Monday 13rd November, 2023 Anyone’s death diminishes us. However, with apologies to Donne, we are diminished beyond measure when the veterans of the fourth estate depart. On Saturday (11), former editor of The Island Gamini Weerakoon crossed the Great Divide. His funeral took place yesterday. Our readers may recall the pivotal role he played in […]

The muted, panicked voice came through the phone of a friend who croaked she was very confidentially warning Cassandra and advising her. Yours truly was immediately panic infected. With deep emphasis and concern the friend took her time to advise that Cass withdraws all money from banks. Cass was for once glad she was poor […]

I am pleasantly surprised and marvel too most times I read the editorial in The Island. Why? Because they are so very apt on the most current issue in the land. The editor has the clever knack of hitting the nail right on the head and is fearless even when the nail represents a VVIP. […]

“Templeton Freedom Award has been won by Advocata Institute Sri Lanka. The CEO is our Dhana. It is with great pride I send this message to you to celebrate our dear friend Dhananath’s leadership victory of Advocata. Horekale and St Sebastian’s College man has really shown class.” That was Elmo Jayawardena’s email to me since […]

British Politics and Ours Both Sri Lanka and the UK have experienced an unprecedented political upheaval of late. It is interesting that both leaders agreed to resign within a day of each other. Everybody else saw the ‘the end is nigh’ sign for quite a while. They didn’t or didn’t want to see it until […]

The need for an integrated program on a war footingIn 2008, eight prizewinning economists were asked to list the type of projects which would do the most good for the most number of poor people, if they had an imaginary $ 75 million to spend. Half of their proposed projects involved nutrition. There has been ...

In the time tested form of the parliamentary system of governance there is the concept of  Cabinet Responsibility (Ministerial Responsibility) where ministers are said to be ‘collectively responsible’ for government policy. In Sri Lanka’s fast evolving constitutional form of government – particularly under President Mahinda Rajapaksa – the cabinet itself has become a tremendous joke .....

Sri Lankan represents global team of entrepreneursAspirations Edu-cation’s General Manager Deepamala Abeysekera became the only Sri Lankan to represent a group of 30 entrepreneurs in the world from, USA, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa, to read for her postgraduate studies in entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge. Cambridge has acquired an international reputation as an ...

A successful politician once pointed to a bag full of Rupee notes and said, ‘these are my election posters’. At the time he was pointing to ten rupee notes, but campaigns have now escalated into millions upon millions. Often millions of dollars. Where can a candidate get bags of ready cash? Who does this political ...

Our ‘poli-socionomic’ dialogue You will recall that like Capt. Kirk in his Star Ship-Enterprise,’ we also ventured into new territory with our first discussions under this theme ‘poli-socionomics,’ which appears to have caught on somewhat; thus, on behalf of those of us who still dare to think, I must thank those editors who carried it. ...

The Director of the London School of Economics has stepped down over his association with the Libyan regime. Sri Lanka’s President, however, has no problem associating with repressive leaders from Libya, Iran, Burma, Russia and China. In the days of hypocritical realpolitik this may have made sense

By Dr. S. Narapalasingam PART I The baffling moves and actions on the political front of the potent government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, since the war ended conclusively mid May 2009 have been considered discretely by many analysts, ignoring...

By Dr.Harsha de Silva Mr. Speaker, I am glad that important Ministers and Members from the Government side have come to listen to this speech. I must first state that I am happy to have been able to join the...

By Mangala Samaraweera Mr. Speaker, The Rajapakse administration has shown an uncanny ability to create world records in the last few years; prior to the General Election, Sri Lanka had the dubious honour of having the world’s largest number of...

Pradeep Amirthanayagam was installed as the Golden Jubilee President of the Rotary Club of Colombo West yesterday (3). The glittering event was held at the Cinnamon Grand, amidst a large and distinguished gathering comprising of parliamentarians, members of the diplomatic corps and the business community. Performances by Soul Sounds and the Police Band added to ...

By Dayan Jayatilleka What is the ‘main contradiction’ in Sri Lanka today? It is that between the very broad national base of support and sacrifice for the war and the resultant peace on the one hand, and the increasingly narrow character of the beneficiaries of the dividends of that popular peace, on the other. The war was national but the peace dividend and its distribution appe...