Killing beggars and disabled; Sri Lanka's new found solution for poverty

(June 30, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka's ruling family boasts they would make this country 'the wonder of Asia.' It is already true in some aspects.

Sri Lanka is a poor country where the new found solution for poverty is 'killing beggars.'

An organized group that is ubiquitous and elusive to police in Colombo and suburbs is in a killing spree of beggars whilst no one raises voice regarding the misery of this human waste. The method the killers use for execution is is extremely notorious. They smash heads of the beggars as they are asleep on pavement. The tactic seems achieved its objective of terrifying beggars. Most of them now fear to sleep in isolated places as they did earlier.

In the latest incident, this gang killed a self-employed 38 year-old differently-abled man on a tricycle at Mount Lavinia on June 28. The man identified as Mahesh Perera of Sri Jana Mawatha, Aththidiya was under the front canopy of Union Assurance office whose slogan is 'Trust in your tomorrow, today' in the dark due to rain as he was on his way home bringing a parcel of rice for him bought from the money he earned by selling lottery tickets. The killer smashed his head with a heavy stone covering to the sound of rain.

Another man on a wheel chair was killed around a month ago close to famous Gangaramaya Buddhist temple.

This killing spree goes on scot-free and almost no one in this country that boasts for a two and half millennium long Buddhist heritage bother about these helpless men. 


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Within two weeks two poor mothers throw their children to rivers in Sri Lanka

(March 22, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  Another Sri Lankan woman threw her new born baby to a river on March 20, several days after a similar incident was highlighted by local media.

Just two days before the three-year-old toddler succumbed, the second baby was killed within three hours of its birth and was thrown into a river,

The incident was reported from Ambalangoda, a town in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka.

The mother was arrested and she had confessed about the crime. She told to police the child was conceived as a result of an affiar with a Bangladeshi as the woman was working as a housemaid in Dubai. The father of the child is a driver in the house, according to the woman's confession. The employers have sent her back after the pregnancy was disclosed.

This woman is also a tsunami victim as same as the first woman that threw her child to River Kalu two weeks ago. She is 41 years old and has five other children of whom two daughters are married. She is a single mother abandoned by her legal husband.

Frustrated mother throws her baby to river while the politicians boast about per capita income in Sri Lanka

(March 16, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  While Sri Lanka government is boasting about the increase of per capita income over US $ 2000 per annum, a 30-year-old mother that says she was frustrated with her failure to feed her five children, threw the youngest to a river.

The magistrate court of Kaluthara yesterday directed the children of a suspected mother that attempted to drown her two years and eight month old son to be taken care of the Probation and Childcare Department. This mother said she had earlier attempted in vain to hand over this child to probation care. These officials that work less while withdrawing public money as salaries appear only after the horse bolted. No need to talk about the officials and the politicians that have the duty of monitoring these systems.

The murder suspect is a 30 year old woman and she was arrested and remanded. Police says that she has given a statement that she threw the child to the river after failing to abandon him near Kaluthara Bodhiya sacred shrine. The suspect is a single mother of five children that lived in a village for tsunami victims in Panadura and made living out of selling lottery tickets. She told to police that her husband abandoned her and she faced utmost difficulties in taking care of the five children. An enormous amount of tsunami aids were swindled by fraudulent elements of various social stratas while the women like this one did not see a better future.

She attempted to abandon the youngest child at Kaluthara Bodhiya sacred shrine. But the child came after her and she then fed him with some rice that she begged for the boy and herself. She was walking with the child along the rail bridge as the child fell asleep. Suddenly, this unfortunate women had a mind to throw the child into water, according to police reports.

The place she got the cruel mind to throw her baby to water is a Buddhist shrine that earns massive amounts of money from the passerby motorists. It is a time the politicians are spending millions of rupees that can fed hundreds of thousands of children like this, for election propaganda campaigns.

The child was rescued by several youth and he is now in Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital in critical condition.

The remaining boy child and the three girl children of the ill-fated were handed over to separate children’s homes with a condition of allowing them to unite once a week.

Meanwhile, the child that was saved by people whilst he was floating in the river was still in critical condition in Colombo Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital and doctors did not predict positively regarding his life. The child had not been given proper first aid since the rescuers were not trained in them, said the hospital sources.

The rescuing incident was video recorded by a volunteer and it was aired by a private TV channel.

The reality of rise of per capita in come of Sri Lanka

(February 23, Colombo - Lanka Polity)   Sri Lanka government has proudly announced that the per capita income has risen from $ 2200 to $2300 from 2008 to 2009.

Accordingly, if the national income is distributed equally, each Sri Lankan irrespective of age must have a share of Rs. 240,000 annual income. That simply means Rs. 20,000 monthly income and a family that has four members must earn Rs. 100,000 per month.

But the data released by the state relates a different story.

According to the Ministry of Social Security and Social Welfare, there are 350,000 recipients of concessions provided to extremely poor people of the country. This allowance is yet to be raised to Rs. 1000 a month. These people are subjected to live with 1/3 of a dollar per day.

Sri Lanka government provides 'Samurdhi' poverty concessions to low income groups. The Deputy Minister of State Revenue and Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said in the parliament on May 05, 2009 that the number of Samurdhi recipients were 1,672,159 in 2008. He further stated that by 2007, there were 452,000 families that earned less than Rs. 6283/= per month. This is well over 5% of the population of Sri Lanka. This is the social strata that is in extreme poverty. What about the lower middle class? They too complain about a miserable life due to lack of income.

Sri Lanka government can boast about the increase of per capita income. But if the income does not distribute fairly and if the disparity widens, that means a bunch of affluents in social elite have robbed the national wealth pushing the masses further in poverty.