International Day against Racism - EDITORIAL

On October 26, 1966, the UN proclaimed March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination....

Geneva, Hopscotch, and Meaningful Reconciliation

Like a great sporting event that comes every other year, Geneva is the venue and the time for Sri Lanka’s post-conflict national sport: hopscotch.

Zahran Hashim, Kattankudy and the Islamic State in Sri Lanka

The final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Easter Sunday attacks was handed over to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by the Chairman of the Commission, Supreme Court Judge Janak de Silva at the Presidential Secretariat on February 01, 2021.

WHEN A CHILD ENCOUNTERS RACISM

When my son was five years old, a fellow camper said to him that he “wasn’t any colour on the rainbow.” According to his little friend, this meant that he was an alien.

Slavery, a crime against humanity

In Sri Lanka, the slave trade is not seen as a major problem though some families are known to use poor children for domestic work while unscrupulous traders and bussnessmen also employ poor children under the age of 18.

A country obsessed with racial and religious conflicts

Sri Lanka, as a nation has been wasting time debating sensitive racial and religious issues for the past several years....

Burqa ban: Security, human rights and male chauvinism

A few years ago, on a Turkish beach exclusively for women, a bikini-clad woman offered her prayers. The video clip of the woman going.....

Let’s have one law for Sri Lanka - EDITORIAL

The law of the country should be equal to everyone. That’s what the law books say. Then we also have religion which is used as a tool....

Secret US document reveals Lanka’s ‘Indo-Pacific’ role?

The launch in Colombo of a Trilateral Maritime Security Secretariat, for cooperation between Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives, merits closer scrutiny. This is on account of revelations contained in a newly declassified document from Washington that could throw light on the provenance of the new entity.

4/21: Friends exposed?

Former Chief of State Intelligence Nilantha Jayawardena says that as of April 11, about 15,000 people were aware of information received from a foreign intelligence service about the Easter Sunday attacks.

Govt. needs PC polls for political reasons

The leaders of the political parties which are aligned with the government resolved on Tuesday evening to have elections to the provincial councils at the earliest.

In search of a ruthlessly efficient leader

Cheerio EU, hello EA (and more, hopefully!)

EU. That’s the European Union. EA stands for East Asia. It’s a crude categorization in terms of what’s happening right now in Geneva with regard to Sri Lanka.

Concentrate on Consistency, not Contradiction

It was not too long ago that the Sri Lankan government was to some extent, able to resolve the cremation or burial dilemma by permitting the burial of Muslims, who die of Covid-related ailments. The approval for such a move came after months of protests especially by Muslims locally and abroad. Burials are currently being carried out with the assistance of the army at a burial site at Ottamavadi in the Batticaloa district.

Fears over Covid-19 vaccines - EDITORIAL

Over the past year - from 2020 to date, the Covid virus held the world in an iron grip of fear and paralysis. Worldwide around 120 million....

Racism is a very dangerous tool of governance!

This government is no different from any other that ruled Sri Lanka in the past. They all use the same kind of ruse, trick, facade....

Analysis of food delivery Ultimate convenience or a bitter taste

Don’t we all love food delivery platforms? They bring us food when we are short on time and introduce us to new spots we did not know existed.

Locals oppose sand mining in Malawenna

Locals from Number 65 Grama Niladhari division in Malawenna in Hikkaduwa Divisional Secretariat said sand mining activities....

Money printing does not lead to inflation – Dr. Kenneth de Zilva

Dr. Kenneth de Zilwa, a capital markets expert and business cycle economist, shares his views with the in an interview on the financial challenges confronting Sri Lanka.

Identify extremism clearly, before implementing gazette

The extraordinary gazette (2218/68) that has been issued under the highly controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on March 12 for the “De-radicalization from holding violent extremist religious ideology” seems to have stemmed from the recently released report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the t

Burqa ban: Right decision – perhaps at the wrong time

Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara last week said that he had signed a Cabinet paper to ‘ban the wearing of burqa’ for national security reasons. The paper should be presented to the Cabinet for approval and then pass a vote in Parl

Women’s Co-operation

During a research visit to Karainagar, an Island connected by a causeway to Jaffna, I listened to a single mother’s struggle to educate her three children.

Lanka’s journey from welfare state, to unbridled COL - EDITORIAL

In the not too distant past, Sri Lanka had in place social systems which provided basic economic security for its citizens.

Advantage of switching power sector from Fuel Oil/Coal to LNG

It appears that Sri Lanka is planning to introduce Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to the power-generation sector for the first time.

A call to Young People to fight racism

In Sri Lanka racial discrimination has led to a 30-year civil war with the death toll reported to be more than 100,000.

Govt. must declare a year of tolerance

This year - 2021- Easter Sunday falls on April 4. Two years ago, in 2019, it was on April 21. All of you who are reading this will recall exactly where you were and what you were doing on that fateful day in 2019.

UNHRC using false atrocity propaganda to promote Western hegemonic agenda?

Amidst a war of narratives waged by LTTE proxies in the West, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is using Sri Lanka as a platform to further a more sinister geopolitical agenda.

Commissions of Inquiry under Sri Lankan Law: What Cost to Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka has seen a dramatic proliferation of commissions of inquiry, set up to probe into high profile problems facing the governments of every hue.

Sri Lanka Bharatiya Janatha Party: Is it India’s baby?

Barely three weeks after the Chief Minister of Indian State of Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb had stated that Indian Home Minister and former....

Super tea and an ‘inferior’ labour class - EDITORIAL

A cup of tea is cherished when fatigue sets in, but do we value the work that tea pluckers put in to give us that cup full of aroma....