Features

Tidbits from this source and that

Published

2 years ago

2024/04/19

So, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year came and went. Cassandra has used a Sri Lankan colloquial manner of pronouncing that an anticipated event was marked and ended. The high temperatures however prevail, though mercifully tempered by afternoon showers. Everyone except drug dealers and politicians were struggling against strangulating pecuniary difficulties, but of course last minutes urges to buy had to be given in to.

Colombo became a deader city than it was in mid-April of recent previous years. A Sri Lankan returned on his annual vacation from foreign climes said driving around was similar to what it pleasantly was thirty years ago. Cass personally is glad the Aluth Avurudhu season is ended since her domestic returned.

One difficulty and inconvenience that should not have been was the congestion in the Fort railway station and Pettah and other major bus stands. This too is an always recurring happening. Exodus from cities to home towns and hamlets is an annual occurrence. It is expected and with increase in population and shifting to major cities, crowds wanting to travel increase.

But is the government and its railway and bus services geared for this need for extra trains and buses? Not at all! In fact this year the boss of one major private bus service announced he was taking buses off the roads during the season. The inconvenience caused to public transport travellers is never a cause for remedial action being taken. It’s almost as if those in power in these services feel that the hoi polloi are destined to suffer and they are agents of causing that suffering. Public departments are hardly ever prepared for anticipated heavier demand on services.

Cassandra decided to draw her attention away from local politics in this week’s Cry. All politicians seem to be concerned about is the expected elections. So the less said the better. She decided to pick points to write about from here and there, so to say.

Diversity not utilised

A video clip by a sensible young man who wants to change systems in Sri Lanka made some very pertinent observations. Cass recognised the good looking, dynamic speaker but since his name was not given in the clip, she cannot name him. What he said was this:

Politicians invariably go back to the tactic of divide and rule by reigniting communal and religious disharmony when they seek votes.

So true! These feelings are ever present below the surface and the slightest ignition can cause tremendous flares. He mentioned national diversity which is a strength and a resource like all other resources we boast of, but this particular resource is not utilised for the greater good of the country. Cass sees it as the good in diversity is ignored while its negative aspect of separateness and competition for supremacy is inculcated from the very start of a child’s life. Segregation in mediums of instruction and schools.

The speaker mentioned that in Colombo alone Ananda, Hindu and Zahira colleges are so apart from one another that children hardly have friendships developing among the schools. He said that during the Aragalaya, this fact of racial and religious segregation being encouraged by governments and political leaders was highlighted. He quoted an Aragalaiya slogan: Mung apita keteuwa.

The Aragalaya proved how religious and racial harmony was so easily possible. The speaker’s thrust was for the cultivation of a truly Sri Lankan identity by all citizens. Older person like Cass who lived and schooled in more civilized, pre Sinhala Only times knew of life lived harmoniously with religious and racial differences not considered or recognized at all.

Cass states that mercifully there appears to be a reawakening of us all to consider ourselves to be Sri Lankan first and foremost. The Rajapaksa introduced Sinhala Buddhist is now accepted as a stupid misnomer, a divider and frankly, as Cass believes – dangerous

She thinks Ranil W has made a positive move to cement unity or at least a give and take compromise among the races and religions by his travels in Jaffna and very recently walking the roads of a tea estate and chatting to the Tamil workers over there. His motive is vote catching, but the move is positive.

Position of Bhikkunis

A niece travelled with a Sri Lankan bhikkhuni who participates annually in an ordination ceremony in Malaysia and was reluctant to travel alone this year. The two are now with the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association at the 6th Theravada Samaneri Novitiate Programme organised by the Arya Vihara Buddhist Society with 35 women between ages 20 to 65 years being ordained. Two monks conduct the ordination ceremony.

Visitors and resident bhikkhunis are in retreat from 6 to 18 April. Bhikkhunis who had training in Sri Lanka are abbesses in the Ariya Viharas in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. What Cass’ niece was impressed by is the complete freedom those in robes and lay persons have to follow Buddhism and conduct Buddhist ceremonies in this Muslim country. Buddhist monks and nuns were respected. She contrasts this with what prevails in SL with regard the Bhikkhuni Order.

Some Mahanayakes did not permit the ordination of women ten preceptors. Ordination at the beginning was done overseas; later the ceremony was conducted here in SL by a monk and already ordained nuns. The fourth ‘foundation’ of Buddhist society was finally in place in this country which claims to be the main repository land of pure Theravada Teachings of the Buddha.

Is there parity in status and treatment of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis? No. Most higher ordained yellow robed women in Sri Lanka follow the vinaya rules and help society immensely. But they are not even permitted passports in their ordained names. Cass was once involved in this issue where nuns sought passports as nuns and not as Miss this or Mrs that. Totally embarrassing and often questioned were they, shaven and robed, and noted down as civil status women.

Horrendous torture to girls

Almost impossible to believe that female genital mutilation (FGM) still goes on in some African countries. An email sent by a local woman activist for Cassandra’s signature in a protest against the Gambian Government said the horror of female genital mutilation could become completely legal soon. Gambian politicians want to reverse the country’s ban on it. FGM survivors are trying to save the ban and protect girls … “The present Parliament has 91% male members and has introduced a Bill to rescind the 2015 ban on FGM. A UN survey found that 67% of all females in the age range 15-49 had been mutilated,” the email said.

Somalia, Egypt, Sudan, Erithrea and Ethiopia also still carry out this unthinkable torture, mostly to keep girls chaste and for the perverse satisfaction of men.

A Somalian internationally renowned model, whose identity I forget and could not trace through Internet, spoke against FGM at the UN General Assembly, citing her own experience. Another Somalian model, Waris Dirie, is in the battle against FGM and from 1997 to 2003 was a UN special ambassador. In 2002 she founded the Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna to better fight FGM.

Much is written and battled over the travails of our own women. What are our main concerns? Women bear the brunt of rising COLs; inadequate incomes; unavailability of even schooling for their infants in remote areas; enforced strictures and limitation to their freedom; being made servile to husbands after having been controlled by fathers and older brothers. Widowed, they often are dictated to by sons. The worst however is having to contend daily with drunken husbands prone to violence. But all these pale into comparative insignificance against FGM that many women of the Muslim faith in Africa have to suffer. Barbarism prevalent in this 21st century!

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BETWEEN ABSTRACTION & EMPATHY IN SARATH CHANDRAJEEWA’S VISUAL PARAPHRASES – PART II

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Features

Proactive peacemaking becomes a paramount need

Published

23 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Wasting wars: Some war-displaced people in Lebanon. BBC

It may be some time before the full impact of food inflation is felt in the West. Until such time the world would continue to keep itself in suspense over whether the Trump administration is in earnest when it seeks to convey the impression that it is backing a negotiated solution in West Asia.

As is usually the case, consumer stress would be one of the final determinants of political change. To the degree to which the average US consumer somehow ‘muddles through’ and puts the food on the table, to the same extent would the Republican sections of the US public in particular be tolerant of the Trump administration’s inconsistent handling of the West Asian war and the main issues stemming from it. That is, there would be no grave popular disaffection and a demand for political change in the short term.

However, the indications are that the Trump administration’s support base is suffering some erosion in the wake of the current economic crisis. While reports indicate that Democratic sections are firming-up their opposition to the political centre, Republican support for Trump is also showing signs of waning, we are given to understand.

The above developments are probably why Trump is on record as having given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘dressing down’ recently on his seeming intransigence on the question of giving negotiations a chance in West Asia. The show of displeasure could be really aimed by Trump at containing the impatience of the American public.

However, the current ground situation in the Middle East, particularly the uncontained bloodshed, is likely to impress on the thinking sections of the world that more than temporary political change is needed in West Asia and the US.

A well thought out political solution that addresses all the contentious issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict is what enlightened opinion would demand, and very rightly. Right now, the ‘peace efforts’ initiated by the Trump administration give the impression of being piecemeal solutions at best.

There have been, of course, numerous initiatives in the past aimed at bringing permanent peace to the Middle East. These failed mainly because they did not address in full the root causes of the conflict.

At bottom the Middle East conflict is mainly about race and religious hate bred by socio-economic and material inequalities. For instance, if the Palestinian people were not displaced and deprived of land occupied by them at the time of the founding of the Israeli state, ethnic enmities would not have grown to the current unmanageable proportions.

When addressing the above questions, though, it must be remembered that the Israelis too were a displaced people who were entitled to land and a state of their own in the Middle East. Basically, out of these seemingly irreconcilable and conflicting demands have grown the Middle East imbroglio.

Middle East peace is considerably about reconciling these demands and arriving at a solution that would ensure the creation of two states that would opt for peaceful co-existence thereafter.

As long as the US does not see the need for a non-partisan solution that addresses the needs of both ethnicities and religions and goes all-out, as it were, to have it implemented, the Middle East would continue to bleed.

However, staunching the blood flow through the creation of two states would be only half the job done, though a very important part of it. More pernicious, pervasive and difficult to remedy are the inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatreds that have been unleashed over the decades.

However, if substantial, long-lasting peace is to be fostered in the region the latter ‘demons’ would need to be exorcised from the hearts and minds of the communities concerned. No doubt an uphill task but one that must be undertaken by those who wish the region well.

The UN would need to put its ‘best foot forward’ in such undertakings but it is time that it dawned on the international community and other caring quarters that Middle East peace, and all other such uphill challenges, require proactive peacemaking on the part of all civilized sections for their effective management. That is, public involvement in peacemaking too is a must.

Since hatreds are harboured in the human consciousness the enmities embedded in the latter need to be managed and defused judiciously alongside other undertakings in a peace process. In the case of West Asia, such enmities could be even spread globe-wide besides being multi-dimensional. For instance, it ought to be thought-provoking that Iran is insistent on a peace initiative that would also include Lebanon.

Besides security considerations it is also ethnic and religious affiliations that account for Iran making this demand. For instance, the Shias are a numerically important religious community in Lebanon and they provide a significant number of Hizbollah fighters, who are in a vital sense carrying out a ‘proxy war’ for Iran. It also needs to be factored in that Iran is a Shia-majority country.

Thus trans-border religious affiliations could add to the complexities and enormity of ethno-religious conflicts. However, the task of managing centuries-long enmities needs to be launched and prodded on with by peacemakers since a downing of arms alone would not guarantee substantive peace.

It is not realized sufficiently that the process of ending hatreds begins with mutual apologies by antagonists to a conflict for the harm inflicted on each other. This would be anathema in some ears but there is no getting away from the requirement. It is the vital first step to permanent peace anywhere.

In fact there could be no reconciliation worth speaking of without such mutual apologies. It is a point worth re-iterating in these times when even the government of Sri Lanka is voicing the need for national reconciliation. Well, without the words, ‘I am sorry’, there could be no permanent end to enmities – they would do well to remember.

The above requirements may not go down very well with governments, but they resonate in the hearts and minds of most people, since they are inheritors of religious traditions of some kind.

This is a principal reason why peacemaking works well when publics too are involved in them. The effectiveness of such campaigns increases several fold when they have a Mahatma Gandhi or a Jawaharlal Nehru at their helm. A strong proactive involvement by the public in peace could lead to the emergence of such leaders at some point in these campaigns.

Features

Dialog Brings Sri Lanka’s Largest Digital Vesak Experience to Matara

Published

23 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

From left to right: Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, and Lasantha Theverapperuma experience the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered VR tours.

Official Digital Partner of the 2026 ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s #1 connectivity provider, collaborated with the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs to bring one of Sri Lanka’s largest and most technologically advanced Vesak experiences to the ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone. The three-day celebration, in Matara attracted more than hundred thousand visitors, who engaged with a series of innovative digital activities powered by Dialog 5G Ultra, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, digital pandols and a Data Dansala. The opening ceremony was attended by Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development and Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Minister of Women and Child Affairs, along with distinguished guests and Dialog’s senior management.

One of the key attractions at the venue was the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered Virtual Reality (VR) experience, which attracted more than 35,000 participants. The activation enabled devotees to virtually visit and pay homage to sacred Buddhist sites, including the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in India and the Atamasthana in Anuradhapura, directly from the Vesak zone in Matara.

Visitors receive complimentary mobile data through Dialog’s QR-powered Data Dansala.

Dialog also conducted an AI Digital Vesak Greeting Card Competition from 21 May to 01 June 2026, attracting numerous entries from across the country. The shortlisted designs were showcased across 20 large LED screens throughout the venue and across Matara City, and were also made available for download via mobile devices. Further, through the use of AI, traditional Jathaka Katha were reimagined in a digital format, demonstrating how technology can be used to preserve and enhance cultural and religious heritage. Together, these initiatives blended traditional Vesak celebrations with emerging technologies, offering visitors a unique and immersive way to engage with Vesak traditions.

Extending the spirit of Vesak through connectivity, Dialog conducted a special Data Dansala powered by its QR Reload platform, enabling visitors to receive complimentary mobile data by scanning QR codes placed across the venue. In addition to the Matara National Vesak Zone, similar Data Dansala activations were also conducted at the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones in Colombo.Visitors also had the opportunity to create personalised Vesak-themed digital photos through an AI Photo Booth, generating AI-enhanced portraits using their own photographs and adding a contemporary digital element to the Vesak celebrations.

Visitors watch AI-generated Jathaka Katha

Commenting on the initiative, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, said, “The 2026 Dakshina Prabha Vesak Festival marked the first time AI-powered digital innovations were incorporated into a National Vesak Festival in Sri Lanka. Presenting Buddhist stories and teachings through technology created a new and engaging way for visitors to connect with these traditions. We thank Dialog for supporting this initiative and for working closely with us to bring our vision to life. Their contribution played an important role in making this first-of-its-kind event a reality.”

Lasantha Theverapperuma, Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dialog Axiata PLC said, “We thank the Government of Sri Lanka for the opportunity to support the 2026 Dakshina Prabha National Vesak Festival and for embracing technology as part of this year’s celebrations. As the Official Digital Partner, we were privileged to contribute through our Dialog 5G Ultra and AI capabilities, creating new ways for visitors to engage with Vesak traditions while preserving their cultural significance for future generations.”

Beyond supporting the National Vesak Zone in Matara, Dialog also enhanced the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones through a range of digital activations during the Vesak season. The company additionally continued its sustainability initiatives, including the Thirasara Aloka Poojawa, which illuminated rural places of worship through solar-powered lighting solutions.

Features

Beauty, elegance and talent…for women

Published

23 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Universal Woman is an international pageant focused on “beauty, elegance, and talent” for women, positioning itself as a platform to shape global ambassadors. The 2026 edition will be held in Cambodia, and Sri Lanka will be there, as well.

According to reports coming my way, contestants, at the international event, will work with industry trailblazers, under international standards.

Sri Lankan supermodel, runway and pageant trainer Chulpadmendra Kumarapathirana, is the National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026.

With over two decades in the industry, Chula was crowned Miss Sri Lanka 2006, and has since shaped the next generation of titleholders through her Colombo-based Chulpadmendra Catwalk Studio, widely regarded as one of the country’s leading modelling academies.

The team behind Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026

A former host of Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss World 2008 and a judge for Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2025, Chula now serves as National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026, leading the franchise’s search for Sri Lanka’s delegate to the international final in Cambodia.

Applications for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 are being taken, via WhatsApp: 077 659 4994, says Chula.

The judging panel for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 includes Senaka De Silva, Pageant Aesthetic Advisor & Chairperson of the Judging Panel, Angela Seneviratne, Caroline Jurie, Rozelle Plunkett, and Suraj Mapa.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 officially began its journey with a first round of auditions, held in Colombo, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in Sri Lanka’s pageant industry.

Launching the first round of auditions

The platform aims to empower women while selecting an intelligent, confident, and inspiring representative to compete at the Universal Woman International Pageant 2026 in Cambodia, this September.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka now moves forward with the vision of creating one of the country’s most prestigious and empowering pageants while preparing to crown a queen who will proudly represent Sri Lanka on the international stage.