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Hoteliers tired of explaining political situation to foreign guests

Hoteliers tired of explaining political situation to foreign guests

Hoteliers handling foreign guests have been going through some embarrassing moments these days. First, it came with the power cuts, and now with the protests. Some hotels found their own ways to pull out from the difficult situation. Candlelight or beachside events during the power cuts were among the options.   Last week’s sudden 36-hour curfew [...]

Rajapaksa citadel shaken, but Gota stays put and won’t quit

Rajapaksa citadel shaken, but Gota stays put and won’t quit

The growing crisis causes chasm within the ruling family; Premier defies calls for his resignation; Chamal unhappy,         while angry Basil unceremoniously castigates PM’s emissaries carrying the message that he should step down Days before mass resignations of ministers and officials, President had decided to fire Basil, Cabraal and Atygalle President seeks help [...]

The right man for the right job at the right time

The right man for the right job at the right time

My dear Nandey, I am writing to you this week after hearing that you were returning to our little island which was once a Paradise. That is to accept the post of Governor of the big bank, the same bank where you spent almost all of your working life. In this time of doom and [...]

A lot of noise but little headway in House that takes Avurudu break

A lot of noise but little headway in House that takes Avurudu break

Confusing, chaotic, comical, frustrating and even surreal are some of the words that come to mind when describing this week’s extraordinary Parliament sessions that occurred in the backdrop of mass scale protests calling on the President and his Government to step down. This week’s Parliament proceeded with just four Cabinet Ministers after the entire Cabinet [...]

Resolution of national crisis–ball in Government’s court

Resolution of national crisis–ball in Government’s court

When Parliament met last week to discuss the current situation in the country, most people anticipated that a possible way out of the crisis would emerge out of the discussions in the August assembly. While the discussions did not take the form of a problem solving approach which most would have hoped for, by Friday [...]

Hopes and expectations for the New Year

Hopes and expectations for the New Year

On the eve of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, thoughts uppermost in the minds of people is whether the country’s economic situation will enable them to celebrate the festive occasion. Will the shortages of essentials that have plagued the country this year continue? Will we be able to greet each other SubaAluthAvuruddak with any [...]

Sri Lanka’s popular revolt and the culture of shaming

Sri Lanka’s popular revolt and the culture of shaming

Minister of Foreign Affairs GL Peiris’s badly argued brief to Colombo based diplomats this week, describing peoples’ protests in Sri Lanka targeting the Rajapaksa Government as mass based protests against the country’s ‘entire political establishment,’ is a not-so-subtle masterpiece in deception, to put it mildly. False premises and ‘political spin’ Peddled as a convenient but [...]

People retake sovereignty but Govt still in the saddle

People retake sovereignty but Govt still in the saddle

THE LANKAN AVURUDHU SPRING ++ THE LANKAN AVURUDHU Lanka rushes headlong toward constitutional crisis People Power reclaimed the sovereignty they had constitutionally delegated to the President and Parliament as mass protests throughout the country brought the Government to the brink of collapsing like a house of cards. Last Thursday evening’s peaceful siege at the President’s [...]

Things fall apart but the centre clings on

Things fall apart but the centre clings on

Between this writing and its publication anything could happen. Like a government without a cabinet, or a four-member cabinet of sorts with or without a finance minister but still has a highways minister. That, it appears, is enough to run the country or whatever is left to run, now that some others have taken off [...]

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