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Home » ColumnsA lot going on behind the scenes
My dear Maco, Professor Hoole and Nalin, I thought I must write to you this week as there appears to be a lot of discussion about the general election and what you are doing about it, what with different people trotting out different arguments, some wanting it held as soon as possible and others wanting [...]
Deshapriya spells out plans to cope with pandemic-hit polls
The facemask he wore covered his pepper and salt beard. Yet, Mahinda Deshapriya who marks his 65th birthday next month, is an embodiment of seriousness, humour, and a stentorian roar – perhaps elements that have made him a successful polls chief. Yet, the scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic, amidst which he has to conduct the [...]
When politics downplays pandemic
Last Sunday when this column looked at political developments — both local and foreign — against the backdrop of a global pandemic, it did not expect to come back to the subject so soon. What prompted a quick return to it is a cluster (a commonly used word these days) of decisions and impending events [...]
How Buddha’s Jewel Discourse rid plague terrors from Vaishali
VESAK WEEK’S SUNDAY PUNCH SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE TALISMAN OF PROTECTION Some two thousand five hundred years ago in the far off plains of Northern India, the thrice accursed city of Vaishali is writhing in anguish, its people expending their last dying breaths on its wretched streets, their bodies ridden with the pockmarks of disease. [...]
Containing the coronavirus and reviving the economy
Economies cannot function normally until COVID-19 is contained, nor can people survive without the economy functioning. This is the paradoxical predicament the world is in. Sri Lanka too is very much in this predicament. International view There is a growing view internationally that countries must focus on reviving their economies. Many countries have come to [...]
Fighting a supervirus with an automatic weapon
Identification of more than two hundred navymen attached to the Welisara navy camp as superspreaders of the coronavirus after being allowed to go to their villages on leave without first being tested, shows the fragility of that vicious ‘us vs them’ dichotomy in no uncertain terms. From heroes to pariahs Abruptly, the dynamic of social [...]
Amid Covid-19, divisions over parliamentary polls
PM calls meeting of all former MPs, but several opposition parties unlikely to attend Uncomfortable Polls Chief explains commission’s view on date of elections; June 20 date may be postponed A petition by Sajith faction before Supreme Court challenging elections The two-storied Elections Secretariat at Sarana Mawatha in Rajagiriya appeared deserted except for a [...]
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