing out at the government of Sri Lanka which has done so much for the poor people of the North, East and the South of Sri Lanka.
Neither the Human Rights Watch nor their wage payers the expatriate Tamils of the LTTE terrorist front Groups in America, will ever understand the colossal work that had been accomplished by the Government Armed Forces and the Government of Sri Lanka to save and protect, provide shelter, food, cloth, medical facilities, and security to nearly 200,000 IDPs.
It is easy to say release the IDPs from the camps. But to where could these IDPs be released . Their houses have to be built, water and lights have to be provided, danger to life from buried mines and bombs have to be avoided, before they are rehabilitated. If they have no homes they cannot be left under trees. The relatives of these IDP are also not rich and their homes are not large enough to accommodate more persons in them. Getting the IDPs to stay with families will be creating more suffering not only to the IDPs but also to those families who would accommodate them.
These holiday conscious American Whites of the Human Rights Watch, do not know the customs, habits, and way of living of the people of other cultures. Even in the West it is rarely if at all family members will accommodate a destitute family. In France, during heavy rain storms when houses are flooded, the homeless families are accommodated in Schools, Gymnasiums and such buildings, never with their family members, friends or host families. The Human Rights pandits are quite aware of this. They are merely trying to point out inhuman situations, where none exists
Brad Adams is a stupid man to say that keeping the IDPs in Camps is illegal, dangerous, and inhuman. He is not fit to call himself a humanitarian, as what he is seeking in blaming the Government of Sri Lanka is his own benefits. He or his companions have no love or affection for our people.
It is time Brad Adams and the America Based Human Rights Watch learn to love their own black compatriots and help improve their living conditions, before attempting to teach people of other countries how to look after their people.
Some of the people affected by the hurricane Caterina had been paid compensation by insurance companies, but they are still to be settled in homes, and their living conditions improved. Why is the Human Rights Watch silent with regard to them ? If you visit New York, you are warned not to go to slum areas behind the Central Park. Why don’t the Human Rights Watch work in these areas and improve the condition of the people there ?
Brad Adams and his companions of the Human Rights Watch should give up their political differences, if they have any and help the President of USA Mr.Barack Obama, as he is trying to activate much neglected social reforms in USA.
The Republicans are all out to make President Obama unpopular and put barriers against his progressive proposals because he happens to be a Black American. It is time that the Brad Adam and his Companions of the Human Rights Watch turn to their own people to bring unity between the black ethnic Community and the White Community, leaving us in Sri Lanka to solve our own problem.
Our problem is not their problem. Our Government saved our people from a ruthless group of terrorist who rampaged our country sowing terror for thirty years. Therefore, this government is also capable of solving other problems of its own people.
Rains and problems people in Sri Lanka have to face during rainy seasons is nothing new. It does not happen only in the North East but also in the South. It could be worse in the South when there are land slides due to heavy rains.
It is of course very frustrating that the IDPs have to face innumerable problems. Having suffered under terrorism, they continue to suffer in various other ways. But unfortunately they have to go through their suffering a little more until things are made supportable by the government. For the moment they are at least stationed in one place, without being herded from one place to another, as it was the case when they were under the terrorist.
The IDPs had to be accommodated in Camps as there was no other place to send them.
Their houses have been destroyed or mined. It was an enormous task for the government to find shelter for the peoples who came in their thousands running away from the terrorists. Not only had they to be provided with shelter, they also had to be provided with three meals a day, clothing and medical facilities.
Added to all that is the presence of former terrorists dissimulated among the refugees. They can begin to brain wash the Tamil refugees in the camps, speaking to them of the “merits” of terrorism and develop hatred towards the other communities so that once back in their homes they can recruit some of them to go back to terrorism.
The government would not like to allow that to happen and therefore the screening of suspected terrorists, which had to be done with prudence. It cannot be done in a hurry and haphazardly These important matters cannot be neglected to please nondescript Human Rights Watch or the Amnesty International or even the unconcerned International Community.
What Sri Lanka wants to ameliorate the conditions of the IDPs is material assistance by way of providing Funds and consumable , and non-consumable articles, not criticism of the government, and calling for immediate solutions to problems.
But we certainly do not want either the Human Rights Watch or the Amnesty International interfering into our affairs. It is best that they keep away from Sri Lanka, as Sri Lanka is quite capable of looking after its own people whether they are in the South , the North or the East.
Undoubtedly they are missing Sri Lanka, where else could they jump in to provide aid to the natives who would treat them like “white angels “ and allow them a stress free holiday. They shun Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Chad , because the beauty of the places and the climatic conditions are not ideal for a vacations. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine are too dangerous, Burma, China will not receive them. Therefore , they dream of an escalation of Sri Lanka’s ethnic problems to move in.
Given below is just a paragraph from an article by an Australian, about Sri Lanka. She is not a Human Rights activists. You will know it immediately because the Human Rights activists will never write of Sri Lanka in this manner. This Australian- a journalist says of Sri Lanka,
“…Sri Lankans are wonderful people, genuinely interested and happy to help out. Unlike other Asian countries, where asking for directions, or getting someone to take a photo of you will result in you being fleeced out of cash, Sri Lankans will go out of their way to ensure you enjoy their beautiful country. I've had a gentleman lead me across several pulsing roadways in order to ensure that I get settled onto the right bus, conversing with the conductor in Sinhalese on my behalf to ensure that I arrived at the right destination.”
So what better place is their for a holiday even if it were to look after the Tamil IDP camps much cleaner and orderly than those in Darfur, Somalia, or Chad (http://pereracharles.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html - for the images of the refugee Camps in Chad compared to ours in Vavuniya).
The Human Rights Watch based in America is a business run by a few white Americans. If they want to they can keep themselves more than occupied looking after poor Americans whose human rights are also constantly violated. There was a young man in America who knew of the serious problem of the poor suffering Americans of another ethnic community. He was a young Financial Writer to a Multi National Enterprise with a promising future.
He gave it up to mobilise the poor in places like Altgeld in Chicago. He Organised poor and working class people to fight for their rights to improve their living conditions. He worked with Community Churches to facilitate the task of getting people together. When there was no place to meet, he held meetings in street corners. He is Barack Obama-to-day the President of USA .
He writes of the condition of the people in Altgeld Gardens Public Housing Project, in his book “Dreams from My Father- A Story of Race and Inheritance”. It is about a residential area called the “Gardens”, abandoned due to stench emanating from a Sewage Treatment Plant and the closing down of factories, land used as a dump where the poor people had been housed .
The Author Obama the Social Worker describes the area as follows: ”……The stench, the toxins, the empty, uninhabited landscape……A dump-and a place to house poor blacks.
……Altgeld may have been unique in its physical isolation, but it shared with the city’s other projects a common history: the dream of reformers to build decent housing for the poor; the politics that had concentrated such housing away from white neighbourhoods, and prevented working families from living there….
……Every thing about the Gardens seemed in a perpetual state of disrepair. The ceilings crumbled. Pipes burst. Toilets backed up. Muddy tire tracks branded the small, brown lawns strewn with empty flower planters-broken, tilted, half buried. The CHA maintenance crews had stopped even pretending that repairs would happen any time soon. So that most children in Altgeld grew up without ever having seen a garden. Children who could see only that things were used up, and that there was a certain pleasure in speeding up the decay.”
And despites these conditions of pathos in which some of the poor American Blacks are made to live in America-the home of Democracy, the Human Rights Watch talks about Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem. Altgeld housing project had been many times worst than the IDP Camps in Manik Farm.
The President Obama is a man who worked with the poor people of Chicago. He knows the suffering of the American poor. There are more poor people in America than the rich. That is why the President Obama is so keen on the Health Care Reform Bill.
The Republicans, have no reason to oppose the Health Care Reforms Bill, other than to stop the President becoming more popular, so as to make the Republicans remain long in the political cold storage. The Health Care Reforms would greatly easy the anxiety of the less fortunate Americans who are burdened with heavy medical bills which keep increasing more than their incomes. Republicans who oppose the proposed Health Care Reforms have not given a single valid reason as to why they oppose it.
Human Rights Watch if they have any self respect should be helping the cause of the President of USA and work to collect support for the Health Care Reform Bill. Instead of attending to more important humanitarian work at home, Human Rights Watch is looking outwards lashing out at the government of Sri Lanka which has done so much for the poor people of the North, East and the South of Sri Lanka.
Neither the Human Rights Watch nor their wage payers the expatriate Tamils of the LTTE terrorist front Groups in America, will ever understand the colossal work that had been accomplished by the Government Armed Forces and the Government of Sri Lanka to save and protect, provide shelter, food, cloth, medical facilities, and security to nearly 200,000 IDPs.
It is easy to say release the IDPs from the camps. But to where could these IDPs be released . Their houses have to be built, water and lights have to be provided, danger to life from buried mines and bombs have to be avoided, before they are rehabilitated. If they have no homes they cannot be left under trees. The relatives of these IDP are also not rich and their homes are not large enough to accommodate more persons in them. Getting the IDPs to stay with families will be creating more suffering not only to the IDPs but also to those families who would accommodate them.
These holiday conscious American Whites of the Human Rights Watch, do not know the customs, habits, and way of living of the people of other cultures. Even in the West it is rarely if at all family members will accommodate a destitute family. In France, during heavy rain storms when houses are flooded, the homeless families are accommodated in Schools, Gymnasiums and such buildings, never with their family members, friends or host families. The Human Rights pandits are quite aware of this. They are merely trying to point out inhuman situations, where none exists
Brad Adams is a stupid man to say that keeping the IDPs in Camps is illegal, dangerous, and inhuman. He is not fit to call himself a humanitarian, as what he is seeking in blaming the Government of Sri Lanka is his own benefits. He or his companions have no love or affection for our people.
It is time Brad Adams and the America Based Human Rights Watch learn to love their own black compatriots and help improve their living conditions, before attempting to teach people of other countries how to look after their people.
Some of the people affected by the hurricane Caterina had been paid compensation by insurance companies, but they are still to be settled in homes, and their living conditions improved. Why is the Human Rights Watch silent with regard to them ? If you visit New York, you are warned not to go to slum areas behind the Central Park. Why don’t the Human Rights Watch work in these areas and improve the condition of the people there ?
Brad Adams and his companions of the Human Rights Watch should give up their political differences, if they have any and help the President of USA Mr.Barack Obama, as he is trying to activate much neglected social reforms in USA.
The Republicans are all out to make President Obama unpopular and put barriers against his progressive proposals because he happens to be a Black American. It is time that the Brad Adam and his Companions of the Human Rights Watch turn to their own people to bring unity between the black ethnic Community and the White Community, leaving us in Sri Lanka to solve our own problem.
Our problem is not their problem. Our Government saved our people from a ruthless group of terrorist who rampaged our country sowing terror for thirty years. Therefore, this government is also capable of solving other problems of its own people.
Rains and problems people in Sri Lanka have to face during rainy seasons is nothing new. It does not happen only in the North East but also in the South. It could be worse in the South when there are land slides due to heavy rains.
It is of course very frustrating that the IDPs have to face innumerable problems. Having suffered under terrorism, they continue to suffer in various other ways. But unfortunately they have to go through their suffering a little more until things are made supportable by the government. For the moment they are at least stationed in one place, without being herded from one place to another, as it was the case when they were under the terrorist.
The IDPs had to be accommodated in Camps as there was no other place to send them.
Their houses have been destroyed or mined. It was an enormous task for the government to find shelter for the peoples who came in their thousands running away from the terrorists. Not only had they to be provided with shelter, they also had to be provided with three meals a day, clothing and medical facilities.
Added to all that is the presence of former terrorists dissimulated among the refugees. They can begin to brain wash the Tamil refugees in the camps, speaking to them of the “merits” of terrorism and develop hatred towards the other communities so that once back in their homes they can recruit some of them to go back to terrorism.
The government would not like to allow that to happen and therefore the screening of suspected terrorists, which had to be done with prudence. It cannot be done in a hurry and haphazardly These important matters cannot be neglected to please nondescript Human Rights Watch or the Amnesty International or even the unconcerned International Community.
What Sri Lanka wants to ameliorate the conditions of the IDPs is material assistance by way of providing Funds and consumable , and non-consumable articles, not criticism of the government, and calling for immediate solutions to problems.
But we certainly do not want either the Human Rights Watch or the Amnesty International interfering into our affairs. It is best that they keep away from Sri Lanka, as Sri Lanka is quite capable of looking after its own people whether they are in the South , the North or the East.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Is India Sri Lanka’s Elder brother , and both countries the heart and soul of each other ?
In an, interview to an Indian magazine the Prersident Mahinda Rajapakse had said that India and Sri Lanka are actually each other’s heart and soul. And else where he had said that India is Sri Lanka’s elder brother.
The Minster of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of Defence had also paid tribute to India saying that it helped Sri Lanka to win the war against terrorism. All that seems to be very encouraging. Perhaps the Government had kept away from the people some vital information with regard to India’s special role during its military operations against the terrorists . Because as far as the people are concerned , from the information they were able to gather, India was far from being an elder brother to Sri Lanka, but rather a scheming distant cousin with no blood relationship.
When SWRD Bandaranaike was the Prime Minister it had been publicized that the Bandranaikes and the Nehrus were family friends.
But other than that the people of Sri Lanka are strangers to India’s elder brother role at any time in its history. Of course India under King Asoka was more than an elder brother, and historically Sri Lanka is close to India of King Asoka than India of today.
There are certain serious incidents that took place in recent times that we know of, which take India out of the elder brother or heart and soul role. We the commoners certainly know less than the President and his Ministers about India’s closer connections with Sri Lanka. Therefore, in our ignorance we beg to differ with the President , and refuse to admit India’s elder brother role.
We expect elder brothers to give us advise, stand by us when we are in need, and protect and help us against our enemies. But in 1987 when the Sri Lanka Government Forces on its Vadamarachchi Operation to recapture Jaffna from terrorist control was on the verge of winning that military operation, India intervened trespassing into our air space to drop “parippu” to terrorists under siege, and stopped the Government Forces from pushing the dagger of death into the heart of terrorism.
India’s betrayal of that year, was not second to what UK and France was trying to do interposing their Foreign Minsters seeking a cease fire, when the Sri Lanka Government Forces were on its last lapse of the military operations closing on the cornered terrorist leadership to finish off with them.
In 1987 India did not only illegally drop “paruppu” to the terrorists, but also forced the Government of Sri Lanka to sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord,
agreeing to stop assistance to the terrorists, provided the Government of Sri Lanka agree to deploy an Indian Peace Keeping Force, merge North and East into a single Province, allow concessions to the Tamil Community, and on top of all that left us with the sword of Democles the 13th Amendment. Was all that an act of fraternal love ?
After the fall of Elephant Pass to the terrorists in April, 2000, and Jaffna was cut off from the rest of the country, over 40,000 Sri Lankan troops were trapped in the Jaffna peninsula. They were about to be run over by the brutal terrorist forces. The fear for the lives of these soldiers trapped in the Peninsula was mounting .
The President Chandrika Kumaratunga sought the help of India to evacuate the soldiers under siege as Sri Lanka had no ships at its disposal to move out the soldiers. But the “elder” brother India –the heart and soul of Sri Lanka as the President Mahinda Rajapakse describes refused to help in that calamitous situation to provide the much needed transport. It was Pakistan our true “ blood brother “, who came to our help by providing the army with the military equipment to launch a successful counter offensive that halted the LTTE terrorist advance.
That was India, to whom the President Rajapakse and the Ministers of his cabinet are now paying tribute.
During the latter phase of military operations the government forces were short of military equipment. The Sri Lanka Government wanted to buy the military material from India. But India refused the sale of offensive military equipments to the Government of Sri Lanka, the President of the Congress insisting that no offensive arms would be sold to Sri Lanka.
When Sri Lanka made alternative arrangements to purchase military items from China and Pakistan, the Indian National Security Adviser M.K.Narayanan said, “ We are the big power in the region. Let us make this very clear. We strongly believe that whatever requirements the Sri Lankan Government has, they should come to us. And we will give them what we think is necessary. We do not favour their going to China, Pakistan or any other country. We will not provide the Sri Lankan Government with offensive capability. That is our position."
This is how India- the elder brother talked down to Sri Lanka when we were really in need of help.
Surprised by this pompous statement of Narayanan, a former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan G.Parthasarathy, writing to Hindu Business Line stated, “… Indian National Security Adviser Mr Narayanan's statement is quite untenable. Under what treaty obligations, bilateral or international, is Sri Lanka required to acquire weapons exclusively from India? …….Finally, why should Sri Lanka undermine the effectiveness of its armed forces by buying weapons exclusively from us if it can get better weapons from elsewhere?.”
When Sri Lanka Government Forces with all the sacrifices it were making of its own battle weary brave soldiers, fighting the ruthless terrorists with small arms in the interest of saving the lives of the innocent Tamil Civilians, despite having to face the heavy artillery fire of the terrorists, India was sending delegations seeking a ceasefire, just to please the racist politicians of Tamil Nadu. Even after the Sri Lanka Armed Forces’ victory over the terrorists, India was the last to pay tribute to our valiant forces. That was the India our President says is Sri Lanka’s elder brother.
And it was this elder brother - India who initially trained and equipped the Sri Lanka terrorists and that is apparently no secret. Under these circumstances, one feels Sri Lanka Government is acting under a false delusion in taking India into its confidence promoting it to the status of an elder brother.
Surprisingly enough, the Times of India recently carried a news item that an Indian Company based in Tamil Nadu- Barnas International Private Limited, has been hired by the Government of Sri Lanka at a cost of 30 million Rupees to provide an Island wide surveillance Solutions.
According to the report it is going to be a very sophisticated project using modern thermal -imaging cameras, which can pick up images from distances nearly 20 km into the sea.
A specially-designed software will analyse the nature of the images and sound out an alarm in the central control centre when a boat or ship approaches the coast. The Government of Sri Lanka seems to be hiring a fox to guard a henhouse.
This project sounds a frightening, knowing India’s expansionist ambition. There is no guarantee that the Indian RAW may sneak into the project to manoeuvre India’s age old ambition of annexing North East to Tamil Nadu. It was stated in the same report that the said company Barnas had made a similar project to Tamil Nadu government, which has still not taken a decision.
With such a project and another proposal to connect Sri Lanka electricity supply to an Indian Electric Power grid, Sri Lanka may soon be utterly dependent on, and subservient to “elder brother” India.
The old racist the Poet Laureate of the defunct Sri Lanka terrorists Karunanidhi is waiting like an old hungry alligator in the troubled waters of politics expecting Sri Lanka to make a false move and put the foot in the water to pounce upon it. Therefore, it is in our interest that we do not go too far with this role distribution to India.
India is enigmatic there is no transparency of its relations . At the moment, after terrorism has been eliminated in Sri Lanka, India seems to be very active and supportive. India is sending a team of Agricultural experts to assist in activation of farms in areas in the North that were liberated from the terrorists. The sudden change of India’s attitude to Sri Lanka, makes one wander whether India is planning to break up Sri Lanka’s close connection to the Peoples’ Republic of China
In the mean time India is said to have sent 600 Metric tons of material to be distributed the Sri Lanka IDPs in camps and distributed to those to be resettled in their homes. But it is puzzling why these items have been handed over to the World Food Programme and the UN Refugee Agency for distribution among the IDPs, and not directly to the Government of Sri Lanka.
It is also said that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukerjee has said that India will participate in the reconstruction of Northern Sri Lanka to overcome the ravages of armed conflict. The President Mahinda Rajapakse had told the visiting Indian Minister of his intention to work together with India to enable Sri Lankans in particular the Tamil Community in the North to begin leading normal lives. All that is good if India has good intentions, which however, reeks with doubt when we look back to what happened during the past thirty years.
The Tamil Civilians in IDP camps have taken the brunt of suffering during the 30 years of terrorist war. And every thing has to be done to improve their condition of living. But in the meantime we should not forget that the future of Sri Lanka depends on Communal Unity and not on any disharmony caused by pandering too much to one Community to the exclusion of other Communities. Therefore, the Indian Connection has to be more deeply investigated, and understood, lest we fall in the night, into the deep hole we are digging in the day time, as an old saying goes.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Animals also have rights, which should be defended by a civilised society.
After elimination of terrorism the Government wants to go to war against the underworld. But the paradox of it is that around the President basking in his glory are a set of unsavoury elements who pays no attention to even the President. They also happen to be the elected representatives of the people, who despite that pay no respect to the voice of the people who had elected them to office.
Therefore, before taking action to wipe out the underworld the President should first put his house in order by at least admonishing those around him to act with more dignity and decorum.
It was on the 25 July,2009 that two elephant suklings were wrenched away from their mother to be handed over to the Diyawadane Nilame of the Dalandamaligawa. When the people of Sri Lanka who were shocked to hear of this most inhuman act came out with all their force to denounce the offence, the Mahanayake Theros came forward to defend the offenders who committed the heinous act.
According to the teachings of the Buddha all humans and animals are put into one category as ” beings” Sabbe satta Bhavantu sukhitatta. Therefore loving kindness and compassion are extended to all beings without discrimination, which include the Pinnawala elephants.
The Christians do not believe that animals have souls, but the Buddhists who do not believe in a soul , are taught that the working of Kamma is such that a human being after death may even be born as an animal- an elephant for instance.
Even the West despite the Christian belief that animals have no soul, has accepted animals also have rights equal to those of human beings. “Animal rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings. Advocates approach the issue from different philosophical positions but agree that animals should be viewed as legal persons and members of the moral community, not property, and that they should not be used as food, clothing, research subjects, or entertainment.”
This modern concept of “animal rights” is not new to Sri Lanka? We had our ancient Kings who had shown their kindness to animals. The Great Kind Buddhadasa was very kind and human. He himself healed not only human beings but also animals. He is said to have built hospitals to take care of animals. In a country where we had such beings how can we explain the situation now.
Normally a democratically elected representative of the people , a Minister of the President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Cabinet should have respected the demand of the people to return the two baby sucklings forcefully removed by the Minister to its mother elephant. But the stubborn Minster swollen with the power he wields as a Cabinet Minster , has neither the human kindness nor the dignity to accede to the demand of the people and correct his unpardonable, act by returning the two elephant suklings to Pinnawala.
It is in this un-Buddhist, inhuman situation that the President Mahinda Rajapakse turning a deaf ear to the anguished call of the people presented the two baby elephants by a sannasa to the Mahanayake Theros. We respectfully question the propriety of the President Mahinda Rajapakse’s act in offering “children” of another to the Maha Sangha.
If it were to accumulate kusala kamma, emulating the good King Vessantara, it has to be reminded to the President that King Vessantara did not offer some one else’s “children” as an act of paramita- perfection for Buddha hood, but he offered his own children Jaliya and Krishanajina to Jujaka.
Looking back now even that generous offer of King Vessantara the Bodhisatta was wrong, because he had not the right to offer his children without the consent of their mother Maithree Devi who finding that her children had been given away in her absence went wailing and lamenting in search of Jaliya and Krishnajina..
Therefore , it seems appropriate to ask what right had the President Mahinda Rajapakse to offer the two innocent elephant suklings still depending on their mother , to the Mahanayakas Theros ?
Ofcourse in defence of the President one could argue that the President having offered the two elephant sucklings symbolically by handing over a sannasa,to each of the Maha Nayakas, had ordered that the two baby elephants be returned to their mother elephant until they are of age to be removed to the ethgala of Mahanayake Theros.
Even the Buddha did that mistake of taking a child away from a mother without asking her permission. When Princess Yasodara sent Prince Rahula to the Buddha asking him to claim his inheritance, the Buddha let Rahuala follow him, and on arriving at the Monastery he asked Venerable Sariputta to ordain Rahula as a samanera.
The King Suddhodana saddened on hearing of this, came to the Buddha and requested him not to ordain a minor without the permission of the parents or the guardian. The Buddha agreed and made a Vinaya rule to that effect. The Mahanayake Theros had perhaps forgotten that Vinaya precept, which could rightly be applied to taking away an unweaned baby suckling from its mother to be kept with them.
It is well over three weeks and the elephants sucklings have not been returned to Pinnawala, and the recalcitrant Minster Lokuge adding insult to injury has said he has no intention of returning the baby elephants to its mother but will bring the mother to the baby elephants. What a crass attitude ? And this is despite the President’s order that the baby elephants be sent to Pinnawala.
The people undoubtedly has a right to question whether the Minister Gamini Lokuge has the power to overrule a decision of the President ?
If it was Kusala Kamma that the President was seeking with the offer, it is best that the President be reminded that he had offered “ two children” snatched away from a wailing mother in Pinnawela whose animal right has not been redressed as yet, and thereby he has not accumulated any kusala kamma by the offer of the animal to the aging Mahanayake theros, but he has accumulated instead a Maha Papakamma which he will share along with all those who had a hand committing the offence of taking away the baby elephants from their mother in Pinnawala.
May the better judgement prevail.
Therefore, before taking action to wipe out the underworld the President should first put his house in order by at least admonishing those around him to act with more dignity and decorum.
It was on the 25 July,2009 that two elephant suklings were wrenched away from their mother to be handed over to the Diyawadane Nilame of the Dalandamaligawa. When the people of Sri Lanka who were shocked to hear of this most inhuman act came out with all their force to denounce the offence, the Mahanayake Theros came forward to defend the offenders who committed the heinous act.
According to the teachings of the Buddha all humans and animals are put into one category as ” beings” Sabbe satta Bhavantu sukhitatta. Therefore loving kindness and compassion are extended to all beings without discrimination, which include the Pinnawala elephants.
The Christians do not believe that animals have souls, but the Buddhists who do not believe in a soul , are taught that the working of Kamma is such that a human being after death may even be born as an animal- an elephant for instance.
Even the West despite the Christian belief that animals have no soul, has accepted animals also have rights equal to those of human beings. “Animal rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings. Advocates approach the issue from different philosophical positions but agree that animals should be viewed as legal persons and members of the moral community, not property, and that they should not be used as food, clothing, research subjects, or entertainment.”
This modern concept of “animal rights” is not new to Sri Lanka? We had our ancient Kings who had shown their kindness to animals. The Great Kind Buddhadasa was very kind and human. He himself healed not only human beings but also animals. He is said to have built hospitals to take care of animals. In a country where we had such beings how can we explain the situation now.
Normally a democratically elected representative of the people , a Minister of the President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Cabinet should have respected the demand of the people to return the two baby sucklings forcefully removed by the Minister to its mother elephant. But the stubborn Minster swollen with the power he wields as a Cabinet Minster , has neither the human kindness nor the dignity to accede to the demand of the people and correct his unpardonable, act by returning the two elephant suklings to Pinnawala.
It is in this un-Buddhist, inhuman situation that the President Mahinda Rajapakse turning a deaf ear to the anguished call of the people presented the two baby elephants by a sannasa to the Mahanayake Theros. We respectfully question the propriety of the President Mahinda Rajapakse’s act in offering “children” of another to the Maha Sangha.
If it were to accumulate kusala kamma, emulating the good King Vessantara, it has to be reminded to the President that King Vessantara did not offer some one else’s “children” as an act of paramita- perfection for Buddha hood, but he offered his own children Jaliya and Krishanajina to Jujaka.
Looking back now even that generous offer of King Vessantara the Bodhisatta was wrong, because he had not the right to offer his children without the consent of their mother Maithree Devi who finding that her children had been given away in her absence went wailing and lamenting in search of Jaliya and Krishnajina..
Therefore , it seems appropriate to ask what right had the President Mahinda Rajapakse to offer the two innocent elephant suklings still depending on their mother , to the Mahanayakas Theros ?
Ofcourse in defence of the President one could argue that the President having offered the two elephant sucklings symbolically by handing over a sannasa,to each of the Maha Nayakas, had ordered that the two baby elephants be returned to their mother elephant until they are of age to be removed to the ethgala of Mahanayake Theros.
Even the Buddha did that mistake of taking a child away from a mother without asking her permission. When Princess Yasodara sent Prince Rahula to the Buddha asking him to claim his inheritance, the Buddha let Rahuala follow him, and on arriving at the Monastery he asked Venerable Sariputta to ordain Rahula as a samanera.
The King Suddhodana saddened on hearing of this, came to the Buddha and requested him not to ordain a minor without the permission of the parents or the guardian. The Buddha agreed and made a Vinaya rule to that effect. The Mahanayake Theros had perhaps forgotten that Vinaya precept, which could rightly be applied to taking away an unweaned baby suckling from its mother to be kept with them.
It is well over three weeks and the elephants sucklings have not been returned to Pinnawala, and the recalcitrant Minster Lokuge adding insult to injury has said he has no intention of returning the baby elephants to its mother but will bring the mother to the baby elephants. What a crass attitude ? And this is despite the President’s order that the baby elephants be sent to Pinnawala.
The people undoubtedly has a right to question whether the Minister Gamini Lokuge has the power to overrule a decision of the President ?
If it was Kusala Kamma that the President was seeking with the offer, it is best that the President be reminded that he had offered “ two children” snatched away from a wailing mother in Pinnawela whose animal right has not been redressed as yet, and thereby he has not accumulated any kusala kamma by the offer of the animal to the aging Mahanayake theros, but he has accumulated instead a Maha Papakamma which he will share along with all those who had a hand committing the offence of taking away the baby elephants from their mother in Pinnawala.
May the better judgement prevail.
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Sri Lanka Guardian bemoans that its website blocked to internauts in Sri Lanka and blames the « goons » of the Government.
There had been experiments carried out in America to pass messages of publicity for food or drinks embedded in films run in cinemas, which is not perceived by the conscious mind but which affect the subconscious to influence favourable acceptance of the produce publicised. These are called subliminal messages.
That means that you take note of a favourable or an unfavourable message not consciously seen but subconsciously . It is supposed to be in use in the television, and in cinemas even now. It may perhaps be put in use even in some websites we surf into where there are very good articles written by well known respected writers or journalists and in between them articles of dubious intentions, sometimes sordid character assassinations or messages of racism, discrimination against persons or institution, or the government, with the embedded “intention” of creating communal dissention or perpetrating Sinhala –Tamil conflict, the subliminal messages.
This came to my mind on reading an Editorial in the Sri Lanka Guardian some time back where the Editor bemoaned that his website had been blocked for internauts in Sri Lanka by the Government on the advise of the “goons” of the Government.
Of course Sri Lanka Guardian accepted articles by both pro-government , anti-government writers, on Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. It also accommodated the anti-Sinhala writers like Wickramabahu Karunaratne , or Thisaranee Gunasekara. Sri Lanka Guardian is not completely a hate mongering website like the Transcurrent or the TamilNet, or totally anti Government like the Groundview.
Nevertheless, the SLG was pro terrorist, with once even an Editorials after a heroes day speech of the terrorist leader, claiming Prabhakaran as the leader of the Tamils. During the period that the terrorists were gradually being defeated by the Government Forces, its key reporter, made in one of his significant articles “After Kilinochchi, What ?, a prediction of the recovery of the terrorists after their defeat at Kilinochci.
He wrote that as the terrorists have not lost their military capabilities they would make a come back if not as a conventional armed force but as a force using guerrilla tactics. He wrote that it was not the first time that terrorists lost territory, and that they only shifted their capital from Kilinochchi to Mulativu as they had changed it from Jaffna to Kilinotchchi before , had even envisaged Trincomallee to be the capital of their Homeland.
In that article “After Kilinochchi, What ? “ he quoted B. Raman “"I am sure the LTTE must be examining the various options available to it. At present, it has very little opportunity for offensive action in the North when it is relentlessly under pressure from the Sri Lankan Army. However, it has the option of unconventional offensive strikes in other fronts far removed from the North. One such front could be Colombo. Another is Trincomallee. The third could be Hambantota, where the Chinese are reportedly constructing a modern port for Sri Lanka. Very often, turning-points in unconventional warfare come when the terrorists start attacking the economic infrastructure."
And yet again another Raman quote, “"The LTTE must be trying hard for mounting kamikaze-type attacks on military -- particularly Air Force -- targets in Colombo similar to its raid on the SLAF base in Anuradhapura. The fact that it has not succeeded so far would indicate that the physical security for such establishments is strong and that the LTTE is facing shortages of the required material for such attacks. One notices that the LTTE has not yet used all the weapons in its arsenal. It has apparently retained for itself an element of ultimate surprise."
The SLG reporter did not rest at that , he again quoted Prof Damien Kingsbury, Associate Head of School (Research), School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University in Australia, as saying “ …."The LTTE has lost Kilinochche before, and regained it. This time, it may also regain it again, although it may also be more difficult to do so, and the LTTE could fail in this bid." According to Prof. Kingsberg, if the LTTE is deprived of a permanent base it is likely to resort to more conventional guerrilla tactics, and more 'terrorism', such as bombings in Colombo and against other soft targets, as well as military targets."
And then after the end of terrorism, and the defeat of the sum total of terrorists , he writes his article “Tit for tat in Tiger Aftermath”.
In which he says, that while some are in a dilemma the die-hard Sinhala Nationalists are jubilant and celebrating their great victory while awaiting the dead body of the Leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He never used the word terrorists in referring to them in his posts.
In this article he had put both the terrorists leader and the President on the same footing by addressing the terrorist Leader Mr. Prabhakaran. He writes”……. There are rumours that Mr. Prabhakaran surrendered to the military as a result of an agreement between him and the GoSL as mediated by the UN. Keep in mind the current understanding that Prabhakaran was trapped by the stratagems of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse when he enforced a Tamil boycott of the last presidential elections to help him secure a victory.”
That was to show the SLGuardian’s sympathy towards terrorism. However Sri Lanka Guardian also introduced some definitely respectful Tamil writers who are genuinely seeking a fraternal association with the Sinhala and join in an effort to make Sri Lankans of all ethnic origins a united Nation of Sri Lankans.
It is worth mentioning their names, for they are such remarkable people compared to our Wickramabahus and Thisaranees, or Mano Ganeshans and Pakkiyasothies. I will not forget their names and will always read what they write.:
Dr.Noel Nadesan who wrote “Let my people go in Peace” to SLG on 30.8.2008,
Selva Gnamam, who wrote “ Open the gates of hell and let my people go” to SLG on 4.9.2008, and Thomas John Pulle who wrote ,” Tamil Racism is older than 1956 “ to SLG on 4.9.2008.
But in between the articles of these wonderful writers which should be read by all, the Guardian carried subliminal messages of hatred. It was not long ago SLG used one of its reporters to interview the wife of Karuna Amman, and publish the objectionable interview with the aim of discrediting the Minister .
Then there were other articles carrying this subliminal messages of anti government propaganda “ such as Government Giving Conflicting Messages to the International Community” ,“Aid and Access in Sri Lanka”, “Nanny Government want do”, “Did the Government Death Squad kill the arrested Tamil Tiger Leaders in the Prisons ? ”, “Unified Tamil Voices is the need of the hour for Independent Tamil Eelam “ of Satheesan Kumaran.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka Guardian is a good website to surf into for some of the good writers who contribute to it, keeping in mind the possibilities of subliminal messages. However, I prefer LankaWeb any time.
That means that you take note of a favourable or an unfavourable message not consciously seen but subconsciously . It is supposed to be in use in the television, and in cinemas even now. It may perhaps be put in use even in some websites we surf into where there are very good articles written by well known respected writers or journalists and in between them articles of dubious intentions, sometimes sordid character assassinations or messages of racism, discrimination against persons or institution, or the government, with the embedded “intention” of creating communal dissention or perpetrating Sinhala –Tamil conflict, the subliminal messages.
This came to my mind on reading an Editorial in the Sri Lanka Guardian some time back where the Editor bemoaned that his website had been blocked for internauts in Sri Lanka by the Government on the advise of the “goons” of the Government.
Of course Sri Lanka Guardian accepted articles by both pro-government , anti-government writers, on Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. It also accommodated the anti-Sinhala writers like Wickramabahu Karunaratne , or Thisaranee Gunasekara. Sri Lanka Guardian is not completely a hate mongering website like the Transcurrent or the TamilNet, or totally anti Government like the Groundview.
Nevertheless, the SLG was pro terrorist, with once even an Editorials after a heroes day speech of the terrorist leader, claiming Prabhakaran as the leader of the Tamils. During the period that the terrorists were gradually being defeated by the Government Forces, its key reporter, made in one of his significant articles “After Kilinochchi, What ?, a prediction of the recovery of the terrorists after their defeat at Kilinochci.
He wrote that as the terrorists have not lost their military capabilities they would make a come back if not as a conventional armed force but as a force using guerrilla tactics. He wrote that it was not the first time that terrorists lost territory, and that they only shifted their capital from Kilinochchi to Mulativu as they had changed it from Jaffna to Kilinotchchi before , had even envisaged Trincomallee to be the capital of their Homeland.
In that article “After Kilinochchi, What ? “ he quoted B. Raman “"I am sure the LTTE must be examining the various options available to it. At present, it has very little opportunity for offensive action in the North when it is relentlessly under pressure from the Sri Lankan Army. However, it has the option of unconventional offensive strikes in other fronts far removed from the North. One such front could be Colombo. Another is Trincomallee. The third could be Hambantota, where the Chinese are reportedly constructing a modern port for Sri Lanka. Very often, turning-points in unconventional warfare come when the terrorists start attacking the economic infrastructure."
And yet again another Raman quote, “"The LTTE must be trying hard for mounting kamikaze-type attacks on military -- particularly Air Force -- targets in Colombo similar to its raid on the SLAF base in Anuradhapura. The fact that it has not succeeded so far would indicate that the physical security for such establishments is strong and that the LTTE is facing shortages of the required material for such attacks. One notices that the LTTE has not yet used all the weapons in its arsenal. It has apparently retained for itself an element of ultimate surprise."
The SLG reporter did not rest at that , he again quoted Prof Damien Kingsbury, Associate Head of School (Research), School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University in Australia, as saying “ …."The LTTE has lost Kilinochche before, and regained it. This time, it may also regain it again, although it may also be more difficult to do so, and the LTTE could fail in this bid." According to Prof. Kingsberg, if the LTTE is deprived of a permanent base it is likely to resort to more conventional guerrilla tactics, and more 'terrorism', such as bombings in Colombo and against other soft targets, as well as military targets."
And then after the end of terrorism, and the defeat of the sum total of terrorists , he writes his article “Tit for tat in Tiger Aftermath”.
In which he says, that while some are in a dilemma the die-hard Sinhala Nationalists are jubilant and celebrating their great victory while awaiting the dead body of the Leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He never used the word terrorists in referring to them in his posts.
In this article he had put both the terrorists leader and the President on the same footing by addressing the terrorist Leader Mr. Prabhakaran. He writes”……. There are rumours that Mr. Prabhakaran surrendered to the military as a result of an agreement between him and the GoSL as mediated by the UN. Keep in mind the current understanding that Prabhakaran was trapped by the stratagems of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse when he enforced a Tamil boycott of the last presidential elections to help him secure a victory.”
That was to show the SLGuardian’s sympathy towards terrorism. However Sri Lanka Guardian also introduced some definitely respectful Tamil writers who are genuinely seeking a fraternal association with the Sinhala and join in an effort to make Sri Lankans of all ethnic origins a united Nation of Sri Lankans.
It is worth mentioning their names, for they are such remarkable people compared to our Wickramabahus and Thisaranees, or Mano Ganeshans and Pakkiyasothies. I will not forget their names and will always read what they write.:
Dr.Noel Nadesan who wrote “Let my people go in Peace” to SLG on 30.8.2008,
Selva Gnamam, who wrote “ Open the gates of hell and let my people go” to SLG on 4.9.2008, and Thomas John Pulle who wrote ,” Tamil Racism is older than 1956 “ to SLG on 4.9.2008.
But in between the articles of these wonderful writers which should be read by all, the Guardian carried subliminal messages of hatred. It was not long ago SLG used one of its reporters to interview the wife of Karuna Amman, and publish the objectionable interview with the aim of discrediting the Minister .
Then there were other articles carrying this subliminal messages of anti government propaganda “ such as Government Giving Conflicting Messages to the International Community” ,“Aid and Access in Sri Lanka”, “Nanny Government want do”, “Did the Government Death Squad kill the arrested Tamil Tiger Leaders in the Prisons ? ”, “Unified Tamil Voices is the need of the hour for Independent Tamil Eelam “ of Satheesan Kumaran.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka Guardian is a good website to surf into for some of the good writers who contribute to it, keeping in mind the possibilities of subliminal messages. However, I prefer LankaWeb any time.
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Man and Elepahants
In Sri Lanka the man and elephant had a close relationship, from the ancient known times. The domesticated wild elephants were captured by man in elephant kraals and tamed. Separated from their herd-mates these poor beasts, like the healthy African youth captured by European slave merchants and sold in slave markets, slaved for his master doing heavy work a man could not handle.
The ownership of an elephant tethered by a strong chain to a tree in the compound of the Walauwa enhanced the stature of many Kandyan Nilames like Dela Bandara .
The elephant had a close affinity to Buddhism. The decorated elephants were the main attraction at Buddhist festivals . The thousands of spectators of the Kandy Esala Perahara come year after year to see the caparisoned elephants, joyfully counting them as each one ambled past them. The last randoli perahera which is attended by the largest number of spectators is the most colourful and the longest with a greater number of caparisoned elephants.
The star of the Perahera is the “tusker” which carried the casket containing the relics of the Buddha. People say that he is so intelligent as to recognise the importance of his task carrying the relics of the Buddha on his back, that he does not place his front foot on the ground until the white cloth is spread in front of him, and once it is spread it ambles gracefully on the cloth covered ground.
No one bothered to “ask” whether the elephants in the company of man were happy, and whether they did all what they did willingly. Occasionally there were elephants running amok killing its mahout and creating fear among the people. It happened even during the Kandy perahera. Some said the elephant was mad, and others said that the elephant was in musth. If it was the latter an elephant will not run amok if it was living among its kind in the forest.
The age old method of capturing a wild elephant by making it fall into pits, or by throwing a noose around it was abolished during the British rule. Thereafter elephant kraals were set to capture wild elephants to work for man.
There were no opposition to those kraals, until at the last Kraal in Panamure organised by Sir Francis Molamure where 17 elephants captured were found with gunshot wounds, and the fearless leader of the herd who broke through the kraal to save his herd was shot dead. He became a heroic figure at the time and was immortalised in a song “ Panamure Ath Raja” in praise of his brave defence of his fellow elephants of the herd.
Sri Lanka which had an elephant population of about 50, 000 in the early 20th century has only about 2000 to 1000 elephants now. Of these at least 120 are said to be killed annually. There are around 500 to 600 domesticated elephants in Sri Lanka. These elephants in captivity do not bear calves. If the present trend continues the elephant will soon be an endangered species in Sri Lanka.
The land reform and setting up human settlements have shrunk the forests- the habitats of the wild elephants. The elephants short of roaming space encroach onto the farmlands. The farmers to protect their farms from the elephants fire at them with shot guns either killing them or maiming them.
As much as the close affectionate relationship between man and elephant, the man’s cruelty to the elephant seems far greater. Many elephants who separated from their herd became rogue elephants. They were killed when they roamed into human settlements and attacked the people.
Plantation owners without finding a method to keep away the wild elephants from destroying their plantations killed these great beasts without any compunction. Once, one of these rich planters systematically killed and burnt about 22 trespassing elephants, and when he killed the 23rd elephant and was burning it, a young calf had “burst” through its womb to dye writhing in flames. This had happened in 1958 and the news of it had horrified the people.
The terrorism too took its toll of the elephants. Many had been shot by the terrorist while others had been wounded in ground bombs.
The elephants that were shot and killed or maimed by farmers, and the rogue elephants that were killed were mostly males. This unfortunately reduced the number of males in elephant herds which adversely affected the elephant population. Eventually the elephants too became aggressive killing the farmers who had encroached upon “elephant territory”, which aggravated the man- elephant conflict.
But in Sri Lanka there are no poachers as in Africa, who kill elephants for their tusks.
However, the colonial rulers had killed elephants in large numbers for their tusks. Others had captured tuskers to be offered to temples. Thus reducing the number of elephants with potential tusk bearing genes. The result is that Sri Lanka has a very small percentage of marsh elephants among whom the “tuskers” are born. They are the most sought after and held as valuable possessions.
The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage opened by the Department of Wild Life in 1975 is now under the Department of Zoological Gardens. It was primarily to accommodate abandoned or wounded elephants found in the jungles. It now has nearly 400 elephants. What is exceptional in Pinnawala is that the elephants have given birth to calves within the orphanage. This is unusual for elephants in capture. It shows that elephants in Pinnawala are by far happier than those owned by Kandyan Chiefs, or temple priests.
The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage being under the Department of National Zoological Gardens, the Government sets rules to satisfy its whims and fancies. The elephants in Pinnawala are part of the natural treasure of the people and therefore the government should not use it for its own purposes.
The baby elephants born in Pinnawala had been taken away by the Government to make gifts of them to other Countries. In a country which has a dwindling population of elephants , to give away the few that are being born at Pinnawala is a crime against the Nation.
The government privilege over the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage has given rise to most condemnable high handed action. There is at the moment a raging controversy over the inhuman plunder of young baby elephants from Pinnavala. Inhuman is too lame a word to describe such monstrosity committed by a Minister, a Diyawadane Nilame and two highly respected Chief Prelates.
The two baby elephants taken away by Diyawadana Nilame with their mother at Pinnawala
Even the Buddha himself would have condemned such lack of good sense, insensibility for the suffering of other beings, and depriving an innocent “baby being” of its maternal love and affection. This has taken place as there is no proper person in-charge of the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. It has become a place where any Government Minister could do what he thinks is right without any one to object.
Next time they may do the same thing with any “Government Orphanage for Children” Just snatch away a baby they want and give it to whom they want, without questions asked. This has to stop and the President who had won a battle against terrorism should not allow terrorism against innocent beings be they animals or humans, by the Minsters of his cabinet.
It was recently reported that a mother had sold her baby for five thousand rupees. The police had been informed and prompt action had been taken against the mother. But what action has the police taken against those who snatched away the baby elephants from Pinnawal Orphanage.
There is a story, that when King Elara had his Kingdom in Anuradhapura, he had hung a bell on the wall outside his Palace for any one who wanted Royal justice to ring the bell. Once when the bell was rung, the king found that it was a cow pulling at the string to ring the bell. On investigation the King found that the baby calf of the cow had been run over by a chariot killing it on the spot. King found that the chariot was driven by his son . The king ordered that his sun be killed the same way the baby calf had been killed.
Apparently there is no bell of justice hanging on the outside wall of the” Temple Trees”, and the mother elephant cannot go all that way. Where is justice to-day for the two baby elephants stolen from its mother ?
Diyawadane Nilame is just an ordinary citizen, his office is restricted to his activities of the Temple of the Tooth. He has no prerogative right to claim any thing which belong to the government, which is ultimately the property of the people of the country. Neither has the Minister a right over government property to do just what pleases him.
The two Chief Prelates of Asgiriya and Makwatte too have unfortunately burnt their fingers over the matter. These prelates are not there to confirm, or right the wrongs done by lay Budhists. Monks are expected to be compassionate towards “ all beings “. But unfortunately the two prelates have shown a complete lack of compassion in confirming the right of the Diyawadane Nilame to keep the baby Elephants.
The two prelates who are considered the head of the Buddha Sasana in Sri Lanka seem to have lost their sense of vocation. They should stand against injustice where ever it had been committed, without condoning one injustice and condemning another.
The Chief Prelates are unfortunately turning their back to where there services are needed, to defend injustice committed by the lay people who have the whole justice department to take care of their injustices. The Buddha Sasana is in a deplorable condition. The Monks act as if they have no authority over them.
It was reported recently that a Monk has filed action against government authorities for their refusal to issue him with a driving licence. There was also a Monk accused for molesting a young woman.
There is complete lack of discipline among the Monks studying in Universities. The Monks who are supposed to have gone away from the house hold life, thus giving up lay life are acting worse than the lay people. What have the Asgiriya Malawatte Chapters done about these regrettable situation as for as the Sasana is concerned ?
That is where the intervention of the two prelates is required , but not to settle the issue of nabbing baby elephants by the Diyawadena Nilame.
Latest development with regard to taking away the two baby elephants is more comic than reasonable. The Minister Says that he will bring the mother elephant to Temple of the Tooth to feed her babies. The Minister may as well set up a Orphanage for Elephants in the Temple of the Tooth premises, which would make matters easier. The Two Prelates might approve of it.
The Minister Gamini Lokuge has said that the removal of the two elephants under two years of age is a Cabinet decision and it cannot be changed. It is here that the President’s intervention is necessary not to allow the continuation of an injustice and inhuman act to hand over the baby elephants to a temple when they are better being looked after in the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.
It would be a shame for the President, who is well respected by the people to hand over the two baby elephants, and the mother elephant as well as the Minister Gamini Lokuge says to the Mahanayake Theros , despite the growing displeasure of the people.
This proposal of the Minister Gamini Lokuge shows his inability to see the reality of what is wrong and what is right. It is not the bringing of the mother elephants to the two baby elephants that is important. It would be a complete uprooting of the animals from their surrounding, the atmosphere of where they had been and the sounds and smells coming from their related beings around them. The Minister must be having a home if so he may know what it is to be at home with his loved ones. So are the animals they are happy where they are with those that are like them and love them in their way.
If the two Prelates acted with wisdom they would have proposed Dele Bandara to return the baby elephants to Pinnawala and make a request to the authority in-charge of the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage to present the elephant to the Temple of the Tooth when they are weaned from their mothers elephant.
This should be a lesson for the Government to look deeper into the question of wild life, fauna and flora and their protection by legislation. Perhaps there is a necessity for legislation to register all domesticated elephants and appoint Veterinary Doctors as Inspectors to check on these elephants to see that they are being well looked after, and enlarge the Pinnawala elephant Orphanage to take in all domesticated elephants who are not well looked after by their owners.
Legislation is absolutely necessary to stop baby elephants from being removed from Pinnawala by any one until they have been weaned away from their mother elephants, and with appropriate permission from the authority concerned. It should not be left to the Chief Prelates of Asgiriya- Malwatte to set binding rules.
Diyawadane Nilame should be put in his place what ever relationship he has with the President, as what is unjust and wrong should be accepted as such and perpetrators punished, according to the law of the land.
This should be made the occasion to re- establish a new Man and Elephant relationship.
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It is well written article with lot of research. Baby Elephants’ are a joy for small children as well as for older ones like us when we visit Pinnawela. I hope the President will take some action on this matter to return the elephants to pinnawela.
I tried to place a comment but failed as it rejected my password.
Upasiri de Silva
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Comment from Lankaweb forum:
Man and Elephants
Postby claude » Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:52 am
CSP has once again shown his great journalistic skills with his excellent article “Man and Elephants”, 1/8/09.
CSP, I’m looking forward to reading more of your articles in the future with your traditional professional objective mindset.
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