Festival day, only stilts left standing

For more than a century the stilt fishermen of Sri Lanka’s south coast have harvested a precarious living for their family table as wel...

For more than a century the stilt fishermen of Sri Lanka’s south coast have harvested a precarious living for their family table as well as bartering or selling their catch for other daily needs. It took two minutes on a Sunday morning — ironically, during the Buddhist ‘Poya’ festival — to change all that. The sea came back to tear their lives apart.

Perched on their ‘stilts’ between Weligama and Koggala bays, the ‘human herons’ are unique among the world’s fishing communities for their style of rod angling. Today, a few stilts still stuck out of the water but it will be a long time before anyone clambers up at dawn and dusk — there’s simply nothing left to catch.

No one knows just how many died yesterday. Nimal Wickramranyake was one of those who survived. He’d finished his morning catch and had taken his pregnant wife and sons to a temple for Poya. They were leaving for Ahangama when the first of three waves struck. The wall of water engulfed the area, then, as it swiftly receded, swept away housing and sucked him and his wife Nuwangi with it. Nuwangi was slapped against a coconut tree, to which she clung desperately; she is hospitalised and the unborn child safe.

If this part of the coast is bad, Matara — the home of Sanath Jayasuriya — is several times worse. The Sunday family market was swamped and more than 500 people disappeared. Rajanjivia Silva, a fisherman, is still looking for his brother. Along with sister-in-law Thusani, they had planned to go into the market to buy toys for the children. ‘‘We heard this noise and looked up the road and my brother’s trishaw was hurled high and we saw him falling into the brown swirling mass…His children are asking for him but what can we tell them?’’

India will be back on negotiating table in 1-2 months seeking a deal, 'saying sorry', says US Commerce Secretary Lutnick

India will be back seeking a deal, ‘saying sorry’, says US Commerce Secretary Lutnick

Business6 hr ago

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick predicts that India will apologise and return to the negotiating table within the next month or two to sign a trade deal with the US. He urges India to choose between supporting the US or aligning with Russia and China. Lutnick also criticised India's retaliatory tariffs and calls Prime Minister Modi's meeting with Chinese and Russian leaders "bravado."

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