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Home » ColumnsAs food suppliers make profit, monk courts mass arrest to feed hungry people
Compelled to remain indoors due to the prolonged curfew, the main woe for most Sri Lankans has become their food. Some have managed to stock them whilst others lapped up whatever remained at supermarkets. The head of the 40-member Presidential Task Force, Special Envoy Basil Rajapaksa assigned Grama Niladharis to recommend curfew passes to grocery [...]
A collective effort, the need of the hour
My dear Gota maamey, Mahinda maama, Green Man, Sajith, Rauff, Sampanthan seeya and Anura sahodaraya, I have never written to all of you at once before, but I thought I must. These are, after all, desperate times, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Besides, what better time to come together than when the lives [...]
Bigotry’s virus found amidst dead man’s ashes
Adversity, it is said, makes the strangest bedfellows. But, alas, for Lanka even that little redeeming grace seems denied. In the cauldron of mankind’s despair and tragedy, is brewed the devil’s bewildering corona concoction, its noxious vapors engulfing the world with fear and dread, its lethal droplets bringing death everywhere it falls, its global unseen [...]
Beware of dangers ahead
April 1st is a day of tomfoolery when legs are pulled even by those who should know better. So when the phone rang and the caller at the other end said “Naseby here”, for a moment I thought it was an “April Fool” joke. But it was no joke. Lord Naseby, or Michael Morris as [...]
Growing food security concerns with extension of Island-wide curfew
There are increasing concerns in food security during this prolonged period of an economic shutdown and island-wide curfew. Ensuring the availability and accessibility of at least minimum food requirements is of utmost importance during these days of battling the coronavirus. Formidable task To the credit of the Government, many efforts are being made to ensure [...]
COVID-19 and the great hoax of ‘discipline and order’
When Sri Lanka’s acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) instructed all police officers to ‘take legal action against those who publish posts on social media criticising government officials and obstructing their duties’ as reported on 1st April 2020, one might have been forgiven for speculating that this was grim humor befitting the day of all [...]
Govt. battles Covid-19 pandemic and two other major crises
Reports of restriction on imports as the economy takes a severe beating, rupee value continues to plunge Polls Chief sends two letters to Presidential Secretariat raising doubts about polls; constitutional crisis looms over when new parliament could meet; President urged to seek SC ruling Perhaps never before has the well-known Sinhala adage – a near [...]
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