Aamna's writing

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...