Invitation to a military parade taking place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 18th May 2013 marking the fourth anniversary since the defeat of the LTTE by the country’s security forces “This development is not ours, they just come in and do as they please, and we stand by and watch”. “What are they complaining about so much? We won the ...
The dynamics of competition always interests me, and it’s easy to see it everywhere we go. Last week, BreadTalk, the Singaporean bakery chain that has taken Colombo by storm, opened its newest outlet on Thimbirigasyaya Road (Havelock Town). This is interesting, because unlike its other branches on Union Place and Park Street Mews, because it is locating slap-bang in the ...
The recent Joint Statement by the Indian and Sri Lankan governments following the recent meeting between their two foreign ministers I found to be quite curious, especially in the section referring to economic partnership between the two countries. As many are familiar with already, Sri Lanka and India have been struggling to complete negotiations on a proposed ‘Comprehensive Economic ...
A quick thought on today’s reshuffle of Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers. Although most people thought that following the comprehensive victory by both the President and the UPFA in the last set of elections, the strong 2/3rds majority in Parliament will mean that the government will be strong and stable and can, for once, avoid having to pander and ...
I was recently invited to be a Guest Speaker at the Annual General Meeting of the Association of International Schools in Sri Lanka to address a group of principals, teachers, and school administrators from across the country. I reproduce it here because I think it can be of broader interest, especially with many often talking about ‘Sri Lanka as ...
Sri Lanka welcomed its 950000th tourist arrival for 2012. Image courtesy http://www.sundayobserver.lk Two days ago Sri Lanka welcomed its 950,000th tourist for the year 2012, a Polish graphic designer. According to tourism officials, this means the country met the annual target set for 2012. These officials have also been quick to draw a comparison between the Maldives and Sri Lanka. ...
Paul Krugman, Nouriel Roubini, Kaushik Basu, and Justin Wolfers are just some of the top-notch economists that The Huff Post has just recommended as “26 Economists You Should Be Following on Twitter”. The Huff Post says, Twitter can be a wonderful place to unearth economic news and analysis. The only problem is knowing who to follow. But fear no longer, ...
If I ever receive exceptional customer service at a Sri Lankan establishment, I am surprised, almost shocked. I’ve become quite accustomed to mediocre service at best, with little attention to detail and sometimes with a smile. So when a waiter is actually good and doing his/her job, it feels almost ‘unusual’. But that’s not how it should be. Expanding Sri ...
At the time of writing, “frankenstorm” Sandy is about to hit the North East coast of the USA with storm surges and gale force winds already hitting the cities of New York, Philly, DC, etc. Meanwhile, mini-cyclonic conditions are also hitting the North and East coast of Sri Lanka, with heavy rains and winds lashing Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trinco, and ...
The 2012 Annual Sessions of Sri Lanka’s top body of economists, the Sri Lanka Economic Association, was held over the weekend on the theme ‘Export Growth for Sustained Development’. It isn’t easy to capture all of the rich discussion, but here are nine interesting facts that The Curionomist picked out for you, from presentations and speakers of the experts ...
In an interesting and enlightening new book on the interaction between statistics, predictions, data and human behaviour, Nate Silver (of the New York Times) asks the question “Why is baseball easier to predict than presidential elections?”. It’s just one case study among many that he looks at to try and understand whether humans have got better at predicting outcomes ...
Today marks the first ever International Day of the Girl, being celebrated the world over as well as here in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has made impressive achievements, over its peers in the developing world, in ensuring greater gender equity in development. With a track record of strong social sector investments, Sri Lanka’s performance on the Gender Inequality Index (GII) of ...
I arrived 3 hours early at the finals of the ICC World Twenty20 to avoid the rush and grab decent seats. Although the Women’s Final was going on (and it was suitably interesting), my mind had time to wander, and I began thinking how great it must be to work for the ICC, FIA, FIFA or a mega sports body like it ...
Over the weekend, The Curionomist dropped by at the Hansa Coffee store and cafe on Fife Road for a quick cuppa but ended up having an interesting chat with the proprietor on the difficulties Hansa faces in getting people to choose local coffee over imported ones. But firstly, lets set out biases – I love Hansa coffee (and cannot understand ...
The Curionomist was at the launch of the 2nd National Human Development Report (NHDR) 2012 of the UNDP, and the Chief Guest at the occasion Dr. Sarath Amunugama (Senior Minister for Int’l Monetary Cooperation) was unusually dismissive about such a report. He remarked that there are many reports that have come out by many entities and they must be looked at carefully and ...
The Curionomist started blogging on economic issues via PopularEconomix (http://populareconomix.wordpress.com/) way back in 2006. Since then the blog withered away. Back with a curious eye on everyday economic stuff, The Curionomist blog is hereby launched! Thank you for visiting, and stay curious!
