I have just given an interview to Sunday Lakbima, a broadsheet newspaper in Sri Lanka (in Sinhala) on social media in Sri Lanka – what should be the optimum regulatory and societal responses. The interviewer, young and digitally savvy journalist Sanjaya Nallaperuma, asked intelligent questions which enabled me to explore the topic well. This is […]
Go organic! That call is heard increasingly in Sri Lanka, which has been late to get on this bandwagon. Much of the island nation’s organically produced fruit, spices and vegetables was exported to high-paying overseas markets until recently. But concerned with health effects of agrochemical residues in the good, more Lankans are now looking for […]
My latest Ravaya column (in Sinhala) is about the promise and challenges of 3D printing technology. Sri Lanka took many years to come to terms with colour copiers and printers in 2D. For a while, they were not even allowed. This time around, regulating 3D printing will be harder — and there won’t be as […]
Writing a foreword to my latest collection of Ravaya columns, titled ‘කාල බෝම්බ ඕනෑ කර තිබේ!’ (Wanted: Time Bombs of the Mind!), researcher and public intellectual Dr Udan Fernando comments on two societal trends in post-war Sri Lanka (since 2009). One is the indulgence — and even perverse ‘celebration’ — of insularity, conflating it for […] ...
Text of my column written for Echelon monthly business magazine, Sri Lanka, June 2015 issue Sri Lanka: Unclear on Nuclear By Nalaka Gunawardene Should Sri Lanka consider nuclear energy for its medium to meet its long term electricity generation needs? This has been debated for years in scientific and policy circles. It has come into […]
My comments (in Sinhala) on mass media’s role in disaster response, published by Ravaya broadsheet newspaper on 4 June 2017. Summary: In the aftermath of all recent disasters in Sri Lanka, private broadcast media houses have been competing with each other to raise and deliver disaster relief. All that is well and good – except […]
Did youth vote and social media make a difference in Colombo Municipal Council election in Sri Lanka held in October 2011? This was the question that Chanuka Wattegama and I asked ourselves and set out to answer when invited to contribute a chapter to a regional book on how social media are influencing elections in […]
In this week’s Ravaya column (in Sinhala, published in issue of 5 April 2015), I explore Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy from the perspective of many public education efforts in Singapore during his time as Prime Minister (1959-1990) and afterwards. Such public awareness and motivation campaigns have been an integral part of Singapore’s national heritage. Over […]
Beginning in the 1990s, thousands of people in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone – heartland of its rice farming — developed kidney failure without having diabetes or high blood pressure, the common causative factors. Most affected were men aged 30 to 60 years, who worked as farmers. As numbers rose, puzzled doctors and other scientists started […]
Text of my column written for Echelon monthly business magazine, Sri Lanka, April 2015 issue. Published online at: http://www.echelon.lk/home/managing-the-demographic-transition-the-silver-dividend/ Managing Demographic Transition: The ‘Silver Dividend’ By Nalaka Gunawardene Back in December 1993, Wired magazine asked readers to nominate seven modern wonders of the world – extraordinary structures or phenomena that characterise our age. Its editors […] ...
In this week’s Ravaya column (in Sinhala), I return to the oft-discussed topic of social media in today’s Lankan society. If media mirror the realities of its land and times, don’t social media reflect its society as well? And if some among us don’t like what is expressed by fellow citizens using social media platforms, […]
By Nalaka Gunawardene in Naples, Italy India’s Down to Earth magazine was presented with the first Greenaccord International Media Award at an international conference held in Naples, Italy, last week. The award, newly established by the Rome-based non-profit group Greenaccord, recognises outstanding media contributions to covering issues of environment and sustainable development. Tommaso Sodano, deputy […] ...
Twenty-five years ago, I interviewed the first national of Pakistan – as well as the first muslim — to win a Nobel Prize: theoretical physicist Dr Abdus Salam (1926 – 1996). Salam was one of the most influential theoretical physicists of the 20th century. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 with two […]
How to ‘Bell’ the policy ‘cats’? This question is often asked by researchers and activists who would like to influence various public policies. Everyone is looking for strategies and engagement methods. The truth is, there is no one sure-fire way — it’s highly situation specific. Policy makers come in many forms and types, and gaining […]
In this week’s Ravaya column (in Sinhala), I discuss Lankan society’s resistance to innovators and inventors — those who try out new ways of solving problems. Must these attempts always lead to patents and awards? Not necessarily, I argue. The spirit of innovation is far more important than pieces of paper that authenticate them! I […]
On 27 January 2016, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) launched the top-line report of a survey on the consumption and perceptions of mainstream and social media in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. I was one of the launch speakers, and my presentation was titled: Information Society is Rising in Sri Lanka: ARE YOU […]
Charlie is a charmer: he can be engaging, a good listener and smiles a lot. At least these are my impressions of having watched Prince Charles at close range at a reception hosted by the Colombo British Council this evening – coupled with the opening of their new building. The future king was ushered in […]
I have just recorded a short (3.5 min) video for Purawesi Balaya (Citizen Power) advocacy group as part of their citizens’ campaign demanding a new Constitution for Sri Lanka to replace the existing one adopted in 1978. Here is what I say (not a verbatim transcript, but an approximation): ව්යවස්ථාව හරියට හදා ගනිමු! ලක් […]
I have just given an interview to Sunday Lakbima, a broadsheet newspaper in Sri Lanka (in Sinhala) on social media in Sri Lanka – what should be the optimum regulatory and societal responses. The interviewer, young and digitally savvy journalist Sanjaya Nallaperuma, asked intelligent questions which enabled me to explore the topic well. This is […]