A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Back to 500BC.
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, April 2, 2020
Novel Coronavirus – The Message
Disasters are by their very nature devastating to communities, often having significant and long-lasting individual and population-level effects on physical, mental, and social well-being in communities where health in many cases already is suboptimal.
We can see that all of human behaviour that caused senseless wars, usage
of nuclear weapons and nuclear warheads, weapons of mass destruction,
causing unprecedented illnesses and diseases to spill over into humans
including destruction and damage of environment and for the past few
decades we have been witnessing a complete environmental disaster; and
today’s civilisation is “playing with raging infernos”.
The Novel Coronavirus is a disaster that is not getting us off guard. It
is a human-induced disaster in every way. Our actions and attitudes,
focussing on destruction of mankind and countries with the sole purpose
of taking over world domination, have disturbed the equilibrium and the
balance of nature, that has led to climate change, altering rainfall
patterns, and causing unprecedented natural disasters floods, tsunamis,
earthquakes, dry weather and famine; an acute insufficiency and severe
shortage of food through crop failure resulting in violent hunger,
starvation and death.
Man was placing too much and too many pressures on the natural world
with such disastrously damaging and terrible consequences; and we have
received a warning that failing to take care of the planet meant, not
taking care of ourselves. And now, nature has stepped in to take its
revenge
Leading scientists have said that the Covid-19 outbreak is a “clear
warning shot to assess our current situation. Nature is sending us a
message with the coronavirus pandemic. The Covid-19 crisis may provide
an opportunity for change, but we are not convinced it will be taken:
This is a massive wakeup call – An astronomical global economic impact
of any emerging disease. Not a single country or the people in the world
have been spared. Because everyone on Mother Earth is responsible for
the pollution of the global environment in some way or another, no
matter where and how the pollution is produced; as airborne and
foodborne pollutants could circulate around the world in different ways.
The environment in its entirety, is a complex living system that needs
regular breaks to assimilate and ingest toxic pollutants produced during
intensive and continuous industrial processes. With high levels of CO2
emissions in the atmosphere and toxic pollutants in air, water and food
have serious repercussions and have taken its toll on all life's
systems, including living beings, environment and economy and it was
going overboard. Not a single pollution-free place was left on earth.
We have to be punished for our cold-blooded past; and that is taking
place now, although grim, it could offer tough lessons for the world to
change its ways, attitudes and treatment of the environment and ushers
in a new hope of reversing nature.
Because, human activity has several detrimental effects on the
environment. The use of chemicals have damaged fragile ecosystems beyond
repair, the garbage we produce pollutes land and water and production
of the energy we use results in harmful emissions that contribute to
climate change. Reversing these effects and restoring the environment is
a complicated process comprised of various efforts that differ in
different places and circumstances. This pandemic has already imprinted
itself upon the psyche of man globally.
Local Scenario
Now that the Coronavirus has invaded our country, we are faced with a
stubborn virus that won’t slow down, and the government has declared a
national state of disaster, doing its best to contain it by imposing
extraordinary measures as they race to contain the spread of the
coronavirus. Schools were closed and restaurants shuttered. Quarantines
were mandated and travel severely limited, shutting down ports and
airports and banning gatherings
But here we are, still witnessing callousness, hard-heartedness,
cold-bloodedness and insensitivity against humans and animals. These can
be seen by the fact that while our country as a whole and the whole
world is facing this novel coronavirus cataclysmic tragedy, we hear that
senseless, insensible, stupid, ignorant and illiterate bunch of devils
are indulging in congregational prayers, religious sermons and
gatherings and organizing religious feasts (Kanduris), under the guise
of religion are trying to push the entire country in to a disastrous
situation.
It is our strong, undivided and uncompromising opinion that all those
responsible for encouraging to bring about such extreme misfortune and
calamity be given very severe and deterrent punishments for disobedience
of safety regulations instituted by the Government, irrespective of
race, religion, caste or creed. All those people entrusted with
authority who had authorized such functions, fun and frolic be deemed to
be traitors and punished accordingly.
Why can’t these violators see that the Coronavirus and the disease it
has caused - COVID-19, have taken millions of people off the streets in
the world. It has crashed economies and broken health-care systems,
filled hospitals and emptied public spaces. It has separated people from
their workplaces, their friends and their relations. It has disrupted
modern society on a scale that most living people have never witnessed.
Why cannot they see that factories, all around the world spewing harmful
toxic smoke, polluting the environment are suddenly shut off, wars
perpetrated by the so-called super-powers have been stalled, Millions
and millions of vehicles and transport systems have to come to a
grinding halt. Nature garroted, throttled, suffocated and strangled by
man is now hitting back at everything and anything created by man;
because nature needs to breathe.
Conclusion
Disasters are by their very nature devastating to communities, often
having significant and long-lasting individual and population-level
effects on physical, mental, and social well-being in communities where
health in many cases already is suboptimal. In addition to the tragic
loss of human life and devastating health consequences for survivors,
disasters often necessitate billions of Rupees in public, private, and
philanthropic expenditures for recovery assistance.
Depending on the nature of the disaster and its impact, these
expenditures may support strategic planning and decision making on
resource allocation; rebuilding of critical public infrastructure,
homes, and businesses; workforce development; provision of health and
human services; and restoration of care delivery systems.
Disaster recovery is a developing discipline that is creating an
experiential-based fund of knowledge with insights into community
strategic planning and redevelopment, economic revitalization, and
health and human services delivery, among other fields. The collective
body of knowledge stemming from these continuously learning laboratories
represents an invaluable resource to recovering communities and the
local officials who must make difficult decisions in the face of
uncertainty, armed only with the best information available.
Accordingly, there is a need to make lessons learned from past disasters
available to guide those decisions and for leaders at all levels to act
on them. recommendations and guidance on how local and national leaders
can mitigate disaster-related health impacts and optimize use of
disaster resources—which inevitably must be spent in rebuilding—to
pursue more proactively, deliberately, and thoughtfully the goal of
creating communities that are healthier, more resilient and sustainable.
To achieve this success all communities, irrespective of race or
religion, caste or creed, must join hands for the active restoration of
normalcy in our beloved country.