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Home » ColumnsGovt. seeks UN’s helping hand for COVID vaccine
An official news release said last week that the Government has sought the help of the United Nations and its agencies to help Sri Lanka obtain vaccines for Covid-19 used by other countries. The task does not appear to be easy with manufacturers contracting large orders, particularly with the United States. Here is an account [...]
Looking back at a year of human tragedies and economic disasters
There has not been a single year in living memory when the global economy was devastated to the extent it was this year. It was not a financial or economic crisis; it was not a recession; it was an economic catastrophe and a human tragedy.Economies around the world have been disrupted. Economic growth of most [...]
Lanka’s symbolism of a ‘kali syrup’ and affliction of the nation’s spirit
After relentless political patronage of a covid-healing ‘miracle’ syrup brewed by a ‘kapurala,’ (keeper of a temple cum witch doctor), who chants that he is possessed by the Goddess Kali, it is the height of unseemly irony for Sri Lanka’s Health Services Director to threaten legal action against the ‘kapurala’ and his despairing followers for [...]
Big, bad Santa is coming to town
My dear Santa Claus, I thought I should write to you, even though it is a couple of days late, but I thought you might still be doing your Christmas rounds in this island paradise of ours, what with the lockdowns, local curfews and quarantine restrictions because of the coronavirus making a comeback. Just in [...]
The Mask: The Face of COVID Year 2020
Year long reign and unimaginable terror of the virus that locked down cities and closed Houses of God and left mankind Godless Never in the chequered history of mankind has one spectre so authoritatively commanded the undivided attention of the entire world for an entire year and brought every other pursuit of human activity in [...]
Will it be more horribilis next?
There was no death and destruction on a mass scale as in 2019. There were no suicide-bomb attacks on those at prayer, no bombing of hotels where tourists and locals were at Easter Sunday breakfast on one of the holiest days for Christians. That single-day tragedy left indelible scars and turned 2019 into an annus [...]
Tough times ahead in 2021: Priority for COVID-19 and economic crises
Increasing evidence of gross mishandling of the second wave of pandemic Diplomatic dispute with Maldives over request to bury Sri Lan SJB to present new constitution for the party; uncertainty in UNP over Ranil’s role ka’s Muslim COVID victims A horrendous 2020 ends in just four days with fears over what 2021 would [...]
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