Tradition, modernity and elite formation
Tradition, modernity and elite formation: How Western theosophists shaped modern Sri Lanka by Manisha Gunasekera MARIE MUSAEUS HIGGINS – PETER DE ABREW MEMORIAL ORATION 2016 MUSAEUS COLLEGE PAST PUPILS’ ASSOCIATION MUSAEUS COLLEGE AUDITORIUM 30 JULY 2016, COLOMBO The [...]
Mr. Hospitality : Nishan De Silva
The only Sri Lankan General Manager operating in eastern Ontario By Michelle Tissera In picturesque Brockville, known as The City of The 1000 Islands, Nishan De Silva is making waves in the tourism and hospitality industry. He holds the distinct privilege of being the only Sri Lankan born general manager operating and managing a hotel [...]
Gammedda 100-day initiative
Gammedda 100 Day Initiative inaugurates 1st completed project. The first project completed under the the News 1st/Sirasa/Shakthi Media Network’s Gammedda 100-day initiative was vested with the people at a ceremony on Wednesday. The Damanayaya Road in Sigirimulla was once a dilapidated road that had not been repaired or maintained for more than two decades. The road [...]
Sadique Saleem re-elected as All Ceylon YMMA national president
Sadique M Saleem has been re-elected as the National President of the All Ceylon YMMA Conference for 2016/2017. He is the 50th National President of the 67-year-old All Ceylon YMMA Conference.Mr. Saleem, a veteran banker, is hailing from Badulla and is the eldest son of the Late M.T.M. Saleem (Postmaster) and the Late Rahela Moomin [...]
Arshad Farook, Chairman of Ibrahim Group of Companies was appointed a member of the board of directors of the Sri Lankan Foreign Employment by Foreign Employment Minister Thalatha Athukorale. Mr. Farook is the vice President of the United National Organisation for Foreign Employment Agencies (UNOFEA) and an Ex-Co Member of the Saudi Card Holders Association. [...]
The day a Soviet leader banged his shoe at the UN
UNITED NATIONS — During the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and particularly in the 1960s, the United Nations was the ideological battle ground where the Americans and the Soviets pummeled each other– metaphorically speaking — either on the floor of the cavernous General Assembly hall or at [...]
eLand Registry, digitalisation and Bim Saviya: Beware of pitfalls
Significant reforms are under way to computerise the data in land registries and deeds. This article is intended as a guide to those urgently needed reforms that would improve the laws (biometric methods) that identify owners and the laws that secure the records of the identity of owners, thus reducing, if not preventing, forged documents [...]
Cameron’s terrorists: Reaping what is sown
By Jayantha Gunasekera Former British Prime Minister David Cameron must be mindful of the adage “When you live by the sword, you die by the sword”. By Cameron hobnobbing with one kind of terrorists, he has exposed his citizens to terrorist attacks by another kind of terrorists. You reap what you sow and when you [...]
In Sirimavo’s life, lessons for women world leaders
By Satharathilaka Banda Atugoda This essay is to commemorate a global personality, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, in view of the 56th anniversary of her becoming the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and the world’s first woman prime minister on July 21, 1960. Another political happening in July, the most recent, to be precise on July 13, is [...]
Despicable and deplorable
By B. Anton Jeyanathan The incident of assault of students and clash between two groups of students in the Jaffna University in the second week of July cannot be condoned, but irrevocably and strongly condemned. Though the truth which triggered the clash between the two groups of students, resulting in serious injury to one student, [...]
Nuclear weapons: Betrayal of our trust towards posterity
In Tokyo last Tuesday an anti-nuclear conference was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the dissenting opinion given by Justice C. G. Weeramantry, the former Senior Vice President of the International Court of Justice. In this historic dissenting opinion Justice Weeramantry, widely regarded as one of the world’s most eminent jurists, ruled that nuclear [...]