Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in the 'Wonder of Asia' for a flying visit, flying being the operative word.His visit is scheduled to last a total of 23 hours, about a third longer than the 15 hours or so that he will spend travelling to and from Beijing. (The fastest flight is on Sri Lankan that is supposed to ...
According to a report in today's Sunday Times:The management of tourist resorts countrywide is now required to report to the Police Station in their area whenever bookings are made by local guests. Besides their names, the address, the date of arrival and departure are among the data sought.The report goes on to elaborate that: such data were often transmitted by ...
Peter Seeger, activist and musician died on the 27th of January this year. A fine musician, he composed in the genre of folk music.His band (the Weavers) was named after a German play that depicted the uprising of Silesian weavers. One of the lines in the play is "I'll stand it no more, come what may".The political message in some ...
There have been a number of articles on the urban redevelopment that is taking place at break-neck speed in Colombo. Many of these have focused on the human aspects: the plight of evicted residents, the loss of a certain way of life or the change in the character of the city.There are many positive things that can come from urban ...
I spend quite a lot of my time analysing events, a process that sometimes ends with a prediction or forecast. Another little thing that I do is to review some of my predictions or positions with the benefit of hindsight.Hindsight is a great thing and spending some time contemplating one's previous positions or opinion can be very enlightening. Often it ...
The Sunday Times has published a report on the EPF that gave me an unpleasant shock. The fund does not appear to have the money to repay it's members.Before getting into the details, lets understand what the fund is and what it is supposed to do. The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) was established under Act No. 15 of 1958 and ...
It was just over a year ago that a senior planter, Secretary of the Ceylon Planters Association was brutally murdered by - surprise, surprise: the Chairman of the local Pradeshiya Sabha, Anil Champika alias ‘Atha Kota’.The eyewitness testimony makes for harrowing reading, yet despite public outrage and local protest, absolutely nothing seems to have happened. The local press took a ...
“Eternal vigilance is not only the price of liberty; eternal vigilance is the price of human decency.”Aldous Huxley A question that came up amongst friends concerning the resignation of Jayantha Dhanapala from the board of Dialog Axiata. It is widely presumed to be a result of the conflict of interests between Dialog's policy of blocking websites (at the behest of ...
The denizens of the land that is referred to as Sri Lanka are supposed to be "free". The British ruled the territory until 1948 but since then it has been self governing and it's inhabitants, supposedly free.Are we really free? Free to think? Free to write? Allowed to go about our affairs unmolested, secure in the knowledge that we cannot ...
Has anyone noticed the unevenness in the geographic distribution of great art in Europe?For example the Dutch can claim some of the greatest painters but have produced almost no musicians of note?The central Germanic-Austro Hungarian region has many great musicians but no serious painters or even writers ?(Goethe and Schiller excepted). The reverse is true of Britain, plenty of great ...
This is what the Daily News has to day:The sequence of events that led to the formation of the BBS (from around mid-2011 to late 2012) shows that the covert neocon teams operating from Colombo embassies found some “useful idiots” (in their own nomenclature), ripe for exploitation.The “opportunity” for the neocons came in the form of Dilanthe Withanage, a graduate ...
The Muslim-owned "No Limit" stores' outlet in Panadura was attacked in the early hours of this morning, possibly with petrol bombs. Fortunately nobody appears to have been hurt but the store is in flames. Four fire brigade trucks are currently attempting to douse the fire. Recent updates from Twitter reproduced verbatim below, images from Rifas M Kaleel, Dinuk Colombage and ...
The latest round of violence is the inevitable result of a campaign that started about a year and a half ago. I put up a number of posts on the subject, which I have now tagged under one label for easy access. There is still a dearth of information but columnist DBS Jeyaraj has put up a summary of the latest events and incidents that on his blog and the Daily FT also carries a report.
Reports are emerging on Twitter of what appears to be a wave of anti-muslim violence that has broken out in Aluthgama, Beruwala and other parts of the Western coast. The trigger appears to have been the BBS rally held in Aluthgama this afternoon.Pictures from The Virakesari Twitter feed:Pictures of unrest also available on the BBC Sinhala FB page.Summary of tweets ...
Dayan Jayatilleka has written something about a possible post election scenario. Well I must say Mr Jayatilleka seems to have awoken from a deep slumber to find that the stuff his nightmares have come to life.He claims "an entirely predictable response to perceptions of external and ethnic siege from afar and the ‘near abroad’. We have the Gang of Four ...
This was the rather lurid headline for a story about alleged financial irregularities at the CPA.There are questions of governance at hand but we need to understand what is of legitimate public interest and what is not. The private lives of individuals, however debauched, are of no interest to the public at large unless it happens to involve public property, ...
A report in the Ceylon Today claims that the President will take over the ministries of Buddha Sasana and Cultural Affairs. These ministries were previously under the purview of the Prime Minister D.M Jayaratne, a senior SLFP figure.Is this a move to sideline the Prime Minister or otherwise clip his wings? The rivalry between the First Family and the old ...
Its official. The Dear Leader hates social media and warns darkly of its many ills. We have witnessed the corrupt use of social media including the internet, to create domestic unrest and cyber crime".the President observed."Youth have been targeted, and they have become pawns of the misplaced agendas. These are dangerous trends that need to be arrested, and addressed...He is ...
It has not gone down with a bang, but with a whimper, deflating slowly over the past couple of years, as this report points out. The Government, is desparately trying to do something to boost it, including promoting pawning. I think pawning is connected with poverty but with such limited demand for credit I suppose they do not have much ...
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." ~Terry Pratchett, The Bromeliad And here I was, wondering why it was so difficult to maintain an open mind! The theme of the month is the anniversary of the war victory. As it draws closer the ...
_The_Blind_)
