Eliminating corruption in public service: Don’t blame Police alone
In a Public Perception Survey carried out by Transparency International, Sri Lanka (TISL) in 2002 it had been revealed that the police force was the most corrupt institution in Sri Lanka. I had just joined TISL as a director when this disclosure was made at a news conference held by TISL and I pointed out [...]
Does Lanka need a vaccine against insanity?
Thinking about prospects for the forthcoming parliamentary elections, our minds went back to two of our favourite quotations. Even though the men who made these pronouncements were far removed from Sri Lankan politics and to apply the thinking of the two great minds to our politics in its present state may seem somewhat facetious, their [...]
Revisiting the Hokandara horror
On February 12, 1999, I received a call from the then Solicitor General C. R. de Silva. He said that our department had conducted the post-mortem examinations of the family members killed in the Hokandara massacre and asked whether we visited the crime scene. I informed him that the Magistrate and Police who visited the [...]
Cloth facemasks – a brief overview
A droplet with particle diameter of >5 µm is referred to as a respiratory droplet. A droplet with particle diameter of <5 µm are referred as droplet nuclei. Droplets can be transferred through close range contact. Droplet nuclei can be airborne and travel significant distances. The threat According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), SARS-CoV-2, [...]
UN chief warns of deadly germs as potential bio-terrorist weapons
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – The coronavirus—which has claimed the lives of more than 538,000 people and infected more than 11.6 million worldwide—has destabilised virtually every facet of human life ever since its outbreak in late December. Providing a grim economic scenario of the devastation caused by the pandemic — including rising poverty, hunger and unemployment [...]
Why India’s China strategy is changing
NEW DELHI – After last month’s clash in the Ladakh region’s Galwan Valley killed 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops, the two countries are settling in for a prolonged standoff on their disputed Himalayan frontier, even amid reports of a disengagement at the site of their recent clash. More important, the [...]