Features

One of the better American Presidents – Jimmy Carter

Published

6 years ago

2020/11/22

Worldwide attention is riveted on the incomprehensible tantrums of tricky, tentacular, truculent, tenacious, tweeting Trump. Only one reason for his staying on in the White House and not attempting civility and even a reluctant handing over of the presidency can be adduced: not being right in the head. But remember he got the highest number of votes of any defeated presidential contender. He is also backed by hordes of white Americans and Republican Senators. He is such a contrast to Biden. Obama is a diamond to this clump of coal while John Kennedy and Bill Clinton glisten in spite of their minor flaws. To me the greatest of our times, barring Obama, is Jimmy Carter. He was no outstanding president, but his humanity shone forth. Of the five living U.S. presidents, Carter is the longest-lived president, the longest-retired president, the first to live 40 years after his inauguration, and the first to live beyond the age of 95. He and Rosalyn celebrated their 74 years of devoted marriage on July 7, 2020.

He was not known very well beyond the State of Georgia when he came forward as Democratic contender against Gerald Ford, but served well as 39th Prez from 1977-81. He was the man with most heart and continued after retirement to work in social projects. His greatest achievement is co-founding the Carter Center advocating human rights for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Sites in Atlanta

I have a son living in Atlanta, Georgia, so would spend holidays with him. While he worked I went around, spending hours in the Carter Center, libraries and the small museum in the ground floor of the house down Peach Tree Street where in the basement, Margaret Mitchell wrote her one and only novel, a best seller for all time no sooner it was out. My son’s flat is bang opposite Fox Theatre but the film of Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was first screened in another cinema. However the hotel where Clarke Gable and other stars stayed for the grand opening night is adjacent.

Seeing the 39th President

Imagine the wonder of what my son did during one of my holidays with him.

“Would you like to go to Plains and see and hear Jimmy Carter in the Baptist church there?”

Wouldn’t I just love it! It was a weekend when the Prez and wife were to be in Plains and one had to reserve seats in the Maranatha Baptist church on-line. So on a Sunday in September 2008, we attended Sunday School conducted by the President (even ex-presidents of the US are addressed as president).

A friend of the Carters first laid out detailed do-s and don’t-s in a friendly manner; following specified protocols was important. The main section in the church was reserved for visitors while the pews on either side were occupied by neighbourhood congregation; the well groomed women ‘Steel Magnolias’ in their elegant hats. Carter and wife walked in and he took his place below the simple alter. He said he and Rosalyn had returned from building houses in Africa. Then he got down to the business of the day, first asking those out of State to indicate themselves. Egged on by persons seated near us, I did so and said, “Out of country – Sri Lanka.”

His welcome was warm and he added, “We are saddened by the fighting over there in your island home. We pray for your country.” More surprising was when we were allowed to take photographs with the First Couple. We had been instructed not to speak to either, not to thank him, not to wish him, but just get the picture taken (which a person did) and move aside since so many wanted to do this. When my son and I went beside the couple, Carter spoke to me: (Surprise! Surprise!) “You are from Sri Lanka. Beautiful island. We wish you well and the country.” I had to thank him didn’t I, notwithstanding strictures? I wasn’t wearing sari. Maybe my brown skin was the telltale clue for recognition.

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924 to peanut farmer Earl Carter and Lillian of Peace Corps to India fame. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a BSc degree and joined the US Navy, where he served in submarines. His father died in 1953 and Carter left his naval career and returned home to take up the reins of his family’s peanut-growing business. Carter inherited comparatively little due to his father’s forgiveness of debts and the division of the estate among the children. His sister took him on a blind date and he fell in love with his partner of the foursome, Rosalyn Smith and married her in 1946 and had three sons and Amy. They were 21 and 18 years of age when they married.

He joined the Democratic Party and rose to serve as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th Governor from 1971 to 75. He opposed the political climate of racial segregation and supported the growing civil rights movement. An interesting tale resides here. When his mother was nogt around, the child Jimmy was cared for by a black sharecropper’s wife – Mrs Rachel Clarke. Carter admits she was one of the strongest influences in his life.

Preserved sites in Plains, Carter’s home included

The high school which he and Rosalyn attended; the farm in which he grew up; the hospital where his mother was a nurse and the small railway station that was the headquarters of his presidential campaign are now preserved sites under the aegis of the American National Park Service. The high school is a Jimmy Carter museum.

After the Sunday School service, my son drove me to Carter’s family farm. Pictures and voice presentations (Carter’s voice describing rooms in the house and the adjoining store) give the visitor a very clear picture of the life he led in his father’s 350 acre farm — extremely tough and necessitating long hours working behind a plough or gathering produce. They ran a store and invariably people wanting oil, sugar, flour or whatever would arrive during the time the Carters were at lunch. It was Jimmy who interrupted his meal to attend to the sale.

The impression that comes across is that of the closely knit family of two boys and two girls; very religious and almost uptight in upbringing. His father bought a radio when radios were luxuries and thus often, the house verandah would be full of neighbours come over to listen to some important news or speech. (All Southern houses have these open verandahs to beat the summer heat, with rockers and a swing). The toilet was converted to a water closet when Jimmy was a teenager, and still to be seen was a suspended bucket with holes in its bottom and a tap above which made do for their shower.

Plains had only one eatery naming itself Mother’s Diner. The Carters are supposed to be frequent visitors, though the food is limited in scope. Cheap though. They have built a far from sumptuous house close to the farm, where they live with guards around when they visit Plains. We peeped in as we passed the closed gate.

We stayed the weekend in The Plains Historic Inn and Antiques, exquisitely quaint, capturing in full measure the spirit, tone and atmosphere of this tiny Southern American city which incredibly threw up a president of the United States. The inn has seven theme rooms above the hall which displays and sells antiques, local crafts and books by and of the Carters. Each room was furnished in the style of a decade of Carter’s life, from the 1920s through the 1980s. For instance, the ’60s room has its bed, sofa, writing table and even bathroom fixtures in the 1960s style, posh though. LIFE magazines of the decade are on the bedside table and two books of the 60’s era. Prominently placed on the double bed was a wooden tray with two packets of peanuts, the major product of Plains. The breakfast area, where cereal, fruit juice, cookies and fruit are available for guests to help themselves to when they please, leads to a large verandah with rockers. It was sheer magic sitting out with a brilliant half moon above, or even in the afternoon, overlooking a lovely garden and the railway line and its quaint station which is now of historic interest, having been the headquarters of Carter’s presidential bid. The headquarters of Habitat for Humanity International is close by, so also the Andersonville Civil War Village, which too is a national historic site.

Carter quotes

Jimmy Carter has thirty books authored by him, apart from articles et al. Here are a couple of what he has said, pertinent to now; maybe said before the latest disgraceful calamity.

“I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.”

“Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.”

“We’ve become now an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that’s done the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards of the American political system ever seen in my life.”

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Features

The hard challenge of clinching a political settlement in the Middle East

Published

4 hours ago

2026/07/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

Bruised hearts: Displaced Palestinian civilians in the Gaza.(Photo by Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Despite some sections of the Trump administration persisting with the view that the possibility could not be entirely ruled out of there being a diplomatic solution to the current US-Iran hostilities in West Asia, the skeptic could not be blamed for thinking otherwise. The intensity, scale and frequency of the tit-for-tat strikes by the antagonists over the past few days against selected military targets and civilian infrastructure in particular in West Asia make the adoption of this stance excusable.

The continuing hostilities render the mentioning of the MOU signed between the warring parties in mid-June a laughable matter. While it could very well be that the foes are wishing privately for a cessation of hostilities before long, what seems to be uppermost on their minds right now is to negotiate with each other from a position of strength. This strategy compels them to incapacitate each other militarily to the extent possible, lest they have to concede too much to each other during negotiations. Hence the stepped-up hostilities.

However, even on the question of there being a negotiated political settlement in the West Asian theatre in the longer term, the skeptic could come to be seen as scoring over the optimist. Developments on the ground account for this.

At the time of writing Israel’s Netanyahu government is going ahead in fairly care-free fashion with the establishment of more Jewish settlements in the Gaza and the West Bank, and it’s all happening under the apparently complacent gaze of the US. In fact, some quarters estimate that Israel is in control of some 65% of the Gaza Strip. Ethnic cleansing, that is, is being drastically stepped-up.

Accordingly, in terms of the power relations of West Asia, the world is almost back to the status quo of the late forties of the last century when the state of Israel was established and the Palestinians were reduced to a microscopic minority in the land they came to inhabit. Therefore, even the impartial observer would be compelled to ask: ‘Will a negotiated peace be ever possible in the Middle East?’

The humanist in the observer would prefer to answer this question in the affirmative and it is indeed the ideal stance to adopt considering the staggering human and material costs of the conflict. But the way ahead to peace could be expected to be highly hazardous and arduous. Among other odds, it would also prove an uphill endeavour to win minds and hearts.

The US’ Trump administration would need to be counted out in this pursuit. This is on account of the fact that it has been far too wayward in its management of West Asian affairs in particular over the past couple of years. Given its unpredictable character it is a matter for conjecture whether it could be counted on to live up to its commitments.

Moreover, Israel could be expected to ‘go it alone’ in the Middle East regardless of whether US help is coming or otherwise. It has indicated as much in recent times and Israel could be doubted on this score only at the doubter’s peril. Because time and again Israel has demonstrated that it could steadfastly defend its interests even single-handedly in the Middle East. History bears this out.

However, a durable alliance with the US would stand Israel in good stead. On the matter of military and intelligence assistance, for example, the US’s help proved invaluable for Israel in the past and going forward this is bound to be so as well. Moreover, it is unlikely that the Trump administration would give up on Israel, considering that a strong Israel is crucial for the furtherance of the US’ strategic and economic interests in West Asia.

But whether the above factors would have a considerable bearing on the question of working out a durable solution to the West Asian tangle is an entirely different matter. Israel, as in the case of the Palestinian enclaves, is acutely security conscious and would need to satisfy itself fully that it could live in a security environment that would guarantee its complete safety, going forward.

The Middle East is badly in need of another peace effort on the lines of the Oslo Accords of the mid-nineties that brought the key actors together and helped hammer out a solution that addressed some of their notable concerns. To be sure, that process did not prove to be the ideal answer to the tangle, but it yielded some respite to the region and drove home that one-time sworn foes could indeed negotiate with a degree of success. The West Bank authority, although falling short of fulfilling some key Palestinian aspirations, is testimony that a degree of success is possible if the intent is right.

Given the current realities of West Asia, peace-making is bound to be an uphill challenge. The violence faced in recent times by the Palestinian community, in particular, has been nothing less than mind-numbing. Merciless has been the violence visited on them by the Israeli side. In such circumstances, durable peace in the region could smack of an idealist’s dream.

Nevertheless, there needs to be urgently, a meeting of minds over the divides. The US would need to be counted out as an honest broker in bringing the sides together but the rest of the West would do well to step up to the challenge.

In this exercise the onus would be on the world’s democracies to take the initiative and doggedly stay the course. An acceptable combination would be the EU and the UN. Given their credentials, the main sides in West Asia ought to find them the least controversial.

Even if the relevant institutional and political arrangements could be shored up to take a reconciliation process forward, winning hearts and minds for the peace drive would prove a grueling challenge. Over the past few years in particular tens of thousands of hearts and minds on both sides of the divide have been bruised badly in the runaway murderous violence that has come to define the Middle East.

These badly scarred personalities would need to experience healing without much delay. It is therefore a multi-faceted challenge that is at hand. Since wide-ranging expertise would be needed in the healing process, people’s participation in peace-making, ranging over the divides, would need to be made a durable reality. It will be a time for enthroning humanity and ensuring the rejection of all forms of violence and coercion.

Features

Amazing Thailand …right here in Colombo

Published

4 hours ago

2026/07/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

For many Sri Lankans, Thailand is the go-to holiday — beaches, temples, food, and that famous warm hospitality.

In fact, I’ve been to Amazing Thailand 24 times myself, and was honoured with the Friends of Thailand International Media Award by the Tourism Authority of Thailand for promoting Thai tourism.

The good news I have for you today is that you don’t even need a passport to get a taste of Amazing Thailand.

The Royal Thai Embassy, in Colombo, is bringing a vibrant slice of Thailand, to the city of Colombo, with Thai Festival 2026 — a cultural experience like never before.

Whether you are an avid enthusiast of Thai culture, a total novice, or simply just interested in exploring foreign cultures, Thai Festival 2026 is going to be the perfect opportunity for you to get more than just a glimpse into one of the most celebrated cultural heritages in South East Asia. And ENTRANCE IS FREE.

The festival will be held on the 1st and 2nd of August, 2026, at Siam Nivasa, 43, C.W.W. Kannangara Mawatha, Colombo 7, and the East Parking Area, of the Colombo Municipal Council, from 11:00am to 5:00pm.

Both days will be full of live entertainment, and dispersed throughout with Thai cultural displays, including exhilarating traditional dance performances and breathtaking Muay Thai demonstrations.

Exploring art and craft specific to Thailand, tasting irresistible authentic Thai cuisine, and playing arcade games, are just a few more fun-filled events available for visitors at the festival premises.

An array of Thai products will also be available for purchase.

While at the festival, you will find Sri Lankan Alumni from Thai universities sharing their experiences with you and willing to answer any questions you might have, related to studying abroad in Thailand.

You can also register for the Muay Thai workshop that will be happening on the 7th and 8th of August, 2026, in Colombo.

Irresistible authentic Thai cuisine

Visitors can also stand a chance to win traditional Thai souvenirs, get exclusive photo opportunities, and, the big one — to enter the raffle draw, at the end of each day, for the grand prize of an all-inclusive round trip to Thailand.

Be sure to avail yourself of this exceptional opportunity and add a cultural spin to your weekend.

To keep up with the latest updates on Thai Festival 2026, head over to the Thai Festival official social media pages.

The Royal Thai Embassy in Colombo official webpage:

https://colombo.thaiembassy.org

Official social media:

Facebook: @RTEColombo

Instagram: @thaiembassysrilanka

Thai Festival official social media:

Facebook: Thai Festival in Colombo

Instagram: @thaifestival_colombo

TikTok: @thaifestival.incolombo

Features

Thicker, stronger hair …

Published

4 hours ago

2026/07/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

Hair fall, in this heat, can be so frustrating, and noticing a thin patch is even more worrying. The good news is … yes, with a little care and kitchen ingredients, you can nourish your scalp and support healthy regrowth.

Try these four easy home remedies … even our grandmothers trusted:

* Coconut Oil and Curry Leaves Tonic:

Warm 04 tablespoons of coconut oil, with a handful of curry leaves, till the leaves turn black. Cool, strain, and massage into scalp 02-03 times a week. Leave for 01 hour, or overnight.

Why:

Coconut oil deeply nourishes, while curry leaves help strengthen roots and add shine.

* Onion Juice for Spot Treatment:

With cotton, dab the juice of 01 small onion, directly on the thin/bald patches. Leave for 20-30 minutes, and then wash with a mild shampoo. Use twice a week.

Why:

Rich in sulfur, onion juice helps boost blood circulation to the scalp.

* Aloe Vera and Castor Oil Mask:

Mix 02 tablespoons of fresh aloe vera gel and 01 tablespoon castor oil and apply to the scalp, focusing on thinning areas. Leave for 45 minutes, and then rinse with cool water.

Why:

Aloe vera soothes the scalp, while castor oil coats hair to make it look thicker.

* Fenugreek and Curd Strengthening Pack:

You will need 02 tablespoons fenugreek seeds, soaked overnight, and 02 tablespoons plain curd.

Grind to a paste, apply to scalp for 30 minutes, and then wash.

Why:

Fenugreek strengthens strands and reduces breakage.

Extra Tips for Healthy Hair:

Avoid tight hairstyles that pull on the scalp.

Eat iron and protein rich foods: greens, dhal, eggs, fish.

Use lukewarm water, not hot.

Be gentle when brushing and drying.