Sri Lanka gets a lot of love for its golden beaches, its misty mountains and its elephants and leopards – but if you’re a traveller, local or foreign, this country has so much more to offer in terms adventure, splendour and sheer eye candy that you would be hard pressed to find in any run-of-the-mill travel brochure. Ampitiya Seminary An ...
Ever considered the possibility of getting your laundry done from the luxury of your office? How about paying all your bills without leaving your house? (You lazy person, you) Now there’s a way to get all that done, and then some, without (figuratively) hitting the pause button on that Netflix show you’re streaming. Enter FreeMyTime, the new kid on the ...
The Attorney General’s Department on Tuesday (13) informed Supreme Court that the controversial Sampur Coal Power Plant, which was to be funded by India, will not be constructed. The proposed power plant would have created a massive financial setback for the government of Sri Lanka in addition to the heavy environmental impact, if the project had continued. Thus, on May ...
Trincomalee is a slice of paradise; it is one of the finest examples of a natural harbour and is surrounded by the clear waters of the bay and dense, green jungle lands. Trincomalee is also home to a diverse community of Tamils, Sinhalese, and Muslims, who had settled here many centuries ago. Fast forward to today: Trincomalee is a growing ...
The end of 2016 blew in with the northeast monsoon and a much-awaited hiatus from the oppressive heat that hung over the island for much of the year. Unfortunately, with the rain came the mosquitoes. This was followed promptly by the customary seasonal outbreaks of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever all over the country. So far, 1,311 cases of ...
In September last year, we discussed the possible means of escape from the looming debt trap or balance of payment crisis that Sri Lanka was on the brink of. We owed the world (and still do) a colossal Rs. 9.5 trillion in domestic and foreign debt, and the threat of a possible default still looms large. The Government’s attempts to ...
Yes, you read that right. Often disregarded or dismissed as the ever present mongoose, otters have been an important part of Sri Lanka’s ecosystem for many decades. However, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List otters were categorised as “Near Threatened” since the year 2004. Environmentalist, ecologist, and attorney-at-law, Jagath Gunawardena, told Roar that while ...
The new, ostentatious Customs office on Main Street is hard to miss. Walking in, you will immediately be arrested by the sight of not-so-ordinary looking sculptures. Yes, there is a man in a toga with a laurel of leaves but no, he is not Caesar and he is most definitely in Sri Lanka, interacting with a Sri Lankan customs official ...
Yesterday was a big day for Lankan Instgrammers. The World Wide InstaMeet (WWIM12) saw a gathering of a large crowd of excited IGers coming together to connect, explore, and celebrate their creativity. Sunday’s InstaMeet featured something new as far as Instameets go. After meeting up at the Castle Hotel in Slave Island, InstaMeet participants shared goodies, chatted for a while ...
For a completely non-profit venture, ‘Book Swap Colombo’ has been doing surprisingly well. Having lasted a year (and growing stronger each month) the event has survived purely on Colombo’s love for books. Confused? Let us explain. How it all began… A librarian and writer, Chandrika Gadiewasam, was struck with an idea early last year. She wanted to make books more ...
In June 2016, the Road Passenger Transport Authority (RPTA) of the Western Province introduced a new regulation decreeing that all three-wheelers operating passenger transport services in the Western Province must use meters. In yet another bid to standardise passenger transport for Sri Lanka’s most frequently used modes of transportation, Roar learns that a new licence to all three-wheel drivers is ...
The relatively short yet colourful history of the more mainstream of Sri Lanka’s political parties and their respective leaders and the contributions each has made to the shaping of our tiny island nation as it stands today make for some fascinating ‒ and often revealing ‒ reading. This is an attempt to cherry-pick some of the more interesting and thought-provoking ...
For Nivendra Uduman, writing letters was an incidental thing. While he was in India during ’07 studying for his Bachelor’s in Phychology, he conveyed his homesickness through pen and paper, as he was marginally averse to gadgets and technological advancements. A closet poet and an ardent reader, he took to hand written letters the way a fish takes to water. Nivendra ...
About a year ago, we published a list of five must-follow Sri Lankan Instagram accounts. Seeing as how there has been a dramatic increase in high-quality #lka accounts since then, with quite a few of them going on to be featured in IRL exhibitions and galleries, we feel it’s time for an update. Here goes (in no particular order). Harindi ...
The Government of Sri Lanka, riddled as it is with a crippling debt and balance-of-payment crisis, has in desperation decided to sell 80% of the USD 1.5 billion Hambantota deep-sea port to a state-owned Chinese company. The deal is expected to be finalised in just five months, earning the country USD 1.1 billion. The idea is to ease some of ...
If there’s one thing that continues to haunt all of Sri Lanka more than anything else since the end of the war, it’s the question of reconciliation. The issue has been, for years, debated upon – and sometimes even addressed – on both local ground as well as foreign. Yet, nearly all government efforts at promoting post-war justice and reconciliation ...
