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Monday, 24 January 2005  
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A timely warning

If there is one thing Sri Lanka could do without, it is religious disgruntlement. Of late - as could very well be seen - religious fanaticism has been on the rise among some sections, raising the frightening spectre of religious strife in this land which knew no such thing in the past. However, we now find that not even the present devastation has led these hardline elements to believe that religious tolerance and amicability should be fostered and strengthened in the country.

We are led to these thoughts on noting Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse's appeal that the public should guard against being misled by some disgruntled elements which are currently trying to make out that re-building of damaged places of religious worship would not be allowed by the authorities at the locations formerly occupied by these buildings - that is ground occupied by them prior to the tsunami tragedy. Putting the record straight, the Premier cautioned the public not to be misled by these rumours. The re-building of these buildings would be allowed by the Government at the former locations, he clarified.

When the history of the present crisis comes to be written, mention would probably be made in gold about the humanity and understanding among social groups which it generated. For some time, Sri Lankans had forgotten the man-made barriers which were keeping them apart. They united as one man to face the devastation and members of different communities responded to each other's suffering with exemplary compassion and understanding. The religious strife of the past was forgotten.

However, now it seems there are groups which are resorting once again to the dangerous political game of rousing religious passions even amid the current devastation which has reduced some areas in Sri Lanka to rubble. We use the phrase "political game" here because there is really no religiosity inherent in these bickerings. Religious emotions and sentiments are roused in the public by disgruntled elements for political gain, for the purpose of building or expanding on support bases and for turning disaffection into votes. This game plan is well known but some sections of the public fall for it with very dangerous consequences - for, some people grow terribly emotional over their religious convictions. We have seen this in the burning and devastation of places of religious worship by hoodlums and arsonists in the recent past.

So, it is best that the people alert themselves to the dangerous possibilities in the effort to stir religious disaffection. Meanwhile, as upholders of religious harmony, tolerance and secularism, we are glad that the Lankan State is continuing on a course of staving off religious friction. The Government is duty-bound to clamp-down on religious extremists who are desperately bent on fanning destructive sentiments. The Government should show no quarter to these elements but speedily bring them to justice if and when they violate the law of the land.


Einstein's Year

Where would we be without Albert Einstein? Groping in the dark, probably. The genius literally explained how the universe runs. Yet the man himself remained an enigma to many, like most of his theories.

Germany is celebrating 2005 as "Einstein Year" to mark 100 years since Einstein made the first of his discoveries that changed the way we look at the world. The "Einstein Year" will run alongside the World Year of Physics, a United Nations-backed effort to encourage fresh interest in a discipline suffering a worrying decline.

The German Government says its year of events would pay tribute to "the free spirit, the pacifist, the citizen of the world and the visionary" who wrote three of the four ground-breaking works that reshaped our perception of the physical universe exactly 100 years ago.

Einstein, then just 26, pushed forward understanding of the laws of motion, enabling experiments to prove that atoms existed. By identifying light as particles of energy called photons, he described the photo-electric effect and was rewarded with the 1921 Nobel prize.

Then he penned the special theory of relativity, arguing that distance and time are not absolute, leading to his most famous formula, E=mc2, which was essential for the development of atomic weapons.

He then defined the general theory of relativity, which suggested gravity as well as motion affect time and space.

Einstein was catapulted to world prominence in 1919, when a solar eclipse confirmed his predictions that light would be bent by gravitational pull.

His Jewish origins led him to flee Germany in 1933 after Adolf Hitler came to power. Einstein fought against the strengthening of Nazism and for the strengthening of democracy. Einstein settled down in the United States where he began teaching at Princeton University.

His most famous political act was his letter to then US President Franklin Roosevelt, warning that the Nazis were on the verge of developing an atomic bomb.

Einstein rued the very power of inventions that stemmed from his discoveries and spent the rest of his life calling for disarmament, a rare example of him using fame. He was a complex personality socially - he married twice, abandoned his natural daughter and had a succession of extra-marital affairs.

Not only Germany, but the scientific community around the world must be grateful to a genius who has single handedly changed our perceptions. It is not clear how he was inspired to write his theories - in fact, his brain remains in the United States for scientific purposes. And as scientists continue their quest for a Grand Unified Theory that explains everything from the birth of the universe to its end, Einstein's theories will very much be in the spotlight.

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