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Home » ColumnsGiving us lessons, British style
With Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s ire on fire as he pitched into some of the local media at a UNESCO- sponsored conference in Colombo it seemed an appropriate subject to comment on. But then our former colonial masters intervened to remind the ignorant Sri Lankans a lesson or two on how parliamentary democracy functions and also [...]
Sorting out the team
My dear Dayasiri, I thought I must write to you when I heard that you had intervened to recall our one day cricket team from their tour to neighbouring India. I heard that you had literally ordered them off the plane while they were settling in putting their seat belts on. Ah, what courage to [...]
Lotteries Board bosses: Not lucky winners, but always winners
In lottery draws, the winners are always the lucky ones. Overnight they become millionaires. However, there is also another category of winners who are lucky all the time the draws are held. Those are the top level management and staff at the National Lotteries Board (NLB), one of two premier state-owned lottery operating enterprises under [...]
Reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our collective future
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” The above quotation is from Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. It has gone on to become the most respected secular document in the world, translated into [...]
Chuckles over political grandstanding and impunity questions
Several rather fantastic claims in respect of restoring the Rule of Law were made by the Government at the highest levels this week. Droll statements at talkfests Ideally the Government’s commitment to closing the spluttering legal and investigative processes on killings of Sri Lanka’s scribes in the Rajapaksa decade should have been the main focus [...]
BOP concerns; increasing trade deficit, lower remittances and slow growth in tourist earnings
The increasing trade deficit this year, together with lower remittances and slow growth in earnings from tourism are serious concerns for the balance of payments. If these trends continue, the current account of the balance of payments would have only a small surplus or be even in deficit. This unfavourable balance of payments outcome is [...]
Jonah Dayasiri’s Great Balls of Ire send cricket deeper into the mire
Has Sports Minister Jayasekera lost his rosy hue playing marbles with the nation’s cricket and ordering Lanka’s ODI squad off the India-bound flight? He may know his political pole vaulting better than anyone else in the country. He may know his footwork when it comes to dancing – learnt perhaps at the feet of his [...]
Success at local polls remains one priority for Sirisena
President speaks to Basil in last-ditch effort for reconciliation between SLFP and JO before nominations, but major issues prevail Confident UNP finalises candidates list; Hambantota port project launched and new moves to reduce prices of rice and coconut One evening early this week, Basil Rajapaksa, a key player in the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), [...]
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