DR. DAYA HEWAPATHIRANE  Buddhism has been the basis or foundation of Sri Lanka’s culture for over 2200 years. The deeper aspects of the country’s culture are reflective of Buddhist ideology, principles, ethics, values, morality, traditions, customs, thoughts, temperament, attitudes and way of life. Whatever new elements that may have been absorbed into our culture at […]

Nalin de Silva      I refer to the Commonwealth Games that have commenced in Glasgow, Scotland without the participation of the Chairman of the Organisation of the heads of the Commonwealth governments, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. The pundits would remind me that there is no country called England and Glasgow is in Scotland and not in […]

By Dr Janaka Goonetilleke   The coming of Buddhism to the West may well prove to be the Most important event of the Twentieth century.” – Arnold Toynbee –  During the Meigi Period Japan had opened itself to the external world and was in a dilemma as to whether they would like to join the […]

Shenali D Waduge For thirty one years there has been little or no mention and complete silence in acknowledging the fact that scores of Sinhalese braved death to protect and give safe haven to their Tamil neighbors. This all important piece of information has been purposely left out of every commemoration event held as Black […]

Shenali D Waduge The Sinhale Nation during the pre-colonial rule was animal friendly. People lost their rank and status and were treated as outcastes if they harmed an animal. Over 180 Sinhala Buddhist kings ruled following the tenets of Buddhism. Foreign invasion and colonial occupation dethroned a value system based on Buddhist principles that prevailed […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty It is clear from the text of the UNHRC Resolution A/HRC/25/L.1/Rev.1 of March 26, 2014 cited below that the expanded mandate of the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons would make any investigation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) redundant. Paragraph 2 of the […]

Media release The Immigration Advisers Authority A 56 year old woman was yesterday convicted and fined $10,000 in the Auckland District Court for providing immigration advice in 2011, without being licensed. In March 2014 the woman, who has interim name suppression pending appeal, was found guilty on two charges of providing immigration advice without a […]

මාධ්‍ය අංශය තාක්ෂණ හා පර්යේෂණ අමාත්‍යාංශය •    අවබෝධයකින් තොරවDCD පිළිබඳව මාධ්‍යයට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරන්න එපා. •    ඕනෑම පරීක්ෂණයක් ජාත්‍යන්තර ප්‍රමිතියට සිදු කරන්නට ITI සූදානම් විද්‍යාත්මක පර්යේෂණ ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් සෑම ක්ෂේත්‍රයක පැන නගින ගැටළුවලදී ඒ සම්බන්ධව අවබෝධයකින් තොරව මෙන්ම විද්‍යාත්මක විමර්ශනයකිත් තොරව මාධ්‍යයට යම් යම් ප්‍රකාශ නිකුත් නොකළ යුතු බවත් එමඟින් මහජනතාව නොමඟ යැවීමට කටයුතු නොකළ […]

By A. Abdul Aziz.  The idea of the sanctity of human life is deeply embedded in the Holy Qur’an. It would not be an exaggeration to argue that the true spirit of Holy Qur’an is social peace and justice.  The establishment of peace and maintenance of security must be the constant objective of all Muslims […]

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane Sufism or the Sufi Muslim Ideology Traditionally, Sufism or the Sufi Muslim ideology had been the predominant Islamic spiritual tradition observed throughout Southern Asia, including Sri Lanka. Sufism is   considered to be the mystical, ascetic branch of Islam which emphasizes personal experience with Allah. Sufis can be members of either the Sunni […]

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane KING WIMALADHARMASURIYA -1:  saved his motherland from the shackles of foreign invasion and his nation from extinction, besides rescuing Buddhism – that forms the foundation of the national culture  of this great nation, from an untimely end.  WIMALADHARMASURIYA – I,   ALIAS KONAPPU BANDARA (1591 CE– 1604 CE) Konappu Bandara was crowned as […]

Precolonial and Postcolonial Transfers from South Asia to Science and Technology”   Public Lecture by Dr. Susantha Goonatilake   (author among others of Toward a Global Science: Mining Civilizational Knowledge) Sponsored jointly by The Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka     on Monday 28th July 2014 […]

By Nalin de Silva Courtesy Island Most of the cultures in the world at present are associated with religions though it is not necessary that a culture should be associated with a religion. Of course, it depends on the definition of religion and one could define religion as a system that includes rituals, and could […]

Shenali D Waduge Ananthi Sasitharan TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council was in for a surprise when she arrived at the Mullaitivu Magistrates courts on 21st July 2014 for the continuation of the case filed by her. She never expected hundreds of Tamils to brave the scorching heat to arrive demanding to know what […]

Daya Reporting from Toronto, Canada The following is a success story in Bangladesh in water purification, which may have a promising application in Sri Lanka. The filter is made from readily available local materials, the apparatus is affordable, and the cost free installation, demand a serious study of the adaptability and suitability to fit the […]

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම මිනිස් හට සොඳුරු ගුණ සහ නුගුණ  ඇත     නිදොස් කෙනෙකු මෙදියතැ උපදනේ   නැත     වෙසෙස් සිනිඳු මුවරද බර      සහස්පත     කොරොස් නළින් යුතුවෙයි කටු පෙළිණි යුත         කුරිරු ගොර සපුන්ගේ දළ’ගෙහි    විසය     මදුරු මැසි කැලන්ගේ තුඩ’ගෙහි    විසය     රුදුරු නුහුසුවන්ගේ වල’ගෙහි       විසය     නපුරු දුදනන් ගෙ සිය’ලඟෙහි මැ    විසය         […]

Shenali D Waduge The topic was ‘India under Modi: Relevance for the Region and the World’, organized by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies and held at the BMICH moderated by former foreign secretary HMGS Palihakkara. Introducing the panelists was Mr. Sunimal Fernando, Advisor to H.E. the President of Sri Lanka and Chairman/Board of Studies […]

Dr Kamal Wickremasinghe  Courtesy The Daily News The US embassy in Colombo has been uncharacteristically quiet the last week, especially for a foreign mission preoccupied with issuing media statements, press releases and tweets on intensely domestic Sri Lankan issues – who can forget outright falsehoods like the tweet of January 9, 2014 that declared St […]

By A. Abdul Aziz.  (Given below is an excerpt of one of the recent Friday Sermons of Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, delivered on 18th July, 2014, at ‘BaithulFuthuh’, London, U.K. gave a discourse on the Merciful and Forgiving God )  Ahmadiyya Khalifa started the sermon […]

S. Akurugoda According to a news paper report the opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe has told Organisation for Good Governance, another NGO, that it was high time for all political parties and other civil society organisations to get together from grassroots level to overthrow the government through a well- organised struggle since the lawlessness in this […]

by Senaka Weeraratna A Panel Discussion under the title ‘India under Modi: Relevance for the Region and the World’ scheduled to be held on July 21, 2014 at the BMICH, Colombo and addressed by five prominent Indians led by Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Chairman, BJP Committee on Strategic Action, is intended to be a forum for […]

Shenali D Waduge  Mega millions has been disbursed to the bank accounts of organizations set up to deliver ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ to ‘undemocratic’ nations. These NGOs set up have an explicit object and it has nothing to do with human rights to democracy and everything to do with preparing the groundwork for agendas of […]

 Shenali D Waduge The Middle East is home to many faiths beside Islam. Yet strict laws govern how people behave. From public displays of holding hands to other forms of behavior are clearly identified as being unacceptable and taboo. In many of these Islamic countries a strict dress code prevails. Whatever laws declared have to […]

by:DENNIS SHANAHAN and Jared Owens- Courtesy The Australian July 12, 2014   Angus Campbell praised ‘the policy settings of both the current and former governments’ for stemming the flow of boats. Source: News Corp Australia   SCOTT Morrison has lashed out at increasingly shrill’’ critics of Sri Lanka, accusing asylum-seeker advocates of using boatpeople to pursue […]

Courtesy RT Image courtesy of the Russian Defense Ministry The Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. Kiev must explain why the military jet was tracking the passenger airplane, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Follow Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine […]

මාධ්‍ය අංශය තාක්ෂණ හා පර්යේෂණ අමාත්‍යාංශය •    මාධ්‍ය හලාල්කරණය නවතනු •    ජිහාඩ් ගොබෙල්ස්වාදයෙන් රට රැක නොගතහොත් අනාගතයේ සෑම ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයෙකුටම ලේ වලින් වන්දි ගෙවන්න සිදුවෙයි •    බෞද්ධ භික්ෂුවගේ කැපවීම මත මේ රටේ මුස්ලිම් කාන්තාවට නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය හා නිදහස් ඡන්ද අයිතිය හිමිවූ බව දැන් අමතක      වෙලා මෙරට බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේ අති විශාල ජයග්‍රහණ ගණනාවක් මේ රටට […]

Gamini Sarath Godakanda Secretary Defence and Urban Development Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared open the newly constructed pilgrims Rest cost over Rs. Seven Million, at the Girihandu Seya Temple premises in Thiriyaya at the invitation of the Senior Presidential Advisor, Mr. Milinda Moragoda. The “Urumayaka Ulpatha” Foundation coordinated the entire process in collaboration with the Ministry […]

Of drug-lords, refugees, asylum and an unyielding UNHCR   BY ZAHRAH IMTIAZ Courtesy Ceylontoday A woman has been sitting at the security entrance to the front office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for the past 24 hours, teary eyed, but determined. By her side, a man consoles her. The security officers at the […]

ALI SUKHANVER One of my favourite questions I ask my people is, Are you against the Aman Ki Asha?” Every time, I get the same answer wrapped up in astonishing bewilderment, Who says we are against the Aman Ki Asha? But favouring Aman Ki Asha does not mean selling our ego, self-respect and our basic […]

Top Spin By Suni July 21st 2014 As ludicrous and contentious as it sounds, there is a whole lot of rigmarolling going on in the aftermath of the Galle Test Match as the Proteas are patting themselves om their backs and crowing about a win over Sri Lanka whan in reality they cheated visibly through […]