Buddhist songs.

Let us follow the Buddha's path - President

Those who live virtuous lives will not see the faults of the past and grieve in the present. Let us resolve during this Vesak Day to follow the wholesome path of the Buddha with determination and relentless efforts to build a virtuous nation, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

President Rajapaksa issuing a message for Vesak said: "Vesak Full Moon Day which marks the birth of Prince Siddhartha, His Enlightenment and Parinibbana is the noblest religious event for all Buddhists. We can spend this day meaningfully by engaging in Buddhist rituals and practice.

We who observe the five precepts do not approve killing, bloodshed and torture. It brings joy to celebrate this Vesak after closing the sorrowful chapter of thirty years of bloodshed and destruction of life. It is fortunate that Buddhists now enjoy the freedom and a secure atmosphere necessary for that purpose. We must enter a spiritual and virtuous way of life in order to sustain that joy.

A path of love (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (muditha) and equanimity (upekha) should be followed. Ours should be a nation which is not shortsighted but farsighted and committed to achieve consolation through patience as taught by Buddha.

If delays in the pat obstructed our path to Nibbana, we should learn to avoid such delay.

Yo cha pubbe pamajjithva - paccha so nappamajjathi

So imang lokang pabhasethi - abha muththova chandima

- Dhammapada

"If one was heedless in the beginning but is not so afterwards, he will illuminate this world as the moon emerges through the cloud," thus Buddha taught.

May the Triple Gem bless you!

By Courtesy of www.dailynews.lk
27th May 2010.

POINT OF VIEW: Dr. Palitha Kohona.

The latest 'horror drama'

One year has elapsed after Sri Lanka's Security Forces crushed LTTE terrorism and became the first country to eradicate terrorism. During Sri Lanka's relentless battle against terror, many international organisations and a few countries made desperate attempts to disrupt the operations of the Security Forces.

Some countries, which profess to be the Godfathers in the international battle against terror, made many an attempt to resurrect the LTTE when the world's most ruthless terrorist organistion was on the verge of being vanquished.

Even when the Security Forces were about to trounce the LTTE leadership in the final battle at the Nandikadal lagoon, some countries, at the eleventh hour attempted to pump in the last drop of oxygen to the moribund terrorist organisation which had killed a countless number of innocent people and inflicted untold hardships on millions of people of all ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

Although these countries and organizations, including some INGOs, who could not directly support a terror outfit which was violating all accepted norms and international conventions, they buttressed moral support for the LTTE and attempted to discredit the country's Security Forces which rendered a magnanimous and invaluable service.

Certain countries and some international organisations shamefully used human rights as an effective tool to exert pressure on the Government, in an insidious attempt to bring about a premature end to the operations of the Security Forces.

Fortunately for us, we had the invincible political leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who did not yield to mounting pressure from all quarters, including a handful of local opportunistic Opposition politicians who attempted to gain petty political mileage.

Had it not been for the indomitable and determined effort of President Rajapaksa and unfailing support extended by Sri Lanka's friendly countries, we would perhaps never have eliminated terrorism and liberated the country.

Ironically, the same extremist elements which had made numerous attempts to protect Tiger terrorists and disrupt Sri Lanka's battle against terror, have again surfaced at a time the entire nation is celebrating the first anniversary of the country's liberation from terrorism.

Controversial Louise Arbour, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a high-ranking international official, was one whose conduct was questionable. The International Crisis Group (ICG), headed by Arbour, which has now made the latest attempt to discredit Sri Lanka's Security Forces.

As exclusively reported in our lead story last Sunday, the ICG has made an ignominious attempt to level war crimes against the Security Forces which liberated over a half a million people who had been forcibly held by the LTTE terrorists as a human shield. Arbour's move from the UN to the ICG has not changed her moral responsibility one wee bit.

The ICG report, released last Monday to coincide with the first anniversary of the LTTE's defeat, not only puts the scale of civilian casualties far higher than previous UN estimates, but also declares that the ICG has "credible evidence" to suggest that the Security Forces shelled civilian targets and hospitals during the battle against terrorism.

This is no doubt a shameless and unethical attempt to distort the truth and fabricate stories to deny the credit of the Security Forces which had maintained a near zero civilian casualty rate at all times.

The ICG said that its report was based on eyewitness statements, photographs, video satellite images, electronic communications and documents from a "wide range of sources". One has a reason to wonder how the ICG had based its facts or was influenced by the tampered video footings such as the infamous Channel 4 incident which championed concocted stories.

The ICG report could well be the first in the latest series of conspiracies that are likely to emerge in the international arena against Sri Lanka. The few remaining international leaders of the now defunct LTTE, along with a section of the Tamil diaspora and a handful of LTTE sympathisers are behind the latest conspiracy of which Arbour's ICG, perhaps, is only a partner.

In these circumstances, the credibility of the ICG report is at stake as ICG personnel have made hostile expressions on Sri Lanka's conduct of the conflict and the public perception is that their report will be unfairly hostile and cannot be relied upon.

In a subtle attempt to give credibility to itself, the ICG has faulted the extinct LTTE too, as a part of balancing act, knowing only too well that in the absence of personnel or an organisation, no action can be taken against the LTTE. It seems that the sole aim of the ICG report is to frame war charges against the Government and its Security Forces.

To hound a democratically elected government, which has every right to defend its sovereignty and protect its people against the most ruthless terrorists in the world which had bled our nation for 30 years with the support of certain countries in the West to restore the right to life to its subjects to say the least is certainly mind boggling.

Why is the ICG keen on holding an inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka? Are the backroom boys at the ICG playing the role of scripting the ghost report to discredit the Defence Forces of Sri Lanka. The prime objective of the report is to bring Sri Lanka into disrepute in the eyes of the international community. Unlike the non-existent, Sri Lanka is a nation state that can be subjected to international sanctions. Certain Western powers and its allied INGOs tried their best to concoct stories to discredit Sri Lanka in its effort to defeat terrorism.

It is patently clear that certain countries in the West and their shadow INGOs are staging their latest 'horror drama' against Sri Lanka. These extremist elements, who fought tooth and nail to protect the LTTE and failed, now need a busybody such as the ICG to unearth material to sully Sri Lanka's reputation.

Why are these organisations conspiring only against Sri Lanka? Having woefully failed in their attempt for a regime change by using a traitor such as Sarath Fonseka who was only too willing to favour war crimes' allegations, they are now resorting to everything under the Sun in an attempt to tame the leadership which had never been a Western puppet.

By Courtesy of www.defence.lk
22nd May 2010

මහ කොටියා මරා දමා වසරයි.

බෙදුම්වාදී ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය අවසන් කරමින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව එක්සේසත් වී අද (18) දිනට වසරක් සපිරෙයි. වීරෝදාර රණවිරුවන් විසින් මුලතිව් වෙල්ලමුල්ලිවෛක්කාල් හි පිහිටි නන්දිකණ්ඩාල් කලපුවේ දී කොටි නායක වේළුපිල්ලේ ප‍්‍රභාකරන් ඝාතනය කිරීමත් සමග මුළු දිවයිනම සිංහ ධජය යටතට පත්විය.

යාපනය නගරාධිපති ඇල්ෆ‍්‍රඞ් දොරේ අප්පා මහතා ඝාතනය කරමින් ප‍්‍රභාකරන් විසින් ආරම්භ කරන ලද ඝාතන රැල්ල හේතුවෙන් දහස් සංඛ්‍යාත අහිංසක සිවිල් වැසියන් පිරිසකගේ ජීවිත විනාශ විය. එපමණක් නොව තවත් දහස් ගණනක් දෙනා අබාධිත තත්වයට පත් වූ අතර විනාශ වී ගිය දේපළ වල වටිනාකම රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනකි. කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් සමග සාකච්ඡ මාර්ගයෙන් ගැටලූවට විසඳුම් සෙවීමට බලයට පත් සෑම රජයක්ම උත්සාහ දැරූ නමුත් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් එම සෑම අවස්ථාවක්ම ප‍්‍රයෝජනයට ගත්තේ ඔවුන්ගේ ප‍්‍රයෝජනය සඳහා පමණි.

කෙසේ වෙතත් 2006 වසරේ දී මාවිල්ආරු සොරොව්ව කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් වසා දැමීමෙන් පසු එය විවෘත කිරීම සඳහා ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදාවන් ආරම්භ කළ මානුෂීය මෙහෙයුම සාර්ථකව ඉදිරියට ම ගෙන යනු ලැබිණි. එහි ප‍්‍රතිඵල ලෙස නැගෙනහිර පළාතත් වන්නි මෙහෙයුම මගින් උතුරු පළාතේ පිහිටි සියලූ කොටි බලකොටුත් ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදාවෝ අත්පත් කර ගත්හ. ඒ අනුව 2009 වසරේ මැයි මස 18 වැනි දින මුළු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවම තිස් වසරක් පැවති ම්ලේච්ඡ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී ශාපයෙන් නිදහස් විය.

මාතෘ භූමිය ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයෙන් මුදා ගැනීම සඳහා ක‍්‍රියා කළ ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාටත්, හිටපු යුද හමුදාපති ජනරාල් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා, හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපති රියර් අද්මිරාල් වසන්ත කරන්නාගොඩ, ගුවන් හමුදාපති එයාර් චීෆ් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් ගුණතිලක, සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක බලකායේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර මහත්වරුන්ටත් ජීවිත පූජා කළ එමෙන්ම ආබාධිත තත්වයට පත් රණවිරුවන් ඇතුළු සියලූ වීරෝදාර රණවිරුවන්ට මේ මොහොතේ අපගේ ගෞරවණීය ප‍්‍රණාමය පුද කර සිටිමු.

By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
18th May, 2010.

The country can rise up with pride in the world Defence Secretary 22 05 2009.

"I was convinced that the military option was the only way to eliminate the LTTE"- by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

In a sense, I could say that it all began on November 18, 2005 around seven o'clock in the morning. Those were tense moments and we were monitoring the results of Sri Lanka's closest presidential election at Temple Trees.

My brother, then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa walked out of the self-styled 'Operations Room' where the results were coming in thick and fast. The Ampara district result had just come in. It clinched the contest, for he had just obtained an unbeatable lead over his rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Beaming as he came out of the 'Ops Room', I was the first person he met. As I greeted him, he had just a few words for me: "You must take over as Secretary of Defence," he said. I smiled in reply, realising that I had very little choice in the matter.

Even so, it was a difficult decision. I had retired from the Army in 1991 after twenty years of service and, after obtaining a Post-graduate Diploma in Computer Technology from the University of Colombo, I had reconciled myself to a life domiciled in the United States, where I had lived since 1994.

I had been working as a Unix Systems Administrator at the Loyola Law School in Marymount University in Los Angeles, California for over nine years. Like most others of my age, I had to support my son's education and a mortgage to pay on my house.

However, towards the end of July 2005 when I was informed that my elder brother was given the party nomination for the presidency, I felt it was nothing but right that I should return to the country for a while to help him in his campaign.

My employers were keen to support me -- it was not every day that someone came with a request for leave saying his brother was running for President! I obtained three months leave and came to Sri Lanka leaving my wife and son and kept in touch with my employers via e-mail: I wanted to return to my job as soon as the dust settled on the elections, where I was busily campaigning in the Kurunegala district.

The outcome of the elections and my brother's request had now changed all that. When my wife Ioma and my son Manoj flew to Sri Lanka for the President's inauguration, we discussed what should be done about her job in the United States, my son's future and the mortgage on the house, knowing all along that we didn't really have a choice.

That is because I have always had my own ideas -- and plans -- about the war and I sensed that this was an ideal opportunity to implement them. If I didn't, I would always regret it. While in the United States, I always read avidly about the war effort, kept in touch with officers of my vintage and, as a result, I had come to my own conclusions.

For instance, I was convinced that a military option was the only way to eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). I believed that it could be done. I also strongly believed that talking to Velupillai Prabhakaran was a waste of time -- and ultimately, a waste of lives. Now, I had the chance to be a part of a team that believed in these same ideas.

I was indeed appointed Secretary of Defence but the President came in for some criticism because of this. He was appointing family members to key posts, his critics said. It is true that I am his brother but my appointment had other advantages.

As a former army officer, I understood the war better than a civil servant and officers in the higher ranks were mostly my contemporaries. And, as the President's brother I always had unrestricted access to him and he had utmost confidence in me. Therefore, I could serve as the crucial link between the political and military establishments ensuring better co-ordination between the two. Few appreciated this at that time.

As Secretary of Defence, I had to brief the President on the state of the war. This I did, gathering information from intelligence services as well as the ground commanders. What I heard from them convinced me even more that the war could be won -- and that it had to be won, for there was no other way. And this is what I told the President.

One of the President's first tasks after assuming office was to visit India. There, he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a one-on-one discussion. Thereafter, I was called in to brief Premier Singh. I handed over a report containing my observations which detailed how the LTTE had abused the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) to recruit cadres, purchase arms and even train civilians for their 'Makkal Padai' ('Peoples' Force'). These, I said, were all signs that they were preparing for war. We even requested military assistance from India to counter this threat.

Of course, as the political head of the country, the President had to purse the democratic option first -- that of talking to the LTTE. But the President was very clear in his instructions to us: he would handle the negotiations in Geneva but the armed forces must be ready for war. They were to be two separate efforts.

I also proposed key changes to the armed forces. A crucial strategy was in appointing field commanders who could get the job done. In fact, I was instrumental in appointing General Sarath Fonseka as the Army Commander.

I recommended General Fonseka for the job as I believed he should have a chance to command the Army. My recommendation posed a problem for the President because General Fonseka's predecessor, General Shantha Kottegoda had two more years to serve and there was no reason to remove him from office. Nevertheless, the President accepted my recommendation and General Fonseka was appointed Commander of the Army in December 2005.

As he was appointed just a week before his fifty-fifth birthday, General Fonseka's tenure had to be extended every year by the President. This too led to difficulties when General Fonseka came up for his first extension in 2006. By then, the Geneva peace talks with the Tigers had broken down and slowly but steadily, the war had begun. But there was pressure on the President from various quarters not to extend General Fonseka's term of office as Commander.

I do recall former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva calling me to his chambers and having a lengthy discussion on the matter. The then CJ suggested that I should not recommend an extension for General Fonseka as he claimed the General's actions had led to many injustices in the Army causing a lot of dissent and stated that General Fonseka had dictatorial tendencies which could be a threat to democracy.

"It is not necessary for you to have him, you can manage with another person," Silva advised. Many others, including government and opposition politicians and retired and senior serving military officers had the same sentiments.

Yet, I thought that changing the Commander of the Army in the midst of a military campaign was counter-productive. I personally carried General Fonseka's file to the President for his signature, on the very last day the extension could possibly have been given and the President signed it while having lunch.

Many also often ask me the question as to whether the suicide attack on me on December 1, 2006 strengthened my resolve to fight the war to a finish. The truth is that it was not an unforeseen event. At the Security Council, intelligence services had warned us of possible attacks on the President, me and the three service commanders.

The President responded by giving us bullet proof vehicles from his pool of vehicles. It is fortunate that I used a bullet proof vehicle that day -- or else, I would not be writing this today. It is also unfortunate that General Sarath Fonseka did not use his bullet proof vehicle on April 25, 2006 possibly because he was travelling within the Army Headquarters complex which he believed to be secure, in his soft skin vehicle.

Nevertheless, the attack on me was just another incident. It did not demoralise me; nor did it add courage or vengeance to my efforts.

As far as I was concerned, I was committed to end the war, anyway. There were many ingredients to our success. I feel that the single most decisive factor was our decision to increase the strength of the military -- mostly the Army -- three-fold. When such a request is made, it obviously entails a significant burden on the economy; it is not simply a matter of paying the salaries of the additional troops; they need to be equipped with weapons and ammunition, their logistical needs increase and other administrative and organisational changes are needed in the long term.

There are also other political implications and many politicians would think twice about why the military was seeking to enhance its strength in this manner. But again, the President understood the need for our suggestion and he believed it was a fair request. Therefore the President's decision was made easier, and he readily allocated the necessary funds for this purpose.

I was in close contact with our ground commanders at all stages of the battle. This enabled me to process their requests quickly, sort out their logistical problems and at times, directly intervene to facilitate co-ordination between the different forces.

Meanwhile, in the military operations we engaged, our troops were pushing the LTTE back, destroying their strongholds and capturing vital terrain in the process. The Tigers resorted to delaying tactics, putting up a 'ditch cum bund' heavily fortified with mines in the areas they held. Eventually, a major clash erupted at Puthukuduirippu, which had them encircled.

By then, the Tigers had decided to adopt the strategy of taking civilians with them as they retreated and when they had been cornered to Puthumathalan, they had some 300,000 civilians who were being used as their 'human shield'. The international community, the United Nations and India were very concerned and we understood their concerns. The question uppermost on everyone's mind was how these civilians should be rescued.

For the government, it was a time to take crucial decisions. The military had to maintain its momentum to end the long lasting campaign as soon as possible. The end of thirty years of suffering was near because we knew that the top leaders including Prabhakaran were surrounded.

However, at the same time the government had to consider the safety of the trapped civilians. Elsewhere, India, especially Tamil Nadu, was sensitive to events here and their concerns had to be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, Pro-LTTE organisations were lobbying and putting pressure on the international community.

The President was firm in his decision that the offensive should continue. After conferring with him, we arrived at several decisions. We declared 'no fire zones'. We also adopted a self-imposed ban on air bombing, artillery and mortar fire whenever we were confronted with battle zones which were home to civilians. Our field commanders were very mindful of this and restrained themselves often.

Also, at every stage of the battle we made certain that food and medical supplies reached the trapped civilians through the World Food Programme, the Red Cross and the United Nations. In the last stages of the war, this could be done only through sea but we still did so, even if it involved a high risk to the military and even though we knew that some of the food and medicines we supplied invariably went to the LTTE.

We felt that the LTTE strategy was to try and prolong the conflict with the help of civilians under their control with the expectation that some in the international community would intervene on their behalf to ensure that their leadership survives, so that they could live to fight another day.

To try and foil this, we adopted a novel method. We opened up corridors in the battle zone so that civilians could flee to government controlled areas. Nearly all of them did and the whole world saw footage recorded from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which showed how the LTTE fired at and killed civilians trying to leave the battle zone. It was a major victory for us because thousands of civilians were evacuated in this manner-and also because the hypocrisy of the LTTE was exposed.

I do admit that it was a very difficult and complex operation. Often, wounded LTTE cadres would change into civilian clothes to cross over. There would be times when we had to hold fire to prevent civilian casualties.

I must remind all those who accuse us of shooting cadres crossing over with white flags that we at all times adopted a 'zero civilian casualty' principle, despite fighting an unconventional war with a terrorist group which adopted each and every method of warfare. By mid-May last year, I was fairly certain that the end was near for the LTTE. I was engaged in visiting every district to meet the families of servicemen in each region. On May 18, by a strange co-incidence, I was at Hambantota, my hometown.

Usually these meeting are conducted in an army camp but since this meeting was in my hometown, it was arranged at Medamulana, at our ancestral home. I then received a telephone call from the President and briefed him to say that the war would in all probability end that day. Close to noon, the President called back to say that the Army Commander, General Fonseka had said it probably could not be done within the day.

I however informed him that this was possible as the field commanders had assured me that the end was at hand. Later, the President was contacted by General Fonseka who had confirmed my prediction. It was on May 18 that the military recovered many bodies of top LTTE leaders after the final battle at Nanthikadal and they began the task of identifying the dead that day itself. It was also the day that there was some speculation that Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to flee in an ambulance.

On the following day, May 19, I was attending a meeting of families of servicemen in the Galle district when General Fonseka called me. He carried good news: the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran had been found. It was on the same day that the President addressed Parliament, officially declaring the end of military operations and the capture of all territories previously controlled by the LTTE.

For some, questions remain such as the fate of Pottu Amman, the Tigers' intelligence chief and there are suggestions that he was not killed in the final battle. We do have credible information from extremely reliable sources that Pottu Amman was in the battle zone at Nanthikadal. We also know that he could not have escaped from the tight naval and military blockade that encompassed the area.

It is true that his body was never identified. But it is also true that this area of scrub jungle yielded dozens of bodies which could not be identified positively because they were in an advanced state of destruction. Therefore, Pottu Amman is certainly dead and it would be extremely naïve to believe otherwise.

Since the end of the war we have had some significant breakthroughs, the most notable among them being the capture of 'KP' or Kumaran Pathmanathan, the LTTE's point man in international relations and close confidant of Prabhakaran.

We know that KP was responsible for organising the arms procurement network of the LTTE and that in the two years that he was side-lined by Prabhakaran, the Tiger's supplies dwindled drastically.

However, they reconciled and in the last stages of the war, Prabhakaran re-appointed him to procure weapons. KP arranged for a final shipment but when the battle ended on May 18, the vessel carrying these arms dumped their cargo in the sea on May 20 and made a hasty exit.

We also know that Prabhakaran spoke to KP from Puthumathalan through an intermediary. Prabhakaran's son, Charles Anthony, spoke directly to KP just before his demise. After their deaths, KP anointed himself as the new leader of the LTTE and asked the Tiger diaspora to rally round him and pledged to re-structure the organisation. Therefore, I would rate capturing KP as being as important as killing Prabhakaran -- and that is not an exaggeration.

Now that the war is over, there are demands to relax the military controls in the North and East. In my opinion, that would be foolish. With an organisation as destructive as the LTTE, there are always bound to be some elements who would want to re-group and we must be wary of such possibilities.

I believe protecting our coastline should be a priority now. If our beaches were secured previously, the Tigers could not have smuggled in weapons in such large quantities and they wouldn't have grown in to the monstrous organisation that they were. Similarly the vast jungle terrain in the Wanni must be dominated -- it is this land that the LTTE exploited to the maximum during the early stages of its campaign to wage guerrilla warfare.

The Police must also complement this by adopting a different role. Police officers should speak the language of the region. They should cease to be the paramilitary force that they have been for the past 25 years and revert to their more familiar role of maintaining law and order. These changes require time, effort and most importantly, a change of attitude.

I hear a clamour for political reforms in the North and East and I understand and appreciate that. But I do also sincerely believe that priority should be given not to political reforms but to infrastructure development and attending to the other basic social needs of the people.

The people of the war-ravaged areas now need roads, electricity, drinking water, schools, hospitals and jobs much more than they need amendments to the Constitution. With the former, they can rebuild their lives which had been stalled for nearly three decades. Then, surely, the latter will follow.

In two days, we will be celebrating the first anniversary of our war victory. The victory parade will represent the formations of the final humanitarian operation. We hope to continue this as an annual event, in remembrance of the country's greatest victory in recent times. It is especially a victory for those people who lived in fear of the LTTE in the North and East and in the threatened villages bordering them. But what we must also remember is that this is not a celebration of the President, the Armed Forces, the government, a political party or of one particular community; this a celebration for every Sri Lankan.

As for my future plans, many ask me whether I would follow the footsteps of my brothers and take to politics. If I wanted to do that, I had the perfect opportunity at the April general elections but I declined.

Unfortunately, all my adult life I have been either a professional soldier or an expert in information technology and politics does not have any attraction despite growing up in a political family and being under the constant influence of my brothers. Politics, therefore, is most certainly not an option.

I do believe that I can do more as a public official -- just as I have done over the past five years. There are new challenges that beckon. Remodelling the military into a modern, thoroughly professional peacetime force is one of them.

The Urban Development Authority has now been attached to the Defence Ministry and that is an added challenging responsibility. And who knows, that could be as testing as fighting the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world!

What is certain though is that saying 'yes' to the President's offer on that November morning five years ago has not been in vain.

By Courtesy of Sunday Times.
17th May, 2010.

ජනපති අද ඉරානයට.

ටෙහෙරාන් නුවර පැවැත්වෙන ජී 15 කණ්ඩායමේ රාජ්‍ය නායක සමු`ථවට සහභාගි වීම සදහා ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අද (15) ඉරානය බලා පිටත් වීමට නියමිතය. මෙවර එම සමුථවේ සභාපතීත්වය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට හිමිවීම ද විශේෂ කරුණක් වන අතර සමුථව 17 වැනි දා දක්වා පැවැත්විමට කටයුතු යොදා තිබේ. ජී 15 කණ්ඩායම 1989 දී පිහිටුවා ගනු ලැබුවේ සංවර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින රටවල ආර්ථික සහයෝගීතාවය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමේ අරමුණෙනි.

ආජන්ටිනාව, ඇල්ජීරියාව, බ‍්‍රසීලය, චිල, ඊජිප්තුව, ඉන්දියාව, ඉන්දුනීසියාව, ඉරානය, කෙන්යාව, ජැමෙයිකාව, මැලේසියාව, මෙක්සිකෝව, නයිජීරියාව, සෙනගල්, වෙනිසියුලාව, සිම්බාබ්වේ ආදි රටවල් 17ක් මීට අයත් වන අතර ජාත්‍යන්තර ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය, ගෝලීය කාලගුණ විපර්යාස, ආර්ථික සහයෝගීතාවය යන කාරණා මෙවර සමු`ථව තුළ විශේෂයෙන් සාකච්ඡුාවට ලක් කෙරේ. මෙම සංචාරයට ජනාධිපතිවරයා සම`ග අමාත්‍ය ජී.එල් පීරිස් විදේශ ලේකම් රොමේෂ් ජයසිංහ, ජනාධිපති ලේකම් ලලිත් වීරතුංග, ඇතුථ පිරිසක් සහභාගී වීමට නියමිතය.

By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
15th May, 2010.

ඉන්දියාව ගැන ඇමති විමල්ගේ කණස්සල්ල.

13 වැනි ආණ්ඩු ක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා දින වකවානු තීරණය කිරීමට ඉන්දියාවට අයිතියක් නැතැයි ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක සහ නිවාස ඉංජිනේරු සේවා ඉදිකිරීම් හා පොදු පහසුකම් අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පවසයි. 13 වන සංශෝධනය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉන්දීය අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතු අමාත්‍යවරයා කළ ප‍්‍රකාශයක් පිළිබඳ අදහස් දක්වමින් ඒ මහතා මේ බව ප‍්‍රකාශ කළේ ඊයේ (13) පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවක දීය.

ආණ්ඩු ක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන සම්බන්ධයෙන් සහ බෙදුම්වාදය වැළැක්වීමට අදාළ නීති ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් තම පක්‍ෂය දැඩි උනන්දුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන බව වීරවංශ මහතා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දක්වමින් අමාත්‍යවරයා කියා සිටියේ ආණ්ඩු ක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කිරීම පියවර තුනක් යටතේ සිදු කරන බවත් විධායක ජනාධිපති ක‍්‍රමය වෙනස් කිරීම මැතිවරණ ක‍්‍රමය සංශෝධනය කිරීම හා සෙනෙට් මන්ත‍්‍රී මණ්ඩලයක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම එම අවස්ථා වන බවත්ය.

By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
14th May, 2010.

Songs tribute to National Heros.

National war hero week launched in Sri Lanka to commemorate first anniversary of war victory.

May 11, Colombo: Sri Lanka commenced the war hero week, today for the first time after the victory of the war against Tamil rebels Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at a ceremony held in Temple Trees today (11).

Marking the beginning of the National Ranaviru week, the first war hero flag was pinned on President Mahinda Rajapaksa by Waruna Rashminda, the 9-year-old son of late Sgt. B.S.Chandrasiri (Singha Regiment 511/581), an Army soldier who was killed in a battle in Muhamalai in the northern tip of the rebel-held Wanni territory.

A distinguish gathering of provincial governors, ministers and deputy ministers, and provincial chief secretaries, heads of three armed forces and the police and representatives of war hero families along with President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa participated in the event.

Ranawiru flags were handed over to the governors of the nine provinces today for island wide distribution. Income from the sale of these flags is to be utilized for the welfare of the war heroes.

Sri Lanka government declared the week from May 12 to 18 as National Rananiru Week to mark the victory of the three-decade long war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
11th May 2010.

NFF will remain UPFA watchdog – Muzzamil.

Former National Freedom Front (NFF) MP Mohammad Muzzamil says that his party will continue to offer constructive criticism to the government while continuing to be one of UPFA’s coalition partners.

In an interview with LAKBIMANEWS, he noted that if the government was to veer away from people-friendly policies and charter a dictatorial march, then the NFF will not hesitate to speak against the ruling party.

He also stressed that the NFF had rendered yeoman service to the country during the height of the North-East conflict and will not allow any force either locally or internationally to harm the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

Excerpts of the interview

Though the NFF is one of the affiliated parties of the UPFA recently we witnessed your party leader and Minister Wimal Weerawansa speaking on the need to allow detained former army chief retired General Sarath Fonseka from attending parliament sessions. Your party leader was also was pretty vocal when your nomination on the national list to parliament was rejected at the eleventh hour by the UPFA.

Does all this mean that the NFF can go the whole hog with the government by not toeing the government line?

The best form of defence they say is attack. Likewise we will continue to maintain our identity within the UPFA, but that will not preclude us from speaking our mind when the need arises.

The NFF always believed that this country has to be safeguarded from the clutches of the LTTE by crushing them and that policy we advocated since the inception of our party.

However, as a result of the JVP not willing to put country before self in an effort to defeat the LTTE that forced us to leave them and start a fresh political journey under the NFF banner.

Among other significant milestones of our party was ousting Ranil Wickremasinghe from power in 2004, bringing Mahinda Rajapaksa to power in 2005, and last but not least we were also able to overcome the subtle moves of the JVP to defeat the budget and prevent the collapse of the UPFA regime in 2007.

The climax of our patriotic struggle was the total elimination of the LTTE last May, and providing solid support to the president in his bid to return for a second stint at the presidential poll last January, and the UPFA scoring a resounding win in the subsequent general election.

Now, our duty is to provide maximum support to the UPFA to develop this country after the end of the three-decade long war, but that will not bar us from criticizing the ruling party when it needs to be and commending other measures when the need arises.

But, the comment made by your leader MP Weerawansa that retired General Fonseka should be allowed to attend sessions of the legislature as a MP has reportedly drawn the ire of the UPFA big wigs.

Wouldn’t that be an obstacle to co-exist with the government?

We know our duty as a party attached to the UPFA. And at the same time we also know our responsibility as a political party and if at all there is an issue where justice has not been meted out then we will not be reluctant to speak out publicly and that is what MP Weerawansa stated with regard to the former army chief.

What our leader said then was if General Fonseka had been able to gain power at the last presidential poll, then that would have sounded the death knell to the democracy of this country.

But, the former Army Chief managed to win a seat in the parliamentary poll and therefore as an MP he has certain rights and he is entitled to attend sessions of the legislature.

This is what MP Weerawansa tried to reiterate and we do not think that such a comment will draw the ire of the UPFA.

We are not in the government to pussyfoot, any issue and sugarcoat the UPFA we will speak then and there to whatever the topic and issue that needs our attention.

NFF vehemently campaigned to prevent Sarath Fonseka from unseating the president at the last presidential poll.

But, now that he has entered the legislature after the general election, do you think whatever the motives he may have had at the presidential election will take a backseat?

It is the duty of the speaker to safeguard the rights of all the 225 MPs in the legislature. What MP Weerawansa did was to make a statement with regard to safeguarding the rights and privileges that a fellow MP is entitled to when attending the parliament and it should not be taken out of context and misconstrued as the National Freedom Front whitewashing the sins of Sarath Fonseka.

You hit the national headlines in the run up to the presidential poll last January with your disclosure of how you were bribed with a sum of 300,000 rupees to support the retired General by certain opposition MPs.


However, the UPFA cold shouldered you openly by denying you a slot on the national list even after your bombshell revelation which most critics felt also contributed immesnsly towards the comprehensive win of the president. What do you make of it?

I feel it was a huge mistake committed by the UPFA denying me a slot on the national list considering what I achieved by way of my disclosure of the bribe and then as if to add insult to injury they brought in Rajiva Wijesinghe.

This was not what the NFF expected from the UPFA especially after they had guaranteed our party two slots on the national list.

If they had only promised us a single seat from the national list then I could have contested and won and we point our finger at the UPFA General Secretary Susil Prem Jayanth.

It was his tactic to allocate only a single seat to the NFF without even briefing our party and our leader vehemently opposed such a move.

Also I like to emphasize here that there was never any agreement or policy with any of the constituent parties of the UPFA on the allocation of seats from the national list.

So what do you think prompted the UPFA General Secretary to carry out such a measure when there was no prior agreement with any of the its coalition parties?

Though he is only the UPFA General Secretary the people of this country will know what sort of a character he is.

Though you find fault with Minister Prem Jayanth it is the president who really allocates the slots on the national list.

So just because you cannot fall foul of the president you are going hammer and tongs at the UPFA General Secretary. Isn’t this the truth?

Even if the president boobs, we are not afraid to criticize him and that is how the NFF functions. But, the final authority on the allocation of the national list seats is the UPFA General Secretary.

He is the person who liaises with the constituent partners of the UPFA.

It is he who hands over the final list to the polls commissioner and we clearly stated that if the NFF is to be given two seats then nominate both or refrain from nominating both.

But, he acted arbitrarily and did not heed our call and such moves have to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

It was also known at the time that when your party was snubbed of a second slot on the national list that your leader had tried to contact the president but in vain.

Now if the NFF cannot even contact the president does that indicate that all is not well between him and your party?

Denying the NFF a national list slot and being unable to contact the president are two different issues.

The president was quite busy on that particular day and if we had been able to get an audience with him this issue could have been well and truly settled.

And you must understand that with the workload he has by merely contacting the president on the phone would not have been the answer to this grave blunder committed on the part of the UPFA General Secretary.

Are you entirely pleased with the finalization of the UPFA national list?

I believe that though there are certain MPs who deserve to be in parliament at the same time there are also a few dolls who have been accommodated by the UPFA - a lot which the government could have most certainly done without. However, I have no intention of naming names. I will continue to play my role within the NFF for the sake of the country and for that being in the parliament is not imperative.

By Courtesy of www.lakbimanews.lk
9th May 2010.

Marching in memory of common victory.

A spectacular parade has opened the Victory Day festivities in Moscow. On the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII, military from the allied forces have for the first time ever marched on Red Square during the parade.

It started at the traditional 10am Moscow time. President Dmitry Medvedev delivered an address to the nation and all the guests.

“In 1945, not only military but also a great moral victory was achieved. A common victory. All peoples of the former USSR struggled for it. Our allies were advancing it,”

Medvedev said. “And today, soldiers of Russia, CIS countries and anti-Hitler coalition states will march together triumphantly. A single rank is evidence of our common readiness to defend peace, not to allow the revision of the outcomes of war and new tragedies.”

By courtesy of: www.rt.com
Published 09th May 2010.

The siege of Leningrad – deadliest blockade of WWII.

Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg, which during the war was known as Leningrad, suffered a devastating blockade by Nazi troops for almost 900 days, but never surrendered.

It is considered the deadliest siege in human history, with hundreds of thousands dying of hunger in two-and-a-half years. Some historians describe it as deliberate genocide.

Almost one third of the population was wiped out in the city, hemmed in by enemy troops – Finnish to the North, Nazis to the South.

“It was victory. They announced we had won!” recalls Nina Andreeva, blockade survivor. “I was dumbfounded, overwhelmed. It was amazing, but what did it mean? No more shooting?”

Victory was something incomprehensible for Nina Andreeva before 1945. She was just 11 when the siege of Leningrad began, and the diary she kept is a testament to the life of famine, fear and horror she had become used to.

“The bombardment and shelling were terrible,” Andreeva remembers. “We were scared to walk in the street. We got really frightened. And yet, we had no idea what was happening, nor of the nightmare still to come.”

The nightmare began in September 1941 and continued for almost 900 days, as the Nazis tried to suffocate Leningrad. They were within touching distance of the city less than three months after invading the Soviet Union. But that was as close as they got.

“Hitler’s plans for Leningrad underwent changes because of the resistance put up by the city’s residents,” says Irina Muravyeva, a historian. “According to the Barbarossa plan, Leningrad was to be taken in no time, and they didn’t expect such resistance.”

Hitler tried to squeeze the life out of Leningrad’s three million civilians by isolating the city with a blockade. Transport links, electricity and heating were cut. Food stores were bombed and the hunger soon set in.

125 grams of bread was what the daily ration was reduced to during the winter of 1941. It is barely more than a few mouthfuls, and one ingredient was even sawdust. It simply wasn’t enough for many to survive on. The dead were piled up as the city was brought to its knees.

The winter of 1941 showed no mercy, with temperatures plummeting to 35 degrees below zero. People scavenged for what they could, eating leather, glue and even their pets. The ice thawed to reveal streets strewn with dismembered corpses as some turned to cannibalism.

“One time my mother bought meat,” Andreeva confesses. “When she began boiling it, red foam rose. “It’s human meat,” my mother screamed. So we threw everything away. There were cases of cannibalism, especially among mentally unstable people. My friend wrote that her neighbor gave birth to a baby and then ate it.”

Amidst this hell, Leningrad’s heart remarkably kept beating thanks to the Road of Life. The Soviets controlled a narrow, but crucial, artery across the frozen Lake Ladoga to the east of the withering city. Supplies were driven in, and women and children were evacuated. But it was a perilous route, with enemy bombers patrolling the skies.

“When our air defense knew German planes were headed for Ladoga, they’d turn on the searchlights over the ice,” states Vera Rogova, a traffic controller on the Road of Life. “We would see the beams roaming about and understand right away what was coming. That’s when you got scared, but you had to keep on controlling the traffic on the ice road while the Germans were bombing you from the air.”

One in four trucks sank, but those that got through were enough to keep Leningrad alive. Nina was one of over 1.5 million people who were transported over the ice and had a narrow escape.

“The Germans were bombing that road all the time and the truck two ahead of us was hit and went under the ice,” she says. “A woman traffic-controller ran up to us and showed us how to get to a bypass road. It was March, and the ice was melting. The water had risen up to the body of the truck. Everybody was crying. We were afraid of drowning. Our truck was practically floating.”

For Nina, the hell was over in March 1942, but for Leningrad it continued for almost two more years. There was temporary relief at the beginning of 1943, as a two-pronged Soviet attack bashed a corridor through the German defenses. Finally, in January 1944, the Nazi stranglehold was unlocked.

The siege had claimed the lives of around 700,000 civilians. Leningrad’s refusal to surrender prevented the Nazi’s from claiming more.

By courtesy of: www.rt.com
Published 09th May 2010.

School with one student, teacher and principal.

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene Thursday witnessed how trained human resources and State properties were being underutilized after an inspection tour on Dambuwa Primary School in Kelaniya where there is only one student with a teacher and the Principal.

It was his first inspection tour after being appointed as the Education Minister. This school is among the three schools in the Gampaha district where there are less than 10 students.

The Minister had an interaction with the student, teacher and the Principal and guessed that the situation of the school in other parts of the island would be worse.

Minister Gunawardene told the Daily News that he also visited the Ananda Primary School, Minuwangoda where there are no students nor teachers.

This school has been reduced to a principal who was not in the school when the Minister arrived there. This Principal in question has pasted a notice on his office door saying that he left for the Zonal educational office. Gunawardene said he has plans to meet this situation effectively and ensure that the resources in the education sector are properly distributed to all stakeholders equally.

"I will discuss with Provincial educational authorities and implement an effective mechanism to overcome this situation," he added.

By Courtesy of www.dailynews.lk
8th May 2010.

Birthday of Karl Marx – Born 05th May 1818.

Karl Marx Documentary.



Karl Marx's Biography.



Karl Max Songs.

People who changed the world: Birthday of the Philosopher Karl Marks- Born 05th May 1818 .

Karl Marx, the son of Hirschel and Henrietta Marx, was born in Trier, Germany, in 1818. Hirschel Marx was a lawyer and to escape anti-Semitism decided to abandon his Jewish faith when Karl was a child. Although the majority of people living in Trier were Catholics, Marx decided to become a Protestant. He also changed his name from Hirschel to Heinrich.

After schooling in Trier (1830-35), Marx entered Bonn University to study law. At university he spent much of his time socialising and running up large debts. His father was horrified when he discovered that Karl had been wounded in a duel. Heinrich Marx agreed to pay off his son's debts but insisted that he moved to the more sedate Berlin University.

The move to Berlin resulted in a change in Marx and for the next few years he worked hard at his studies. Marx came under the influence of one of his lecturers, Bruno Bauer, whose atheism and radical political opinions got him into trouble with the authorities. Bauer introduced Marx to the writings of G. W. F. Hegel, who had been the professor of philosophy at Berlin until his death in 1831.

Marx was especially impressed by Hegel's theory that a thing or thought could not be separated from its opposite. For example, the slave could not exist without the master, and vice versa. Hegel argued that unity would eventually be achieved by the equalising of all opposites, by means of the dialectic (logical progression) of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. This was Hegel's theory of the evolving process of history.

Heinrich Marx died in 1838. Marx now had to earn his own living and he decided to become a university lecturer. After completing his doctoral thesis at the University of Jena, Marx hoped that his mentor, Bruno Bauer, would help find him a teaching post. However, in 1842 Bauer was dismissed as a result of his outspoken atheism and was unable to help.

Marx now tried journalism but his radical political views meant that most editors were unwilling to publish his articles. He moved to Cologne where the city's liberal opposition movement was fairly strong. Known as the Cologne Circle, this group had its own newspaper, The Rhenish Gazette. The newspaper published an article by Marx where he defended the freedom of the press. The group was impressed by the article and in October, 1842, Marx was appointed editor of the newspaper.

While in Cologne he met Moses Hess, a radical who called himself a socialist. Marx began attending socialist meetings organised by Hess. Members of the group told Marx of the sufferings being endured by the German working-class and explained how they believed that only socialism could bring this to an end. Based on what he heard at these meetings, Marx decided to write an article on the poverty of the Mosel wine-farmers. The article was also critical of the government and soon after it was published in The Rhenish Gazette in January 1843, the newspaper was banned by the Prussian authorities.

Warned that he might be arrested, Marx quickly married his girlfriend, Jenny von Westphalen, and moved to France where he was offered the post of editor of a new political journal, Franco-German Annals. Among the contributors to the journal was his old mentor, Bruno Bauer, the Russian anarchist, Michael Bakunin and the radical son of a wealthy German industrialist, Friedrich Engels.

In Paris he began mixing with members of the working class for the first time. Marx was shocked by their poverty but impressed by their sense of comradeship. In an article that he wrote for the Franco-German Annals, Marx applied Hegel's dialectic theory to what he had observed in Paris. Marx, who now described himself as a communist, argued that the working class (the proletariat), would eventually be the emancipators of society. When published in February 1844, the journal was immediately banned in Germany. Marx also upset the owner of the journal, Arnold Ruge, who objected to his editor's attack on capitalism.

In 1844 Marx wrote Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. In this work he developed his ideas on the concept of alienation. Marx identified three kinds of alienation in capitalist society. First, the worker is alienated from what he produces. Second, the worker is alienated from himself; only when he is not working does he feel truly himself. Finally, in capitalist society people are alienated from each other; that is, in a competitive society people are set against other people. Marx believed the solution to this problem was communism as this would enable the fulfilment of "his potentialities as a human."

While in Paris he become a close friend of Friedrich Engels, who had just finished writing a book about the lives of the industrial workers in England. Engels shared Marx's views on capitalism and after their first meeting Engels wrote that there was virtually "complete agreement in all theoretical fields". Marx and Engels decided to work together. It was a good partnership, whereas Marx was at his best when dealing with difficult abstract concepts, Engels had the ability to write for a mass audience.

While working on their first article together, The Holy Family, the Prussian authorities put pressure on the French government to expel Marx from the country. On 25th January 1845, Marx received an order deporting him from France. Marx and Engels decided to move to Belgium, a country that permitted greater freedom of expression than any other European state. Marx went to live in Brussels, where there was a sizable community of political exiles, including the man who converted him to socialism, Moses Hess.

Friedrich Engels helped to financially support Marx and his family. Engels gave Marx the royalties of his recently published book, Condition of the Working Class in England and arranged for other sympathizers to make donations. This enabled Marx the time to study and develop his economic and political theories. Marx spent his time trying to understand the workings of capitalist society, the factors governing the process of history and how the proletariat could help bring about a socialist revolution. Unlike previous philosophers, Marx was not only interested in discovering the truth. As he was to write later, in the past "philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is, to change it".

In July 1845 Marx and Engels visited England. They spent most of the time consulting books in Manchester Library. Marx also visited London where he met the Chartist leader, George Julian Harney and political exiles from Europe.

When Karl Marx returned to Brussels he concentrated on finishing his book, The German Ideology. In the book Marx developed his materialist conception of history, a theory of history in which human activity, rather than thought, plays the crucial role. Marx was unable to find a publisher for the book, and like much of his work, was not published in his lifetime.

In January 1846 Marx set up a Communist Correspondence Committee. The plan was to try and link together socialist leaders living in different parts of Europe. Influenced by Marx's ideas, socialists in England held a conference in London where they formed a new organisation called the Communist League. Marx formed a branch in Brussels and in December 1847 attended a meeting of the Communist League' Central Committee in London. At the meeting it was decided that the aims of the organisation was "the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the domination of the proletariat, the abolition of the old bourgeois society based on class antagonisms, and the establishment of a new society without classes and without private property".

When Marx returned to Brussels he concentrated on writing The Communist Manifesto. Based on a first draft produced by Friedrich Engels called the Principles of Communism, Marx finished the 12,000 word pamphlet in six weeks. Unlike most of Marx's work, it was an accessible account of communist ideology. Written for a mass audience, the book summarised the forthcoming revolution and the nature of the communist society that would be established by the proletariat.

The Communist Manifesto begins with the assertion, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Marx argued that if you are to understand human history you must not see it as the story of great individuals or the conflict between states. Instead, you must see it as the story of social classes and their struggles with each other. Marx explained that social classes had changed over time but in the 19th century the most important classes were the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. By the term bourgeoisie Marx meant the owners of the factories and the raw materials which are processed in them. The proletariat, on the other hand, own very little and are forced to sell their labour to the capitalists.

Marx believed that these two classes are not merely different from each other, but also have different interests. He went on to argue that the conflict between these two classes would eventually lead to revolution and the triumph of the proletariat. With the disappearance of the bourgeoisie as a class, there would no longer be a class society. As Engels later wrote, "The state is not abolished, it withers away."

The Communist Manifesto was published in February, 1848. The following month, the government expelled Marx from Belgium. Marx and Engels visited Paris before moving to Cologne where they founded a radical newspaper, the New Rhenish Gazette. The men hoped to use the newspaper to encourage the revolutionary atmosphere that they had witnessed in Paris.

After examples of police brutality in Cologne, Marx helped establish a Committee of Public Safety to protect the people against the power of the authorities. The New Rhenish Gazette continued to publish reports of revolutionary activity all over Europe, including the Democrats seizure of power in Austria and the decision by the Emperor to flee the country.

Marx's excitement about the possibility of world revolution began to subside in 1849. The army had managed to help the Emperor of Austria return to power and attempts at uprisings in Dresden, Baden and the Rhur were quickly put down. On 9th May, 1849, Marx received news he was to be expelled from the country. The last edition of the New Rhenish Gazette appeared on 18th May and was printed in red. Marx wrote that although he was being forced to leave, his ideas would continue to be spread until the "emancipation of the working class".

Marx now went to France where he believed a socialist revolution was likely to take place at any time. However, within a month of arriving, the French police ordered him out of the capital. Only one country remained who would take him, and on 15th September he sailed for England. Soon after settling in London Jenny Marx gave birth to her fourth child. The Prussian authorities applied pressure on the British government to expel Marx but the Prime Minister, John Russell, held liberal views on freedom of expression and refused.

With only the money that Engels could raise, the Marx family lived in extreme poverty. In March 1850 they were ejected from their two-roomed flat in Chelsea for failing to pay the rent. They found cheaper accommodation at 28 Dean Street, Soho, where they stayed for six years. Their fifth child, Franziska, was born at their new flat but she only lived for a year. Eleanor Marx was born in 1855 but later that year, Edgar became Jenny Marx's third child to die.

Marx spent most of the time in the Reading Room of the British Museum, where he read the back numbers of The Economist and other books and journals that would help him analyze capitalist society. In order to help supply Marx with an income, Friedrich Engels returned to work for his father in Germany. The two kept in constant contact and over the next twenty years they wrote to each other on average once every two days.

Friedrich Engels sent postal orders or £1 or £5 notes, cut in half and sent in separate envelopes. In this way the Marx family was able to survive. The poverty of the Marx's family was confirmed by a Prussian police agent who visited the Dean Street flat in 1852. In his report he pointed out that the family had sold most of their possessions and that they did not own one "solid piece of furniture".

Jenny helped her husband with his work and later wrote that "the memory of the days I spent in his little study copying his scrawled articles is among the happiest of my life." The only relief from the misery of poverty was on a Sunday when they went for family picnics on Hampstead Heath.

In 1852, Charles Dana, the socialist editor of the New York Daily Tribune, offered Marx the opportunity to write for his newspaper. Over the next ten years the newspaper published 487 articles by Marx (125 of them had actually been written by Engels). Another radical in the USA, George Ripley, commissioned Marx to write for the New American Cyclopaedia. With the money from Marx's journalism and the £120 inherited from Jenny's mother, the family were able to move to 9 Grafton Terrace, Kentish Town.

In 1856 Jenny Marx, who was now aged 42, gave birth to a still-born child. Her health took a further blow when she contacted smallpox. Although she survived this serious illness, it left her deaf and badly scarred. Marx's health was also bad and he wrote to Engels claiming that "such a lousy life is not worth living". After a bad bout of boils in 1863, Marx told Engels that the only consolation was that "it was a truly proletarian disease".

Marx published A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in 1859. I the book Marx argued that the superstructure of law, politics, religion, art and philosophy was determined by economic forces. "It is not", he wrote, "the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness." This is what Friedrich Engels later called "false consciousness".

By the 1860s the work for the New York Daily Tribune came to an end and Marx's money problems returned. Engels sent him £5 a month but this failed to stop him getting deeply into debt. Ferdinand Lassalle, a wealthy socialist from Berlin also began sending money to Marx and offered him work as an editor of a planned new radical newspaper in Germany. Marx, unwilling to return to his homeland and rejected the job. Lassalle continued to send Marx money until he was killed in a duel on 28th August 1864.

Despite all his problems Marx continued to work and in 1867 the first volume of Das Kapital was published. A detailed analysis of capitalism, the book dealt with important concepts such as surplus value (the notion that a worker receives only the exchange-value, not the use-value, of his labour); division of labour (where workers become a "mere appendage of the machine") and the industrial reserve army (the theory that capitalism creates unemployment as a means of keeping the workers in check).

In the final part of Das Kapital Marx deals with the issue of revolution. Marx argued that the laws of capitalism will bring about its destruction. Capitalist competition will lead to a diminishing number of monopoly capitalists, while at the same time, the misery and oppression of the proletariat would increase. Marx claimed that as a class, the proletariat will gradually become "disciplined, united and organised by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production" and eventually will overthrow the system that is the cause of their suffering.

Marx now began work on the second volume of Das Kapital. By 1871 his sixteen year old daughter, Eleanor Marx, was helping him with his work. Taught at home by her father, Eleanor already had a detailed understanding of the capitalist system and was to play an important role in the future of the British labour movement. On one occasion Marx told his children that "Jenny (his eldest daughter) is most like me, but Tussy (Eleanor) is me."

Marx was encouraged by the formation of the Paris Commune in March 1871 and the abdication of Louis Napoleon. Marx called it the "greatest achievement" since the revolutions of 1848, but by May the revolt had collapsed and about 30,000 Communards were slaughtered by government troops.

This failure depressed Marx and after this date his energy began to diminish. He continued to work on the second volume of Das Kapital but progress was slow, especially after Eleanor Marx left home to become a schoolteacher in Brighton.

Eleanor returned to the family home in 1881 to nurse her parents who were both very ill. Marx, who had a swollen liver, survived, but Jenny Marx died on 2nd December, 1881. Karl Marx was also devastated by the death of his eldest daughter in January 1883 from cancer of the bladder. Karl Marx died two months later on the 14th March, 1883.

By Courtesy of www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
05th May 2010.

Song- The Internationale.

English version with subtitles.



The Communist Internationale (Original, with English Lyrics).

A War Hero Week in Sri Lanka from May 12 to 18.

May 01, Colombo: Sri Lanka government has decided to declare a 'Week of War Heroes' from May 12 to 18 to mark the victory of the three decade war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Numerous programmes of war hero welfare will be conducted during this week.

The government has decided to hold a victory memorial ceremony on May 18th annually. May 18th is the day the leader of the LTTE Velupillai Prabhakaran was rounded in a marshland in the Mullaitivu district and killed.

Meanwhile, the Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said to media following the opening of a war hero memorial in Elephant Pass in Jaffna district that the first war hero memorial following the victory of the war will be held in grand scale on May 20 this year.

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
1st May 2010.

Sri Lanka marks the first post-war May Day.

May 01, Colombo: Sri Lanka today celebrated the first International Labor Day (May Day) since the end of the three-decade long war last year in a grand scale with pageantry.

The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance held its May Day rally at Town Hall under theme "Power to the Workplace, Dynamism to the Factory, Peace to the Motherland" with the participation of the President, Prime Minister, government ministers and union leaders.

The main opposition United National Party opted to hold religious activities instead of a political rally to mark the May Day this year. The activities had been held at the Piliyandala Dharma Shastroda Piriven Viharaya.

The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) held its May Day rally at the Campbell Park in Borella under the patronage of its leader Somawansa Amarasinghe.

The Ceylon Workers Congress representing the upcountry plantation Tamil workers held its May Day rally in Thalawakelle while Socialist People's Front comprising five leftist political parties held its May Day rally at the Athulathmudali grounds in Kirulapone.

The association of workers in the free trade zone factories held its May Day rally at P.D. Sirisena grounds in Maligawatta.

Police Media Spokesman SP Prishantha Jayakody said the police have implemented a special security programme for the May Day. The police had added more officers to the streets to maintain law and order and direct the traffic.

Police spokesman said 11 rallies and 6 processions had been scheduled to be held in Colombo.

May Day celebrations in previous years had been low key due to the threats of LTTE terrorist attacks. In 1993 a LTTE suicide bomber attacked the then government's May Day processions in Colombo killing the former President Ranasinghe Premadasa and 23 others.

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
1st May 2010.