by Rajan Philips Courtesy The Island June 3, 2017, 6:53 pm The flood havoc has proved to be far worse than anyone could have imagined. The death and missing toll is now past 300. That includes nearly 50 school children. Kids who like to have fun running in the rain have instead perished in the floods. […]

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island * No provision relating to president entrenched under Article 83 *Referendum required not by Constitution but by SC interpretation June 3, 2017, 6:51 pm The constitution making process has been hamstrung by the insistence of the SLFP faction in the government that any constitutional reform would have to done without a […]

Island Editorial June 3, 2017, 6:52 pm The Rip Van Winkles of our times are now waking up from their long slumber. Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka went on record on Friday saying prosecutions will begin this week against owners of unauthorized structures along the Wellawatte canal banks, one of which collapsed recently killing four and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Yahapalana is revising several Acts of Parliament which are of critical importance to the economy. It is clear that these Acts were marked out for revision at the start itself, as a part of the Yahapalana regime change. The purpose is to weaken these departments. The Ministry of Finance is drafting a new […]

Garvin Karunaratne Former Government Agent, Matara It is reported in the past Sunday Times  that we are getting sand from overseas as far as the Philippines and Indonesia.(Sunday Times) I wonder why. We have ample resources of sand. Having worked in over half the Districts in Sri Lanka and having done islandwide circuits over the […]

වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති ජාත්‍යන්තර බෙරවාදන සහ වෙස්මුහුණු උත්සවයක් පැවැත්වීමෙන් අපේ සංස්කෘතික උරුමයන් ඉස්මතු කරවීමටත් ඒ හරහා විශාල ප්‍රමාණයකට ජීවනෝපාය මාර්ග උදාකරගැනීමටත් අවස්ථාවක් සළස්වලා දෙන්න පුළුවන් කියලා මෙයට පෙර ලියූ ලිපියෙන් කිව්වා. ඒක හුදෙක් ම ප්‍රාථමික මට්ටමේ යෝජනාවක් විතරයි. ඒක ඇත්තක් කරගන්න කළ යුතු වැඩ විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් තියෙනවා. කලින් ලිපියකින් කියපු විදිහට උගතුන් සංවිධානගත වෙන්න ඕන මේ […]

modernpowersystems.com The Sri Lankan government has approved a proposal to develop a large-scale wind-solar hybrid power plant in the north of the country. The plans comprise the construction of 240 MW of wind energy capacity and 800 MW of solar capacity in three phases. The project is in line with government policy to increase the […]

By Denagama Dhammika Ranaweera Courtesy Ceylon Today Convener of the Joint Opposition, MP Prasanna Ranatunge, in an interview with Ceylon Today says as a member of the SLFP, he sent a letter to the President regarding how he should prepare himself to strengthen the SLFP. Following are Excerpts: ? Is it true that you sent a […]

Ananth Krishna  Courtesy swarajyamag.com The Buddhist and the Islamic worlds seem to be increasingly in conflict in south and south-east Asia. In Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Buddhist nationalist organisations are in open conflict with Muslims; in Thailand, Islamist insurgency has resurrected itself in the Patani region; In Indonesia, tensions between the Muslim majority and Buddhist minority have […]

by Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge The question is not whether PTSD is real and serious. It’s a devastating mental illness. The question is how many veterans have PTSD, and clearly our goal should be to try to address the veterans’ needs and help them deal with their problems and move on in life. Chet Edwards […]

 නලින් ද සිල්වා බුද්ධාගම රකින බවට ගිවිසුමකින් පොරොන්දු වූයේ ඉංගිරිසින්. ඔවුන් 1815 සිංහල ඉංගිරිසි ගිවිසුමෙන් පොරොන්දු වූ ප්‍රධාන කරුණු දෙක වූයේ බුද්ධාගම හා දේවාගම (සිංහල බුද්ධාගම) රැකීම හා සිංහල නීතියට අනුව රට කරවීම. ගිවිසුමේ තිබුණු වචන නිශ්චිත ව නොකීවත් ඉංගිරිසින් එවැන්නක් සිංහල නායකයන්ට ද භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේට ද පොරොන්දු වුණා. එහෙත් 1817 දී ම ඉංගිරිසින් ගිවිසුම […]

Shenali D Waduge A 44 page report by Amnesty International declares that the US Government gave $1.3billion worth of arms to ISIS in 2016. This comes in the backdrop of Hillary Clinton admitting that the US created Al Qaeda. . $4 trillion dollars later has been spent on this bogus War-on-Terror/Humanitarian-R2P so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqn0bm4E9yw. Both […]

Shenali Waduge A 44 page report by Amnesty International declares that the US Government gave $1.3billion worth of arms to ISIS in 2016. This comes in the backdrop of Hillary Clinton admitting that the US created Al Qaeda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqn0bm4E9yw. Both entities are supposed to be targets of the US War on Terror. How does that […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS We have inherited a heavy national debt, said Yahapalana. The country had a debt of SLR 9000 billion (USD 60 billion) when Yahapalana took over, said President Sirisena. Yahapalana had inherited a Rs. 482,940 million foreign debt burden which has to be settled before 2016 said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.    We are saddled […]

Garvin Karunaratne HLD Mahindapala  in his Paper, How Many Homelands do the Jaffna Tamils need, quotes Historian Arsaratne who states that there was a Jaffna kingdom in 1325. This is incorrect. The evidence is that when the Portuguese did attack Jaffna the king of Kandy who ruled entire Sri Lanka sent his army headed by Mudliyar Atapattu […]

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න  දෙවියෝ වැඩ ඉන්නේ අපි හදන දේවාල වල නොවෙය ,ඒ දෙවියන්ගේම විමානවල , අපට අවශ්‍ය වුනා දෙවියන්ට පින්දෙන්නයන්න තැනක් ඒ හින්දා අපි දේවාල හැදුවා දෙවියෝ තමන්ගේ විමානවල සිට ඒ දේවාල අබියස අපි පින්දෙන හැටි බලනවා ඒ පින් ගන්නවා පින් දෙන  අ  යට ආශීර්වාද කරනවා .  ඉතින් ගංවතුරට ඒ දෙවියෝ කොටුවෙන්නේ නැහැ .කවුදෝ කෙනෙක් සමන් […]

Courtesy: Buddhist Channel  Colombo, Sri Lanka — The crisis facing the Buddhist world is neither a decline in religious conviction nor an apprehension that truth underpinned by rational argument and new scientific discoveries will one day overtake and outstrip the core teachings of its founder which is a perennial fear bordering on despondency that characterizes several […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE It is being reported that Sri Lankan Skipper Angelow Mathews is suffering from a calf injury.  Sports injuries are a common phenomenon, in international arena the players who are not 100 per cent fit had been sidelined for extended periods of time. Sri Lankan cricket rankings are currently rated poor, […]

By Rohana R. Wasala When prospecting for petroleum in Sri Lanka began more than forty years ago at the initiative of the government, we were silently jubilant at the promise of a comfortable petrodollar-rich future for the country, which enhanced the general euphoria experienced in the wake of the adoption of the republican constitution in […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island June 1, 2017, 9:49 pm The UNHRC Resolution A/HRC/34/L.1 of 15 March 2017 “requests the Government of Sri Lanka to implement fully the measures identified by the Council in its resolution 30/1 that are outstanding”. While the language in the 2017 Resolution was a “request”, the language in the 2015 […]