October 10, 2016 · 3:32 pm

The Buddhist Virtues We Need Today — Via “Sathyodaya”

Upul Wijayawardhana,  in The Island, 7  October 2016, where the title is The Dawn of Truth

We live in an era when exaggerated ritual gets the pride of place. Not a day passes without the image, on television, of a politico offering pujas in temples, kovils and churches etc. to invoke blessings either on themselves, their party or the country. Some are even more foolish, instead of feeding the poor, they smash perfectly edible coconuts to cast evil spells on their opponents! Even worse, some idiotic politicos, not being content with the offerings at home, rush abroad to make offerings to the more powerful foreign gods! On top of that we see elaborate Bodhi Pujas, Pahan Pujas, Atavisi Buddha Pujas and over-the-top Buddha Pujas.

mahinda-r

“So, what is your problem?” some may ask. My problem, as a convinced follower of the Buddha Dhamma, is the real dangertheserituals pose submerging the Dhamma; burying the spiritual in ritual. More and more are seeking ‘liberation’ with rituals and bribes than treading the noble path shown by the Enlightened One. It is out of this concern that I have written many pieces of late but I did not realize I would find a most unexpected supporter for my views. I must thank Mr G A D Sirimal and my brother Jagath for this amazing discovery. Mr Sirimal sent me a paper cutting but it was Jagath who recommended the gem of a booklet “Sathyodaya”.

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October 10, 2016 · 2:53 pm

Debilitating Political Ignorance in Sri Lanka’s Populace?

Sanjana Hattotuwa,  from The Island, 8 October 2016, where the title is “The new constitution that may never be”. .. Emphasis below via highlighting is an imposition by the Editor, Thuppahi.

Gramsci spoke of the pessimism of intellect and the optimism of will. How does this relate to Sri Lanka today? The deafening silence around the process of constitution making, justified by key architects as inevitable in order for progress around tenacious issues to be made, indicates to all but the most delusional the reform process has little to no traction in the public imagination. This is a problem. Basic intelligence suggests a process as vexed as writing a new constitution, without public traction or debate, dumped by government elites for approval just before a referendum risks confusion at best and opposition or rejection at worst. And yet, Sri Lanka really needs a new constitution.

If the constitution expresses the will of the people, it needs to be one that guides us away from the structures of power and identity that led to what we are still hostage to – a violent, racist State, largely unable as a first step to even recognise the degree to which it excludes and discriminates. The optimism of will, when embodied in a constitution, is what can guarantee to the extent possible a better future for all citizens, independent of what government, Executive or Prime Minister are, say and do. Continue reading →

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October 10, 2016 · 10:35 am

Homemade Culinary Art in Surviving the Eelam Wars

Vidya Balachander, 9 October 2016, whose chosen title is. “Cookbook Tells The Story Of Sri Lanka’s Civil War Through Food.” ….…. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/10/09/496867198/cookbook-tells-the-story-of-sri-lanka-s-civil-war-through-food

Even if you knew nothing about Vijaya, her haunting portrait would likely give you pause. She peers out of the page, unsmiling, her silver hair pulled back and her eyes conveying an unspoken anguish. From the accompanying narrative, we learn that a few years ago, almost overnight, Vijaya became her granddaughter Anjali’s primary caretaker. Her daughter, Gayathri, set out to find nutritious food for the family amidst heavy shelling, at the violent end of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, and never returned home. In the years since, money has been scarce and fresh vegetables in limited supply. But Vijaya and her granddaughter survived on creamy, coconut milk-laced sothis, mild gravies that act as soothing antidotes to the scorching cuisine of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-dominated north. Sothis are a common part of everyday meals. But seen through the lens of war — and Vijaya’s lingering loss — this simple side dish acquires a new depth.

aa-vijaya After losing her daughter during the war, Vijaya cares for her granddaughter Anjali. Despite not being able to afford freshvegetables, she cooks nourishing sothis or stews made of coconut milk.–Palmera

It is this exploration of food — both as a source of sustenance and a repository of memories — in the context of war that makes Handmade, a cookbook published by Palmera, a not-for-profit organization based in Australia, different from the other Sri Lankan cookbooks to have come out in recent times. Continue reading →

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October 10, 2016 · 9:54 am

Perilous Big Power/UN Interventions Here-There-Eveywhere

Thalif Deen, from the UN courtesy of InterPress Service, 7 October 2016, where the title is “UN Security Council’s ‘Perilous Interventions’ in War Zones” … Emphasis inserted by Editor, Thuppahi.

When the UN Security Council last week discussed the “deliberate” attacks on medical facilities in war-ravaged Syria and Yemen, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon implicitly criticized some of the warring nations lamenting that “even a slaughterhouse is more humane” than the ongoing indiscriminate killings of civilians in the two devastating conflicts.The attacks on hospitals, he warned, were “war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law”. But Joanne Liu, International President of Medicins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), singled out “four of the five permanent members of the Security Council” for the continued atrocities and lambasted them for their role in the attacks against medical facilities. “The conduct of war today knows no limits,” she regretted, pointing out that the failure of the Security Council “reflects a lack of political will among member states fighting in coalitions and those who enable them.”

aa-thalif

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October 9, 2016 · 2:36 pm

Palitha Kohona’s Review of USA’s Relations with Sri Lanka, 1948-2016

palitha_kohona-blogs-uvu-eduPalitha Kohona, courtesy of the International Press Syndicate, October 2016, where the title is “Sri Lanka and the US – The Past, the Present and the Future.”  Kohona’s sub-titles are in red.  Emphasisin blue highlighting has beena dded by the Editor, Thuppahi.

Sri Lanka’s relations with the US go back a long way and have encompassed many different areas of interest. These have mostly enriched the relationship. In recent times, the bilateral relationship has undergone considerable stress. As to whether Sri Lanka occupied the central attention of US foreign policy makers to any significant degree in the past, or even at present, can be the subject of a useful discussion, perhaps after a few glasses of good Californian wine. But for Sri Lanka, the US has been a vital foreign policy concern, especially in the recent past. A brief survey of the relationship in the past reveals that the US established a consulate in Galle as far back as 1857, at a time when many of the countries with embassies in Colombo today, did not even exist as countries. Then, the main interest of the US was the need to provide consular services to the US whaling fleet operating in the Indian Ocean. Continue reading →

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October 9, 2016 · 1:21 pm

Introducing Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General to be

Thalif Deen, courtesy of Sunday Times, 10 October 2016, where the title reads “New UN Chief: “Secretary” to the P5 – “General” to the Rest of the World” … Note that the highlihghting emphasis below is my imposition Editor, Thuppahi. 

When the 15-member Security Council decided, by acclamation, to recommend Antonio Guterres of Portugal as the new UN Secretary-General (UNSG), it also torpedoed two proposals on the negotiating table: a woman as the first UNSG, or in the alternative, an Eastern European as the first UNSG. But both proposals fell by the wayside as the Security Council opted for another Western European: the fourth UNSG from an over-represented geographical region, beginning with Trygve Lie of Norway (1946-1953), Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden (1953-1961) and Kurt Waldheim of Austria (1972-1981).

alchetron-com-unhcr-chief1 Guterres as UNHCR chief –Pic at alchetron.com Continue reading →

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October 8, 2016 · 1:40 pm

Believe IT or Not????

neanedertythals-1 The Origin of the Species? Continue reading →

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October 7, 2016 · 5:56 am

Samantha Power leads USA’s Threatening Squeeze on Russia

Christopher Black, in Near Eastern Outlook 3 October 2016, where the title is “NATO’s War On Russia: The Winds Howl Before the Storm”

A few weeks ago I wrote, “I have been a defence lawyer most of my working life and am not used to gathering evidence for a prosecution, but circumstances impelled me to open a file for the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or perhaps some future citizen’s tribunal, in which is contained the evidence that the NATO leaders are guilty of the gravest crime against mankind, the crime of aggression. I would like to share with you some brief notes of interest from that file, for your consideration.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the Heads of State and Goverment during the Air power flypastNATO

Article 8bis of the Rome Statute, the governing statue of the International Criminal Court states: “For the purpose of this Statute, “crime of aggression” means the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter on the United Nations.” Continue reading →

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October 7, 2016 · 4:40 am

Sri Lanka leads World in Path to Eliminate Malaria

Sarah Boseley, in The Guardian Weekly, 22 September 2016, where the title reads “Beginning of the End for Malaria,” ... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/09/malaria-sri-lanka-china-iran-malaysia-end-for-disease 

Hopes of eliminating malaria from more than 30 countries with a total population of 2 billion have risen following the successful removal of the disease from Sri Lanka. Public health officials said 13 countries, including Argentina and Turkey, had reported no cases for at least a year and may well follow the success of Sri Lanka, which this week declared itself malaria-free after meeting the criterion of going three years without an infection. By the end of the decade, another 21 countries, including China, Malaysia and Iran, could be free of the disease, which kills 400,000 people, mostly babies and pregnant women, every year.

Public health officials believe that in years to come the elimination from Sri Lanka, highly symbolic because the island came within a hair’s breadth of defeating malaria more than 50 years ago, may be regarded as the beginning of the end for the disease.

aa-lanka-malaria-11-eranga-j-for-ap A Sri Lankan worker fumigates buildings to control mosquitoes in Colombo. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP
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October 6, 2016 · 9:23 am

Analysing the Kashmir Imbroglio

Gerald H. Peiris, in an essay which is an abridged and up-dated version of Chapter 8 of G. H. Peiris: Political Conflict in South Asia (2013, a monograph published by the University of Peradeniya).

 Information on the Indo-Pakistan conflict pertaining to Kashmir being widely circulated in the context of the recent upsurge of their mutual hostilities has a distinct pro-India bias, mainly because the bulk of international news that reaches us tends to be filtered through the media of mass communication in the global ‘West’. The present crisis in Kashmir is, of course, the latest episode of a complex saga recorded from many perspectives, with no heroes and villains, an abundance of zealotry, and countless victims of circumstances. What is attempted in this paper is to present a brief but objective portrayal of this conflict in order to forestall the possibility of our views, here in Sri Lanka, being influenced by prejudice and ill-informed pronouncements on rights and wrongs. 

kashmir Kashmir — from internet kashmir-gerry Continue reading →

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