No one has special rights over Indian Ocean

The term Indian Ocean is both obsolete and redundant to be used to call that vast ocean that was earlier called the Erythrean Sea and the Bay of Bengal with Ceylon at its hub serving the sea routes. After the enactment of the UN Law of the Sea, India cannot claim the vast ocean and cannot seek to intimidate others in the region by openly stating that its intention is also to continue to command its waves and call it the Indian Ocean. That is an Indian rope trick- to perform a deception even to rational beings the world over.

This deception has to be exposed especially today as this ocean is owned by over 40 independent countries who have their own Exclusive Economic Zones ( EEZ) in it. India has no right to claim any special right over it. It is only a Consortium of Nations who have ownership to it who can be permanent members and take decisions to protect it. Only countries of Asia who have had traditional rights to use this vast ocean for trade from ancient times could be associated members. Care must be taken to exclude countries outside Asia as they could have their own agendas and eventually sabotage Asian interests by using devices like R2P to intimidate the countries of this region.

Today India is poaching in our waters and stealing billions of rupees in illegal fishing and selling the catch to their willing partners in the European market.

A Denis N. Fernando

Sri Lanka – Caring two hoots!

When my great-grandfather passed away he owed nothing to anyone. Sri Lanka was like him. Carefree!

When my grandfather passed away he owed only one month’s light bill to the CEB. Like him, Sri Lanka had only one month’s nil- margin Import bills to settle – Care less! When my father passed away he owed the CEB and the NWS&DB a month’s electricity and water bill. Sri Lanka had World Bank and IMF loans to settle – Caring less about the morrow!

When I pass away, I will owe the CEB and the NWS&DB at least three months electricity and water bills. I will owe the Credit Card Company.

I will leave behind the many loans I obtained from lending institutions and from friends, I will leave behind the naya to the mudalali of the local kade with whom I do my purchasing on tick. I will owe my driver and my house boy many months of unpaid salaries. I will leave my two sons high and dry studying for their MAs in Aussie (also financed with a loan). I will owe the lease payments on our house and our car. I would have to settle the hire purchase bills on our fridge, 3D-LCD TV….… and I will leave my wife stricken with worry of how she would settle all this. Well she will bequeath this burden upon our two sons when they come back for my funeral while abandoning their studies.

Sri Lanka is so badly in debt to the international community that we all who are alive now will bequeath a beggared nation to our great-grand children.

At the rate we are borrowing in our race to become “the Miracle of Asia”, our great-grandchildren too are likely to live on “borrowed opulence”. Caring two hoots!

 A caring Sri Lankan, Via email

Fate of our four-legged friends in this thrice blessed land

A woman in tears was leaving the Borella dog ‘prison’ on the Saturday after CHOGM. Asked why she was so distressed she said that her pet dog was taken by force with a promise that it would be brought back by the captors on November 22, after CHOGM activities were over. The promise was not kept. She faced a blank wall, the gate was locked.

Sadly this was the fate of about 200 domesticated city dogs mourned by their owners and care takers facing the wall with no one to appeal to in this Thrice Blessed Dhammadipa where Prince Vijaya was first greeted by a dog in Magampura.

The powers that be are probably sans knowledge of our culture and history. Letters and articles written to media by administrators are in common language, lies.

A dog if released could find its home and habitat miles away. The fact is that no dog has returned to Mt Mary or Rajagiriya less than a mile away. How will they find food and water? It makes me sad.
The solution is that they be put back soon.

Tudor Wickremasinghe, Colombo 9