He was more than just a colleague, he was my friend
Harendra Wijeratne Throughout our professional lives, we often classify the people with whom we work and interact as colleagues. “A colleague of mine at office,” we say. It is a term that conveys the tenuousness of workplace bonds; relationships formed more out of necessitythan design, frequently buried in the sands of time. However, there have [...]
Getting out of a debt hole: Some advice for Lanka’s establishment
As I write this article, Sri Lanka has its back to the wall. There is a raging foreign exchange (forex) crisis with low levels of reserves held by the Central Bank, a significant monthly trade deficit, large foreign debt repayments this year and for years to come, and no obvious way out of this crisis. [...]
Democracy, narcissism and playing hide and seek with IMF
An unknown political yokel made the news recently when he advised President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to extend his term of office by two years because the Covid virus had stalled his Vistas of Splendour and Prosperity for Sri Lanka for the same period. The President, who had been at the Dalada Maligawa when this encounter took [...]
Is it time to bar coup leaders from the UN?
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – A rash of military coups in Africa has resurrected a long dormant question: should leaders who take power through armed insurrections be barred from addressing the United Nations—an institution which swears by, and promotes, multi-party democracy? The most recent surge, which the United Nations describes as “an epidemic of coups”, include [...]
Realism about Foreign-Policy realism
CAMBRIDGE – Was the current crisis in Ukraine caused by a lack of realism in US foreign policy? According to some analysts, the liberal desire to spread democracy is what drove NATO’s expansion up to Russia’s borders, causing Russian President Vladimir Putin to feel increasingly threatened. Viewed from this perspective, it is not surprising that [...]