Last Monday evening, London's Met Office issued severe weather warnings. Mostly cloudy, temperatures had hit near zero. Many couldn't go to work; some were trapped in trains for hours because the tracks were covered with snow and ice. The city's Mayor Boris Johnson was in Zurich trying to win the FIFA World Cup football bid assuring Londoners there was enough salt to clear the mush-like slippery streets.
“Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I’ve been to London to visit the Queen,” Bindu Udagedera was saying.
“Why are you singing nursery rhymes, Bindu?” His father Percy asked.
“I want to know why there is such a fuss about a visit to London, thaaththa,” Bindu said.
“Ah, that is because Mahinda maama had to return from London without addressing the students at Oxford…” Percy explained.
Budget debates on development come and go, but poverty remains in spite of the rhetoric of economic objectives being to reduce poverty. The development policy of the Mahinda Chintanaya places considerable emphasis on poverty reduction and reduction of urban rural income differentials through overall economic growth, rural development agricultural strategies and development of rural infrastructure. Yet there are some concerns as to whether the implementation of the plans will in fact reduce poverty significantly.
The fall out from the cancellation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech to the Oxford Union in London was most vociferous within the precincts of Sri Lanka’s Parliament in Kotte with government legislators turning their anger on UNP Gampaha district MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena accusing him of being responsible in some way for the situation.
Leaving aside the barely voyeuristic pleasure exhibited by some regarding the WikiLeaks disclosure of more than 250,000 classified and confidential diplomatic cables sent by United States diplomats from all parts of the world, are we not overreacting just that little bit extra?
It was Dilan Fernando, D Phil student in Biochemistry/Immuno Genetics and President, Oxford Sri Lanka Society, who said sorry over President Rajapaksa's inability to address the Oxford Union on December 3.
It has come to light that Fernando had interacted with a Sri Lankan Parliamentarian to have the Oxford Union invite President Rajapaksa for a second time.
Within a short span of time the whistleblower website WikiLeaks seems to have thoroughly shaken up conventional thinking on weighty matters such as freedom of information on the one hand, and international diplomacy on the other.
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