Great Wall of China far longer than thought

The most comprehensive and technologically advanced survey of China’s Great Wall has discovered that the ancient monument is much longer than previously estimated, according to a media report.

However, the project has also shown the World Heritage-listed site is in danger of disappearing in many places due to road construction and other forms of development including weather.

The wall, built over centuries to keep foreigners out of China, stretches for 8,851.8 kilometres (5,488.1 miles), much further than common estimates of 5,000 kilometres, according to the findings of the survey.

The defensive structure includes 6,259.6 kilometres of actual wall, plus 359.7 kilometres of trenches and 2,232.5 kilometres of natural barriers such as hills and rivers. The two-year mapping project, carried out by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, involved using global positioning systems and infra-red technology.

Previous estimates were mainly based on historical records, rather than physically mapping each section.

By tracking thoroughly across mountains and through deserts, unknown parts were uncovered.

The first parts of the Great Wall were built more than 2,000 years ago, then rebuilt and extended during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 AD) amid the threat of invading northern tribes.

In recent times, the wall has suffered extensively at the hands of modern development, with sections of it destroyed to make way for roads and other forms of construction.

The survey was part of a 10-year conservation project launched in 2005 that will now be able to keep detailed maps of the sections of the wall that need to be protected, and to maintain records of efforts to renovate or preserve it.

Popular beliefs claimed that the Great Wall is “the mightiest work of man, the only one that would be visible to the human eye from the moon”.

Arthur Waldron, author of The Great Wall of China: From history to Myth, has speculated that the belief might go back to the fascination with the ‘canals’ once believed to exist on Mars.

President keen to uplift education in South

Following a directive by President Mahinda Rajapkasa to the Southern Province Governor Kumari Balasuriya, the School Principals have been informed to reply with immediate effect, to the relevant Education Office, when they are asked to provide information about their schools.

A meeting was organised in Galle recently to discuss the prevailing shortcomings in schools, due to shortage of teachers in those schools. Galle and Matara areas are reportedly having an excess of teachers. It was noted that not a single child had passed last year’s Grade 5 Scholarship examination from the Yakkalamulla area.

There have been occasions where some teachers sought transfers just after six or eight months of their first appointment. In future, the outcome of this situation would be informing the Chief Minister, for his information.

The Governor said National Schools in the Province are full of excess teachers. “Vast expenditure on education is a must for our consideration,” she noted. Education, like most other essential sectors of the polity, which are considered prime recipients of Lankan welfare expenditure, has suffered considerable neglect in the past few years.

Imbalances in the system of education have led to grave social inequalities. Besides, socio-economic development is inconceivable without the necessary human resources, which only the education system could produce. It is a heartening development that this problem of overstaffing is receiving the attention of the President himself.

Flies from Puerto Rico

A species of flies known as parasitoids will be brought from Puerto Rico to control the spread of mealy bug Parasitoids or Piti makuna on papaw and vegetable plantations.

The programme to bring the parasitoids is funded by the United States Agriculture Department.

According to Head of Division of Entomology, Horticultural Crops Research and Development Institute, Indra Wahundeniya this is the first time that the mealy bug has affected papaw and vegetable cultivations in Sri Lanka.

The best control method is parasi-toids as tried out in many countries. These insects are known to lay eggs on cultivations affected by the mealy bug and have a four stage life cycle. Once the life cycle is complete, the mealy bug will reduce in numbers.

Fifty thousand parasitoids brought down will be kept in laboratories to multiply and others released to badly affected areas in the island.

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life attached to or within a single host organism which it ultimately kills (and often consumes) in the process. Thus they are similar to typical parasites except in the certain fate of the host. In a typical parasitic relationship, the parasite and host live side by side without lethal damage to the host.

CSDP to conduct environment competition

The Child Skills Development Programme (CSDP) which completes 14 years on June 14 this year will conduct competitions to mark World Environment Day which falls on June 5.

The competition which is open to school children under two categories-above 12 years and below 12 years will comprise events such as art, poetry, lyric writing, dancing, short dramas, announcing and singing.Awards will also be presented to 100 child environmentalists on this day.Those interested in participating can contact the CSDP by calling on 0112-672718 or 0112-689536 or through their website - www.csdpsrilanka.org.

Libraries for IDP children

A new project to construct libraries for schoolchildren of internally displaced persons (IDPs) will be implemented shortly in Vavuniya, Jaffna and Mannar districts. These will be set up under the three task forces appointed by the Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister, Rishard Bathiudeen, to look into the smooth functioning of health, food and education facilities of over 68,000 IDPs who have crossed over to liberated areas from the LTTE clutches.

According to the Minister, the establishment of pre-schools for children, especially those who were deprived of attending schools for several years due to unfavourable conditions will also be undertaken by these task forces.

A large number of IDPs are expected to come from uncleared areas and Government will have to allocate a large sum of money to provide them with necessary facilities including education for children.

Libraries are more than just books. Technology has transformed libraries from book warehouses to information centres. As institutions of social service, libraries offer a wide range of self-improvement programmes and services to the students.

Today is World Press Freedom Day

The World Press Freedom Day is celebrated on May 3 as declared by the United Nations General Assembly, to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and also mark the Anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek.

UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day by conferring the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organisation or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. Created in 1997, the prize is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of 14 news professionals.

Names are submitted by regional and international non-governmental organisations working for press freedom, and by UNESCO member states.

The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogot, on December 17, 1986. Cano’s writings had offended Colombia’s powerful drug barons.

UNESCO also marks World Press Freedom Day each year by bringing together media professionals, press freedom organisations and UN agencies to assess the state of press freedom worldwide and discuss solutions for addressing challenges.

The potential of media in fostering dialogue, mutual understanding and reconciliation will be the topic of UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2009.

Birth and death anniversaries from May 1 - May 9

May 1
Death of President Premadasa in 1993.

May 2
Death of Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian artist in 1519.

May 4
Death of Dr. Wijayananda Dahanayake Sri Lanka’s fifth Prime Minister, in 1997.

May 5
Birth of Karl Marx in 1818.
Death of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1821.
Death of Sir James Peiris, national hero of Sri Lanka, in 1930.

May 6
Birth of Robert Peary, American explorer - first man to reach the North Pole in 1856.

May 7
Birth of Robert Browning, English poet in1812.

May 9
Birth of Tissa Ranasinghe, sculptor in 1925.

Special events which took place in history, from May 1 - May 9

May 1
May Day designated as International Labour Day by the International Socialist Congress in 1889.
First May Day rally in Sri Lanka organised by A. E. Goonasinha in 1933.
Grama Sevaka system replaced the Village Headmen System in 1963.

May 2
Railway to Trincomalee was inaugurated in 1927.
New Town Hall in Colombo was declared open in 1928.

May 7
The Establishment of the Fort in Colombo by Portuguese in 1518.
Saradiel the outlaw was hanged in 1864.

May 8
Red Cross Day

May 9
Official end of World War II in 1945.
Laying of the foundation stone for the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery in 1967.