Is coconut oil poison?
An interesting article titled ‘Apologise, or you’ll send Harvard into disrepute” in the Sunday Times 2 of September 2, prompted me to engage in the issue, when, as Chairman of the Coconut Research Board, having studied the subject in depth in the 1990, I actively fought the myth that coconut oil consumption contributed to heart [...]
Demo-crazy in Lanka
Vacillations of the moon are generally blamed for the inhabitants of this paradise isle periodically taking leave of their senses and playing merry hell on the streets of Colombo. The sun blazing directly overhead on the Indian Sub-Continent in August, too, seems to have had drastic effects—perhaps sun strokes—on the quarter of humanity inhabiting the [...]
Drama at the High Posts Committee
The High Posts Committee, comprised of Parliamentarians representing different political parties, is not usually a place of controversy as there are well established practices for the screening of nominations. For example, the process of approval for Sri Lanka’s ambassadors abroad includes newspaper notification which calls for any public objections to be filed and taken up [...]
A Sri Lankan, deep in his heart
The reasons to commemorate the brilliant traits of a leader can be many, and lessons to be learnt from such leadership and foresight are often invaluable. The lessons learnt become a lasting legacy, which blossoms to be emulated in the future. This, in a nutshell, tells about the vision of the late Deshamanya Alhaj Mohamed [...]
Speaker to deliver Bakeer Markar memorial lecture
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya will deliver the 21th Annual Bakeer Markar commemoration lecture on September 19 at 4.45 p.m. at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo. He will speak on “A Vision for an Inclusive Sri Lanka”. These annual lectures are organised by the Bakeer Markar Centre for National Unity with a view to fostering [...]
India Should Accept Disaster Assistance
NEW DELHI – India’s southern state of Kerala has been hit by the worst floods in nearly a century. Now that the floodwaters are receding, a peculiar debate has emerged over whether India should accept foreign aid to support reconstruction. At the peak of the floods, the Indian government allocated money from the National Disaster [...]
Gandhi wanted women to ‘resist’ sex for pleasure
In December 1935, Margaret Sanger, the American birth control activist and sex educator, visited Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi and had an absorbing conversation with him. Sanger was on an 18-city trip to India, speaking with doctors and activists about birth control and the liberation of women. Her fascinating exchange with Gandhi at his ashram [...]