Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

13 June 2021

 

 

COLOMBO PORT CITY AND KACHCHA THEEVU

 

Today is St Anthony’s day. In Sri Lanka – to believers in St Anthony, this is the parallel of Vesak for Buddhists. I was deeply hurt by the Easter Bombings due to my belief in St Anthony through the church at Kochchikade. The origins of the church are presented as follows by Wikipedia:

 

[The church's origins relate to the early Dutch colonial period when Catholicism was banned from the island, with Catholic priests carrying out sermons from hiding places. Fr. Antonio disguised himself as a local merchant, finding refuge with a local fishing community at Mutwal. According to local legends the community sought his help to stop the sea eroding their village, and Fr. Antonio planted a cross and prayed at the beach, resulting in the sea receding and the community converting to Catholicism. The Dutch authorities then allocated him some land to carry out his sermons, whereupon he built a mud brick chapel dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua (Sant'Antonio da Padova). Fr. Antonio is buried within the church.]

 

By finding the true causes of the Easter Bombings which seriously damaged this church, we would be vaccinating ourselves against such attacks in future. Every believer would thus protect her/himself and those who are part of her/his home group would find the truth needed by her/him.

 

In terms of heritage Land is immovable custodian and persons are movables. Mr Thiyagarajah Maheswaran’s natural grave is across the road – at the Hindu temple for Lord Shiva. Unless we found the true cause of that killing, that place would continue to carry the infection which would be a threat to those who were responsible and their descendants.

 

As per TELO’s article ‘Concerns raised over possible security threats to Colombo Port City’:

[The Institute of National Security Studies, the premier think tank on national security established under the Ministry of Defence, organized a discussion on “Urban Security and Safety: the Port City” with the participation of experts from the tri-forces.

INSS was the first institute to identify the importance of a strategic security plan for the Colombo Port City, at a time there is no discussion about a security plan in the foreseeable future…..

“When the Port City is emerging as an economic hub and a maritime center in the Indian ocean, ensuring security becomes a priority for all,” the Ministry of Defence said.

Colonel Balasooriya highlighted that joint security operations and conducting foresight analysis are two vital steps to maximize urban security and safety within the Port City area.]

Since we do not have direct influence over the Government in such matters, we need to ‘vaccinate’ ourselves thought our prayers to St Anthony of Kochchikade, who protected us from the perils along coastal areas. This is why we have a church for St Anthony at Kachchai Theevu in the Northern seas of Sri Lanka.

One wonders whether like Kachchai Theevu ownership between Sri Lanka and India – Colombo Port City also would be loosely shared by China and Sri Lanka.