Ode to my twins

You are Terminalia Arjuna in Latin, but to me just Kumbuk

You draw the wind, coolness and wetness with a look that’s rustic

Right in front of my eyes, you planted yourself before I came

Some twenty years or more, it now seems insane

What changes we have been through? Climate, flora and fauna

The nests of Jungle Fowl have gone from that corner

Mouse deer that scampered, now only history negating my task

I see you daily if not hourly, but most certainly when I sit at my desk

I feel such a fraud that biodiversity I so value vanishes

But the avian photography I take here, somehow clashes

With that hypothesis.

You are my inspiration to write, to hope and expect the unexpected

You are my companion of fifteen years as I watch your length extended

You have during this time, shared my hopes, fears and most importantly

My disappointments in love, more than once, nay a dozen certainly!

It’s the grove you inhabit that drew me to live here,

You were small then, as your brothers and sisters were

Much larger, but in you I placed the hope that I spoke

To see you grow and surpass their grandeur before I croak

Never disappointing in rain and sun, I pray you live that my children

Will feel the same about you that I do, nay also my grandchildren

With that metamorphosis.

It’s finally time farmers of Sri Lanka get a fair shake, surely!

I have been a subsistence farmer for 8 years from 2004 to 2011 and believe I am sufficiently experienced in all aspects from growing to final sale to the consumer, to be able to opine intelligently on the subject as much anecdotes are from personal experience.

Years of just paying lip service to farmers, in order to get their vote, but eventually with policies that did little to improve the productivity of agriculture, we in Sri Lanka must once and for all realize that food security is important and professional farmers do indeed play a significant role in ensuring that.

This coronavirus pandemic has brought food security back into the front burner in Sri Lanka, as some people have only just realized that over 50% of the food intake of Sri Lanka is imported, and with the limited foreign exchange at their disposal, that this cannot be one which is sustainable.

It is simply ironic, if not tragic that the only announcement made by the President recently was to guarantee a price of Rs65/kg for Dhal and Rs100 a tin of fish if purchased from the Government owned stores Sathosa. In reality with the curfew imposed almost immediately thereafter, the hapless citizens were in queues kilometers long in order to be given an allocation of 1kg of Dhal and one tin of fish! Is that fair? You be the judge of that. This rationing was to prevent a few people including unscrupulous traders from stocking and selling on the black market at a premium, but that is what happens always anywhere there is a shortage of something that is under a price control.

All this talk is a bunch of hot air, if we are unable to empower the farmers of Sri Lanka to produce food, be it rice, or any other commodity in order to feed the populace, and in some cases gain foreign exchange from their export, mainly of spices. There have always been programs and incentives to improve agricultural production for the past 70+ years, but apart from the Mahaweli Scheme that brought a lot of irrigated land under cultivation, there have been few other projects that have truly increased agricultural output.

I blame this fairly and squarely on policies that have not been adequately communicated with farmers to obtain their input in the practicality of proposed Government incentives to increase productivity and production as none of the goals have been achieved and no detailed studies have taken place as to why they have not succeed. In my experience there have been many inconsistent and disjointed projects that farmers were encouraged to get involved in that ultimately pauperized him, with no recompense or admittance of culpability on the part of those who encouraged their adoption.

There have been ad hoc explanations, such as pest control and threat from wildlife that is protected, that have devastated crops, but in essence no practical steps have taken place to minimize the impact of this pestilence on agricultural harvests.

Farmers have a dim view of the establishment believing rightly or wrongly, that all stakeholders plot against them, in terms of selling pesticides that are useless, or taking action that increases pests as part of an organized crime to sell more pest control and weed control chemicals to enrich and local and multinational companies.

Recently, the farmers in Polonnaruwa were convinced of a plot to cheat/fool them, with the authorities releasing irrigation water a full 3 weeks after the date by which the water should have been released for cultivation, which resulted in a crop devastation due to a blight, which they almost could predict would happen, and the remedies suggested by the plethora of multinationals who they suspected were in league to delay sowing, were on no use to save their harvest. This resulted in untold hardship along with the inability to repay loans taken out for their crop.

This is merely one of many, this being the most recent event as of last month (March 2020) but this is one of a long litany of sins blamed on the powerful agribusiness mafia, that do not have the needs of the farmer at heart, but mere sale of a myriad of solutions, none of which was able to solve the problem!

The whole aspect of inputs are stacked against the famer, as there is a tractor owning mafia that regulate the cost per acre for ploughing, and combine harvester mafia that regulate the cost of their work at a price per acre, no matter what the harvest might be, or how easy the task of harvesting on some land is. Of course the nigger in the woodpile, is the price finally received for their produce, where agents of the millers wait like vultures with cash in hand at the time of harvesting, to persuade the farmer to part with his crop there and then and avoid the messy and time consuming task of drying paddy. They give a substantial discount over the govt. guaranteed price, with the latter having considerable strings attached prior to being purchased at govt. owned warehouses.

I have not gone into the extremely unfair method of price fixing at the Economic Centers such as Dambulla for farmer produce, and as that would take more writing here, I will merely refer to it here as another thorn in the side of farmers to give them next to nothing for the produce they toil to grow, under very harsh and trying conditions.

Suffice to say, how on earth can one expect farmers to come to the rescue of the Country as Food Security Providers, of far more value than the Security Forces, when so many barriers are purposely placed in their way?

There are some private entities that have entered the purchasing market with guaranteed minimum prices for farmers, as they sell through their own chain of supermarkets. They do indeed provide some respite to the beleaguered farmers who join such cooperatives. It is then of the essence that this model is further extended in order to obtain a fair price for produce.

Home Garden Fad encouraged in times of food shortage to fool the masses

Lately, a lot of media publicity has been given with prominent personalities showing their efforts at growing certain vegetables at home, including that of the PM and his wife. It is laughable to say the least as it is nothing but a stunt to fool the hapless public that this will go a long way to alleviate the problems at hand.

While there is nothing wrong for someone at home who can find some space where they can put some seeds down and grow some food items for their home consumption and exchange with neighbors if there is some excess. At best this is a stop gap measure for a limited period of time, as only a few vegetables grow in this way with minimal intervention and free of disease. There are people who vouch for this method of growing their home garden, but they are honestly few and far between and are accomplished in this task, which the average Joe just cannot begin to adopt. I am not pooh poohing this idea completely, but it is not the panacea for the low productivity of agriculture in Sri Lanka.

We still act very schizophrenically in assuming we can all grow organic vegetables and MUST grow that way, by banning the use of pesticides and chemicals. This is purely pie in the sky, unless the whole island adopts this standard. In areas where this is a mixture, pests removed from areas of spray gravitate to areas of organic agriculture, making the task of growing an impossibility. This further pauperizes the well intention farmers who are promised higher prices for organic food, with false promises, made by those who don’t know the subject in the first place.

Most commercial farms also seem to have given up the ghost of agriculture due to the high taxes on farm equipment essential for low cost economies of scale. Further the labor rate and hiring and firing practices don’t permit efficient use of labor unlike in the Western Countries that encourage seasonal labor at harvest time to pick crops for market, as labor laws are far more lax in this area. There is no culture of work gangs that go from place to place to harvest, as their skill level and productivity over the average villager is double, but are not compensated adequately for their effort, unless a piece rate is negotiated on contract prior to engagement.

I sincerely believe productivity can improve if all inputs are evaluated fairly.

Do you know how many officers of the Department of Wildlife Conservation die as a result of injuries suffered during the course of their work?

Another gentleman Mr WMAD Wendakaduwa succumbed to injuries from a wild elephant yesterday. He has 35 years of service under his belt and an expert in the area of moving elephants from troubled spots. He was loved by all and respected as an expert in this field.

These incidents are now the norm rather than the exception, due to the increase in HEC (Human Elephant Conflict) issues. Their families are now fearful of their lives each time they go on duty. They carry guns to protect themselves, mainly from poachers, and they risk their lives to protect our Biodiversity.

There are too many of this happening and we as a nation must do all we can to (i) appreciate the dedication of the work that the staff of the DWC especially those of the minor ranks to reduce the impact of wild elephant attacks to villages, often at high risk to themselves as in this instance, (ii) go on anti-poaching patrols in the dead of night, having to avoid dangerous traps laid down by poachers, (iii) attend to villagers concerns in when there are elephant attacks incurring their wrath as the blame for elephant attacks, (iv) deal with injured wild animals and transport them for medical attention, (v) secure the borders of the Protected Areas from incursion and deviants, such as sand miners, gem miners, quarry cutting and tree cutting gangs, again at immense personal risk to themselves, to name a few of the tasks as well as maintain the National Parks and do the needful to protect our diverse Flora and Fauna.  

A country that spends inordinate amount of energy in revering the Security Forces, don’t even give a mention to these individuals who risk their lives every day in the course of their work. Their pensions, death benefits especially while on hazard duty, and the welfare of disabled staff and families of those who have been killed must be reviewed if we are to attract the quality and caliber of people such as Mr Wendakaduwa in future.

It takes a special person to work in this field, one who understands the forests, the wild and the dark. I have lately written much on this subject, hoping to catch the attention of those who must take action to upgrade this task and its members along with giving the necessary tools for their work. Otherwise being penny wise and pound foolish in this area will result in more casualties, and it is the Country that will survive. The indirect benefit of their work helps Tourism immensely.

I am led to understand that this accident took place when in the process of tranquilizing a wild elephant. It is possible that the anesthesia used may not have been effective. There are many reasons for this. It could be that the quality was sub-par for the task at hand due to cost constraints and sourcing from less respected suppliers. It could have been because the elephant was so badly shot up with lead in its body, that the tranquilizer was not able to penetrate its body as quickly as expected. However there are many factors and it is these innocent people who have to contend with these mistakes.

There is also an acute shortage of Vets within the DWC to attend to calls all around the Island, who cannot get to places fast enough. After all it is more important for them to have the use of a security forces helicopter to get to places, MORE than either the President or the PM as their work is more important.

The DWC is a Cash Cow to the Treasury who seem to have forgotten that they need a much larger allocation to do their job properly and not to allocate money for the elephant fences which have added to HEC instead of other more practical means such as what I have alluded to which may be more productive.

HEC is an increasing issue, and mercifully, the GOSL saw sense in not providing guns to chase away elephants which would put more lives of these DWC staffers at risk instead of alleviating an already dangerous level of angst that the elephant population have grown accustomed to against human beings for their activity.

All I can do is raise awareness, and hope that common sense prevails, but how many more deaths of our great and good fearless warriors must it take for the powers to wake up. I just don’t want the life of this individual I refer to, to be in vain, in the valiant effort he has made of 35 years to save so many lives.

Who is the true RANAVIRU here? I hope his dedication will be noted, highlighted, and remembered for the true hero he was, doing his job with no song and dance, just humble to the bitter end!

The absurd level of panic in Sri Lanka – Coronavirus Panicatacus Syndrome!

The way the people of the Country have been unnecessarily alarmed due to the Coronavirus is worrying, and an indication of how gullible, how insensitive, how racist, and how melodramatic the people are in general with a few exceptions, which indicate the nature of the public.

The over use and therefore shortage of face masks, which are really of minimal value, over something as simple as regular washing of hands in antibacterial soap is a case in point. After all apparently only one is a hundred people who contract this virus is likely to die from it, makes Dengue and its prevention in SL is a far more disturbing public health issue than what Corona will ever be and I don’t see anyone making that point.

As a nation merely moving from sound bite to sound bite, the true extent of what one should be concerned about is not taken into account. It is more important to safely cross at a pedestrian crossing than put on a face mask, as the likelihood of being run over by a vehicle, exceeds that of even contracting the virus, let alone dying from it! I hope that puts in context what we are seeing.

So when travelers say that even at the airport they are being treated as if they have come from a danger zone when 99.9% have not, you can imagine the chagrin with which oncoming tourists will feel the authorities in Sri Lanka behave.

The host country must not instill fear into our visitors who don’t bring this virus and the shoddy treatment of anyone remotely looking slitty eyed as we don’t still know how to distinguish between Japanese, Korean or Chinese, makes it even more embarrassing.

I was informed by a friend who works in a restaurant that they are wearing masks when serving. They have not been told that washing hands is more important in the prevention of the spread of the disease if one were infected. What is the likelihood of a patron of being infected? It is enough to put people of their food if they are trying to enjoy a meal in a restaurant without feeling they are in a hospital. It is not one which the patrons will like especially if they are not wearing a mask.

Then finally the false sense of security created by the masks is an important consideration. After all there are many masks in the market, especially now that don't conform to minimum acceptable standards. So they only give a veneer of safety without actually being safe, and give another person a false sense of security which is worse than not giving any sense without a mask. Just think

The LRT caput! The GOSL is going to review the Fort Malabe Light Rail Transit project that is funded by the Japanese on concessionary terms.

http://www.themorning.lk/pg1-lrt-deal-to-be-renegotiated/ 

It has taken 5 years of discussion to get to this stage, only for the whole project to be renegotiated and likely cancelled. This is because much of JICA funding is long term concessionary and based on terms that often includes the use of Japanese Firms in their construction and low commissions and bribes paid to local intermediaries. The real issue of the commuter seems to be the least concern.

It is likely then that we may end up getting a Chinese  company bidding and being granted the contract, after a lot of wrangling on the payoffs, so another 3 to 5 years will be wasted before construction begins and it is likely that it would be finished by 2035 at the earliest if past practice is an indicator of future likelihood.

Can you imagine what the traffic would be in Colombo by then? If it is costing a Rs1B a day in lost work now it will soon cost RS2B a day in about a month from now when traffic snarl ups are the norm rather than exception and while the people of Colombo and the suburbs suffer just to come to work, does anyone think they can ever work once they do arrive?

It is under this ridiculous scenario that we have people making life and death decisions without a care in the world for the suffering of the people involved. When China can build a 1,000 bed hospital in 10 days, lawmakers are simply unable to execute a project during the period they have power, so when the next bunch of bozos come on the scene just to mothball the previous project because they somehow think they don’t share in the spoils, whose spoils are they concerned about, but their own? We the people bear a huge responsibility in electing the people with unchanged outlook on what the future should look like let alone any care for the future.

I suggest it is better to move Government out of Colombo, to somewhere livable like Polonnaruwa and build a lean and mean capital using latest technology and a tenth of the workforce so that in future the people will not be burdened in carrying a weight of non-productive workers, as now the displaced workers can actually be released into the Private Sector to add value to the economy and industry, so the Country can actually move forwards instead of backwards.

It is utterly frustrating that no short term measures have not been adopted to relieve congestion, like a fleet of electric buses that provide free seating from Malabe to Fort where it is AC and seating only where standing passengers will not be permitted. If this causes a riot then provide this at least at Rs100 a pop, so that one car for each passenger would be removed from the roads. This after providing large parking lots in Malabe for drivers to park and use public transport.

The Setting of Traps and Trap Guns – a particularly indiscriminate form of cruelty!

How about strictly enforcing the ban on traps and use of trap guns with increased vigor, distinguishing it from other form of hunting?

Poaching is an organized crime, and like felling of trees, sand mining, distilling moonshine, they continue unabated as they receive patronage from the very top, and the connivance of the security forces by way of corruption to look the other way.

If you speak to staff of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, whose task it is to catch poachers, their biggest fear when out patrolling is being injured or killed by traps and trap guns that are very carefully camouflaged. Most often no one is apprehended for trap guns and traps as the deed is done remotely, without the culprit present, except when setting it. Trap guns also kill many innocent civilians who happen to go into the forest to pick medicinal plants or berries for personal use, the occasional poacher falls prey to his own trap. If my suggestion below is acted upon, the DWC staffers will be more productive in their tasks too. A win win proposition.

It is time to distinguish this particularly nasty method of maiming and killing, including Hakka Pattas where food items are wrapped in poison or fuses that blow up upon touch.

Man has hunted for a livelihood since the beginning of the human race, however they have been banned from hunting in Sri Lanka only in the last 50 years. However due to this urge for continuation, there are poachers everywhere and every day in the Island now.

If poachers know that society does not or will never tolerate this particularly nasty form of killing and maiming where even small elephants fall prey to this vicious form of cruelty, we may as a society be able to reduce the incidence of this form of horrific killing. It is state sponsorship of publicity, of show trials covering all media when people are apprehended, and earnestly informing the police that they too will be harshly punished, if there are traps found in their jurisdiction, that will show results by seeing a reduction.

My contention is that every rural police station knows who poach. So it is actually easy for them to give out the message that as they too will be implicated in such instances, poachers are more likely to listen and desist. With new technology, this form of killing becomes easy and nastier and more horrific. Why have we not been able to get a handle on it?

Traps are indiscriminate forms of killing as they don't select which man or beast is caught in the trap. It is the worst form of killing. In nations that permit hunting, they are able to prevent such practices, as they are able to provide the hunter with an outlet for their desire that is hard wired in their DNA in a more humane way! My contention then is that the laws in Sri Lanka have not prevented the worst form of animal cruelty, by banning all killing, and in fact created a bigger platform for traps and trap guns.

There are professional trappers in many countries, who are competent in only catching the vermin they are permitted to kill, and so don't engage in the practices that poachers use in Sri Lanka. The Media and Police must act publicize this form of killing as being totally unacceptable and the Government do its part by increasing the sentences and fines for their use.

I can only hope that common sense prevails and we are able to civilize our poachers from being indiscriminate killers to more selective type. Of course my desire is to see a species management program, so that their energies are directed in the right direction and we are then able to save animals that are endangered at the same time. After all the suggestion above is not to encourage hunting, but to re direct their skills in the right direction eventually, when Sri Lanka matures to a true era of sustainable practices of farming and wildlife management.

The peacock – time to use the bird in the context of species management!

What if we do nothing? The population of peacocks in the Country is rising to proportions, where it is becoming a nuisance, doing more harm than good. We can get the experts to confirm or deny my hypotheses, using tried and tested scientific methods. This may be broken down by District, if we need to know if there is a dearth in some and excess in others if the need arises.

The same scientists and zoologists can give reasons as to, ‘why it has happened’, to explain their natural increase, such as the decimation of the jungle cats who used to kill small pea fowl for their food. This may give credence to the circle of life being put out of equilibrium, as an argument for their culling.

I believe I saw a clip of Professor Kotagama, the expert on birds of Sri Lanka, putting forward an argument for their population control, as they may have a detrimental effect on our Endemic Bird survival or for that matter of other biodiversity. I don’t know if this is an introduced species to the island, as it may arrived in the island a few thousand years ago, with migrants. I wonder if historians have definitive knowledge of this. As this species is very resilient surviving in temperate climates like the UK, this is a possibility.

We then arrive at the topic here of species management. I can now imagine how some conservationists may believe that the subject must not be tolerated, because they will say it is the beginning of the end! That means if we allow culling of peacock, when will the culling of elephants begin? I believe that is not an excuse to begin our debate on this subject, a much less controversial subject, if we are to begin intelligent discussion on long term biodiversity survival.

We will have a whole set of stakeholders who wish to express their views. They include religious beliefs, where the peacock is considered sacred and inviolable.

In today’s world there are so many opinions arguments, now fake news being spread around, to back one’s opinion, which is intended to cloud the original argument. You will even have a set of people saying “with more land cleared for farming, the traditional land of the peacocks have been encroached upon by man and so we cannot allow this.” This is because they don’t know that the likely population of peacocks when the country was covered in forest. It is likely that we have more peacocks in the Country today, than we have ever had in the whole history of Sri Lanka. The circle of life kept this population in check due to other species that was their natural predator having a much bigger presence!

So let’s concentrate on answering if there is a problem. If so what is the solution and what are the consequences arising from implementation?

So now is the time to begin talking, getting a plan of action and state sponsorship, using our State Universities to use their knowledge to begin this discussion without delay. The whole world has begun, we are as usual not on the page yet!

If only we were able to send our 1,000 best hunters to the USA we can reduce poaching substantially

 and the USA would love to have them!

This is not pie in the sky or a joke, it is a win win proposition for all.

No one in Sri Lanka realizes that we have over 5,000 hunting parties going hunting every day. They hunt deer, monitors, porcupine, sambhur, wild boar, and even monkeys, and unfortunately, traps are used that kill people and kill leopard as well. Of the daily hunting parties, only 10% are successful, as often they return empty handed, due to the game, already decimated by over hunting.

One thing is clear about the hunters, not only do they do it as there is a big pay day if they bag a deer or sambhur as game meat commands a high price in hotels catering for locals, and for the top brass of the armed forces who pay top dollar for game, most often the hunters only survive at best and occasionally have to pay protection money to the Police or share the proceeds with them.

The bottom line they have a rotten life, and go through incredible hardship in eking out a living.

So the reader of this must think I am partial to hunters, and condone this killing. Far from it. However put yourself in the shoes of the hunter. You have to understand his point of view if you want to reduce the incidence of killing of endangered and species that are in short supply. Don’t forget the food chain is a very delicate balance and if some of it goes out of equilibrium the whole eco system goes out of whack.

So for example because of the heavy use of pesticides, the large communities of jungle cats have disappeared and are very hard to find or see. This means that baby peacocks they used to eat now thrive and are now a pest in the Country, so much so that it is very harmful for the farmers too. However not only are they protected, but there is a religious element that does not want them killed either. However as they are not endangered, and they are now overrunning many places it is a matter of time before culling will be permitted to control the over population.

Though Sri Lanka is a small island, there are pockets where certain species are over populated, while in other areas they are under populated. This is partly due to farms, urban gardens and food sources. So monkeys are a menace in certain areas, as well as wild boar, in addition to the peacock, giant squirra and porcupine.

As there is no proper study of this and species management program, all our hunters are effectively poachers and that is why I would like to give them relief.

My first suggestion was to use these poachers as game keepers as they are the best to do that job, knowing the animals very well as well as their behavior especially, nocturnal patterns. If we have a system of rehabilitating them, and using their skills then for example the DWC can improve their performance in protecting Biodiversity. It does not seem to be happening.

So what is the solution? Have a plan to ship them to the USA where you treat is as a job that is badly required in the USA but there are fewer people willing to do it. There is a huge demand for hunters as trappers in the USA to reduce the over population of vermin and this is where the coyote comes in.

The Coyote

The coyote is the USA equivalent of the Jackal and due to urbanization the population of the coyote is increasing by leaps and bounds. Despite the estimated killing of at least 400,000 coyote yearly in the USA their population, especially in urban areas is rising. Earlier they were poisoned, but this is no longer used, as it may affect the food chain adversely, so alternative methods need to be used.

I am using coyote as just one example, but there are many species that can be legally hunted in the USA due to the need to control populations of certain species. For example due to the decimation of wolves in North America, the population of coyotes expanded, as wolves used to kill coyote cubs. That is not to say coyotes are also have their place in controlling other species too, so there is a balance in how they too are controlled.

Here in Arkansas where I am they can be freely killed without a permit. The beauty of it is that our hunters are superb at their job. Just give them a good gun and they will be top of the game. See what they have to put up with. They make their own guns, very primitive ones that are used for hunting. So if they have access to proper hunting rifles it will be like ducks to water.

Now coyote pelts were in demand in the past to export to countries to make fur clothing. So just imagine our hunters came for a season each year, collect all the coyote pelts they can and ship them back to Sri Lanka, and make the winter clothing from these natural pelts and re-export them to countries that demand them.

So what is the catch in my plan? Our hunters will get too used to the good life in the USA and will want to do some easy job, instead of hunting and skip town to work in a gas station and work their way up the food chain in the USA. If they stick to what they know best they can have a good life, it can reduce the vermin by the use of world experts and they can earn a good living for their families.

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/01/16/unpacking-the-rise-of-urban-coyotes

The fall out of the Ranjan Ramanayake speech in Parliament on 21st January 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-vMAJQflmc

This is how you eviscerate Bad Apples from your midst (January 21^st 2020)

How to clean up corruption from within your ranks?

Coming out of the national discourse, emanating from the speech today that Ranjan Ramanayake gave in Parliament, it is apparent that he has a point, that the Crooks are mainly inside Parliament and many like him in jail (he was permitted to come out of remand prison to attend Parliament as an MP) are cleaner than those outside.

He did not hold back. He accused everyone including his own party the UNP, from which he was not only expelled, but also his organizer-ship and other positions he held, were also denied him, that he spoke now as an Independent Member.

You cannot be in Parliament if you are honest and say nothing when your colleagues are crooks. However for your own life, and your security, you don’t open your mouth and speak the truth, even if you know what the truth is. The people deserve better.

He shat on so many people it was not funny. However if we take just a simple example of SB Dissanayake telling Ranga Bandara, that if he changed sides from the UNP where he was, to the SLPP Pohottuwa Mob, at the time there was the illegal takeover of power by Mahinda Rajapakse, that he would immediately be given a Cabinet Minister Post, is anything but treason. So the Trump impeachment sounds like a joke in comparison to such inducements to change the course of history and go against the people’s mandate, not that it means a thing to Mahinda Rajapakse or his Government either, who are currently in power, along with the Drug Lords like Kudu Smell L as an MP who spoke immediately after Ranjan Ramanayake’s speech.

What is the least that we owe to the public of Sri Lanka? They have been led a dance by the very people, who bend in two to worship when they arrive at their doorstep to give or take! In order to correct this mistake and change the course of history, it is simply incumbent upon those who are honest to rat on the dishonest.

Well well, it was Ranjan who had the courage. How? He taped and video’d as much of his conversations as possible. When he needed proof to back up his words, he had the dirt on them. How can you look the people in the eye in prison, and feel sorry for them, as you should be serving a longer term than those poor hapless prisoners? They have no one to defend them, and are often the fodder for the sins of the drug lords or criminal gangs for whom they are doing the dirty work, or take the rap to save the bigger fish. I would love to be a fly on the wall, listening to prisoners’ conversations. I would like to know if they gave RR a standing ovation on his return.

The speech in parliament that has now gone viral on the Internet

Having logged over 200K of hits or views within hours of the speech being uploaded to Youtube, means that within a month half the population of Sri Lanka would have heard the tapes. How would they react?

Will they get a shock at the level of corruption in the judiciary and police?

Will they be shocked by the revelation that some Buddhist Priests are pedophiles?

Will they be angry that their heroes have been crucified in public for corruption?

I could go on and on in this speculation, but more to the point, I did not even detect a sense of shame even among the UNP politicians from whose ranks he spoke, despite being stripped of his party membership. The UNP is in turmoil, just as much as Mahinda Rajapakse and his mob, and they all deserve to be hounded out of parliament by a frenzied mob who should not be stopped by the security forces, who must now understand that they cannot protect rogues, purely by the fact they are Ministers or MPs and/or are holding office as their superiors.

Yes, the Parliament of Sri Lanka is an exclusive members club. It is for the Members and against the interests of the people of Sri Lanka, who they have promised to serve. They have repeatedly broken that promise, only to serve themselves. The heavy cost of seeking entry into parliament is simply not an excuse for corruption. They fund raise from people who they then protect, or give favors to. It lacks transparency. It is then only an old fashioned or glorified Masonic Temple with members, Free Masons, there to help each other succeed financially at the expense of everyone else.

The people cannot revolt as this will be brutally suppressed by the powerful armed forces, who are not trained to think, just to follow orders no matter how unjust. Unless the lower ranks are able to come out of their shell of ritual suppression and draw the line in the sand for justice and protect the innocent, there is no practical way out. The JVP is not the answer as they are no longer without blame for their part

The odds are stacked against the innocent and there is no external party who will come to save them or for that matter even support them. The people are on their own, rudderless, leaderless and so hang on to dear life to the purse strings of criminals as security from unjust repression. They are all looking for salvation from tyranny.

On this basis Hemasiri Fernando and Pujitha Jayasundera look like saints!

They have been in remand for months, not given bail for the charges they are accused of, when in fact both Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe are more to blame than these incompetent men taking the rap, with the jobs of Secretary of Defence and The Inspector General of Police (technically Pujitha is till the IGP)

Most religions have set the standard to say that sins of commission and sins of omission don’t have any different values. They are both sins. On this basis, while knowing the people in your midst are rogues and criminals and are guilty of treason, does not mean you are not held accountable for not bringing allegations against them, as much as you have evidence against them to light. Hence all MPs are guilty.

This is completely my logic in preventing any present Member of Parliament from holding future office as an MP and for that matter barred for life from serving in any elected capacity, where the voters are the general public. You can if you want be elected a chairman of a club of crooks. That is your prerogative, but not one that represents the people of Sri Lanka.

It may also be time to re write the constitution to prevent these lawmakers from ever being elected in future. It is so easy to do, but as the power of two thirds rests within Parliament, in which among them two thirds are rogues with privileges the general public are excluded from, it has to be done away by legislation.

This is a seminal moment, on the eve of a General Election to make changes that are far reaching and consequential. Coming so soon after the Ranjan Ramanayake revelations, that no Media in the Island have still exposed, as they are implicated,

So what is the problem in implementation?

This is the age old problem when a whole country has been hijacked by crooks. They hold the power. Only they can change the law and they are only taking steps to protect their turf, not to destroy themselves. Of course they are not foolish enough to destroy their own comfort zone of corruption. However the risk and chance that Ranjan Ramanayake took can only be built upon if the people are on the same page with him, and rise up to the occasion and say enough is enough!

We simply cannot play the same game of politics. It has not improved the quality of life of the poorest of the Country, and worse it has permitted people like the paddy Mafia to rule without shame or control over a vast swathe of society, with no consequences, or barriers to their power at price fixing and keeping the farmers in permanent penury. It is so easy to change, let’s just do it.

One way of increasing agricultural productivity, is to stop massive waste of precious inputs

Sustainable Agriculture

My recent history is that of being a farmer, but I am firm in my belief that even for a small country life Sri Lanka, we can and MUST release 1 Million hectares of land back into forest for sustainability of food production, climate risk, and the equilibrium of man and nature.

While it sounds incredible for one in Agriculture to say that the only means by which we can increase our Food Production output in Sri Lanka is to put back this massive amount of land, (much of which is cleared forest lands used presently in non-sustainable and marginal agriculture) this is the only means of increasing productivity of the remaining land.

One does not have to reinvent the wheel. There are enough examples throughout the world to know what is required to feed our nation. Just see the massive productivity of the Netherlands one of the world’s largest exporters of food products and flowers to see what is possible.

This last two months in Sri Lanka, showed that a little of bit of excess rain, can play havoc in previously planted vegetable crops to devastate them and increase the price of vegetables in the market to unheard of levels. If modern techniques were used, this now almost inevitable annual flooding can be managed by using new technology. Green house production is an obvious solution, as yield per sq meter is about 4 to 5 times that of other means, and more crops per annum as well as minimal degradation of soil can be achieved.

While we are wonderful at preaching the effects of wildlife on the volume of crops lost, we have yet to counter it with practical measures that work, which then will result in a substantial increase in output from the land and therefore productivity. Most of the energy of the state is taken to assist those living on marginal land that has been distributed to landless, when they should never have been given land to cultivate in the first place their knowledge or desire to farm is lacking and calling them farmers gives this time honored profession a bad name.

It is these 500,000+ families who must be moved out, forcibly if necessary to correct past errors of the state in giving them land to which they are simply not suited to farm, at a high infrastructure cost of providing roads, power, irrigation. Bogus reports are thrown out saying that the way of the future is small scale agriculture instead of large farms, however Sri Lanka does not qualify in that statement simply because we don’t have large scale food production, and most of the small scale farmers have no inclination to farm, in the first place.

We must instead assist real farmers quintuple their output using their knowhow.