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Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath flew to Bangladesh on Wednesday (December 31) to attend the state funeral of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, who passed away at the age of 80.

The plane carrying the minister had departed the Bandaranaike International Airport at 9.20am and landed in Dhaka at 1.00pm, which left him only an hour to get to the funeral, which was due to begin at 2.00pm. Despite being given a police escort from the airport, the motorcade carrying Minister Herath could make little headway in the face of huge crowds of mourners that had travelled from all over Bangladesh to pay their respects to the late premier.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath holding talks with Bangladesh's Chief Government Advisor Muhammad Yunus

Minister Herath was not the only foreign dignitary who missed the state funeral after being stuck in traffic. Ministers from India, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan were among those who faced the same situation, as hundreds of thousands of mourners brought traffic in the city to a virtual halt.

In the end, Minister Herath and other foreign dignitaries met members of the Zia family privately and offered their condolences. He also met with Professor Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh. He then met with Tarique Rahman, son of the late leader and chairperson of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He is one of the leading candidates to become PM following the national elections scheduled for February.

Nallur Council’s non-veg ban raises questions

Nallur Pradeshiya Sabha in the Jaffna district found itself involved in a controversy this week when it turned down a business registration for a non-vegetarian restaurant at the entrance to Jaffna town at the Chemmani junction. The reason – the location of three Hindu shrines in the vicinity.

Just months ago, a major restaurant chain with several branches in Colombo was forced to close down its outlet near the famous Nallur Kandaswamy temple for serving non-vegetarian food and had to relocate elsewhere in the city due to a protest led by a group who claimed to represent Hindus in Jaffna.

The latest move went further. After rejecting the business registration, the Pradeshiya Sabha took a decision at the council proceeding not to issue business registrations at the premises even in the future.

One member who was critical of the council move was heard saying to his colleague whether ‘the council is dancing to the tunes of some saffron individuals who claimed to represent Hindus’ in recent times.

The Northern Province Tourism Bureau promotion target Indian tourists

Northern tourism to build on Ramayana trail, but problems loom

With Jaffna being named as one of the best places to visit this year by global travel publication Lonely Planet, the Northern Provincial Tourism Board is in full gear to promote the region for tourists—particularly from India.

Under the banner of ‘Magnetic North’, the provincial tourism board targeted Ramayana trails, promoting the Hanuman bridge, said to have been used by Lord Rama together with Hanuman and his troops to cross the sea, as a must-visit place in the north. The bridge, also known as Ramar Bridge, Ram Setu and Adam’s Bridge, is a chain of natural limestone shoals between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island.

A billboard promoting the Hanuman Bridge in Mannar

Mega billboards printed with AI imagery of Lord Rama and Hanuman were erected at the entrance to Mannar as part of the promotion campaign launched by the regional Tourism Bureau. However, not all of them were happy about this – particularly the Catholic clergy.

In a letter to the Chairman of Mannar Urban Council, Rev. F.R.P. Christunayagam, parish priest of St Sebastian’s Cathedral, Mannar, said, “Those banners carrying images of Hindu gods pose a threat to religious harmony in the region” and urged him to remove them immediately.

But within the Provincial Tourism Bureau, the rumour going around was whether the incident of the outgoing Head of Department—a one-time Chief Secretary of the province stepping down from his office from January 1—had anything to do with it.

Another Handunnetti quotable quote

Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Minister Sunil Handunnetti is known for many quotable quotes.

He added one to his list of interesting phrases while speaking on New Year’s Day to the staff of his ministry. Commenting on the criticism he and his deputy regularly face, he said he didn’t mind it because it meant he was working more. “More work, more problems; less work, fewer problems,” he said. The local idiom equivalent to it might be ‘It is from the hands of the person washing the pots and pans that they also break.’

Select committee to study PC electoral system

A resolution to appoint a Select Committee of Parliament to look into and report on an electoral system, under which the Provincial Council Elections should be held, will be taken up on Tuesday.

This is amidst opposition allegations that the government is finding ways to postpone the holding of the PC polls, which are overdue by several years. While a delay in the delimitation process was earlier blamed for the postponement of the polls, the government is now seeking to appoint a PSC to introduce a new electoral system for PCs.

Sri Lanka among top 30 in global health care index

Despite the many challenges the Sri Lanka health sector has had to face in the past few years, the country has emerged strong in the World Health Care Index, coming 26th among 97 nations surveyed.

The Health Care Index estimates the overall quality of a healthcare system by evaluating key factors such as medical professionals, equipment, staff, doctors, and costs. It provides an assessment of the healthcare infrastructure, services, and resources available in a specific location. The assessment was done by Numbeo, the world’s largest cost of living database and a crowd-sourced global resource for quality of life data.

Govt.’s Buddhist website has no domain name

On New Year’s Day, when state employees took an oath to serve the public efficiently and effectively, the Department of Buddhist Affairs launched its official website under the patronage of Deputy Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Gamagedera Dissanayake, and many wondered what the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or name of the website is to visit it.

When someone puts up a search command on Google, it returns a numeric ID of http://68.66.219.133/, but no name is visible to access the website directly. One social media user noted that the web developer at the department should have worked even more efficiently on this.

Africa stereotyped in controversial Grade Six English module

While the Grade Six English language module in schools has run into controversy, the new textbooks consist of some content which portrays stereotypical views of people living in different parts of the world.

This includes the use of outdated and now-discredited terms such as “Negroid” to describe people of some parts of the African continent. References to a child living on the African continent also only reinforce stereotypes and describe them as living without electricity, living in single-room houses and collecting firewood.

If the education reforms are meant to be progressive, some of the contents of the new modules are regressive and give students a worldview incompatible with today’s realities.