How to integrate Open source Java Technologies to Build Social Capital to achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs) will be the theme of the Java World Congress to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 26-28 Nov this year. Humans are social animals. From time immemorial history is replete with a plethora of examples of how humans interacted with family, small groups, society , country and the world at large to transact his business. While these social contacts are salutary to building health networks, others have used them to build tension, conflict and anxiety in our dealings. While interacting with a global village we observe how the multi-faceted technology and communication expansions have brought us very close to each other redefining the old boundaries.

If we go deeper into social capital we observe that Social capital is an instantiated informal norm that promotes cooperation between two or more individuals. The norms that constitute social capital can range from a norm of reciprocity between two friends, all the way up to complex and elaborately articulated doctrines like Christianity or Confucianism. They must be instantiated in an actual human relationship: the norm of reciprocity exists in potentia in my dealings with all people, but is actualized only in my dealings with my friends. By this definition, trust, networks, civil society, and the like which have been associated with social capital are all epiphenominal, arising as a result of social capital but not constituting social capital itself.

Not just any set of instantiated norms constitutes social capital; they must lead to cooperation in groups and therefore are related to traditional virtues like honesty, the keeping of commitments, reliable performance of duties, reciprocity, and the like. A norm like the one described by Edward Banfield as characterizing southern Italy, which enjoins individuals to trust members of their immediate nuclear family but to take advantage of everyone else, is clearly not the basis of social capital outside the family

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World Congress

Prof.Madurasinghe's foreword to this new book….

Sri Lanka is at a point of transition. The resultant collective consciousness will provide an ideal platform to critically re-examine certain historical and cultural assumptions carried over the years and a willingness to open to a paradigm shift in thinking. It is natural when critical  scholarship progresses, new names, places, and traditions will emerge challenging hitherto accepted views. This is an inevitable aspect of growth and progress if we embrace them with a spirit of humility and transcend the barriers of petty partisan polemics.

This book ‘Ramayana & Historical Rawana’ edited by Mr.Neil Kiriella  is a valiant attempt to capture such new findings and bring in historicity to our legends aimed at the general public. This effort is indeed salutary and hopefully will lead to a lively debate and help untangle many webs woven around the pre- historical myths that have been passed down from generation to generation.

There is a growing body of emerging research to suggest that modern human beings evolved in South Asia, South-East Asia, and perhaps in South China. This challenges the widely held view that they originated inAfrica. This will drastically change the current views we hold about our pre -history.

Dr. Siran Deraniyagala, Former Commissioner of Archaeology , at a discussion held at the Hotel Sigiriya in Dec 2000, as well as at several lectures he delivered subsequently stated that as a result of radiocarbon- tests and excavations carried out in the recent years, the picture of our early civilisation is beginning to drastically change.

The discovery of cultivation of oats and barley, and herding about 10,000 years ago (initially at 17,000 B.P.) in the Horton Plains has given a totally new dimension to what has been known about the origin of farming and herding in the world. It has so far been assumed that it was West Asia, South-East Asia and East Asia, which formed separate cradles of revolution in the subsistence strategy. But now we have yet another nucleus – namely, South Asia.

This research was taken further by Dr. D.T. Hawkey of Arizona State University, where she used dental morphological traits to establish the genetic distance between populations. It is comparative work of the greatest value, and what she says is that these dental traits are genetically determined, and have nothing to do with environment. She has done comparative work not only on the Sri Lankan population but various Indian groups and further a field into West Asia and South-East Asia on the one hand, and Australia on the other. She has come up with important results on the genetic affinities of our prehistoric humans. This has confirmed the results of the earlier work done by Cornell University.

There is a large volume of  evidence to suggest that Sri Lanka was a major player on the world stage. WhileChina was still engaged in formative and destructive wars, Sri Lanka had great kings, great art and monumental works of irrigation and buildings. This little island was evidently on a par with ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Egypt of the Pharaohs. Long before the Romans (400 BC), Sri Lanka had hydro spas, swimming pools, public baths with spray-jet showers, major irrigation reservoirs and hydro-engineering skills that worked accurately to a fall of one inch in one kilometre.

In the light of emerging evidence , it is also salutary that a vast of people have started to appreciate an ancient ruler who lived in Sri Lanka by the name of Ravana. This name became familiar to people from the story of Rama and Seetha in Valmiki's Ramayana, which is the oldest edition of Ramayana and is the source of all Ramayana that is relevant in various cultures .  King Kumaradasa who lived in the sixth Century AD authored Janakiharana which reflects the Rama-Seetha story that was popular among the masses.

Legend has it that  King Ravana was  a very learned and pious man, a wise, just and peaceful Ruler, a loving husband, a fond father & brother. A famous flutist & composer well versed in Vedas, Angas and Sastras. He is called Dasis Ravana which means the king with 10 great talents. He was a descendant of Surya Wansha and Hela Raskshasa tribe. (Ancient Sinhalese tribe) He was one of the best fighters in Angampora, the traditional martial arts of the people.

King Dasis Ravana was a great Scholar in Ayurvedic medicine. He was the person who invented Arka Shastra. The book Arka Prakshaya reveals this truth to the present world. He wrote several books revealing the cures for many diseases. In one book he wrote "Eating beef is the cause to infect ninety eight new diseases to human beings. The book "Kumara Tantraya" which reveals the treatments for infant diseases was written by him accepting the request of his pregnant queen Mandodari. 

In available records Ravana also emerges as a just ruler who governed the country very well. There was internal peace and no feud. He was the head of civil, judicial, military and spiritual administration of his vast and extensive realm. There was obedience not through fear but out of love for the safety of the peace-giving monarch. Harmony prevailed.

Legend also has it that Ravana had his abode on the summit of an awesome rock,  and that his kingdom ofLankapura surrounded it. It is said that the rock itself was used as a device rather like a sundial to calculate time in his kingdom. In ancient times this rock was known as Lanka Pabbata or Lankagiri, both of which mean Rock of Lanka.

Going down to the southern coast to Galle is another interesting place associated with the Rama and Sita legend. It is a mountain called Rhumassala Kanda. From the top of this mountain you get a panoramic view of the Galle harbour and its environs. On a clear day you could even see Adam's Peak, Sri Pada.

As the author skillfully navigates from ancient legends to historical sites and dwells on Brahmi scripts , Rock inscriptions and Asura Empire, you will surely find it a rich source of many challenging views that may appear contrary to what you have hitherto believed. That would then serve the purpose of the authors well indeed !! “In Sri Lanka there is historical and archaeological evidences Rishi Thrunabindu, Rishi Pulasthi, Rawana and his dynasty. Taking all these into thought an attempt is made to indicate the incidents that meet recorded history. The reader may be puzzled by the differing theories of the origins and its analysis.”

Ramayana Research Team

Kings of Sri Lanka   

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This week the Legal Theory Lexicon entry focuses on "ambiguity" and "vagueness"–two important concepts for the theory of interpretation.  Some legal texts are ambiguous–they can have two or more distinct meanings.  And some legal texts are vague–they use concepts that have indefinite application to particular cases.  And some legal texts are both vague and ambiguous–they have multiple meanings, some (or all) of which have indefinite applications.  Because "vagueness" and "ambiguity" are basic concepts in the theory of interpretation, its important to master each of them and to understand the difference between them.

As always, this entry in the Legal Theory Lexicon is aimed at law students, especially first year law students, with an interest in legal theory.

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This article argues that photo identification laws represent a continuation of the use of economic forces as a way to block people of lower economic status from participation in the electorate. These laws are similar to other restrictions on the franchise, such as property requirements and poll taxes, because the rules required the voter to demonstrate the ability to meet an economic test – the ability to show a certain property value, the ability to pay a tax, or the ability to obtain a photo ID. The potential effect of such photo-voter identification laws is that the voters at the lowest end of the socioeconomic scale are effectively excluded from voting because they are the least able to afford the cost of voting exacted by the law. This article contends that this type of exclusion is antithetical to the nature of democracy and ultimately constitutes a tyranny of the majority against the minority at the lowest level of socioeconomic status. This article begins by providing an overview of American photo-identification laws and discussing the modern cost of voting to the voter. Then it will discuss the history of voter access in the United States, with a focus on Harper v. Virginia, which held that the ability to pay a poll tax had no relationship with the right to vote and, the paper contends, articulated a vision of the right to vote unencumbered by class bias. The paper will then consider the potential socioeconomic impact of photo identification laws upon voters and how those impacts are similar to historical class-based discrimination. It will examine how the courts have been indifferent to the costs levied upon on the right to vote by voter identification laws – most recently in the Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Marion County – and how that indifference tracks the conflict over the socioeconomic burdens of voting raised in Harper. Finally, the paper will recommend how to reframe the standards articulated in Harper to take into account this structural socioeconomic bias inherent in, and damaging to, the right to vote.

Predictions that the number of redundancies in the UK would rise sharply during the credit crunch have been substantiated by the figures from the Office for National Statistics. The impact of the economic slowdown has also been demonstrated by fewer job vacancies and a rise in the number of redundancies particularly in the finance, business services and construction industries. 

Redundancy is one of the most traumatic events an employee may experience. Announcement of redundancies will invariably have an adverse impact on morale, motivation and productivity. The negative effects can be reduced by sensitive handling of redundant employees and those remaining.

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