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Ali s weekly notes on responsible democracy.
Saturday, 3 March 2012 - 7:43 AM SL Time
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Unfortunately the word democracy is one of the most misused words someone can find. You can see / hear it in papers and magazines, in the news and on a country`s description etc. Asking yourself how many real democratic countries there are on this planet (*) and you realize the amplitude of the problem.
The introduction paragraph emphasizes the negative side of the situation. Let`s have a look at the positive side and, before going into the details, I would like to ask you a particularly strange question. Could anyone find a link between Responsible Democracy and Holidays without cheating?
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The weekly highlights
Sunday, 4 March 2012 - 12:27 AM SL Time
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North Korea`s nuclear weapons: A horse worth the price
Afghanistan`s crisis of trust: Too dangerous to help
Australian politics: We no longer need to talk about Kevin
Russia`s presidency: The beginning of the end of Putin
Ireland and the euro: Kenny`s heroes?
Colombia`s FARC: Deliverance?
Syria`s crisis: Into the meat-grinder
The Republican race: Mitt Romney dodges a bullet
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Putin in prison
Monday, 5 March 2012 - 1:12 AM SL Time
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This video made the buzz today. It`s of course just a hoax by a blogger, very frustrated by the outcome of today`s election. Looks like there will be some demos as of Monday.
Ali
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The beginning of the end?
Thursday, 8 March 2012 - 8:37 PM SL Time
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Syria: High-ranking official defects to opposition
Damascus, 8 Dec. (AKI) - Syrian deputy oil minister Abdo Hussameddin defected from the government and joined the opposition struggling to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad.
The highest ranking member of the embattled Syrian government announced he was quitting his post on Thursday in a video that appeared on YouTube.
`I, Abdo Hussameddin, deputy oil and mineral wealth minister in Syria, announce my defection from the regime, resignation from my position and withdrawal from the Baath Party.
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Ali s weekly notes on what s on in Geneva
Friday, 9 March 2012 - 10:13 PM SL Time
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The Human Right`s Theater Play is in full swing and my Feb. 25 notes have proven to be accurate.
Indeed, it`s interesting to see that
a) The US move against Sri Lanka came earlier than expected, which prompted Mahinda to change his travel schedule (and with him many other guys).
b) There is already a reference to the next sessions of the UNHRC to re-visit the subject.
The voting results will draw particular attention, especially in the case of India. Looks like March 23 will be a particular day for many people with a very tight result to be expected.
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The Highlights of early March events
Saturday, 10 March 2012 - 7:49 PM SL Time
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Russia`s presidential election: Moscow doesn`t believe in tears
The European summit: No drama, but a whole heap of uncertainty
The Republican nomination: No end in sight
Cybercrime: Doxed by Sabu
Israel and America: A little more conversation
India`s state elections: A welcome slap in the face
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South Asia s False Spring
Sunday, 11 March 2012 - 8:34 AM SL Time
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NEW DELHI From the armed coup that recently ousted the Maldives` first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, to the Pakistani Supreme Court`s current effort to undermine a toothless but elected government by indicting Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on contempt charges, South Asia`s democratic advances appear to be shifting into reverse.
Nasheed`s forced resignation at gunpoint has made the Maldives the third country in the region, after Nepal and Sri Lanka, where a democratic transition has been derailed. The Maldives, a group of strategically located islands in the Indian Ocean, now seems set for prolonged instability.
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Sri Lanka s Killing Fields : War Crimes Unpunished (follow-up)
Thursday, 15 March 2012 - 7:00 AM SL Time
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Is it a pure incident that Channel 4 always comes up with such footage during the UNHRC meetings? Definitely not. It`s a well orchestrated scenario. These guys might be good at entertaining, but when it comes to professional journalism and clear analysis, as it is the case on BBC, Aljeezira, NHK or France 24 for example, they quickly reach very quickly their intellectual limits.
Having said that, I was still watching tonight`s show live in the hope of learning something new, but I must have been too sleepy, I hardly noticed anything (TK, not even Velu crying and pleading for his life, haha!). I even went on the HD channel to detect potentially fishy technical passages , but no success there either.
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Last weeks Highlights from The Economist online`s Politics this week
Saturday, 17 March 2012 - 9:32 AM SL Time
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Afghanistan`s fading hopes: All the wrong messages
The National People`s Congress: What worries Grandpa Wen
Japan a year later: The view from the north
The ICC`s first verdict: Bench-mark
Syria: No deal in Damascus
Germany`s coalition: Rising above bedlam
Slovakia`s general election: Fico enters the jungle
Bagehot: Ever closer, yet further apart
An American soldier went on an unprovoked shooting rampage in two villages close to his base in southern Afghanistan and killed 16 people, including nine children. The incident sparked a number of revenge attacks around the country, which was just starting to recover from a spate of violence in reaction to copies of the Koran being burned in an incinerator at an American compound. Leon Panetta, America`s defence secretary, went to Afghanistan to assess the situation. See article
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Sri Lanka grants loans to Europe: Basil
Sunday, 18 March 2012 - 2:32 PM SL Time
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The Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa stated Sri Lanka in preparing to grant loans for European countries of this world.
Some people hopes economic always depend s on western nations.We did not depend on western Economy.
Sri Lanka owned news marketing facilities in the country. We also won new tourist markets in our mothers_day.jsp' class=black>motherland.
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Sri Lanka s Post-War Economic Miracle Sours
Monday, 19 March 2012 - 5:11 AM SL Time
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Colombo. Sri Lanka`s president began his second term vowing an economic miracle after decades of conflict, but the post-war boom is already fraying, putting his record on economic management to the test.
Mahinda Rajapakse launched his second six-year term in 2010 promising to turn Sri Lanka into the wonder of Asia by doubling GDP per capita income to $4,000 by 2014.
After the end of the island`s civil war in 2009, brought about by an army onslaught that is dogged by war crime allegations, Sri Lanka reaped a peace dividend that has seen some of the fastest development in Asia.
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Roads to Reconciliation
Monday, 19 March 2012 - 11:21 PM SL Time
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Top European Think-Tank Releases Review on
Post-War Sri Lanka
( March 19, 2012, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) Ifri, the French Institute of International Relations (Institut fran ais des relations internationales) released its report of the round table Post-War Sri Lanka: Roads to Reconciliation . Held at Ifri on 9 December, 2011, the round table organized by the Center for Asian Studies of Ifri addressed broad topics and raised fundamental questions pertaining to reconciliation in post-war countries through a comparative analysis.
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Sunanda challenges ITN to get a confirmation from Geneva police
Tuesday, 20 March 2012 - 1:11 PM SL Time
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March 20, 2012 10:36 am
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(Srilankamirror) Journalist Sunanda Deshapriya has challenged ITN to get a quote from Geneva police to prove that he was arrested, as claimed by the state-run television channel.
In a letter emailed to srilankamirror.com, the journalist says the ITN report reproduced by us that he had been arrested by Swiss police is completely false.
Text of the emailed letter received by srilankamirror.com:
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Sri Lanka`s first metro railway project kicks off
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 - 7:53 PM SL Time
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Colombo, March 21 : A private company said Wednesday that it has kicked off Sri Lanka`s first metro railway project that is estimated to cost USD 600 million.
Airport Express Air and Rail Company hopes to connect the country`s only international airport with the centre of the capital through a metro railway that will reduce the present travel time of around two hours to only 25 minutes, reported Xinhua.
Company chairman Parimalan Rajo Isa Michael said that funds will be raised by selling stakes of the company`s equity to overseas companies.
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Ali s notes on the UNHRC vote in Geneva
Thursday, 22 March 2012 - 10:38 PM SL Time
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I would assume that by now everybody is aware of the final vote of 24 : 15 in favor of the US led resolution + 8 abstentions.
For those who are not really interested in the well-being of all the families with war victims, in a lasting peace and a harmonized development in Sri Lanka (guess it should be specific enough and of course includes the Yankees), this result is certainly considered as a victory.
As strange as it might sound, this result is not necessarily a negative thing when you are sitting on the other side of the fence and want this country to progress and find a certain peace and harmony among its` citizens.
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US eases restrictions on Sri Lanka defense sales
Friday, 23 March 2012 - 5:43 AM SL Time
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Mar 22, 6:07 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. has eased restrictions on defense sales to Sri Lanka to allow exports of equipment for aerial and maritime surveillance.
The State Department enacted the changes Thursday, just as the U.N. Human Rights Council urged Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes during its civil conflict that ended in 2009.
The department said the two developments were unrelated.
It may, however, help ease strains in the bilateral relationship. The U.S. proposed the resolution approved by the U.N. human rights body.
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Government-orchestrated threats against exile journalists
Friday, 23 March 2012 - 9:12 PM SL Time
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Journalists in danger
Government-orchestrated threats against exile journalists
23 March 2012
Reporters Without Borders deplores a government-orchestrated campaign of threats and smears against journalists and human rights activists that is being waged above all through media controlled by Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL), a state-owned company better known as Lake House.
The targets include Rohitha Bashana Abeywardane of Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (LINK), a Reporters Without Borders partner organization, Dharmasiri Lankapeli of the Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions and Sunanda Deshapriya, a journalist and media freedom activist.
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Promoting National Reconciliation through LLRC Recommendations
Saturday, 24 March 2012 - 3:57 PM SL Time
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l by Shanie
(March 24, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Jean Arasanayagam and Anne Ranasinghe are two of Sri Lanka`s most accomplished writers and poets. Despite their last names, neither of them is Tamil or Sinhalese. But both have written extensively on violent conflicts. Arasanayagam was a witness to the pogroms against the Tamils in Sri Lanka and Ranasinghe was a witness to both the pogroms in Sri Lanka as well as the holocaust against the Jews by Hitler`s Nazis. Their poems therefore are written with feeling born out of personal experience. There is consequently greater depth and authenticity in their poetry. History, at last, has meaning. Historical memories and memorials link the past with the present and the future. They provide a shield lest we forget what needs to be remembered.
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The Geneva debacle and lessons still unlearnt
Sunday, 25 March 2012 - 6:24 AM SL Time
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By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
Sri Lanka`s humiliating defeat in the `war` unsuccessfully fought in Geneva this week over the resolution brought by the United States is a textbook illustration of the combined effect of arrogance, bravado and ignorance. When such disastrous combinations determine the course of our foreign policy, should we be surprised at the consequences?
Sri Lanka warned on its human rights record
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Sri Lanka s foreign policy triumphs
Monday, 26 March 2012 - 9:16 AM SL Time
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While `Might overruled right` at the recently concluded sessions of the UNHRC, wherein a resolution against Sri Lanka was passed on so-called accountability issues by a wafer-thin one-vote majority, this final result should not be seen by this country in an entirely negative light. For instance, the LLRC report, we find, was a clear winner on account of the fact that its value was appreciated by almost both sides of the divide at the Geneva vote. It would need to be emphatically pointed out to the world that the LLRC was state-initiated and constituted an entirely local remedy to the issues thrown-up by the conflict.
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India s Cynical Sri Lanka Vote
Tuesday, 27 March 2012 - 7:48 AM SL Time
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India`s foreign policy is acombination of realpolitik and old-school nonaligned mumbo-jumbo that made little sense even when it was more relevant during the Cold War. In any case, they definitely don`t want to talk about country-specific human rights issues (lest Kashmir might get more play). Yet, they joined the majority to support a human rights resolution on Sri Lanka.
India has refused to condemn Syria`s brutal crackdown on its own citizens. There, it was pure cynicism on the part of South Block (India`s Ministry of External Affairs) knowing that India won`t take a hit for not condemning Syria`s war against its people.
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Director James Cameron awestruck at ocean`s deepest spot
Tuesday, 27 March 2012 - 8:44 PM SL Time
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March 27, 2012 8:50pm
Returning from humankind`s first solo dive to the deepest spot in the ocean, filmmaker James Cameron said he saw no obvious signs of life that might inspire creatures in his next `Avatar` movie but was awestruck by the `complete isolation.`
The Oscar-winning director and undersea explorer said his record-setting expedition to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 7 miles (11 km) beneath the surface of the western Pacific, not only capped seven years of painstaking preparation but was the `culmination of a lifelong dream.`
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Weigh More, Pay More
Wednesday, 28 March 2012 - 10:05 AM SL Time
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MELBOURNE We are getting fatter. In Australia, the United States, and many other countries, it has become commonplace to see people so fat that they waddle rather than walk. The rise in obesity is steepest in the developed world, but it is occurring in middle-income and poor countries as well.
Is a person`s weight his or her own business? Should we simply become more accepting of diverse body shapes? I don`t think so. Obesity is an ethical issue, because an increase in weight by some imposes costs on others.
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Computer Virus: How to Remove It
Thursday, 29 March 2012 - 1:45 PM SL Time
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Ughhhh! If your PC has ever been infected - or worse, if it`s infected right now - you`re probably groaning. Yes it`s a pain, but the good news is: you can remove viruses yourself, for free.
STEP 1: Back Up Documents, Photos and Videos.
Save your important data to an external drive. Be sure to scan this drive and its contents after you remove the virus you don`t want to re-infect your computer after the clean-up.
[Related: Five ways to help your PC help you]
STEP 2: Reboot in Safe Mode
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Tamil expats issued death threats
Thursday, 29 March 2012 - 10:47 PM SL Time
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2012-03-29
Several expatriate Tamils in various cities in Switzerland described as `anti Sri Lankan` have been issued with death threats, according to a Swiss newspaper called `20 Minuten`.
Expatriate Tamils in Switzerland have brought to the notice of the Switzerland Federal Intelligence Agency that they have been issued with death threats in the form of letters and audio CDs saying that their anti Lankan Government attitude would be severely dealt with according to a Swiss News paper called `20 Minuten`.
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Sri Lanka may stop dollar payment for oil bills
Friday, 30 March 2012 - 8:07 AM SL Time
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March 30, 2012
COLOMBO: The head of Sri Lanka`s central bank said on Thursday it may stop supplying dollars to pay for oil import bills from May, its latest move to allow more rupee flexibility after it refrained from intervening in foreign exchange markets last month.
The central bank shifted its foreign exchange policy to allow the market to determine the currency`s rate on Feb.9 and stopped defending a certain price level by selling dollars in the market.
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Something very special to watch during the weekend
Saturday, 31 March 2012 - 4:28 AM SL Time
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Some of you might remember the visit of the 16 million USD. Turanor Planet Solar mega-yacht in Sri Lanka. The film related to this solar powered ship has been shown on Swiss TV this evening and can now be watched on
http://www.rts.ch/emissions/passe-moi-les-jumelles/3786052-le-soleil-en-friche.html
Please don`t forget to click on full screen!
Since the comment is in French, please note the following references:
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Ali s weekly notes on the after-UNHRC vote
Saturday, 31 March 2012 - 8:06 PM SL Time
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For all of us without hidden agendas, genuinely interested in a lasting peace and a serious reconciliation process, we can only be deeply saddened by the various events that took place between the end of the vote and today.
It appears to me that even the Government seems to have finally realized the degree of urgency to tackle the problem, since a meeting on the subject has apparently been scheduled for next week.
There is no use in continuing to blame the Government for a dramatic misjudgment of the situation. The fact remains that March 22 went into history for being a turning point in the after-war period. So far what I call the national homework could have been done internally , but since all previous promises on the reconciliation process were never kept, it is quite normal that the pressure now also coming from outside is only going to increase. The window of opportunity was just after the war (see my various postings going back to end May 2009) and no serious action has been taken. Having said that, I still believe this exercise should be done + can be done for the benefit of all of our citizens and not necessarily for the outside world. As someone reminded us of a saying recently: first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging!
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