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Home » ColumnsFM blunder: New Zealand PM billed for Taj stay
Whilst Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera is away on official foreign jaunts, ministry officials tasked for responsible jobs seem to be lost. An embarrassing incident for both the Government and the country took place last week. That was when staff at Hotel Taj Samudra delivered bills to be paid by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s [...]
Two successive annual trade deficits exceeding US$8 billion weaken BOP
Trade deficits of over US$ 8 billion in 2014 and 2015 were primarily responsible for the current balance of payments difficulties. Despite the precipitous fall in oil prices and sharp decline in oil import expenditure last year, the trade deficit reached US$ 8.4 billion in 2015, exceeding the large trade deficit of US$ 8.3 billion [...]
The ‘rainbow revolution’s ‘Satakaya’ infiltration
In a typical twist of Sri Lankan humor, there is a sardonic caricature doing the rounds of Ministers in the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition government sporting a ‘satakaya’, the habitual wear closely associated with the Rajapaksa brand of political leadership. Changing shades of crimson Initially signifying an earthy affiliation with the village, the ‘kurahan satakaya’ (a shawl [...]
Emergency Budget: Cabinet approves sweeping tax reforms
PM presents 9-page document to meet global economic crisis and clean up colossal liabilities Capital Gains Tax to be reintroduced on higher echelons of society to balance direct and indirect taxation Intensified efforts to recover money plundered by previous regime; new high-level team going to Dubai again Tough new measures to avert an economic crisis [...]
Gone are the days
My Dear Lucky, I hope you don’t mind me writing a letter to you at a time when everyone is concerned about the kind of letters you write and the whole country is talking about them. Anyway, you haven’t been attracting this kind of attention for a while and it is high time they took [...]
When higher education turns into wrong highway
When the current government assumed power in the name of the National Unity Government last August, portfolios multiplied faster than rabbits. The numbers far exceeded what the public was made to expect. The reason for such liberal distribution of largesse was clear enough. The new President Maithripala Sirisena was trying to attract to his fold [...]
Whatever happened to poor old Wignes in the northern peninsula?
Perhaps it’s the long exposure to the balmy breeze that blows in from the Indian Ocean. Or the cultivated taste for the Palmyrah treacle that flows liberally to the waiting pot. Or even the pungent onion that sprouts in abundance from Jaffna’s fertile soil and is rumoured to make grown men lose their marbles in [...]