By Philip Fernando ‚ The attempt at political skullduggery that Prime Minister Minister David Cameron exhibited in Colombo using war criminality charge against Sri Lanka, duelling CHOGM host President Mahinda Rajapaksa seemed a brazen plot to garner votes back home. Statesmanship vanished as he denigrated CHOGM with sticky rhetorical verbiage, an egoistic flashing of the crudest […]

By Philip Fernando TNA candidates have pledged allegiance to the unitary state of Sri Lanka when submitting nomination papers to PC elections. Not to have commented on that seemedƒ”š‚ muddled thinking. ƒ”š‚ Worse, it smacked of mendacity-not being forthright with the electorate. The vitality that should have surrounded the aspirations of aƒ”š‚ manifestoƒ”š‚ escaped the framers. ƒ”š‚ Insteadƒ”š‚ TNA’s political rhetoric […]

By Philip Fernando Commissioner Navi Pillai has dug herself into a damning abyss feigning impartiality despite the irremediable conflict of interest she carries. ƒ”š‚ She is in a pickle and could not ƒ”š‚ in good faith proclaim that her ethnicity (South African born and of Tamil descent) does not present a hindrance trying to be impartial carrying […]

By Philip Fernando in Los Angeles Commissioner Navi Pillai’s brief visit to Sri Lanka could only garner a piecemeal assessment of waning recollections of highly biased acquaintances assembled to frame Sri Lanka’s culpability en masse.ƒ”š‚  Pillai thus caricatured the largest humanitarian operation in recent times rescuing trapped civilians running away from Prabhakaran’s human shield. UN […]

By Philip Fernando in Los Angeles Let us hope that the visiting UN Commissioner Navinathan Pillai would not get inundated with the rabble and the self-serving!ƒ”š‚  Dr. Pillai pleaseƒ”š‚ see for yourself that Sri Lanka can assertively claim a commonality of interests prevailing among all communities as a conduit for healthy give-and take after centuries of […]

By Philip Fernando in Los Angeles Deepened fissures in the US Republican Party, particularly among evangelical and economic conservatives portend a vicious do or die electoral battle in New Hampshire next Tuesday, the very first Primary election meant to pick a nominee to face President Obama.ƒ”š‚  The leading contender Mitt Romney would without doubt face […]

By Philip Fernando in Los Angeles Devolution in its most acclaimed version provided everyone the capacity to pursue life, liberty and happiness within meaningful levels. The impression I took away from Jaffna recently was that the average man and woman seemed better equipped for that task after an epoch of lethal militarism that traumatised many. […]

By Philip Fernando Navi Pillai bears a visceral aversion to truth striving to take up the mantle of the vanquished terrorist bunker dwellers whose residuary odds and ends want her to be the tigress of the dark ghetto they occupied for decades. Geneva has become her fortress where a scorched-earth policy against Sri Lanka was […]

By Philip Fernando Transparency in a democracy invokes the people’s right to see and know how public business gets transacted in their name. None dare dent that sacrosanct public mould even though the inclination to dismiss it as a nagging irritant surfaces with recurring frequency in many parts of the world.ƒ”š‚  That said, transparency faces […]

By Philip Fernando Republican voters are holding primary elections** in 50 states to pick a nominee to challenge President Obama. The rallying cry heard everywhere is “foil the Obama sequel.”ƒ”š‚ Perhaps, this longest of any campaigns found elsewhere on planet earth, has produced a legion of well-paid strategists working diligently to send the incumbent president […]

By Philip Fernando Kalasuri Arisen Ahubudu, 91, passed away after an illustrious career. His versatility as a skilled writer, orator, scholar, playwright, teacher, linguist, author and poet in Sri Lanka was accepted by all. He hailed from Malalaga, Koggala”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the birth place of another scholar late Martin Wickramasinghe. He was a teacher from Nittambuwa Training College […]

By Philip Fernando ƒ”š‚ BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China are the cynosure of the world. The four countries are beginning to be dominant economies. They would equal or surpass USA, Germany, Japan and France as a bloc within the next two decades. The economist who predicted that in 2001 was Jim O’Neill, chief economist for […]

By Philip Fernando AIADMK leader Jayalalitha is acting like Prabhakaran’s avatar beating the war drums in Tamil Nadu after becoming Chief Minister. The mass hysteria she feigns is nothing but a testament to her conflicting interests with New Delhi. So her rhetorical onslaught seemed directed at Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in order to drown Tamil […]

By Philip Fernando William Blake is seemingly on our side. To many Bin Laden getting ripped off in Abbottabad may have triggered it. Yet others would always see Assistant Secretary of State Blake as the universal symbol of anti-Western bluster indicating sympathy to the Tiger cause even after Prabhakaran got crushed under the deadweight of […]

Philip Fernando Death of Osama bin Laden set off theorists venting their versions of the afterlife awaiting the dead. Michael Roberts declared in his Thuppahis Blog on May 2nd thus: “This victory for Obama (hunting down Osama) is also a victory for Osama. Having trod the path of mujahid in the path to Allah, he […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ Latest stirring forecast of Sri Lanka’s economic upsurge signified an unprecedented decline in the country’s poverty levels. The economic growth rate predicted for 2011 and 2012 was 8 percent: the most positive prognosis of growth showing a drop in poverty from 15.7 percent in 2009 […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer ƒ”š‚ Having assembled a biased threesome to look into the accountability issues during the last days of the terrorist-led slaughter of innocent civilians”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚Sinhala and Tamil, and Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon and his panel now talk of reprisals against a sovereign state. The panel recommendations are nothing but the […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ Home gardens concept had become quite trendy all over the world. Sri Lanka has launched a home garden project to make consumers become growers. Land as a precious resource seemed most accommodative. An ambitious target of a million home gardens had been set. It was […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Seri Lanka ƒ”š‚ As the sea violently ripped away, Japan was amidst a tragedy of unfathomable proportions. Its extraordinary toll-from -earthquake, tsunami and nuclear hazards brought immediate response worldwide. The Japanese people are heroically shrugging off the bad omens and see their nation in a more positive light”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚desperation […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ UNP leadership ratcheted up the rhetoric and predicted food riots glibly anticipating popping eyeballs. They went pell-mell for the shallow and the cynical to catch-up with an endemic losing streak. They could not get into the winning column again. The long retreat from power”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚more a […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka Do men and women look at the internet with different eyes? Is the Internet inherently biased? Web’s promise of broad-based access looked far-flung judging by inequalities that had sprung up? Most social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Jezebel seemed popular with women while Wikipedia […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Obseerver Sri Lanka Naturalists and centuries of species discoveries have helped humanity ward off pestilence and disease. Their success in finding cures provided the breather we enjoy now from plagues of yesteryear. Roughly half our medicines came directly from the natural world, or were manufactured synthetically due to […]

By Philip Fernando, Former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer Sri Lanka Nurses have become indispensable in creating a ‘culture of care.’ With spiralling costs, heavy reliance on technology adding to overheads and the shortage of doctors, nurses are a vital link in physician-led healthcare. Nurses are going beyond their usual two-year associate and four-year baccalaureate programs […]

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor, Sunday Observer ƒ”š‚ IBM’s giant-sized robot “Watson”ƒ”š‚-named after its founder, faced two champions of the TV general knowledge-quiz “Jeopardy”ƒ”š‚ and clobbered them at a 3-day event held in New York. However, when asked the tricky question under the category American cities, it flunked. The question was “Its largest airport is […]

By Philip Fernando, Former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ The most unforgettable headline from Egypt dazzled brightly: “ƒ”¹…”Democratic path ushered in sans violence.’ The dogma of invasions, wars or massacre of people as a pre-condition for inducting democracy fell by the wayside. The youth of Cairo, armed with nothing but Facebook and the power […]

By Philip Fernando, Former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka The latest scientific research had found a cause and effect link between meditation and its enhanced benefit to the structure of the brain. Medication definitely augmented brain’s thinking ability and processing of emotions. ƒ”š‚ Researchers at Harvard, Yale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) compared brain […]

By Philip Fernando, Former Deputy Editor, Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ On Independence Day we recap the restoration of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty usurped by colonial powers. Our thoughts are on re-affirming the commitment to strengthen national sovereignty. That assertion should be premised on the question what should we be realistically afraid of? Identifying those determined to […]

By Philip Fernando, Former Deputy Editor, Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ New Yorkers feel they have the most detectable of accents while also being host to innumerable dialects. They are peeved that “many don’t hear what we say, because they are intrigued by the accent.” The thick accent got parodied in a song thus: “Who is […]

By Philip Fernando, Former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ Diplomatic practices of the West got devalued almost irreparably as a quarter-million diplomatic cables dug up by WikiLeaks exposed their villainous nature. Conscientious diplomacy gave way to unadulterated voyeurism, said one analyst. The leaks depicted many diplomats as Machiavellian creatures seeking spurious information that undermined […]

By Philip Fernando, Former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka ƒ”š‚ A new genre of electric cars slicker and emissions-free have arrived in thousands as the two largest manufacturers USA and China as well as many others blaze the trail of greener technology. ‘A highly charged’ motoring decade is on us, most car enthusiasts predict. The […]