The Lead Actor Slides Down The World Stage

Only days ago, the Ohio Clock, sitting near the US Senate Chamber since 1815, turned silent as the US government risked running out of money. After 16 days, a hastily healed cross-party deal made the Ohio Clock tick again.

Now, the clock continues to tick, and the time continues to move, and new time travels in. But the times of yesterdays and of tomorrows are not the same.

An old time talks of a passing phase, and a new time tattles a changing circumstance, and the world stage witnesses dramatic move as elements of change are turning bold.

The partial US gov. shut down presents all these: the clock, the time, the elements, etc. It took its cost in home, the US, and alerted the world, and shall come into compromise with increasingly changing world reality.

Costs in home

The standoff hurt the US economy, said US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. He was speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.

In the economy, the cost was at least $24 billion, estimated Standard and Poor’s, and it “shaved at least 0.6 percent off annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth.” Moody’s Analytics cited a similar number: a $23 billion hit to US GDP.

Citing IHS, US Travel Association, the National Park Service, ABC’s estimate of the costs of the shutdown included $3.1 billion in lost government services, $152 million per day in all spending related to travel lost. Washington DC was especially hit hard. Regional (DC/Maryland/Virginia) impact: $217 million a day from lost/deferred federal and contractor wages. Washington DC economic activity impact: $44 million a week decrease, and tax revenue impact: $6 million a week decrease. (October 17, 2013, Shushannah Walshe, “The Costs of the Government Shutdown”)

Something is told by press

Press, from People’s Daily to The New York Times, echoed an emerging reality: The US dollar’s weakened reputation and the state of related politics. In The Washington Post, Zachary A. Goldfarb reminded the fact of “weakened US economy facing new threats.”

People’s Daily did not fail to mention changes that “have started to occur” in the “currently unmatched” “status of the US dollar”, and said “countries are increasingly bypassing the US dollar and entering into currency swap agreements. These have all dimmed the aura of the dollar as a reserve currency.”

China’s The Nan Fang Daily suggested a reduced “role of the US dollar and the US debt in the global market.”

An editorial in The New York Times didn’t spare the right-right: “The Republicans pushed the nation to the brink of default”.

In Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Anna Fedyakina sarcastically said: “The congressmen’s debate looked like another episode of a political blockbuster, which, according to Hollywood traditions, should have a happy ending. It seems that the American legislators are used to living like they were in a movie: letting the situation reach a boiling point, making a decision at the last moment and then declaring that they once again have saved everyone.”

Anna tells at least a part of US politics, the part related to the elites. In Le Figaro, Philippe Gelie’s tone was more biting about “irresponsible leaders” in the US: “(T)he spectacle presented in Washington over the last few weeks goes beyond the excessive taste of the Americans for political drama. … A minority of Tea Party MPs dictating the law in the name of a lost cause … Parliamentary leaders unable to discipline their rank and file. A president … isolated, who is paying for years of absence of dialogue with MPs.”

The movie-like political act on the stage of Legislature has its roots, and also a destination.

So, Dan Roberts and Paul Lewis predicts in The Guardian: “[A] more lasting split is not inconceivable”. The assumed split is also not without roots and fruits. The roots are deep in elite interests, increasingly factionalized, and, the fruits are for different sections of the entire society with varying types and tastes, acting and reacting in areas of political lessons and experiences of the masses of people.

Function of dysfunction

The just concluded Washington-dysfunction, a political function, was spectacular. It raised question: Is this the beginning of breaking down of the political system?

Jack Lew described events leading to the standoff as a political crisis rather than an economic one.

It’s not always possible to ignore the political aspect. Recognizing the “event” as political crisis is significant as it tells level and depth of related contradictions.

Republican senator John McCain told the NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “Those involved in it went on a fool’s errand, that’s just a fact.”

Everyone doesn’t prefer fruitless mission. Why and how they, those who understand, failed to prevent the “fool’s errand”? Are mindless characters more powerful? Or, was the travel a political necessity? In any of the cases, what’s there in future?

“This has harmed the lives of millions of people”, said McCain. One of the contradictions – an elite faction’s political stand harming people – has been identified, and acknowledged. At least the faction’s politics, essentially interests, turns clear: To have a chunk, quarrel, even at the cost of people.

Lew said: “We need some infrastructure. The farm bill needs to pass. The immigration bill is hugely important to the economy.”

Infrastructure and immigration are required for the interests of the elites, for their faster and bigger accumulation. Then, why the elites failed to prevent the shut down and move into the business? Was the tact more profitable? Or, was the incident their incapacity, failure in governance, a rupture, at least temporary, in collaboration among ruling factions?

In a White House speech, President Barack Obama scolded congressional Republicans. His observations, as news agencies reported, included: The US went to the brink of an economic calamity; “The American people are completely fed up with Washington”; events had inflicted “completely unnecessary” damage on the US economy; “There was no economic rationale for all of this”; “Nothing has done more to undermine our economy the last three years than the kind of tactics that create these kinds of manufactured crises”, the “spectacle” had hurt America’s credibility in the world.

Obama’s opinion tells the emerging reality elites face: a faction imposes its tact while another finds it hard to resist it.

There is factional fight within the US political right-right camp.

One faction – the Tea Party – imposes its will on its broader party. This means there are conditions conducive within the entire body that enables a faction to impose its tact – the government shutdown – on the whole. Their “maturity” inspires them to adopt a political tact that gives pains to the ordinary citizens and takes toll from the party. The party gains experience at a cost.

Greater inequality

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”: The shutdowns were a bad idea not consistent with conservative ideals. (The Christian Science Monitor, “McConnell vows no more government shutdowns. Does tea party agree?”)

The factional fight, political obviously, that denies ideological position goes to nowhere. It’s not immaturity; it’s a reflection of narrowed down scope for political fight. Harry Reid, Democratic Senate leader, expressed his feeling: I’m tired. (…L)et’s be honest: this was pain inflicted on the nation for no good reason. The political tact of a faction of the elites turns clear: take toll from people, which is essentially punish the people. And, what’s the condition of the societies in the country as people is the most important part of it?

Robert Reich, former US Labor Secretary said: “Of all the advanced economies, we are the most unequal and we are surging forward greater inequality at the fastest rate. The 400 richest Americans own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together.”

The richest 1% of Americans own more than 35% of the country’s wealth while the bottom 50% control just 2.5%; the annual income of the typical American household has fallen 9% since 1999; since the recession ended in 2009, incomes for all Americans except the top 1% have hardly changed.

Incomes grew by only 4% for the bottom 99% but surged by more than 31% for the top 1%. And last year the top 1% accounted for 22% of the nation’s income; the top 0.1% took home half of that. (Daily Ticker, October 18, 2013, Bernice Napach, “Income Inequality Is the Enemy of Economic Growth: Robert Reich”)

With this reality in the US, the ruling elites face difficult question: Whether to help people out of poverty or not.

Now, it’s an urgent issue. The ruling capital has to decide whether to increase minimum wage, invest in education and infrastructure, reform the tax system, keep finance gamblers in control or not. And, here lies incapability of the dominating capital. It can’t move to all areas. And, it can move to some areas, but with bickering within its camp.

These quarrels, rifts and incapability will weaken the system and continue exposing the system to the people.

Farooque Chowdhury is Dhaka-based freelancer.

Courtesy: COUNTERCURRENTS. ORG

Obama’s anti-press measures shocking

It's hardly news that the Obama administration is intensely and, in many respects, unprecedentedly hostile toward the news-gathering process. Even the most Obama-friendly journals have warned of what they call "Obama's war on whistleblowers".

James Goodale, the former general counsel of the New York Times during its epic fights with the Nixon administration, recently observed that "President Obama wants to criminalize the reporting of national security information" and added: "President Obama will surely pass President Richard Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom."

Still, a new report released today by the highly respected Committee to Protect Journalists - its first-ever on press freedoms in the US - powerfully underscores just how extreme is the threat to press freedom posed by this administration. Written by former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., the report offers a comprehensive survey of the multiple ways that the Obama presidency has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for journalists and sources alike, one that severely threatens the news-gathering process.

Criminal investigations

The first sentence: "In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press." Among the most shameful aspects of the Obama record:

Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information to the press - compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all previous U.S. administrations. Still more criminal investigations into leaks are under way. Reporters' phone logs and e-mails were secretly subpoenaed and seized by the Justice Department in two of the investigations, and a Fox News reporter was accused in an affidavit for one of those subpoenas of being 'an aider, abettor and/or conspirator' of an indicted leak defendant, exposing him to possible prosecution for doing his job as a journalist. In another leak case, a New York Times reporter has been ordered to testify against a defendant or go to jail."

It goes on to detail how NSA revelations have made journalists and source petrified even to speak with one another for fear they are being surveilled:

'I worry now about calling somebody because the contact can be found out through a check of phone records or e-mails,' said veteran national security journalist R. Jeffrey Smith of the Center for Public Integrity, an influential nonprofit government accountability news organization in Washington. 'It leaves a digital trail that makes it easier for the government to monitor those contacts,' he said."

It quotes New York Times national security reporter Scott Shane as saying that sources are "scared to death." It quotes New York Times reporter David Sanger as saying that "this is the most closed, control freak administration I've ever covered." And it notes that New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan previously wrote that "it's turning out to be the administration of unprecedented secrecy and unprecedented attacks on a free press."

National security

Based on all this, Downie himself concludes:

The administration's war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post's investigation of Watergate. The 30 experienced Washington journalists at a variety of news organizations whom I interviewed for this report could not remember any precedent."

And this pernicious dynamic extends far beyond national security: "Ellen Weiss, Washington bureau chief for E.W. Scripps newspapers and stations, said 'the Obama administration is far worse than the Bush administration' in trying to thwart accountability reporting about government agencies." It identifies at least a dozen other long-time journalists making similar observations.

The report ends by noting the glaring irony that Obama aggressively campaigned on a pledge to usher in The Most Transparent Administration Ever™. Instead, as the New Yorker's investigative reporter Jane Mayer recently said about the Obama administration's attacks: "It's a huge impediment to reporting, and so chilling isn't quite strong enough, it's more like freezing the whole process into a standstill."

Back in 2006, back when I was writing frequently about the Bush administration's attacks on press freedom, the focus was on mere threats to take some of these actions, and that caused severe anger from vocal progressives. Now, as this new report documents, we have moved well beyond the realm of mere threats into undeniable reality, and the silence is as deafening as the danger is pronounced.

Courtesy: theguardian 

Police Powers for the North in Sri Lanka

By Darshana Ashoka Kumara 

While responding to the statement made by the Northern Chief Minister -- requesting more Tamil-speaking policemen to the North -- IGP N.K. Illangakoon noted that under the present constitution it is not possible to form police forces in ethnicity lines. In his view, country’s police is one and same for all the communities in the island. Newly appointed Chief Minister of the North C.V. Wigneswaran in his inaugural speech highlighted that “Policemen serving in the north with no Tamil language skills and cultural understanding was an annoyance for a long time,”

One of prime appeals of the Tamil National Alliance for a long time is police powers. The TNA was also pointing out that the 13th amendment ,which formed the provincial councils, grants the rights to have separate police and land powers for the provincial councils themselves.

But the UPFA led government and its coalition partners continued attacking on the TNA for promoting ideology of separatism. But, C.V. Wigneswaran, a former Supreme Court judge, rejected the claim by the government that the TNA is making attempts to divide the country and form much sought after Tamil Eelam of the LTTE.

Separatist ideology of the LTTE is still alive and the international network of the LTTE has been advocating for a separate land for a long time.  This was reflected in a statement made by Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran.

“We, the people of Tamil Eelam, have an inherent right to self-determination. Subject to Genocide at the hands of successive Sinhala national governments and as an essential measure of protection we wish to establish our own independent and sovereign State of Tamil Eelam.”

Preamble to the Tamil Eelam Freedom Charter

Visuvanathan  Rudrakumaran, a lawyer by profession, currently based in the US, was the former International Legal Advisor to the late LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

As per the 13th amendment to the constitution, devolution of police powers will give birth to 'Provincial' police forces that come under the direct purview of the provincial administration. Hence, the TNA ,which secured a re-sounding victory over the other parties contested for the Northern Provincial Council, is requesting a separate police force for their administration in the North.  It is clear that the TNA is a sympathizer of the LTTE, overtly. The LTTE was a military organization that waged a war against the central administration and its tactics to achieve the goal were quite ruthless and could simply be labelled as terrorism. Therefore, the US itself branded the LTTE as the most ruthless terrorist outfit of the world -- some leading countries in the world, including some members of the EU, banned the LTTE.

Granting police powers to the TNA is still not the most viable solution for the country, as the TNA continues to listen to LTTE ideology. So, giving police powers to the Northern political block is susceptible to result unexpected outcomes.

Under the name of the police force, the Northern administration will be free to buy out arms sans approval from the central government.

Also, Sri Lanka's issue is not just a matter of the island -- but pretty international as the place where Sri Lanka, itself, is positioned is geo-strategic. At a very quick look, it able to understand this is an issue immediately connecting to the interests of China, India and Sri Lanka. Moreover, this issue does not restrict to China, India and Sri Lanka, in a larger picture as it is a matter of global politics. The US and the western block is throwing the weight over the Indian ocean and Eastern part of the world as the region is re-emerging as the economic powerhouse of the world. Also, China is quite ambiguous nation and working on some military projects, too that are not transparent enough to the outer world.

This is clearly stated by Rudrakumaran himself.

“Asia has become the most important political geography in the 21st century. President Obama’s policy of “Pivot to Asia” highlights this. As observed by diplomats and geo-political experts the island of Sri Lanka is strategically situated in the Indian Ocean. As we stated in our Advisory Committee Report published in 2010 March that the TGTE is conscious of the strategic location of the island of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean and the geo-political situation in South Asia and elsewhere in formulating its political strategies. We believe that the Tamil political interest and the geo-political interests of the democratic powers can intersect and thrive.”

Hence, in the roadmap of the US and the West relating to the forthcoming Asian mission the northern tip of Sri Lanka is possible to be quite significant field. Therefore, existence of a provincial administration which has powers to handle armoury to some extend could be a danger to the central administrations of both India and Sri Lanka. In conclusion, the TNA is not still a ready enough to be granted with police powers as it is listening to the LTTE. But, in a day , the TNA is working in a more moderate milieu granting police and land powers  for the betterment of the people in the North will not be a crime.

The Hindu: From Dynasty To Plain Nasty

The shocking spectacle of Siddharth Varadarajan, the Editor of The Hindu, being forced out of his post by a cabal of its owners is a brutal reminder to journalists all over the country that however fine a professional you may be you will always remain at the mercy of media proprietors.

Just around two years ago when N. Ram, the then Editor of The Hindu, passed on the mantle to Varadarajan, a highly respected and independent journalist, he had touted the move as a radical shift away from being a family run outfit to one headed by professionals.

Ram’s motives were neither clear nor very noble, engaged as he was in a bitter struggle with his siblings over control of the newspaper. Still, for the newspaper to move away from its long tradition of tight family control was a welcome
, positive departure in a land where dynasties run everything from politics and religion to cricket and cinema.

Unfortunately, this flowering of corporate democracy was not to last too long. Ultimately the family managed to strike back with a vengeance, ganging up in a Board of Director’s meeting to demote Siddharth from the post of Editor to ‘Contributing Editor and Senior Columnist’ prompting his immediate resignation.

In a statement published in The Hindu, Ram justified the move as being due to ‘recurrent violations and defiance” of both the institution’s business and editorial values, without explaining what this really meant. It was also not clear at all whether Siddharth was ever given a chance to defend himself before the Board acted against him.

The key vote against Siddharth at the meeting incidentally came from N.Ram himself, for whom his former protégé’s independence may have been a bit too much to bear. Ram’s own tenure for years as Editor of The Hindu had seen the newspaper go from being a conservative but balanced newspaper to one full of glaring biases.

The Hindu’s whitewash under N.Ram, of the atrocities of the CPM government in Nandigram or the Mahinda Rajapakse regime’s genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils in Mullaivaikal, will forever go down as among the sorriest episodes in journalism anywhere. Ram’s refusal to give even a millimeter of space to anything that went against his political or business prejudices bordered on the maniacal, though one truly unsavory characters to get regular and ample coverage then was Subramaniam Swamy- with whom he apparently shared a common ‘love’ for China.

In sharp contrast Siddharth brought refreshing change to The Hindu, with some of the finest editorials on a wide range of themes to be ever written anywhere in recent times appearing on its pages in the last two years. Very courageously, he also opened it up to varying viewpoints and people – from Dalit intellectuals to anti-nuclear activists- who normally never get a say in much of the Indian media.

Thanks to Siddharth, for the first time ever, the ‘Mahavishnu of Mount Road’ got off His pedestal and became accessible to ordinary mortals. Under professional leadership The Hindu actually became what it has always pretended to be earlier - but never was – engaging, democratic and progressive.

Within The Hindu today there are stories doing the rounds that the Board’s action was a ‘pre-emptive one’ and motivated by a case filed by Ram’s friend Swamy challenging Siddharth’s eligibilty to be editor of an Indian newspaper as he was a ‘foreigner’. Siddharth is supposed to be a US citizen but this was obviously known when he was appointed and besides, in a country run by people with Indian passports and hearts in Washington, does it really matter?

Another story being spread is that The Hindu in the last couple of years took too hard a line against Narendra Modi and there was no distinction between ‘editorial’ and ‘news’ anymore. The Hindu’s coverage of anti-nuclear protests, particularly the Koodankulam issue in southern Tamil Nadu, is also supposed to have spelt his doom.

N Power, N Modi or N Ram- we will never know which one of them was really the cause of Siddharth’s ouster. The fact however remains what The Hindu has done to its former Editor is the public humiliation of a professional that should not just be condemned but challenged by journalists everywhere.

To let it go unchallenged would spell the end of the slenderest possibility that remains of the Indian media being an instrument of telling any truths and offering space to anyone of courage and integrity. The petty assertion of dynastical privileges in The Hindu goes to the heart of everyting that is wrong with Indian democracy today and should be resolutely resisted by all who value its survival.

Satya Sagar is a journalist and public health worker based in Santiniketan, West Bengal. He can be reached at sagarnama@gmail.com

Sachin Tendulkar to Retire After Playing His 200th Test Match Against West Indies

His bat will rest, not his legacy. By choosing the stage for his final walk to the crease, Sachin Tendulkar has followed in the footsteps of Sir Donald Bradman. One of the finest batsmen of the modern era has, like the great Australian, given his fans a chance to be part of his retirement.

The privilege of picking the final day on the cricket field had eluded the likes of Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Anil Kumble.

It has not eluded Tendulkar, though. He has always played cricket on his terms. It is hardly surprising that he is quitting on his own.

The clamour for his retirement, sometimes uncharitable, did hurt him. It was becoming increasingly difficult for someone, so used to entering the field to delirious chants of “Sachin, Sachin” to depart in deathly silence. The failures with the bat had become frequent and the evenings lonelier.

Universal phenomenon

Tendulkar was a universal phenomenon. Fans queued up outside Lord’s on the midnight prior to the match to catch a glimpse of him. In Australia, he was more popular than its icons. Even the Australians thought he was a better batsman than Bradman, though Tendulkar was never comfortable with that comparison.

In the West Indies, where he did not really have the best of times, he was as popular as Brian Lara. Pakistan’s legends never shied away from glorifying him as the greatest either. He was a cricketer with an international appeal.

It was tough to be Sachin Tendulkar. “Very tough,” he had confessed once. He rarely celebrated triumph, but always brooded in silence when the team failed.

The burden of expectations weighed heavy on his shoulders for a major part of his career. “You get Sachin, you get India,” was a line adopted unfailingly by the opposition. Often were they proved right.

It was Tendulkar’s character that epitomised his cricket. He never put a foot wrong. No colleague remembers Tendulkar venting his anger in the dressing room. No dissent on the field, no sledging. He remained a picture of dignity at the crease, playing the game as Bradman did, with the team’s interest above his own.

Vulnerable moments

Tendulkar did have his moments of vulnerability, as seen in his recent cheap dismissals. But he ensured that they did not impact the team’s interests. Bad umpiring decisions hurt him the most, but he took them in his stride, suffered them in silence.

He did not do as well as captain. It was largely because he expected similar commitment and intensity from lesser mortals, from men less gifted.

One remembers the painful night in Barbados in 1997, when tears rolled down his cheeks as India had lost a match it should have won. He was inconsolable, unable to come to terms with the result. However, like a true leader, he never blamed anyone for the debacle.

He never brought disrepute to the game. He not just upheld but enhanced cricket’s culture with his exceptional contribution with the bat.

For a generation that raved about Gavaskar and Amitabh Bachchan in different fields, Tendulkar was the biggest star, uniting the nation with his deeds in cricket arenas all over the world.

Tendulkar was the reason cricket survived the wounds of match fixing. He is the reason the game has thrived with people flocking the stadium for just this man.

The zeal

His zeal for the game was such that he was ready to bowl even at the most crucial of moments, especially the last over, even bowling a bouncer at Shane Warne in a Test match.

Adam Gilchrist savaged all bowlers but could never get the measure of Tendulkar, who could bowl spin and pace and everything in between. He could field anywhere; he was a fine out-fielder too, a quality that is often overshadowed by his stupendous batting records.

He married his tremendous talent with rare discipline, always honing his skills. He was always the first to give credit to team members.

He often hailed Laxman for his ability to bat with tailenders, and had words of high praise for Zaheer Khan after a record-breaking last-wicket partnership with him. He said a hundred times that it was a “pleasure” to watch Virender Sehwag bat, and how Dravid always inspired him.

Bradman received a standing ovation when he walked back for the final time in a Test. Let us accord Tendulkar, our boy from Bandra, the same respect that the boy from Bowral got, and celebrate his humungous impact on the game. Like Bradman’s average of 99.94, Tendulkar’s 100 international centuries will stand the test of time.

One hears the line, ‘The game will not be the same’ when an icon retires. It had never rung truer.

Timeline of Achievements

Feb 23-25, 1988: Tendulkar (14) and Vinod Kambli (16) compile a 664—run unbroken partnership for Shardashram Vidya Mandir against St Xavier’s at Azad Maidan, Mumbai. Kambli remains ubeaten on 349 not out and Tendulkar scores 326 not out. It remains the highest partnership recorded in any form of cricket, until in November 2006.

Dec 11, 1988: Makes first-class debut at the age of 15 and scores an unebaten century against Gujarat at the Wankhede Stadium. Becomes Youngest Indian to make a hundred on first—class debut.

Nov 15, 1989: Makes his Test debut in Karachi against Pakistan at the age of 16. Makes 15 on debut.

Dec 14, 1989: Suffers a bloody nose in the last Test in Sialkot after being hit by Waqar Younis. Makes 57 in the innings.

August 14, 1990: At the of 17 years and 112 days, becomes the then second—youngest to score a Test century. He scores 119 not out against England at Old Trafford which helped India to get a draw.

April, 1992: Signs up for Yorkshire and becomes the first overseas signing for the English county.

Nov 27-28, 1992: Becomes the youngest player to score 1000 Test runs at the age of 19 years and 217 days after he scores 111 in India’s 227 in Johannesburg.

Feb 11-12, 1993: Gets his first Test century (165) at home against England.

Nov 24, 1993: The world saw the first glimpse of Tendulkar as a match-winning bowler. Bowls India to sensational last-ball win against South Africa in the Hero Cup semifinal. South Africa needing six runs to win off the last over, Tendulkar gave them just three, and India a victory.

March 27, 1994: Opens the innings for the first time in an ODI aggainst the New Zealand. Scores 82 off 49 balls.

October 1995: Becomes the richest cricketer in the world after he signs up a five—year contract worth Rs.31.5 crore with WorldTel.

Feb-March, 1996: Plays his first World Cup at home and scores 523 runs at an average 87.16 and becomes the highest scorer.

Aug 8, 1996: Becomes the Indian captain at the age of 23.

Jan 2, 1998: Sacked from captaincy after a 15-month stint during which India won just three of 17 Tests.

Feb-March, 1998: In the best of his form against Australia in a home Test series and also gets his maiden double hundred. He also scored two hundreds and a fifty in the three-Tests series that India won 2-1.

July 28, 1999: Gets back his captaincy after Mohammad Azharuddin is sacked for India’s failure to reach the semifinals of the World Cup in England.

March 20, 2001: Scores a thrilling century in the deciding Test in Chennai and denies Australia the “final frontier”.

March 31, 2001: Becomes the first payer to score 10,000 runs in ODIs en route to his 139 against Australia in Indore.

Nov 19, 2001: Fined by match referee Mike Denness for ball tampering. The decision was later overturned after an outcry by the Indian cricket board.

Aug 22-23, 2002: Surpassed Don Bradman’s tally of 29 Test centuries. Misses double-century by seven at Headingley, but India win by an innings and 46 runs.

February-March, 2003: Scores 673 runs at 61.18 in the World Cup and also takes India to sniffing distance of winning the crown. His 98 against Pakistan was one of the best knocks played by Indians at World Cup. Australia are the champions, but Tendulkar is named the Man of the Series.

Aug, 2003: Is presented with a Ferrari 360 Modena for going past Bradman’s 29 Test centuries.

Jan 2-4, 2004: Scores 241 in Sydney, one of his best, even as Australia manage to hold on for a draw, and the series ends 1-1.

Aug, 2004: Suffers from tennis elbow during the Videocon Cup in Holland. Misses the Champions Trophy in England, and then the first two home Tests against Australia.

March 16, 2005: Scores 52 against Pakistan and becomes the fifth man to score 10,000 Test runs.

May, 2005: Goes for the surgery for the tennis elbow.

Dec 10, 2005: Becomes the highest centurion in Test cricket as he overtakes Sunil Gavaskar’s 34 en route to his 109 against Sri Lanka in Delhi.

March 19, 2006: Is booed at the Wankhede Stadium after he was dismissed for duck in 33 minutes against England in Mumbai.

March, 2006: Again goes under the knife. This time for surgery on his right shoulder in England.

May, 2007: For the first time in his career, Tendulkar is rested for the three-ODI series in Bangladesh.

Jan 4, 2008: Scores an unbeaten 154, against a major Test playing nation in two years and 19 Tests, against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

March 2, 2008: Sachin scores his first ODI century in Australia, in first of the CB Series final.

Oct 17, 2008: Surpasses Brian Lara’s record of most Test runs against Australia at Mohali.

Nov 5, 2009: Gets to 17,000 runs during his 175 off 141 balls in a 351-run chase against Australia in Hyderabad. India fall short by 19 runs.

Feb 24, 2010: Becomes the first player in the history of the game to score 200 in a single innings in a one-day international. He took 147 deliveries to power India to 401 and a 153-run win against South Africa.

Oct 2010: Tendulkar bags his first ICC award, the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.

Dec 19, 2010: Gets his 50th Test hundred against a difficult South African attack in Centurion.

April 2, 2011: Realises his childhood dream of winning the World Cup that too at his home town of Mumbai and at the Wankhede. India beat Sri Lanka to win the World Cup for the second time.

March 16, 2012: Gets the 100th international century, scoring 114 in an Asia Cup match against Bangladesh in Mirpur. But India lost the match. The century came after 34 innings and more than a year after scoring his 99th international hundred.

Dec 23, 2012: Just minutes before the selectors were set to name the squad for the ODI series against Pakistan, Tendulkar announces his retirement from the format. Tendulkar finished with 18,426 ODI runs and 49 hundreds, well clear of any other batsman.

Oct 10, 2013: Tendulkar announces his retirement from Test cricket. Courtesy: The Hindu

Legal action against oil vessel owners

Marine Environment Protection Authority Director General S R Samaratunga yesterday said they will take legal action against owners of the Cyprus flagged Bulk Carrier MV Thermopylae that has sunk within a range of six to eight nautical miles off the shores of Panadura.Samaratunga said they are taking steps to assess the extent of damage the ship has caused on Sri Lanka’s coastal environment with its oil spillage to the sea.

Meanwhile, Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Co-operation (IOMAC) Secretary General Dr Hiran W Jayawardena told the Daily News yesterday that Sri Lankan authoririties can claim damages from the vessel owner for oil pollution damage it has caused on the marine environment.

As pointed out by Our Nation and Sea (ONS) co-ordinators Jayawardena and Razik Zarook , they have alerted both Director of Merchant Shipping and MEPA about the possibilities of the ship sinking with the advent present monsoons.” The damages could run into to billions,”they said.

MEPA Director General Samaratunga said, they have informed both courts and the Director of Merchant Shipping about the situation.

Commenting on the impact and the extent of damage the spillage of oil can inflict on marine environment, “We are in the process of assessing the damages.

We are trying to get the owners of the ship, which is a Greek company, on the matter as soon as possible,” he said.

Asked why MEPA did not take any steps to remove the ship from Sri Lankan coast to avoid any harm that it might cause on marine environment, Samaratunga said that the ship has been detained in the waters by a court order. This is over a dispute.

“The ship has been anchored there for seven years,” said Samaratunga.

Asked if MEPA’s decision did not override the national interest, Samaratunga said he could not comment on it because of the pending court case. However, he said , “the steps will be taken to confiscate even the wreckage of the ship.”

According to MEPA, they have removed most of the oil stocks in the ship. There was some 350 tonnes of oil on the ship.

There were around some 70 tonnes of oil in the ship when it sank, said MEPA chairman R S Ariyapperuma. According to Ariyapperuma , they have drawn a contingency plan to minimize oil pollution damages. The Disaster Management Center is currently working on it with the Navy. The oil has surfaced and spreading in the seas since the ship sank yesterday.

As pointed out by environmentalists, it could result in dwindling of marine life , which could mean that situation can have an adverse effect on the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen.

Meanwhile, an oil slick extending to about 12kms could be seen in the seas off the Western coast due to the oil spill from Cyprus merchant ship, Samaratunga told the Daily News yesterday.

He said the oil would not reach the coast unless there was a change in the direction of ocean currents.

He said the oil patch was seen 5km away from the western coast by yesterday noon.

He said oil booms and dispersant would be put in place if the need arises. Booms are one of the tools that oil cleanup crews are using to prevent the oil contamination of the beach.

An Environment Ministry spokesman said the Navy and National Aquatic Resources Agency(NARA) are working to minimize the environmental damage, while the Central Environmental Authority and Disaster Management Centre have been kept in alert to react swiftly if a danger of oil reaching the coast emerges.

Disaster Management Centre Deputy Director of Media Sarath Lal Kumara said it is ready to take immediate action if the oil reached the shore.

He said the DMC units in Colombo, Kalutara and Gampaha have had kept updated all the time over the situation.

He said the support of Police, Tri Forces and Non Governmental Organizations have also been received by the DMC to face the situation.

Poson : A spiritual passion

“Everything changes continually. What is history, indeed, but a record of change. And if there had been very few changes in the past, there would have been little of history to write.”

- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru 

Spiritual changes are at times so dramatic and swift, that they may take place between “one breath and another”. However speedy such spiritual shifts may be, their dynamic momentum propels history forward for ages, transforming individuals, multitudes and whole cultural systems writing human destiny in an entirely new idiom.

In our long and chequered history, spanning more than 25 centuries, a sudden spiritual metamorphosis occurred, altering the total cultural profile of our land - utterly and completely. This was on a Poson Full Moon Day, about 2,255 years ago.

Focal point

The focal point of the far-reaching transformation of the soul of this land, was, of course King Devanampiya Tissa - the then ruler of the land. Leading the annual national spring holiday, the monarch took to the chase, in the company of his hunting retinue. Armed with his bow and arrows, he pursued the deer he had targeted. In the heat of the hunt, he was relentlessly bent on getting his quarry - to the exclusion of everything else.

But his evil concentration frayed. He stood still and looked around, disturbed by someone calling him out, by his first name. He knew full well that there was no one at all in his kingdom who would dare call out to him by his first name Tissa.

Then he beheld, on the top of a boulder, in the royal mango grove, a group of saffron-clad individuals. The leader of the mission addressed the king and explained that they were bhikkhus - disciples of the Buddha - The King of Righteousness - and have arrived here from Jambudipa (India) in their compassion towards him.

From then on, the Poson story, narrating the formal introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka has become an oft-repeated spiritual episode. Arahant Mahinda tested the intellectual maturity of the king by the first-ever IQ test administered in the history of this country. This was as a prelude to the exposition of the essence of Buddhism to King Devanampiya Tissa.

Weapons were discarded. The destructive bustle of the hunt subdued, as the gentle, sonorous tones of Arahant Mahinda's sermon began to pervade the landscape. The location Ambastala (mango mountain) yielded to its new designation Mihintala (Mihindu Mountain).

From then on, Buddhism established itself as the central force that determined the progress of this land - Dhammadipa (Isle of Righteousness).

Intriguing issues

But, for me, the totality of the Poson record, chronicled by the Mahawamsa, bristles with a series of intriguing issues, that demands elucidation.

How did this “unseen friendship” originate? Did King Devanampiya Tissa accept the suzerainty of Dhammasoka, leading to the sending of priceless treasures to him as gifts?

Why did Emperor Asoka confer the honorific “Devanampiya” on the ruler of Sri Lanka?

What determined the request of the Emperor, that King Devanampiya Tissa, should be consecrated a second time, under the Emperor's aegis?

When Emperor Asoka sent out Buddhist emissaries to various lands, he singled out Sri Lanka, for exceptionally high privileges. While sending various Theras to important lands such as Kashmir, Gandhara and Yona, he sent his son Arahant Mahinda to Sri Lanka. Along with his son, the Emperor sent his grandson - novice-monk Sumana - son of the Emperor's daughter Sanghamitta. That was not all.

The lay-devotee Bhanduka who arrived with Arahant Mahinda, was the son of a daughter of Devi's sister. (Devi was the Queen of Emperor Asoka).

Privileges

This shows that the lay-devotee Bhanduka too was a grandson of Emperor Asoka. These imperial privileges do not stop there. Emperor Asoka sent his daughter Sanghamitta Theri with a sapling of the sacred Bodhi tree. Along with the sacred tree, 18 different clans arrived to look after the rites and rituals associated with the cult of the Bodhi Tree.

The whole development was a kind of family reunion of Emperor Asoka.

What prompted Emperor Asoka to lavish all these spiritual privileges and worldly luxuries on Sri Lanka?

Arahant Mahinda, his sister Ven. Sanghamitta Theri and the grandsons of the Emperor resided in Sri Lanka. The clans allotted to look after the rites and rituals attended upon the spiritual royals. This is a chapter that should be assiduously researched and studied. Indian historical sources seem to be vague about the last days of Emperor Asoka.

One cannot help but wonder, whether the Great Emperor, in his sunset days crossed over to Sri Lanka and spent his last days here, among those intimate friends and relations. This may sound an interesting Poson reflection.