Udesh Fernando

#IntegralEducation #IntDevelopment #HumanRights #PostColonialstudies #IntRelations #sarvodaya Views Personal

[Nazmul Ahasan @the_nazmul]

All of Bangladesh’s fertiliser plants are fully shut — in a country of more than 170 million people to feed.

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

THE TECHNOFEUDAL WARS ARE UPON US

The US military used Claude to plan the attack on Iran, in the days after it went to war with the company.

Iran is retaliating against Claude, or rather Amazon’s cloud infrastructure more generally. Two Amazon data centers in UAE and one in Bahrain have already been disabled by missiles. Claude is currently offline for consumers including in Europe. Amazon is telling its customers to stop expecting its Middle Eastern IT intrastructure to work and to fail over to other regions.

This can easily have knock-on effects for lots of other websites. When an AWS data center in Virginia went down in October, the affected sites included Zoom, Discord, Twitch, Venmo, Duolingo, Delta Airlines and several major UK banks.

[Narendra Modi @narendramodi]

ජනාධිපති දිසානායක මැතිතුමා අමතා දිට්වා සුළි කුණාටුව හේතුවෙන් ඛේදජනක ලෙස අහිමි වූ ජීවිත සහ සිදු වූ මහත් විනාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් හෘදයාංගම ශෝකය පළ කළෙමි. සමීප සහ විශ්වාසනීය මිතුරකු ලෙස ඉන්දියාව මෙම අසීරු මොහොතේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ එහි ජනතාව සමඟ ශක්තිමත්ව රැඳී සිටියි.

ඉන්දියාව දැනට ක්‍රියාත්මක සාගර් බන්ධු මෙහෙයුම යටතේ සහන සැලසීමේ සහ මුදවාගැනීමේ ප්‍රයත්නයන් සඳහා අවශ්‍ය සියලු සහයෝගය තවදුරටත් අඛණ්ඩව ලබා දෙනු ඇති අතර ශ්‍රී ලංකාව රට යළි ගොඩනැගීමට සහ නැවතත් යථා තත්ත්වයට පත් වීමට කටයුතු කරන ඉදිරි දිනවලදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමඟ රැඳී සිටිනු ඇත.

@anuradisanayake

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

I learned about Trump’s unconstitutional attack on Iran at a large rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here is the response:

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Talks to address Iran’s nuclear program were planned for Sunday. Instead Netanyahu launched illegal strikes on Iran, killing a top ceasefire negotiator, undermining U.S. diplomatic efforts & putting countless innocent lives at risk. We can’t be dragged into another Netanyahu war.

[Talal Rafi @talalrafi7]

The 44% tariff by the US on Sri Lankan goods is a disaster for Sri Lanka. This is largely Sri Lanka's fault as we remain one of the most protected economies in the world.

We export 6.5 times more to the US than we import from them. But the US tariffs on Sri Lanka are less than 10% and the US does not impose any additional non-tariff barriers or taxes. The United States has been good to Sri Lanka from a trade perspective.

But in return, Sri Lanka which has a massive trade surplus with the US imposes tariffs of over 80% on US imports. Not only do we impose tariffs but Sri Lanka also imposes non tariff barriers such as para tariffs and other charges which is not fair to be honest. Non tariff barriers are unethical in my view.

Many experts including myself have been raising this issue since January. At least the Sri Lankan government should have reduced the para tariffs. When Trump moves very fast almost by the hour, we cannot afford to have committees and spend months to study what action to take. This is especially when our export sector depends on the American market. Our apparel sector directly employs 300,000 people and indirectly helps over a million Sri Lanka. The consequences of this are big.

For years, I have been advocating to reduce trade barriers but successive past governments have not done this. We export $2,600 million to the US but only import $400 million from the US. We should have handled the US export market better.

[Udesh Fernando @udeshfernando]

@Satya_Rodrigo Congratulations @Satya_Rodrigo !

[Sarvodaya Sri Lanka @sarvodayalanka]

In profound sorrow, we announce the passing away of Dr A.T. Ariyaratne, the Founder and the Emeritus President of the Sarvodaya Movement, peacefully this evening.
In due course, comprehensive details concerning the funeral arrangements will be provided.

[Nethmini Medawala @Nethmini_M]

Ragging should stop - unconditionally.
To think only the 'poor' in state unis rag the 'middle class' students is absurd and a weak argument against free education. Ragging happens everywhere- even at prestigious schools. We should call out raggers, despite their social standing.

[Udesh Fernando @udeshfernando]

@nomadic_sanjee need an option for NOTA

[Dr Thurairajah @RubenThurairaj]

Sri Lankan academic predicts Sri Lanka to go bankrupt again and again; just like Argentina.

Unbelievable!

#SriLankaProtests #lka #SriLanka #Argentina #Zimbabwe

[Udesh Fernando @udeshfernando]

@munza14 @donsupz ur pren 😂

[SANDYA SALGADO @sandyasalgado]

Love the political balancing act. Queues shortening and arrests lengthening! Power cuts receding, abductions and bodies advancing. It’s perfected to an art it seems

[Udesh Fernando @udeshfernando]

Doing an academic conference after so long ! This one by the Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières South Asia’s Scientific Days & International Conference on Medical Sciences.

#MSFSouthAsia #MSFsciAsia

[Amalini @Amaliniii]

Things people have been arrested for:
- Protesting
- Being near a statue
- Posting a comment on Facebook

Things people have not been arrested for:
- War crimes
- Corruption & embezzlement of public funds
- Attacking peaceful protestors

#lka #SriLanka

[Kusum Wijetilleke @KusumW]

In 2018, MPs including Wimal Weerawansa vandalized and damaged the parliamentary chamber. He also threw a chair at the police. It’s on camera. Was any action taken? Was it commensurate to the crime?

[Centre for Policy Alternatives Sri Lanka @CPASL]

CPA's R&A Team have put together a detailed document that examines at length how some aspects of the Emergency Regulations can the impact rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution.

Read the full document here: https://t.co/E87CxjnpRz

#SLnews #Parliament #Aragalaya

[Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office @amnestysasia]

What is civil disobedience? Acts of civil disobedience involve the premeditated breaking of a domestic law for reasons of conscience or because it is perceived to be the most effective way to raise awareness, express social or political dissent or to bring about change.

[Udesh Fernando @udeshfernando]

On #protest #protestsLK

[Udesh Fernando @udeshfernando]

Official : President @GotabayaR fully and successfully ousted by the People of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (#lka)
ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා,ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ පුරවැසියන් විසින් පන්නා දමන ලදී
ජනතා අරගලයට ජය වේවා! ජනතාවට ජය වේවා!