Remember your grandparents, child?
'The greatest gift you can give your parents is to help them look after their grandparents,’ my father told me this about 19 years ago. At the time his mother, afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease,...
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Mathematically challenged NGO activists and other tidbits
Mathematically challenged NGO activistsThere are some 1400 NGOs registered with the NGO Secretariat. Various people, some from NGOs and some 'companies' which operate as though they are NGOs and...
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The 'common candidate' drama
Pic by Chandana Wijesinghe, with permission from 'The Nation'People have short memories, some politicians like to think. But politicians themselves are people and the claim is eminently applicable to...
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Hail All the Grandmasters of Bee-Essing!
Courtesy www.sunipix.com‘We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing...
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MH17 is re-hit in the afterlife
Courtesy www.malaymail.comI was hit. I wish I was a hit but no, I was hit. For me at death-point or hit-point if you prefer who hit, how and why are irrelevant. I was no misfit by any stretch of...
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There are countries that wait for us if we want them to…
Pic by Tharindu Amunugama (Thabbowa)Places are made of people. They are also made of songs and melodies, words and lines. Moments are also similarly made. ‘Times’ too. We hear a song or a particular...
View ArticleWhat kind of conversations do you have with yourself at the ‘Deep Down’?
A man died recently He was in his seventies. He had been terminally ill but not exact on his deathbed. He was living with his wife. They didn’t have children. A son from an earlier marriage would...
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When the Pied Piper comes a-calling
It's not just about mice and kids. Pic courtesy gutenberg.orgPrecedence is an important word. It is a license-giver. It helps define the universe of the possible. As important, it is a very...
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Re-classing the national discourse*
Pic courtesy w3lanka.comThese are days when there is a lot of talk about media rights and the freedom of expression. There is talk of resolving the alleged ‘ethnic’ conflict, about redressing minority...
View ArticleDemocracy is dead!
There’s a song they sing in demonstrations all over the United States of America, especially when war is protested: ‘Blowing in the wind’. Powerful words no doubt but leaves one feeling a bit...
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Nick Clegg explains a few things to a loyal voter
Pic courtesy theguardian.comDeputy Prime Minister of Britain Nick Clegg took a break. He decided to spend some quality time in South Yorkshire, Sheffield Hallam to be precise. He felt safe there....
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The TNA learns a new word...
US Embassy needs to sleepThe US Embassy is upset about 'media freedom' in Sri Lanka. Now why does anyone need media freedom? Simple: to get the truth out. To inform. That's what is strange about the...
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Roses that don’t lose fragrance even 30 years later
Pic courtesy lovethesepics.comWhat does a 14 year old know about love or life? What does a 41 year old know about anything? And do we get wiser with age? Do we live and love better? Well, 30 years...
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Ali Hafidh doesn’t know that today is a Thursday
This is not Ali Hafidh. It is a child who by any other name would have not been less innocent.When September 16 dawned in the year 1997, Ali Hafidh did not know any thing about dates. Or months. He...
View ArticleThe UNP and the joys of the ‘warm-up’
On Saturday, September 12, 2009, Sri Lanka beat India by 139 in a day-night ODI cricket match at the R.Premadasa Stadium. Spectacular batting performances by Sanath Jayasuriya (98) and Thilina...
View ArticleThere’s a way to fix spot-fixers, match-fixers and nation-fixers
I believe that it is possible to argue that anyone and everyone are in the pay of some dreadful creature, organization or political force. This is why some otherwise intelligent and even likeable...
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Aluthgama and going beyond the black and white of vilification
Ask anyone the question ‘Are you a racist?’ and the answer would be ‘no’. You can replace racist with communalist, fundamentalist, extremist, chauvinist or any other derogatory term and you’ll get the...
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Triumphalism gets unpacked
Celebrating the end of war, end of terrorist threats, being wary and mourning unnecessary deaths is 'WRONG'For a couple of days in May 2009 much of Sri Lanka was adorned with flags. The streets were...
View ArticleA kiss awaits you on page 223
People have up-days and down-days. There are good times and bad times. Right places and wrong times, wrong times to be at the right place. The world is made of mismatches, one might argue....
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The White House is a torture chamber!
A torture chamber called ‘The White House’No, don’t get us wrong, no one is getting ‘rendered’ in the White House, no fingernails are being pulled out, no ‘water treatment’, no truncheons in the anus...
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