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A budget presented amid celebrations and acquittals
Over the last few weeks there has been a concerted campaign in social media attacking President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The ‘Gota Fail Campaign,’ as it was, promoted a strong response questioning the...
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The 19th Amendment: get over it already!
There are all kinds of yahapalanists. There are those who cannot be in denial simply because they were right in the middle of the yahapalana project or rather a project by that name (for good...
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Will ‘Citizen vs Judiciary’ be given ‘Leave to Proceed’?
It’s a mischievous headline, admittedly. Citizens are not taking the judges to court. And, even if that happened, the simple matter of interest-conflict would force all judges in all courts to recuse...
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The music in and out of a raindrop
Pic, courtesy LankapuvathThe percussionists of the sky are temperamental. There’s rhythm in drumroll and heavy-metal composition, but the conductor of astral orchestras seems to follow a score...
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A waltz of the word and wordless
My friend Terry Nichols showed me a sky I had never seen before. Rather, she gave me eyes to see a sky in a way I hadn’t thought was possible or even meaningful. In short, the idea never entered my...
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Learning how to write
[a tribute to Mrs Murin Weerabaddana]First it was the gal-laella and gal-koora. Yes, this was ‘back in the day’. At some point there were numbers and letters cut from sandpaper which was pasted on...
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Innocence and guilt in accusation and punditry
It’s a Covid19-dominated week. Well, what week in the last nine months or so has not been dominated by the deadly virus, one may ask. This is true. The numbers pertaining to what is now called ‘The...
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The report of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security is...
On February 19, 2020, i.e. days before Parliament was dissolved and probably in full cognizance of impending General Elections, a report was released by ‘The Sectoral Oversight Committee on National...
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Diego Armando Maradona — A leftie on the feet, on the hands and on the mind.
El Pibe de Oro is no more. The Golden Boy was 60 years old when he took his inimitable character to regions unknown, but even at that age he was as young as he was in 1977 when, at just 16, he made...
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Between Mahara and Buravi, amid anxiety and relief
Fire and brimstone. That’s one way of talking about the week that has passed. Fire, on account of the tragedy that unfolded at the Mahara Prison, brimstone as metaphor for what was feared (but didn’t...
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Ranjan Madugalle’s notes on journeys
Ranjan Madugalle doesn’t give interviews. That’s a contractual bind with the ICC he can do nothing about. His work speaks for him, it could be argued. He ought to write a biography and I am sure it...
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Sinophobia, Anglophilia and the language(s) of oppression
The term ‘fake news’ immediately implies there are two kinds of news, what’s false and what’s not. In other words, there’s ‘news’ and there’s ‘fake news.’ Lost in this dichotomy is the fact that...
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A disease, a vaccine, a ‘cure’ and the resurrection of burials
THE WEEK THAT WAS The third reading of the Budget 2021 was passed in parliament with amendments on Thursday with a majority of 97 votes. a short while ago, 151 voting in favor while 54 voted...
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Ranjan Madugalle’s notes on leadership
Last week we discussed some interesting observations that Ranjan Madugalle made about journeys. A man who has been associated with cricket all his life, as a player, commentator and match referee, must...
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The Public Utilities Commission: should it go or stay?
On December 1, 2020, Secretary to the President P.B. Jayasundera wrote to the Secretary to the Treasury S.R. Attygalle to close down the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). This, Jayasundera wrote, was...
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A week of acronyms: SC, MCC, PUC, SLMC and PCR
We’ve had a fire at the Supreme Court, the reconstitution of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), moves to reconstitute the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), an official statement from the US...
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To bury or not bury is NOT the question
Is it absolutely safe to bury those who have died of Covid-19? No one can say with absolute certainty. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s safe. However, the WHO’s endorsement is not the...
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Victors, defeated and death-boxes that have to wait
Way back in the year 1983, probably in mid March, Amitha Abeysekera, who wrote a daily column for ‘The Island’ titled ‘This is my island’ wrote about the Royal-Thomian cricket encounter. It was a...
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There's movement within and without (parties and nations)
Those who worship free markets would say, ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch.’ Nothing comes free. Everything has a price which, they claim, is determined by the play of demand and supply in a...
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The elephant is in the room and will not go away
No. Not THAT elephant nor the one which turned itself into a telephone. Neither are in the room. The compass is not in the room either and there’s palpable evidence that even the lotus bud has got...
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