Features
Lets consider lesser known candidates
by Malinda Seneviratne
Towards the end of the year 2018 in the heady days of the parliamentary crisis there was a slogan bandied about in social media and elsewhere by well-meaning liberals (read, yahapalanists) ostensibly sick of the prevailing political culture. They screamed 225+1 OUT
The sickly recovered less than a few months later to support the candidate of the United National Party (UNP), Sajith Premadasa. No apologies were offered. Today the 225+1 OUT slogan is out. Thats not a bad thing. There are probably a few (less than a handful perhaps) who deserve to be re-elected. However, most of our parliamentarians have been marked by corruption, incompetence, greed, self-interest, treachery and outright imbecility, typically endowed with more than one of these characteristics. Saying ta-ta to them would not necessarily coincide with saying hi to their polar opposites of course for the system is skewed against the election of the good and incorruptible. Nevertheless the knowledge that it is possible to goodbye such people itself is empowering.
Now there were over 70 persons in the last parliament who could be called Dynastic Politicians. Their political success is at least in part attributable to the fact of being sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, spouses and other close relatives of known-name politicians. We could do without that kind of feudalism, I believe.
As mentioned, there could be some decent folk seeking re-election. However, it might be worth giving the lesser known a chance, especially since they dont exactly have the inside track in the races theyve chosen to run.
So yes, there are the easily recognized names on the ballot. In every district. There are dozens of registered political parties and hundreds of independent groups in the fray. There are thousands of candidates vying for 225 seats. The law of averages say that theres more than a handful among the lesser known candidates who would probably perform better than most who have already been in parliament. Well, some would argue that they couldnt do worse a bit like the Anyone but Ranil argument within the UNP that made Sajith the ideal candidate in some peoples view.
This is then an invitation to consider others. The lesser known or even known to just a few. They may not be on the same page ideologically especially since they contest from different parties or independent groups, but perhaps those who pick the party would do well to consider names such as these when they mark preferences.
Wimal Ketapearachchi is a journalist by profession. He worked in various newspapers and television stations. He was appointed as a Working Director of ITN by the Yahapalana regime but resigned during the parliamentary crisis in 2018. Unlike others who resigned and gladly accepted the same positions after the old order was restored, Ketape chose to remain resigned. He authored three novels, Doovili Sela (Fabrics made of dust), Navaye Kathava (The story of the number nine) and Nelavena Gee Meda Ovilla (The swing amid lullabies). Hamuvenna thavama heki comrade (We can still meet, comrade) was his debut poetry collection. Ketape is much loved by the Sinhala literary community, especially those of his generation and including those who would not agree with him ideologically or oppose his political choices. He has always considered himself a leftist and a champion of the poor, dispossessed, insulted and humiliated. A decent man. Hes contesting on the Samagi Jana Balavegaya ticket from the Colombo District.
Priyantha Pathirana hails from Kamburupitiya but has spent many years in the Trincomalee District. His passion is agriculture and he has worked tirelessly to rehabilitate village tanks and develop agricultural cooperatives for women. He was in the Eastern Provincial Council but was denied nomination for the General Election by the UPFA in 2010 and 2015. He was literally assaulted within an inch of his life by rival politicians in the party. He is absolutely generous with his time and energy when it comes to friends and political associates but more important in the case of anyone in any kind of distress, regardless of political affiliation. He has always considered himself a nationalist and a champion of sustainable development. He contests on the Pohottuwa ticket from Trincomalee.
One day in the early 1990s, members of the Independent Students Union, Colombo University stormed into the library. They were in a foul mood. They found a student in the library, sitting with his girlfriend. They assaulted him mercilessly. Had not some of his friends broken a window and come to his aid, Anupa Pasqual would have died that day. Being at the receiving end of brutality is not reason enough to get a free ride to parliament. Sure. Paska was a lone, strident and effective voice against those who were at the time apologists of the then regime. He was and still is an unrepentant environmentalist and nationalist. He is on the Pohottuwa ticket in the Kalutara District.
There are no doubt such individuals in the UNP and the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), but I do not know any. I would urge those who vote for the elephant or the telephone to give a thought to such people when they have to mark their preferential votes.
Lets not forget the independent groups. They have very little chance in the current electoral system. While some of them are essentially nominated by established political parties as insurance (in the event nomination lists get rejected) and/or to boost presence at polling and counting stations, some do stand for something, regional or national.
Ruchira Gunathilaka is contesting from Kalutara on the Independent Group 1 ticket (under the ‘kite’ symbol). This is a group led by philanthropist Mahinda Udawatte who has for 20 years gifted books to literally hundreds of thousands of school children. In December 2019 alone Rs 25 million worth of books were given to school children. No branding. Ruchira is an agriculture graduate who has always championed sustainable livelihoods. He once single-handedly grew 73 varieties of traditional rice to symbolize the theseththee (73) gnaana (wisdoms) of the Buddha. If memory serves me well, he harvested 70 of these varieties and invited 73 families/groups to prepare kiri-aahara for a special pooja at the ancient chaityaya in Mahiyangana. Indefatigable. A nationalist in word and deed.
I am sure there are dozens of Ketapes, Priyanthas, Ruchiras and Paksas contesting this election. I doubt that we will get rid of the 225, but if we want to have a better chance of not regretting our votes, then it wont hurt to consider such people. malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com.
Eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions, doctors say.
The method, pioneered by UK scientists, combines the egg and sperm from a mum and dad with a second egg from a donor woman.
The technique has been legal here for a decade but we now have the first proof it is leading to children born free of incurable mitochondrial disease.
These conditions are normally passed from mother to child, starving the body of energy.
This can cause severe disability and some babies die within days of being born. Couples know they are at risk if previous children, family members or the mother has been affected.
Children born through the three-person technique inherit most of their DNA, their genetic blueprint, from their parents, but also get a tiny amount, about 0.1%, from the second woman. This is a change that is passed down the generations.
None of the families who have been through the process are speaking publicly to protect their privacy, but have issued anonymous statements through the Newcastle Fertility Centre where the procedures took place.
“After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby,” said the mother of a baby girl. “We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we’re overwhelmed with gratitude.”
The mother of a baby boy added: “Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete. “The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude.”
Mitochondria are tiny structures inside nearly every one of our cells. They are the reason we breathe as they use oxygen to convert food into the form of energy our bodies use as fuel.
Defective mitochondria can leave the body with insufficient energy to keep the heart beating as well as causing brain damage, seizures, blindness, muscle weakness and organ failure.
About one in 5,000 babies are born with mitochondrial disease. The team in Newcastle anticipate there is demand for 20 to 30 babies born through the three-person method each year.
Some parents have faced the agony of having multiple children die from these diseases.
Mitochondria are passed down only from mother to child. So this pioneering fertility technique uses both parents and a woman who donates her healthy mitochondria.
The science was developed more than a decade ago at Newcastle University and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a specialist service opened within the NHS in 2017.
There was a case of epilepsy, which cleared up by itself and one child has an abnormal heart rhythm which is being successfully treated.
These are not thought to be connected to defective mitochondria. It is not known whether this is part of the known risks of IVF, something specific to the three-person method or something that has been detected only because the health of all babies born through this technique is monitored intensely.
Another key question hanging over the approach has been whether defective mitochondria would be transferred into the healthy embryo and what the consequences could be.
The results show that in five cases the diseased mitochondria were undetectable. In the other three, between 5% and 20% of mitochondria were defective in blood and urine samples.
This is below the 80% level thought to cause disease. It will take further work to understand why this occurred and if it can be prevented.
Prof Mary Herbert, from Newcastle University and Monash University, said: “The findings give grounds for optimism. However, research to better understand the limitations of mitochondrial donation technologies, will be essential to further improve treatment outcomes.”
The breakthrough gives hope to the Kitto family.
Kat’s youngest daughter Poppy, 14, has the disease. Her eldest Lily, 16, may pass it onto her children.
Poppy is in a wheelchair, is non-verbal and is fed through a tube.
“It’s impacted a huge part of her life,” says Kat, “we have a lovely time as she is, but there are the moments where you realize how devastating mitochondrial disease is”.
Despite decades of work there is still no cure for mitochondrial disease, but the chance to prevent it being passed on gives hope to Lily.
“It’s the future generations like myself, or my children, or my cousins, who can have that outlook of a normal life,” she says.
The UK not only developed the science of three-person babies, but it also became the first country in the world to introduce laws to allow their creation after a vote in Parliament in 2015.
There was controversy as mitochondria have DNA of their own, which controls how they function.
It means the children have inherited DNA from their parents and around 0.1% from the donor woman.
Any girls born through this technique would pass this onto their own children, so it is a permanent alteration of human genetic inheritance.
This was a step too far for some when the technology was debated, raising fears it would open the doors to genetically-modified “designer” babies.
Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, from Newcastle University, told me: “I think this is the only place in the world this could have happened, there’s been first class science to get us to where we are, there been legislation to allow it to move into clinical treatment, the NHS to help support it and now we’ve got eight children that seem to free of mitochondrial disease, what a wonderful result.”
Liz Curtis, the founder of the Lily Foundation charity said: “After years of waiting, we now know that eight babies have been born using this technique, all showing no signs of mito.
“For many affected families, it’s the first real hope of breaking the cycle of this inherited condition.”
[BBC]
Fast-breaking developments in US-Russia relations and US-Ukraine ties could very well be pointing to the wasting war in the Ukraine theatre currently approaching a dangerous tipping point. The US has reached the crucial decision to equip Ukraine with the necessary lethal arms to counter Russia’s ongoing missile and drone strikes on it and if implemented could mark a qualitatively new phase in the conflict between the West and Russia in Ukraine, which could have serious implications for regional and even world peace.
‘We want to make sure Ukraine can do what it wants to do, US President Donald Trump is quoted as saying following a recent meeting he had with NATO chief Mark Rutte in Washington, subsequent to indicating that the US will be sending ‘top of the line weapons’ to Ukraine through NATO countries. Such weaponry could include Patriot air defence systems which are generally seen as an effective answer in particular to Russia’s air strikes on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is on record that he had thanked the US President for his ‘willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace.’
Going ahead, the West would need to bear in mind that the supplying of exceptionally lethal arms to the Ukraine through its mediation could be seen by the Putin regime as hostile acts directed at the Russian state. That is, the West would be considered as involving itself physically in the ongoing hostilities between Russia and the Ukraine, necessitating the West, and more specifically NATO countries, to brace for Russian military strikes on them. Needless to say, such an eventuality would bode ill for international stability and peace.
Accordingly the West would need to assess very finely the consequences of its decisions on the Ukraine front. While the US President’s recent statements on these questions could be seen by some as mere rhetoric Trump is also on record as having indicated that his patience is wearing thin with Putin over the central issue of bringing peace to the Ukraine.
Inasmuch as Trump needs to trod gingerly going ahead so must Putin. In the event of full scale hostilities breaking out between the East and West in the Eastern European theatre no camp would stand to gain; this ought to be plain to the main antagonists, since they are evenly matched in terms of military capability. Even if the conflict in the Ukraine stagnates at a proxy stage, the costs for both sides would be staggering in human and material terms. Russia would need to recollect Afghanistan and the US would need to take itself back to the numerous proxy wars it fought in the then Third World.
However, although there are great uncertainties and perils for the world in the event of the current proxy war in the Ukraine degenerating into a more frontal East-West military confrontation in Europe, President Trump could be considered as holding the ‘Trump card’ to force a negotiated end to the present crisis.
This ‘Trump card’ takes the form of the economic strife which may descend upon the world in the event of the Trump administration going fully ahead with its ‘reciprocal tariff’ based trade wars with the majority of countries.
The US under President Trump may not be the most popular major power but it continues to be critical to the world’s current economic health. However much unpalatable it may be, the truth is that the economic vibrancy and prosperity of the US are key to many a country’s material survival. This is on account of the multiple economic linkages between the US and the rest of the world. The weaker the economy the greater is its dependence on the US and its largesse. For example, Sri Lanka knows this only too well.
The Trump administration is on record that it would be imposing what are described as ‘secondary tariffs’ on those countries whose economic operations are even indirectly benefiting Russia and if implemented could bring about crippling economic hardships for quite a few countries.
Major economic powers, China and India, are fully aware of these consequences. This is the reason why they would prefer not to undermine current economic arrangements between them and the US and between the latter and the rest of the world.
The above positions should not be misunderstood to mean that the rest of the world should be in a subservient relationship with the US. There is no question of the US exercising some sort of suzerainty over the rest of the world. This is not the case but in international relations the primacy of economics over politics may need to be recognized; economic realism needs be a cornerstone of foreign policy.
It would be quite some time before the BRICS grouping reaches the commanding heights of the world economy. Right now, it would be self-defeating, given the US’ continued economic power, for the South in particular to gloss over the might of the West and depend lopsidedly on the BRICS powers for its entire economic sustenance and survival. Indeed, a Non-aligned foreign policy remains best for the South.
It does not follow from the above considerations that the West could continue to turn a blind eye to the dangers posed to it and the world from the Ukraine conflict. Immense caution and foresight would need to go into its moves to arm Ukraine with its more sophisticated and exceptionally lethal weaponry. A cornered enemy in the battlefield, suffering overwhelming losses, cannot be expected to be continually discreet. With its patience relentlessly wearing thin it could unleash its Weapons of Mass Destruction, thus driving the world to the brink of destruction.
Accordingly, it is hoped that better counsel would prevail over all concerned and that differences would be resolved at the negotiating table. May be harsh economic realities would come to dictate terms and propel the quarters concerned to give cool rationality rather than the avarice born of self-aggrandizement a chance in their dealings with each other.
I’m sure the whole of Sri Lanka is eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan, due in Colombo, next month, for the grand opening of the City of Dreams.
What makes Shah Rukh Khan standout is not only his acting prowess but also his looks.
At 59-plus, he looks absolutely great … or, let’s say, simply awesome.
Generally, people in their late fifties, or even in their mid-fifties, look frail, and some can’t even walk steadily.
So, what is Shah Rukh Khan’s secret to looking young, and, remember, he will be hitting 60 on 2nd November, 2025!
Yes, diet, is given top priority where Shah Rukh Khan is concerned.
While many of us need around four meals a day, Shah Rukh focuses on two main meals a day – lunch and dinner – and avoids snacking or elaborate dishes.
His meals often include sprouts, grilled chicken, broccoli, and sometimes dhal. And don’t we all love dhal!
While he enjoys sharing meals with others when he’s with family or travelling, even if it means indulging in richer dishes, like biryani or parathas, his core diet remains consistent, he says.
Wonder what would be his menu during his very short stay in Sri Lanka! Perhaps traditional Indian foods like tandoori chicken and mutton biriyani, roti, parathas, food cooked with ghee! He also likes the drink lassi, I’m told.
Perhaps, we should also ask him to check out some of our dishes, as well … a good rice and curry menu, with dhal!
It isn’t diet alone that has given Shah Rukh his young look but, he says, exercise, too, has played an important part, especially where his physique is concerned.
Young Shah Rukh Khan in the early ‘90s
Shah Rukh refers to his fitness journey during the pandemic, saying during the pandemic he decided to work hard on his body.
He focused on building a strong physique, and, by exercising consistently, he achieved a body he is proud of today.
Another factor responsible for his leaner, healthier body, and a sharper appearance, is that he has completely quit smoking
This major lifestyle change has also helped him maintain a leaner, healthier body, and a sharper appearance, he says.
Strangely, his sleep routine is totally different to what experts say. We are told that we need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night for optimal health.
Shah Rukh admits he has an unusual sleep schedule and this generally happens when he has a busy shooting schedule.
He usually goes to bed around 5.00 am and sleeps for about four–five hours. Even though it’s not ideal, he manages it around his busy shooting schedule.
In fact, Shah Rukh is a night person and usually loves working in the night. He also loves night shoots. He had said, “I usually head to bed around 5.00 am. On shooting days, I wake up by 9 or 10 in the morning. After coming back home late at night — sometimes around 2.00 am — I take a shower and get a workout in before I finally sleep.”
On the work front, he will be seen next in the movie ‘King’, due for a grand release in 2026.
Shah Rukh Khan continues to inspire millions with his commitment to fitness and I hope Sri Lankans will take a cue from this Bollywood heartthrob and maintain a leaner, healthier body.
President opens Wax Museum at the historic Ehelepola Walawwa in Kandy
Police SI’s who demanded free service at a SPA interdicted
Dozens dead, others missing in huge fire at hypermarket in Iraq’s Kut
Babies made using three people’s DNA are born free of hereditary disease
Indictments served on former Minister Keheliya Rambukwella and family
Deepti digs deep to deliver India’s four-wicket win
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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