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The end-point of giving
Thirty three years ago I scrawled a quote from Herman Hesse at the top of the blackboard in the Prefects’ Room of Royal College: “To act is all; reputation, nothing”. Panduka Karunanayake, a fellow...
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Congratulations Mister Prime Minister!
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was conferred an honorary doctorate by Deakin University, Australia. He’s not the first premier thus honored and he probably will not be the last. However, an...
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Big Matches and Small Things
March Madness. That’s what it was called a few decades back. That’s because all ‘big matches’ were played in March. Now the big-match seasons begins in February and goes on till the end of April....
View ArticleThe Sinhala and Tamil traces in an island history
There’s the evil ghost of misrepresentation, the evil ghost of exaggeration, the evil ghost of painting fiction as fact and myth as history, the evil ghost of silence on demographic realities, the evil...
View ArticleThe claims and counter-claims of intransigence
Leader of the Opposition and the senior citizen of Tamil Nationalism R Sampanthan in an adjournment motion has made some interesting points.“All people who lived in Sri Lanka, irrespective of their...
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A love-bite release is hardly a palliative
What’s the difference between this government and the previous one? Ask some random person on the street and the most likely answer would be ‘nothing’. That’s a perception of felt benefits. In fact...
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Prasanna Wanigasekera and the unforgettable lessons he learnt
At the back of the main hall of Royal College there’s a panel carrying the names of teachers who served 15 or more years. I am not sure if they considered the service years of those who taught at...
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The politics of script-flipping
A governmental prerogative, obviouslyNot too long ago, there was a call for an international inquiry into allegations of war crimes. The call came from both within the country and without. From...
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Yahapalana brain-fade in Geneva
And ready to brain-fade again, by the looks of it!Way back when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government was getting slammed left, right and centre by the ‘international (sic) community’, especially at the...
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Vajira at 85: a story of inexpressible grace
There’s a little girl. She’s about 15 years old. She sits across the table from me. Her voice is firm and her eyes dance as she speaks about her love. She’s young enough and old enough to identify...
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Staying in power and staying power
Some trophies are hard to secure and even harder to keepIt has become a tradition for Ranil Wickremesinghe to visit various signature tents at the Royal-Thomian and respond to questions put to him....
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Recognizing the yahapalanaya party
The most ignored clause of the 19th Amendment is about power, not yahapalanayaArjuna Mahendran, the former Governor of the Central Bank, is reported to have transferred out some 500 members of his...
View ArticleYahapalana machinations subvert ‘transitional justice’
These are UNHRC days. These are Yahapalana-UNHRC days which are therefore very different from the Rajapaksa-UNHRC days. Both regimes use the same lexicon when it comes to ‘reconciliation’. Back then...
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Wigneswaran: the judge who forgot ‘the whole truth’
"No reconciliation without justice," he saysbut can there be justice without truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?A highly successful lawyer was once asked why he was not interested in...
View ArticleRev. Katuwana Piyananda and his meditations on canvass
Do not ask this priest to explain the meanings of these paintings. As Tagore once said, "ask the paintings themselves their meaning. They will give you the answers".- Prof. Valpola Rahula TheroThe...
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The politics of skin: A velvety intervention
Prince Dutugemunu is said to have been close to two sisters, one fair and the other dark. They had duly been re-named ‘Sudu’ (Fair One) and ‘Kalu’ (Dark One). The dark one had spurned him and in the...
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Ruwan Karunaratne's shop never closes
Ruwan Karunaratne’s journey can be traced by the educational institutions he attended, the certificates he secured, the companies that employed him or the positions he’s held. St Mary’s College...
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Repeating the Ginger for Chillie error
There was a time when victory over enemies was about bashing heads in, seizing their women and enslaving their children. It still happens of course. The cost-effective way is for the powerful to...
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Words to Theresa May and the citizens of Britain
The following is a letter sent to British Prime Minister Theresa May following the recent attack on Westminster Bridge, London.Dear Ms Theresa May,I am deeply pained by the horrific act that terrorized...
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Who 'owns' the R2P (Responsibility to Protect) Syria?
There’s saber-rattling in Washington. There’s saber-rattling in Moscow. Tit-for-tat talk. Rattle-for-rattle. Neither the USA nor Russia is under attack. Neither country can claim that there is a...
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