Govt. Spends 15 Million For CHOGM Website Just A Rehash Of Perth 2011: Harsha

November 1, 2013 |

The CHOGM 2013 website that the Government claims costed Rs. 15 million is nothing more than a rehashed version of the website created by the same Australian software firm that designed the website for the Commonwealth meeting in Perth, the Opposition charged yesterday.

Dr. Harsha de Silva

UNP MP Harsha De SIlva said the CHOGM 2013 website was designed by Australian firm Centium Software at a whopping and unprecedented cost.

“All they have done is to change the Perth pictures to Sri Lankan pictures and changed the photographs of the business leaders and officials – and it’s the same thing,” de Silva told reporters earlier today.

It was surreal that the Government had spent this kind of money on a website De Silva said, adding that the proposed Media Centre for the summit had also cost Rs. 800 million.

“The Government is in debt to hotels in Colombo after the infamous IIFA. It spent Rs. 8 billion for its failed bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2018 in Hambantota,” he charged.

He recalled that senior Government officials who were part of that delegation had danced in a chain at St. Kitts, having a rolicking time at the public’s expense.

“We wonder how much the cost of this show will be,” De Silva said, adding that the Government is yet to reveal anything about expenditure for the Summit in Parliament.

Animal Sacrifice, Leather Products, Liquor And Casinos

By Hameed Abdul Karim -November 1, 2013 

Hameed Abdul Karim

What instantly came to my mind when I read Shenali Waduge’s article on animal sacrifice was a scene from an old movie where we had the fascist Adolf Hitler furiously slamming his desk with his fist, his face  as hideous contorted as you can imagine, saying ‘It is NOT right’. Those words happened to be the title of Waduge’s latest anti Islam tirade in the Daily News (Thursday 17 October, 2013). Not surprisingly the article was timed to coincide with the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha when Muslims sacrifice cattle or goats to commemorate the selfless act of obedience of the Prophet Abraham (peace be on him) who was asked by God almighty to sacrifice his son Ishmael as a sign of his obedience to Him. When Abraham was about to carry out the command, God almighty, in His mercy, placed a sheep in Ishmael’s place and thus Ishmael was spared and the practice of animal sacrifice to remember the messenger Abraham’s (pboh) obedience began on that day and continues to this day. This practice shall continue till the end of time, God willing….or in sha-Allah, as we Muslims say.  The flesh of the animal sacrificed or slaughtered is distributed among the poor and kith and kin, but mostly among the poor.

Now I know animal sacrifice and slaughter is disliked by some among us and I have no problems with that. I can live with it. Problems crop up when people want to enforce their wish and will on others who toe a different line. This is unbridled fascism and in a multicultural society like Sri Lanka the authorities must ensure that nobody encroaches on each other’s faith and beliefs.

I disagree with Ms. Shenali Waduge, as will all sensible people from all communities in Sri Lanka, when she makes a spurious and xenophobic claim that ‘the so called One Sri Lanka will remain a pipe dream if we suppress the fundamental values of the original indigenous culture….’ She has forgotten that Muslims are also a part of the indigenous culture. We had been here for centuries as history records as I, along other writers, had pointed out in our previous discussions on the halaal issue. There is no point in going over those matters again. Is it Ms. Waduge’s wish that we take a giant leap backwards and go back centuries where we can find that nobody other that the indigenous people the Vedhas lived? If I remember right it was the   Buddha who said ‘nothing is permanent’.                                           Read More