Senaka Weeraratna The Great Fire of Lisbon of 1755 shattered the myth of a loving God and set Europe on the path to modern Atheism. Voltaire’s book Candide espoused public disillusionment with ‘God’  and it led to later-day books like ‘ God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. At the end of the Second World War in 1945 with […]

Courtesy Adaderana President Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed the establishment of an International University on Climate Change in Sri Lanka in order to enable students from any country in the world to engage in educational activities. He made this remark during his meeting with the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Masatsugu Asakawa at the […]

Courtesy Adaderana Headline inflation of Sri Lanka, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index has increased to 69.8% in September 2022 from 64.3% in August 2022. According to the Department of Census and Statistics, this increase in Y-o-Y inflation was driven by the monthly increases of both Food and […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Red Cross Society of China has decided to provide more food packs to the neediest families living in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The donation worth USD 150,000 is made through the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, the Embassy of China in Colombo said in a statement. In May & July, […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga DSc When goons attacked Aragalaya” at GFG one woman activist, an actress I think, shouted at her comrades Polu bima damanda. Passata yanda, bithiyata hettu wenakan yanda” (Drop your sticks. Retreat back up to the wall). That depicts the peacefull face of the Aragalaya”. On another day when a crowd surrounded […]

Sugath Kulatunga Sri Lanka tends to decline the advice of local professionals but accept unreservedly opinions and recommendations of particularly organizations like the World Bank and IMF. But there are instances when even credible and convincing opinions from them have been ignored by our obdurate policy makers. The IBRD report in 1951 had made a […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  Weeramunda made the perceptive observation that JVP has made use of the laxities and weaknesses of the university system   to get a foothold in the university.  JVP’s methods were founded on the principle of making the most out of laxities and weaknesses of the university system, he said.  The weaknesses of the university […]

Malinda Seneviratne One of the most thorny problems for self-styled liberals in Sri Lanka is that they use the liberal label as though it’s some kind of impenetrable shield, hiding behind which they take on specific enemies in accordance with preferred outcomes. Scratch them and you find some grotesque creatures. You would find colonial remnants, […]

Sasanka De Silva Pannipitiya Every time a serious crime is reported in the country, the subsequent revelation that there is a politician or someone close to him or her is involved is a common thing to hear these days. Interestingly, it is only one political party that participates in such incidents, which is worth noting. […]

Malinda Seneviratne Sri Lanka is a resilient nation. That’s almost a given. A constant. All talk of peace, human rights, democracy, good governance, reparations  and other such goodies emanating from Washington, London and other empiric capitals are disingenuous and laughable. Constant. Meddling, self-righteous and downright obnoxious North American and European diplomats: well, almost par for […]

උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම කොවිඩ් වසංගතය මෙන් ම යුක්‍රේන යුද්ධය හේතුවෙන් නිර්මාණය කරන ලද ගෝලීය ආර්ථික අස්ථාවරත්වයේ අහිතකර ප්‍රතිවිපාක වන ආහාර, ඉන්ධන සහ පොහොර මිල අධික ලෙස ඉහළ නැගීම දරාගත නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් නිර්මාණය කළ බව ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ පෙන්වා දෙයි. ගෝලීය දේශපාලන ප්‍රවණතා එම ආර්ථික අර්බුදය තවදුරටත් උග්‍ර කර ඇති බව ද ජනාධිපතිවරයා පැවසීය. ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 29 (newsin.asia): Addressing the 55th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank’s Board of Governors in the Philippines on Thursday, the Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that apart from domestic factors, geopolitical developments have also contributed to the economic crisis being faced by Sri Lanka.   Wickremesinghe noted that as this […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror ● Govt. to brief Supreme Court over Highsecurity Zones ● Investigations have revealed that some groups had aimed to take over Parliament to prevent MPS from voting for a new President The police have launched extensive investigations over the involvement of some politicians who had encouraged some ‘protester’ groups to overthrow […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s government appears increasingly upbeat about its chances of receiving International Monetary Fund (IMF) board approval for a USD 2.9 billion bailout by December, but the multilateral lender has cautioned that the time frame remains uncertain, and much depends on discussions with the heavily indebted country’s creditors. Peter Breuer, senior mission chief […]

Courtesy Adaderana A Gazette Extraordinary has been published specifying the regulations pertaining to the Colombo Port City Economic Commission. The regulations, issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilization & National Policies, are made under Section 71(1) read with Section 27(1), 41(3)(f), 41)9) of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission […]

Courtesy Adaderana Senior BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy on Thursday met former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Colombo, becoming the first foreign visitor to call on the ousted Sri Lankan president, following his return to Sri Lanka after leaving the country amidst unprecedented protests against his government. Swamy, a close friend of the Rajapaksa family who […]

Courtesy Adaderana apan is prepared to do its part” over Sri Lanka’s debt issue, but other creditors, such as China and India, should also be involved in efforts to resolve it, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said Thursday. Suzuki made the remarks after meeting with Ranil Wickremesinghe, president of Sri Lanka, which has reached a preliminary […]

Courtesy Adaderana Addressing the 55th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors in the Philippines, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said amidst major economic stress, Sri Lanka is undertaking an unprecedented fiscal effort as part of the government’s commitment to restoring the country’s debt sustainability.  Therefore, he expressed hope and expectation that Sri Lanka’s creditors, and […]

By Sena Thoradeniya 1. CALL FOR SYSTEM CHANGE When President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa came into power calling for a System Change” we looked at him positively, that he was promising something his predecessors had failed to deliver. In his pre-Corvid encounters with the villagers in remote areas (Gama Samaga Pilisandarak”) he expressed powerfully in front of […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP has cleverly used the disorientation felt by the rural, low income, district quota student when he comes into a university, to gain power in the university. These district quota undergrads   have many problems. They have difficulty in understanding certain technical modules, and are hampered by a lack of English. Their z-scores are […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island ” Norway will never forget how LTTE influenced the worst ever act of terrorism on its soil. Far right Norwegian Andres Breivik, 32, responsible for the July 22, 2011 massacre of 77 persons, mostly teenagers in two successive attacks in Norway was inspired by the LTTE. A few hours before, […]

Kithsiri Senadeera    I have the highest regard for our Sri Lanka’s cricket captain Dasun Shanaka  not only because he lead a young team to win the T20 Asia  Cup under extremely difficult conditions, but the statement he made at the post-match press conference after winning the Asia Cup. Dasun Shanaka said “Not only Cricket, […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Colombo, September 28: Reporting on the meeting between the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, last Friday on the sidelines of the 71st UN General Assembly session in New York, the Chinese embassy in Colombo said that the two sides had agreed to speed up the negotiation […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 28 (Counterpoint):  Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Tokyo on Tuesday, that Sri Lanka would give priority to reviving the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) of 2018. The SLSFTA, which was signed when Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister, became operational on May […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said he is hopeful that French investors would enter into new areas of investment such as fishery, agriculture, information technology (IT), renewable energy, electronics and tourism sectors. He said this at a function to bid farewell to the outgoing French Ambassador Eric Lavertu at the Prime Minister’s […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror In parallel with the International Day for Universal Access to Information which falls today, a new unit Counter Disinformation Unit” was launched by the President Media division. This program was initiated under the guidance of President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake at the President’s Office in Colombo. With the aim of countering disinformation […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court today issued a warrant for the arrest of Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka thera of Alan Mathiniyaramaya Temple in Polhengoda for not appearing in Court over a private plaint filed against him for allegedly using loudspeakers in a manner of causing nuisance. When case came up before Colombo Additional […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror August merchandise exports income tops US$ 1.2bn Apparel & textile exports up 15% to US$ 565mn Jan-Aug. cumulative exports up 12% to US$ 8.85bn Cumulative apparel & textile up 19% to US$ 4.08bn Sri Lanka recorded its highest merchandise export income so far for this year in the month of August […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Although Sri Lanka tourism had to face some unprecedented challenges over the past couple of years, the industry is now back on track for recovery, said the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).  Giving a positive message on World Tourism Day, the state agency highlighted that over the past couple of months, […]

Courtesy Adaderana The inaugural meeting of the National Council is scheduled to be held tomorrow (Sep. 29) under the patronage of the Speaker of Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. The meeting will commence at 10.30 a.m. in parliament. On Sep. 23, the Speaker announced to the parliament the list of Members of Parliament who have been […]