While the U.S. has arguably shown the world that it would rather have a leader that grabs pussies than has one, in South Asia only the Maldives and Bhutan (which is a patrilineal monarchy in any case) have not had a female head of state. Political scientists have been fascinated by this exceptionalism of female leadership in Asia but much ...
The year 2016 is up and running with a bang, as countries around the world tense up over protests, oil and H-bombs. Things seem relatively chilled out in Sri Lanka, however, with the discovery of the world’s largest blue sapphire, and talks of potential ganja cultivation. Here’s this week in news: Local Ganja for Ayurveda? We may soon be cultivating ...
Often, the tropical heat forces us to the freezer where we grab the first soft drink we see to quench a thirst that even water refuses to quench. Whether it’s international brands like Coca Cola or Pepsi, or quirkier local names like Necto or Orange Barley, some of us drink with little thought of what we are ingesting. It should be ...
Starting this week, Sri Lankans will finally be able to exercise their rights to access public information. After the long legal journey since the Right to Information (RTI) Bill was gazetted on December 18, 2015, the much anticipated RTI Act will, as per an extraordinary gazette notification released last week, be enforced throughout the island beginning February 3. Starting this ...
It has been three months since we last touched on the subject of the Annual Registration Levy (ARL), and several weeks since the lapse of the extension of the deadline (June 30) for payment of the ARL by companies. However, the public, and more specifically, the business community, continues to have many questions which remain unanswered up to date. With ...
Netflix is finally here in Sri Lanka, and for those of you who have been living under a rock, it’s THE leading TV service/streaming platform around the world. And Sri Lanka isn’t the only country to get Netflix either, as the global launch included some 130 countries worldwide. Netflix is pretty much global. Image Credit: support.netflix.com The launch was officially ...
Speaking at the Indian Economic Summit early October in New Delhi, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the following: “We are planning to negotiate with the USA after the presidential election. In preparation for this, we have set aside about 500 acres for a golf course and a Trump building.” He was joking, of course, but his quip captured the essence ...
The wetlands in Sri Lanka are shrinking and the wildlife is rapidly losing their habitat. Except for one feisty cat; it is fighting back and it is fighting hard. The second largest cat in Sri Lanka – second to the leopard – is adapting to city life as they prowl in and around urban areas; even Colombo. A fishing what? ...
Anyone who’s taken one of those big luxury buses to Jaffna knows the kind of hassle you have to go through to book a ticket. While the bus service itself is fantastic, reserving a seat can be a time-consuming process that requires you to personally visit a reservation centre, often located in a random grocery store on Galle Road, far ...
Higher education in Sri Lanka has, for decades, been a highly politicised function. From ragging to youth unrest and clashes between faculties, issues relating to tertiary education have, therefore, become unavoidably political, with a number of political parties ‒ particularly the more left-leaning ones ‒ appearing to champion populist causes espoused by radical university students in an attempt to, pardon ...
With 2016 just around the corner, and all of us scrambling to fulfil last year’s resolutions before the fireworks erupt over Galle Face – it wouldn’t hurt to look back on 2015 and review the year’s more important events. In case you too, in typical Sri Lankan fashion, seem to have suffered a bout of memory loss (One whole year ...
Just over two weeks ago, a day before Sri Lanka’s 69th Independence Day, the Right to Information Act kicked in with much fanfare from civil society, who have been fighting for the implementation of the bill since at least the mid-1990s. Sri Lanka is one of the last countries in South Asia to enact an RTI law. More surprising, however, ...
Another year just flew past, and, as a rapidly growing online media organisation, we at Roar have been taking it upon ourselves to report, analyse, and present information relating to various spheres ‒ the good, the bad, and the hideous ‒ in a way that is factual, ethical, and, more importantly, conducive to constructive discourse. We’ve been doing this for ...
