UNDERSTATED IMPORTANCE!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words they say, well, in this case, it is worth billions!!! Starting this column off today, it is a real pleasure to dwell on these gentlemen, for they are gentlemen in every sense of the word!!! Self-made, in no way inclined to boast, to show off, they don’t have to, don’t need to and more importantly, don’t want to!!!

Do not politicize the rupee

Sri Lanka Rupee had its sharpest depreciation in history during the past four months with US$ which stood at Rs.160 in late June had risen up to Rs.170 last week. The government is struggling to cope with the situation. Yet it is now clear that the situation is beyond control and no solution is being suggested either by the government or any other political party t

Maldivian Elections Between rock and hard place

The Maldivian Elections Commissioner Ahmed Shareef and his four Commissioners, find themselves in the unenviable position of being between a rock and a hard place.  

‘Demons in Paradise’ Is Jaffna ready for full scope of freedom ?

Jaffna International Film Festival that began last week has removed Jude Ratnam’s internationally acclaimed ‘Demons in Paradise’ from screening. The decision to remove the film - tha

POLITICS LAZY VOTERS and MERCENARY MEDIA

The title of this article is perforce unflattering but there is overwhelming evidence to indicate that it is only a small number of citizens and TV media in Sri Lanka, to whom the above descriptions would not apply. The bases for this declaration are explained below.   American Professor Hardy Cros

Shooting at Ja-Ela Was Rasika the intended target ?

A mother of two children, who was driving her own vehicle accompanied by her eight-year-old daughter, was the target of an unidentified gunman recently in Weligampitiya, Ja-Ela.  

Lies, laughter and threats at the UNGA - EDITORIAL

On September 26, 1960, Cuban leader Fidel Castro addressed the United Nations General Assembly and held the General Assembly’s attention for almost five hours. However, the most significant thing of Castro’s words before the UN....

Archbishop, Mangala and HR in Buddhism

Every citizen has a role to play in supporting and promoting social justice. In Sigalowada Sutta  the Buddha enlightens us very clearly on the roles as reciprocal  obligations existing between Monarch [ruler] and Subjects, husband and  wife.....

‘NO’ to health insurance and creeping privatization

Health insurance is rapidly breaking into Sri Lanka’s health sector. Last year, the government introduced “Suraksha,” a publicly-financed health insurance scheme to reimburse the (private) healthcare expenses of all school-goers.

October 1st World Elders’ day: Inhumanity in Human but Humanity in Animals

As stated by Rev. Fr. Augustine Fernando in his lengthy details in a local newspaper of Sept. 21, 2018, some human beings in the process of getting civilized and cultured through education.....

Britain not practising what it preaches

I have just completed reading your Op-ed article titled, ‘Why does reconciliation in Sri Lanka matter to UK’ in the Daily Mirror edition today (04 October) and decided to respond due to some glaring contradictions between what Britain preaches to others and what it does in practice.    

It is better to fail than to cheat

Yesterday was World Teachers’ Day, with the theme being ‘The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher.’ The United Nations’ Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in a statement says October 5 marks the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 International Labour Organization-UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of teachers.     

Lets learn from Gibran!

Sri Lanka’s education authorities are yet to address the stress issue associated with exams despite Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam stating that moves are underway to reduce the subjects for the Ordinary Level (OL) Exam from nine to six.   

President between the devil and the deep blue sea

On the eve of President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit last month to New York to attend the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), it was reported that he was to make a special statement, at the world summit on the war crimes allegations against the Sri Lankan armed forces.   

What next for GMOA cartel? SC ruling compels Health Minister to revamp Medical Council

The Supreme Court (SC) on September 21, 2018 upheld the Court of Appeal (CA) ruling of January 2017 that requires the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) to provisionally register the petitioner, a medical graduate of SAITM.  

A nation of readers and writers Are we there yet?

The Big Bad Wolf book fair, held for the first time in Malaysia in 2009, has spread over the years to several other parts of South East Asia. In 2017, Sri Lanka became the first country outside the region to host it.

Importance of being Karu J Analysing pros and cons of Karu J as next UNP Presidential Candidate

A people who elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims...But accomplices 

Media freedom: The good, the bad and the Ugly

How free are Sri Lanka’s media and how responsible are they socially? Experts, media activists and senior journalists expressed their views within the scope of this question at a landmark symposium to mark the 20th anniversary of the Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility. 

Non-violence mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction

Tuesday, October 2 marked the United Nations International Day of Non-Violence. It is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence or Satyagraha.

Reconciliation, peace and silence

When the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) declared in Parliament on May 19, 2009 that the civil war in the country was over, there was silence among the Northern people. An independent observer of the war could easily distinguish between peace and silence at that time. Peace is present when one knows that there is cooperation for coexistence.

Yahapalana regime at breaking point

One thing was certain when President Maithripala Sirisena derided Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara and the entire police service at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. That is that resentment between the President and the United National Party (UNP) has climaxed to a point of no return.   

Notes for a Manifesto: National Security

The word brings to mind guns and barricades, soldiers and war (in the immediate past, lived through or imminent). That’s natural in a land where several generations have had guns and bombs in-their-faces, literally and figuratively. Natural also in a world that has become small courtesy of communication technology and therefore has war delivered to the palm, so to speak, or obtained with a swipe.

Why does reconciliation in Sri Lanka matter to the UK?

Next year Sri Lanka will have enjoyed 10 uninterrupted years free from the misery of armed conflict. Whatever your view on how Sri Lanka has progressed since, that very fact alone is one to cherish. I know how deep the scars from decades of conflict run. When I visited last year I heard first-hand from the families of disappeared persons. It was a stark reminder of how much all communities in Sri Lanka have suffered.   

SAITM ruling covers all

The Supreme Court has put an end to a three year long wrangling and all controversies over the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) by accepting the plea by one of the students graduated by the institute to be provisionally registered with the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).

Three years of breathing space, alright; but is that all?

A series of media advertisements for the Yahapalana government say their reign of three years has given some breathing space for the populace (husma gath wasara thunak). Technically the Government came to power in August 2015 when the UNP formed a quaint alliance with the SLFP, yet politically it is neither correct nor ethical to say that this regime is only three years as opposed to 3 years and another 8 months starting the

TRYING TO BE DIFFERENT!!!

The tremendous pace at which development is progressing is incredible!!! Not a single stone is left unturned; they are going all out not just to impress but to start gaining much needed political mileage!!! Today, Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates can be obtained within minutes; Special 

Mahathir’s counter-point and our radicalisation project

A popular newspaper column lamented on Sunday (September 30) that while the punishment for murder is death upon conviction, the punishment for the murder of hundreds, i.e. a terrorist act, is “only” life imprisonment. Taking a critical stance of the recently Cabinet-approved counter 

DOES SRI LANKA HAVE A FOREIGN POLICY AT ALL TODAY?

My approach in this article is to make as little comment as possible, and to let the documentation, consisting of authoritative Resolutions, Statements and other material, speak for itself.  

Is Colombo becoming an unsustainable city ?

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree– Martin Luther King  

How far is the Govt responsible for the current economic malady ?

Sri Lanka has a strange colonial experience of being provided with free education, health care and subsidized rice even while the country remained a colony of Britain. During the ensuing decades since independence, the country’s new leaders pushed the envelope further,much less due to a coherent long term vision, but as a populist electoral ploy. As a result, ge