A Bit More Detail

• The fires of British Columbia are so vast that their smoke is reaching the west of France. Ici Radio-Canada reports.


• Are the unique challenges posed by modern cities making the animals who live in them smarter? The Atlantic examines the issue.


• Universe Today notes that the Oort clouds of other stars may well be visible on microwave frequencies.


• Universe Today reports on the very recent finding that star formation in the Milky Way Galaxy shut down for billions of years, that we are in the middle of a second wave of star formation.


• Do not fear: There is at least one hypothetical strategy that an arbitrarily advanced future civilization could adopt to minimize the effect of dark energy on its exploration of the universe. Universe Today reports.

• In response to a desire to remove an almost bizarre controversial statue of a cow from its location in a neighbourhood in Markham, the owner has sued the city for $C 4 million. The Toronto Star reports.


• The mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, would like housing incorporated into shopping malls, to deal with issues of housing and retail in one go. Global News reports.


• Brexit threatens to decidedly destabilize the picture for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. The Independent reports.


• Bloomberg notes that the controversial Chinese-owned port of Hambantota, in Sri Lanka, is doing terrible business.


• Newly-discovered documents provide confirmation of the belief that the Nazis planned to utterly destroy Warsaw. The National Post reports.

• This Fatima Syed interview with Navaseelan Navaratnam, brother of suspected McArthur victim Skandaraj Navaratnam missing since 2010, is terribly sad. The Toronto Star has it.


• While it may be too late for Eliot's Books, I do hope that Toronto City Council can arrange some kind of functional tax arrangement for the businesses which survive on Yonge. The Toronto Star reports.


• blogTO notes how a stray tweet from Toronto Hits 93 started an Internet flamewar between fans of two different K-Pop boy bands.


• Ben Spurr notes how some transit advocates have decided to help out King Street by eating at area restaurants, over at the Toronto Star.


• Global News reports on how the Ontario Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Vadim Kazenelson on charges of criminal negligence stemming from an incident where four workers he was supervising died in a scaffolding collapse.

• Bruce Dorminey notes that a Brazilian startup hopes to send a Brazilian probe to lunar orbit, for astrobiological research.


• Far Outliers notes the scale of the Western aid funneled to the Soviet Union through Murmansk in the Second World War.


• Hornet Stories notes that Tarell Alvin McCraney, author of the play adapted into the stunning Moonlight, now has a new play set to premier on Brodway for the 2018-2019 season, Choir Boy.


• JSTOR Daily notes the conspiracy behind the sabotage that led to the destruction in 1916 of a munitions stockpile on Black Tom Island, of German spies with Irish and Indian nationalists.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money is critical of the false equivalence in journalism that, in 2016, placed Trump on a level with Hillary.


• The Map Room Blog notes that fitness app Strava can be used to detect the movements of soldiers (and others) around classified installations.
  
• Marginal Revolution links to a New York Times profile of World Bank president Jim Young Kim.


• Roads and Kingdoms talks about the joys of stuffed bread, paan, in Sri Lanka.


• Towleroad notes that a Russian gay couple whose marriage in Denmark was briefly recognized in Russia are now being persecuted.


• At Whatever, John Scalzi tells the story of his favourite teacher, Keith Johnson, and a man who happened to be gay. Would that all students could have been as lucky as Scalzi.


• Window on Eurasia notes that the pronatalist policies of the Putin regime, which have basically cash subsidies to parents, have not reversed underlying trends towards population decline.

• Al Jazeera and MacLean's note that the deportation of migrants from Greece to Turkey, in keeping with the EU-Turkey deal, has begun.


• Bloomberg notes the impending publication of data on foreign workers in the United Kingdom while observing that British companies are concerned about Brexit.


• Bloomberg reports on the problematic Israeli housing market, the risk of a real estate bubble in Tokyo, notes Sri Lanka's interest in getting universal WiFi, suggests Chinese coal exports could doom Appalachia, observes the collapse of Lithuania's trade with Russia, notes new concerns about Nigeria, looks at Australian concern over Chinese investment despite increasing dependence on said, and expects the collapse of what's left of the British steel industry.


• Bloomberg View and the Toronto Star's David Olive look at the sad collapse of Brazil.


• The Toronto Star notes the sale of Québec restaurant chain St-Hubert, and looks at the Facebook poster who helped make French's ketchup a success.


• The Chicago Tribune describes the potentially irretrievable state of the suburban Chicago housing market.

Sri Lanka is moving past its history of ethnic strife and seeking to emulate Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai as one of the region’s premier trading and financial hubs, a senior ruling party lawmaker said.

“Our focus entirely is going to be on creating the most competitive economy in this part of the world,” Harsha de Silva, who helped draft the United National Party’s economic policy, said in an interview in Colombo on Wednesday. “We are going to have to play in a different league.”

The UNP won the most seats in an election on Monday after pledging to create jobs and heal wounds stemming from a bloody civil war that ended in 2009. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the party’s leader, will probably be appointed to lead the government for another term later this week.

The ruling party wants to revive growth that slowed to a two-year low with moves to make it easier for the private sector to do business. It has also pledged to avoid discriminatory policies that may stoke tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority.

[. . .]

Sri Lanka’s challenges to compete with Asia’s economic powerhouses are immense: Loss-making state-owned firms dominate an economy four times smaller than Singapore that relies mostly on tourism and exports. Access to financing, an inefficient bureaucracy and tax issues are the top impediments for Sri Lankan businesses, according to the World Economic Forum.

Earlier this month, Rathika Sitsabaiesan said in a brief statement she was warned by Sri Lankan officials during her private visit that she could be arrested and deported.

At the time, fellow New Democrat MP Paul Dewar said after speaking to Sitsabaiesan — a Sri Lankan native of Tamil heritage — that his caucus colleague had been followed and closely monitored by authorities from the moment she arrived.

[. . .]

The Sri Lanka High Commission said Wednesday that Sitsabaiesan was on a tourist visa and had been advised not to engage in political activities that would amount to flouting Sri Lanka's immigration laws and regulations.

It said Sri Lankan authorities handled the issue in a responsible manner, adding that Sitsabaiesan's allegation she was subject to "political intimidation" is erroneous and an attempt to unfairly embarrass the government.

Sitsabaiesan, 32, came to Canada with her family at the age of five and was elected to the House of Commons in 2011 in the Toronto-area riding of Scarborough-Rouge River.

She played a key role in New Democrat efforts to persuade the Conservative government to boycott a meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Sri Lanka last November. Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not attend, citing the Sri Lankan government's human-rights record. However, Deepak Obhrai, a parliamentary secretary, did represent Canada at the Colombo meeting.

The New Democrats and others have called for Sri Lanka to submit to an investigation of alleged war crimes during the lengthy civil conflict between the military and Tamil insurgents seeking an independent homeland.

[. . .]

In its statement, the Sri Lanka High Commission said Sitsabaiesan's accusation against the government "could be indicative of her seeking to engage in political activity, and being unable to do so in the interest of abiding by Sri Lanka's immigration laws and regulations, seems to have been interpreted by her as political intimidation."

The high commission also seized on her reference to defending principles of human rights, saying it "further demonstrates a self-appointed role to pass judgment baselessly on a sovereign state."

brunorepublic

Some 2,000 bakers across Sri Lanka have been forced to close their businesses, the industry says.

The closures come as the government campaigns against the consumption of products based on wheat flour.

Eighteen months after defeating Tamil Tiger militants, the government seems to be intensifying its struggle against an unlikely enemy.

In recent days it has been banning wheat products from various public institutions.

Nationalistic elements of the governing coalition even speak of "wheat terrorism".

Wheat products enjoy great popularity in Sri Lanka - whether it is the rotis, widely eaten with curry, or breads, cakes and savoury pastries which are common here.

Now, though, wheat products have been removed from government hospitals, and fast foods - many made of wheat - have been banned from schools.

The government has also slashed a subsidy it used to apply to the wheat price.

It says this is because wheat is a foreign import, alien to an essentially rice-eating society and costly for its economy.

[. . .]

The National Freedom Front, one of the government parties, is leading the anti-wheat campaign.

The strongly nationalist faction says wheat is part of a "conspiracy" by multinational companies to undermine Sri Lanka's food security.

It is urging bakers to use wheat flour and rice flour in making bread - something bakers say is difficult to do.

The government also says phasing out wheat-based products will lead to healthier diets.

An early morning fire that damaged a Buddhist temple used by Toronto’s Sri Lankan community for the second time in six months has been classified as an arson.

Toronto police have increased patrols in the area and are consulting with the hate crimes unit after flames engulfed part of the building at around 2 a.m. on Friday.

There were no injuries.

While police have not yet made any arrests, investigators are almost certainly examining whether the attack was connected to the Tamil nationalist conflict in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Tigers rebels fought a three-decade civil war for independence for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority until May, when government forces wiped out the guerrillas.

Despite the end of the fighting, some expatriate Tamils have continued to agitate for independence. In Toronto on Wednesday, a Tamil activist gave a fiery speech that urged violence against the Sinhalese Buddhists who make up the majority in Sri Lanka. Following his talk, he was arrested and threatened with deportation unless he left Canada on his own.

The temple attack occurred on Tamil “heroes’ day,” the birthday of the deceased leader of the Tamil Tigers, when Tamil nationalists commemorate fallen rebels.

The Maha Vihara Temple was founded in 1978 by Sri Lankans, who practice the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. The same temple was torched in May but no arrests were made.

‘Little Jaffna’ in Paris is a cluster of streets branching off from the rue du Faubourg Saint Denis in the capital’s 10th district. It stretches all the way from the Gare du Nord railway station to the metro station Chapelle on the northern fringes of Paris, in what is generally referred to as the “immigrant neighbourhood.” The area is usually tight with people, alive with commercial activity and the hum of business. It is packed with “cash and carry” stores, sari “palaces”, sweet meat vendors, restaurants, video and music shops, butchers selling goat meat, tailors, barbers, travel agents, and fresh fish-wallas.

For the last week, however, this hub of commerce has come to an eerie standstill. Peeling posters bearing the face of LTTE leader Velupillai Prahakaran’s are spattered across the walls. Not a stray cat seems to walk the byways and black drapes and flags cover closed shop fronts. The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Paris, estimated to number between 60,000 and 75,000, is in mourning. There was shock and disbelief when news arrived that the LTTE supremo had been killed.

“No one believes he is dead,” Shalini, a 20-year-old medical student who came to Paris at the age of 10, told The Hindu the day Sri Lankan television announced Prabakaran’s death. “I am certain he has already left the country and will soon give us a message on how the struggle should go on. He is the only true leader of the Tamil people. We revere him, we worship him, and I am sure later today he will give us a sign that he is still alive.” Now that the LTTE has formally acknowledged his death she seems rudderless, adrift.

[N]ot everyone has kind words for the LTTE. “I feel terrible when I see those innocent civilians killed. What have they done to deserve this, herded into camps like cattle? Prabakaran did not know when to negotiate. He became too fond of the gun and made his people here into Mafiosi,” says Shanthamma, a Pondicherry Tamil whose parents once owned a shop in Little Jaffna. She said agents of the Tigers forced them out of their original premises in what has now become Little Jaffna. “First they came with a ridiculous offer to buy our shop. Then there were threats on the phone and through the post. Finally, we found our windows were being broken, our merchandise tampered with. We preferred to quit. How else do you think did they manage to lay their hands on this entire street [Faubourg Saint Denis] and all the streets around it? It was done with threats and coercion. We do not care for the Tigers. They did terrible things in the name of self-determination. What had the members of the Pondicherry Tamil Community done to them? Yet they forced us out in order to put up their own shops so that they could collect their so called Freedom Tax.”

Angélina Etiemble, a sociologist and researcher who has carried out extensive studies on the Sri Lankan Tamil population in Paris, told The Hindu: “The LTTE was so well organised that every individual Sri Lankan Tamil was more or less forced to pay between 536 and 839 euros per year — the rate was 2.32 euros per day, deemed to be a ‘decent’ living wage for those engaged in the cause or deprived of their livelihood by the war. Shop owners had to pay up more, between 1,678 and 2,287 euros per establishment.” Ms. Etiemble says she is not surprised by the level of loyalty to the LTTE or the almost total indoctrination of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. “They used their media network to the full — newspapers like the Poobalam Weekly, controlled directly by the all-powerful Tamil Coordination Committee.