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Forests
for free An explanation
offered by one of the proponents of the Act is that it gives "...a
sense of satisfaction to the giver... just as much as one would
feel happy after giving Rs. 10/ - to a beggar..." The entirety
of the Act is also not presented in these features. America's
justification The TFCA is
based on the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended on July
29, 1998, by the US Senate and Congress. The answer to the query
of apparent American philanthropy is revealed in the findings and
purposes of this Act, which spells out the preamble and the justification
for introducing this Act for the benefit of the American public. Section 802
(a) (2) of the TFCA, reads thus: Tropical Forests
provide a wide range of benefits to humanity by A) Harbouring
a major share of the Biological Resources which are the basis for
developing pharmaceutical products and revitalizing agricultural
crops... This "finding"
is strongly suggestive of the motive for the philanthropy. Genetic composition
and the carbon configuration of constituents of medicinal plant
forms and other biological materials are the foundation of pharmaceutical
products, and tropical forests have been identified as the primary
sources of such materials. Sri Lanka is identified as the 12th country
among the biological hot spots of the world - and one could imagine
the potential of Sri Lanka as a source of such biological material,
which could be converted to pharmaceutical products worth millions
of dollars. US manipulation The mechanism
by which the TFCA will be operational in the relevant tropical countries
exposes another sinister aspect, which has not been revealed by
features published earlier. Any country
accepting the terms of the Act as a means to redeem a portion of
its debt is required to enter into an Agreement with the US government.
This Agreement is referred to as the "Tropical Forest Agreement".
The TFA in turn incorporates the terms and conditions of the Enterprise
for Americas Fund. Unquoted Sections 707,708 and 709 of the TFCA
refers to this component where a 5 member Board of Management appointed
by the President of the USA and referred to as Enterprise for Americas
Board (EFAB) ensures overall US control in the management and administration
of the 'mortgaged' forests. As detailed
in Section 811 (b) (1) of the TFCA this 5 member Board (EFAB) consists
of A) Two from
the US government B) Two from
Private NG environmental, scientific, forestry or other academic
organizations C) Chairperson
appointed by the President of the USA Consequently
the controlling and policy defining authority of the TFCA, operational
in Sri Lanka would be under the directive of the EFAB appointed
under direction of the President of the US. What does this
imply in practical terms? It implies that even a policy of harnessing
any products from our wet zone forests (Peak Wilderness, Sinharaja,
Horton Plains) or invaluable estuaries could be included in the
Agenda. Most of the
rivers that feed our agricultural schemes arise from these forests
and any form of exploitation of these forests would spell disaster
to our life-giving agricultural schemes; similarly aqua-culture
farms in the mangrove forests and estuaries could not only precipitate
environmental problems but also destroy the livelihood of thousands
of fisherfolk who depend on the products of this natural habitat
for their livelihood. This is not
mere conjecture. The World Bank sponsored 1986 Forestry Master Plan
for Sri Lanka had earmarked the wet zone forests of Sri Lanka for
selective logging and it was only the severe public agitation backed
by professionals of the eminence of Prof. B.A. Abeywickrema and
Balasubramanium, that resulted in the Plan being aborted and saved
these forests for us, on that occasion. The environmental and economic
catastrophes created by the aqua culture farms (which benefited
a few for a few years) along the west coast have now left a trail
of destruction with neither the farms nor the original habitat being
in a sustainable state. Proposed
operation It has been
stated that Sri Lanka is one of the few countries that have been
offered this privilege of exchanging our forests to redeem our loans.
It is also being suggested that we would be required to make an
urgent decision if we are to benefit from this philanthropic offer.
The figurative advantages of accepting terms of this Agreement is
open to much debate. Those recommending
this Agreement claim that Sri Lanka's debt stands at US $ 650 Million
as of date. In accordance with the several stipulations and conditions
in the Agreement, Sri Lanka would be entitled to barter US $ 13
Million of the total loan by mortgaging our natural forests for
a specified period - perhaps for 15 years The Sri Lankan equivalent
of this amount will be made available to be used by a Fund Disbursement
Board exclusively for those activities specified in terms of the
Agreement. The Fund Disbursement Board itself will have only one
representative from the Government of Sri Lanka thus reflecting
an almost non-existent control by the Government over resources
that belong to our country. Is this privatization in a subtle form? Implementation
These terms
and the composition of the Fund Disbursement Board are detailed
below. Section 809
Subsection (d) Nos 1 to 6 of the TFCA clearly indicate the managerial
and administrative functions that the Board will be empowered to
execute. Among them are: 1. Establishment,
restoration, protection and maintenance of Parks and protected Areas
and Reserves (i.e. the entire administration and management) 4. Restoration,
protection, or sustainable use of diverse animal and plant species
(i.e. free and uninhibited access to the biodiversity of the forest) 5.Research
and identification of medicinal uses of tropical forest plant life
to treat human diseases, illnesses and health related concerns,
(i.e. free access to the genetical and carbon configuration of potential
pharmaceutical properties of plants and plant materials) 6.Development
and support of the livelihoods of individuals near the forests in
a manner consistent with protecting such tropical forests Apart from
Item 6, all the others are infringements on the current administrative
mechanisms in place. They will be an abdication of the duties of
the Director, Department of Wildlife Conservation, the Conservator
of Forests and perhaps even the Chairman, Coast Conservation Authority
Development. Support of the livelihoods of individuals in or near
a tropical forest in a manner consistent with protecting such tropical
forests is the only positive issue that would be of benefit which
is not currently addressed. Section 809
2 A) of TFCA identifies the personnel who would be appointed to
manage the Fund set up from the proceeds of the mortgage. They are: A representative
of the USA One representative
from the Govt. of Sri Lanka Three representatives from outside the govt. of Sri Lanka. i.e. NGO representations. Section 2 (B)
emphasises that the majority of representation shall always be from
the non-governmental group in the same ratio, ensuring the overwhelming
majority of non-governmental representation on the Board. The track-records
of the so-called NGOs that have mushroomed in Sri Lanka in the recent
past, are suspect among most disciplines such as social workers,
environmentalists, religious bodies, indigenous peoples, child-welfare
organizations, handicapped people's organizations, aid agencies,
educators, conservationists etc. We are all too aware that several
such Organizations, Trusts, Societies, have been created by interested
multi-national organizations and are being financed to advocate
and canvass their interests, under the guise of being NGOs. Against such
a background, the credibility of the three NGOs who would be selected
to serve on this Board would be a matter of great concern as the
selection itself will be not in the hands of Sri Lanka. These NGOs
would be "...calling the shots..." and would necessarily
have to endorse the objectives of their alien entrepreneurs in their
own interests of survival. Currently,
collection, cataloguing and maintaining any Faunal and Floral materials
from Protected Areas (PA) or from any forests and/or release of
any product of a wild-animal or plant (as defined by the FFPO) for
export is controlled by the D/DWLC {Under Section 40 - 1,4, and
5} who shall canvass expertise from other relevant institutes, universities,
departments, and other statutory bodies, whenever, necessary, prior
to permitting such exports even for scientific purposes. Tried and
tested? We see how
Iceland is blatantly violating the concessions granted for whaling
for ‘scientific purposes’ even under the watchful eye
of the Whaling Commission. What assurance is there that a similar
exercise will not be enacted if the authority for export of biological
materials is abdicated from the government officers to a non-governmental
Board? Special provision
is available in the FFPO (Sections 55 and 55A) to release materials
for authentic international institutes for scientific purposes and
other agencies such as the Customs Dept. and the Dept. of Import
and Export Control who work in unison with the FFPO to control such
exports - handing over the forest products to the authority of the
proposed Board for Scientific Studies will wipe off all these precautionary
measures and expose our biological resources to be disposed of according
to the whims and fancies of the 5 member Board. Robbed blind Apart from
these listed infringements and subjugations of our sovereignty,
which is not only the right of the present Sri Lankans but also
those yet to be born, another significant aspect is the possible
denial of what Sri Lanka's forests would be eligible to receive
in being Carbon Sinks in terms of the U.N. Framework Convention
on Climate Change - the Kyoto protocol. This Convention
acknowledges the global role that tropical forests play in absorbing
green house gases (over 65 % emitted by industrial countries) and
will require such industrial countries to monetarily reward the
forest containing countries for acting as carbon sinks to absorb
their emissions. It is projected that Sri Lanka could thus be rewarded
to meet the entirety of its foreign debt in less than 25 years if
the current forest cover (1.2 Million hectares) remain in the island. We will not
be eligible to these benefits if our forests are meanwhile mortgaged
to the U.S. in terms of the TFCA. Therefore it is not mere conjecture to infer that the urgent desire to have Sri Lanka accepting the TFCA may also be an attempt to deprive us of the benefits of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This aspect of the commitment has not been made any reference to in the presented features that advocated this Agreement. It is left for
the right-thinking patriotic people of this country to decide and
express their views as to whether we should mortgage our invaluable
natural forest resources (whose potential values remain yet to be
assessed) in accordance with this Agreement. The writer is a UNEP Global 500 laureate and a Member of the World Commission on Protected Areas. She taught us so many beautiful things By Capt.
Shemal Fernando Mother Teresa
served mankind for almost half a century. She died of a heart attack
on September 5, 1997 at the age of eighty-seven. Soon after
Mother Teresa's death, her devotees began pressing the Vatican to
speed up her sainthood, saying that her holiness was clear. Yet
under church rules, five years must pass after a person dies before
the long bureaucratic procedure of sainthood can begin. However,
in 1999, Pope John Paul II, who had held her in high esteem, granted
a dispensation so the procedure could start less than two years
after her death. The first miracle
attributed to Mother Teresa concerned Monica Bersa, a 30-year-old
woman from North Bengal in India. Bersa's incurable abdominal tumour
shrank after she held a medal blessed by Mother Teresa to her stomach
and prayed to her. This was in 1998. On December
20, 2002 Pope John Paul II approved the decree of Mother Teresa's
beatification. Mother Teresa will be beatified in Rome on October
19, 2003. Mother Teresa
will be elevated to sainthood once a second miracle is attributed
to her after the beatification. Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in Yugoslavia on August 26, 1910. By the age of 12, she wanted to be a nun. When she was 18, she joined the Irish Order of the Sisters of Loretto because she knew they worked widely in India. After training in Dublin, she proceeded to India in 1928 to begin her novitiate. She took her
vows in 1931 and served as a geography teacher at St. Mary's School
and St. Teresa's School in Calcutta. Sister Teresa came to be called
‘Mother Teresa’ after she took her final vows in 1937
in the Loretto Convent in the hill station of Darjeeling. It was while
travelling by train to Darjeeling on September 10,1946 that she
received her call from God to work among the poor. The message was
quite clear and she once declared, "I was to leave the Convent
and help the poor whilst living among them. It was an order". She settled
in the Calcutta slums, working with a small team of supporters.
She commenced her work for the sick and dying, setting up her first
hospice - fittingly, near Calcutta's Hindu Temple of Kali, offering
victims of tuberculosis, dysentery and tetanus, a place to die in
dignity. It was named 'Compassionate Heart'. Without much
delay she received her mandate to be a free nun outside the cloister
and founded her new Order "Missionaries of Charity" on
October 7, 1950. The routine of these sisters is arduous with every
waking moment given either to the people they care for, or to God.
The Order spread to 537 homes throughout the world in over 130 countries. There are 7 houses in Calcutta including the 'Mother House'. They house lepers, the dying, the mentally ill, people with TB and children who have been abandoned or orphaned. Mother Teresa earned a reputation as a courageous personality for unhesitatingly upholding the Catholic doctrine. At the National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington DC on February 4, 1994 she spoke to the elite audience including President Bill Clinton. She said, "The poor are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. The poor people may have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich." Mother Teresa
who has been a true mother to thousands saw poverty as a kind of
richness. Once asked the most joyful place that she has ever visited,
she said 'Kalighat', explaining that when people die in peace, in
the love of God, it is a wonderful thing. More than anyone else, Mother Teresa helped to alleviate the suffering of the sick and the poor in the 20th century. Her band of energetic nuns continue to fulfil her aspirations for the greater glory of God. |
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