Blue Sky Mining
“We are aware of the great difference in carbon dioxide that is emitted from biological sources and carbon dioxide emitted from fossil sources. One has sequestered rates measured in thousands of years…
Development
Avoiding Superstitious Cures, Defeating Dictatorial Solutions
Image courtesy University of Sri Jayawardenepura Sri Lanka, despite her soaring developmental ambitions, spends less than 1% of her national budget on research and development, an anomaly which was highlighted at the…
Sri Lanka: Past Experiences and Current Trends
Image courtesy Dear Friends, First let me thank the Darebin Ethnic Communities Council and Darebin Intercultural Centre for inviting me to speak at this . The biography , which Michael Colin Cooke…
Tourism Overlooks Livelihood Recovery in Post-War Sri Lanka
Introduction In July 2016, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in association with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), organized a four-day international conference in Passikudah, Batticaloa district. Its theme was:…
Urbanisation 2.0
CHICAGO – We are now in the final days of the industrial age. Just as the second generation of steam engines propelled the Industrial Revolution forward, so, too, are new technologies advancing…
Desertification of Jaffna and Jojoba
This is in reference to Dr.Rohan Wickramasinghe’s valuable and interesting article of Tuesday 6th June. The desertification process in Jaffna has been detected and analysed for over half a century and the…
As EU Parliament Considers Preferential Trade Status to Sri Lanka, Ensuring Human Rights Compliance Is Key
Picture courtesy What you probably don’t think about is the real cost of that shirt, or how a preferential trade scheme called GSP+ brings that shirt to European markets and implicates human…
Meetotamulla: A Symbol of Indifference and Injustice
Photograph courtesy SBS Australia The first omens of the Meetotamulla tragedy appeared in 2011, when several houses became compromised. In January 2013, part of the dump collapsed onto the Sri Rahula Primary…
Political Garbage
The Meethotamulla tragedy has brought back the politics of garbage to every screen, newspaper and radio. Street protests are happening around every garbage dump. Modern day popular communication technologies have taken over…
The Meethotamulla tragedy: The face not failure of development
On the afternoon of 14th April tons of garbage at Meethotamulla, one of the biggest dumping sites just outside Colombo, came crashing down destroying scores of homes. At the time of writing,…
Meethotamulla: A Preventable Tragedy
In 2012, I visited Madampitiya to help with research for a friend’s thesis. The subject was the spread of disease in this area, situated close to a garbage dump. The tiny lanes…
Where Has All the Water Gone?
MANILA – We live on a parched planet. Farmers till arid pastureland, and policymakers fret over empty reservoirs, dry rivers, and thirsty cities. And that only scratches the surface – literally –…
The Political Logjam
Photograph courtesy President’s Media Division, In a recent article on Donald Trump, commentator Adam Gopnik reminds his readers that while crazy lovers are pitiful or pathetic, crazy politicians are not. The shenanigans…
After Sampur
It has been five months since the Sampur Coal power project has been terminated. Those who protested against the project celebrated their victory. Now the matter has been forgotten, and there is…
Man Versus Elephant
I hear compensation due for an attack by a wild elephant will increase to rupees 500,000 from the current 200 K in Sri Lanka. Henceforth, if you are unlucky enough to…
