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| The need for a national census by S. Peiris Many of us may not know that a census of population is the most expensive and largest statistical operation a country undertakes at regular intervals. The first census of population was taken in Sri Lanka in 1871. Thereafter a series of decennial censuses were taken till 1931. The Second World War delayed the next census by five years. This census should have been held in 1941 but it was taken in 1946. The 1951 census was taken in 1953 due to a paper shortage resulting from the Korean war and the 1961 census was taken two years later. After this census, censuses were taken in 1971 and 1981. The 1971 census of population was taken one hundred years after our first census and it restored temporarily the tradition of census taking every ten years in the year ending in one. The 1991 census has not been held so far and the planning for the 2O01 census has correctly commenced now as it is such a large statistical operation. Most if not all the countries around the world would have commenced planning for the 2000 round of census taking as they are held in the year ending in zero or one. Availability of census data at regular intervals is a requirement in modern times as it is an essential tool for policymakers and planning. In fact some developed countries have commenced taking a census every five years as they feel a ten-year lapse is too long a period to wait for up to date data. It would be of interest to many of us particularly the younger generation to know the scope and content of a census which in turn will highlight its usefulness. The last census in Sri Lanka covered population and housing in a single statistical operation in 1981. This was followed by a census of agriculture in 1982 and industry in 1983. The writer was responsible for these three censuses and knows the magnitude of this statistical operation. Population census data are essential for national development planning and demographic research. The 1981 census provided information on the population, its distribution, age structure, marital status, attendance at school or other educational institutions, educational attainment, literacy in Sinhala, Tamil and English, principal activity during the last 30 days, whether sought work during the last 30 days, period of search for work, reason for not seeking work, principal occupation, employment, distance to place of work or school, mode of transport, place of birth, migration and housing. There were a number of additional topics on population and housing which gave a wealth of information. Similarly the census of agriculture and industry had a wealth of information. As they are taken at regular intervals it provided benchmark data for national and international comparability. A question may arise as to why we should take so much of trouble and spend so much of money on a census. To answer this we have to look into the principal users of census data. As the government is the principal user, the data collected will obviously relate to the formulation and monitoring of government-sponsored programmes. This will include, inter alia, policy programmes in the field of population, education, health, transport, agriculture and industry. The census data are used by many organised private groups such as business enterprises and research institutions. Census data is the only reliable source of information on the population for administrative divisions including small areas. It is invaluable for the allocation of funds from the national treasury. The size of the legislature and local bodies are often determined by this information. Age of the country's population is a significant determinant of the need for a census at regular intervals. It is a well known fact that particular events are known to dominate the needs of certain age groups and the services required. They are briefly: (1) School attendance for specified age groups resulting in the need for schools, teachers, educational equipment, etc. (2) Marriage, child bearing, family formulation and old age which will create a demand for housing, household goods, maternity services, infant and child care facilities and the needs of greying population. The needs of the senior citizens will dominate our country's needs in the future. (3) Economic activity for specified ages requires employment opportunities, vocational training and transportation. However, a new factor will arise with the retirement from active economic life of our senior citizens. This will dominate the age structure of our population in the future, a dominant demographic feature in the next century, which in turn will require increasing financial and medical support for this group of people with the breakup of the extended family system and the tempo of economic activity in our country. The first step in the census operation is to make a complete list of housing units and buildings with maps which will form the frame for the enumeration and the selection of a sample at subsequent intercensal sample surveys carried out by various institutions. The development of the census questionnaire and the planning for data processing will thereafter commence. The data entry and the production of tabulations, analysis of the census data and their dissemination through publications will be the other major operations after the census enumeration. These operations are expensive and time consuming and has to be carefully and methodically executed in a time bound programme so that the users will obtain the census results at the very earliest. However, the enumeration of all the people in the country on the census night is the most important event. To enable every one to get back to their housing units early the government declared a half holiday at the last census. It must be stated that at the last census night we saw in the people of Sri Lanka a good sense, good citizenship and a splendid co-operative spirit manifest in a most outstanding manner to enable the census enumerators to visit them and obtain the required information easily. My hope is that the same sense of goodwill will prevail at the coming census night. Let us all work together to make the burden of census taking less arduous. The purpose of this short account is to focus public and government attention and obtain support for the execution of the next census as this is the correct time to provide the required financial and administrative support. In this connection it is appropriate to mention the support given by the UNDP, UNFPA and the FAO to conduct the 1980 round of censuses in Sri Lanka. Both financial and technical support provided by the UN agencies as well as by the US Census Bureau did in a very great measure help ease the burden of census taking as well as to successfully conduct the last round of censuses. The leading newspapers played a crucial role in educating the public at the correct time. The need for 2000 round of census taking is all the more important, even a limited operation where conditions are not suitable, as we do not have census data after the 1980 round of censuses. As stated earlier a census of population and housing gives a wealth of information. Similarly the census of agriculture and industry has a wealth of information. As they are taken at regular intervals it provides benchmark data. However, since 1981 we had not taken a census, the longest period without a census since 1871. Hence we must make every effort to successful. |
| Canada crime
report Biggest organised crime bust ends 30-year mobster reign The Rothschild’s of the Mafia in very big trouble Kirthie Abeyesekera in Toronto Italian mob-king, Alfonso Caruana, a Canadian citizen and 14 of his gang were rounded up, July 15. Among those arrested are a woman and two of Caruana’s brothers and a nephew. A truck load of 200kg. of cocaine was also seized. The police operation is hailed as the biggest organized-crime bust in Canadian history. At a packed press conference, police were ecstatic about the outcome of the probe that started in Toronto three years ago and spread to Mexico, the United States and Europe. Some 200 detectives were involved in the investigation that brought an end to a 30-year mobster reign. The criminal organization also operated in Venezuela, the Caribbean, Aruba, Thailand and India. "This organization has been recognized as the largest and most powerful drug-smuggling and money-laundering operation in the world," Royal Canadian Mounted Police detective, Ben Soave told reporters. The Cuntrera-Caruana family crime syndicate, dubbed the "Roths-childs of the Mafia," runs a multi-billion dollar financial empire supplying illicit narcotics and laundered crime profits for many of the world’s top underworld families. At a post-press conference interview, Soave, Head of the Toronto Integrated Intelligence Unit, told the "SUNDAY ISLAND" that the police investigation is "a message for major, organized criminals that it is not impossible to detect big crime." "We can clearly attack them and catch up with them," Soave, a 28-year police veteran said, adding that he was happy for the community and the police team that worked to nab the culprits. "If organized crime were a hockey game," Soave quipped, "Mr. Caruana would be Wayne Gretzky." It took so long to bring the criminals to book, Soave observed, due to several reasons, notably, the skill and cunning of the operators, the Byzantine complexity of the enterprise and the lavish lifestyle of the perpetrators, that showed little evidence of crime. The 52-year-old Caruana had $21 million pass through his bank account in a single year. He drove a late-model Cadillac and a Mercedes. Yet, he claimed he made $400 a week, washing cars, and that he had assets of just $250. For their project, police initially picked the Mafia’s own, title, ‘Omerta,’ which, in Italian, means ‘code of silence.’ "The operation was global in outlook, technologically sophisticated and extraordinarily mobile." It enabled organized crime in Canada to reach the national economy and eat into the social fabric, as never before. Detectives said tons of illicit narcotis were being moved around the world. One shipment alone had 11 metric tons. Soave observed that "We‘re a speck of sand in the Sahara desert, compared to their organization, financially and in numbers." The police breakthrough came when two Colombian gangsters met an Italian under-cover cop in Milan, handing over two suitcases stuffed with US $ 1 million in $100 bills. The cash had been tracked all the way from its Colombian source, arriving in Europe by ship. Italian police fed it into a bank, then sat back and watched as it was whisked around the world, stopping briefly several times before returning to Colombia. ‘Project Casablanca,’ launched by the combined police forces of the RCMP, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Italian Carabinieri, was on the brink of a major break-through. Those arrested face criminal charges of conspiracy to import and traffic in illicit narcotics. The maximum penalty in Canada is life-imprisonment. Police say that in an era of slashed budgets, weak bank-reporting legislation and public indifference, law enforcement has rarely been so badly outgunned. This, they say, has turned Canada into a huge, soft target for an ever-changing cast of villains. According to police, modern, organized crime has adopted many of the tools and techniques of multinational business, while adding its own special powers of violence and disregard for all rules. RCMP Deputy Commissioner, Guiliano Zaccardelli, is reported as saying: "When we look at the resources we have to fight organized crime, there is clearly a serious gap, and that gap is growing." The Canadian portion of the operation is estimated at $1 million. One of the major factors contributing to the growing incidence of big crime in Canada is attributed to its liberal immigration and refugee policy that has many loopholes for undesirables to gain a foothold in Canada. Jail sentences are also more lenient than in the US. Analysts say the recent arrests are a wake-up call for Canada where members of organized crime have been flocking to of late. Canada is a nation of immigrants. Few cities in the world are changing as rapidly as Toronto — home to over 140 ethnic groups. While the majority are law-abiding, there are many criminal elements who arrive with other plans. Another factor is Canada’s stability and efficient economic infrastructure allowing funds and communications to flow easily. Multinational crime presents a host of policing difficulties, language and cultural barriers; computer technology that can shunt laundered money around the world with the click of a mouse; slow and sometimes, unhelpful foreign police agencies and squabbles over jurisdiction and seized assets. Satellite phones, computer encryption and other cyberspace revolutions have helped make covert communication and the transfer of funds more secure than ever before. Canada’s Criminal Intelligence Service reports that a total of 18 distinct but frequently connected, major organized-crime groups, with thousands of active members, are known to Canadian police. The principal players are drawn from motor cycle gangs led by the Hells Angels, reputedly, the most powerful and best-organized, with a foothold in almost every province. In Quebec, a battle between the Angels and rivals Rock Machine, for control of the drug trade, left at least 40 people dead in the past three years. Asian criminals — the main focus is white-collar crime, credit-card fraud, telecommunications theft, money laundering and pirating of computer software. Organized shoplifting, car theft and distribution of heroin are other mainstays. Eastern European-based gangs — operate in most parts of Canada The Russian Mafia specialized in smuggling stolen goods from luxury cars to computer equipment. Italian-based groups — These long-entrenched organizations comprise the Sicilian Mafia, the Ndrangheta of Calabria and the US-based La Cosa Nostra, with the Sicilian Mafia regarded as the strongest. Drugs and money-laundering are the main source of funds. Secondary activities include murder, extortion, smuggling and loan sharking. Others include Colombian-based cocaine traffickers and Jamaican-based posses, also heavily involved in the drug trade. Police say that combating the scourge of organized crime calls for more money than ever before. Yet, they face cut-backs. The RCMP’s current budget, for instance, is $174 million less than it was in 1994. In the Cuntrera-Caruana investigation, limited resources almost caused the operation to end. "There have been many expensive investigations that were aborted. This time we stuck with it and we got what we wanted," Soave observed. He told the ‘Sunday Island’ that the age-old adage ‘Crime Does Not Pay,’ is, after all, true. That of course, is in the long run. Much water flows under the bridges, between the commission of crime and its detection. In the meantime, for multi-national criminal gangs, Canada’s streets are indeed, paved with gold. |
| An
Eyewitness Account August 1968 - the Russian invasion of Prague By P. G. Cooray We were in Prague for the 23rd International Geological Congress, which is the occasion for thousands of geoscientists from all over the world to gather in one place every four years. The Russians had been building up their forces on the borders of the country for some weeks and we had been debating whether or not to attend the Congress in view of the dangers of a possible invasion. Although controlled by Communists, a trend towards liberalisation had begun in 1963 in Czechoslovakia. In 1968, the reformers Alexander Dubcek and Ludvik Svoboda had been installed as Party Leader and President, respectively. Anyway, as it seemed safe to go, we did. I went a week before the sessions to take part in an excursion to Bohemia, and this was a great experience. Apart from the fascinating geology that was shown to us, we were privileged to see many interesting places. These included: — the 17th century wooden bridge over the River Otava, — Mendel’s garden and the monument to him in the monastery at Brno, — the town square of Cesky Krumlov, with its Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectural styles, — the Gothic cathedral of St. Barbara, at Kutna Hora, built in 1500, and — Hluboka Castle. Hluboka was probably the most exciting experience, for we saw the wonderful treasures in it, like the armoury, and the library, and had dinner that night in the castle off the castle’s plate and glassware. I remember that as we entered the castle we had to remove our shoes and put on soft slippers — this was to prevent the wearing out of the wooden floors of the castle by the shoes of thousands of visitors who go there every year. Another unforgettable experience was seeing the great Mendel’s garden where he probably spent many hours between the experiments he carried out on heredity. Cello recital After the recital we had dinner in a restaurant with several geologist friends from Finland and elsewhere. It was such a happy and enjoyable evening, spent in listening to wonderful music and sharing a meal with friends, but little did we know then what was in store for us! The next morning was the ceremonial inauguration of the Congress. One thing I do remember of that event was the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the great orchestras of that time, playing of Smetana’s symphonic poem, "Vltava". That was a moving performance. I also remember that we then met Dr. and Mrs. D. N. Wadia, who had come to Ceylon in 1938 as Government Mineralogist. As an undergraduate in University College, Colombo, I was associated with him in the Ceylon Geographical Society, which was a very active body at that time. The Technical Sessions began in the afternoon. Unfortunately, Dr. Wadia fell ill soon after, was hopitaised, and had to be flown back to India. The Technical Session began that afternoon, and mine was the last paper to be presented in my Section that day. That was lucky for me, as things turned out. We retired early after a very full day’s activities, when we met friends from all over the world and renewed contacts we had made in the course of my career as a geologist. The next morning, when I woke and looked out of the window, I saw groups of people gathered together on the street below, talking quietly and looking worried. I told my wife that it looked as if "something was up". So I got dressed quickly and went down to the lobby, where I saw the staff gathered together, the women in tears and the men looking distracted. Invasion For the rest of the day we kept looking out of our windows, and sometime during that day we saw the Russian tanks and armoured cars driving through the street below; some even parked in front of our hotel. On the opposite of the road was the office of "Rude Pravo", the main Czech newspaper, and there was a large crowd outside it, talking and gesticulating. One consequence of the invasion was that food was short, and our meals in the hotel were restricted to what was available there. No food could come into the city and the hotel. On the second and third days, the three of us ventured out into the neighbourhood, and I was able to surreptitiously photograph some of the scenes in the city, especially those featuring the tanks and armoured cars. (Unfortunately most of these 35 mm slides have deteriorated with the passage of time). One day we even walked to Wenceslaus Square, the focal point of the demonstrations against the Russians by large crowds of students. Some shooting incidents did take place there, and one student even set himself on fire in protest. Crowds of students in cars and lorries kept careering around the city, and we even saw groups of citizens talking to the soldiers in their tanks and armoured cars. We learnt later that some of the Warsaw Pact soldiers did not even know where they were! Those were trying and stressful days for all of us. Some delegates who had come to Congress by car were able to get out by car, but those of us who had come by air had to wait until some trains were running. Eventually we joined a group of British geologists, and we managed ,on the fourth or fifth day, to get on a train to Nuremberg, sharing the compartment with Professor E. A. Vincent, who was Professor of Geology at Oxford at the time. I had been warned that our things would be checked on the way out, so I sewed my exposed films in the lining of the jacket. In the event, although there was some checking on the train, which frightened my daughter, but no one looked at my jacket! From Nuremberg we flew to Zurich and stayed for some days with my wife’s cousin who had told us to come there if there was any trouble. We stayed for a few days in a small village named Fislisbach before returning to London and back to our home in Nigeria. |
| Count your blessings (Continued from last Sunday) by
Upatissa Hulugalle In more recent times it has been different as the new breed of politicians after 1977 were shrewd. We are all happy that the UNP, president and the two who might have been presidents who sacrificed their lives for politics did leave their loved ones in affluent circumstances. Scandals We are lucky we have to worry about only Mangala's credit card. They get on to something of an important personality which seems irregular, exaggerate it and the public laps it up. No one tries to see the other side of it. Credit cards are given by banks to their clients and their nominees. In this case it has been given to minister in charge of telecommunications by Sri Lanka Telecommunications Ltd. and the minister a responsible person does not abuse it, but uses it in doing his work on telecommunications. If he uses for his personal purchases he will refund it to the company. It has been past practice of ministers in the UNP governments to pass on their travel entertainment etc. to statutory bodies in their ministries. In addition there was the Gam Udawas and Mahapola tamashas which were image building gimmicks which were organized by their ministries. There were also the vast profits of government contractors and suppliers who won tenders available for personal obligations. A news reporter's question of what the government had done, spurred me on to write this article. I am unbiased as I have always voted UNP even at the referendum. It goes way back, as a child visiting Woodlands with a journalist father, and the then Minister of Agriculture being kind to me after a mishap. The minister founded the UNP later and my father had a great regard for him and was his biographer. Democracy The government has set about privatizing most commercial undertakings, in a fair manner with efficient officers running PERC. It has accepted World Bank and IMF advice on monetary and fiscal policy, thereby receiving large amounts of aid and grants. It has welcomed foreign investment. It has improved on the UNP policies of incentives for the private sector. Tax credits on new issues in public quoted companies and 15% tax on agriculture, and making gems completely free of tax. It has given special concessions for thrust industries. Some of these ideas even the brilliant Ronnie de Mel had not thought of. It was able to bring down interest rates and help the business sector considerably. There have been no food shortages. Electricity and telephones are readily available. As regards clothing I have never seen our girls dressed better. It has allowed international schools to continue and given opportunities for the best children with means to compete with the best in the UK in entering Oxbridge and Ivy league US colleges. Meanwhile it is making every effort to improve our education system with special emphasis for the poor children to get educated. The ending of the war is the president's highest priority because it will usher in the golden years of her presidency. She will go down in history as the person who ended the fifteen year insurgency. Jaffna Tamils If an acceptable peace package could be worked out, the Tamil speaking province, backed by the international Tamils will contribute in a great way to our economy, and will create jobs not only for the Tamils but for the Sinhalese in the province and in the neighbouring areas. An interesting question is asked by the Tamils. "You Sinhalese have governed for the past fifty years. Each party says the other party has messed the country. You persecute and displace us from our homes. Give us the country to rule and we will do a better job and treat you fairly. Or at least give us the Tamil speaking areas we will show you, how to get the best out of the land and people, and you can follow our example." Truly we oppose each other not only at elections but forever, and sometimes murdering each other and always depending on an estate Tamil to remain in power. I accept that the cost of food has caused hardship to the poor, but that is because we lack productivity and there is no produce from the Jaffna farmer coming south. The elders and the handicapped are in a bad way. The government I am sure will look into the possibility of social security after the war. Share market May be due to the Asian crisis, one may not see as much foreign investment. The example of a Japanese company should give hope to all of us. Their representative here is very bullish and seems confident that the president will find a solution, and has invested a billion rupees here in tea, ceramics and in ayurveda and is working on setting up a warehouse in Europe to market Sri Lankan produce. We have to appreciate that in spite of the large sums spent on the war, and the Asian economic crisis, where so many Asian nations are reeling, our economic indicators are best ever. Our companies and banks show highest profits ever. Our newspapers are full of advertisements of job vacancies here and abroad. We have to count our blessings that we have a bright and intelligent head of government, who was bred for this post. As a Christian I believe that the Almighty, accepts all races equally, and is happy with the president's path to peace and has blessed our land with enough rain, high tea prices, low fuel prices and low unemployment and with the best economic indicators ever. We should all rally round the president and endorse her peace plan, as she can make a sound judgment for all of us and has the charisma to make it acceptable. |
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