‘As for local fishermen, for environmental sustainability it would be vastly better for Indian Ocean fish stocks if there were many fewer of them.’ – what a blase answer from someone who clearly has no idea of the ground realities in this country. I suppose they can all become waiters at the multitude of hotels that will come up in the port city.

Regarding the MR harbour, if properly managed it could provide a huge boost to Sri Lanka’s economy. As container ships get bigger and bigger, fewer and fewer ports are able to handle them. As this traffic increases between the Far East, particularly China, and Europe, it would be a major advantage for Sri Lanka to be one of the few, perhaps only, port in South Asia able handle these megaships, and to tranship the containers.

Finally, where do you think the money is going to come from to pay for the massive rebuilding and infrastructure development that the country is and must undertake if it is to make up for 30 years of lost time. Sri Lanka must—must—attract substantial foreign investment, one way or the other. Profiteering? That’s what ALL companies do. It’s why they exist.

As for local fishermen, for environmental sustainability it would be vastly better for Indian Ocean fish stocks if there were many fewer of them.

UNP’ers are starting to sound like JVP cadres day by day. If you think you can unseat the government using [edited out] leftist arguments and then convert back to liberal economic principles under a Wickramasinghe government you are so mistaken.

More good points. But I’m sure you’re aware of the arguments raging about whether the economies of developing countries should bear the brunt of containing or reversing the damage done to the global environment by largely western industrial development.

Meanwhile, there is a rapidly growing consensus that one of the biggest mistakes Sri Lanka made was eschewing English as an official language at independence, and the adverse impact that has had on life and employment opportunities for Sri Lanka’s young people. What are your thoughts on that?

Specific examples are the professions—legal, medical, engineering, academic, etc—where essential textbooks and professional publications are rarely translated into Sinhalese, and if and when they are, are years out of date.

Sure. I think that the best way forward is to support the agricultural industry and small and mid level entrepreneurship. To ensure that more and more educated youth would have incentive to go back to the rural areas. To change agriculture from a job that drives the poor man to commit suicide to one that the youth would find an appealing employment option. I don’t believe that selling our state lands to Dole Bananas is the answer to this either. Incorporating best practices of traditional farming with innovative technology that would help the small scale farmers and entrepreneurs would be the way to go.
Super highways and power plants maybe necessary even to support small small and medium scale industry, agricultural or otherwise. However, when constructing this kind of infrastructure we must employ the option that causes least possible harm to the environment, natural and social.
I could be more specific, but that would contradict the point my article was trying to make. Development should not be about what one or two individuals think it should be.I cannot profess to be omniscient about the development needs of all people. There needs to be open dialogue, the narratives of the vulnerable communities need to be heard and then only a truly participatory and therefore representative development agenda can be formulated. This aspect is sadly missing in Sri Lanka. Parliament and the provincial governing structures would have served that purpose to a certain extent, but in Sri Lanka we know how that the system rarely functions, if at all.

My worry is that danger of ominous threat to the nature not seen by those who damaging the environment in terms of life style that need to be fixed into their requirements , therefore the most of things has been exposed lately not suitable to the balance of nature . as far as I concern to many of the developments that we need to know how important the nature to our habitat as well as the developments .
you also must know about our ordinary people who have no idea of what could happen tomorrow ,most of them are living like their heads are hit by a stick and others are just think of making money and be rich being leaned to any criminal or doing any dirty thing .this is the truth every where you can find . They do not heed of future , which is shame .
.however, I should say this as well that I have no objection for the developments which is necessary ,it has to be done by following the necessary environmental rules and regulations which is important to sustainable development in the country . That is my point
But I have a doubt of how the things can be worked in a place like Sri Lanka and in a such scenario we should grateful to your commitment about exposing the possible environmental threats to our land and sea by those proposed city development projects .
And many people only dream about future employments by those project ,and they are ignored and give blind eye to the environment and health issues .
I may not hesitate to point out possible pollutions might happen in the future by those project if the authorities did not take the appropriate attention to safe environmental methods .therefore ,
There are number of reasons why the pollution is bad for our environment .and there we identify serious break through as follows ….water pollution ,air pollution , noise pollution , soil pollution , light pollution , pollution from oil spills . These pollutions have been commonly found in major cities in the world that consistently harm to the environment which mean for us . So , those challenges are remained unanswered for many countries and the relevant authorities are struggling to tackle them as many employments opportunities are readily available in the big cities , therefore the cities getting bigger and bigger has become inevitable . And environmentally unfriendly .
. .
If you just think of water pollution alone which is key to number of environmental problems . The declining of fresh water resources mean that there isn’t enough safe drinking water , the humans and animals can drink water filled with various chemicals and others which can experience of positioning and deaths . Water pollution also easily lead to creation of so called ” dead Zones ” which animal and plants cannot survive due to the severe shortage of OXYGEN .
So, it is very important to think what kind of potential developments are suitable to us in long run. AND those needs to be concluded after very carefully analysed the economical benefits and the safe heaven of environment .unless we are not oppose to the developments or envious to others life stand

A cheap shot. You would presumably prefer that someone not sure of the gender, or making an unintentional mistake, should use ‘she’?

All good points. But when you speak of reconciliation you might want want to consider the ongoing efforts by well-funded Tamil diaspora chances and fantasists to destabilise the government, with the help of other outside forces.

Meanwhile, I would genuinely like to hear your views on the best way forward, and I mean specific, realistic, concrete suggestions and not vague hand-waving about a ‘global consciousness’ and ‘sustainable development goals’.