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When the centre cannot hold…
I write (it is 12.09 pm, on Wednesday) at a time when there’s a remarkable and unprecedented lack of political clarity in the country. As I write, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has left the country. As per the...
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Vee da (වීද) hoo da (හූද) people?
Sri Lankans make a unique and hilarious knicker-twisted nation, exasperated over lengthy fuel lines to the point of ousting a president and then entire families sweating lengthier lines under umbrellas...
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ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන මාෆියාව/මේනියාව
#gotagohome අරගලය නොහොත් ගෝටව ගෙදර යැවීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතිය නොහොත් ආදරයේ අරගලය අනන්‍ය වූ ඇතැම් පුද්ගලයින්, සංවිධාන සහ බලවේග මුල සිටම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන අවශ්‍ය යැයි තර්ක කළෝය. ආර්ථික අර්බුදය කෙසේ වෙතත් දේශපාලන...
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The Aragalaya: a postscript
Ranil Wickremesinghe is no longer president in an acting capacity. He is the president, period. Did someone say ‘I don’t know whether to laugh or cry?’ I am pretty sure someone did. Did someone say,...
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ජනසතු අරගලය ජනතාකරණයට ලක් වුනාද?
ජනතා අරගලයක් අලුතින් ජනසතු කරන්න ඕනේ නෑ. තිබ්බේ අරගලයක් නෙවෙයි, අරගලයන්. බහුවචනයෙන් තමයි කතා කරන්න වෙන්නේ. එක් එක් අරගල වල එක එක ජන කොටස්. සමපාත වුන තැනුත් තිබුනා. නොවුන තැනුත් තිබුනා. වඩා නිවැරදිව...
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Ambassador Chung and xeroxable change
Aragalaya. Translatable as revolt, uprising, protest, agitation, struggle or even insurrection. Aragalaya is singular, but considering statements and actions it was certainly not marked by concert,...
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අරගල, විප්ලව සහ දේශපාලනයේ අවලස්සන යටිපැත්ත
ජනතා නැගිටීමක්, උද්ඝෝෂණයක්, රටක දේශපාලන නායකත්වයට අභියෝග කරන දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාවලියක්, දේශපාලන පෙරළියක් -- මේ හැම එකක්ම අරගලයක් කියල කියන්න පුළුවන්. විප්ලවයක් කියල කියන්න බෑ. සමහර අරගල විප්ලව බවට...
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අරගලයේ දේශපාලන ඉතිරිය
"ස්වයං විවේශනය, දුෂ්ටත්වයේ හරය තෙක් දිවෙන දරුණු, නොමසුරු, අනුකම්පා විරහිත විවේචනය නිර්ධන පාන්තික ව්‍යාපාරයක ජීවය සහ හුස්ම පොද වේ" -- රෝසා ලක්සන්බ(ර්)ග් අරගලය අවසන් වුනා කියල සමහරු කියනවා. අරගල ඉවර...
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China and India: friendship and 'friendship'
India is reported to have ‘raised concerns at the highest levels’ over Sri Lanka’s decision to allow the Chinese research vessel Yuan Wang 5 to dock at the Hambantota Port. Yuan Wang 5 is said to be a...
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Political geographies: imagined and real
In his ‘The Ballad of East and West’ Rudyard Kipling put the issue of political geographies in a nutshell. Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,Till Earth and Sky stand...
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Beware the NEDdas!
In Sri Lanka’s political lexicon there are two terms that have obtained a lot of play over the past 8 years or so: Toyyas and Bayyas. Bayyas are sometimes taken to be Rajapaksa loyalists but the truth...
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Julie Chung and fire hoses of falsehoods
US Ambassador Julie Chung was spot on. A few days ago, she pointed out, correctly, that ‘fake news - and fake tweets - are a real problem.’ She urged one and all, ‘don’t be misled.’ This particular...
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The uncommon touch at ‘The Commons’
On the face of it the name of the small, cosy and friendly restaurant on Ernest De Silva Mawatha, Colombo 7, sounds pretentious. ‘The Commons’ after all refers to ‘land or resources belonging to or...
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Constants: tired, boring, obnoxious and laudable
Sri Lanka is a resilient nation. That’s almost a given. A constant. All talk of peace, human rights, democracy, good governance, reparations and other such goodies emanating from Washington, London...
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Fruit forbidden to liberals
One of the most thorny problems for self-styled liberals in Sri Lanka is that they use the liberal label as though it’s some kind of impenetrable shield, hiding behind which they take on specific...
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Enter the ‘God-Police’ amid liberal aiders and abetters
Rosy is out of order. Colombo’s liberals and leftists are out of order. Democracy-advocating NGO personalities are out of order. Funded Voices, Rent-a-Protest Agitators, Born Again Nazis, Candlelight...
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India reconfirms enemy-status
Yes, we need peace. We need reconciliation. Such needs are the inevitable outcomes of conflict-end. Fixing these to exaggerated grievances and out-of-this-world aspirations and tying it all to a...
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Rehabilitation: the broad and narrow, global and local
Rehabilitation is a word that presumes a previous state of perceived acceptance or agreement. Its etymology is interesting and revealing, deriving from re- “again” or “to turn” and habitare- “make fit”...
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Sunak, dual-citizens and mistaken identity
Asad Heider in his highly acclaimed book ‘Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump’ contends that identity politics cannot be equated to anti-racism. He argues that identity politics is...
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Towards a peaceful and inclusive European Union
A good hearted woman, Barbara Undershaft, devotes all energies to help the poor as a major in the Salvation Army. She sees Andrew, her millionaire father, an arms dealer, as someone who needs to be...
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