Despite millions being spent, Sri Lanka lost its bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota. The voting - 43 in favour of Australia and 27 for Sri Lanka.
The Gold Coast Bulletin (Goldcoast.com.au), the website promoting Australia, reported on a party hosted by some 160-strong Sri Lanka delegation members who arrived in the Carribean island of St Kitts by a chartered SriLankan Airlines flight. Here is what the website said just two days before the decision was made:
"Sri Lanka is partying like it has won the right to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, despite the decision still two days away. "Sri Lankan Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who heads the country's bid, was upbeat about the southern city of Hambantota's chances during a dinner at St Kitts and Nevis staged to promote Sri Lanka's bid yesterday, Queensland time.
"The dinner was one of the last chances for Hambantota to impress the 71 voting delegates, who will decide the fate of the bid on Saturday. 'Tonight could not have gone better,' Mr Cabraal told the Bulletin. 'We proved that not only could Sri Lanka host the Games -- but that we could do it in style.'
"Mr Cabraal said he believed Sri Lanka was going to win because of the message the bid team had spread about the importance of the event for the 'rebuilding of Hambantota. 'I have a feeling that we will win,' he said.
"Miss Sri Lanka Stephanie Siriwardhana was there to support the bid, along with actress Anarkali Akarsha and retired cricket great Aravinda de Silva. Several members of the Gold Coast bid team, including bid boss Mark Stockwell, attended the dinner, as did Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
"Ms. Bligh, who flew in a few hours before the event, said it was the first 'real opportunity to assess the competition'. "Traditional dancers, singers and musicians entertained the crowd for more than three hours, in a show Mr Stockwell described as 'spectacular'……."
Cop in the Crossfire confirms ST story
At least some details of an exclusive report which the Sunday Times revealed in 2003 have been confirmed in a new book titled ‘Cop in the Crossfire’ written by retired DIG Merril Gunaratne. The book wa launched this week.
He was Director General of Intelligence and Security during the early stages of the ceasefire between Tiger guerrillas and the UNP administration.
This is what he says: "…..The Prime Minister also procured the services of a reputed foreign agency to help boost the quality of intelligence gathering. I did welcome the move. When the foreign team discussed the subject with me, I emphasised that the critical area which required improvement was intelligence collection and that without such improvement, intelligence analysis amidst a vacuum would be meaningless.
"They had, however, already arrived with a mandate from the Prime Minister to commence an "analytic" unit in the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII). An expert had also arrived for this purpose, at which point I was informed that he would sit together with DII and Military Intelligence officials during their weekly discussions to prepare the weekly intelligence bulletin to help hone their skills. As a professional who had practised the trade for over 15 years, I felt that the "need to know" principle would have been compromised since classified information concerning the country's national security interests would have been discussed at the weekly meetings of the intelligence heads.
"Guided by my professional conviction, I made a report pointing out the inherent concerns to the Prime Minister so that he could ponder over it and arrive at a suitable decision. A copy was despatched to Secretary of Defence as well. The latter did not discuss the matter with me. The Prime Minister summoned me to Temple Trees in respect of my report. He asked whether I did not like the agency concerned to help. I said that I welcomed their expertise but that it was my responsibility to keep him informed about the prospect of the leakage of classified information in view of the decision taken by him to enable the trainer to sit at intelligence deliberations.
"He overruled my concerns. The foreign trainer was thereafter present at the weekly meetings of the intelligence community. Not shortly after, the Sunday Times revealed the fact that the foreign trainer was participating at the security discussions held in the Directorate of Internal Intelligence……."
The foreign trainer was none other than an operative from America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Milinda Moragoda, then a Minister in the UNP government, had arranged for not only his presence in Sri Lanka but also to attend all intelligence meetings of the then Directorate of Internal Intelligence and the Directorate of Military Intelligence.
Prison guards get peanuts as awards
At a recent ceremony at the Welikade Prisons, jail guards were rewarded for their work. That covered attendance, smart appearance wearing uniforms, making detections, among others.
Each walked up to receive the awards from the boss. The awards came in sealed envelopes. When they opened them, they found Rs 500.
The recipients were at the butt end of jokes from those who did not win awards. We can earn more, said one of them somewhat mischievously.
Planting grass and eating grass
Last week's report in these columns titled "Aussie grass for police top brass" has drawn a response from acting Police Media Spokesperson Maxie Proctor. He is also an acting DIG now.
He says, "The article states that a top cop was insisting that the garden in one of their official bungalows be planted with imported grass. The above statement is absolutely false. No Senior Police Officer as mentioned in the article has instructed anybody to import Australian grass for any official Police bungalow in the Police Department."
Jamis Banda adds: Obviously acting DIG Proctor has not read the report in question. Nowhere does it mention that grass was to be imported from Australia. He is unaware that both Australian and Bermuda grass seeds are available in Sri Lanka. So is plenty of Buffalo grass. However, I agree with him that no one has "instructed" anyone to plant them. It is perhaps a case of someone trying to please bosses.
Google removes web content at Lanka's request
Sri Lanka has successfully persuaded Google to remove web content damaging to the country.
Google has confirmed such a request has been made and it obliged but has not identified what the request was. Like other technology and communications companies, Google says it regularly receives requests from government agencies and courts around the world to remove content from their services and hand over user data. Governments ask companies to remove content for many different reasons.
For example, Google says, some content removals are requested due to allegations of defamation, while others are due to allegations that the content violates local laws prohibiting hate speech or pornography. Laws surrounding these issues vary by country, and the requests reflect the legal context of a given jurisdiction. We hope this tool will be helpful in discussions about the appropriate scope and authority of government requests.
With regard to India, Google notes: "We received requests from state and local law enforcement agencies to remove YouTube videos that displayed protests against social leaders or used offensive language in reference to religious leaders. We declined the majority of these requests and only locally restricted videos that appeared to violate local laws prohibiting speech that could incite enmity between communities.
In addition, we received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 236 communities and profiles from orkut that were critical of a local politician. We did not comply with this request, since the content did not violate our community standards or local law."
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