Archive for the 'Money Matters' Category
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Outrage at Arugam Bay
The Government of Sri Lanka has imposed a rule in Sri Lanka that no – one can rebuild homes within in a certain distance of the sea, beach. Sometimes rumour was that the distance was 100 meters other times the distance was to be 200 meters.
This has meant that nearly six months on people are still living in refugee camps. They are getting desperate to move back home. Home for many is on/near the beach because they are fishing people. However, in Arugam Bay they have other plans!
Current situation specific to Arugam Bay
On May 17th there was a meeting for Arugam Bay representatives. Participating were the Tourist Board Chairman Mr Udaya Nanayakkara with collegues, Harshna Navarante Sewelanka Foundation Chairman and colleagues. Plus representatives from the Fisheries, Tourism,Surfing, Women. They were seeking further insight as to the plans of the tourist board for the region.
This is a summary of the response from the Chairman of the Tourist Board as described in the minutes of the meeting. Brackets are my comments otherwise the points below are copied from the minutes of the meeting.
- I do not have any record of your tourism businesses. Legally you cannot prove that you had a tourism business because you are not registered with the boardA?a??A?
(Even The Stardust is not considered legal even tough Per bought the land, the Stardust will be pulled down) Buy hoodia diet pills australia - We are only providing support for the registered, licensed people under our scheme
- If you build any illegal structures the army and the police will come and remove them
- I will show you a plan of that was prepared by the tourism board. There is a red line to indicate the land that has been acquired by the tourism board
(There has been no consultation with the local people on this) - Tourism should not just benefit the Colombo-based big business ownersA?a??A?
Olanzapine price comparison
11-06-2008
The EU and Sri Lanka had very constructive discussions on various issues including GSP+ at the EU-Sri Lanka Joint Commission held in past two days. Deputy Director General for external Relations of EU Joao Aguiar Machado said the EU is the major development partner for Sri Lanka and both parties work together for a common goal.He said terrorism is a global issue but EU concerns on human right violations and media freedom of Sri Lanka. Addressing media in Colombo he said issues of the GSP+ is a matter before them. However EU has to renew the GSP+ scheme after its observations, he said.
\”We are not in a final stage, he commented.
He said the EU has serious concerns about Sri Lanka\’s human rights record and will withhold a 70 million-euro aid package unless it opens up.
The commission said the package was dependent on Sri Lanka removing barriers to humanitarian assistance, including resolving visa issues for Red Cross and U.N. workers in the country.
Full press statement of , Mr Joao Aguiar Machado, Deputy Director General for External Relations, European Commission
I have been in Sri Lanka to Co-chair the Joint Commission between the European Commission and the government of Sri Lanka A?A?A? this should be a regular event to review our relations. I am pleased we were able to have this meeting after a 4-year delay. I also held a number of bilateral meetings with government.
Relations between the European Commission and Sri Lanka are governed by a Cooperation Agreement from 1995. The EU and Sri Lanka have deep, long-standing relations, covering economic, trade, political and cultural matters. The EU is committed to maintaining these relations and I welcomed the opportunity provided by this visit for open and frank discussions.
The meetings were positive in helping to understand our mutual positions, to review the areas of cooperation that are working well and to identify areas where performance can improve.
We noted the advances made since the visit of the EU Troika here in March 2008, such as the beginnings of the democratic process in the east. We expressed our hope that the situation in the east can be further stabilised, including through disarming all paramilitary groups and control of terrorist activities. We also discussed the continued work of the APRC and expressed hope that its second proposal will be ambitious and supported. On the issue of terrorism, a parallel meeting is taking place today between government and the EU member states so I will not cover this here, except to say the EU condemns absolutely and unreservedly the terrorist attacks being committed by the LTTE.
The Government updated us on progress in preparing its application for GSP+. We explained the criteria that need to be fulfilled to be eligible to the GSP+ regime, namely the ratification and effective implementation of the 27 international conventions. We also reassured the government that no decision has been taken and that, when its starts, the assessment process will be fair and impartial. We encouraged Sri Lanka to take all the necessary steps to ensure its compliance so GSP+ can continue bring benefits to the country, in particular those people employed in the textile sector. We encouraged the Government to submit its outstanding reports to the relevant monitoring bodies as soon as possible.
We expressed our serious concerns with the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, as indicated by a wide range of sources including reports from United Nations rapporteurs as well as the statements by the multi-national International Group of Eminent Persons which recently decided to withdraw from Sri Lanka. We recalled the seriousness of the calls by the IIGEP and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the Government to deliver concrete results through considering their recommendations seriously, taking cases to court, and ensuring effective and independent human rights monitoring.
Our development and humanitarian aid was discussed. The Government welcomed our past aid and our continued support as one of Sri LankaA?A?A?s most constant and supportive donors. We reviewed progress on implementing our 148 million Euro of tsunami assistance, including the reconstruction of 160 kilometres of the road from Matara to Batticaloa with our partners the Roads Development Authority and ADB, our building 400 kilometres of road within Ampara, of building 3000 houses and so forth. We discussed the continued substantial support that we are providing to Sri Lanka, including the further 70 million Euro this year.
We emphasised however that there are increasing problems delivering this aid in Sri Lanka that need to be resolved. These included the unblocking visas for ICRC, UN and NGOs, improving access for implementing agencies including into the Vanni for emergency work, the need to stop taxation of NGOs for charitable humanitarian work, the need to improve security for agencies by stressing the positive role they play in Sri Lanka and the need to tackle the shortage and price distortions of the countryA?A?A?s bitumen monopoly that is threatening completion of all road projects in the country. We explained that failure to resolve these issues could make delivery of aid impossible which would effectively stop the projects we are funding and are hoping to fund. This is in neither the EUA?A?A?s nor Sri LankaA?A?A?s interest. The government stated that it is addressing some of these issues already such as on visas and promised to engage to find solutions on these other points. We welcome this and we will work with them.
In conclusion, these talks have been constructive. We agreed to hold the next EC-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting next year in Brussels.
source:
Buy generic propecia online cheap http://www.lankaeverything.com/vinews/srilanka/20080611131601.php
First weekly draw this week
The first weekly draw of ‘Seven Wonders of Sri Lanka’ the competition of the year launched by the Daily News will be held this week.
The winners of the weekly draw will be selected from among over 3,000 entries we have received so far from Daily News readers islandwide. The lucky winners of this first weekly draw will receive a host of prizes including mobile phones and stays at star-class hotels. All readers who have sent coupons in line with the competition rules will be eligible for the draw.
The ‘Seven Wonders of Sri Lanka’ competition was commenced to pick the seven most popular places in the country.
Among the most popular place in Sri Lanka, according to the nominations already received, are the Sri Dalada Maligawa, Sinharaja forest, Arugambay, Sigiriya and the Sri Pada.
The contest which is open only to ‘Daily News’ readers, features a large number prizes worth over Rs.three million in addition to the valuable prizes to be distributed by weekly draws. Readers can take part in the contest by sending in the seven places in Sri Lanka they consider to be the seven greatest wonders (in the order of their preference), written on coupons published on the Daily News from May 26.
A special feature of the contest is the ability of readers to increase their chances of winning by sending in as many coupons as possible.
The Seven Wonders voted for by the majority of readers will be declared the Seven Wonders of Sri Lanka, and the readers whose coupons get these Seven Wonders in correct order will receive the prizes.
The first prize of the contest ‘Seven Wonders of Sri Lanka’ will be a Geely motor car worth Rs.two million while the other prizes include an LG LCD Television, a Piaggio motor cycle, an Elba electric cooker, an LG fully-auto washing machine, an LG double-door refrigerator, an LG colour television, an LG home theatre system, an LG microwave oven and a LG DVD Player.
source:
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/06/11/news14.asp Seroflo 125 price in india Etodolac 400 mg price
The New Arugam Bay Bridge is open to the traffic.
The official opening Ceremony will take place later, it is said to be 1st. July, 2008 Purchase glucovance medication
However, the event is shrouded in mystery:
Rumor and very tight security as well as increased military survey lance suggest that Mr. President himself might descend in his helicopter onto the peaceful Bay to perform this, first major function in the East. Buy abilify aripiprazole Arugam.info will report.
The old, distinctive Land Mark Arugam Bay bridge is being dismantled right now.
Arugam.info is informed that it will be re-erected on a location in the South of Sri Lanka, as it still is in excellent condition.
SRI LANKA: Communal violence disrupts relief efforts in the east
COLOMBO, 3 June 2008 (IRIN) – Communal clashes and ethnic tension between Tamils and Muslims have been disrupting humanitarian work in the eastern Batticaloa District of Sri Lanka since 22 May, UN and other relief workers said.
Two Tamils and five Muslims have been killed. Relief officials told IRIN they were reluctant to send staff into the field for fear of getting caught up in the violence.
“I have been unable to travel out since 22 May,” Rev Sylvester Sritharan, head of the Eastern Human Economic Development Centre, affiliated to the Catholic charity Caritas, told IRIN.
“No one wants to take the chance of getting on the road and being unable to turn back,” he said. “We can’t send out field staff, contractors, labourers, no one, we can’t take that chance.”
Humanitarian agencies are assisting 18,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the district and 124,000 former IDPs who have been resettled in their former villages since mid-2007, Thandie Mwape, head of the Batticaloa field office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN.
“They [relief organisations] have been engaged in relief work as well as helping the newly returned regain a sense of normalcy,” she said.
Relief and recovery efforts were disrupted for a week in late May, the Inter Agency Standing Committee (ISAC) reported in its 30 May situation update.
“Humanitarian operations were disrupted in the district between 22 and 28 May as a result of the clashes,” the report said. “As the southern route [from Batticaloa] through Kathankudi and the northern route through Eravur remained flash points during the week, with curfews imposed at times, most agencies limited their movements.”
“A week of tension”
A local Tamil working with an international agency was attacked by a mob on 26 May in Eravur town north of Batticaloa City, which is 300km east of the capital, Colombo, heightening agencies’ reluctance to send their staff into the field, Sritharan told IRIN.
“It was a week of tension and agencies restricted movement,” Mwape said. “Public life was also at a standstill with no transport and government and private offices closed.”
Clashes were triggered by the 22 May killing of two members of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), the prominent Tamil political party in the district, in Kathankudi, a Muslim majority town south of Batticaloa City.
“There is a history of tension between the two communities and the killings of the TMVP members added to it,” according to Mujeeb Rahaman, information officer of the Colombo-based Muslim Information Centre (MIC) rights group.
Two Muslims were killed on the same day in Kathankudi and another Muslim woman died during mob violence in Eravur on 26 May, according to police.
At least 300 Tamil families from Ariyampathi, a village near Eravur, sought shelter in schools and churches between 27 and 29 May, fearing reprisals, Sritharan said.
The situation was finally brought under control with the direct intervention of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, the head of the TMVP and chief minister of the new Eastern Provincial Council.
Despite Chandrakanthan’s intervention, tensions rose again on 1 June after the body of a Muslim was recovered in Kathankudi.
On the morning of 2 June, residents of Eravur and Kathankudi remained indoors and public transport was limited, Sritharan told IRIN. Muslims in the two towns had also called for a general work shutdown to protest against the latest murder.
“Under conditions like this how can we take a chance to go out?” he asked.
“People are still scared and nervous, and rightly so,” MIC’s Rahaman told IRIN. “The killings have not stopped, that is where the fear is.”
UN officials in Batticaloa said that if the high-level discussions between the two communities continued, calm could be restored in Batticaloa.
“We hope that the dialogue continues,” OCHA’s Mwape said. “It will help to bring down the tension and restore trust between the communities, and hopefully enable us to get on with our relief and reconstruction activities.”
ap/bj/mw[END]
June 2, 2008 A?a??a?? cerno
This isolated surfing paradise is the centre of an expose on what appreas to be some shady real estate deals. The story has a familiar recipe of neo colonial symbolism – foreign nationals buying land from locals, accusations of corruption, and real-estate developed building resorts on pristine beaches in the third world. It is the sort of thing that can bring out the environmental activists into the streets.
The expose is written by Frederica Jansz (who has previously rattled a lot of people including the LTTE) and is currently listed as a contributor to Montage Lanka. The gist of the accusation is that two locally based British nationals have been selling land in Sri Lanka to overseas buyers at inflated prices – while evading Sri Lankan taxes and immigration laws.
You can read through the details on Glycomet online dictionary FredericaA?a??a??s article A?a??A?Land grabbing and the Sri Lanka GovernmentA?a??a??s silenceA?a??A?. The article was also carried by the The Sunday Leader newspaper on 20 March 2005 under the same title.
The first link to the article on this blog is to the text cached by Google. The article was originally hosted on culturalsurvivaltrust.org which is off line as I write (on June 2nd). The domain remains registered to A?a??A?Kataragama Research PublicationsA?a??A?. This organisation also owns quite a few other domains including livingheritage.org – most of them (I wasnA?a??a??t able to check each one) are off line as off 31 May – 2 June 2008. You might be able to access their content through Google cache until hopefully the web-site return.
Interestingly the late Manik Sandrasagra was involved with the Living Heritage trust that used the livingheritage.org domain. The fact that the website of an organisation concerned with sustainability and ecology carried the article seems to suggests that there were/are deeper concerns about the development.
Online, the whole issue seems to have quietened down after 2005. Perhaps everything was resolved. Or as with such things in Sri Lanka forgotten under other concerns.
The master plan for a tourism related development for Pottuvil Point is online. Interestingly both pottuvilpoint.com and Lankarealestate.com (the online face of the subject of FredericaA?a??a??s expose) are registered (whois search as of June 1 200 
to the famous Clarinase price australia Dome apartment at Galle Face Court featured in Sri Lanka lifestyle/interior design articles and books. Turns out the location belongs to Giles Scott, one of the British Nationals named in Frederica JanszA?a??a??s article.
It certainly get murkier all right. If anyone knows better/up-to-date info, you know where the comment box is 
The marginally more adventurous can explore Potuvil point via satellitesights.com
source:
http://cerno.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/potuvil-point-real-estate-controversy
-from-google-earth/
BBC, South Pacific
The South Pacific country of Vanuatu has been voted the happiest place in the world so what makes its inhabitants such a happy lot?
 |
  The twin pillars of a classically happy life – strong family ties and a general absence of materialism – are common throughout this island nation  |
Jean Pierre John is living the dream. That popular fantasy of owning one’s own island, complete with swaying coconut palms, coral sea and tropical forest, is his for real.
On the island called Metoma, in the far north of Vanuatu, Jean Pierre can look around and truly say that he is master of all he surveys.
This single fact would put Jean Pierre in an exclusive club, you would think, one made up of billionaire businessmen, royalty and rock stars.
But Jean Pierre is none of these things. In fact, he could not be more different.
On Metoma, Jean Pierre and his family live in thatched huts.
They have no electricity or running water, no radio or television, and their only mode of transport is a rowing boat, which pretty much limits them to trips to the neighbouring island.
On top of that, they have little money and few opportunities to make any.
No money?! Suddenly their island life does not sound all that glamorous. But here’s the thing, the Johns really are happy.
This may sound surprising but living on their island they want for nothing.
Local produce
All the family’s food comes from on or around Metoma. Coconuts, yam, and manioc – their staple diet – are all grown on the island and then, of course, there is a sea full of fish to harvest.
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And if fish protein gets boring, there is always the occasional fruit bat, from a colony that roosts on the island.
Indeed, food is so easy to gather that the family appears to have a lot of relaxation time.
When the Johns do have money – perhaps when they sell one of the few cows they own – they will buy soap powder and kerosene for their lamps.
But if not, they are just as happy to make do with island solutions – sticks which can be crushed to make soap and coconut oil in place of kerosene.
Some useful items are even washed up onto their island – buoys from boats are cut in half to make bowls and old fishing nets are recycled as hammocks.
It may sound like a Robinson Crusoe existence, and in many ways it is, but the Johns are not castaways. They live on Metoma out of choice.
|
Jean Pierre had not heard that Vanuatu had been voted happiest country in the world but, when I told him, he nodded in a knowingly happy sort of way |
It is not as if they have not experienced some of the trappings of a more modern world.
Jean Pierre grew up on one of Vanuatu’s larger islands and still makes the occasional visit. His eldest son, Joe, even went to school in the nation’s capital.
In fact Joe, a very easy-going 28-year-old, had recently returned to Metoma to live full time and he told me that the only thing he missed was hip hop music, but that it was a small price to pay for living on the island.
No money worries
Jean Pierre had not heard that Vanuatu had been voted happiest country in the world but, when I told him, he nodded in a knowingly happy sort of way.
So what is his secret of happiness?
“Not having to worry about money,” he immediately replies, while picking his nose in an uninhibited way.
If you asked the same question in the UK, you would probably get the same response. The only difference is that, in Jean Pierre’s case, it means not needing any money, rather than having bundles of it.
We can all repeat the mantra “money can’t buy you happiness” until we are blue in the face, but deep down, how many of us in the West really believe it to be true?
But I can see that Jean Pierre’s happiness is more than just a question of money. It also comes from having his family around him, and there is undoubtedly an enormous respect between them.
Absence of materialism
His children – and this includes those of adult age – do anything their father asks, not out of coercion but because they genuinely want to please.
Forget the Waltons, the Johns are the real McCoy: one happy family.
While talking to Jean Pierre, I find myself wondering whether he is the most contented person I have ever met.
But he is keen to know whether I am having a good time on his island too. Every day he asks me if I am happy. When I tell him things are great, his eyes light up and he replies in pidgin, “Oh, tenkyu tumas.”
Whether happiness can truly be measured is a debatable point, but there is no doubt that Metoma – or indeed Vanuatu as a whole – has the ingredients to encourage a greater sense of happiness.
The twin pillars of a classically happy life – strong family ties and a general absence of materialism – are common throughout this island nation.
The simple things in life, it seems, really do make you happy.
source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7427768.stm
UN peacekeepers stand accused of abusing those they are sent to protect
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Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.
Children in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children.
After research in Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity said an international watchdog should be created to deal with the issue.
The UN has said it welcomes the report, which it will study closely.
Save the Children said the most shocking aspect of child sex abuse is that most of it goes unreported and unpunished, with children too scared to speak out.
No support
A 13-year-old girl described to the BBC how 10 UN peacekeepers gang-raped her in a field near her Ivory Coast home, and left her bleeding, trembling and vomiting on the ground.
|
The victims are suffering sexual exploitation and abuse in silence Heather Kerr
Save the Children |
No action has been taken against the soldiers.
The report also found that aid workers have been sexually abusing boys and girls.
After research involving hundreds of children from Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity said better reporting mechanisms needed to be introduced to deal with what it called “endemic failures” in responding to reported cases of abuse.
It also said efforts should be made to strengthen worldwide child protection systems.
Heather Kerr, Save the Children’s Ivory Coast country director, says little is being done to support the victims.
“It’s a minority of people but they are using their power to sexually exploit children and children that don’t have the voice to report about this.
“They are suffering sexual exploitation and abuse in silence.”
Save the Children says the international community has promised a policy of zero-tolerance to child sexual abuse, but that this is not being followed up by action on the ground.
A UN spokesman, Nick Birnback, said that it was impossible to ensure “zero incidents” within an organisation that has up to 200,000 personnel serving around the world.
“What we can do is get across a message of zero tolerance, which for us means zero complacency when credible allegations are raised and zero impunity when we find that there has been malfeasance that’s occurred,” he told the BBC.
Jim Jarvie, 47, Mercy Corps director of climate change and environment
IT’S not a country which has had its troubles to seek – a fact borne out by the blown-up tanks which have been left scattered across the dusty landscape of Afghanistan.
Amid the violence, bloodshed and turmoil which has racked this country, there is another casualty, one which is often overlooked but which experts say needs to be healed in order to give the nation and its citizens a brighter future – the environment.
Which is why Mercy Corps’ director of climate change and environment, Jim Jarvie, is visiting the country to see how its natural resources can be conserved and restored.
He says: “One of the indirect problems of the wars is environmental degradation which is horrendous. There’s not a lot of forest left after 30 years of civil war which has broken down enforcement of land use laws. And agriculture is a key part of Afghan life. We have been working with local people on planting new crops to stabilise river banks and return to environmentally friendly farming methods.”
Mercy Corps is also joining forces with Edinburgh University to look into wider climate change issues in countries like Afghanistan to try to find out what the impact has been.
Jim says: “We are looking water access in Afghanistan, desertification in Niger and rising sea levels in Indonesia. We want to get a baseline on what climate change is doing to these countries.”
During his two-week trip earlier this month Jim also witnessed the brutality of daily life – with conflict within families as well as warring factions.
He says: “There are a lot of people with missing limbs blown off by landmines. There is a lot of domestic violence too, a lot of people who are pretty desperate.”
Jim, whose family are based in North Berwick, began working for Mercy Corps after the Asian tsunami when he and wife Laurie Pierce, 50, were carrying out conservation and conflict management work for other organisations in Sri Lanka.
He says: “There were bodies on the beach and it was difficult work but it was good to be doing something. We had been at a place called Arugam Bay three days before it happened and we went back to help and started working with Mercy Corps.”
Later he worked on longer term projects becoming first director of programmes for Sri Lanka and then acting country director.
Jim’s current role, which he began in March last year, has also taken him to New Orleans to see how people are recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Mercy Corps has been helping through work recycling parts of houses such as doors to use in the reconstruction of the area.
He says it was shocking to see how poorly the US was doing in helping victims.
He says: “It was as bad as the Third World.”
- Last Updated: 27 February 2007 2:16 PM
- Source: Edinburgh Evening News
- Location: Edinburgh
- source:
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/features/Green-quest-in-wartorn-
nation.3350164.jp
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Intelligence units have claimed some NGOs have provided rations and other assistance to LTTE units presently operating inside Yala Sanctuary. They have given this assistance in the guise of helping Hindu pilgrims making their annual pilgrimage by foot from the East to Kataragama. The rations and other equipment are believed to have been given between Okanda and Panama in Ampara.
Meanwhile ethnic violence rose its ugly head again in the East with the assassination of the TMVP Political Head for Kathankudy Shanthan and his aide Raman Parasuraman while riding a motorbike near Kathankudy Bus stand at noon today by alleged ‘Jihadi’ Gunmen notorious for their activities in the Muslim enclave of Kathankudy, 3kms from Batticaloa Town.
TMVP gunmen killed 3 Muslims in retaliation at around 12.20pm injuring 11 civilians including one Sinhalese near Arayampathi Tamil village. The Karuna group is notorious for its anti-Muslim stance despite having a Muslim spokesman. Defence sector sources warned growing ethnic disharmony could facilitate furhter LTTE infiltrations.
The TMVP resettled a large number of Tamils from former LTTE controlled areas at Karbala, a village originally belonging to Muslims from Kathankudy. Shanthan played an important role in that and also in the recent election campaign for the TMVP from his office at Kathankudy.
Meanwhile M.L.A.M. Hizbullah was sworn in today as the Minister of Health for the Eastern Province. Government Muslim leaders and others in the East had convinced Hizbullah to accept the post after he initially elected to leave the UPFA with two loyalists.
Sri Lanka also lost its seat in the Human Rights Council but managed to gain 101 votes, more than half the seats of the council, which is 97 seats. Sri Lanka won 123 seats last year. Pakistan, despite being under a military rule, won what could have been Sri Lanka’s seat in the council.
-defencewire
source:
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How much is carafate without insurance By Dilrukshi Fernando
The tourism industry is expected to thrive on a targeted paltry figure of around 1000 domestic tourists in an effort to boost travel to the East within the next quarter, a top government official told the Daily Financial Times yesterday.
The expected number is relatively low due to security concerns which is a factor preventing domestic tourists from touring the area, the official added.
A?a??A?The Ministry of Tourism hopes to engage in large scale infrastructure development and transportation to ensure a growth,A?a??A? the official said. The reason for targeting domestic tourists is a stratagem adopted by the Ministry of Tourism and the Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) through which they hope to reach the international market, the official pointed out.
With emphasis on the Eastern Province, a decline in tourist arrivals has been recorded in the Southern District. However the figures show a growth of 8.6% when compared with 2007 according to Tourism Ministry Secretary George Michael. A?a??A?Last year the number of tourist arrivals for March stand at 35,031 while this year it is 38, 049,A?a??A? he pointed out adding that the existing travel advisories and the prevalent security situation in Colombo might be discouraging factors. A?a??A?The industry has made plans to have round table discussions regarding this matter and we hope to meet in Hambantota in June to hold discussion with officials from the hotel trade, representatives from the Chambers of Commerce and Small and Medium Enterprise officials,A?a??A? he added.
In the meantime the transportation sector is to be developed by enabling railway facilities for domestic tourists at Arugam Bay according to Deputy Minister for Tourism, Faizer Musthapha. His comments came at the monthly discussion on tourism held at the Ministry yesterday. A?a??A?The ministry plans to work closely with the Provincial Council which plans to fund certain projects of the Tourism Ministry and SLTB. Finances will also be directed from donor funds.
The tourist police will be deployed in the resorts to ensure the safety of the tourists. A comprehensive website including information of the Arugam bay tourism prospects can be located at www.arugambay.com Generic for maxalt .
Meanwhile, in a technologically advanced initiative a web cam project will be initiated to monitor the wave pattern of the Arugam Bay which is considered one of the top ten surfing destinations in the world. A?a??A?Through this project, surfing enthusiasts all over the world can access the facility on the internet and tour the island for the much loved sport,A?a??A? Musthapha added. Plans also are underway to bring back the international surfing competition currently held in the Maldives back to Sri Lanka.
Steps will also be taken to work closely with the fishing community in the area and ensure that they are provided with basic toilet facilities. A hotel school will also be set up in the areas of Uppuweli and Arugam Bay on government property. A?a??A?This is part of the long term programmes while short term plans include training and skills development of youth whose employment in the Middle East will be ensured,A?a??A? Roy Jayasinghe said. A programme to launch a tourist guide training programme and a A?a??E?Home StayA?a??a?? programme where housewives will be trained on how to entertain guests will also be part of the steps to be taken to boost the Eastern Tourism industry.
source:
http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=15541
…. Unsurprisingly, the waves at Cheap inderal uses Purchase stromectol vidal Arugam Bay (one of the top ten surf beaches in the world) continued to be crowded on weekends with the hard working humanitarian brigade…..
Wed, 2008-05-21 04:34By T.B. Tennekoon
Oh what joy to the global flock of humanitarian vultures. Just as things were looking bleak and the offal train was emptying for these hoards who pray on human misery, Nargis lashed recalcitrant Myanmar and the violence of a restless earth rocked the Sechuan Province of China. Thousands died. Many more were left homeless. Hopeless eyes stared sadly from countless newspaper cover pages. The numbers being quoted by the international humanitarian brigade, readily repeated by the global media, kept growing although they had no verifiable access to the affected areas to determine actual figures. Prospects of feeding on the trail of misery left behind by nature’s rage brought back joyful whoops to the global humanitarian brigade, including sadly, at the UN.
Unfortunately, the motives of the entirety of the global humanitarian brigade have not always been pure. While one would expect the misery caused by human acts of omission or commission or by the vagaries of nature to pull heavily on sympathetic heart strings of the good and produce the best in human nature, this has not been the case always. The genuine feelings of charity of the many has paved the road to five star hotels, four wheel drive vehicles and hedonistic life styles for the humanitarian vultures.
Post tsunami Sri Lanka was a clear example. Billions of Dollars were collected around the world to help devastated and shell shocked Sri Lanka. Little children stood on freezing street corners that winter to collect the pennies from the charitable. Only a fraction of this amount ever reached the country and every effort by government agencies to obtain a proper accounting, including by the Peace Secretariat, has proved futile. UN agencies have been equally coy about revealing the way they have expended the millions collected. Even if one were to discount the huge amounts pledged by certain countries in a blaze of publicity, and never delivered, millions collected by NGOs from the public remain unaccounted.
But a casual visit to Colombo during the immediate post tsunami period would have shed some light on this matter. The place was crowded with white humanitarian workers of all sizes and shapes. Some genuinely motivated by a desire to help but most drawing international salaries. Some were happily established in this tropical paradise in substantial mansions with their families. The roads were crowded with expensive four wheel drive vehicles which most locals could never afford. Five star hotels, night clubs and restaurants depended on the custom of these global do-gooders.
One begins to get an idea as to where most of the funds collected for tsunami victims went. Thousands of these victims continued to suffer in plastic tents for months with little access to clean water or sanitation. There were international NGOs that blatantly engaged in religious conversions under the guise of providing tsunami assistance. Some NGOs were forced to return land allocated to them for constructing houses for tsunami victims as no construction had taken place. Millions of Dollars collected from a gullible public ostensibly to restore the Galle Cricket Ground never arrived in Sri Lanka. A Colombo newspaper famously reported a comment by a buxom blonde aid worker overheard in a nightclub. “This country sucks. There is no sex”.
As the months and years drifted by and Sri Lanka pulled itself up by its boot straps, largely by its own efforts (over 83 per cent of tsunami reconstruction is now complete), the army of do-gooders found other excuses for continuing to stay in the lazy tropical paradise. The ongoing conflict and the resulting displacements provided a ready excuse for extended stays. Often the numbers of displaced persons and violations of human rights were exaggerated and these stories were readily picked up by the international media and the international community based in Colombo. After a military incursion into Sampur in 2006, the BBC reported that 41,000 civilians had been displaced when the entire peninsula was the home for only about 16,000 persons.
The donor community was encouraged to create a new use for the thousands of humanitarian workers who yearned to stay. Interestingly a new refrain began to be heard, often parroted by donor missions, demanding access to the conflict areas by humanitarian workers. The western missions found a ready source of information (or misinformation) in the thousands of humanitarian workers scattered around the country and, relying on these, were not reluctant to take free kicks at their host government with little check on their self serving nature.
Amazingly, these workers were encouraged to resort to their embassies for help rather than the local authorities at the drop of a hat causing unnecessary irritations. The urge to stay on the part of the humanitarian brigade was great. The UN Office for Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs curiously took over a human rights role when they had been invited to Sri Lanka to deal with post tsunami reconstruction.
Unsurprisingly, the waves at Arugam Bay (one of the top ten surf beaches in the world) continued to be crowded on weekends with the hard working humanitarian brigade.
Sri Lanka has gradually encouraged the humanitarian brigade to leave. It has insisted that UN agencies and the ICRC replace international staff with locals who are often better qualified and very much cheaper. The international agencies have reluctantly begun to comply with this demand echoed by the Foreign Ministry. The Thais have also recovered substantially from the tsunami. India never allowed the global do-gooders into the country after the tsunami.
Against this background the raucous clamor to enter Myanmar and China in the aftermath of the cyclone and the earthquake assumes a sad and understandable complexion. The reluctance of resurgent China, reflecting the pride of Asia, to permit international aid workers to enter the country following the Sechuan earthquake has been particularly irksome to the do-gooder brigade. What an opportunity to miss to visit and enjoy the glories of China.
Similarly, Myanmar’s reluctance to permit the do-gooder brigade into the country has been met with noisy disappointment and strident criticism. The fact that these countries may be able to deal with the twin disasters with their own resources may just not be palatable to the white humanitarian vultures. (Myanmar has permitted aid to flow through its ASEAN neighbors suggesting that it is all too aware of the post tsunami experience of countries such as Sri Lanka).
It is particularly disappointing that an Asian Secretary-General of the UN should join the demands of the white humanitarian brigade for access to Myanmar and China. Is it not possible for us to accept that these countries may just be able to deal with the emergencies in their own way, perhaps with limited assistance from the outside. In contrast, we did not hear a similarly persistent clamor from the UN to assist the US where the devastation caused by Katrina still remains or in the aftermath of the disastrous Californian fires. Perhaps the response of the remaining super power was all too predictable.
– Asian Tribune –
source:
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/11298
Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka
By penfold Benadryl how much antihistamine , May 18, 2008
A?a??A?a surf trip to a country struggling through the aftermath of tsunamic devestation whilst in the grip of civil war certainly leaves you with some intense and varied emotional responses – the most potent being at the epicenter of destruction on the east coast at buy trimox Arugam Bay. At times the despair and futility of life there could be overwhelming but then miraculously overshadowed by the genuine joy and laughter of the local children playing innocently in the water that swept away lives that they will only ever know about through story telling from the survivors.
The world was told that this country had been rebuilt and that the millions of dollars that left the western world found itA?a??a??s rightful place sheltering and feeding families but we saw little evidence of that – a half built housing complex with a billboard thanking A?a??E?OprahA?a??a?? or dozens of unused fishing boats. It seems a lot of good things were started with the best of intentions but many projects still remain unfinishedA?a??A?
What we did find were a few good people taking small but vital steps towards rebuilding a forgotten corner of the planet. One being Tim from Paddle 4 relief – a Devon surfer that has made Sri Lanka his home. Disgusted by the horrendous mishandling of funds he started his own charity – organising sponsored paddling events and small gigs in the UK to raise cash that would go directly to the people that needed it. A new pre-school has been built, water supplies cleaned and roofs mended. A plea in the West country for used surfboards produced the start of the Arugam Bay surf club and swimming school.
Of course itA?a??a??s not all about saving lives and digging wells – Tim still finds time to drop in on a few mates at the point every day getting his 9A?a??A? 6A?a??A? nicely slotted into the face of one of the best rights in the Bay of BengalA?a??A?
I didnA?a??a??t surf today but I did sneak a few off the locals at Abay a couple of weeks ago.
Walling, peeling, walling, peeling, walling, peeling, hmmmA?a??A?..
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