“As an abstract political force, poverty is very useful; it scares and disciplines the working classes, keeps wages down…” Parenti, 1999 Visible urban poverty disrupts the gilded cityscape. It shatters the sanctity…
South China Morning Post The available foreign reserves of the country can be used to either repay foreign creditors or to finance imports of essential goods and services required by its citizens….
Sri Lanka’s return to terror came on April 21, 2019 with the bombing of three hotels and three churches that killed 267 people and injured about 500. The trial of 25 men…
Every economy in the world, developed or developing, is a topic for discussion today. Some economies are being discussed for their sound management, good governance, high growth and overcoming crises while other…
Sri Lanka has a whopping 527 state-owned enterprises[1] (SOEs). The 55 SOEs classified as “strategically important” alone employ 10% of the public sector workforce[2] or about 1.9% of all workers. Such a…
Environmental conservation in Sri Lanka is as challenging as the economy of the country. Environmental degradation is fully supported and carried out with the blessings of corrupt politicians. This has been the…
Thirty years after ratifying the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNRC) in 1991, child protection is a national crisis in Sri Lanka. Over the past 16 months, 10…
Desmond Tutu was a black, South African, Christian male but in a world where colour, caste, class, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, sexuality and gender matter, he transcended all of that to be a…
The organic fertilizer ship from China was one of the hotly debated topics in Sri Lanka. The quality of the fertilizer shipment, which resulted heated exchanges between the stakeholders, almost sparked a…
Archbishop Desmond Tutu who passed away this week will be counted among the great human beings who contributed to the political transformation of his own country and a person who revolutionised the…
Two prisoners in Sri Lanka were recently released after being detained for many years, a harsh reminder of the ease with which people can be locked up on flimsy grounds. This has…
A fake constitution alters the rules of logic that are the basic foundations of a good constitution. The change of logic leads to irrationality. The spread of irrationality into public institutions creates…
Independent Sri Lanka experienced three waves of weaponsation of Buddhism. The first was when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike embraced the Buddhist Commission Report. D.S. Senanayake had refused, on Constitutional grounds, a request by the…
In December 2008, Human Rights Office Kandy (HROK) had started to present human rights awards during the celebration of International Human Rights Day. I was among those who received an award and…
I was born in 1990, a time when Sri Lanka was still going through its 30-year civil war which ultimately ended in 2009. I lived in greater Colombo, and I went to…
