Ceylon Today Editorial

HIV AND SEX EDUCATION

Tuesday 03rd November 2015

The latest local study on the Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) estimates that over 3, 600 people are living with the disease in Sri Lanka and the majority of them are in the 15 to 49 age group.

The 2014/2015 annual report of the National STD/AIDS Control Programme of the Ministry of Health estimates that there were around 3, 300 people living with HIV in 2014. Of these, 76% are in the over 15 year age group and the majority of them are estimated to be males, where the percentage is 69%. In 2014, 228 new HIV cases have been reported and over 80% of the reported new cases were due to heterosexual while 55% and 28% were due to homosexual or bisexual activities, noted UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/ AIDS.

According to the National STD/AIDS Control Programme out of 161 HIV positive cases identified in 2015, nine are pregnant women. However, the programme also noted that six out of the nine HIV positive pregnant women had already delivered children who are HIV positive. This, according to them, is due to treatment being provided before the gestation period is over in a pregnant mother.

Mid last year it was reported that an alarming majority of school going children in Sri Lanka have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS which was able to get undue attention as it reached full blown headlines on daily newspapers. The then health officials claimed that these numbers and the entire report was an exaggeration of real facts while the matter even reached the political stage of the country.

Come 2015, the matter still manages to reach newspaper headlines with much credible data but despite the surmounting amount of data at our expense no one has bothered to actually do anything with those numbers. It is a matter of processing data into usable information so that it can be implemented properly into a programme that could benefit society. However, despite this bulk of bricks no one had been able to make a house out of it.

According to the National STD/AIDS Control Programme report, the majority of the cases were reported from the Western Province, an alarming 56%, and less than 10% of HIV cases had been reported from other provinces in the country. The report also revealed that Colombo, Gampaha and Puttalam Districts had shown the highest HIV rates with over 10 HIV cases per 100, 000 population of the districts in 2014. The number of HIV positive persons reported per quarter of each year has doubled during the last six years, which is a definite clarion call for immediate action.

Government authorities, especially the Ministry of Health and the National STD/AIDS Control Programme should also collect data on the general public's awareness on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Such a census and statistics report will portray that the general public might not even be aware of how such diseases are caused, transmitted or the possible repercussions of such diseases. The general public is fallaciously misinformed due to social stigmas, improper education and urban legends and myths that surround these diseases. Despite our literacy rate being high end, we do have trouble being misguided by incorrect information almost all the time.

The solution to this is the introduction of sex education to school curriculums. A proper sex education, where students are taught about human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, and other aspects of human sexual behaviour, can be the stepping stone in the fight against HIV/AIDS in our country.

Some parties stand adamant that the Grade 10 Health Science curriculum covers the basics of sex education and that is more than enough for any child who is 15 and is sitting for his or her Ordinary Level examination. They believe that the rest will be taught by the society when the time is right. When is the time right and what will the society teaching them? What guarantee can we get that they will be taught correctly?

Regardless of these questions, this is what has happened until now and it has not made any serious affect on the society which is currently riddled by crimes of passion, rape and vulgar murder. So isn't this a clear sign that shows how and why a proper sex education is needed?

Sri Lanka may have been categorized as a low level HIV epidemic country, where the HIV prevalence remains less than one per cent of the country's total population, but that does not mean that steps should not be taken to keep that number from increasing. If possible, steps should be taken to decrease that percentage until it is null or manage it, without letting it increase.

Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam had made several observations of implementing sex education to the education curriculum. However, this has not happened as yet. Children should be taught of the dangers of sex as well as the ecstasy of sex. What is happening now, is teachers are teaching their students that there is a thing called sex, this is how you do it, if you do it you make babies and that there are diseases that are transmitted through sex. If anyone calls this 'comprehensive and proper' they should probably think about attending school once again. (Hopefully after sex education is implemented)

HIV has claimed more than 34 million lives so far. Let us not add to it.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Daily News Editorial

The Karuna Saga

Tuesday 03rd November 2015

 

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who likes to assume a monopoly for the war victory would do well to pay attention to the remarks made by LTTE renegade Karuna Amman. Speaking to the Indian Express the former Tiger Eastern Commander says that he was accused by his leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran for persuading Anton Balasingham to sign the December 2002 Oslo Declaration which committed the LTTE to explore the possibility of finding a political solution based on a Federal structure within a united Sri Lanka. Karuna was a key delegate alongside Thamil Selvan in the pow wows led by Anton Balasingham on the LTTE side, with Prof. G.L. Peiris leading the Government delegation.

The peace talks as it was known then were held in world capitals beginning with Bangkok (twice) followed by Berlin, Oslo, Tokyo, all cities known for their garish nightspots and high end entertainment. How did a hardcore terrorist allegedly responsible for ordering the cold blooded murder of 600 policemen, the gruesome massacre of a bus load of novice bikkhus, the attack on the Sri Dalada Maligawa, among other atrocities, suddenly go soft and opt for a ‘political solution? One must acknowledge that it is here that Ranil Wickremesinghe played an Ace arranging for the terrorist leaders to get a taste of the world away from their sordid bunkers, the jungles and sun scorched terrain with death stalking them at every moment.

This should be viewed in the context that the Karuna Amman led Eastern Tigers were at the time the lynch pin in Prabhakaran's war machine and it was always these Eastern Tigers that were summoned for the major battles in the North. Had Karuna chose to remain with the outfit it was a safe bet that the war would have dragged on to this very day with several thousands more security personnel and civilians perishing. It was even the view of the Indian security experts that the breakaway by the Karuna led LTTE Eastern faction was the chief reason for the security forces succeeding in eventually winning the war.

One must not forget that Karuna's men fought alongside the security forces following the breakaway. Not just that. They also identified Tiger hideouts in the North and weapons storages not to mention the sea routes that brought in the armaments, that greatly facilitated the forces. In the end it was left to Karuna himself to identify the dead body of his erstwhile leader at Nandikadal.

The saga of the transformation that took place which made a blood thirsty terrorist leader eventually finding himself in Parliament, not to mention his well publicized wining and dining bouts and other escapades involving pretty females indeed would be an interesting topic for the chronicler of the Eelam War. Suffice it to say that non of this would have been a reality but for the deft approach of Ranil Wickremesinghe in opening doors of the world to the cream of the Tiger terrorists that made them juxtapose the mosquito infested bunkers with the bright lights of the world famous night spots.

No doubt Mahinda Rajapaksa presided over the ending to the war .But he should also acknowledge the contribution made by other leaders particularly Ranil Wickremesinghe but for whose strategic brilliance the war would have prolonged to this day. Instead what did the nation witness? The public being brain washed day in and day out that Ranil was a traitor, ever willing to concede to Tiger demands and separate the country. This trash was driven into the public psyche with such force that Wickremesinghe suffered defeat after defeat at elections.

It is time that the public be told that the eventual victory was not the legacy of one individual but a collective effort of leaders since the beginning of the Eelam War in the mid eighties. One should not forget that that the Boxing Day Tsunami also took a heavy toll on the Tigers, almost totally destroying its Sea Tiger assets. The suicide of the cream of Tiger fighters including Jaffna Commander Kumarappan, and Pullendran, known for many a massacre, not to mention the death of Kittu in a mid sea explosion, Mahanttaya et al. also caused a debilitating setback to the LTTE. The major defeats inflicted on the outfit during the stewardship of Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte in campaigns such as Operations Riviresa, Akunu Pahara etc. also saw depletion of the fighting capability of the outfit to a great extent.

Karuna Amman in his interview says; “Prabhakaran is a good man but he had no knowledge of globalization”. This itself is revealing how these trips to world capitals of this one time hardcore terrorist changed his whole outlook, forcing him back to civilian life and a life of luxury at that. No one will blame Mahinda Rajapaksa for availing of the opportunity to capitalise on the breakaway and use it to the optimum to achieve victory. But at least an acknowledgement is in order to set the record straight, of Wickremesinghe's enormous contribution towards the war victory. Or is this asking too much from a politician who was bent on marketing the war victory for political gain and to remain in power forever? 

The Island Editorial

A’pura killing

Tuesday 03rd November 2015

The police have, at long last, arrested the main suspect in the Anuradhapura nightclub killing. A Special Forces deserter known as SF Lokka, he is alleged to have been involved in underworld activities.

Now that almost all wanted suspects have been taken into custody, it is hoped that they will be prosecuted expeditiously and justice done. Besides, drastic action is called for to neutralise the underworld and put an immediate end to the Wild West style attacks.

There are lessons that need to be drawn from the Anuradhapura incident. It is not only political power which goes to a person’s head and brings about his downfall; delusions of grandeur and vanity are also capable of driving one mad. The owner of the Panorama nightclub, Wasantha Zoysa who died at the hands of thugs apparently thought no end of his brawn as a karate champion and allegedly rode roughshod over even some of his own customers. The recent attack which snuffed out his life is believed to have been over a personal dispute.

Under the previous government a minister with underworld links and his equally notorious son used to smash up nightclubs at the drop of a hat. The police chose to look the other way even when their anti-narcotics sleuths conducting raids on nightclubs were assaulted. Perhaps, the Anuradhapura incident, too, would not have been taken seriously but for the attendant killing. How more than two dozen men armed with clubs, iron rods and sharp weapons carried out an attack in a city with a considerable police and security forces presence and fled the crime scene so easily boggles the mind. Perhaps, the area needs to be better policed.

One of our readers has, today, given an interesting answer to a query a letter writer posed recently: Did President Mahinda Rajapaksa lose the presidency because he had incurred God Kataragama’s wrath by building an airport in Mattala and causing peacocks to be killed in their numbers? (The peacock is believed to be the vehicle of that deity.)

Similar questions have been raised in the social media as regards the Panorama nightclub as well. The Anuradhapura karate exponent would perhaps have lived longer but for his club located in a sacred area. It catered to the likes of those who smashed it and put him to a violent death. The police previously raided it but its owners carried on regardless presumably because he was shielded by some politicians.

The Anuradhapura nightclub has drawn a lot of adverse criticism. Prominent religious leaders of the area and other concerned citizens vehemently objected to it on the grounds that it desecrated the sacred city, but the previous government, true to form, ignored their protests. The new government, too, has opted to turn a blind eye to the clubs in the sacred city though its leaders, before the presidential and parliamentary elections, promised to get rid of bordellos and rotgut dens in sacred areas.

Whether gods really mete out penalties to humans one may not know; but one is convinced that there is absolutely no need for divine or satanic interventions to bring about the downfall of anyone intoxicated with power and blinded by greed and hubris. For, he destroys himself, unaided.

The tragic death of narcissistic gladiator wannabe of Anuradhapura came as no surprise. It had been waiting to happen regardless of the location of his nightclub. The military deserter and his confederates are also in serious trouble for allegedly killing him in what looked like a battle for supremacy. The mastermind of the operation must have been cocky that he could get away with what he did; he was mistaken.

If the serious charges against the assailants and their ringleader are proved in courts of law, they may have to spend the rest of their lives behind bars. This is the fate that awaits conceited men and women with massive egos and disposition towards violence seeking personal aggrandisement.