Don’t Blame the Monkeys
Animal rights activists and conservationists are up in arms about a plan to send 100,000 toque macaque monkeys to China on the request of a private Chinese firm. The government says the…
Economy
Making the IMF Work for Sri Lankans: Part 2
March 20, when the IMF Board approved an Extended Fund Facility for Sri Lanka, now seems a long time ago. For many people this felt like a major step toward the resolution…
The Dire Straits of Colombo’s Working Class Poor
The World Bank The impact of the economic crisis on the working class poor of Colombo over the past year cannot be overstated. Many of these households were already affected by the pandemic…
The Ongoing Battle for Human Rights Protection
A cascade of reports from human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have drawn attention to rise of authoritarian and nationalistic regimes around the world that is having an…
The ‘Crisis’ – Another View
The crisis facing Sri Lankan society today is the result of contradictions arising from two processes in the specific Sri Lankan context: efforts to sustain the post-war state and continuing with the…
The Need for Economic Justice and Accountability
Sri Lanka awaited the IMF bailout package to find some breathing space so that it can provide basic needs of energy, medicine, food and essential inputs for agriculture, industry and services. Following…
President Wickremesinghe Has His Moment
Latina For President Ranil Wickremesinghe, March has been an exceptionally good month. First China gave its assurance for his government’s debt restructuring plans. Then his school, Royal College, won its annual cricket…
Financial Firefighting: The IMF Bailout and its Conditions
Between 1965 and 2019 Sri Lanka has signed 16 agreements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), out of which seven were terminated early. As of March 20, Sri Lanka received a bailout…
Sri Lanka’s Reform-Regress-Run to the IMF Crisis Cycle
Daniel Alphonsus Countries never learn from others’ mistakes, they only learn from their own. Sri Lanka is an exception: we don’t even learn from our folly. Apparently neither does the IMF. Sri…
Short Sighted Policies Destroying Sri Lanka’s Wildlife
In February 2023, the prestigious Forbes magazine proclaimed Sri Lanka as having the Top Wildlife Safaris Outside of Africa for the year 2023. “The nation has one of the planet’s densest populations…
Making the IMF Work for Sri Lankans
The government of Sri Lanka is negotiating a large conditional loan from the IMF. A formal agreement is likely to be signed within weeks once all the main creditors provide the IMF…
Rusted Metal, Bloodied Minds – Crisis and Struggle
When the GotaGoGama Protest site was attacked by supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 9, a row of tents were destroyed and burned to the ground by the rowdy gang that descended…
Trade with Asia is a Pathway for Crisis-Hit Sri Lanka
South Asia and East Asia trade is growing amid global uncertainty. Alongside an IMF program, Sri Lanka should adopt pro-trade reforms to tap into this source of dynamism to tackle its terrible…
Independence Celebrated by Dependents
While the country was on a celebrative mood, I turned the pages of a dictionary that defines independence as the “Freedom to make laws or decisions without being governed or controlled by another country, organization, etc. Wikipedia, as if reading Sri Lankans’ minds,…
Victoria Nuland Calls Chinese Bluff on Sri Lanka Debt Relief
The US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, visited Sri Lanka last week and dominating her agenda with the government was the core issue of restructuring the government’s foreign…
