Editorial
Home » EditorialSri Lanka in superpower geopolitical gymnastics
Marshal Josip Broz Tito of the former Yugoslavia is credited with the famous quote of yesteryear that Non-Alignment meant “signalling left and turning right”. Or maybe it was the other way around, but the drift was clear. Today, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), launched in the 1950s and which went on from strength to strength till [...]
Sri Lanka and the born-again Commonwealth
Interestingly, if not ironically, the British Government having voted to exit the European Union (EU) in accordance with the wishes of a majority of its people, is now looking forward – or maybe looking back – at the Commonwealth once again. The 53-nation Commonwealth, the third largest global grouping, next only to the United Nations [...]
The rights and plight of women
On March 8, various events marked International Women’s Day, a day dedicated to recognise the role of women around the world and their contribution to home, society and country, indeed the world at large. To call them the ‘fairer sex’ as they were once referred to as a compliment may not be politically correct in [...]
IMF reforms and the path to development
A delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was in Colombo this week ahead of a planned but now postponed visit by its head Christine Lagarde, to discuss Sri Lanka’s worsening economic situation. With the country in dire straits with an acute foreign exchange and debt crisis, the IMF’s reform menu for stabilising the economy, [...]
Win-win solution for migrant worker issues
Last Sunday’s front page lead story in this newspaper on the risk to foreign employment due to the 2017 Budget by raising the minimum wage for skilled labour seems to have caught the eye of Parliament. The Minister in charge of Foreign Employment confirmed the fact that her ministry was rather perturbed that it had [...]
Disaster Prevention
Did Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, now Dr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, overreact in asking the Cabinet to declare a State of Emergency and to call out the troops to meet the challenge of an impending drought? Or has the rest of the Government disregarded the ground realities of what has been termed the worst spell of dry [...]
Medical misadventures
The issue of a private Medical College refuses to go away. It seems the flavour of at least the week gone by after undergraduates marched the streets facing police water-cannon. The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) is due to go to a superior court, the medical trade union (GMOA- Government Medical Officers’ Association) is howling [...]
Independence or debt-dependence
As the Jayamangala Gaatha and Sri Lanka Maatha in both Sinhala and Tamil were sung, the spit and polish of the military parade, parachute jumps, the fly-pasts and fireworks display celebrating the 69th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s Independence concluded, it is time to sober up and face up to the realities facing this country’s seventh [...]