Aamna's writing

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahmoob Although the main street markets were usually crowded places during festival time, the recent price hikes in essential goods have had an adverse effect on the purchasing power of festival shoppers. It is also having a big impact on the textile industry which is highly dependable on festive sales. S. Sasidharn a businessman along Kamaleshwary Main Street for more than 15 years who had been through many ‘ups and downs’ says that this year has been the worst for the business. He said “compared to last year this year Deepavali business is low and we have to reduce the prices of every thing to the margin and we expect small amount of profit.” N. Savetree, a house wife whose husband is the sole bred winner in the family in the meantime says that she cannot spend as she used to for Deepavali. She said that she was forced to buy groceries with a tight purse. “Compared to last year it is very hard. We have to check the price and purchase goods. The cost of livin...

W@WWomen at Work Text and pix by Aamna Mahboob It is a common sight in Colombo to see women in green giving out parking tickets. Regular pavement parkers have even formed friendships with these women, who have been working beside the road for more than 20 years. These ladies (Traffic Wardens) are the last batch appointed by the Municipal Council. These women enter the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) office at Darley Road wearing long green frocks and leave for different destinations with ticket books in their hands. Later they can be seen at parking lots in areas such as Hospital Square, Borella and Kollupitiya. They were appointed during the rule of the late President R. Premadasa. “We were all very young when we joined the job as Traffic Wardens”, said 52 years old Mallika Dabare who has served in this field for about 25 years as a Traffic Warden. She said that she is quite satisfied with her job, adding that “something is better than nothing”. The total number of Traffic Wardens are...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob--2007/04/10/ Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva launched the website of the International Trade Law Conference on Tuesday at the Sri Lanka Law College in connection with an international trade Law conference “The Doha Development Agenda and the Future of the Multilateral Trading System”. Speaking at the launch the Chief justice said that “the website launching and the Trade Law conference are very timely” adding that the country should know how to gain benefits out of international trade rules. He said that trade system has to be studied in Sri Lanka, adding that the country has a pool of intelligent people which will lead it in the future. The conference is being organized by the Sri Lanka Law College from July 30 to August 1 at the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo this year. Eminent experts from the United States, the European Union, India and Sri Lanka will present papers at the conference. Janak De Silva, Senior State Counsel at the Attorney General’s Departmen...

NEWS--2007/02/17 By Aamna Mahboob-- The meeting between Minister of Consumer Affairs Bandula Gunawardena and officials from Prima Ltd on the increase in the price of wheat flour failed and they are expected to meet again on Monday. Speaking to the Daily Mirror after the meeting, Minister Gunawardena said: “They (Prima) had signed some agreements with the Treasury, and I have to first go through those agreements before the next meeting on Monday.” The minister also claimed that already the Ministry’s officials were having discussions with the Treasury. Earlier the minister said he would take legal action against the Company and if necessary would import wheat flour on a competitive price. The Prima Company last week increased the price of a kilo of wheat flour by three rupees, resulting in a one rupee increase in the price of a loaf of bread. After the increase, a kilo of wheat flour was increased from Rs. 37 to Rs. 40 with effect from Friday (9). Bakery owners also increased their pric...

W@WWomen at Work By Aamna Mahboob Shops are usually busy this time of the year. Yet, this year it seems that business is not as good as it has been in the past years. Some shops have done fine, but some are complaining. The cost of living seem to have kept many away from too much shopping this year . Due to lack of customers many shops it seems have also shut down. A visit to ‘Premiere Pacific’ at Duplication Road, only confirmed this. Most of their shops have shut down completely. “Compared to lat year, this year has not been good” said, the manager of a shoe shop at Liberty Plaza. He explained that the last year 2005 the sales were good and this year the cost of living may have kept people away. Some shopkeepers say that the high security and the inability to park have led to a lot of loss of business. As the cost of living has also increased, people cannot buy much. “Children’s toys are the most expensive” said Nandini Perera, a working mother. A shop assistant of a toy shop pointe...

NEWS-2007/08/25 By Aamna Mahboob Police are seeking assistance from the public in nabbing the killers of the Danish Demining Group (DDG) local staff member in Jaffna earlier this week, with the assurance of security for those who furnish any information, police spokesman Jayantha Wickramaratne told The Daily Mirror Amid the growing number of killings of humanitarian workers in Sri Lanka over the last two years, the most serious being that of 17 aid workers in Mutur last year, the DDG staffer was killed and another injured while traveling on a motorbike in Jaffna. Senior DIG Wickramaratne said the investigation into the killing had stalled as very few people were keen to provide information owing to fears of LTTE reprisals. He stressed that public cooperation would greatly assist the police probe and noted that if they feared LTTE threats, then the information could be forwarded by mail or by telephone. “If people are scared of being identified they can send their information by letter....

By Aamna Mahboob The Mega Hair and Beauty Fair and the Hair Asia Pacific 2007 which commenced last week concluding on Sunday showcased the Aura Diamond Collection along with New York based Indian designer’s Indo Western Collection. The Hair and Beauty fair which went on for three days had various events such as the L’Oreal Colour Vision that held the international hair show which was sponsored by L’Oreal, then the Nature’s Secret Beauty Extravaganza that held a seminar about the beauty through the eyes of a doctor sponsored by Nature’s Secrets and lastly a fashion show of the designs of the Sri Lanka’s leading fashion designers and fashion schools. Hair Asia Pacific which started yesterday had over 200 foreign participants from Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan and many other countries. On the first day they had the L’Oreal Colour Vision event which was about forecasting the latest trend in hairstyles. The one hour show also featured the Sri Lanka’s top hairstylists with the participation...

By Aamna Mahboob --2007/04/11/ The Sri Lankan crew members of the WFP vessel which was hijacked by Somali pirates in February and released last week are expected to reach Mombasa port in Kenya either today or tomorrow and will later be sent directly to Sri Lanka, a foreign ministry oficial told the Daily Mirror. According to the officials, WFP has already contacted the next of kin of the six Sri Lankan crew members and informed them that the crew was safe and in good health while the foreign ministry had also informed the relatives about the release. “The vessel is on its way to Mombasa and on reaching port, the Sri Lankan High Commission will try to send the crew members back to Sri Lanka as soon as possible,” the foreign ministry official said. The MV Rozen in which the Sri Lankans worked had unloaded more than 1,800 tons of food aid in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia when it was hijacked on February 25. Six of its crew members were from Kenya. The ship...

By Aamna Mahboob-2007/01/10/ The activities of an international NGO is under government scrutiny following revelations a hospital in rebel controlled Ampara, which came under the control of the STF on Monday, was being funded by the charity group. According to sources the defence ministry was to hand over a report to the foreign ministry pertaining to their findings regarding possible links between the Netherlands based Zoa Refugee Care (ZOA), and the LTTE which will be scrutinised before the next course of action is taken. The Daily Mirror learns logos of the NGO were found on several items of equipment in the rebel hospital at the ‘Stanley Camp’ in Kanchkidichcharu Ampara, a key rebel camp in the area which was overrun by the STF in an operation on Monday. “This maybe a plant and we are still not sure if there are any links. All we know is that the logo was found on several items in the camp,” a Defence Ministry source said. However ZOA officials in Colombo said they were surprised a...

The Chief Technical Advisor of Income Recovery technical Assistance program, Doekle Wielinga yesterday said that the livelihood of Tsunami affected areas has been recovered to quite a satisfactory level.He made these observations in launching the “Needs Assessment Survey for Income Recovery” (NASIR) yesterday.According to him the recovery of lost livelihood is satisfactory in general; an overall 90% recovery rate is shown in the surveyed districts. Among these districts, the highest number of families having the same primary income source as before is reported in the affected families of Colombo district (97%) with the lowest being reported from the Jaffna district (38%). He elaborated that in Kalutara 100% of people have recovered but in Jaffna in due to current situation the recovery rate stood at 55%.He also said that the strongest recovery has been reported from the fisheries and small business/service sectors which were also seriously affected by the tsunami.The main objective of ...

The outgoing Chairman of the Center for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), Dr Nimal Sanderathne said that the CEPA is not a rigid organization and it provides independent analysis of poverty-related developments issues in Sri Lanka He was speaking to a gathering of people on the launching ceremony of a book ‘Fresh Perspectives: Exploring alternative dimensions of poverty in Sri Lanka”.The CEPA coordinator of the Poverty Assessment and Knowledge management Programmer, Azra Abdul Cader explained that the book introduces commonly used definitions and indicators of poverty, as well as more alternative methodologies and CEPA’s own definition and approach to understanding poverty.She further explained that this publication is reflective exercise of the CEPA and an opportunity to pull together lessons and information from work which the organization had undertaken over the 5 years since the inception of CEPA”S concept.“It has also provided an opportunity to showcase the methods we have been developing,...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob Nawaloka Hospitals last week recapped the host of achievements of its Heart Centre and said it has grown in success. General Manager of Nawaloka Hospital Professor Chandaresena said that the Heart Center has achieved highs in heart surgeries since its inception on August 12, 1994. He said that since the starting of the first private sector Cardiac center in Sri Lanka, the Heart Center is proud about their expert Cardiologists to perform the first Coronary Angiogram to the first PTCA of Left Main coronary artery in Sri Lanka. “The Heart Center is having good machinery and personnel to deal with all situations and many cases rejected by other places, as they are perceived to be high risk, are performed here”, he said. The Heart center is also first in Sri Lanka to do Beating Heart Surgery using "Octopus", to use Radial Artery (Artery of the Hand) and Right Gastro-epiploeic artery (Artery of Stomach) for Bypass operations. The hospital has done o...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob Sri Lankan farmers should adopt modern agricultural cultivation techniques to obtain maximum output, stressed Moratuwa University Chancellor Vidya Jyothi Dr. Ray Wijewardene.He made these observations at a discussion conducted by Colombo MBA Alumni Association (CMBAAA) held last week. The centuries-old agricultural techniques used by Sri Lankan farmers need to be replaced with modernized Western techniques, he said. They use the old methods and are following the path of their forefathers, which, in the present age is of no use, he added. Sri Lankans are talented and intelligent and can produce everything in their own country by turning to the modern scientific methods, he said. “We in Sri Lanka are truly blessed with resources. I must admit that our scientists in Sri Lanka have failed to take a lead helping exploit the vast resources with which this country is blessed, and not only to the extent of ' writing a paper' for some foreign journal or ...

By Aamna Mahboob SPORTS After their early and embarrassing exit from the 2007 World Cup to rookies Ireland the Pakistani cricket team has a chance to win back some dignity in the upcoming one-day-international tournament against World Cup finalist Sri Lanka at a three-match series in Abu Dhabi from May 18. Pakistan is injecting new blood in the likes of Najaf Shah and Fawad Alam to its side at the expense of the more experienced players such as spin magician Danish Keneria, all-rounder Azar Mahmood and Younis Khan. Young Shoaib Malik has been appointed captain over a number of senior players. Sri Lanka too will not include its star bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas and wicket keeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara. All three have county commitments in England. While the Sri Lankan cricketers are in high spirits after becoming runners-up, the Pakistan side is, understandably, feeling a little dejected and demoralized due to their controversy-ridden exit from the World Cup. Foll...

Aerial Attack on Colombo Since 26th March 2007 the first LTTE’s show off air power much water has flown down the stream. The LTTE attack at Sri Lankan Air Force Kattunike base sent cold down the spine of every Sri Lankan. It also sent message aloud to other terrorist organizations to fallow the suit. Ironically this attack was carried out before holding of the 14th SAARC Summit in New Delhi, which concluded on 4th April with a joint declaration against terrorism. Latterly SAARC means Cooperation for Development among the countries of South Asian region. And of course the recent declaration to fight against terrorism sound sweet, but the people yearn and wait for their dream for peace and tranquility in the region. If one looks around the realism of SAARC achievement and efforts for peace and dismal picture of subversion interference in others affairs appears on the seen. Some big members of the body who are really big try to influence the policies of their smaller partners. At times s...

By Aamna Mahboob Nawaloka Hospitals last week recapped the host of achievements of its Heart Centre and said it has grown in success. General Manager of Nawaloka Hospital Professor Chandaresena said that the Heart Center has achieved highs in heart surgeries since its inception on August 12, 1994. He said that since the starting of the first private sector Cardiac center in Sri Lanka, the Heart Center is proud about their expert Cardiologists to perform the first Coronary Angiogram to the first PTCA of Left Main coronary artery in Sri Lanka. “The Heart Center is having good machinery and personnel to deal with all situations and many cases rejected by other places, as they are perceived to be high risk, are performed here”, he said. The Heart center is also first in Sri Lanka to do Beating Heart Surgery using "Octopus", to use Radial Artery (Artery of the Hand) and Right Gastro-epiploeic artery (Artery of Stomach) for Bypass operations. The hospital has done over 12,000 Angio...

By Aamna Mahboob Some 30 police and military personnel are among the 450 people arrested in connection with human rights abuses including abductions, disappearances and murder a civic action leader said yesterday. Kingsley Rodrigo the Chairman of the Peoples Action Front for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) said he had records of the police arresting 452 people in connection with human rights violations. PAFFREL, with the assistance of the Human Right Commission of Sri Lanka and Police is currently working on a human right report which will be released on May 15. “So far we have received one thousand complains from the public,” Mr. Rodrigo said adding that 24 PAFFREL officers were active in 24 districts collecting information for the report. He said the purpose of the project was to control the current spate of abductions, killing and assassinations in the country. Mr. Rodrigo said his organisation had also appointed lawyers in some districts to intervie and provide advice to the victi...

NEWS By Aamna Mahboob The Anti-Chikungunya and Dengue Campaign organized by the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) will continued till April 12 and recommence on April 23 after the National New Year. According to CMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam one thousand volunteers went on a house to house check of the gardens covering some 11,085 houses during the past few days. He said that contrary to speculation this campaign would not be called off. He added that the CMC had warned over 366 households found with mosquito breeding places in their gardens. Dr. Kariyawsam said one of the major activities under the Green Star home project was resorting to legal action on households found with mosquito breeding places. He explained that such householders would be initially warned and if such warnings were not heeded they would be penalized under the newly enacted Mosquito Prevention Act. “We will also go to Central and North Colombo and will check the residences and also conduct aware...

By Aamna Mahboob The Anti-Chikungunya and Dengue Campaign organized by the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) will continued till April 12 and recommence on April 23 after the National New Year. According to CMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam one thousand volunteers went on a house to house check of the gardens covering some 11,085 houses during the past few days. He said that contrary to speculation this campaign would not be called off. He added that the CMC had warned over 366 households found with mosquito breeding places in their gardens. Dr. Kariyawsam said one of the major activities under the Green Star home project was resorting to legal action on households found with mosquito breeding places. He explained that such householders would be initially warned and if such warnings were not heeded they would be penalized under the newly enacted Mosquito Prevention Act. “We will also go to Central and North Colombo and will check the residences and also conduct awareness ...

FEATURES By Aamna Mahboob Some days and dates carry importance in the history of Nations just like the fourth of February is a milestone in the history of Sri Lanka, the 23rd March 1940 is the date and day considered as the foundation stone laid for the creation of Pakistan. The 23rd of March is one of the most important days in Pakistan’s history, the day in 1940 when the founding fathers signed the momentous Pakistan Resolution, which gave birth to the idea of a nation. After the creation of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah had said: “We are a nation, with our distinctive culture and civilisation, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitude and ambition; in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation”. By all perceptions, this day March 23 is a red-letter day in the history of the subcontinent as it marked the g...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna MahboobForty-eight Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs) successfully passed a specially designed IT training programme under the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka’s (ICTA) Re-engineering Government programme. This is the first batch of CIOs who successfully completed the International Driving License course. This programme also included a module on Information Technology & Strategic Management for Managers. CIO concept is a widely accepted and practiced idea across the globe for successfully implementing eGovernment projects. Public officials have been handpicked by ICTA for their leadership skills and innovativeness rather than IT skills but, undergo rigorous training in IT. This is to ensure that they provide IT leadership within the government and are being trained to be change agents within their individual organizations. Much time and effort is spent on them as CIOs are the key to the end delivery of e-Services. Mr. Wasantha Desh...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob Minister of export development and international Trade Prof G. L. Peiris said that Sri Lanka has a very bright future in export; we must export our talent to the world. “There is a great demand for craftsmen and skill labuor in the Middle East countries, especially Dubai, Doha and Qatar where the construction industry is growing fast. Hence we should tap this market”, he said. He made these observations at the unveiling of the holding of Excon 2007(Exposition for the Domestic Construction Industry), Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka (CCI) President said they planned to hold construction industry exhibition at BMICH and Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorials Exhibition Hall from 11th to 13th May 2007. He also said that the proposed exhibition would be able to attract around 200 participants belonging to the construction industry. The Minister of Construction and Engineering DR. Rajitha Senratne assured the participants and CCI president to solve their ...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob Unilever Sri Lanka has launched ‘Hadaridma’ a CSR (Cooperate social responsibility) programme aimed at promoting heart healthy living in Sri Lanka recently. ‘Hadaridma’ was launched through its health brand Flora by hosting Unilever’s top contributing retailers to an evening of interactive learning on the importance of leading a heart healthy lifestyle, at Water’s Edge. “What better way to commence such an island wide campaign than with our retail community. This is the first step In Unilever’s mission, through its heart health spread brand Flora, to educate the community on leading a heart healthy lifestyle,” said Surith Perera Unilever’s Marketing Director of Food. Unilever’s heart health initiative comes in the wake of pressing statistics that illustrated as heart diseases are the No1 killer in Sri Lanka. The brand manager of Flora Saumya Perera said that, “When we found out that 10 people die daily of heart related disease, and of which, 7 of them d...

FEATURES By Aamna Mahboob The no parking signs as well as diversion of two way traffic into one-way on Duplication road, Galle road and certain other areas has added to the woes of the general public and the small business man in these areas. It has also added cost affective problem to the transporters who have to take long routes due to traffic diversions. A manager of accessories and clothes shop at Duplication road said that their business is going down due to no parking being allowed along the road side. He added that the customer have to park their vehicle far away from their shop. At time finding no parking places, the customer are forced to walk down for about a distance of two km after parking their vehicles inside lanes. According to him as Vajira road has also been turned into one-way, the customers are facing parking problems there. He also said that if by chance their customer parked their vehicle along the road side then the police will charge them. “We are trying to shift...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob The Mega Hair and Beauty Fair and the Hair Asia Pacific 2007 which commenced last week concluding on Sunday showcased the Aura Diamond Collection along with New York based Indian designer’s Indo Western Collection. The Hair and Beauty fair which went on for three days had various events such as the L’Oreal Colour Vision that held the international hair show which was sponsored by L’Oreal, then the Nature’s Secret Beauty Extravaganza that held a seminar about the beauty through the eyes of a doctor sponsored by Nature’s Secrets and lastly a fashion show of the designs of the Sri Lanka’s leading fashion designers and fashion schools. Hair Asia Pacific which started yesterday had over 200 foreign participants from Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan and many other countries. On the first day they had the L’Oreal Colour Vision event which was about forecasting the latest trend in hairstyles. The one hour show also featured the Sri Lanka’s top hairstylists with t...

Every year on February 5, the Pakistani people express solidarity with theKashmiris’ in support of their struggle under India By Aamna Mahboob 2-5-007 Jammu and Kashmir a Himalayan state with an overwhelming Muslim majority was one of the 565 princely states in August 1947 when the Indian Subcontinent was divided into two independent - states - Pakistan and India. It was ruled by a Hindu Maharaja and situated between the two new counties. According to Victoria Schofield, author of ‘Kashmir in Conflict’, the Maharaja signed a “standstill” agreement with Pakistan in order that services such as trade, travel and communication would be uninterrupted. India did not sign a similar agreement but pressed the Maharaja to announce accession to India. Yielding to the pressure in October 1947 the Maharaja Hari Singh singed the controversial Instrument of Accession giving India the jurisdiction of extant to external affairs, Defence and Communication. Taking advantage of this the then Indian Prime...

NEWS By Aamna Mahboob and Easwaran Rutnam More than 1800 children were recruited by both the LTTE and the Karuna faction by the end of last year, the UN Child's rights group UNICEF told the Daily Mirror adding that the actual figure is estimated to be much higher but goes unreported. Despite commitments by both sides to release the child recruits little progress seems to have been made and the UN will take up the matter when a report on Sri Lanka is studied at a security council working group session early next month. UNICEF is however of the view the LTTE, which promised to release all under aged youth by the end of this month, is making progress on the issue, although according to the police the LTTE abducted at least 42 youth last week. They are being held in Kokadicholai, Batticaloa. "The LTTE are making progress on the issue of releasing child recruits and importantly they continue to remain engaged on the issue", Gordon Weiss the communication Chief of UNICEF in Sri...

By Aamna Mahboob and Easwaran Rutnam More than 1800 children were recruited by both the LTTE and the Karuna faction by the end of last year, the UN Child's rights group UNICEF told the Daily Mirror adding that the actual figure is estimated to be much higher but goes unreported. Despite commitments by both sides to release the child recruits little progress seems to have been made and the UN will take up the matter when a report on Sri Lanka is studied at a security council working group session early next month. UNICEF is however of the view the LTTE, which promised to release all under aged youth by the end of this month, is making progress on the issue, although according to the police the LTTE abducted at least 42 youth last week. They are being held in Kokadicholai, Batticaloa. "The LTTE are making progress on the issue of releasing child recruits and importantly they continue to remain engaged on the issue", Gordon Weiss the communication Chief of UNICEF in Sri Lank...