A Punchi Problem
Dr. Rohan Edirisinghe, in a recent paper he compiled quoted G.K. Chesterton in ‘The Point of a Pin’ – it isn’t that they don’t see the solution, it’s that they can’t see…
Month: March 2008
The Government must uphold the Rule of Law
The Rupavahini workers are being assaulted by goons. The workers allege that it is all the work of a Minister who stormed into their office a few weeks ago and intimidated their…
Royal Thomian revisited
Read for the full article. This year, Royal batting proved as virile as the Queen Mother. The scoreboard at the time of writing: 09.45am – Toss won by S.Thomas’ College and STC…
Travels in a Militarised Society – 7 – Cultural Iconography: Odel Present and Past
I enter Odel from the car park side with echoes of the student protest and the rubber bullets in my ears. I wet a hankie with my water bottle and wipe the…
Travels in a Militarised Society 6 – Strolling along Ward Place, Colombo
It is 10th December 2007, Human Rights Day. I am taking a stroll along Ward Place from Boralla to Lipton Circus. To either side of me are new buildings that have been…
PRIVATISATION & LOYALTY IN THE WAR ON TERROR
A recent post by Indi on the correctness of allowing people with foreign interests to hold high military office got me thinking about the whole private military contract business. Coincidentally, I had…
Travels in a Militarised Society – 5
Again Boralla I do not remember how many times I crossed the Boralla Junction in my life but I do know that this relatively small area of less than two square kilometres…
The Island newspaper offers a novel insight into corruption in Sri Lanka
Mainstream journalism in Sri Lanka is not without its lighter side. The headline of newspaper today offers a refreshingly original take on corruption in Sri Lanka. Sadly, the same story on their…
THE CONTINUING VIOLATION OF THE SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENT: YET MORE UNCONVINCING EXCUSES
Rohan Edrisinha It is pertinent at this moment to examine why even now the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is not implemented. The media has reported that President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Opposition…
Public Perceptions: National Security and/or Human Rights
Bhavani Fonseka and Pradeep Peiris Introduction The global war against terrorism has lead to a situation where the use of force, pre-emptive strikes, display of military power are justified in the name…