Death of a judge

Former Supreme Court Judge Sarath de Abrew succumbed to his injuries after falling off the balcony of the second floor of his residence in Ratmalana on Monday.   

CONSTITUTIONAL COLD WAR & THE STALINGRAD OF THE SOVEREIGN UNITARY STATE

“We all remember the horrors of the past, the violence of three decades and the anti-democratic governments. Compare that situation to today. Civil society groups are flowering and members are key advisors in governmental task forces and decision making.”

Aspects of Buddhism as I understand them to be

They say that everything happens for a reason… nothing happens without a reason…this is what the Buddha

One year after: A critical analysis

Today, August 17, marks the completion of one year since the 2015 general elections which led to the appointment of a National Unity Government between the two major parties -- the United National 

SLFP Leader as Chief Guest

It was reported last week that President Maithripala Sirisena would be the chief guest at the 70th Anniversary celebrations of the United National Party (UNP). 

Buddha’s discourse on four great references

A Buddha appears in this World, out of great compassion, to benefit and delight countless suffering beings.  

Not Buddhism…, give Dhamma the foremost place

“Many things can be achieved by appointing the right person at the right place. Capable persons should be appointed irrespective of religious differences, If true Dhamma is practised, this will 

you can be like Hemingway but who can write like him?

News of an Ernest Hemingway look alike contest in distant Key West, Florida, USA, took me back to memories of first....

Right of reply by former JMO

Colombo’s former Judicial Medical Officer Prof. Ananda Samarasekara has sent the following reply to our feature article....

ROUND AND ROUND THE BUSH (PART VI) : WHAT IS RIGHT FOR SRI LANKA IS TO CORRECT WHAT IS WRONG

Sri Lanka’s population vastly is rural and it was the rural population who gave enormous strength to the former....

Political and religious leadership crisis of a Sri Lankan minority

Who represent the Muslim community in the government? The shocking answer is “NONE”.    One may ask “how could the....

Port City and usual “patriotic progressive” barrage: What rubbish

Last week, the Megapolis and Western Development Ministry, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and the local project company....

Tobacco tax; the lies go up in smoke - EDITORIAL

Though Sri Lanka is proclaimed to be free and sovereign, it is known that behind the scenes there is large scale lobbying....

Was the Paada Yathra a genuine protest?

One can hardly call a it a protest when children are used as pawns to sling mud at political rivals in bad language, when leading participants lick at popsicles and ice-cream, holding....

Get up, Rip Van Winkle; get up!

Tea took over from coffee after it fell to a type of leaf blight. But it took some time for James Taylor to pioneer ‘Ceylon Tea’ as a commercial product. Thanks to foreign interest.....

What Fidel can teach us in the age of the war on terror

The war on terror, at least in terms of the way it’s been framed, leaves no room for heroes. On one side are the imperial powers, fighting to preserve their self-proclaimed “modern”....

We did everything: Upul-BASL

Following are excerpts of the speech delivered by Upul Jayasuriya, Chairman of LawAsia 2016 at the opening ceremony of the LawAsia Conference.   It is my great privilege....

USAF strengthens historic American ties with Jaffna

The first American missionaries arrived in Jaffna in 1813, when the Rev. Samuel Newell founded the first American schools in Thellipalai. Those schools were the first of hundreds of....

The Cuban victory over us sanctions, invasion and intervention - EDITORIAL

Saturday 13th August marked the 90th birth anniversary of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary, who led the 1959 Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the US-backed dictator Fugencio Batista, whose....

“White-Vanning Culture” and the Lucrative Industry of Abducting Tamils

August 11, 2016 was a day of well-deserved pride for the people of Sri Lanka. The Island nation’s parliament on that day passed legislation to set up an Office of Missing Persons (OMP) in the country. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera hailed the passage of the OMP bill as “historic”. Addressing a news briefing soon after the Bill had been ratified, He said the new law would give relief to the loved o

Gangaramaya Tuskers were privileged to have carried the Dalada Sacred Casket

Buddhist culture is closely entwined with elephants and tuskers. In many Jathaka stories, the Bodhisatva was born in the elephant family and at the dream which Queen Maha Maya saw at the conception of the prince Siddhartha, we know of the elephant that came with a lotus flower. There are other stories in Buddhist literature about the elephants Parileya, Girimekhala and Nalagiri and out of the elephants from history, the elephant Kadol of king Dut

PM in China: New ties with economic superpower

As part of what is widely seen as a major foreign policy shift by the National Government, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will today begin a six-day official visit to underline the new relationship with Beijing.  The complex, international, geopolitical dimensions or dynamics today involve socio-economic and political issues. So is it with the Sri Lanka-China relationship.

63rd Anniversary of Hartal August 12,1953 Hartal! ‘Shoot on sight’ Reds re-claiming rice rations ,..

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or 

Contamination of rebels’ blood or their lives?

The former head of the women’s political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Subramaniam Sivakamialias Thamilini was again in the news from early this month for two reasons. 

‘Goviyage Rataka Balaya Goviyage’

In an important step towards restoring the vital place that agriculture had in Sri Lanka’s culture and 

From Russia with love: Reel to reality in Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Russia on Tuesday, just weeks after a failed military coup, which Erdogan supporters feel had the blessings of the United States, signals a 

Government advances OMP Bill after Vat debacle

The government was placed in a dilemma in Parliament over its business scheduled for the current sitting week as the Supreme Court ruled that the process of presenting the Value Added Tax (Amendment) bill was rendered null and void due to non adherence to procedure.   

If a soldier has done wrong, punishment should be from prevailing law -Sarath Weerasekera

The dailymirror spoke to Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara on the issues related to war heroes, missing persons and the mechanism to probe war crimes.   

Who doesn’t want accountability and satisfaction ?

There’s talk of constitutional reform. A lot of talk. There’s talk of what should go in and what should be taken out. People were appointed to gather ‘public opinion’ and the gatherers, as always, represent a particular segment of the entire ideological spectrum. A tiny segment, let’s remember. But since it is ‘public opinion’ that is filtered by panels that are essentially made of people who share such s

SAHASARA – A cost-free solution to the national transport problem

The transport problem has become a burning issue for the people of the country and a substantial percentage of the productive time of the workforce has been lost on choked streets as a result of chronic vehicular congestion. The situation is further exacerbated by workers arriving at their work places already tired out, preventing them from being able to execute their tasks efficiently. Overall, the situation is a terminal blow to the economy of