Old photos of Sri Lanka - email from Lesley Sirimanne

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2 emails by Dr.Susiri Weerasekara, Orthpaedic Surgeon, 1958 entrants batch.

1.
This is the photo of a tent within the Chettikulam IDP camps, taken on 21st Feb 2010 as we passed it. We were fitting  artificial limbs over a 7 month period. These were not paid jobs as for many NGOs. We spent our own money gladly. In fact in fitting 554 limbs over a 7 months period the Colombo Friend In Need Society officials like me claimed a total of Rs.24,000/ only and that was for a couple of trips fuel costs! You be the judge of why we did that, as many others did for even a longer period. Compare that to some NGO work expenses. Interestingly, you can easily see the thin barbed wire fences loosely constructed, easily breached, as indeed it was by inmates of adjoining camps, since the number of shops within were few. Please enlarge. This is the time that the famous international media were shouting out 'razor edged' barricades! This is why I went livid at those falsehoods. Falsehoods among many.

jksw

2.

Sending this to many of you. Attached you will see photos of two LTTE doctors with us. This photo was

taken at 2.40pm  on 30th November 2009 at the Pompamadu camp for female LTTE detainees. Photo by Mr Karunasena, workshop manager. About 6 months after the hostilities ended. It is time to highlight the vast multiplicity of 2009 efforts on behalf of the IDPs in the Chettikulam camp. Limb fitting was just a fraction of that whole. Colombo Friend In Need Society was requested by both the Ministry of Health and the Army to help the amputees there. There were 1300 inmates lolling around within this large University premises.

Our technicians were busy in the open area beating out Jaipur Limbs. Though all the females were walking about freely within, we were discouraged from taking photos. The photo is within the building with just one guard at the entrance to the hall. He peeped in soon after we snapped the photo but I guess he decided to ignore everything. At this the two girls were worried for our sake, but assured them that we were quite in control.This gave them confidence in us. As a doctor I was requested to examine non amputee patients too..

This shows two of us with two former female LTTE doctors who gladly helped me examine about 30 patients with wounds and fractures which had all been treated but needed review. The selection of these patients was by the two 'LTTE doctors'. The captain at camp was a pretty young Sinhalese female who seemed much liked by the girls within. Most were youngish. Knowing English, they translated and also showed a good grasp of surgery. They said they had done tens of amputations by themselves and their

competence gave credence to the claim. They had been at it for over a decade. I did not probe too much or record too much. We were so busy. Within a few hours we were at ease chatting to each other. As for their future I said that as they were in their thirties they could try to be qualified pharmacists in the future. This seemed to please them much, possibly as they may have been very anxious about what would happen to

them in their then uncertain future. A few months later we received cards saying 'Thank you, you gave us hope'. And so it was, all of them being sent home in a few months more. That thank you card is enough reward for us. I will trace them to visit their home in Jaffna one day.

jksw    

When will they ever learn ...email from Mana Wedisinghe

Wealthy Consultant Surgeon Richard Teo’s final lecture

Consultant surgeon Richard Teo in Singapore who was 40 years old passed away on the 18th of October due to a lung cancer. He has reached success and become a billionaire by following the vision that happiness is in the hands of money. He has been working as a popular cosmetic surgeon in his final days earning huge sums of money.
 Yet he has become very disappointed after knowing the disease he has been inflicted with. Then, he has realized that he is left with a small period of time and he has decided to serve the people during that short period of time. He has finally mentioned that: “I can’t be holding on to my Ferrari all my life.” Few days before his death, he has addressed medical students and shared his experience which is very popular in the internet these days. Few lines extracted from his speech are as below:
“I am a product of the modern society. I was able to adapt to the modern world since my childhood days. I come from a middle class family. I was constantly told that happiness could be reached by success and that success is all money. Thus, I was very competent since my childhood. I wanted to go to the best school and I wanted to be the best. I won awards, medals and became the first at everything. You may be aware that becoming an eye surgeon is a very popular field. I went after that and I was also selected to it. I have won an award for using laser to cure problems related to the eye. I got two patent licenses as well. One was on using medical equipment and the other was for using laser but I didn’t earn any money. So as soon as I finished, I decided that it was enough.
I realized that private medical practice will help me to earn a lot of money and my interest shifted to cosmetic surgery as it was very popular in the world. I stopped my practice on the way and started a private clinic for cosmetic surgery.
Unfortunately, people don’t pay respect to their family doctor. Instead they respect popular doctors. People who are reluctant to pay S $20 are ready to pay thousands and ten thousands to beautify themselves. So I decided to become a cosmetic surgeon without been a normal doctor. Accordingly, the business reached utmost success. At first the clients had to wait for a week to get an appointment, later they had to wait for months. I had work on a fulltime basis. People were so interested on their physique. It was such a business. Then I hired another doctor, gradually the number of doctors increased and seven doctors to work under me. We earned about a million dollars during the first year. Yet that wasn’t enough for me as I was crazy about money. I worked in Indonesia to serve the richest Indonesians.
When I earned such a lot of money, I wandered as to what to do? I joined a racing club. Then I started to go to Malaysia on weekends for races. When I earned more money, I bought a Ferrari. They didn’t have 458 models those days. So I bought the latest 430 model. I had a friend of mine working in a bank, he bought a red one and I bought a silver one. Afterwards, we were looking for houses or rather bungalows.
Whom did I associate? I thought that we need to associate rich people. So we associated people who were very rich and popular like beauty queens and businessmen. We had a very busy life schedule going to parties and clubs. I reached the peak of success, I got everything I wanted and everything was under my control.
Was everything under my control? Was it true? In March 2011, I got a backache and I thought that it is a result of me doing heavy exercises. So I met one of my friends to do MRI scan at the Singapore National Hospital. That was to know whether there was a fracture in the spinal cord. My friend called me that evening that there is a change in the bone marrows. I asked him as to what he is saying even though I knew exactly as to what it was.
We did another scan on the next day and we diagnosed that I was having a 4th grade cancer. I was wondering as to how this could happen. By that time, it had already spread to lungs, liver, brain and adrenal glands and other internal organs. For a moment I was thinking that everything was under my control but the whole world disappeared in front of me.
Look at my CT scan. All these dots are where the cancer had spread. They told me that chemo therapy can be given but I will survive only for about 3-4 months. I broke into pieces. I was very disappointed and utterly depressed.
Think of my unfortunate fate…When I was utterly depressed none of the money, vehicles, bungalows or awards was able to console me. Can I hug and embrace my Ferrari and go to sleep? No. Even though I believed that they would bring me happiness, they didn’t.
What brought me happiness during the last ten months was the friendship through inter personal relationships. My friends supported me and helped me to come out of my misery; they shared my sorrow and cried with me. None of my materialistic goods brought me happiness. If they did, I could have shared my sorrow with them.
You all are aware of the Chinese New Year. What did I do during last years? I visited my relatives in my expensive car. I thought it was happiness but for a second I didn’t think that they cannot share my happiness as they were working hard to balance their expenses with their earnings.
When I showed off my expensive car, they used public transport to balance their expenses. They would have hated me. I thought that I could fulfill my ego by showing off them my materialistic values. None of them has brought any happiness to my friends or to my relatives.
Everybody knows of the fact that they will die one day but nobody believes in what they know. That is because; if we know that we would do everything in a different way. When I knew that I was dying, I got rid of all the unnecessary things and concentrated only on what was necessary. What is sad is the fact that we realize and learn how to live, when we get to know that we are dying. I know that this brings sorrow to you in thus morning but that is the truth and that is what I am experiencing.
"Don’t let the society teach you how to live. Don’t let the media say how to live because I too once believed in what they said and lived. I wish that you can decide for yourselves and live a happy life. You should decide whether you will live serve yourselves or others. Real happiness lies when you serve others. That was something I realized from my own experience.”

Top 20 articles in the domain - BioMedLib Journal

The cause of death of King Rajasinghe of Sithawaka - 1592 Present Era - an analysis by Dr.Philip G Veerasingam.
Click on link below:-

http://wipimd.com/?&sttflpg=19952a645ac00656138bbff26c22a27a44c385f3d6e42fe43d464b9ed655c417#JAL1

email from Lawrance Ratnam, Amazing Grace.

From: <LawrenceRatnam@aol.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 12:32 AM
Subject: Amazing Grace at the Coliseum in Rome
To: lawrenceratnam@aol.com

Many of you must be aware of John Newton.  Enjoy the singing - fantastic

Subject: "AMAZING GRACE" sung at the Coliseum in Rome by IL DIVO

John Newton's life story is Amazing


"AMAZING GRACE" sung at the Coliseum in Rome by IL DIVO

  cut and paste the link
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid271552717?bctid=1913313052


And some history ..

John Newton and the lyrics to Amazing Grace

John Newton, the author of the lyrics to Amazing Grace, was born in 1725 in
Wapping, London, United Kingdom.
 
Despite the powerful message of "Amazing Grace," Newton's religious beliefs
initially lacked conviction; his youth was marked by religious confusion
and a lack of moral self-control and discipline.
 
After a brief time in the Royal Navy, Newton began his career in slave
trading. The turning point in Newton's spiritual life was a violent storm
that occurred one night while at sea. Moments after he left the deck, the
crewman who had taken his place was swept overboard.
 
Although he manned the vessel for the remainder of the tempest, he later
commented that, throughout the tumult, he realized his helplessness and
concluded that only the grace of God could save him.
 
Prodded by what he had read in Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ, Newton
took the first step toward accepting faith. These incidents and his 1750
marriage to Mary Catlett changed Newton significantly. On his slave
voyages, he encouraged the sailors under his charge to pray. He also began
to ensure that every member of his crew treated their human cargo with
gentleness and concern.
 
Nevertheless, it would be another 40 years until Newton openly challenged
the trafficking of slaves.
 
Some three years after his marriage, Newton suffered a stroke that
prevented him from returning to sea; in time, he interpreted this as
another step in his spiritual voyage. He assumed a post in the Customs
Office in the port of Liverpool and began to explore Christianity more
fully. As Newton attempted to experience all the various expressions of
Christianity, it became clear that he was being called to the ministry.
 
Since Newton lacked a university degree, he could not be ordained through
normal channels. However, the landlord of the parish at Olney was so
impressed with the letters Newton had written about his conversion that he
offered the church to Newton; he was ordained in June 1764.

In Olney, the new curate met the poet William Cowper, also a newly-born
Christian. Their friendship led to a spiritual collaboration that completed
the inspiration for "Amazing Grace," the poem Newton most likely wrote in
Kineton, Warwickshire[citation needed] around Christmas 1772. The lyrics
are based on his reflections on an Old Testament text he was preparing to
preach on, adding his perspective about his own conversion while on his
slave ship, the Greyhound, in 1748.
 
Newton's lyrics have become a favorite for Christians, largely because the
hymn vividly and briefly sums up the doctrine of divine grace. The lyrics
are based on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17, a prayer of King David in which he
marvels at God's choosing him and his house. Newton apparently wrote this
for use in a sermon he preached on this passage on New Year's Day 1773, and
for which he left his sermon notes, which correspond to the flow of the
lyrics. (He entitled the piece "Faith's review and expectation.")
 
The song has also become known as a favorite with supporters of freedom and
human rights, both Christian and non-Christian, in part because many assume
it to be Newton's testimony about his slave trading past. The hymn was
quite popular on both sides in the American Civil War.

Below-knee prosthesis, product of Sri Lanka. email from Dr. Susiri Weerasekara.

The 'all locally made' functional, low cost 'Below knee prostheses' on a

bilateral amputee at Colombo FINS.

Coconut oil - The great coconut debate. email from Dr.JKS Weerasekara

Below is an article with favorable comments on coconut and coconut oil.

My studied views on just one aspect are these;
How or who gave coconut oil a bad name?
A University (not sure of ? Pensylvania in the early 1950s?) experimented on rats with intent to produce atheroma in blood vessels of rats.
They deprived the rats of some essential amino-acids for some weeks and then fed margarine in abnormal amounts to these rats. Atheroma was produced in their blood vessels. They succeeded.
But today we know that margarine in any form is bad due to hydrogenation creating transfats. Further, the rats were unhealthy being deprived of some essential amino-acids for weeks intentionally. And overfed.

So the university published it (quite properly).

But we note that giving hydrogenated fats to deprived rats was just an artificially created scene.
Not normal dietary quantities  by healthy rats.

A similar situation was 100 years ago when Russian doctor Anitshkov produced atheroma in the aorta by feeding egg and also milk to rabbits.

But Rabbits are vegetarian!
So they got an unnatural diet just as with the margarine given to sick rats!
( he did not plan to criticize eggs. Only to produce artheroma somehow. It had not been done before)
Rather late, today we know that eggs are acceptable in spite of their cholesterol content. Exonerated after 100 years. Perhaps due to the clout of rich egg producers.

The rat experiment too was  (presumably) not to run down coconut oil but somehow to create atheroma. By hook or by crook.  So they did.

Then the fun started.
The Oil  producers Association in the U.S. (not petroleum) jumped on the news. They had prospered during the 2nd world war 1939 to 1945 selling their local stuff(corn oil, sunflower oil etc)  since during the war cheap coconut oil imports from Asia ran dry.

So they set about  running down the cheap coconut oil!

Soon the administrator of the university got a top post at the Oil producers ASS. And the top man in the Oil producers Association got the university post ensuring propaganda success for the American oil producers.( not on the net now)

Asian Coconut producers are not in the same league financially as rich egg and poultry producers. So Dr. Janaki Gunaratne’s research will be ignored by the rich oil merchants.

It is not difficult to get at some of this information on the net,  but now all the details cannot be got.
Shall write on coconut oil and fiber another day.
Dr. jksweerasekera

http://healthimpactnews.com/2011/new-extensive-research-from-sri-lanka-shows-coconut-oil-has-no-risk-to-cvd-and-that-coconut-residue-has-great-promise-for-treating-heart-disease/