Empowering the elderly in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka boasts of one of the most advanced free health care systems in Asia. Whatever the drawbacks are, our government health system is well standardised and attempts to integrate high tech medical advancements. Our life expectancy at birth is 77 years which is better than Russia (71), India (69), China (76) and even Malaysia (75). We also have one of the fastest

Rajapaksa’s hollow call: Discipline for them freedom for us?

It is time that a debate of classical genre between freedom and discipline emerged in the socio-political spheres in Sri Lanka. Engagement of the country’s learned ones, academics, intellectuals, professionals and thinking politicians is an indispensable component for a lively, robust and meaningful exchange of ideas, ideals and enlightening thoughts.

In the wake of future elections Buddhist Sri Lanka at a crossroads

Sri Lanka is a proud Buddhist country and it’s a well-known fact that the island even attracts foreigners who wish to get ordained here as novice monks and learn the rudiments of Gautama Buddha’s philosophy.

PM now a septuagenarian with fresh hopes Draws parallel with China’s Deng Xiaoping

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe turned seventy on March 24, and hosted his MPs and political party leaders for a birthday dinner on Monday. In his short address to the audience, he drew inspiration from iconic Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. He said Deng Xiaoping steered China to a great economic heights through

Tilak Marapana’s efforts should not go waste

On the face of it, the intervention by Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana at the Geneva sessions of the UNHRC, appears apt and even laudable. He has stated, on behalf of the Government, certain incontrovertible truths pertaining to the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka. Naturally, he’s bound and even hindered by the relevant protocols, most seriously by what the

Water is a treasure none can do without

Most of us are familiar with Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s lines in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, where a sailor on a becalmed ship is surrounded by salt water saying, ‘Water water everywhere nor a drop to drink’.

Bathiudeen’s ‘spiring’ has affected Wilpattu

Minister Rishad Bathiudeen has shown during the past that he is more important to the Governments that have been in power than to the Muslim community.

Mysterious Mystery

When this column first reported that a ‘RED’ NOTICE had been issued on Mahendran, questions were asked, and eyebrows were raised!!! Now we are told that, at the request of the President, INTERPOL has issued a second notice on Mahendran!!! The MYSTERY IS WHY HAS IT STILL NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO ARREST AND BRING MAHENDRAN IN??? Is

BJP bad mouths rule Indian poll campaign

As a belligerent Congress and a beleaguered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) battle it out for the crucial general elections next month, political ethics have started hitting a new nadir in India. Taking on Congress over its comments on recent Indian air strikes in Pakistan, the BJP Minister of Energy in Uttar Pradesh government a few days back tweeted “The comments issued at

Christchurch attacks changed online journalism irrevocably

From the boiler room level 34C in Colombo, I had just landed in the cooler levels of 20C of Kathmandu for a few days and was looking forward to the drop in heat. I was preparing for a talk with a group of transnational journalists later in the morning, when a message appeared on my twitter feed that said that there was a shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. Tragic news, but

UNHRC: Not for parties to gain political mileage

A new resolution on Sri Lanka has been adopted at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last week with the co-sponsorship of Sri Lanka. The resolution provides another two years for Sri Lanka to implement its commitments, thrust upon it by the resolution adopted at the Council in 2015, which also Sri Lanka Co-sponsored. Main among the commitments- Sri Lanka ha

Rule based ordervs balancing against China: Eschew the latter

Four Royal Australian Navy ships and around 1000 defence personnel have arrived in Colombo and Trincomalee for Australia’s largest -ever military exercise with Sri Lanka.Colombo is the first stop of a regional mission, Code named Indo-Pacific endeavour 2019 (IPE 19); ships will travel to India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore before returning to Australia. The latest engagement is a highlight of Canberra’s growing interest

How China is getting Nepal into its orbit

Nepal has been slowly but surely getting into China’s orbit, enticed by some of Beijing’s policies. Among China’s policies which the Nepalese find congenial are: non-interference in internal affairs; disbursement of large amounts of money for desperately n

47th Death Anniversary of Philip Gunawardena - March 26 The Fiery Marxist who Valued Local Culture

Fourteen-year old schoolboy Philip with his mother travelled in a horse-carriage, straight into Queen’s House, and presented a petition to Governor Robert Chalmers, who promptly released his father, Boralugoda Ralahamy who was sentenced to death, tyrannically imposed on national leaders during the martial law of 1915, by the colonial rulers. Gaining admission to the Universities of I

Christchurch Terror: Concerns for Sri Lanka

Globally fatalities as a result of terrorism are in decline, a key point that can be distilled from multitude of policy and academic works that are emerging from studies on terror attacks coinciding with the decline of Islamic State (ISIS) and many of their military defeats. While the numbers of attacks and casualties are in decline there is also a parallel development that is

Britain’s Brexit Misadventure

The European Economic Commission (EEC) the forerunner of the present European Union (EU) - an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries - was set up after World War II to foster economic co-operation. Since then, it has grown into a “single market” allowing goods and people to move around, basically as if member states were one country.

World Tuberculosis Day, March 24, 2019 The drive to ‘End TB’ reached a critical phase

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s most burdensome communicable diseases. Around 10 million people across the globe fall ill with TB every year; an estimated 1.6 million are killed by it. The WHO South-East Asia Region is particularly affected, accounting for around 44% of global TB cases and 50% of associated mortality. This is despite being home to just over a quarter of

INCLUSIVE NATIONALISM: THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

Liberal Democracy entails in the main, the idea of ever-expanding individual rights, the tolerance of other people’s views and the duty of the State to protect and enhance them. Such expansion might one day lead to the disappearance of National boundaries and UN might become a thing of the past. However, as long as the UN exists the concept of a Nation State

Rajapaksas close ranks behind Gota as presidential candidate

‘Is Mahinda playing fair by Gota in the presidential candidacy issue?’ was the title of an article by this writer that was published a fortnight ago in Daily Mirror. Let me begin this week’s article by excerpting five relevant paragraphs from the D.B.S. Jeyaraj column of March 9, 2019. Here are the first four paragraphs from the beginning of the article –

Disputing how Europe conquered the world.

By 1914 Europeans ruled 84% of the globe. How did they do it? Eleven hundred years ago Europe was a backwater. There were no grand cities, apart from Muslim Cordoba in Spain, and the remnants of Rome and Athens. The Middle East, India and China were further ahead. It was the Arabs who kept alive the teachings of the Ancient Greeks’ knowledge of science, medicine, architecture and philosophy.

Love and be educated by forests - EDITORIAL

Sri Lanka actively joined the world community on Thursday to mark the International Day of Forests with the theme being Forest and Education. In a statement to mark the event, the United Nations says when we drink a glass of water, write in a notebook, take medicine for an ailment or build a house, we do not often see the connection with forests. Yet, these and many other aspects of our lives are linked to forests in one way or another.

A milestone birthday tribute

Where do I begin? I think I should start from the very first time I met Ranil when he was 4 years old. The memory is still vivid in my mind. His beautiful, stately, dignified mother, the late Nalini WIckremesinghe, the first Buddhist head girl of Bishops College, brought Ranil to start at the Kindergarten at her Alma Mater, following her mother and grandmother. I was an assistant trainee teacher and perhaps because our families were acquainted, s

On getting the history of the economy right

Following the end of the war, Sri Lanka’s economy grew at dizzying rates, some of the highest recorded in the region and, quite possibly, the world. The investment and consumption boom in the North and East, which had hitherto been shut from the rest of the country, was lavishly and eagerly fuelled by the private sector and sponsored by the government. This resulted in the economy growing at twice the rate it had grown before: in 2009 it grew by

SLFP, SLPP play hide and seek

Politics is such an interesting subject in that President Maithripala Sirisena, who in 2015 dashed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s hopes to stay life-long in power and hand over the baton to his son Namal, seems to be hoping to come to power as President...

US arrogance and Resolution 40 - 1 on Sri Lanka

A big joke made rounds about Sri Lanka sending out two opposing but official teams for the ongoing Fortieth UNHRC Session in Geneva; one by President and another by PM. A brief stroke of sanity changed this and Sri Lanka sent one team to Geneva.

The growing threat from white supremacist terrorism

As New Zealand’s Muslims offer their first Friday prayers today after last Friday’s massacre in Christchurch, the sad reality is that racism is very much alive today. It was only yesterday that the world observed International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination....

Wilpattu and Minister Bathiudeen - EDITORIAL

The hue and cry made by environmentalists and nature lovers that the authorities should look into the ‘controversial’ resettlement activities taking place within Wilpattu National Park has never been heard so loud.

ECCENTRIC ELECTIONEERING: WHY ONLY A RAJAPAKSA? - PART ONE

Winning the first in serial elections is imperative; more valued than a singular triumph of an electorate, district or province. Win the first leg, by hook or by crook. If more elections are in the offing win the safer one.

Your optics are all wrong and they do matter…

One does not have to look beyond the banners. They tell the whole story. Either both Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mangala Samaraweera are ignorant or they are dishearteningly insensitive, or maybe both. If it’s ignorance, then one can understand.....

Suspicion throttles SLPP-SLFP talks

Bilateral talks between Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) hit a snag over the move by the latter to be absent during the Budget vote after its Second Reading in Parliament.