Author Archive for Vincent

Floods everywhere

Published on 12/01/2008 in people, press coverage and wild life. 0 Comments

Floods devastate lives across globe (11 January 2008)

Floods have wreaked havoc across the world this week as heavy rain hit Southern Africa, Australia, the US, Sri Lanka and Britain.

An Australian woman was killed after flood waters in New South Wales swept her car from a causeway on Saturday.

Thousands were left stranded in eastern parts of the country after some of the worst flooding the country has seen in more than 20 years following a long period of drought.

Aid agencies warned of the risk of diseases from dirty water after floods devastated parts of Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe at the beginning of the week.

Chris McIvor, Save the Children’s director in Mozambique, said: “The warning bells have been ringing for two weeks. The flooding could get a lot worse very quickly.

“We know that what children will need most urgently is shelter, clean water to drink and enough food to eat.”

Officials estimated that millions had been forced to flee their homes and several people are believed to have died.

The downpour has also drowned livestock and left many fields waterlogged, raising the prospect of food shortages in the months to come.

Monsoon flooding forced about 30,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka to take refuge in temporary shelters, according to officials.

Homes in the eastern district of Ampara, a largely flat agricultural area that was hit by the 2004 tsunami, had to be abandoned after heavy rain began on Monday.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in several parts of California after heavy rain and strong winds lashed the state, causing flash floods, mudslides, heavy snow and power cuts.

Torrential downpours also came to Britain at the end of the week, leaving homes and businesses in Ireland and north Wales hit particularly hard by floodwater.

Kate Martin

source:

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=14035&channel=0

UL without EK

Published on 07/01/2008 in Blogs, Money Matters, Security & Safety, Share Transfer and press coverage. 3 Comments

Bad News also for Arugam Bay.
Emirates Airlines used to send some pilots on a R & R surf stay to the Bay to recover from work stress situations. Bad international vibes about heavy handed attitudes, too.
Read the full article:

Emirates to end Lanka partnership

By Sanjay Dasgupta
BBC News

Together the two airlines are major carriers to Sri Lanka

Emirates Airlines has announced that it will not renew its management contract with Sri Lanka’s national carrier after March this year. Emirates owns a 43% stake in Sri Lankan Airlines and runs it under an agreement with the Sri Lankan government.

The pull-out announcement follows a row over ticketing between the chief executive of Sri Lankan Airlines and the Sri Lankan government in December.

Relations between the two soured significantly following the incident.

Withdrawn

In December Peter Hill was appointed chief executive of Sri Lankan Airlines by Emirates to run to run Sri Lanka’s national carrier.

Soon after his appointment, he refused a request from the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, for 35 tickets on a flight from London to Colombo.

The president needed to travel at short notice with 35 other passengers

The president, who was in London for a private visit, was rushing home in order to be able to attend a crucial session of Parliament.

But Mr Hill refused the request as the flight was over-booked. Shortly afterwards, Mr Hill’s working visa and residence permit were withdrawn by the Sri Lankan authorities.

Talking to the BBC, Mr Hill said the incident “had some bearing” on Emirates’ decision not to renew its contract.

“Basically the flights had been full for several months and we weren’t able to accommodate that number of people – we were talking about 35 seats here.

“And so we asked them if there was a possibility that only the president and his close relatives could travel, and we probably would have been able to accommodate them with three or four seats.

Personally I feel that after 10 years of putting the airline on the right road to success and profitability, it was a disappointing end

Sri Lankan Airlines Chief Executive Peter Hill

“But obviously we weren’t able or prepared to offload 35 previously booked customers, basically taking the whole of our premium cabin and 17 seats in economy, at that short notice.

“That’s not the way that commercial airlines run their businesses, and we’re a commercial airline.”

Mr Hill said soon afterwards his work permit and the residents permit were withdrawn.

The original contract between Emirates and Sri Lankan Airlines had been in operation for 10 years, and would have come up for renewal in April.

Mr Hill said Emirates had made a set of proposals for renewing the contract more than 18 months ago, but had heard nothing from the Sri Lankan authorities.

While Emirates and Sri Lankan Airlines insist their parting has been amicable, Mr Hill said that it would nevertheless send the wrong signal to international investors.

“Personally I feel that after 10 years of putting the airline on the right road to success and profitability, it was a disappointing end,” he said.

“But the message it sends out to the international community, I think, is not a good one.”

For its part Sri Lankan Airlines says it will have to put together a plan to continue running its operations from April, which it says it is capable of doing.

source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7175527.stm

Early Warning

Published on 31/12/2007 in Ideas, Money Matters, Security & Safety, press coverage and services. 0 Comments

Radio messages to warn of natural disasters

by Nilma Dole

Three years after the tsunami, a natural disaster satellite alert system is now ready to help warn last-mile rural villages on natural disaster emergencies. The Addressable Radio for Emergency Alert (AREA) is a digital satellite device that uses simple radio technology, delivering messages to save lives.

LIRNEasia (Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economics) is a research-based organization that has collaborated with World-Space USA. They have field-tested the AREA device in Brahamawatte – Balapitiya (Galle District) and villages, like Panama in Ampara. “We have concluded eight different configurations that we can communicate to the rural villages and communities” said, Executive Director, LIRNEasia Professor Rohan Samarajiva.

The device is a palm-top radio which can be used to listen to news and music under normal circumstances.

However in the state of an emergency, the normal channel is automatically diverted to another channel which gives updates about an emergency. For different rural villages and communities, different messages can be broadcast on different channels.

From 2006, Sarvodaya has been working with LIRNEasia to help train communities to be more informed about disasters and to think about proper evacuation methods. “For example, flash floods cannot be pre-determined but if the Kelaniya river overflows, villages downstream can be warned that in x number of hours, y inches of the water level will rise”, said Professor Samarajiva.

Sarvodaya stations are located at their regional centres in 32 villages, broadcasting emergency messages managed by their team of experts. Even though LIRNEasia has given many AREA devices to rural villages, there are still more communities who are in need of them. “The government’s assistance is needed to fund the AREA radios for all rural communities with an authoritative person in charge to transfer the emergency message”. said Professor Samarajiva.
source:
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/12/30/new17.asp

Navy Divers in Panama

Published on 24/12/2007 in press coverage and the bay. 0 Comments

AbaY Eco – Guides at WTM

Published on 11/11/2007 in Money Matters, press coverage and the bay. 0 Comments

A three member delegation from the ‘Community Based Eco-Guide Association’ (CEGA) of Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka will be in London to participate at this year’s World Travel Market to be held at ExCel from November 12 to 17. They will be joining the Sri Lanka delegation under the theme of ‘sustainable tourism in Sri Lanka’, which is a part of the current theme of WTM. ‘Green Globe’ is the main theme of WTM this year.

The launch of ‘Community Based Eco-Guide Association’ (CEGA) ,CEGA website and their marketing programmes was held in Colombo recently under the giudence of Sri Lanka Tourism Authority and Chairman Renton de Alwis. The launching ceremony was held at the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, Hotel School.

The launching of CEGA, its web site and marketing programmes are a turning point of Arugam Bay Tourism history, as CEGA is the pioneer model Community Based Tourism Project to be developed and launch in Arugam Bay in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. The CEGA has been formed in to 13 Eco-Guide Members and 15 other community based organizations and cooperatives based in Pottuvil, during a Community-Based Ecotourism Project implemented by the Institute for International Economic Cooperation (ICEI) in partnership with Sewa Lanka Foundation and funded by Italian Cooperation and Regione Lombardia. Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation is responsible in training of CEGA guides and promoting marketing in CEGA tourism projects based in Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka.

Welcoming the Special Guests to the occasion, Giuseppe Busalacchi, Project Leader, ICEI, stated that the Vision of ICEI is to promote income-generating activities related to community-based tourism for the sustainable development of local communities through environmental conservation and the enhancement of cultural heritage. He further said, the specific Objectives of ICEI of the Arugam Bay Community Based Ecotourism Project is to promote a community based eco-tourism, in a participatory approach, able to value community local culture, to ensure environmental sustainability and to generate and distribute benefit fairly among the community members, in Arugam Bay-Pottuvil Division-of Ampara District.

Addressing the event, the Chief Guest, Renton de Alwis, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourist Board, remarked, ‘I must thank SLEF, Sewalanka Foundation and ICEI for developing a model Community Based Ecotourism Project in Arugam Bay, the eastern province of Sri Lanka, which some of us failed to do that on our own. It is important to note that not the community can benefit from tourism but how tourism could benefit from community. It’s really a philosophy. In any sense, good tourism must be sustainable, what ever we do in tourism, it should be sustainable. He noted the promoters of the CEGA Project have given the nets for the community but not the fish. He noted the programme for the tourism promotion in the east is two fold. Apart from the hotel property promotions in the east the Sri Lanka Tourist Board is very much interested in promoting ‘home stays’ that perfectly fit with the community based tourism concepts.’

Presenting the CEGA Marketing Programme, Palitha Gurusinghe, President, Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation (SLEF) and the Coordinator, Advisory Panel of the Community Based Tourism appointed by the Ministry of Tourism said ‘ Today, Community Based Tourism is one of the well debated topics. The Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation which pioneered this concept in its real perspective, promoted the same as the main component of ecotourism since 1998. We are happy to note that SLEF has gone so far to date, in promoting and developing not only the concept but ‘real’ community based ecotourism enterprises’ (CBEs) in Sri Lanka. He further observed ‘I am very happy to note the Minister of Tourism has appointed an ‘Advisory Panel to look in to the CBO projects in Sri Lanka, which are on going and future potential projects as well’.

He noted that ‘ICEI-Sewalanka-SLEF Project in Arugam Bay is very productive for Sri Lanka Tourism and thanked ICEI and Sewalanka Foundation headed by Harsha Kumara Nawaratne, the Chairman, Sewalanka Foundation, for their great contribution in moving the project ahead. Jagath Harshana, Coordinator, Tourism Division, Sewalanka Foundation proposed the Vote of Thanks.

source:

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071111/TV/tv-times000017.html

Timber

Published on 08/10/2007 in Money Matters and press coverage. 0 Comments

Forest Department officials unearth longstanding timber racket

Divisional Secretaryâ€™s signature forged on licence

A massive timber racket carried out over a long period using forged documents, has been unearthed by Forest Department officials in the Ampara area.

The signatures of Divisional Secretaries have been forged in a shrewd manner to transport the trees felled in areas such as Medagama and Bibile in the Moneragala district.

Officials had uncovered details about this well-organized timber mafia after the examination of a lorry between Ampara and Samanturai, transporting a load of satin wood with a forged licence bearing the signature of a Divisional Secretariat. The Forest Department had expanded its investigations into this matter because a Divisional Secretary could not authorize the transportation of Satin wood according to the existing laws and regulations.

In this deceptive document, the signature of the Bibile Divisional Secretariatâ€™s Gunadasa Samarasinghe and his rubber seal had been used fraudulently. After thorough investigations, officials had confirmed that the number of the timber permits issued here, could not be found in the log books maintained at the local authorities in the Moneragala and Ampara districts.

Forest officials emphasized that these documents had been forged so well that anyone could not suspect them at all, expect for minor factual mistakes made in them. In the document, the unit of measuring timber had been mentioned as milliletre instead of millimetre. There had also been an error in the Sinhala spelling of Forest Ordinance.

The value of the satin wood load seized had been estimated at one million rupees. Two suspects were produced before the Ampara Magistrate in connection with this racket and released later on cash bail of Rs. 7500 each and surety of Rs. 50,000.

Meanwhile, another timber load kept in the house of a mill owner in Samanturai had been found after investigations.

According to instructions and guidance by the Director General of Forest Conservation, Sarath Fernando and Deputy Forest Conservator W.A.C. Weragoda, investigations were carried out by a team of forest officers led by District Forest Officer Lalith Gamage. Forest officials R.M. Wijeyapala, A.G. Sanath Priyantha, Upul Hettiarachchi, K. Jeyakumar and M.A. Jayah too took part in the investigations.