Headline on the last words of John Lennon

In December 2023, British newspaper the Daily Mail published an article on the last words of John Lennon before he was shockingly assassinated by a Mark C. whose name deserves no adulation. Lennon was murdered outside the Dakota Apartments building in New York where he lived. His wife Yoko Ono was with him. Her frantic efforts were not enough for a man shot at point blank range on Dec 8^th 1980.

You may have shared your timeline with that of John Lennon or at least with his musical output and your relatives or parents could be.

Before I was born, inside my mother, the hospital was playing “Hey Jude”, an example of Lennon’s influence that succeeded in taking over the USA if not the world, by storm. The Beatles with Lennon as leader, was the first major UK act to succeed and break into American and by default global culture, while Britain itself was on the wane. The Beatles were of the greatest pop groups of all time and are unlikely to be surpassed in this splintered, fragmented age of pop, when platforms make more money than artists.

Instead of referring to the article, what do the comments left by readers of the article within about the first 2 hours of its publication reveal to the world or an interested “alien” about Lennon? A man who died in the prime of his life, being the first of his four act band to perish, in a shocking eighties episode.

All comment typists are given credit at the end of this article by their identifiers. They primarily fall into two camps – about 75% of the comments are from the UK or from a UK vantage; the remainder are from the USA. It looks like these two countries had the most appreciation for the Beetles. We only feature about 37 commentators and around 40 comments with a few commentators making more than 1 comment. Some trivial comments from the initial tranche (as judged by the author) are excluded. Featured comments are divided into the following categories:

1. About the murderer, 2. About the victim., 3. Lennon’s last words – humorous, 4. Lennon’s last words – factual, 5. Memories, 6. Music history, 7. Gun violence and 8. General.

Consider this as a comprehension exercise. Clearly the article wanted to identify John Lennon’s last words and concerned his assassination in the context of a televised documentary. But what can we learn from comments 43 years after the fact? All comments are provided without italics or quote marks followed by the name of the commentator in bold. No additional commentary is supplied alongside, though the comment categorisation offers some clues to the level of significance to each category. There are some concluding remarks at the end. I hope you enjoy this tiny selection about a colourful artist (with digressive asides) who meant a lot, even as cultural cake, to some of us, while he was alive.

1. About the murderer

Sounds like intent to me...the impression is this guy is just crazy but it sounds like he didn't like Lennon's philosophy and that makes it creepier to me. He should be in jail for life. Mychemicalthotz

Forty-three years later and Mark David Chapman is still in the Big House at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York. There are none of the usual Leftists looking to spring him. No Susan Sarandon. No Cher. No Whoopie. No Joy Behar. No Joy Reid. No nobody. Because in their minds the only way you are truly deserving of doing true life is if you take out a Beatle or a Kennedy. Buddy_Rogers

Chapman was a patsy Comfortnine

Other witnesses claim Chapman didn't shoot LennonPenBrowning

I'm surprised the wokey left hasn't started a campaign for thev release of f a t b o y Chapman calling it inhumane to keep him inside Sir Frankie Crisp

2. About the victim

I was n college when he was shot - sure I liked his music but I was into lots of music! Lennon as a person I remember not liking at all and was shocked how my roommates reacted and then the world! Just last week I listened to audiobook of Legends Elvis - Lennon and ALi. I was reminded why I never liked Lennon mostly because he wrote about love peace but ignored his son Julian and family. I found him to be kinda mean and not loving especially for soothe wanted the world to become ….. Beachgal22

A true legend. Terror of Death

I do not care for woman beaters so I have no interest in his last words whatsoever Bygone era

His wonderful words in the record 'Imagine' always brings tears to my eyes. He was so great at writing meaningful songs RIP John. lady penelope2

3. His last words - humour

I should've been nicer to my son Julian.. lissyanne

Michael Jackson's last words were 'take me...............to the....................cheeldrin's hospital....'Patrick McGroyne

"I confess..Yoko can't sing." AdamSmith1776

"I....can...see... the...future....tell them...tell...tell them... VOTE TRUMP!" Lars Gonaards

Help? Janet

Let it be. Coledes1

'Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh, I've been sh.............. Jonno27

4. His last words - factual

There were only 2 witnesses close....Yoko and the shooter.! Jake

I remember when John Lennon was shot and I read that his last word was just "yeah." Someone in the ambulance asked him if he was John Lennon and that was his response. krall

But we already know. He said "I'm shot." Bon

His last word was 'Yes' when asked if he was John Lennon. Landis Brocknall

His last word was yes when the police officer asked him if he was John Lennon in the back of a police car en route to the hospital. This has all been said in previous documentaries. andy

His last words were I've been shot jontty

His last words were, "I'm shot.." I thought that was common knowledge. How old are you people?MarkDreher9

5. Memories

Always remember when John Lennon died the same day I got a phone call to say my dad had died. lottie

I remember when he died most regular tv and radio schedules were thrown out the window it was all about John whichever channel you went to, this was pre sky and streaming days. Not bad for a guy from a pop group from Liverpool. Despite his crazy days or 'a couple years in the wilderness' as he referred to it he was so loved. The only other time I've seen anything like it was when Diana died. Rockyz

I've managed this far without knowing samuel Peeps

I was on a cruise in September and went to Central Park and there is a round circle in the ground and in the middle was the word IMAGINE.Also next to it is a plaque with the heading Strawberry fields and many Countries on that plaque. Great Memorial to him and one could see where he lived and got shot. DENNY 18

Clearing a room today, so turned up the record player, put on 'Help' and 'A hard days night' and tried to torture the street by singing along. Couldn't help thinking just how distinctive Lennon was, giving the songs a 'cutting' edge. BrownProf

6. Music history

The kids posting here who probably think 'Rap' is music should learn something about the British Popular Music Industry in the early 1960s. Most pop music was dire in 1962. I remember it well. The Americans had most of the best songs and performers. Then came the Beatles. They conquered America and opened it up to British groups - including the Rolling Stones. What they contributed to the British Music industry in terms of innovation, creativity and cash has never been calculated, but it was immense. The Beatles have no peers. How I wish I could go back to October 1962 when I first heard them on the wireless (Light Programme). Happy days. Tweedside Beach

The Beatles were decent, pleasant people. Before they were famous they were not involved in any kind of crime. When Lennon said they were "more popular than Jesus" he was only speaking the truth. Unlike Kansas, the British are not religious fanatics.Tweedside Beach

7. Gun violence

In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S. They are all crazy. Tweedside Beach

John should have lived in the UK. Too many crazy Yanks with guns. Even their height chart is nuts. With inches on both sides. GreenFox

If this fool had shot John in England he would have been released years . Good on you USA. mini 3

Spoiler: His last words were "Whatever you do, always stay in Europe" Tarquin Magnificent

8. General

Lots of infantile, mean spirited comments here. But some people have to excel at something in their mean lives, I suppose. ChinUpFolks

You have rinsed this story dry, give it a rest he died 43 years , he's not God and he wasn't that much of a singer... keep things real and stick to what's going on in the world economy.. Claptrap

What can you say when youre being murdered ? F F S looking good

Some nasty people with their unfunny comments on here. My mate Frank

Just ask Andy peebles, he always reminds us he was the last person to interview Lennon johnnie

Coda and acknowledgements

John Lennon's last words appear to have been "I've been shot". Very shortly afterwards, he was was asked by those taking him to hospital if he was John Lennon to which he replied "yeah" - apparently Lennon's last word. Unfortunately, this has been disputed by medics who argue he was too indisposed even for this utterance.

Fact checkers and those more interested may care to piece together and work out the details, alongside other tragic similar and untimely deaths like with Buddy Holly or Elvis. There are probably more things to be said about this subject and the Beetles to follow.

Acknowledgments

9 US commentators:

Mychemicalthotz, Faraway, USA; Buddy_Rogers, Catskill Mountains, USA; Beachgal22, Philadelphia, USA; lissyanne, Chic, USA; Patrick McGroyne, Logicville, USA; AdamSmith1776, Detroit Rock City, USA; krall, Pittsford NY USA; Bon, Cape Cod, USA; MarkDreher9, Brainerd, USA

28 UK & associated commentators:

Comfortnine, Big hill, UK; PenBrowning, Putnoe, UK; Sir Frankie Crisp, Henley On Thames , UK; Terror of Death, Kaer Morhen, UK; Bygone era, Bothwell, UK; lady penelope2, St. Austell, UK; Lars Gonaards, The Collapsing Empire, UK; Janet, Buckinghamshire, UK; Coledes1, Newcastle, UK; Jonno27, Norwich, UK; Jake, Never neverland, UK; Landis Brocknall, London, UK; andy, uk, UK; jontty, Anyways , UK; lottie, manchester, UK; Rockyz, Ici, UK; samuel Peeps, Kent, UK; DENNY 18, basingstoke, UK; BrownProf, Crawley, UK; Tweedside Beach, Berwick, UK; GreenFox, UK; mini 3, earth, Christmas Island, UK; Tarquin Magnificent, Portsmouth, UK; ChinUpFolks, Woking, UK; Claptrap , Chester , UK; looking good, Little Lever, UK; My mate Frank, No United., UK; johnnie, Donostia, UK

Kamala’s Story

KAMALA’S STORY

From on a voice recording made in September 2018 of Kamala Wadu.  Some names have been changed.  This version has been approved by Kamala, regarding the almost miraculous recovery of her daughter, Chinko from a brain infection.  Since then, Chinko at the time of writing is a successful practicing medical doctor in Australia, as is her son who completed his medical training there.  For hope and inspiration.

*********

This  happened about 23 years ago.  My son-in-law had gone on his sabbatical leave to the UK and was working at the Sterling Royal Infirmary in Scotland as a Gynecologist.  My daughter had just finished her final exam and had gone with their baby son to join her husband in Sterling.

It all happened during the Sinhala New Year time of that year.  It was the 14^th of April and we were in Sri Lanka.  We were involved with the New Year celebrations and were about to light the hearth when almost suddenly we received a call to say that Chinko was ill, she was in a coma in hospital.

This happened on a Sunday and so somehow, we moved heaven and earth and got the tickets to England and were on the plane the next day, a Monday night.  When we got to Scotland she was already in hospital.  She was at the Glasgow Southern General Hospital in the Neurological Centre and we rushed straight there.

We were by her bedside.  I called her name and spoke to her.  At the time she looked at me, heaved a sigh of relief and turned the other way, closed her eyes and went to sleep.  Somehow, I felt that she had some sought of consciousness till I spoke to her.  I felt that she was happy that there was someone to look after her baby who was only two and a half years old.

We waited a few days wondering whether she will come out of this coma, but she didn’t.  Every day was the same.  The doctors tried their level best to bring her around as the days went by, but nothing could be done.  So, every day we went to the hospital, saw her and spent enough time speaking to her, but there was absolutely no response.  It was like that for nearly a month and she remained the same.  There was no improvement.

In the meantime, the doctors (who were attending to Chinko) had had a conference and thereafter told my husband Winston, that they saw no hope and felt that her condition was a very serious one.

Winston went there with me and stayed for just one day.  He returned to Sri Lanka since he couldn’t bear to see Chinko in that state.  He was so devastated that he didn’t know what he was doing.

Since Chinko’s child was there, we managed to get down from Sri Lanka the maid who looked after the child.  While the maid looked after the child, I was going up and down to the hospital.  However, there was absolutely no response from Chinko.  So after about one month, they sent her to Sterling.

Intensive care 

She was initially at intensive care at Southern General Hospital, Glasgow and from there they sent her to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Sterling.  They sent her because there was no hope and they could not afford to waste a bed on her.  There were patients with more pressing problems: accident cases, patients with aneurysms, heart conditions.  They needed the primary ICU.  So, they couldn’t afford to give a bed there for a patient with no hope.

But fortunately for me, I did not know this.  I did not know that she was that bad.  I felt that she would come around.  So, we brought her to Sterling.  And I was with her at Sterling.  She was given a very nice room and I was given a room too.  It was a very comfortable place.  Then there was doctor Finlay, in charge of the intensive care unit who was absolutely good to me.  He said that I could be with the patient and even gave me food and looked after me too, not only the patient.  There were this lovely set of nurses, sister McClain and her staff, I mean they were absolute angels.  They looked after Chinko so well.

Spasms

After a few days she started getting bad fits, like spasms, but there is a special name for it - seizures.  They were very bad spasms and there was a lot of fluid that came out of her mouth.  Usually she was okay till about one o’clock in the morning.  Roughly around one o’clock or after about one o’clock, my hand that was kept on her head while chanting pirith¹ could feel the vibrations.  The vibrations started slowly and as time went by they gathered momentum.  I could see a little movement, movement of the fingers, movement of the lips, the face getting contorted and the little ticks here and there and the mouth, it was terrible to watch the mouth.  Gallons of fluid came out of the mouth.  Gallons, not just a little.  It was only later that the doctors could explain this.

I used to chant pirith with my hand on her head all the while.  But noticed that the chanting made her condition worse, as if she was frightened.  The fits became more serious.  So I chanted silently.

She was being given a drip all the time, but I couldn’t understand from where the fluid was coming, so much of it.  We had to use so much of tissue to get the fluids absorbed.  This went on and on for some time and the fits that started used to settle down after a few hours, but sometimes persisted and her condition aggravated.  This made all the bleeps work - there were three monitors.  The oxygen level was going down.  The heart rate was going up, touching 165, 185.  With a layman’s meagre knowledge, I felt that whatever was controlling the thermostat of the body, was fluctuating.  At times it went up very high and I couldn’t even be close to her, she was burning hot and I could feel the heat – and at other times ice cold.  The temperature used to be so low that they had to cover her.  Not with a blanket, but something like aluminum foil.  I cannot say what it was.  It wasn’t aluminum foil but may be something like that and every time they did that, they sent me out of the ward.  They used to cover her to preserve the temperature.  All this time anyone could do anything to her, but she wouldn’t know.  She was dead to the world.

From this after a couple of months the situation became worse.  She was at Glasgow for one month and about another month at Sterling.  The nurses did everything possible though she was an unconscious patient.  They used to give her a bath, shampooed her hair, they used to put a nice dress on and keep her on a wheelchair and take her around the garden and used to talk to her all the time.  They used to say things like “Chinko can you hear the birds? this is eucalyptus” and hold the smell to her nose.  They used to also put a bit of ice on her lips so that she would know the feel of it, a piece of lemon, something hot, something cold, something sour, something bitter, various types of tastes to bring some sensation.  But nothing worked.  So, it continued until one day she was constipated for three days.

It was now the third month, about the middle of the third month, she was constipated for a couple of days.  That was unusual as her bowel movements were fairly normal, but now she had become constipated.  Then the nurses asked me what I would do when the baby was constipated?  I said “I rub the tummy with my palm and say “baba, kakki kakki kakki”.  The baby would usually have a motion.  So they kept her on a commode and said “Chinko, kakki kakki kakki” and kept on stroking her stomach and lo and behold she had a motion!

Striking Gold

That was like striking gold, because to them it was a big breakthrough as there had been some response.

Thereafter they took it very seriously and used to give her a bath daily and take her outside.  One day after a bath, when she was being wheeled back into the ward, she had said “lovely”.  This was also after she had had a motion, but of course when they had turned her into bed, she had once again gone into the coma.  So we were wondering whether there was any significance in these events until one day she had been given an injection.  Now this was like the end of the third month.

Now right at the start of the first month they had already done a tracheostomy.  Then I think towards the end of the third month they removed the tracheostomy and it was sort of healing on its own.  However, it was with the tracheostomy that she had said “lovely”.

It went on like that.  In the meantime, there were various types of people coming to see Chinko.  They were mainly Buddhist and even a monk came and chanted ‘pirith’ and blessed her.  Then there were the Pentecostal Pastors and the Sisters, a whole wagon of people, about ten of them who came.  The Pentecostal people were not known to me, but we knew a Dr Jacob, who had been with us in Kandy who was a Pentecost himself.  He was a UN expert on minor crops.  In Sri Lanka, minor crops meant crops like Pepper, Cinnamon, Cardamoms, Cloves, etc.  I informed him and he had immediately asked those people to come.  They came from London and chanted prayers, they chanted for a long time.  However, nothing brought about a change, until the day when she had been given an injection, she had pulled her leg.  She had pulled her leg when the injection was given.  Another sign that there was some life in her.

Prayers

During this time, a friend of mine had sent me some ‘holy ash of Saibaba’, Satya Sri Saibaba.  This had been towards the end of the fourth month.  I applied the holy ash on the forehead, and I prayed.  I prayed to Saibaba, I prayed to everybody whatever the religion was.  If someone had sent me a novena I read the novena.  The Muslims had sent me various types of thread to tie on her and I tied them.

They were all people who were with us in our hour of need including those who were our friends and strangers.  There was a girl too, a friend of Chinko’s sister in London, a Roman Catholic.  She had gone to Lourdes and had lit a candle the height of Chinko.  And of course, in Sri Lanka people were regularly praying for her, whatever their belief was.  All the Anglican churches in Sri Lanka also prayed.  I knew the archdeacon of the Cathedral in Colombo the Venerable Godwin Weerasooriya, who was a very close friend of the family.  So, he had given instructions to the other churches and they had all been informed to pray for Chinko, at seven o’clock in the morning.  And so, something may have answered, because one day when an injection was given, she had pulled the leg.

Another day after applying the holy ash called ‘Vibuthi’ I showed Saibaba’s picture and I asked her “Chinko who is this”?  She opened the eyes and said “that’s Saibaba” and then I said say ‘sadhu²’ to him and she said “sadhu”.  And then, I cannot understand what actually worked, but I felt the goodwill and prayers coming from the hearts of people from all faiths and the dedication and expertise of the doctors and nurses of the hospital.  From that day onwards we kept on trying various tricks and slowly she was able to come out of the coma.

And when she had come out of it, the first thing she asked was where’s Dinuk, Dinuki and Yohan? She had said that she had two children, a son and a daughter and asked where they were (she only had a son).  She couldn’t speak out clearly, the voice wouldn’t carry, it couldn’t be heard and there had been only whispers.  It may have been because of the tracheostomy.

So, then we brought Dinuk and she hugged the fellow so hard that we had to remove him from her grip as he got frightened.  From that time onwards, little by little she slowly started crawling.  She started crawling on the ground.  There was a nurse who looked just like her brother and when she saw him she used to ask him to lift her.  She stretched out her arms appealing to be uplifted by him, which he did.

Speech therapy

Then a physiotherapist and a speech therapist started coming to teach her how to walk and how to speak.  She had forgotten how to walk and how to speak.  She knew nothing.  One day the speech therapist had come and shown her a ball and said “Chinko, this is a ball”.  She had taken the ball and dashed the ball on the speech therapist’s face.  I don’t think it had struck her, but anyway she had thrown it as she had been angry.  She had been very angry with the speech therapist and had tried to maul a nurse another day, there were even scratch marks on the face of the nurse.  That became the end of her getting speech therapy as she wouldn’t listen to the therapist.

Dinuk

Then onwards the child Dinuk came on the scene and he started teaching her, he took all the pictures and the cards from the wall and though he himself couldn’t speak properly, started saying “Mama this is pish” for fish.  He could only pronounce it as “pish”.  “Mama this is pish, say pish” and she said “pish”.  He said these are “daffodilos” for daffodils, and she said “daffadilos, pish, daffadilos”.  He taught her those little words.  Then he continued tutoring her saying “Mama come, we’ll walk” and a nurse called John used to support her.  The child used to take her hand and say “Mama now walk, right foot left foot” and like that she started to walk a few steps, walk a little.  Walking, talking and even the food, she ate a little when they fed her.  Once she became conscious, they removed the tubes and she started eating the normal way.  The husband used to spend time with her and little by little she started to recover.  The husband and the baby were the people who really brought her back to the world.

Rehabilitation Centre

For her to gain full consciousness it took about four months.  Then she was out of Sterling Hospital and had been sent to a Centre for Rehabilitation far away on an estate.  I had to walk three miles a day to reach that place because this was on an abandoned farm.  It was a Rehabilitation Centre for psychiatric patients.  I had to walk three miles up and three miles down, six miles a day as I was too frightened to go in a cab.  Anyway, when I went there, I found that no treatment was being given to her.  Her husband had access to her at the place, but not the child.  It hadn’t been a suitable place to take a small child.  When I went there, I found, unlike at Sterling, the nurses were generally talking to each other while the patients were just left to themselves.  I became very unhappy about the situation and one day I waited for the doctor and then asked him if I could take Chinko back to Sterling.  They arranged for a nurse and a vehicle for us to go back.  She had been at the Rehabilitation Centre for only one week.

Back home

She was then taken back to Sterling once again and looked after.  After about a month, she was back at home in Sterling.  By that time the sister and the nurses advised me to keep off leaving Chinko to be with her family because the nurses too felt it would be better for her to be with her husband and the child rather than being with me.

It had been four or five months since the whole thing began.  The doctors had been so amazed that they told me that they had never seen such a recovery.  Once she had recovered the doctors had had a meeting and said that if they had hope that she would recover, they could have made a documentary on her, had they anticipated the recovery.  The doctors even said that they were delighted, but they hadn’t expected her to come around.

The doctors hadn’t known earlier that there had been tremors in the brain.  They said that they had not been aware of those seizures.  What the doctors had eventually concluded was that there had been a viral infection to the basal ganglia.

While there’s life, there’s hope.  Miracles do happen and we don’t walk alone.  I feel that a countless number of people helped to bring Chinko back to life.  Words are inadequate to express my eternal gratitude for all those who rallied around.  Finally, this miracle would not have been possible without the wholehearted effort of the staff at the ICU of the Royal Infirmary of Sterling.

1 Pirith: Protective Buddhist chanting/prayer

2 Sadhu: Technically, this means “good” but can also imply something closer to “blessing” or “amen”

We need sound policies in Sri Lanka

Modified from an article published in the Sunday Times Sri Lanka, January 2018:

Whereas there is legislation governing sound pollution in Sri Lanka including from religious sources, its enforcement is rather limited, especially outside Colombo.  It is heartening to witness the present government appearing to enforce curbs on religious noise, blasting across the airways, or at least allowing the police to exercise their legal powers, but more action is desperately needed if Sri Lanka is to join the community of civilized nations.

In most of the developed world, countries like Singapore and now China, religious amplified sound pollution in particular (ASP) is either a thing of the past or was never permitted in the first place.  The un-amplified bells of Big Ben still ring naturally from London’s Westminster but don’t carry much beyond that; they’re rightly celebrated by BBC news broadcasts.  One of the largest mosques in Europe dominates Harrow but there certainly isn’t any ASP from there; bedrooms in Harrow are quiet enough at night to be used as professional sound recording studios.  In the Western world, it was never the done thing to have loudspeakers on behalf of religious events except at a local scale and regulatory frameworks have prevented ASP including from immigrant communities such as Muslims or Buddhists.  Temporary volubility is allowed, but under licence.  Man-made “natural” sounds including bells or drumming, such as the morning tom-toms at Kandy would have been commonplace in Sri Lanka throughout its two thousand odd years of high civilisation.  It is only since the 1970s in particular that ASP in particular has become a serious problem, threatening sanity and environmental resilience.  During the 1960’s in Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew was requested permission that religious places of worship may make loudspeaker broadcasts, but foreseeing technological advances such as the spread of radio and comparing notes with places like the UK, he wisely refused.  Throughout China including parts of Mongolia in recent months, loudspeaker ASP has been banned and loudspeakers are being torn down.  Places of religious worship continue to have the capacity to broadcast through radio and today, smartphones.

Sound pollution is a growing menace in many developing countries including Sri Lanka and the religious elements exacerbate the issue.  Countries with better regulatory frameworks and environmental legislation such as Costa Rica fare a lot better, indeed Costa Rica is ranked one of the happiest in the world.  In Thailand as in many other countries it is not the custom for traffic to horn loudly as in Sri Lanka except in warning.  The unnecessary proliferation in sound is a cultural as well as legislative thing.  Perhaps Sri Lankans enjoy loud noise more than Thais or English, even if it can increase stress and impair hearing?  – The trouble is that noise levels are increasing and out of control thanks to rising population and the increasing availability of loudspeakers in a free-for-all capacity for anyone, especially a rabble, those with power or religious authority to make increasingly whimsical exhibitions of popularity at a level that is difficult for ordinary people to cope with as they struggle to live their lives and seek a little bit of peace in their busy schedules.

I was recently at Gampola around Ambuluwawa where there is a road construction project.  During the day, the machinery was quite loud but one could just about cope.  By five PM it became peaceful enough to consider take a long country walk but I was dismayed that a few minutes after I started walking, the local temple chose to blast pirith throughout the valley not for 10 or 15 minutes but for an entire hour.  Just when I wanted to listen to the beleaguered birds at song, I was being forced to listen to chanting via loudspeakers, crackling the air like an endless buzz about my ears.  These walls of noise are no longer produced to quite the level they were once allowed in Colombo, but in Kandy, ordinary folk have often to put up with it at least twice a day or more.  Every new temple and mosque potentially equates to new sets of loudspeakers and the same thing being amplified at about the same time, each centre clamouring to outdo the other.  Tourists may climb a hill or mountain in relative peace, but at the summit they hear a welter of religious ASP and bakery vans with their endlessly repeated, mechanical tunes.

Despite arguments to the contrary, neither Buddhism nor Islam (the Christians seem more restrained) among other traditions ever had scriptural authority to generate ASP given that electric loudspeakers did not exist when they were written.  It would be fine for imams or monks to shout across the bows as it were in their ordinary voice as intended, but the loudspeakers have really made this into a mentally and morally taxing situation. As a recent report by the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS) in Kandy states:

“Western Buddhists who are visiting Buddhist countries in Asia for the first time are surprised on how noisy the environment is due to the blatant use of loudspeakers. They are even more surprised when discovering that a lot, if not most, of the noise is coming from Buddhist temples. Religious institutions of any kind, all attempting to assert their importance over others, are known to be noisy … The Uposatha or observance days, when Buddhist laypeople come to the monasteries and take the eight precepts, are often the noisiest days because of the five-precept chanting and sermons blared over loudspeakers.”

It’s ironic as it is actually difficult to meditate or pray properly when associated with ASP.  The Buddha didn’t take kindly to noise.  As the BPS report makes clear:

“The Buddha was living at Sávatthì… six bhikkhus [made] a loud, great sound. People looked down upon it, complained, became irritated: ’How can the sons of the Sakyan go among the houses making a loud, great sound?!’ [The Buddha came … said:] ’Foolish men, how can you go among the houses making a loud, great sound?! It will not lead to faith in those who have no faith; it will not lead to the increase [in numbers] of those who have faith’… [and he laid down the training rule:] ’I shall go quietly in inhabited areas, this is a training to be done.”’

Buddhist temples are major sources of ASP in Sri Lanka.  This may be justified when a monk may be delivering a speech but a great deal of the ASP is pre-recorded, often put out by the smaller temples struggling to establish a sort of hegemony or draw support.  Despite much of this being against the Vinaya, many lay Buddhists have been convinced that it is an aspect of Buddhist practice.  In the more developed Muslim countries such as in the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, mosques cannot make an unregulated storm of sound that rises from the belly of the city at dawn, dusk and other times (as sometimes seems to happen from Kandy).  The call to prayer can indeed be pleasant as president Obama once noted “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset” especially when it is done at moderate volume.

Village Sri Lankans have told me how they cannot protest the deafening emanations from their local temples that disturb sleep, study and exam revision as they could be accused of being against their culture.  Since many now note the problem, it is time to be decisive with policing at least existing legislation before creating new laws.  Many Buddhists and Muslims would privately if not publicly support the regulation of ASP and it would add to communal harmony, something that Lee Kwan Yew was wise to.  It is not the place of this article to detail the existing legislation in Sri Lanka, the enforcement of which is rather tepid outside Colombo – but if the tourism and the economy of the country is to benefit then it is extremely important to enforce legislation so that town and country alike, especially including national parks are not affected by ASP, especially from religious sources and that we may still be able to hear the noises of elephants, leopards, bears, jackals and the multitudes of birds and insects that the Island is blessed with. If by some miracle, Sri Lanka moves to levels of auditory peace experienced before the twentieth century (and progress may be faster than appears with the increasing use of quiet electric vehicles), then legislation should not only cover religion (as enforced in most developed countries), but public excesses including fireworks, bakery/ice cream vans and vehicle horns.  Sound policies would act at multiple levels on the basis of licencing (with allowances for temporary noise during special occasions or a higher priority religious site), more curfews on noise between dusk, night and dawn, the taxation or regulation on the sale and distribution of loudspeakers and more power to the people to prosecute breaches of the peace.  

I was so relieved at Gampola when it rained, the divine sounds of nature thwarting the local temple’s clamour. I’d much prefer to hear my own prayers and those of barbets, bulbuls, babblers and crickets, and even imams and monks at their own pitch rather than through loudspeakers.  We really cannot afford anymore to be patronised to in these regards by ignorant religious leaders given they have no sanction.  Sounds at mountain summits should not reflect emanations of man made sound pollution from below.  We need sound policies.

4 Nights in a DZ Sri Lankan forest reserve

Location: Galgirikanda area, nearest town, Galgamuwa.  Elevation ~ 200m.  Temperature 30-33 C.  Moderately humid, so unpleasant unlike in more arid conditions during the time of visit in early August 2017.  This is a flat area interspersed with rocks and hills up to a height of 700m.  Up on the rocks, the views are stunning in the morning and evening (see @Lanka_Wildlife for pics) and quite pleasant with cooling, sometimes strong winds, especially by evening moonlight, illuminating the landscape devoid of obvious man-made structures while I was there, as far as the eye could see.

Though mostly dry, there is enough rain to maintain verdure and feed wells, rocky hollows and puddles frequented by birds to bathe and drink in the evenings in particular.  The water is somewhat mineralised (“kivul”) leaving ones hair somewhat stiff and tangled.

The botany is dominated by indigenous plants (unlike the wet zone) including giant Euphorbia cacti, Toddy (Thal) palms (Borassus flabellifer) and dozens of species of tree such as Ebony, “Cone” (? with fruits similar to gal siyambala), Palu, Wood apple, “Timbiri” and Margosa (Neem) trees among others with the understory often dominated by curry leaf plants.  Indigenous Iluk "pitiyas" or plains still carry on, though these may be drowned by invasive mana in future.

The dust is hollowed by the pits of ant-lions.  The leaf litter crawls with orange insects like weevils (pictured).  There are long trains of black termites, colonies of larger biting ants that can weal the skin and leaf stitching red ants that fall from trees.  The dry zone cicada is especially active and infernal as the temperature rises in the afternoon.  Of butterflies there are quite a few including the slow flapping common rose (Papilio polytes).

The signature bird by day is the Indian Shama that sings beautifully at most times, loudest by dawn and dusk.  Several Shamas seem to compete in song around circles of 100-200 feet or so unless the same individual keeps moving around.  I asked a local resident who happened to be Danish whether the Magpie robin or the Shama was the better singer.  He replied that the Shama was the “Chopin” among bird singers, though you’d have room to disagree as he also enjoyed the song of the Indian nightjar (that kept him company by night).  Post sunset it’s the turn of Jerdon’s nightjar, repetitive but quite pleasant.  These birds seem to reply to calls from rivals within hearing range.  There are many other birds such as peacocks, jungle-fowl, black-capped bulbuls, brown-capped babblers and pompadour pigeons leaving aside commoner species (the Indian ring dove, all Sri Lanka barbets except the Yellow-fronted) and those unidentified.  The birds may be zoned as agricultural (ring dove, yellow billed babblers) living outside of the forest and forest birds themselves like the Shama.  Others such as Brahminy Kites, seem to occupy both habitats, especially associated with water.

The signature mammals include elephant (supressed by miles of electrocuted fencing), axis and mouse deer, jackals, macaques, porcupines, hare, giant squirrel and the loris.  Amongst those most easily encountered in the dark were hare, loris and mouse deer as well as either a toddy cat or dry zone golden palm civet up a tree.  The mostly invisible elephants seem to voice their despair by night, screaming like the chained giants they are devoid of the freedom to roam at their pleasure.  Their routes are blocked and at the time of the writing the government fails to provide them with elephant corridors to link up forest reserves.

Reptiles are more obvious and active in the dry zone than in the wet.  Skinks are very common in the leaf-litter as they rustle the ground in the search for prey, constantly chasing off fellow rivals.  Even the tallest trees can be climbed by the large land monitors and when descending they come down vertical trunks with the head down (upside down) like squirrels, suggesting that their rear limbs have phenomenal holding power for such a large and seemingly unwieldy lizard.  It’s quite confiding as long as one keeps a distance and can allow the cameraman almost near its face (at least the one I was looking at did).  I saw a painted lips agama, Calotes ceylonensis busily dashing down a tree with the head and chest area a stark black and white.  Then it noticed me and stood still, starring back, slowly turning a bright orange to replace the former white.  It carried on observing me for quite a while and it was I who had to give up.

There are miles of low trees in areas subjected to former chena cultivation but towards the rocks and hills unsuitable for cultivation, massive older trees carry on including forests of ironwood that may have been planted two thousand years ago.  In the crevices of these rocks, large enough for animals hides the mouse deer that may remain all day, observing people as they pass by.  You can detect them at dusk by torchlight.  The dry zone loris looks like it’s peddling a bicycle on all fours as it creeps around branches, both in the treetops and at knee level in bushes.  Its eyes dance like a pair of candle flames by torchlight from a tree or bush, but the mysterious animal is rather elusive and can disappear while you try and get camera ready.

The cone trees (whatever that species may be) drops hundreds of small brown fruits with seeds the size of a peanut.  Apparently the fruits were consumed by children but no more.  Similarly, the toddy palm leaves used to make the best roofing, especially if applied in several layers, but once again not used much any more.  I really looked forwards to constant showers to keep me sane, using a local Margosa (Kohomba) soap.  The evenings were the best times to chat with others on the rocks or in their little cottages, sipping tea to discuss politics, the weather and wildlife.

Outside forest reserves the land is cut up and bulldozed apace and the illusion of a sea of forest along with plains of soft native Iluk grass (pictured) quickly gives way to “progress”.

Paradise Lost To Plastic Waste

Reproduced from Sunday Times Sri Lanka, Plus, Sunday Dec 4 2016
by Rajith Dissanayake

People are naturally messy like other social animals – monkeys and bats leave piles of debris under fruiting trees following feeding frenzies. Until recently, any litter we left after a picnic was rendered to almost nothing by microbes, fungi and other natural agents. Humanity produces more “waste” than all wild animals put together but it’s only in the last 70 years that this is producing an indelible stain worse than ugly. Two major streams of waste now threaten the Sri Lankan environment: sewage and plastic. Sewage is another story but what of the non-biodegradable plastic, produced from foreign oil? Over 90% of this is tragically single use disposable packaging or consumables like bottles, straws, cups and polystyrene. Mostly not recycled, a great deal ends up in the oceans. The trouble is that plastic, unlike organic waste is persistent, chemically stable from hundreds to thousands of years and generally only breaks down into particles that enter food webs eventually returning to contaminate our bodies.

Since 1974 global plastic production has rocketed by over 620%. Broadcaster David Attenborough thinks that the 8 million tonnes of plastic annually dumped in the seas is worse than sewage. There are five vast accumulations of ocean plastic of which the north Pacific “gyre” represents the largest, a stew of plastic at least 800,000km2 in extent. According to a report in Science, 2015, about 30% of this is from China topping a list of five countries responsible for over 60% of ocean plastic, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines Vietnam, and Sri Lanka with a poor waste infrastructure (PWI). In a more recent analysis the top five countries include Thailand making Sri Lanka the sixth largest polluter. How does a tiny Indian Ocean island exceed larger competitors as a garbage champion? 

Remember the advent of the “siri-siri” bag in Sri Lanka from the 1980s, a noisy novelty? In South Africa, trees covered in plastic bags earned them the sobriquet “the national flower” now applicable to our island. Before them provisions were wrapped in newspaper cones tied with jute or coconut string with meat and fish in waterproof taro leaves before carriage in rattan baskets. Remember banana rice packets, wrapped palm leaf or refillable glass bottles, waxed paper and clay pot containers? Somehow, we managed like this for millennia.

Today, we are force fed plastic bags. Some restaurants cover plates with plastic to avoid washing them. Everything is encased in this ubiquitous substance. We only consider contents rather than the wrapping but it’s the packaging that now haunts us in ways more sinister than appearances.

Discarded plastic nets and lines kill vast amounts of marine life in a process described as ghost fishing. Thousands of turtles die as a result of ingesting plastic bags that they mistake for jellyfish; whales are also affected. A third of the chicks of Laysan albatrosses die as their parents feed them plastic of a dwindling population of 1.5million. Meanwhile, sewage treatment plants struggle to deal with plastic microbeads used as an abrasive exofoliant in toiletries that readily pollutes waterways – already there are more plastic particles in the Danube than fish fry and it is predicted that oceanic plastic will outnumber fish by 2050.

In Sri Lanka the evils of plastic are increasingly evident. They cause floods such as those that inundated Colombo 7 not too long ago by blocking drains and sewers during heavy rain. They kill grazing animals among others after blocking their stomachs and help destroy life in aquatic habitats. They form horrible, unsightly piles on roads, in streams and even on the outskirts of forests and litter paths used by people. They empower mosquitos and diseases like dengue. Forming the bulk of persistent, solid waste, they take up untold space in wilderness such as landfills on the fringes of Wilpattu National Park, land all too precious in the confines of the island. The authorities in Gampola were dumping such waste on the top of Ambuluwawa hill, before it tumbled down overwhelming small farms and polluting local rain-fed streams into rivers including the Mahaweli. We are now unwittingly consuming plastic, with all the associated chemicals such as flame-retardants and pthalates through packaging and via seafood that has accumulated plastic debris. There is increasing evidence that the chemicals in plastic entering our bodies cause cancer, infertility and birth defects. Last but not least, Sri Lanka is offloading its plastic load into the surrounding oceans affecting the whole world. But plastic is still seen as fashionable and powerful packaging businesses will fiercely oppose government plans to moderate the menace.

The most important solution is to reduce consumption of single use disposable plastic as highlighted in a recent report by the World Economic Forum by scientists and business - we as consumers have a role. In Sweden, waste to energy plants produce 20% of the heating in populated districts and 99% of waste is either recycled or incinerated so efficiently that they need to import 800,000 tonnes of waste from outside. “Sweden runs out of garbage” read a recent headline. US Company Ecovative is producing a lightweight polystyrene alternative Mycofoam from fungi now championed by Ikea; Japanese researchers are developing algal agar plastic and compostable cornstarch bioplastic is increasingly popular. A brewery in the US has just developed edible six-pack rings for holding beer cans. Whereas natural packaging: egg shells and banana peel are hard to replicate, there is demand for such innovation. England only banned free plastic bags last October (usage has already plummeted by a staggering 80%), China got there in 2008. New York and Washington DC have initiated bans of Styrofoam and there will be a partial US ban of microbeads by 2017. In March 2016, the government of Karnataka, India banned plastic production and use: “No shopkeeper, … hawker or salesman shall use plastic carry bags, plastic banners, plastic buntings, flex, plastic flags, plastic plates, … cups, … spoons, cling films and plastic sheets for spreading on dining table irrespective of thickness … and … micro beeds (sic).” Meanwhile, our government is struggling to implement its 2007 ban on plastic sheeting thinner than 20 microns.

With well-developed waste practices in Scandinavia, Taiwan and increasingly the US, Sri Lanka remains a model of PWI. The plastic on paradise is piling up and flowing via streams, sewers and rivers into the sea almost exponentially. In village roadsides, women carry on sweeping up the “national flowers” and packaging creating unsightly, dangerous fires in a country that once boasted more imaginative solutions.

It will be a while before our “statesmen” take serious action. Private enterprise may have to take a lead – fashion conscious individuals are sporting “I’m not a plastic bag” cloth-bags, emblazoned with promotional logos to advertise brands or services. People will happily pay more for eating from banana or lotus leaves. At Adam’s peak and Horton Plains, brave officials have banned plastic bags. Perhaps we can start small by at least separating out our waste between biodegradable food waste, recyclables such as glass and cans and non-biodegradable plastics so that they can be processed differently as is happening at a few civilised venues. Food waste can be composted, fed to animals or turned into biogas. Glass, paper and even some plastics can be recycled. There has been a thriving “bothal-pattare” recycling scene for quite a while and I for one celebrate the biodegradable recycled paper bags made from school exercise books with examples of maths or English homework, out of which I consume peanuts in busses. There could be incineration plants in the future that can burn some of our wastes to produce electricity. Our government needs to ban or tax free single use disposable plastic and incentivise biodegradable solutions like our predecessors did with their smarter botanical solutions a great deal more. As in Singapore, the casual disposal of litter should be fined. Canadian environmentalist professor David T. Suzuki has said “Garbage is a state of mind”. Garbage could be profitable based on recycling, animal feed, organic fertiliser, biogas and waste to energy incineration.

We should all endeavour to cut back on plastic use by encouraging solutions such as refillable bottles, the greater use of metal, cellulose, biomaterials and voicing our concerns to shops and companies. Businesses and shops with a zero waste emphasis are appearing in the developed world and we can all divest, by degrees in plastic. I’m saving money by buying less plastic, making my own shampoo and cleaners – internet searching makes the refinement of environmental choices easier. With a little technology, we can now even charge phones by burning domestic waste. Keep saying no to single use disposable plastic – they’re bad for our bodies and wildlife. Say hello to recycled paper packaging, paper straws (they do exist), rattan baskets, plant leaf wraps tied in organic string. Such timeless packaging is today increasingly fashionable around the world, better for our health and the planet.

An accumulation of plastic debris by Kandy Market

A woman burns plastic waste by a village roadside