Advancements in medical science in the last two centuries have saved billions of human lives. By improving the chances of the aged, sick and enfeebled to live on and survive, it has dampened the influence of external forces of natural selection on the human evolutionary processes. We have increased the chances of survival for all - not just the ...
Address to the Trinity College Assembly on 21st June 2010 on behalf of the Batch of 2000 to mark our 10-year reunion The Principal, Vice Principal, members of staff, Batch mates and fellow Trinitians: My name is Harendra Alwis and I am here with my classmates from the batch of 2000. We are sincerely thankful to the Principal for ...
Glimpse, originally uploaded by halwis.Melbourne, Australia (20th May) - My sleepy eyes have outdone the conscientious alarm by thirty minutes. I lie awake grudgingly, because sleep would elude me for at least another 24 hours. Emboldened by a hot shower, I am over confident about my ability to forego the mandated quota of sleep. While going through a mental ...
Our digital world We live in a digital world of our making. The pictures we see on billboards and on TV, the music we listen to, the whispers we exchange on mobile phones and the letters and words on newspapers and books we read, have at some point, been reduced to a series of on-off bits to be stored ...
We human beings are remarkable in our ability to empathise and therefore to comprehend the inner thoughts and feelings of another without self experience. It suffices that one remembers how it feels to be sad or happy, to be able to share in the sadness or happiness of another. Even without memory or self experience, we have an amazing ...
When I tell you that ‘I love you’, I will be sharing with you, in words, a fragment of my soul. I want you to know that these three words are not merely a plot born out of my desire to drown with those words, in a vivacious smile in your eyes… or to laze in your tender embrace; ...
Traveller, originally uploaded by halwis. Dear Godchild, Being probably the first person apart from your parents, grandparents and uncle, to wish you on your very first birthday, is a great responsibility. It is the sort of thing that keeps Godfathers up well past bedtime; not out of obligation of course, but out of duty. Today, you mark the first ...
Mystic eyes, beneath a maskDo you whisper your secrets, but tears conceal?I know not your depth, it's an impossible taskHas anyone treded where your gaze has been?My bespectacled eyes are longing to baskWhere no shadow can steel your light and sheen,Take me to your lair and open the caskWhere you stash away all the dreams you've seen?~
Originally published hereChange is difficult to manage when it is imposed, forced, mandated, and made necessary as a result of a failure to anticipate the contours of perpetual transformation in the environment. This is true for both organisations and individuals. Successful change is inspired; with clarity of vision and purpose. It appeals to our desire for creative expression rather than ...
Sourced image(As published on Groundviews.org) 1. Do not despair. Much of the world was already broken before you were born, and parts of it will remein broken long after we are gone. It is the purpose and function of life to re-order the disintegrating world in defiance of the second law of thermodynamics. So it helps to try to understand ...
The democratic peace proposition (DPP) is a liberal theory of peace (Oneal et al. 2003) complimented by constructivist arguments in support of it. Its central and simplest edict posits that ‘democracies do not go to war with each other’ (Owen 1994). There is a high degree of consensus among its proponents, that both statistical and empirical evidence indicates the “absence ...
Helix NebulaCredit: NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO).After a childhood spent gazing at them, way more than any other 13 year old had the patience to, I had a deep appreciation of their power to amaze and mystify. I already knew at that age how their light was old and wise ...
Photo credit: unknown He felt something formidable rise in front of him and paused; undecided, hesitant, unhurried but weary of languishing. The dark moonless night engulfed his senses completely. Not knowing which way to go, he just stood without any recollection of what he was doing there. He could no longer remember or imagine where the next step might ...
Traveller, originally uploaded by halwis.For all the times we partedTo be reunited in perfect waysFor all the cherrished memoriesAnd countless long forgotten daysFor all those times we leave behindMay this moment, forever be mine, For, once again, we must say goodbyePerhaps for the very last time.~
7:49am Because, for every cold, cloudy, rainy day or two in winter that dampens your spirit in the slightest, there is also a day that just rises up to meet you at your most cheerful and energetic; for every barren tree that shiver in the cold winds, having submitted months before to the impending midwinter’s gloom, there is one ...
