Could there be an alternative US foreign policy?

At last a book that attacks the “Blob” and holes it below the water line. Whether it can sink it is another matter. I’m talking about a book published last week by the Harvard professor of international affairs, Stephen Walt, “The Hell of Good Intentions.”    

Plans, expert solutions, suggestions gather dust... but Metal monsters continue to slaughter wild e

There are much deliberations at ‘high places’ by many ‘experts’ to find a solution to the carnage that is taking place on the rail tracks, while wild elephants succumb to gruesome deaths at an alarmingly rapid rate.

Human deaths by elephants due to irresponsibility

“In most instances it’s not the elephants that kill humans it’s the humans that get themselves killed by the elephants due to their stupidity and negligence” said Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya....

Is Sri Lanka beautiful at heart? - EDITORIAL

Little Sri Lanka is sure to get a bit cocky now with travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet naming the island to be the top tourist destination in 2019.  

Need is South Asian outlook; not Global

Last week, no less a person than the most trusted ally of President Sirisena, the General Secretary of the UPFA Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera said there were four RAW agents in the Cabinet....

The big media divide

If a foreigner who can read both Sinhala and Tamil goes through the newspapers published in Sri Lanka in those two languages he might conclude that he was reading newspapers published in two countries.

May God save Islam from anti-democracy rulers!

In the Middle East, democracy should be what an oasis is to a desert.  But the irony is while Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, who is turning out to be the chief suspect in the killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi....

Prez furthers patriotic agenda as rift with UNP widens

The gulf between President Maithripala Sirisena and the United National Party (UNP) is widening by the day. Alongside, President Sirisena is increasingly toeing the ‘patriotic agenda’. The national minded approach   of the President came to the fore once again at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting as he expressed dismay over the move 

Where have all the tourists gone? Or rather stayed?

Even during the height of the war, they brought in tourists to the country and pumped in the much-needed foreign exchange to the reeling economy. When Tsunami wrecked havoc in southern and eastern coasts of Sri Lanka, they were able to rise from wreckage within a very short time, showing their resilience. Yes, we are talking 

Notes for a Manifesto: Health, the most precious gain

One  of the most quoted references of Gautama Buddha’s teachings on well-being  is the 204th verse of the Dhammapada, contained in the Sukhavagga or the  Discourses on Happiness:

Sirisena’s assassination saga The ‘plot’ is now interesting

All of us, unless enlightened or spiritually inclined, fear death. Spiritual guru the late Bhagavan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) once said that death is blissful for those who have lived life to the fullest. But death in the political scene is something quite different to how life ends in the spiritual realms of human life.

Pay back University teacher loans - EDITORIAL

The recent advertisement on the university teachers, who defaulted after having received huge amounts of money from the Government as loans for further education in various countries, is the manifestation of an appalling mentality in many people of the country. 

CONTRADICTIONS!!!

This column has carried all of the contradictions that are being carried today, but with a purpose!!! For the past three years, we hardly heard of our President making strides in the international arenas while remaining completely oblivious to what was happening at home!!! Both the President and the Prime Minister concur that they are 

Gamini Dissanayake Assassination : The unkindest cut of all

Two dozen years have gone by after the assassination of one of the greatest men who towered over the political life in Sri Lanka in the second half of the Twentieth Century. Gamini Dissanayake, as I knew him from the year he first entered Parliament in 1970, never ran out of steam.  

The IMO effect

During the last few weeks I have read couple of stories on Sri Lankan usage of Imo, the messaging and video calling App. They were written in dramatic style and with catchy headlines. At the core they were about disturbing criminal activity.  

Death of Kashoggi and the death-knell of liberal values

Jamal Ahamed Khashoggi, the Washington Post correspondent, US resident and Saudi dissident was killed in the Saudi embassy in Turkey. 

UNP-SLFP domestic rivalry threatens to distort foreign policy

That India played the most pernicious role of a destabilizer of independent Sri Lanka is an incontrovertible empirical fact. That phase of overt Indian interference, which saw arming and training of nascent Tamil separatists and then the ‘parippu’ drop and the induction of Indian peace keepers lasted less than a decade. However the monsters that India helped create h

Get the country back on track

We are going through a very critical phase in Sri Lanka. The country needs immediate measures to put things back on track which will give short and long-term lasting results.

Challenges to Maldivian President-elect

With the defeated Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen losing his case in the Supreme Court for annulling the September 23 Presidential Election on grounds of “rigging”, President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will be assuming office, as scheduled on November 17. But Solih is ex

Undermining the rule of law - EDITORIAL

On October 16, President Sirisena donated a sum of rupees one million to the family of a police sergeant Sanath Gunawardana, who went berserk at the Thebuwana police station, pointed his T-56....

DEMAND FOR COMMUNAL REPRESENTATION IGNITED COMMUNALISM

Communal Politics have played havoc in the political platform of Sri Lanka for a number of decades. Although the organized left movement in the country and the wise leaders....

Assassinations, Disappearances, Information Wars Coming chaos in International Politics

Afghan administration of President Ashraf Ghani suffered a massive blow when Chief of Police in the volatile Afghan district of Kandahar Abdul Raziz, a fierce opponent and bulwark against the Taliban was assassinated.

Indian judgement on LGBT rights: Can SL follow same path?

With a revolutionary judgement, the Indian Supreme Court last month abolished laws that criminalized sexual activities between individuals of same-sex.

OUR INSIGNIFICANCE

“Suppose aliens existed, and that some had been watching our planet for its entire forty-five million centuries, what would they have seen? Over most of that vast time-span, earth’s appearance altered very gradually. Continents drifted; ice-cover waxed and waned; successive species emerged, evolved and became extinct.     

Ending poverty; Not charity, but justice

The day after the United Nations World Food Day which we observed on Tuesday, October 16, the world body on Wednesday marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with the significant theme being “Coming together with those furthest behind to build an inclusive world of universal respect for human rights and dignity.”    

Keeping ends warm with India - EDITORIAL

This is a country which is harping on solving its ‘national question’; how to find a viable solution to the grievances of the minority Tamils.

GMOA’s shenanigans

The GMOA, under the signatures of their President Anuruddha Padeniya and Secretary Haritha Aluthge had sent a two page letter in Sinhala to President Maithripala Sirisena, with copies to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, to the Speaker of Parliament, to all Cabinet Ministers, to all MPs, to the Attorney General and many others except the media, with the long title “To keep you informed of damage caused to the Sri Lanka Medical Counci

Trysts of the TNA

It is natural for one to recall the leaders of the constituent parties of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) crowning of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) some time ago as the sole representatives of the Tamil people, when the TNA leader Rajavarothyam Sampanthan said last week that Tamils could have won their rights through a nonviolent struggle, rather than resorting to an armed struggle.  

Khashoggi killing: We can’t worship God and money

The United States and Britain killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and faced no punishment. 

GOVT. in turmoil as prez-PM clash Interim Government with Mahinda Rajapaksa a remote possibility

Sri Lankan politics is full of confusions, contradictions and contrasts. The political situation was hotting up even with the possibility of a change of government a week ago. It happened after speculation was rife that President Maithripala Sirisena was contemplating the formation of a new government. The media reports about a