1/2/004

Incredible Finds

Earlier I used to wonder about the size of the later sculptured footprint, used as the covering stone over the actual print which Buddhists believe as Lord Buddha's foot print at Samanala Kanda.

If this is true, (Which I do not know and up to you)  then now I do not have to wonder about the actual size.

But It is interesting to note that, the article was submitted from a site called "Bible-believers".  As far as I understand, the Bible does not mention about Giant human beings who lived millions of years before. 

The questions are: What Bible do they believe. Whether this is an another cheap trick of an evangelistic cult to get gullible or is this the truth ? . Read this  

Life-or-death struggle against an invisible foe

Fears of a major outbreak of bird flu in China grew as four more suspected outbreaks in three new regions were reported more

If conditions are right, do what health authorities now fear is the bird flu ripping through Asia might do - make its way into a person who also has a human flu, and mix genetically to produce a new, highly transmissible strain that will cause many people to die before a vaccine can be made widely available. But the experts cannot say how likely this is to happen. With the flu," Professor Tannock says, "expect the unpredictable."

He paints a grim picture of how dire the consequences might be if bird flu becomes a human virus, and believes it would be the worst flu pandemic the world has seen since the Spanish flu of 1918-19, which claimed between 30 and 50 million lives More..

31/1/2004

WHO warns of virus mutation risk

Fears virus spreading in China

30/1/2004

History Repeats

I am not a philosopher. But once, I had to study it as a subject for a degree program. And remember that somewhere, it was mentioned that, history repeats in a way similar to a spiral. 

I was asking myself the following question. Whether the history of epidemics do the same ? Did any thing similar to SARS or Avian Flu happened in the past about 2000 to 3000 years back ?

Yes, It seems it does. There is a story in the Buddhist literature about an epidemic which ravaged India about 2600 years back and the description of the disease is very similar to Avian Flu. 

The discription is in the story of "Kumbha Goshaka". The story of the son of a very rich merchant family who escaped from an epidemic called "Ahivathaka Roga". (Meaning the disease  from air)

It says, that in the beginning the birds died and some birds even started to fall from the sky on their flight. Then domestic animals started dying one by one and finally people succumbed to it. 

I think it clearly describes how an avian flu strain mutates and attacks different species over a short period of time. 

Avian Influenza FAQ from WHO

its transmission to humans (WHO web site)

29/1/2004

Avian Flu 

Pakistan announced on Monday that millions of chickens had been infected.   Burma, Laos, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia. South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bali, Thailand, Indonesia and China have confirmed cases

Migratory birds, whose deaths are being linked to avian flu, have likely played a big role in spreading the disease, reports Keith Bradsher in Thailand.

Tucked among broad-leafed banana groves and emerald-green rice paddies in west-central Thailand, the bird sanctuary here is a jungle oasis where migratory ducks, cranes and other wildfowl spend their winters in safety. They come from as far as India and Siberia.

But many of the birds have been dying of what Thai scientists suspect is bird flu. World Health Organisation officials say migratory birds have probably played a central role in spreading the disease. Their infected droppings dry up, turn to dust and are inhaled by other birds. More

28/1/2004

Computer Virus

• Latest worm spreading fast

Human & Animal Virus

• What is Avian flu?

• Bird flu spreading, UN warns

• Emergency summit as virus spreads

• New bird flu outbreak in South Korea

• Bird flu suspected in Laos

• Virus resistant to basic flu drugs: WHO

27/1/2004

Protection For All  or 
Amba Chutney very soon

BY Eric  Fernando
Eric is a Sri Lankan Catholic

Eric writes, "If my recollection is right some British MP's wrote to the government quite recently requesting that Christians be protected. Their concern is justified. 

The reverse of the argument also hold good. It is a pathetic situation for the  Buddhists to witness the extent of abuse leveled on them." More

Avian Flu - My view

First I must tell you this is not an attempt of a foolish old man having astrology as a hobby trying to scare people using his home page.

I am well qualified to give my professional opinion on this subject. I was a scientific officer attached to Veterinary Research Institute (VRI) and the Department of Animal Production and Health with about 10 years of service with experience in disseminating information and doing extension work important to Veterinary, Animal Health and Agriculture field. I hope that my former colleagues there, at this particular moment are doing their best to bring this particular problem in to the attention of  farmers through Range Vets and normal information channels as farmers do not read the web.

We were very lucky with SARS and Ebola but according to probability it becomes harder and harder to be lucky every time and therefore you must do the best to eliminate chance factor here.

This disease is more dangerous than SARS because it can be carried by animals with wings, like wild geese and ducks apart from poultry. In a matter of days it can cross oceans or mountain ranges or any natural barrier with ease. Airport quarantine will be utterly useless. 

There is also one important difference at this instance, a few who are very rich with good connections (not normal rich) can get hold of an antidote vaccine. So they will be less interested and there will be less prominence given to this problem in the media as it always happens.  

But the consequences will be global if it gets foot hold in a country like Sri Lanka weaken by the political turmoil and ethnic wars. Specially if it happens in the North Eastern regions with abandoned tanks and lakes and jungles littered with land mines.

I think it is the best time to start a campaign educating farmers to be vigilant of the health of the animals and the importance of  proper farming practices. 

This is a good time to improve veterinary and agricultural services as there are many veterinary and agricultural graduates and diploma holders who are unemployed and looking for work. Their knowledge and dedication must be looked as an asset of the country rather than a hindrance by those in power.

Lakshman Abeykoon M. Sc. (Krasnodar University of Agriculture in Russia) Grad. Certificate in Soil Science. (Melbourne University - Australia) Graduate Diploma in Library & Information Services Management (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology - Australia) Web Master

Note: By the way these are real qualifications gained from world recognized institutions through years of hard work and study. These are not bogus qualifications bought from the corner shop like those displayed by Prof. Shanthi Jayasekera in his web site

26/1/2004

Avian influenza (“bird flu”) and the significance of its transmission to humans (WHO web site)

Avian Flu

Thailand brought in troops and prisoners today to kill millions of chickens in the hope of stopping the spread of highly contagious bird flu, which has jumped to humans in Vietnam and Thailand.

With most ordinary folk too scared to go anywhere near chickens more..

25/1/2004

Avian Flu may be more deadly than SARS,

Australia gets ready to face Avian Flu while Sri Lanka gets ready for Political Party Flu.

Party Flu or the "Manthree Flu" is a decease endemic to Sri Lanka which is hard to eradicate. With symptoms such as violent, murderous and crazy behavior, shorted ness of memory, lack of discriminative intelligence,  becoming oblivious to truth, believing on false promises, compulsive lying, polluting and littering environment with polythene banners, pasting posters with ugly faces on every available free space along the roads, doors, walls, trees etc. Killing each other and the neighbors and in short, completely sane people suddenly start behaving like foolish idiots in order to send some cunning, dangerous thugs to the parliament. 

Thus this pandemic which will grip the island will be more deadlier than Avian Flu or SARS. Meantime, Australia's chief medical officer, John Horvath,  said the bird flu, with outbreaks also in Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, could spread rapidly if it developed a human-to-human form. more

24/1/2004

An Australian mystery 

Is it a bird, is it a fly? Or could it be a UFO? Asks The City Counci of Whittlesea  (Original site of the news) 

If there is any genuine picture of an UFO, this could be it. This news was on Channel 9 and 10. Also in the front page of "The Age" today. The Full Story in the AGE. 

I think it is out of focus because of the high speed rather than being near the camera as Steve Roberts suggests in the Age

24/1/2004

What the Hell is this ?

Buy Gangodawila Soma

Yes, we are in real need of more Gangodawila Soma's

The problem is we do not have many Gangodawila Somas now. 

This American company is prepared to send us more Gangodawila Somas. How nice of them. 

Every Sri Lankan Buddhist must start phoning the office of the Public Diplomacy section of US Embassy in Sri Lanka. 

And ask the help of US Embassy to get some more of Gangodawila Somas down.

Please give a call, the numbers & Email are

amcentersl@pd.state.gov 

If that company does not sell  the genuine Gangodawila Somas, which we are prepared to buy in any quantity, then please ask the Embassy to  contact FBI and investigate because they are selling the imitation Gangodawila Somas and currently human cloning is illegal in US.

Real Gangodawila Soma should look like this:

23/1/2004

Religious cults 

Lord's Resistance Army Ugandan Evangelists kill 18 (19/1/2004) in a northern village, says Catholic priest. More

Avian Flu.. more

The researchers who have created vaccines that might save us if the bird flu does start spreading between people are unsure how to proceed without falling foul of patent rights. More

22/1/2004

Sars Mark II 

Avian Flu is on the horizon. This time mutating and affecting humans through poultry. It could be deadlier than Sars. Those who eat meat must eat your hearts contents of Chicken curry now. Once spread, you will be frightened even to go near a chicken shop.  

Avian influenza (“bird flu”) and the significance of its transmission to humans (WHO web site)

Religious cults

22/1/2004

Today Australian TV carried a news item about an Evengelistic Religious cult in Uganda called "Lord's Resistance Army" and their cruelty. (Since this happen in 3rd world Africa, very few knows these things)

The LRA, led by a shadowy religious leader called Kony, who claims to be a spirit medium with supernatural powers, aims to overthrow the Ugandan government and rule the country according to the Bible's Ten Commandments.

Kony's political ideology is vague but is based on a religious cult that believes bullets fired by Ugandan soldiers are harmless as long as cult members sprinkle themselves with water blessed by Kony himself.

1. See their RITUALISTIC MURDERS . First of all they destroy  mainstream Catholic missions, kill priests and missionaries in cold blood and beat nuns black and blue.

2. Death toll rises 500 people Burned alive

So it is not only Buddhists and Hindus should be worried about these cults but Catholics and Christians too

20/1/2004 )

SLFP-JVP political union to be sealed today 

Personally I am not interested in any political parties. The only thing I like to see is that country runs well and the people can live without trouble. 

I saw in the paper that they are signing an agreement at a so called auspicious time at 10:02 .

Whether there is auspicious time or not the things done in good faith may succeed. But if started with ulterior motives and hidden agendas then good time or not, it will bring more calamity to people. 

Though the time 10:02 is not bad according to the Hora, There is no panchanga Shuddhi today in the morning  and the day is bad. So according to astrology this is not a very good time .

Then, this time must have given according to some ones or some groups horoscope. If so they are already trying to get advantages in sneaky ways. That means no good faith.

The thing is, if you want to do it according to astrology then, do it properly. Otherwise throw the astrology out and do it in good faith.

Both ways you will succeed. But if half good faith and half good astrology then most probably it may not be a very good union beneficial to the country and people.

Want to know more about the astrological quality of today ?

Click here and enter the following: Today's date (20/1/2004) , enter 10:02 as time and the time zone (Time zone is  6 for Sri Lanka)

See What does it say ..fight with the enemies; agreements and violating the agreements; digging wells (pits/traps ?) Inauspicious deeds, destruction, annihilation, tricks, attacking the enemies .. So how can this be a good time ?  

Where is the genuine interest for the good of the people and the country ?.

==============

Things of interest
Feng-shui

There are many interesting things in this world to explore, discover or rediscover and many things to learn all in the short period of a persons life.

Today, I will take you to an interesting web site from Singapore. about the ancient Chinese art of Feng-shui. Which is something similar to "Vastu" in Vedic traditions.  

In Chinese, Feng-shui means understanding  "The forces of Nature". An expert in Feng-shui can judge the influence of one natural force on another. Even the earnest British directors of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, when they decided to build their big new head office in Hongkong had turned to Feng-shui to get good fortune.

This Feng-shui site is from Vincent Koh. A Chinese Buddhist in Singapore

WHO IS TRYING TO BLUFF WHOM?
BY  ERIC  FERNANDO 

(Eric is a Sri Lankan Catholic who likes to protect the good will and the good name of mainstream Catholic Church in Sri Lanka from those few who want to tarnish it and put one Sri Lankan against another on religious grounds. 

Those few are not after spiritual development through any religion but they are after blood money they hope to get once clashes started. Every Sri Lankan must understand this very well and stop this madness as soon as possible. Otherwise there is no future for any one in Sri Lanka)

Eric  says that, Reverend  Shanti P. Jayasekara, in his own web site,  lists himself as follows more..

Added Later 

Reverend  Shanti P. Jayasekaras interview to the Sunday Sinhalese paper (PDF)

Rev. Soma

I found a new web site called http://www.Sinhala.net  
(Where the pictures of ethnic war are real but awful. If you do not like to see that bitter reality do not click the above link)  

But that site has some interesting news about Rev. Soma. Click the left hand side button called "investigation" in that site. Since that site use frames (which is always a problem) because of that I did not place a direct link. 

 Now for the ease of follow up the incident of Rev. Soma is divided  under the headings 

18/1/2004

Can two wrongs make one right ?

It seems to me this is the question now. 

Stopping a person from converting to a religion he has genuine faith is wrong.

Unethical Conversion  is also wrong.(See:Converting through Devine  kindness and converting through Devils connivance)

So how can you find a solution. which makes everyone happy ? 

It is easy and the solution is simple. But Sri Lankans are stupid lot. They think big and do little. Because of that they always look for high end solutions than simple remedies. They usually laugh at simple  solutions and hide their head in the sand when complicated solutions go way wrong. 

( By the way a simple very achievable way of how to win the ethnic war in 5 years even  while developing the country bringing the peace keeping the country in one piece and solving the unemployment problem all at the same time with no foreign aids I can tell, but I refrain from touching it as I am not a war monger and we must do it without war. There is no glory or good in any war and no winners but all loosers one way or another)

I am sure they will do it wrong this time too thus aggravating the situation which can be easily corrected, in to a full scale conflict.

But believe me this simple solution I am telling is working well for a big multi cultural multi ethnic country like Australia.  (And I think USA is having the same.)

So how did they solve the problem ? It is by planning permits.

Unlike in Sri Lanka, where any one can go to a place and place a Buddhist, Christian, Hindu or Islamic religious icon even in the middle of the  road or a junction and declare that, it is a place of worship, temple, church or mosque. You can not do that in Australia. 

First you must get the permit from the City council showing that there is a need for place of worship and you have enough people in the area around 200 or 300 needing a place of worship. Less than that you can not. 

Once the requirement and the membership is verified and  approved, then you can look for a suitable land depending on the number of people who will come to that church or temple and the parking space ect the size varies

Once you find a land, Then the people who live around that proposed temple or church must be notified by publishing a notice in the local paper plus displaying an Government approved slandered size notice board in the property displaying the proposed Building plan and the purpose of it and Giving a notice of 30 days to the residents of the area for objections and the address of the Govt. body where the objections should be directed.

If there are no objections only you can build your Church, or Temple or mosque or what ever. (Even Soma Thero had to do all that when establishing Temple at Berwick).

2. Regarding the problem of using money to attract people ?

That too is simple. If any religious institution wants to do service to people. That should be done manly using their own local resource. You do not need money to get convinced of a religious philosophy only the knowledge is needed. That is the fair play. It should be made illegal to get huge donations from other countries Buddhist , Hindu or Christian it does not matter. There should be a limit like 2000 or 3000 US$ per year per organization more than that, it should come in to a common fund which will be distributed through the govt. ministers of religious affairs or intended for social services. 

Are those solutions fair and acceptable for every one or not ? Tell me ? 

News Story

17/1/2004

What I said previously is again true  on 27/12/2003 I wrote the following:

"I am pleading to the moderate Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, Christian and Muslim leaders in the country Please get together and force the government to use the fullest force of law to punish those few who wanted to create trouble no matter what religion they belong and stop this problem once for all. 
Otherwise sure these people will go and attack a Buddhist temple and blame it on Catholics or will attack a Church and blame it on Buddhists. 
You do not need an Astrologer to foresee this obvious " more

Now Read this

Anti-Buddhist elements attacking churches’

By Pujitha Wijetunge
The Jathika Sangha Sammelanaya (JSS) yesterday said that there is an organized campaign by anti-Buddhist elements operating in the country that is bent on making religious clashes by way of attacking churches.

Denouncing the attack on Christian places of worship, Sammelanaya Secretary Ven. Athuraliye Ratana Thera told the Daily Mirror that the action is carried out by anti-Buddhist elements with the aim of slinging mud at Buddhists in the country and forming the way for a religious clash. more

Idiot Voters 
17/1/2004

It is true that I said previously that, 90% of Sri Lankan Voters are idiots. Otherwise how can they elect people who are not even capable of controlling their children to the parliament and make them ministers ? 

If this happened in a truly democratic country like Australia where real politicians live and not the bogus ones, usually that minister will step down from his post until the matter is resolved.

Read this

Magistrate to Minister:

Advise your children to behave

by Sarath Malalasekara

Colombo Fort Magistrate and Additional District Judge Sarath C. Karunaratne told Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Wijesekera to advise his children to behave properly in public.

"You are holding a high position in this country and you should advise your children to behave properly in public places," more 

Envoy hopes Lanka learns from Canadian example

Canadian High Commissioner Valerie Raymond on Monday expressed the hope that Sri Lanka too would learn from the Canadian example of tolerance and understanding and achieve lasting unity and peace in its indigenous diversity. more

Qualities of a True Leader
16/12004

I think that all Sri Lankans must appreciate the real leadership qualities and the sensibility shown by this man rather than of all those bogus leaders of different parties of the country. Those leaders are less civilized than this man who spent whole of his life in the jungle

 Read this: 

Leaders must unite to rebuild country - Vanniala Ettho

by Indika Polkotuwa

The country's leaders must unite to rebuild the country, said Uruwarige Vanniala Ettho, Chieftain of the primordial settlers in Sri Lanka. More