The Sunday Times Plus - Sunday December 31, 2006

Plus

Tears from the East
A crowded narrow corridor, sandwiched between rows of shelters, each separated by tin and wood partitions -- this is where the daily life of about 50 people unfolds. The adults try to focus on somehow keeping the home fires burning while the children unaware of their problems play “hide and seek” in this small space.


Wish you a sili-sili-free New Year

Go to a supermarket today and you will, no doubt, come home with more than half a dozen sili-sili bags containing your purchases. Tomorrow, though, it may be a different story as Sri Lanka takes the significant step of doing away with thin polythene in the New Year.

Caring for the Earth
At the turn of this century, at a United Nations Summit, called the Millennium Summit, representatives of world leaders from 189 countries made conservation of nature a globally important issue, by integrating it into one of eight Millennium Development Goals targeted for achievement in 2015.

Two years on: How safe are we from a future tsunami?
Extracts of a keynote lecture delivered by Dr. Janaka Wijetunge of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya at the Conference on Rehabilitation of the Tsunami affected coasts organized by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, on December 12, 2006.)

2006...HOW IT UNFOLDED
As the curtain comes down on a turbulent 2006, Sri Lanka can only hope for a better 2007. With a four-year truce between the Government and LTTE falling apart, death and destruction, tragedy and sorrow haunted the country all year long. The violence has killed more than 3500 people and left thousands more injured.

	Appreciations
	Alec Robertson
	Denzil and Mildred de Mel
	Father Paul Ariyaratnam
	Olive Irene Jirasinha
	C.K.B. Weerakoon

	Letters to the editor
	It's time for the President to review his policies
	What a pittance the backbone of the tea industry gets!
	Pot-holes, stinking garbage, this is our lot
	Why are we so loud?
	Cushioning flood damages
	Good move

	First steps to A,B,C and 1,2,3

	A journey both sacred and archaeological

	Philosophy underlying the Hajj

	Window into a lost world

	He bowed to the unalterable

	Hanging up what’s both beautiful and informative