Shenali D Waduge The nicer word used is ‘indentured labor’ but in reality the Irish though white were ripped apart from families and sold to the highest bidders and treated as slaves having transported them to the British colonies. It is these British that are today preaching about human rights when none of the violations […]

By Chandre Dharmawardana Canada Courtesy Island According to Dr. Leo Fernando (Island, 7-10-2015), “assuming that there is an almighty omniscient God who is also all loving and merciful, one cannot imagine that He would create a Hell for His subjects when He could have easily refrained from creating them to spare them of eternal punishment ….”. If […]

Chanaka Bandarage Towards mid October 1505, the Portuguese Naval Captain, Lorenzo De Almeida, aka Don Lorenzo, who manned a fleet of nine war ships, had decided to return to Portugal  as he could not secure marine rope from the Islands of Maldives or Calcutta in India. Almeida was not aware of the existence of the […]

Cecil Atukorale It in a common place to say that education depends on the teacher. When we brood over the deceitful manner in which the world teacher’s day was celebrated on October 6th, it would be dishonest not to admit that as a race teachers are not a popular section of the community. It is […]

By Dayan Jayatilleka Preambular Paragraph 3 of the October 2015 resolution says that the resolutions of 2012, 2013 and 2014 formed the basis of the resolution of 2015. The 2015 Resolution flows directly from the 2014 Resolution which mandated the Office of the High Commissioner’s investigation on Sri Lanka. What is important is to note that […]

PRESS RELEASE  A. Abdul Aziz – Press Secretary. A delegation led by Mr. M.A. Anis Ahmad, National Vice-President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community – Sri Lanka, met the Sri Lanka Parliament Speaker, Honorable Karu Jeyasuriya, at his office in Parliament Complex, on 13th October, 2015. At this meeting, the Speaker showed keen interest to know about the community. […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror As elders, we are always keen on promoting our children’s well-being, providing them space to grow up to be good,    law abiding,   and responsible citizens and contribute to the welfare of the nation whose pride is in our children. At the turn of the millennium, the Sri Lankan Government […]

By C .A. Chandraprema Courtesy Island The present government has, since last January when it took office, used all the wrong imagery in relation to government finances. The interim budget of February was hailed as a ‘Robin Hood budget’ where money would be taken from the rich and distributed to the poor. And indeed the interim […]

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy Island Report of UNSG Ban ki-moon’s Panel of Experts (PoE) on Accountability in Sri Lanka accused the then Sri Lankan government of five major human rights violations, committed during eelam war IV (Aug. 2006 to May 2009). Three dealt with the conduct of the Sri Lankan political and military leaderships during the […]

G. A. D. Sirimal (SLAS) Former Assistant Secretary, Ministry for Power & Energy-Courtesy Island It is reported, the World Bank [WB] has promised aid for Sri Lanka to help the new government in its development programmes. The same conditions will be laid down by WB as it did way back in1980s during J. R. Jayewardene regime. It […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala One should be rather wary of taking on Mr. Izeth Hussein  because  he claims to be  one the five great diplomats  of the world.   With such self-proclaimed credentials – he has yet to name the other four greats which will indicate the true measure of his greatness! – one expects his […]

Shenali D Waduge  Dr. Jeewaka Bandara phoned around 7a.m. last morning to inform the passing away of Dr. Lilak. When his call came something inside felt it was to convey that sad news. Dr. Lilak had been ill for some time. Thus, 12th October 2015 took another Buddhist stalwart from us. Dr. Lilak was a […]

Senaka Weeraratna Dr Lilaknath Weerasinghe, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.S., F.C.S.S.L.,General Surgeon, Kandy Teaching Hospital and former President of SUCCESS Sri Lanka (Jayagrahanaya) passed away at a private Hospital in Kandy on the evening of October 11, 2015. He was 69 years old at the time of his death.   He was born on Nov. 18, 1945. His […]

ALI SUKHANVER What else one could expect from a political leader whose identity in politics is nothing but religious extremism. Michael E. Miller of the Washington Post says in a recent article, The issue of ‘beef ban’ has raged in India for years. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, however, incidents have increased, […]

ඉතිහාසය පුරා ලංකාවට එරෙහි වාර්තා නිකුත්වූ නමුත් ලෝකයේ කිසිම රටක් මෙතෙක් නොකළ ආකාරයෙන් එම වාර්තාව කිසිදු සංශෝධනයක් නොකර රජය පිළිගෙන ඇති බව පෙන්වාදෙන ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ මනෝහාරද සිල්වා මහතා එය 1815 සුද්දන්ට මෙරට පාවාදීමට එහාගිය පාවාදීමක් බව යුතුකම සංවාද කවය සංවිධානය කළ සම්මණ්ත්‍රණයකට එක්වෙමින් පැවසීය. https://youtu.be/stT1_uevXcY

Wendell W Solomons  A diplomatic and media movement was carried out for years by the West to tarnish Sri Lanka’s Rajapakse-led government. However, in a January 2015 poll — by his own design or through other circumstances — Mahinda Rajapakse suddenly dropped out of government office . The incoming Western-oriented UNF government could now be […]

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana Courtesy Island It is a fact of life that indiscretions in the past, even minor or may even be trivial, might raise its’ ugly head and threaten the present or even shatter the dreams of the future. It is also true to say that in spite of their renowned thick skins, politicians […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy Island Attorney-at-law J.C. Weliamuna yesterday confirmed that there would be international participation in the proposed domestic court to inquire into accountability issues in Sri Lanka. Addressing the media at the Information Department, Weliamuna said that Parliament would have to make the required amendments to pave the way for international participation in the […]

Daily News Pivithuru Hela Urumaya General Secretary Udaya Gammanpila yesterday demanded the government to make the report of Sir Desmand Silva Q.C. public soon. He was speaking at a press conference in Colombo yesterday Gammanpila commended the Prime Minister’s announcement that he would table the Udalagama report and Paranagama report in Parliament on October 20. […]

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම්. ජයතුංග වධහිංසනය යනු මානව හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝණය කෙරෙන ඉතාම දරුණු අවස්ථාවලින් එකකි. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් වධහිංසනය යන්න හඳුන්වනු ලබනුයේ, පාපෝව්චාරණයක් ලබාගැනීම වැනි අරමුණක් සඳහා දඬුවමක්, තැතිගැන්වීමක් හෝ බලහත්කාර කමක් හෝ ඕනෑම ආකාරයක වෙනස්කමි කිරීමක් පදනමි කරගත් ශාරිරික හෝ මානසික අන්දමින් කිසිවෙකුහට දුකක් හෝ වේදනාවක්, වේතනාත්මකව පමුණුවන ඕනෑම ක්‍රියාවක් වශයෙනි. වධහිංසනය යනු වින්දිතයාට පමණක් නොව අපරාධකරුට […]

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition Beijing’s special envoy took the unusual step of meeting with Rajapaksa last week – official visits are usually limited to government figures. Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tweet recording his meeting with Liu Zhenmin, which was unusual because Chinese envoys usually only meet […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror October 16, 1980, the ‘darkest day’ represented yet another blow to parliamentary democracy in Sri Lanka when Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first head of state who made a tremendous contribution for the development of international relations by hosting the then powerful 86-nation  NAM’s Summit, was deprived of her civic rights […]

Courtesy Daily Mirror ATL’s (Amãna Takaful’s) latest product ‘Suwasiri’, has made its mark in the insurance industry, as the most affordable health policy available in the market. This competitively priced, comprehensive insurance plan was designed as part of ATL’s ongoing efforts to remain ‘open to all’ and provide all segments of society with a suitable […]

Courtesy moneycontrol.com Cairn India is planning to exit its Sri Lankan gas block after two discoveries it had made were found to be commercially unviable, says report. Cairn, whose main asset are the oilfields in Barmer district of Rajasthan, will relinquish the 2,912 sq km block SL-2007-01-001 in the Mannar basin after expiry of exploration […]

By Dr. Kamal Wickremasinghe Courtesy Island The Prince was also showing the tip of a ‘stick’ to Sri Lanka by recommending to the United Nations system and all member states should initiate investigations and prosecutions against Sri Lankans under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction.The neocons and their lapdogs at the UN have found the Sri Lankan […]

Talk of the town This ignorant  ‘expert’ (see  article below) cannot maintain that things have not improved with MS’s antics. Incompetent Cabinet with one time dress designer as Minister of Foreign Affairs who is losing his way week to week, Losing friendship with China,  Pakistan, Russia,  Not daring to sack Central Bank chief, Sacking the CJ […]

දර්ශිත පුස්සේවෙල. රටේ බහුතරය බෞද්ධයෝ වුවද සිදුවන මිනීමැරුම්,සොරකම්,මංකොල්ල කෑම්,ස්ත්‍රී දූෂණ වලට වගකිවයුතු බහුතරයද බෞද්ධයෝය. බොරුව දරුණු ලෙස සමාජගත වී ඇත.එය කෙතරම්ද කිවතොත් මිනිසුන් ඇත්ත කියා කියන්නෙද බොරුය.මේ සියල්ල දෙස ඉවසීමෙන් බලා සිටින විට යමක් හැඟේ.එනම් මේ බුදුන් දේශනා කල දහමේ යම් අඩුවක් නිසා සිදුවන දෙයක්ද?එසේත් නැතිනම් අප අසන දහමේ අඩුවක් නිසා සිදුවන දෙයක්ද?යන සැකයයි.එහෙත් බුද්ධිමත්ව කල්පනා […]

Courtesy Island Close on the heels of a statement issued by 41 university academics supporting the recent UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka, more than 70 scholars have now come out vehemently opposing it. The dons describing themselves as ‘Responsible and concerned group of senior academics in the Sri Lankan University System’ opposed to the resolution, […]

– BBC ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ හිටපු ප්‍රභූවරයෙකුගේ පුත්‍රයෙකුට අයිති විදේශීය බැංකු ගිණුමක් අත්හිටුවීම සඳහා අධිකරණ නියෝගයක් ලබා ගැනීමට යන බවට පළ වී තිබූ මාධ්‍ය වාර්තාවලට ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වමින්. ‘මගේවත් මගේ සහෝදරයන්ගේවත් මගේ දෙමාපියන්ගේවත් කිසිම ගිණුමක් පිටරට නැහැ. අපිට තියෙන වත්කම් මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයාටත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවටත් හෙළි කරලා තියෙන්නේ. මේක ද්වේශ සහගත ලෙස අපිට මඩ ගහන්න කරන […]

By A. Abdul Aziz.  According to media reports, on 6 October 2015, World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, delivered an historic address at a special session of the Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs at the Netherlands National Parliament in the country’s capital city of […]