Editorial
Home » EditorialA return to the bad old days
The importance — and significance of the re-opening of the railway line up to Kankesanthurai this week — cannot be downplayed.Unfortunately, the whole exercise has been soured by seemingly valid claims that the cost overheads were nearly triple what they should have been, a common and frequent complaint about this Government’s accelerated economic development programmes. [...]
EAM like a madhatter’s dinner party
There is nothing so deafening as the External Affairs Ministry’s continued silence on the resignation of Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in no less a capital than London, on a complaint that he was assaulted by a Government MP designated as ‘Monitor’ to the very same Ministry. The honourable thing for any ‘Honourable’ Minister in charge [...]
Treatment of animals; Govt. must be condemned
The Buddha proclaimed, “May All beings be Happy’, equating animals to humans. The Hindus usually avoid the consumption of meat. Most Christians eat meat, but St. Francis of Assisi, whom Pope Francis has taken as his role model, is the patron saint of animals. The Native Indian chief of Seattle in his epic statement on [...]
UPFA’s Waterloo in Uva and the unseen danger
The result from the Uva Provincial Council election last weekend was the buzz in the country over the past few days, and will continue to be so for some time. The ruling UPFA (United People’s Freedom Alliance) was expected to lose some votes from the emphatic 2009 victory achieved in the backdrop of the defeat [...]
Anagarika Dharmapala – 150th Birth Anniversary
On cue with the Chairman of the Anagarika Dharmapala Trust writing to the newspapers saying that the vision, mission and ideals of the national icon, Anagarika Dharmapala must not be confined just to his birthday on September 17, President Mahinda Rajapaksa this week announced that the next 12 months would be ‘Dharmapala Year’. It is [...]
How indebted is Sri Lanka to China?
China’s President Xi Jinping arrives next week and unlike the hurried arrangements for the Japanese Prime Minister over the long weekend just past, the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government will spare no pains to make President Xi feel ‘at home’. China’s role in modern Sri Lanka is not without controversy. The secrecy, the swiftness and the economy [...]