Washington enters fifth day of shutdown, no end in sight

Washington enters fifth day of shutdown, no end in sight

Fri, Oct 4 2013
Obama: negotiations can't be done 'with gun held to the head of the American people'

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) addresses reporters during a news conference with fellow House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol in Washington October 4, 2013.

REUTERS-Jonathan Ernst
By Thomas Ferraro and Caren BohanWASHINGTON | Sat Oct 5, 2013 4:26am EDT

(Reuters) - Washington entered the fifth day of a partial government shutdown on Saturday with no end in sight even as another, more serious conflict over raising the nation's borrowing authority started heating up.

The U.S. House of Representatives prepared for a Saturday session but with no expectations of progress on either the shutdown or a measure to raise the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Congress must act by October 17 in order to avoid a government debt default.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner tried on Friday to squelch reports that he would ease the way to a debt ceiling increase, stressing that Republicans would continue to insist on budget cuts as a condition of raising the borrowing authority.

On the shutdown, Boehner said Republicans were holding firm in their demand that in exchange for passing a bill to fund and reopen the government, President Barack Obama and his Democrats must agree to delay implementation of Obama's health care law.

The launch date for Obamacare health insurance exchanges came and went on October 1, meaning Republicans are now in a more difficult political position of trying to stop something that has already begun.

Although essential government functions like national security and air traffic control continue, the economic and policy effects of the shutdown are amplified the longer hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain at home and unpaid.

Negotiations on tax and free trade treaties are on hold, enforcement of sanctions against Iran and Syria are being hindered, and a government tester of dangerous consumer products spends his days at home.

"Do not mistake this momentary episode in American politics as anything more than a moment of politics," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters at an Asia-Pacific leaders conference in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday.

"Nothing will diminish our commitment to Asia...we will continue to fulfill our responsibilities and our engagement around the world," said Kerry, who is standing in for Obama after the president cancel his Asian trip.

TEMPERS FRAY

Nerves and sometimes tempers frayed on Friday after several weeks of long sessions of Congress and non-stop posturing.

"This isn't some damn game," said Boehner, responding to a Wall Street Journal article that quoted an unidentified White House official saying Democrats were "winning" the shutdown battle.

The Democratic president reiterated that he was willing to negotiate with Republicans, but said, "We can't do it with a gun held to the head of the American people."

"There's no winning when families don't have certainty over whether they're going to get paid or not," Obama told reporters when he visited a downtown Washington lunch spot that was offering a discount to furloughed federal government workers.

The shutdown began on Tuesday when the Republican-led House of Representatives refused to approve a bill funding the government unless it included measures designed to delay or defund key provisions of Obama's signature legislation, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which are now being implemented.

Obama again appealed to Boehner to bring a "clean" funding bill - without reference to the health reforms - to a vote in the House, where many Democrats believe it could pass with a combination of Democrats and a few of the majority Republicans.

POSSIBLE MANEUVER

Democratic leaders in the House said on Friday they were working on a maneuver that, if successful, would force a vote on legislation to fully reopen the federal government.

The plan involves a rarely used "discharge petition" that would dislodge an existing bill from a committee and send it to the House floor if a simple majority of lawmakers in the chamber sign the petition.

Such a move would take a week or so to clear procedural hurdles in the House, according to Democratic U.S. Representative George Miller. A House vote might not come until at least October 14, which is a federal holiday, said Miller from California.

Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter of New York called on 22 moderate House Republicans to put their "voting cards where your mouths are" and help end the shutdown.

Slaughter said that although the 22 have declared support for an unconditional bill to fund the government, they have sided with their own Republican leaders and the conservative Tea Party wing in repeatedly opposing Democratic efforts to bring such a Senate bill up for a House vote.

"When the opportunity arose, courage failed them," Slaughter said in a House speech.

The government was obliged to close many of its operations because Congress failed to pass a spending bill by October 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

Facing public anger over the government shutdown, the House has adopted a strategy of voting piecemeal to fund some popular federal agencies - like the Veterans Administration, the National Park Service and the National Institutes of Health - that are partially closed.

Republicans know that neither the Democratic-controlled Senate nor Obama will agree to that approach, but it allows them to accuse Democrats of working against the interests of veterans, national parks and cancer patients.

"PIECEMEAL" FUNDING BILLS

House Republicans have been working through nearly a dozen bills to fund targeted programs. They included: nutrition programs for low-income women and their children; a program to securenuclear weapons and non-proliferation; intelligence gathering; border patrols; weather monitoring; Head Start school programs for the poor. With a major storm approaching the Gulf coast, one of the measures passed by the House on Friday would fund federal disaster assistance.

The Democratic-controlled Senate says it will reject the piecemeal funding measures and Obama has said he would veto them. One measure the White House does support is a bill to retroactively pay federal workers once the government reopens, likely to pass the House on Saturday.

Global stocks posted a loss for the week while the dollar hovered near an eight-month low on investor fears the budget standoff in Washington will drag on until politicians reach a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

The shutdown and the possible failure to raise the debt ceiling, have prompted a number of warnings from big business.

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, addressing a possible default, said in a statement, "It would be the height of irresponsibility for any public official to consider such a course. In fact, even the discussion of default poses great risk to our economy and to our country."

The government's September employment report, the most widely watched economic data both on Wall Street and Main Street, had been scheduled for release on Friday but was a casualty of the shutdown.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Alina Selyukh, Roberta Rampton and Richard Cowan in the United States and Lesley Wroughton in Nusa Dua, Indonesia; Writing by Fred Barbash, Claudia Parsons and Michael Perry; Editing by David Storey, Tim Dobbyn and Nick Macfie)

U.S.POLITICS

'தமிழீழத்தில் இன விருத்திக்கு தடை! கிளிநொச்சியில் கட்டாய நிரந்தர கருக்கலைப்பு !` விசாரணை நடத்து!

Family Planning In Kilinochchi Under Scrutiny
By Megara Tegal

A controversial report titled ‘Coercive Population Control in Kilinochchi’ by an anonymous group known as The Social Architects (TSA) has incited public uproar not only in Sri Lanka but in the international arena as well. Last week, the President of Pasumai Tayagam and former Health Minister of India, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, termed the incident ‘genocide’ and urged the UN to carry out an investigation, while speaking at the UN 68th Annual General Meeting in New York.

The Sunday Leader travelled to Kilinochchi to investigate the claims that women in three villages in Kilinochchi viz Veravil, Valaipaddu and Keranchi, were gathered at clinics and schools, where a Progesterone-only-subdermal implant (POSDI) was inserted into their upper-arms.

The TSA report

According to the report many of the women claim to have been taken to these clinics under false claims that the clinics were to conduct nutrition check-ups for their children. Once they arrived at the clinic they were informed about the contraception and told that they needed it as it is in their medical interest to not have more children. The women felt coerced into it as they did not have time to think it through or consult their husbands.

When the women expressed that they did not want the contraception, the medical staff, comprising doctors and midwives, had responded menacingly that their husbands would have to undergo the procedure instead. The women then felt compelled to give in.

The TSA report quotes a few of the women, one of whom is a 36 year old mother: “my youngest child is eight months old and my older child is three years old. The health volunteers asked me to come with the clinic card to weigh my children. They also said specialists are coming from the Kilinochchi district hospital.
I was excited to see big doctors who are knowledgeable. I went to the hospital and they weighed my children, but then they made us wait. When my turn came they spoke to me about the pros of not having any more children and told me that I am better off with only two children. I was of two minds and they sent me to the doctor.

The doctor spoke to me nicely and told me that rich and educated people in Sri Lanka and America use this method. This way my two children will be better off. How can I argue with such educated people? I hesitantly went ahead. But a few days later, I developed this pain and I went to the hospital. They treated me but I wanted to see the doctor who did this to me, but he wasn’t there, and the other doctor told me that he doesn’t know anything about this. The other doctor told me that I will be okay, but now I am not okay. How can these educated people do this to us? I wish they gave me time to think about this. They forced us to make a decision on the spot. I couldn’t speak to my husband or anyone that I knew.  These doctors are not nice people. They cheated me”.

The report further stated that some women said they informed their husbands about it once they returned home; and their husbands reacted furiously, accusing their women of infidelity. Others complained about feeling ill during the days following the insertion of the POSDI.

What is POSDI

POSDI is a relatively new form of reversible contraception. The implant is a small rod that is inserted under the skin of the upper-arm of the woman, and it prevents ovulation for 3 to 5 years. The particular POSDI given to the women in Kilinochchi is expected to function up to 5 years, according to the medical staff that administered the contraception.

The WHO states: “Subdermal implantable contraceptives are highly effective, easy to use and carry a low risk of side-effects. These features make them a good option for women in under-resourced settings. However, data are lacking on the performance of contraceptive implants compared with other contraceptive methods”.

POSDI is also said to be an extremely costly form on contraception as well. The medical staff in Kilinochchi estimated that it would cost roughly Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000, making it inaccessible to those who live in the fishing villages of Kilinochchi as they are low income earners.

The side-effects of using POSDI include hypertension, weight gain, irregular periods, and hormonal imbalance, which the TSA report charges were not explained to the women by the medical professionals in Kilinochchi. It goes on to say that after-insertion care information provided by the doctors and nurses was false and misleading.

Side-effects rare but low chance of removal

Sources close to the medical staff that conducted the contraception insertion, told The Sunday Leader side-effects are rare, but they include spotting. “Spotting is when a few spots of blood appear when it isn’t expected in the cycle. Most women find this irritating as in our community women usually cannot enter temples during their period and right after their period they need to have a (ritualistic) bath. So the women find this troublesome.”

However, when asked about the high cost of POSDI and whether the removal of the rod will be carried out, the source responded that removal is not something they take lightly because of the high cost and unavailability of the contraception. “It’s the best form of contraception for the women who want contraception here in Kilinochchi. We’ve come across many husbands who find all sort of problems with the more common forms of contraception – from the condom to the loop- and the women don’t take the pill regularly.

In fact if they forget to take the pill on one day, the next day they take two pills. This method of contraception will function naturally for five years. It is also very expensive so and the government will not be purchasing anymore POSDIs in future. Once it’s been inserted it cannot be used again and must be discarded,” he added suggesting it would be wasteful to extract the rod.

Medical staff speak

The Sunday Leader spoke to women in Veravil in groups, outside their houses and at small clinics located in the village. Within these groups of women some admitted to having heard about the contraception that was carried out, a few women oddly said they did not know about it. One of the women who admitted to having heard about it said that she too had been called to the clinic for a nutrition check-up for her child.

“My child was weighed and they told me how to feed him properly, but I wasn’t asked to take any form of contraception,” she recalled. This corresponds with explanations given by medical staff sources who said that only women with two or more children, both of whom (as well as the mother) were undernourished, were administered the POSDIs.

Menaka is a local from Veravil who has been volunteering at the Kilinochchi hospital. She told The Sunday Leader, that she identified large families who suffered from acute malnutrition.

“While visiting the women, I’ve noticed that they usually have one child on the hip, another at the breast and another crawling behind them. With so many young children to take care of, the mother becomes under-nourished, and then her children become under-nourished. It becomes difficult to feed the children on the husband’s salary. The women themselves found it difficult and asked me to help them find a good form of contraception,” she said. “I then brought it to the attention of the Ministry of Health (MoH) in the area”.
She explained that people in rural villages do use protection such as the condom or the pill, since acquiring them requires travelling for four hours, on a bus on dirt roads.

“There were one or two women who grumbled after the insertion of the POSDI because their husbands were against it. But apart from those few cases, most of the women are fine,” Menaka said.
She went on to explain that women in the village are not new to using contraception. Many take the pill or use condoms. One of the women in the village who is a mother of four young children revealed, “On the day of the nutrition check up, I was told about the contraception but I didn’t want it and I told them that. I’ve told my husband to use condoms and I felt there was no need for this new form of contraception. They didn’t press on it and let me go with no issues”.

Small families are better nourished

One of the key problems identified by the doctors in Kilinochchi is that the families are undernourished. Typically, these were families with four or five children who could not be fed regularly on their father’s income.

The mothers were also severely undernourished as well.

Without the use of contraception, or the use of pills which were not taken regularly, many of the women who got pregnant, who already had more children than they can could for, or who are in their 40s or older, would seek to have a septic abortion as they could not provide for another child. The septic method often leads to infections and the mothers do not come to the hospital until they are in the terminal stage, and even the doctors are unable to save them.

In their research, which was carried out prior to the administration of the POSDI, the MoH determined that 30.7% of the Veravil population had unmet needs (in this case contraception). The population of Veravil is 1779, and the MoH identified 289 families that were eligible for contraception (malnourished children and mothers, and more than three children in a family were some of the criteria). Out of the 289 families 89 were in need of contraception. Keranchi has a population of 1608, of which 257 families were found to be eligible for contraception. Out of the 257, eleven (4.2%) were identified as families in need of contraception.
According to the sources, these were the families that received the contraception from the MoH.
However, POSDI were not the only form of contraception that was distributed. Overall, 50 families were administered Jadelle (POSDI), two were opposed to the POSDI and were instead given the loop, and one Oral Contraceptive Pill.

Maternal mortality rate records of the Family Health Bureau show that in 2006 the percentage was at 102.8% in Kilinochchi, while it was 39.3% islandwide. In 2008, the maternal mortality rate in Kilinochchi dropped to 24.9%, and 33.5% islandwide. In 2009 and 2010, the maternal mortality rate in Kilinochchi was found to be 0%.

The doctors expressed that they hoped to maintain the 0% maternal mortality rate.

Sources close to the team that carried out the contraception clinics, stated that the head midwife who oversaw distribution of contraception has been a midwife in North since 1982, and has delivered children during the war, they also stated that the doctors were all Tamil and from the North, refuting claims that programme was a deliberate attempt at population control in Kilinochchi.

The Sunday Leader emailed TSA to find out more details. The team refused to be interviewed over email, understandably stating, “I would like to help you, unfortunately I can’t reveal my sources but please go to these three areas and ask around. Everyone knows.

The nuns know it, the priest know it and you can contact them. I hope you understand our plight, as we have to be anonymous.”

TSA word against MoH

The Sunday Leader was informed by an activist based in Kilinochchi, that one of the women who voluntarily had the POSDI inserted into her arm, later complained of irregular periods, and feeling ill and uncomfortable. She was aware that the POSDI was a reversible form of contraception, and sought to have it removed at the hospital.

The hospital staff had refused to extract the rod from her arm. She then went to a private hospital that quoted more that Rs 20,000 – a sum she could not afford – to have it removed.

When The Sunday Leader spoke to the military’s Civil Society Camp in Veravil, the officer said that while they make a record of all that occurs in the village, there were unable to make a report on the contraception controversy as they were busy attending to matters regarding the elections.

However, during the investigation conducted by The Sunday Leader on the 22 and 23 of September, none of the women who were interviewed complained about the contraception that was distributed during the nutritional programme (an annual programme that is held in July in Kilinochchi for those who cannot afford medical care).

From cries of coerced population control to genocide, the incident has now reached the international community. If, as the Regional District Health Services of Kilinochchi states, the incident has been blown out of proportion then a timely explanation is required from the government.
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Source: http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2013/09/29/family-planning-in-kilinochchi-under-scrutiny/

அடைக்கல நாதன் கிளப்பும் பிரச்சனை, அமைச்சுப் பதவிக்கான `குத்து வெட்டு`அல்ல, தமிழீழ ஐக்கியத்துக்கு வைக்கும் வேட்டே!

கண்டிப்போம்! கண்டிப்போம்!!

அடைக்கல நாதன் கிளப்பும் பிரச்சனை, அமைச்சுப் பதவிக்கான `குத்து வெட்டு`அல்ல, தமிழீழ ஐக்கியத்துக்கு  வைக்கும் வேட்டே!

தகர்ப்போம்! தகர்ப்போம்!!

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Adaikkalanathan wants the ministerial post given to someone from the Wanni district. Shivajilingam comes from the Jaffna district. 

Press Trust of  India (PTI)
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இந்தச் செய்தி சொல்லாத தகவல் இவர்கள் இருவருமே `ரெலோக்காரர்` என்பதுதான்!இந்தத் தவறு தற்செயலாக நடந்திருக்குமோ?!

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இது 1987 இல் இருந்து தமிழீழத்தைத் தாக்கியளிக்க இந்தியா தயாரித்து வைத்துள்ள ஆயுதக் களஞ்சியத்தின் ஒரு சாணை பிடிக்கப்பட்ட கத்தி!

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Lanka's Tamil party hit by internal feud over cabinet berths

(PTI) Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA, which secured a thumping mandate in northern provincial council polls last month, is facing an internal crisis over the selection of cabinet ministers.

Selvam Adaikkalanathan, the leader of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), has offered to resign from the party post as he is unhappy over the selection of K M Shavjilingam as one of four ministers in the government to be formed by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

TELO, Tamil United Liberation Front, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam and Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi comprise the five-party alliance of the TNA.

Adaikkalanathan wants the ministerial post given to someone from the Wanni district. Shivajilingam comes from the Jaffna district.

The TELO chief said the party's vote base is Wanni district and it is only fair that the region be given ministerial representation. He said the party leadership had promised the ministerial position for Wanni.

The TNA won a landslide victory in the northern provincial council election, winning 30 out of 38 seats last month.

The northern council polls took place on September 21 for the first time in 25 years after provincial councils became part of the island's statutes in 1987.

Chief Minister-elect CV Wigneswaran will take the oath of office on Monday but the councillors will be sworn in four days later.
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இந்தியக் கைக்கூலி அடைக்கலநாதனே, தமிழீழ மக்களிடையே பிரிவினையை வளர்க்காதே!

TELO leader to resign from post
October 5, 2013

SELVAM ADAIKALANATHAN
The leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Movement (TELO), Selvam Adaikalanathan, has decided to resign from his post.

He said the decision was taken over a dispute on the appointments of provincial ministerial posts for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

The TNA had over the past few days, failed to reach a consensus on selecting ministers for the Northern Provincial Council.

Attempts were made to allocate ministerial posts to all the constituent parties in the TNA including TELO.
However Adaikalanathan said that it was later decided at these meetings not to allocate a ministerial post to a member of TELO.

He said that the decision was seen as a betrayal to the TELO supporters who backed the party at the last provincial polls.

As a result he had decided to resign from his post as TELO leader.  (Colombo Gazette)