I was pondering the question of how far a Government can be held to account, after the debate around my last post. Let's pose a practical question that should be of concern to us all:How many people are aware that most of the Chinese-made ceramic ware for sale in the country is contaminated by lead?I discovered this a few years ...

Raashid Riza carried a post about a campaign by Coca Cola to try and promote unity amongst the people of Pakistan and India. He then goes on about the supposed evils of capitalism and cites a fire in a textile factory in Bangladesh to support his argument.I try to avoid junk food in general and sugary drinks in particular. I ...

When people told me about Nuga Gama I dismissed it as yet another Sri Lankan themed restaurant. When someone invited us over I was not especially enamoured. I could not have been more wrong.Walking in along a path dimly lit by kerosene lamps I wondered why they did not have more light. The pathway was not lined with lamps, just ...

A friend was raving about a new arrack that he had drunk recently. He had been asked to buy it for a friend living overseas. He found it at the duty free shop but was taken aback by the price tag - US$31 for a bottle. He bought it anyway and took it to his friend and asked him why ...

The streets, pavements and parks of the capital are being repaired and refurbished. Colourful stones line the pavements, walls around old buildings have been broken down and the roads have been resurfaced.It must be said that much of the work is good. Some trees were felled unnecessarily and the size of some of the new pavements is a problem-roads that ...

The parallels between Sri Lanka and Burma mean that it is worth monitoring the developments there closely, to see what it leads to. The latest HRW report on the violence lays the blame squarely on the state. The violence was precluded by an organised campaign of hate:"For months, local Arakanese political party officials and senior Buddhist monks publicly vilified the ...

“If you buy from Muslim shops, your money doesn’t just stop there,” “It will eventually go towards destroying your race and religion.”Muslim merchants receive cash injections from Middle East oil state brethren and use these funds to undercut Buddhist rivals. This Muslim alliance could outbreed Buddhists, steal away Buddhist women, overwhelm political offices and prohibit Buddhist ceremonies altogether. “We Buddhists ...

Sbarrkum had written something on bottled water and reading it set off started a train of thought.There was a time, when we were very small, when the standard advice given was that water should always be boiled. Tourists and rare visitors from overseas were repeatedly cautioned as to the dangers of unboiled water.When traveling, the only safe thing to drink ...

There is a strong undercurrent of anti-Muslim sentiment that has come to the surface of late. It is primarily anti-Muslim, but secondarily anti-minority. Can this lead to another round of violence?To reduce the factors to an equation; the critical ones are:a) The spread of rumours, falsities and horror stories that play on the fears of the majority. The Muslim population ...

Now look, you are supposed to be trying to sell your stupid guest house/bungalow/hotel, right?Why can't you have a website with your contact numbers? Surely you know that there are no telephone directories around now, how are people to know how to contact you? If you don't want to spend money, have a blog site, its free. Ok, you are ...

The attack on Fashion Bug was settled amicably, out of court. Can we now consider the case to be closed and return to our normal lives?Not quite, because of some of the troubling questions that, as far as we know, have not yet been resolved.The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) has sworn to protect the Dhamma and the nation; worthy goals ...

Grammar is related to logic: it is about expressing ideas coherently. Words do not mean much unless someone can string them together in a coherent form to express an idea. Logic is about forming valid arguments, an understanding of the subject enables clarity in thought.A lack of thought and an abundance of irrationality is one of the problems that is ...

Racism, which breeds on ignorance and fear, seems to be spreading with a rapidity that is leaving ordinary citizens bewildered and overwhelmed. In incident after incident, the authorities stand idle, while the hatred breeds further hatred. The poison is everywhere and seems to be rising towards a horrible crescendo. Fighting seems an almost impossible task, the hydra keeps growing new ...

The attack on the Fashion Bug shop should, in any civilised society have drawn condemnation from all quarters and, at a minimum, promises of an investigation from the authorities.In Sri Lanka, the reaction was strangely muted. No minister, apart from a couple of Muslim MP's, of the hundred plus cabinet issued a statement. With so many ministries around surely somebody ...

The first stone has been cast, an attack on the Fashion Bug warehouse in Pepiliyana.Well, not quite the first stone, there were smaller ones before. A mosque in Matara, some shops in Kuruvikotuwe Pahamune, stones thrown at a Mosque in Kurunegala (Asian Tribune has a list of some of the recent ones) but this looks like the biggest so far. ...

I came across the name of Grinling Gibbons, generally supposed to be amongst the greatest of wood carvers, this afternoon. Writer David Esterly who abandoned literature for carving after seeing some of Gibbons' work has just published a book on his experience.More details on the man and his art here, also check the Wikipedia entry. David Esterly's work is also ...

I noticed two unusual stories in the news today, the Ceylon Today report that a special police squad is being trained, amidst great secrecy to deal with mass protests and riots. The Government must be expecting trouble, but from where? Certainly not from the BBS, which has been rabble rousing quite imperviously. Could a series of tax hikes be on ...

Intellectual stimulation, that is, although I would not necessarily object to being tickled in a more conventional sense.Seriously, though I tend to feed on ideas and there are not enough around. The company I work for has subscribed to an online education system from Harvard, which fairly good. Just finished the session on creativity and it made me realise what ...

One of my favourite types of biscuit and the foundation of the chocolate biscuit pudding, I'd always thought that they were a local biscuit, probably invented by Maliban.Apparently they were created by an English bakery Peek Freans in London in 1874 to commemorate the marriage of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh.Who would have ...

The new airport in Mattala opened this week, to a fairly lukewarm response (if I'm any judge of sentiment) by the public. There are a few obvious issues with the airport that I will write about later, but first lets try to get the broader picture right. What makes infrastructure work and how should a Government go about prioritising its ...