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Home » ColumnsJapan gives rare G7 honour to Sirisena; meeting with Obama likely
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to invite President Maithripala Sirisena as a guest at the G7 summit next month is a singular honour for Sri Lanka and underlines the significance of the relationship between the two nations. So far, the only other guest at the summit, scheduled to take place in Shima in Mie [...]
Economic focus on IMF, political focus on May Day rally
Govt. negotiators in Washington to press for enhanced bailout of US$ 3 billion, but even then more taxes and price hikes Wide criticism of Cabinet obesity with number nearing 100: Rs. 5 million a month to maintain each minister Show of strength on May Day: Maithri’s SLFP meeting in Galle, Joint Opposition formally invites Rajapaksa [...]
Bad moon rising
My dear Maithri, I thought I must write to you to see how you were faring this New Year. After all, unlike in the past, because of ‘Yahapaalanaya’ now we don’t have national television stations broadcasting live from your home when kevum, kokis and kiribath is served at the auspicious time! It was interesting to [...]
Hopes and expectations in the New Year and beyond
The Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations last week was a time of enjoyment when economic difficulties and hardships are forgotten. Economic problems were hardly in the minds of people as they enjoyed the reunion of families, partook of games and exchanged gifts and sweet meats. The economy was on holiday. Different parts of the [...]
What is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander?
There is a view taken by some who are engaged in the process of constitutional reform that a new or radically revised constitutional document for Sri Lanka will be the proverbial panacea for many if not all the country’s ills. This is however dangerously misleading. The question is simple. If provisions of the existing Constitution, [...]
Trying to cleanse the Augean Stables
April, wrote the poet T.S. Eliot in “The Wasteland”, is the cruellest month. Early this month a leading German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung dropped a bombshell by publishing the first reports on what has come to be known as the “Panama Papers”. These reports and subsequent writings in media in the US, UK and elsewhere exposed [...]
With rabies, avoid stray dogs; with malaria, avoid all Indians
No one has the foggiest as to what the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) to be signed by Sri Lanka and India really is for the simple reason that no details as to its exact terms and clauses have so far been revealed. But this has been no impediment for the Government doctors union, [...]