Icaruswepthad written an interesting post on restaurant prices. This is something I have been thinking about myself, along with the related subject of hotel/resort prices.Dining out is expensive and the reason is not just food cost. We are getting ripped off in the coffee bars in Colombo and the resorts outside Colombo, something I have complained of before.Let me share ...
The Sri Lankan rupee has been depreciating rapidly in the last few months and the satirical website NewsCurry suggested that the US dollar to adopted to prevent further depreciation. Although this sounds absurd, as my previous post explained this is actually a workable and serious proposition.A Currency Board would also achieve the same ends and would be easier to implement ...
The inimitable, NewsCurry carries an article claiming that the Finance Minister has proposed adopting the US dollar as Sri Lanka's currency to prevent further depreciation of the rupee. Although NewsCurry is only satire the suggestion is actually very sensible and has been adopted in certain extreme circumstances to stabilise an economy, the most recent being in Zimbabwe.The process is termed ...
Just over a year ago a great controversy erupted over the an issue of bonds by the Government of Sri Lanka. The bonds were bought by a company controlled by the son-in-law of the Central Bank Governor which obtained a large chunk of the bonds on offer at premium interest rates.At the time there was some doubts as to whether ...
For me, the early part of an afternoon, just after lunch on a holiday, has a serenity that no other time of day can match. The light is bright, almost brilliant but it never seems harsh. Despite the heat- it is far too hot to be walking around outside, contemplating the surroundings from the shade of a drawing room or ...
Some random thoughts on a couple of topics, the result of a chat with a few people last evening. What do people in Kandy do? I was having a chat with someone who mentioned that she was from Kandy. Apart from the usual gripes about the terrible drive to actually get to Kandy, we got on to the subject of ...
The Sunday Times carries an expose on railway toilets that are reserved exclusively for tourists. I guess the problem arises from a well-meaning but misguided attempt to make the railway more tourist friendly. There is a problem of dirty toilets and the railway probably lacks funds to employ enough people to keep the toilets clean.The solution would be to introduce ...
A friend of mine came across this and forwarded it to me. If this is correct its a very dangerous extension of police powers that need to be curbed.The official website of the Sri Lanka police has a page of clarifications entitled "Find out the Truth". The website claims:Recently, some news items were to be seen in circulation via internet ...
A friend of mine was narrating a rather amusing story today. It concerned his father and of an incident that took place in the early 1980's.My friend's grandmother was living alone at the time in her house in Angoda. As there were no telephones in the immediate vicinity and no way of calling for assistance my friend's father would sleep ...
The PM has apparently made a statement that the recently imposed Super Gains Tax is to be suspended; just hours after the Finance Minister boasted that the tax would raise Rs.65bn.What on earth is going on?The Super Gains Tax, a one-off 25% additional tax (ie over and above normal income tax) imposed on an individual or a company that reports ...
President Sirisena has recently called for the protection of domestic agriculture and for import substitution policies to help local cultivation.Highlighting on the agriculture sector development, Sirisena said it was “a shame” that the country was importing agricultural products which could be cultivated in the country, adding that the Government was spending over Rs. 6,000 million annually on imports of essential ...
Indi had written something urging citizens to vote for good people. Just before the last election I did an assessment of the candidates. What we have now is something of a re-run of the same issues but with the advantage of having a short track record of the Sirisena administration to compare against Mahinda. Looking back at the past few ...
A former accounting trainee V Kanthaiya had written an article faulting accounting firms for underpaying their trainees and going on to describe this as modern day slavery. There is some substance to his complaint but the charge of slavery is perhaps taking things too far. Serendipity has weighed in on the side of the student, these are my thoughts on ...
This evening when returning home I came across something that I had believed was extinct: a man wheeling a cart selling gothamba rotti.Piyadasa, making gothamba rottis.These were a familiar sight years ago, the carts would go by in the evening, 'bell' clanging. The 'bell' was not a real bell but the head of a small mammoty which would be stuck ...
The former president has revealed that the Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS), an organisation that claims to fight for the rights of Sri Lanka's Buddhists is in fact a conspiracy hatched by Western powers. It was allegedly launched by the opposition and Western powers to defeat him in the election. It is a pity that the article concerned did not get ...
The Ceylon Today reported that a gold ring worth Rs.1.8m was discovered by an officer of the housekeeping unit when he went to clean the room where a group of MP's had been protesting.It was returned to the MP, who was so grateful that he offered the ring as a gift to the housekeeper, who after some reluctance accepted it. ...
In an interview with the Sunday Leader, Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that he tried to control the notorious Mervyn Silva. This is entirely plausible, Mervyn Silva is a thoroughly bad hat and a public relations disaster. His maverick behaviour would certainly have been at odds with the orderly, controlled world of Mr Rajapaksa.Yet he did not succeed, at least not ...
"A tombstone is a memory made concrete. Human memory is the ladder on which a country and a people advance. We must remember not only the good things, but also the bad, the bright spots but also the darkness. The authorities in a totalitarian system strive to conceal their faults, and extol their merits, gloss over their errors and forcibly ...
Radhika Coomaraswamy has written an excellent piece that should be read and digested by all Tamils, particularly the politicians and the diaspora. Unfortunately this has been misunderstood by many. Even more thoughtful commentors such as Charles Sarvan still view the argument from an academic or legal perspective- the very thing that Miss Coomaraswamy argues against.What is necessary is an assessment ...
Dayan Jayetilleka, erstwhile diplomat and academic has lately been engaged penning paeans to the former regime. This has drawn in criticism from a number of sources which he has responded to. In his latest response he is tying himself in knots trying to find reasons to discredit his critics. His arguments are fundamentally flawed but he cleverly throws together unrelated ...
