Sino-African trade ambience

Beijing is at its best when it comes to making inroads into developing countries. That is why more than 50 per cent of its human input, technical services, funding and foreign missions are based in the Dark Continent.

Editorial - The blinking flame of election violence

Whenever an election is included in the country’s agenda, the next thing one gets to read in papers is election violence or misuse of public properties.

Eastern provincial elections and the muslim congres-1

The advent of elections to the Eastern Provincial Council has caused the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) to come under media spotlight during the past week. There was much interest and speculation over the course of action to be adopted (or not adopted) by the premier political party of the Sri Lankan Muslim people.

Seriously out of touch

Veteran Tamil Nadu p o l i t i c i an M. Karunanidhi has announced the revival of the Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation, a forum he had floated in the mid- 1980s to drum up support for the creation of a separate Tamil nation in Sri Lanka. In 1986, it was a broad-based political platform that attracted leaders from different parts of India and there was widespread support for the cause. A quarter century on, the most striking feature of t

The crisis in Damascus

The regime in Damascus has been dealt a major blow. The suicide blast on Wednesday that targeted the core of the Syrian regime and killed the top security brass, including several policy-makers, has certainly weakened President Bashar Al Assad.

Mayhem in Mannar - Editorial

Mannar is on fire. The eastern town was no better than a battlefield on Wednesday, when the unruly protesters pelted stones at the Mannar police and the courts complex, compelling the Police to disperse the crowds with tear gas.

Threats and intimidation have already started: Sumanthiran

Tamil National Alliance National list Member of Parliament M.A Sumanthiran spoke to the Daily Mirror on the TNA preparations for the Eastern Provincial Council Elections...

Growing Hostility In Sri Lanka: India’s New Challenge

There is ample evidence that New Delhi’s ambitions of becoming a global power has met with fresh challenges in its neighbourhood. In recent times, Sri...

Libya’s ballot outcome

LIBYANS HAVE voted on policy circumference rather than tilting on ideologues. This is a moment of celebration in the North African country where people...

Editorial - We need honest law makers not law- breakers

With the rule of law breaking down and the crime wave increasing with an alarming number of rape cases involving children, the Government needs to go to the roots of this crisis and take effective and urgent action.

An exclusive Muslim list of candidates

The run up to the Eastern Provincial  Council Elections has once again exposed the lack of a clear political vision or strategy among Muslim political actors. In the weeks leading up to nominations there were a number of statements

Is it Wonder of Asia or mania?

The Rajapaksa Government echoes that Sri Lanka is stepping towards the Wonder of Asia. The definition of the term Wonder of Asia does not seem to have circulated within the government itself. In the absence of a clear-cut definition

The first victim of Obama’s new war

Mounting tensions in the Persian Gulf have come home to India in a most tragic way: An Indian has been killed and three more injured when a United States Navy vessel fired on their fishing boat off Dubai.

Editorial - Subject: Tamil Eelam, banned word: Sri Lanka

Finally, DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi has woken up from his slumber and surrendered to New Delhi’s word to drop his Tamil Eelam anthem. At least that is the role he has been called upon to play by the central government despite

Editorial: Blatant abuse of public funds continues unchecked

The issues of integrity, accountability, transparency and good governance among political leaders and top officials have reached crisis proportions with the country losing billions of rupees in dwindling foreign exchange.

Penal reform

People indulge in crimes due to errors of judgment in the mind. The cure perhaps should be in a medical facility. Correctional facilities should play such a role. Currently our system is 400% above capacity, is drug and disease infested and a school for crime.

Sexual Violence and Child Abuse

Sexual violence and child abuse are abhorrent crimes that evoke the righteous indignation of the people. The media should be commended for giving due publicity to the more serious instances which would galvanise public opinion against the alarming rise of these crimes.

Women in Olympics

THERE IS one more thing to look forward to at this year’s Olympics: the unprecedented participation of women from every nation. Sixteen years ago, at the Olympics in Atlanta, only 26 nations had female athletes. But if one looked further back to the year 1908,

Facing an Indian Doosra

India is a friend of Sri Lanka? Often said but listened in disbelief. If it is in India’s interest, the answer is, yes. Who stays mum to help a friend in distress and seek multiple benefits in return?

Engaging the diaspora for reconciliation

When history repeated itself on 6 June 2012, it became clearer that something is amiss in our post-war nation building efforts. One and a half years on, the itinerary of a Presidential visit to the United Kingdom

US uniforms, China’s pride

THE OUTCRY of American lawmakers about the decision of the US Olympic Committee to source the uniforms of the country’s Olympic athletes from China has given a new spin to US-China relations.

Editorial - Norwegian temptation

It seems that Norway has an incurable itch to interfere with the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. Two national newspapers yesterday reported on the Norwegian embassy’s failed attempt to persuade an alliance between the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress

Tiring out the world?

The pace of the world today leaves little time for issues and events that may have a long-lasting bearing on individuals and communities. Translated, it could mean that the international community could well throw up its arms

Resisting exclusion

As the Government looks at a new law to protect the rights of the disabled, some issues need discussion. [People with physical and mental disabilities, in the words of Amartya Sen, “are not only among the most deprived human beings in the world,

The depths of depravity

Just what is this awful sickness that lies within us? What malodorous disease could lead a random mob of men to molest a minor schoolgirl, stripping her and beating her by turns in the middle of a busy downtown street,

The China problem

China allegedly has at least 1.3 billion people residing within its current ample borders. (But has anyone actually ever counted?) China also has very many problems, as befits such a gigantic country trying to maintain the extraordinary...

Editorial - Disciplining the decision-makers

Calling a spade a spade is frankness; but calling it a fork is insolence.  For some reason, the individuals who are voted into power by people seem to resort to the latter after they march to the House.

Growing Ship Traffic Threatens Blue Whales

In early April, whale watchers off this country’s southern coast were greeted by a disturbing sight: the lifeless body of a 60-foot-long blue whale floating in the water about 12 miles offshore. The body was swelling rapidly, and suckerfish swarmed across its skin.

Attracting Middle East Investment Must be a Priority

The government should urgently explore the possibilities of attracting foreign investment from the Middle East.  There are vast funds available with Middle East entrepreneurs who are looking for prospects to open businesses in the eastern part of the world.

Transnational Government Of Tamil Eelam

 After three decades of a protracted armed conflict and its invariable legacy of polarised mindsets in the parties involved, Sri Lanka now finds herself arguably in a more difficult position than in times of war, with the abundant opinions and interpretations of her various ethnic entities disturbing