Enforced disappearances; families have a right to know

Today is the United Nations International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances and the topic has deep relevance to Sri Lanka because of what happened, especially after the end of the war in 2009 and during the past few decades.  

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food

Kamani is a 34-year-old mother of three from Bandarawela. Following a surgery for a brain tumour she was partially paralyzed. A distraught husband who is a farmer then took her to an Ayurvedic doctor. The treatment took a few months. However, it helped the poor woman to walk around once again.   

SO MANY PROBLEMS, NO SOLUTIONS!

The world is upside down, utter confusion everywhere, everything around us in chaos, devastation and destruction!!! It honestly seems like the end of the world is near!!! There isn’t a day we don’t hear of some gigantic natural disaster, California fires that have hardly abated, Kerala floods leaving 800,000 homeless, the pictures of the floods were horrendous, 

Twitter is purging accounts and it’s a good thing

The second week of August witnessed another episode of sudden loss of twitter followers. Between August 16 and 17 twitter users reported sudden loss of followers, the second time in as many months that this happened.   

Rajapaksas’ assault on democracy

The traditional three pillars on which the stability and sustenance of our working democracy rested were the Legislature, the Executive, and the Judiciary. These pillars are cemented on a hard-pressed foundation of the very source of our law, the Constitution of our country. To this robust dynamic of societal evolution was added the Free Press, the Fourth Estate.

Mixed and messed electoral system

One cannot understand why the government, knowing well that the majority members of the Parliament would not vote for the report on delimitation of provincial council wards, presented it in the House for ap

Why Chinese influence is good for Sri Lanka Only if leaders know how to make use of it

Last week, the Japanese Defence Minister was in Sri Lanka on a two-day visit, a first by a Japanese politician of that capacity to the island. Pacifist Japan did not have a habit of sending their defence top brass and warships to every other country, until very recently. In the same week, the Japanese naval ship “Ikazuchi” arrived in the Trincomalee harbour on a goodwill visit. The vessel was part of a dispatch of three ships sent on

Ratanjankar Episode: What really happened ? Ratanjankar was the Principal at Marris College of Music

Sunil Shantha was one of Tissa Abeysekara’s icons. In his opinion, an unsung hero. Even a brief perusal of his biography confirms this, from his forays into Indian music and his later repudiation of the raghadari tradition, acts which cost him support at the top and reduced him to a pauper. Over the years, all that has been written on, delved into, examined, done justice to, and in more ways than one, settled.  

Why are US, Japan and India making a beeline for Trincomalee ?

The port town of Trincomalee in Eastern Sri Lanka is known for its scenic beauty eminently qualified to be featured in the National Geographic Channel. But historically,it has been noted for something very different - its strategic value as a naval base.  

Not just testing, even nuclear weapons need to be banned

Wednesday, August 29 is the United Nations International Day Against Nuclear Testing and Sri Lanka, with two of our neighbouring countries, being nuclear powers, needs to give much attention to the dangers or even catastrophe from nuclear tests or the use of nuclear weapons.

SL Army focuses on Global Disruptions and National Security

The Colombo Defence Seminar the apex seminar organized by the Sri Lanka Army is to be held on 30th and 31 August. This year the seminar will focus on the theme of ‘global disruptions’ and implications for national security.

Crisis ridden mother Lanka weepsIntractable causes are many

Mother Lanka has no doubt had to shed copious tears for 30 long years during which period the ethnic conflict raged in all its fury between the minority Tamil community and the majority Sinhala community due to the former’s demand for a separate state.

Bloodshed on Atrocious August 12 : The assassination of legendary Kadirgamar and Hartal ‘53

Killing, slaughter and mayhem are awfully linked to August 12; counted in the Gregorian Calendar as the 224TH day of the year [or the 225th day in leap years], which falls 3 and 6 days after the destruction of two cities in Japan,

Planting a tree is like building a palace

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday launched the Cascaded Tank-Village system in the Dry Zone and the second stage of the Wayamba River irrigation scheme near the Kubukulawa Tank at Polpithigama in the Kurunegala district. The Cascaded Tank-Village system in the Dry Zone has been described by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a globally important agricultural heritage system.   

Imperative for nuclear disarmament Is Putin the puppet-master?

Everything gets said, nothing gets done. When President Donald Trump met President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month we were promised all sorts of goodies- progress in reconciliation in Ukraine and Syria, and not least nuclear disarmament. If there is progress behind the scenes it’s not noticeable to the naked eye.  

When lawlessness chokes a nation

This nation has proved time and again that it needs stricter laws and also a strong president who can keep a check on activities which can get out of hand. 

A true peace activist

Those who commit crimes during ethnic violence must be punished irrespective of their ethnicity, but there is a danger of their children along with the children of their victims carrying the problem to the future. 

Private bus drivers Ignored but important

First ever strike called for August 15 last by private bus drivers’ union did not make much of an impact on daily commuters.   

Afghanistan’s bloody mystery: Little progress in war or peace talks

That the United States has still not been able to defeat an enemy much weaker in terms of military resources in a war that is continuing for 17 long years in Afghanistan does not bode well for its image as the world’s mightiest military power.  

Global food supply engineered to end life, not nourish it

The Health Ranger and Natural News.com Editor Mike Adams says, after having analyzed more than 1,000 foods, super foods, vitamins, junk foods and popular beverages for heavy metals and other substances at the Natural News Forensic Food Labs, he has arrived at a conclusion so alarming and urgent that it could only be stated bluntly.  

Notes for a Manifesto Justice, Law and Order

There are some lovely words that have been bandied about in political circles over the past couple of decades. Peace is one. There was also conflict-resolution. Reconciliation has displaced both these of late. Those who are focused on constitutional reform, in particular, those who are hell bent on devolution, like to use the 

What brings the US Peace Corps to Sri Lanka?

The available information on the return of the US Peace Corps (USPC) to Sri Lanka on the stated mission of ‘English language education’ raises many questions, given the timing and context of their arrival. Under the terms of the agreement signed between the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Acting Director of the Peace Corps in 

Chairs, Conveniences, Compensation, Councils’ Coffers...

Western Provincial Council (WPC) and Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), unlike our ‘cash strapped’ treasury are inundated with extra cash, as proudly claimed by Chief Minister Isuru Devapriya and the Mayoress Rosy Senanayake. They, as reported, are on a shopping spree for chairs, toilet accessories and aspiring for extravagant Thamashas and enhanced compensation for councilors. 

Drastic decline in farm gate price of coconuts

Commencing from around the third week of July the farm gate price of coconuts has dropped from a high of around Rs 45.00 to Rs 28.00 by August 15. The years 2016 and 2017 experienced a sharp increase in coconut prices owing to climate change conditions, caused due to the lack of monsoon seasonal rains. The coconut 

Open letter to the UNP hierarchy If you want a change, change the context…

In my previous column, I emphasized the need for any political party, if it were to be successful, to name its candidates well ahead of time. However, I do repeat my argument so that its appeal to the reader is surpassed by its urgency to the one leader who has shown some remarkable ability to keep ahead of his followers by avoiding doing just that.

Keeping extremism under control

I had a dream…. No, I didn’t cross a stream. Instead, I found myself seated in the public gallery of a courthouse. A Tamil youth who has been in detention for years without any charge or prosecution was being produced. The only perceivable reason for his incarceration turns out to be an “opinion” of the Secretary of Defence that he poses a threat to national security. 

WHEN WILL WE LEARN???

Buying expensive cars, and now even expensive chairs for the WPC members to place their ‘DELICATE’ bums on, seems to be the order of the day!!! This is at the cost of ONLY Rs. 650,000/- PER CHAIR FOR 104 CHAIRS FOR THE WPC!!! Apparently, buying these chairs is ‘SIMPLE’ FOR THE CASH-RICH WPC!!!

Tough action against ragging imperative

Higher Education Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe had a startling story to tell the country last week about ragging of newcomers by senior students of Universities. According to him, for the past two years, nearly 2000 students who entered universities had left them due to inhuman ragging by the senior students.

Macron and Merkel
Made for Each Other

Together they hold a crisis-ridden Europe together.The weakened German Chancellor Angela Merkel needs not to worry. Her liberal democratic mission for Europe will not die down all too soon. The boy whom she was planning to take by hand and show the world is not a minion. Barely fifteen months into the presidency, French President Emmanuel Macron has proven he is capable of leading the continent on his own terms or on Merkel’s lines.  &

Fishmonger-war hero and other cases of squandering military’s human resources

A media expose about a celebrated war hero who now makes ends meet by selling fish at the Matale Junction has struck a chord in the public conscience. Amurtha Hastha Navaratna Abeykone Mudiyanselage Sagara Nuwan Bandara, formerly of the Commando regiment once became the public face of military valour when he was photographed in full military