Last Wednesday, whilst President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was conferring with his Cabinet colleagues about the concluding stages of the military campaign in the Wanni against Tiger guerrillas, in the United States capital of Washington, President Barack Obama, was doing just that with his senior officials. However, the two Presidents had two different reasons.
Many of the problems of the economy arise due to the fiscal weaknesses of the government. The high inflationary pressures, the disincentives for economic enterprise, poor performance in exports, the drain on foreign exchange reserves through large trade deficits are some of the problems whose root cause lie in the imbalance between government revenue and expenditure.
There is a profound perversity in the events that are unfolding now in the Wanni. Decades back, when July 1983 happened, I recall the protestations of many Southern Sinhalese who felt that their individual actions in shielding Tamil innocents caught up in the mob violence would somehow absolve themselves of the horror of that time.
At least once a year, come September, the world's political leaders make their annual pilgrimage to New York to address the General Assembly sessions of the United Nations.
