Photo courtesy of e-ir The year 2024 is an election year in Sri Lanka with the president’s term of office ending on November 17, 2024 and accordingly the conduct of a presidential election constitutionally mandated upon the Election Commission between September and October this year. The ousting of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa through the mass protests of the aragalaya two ...
Photo courtesy of The India Forum News of the first arrest under the Online Safety Act (OSA) renders more urgent, and underscores points made last week at a public lecture organised by the Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership and Public Policy (BALPP), on a panel chaired by Prof Arjuna Parakrama, and also featured Prof Savithri Goonesekara. Following up my September 2023 ...
Photo courtesy of LNW On September 18, 2023, the Government of Sri Lanka published a Bill titled “Online Safety” and this was subsequently tabled in parliament on October 3. The Bill aims to establish an Online Safety Commission with a range of powers, including the ability to direct persons and internet service providers to remove vaguely defined “prohibited statements” from ...
Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association released the full calendar of their tournaments for 2024. The pinnacle event, Dialog Schools Rugby League, is set to commence in the second week of June and will be played till the third week of August, followed by the Knockout competition. The Knockout Tournaments are scheduled to take place in August and September this ...
Photo courtesy of CPA It has been 16 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in September 2007. However, Sri Lanka has not formulated a legal or policy framework, in line with the declaration, to ensure the survival, dignity and wellbeing of indigenous people in the country. After several meetings and ...
For my penultimate post in this series this year I will get back to my lotus ponds on the balcony, the subject with which I began the series, but which I have neglected since the end of September. There was a host of blossoms at that time, but though not so profuse, this continued over the next few months. So ...
Munchee national novices under 25 volleyball championship 2023 organized by the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation (SLVB) was recently concluded on the 17th of December successfully. The preliminary rounds of the tournament were held at the provincial level as the tournament commenced on the first week of September. Only the players who were born on or after January 1st, 1999 and ...
Former West Indies player Marlon Samuels has been banned from all cricket for six years after an independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal found him guilty of breaching the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) Anti-Corruption Code. Samuels, who was charged by the ICC (in its capacity as the Designated Anti-Corruption Official under the ECB Code) in September 2021, was found guilty by the Tribunal ...
The TikTok kids are all rightHistory, when it is rewritten, will date the fall of the American Empire to September 11th, 2001. The hegemon lashed around for a while, but at that point, it was mortally wounded. Historically, the fall was quite quick, actually. After decades of occupying, bombing, and destroying the world, after centuries of genocide and slavery, America ...
Photo courtesy of redeweb Since September 2023, the discourses on online safety and digital spaces in Sri Lanka have been dominated by the implications of the proposed Online Safety Bill. The Bill has attracted criticism for its draconian provisions, lack of public consultation and attempts to concentrate state power. Subsequently, the Bill was challenged in the Supreme Court by 30 ...
Photo courtesy of News Nation As the IMF has noted in its Governance Diagnostic Assessment in September, “The resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July 2022 emphasized that addressing the crisis required changes in governance as much as changes in economic policies. The role of civil society in demanding accountability carried an equally important message about the drivers of change”. ...
I have not written since August about my actual garden, down below, with its several ponds. Those of course figure here on Saturdays, but as I have shown there are lots of lovely trees down there, and occasionally flowers bloom. But I start today with neither flowers nor trees, but rather with an unexpected visitor in early September. This ...
Photo courtesy of UCA News Today is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists In a report on Sri Lanka presented to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had stated, “lack of accountability at all levels remains the fundamental main human rights problem”. This is also relevant to ...
There was no ‘Harvard’ in Cambridge, Massachusetts before September 8, 1636. Indeed, at that time, there was no Cambridge either, at least not in the state of Massachusetts. Apparently it was settled as New Towne in 1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Company but was organised as a town not only in name six years later when it was picked as ...
Sri Lankan leg-spinning all-rounder Seekkuge Prasanna has decided to retire immediately from International Cricket. Prasanna made his international debut in ODIs at the age of 26 in August 2011 and followed it with Tests and T20Is in September 2011 and 2013. >>Chameera and Mathews to join Sri Lanka team as Travelling Reserves In a career that spanned over 12 years, ...
Chamari Athapaththu is the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for September 2023 after inspiring Sri Lanka to a historic series triumph over England. Athapaththu beat out South Africa pair Laura Wolvaardt and Nadine de Klerk to earn the award after an outstanding month that included leading Sri Lanka to a stunning series victory. The Sri Lanka Women’s captain starred ...
Photo courtesy of The Citizen On September 18, the government gazetted a Bill titled Online Safety to establish the Online Safety Commission and to regulate certain contents from the online spaces. Amid the heightened attention, discourse and criticism on the Bill, it was tabled in parliament on October 3. At this juncture it is pertinent to compare and contrast the ...
The training on the third and fourth Modules of certificate courses for the protective CMEV Monitors was conducted on September 30 and October 01, 2023, for the first batch which included 70 prospective monitors. Participants included 36 Males, 33 Females and 01 LGBTIQ community member. The training was conducted as a two-day residential training at TI Rathana Community Training Centre ...
Royal College took a 5-goal lead on the first leg of the Royal-Thomian water polo encounter, succeeding in their initial step towards becoming the 30th Dr. R.L. Hayman champions. The 1st leg came to an end last evening (30th September) in the middle of roaring cheers from the Royal stands. The post HIGHLIGHTS – Royal College vs S. Thomas’ College ...
Key industry experts convene to inspire action for sustainable tourism in Sri Lanka. World Tourism Day, celebrated globally on September 27th, serves as a reminder of the pivotal role tourism plays in fostering economic growth, cultural exchange and environmental preservation. In commemoration of World Tourism Day, Browns Hotels & Resorts, a leading name in Sri Lankan hospitality, hosted a thought-provoking ...