INFOGRAPHIC: Paying the price for past extravagance
This week, it was announced that Sri Lanka would be paying as much as USD 170 million (Rs. 25 billion) to aircraft leasing company AerCap Holdings, in order to cancel the purchase of…
Economy
No Internet Please, We’re Sri Lankan!
That is what a retired professor of mass communications told me publicly at a university media conference four years ago. I was a bit taken aback as he had no clinical training…
INFOGRAPHIC: Opportunity Costs – What Rs. 1 Billion Can Buy
On June 7, a supplementary estimate was submitted to Parliament for the import of luxury vehicles for Ministers and their deputies. Rs. 1.17 billion was sought, with several, including Joint Cabinet Spokesmen…
Tourism in Sri Lanka: Catalyst for Peace & Development or Militarization & Dispossession?
This week, there is a major international conference on tourism, in Pasikudah, in the Batticaloa district, Eastern province of Sri Lanka. The theme is “Tourism: a Catalyst for Development, Peace and Reconciliation”….
The Indrajit Coomaraswamy Issue: A matter of decency
Featured image courtesy Sri Lanka Mirror The issue of the appointment of Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy as the Governor of the Central Bank is a defining one. It is an issue on which…
A home-grown remedy for Sri Lanka’s revenue crisis?
Featured image courtesy The Nation Sri Lankans sometimes like to claim perverse records for their country. You will likely have heard the proud assertion that ‘Sri Lanka has the highest suicide rate…
Demystifying Debt
Revisiting ties with China, a bailout deal from the IMF, and increases in VAT have been making headlines recently. What does this all mean from an economic standpoint, and is Sri Lanka…
Panama Papers: List of individuals, intermediaries and addresses connected to Sri Lanka
A large tranche of documents was released on 9 May 2016 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) around “Panama Papers”, a fraction from a trove of more than 11.5 million leaked…
Sri Lanka: Where Free Market Wouldn’t Sell Reform & Reconciliation
Featured image courtesy Asianews The case for serious reform necessary to return to a decent, civilised life for all in Sri Lanka has not been seriously argued in political forums all these…
From Panama Papers to Child Marriage: Food for Thought, Battles to Wage
Image courtesy CNN “To walk our way and keep our eyes fixed on it Is mankind’s first and foremost obligation.” Iphigenia in Tauris (Goethe) It is a lie, beloved by the powerful,…
Screening of ‘Our Brand is Crisis’
The film ‘Our Brand is Crisis‘ is deeply resonant in Sri Lanka. How it deals with the party political fabric and culture, electioneering, the propaganda campaigns of candidates and their respective parties,…
More Thoughts on Current Orthodoxies
Featured image courtesy president.gov.lk I very much like Sunil Bastian’s critical perspective on the current Sri Lankan policy agenda “Some Thoughts on Current Orthodoxies,” dated 14 March. Let me support his case,…
A Rudderless Government
Featured image courtesy Colombo Gazette Almost 15 months under the present Sirisena-Wickremesinghe rule, the economy is in no good state. Defeating Rajapaksa at the 2015 January 08 presidential polls was not meant…
Some thoughts on current orthodoxies
Featured image courtesy SriLankaBrief The year 2009 is important for the post-colonial history of Sri Lanka, because in that year the most serious armed challenge to the territorial integrity of the country…
Progress and Backsliding
Photo via by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena Rizana Nafeek was the first Lankan woman to be executed in Saudi Arabia. She was beheaded after a questionable trial. Now a second Lankan woman is…