LankaBuzz

From Daily News
http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/08/05/Editorial.htm

The Excise Commissioner announced on Wednesday that his Department was on course to reach its targeted revenue of Rs.17,500 million for 2005. Along with Customs and Inland Revenue, Excise is one of main sources of Government income.

The Department’s Chief and officers must be commended for striving to reach the projected revenue targets and fearlessly pursuing excise law violators. The Excise Chief has disclosed that more than 50,000 detections would be made this year, which translates into a considerable slice of revenue - the Department earned Rs.88 million from fines last year alone.

The Department has been very much in the news during the past few days, thanks largely to the much-publicised raids on night clubs, restaurants and hotels which used to openly violate excise laws.

Incidentally, we are told that there is nothing called a ‘night club’ in Excise parlance. But these night spots have become hotbeds for a host of social evils, including drug distribution, binge drinking sessions and prostitution. The recent Royal Park murder case exposed sordid details of Colombo’s nightlife and renewed calls for tighter controls on these establishments.

The Department has acted swiftly to stem the rot. Following lightning raids, it has suspended licences issued to 18 night spots which engaged in several offences including serving liquor to minors, shortchanging tipplers and keeping the bar open after the stipulated closing hours. The Police and the Narcotics Bureau will have to intensify investigations into other goings-on such as prostitution and drug peddling.

According to the Excise Department, Sri Lanka has more than 2,900 liquor sales outlets and around 100 licences are issued annually. This is not surprising since we are among the ‘top ten’ hard liquor consuming countries. However, it is well known that most so-called ‘wine stores’ cheat their customers by selling adulterated liquor.

In this context, giving liquor permits to supermarkets was a wise move from the consumers’ point of view as they are highly unlikely to engage in such shady practices.

There is another aspect to which policymakers have hardly paid any attention. The booming illicit liquor industry rakes in millions of rupees monthly, but not a cent goes to the Exchequer. It is no secret that some politicians and law enforcement personnel are intimately involved in this business.

Many have pointed out that the high prices of legal liquor have driven tipplers to Kasippu, which seems to be freely available in every village and town. While it is true that the high taxes associated with legal liquor contribute substantially to the coffers, little thought is given to health costs arising from the liberal availability and use of moonshine.

There have been suggestions to reduce taxes on legal alcohol to discourage the consumption of illicit brews. Such pleas have generally been disregarded by revenue-conscious excise authorities. The other suggestion is even more controversial - making kasippu legal and therefore, taxable. These are matters that have to be weighed carefully by the authorities, considering a variety of factors including cultural sensitivities.

Indeed, our cultural and religious norms should help prevent addiction to alcohol in the first place. School teachers and religious leaders have a major role to play in veering the young generation away from Bacchus. In the meantime, strict enforcement of laws relating to alcohol use is vital. The Excise Department and the Police must be strengthened and given all facilities to achieve this objective.

From Sunday Observer
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2005/08/07/new18.html
by Indeewara Thilakarathne
The organisation for the Protection of All Ceylon Vehicle Owners and Drivers’ yesterday vowed that they would launch an islandwide strike from midnight Sunday demanding the suspension of the fines imposed on drivers which they claimed to be unjustifiable.
“In terms of the Fine Increasing Act No. 12 of 2005, the drivers are being fined on two counts; reckless driving, not making an attempt to avert an accident and dangerous driving. For each count a driver is fined a sum of Rs. 25,000 and the police exploit this situation.
What we demand is not to do away with these increased fines but to suspend it. If our demands are not met by midnight Sunday, we will launch an islandwide strike” said the Chairman of the Organisation, Gemunu Wijerathne.
The organisation also claims that the increased fines are unjustifiable on account of a poor quality network of roads without proper bus-stops. However in a separate development, the Secretary of the All Ceylon Omni-Bus Federation Anjan Priyahjith said that the Federation had not yet decided to join the strike. A decision in this regard was expected to be taken at a special executive meeting to be held at 4.00 p.m. today
Meanwhile Transport Deputy Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna told the Sunday Observer that a meeting was held last Friday and that the Organisation was requested to submit the demands in writing so that relief measures could be taken, considering the demands, to rectify the situation.

We all know Dialog is the top gun in Sri Lanka, but Celltel we have not forgotten you. Celltel was the first mobile company in Sri Lanka, in fact most people call a mobile a Celltel, still!

Dialog has provided with cutting edge technology and services, but are they what really count ?

Celltel, has been targeting the lower and mid class community and they are I think still standing strong.

What my point is they have been setting the trends for cost effective solutions, they are not high tech but they are excellent for not emptying our pockets.

With the introduction, of their new low priced tariffs who could ask for more ? They are not the best provider but now due to them, Dialog, and the rest will have to follow, which is great for us.

THANK YOU CELLTEL !!!!!

This was taken from the Daily news, this has to be a highly paid news article. What rubbish they are publishing, without proper evidence. I was told by a friend working at ACBT that their intake wasn’t as high as they had expected or projected. There is an institute in Malabe, on the other hand has made great progress with their intake and should be featured for record entry students.

An article of this sort without proper proof is unfair to all other institutions. This creates a false popularity which is an unfair advantage for it’s other competing Australian Institutes.
If another institute said they had got the best results for the whole year and they can’t take anymore students as they are totally full, would it be published front page ? It’s like the news channel having their opinion on an incident and saying what they are not supposed to, you report but with evidence.

It’s great that ACBT is doing well, but without proof articles of this show false information. I have been told of the standard, and the courses of ACBT, and the friends who have told me have not been that satisfied. I was told 2 London A-Level D’s would be sufficient, but then again that’s what I was told. But if it’s true then I could see how they got record numbers. Now what I’m doing is speculating, it’s like the way the article is written it could be true or false. It is very unfair for the newspapers to write articles of such, without proof, it hurts the competition and it gives the public false hope.

The write of this daily news article, if you create false hope to 1000’s of students, and they join a university because of your article and they find out it’s not true, are you going to refund their fees ? A paid ad can have the comments by the manager, or false ranking or anything else, as we know it’s an ad and we can assume that it may be true or false but we know.
A news article is more believable as we expect the journalist to have done all the research, but clearly this doesn’t seem to be the case.

My point has been stretch too long and I will stop, I am only writing this as I made a wrong choice after reading a similar article like this, it was 2 years ago and I suffered.

I’m not saying it’s a bad institute, I heard my bad information some time ago, now it must be much better I would assume.

Thank You
Prav

From Daily News
http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/08/09/bus09.htm

ACBT attracts record entry of students

Australian education institute ACBT has attracted an all-time record enrolment of students in the latest intake for its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

The Australian College of Business and Technology has been dominating the international higher educational sphere in recent times with impressive turnovers but this semester’s unprecedented increase has surpassed all predictions. The trend demonstrates ACBT’s rapidly growing popularity, not only for its world-class degrees and diplomas but for higher level graduate employability.

“We have been recording a remarkable increase in enrolments but the July intake is even beyond our expectations and helps ACBT consolidate its position as market leader in international higher education in Sri Lanka”, Marketing Manager of ACBT Pubudu Alahakoon said.

ACBT operates a modern campus at Hotel Trans Asia and offers international degrees directly from Edith Cowan University of Australia.
“Edith Cowan degrees are recognised by the Australian government and present a great opportunity for Sri Lankan students who hope to work globally”, he said.

“A historical Account of the Dafther Jailany
Rock Cave Mosque In Balangoda”
by M.L.M. Aboosally
http://jailani.org/review.htm

Reviewed by A. Denis N. Fernando (Former
President, Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka)

I came to know Mr. Aboosally as a member of the Royal Asiatic Society where he showed a keen interest in historical matters. He subsequently became the Deputy Minister in the Mahaweli Ministry following my discovery of the ancient Maduru Oya sluice in 1981.

I accompanied him on several official visits to ancient, historical and archaeological sites. At that time, was commissioned by Gamini Dissanayake, the Minister of Mahaweli Development, to prepare the lay
out to display artifacts for the Mahaweli Centre and was also given the task of collecting and displaying artifacts of interest in relation to our ancient
hydraulic civilisation. Mr. Aboosally showed a keen interest and also participated in some of the visits.

Mr. Aboosally came to know of my several visit (Sri Pada) Adams Peak along its different paths, in particular of my attempt at locating the land route that Ibn Batuta took from Attala to Adam’s Peak and back, which included his passing through Balangoda, Mr. Aboosally’s hometown and the Dafther Jailany rock cave mosque of which he was the trustee. These
interactions brought about a close rapport between us.

Sri Pada, also known as Adam’s Peak, was venerated from ancient times. Some believe that the footprint on the mountain top was the footprint of Adam, the progenitor of the human race while others
believed that it was the footprint of the Enlightened One, while others yet attributed it to one of the other gods they believed in. Be that as it may, as a scientist it is clear that the footprint has been sculptured in the Iron Age by those who had access to iron tools.

The Iron Age dawned in Sri Lanka through early immigrants namely the Yakkas (who were Persian) and Nagas (who were Erythrean) who had access to this technology even before the advent of Vijaya. The antiquity of Adam’s peak (Sri Pada) could be attributed to ancient seafarers and merchants who were enamoured by the mountain and drawn to it after seeing it from the ocean in their journeys to Sri Lanka.

Adams’ Peak (Sri Pada) was believed to have been the highest mountain in the world as conjectured by the ancients who had then no technology to measure heights except by speculative observation. There is
even speculation the Alexander the Great visited Sri Lanka although he did not and could not have placed the iron chains still found there which facilitate the climb to the top.

These chains were placed, if at all, by Alexander’s forward troops, the Kataragama Ksatriyas, who came to Sri Lanka. Be that as it may, this could
possibly be the reason to link it the Alexander tradition. However, one has only to visit this mountain and see the vision and splendour of the
morning sunrise to be enthraled by it because it is a sight one would never forget in a lifetime.

It is possibly this that pilgrims of different religious beliefs were drawn to - not only be the description of this sight through word of mouth but
also for the closeness of communication with the Gods in their heavens. The marvel that was Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada) was spread the world over - even indicated by Ptolemy (circa 150 AD) in his Taprobane. The mountain
drew pilgrims from all faiths from the BC period and is indicated in several Brahamic inscriptions enroute to the Peak at various stops, including at Dafther Jailany, indicating that the Peak was visited by Buddhists as well.

Ibn Batuta had well recorded the route to the mountain and back with enough topographical details to establish it. (This map was compiled by me and reproduced in Mr. Aboosally’s book).

The details provided by Mr. Aboosally is of much interest not only to Muslims but also to all Sri Lankans. The book brings to light facts little known to us and is recommended especially to those who have little or no access to reading of our history.

The reader would be further drawn to the fascinating story of Sri Lanka’s historical development. Mr Aboosally presents aspects of our
history that every citizen should be aware of, as it is the very lifeblood of our people that has kept us together as a nation together. In this materialistic world where people are only interested in promoting
their own interests, so that they can all divide and rule us - every Sri Lankan citizen should know of our diverse cultural and historical past. Foreigners tend to discount and ignore our long history which has
spanned over 2,500 years and which we are heirs to - we should be proud of the tradition of tolerance that epitomises our traditional Buddhist civilisation that sustained us as a single and unique nation drawn from
all the cultures of the world.

Mr. Aboosally, in addition to the descriptive passages of the book, gives life to his narration with several colour photographs of different scenes and
inscription which includes the Maduru Oya dam and Sluice. (In this connection, I have to remind the reader that the dating of the sluice gate was done with only one sample and therefore more samples need
to be examined before establishing its antiquity with scientific precision. However it could be accepted that it did exist in the time Pandukabaya when he had create rapport with the Yakkas in the BC period.

I recommend all Sri Lankans to read this very interesting book as it is of interest to all, whether Muslims or not. Moreover it contains over 25
illustrations and maps from which much information can be gathered.

Dafther Jailany
“A historical Account of the Dafther Jailany
Rock Cave Mosque In Balangoda”
by M.L.M. Aboosally
116 pages 25 illustrations and maps
� 2002 Sharm Aboosally

Enquiries:
Sharm Aboosally
37 Unity Place
Colombo-3 Sri Lanka
Tel: +94-1 573174
E-mail: sharm@sri.lanka.net

Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera on cowardly response to LTTE killings
“We should not go down on our knees and beg for peace”
By Sunil Jayasiri
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2005/08/08/news/10.asp

Navy’s Deputy Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera on Saturday who was transferred from Trincomalee to Colombo stated at a passing out ceremony held at Navy training camp at Poonewa in Anuradhapura where 391 sailors completed their six month training, that by not taking any action against the LTTE’s brutal killings and already violations of the peaceful environment, had discouraged the establishment of a peaceful settlement. ‘It only shows cowardliness and timidity’ he said.

The Admiral said “Some are thinking that taking action against those breaking peace are working against peace. But, the Navy both in war and peace had done everything to protect the country’s dignity and sovereignty before the signing of the ceasefire agreement as well as after it”.

“Now the LTTE is using the Cease Fire Agreement as a tool to strengthen their power. They are getting equipped themselves more and more in all fields- Socially, economically as well as politically and we have became mere ‘monitors’ as we are only monitoring the situation”, Rear Admiral Weerasekera accusing those responsible for such a situation.

He also said “We need peace but it must be without incidents in the country. If anybody is objecting to it, we should be ready to establish peace even through war. Soldiers clamour for peace more than anyone else as they are the people who will personally experience it. But we should not go down on our knees and beg to achieve it”.

Several senior navy officials and parents of the new sailors also participated at the event.