Thursday, August 25, 2011

‘Migration Resource Centre’ set up for the benefit of migrant workers IN SRILANKA..!!!


‘Migration Resource Centre’ set up for the benefit of migrant workers
August 24, 2011, 10:48 pm


By Jayantha de Silva


All foreign employment agencies would come under a rating system similar to the prevalent system for luxury star class hotels, Minister of Foreign Employment Dilan Perera said on Tuesday.


He was speaking at the launch of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau’s newest facility named ‘Migration Resource Centre’ at the SLFEB where a 24-hour hot line enables all migrant workers to contact resource personnel for any purpose or access any information they may require.


The occasion was attended by a large gathering of foreign employment agents.


During a recent tour to Malaysia he found that certain employment agencies were resorting to unethical practices. Steps would be taken to suspend the license of those unscrupulous agencies after giving them a time frame to rectify their short comings, he said.


A fourth of the employment agencies were found to be corrupt, the Minister said.


He said that the current emphasis is on training trainees for the Malaysian job market.


He described the newly inaugurated facility as the ‘e ombudsman’ which empowers those Sri Lankans who had gone to the desert (Velikathara) to share their grievances with those from their motherland.


He expressed optimism that the facility would surpass the government information centre which acts in a similar capacity.


Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunge said that the remittance earned last year from migrant workers amounted to US$ 4.1 Billion.


Outlining the importance of migrant workers for the country’s coffers, he said, that they toiled under difficult conditions and the launch of the facility was in line with the Mahinda Chintana concept for the development of the worker.


He urged that the issues of these workers accessed via this facility be speedily redressed.


Chairman of the SLFEB Kingsley Ranawaka said that the 7,000 complaints received per year had been reduced to 3,000.


He said that welfare centres for the benefit of migrant families would also be set up.


The Resource Centre became a reality as a result of SLFEB’s endeavour to reach the people. It will be functioning 24 hours all 7 days a week.


Richard Danziger Chief de Mission International Organisation for Migrants said that Sri Lanka was the 5th country to have established a Migration Resource Centre. The European Union had financially assisted the venture which is a great benefit to people of Sri Lanka.


www island.lk

Monday, August 22, 2011

SEE! HOW SINHALA REGIME/ADMN DISCRIMINATE TAMIL MUSLIMS IN NW-SRILANKA! IC/UN INTERVENTION TO SAVE TAMIL SPEAKING PEOPLE NOW...!!!

Parents say they were chased away when requested the examination officials to provide teachers who spoke and understood Tamil

A group of students who sat for the year-five scholarship exam in north western Sri Lanka complain of serious difficulties to answer exam papers due to lack of Tamil language supervisors.
65 Tamil-medium school children have sat for the exam in Monnekulama Maha Vidayalaya in the Kurunegala district.

The children are students from Abukkagama Muslim Maha Vidyalaya and Galpanawa Muslim Vidayalaya.



Sinhala medium teachers could not answer when they raised queries, say children who sat for the exam
Their parents have requested the examination officials on Sunday to provide teachers who spoke and understood Tamil.

Instead of meeting with their request, the officials chased them away, parents told journalist Prasad Purnimal Jaymanne who visited Monnekulama Maha Vidayalaya.

When the parents raised the issue after the exam, officials have called the police in.

Muslim children who sat for the exam told BBC Sandeshaya that the Sinhala medium teachers could not answer when they raised queries with regard to the Tamil-medium question papers.

A discrimination that has carried on for ages against a minority in Sri Lanka, the parents said, has now reached school level exams.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Creativity........!!! ...Rosaine Cooray

When I prepare for lectures I try to remember a line from the movie 'A Beautiful Mind' in which John Nash mentions to his students how 'classes will dull your mind and destroy the potential for authentic creativity.' Hence, I include as many activities, discussions, role plays as possible that enable students to think on their feet, to demonstrate their contribution to the lectures and finally to have fun when learning.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to assess students in groups of three on their presentations, where they had to showcase their knowledge in their chosen area, along with a video clip for three minutes, which they had produced as support material. Many strategies where used to drive the message home; enacting the beggar culture ruled by beggar masters to show the leader-follower relationships, storytelling about real life, humble transformational leaders who make a difference in everyday life, videos that clearly portrayed the stereotypes and discrimination at work or team dynamics using analogies from the natural world of ant trails and bee hives. They were all good particularly for an undergraduate, almost reaching the bar of excellence. However, the last presentation for the day, made me re-evaluate my assessment criteria altogether.

This last team proposed a novel and ground breaking idea to leadership that challenged parenting and the education system. The video was created with interviews of people from different ages and socio economic backgrounds. What they proposed was to identify and select street-smart children from all strata, who show tremendous amount of will in their childhood.

They would then be groomed with moral guidance and exposed to new experiences, thereby encouraging them to embrace growth in all areas, with a structured support system. How unethical? How can you select only a few so called 'promising' children? They all change as they grow up, don't they? And why do you have to put them into a box from the very beginning? How about the other children? Children are children; are they not entitled to the same privileges of support and guidance? My initial reaction was 'have I not taught them ethics?' I could see even other students in the audience becoming uneasy, like I felt at that moment. Of course the Q&A was a heated debate.

It took me a couple of minutes of silence after the class to truly appreciate that last presentation. It was not about 'how' I felt; it was about getting me to feel something in the first place. Only true creativity can do that. Regardless of its outcome or its viability, the courage in approaching this controversial idea was commendable. The greatest forte of this team was that they got the audience to think differently, as they stretched the boundaries of our philosophy. It was a compelling idea that paved the way to more divergent thinking about how we rear, nurture, educate, expose, morally help and mould the young generation to become future leaders who make a positive difference in the society. And, this is a very timely topic that is both local and universal.

It is not leadership that I focus on today; it is creativity that is both original and adaptive, in that they make a meaningful contribution. We require creativity in everything from mathematics, social sciences and performing arts, to planning a trip, dressing up to work and preparing a meal. 'Big C' creativity is typified by extreme originality and inventiveness like in the case of an artist or a poet. The 'little c' creativity refers to everyday creativity and ingenuity in which people come up with creative solutions for daily problems.
Many managers complain how their teams have to be told, how they don't take initiative or think outside the box. We all know that the future requires more than followers of Arthur C. Clark or Geoffrey Bawa or Carl Muller. The future needs people who believe that they are crazy enough to go against the herd to bring about innovation and change.

Even though some are inherently more creative than others, almost all of us have the capacity to rise up to the occasion when required. In fact, research reveals that the lack of creativity is a habit acquired through conformity and rigid systems. Apart from the passive and hard-grounded circuits of thinking resulting from our spoon-feeding education and tuition cultures, creativity at work does not take place due to lack of freedom given, discouragement of calculated risk taking, fear of being judged and evaluated or a few dominant personalities who always think that only they are right.

We cannot be creative, not because we can't think but because we can't stop thinking. Normally, it strikes you when your mind is quiet. Being creative requires love for learning, curiosity, engagement, open-mindedness, breaking mental sets, reframing familiar problems in unique ways, understanding complexities, keeping all options open, avoiding premature judgements and 'productive forgetting' of ideas that stubbornly repress all other novel thoughts. One has got to be prepared to be creative; it has to be invited and welcomed, so you could also allow ideas to incubate.

However, in an organization, after one puts it all together, the ideas have to be verified by others for feasibility and further fine-tuning. How can you promote creativity in organisations? You can train people to be creative, make jobs intrinsically interesting, encourage openness to new experiences and take them on thinking expeditions. You can also give your people the time to question the same problem from different angles and solutions to cross-pollinate, have realistic deadlines for creative projects, promote diversity, provide support from the top and reward and recognise people for creativity.

What if you are an individual wanting to be creative and innovative? We all have a great need to belong, to be a part of the wave, but you must trust that your personality is unique, hence your contribution to whatever you do. Even at first when nothing is favouring you and when others may think that your ideas are odd and unpopular, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. And of course I am proud of my students!

(The writer is a Business Psychologist working in Colombo and can be reached at rozaine@forte.lk).

Island.lk

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Did youknow by the time you finish reading this you will have travelled 1000s of kilometres without any bumps.!!!


IRAIWA உண்டென்று சொல்வதுன்த​ன் படைப்பல்லவா​!


Rajes Yasmin William

ARE YOU GOING FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET?


Did youknow by the time you finish reading this you will have travelled thousands of kilometres without any bumps!


Considerthe following:
The earthis 40,000 kilometres incircumference and rotates once every 24 hours.
Thus,points near the equator move atabout 1,600 kilometres an hour. (The poles ofcourse just spin on the spot)
Again theEarth itself orbits the Sun at 30 kilometres a second,
while thesolar system as a wholetravels around the hub of the Milky Way at an astonishing249 kilometres a second!


Bullets, bycomparison, travel at less than 1.2 kilometres a second.


Our planetearth is truly a wonder- a rare, beautiful, blue and white jewel in space in asuperbly organised Solar system.


The sunwhich is a medium sized star is the ‘nucleus’ around which the earth and the otherplanets with their moons
move inPRECISE orbits.Year after year they revolve with such mathematical certaintythat astronomers can
accuratelypredict where they will beat any future time.


As the earthorbits the sun once a year the earth travels at a speed of about 108,000 km anhour.
That speedis JUST RIGHT to offset the gravitational pull of the sun and keep the earth atthe proper distance.
If thatspeed were decreased the earth would be pulled toward the sun and become ascorched wasteland like Mercury.
However, ifEarth’s orbital speed wereincreased, it would move farther away from the sunand could become an icywaste like Pluto.


Inaddition, the earth consistently makes a complete rotation on its axis every 24hours.
Thisprovides regular periods of light and darkness. IF the earth rotated on its axisjust once a year
it wouldmean the same side of the earth would be facing the sun all year long and
that sidewould become a furnace likedesert, while the side away would become a sub zerowasteland
where fewor no living things could exist.


WE LIVE INA VERY FINELY TUNED UNIVERSE. (And get a free trip around the sun every year!!!!!!!!!)


Could this really have come about by chance? Take the back cover of your watch and lookingat the precise timing mechanism,

simply askyourself ‘was this designed by an intelligent person or is it a resolve ofan explosion in a metal factory?


CREATION ISTHE PROOF OF OUR CREATOR

AND WE HAVE NO EXCUSE NOT TO BELIEVE. Romans 1:20









ஒருங்கிணைந்த புலம்பெயர்ந்த தமிழ்நெஞ்சங்களே!
Let us recognize
we are praying to the King of the universe

Creator of the world

who made the mountains
and who can move them
From இமயம் to இலங்கை
I-F NECESSARY!! Matthew 17:20


PLEASE DEDICATE
THE FIRST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH
TO ALMIGHTY GOD
WITH ALL DAY PRAYERS AND FASTING
FOR THE DELIVERANCE OF OUR OPPRESSED PEOPLE IN CEYLON

This Sunday 7th August 2011