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An unhappy Lanka and an unfortunate people

An unhappy Lanka and an unfortunate people

Some months ago, I happened to have a chance conversation with a fellow traveller en route when returning to Sri Lanka. Highly educated in the engineering sciences, he hailed from Mawanella (a town close to Kandy) and after a while, the exchange turned to a discussion on how his village had changed with the passing [...]

Trade deficit expands despite export growth: High import dependency persistent weakness

Trade deficit expands despite export growth: High import dependency persistent weakness

Despite an impressive export growth last year, the trade deficit of US$9.6 billion was the country’s highest trade deficit. Although exports reached a record high of US$11.4 billion, imports increased to US$21 billion. The high propensity to import has been the underlying cause for large trade deficits. Import dependency Imports exceeding exports has been a [...]

Questions on the need for nation-wide state of emergency

Questions on the need for nation-wide state of emergency

Ministers who had gathered last Tuesday for their weekly cabinet session on the ground floor of the Presidential Secretariat, once the well of the House of Parliament, pondered. They had been asked by President Maithripala Sirisena to hurriedly assemble on the second floor conference room, just steps away from his office. There, he announced, he [...]

Rise above differences

Rise above differences

My dear Sri Lankan, It is with a sense of sadness that I am writing to you this week following the events in Kandy that has cost two lives already. While I hope that no more lives are lost, I am frustrated and disappointed even more about how the events are being handled, both by [...]

Army engineers to rebuild damaged houses in Kandy

Army engineers to rebuild damaged houses in Kandy

Army Commander Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, in battle fatigues, appeared before television cameras after meeting representatives of Sinhala and Muslim business community in Kandy on Friday. He lost little time in blaming the Police for the escalation of violence in the area and declared they should take the responsibility. The remarks came as the Presidential [...]

Thrice blessed Lanka thrice blasted

Thrice blessed Lanka thrice blasted

Whilst the nation is dogged by political instability and totters perilous on the abyss of economic impecunity, this week saw communalism’s fiery flames ignite on the hilly streets of the land, in the Buddhist capital of Kandy where the sacred Sri Dalada resides, to make this thrice blessed Lanka thrice blasted; with emergency law laying [...]

It is nothing but the tooth

It is nothing but the tooth

Would you believe this! That loquacious Cabinet spokesman seems to have gone into hibernation or some kind of sleep mode in the last three year or so. Replying to a media query at a recent cabinet briefing Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, known to some if not many as “Dath dosthara” made the astonishing claim that Sri [...]

Hot air, as usual, to douse fires of communal violence

Hot air, as usual, to douse fires of communal violence

As the fires of communal violence burned across several areas in the Kandy District, Lawmakers attempted to put up a united front in Parliament this week. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya led the call for unity and called upon religious leaders to raise their voices against racism, and condemn those bent on dividing the country on communal [...]

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