Bright future ahead of teenager Duneeth Wellalage
Shenal, Desandi, Sethumsa win silver medals
Minagi sets new record in women’s 1500 freestyle
Mitchell Starc won’t risk Test chances by making quick return in Sri Lanka
Junior National Table Tennis today and tomorrow at Mount Lavinia
CEAT pits its motorcycle tyres against competitors’ at Indian test track
Emirates wins Best Wi-Fi and Best Food & Beverage at 2022 APEX Regional Passenger Choice Awards
Rex Industries awarded with Industrial Excellence Awards 2022
ComBank breaks new ground with women-only ‘Anagi’ Credit Cards
Dialog Enterprise Introduces the Dialog SmartLife App for Three Sinha Roller Doors
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 2022 (IPS) – As one of the world’s foremost international humanitarian organizations, the United Nations has pledged to provide food and medicines to cash-strapped Sri Lanka –a country suffering from a major financial crisis.
As of last week, a UN team, led by the Resident Coordinator in Colombo, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy has appealed to international donors for more than $47 million in “life-saving assistance” to 1.7 million people in a country with a population of over 22 million.
This stands in contrast to the staggering $5.0 billion the government is seeking for the island’s economic survival during the next six months—primarily for food, fuel and fertilizer.
Last month, the UN announced that with a $1.5 million donation from the Government of Japan, the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF will procure medicines for over 1.2 million people, among them 53,000 pregnant mothers and nearly 122,000 children with immediate medical needs.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is expected to receive about $1.5 million from Japan to provide food assistance to children and families in need of support.
In addition, Australia has made available the equivalent of nearly $5 million for food security, essential medicines for women’s health, nutrition data collection and analysis with UN agencies working together, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Children’s Fund.
Currently, some of the UN’s biggest aid recipients are either countries embroiled in military conflicts such as Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen – or the 46 member states categorized as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), “the poorest of the world’s poor”.
The majority of LDCs are from Africa, including Angola, Rwanda, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Central African Republic, while the LDCs from Asia include Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Afghanistan.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category/ldcs-at-a-glance.html
According to published reports, Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves have hit a low of $1.9 billion, equivalent to funds that could finance less than one month’s imports while its debt service repayments amount to about $6.9 billion. Last month, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt repayments for the first time in history.
An editorial in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times put the problem in its right perspective: “Once called the ‘Granary of the East’, Sri Lanka is also considering tapping the SAARC Food Bank – from the buffer stocks of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The country is not only financially bankrupt, it is facing a famine in a few months”.
“From a middle-income country not long ago, it has come to this”, said the editorial. “What an inglorious comedown for the country and humiliating stigma for its people no better personified by the presence of its Foreign Minister and chairman of the ruling party accepting a container of food aid from abroad at the Colombo harbour”.
“Brought about by stupendously irresponsible agricultural policy decision-making at the highest levels of Government, it is now humble-pie that is left to be eaten as Sri Lanka appeals to the world for food in the midst of a global economy facing recession, inflation, and a hurricane of shortages of oil, gas and wheat.”
Should Sri Lanka, long designated by the UN as a “middle-income country,” be heading towards the ranks of the 46 LDCs?
In an interview with IPS, Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Permanent Representative of Bangladesh and the first Under-Secretary-General and UN High Representative for LDCs, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, responded to questions on the benefits and privileges of being an LDC.
“LDCs benefit from exclusive international support measures (ISMs) in the areas of trade, development cooperation and participation in international organizations and processes.”
Such measures in the area of trade, he pointed out, include preferential market access for goods and services; special treatment under World Trade Organization rules and certain regional trade agreements; and technical assistance and capacity building.
A range of financial and technical assistance provided by multilateral and bilateral partners, such as special programmes and budget allocations at the UN, including the Technology Bank for LDCs and Fund for LDCs, established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Support for debt cancellation and/or debt rescheduling are also available for LDCs, he added.Other support measures help LDCs participate in international forums, such as caps and discounts on contributions to the budget of the United Nations and financial support for representatives of LDCs to travel to General Assembly and other meetings, said Ambassador Chowdhury, who was also Senior Special Adviser to UN General Assembly President (2011-2012).
Q: Do you think that Sri Lanka, which has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the UN, may end up being an international basket case?
A: It is not conceivable that Sri Lanka would become an international basket case. But it needs to steer away from the man-made, to say more directly, the current corruption-driven economy, in the right direction to return to its steady developing socio-economic development of yesteryears.
Among the eight members of SAARC only three are not LDCs, but among the other five LDCs, the Maldives have already “graduated” out of the LDC category and Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh are scheduled to graduate by 2026 (as their economies improve).
Being the victim of a catastrophic economic mismanagement should not prompt Sri Lanka to think of seeking an LDC status. The United Nations defines LDCs as countries that have low levels of income and face severe structural impediments to sustainable development.
Q: If the situation continues to deteriorate, what are our chances of joining the 46 LDCs?
A: Joining the LDCs group involve a long process and requires fulfillment of all three criteria to be eligible. According to the UN, those three are:
1. Income: Countries must have an average per capita income (GNI) of below USD$1,018 for inclusion, and above USD$1,222for graduation.[The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Sri Lanka was last recorded at 4052.75 US dollars in 2020.]2. Human Assets: Countries must also have a low score on the Human Assets Index (HAI), a tool that measures health and education outcomes, including under-five mortality rate, maternal mortality, adult literacy rate and gender parity for secondary school enrolment. [Sri Lanka is much above the “60 or below” threshold.]3. Economic and Environmental Vulnerability: Countries must score high on the Economic and Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI), which measures factors like remoteness, dependence on agriculture and vulnerability to natural disasters.[ Sri Lanka is below “36 or above” threshold. The current economic downturn and challenges faced by Sri Lanka may not fully fit the country’s EVI threshold]
IPS – How does this work? Does Sri Lanka have to apply to the UN for LDC status?
A: The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) reviews the list of LDCs and makes recommendations for inclusion in and graduation from the category every three years.
According to UN guidelines, the time frame of the eligibility procedure includes preliminary finding that the country satisfies inclusion criteria; notifies the country of its findings; prepares a country assessment note; provides a draft to the country; finds the country eligible and formally notifies the country of eligibility conclusion; and the General Assembly finally takes note of the CDP recommendation.
Q: What’s the downside of being an LDC?
A: In reality, there is no downside except the psychological perception of being categorized as one of the poorest countries. Some say that foreign direct investment (FDI) is not forthcoming.
If there is a downside, how come six countries have “graduated” from LDCs over the years since the category was established by the General Assembly in 1971 and ten more are in the pipeline for graduation by 2026.
Turmoil in Trinco as Chelva’s ashes arrive
It’s the Guns, Stupid
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
The Sinhalese population of Sri Lanka is approximately 16.5 million. Yet sadly, generations of children in this tiny, tiny proportion of the global population have little or no global contact. They speak no global link language despite having had an excellent language system in place at the time of Independence. Many of that 16.5 million people barely speak English and the majority certainly cannot read or write it despite English being taught (appallingly badly) in all schools.
When we achieved Independence, English should have been encouraged and kept in place so that the outstations and backward schools were brought up to the existing standards of the better developed schools without totally lowering them to accommodate the ambitions of politicians who sang the Sinhala-Buddhist song to lull ignorant voters to sleep. That egregious quota system was brought in as a temporary law but has since never been repealed. Standards of English deteriorated so fast it was pathetic.
Those who understood that the oncoming divisive language policies would end in tragedy were called an unpatriotic or a privileged elite. Chauvinism and bogus Nationalism ruled the day. The University authorities even wondered whether they should separate the Halls of Residence in Peradeniya racially. My appalled mother, Deshabandu Clara Motwani, was among those educationists who objected strenuously enough to scuttle that idiotic scheme.
At long last Kumar David has voiced what many Sri Lankans believe is vital for the people of Sri Lanka to reach the former levels of education. A return to the English Medium of instruction in schools is desperately needed.
The world is in turmoil and Sri Lanka is one of the worst hit. It is a time for change and this is a perfect moment (in our constantly down-sliding history) to TOTALLY revise our educational policy which a series of dishearteningly inept Ministers of Education have reduced to its present state
At long last there is a feeling of unity among all of us in this lovely island. Let us forget the ‘Sinhala Only’ policies that have been so divisive in the past and switch the medium of instruction to English. Let us forget chauvinistic and outworn nationalistic ideas and begin to take steps into a new unified world. Let us remember that ‘He who opens a school door closes a prison.’ A proper education is one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of any Government. It is absolutely criminal if it is used for political advantage.
No one suggests that Sinhala or Tamil be ignored. It must be taught compulsorily, but English must be given top priority so that our youngsters can begin to compete and operate fully in an English speaking, Internet and Cyber world. Foolish Nationalism is not patriotism.
At this point PLEASE do not say, “Look at the Scandinavians with small populations, which manage perfectly well without English”. Of course they do . Here are a few reasons why.
2. They have superb second language teaching methods in place.
3. They have the technology AND THE MONEY to back up such methods.
4. They have trained teachers with Master’s Degrees in almost every subject. (Finland )
5. They all use the same script.
6. European countries populations mix frequently with each other economically, socially and politically.
7. Geographical proximity ensures that they speak several languages fluently.
8. Forward thinking countries are aware that English is now a global necessity. All inventions, discoveries, and new ideas are rushed into print in English as the educated world reads English above other languages. English is given great importance
9. Small, rich nations can afford translations to the benefit of their citizens.
Due to the defunct British empire about 50 nations use English as their official language. Others do so in semi official ways. Sri Lanka makes a big noise about teaching English but the methods of doing so are archaic. I quote from a WhatApp message I received from a former maid now in Kuwait.. She writes, “yers madam iam gud,” in response to my query , “are you well?” She has an OL pass in English. This would be funny if it were not so pathetic.
The language policies of Sri Lanka are stupidly backward while the example of India stands before us as the success of a highly patriotic nation in which the English standards achieved are amazingly high. Their writers of English are among the best in the world.
Sri Lanka had such men in the past. There are just a handful left today. Even our career diplomat’s English standards leave much to be desired. Good English speech in Sri Lanka is confined to very few of the country. Most of Sri Lanka’s population prefers to interact in Sinhala. Not that this matters but let us remember that only 16.5 million in the world speak it. Without a well taught and island-wide knowledge of a global link language Sri Lanka is doomed to second if not third rate status, Will a few more Kumar Davids please make their voices heard.
Let us take a look at the position of English apart from that of the old Empire territories.. Twenty four countries in Africa list English as their official language. The Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Kenya, Jamaica, Trinidad and MANY others use English as their OFFICIAL means of communication internally and internationally.
Europeans speak it as a matter of course although Europeans speak each other’s languages fluently almost from birth. But here WE are the only Sinhala speaking nation in the world, comprising ONLY 16.2 million Sinhalese people, struggling to keep pace with nations who were earlier considered positively backward. Truly we have been cursed with stupid Governments from the start.
Says Alvin Teffler,”The illiterates of the future will not be the people who cannot read but it will the people who do not know how to learn.” The Sri Lankans are those people. They keep perpetuating the same errors endlessly. The SAME OLD methods of teaching continue.
The same old text book material is churned out. The non-serving quota system continues. The same old University system produces graduates who know less and less in a fast expanding world of knowledge. I must ask ‘DO OUR MINISTERS OF EDUCATION KNOW WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT?”
While standards plummet our Government remains in denial. There is no money in the country so fortunately the education pundits are silent about expanding the appalling system of education further.
The best jobs in international organizations go to those people who use an international language and at the moment it is English. The Indians dominate in high finance and business in the UK and the USA. In areas where Sri Lankans once led they now lag behind. Remember the likes of Shirley Amerasinghe, Gamini Corea, Neville Canekeratne and other Sri Lankans who held high office because of their prowess in English which they spoke so brilliantly?
The new ‘Virtual Empire’ of the internet makes English vital. Job seekers are interviewed by companies on the other side of the world. Indeed the link between globalization and English is tangible. Sri Lanka can no longer afford to be foolishly sentimental and force its children to study in a language spoken by less than a quarter percent of the world’s population.
My views would normally not be tolerated by the vociferous chauvinists who unfortunately use Sinhala as political weapon. But now there is a new feeling of unity in the air. Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Indians are all stating their feeling of oneness with the majority Sinhalese. The Sinhalese on their part (forget the diehard Sinhala Buddhists) are feeling likewise. If English can help to unite Sri Lankans as one people our future leaders should cement this unity instantly.
Sri Lanka was known as the ‘Resplendent Island’ by the Brahmins of yore. It can surely be possible for this country to become resplendent again? How COULD such an intelligent population have made these tragic, tragic mistakes.
The National State Assembly (as Parliament was known under the 1972 Constitution) was dissolved on May 18, 1977 and a General Election fixed for July 21, 1977 with June 6 as Nomination Day.
The Trincomalee district had three constituencies namely, Trincomalee, Mutur and Seruvila. The TULF picked R. Sampanthan, a leading lawyer practising in Trincomalee courts in preference to the sitting member B.Neminathan for the Trincomalee seat.
While we were making arrangements for Nomination Day fixed for June 6, it came to be known that the late TULF leader Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam’s ashes were to be brought to Trincomalee for public veneration. They were to be brought by air to China Bay and thereafter to Trinco town in procession on June 3.
The next afternoon (June 4), the ashes were to be brought in procession to the large playground opposite Fort Frederick known as the Big Maidan. The SP had given permission for both these events in the absence of any ‘intelligence’ to the effect that there was going to be any sort of trouble on account of them.
The day the ashes were brought from China Bay to Trincomalee town there had been a few minor skirmishes involving some Tamil cyclists accompanying the motorcade and some Sinhalese onlookers who were residents of the area through which it was passing. The Police had however prevented anything serious from happening, and the ashes had reached where they were to be safely kept for the night.
I was at the Residency on the night of June 3 reviewing Nomination Day procedures when at about 9 p.m. news reached me that there was trouble down town with some Sinhalese people being beaten up by Tamil mobs apparently as retribution for the slogan shouting that took place when the motorcade passed through their area on its way to the town earlier in the afternoon.
When I got in touch with the ASP in-charge in the absence of the SP who had gone for the opening of a new police station in the Polonnaruwa district (which too came within his purview), he told me that he had already moved his men out to the trouble spots. Information kept flowing in, however, that a number of Sinhalese people were being brought to the hospital with injuries, some of which were of a grievous nature.
The SP was expected to return to Trinco in the night, and I left word for him to meet me as soon as he returned, which he did past midnight. After discussions with me, he passed down necessary instructions to his staff for preventing the incidents from escalating. By the 4th morning however about 10-12 people – all of them Sinhalese – had been admitted to hospital and one of them succumbed to his injuries.
Just as I was trying to get in touch with the Defence Secretary (Mr. W.T.Jayasinghe), he phoned me having read a few police messages that had come his way which referred to the above incidents. I briefed him about the developments and requested him to ask the Service Commanders to instruct their local units to be in readiness to come out and assist the Police if needed.
I followed this up with a meeting with the SP and the local Service Heads to discuss the steps that had to be taken to prevent an escalation of violence. Almost immediately, the officer commanding the local army unit took steps to move his men out to assist the police in their duties. The SP, in the meantime, took steps to withdraw the permission he had earlier given for both the meeting and the procession that were due to be held that afternoon.
There were no incidents during the day on the June 4 and I was able to hold my nomination rehearsals in the afternoon, without any disturbance. After dusk, however, reports started coming in about attacks on Tamil people by the Sinhalese at various places in and outside Trinco town.
It became evident that they were trying to outdo what the Tamils had done the previous night; and the situation got worse by about 10 p.m. despite all the patrolling the police and the army who had been deployed to support them were doing.
There was not much time to be lost if we were to prevent the situation getting totally out of control, and even spreading outside the district putting the General Elections due to be held in a few weeks’ time at risk.
According to reports that reached us two Tamils had already lost their lives and 15 more injured. We had to not only act fast but also make our intent clear to drive fear into the minds of potential trouble makers, and back up our resolve with a visible show of strength.
Since I found the police and the army to be badly short of both men and vehicles I asked them to put down their requirements on paper so that L could get in touch with Colombo with the least possible delay. That clearly was not enough and there was a need to get down as much military hardware as was possible to be able to frighten away the miscreants, whoever they may be.
This meant that the final list had to include even armoured cars for static duty as well as for moving armed personnel around, in addition to the normal jeeps and other vehicles used for patrolling.
With the lists in my hand I telephoned Mr. Jayasinghe, gave a full brief about developments and read out our list of requirements to be able to bring the situation under control with the least possible delay.
The list included additional police strength, a riot squad, armoured cars and more jeeps to provide additional mobility to police and service personnel. I stressed as best as I could the need for these to arrive in Trincomalee by early morning, preferably before day-break. It did not take much effort for me to convince him of these, as he had sufficient confidence in my being able to assess the gravity of the situation and the steps that had to be taken.
While I was still on the phone he got in touch with the Service Commanders and the IGP on the ‘hot line’, and agreed to send everything that I asked for. I was able to convince him of the importance of the riot squad and the armoured cars arriving in Trinco before daybreak on June 5 to get the message across to potential trouble makers that we meant business.
He assured me that the police riot squad would leave Colombo by midnight and that the armoured cars would be sent from the army camp in Anuradhapura. He also said that additional police strength would be sent from Colombo and the jeeps asked for from Colombo or other districts.
Having agreed to all my requests the Secretary told me that he would himself be arriving in Trinco with the Army Commander the next morning for an on-the-spot assessment. This, I welcomed, as they would then be able to make their own assessment of how well or badly we were dealing with the situation.
The armoured cars arrived by morning and soon made their presence felt in the readiness while the police (aided by the other services) were able to do their mobile patrolling better with the help of the additional vehicles they received. While potential trouble-makers, whether they be Sinhalese or Tamil, got the message that was intended to be given, peace-loving people of Trinco felt safe and secure.
Although calm was thus restored, we did not want to take any chances on nomination day having seen instances when one stray incident was enough to change the whole equation. I therefore took steps to let it be known that, though regretfully, we would have to impose certain restrictions in the streets of Trinco and even in and around the Town Hall where Nominations were to be taken.
The riot squad of the police had also arrived and stood on alert on Nomination Day to prevent anything from happening that would disrupt the proceedings, and our main objective was achieved.
I have used a variance of the catchphrase, “It’s the Economy, Stupid”, which became the mantra of the successful Clinton presidential campaign in 1992, when the US was facing an economic recession during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. The slogan served to highlight and exploit one key issue in the minds of a majority of voters, the economic downturn, and make it the central point of the successful Clinton campaign.
In 2004, the central issue for the voters was the illegal, pre-emptive war against Iraq waged by the younger Bush. The Democrats did not exploit overwhelming opposition of the electorate against the US invasion of a sovereign nation. They failed to rally voters behind the strategic slogan, “It’s the War, Stupid”, out of a sense of misplaced patriotism, which probably cost them the presidency.
As the New York Times stated, “The Democratic leaders never united around a substantive alternative vision to the administration’s pre-emptive war against the thug of Baghdad. That isn’t patriotism, it’s abdication”.
The Democrats seem to be heading in the same direction in their preliminary campaigns for the 2022 midterms just five months away and the 2024 presidential election. Despite all the dangerous threats the nation faces today – the end to democracy, high inflation and the possibility of a recession, the Republican Supreme Court’s ruling to take away women’s rights to reproductive freedom, the one single issue is, and has been for years, the proliferation of military-style weapons and the resultant loss of 40,000 lives per year, especially the murder of toddlers.
After all, according to the National Rifle Association, the Republican Party and the huntin’, fishin’ cowboys of America, the dead have no need for rights and freedoms.
The current public hearings of the Bipartisan Committee presented overwhelming evidence that the insurrection was being planned by Trump and his closest “advisors” even before the presidential election, when the polls indicated that Trump would lose the election.
The first public hearing of the Committee laid the framework of Trump’s treasonous plan to cling to power, with an extensive propaganda campaign that the election was stolen from him. The Big Lie still believed by 50% of Republican voters, who refuse to trust the evidence of their own eyes.
The Deputy Chairman of the January 6 Committee, Republican Liz Cheney made an opening statement, considered to be one of the finest prosecutorial orations in recent times.
Towards the end of her speech, Cheney offered a stark warning to members of her party who continue to support former President Donald Trump and downplay the events of January 6. “Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonour will remain”.
Previously unheard and unseen evidence, from police and congressional witnesses, Trump’s previous associates and a video filmed by a documentarian, were made public during the televised hearings. They provided incontrovertible evidence of Trump’s treason, that Trump knew that the Big Lie was indeed a Big Lie, but still spread false propaganda in a desperate, seditious attempt to cling to power.
He defrauded his own supporters for funds to the tune of an estimated $250 million, in an ostensible appeal to fight non-existent “election fraud”. The Committee proved that these donations went straight into the personal coffers of Trump and his family, potentially a prosecutable federal crime of Mail Fraud.
During the second hearing, then Attorney General William Barr stated that he told Trump a few days after the election that there was no evidence of election fraud. He also said that “Trump was detached from reality” and his claim of election fraud was “bullshit”. Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and his “chief adviser” was also present at this meeting. She confirmed under oath that Trump had accepted Barr’s findings and knew that he had lost the election. Predictably, Trump has now turned against his favourite lady.
These crimes have been long known to the public, but there is little hope that even the comprehensive evidence provided by the January 6 Committee will sway the entrenched minds of Trump supporters. They will continue to downplay four years of crimes while Trump was at the White House and his leading role in the January 6 insurrection. They still worship him, and their cult-like support will be shown at future elections. Whatever the crimes, including treason, that Trump has been proven to commit, his supporters will pretend to disbelieve, forgive, even ignore them as long as he keeps their dreams of white supremacy alive.
And there is no doubt that if Trump, or any of his closest associates are indicted for fomenting a coup that came very close to the destruction of American democracy, there will be widespread violence resembling another Civil War. Millions of white supremacists armed with military style weapons, who form the base of the Trump cult, will take to the streets in a nationwide insurrection to preserve the privileges of the white race. This threat of domestic terrorism and white supremacy which emerged during Trump’s presidency, may be brought to the boil, one way or another, perhaps even before the midterms in November.
The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 16, when the Committee will show evidence of the extreme pressure Trump put on Vice President Pence, ordering him to illegally overturn the votes of the Electoral College on January 6, an act against the Constitution. To his credit, Pence refused to succumb, even at the risk to his own life.
However, the monotonous regularity of the murder of 40,000 people per year, including little children, seems to be the current central issue. It is bad enough that there have been 228 mass shootings (defined so when four or more people are killed), including 27 school shootings this year. We are still in June.
We have witnessed the mutilation of children, between six and 10 years of age, and teachers who spent their lives on education. The worst were in Columbine, Colorado (1999), in Newtown, Connecticut (2014), in Parkland, Florida (2018), the last, two weeks ago in Uvalde, Texas. With hundreds of lesser school shootings sprinkled among these four major tragedies.
What sadistic cretin can still find excuses for the imposition of gun control regulations after the constant mutilation of innocent children? The answer is the NRA and their bought and paid for puppets in the Republican Party.
Where gun regulations are concerned, these corrupt Republican Congressmen do not represent the opinion of the vast majority of Americans, including moderate conservatives and independents.
Except for the five million members of the NRA, which include all Republican members of Congress, there is none who would not have been touched, saddened, even angered, at the speech made by actor Mathew McConaughey from the podium of the White House Press room, days after the Uvalde shooting. McConaughey grew up in Uvalde, Texas, his mother taught elementary school a mile away from the massacre. He still has friends and relations in that little town, and a shared grief in the tragedy.
In an impassioned speech lasting 21 minutes, McConaughey said, “we have an epidemic of indiscriminate mass shootings, of parents burying their children, of inaction. Buck passing to save the unnecessary loss of lives is not a partisan issue”.
He spoke tenderly of each of the little ones by name, talking of their individual dreams: of 10-year-old Alithia, whose dream was to attend art school in Paris and one day share her art with the world. Of nine-year old Maite, who dreamed of being a marine biologist. Maite wore green high top Converse (shoes) with a heart she had hand-drawn on the right toe. Green because they represented her love of nature. “Wore them every day. These are the same green Converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence of her identity after the shooting. How about that?”
One little girl explained, in pre-recorded testimony, that she had smeared her classmate’s blood on herself to play dead, and graphically described the moment the gunman shot her teacher in the head. What wonderful childhood memories she will carry the rest of her life?
According to Dr. Roy Guerrero, a Paediatrician who testified in Uvalde, “Two children whose bodies had been pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, with their flesh ripped apart. The only clues to their identities were their blood-splattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them, clinging for life and finding none”. How about that?
The reconstruction of these little bodies was beyond the expertise of morticians’ cosmetologists, whose job was to beautify corpses for public viewing at funerals. An impossible task for these mutilated little bodies. How about that?
“This moment is different. We’re in a moment of opportunity that we have not been in before, a window of opportunity where real change can happen. So while we honour and acknowledge the victims, we need to recognize that this time it seems something is different. There is a sense that perhaps there is a viable path forward. Responsible parties in this debate seem to at least be committed to sitting down and having a real conversation about a new and improved path forward – a path that can bring us closer and make us safer as a country, a path that can actually get something done this time”, concluded McConaughey.
This time may be different, even to a minimal extent. A bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic Senators are trying to find common ground. Whatever they come up with will be unlikely to involve any sweeping reforms.
The reforms under discussion – mental health, improving school safety and support for children and ensuring that those who are adjudicated as mentally ill cannot purchase assault rifles – fall far short of the serious action that needs to be taken to significantly diminish gun violence – increase of the age of those allowed to purchase guns to 21, universal background checks, waiting periods, mental health and red flag laws, a total ban on military style assault rifles, the weapon of choice of most mass murderers.
On Thursday, more than 220 CEOs of major companies – all contributors to Republican campaigns, called on the Senate to take “immediate action” to reduce gun violence following the spate of recent shooting deaths.
These business leaders wrote, “Taken together, the gun violence epidemic represents a public health crisis that continues to devastate communities – especially Black and Brown communities – and harm our national economy”.
In my opinion, if more meaningful steps are not taken to curb gun violence and the massacre of little children, those politicians who prefer to hide these tragedies under an avalanche of thoughts and prayers and nothing else, will be routed in any future election.
America is at the tipping point on the threats to many freedoms – women’s, LGBTQ and civil rights, voting rights, police reform, inflation, recession – and democracy itself. In spite of this, the central issue in any future election will be gun control, until stringent regulations are enacted capable of finally lowering gun deaths to levels enjoyed by every other advanced nation.
Today, the economy is the central issue, the main concern amongst 48% of the electorate; gun violence is a distant second, at 17%.
However, inflation and economic downturns are global and temporary. Gun violence is American are permanent. My thoughts and prayers go to the men and women who will realize that that the lives of our little children are more important than the price of gas, as they go to the polls in November.
Sri Lanka seen as entering preliminary stages of hyperinflation
Aeroflot affair: PNF demands explanation, action against fiscal officer, lawyer
Minister Perera’s plan to face forex crisis
CEB predicts power cuts for three more years
Moratuwa dons owe State Rs. 51,649,961 for violating agreements and bonds
Mr. President, abort this racket
Sri Lanka unlikely to automatically qualify for World Cup
Copyright © 2020 Upali Newspapers (Pvt) Ltd. Solution by LankaCom Privacy Policy