Jinath Premaratne

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwaara 17.02.2026.

I would like to draw the immediate attention of my readers to the following news item appearing in today’s Lankaweb.

දෙමල ඊළම පිහිටුවීම සඳහා වන දෙමළ ඊළාම් අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ සභාව ඉකුත් 14 දා ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ දී පිහිටුවා තිබේ.

දෙමළ කතා කරන ජනතාව සඳහා වෙනම රටක් හෙවත් ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය වෙනුවෙන් සියලු දෙමළ ජනයා පෙනී සිටිය යුතු බව එහිදි ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත.

වෙනම ඊළාම් රාජ්‍යයක් වෙනුවෙන් සකස් කළ වඩුක්කොඩ්ඩෙයි සම්මුතියට මේ වසරේ මැයි 14 වැනිදා ට වසර 50 ක් පිරෙන අතර ඊට සමගාමීව 14 දා  ත්‍රිකුණාමලය J7 vila resort හීදී ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය පිළිබඳ මෙම ප්‍රඥප්තිය සකස් කරනු ලැබීය.

ඒ සඳහා ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිසාව භාර රදගුරු ක්‍රිස්ටි නොයෙල් එම්මානුවෙල්, වේලන් සාමි, අගස්යර් අදිගරාජ්, ශ්‍රී ඥානේස්වරන්, පිලිප් මුරුගයියා, සෙබස්තියන් දේවි, ලවකුසරාසා, අලගරාජා මදන්, අමරතන් අමලනායගි යන අය ද එක්ව සිටියහ”.

The Government should immediately arrest the following persons and charge them for mutiny and treason and whatever other crimes the government deems relevant,   under the provisions of the 6th Amendment in the Constitution and take appropriate action against them for misusing their religious positions for instigating the innocent and peace-loving Tamil people to organize and rise against the democratically elected government and conspiring against the State by trying to rouse the innocent Tamil people against the Bhumi puthra Sinhala Buddhists in this country and destabilizing the peaceful coexistence between the Sinhalese and the minority communities for millennia  in the past..

Also, they should be reported to their religious hierarchy for suitable action against them for misusing their religious positions to rouse the ordinary Tamil people against the government.

It is high time that the Government go in to action immediately and put an end to this nonsense.

ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ මෛත්‍රී ගුණරත්න, ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නීතිඥ සමන් ගලප්පත්ති

නීතිඥ බුද්ධික මල්ලවාරච්චි සහ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ ඝාතනය කිරීමත් ඉන් පසුව කිසිදු විමර්ශනයකින් තොරව ඔහුට පාතාල ලේබලය ඇලවීමත් පිළිබඳ වගකීම අමාත්‍ය ආනන්ද විජේපාල මහතා විසින් දැරිය යුතුය. ඔහු සිය අමාත්‍ය ධූරයේ වගකීම දැරීමට අසමත්වීම සමබන්ධයෙන් වගකීම බාරගත යුතු අතර, ඔහුට වහා ඉල්ලා අස්වන ලෙස බල කරනු ලබන බව නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින්  Free Lawyers සංවිධානය පවසයි.

Free Lawyers සංවිධානය නිකුත් කළ සම්පූර්ණ නිවේදනය පහතින් දැක්වේ.

කොළඹ අකුරේගොඩ අධි ආරක්ෂක කලාපයේ ආරක්ෂ හමුදා මුලස්ථානය අසල දී  නීතිඥ බුද්ධික මල්ලවාරච්චි සහ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ ඝාතනයට ලක්වීමත්, කිසිදු විධිමත් විමර්ශනයකින් තොරව  ඝාතන  වගකීම පාතාල කණ්ඩායමක් වෙත පැවරීමත් සම්බන්ධයෙන් වගකීම බාරගෙන මහජන ආරක්ෂක සහ පාර්ලිමේන්තු කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය ආනන්ද විජේපාල මහතා වහාම ඉල්ලා අස්විය යුතුය.

ලංකාව නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍ය ක්‍රියාත්මක වන රාජ්‍යයකි. නීතිඥවරයෙකු යනු යුක්තිය පසඳලීම සඳහා අධිකරණයට සහාය වන නිලධාරියෙකි. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා මගින් නීතිඥ වෘත්තියට නිල පිළිගැනීමක් ලබා දී ඇත.    නීතිඥවරයෙකුට මරණ බියෙන් තොරව නිදහසේ සිය වෘත්තීය කර ගෙන යාමට අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම සැලසීම රාජ්‍යයේ වගකීමකි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ශ්‍රෙෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නීතිඥවරුන්ට ‘පාතලයේ නීතිඥවරුන්’ ලෙස හංවඩු ගැසීමට කිසිදු අයිතියක් ආන්ඩුවට හෝ පොලිස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට හෝ වෙනත් පාර්ශවයකට නැත. සිය වෘත්තියේ ‍නියැලීම හේතුවෙන් ඝාතනයට ලක්වීමෙන් පසුව ඔහුගේ ආත්ම ගෞරවය විනාශ කිරීමට රජයේ මැදිහත්වීම පිළිබඳ පූර්ණ වගකීම අමාත්‍ය අ ආනන්ද විජේපාල ආමත්‍යවරයා විසින් දැරිය යුතුව ඇත.

පොලීසිය විසින් ඝාතනයෙන් කෙටි වේළාවක් තුල සුදානම් කර තිබූ ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදු කළේ ද? එහි පදනම හා අවශ්‍යතාවය කුමක්ද යන්නත්, පොලීසිය විසින් වැරදි තොරතුරු සමාජ ගත කර තිබේද යන්නත් විමර්ශනයට ලක් විය යුතුය.

නීතිඥ ප්‍රජාවට සිය පවුලේ සමාජිකයින්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව ගැන ද සැලකියමත් වීමට නව තත්වය යටතේ සිදුවී ඇත.  මෙය යුධ ගැටුම් පැවති සමයේ දී හෝ නොතිබූ බියකරු තත්වයකි.  

නීති වෘත්තිය පදනම් වන්නේ නිර්දෝෂීභාවයේ පූර්ව නිගමනය, සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකට පුරවැසියකු සතු අයිතිය, සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකින් තොරව යමෙකුට දඬුවම් නොකිරීමට රාජ්‍යයට ඇති වගකීම මතය.  රජයත් අමාත්‍යවරයාත් මේ සියලු පදනම් විනාශ කරමින් ඇත.  රජය සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක් සඳහා වන අයිතිය නොතකා කටයුතු කිරීම හේතුවෙන් මේ වන විට අර්බුද ගණනාවක් ගොඩනැගෙමින් ඇත.  නීතිඥවරුන්ට හා විනිසුරුවරුන්ට  එහි පීඩාව හොඳින් දැනේ.

නීතිඥ බුද්ධික මල්ලවාරච්චි සහ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ ඝාතනය කිරීමත් ඉන් පසුව කිසිදු විමර්ශනයකින් තොරව ඔහුට පාතාල ලේබලය ඇලවීමත් පිළිබඳ වගකීම අමාත්‍ය ආනන්ද විජේපාල මහතා විසින් දැරිය යුතුය. ඔහු සිය අමාත්‍ය ධූරයේ වගකීම දැරීමට අසමත්වීම සමබන්ධයෙන් වගකීම බාරගත යුතු අතර, ඔහුට වහා ඉල්ලා අස්වන ලෙස මෙයින් බල කරනු ලැබේ.

ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ මෛත්‍රී ගුණරත්න ( 0777900000)                              

ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නීතිඥ සමන් ගලප්පත්ති

SEPAL – short clips

Chula Adikari

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

දෙමල ඊළම පිහිටුවීම සඳහා වන දෙමළ ඊළාම් අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ සභාව ඉකුත් 14 දා ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ දී පිහිටුවා තිබේ.

දෙමළ කතා කරන ජනතාව සඳහා වෙනම රටක් හෙවත් ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය වෙනුවෙන් සියලු දෙමළ ජනයා පෙනී සිටිය යුතු බව එහිදි ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත.

වෙනම ඊළාම් රාජ්‍යයක් වෙනුවෙන් සකස් කළ වඩුක්කොඩ්ඩෙයි සම්මුතියට මේ වසරේ මැයි 14 වැනිදා ට වසර 50 ක් පිරෙන අතර ඊට සමගාමීව 14 දා  ත්‍රිකුණාමලය J7 vila resort හීදී ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය පිළිබඳ මෙම ප්‍රඥප්තිය සකස් කරනු ලැබීය.

ඒ සඳහා ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිසාව භාර රදගුරු ක්‍රිස්ටි නොයෙල් එම්මානුවෙල්, වේලන් සාමි, අගස්යර් අදිගරාජ්, ශ්‍රී ඥානේස්වරන්, පිලිප් මුරුගයියා, සෙබස්තියන් දේවි, ලවකුසරාසා, අලගරාජා මදන්, අමරතන් අමලනායගි යන අය ද එක්ව සිටියහ.

XpressJobs

Colombo, Sri Lanka — This Women’s Day, XpressJobs is proud to collaborate with John Keells Stock Brokers to create impact beyond celebration through the #SHEinvests initiative, designed to educate, engage, and empower women with the knowledge and confidence to achieve financial independence.

As part of this initiative, XpressJobs clients will have the exclusive opportunity to host a Financial Literacy Session for their female employees throughout the month of March. The program aims to equip women with practical financial knowledge, build confidence in managing money, and encourage informed investment decisions for long-term security.

The one-hour interactive session, conducted by experts from John Keells Stock Brokers, will cover key areas including money management techniques, savings vs. investments, types of investments, equity investing, investment analysis tools, decision-making criteria, and how to begin investing.

Commenting on the initiative, Nithila Talgaswatte, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of John Keells Stock Brokers, stated: Financial independence is a powerful enabler for women. Through #SHEinvests, we aim to break barriers and create access to knowledge that helps women make confident financial decisions for themselves and their futures.”

Dr. Oshadie Korale (Co-Founder/ COO) of XpressJobs shared her perspective from a women’s empowerment lens:  As women, we are often encouraged to earn, but not always taught how to grow and manage our wealth. This initiative is about changing that narrative. When women understand money, they gain confidence, independence, and a stronger voice in shaping their lives and careers. That’s the kind of impact we want to create this Women’s Day.”

By offering organizations a meaningful way to mark Women’s Day, the initiative moves beyond symbolic gestures to deliver real value and lasting impact for women in the workplace. Participating organizations will also receive social media recognition, with highlights shared across XpressJobs and John Keells Stock Brokers platforms.

The life story of  Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra

From layman to  monk

The life story of  Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra

Now his message touches thousands of people in USA

Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra

, also known as Sư Tuệ Nhân, is the Deputy Abbot of the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He had a career as a Motorola engineer and holds an Information Technology degree from the University of Texas at Arlington before becoming a monk. 

As Deputy Abbot since 2013, he started the Dhammacetiya Project to build a stupa complex for preserving Buddhist scriptures and founded the Hương Tư Charity Foundation, which engages in humanitarian efforts globally. 

Ven. Paññākāra is recognized for the Walk for Peace, a 2,300-mile pilgrimage from Texas to Washington, D.C., starting October 26, 2025. The walk was inspired by global suffering and depression after the COVID-19 pandemic. He completed the journey in February 2026 at the Washington National Cathedral, accompanied by other monks and a dog named Aloka.

Ceylon Room

Dilith Jayaweera

Vantage with Palki Sharma

e-Con e-News

blog: https://eesrilanka.wordpress.com

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‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

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e-Con e-News 08-14 February 2026

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How the English colonial government imposed compound interest on Sri Lanka, & how this enabled the wholesale ‘legal’ robbery of land from rural Sinhala people – is a most fascinating tale. This ee newsletter’s muse, SBD de Silva, started to relate this story to us, before he passed away in 2018. We are sad to say we should have hounded him further on this subject but failed to do so. Certain reasons of mortality and other urgencies intervened, plus his heroic stubbornness to stick to whatever his intellectual priorities were at a time when his mortal days were limiting his earthly focus, held us back.

     The more humane Sinhala tradition, he recalled, was of charging simple interest on debts, which meant if you could not repay a loan on time, you could pay later without being entangled into greater bondage, and lifetime and next-life vassalage, while losing your land and means of production. But the English would not have it under their rule. And why would they! It is therefore no wonder the English bestowed upon the country & its economy, the most impoverished peasantry in Asia.

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Compound (verb) – 1) make up (a composite whole);

constitute; mix or combine; calculate (interest)

on previously accumulated interest.

2) make (something bad) worse;

intensify the negative aspects of…

– Oxford English Dictionary

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Did the English government machinery (corrupt officials, judiciary) in the Eastern Province conspire with Muslim traders to enforce compound interest? SBD wished us to pursue this research, warning that the subject was fraught, for we had to ensure we did not encourage solely communal interpretations. For behind this thorny trap crouches the colonial master in subterfuge, who has other deeper aims in mind. We did try to pursue this matter with various social scientists and lawyers as he asked us to do, but to no avail. As SBD noted, social science has become a big business, and our intellects have more interest (moreover a compound interest) in other trivialities, than the political economy of entrapment & mass murder.

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‘Microfinance companies & moneylenders…

have dispossessed over 2.8 million women

of their gold, household assets & savings.’

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We recalled SBD’s insights while reading Amali Wedagedera’s recent essay, ‘The Regulatory Assault on Community Credit’ (see ee Focus). Wedagedera points to the ‘acute agrarian debt crisis’ and wonders why access to finance has become a ‘market-driven privilege’. Governments, she records, have been ‘allies of big finance in jettisoning people’s right to organise community credit’, with the legal machinery in tow. Yet, is this new?

‘By 2021, over 200 women had committed

suicide due to unpayable debt.’

Wedagedera’s immediate target is the new Microfinance & Credit Regulatory Authority Bill. She says it ‘functions as a legal enclosure, denying age-old community practices for creating & controlling credit.’ How old are these practices? She does not say. But, it turns out this recent legislative Bill has been stipulated by a $200mn Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan!

‘It is ironic that a Government in debt distress

uses an ADB loan to undermine the very

foundation of community resilience.’

Again, not new. The ADB, the IMF, the World Bank, operate in not-so-mysterious ways, their not-so-miraculous shylocksmithery to perform. Indeed the media report that banks have been accumulating billions at the expense of everybody else, even while they sing the joys of ‘small’ (MSMEs, etc) business, which they are bankrupting:

In the 2023-4 financial year, total banking sector profits

before tax have recorded an estimated Rs762bn

Indeed, the Central Bank governor, who is eager to play the role of ‘optimist conjuror’, pumps out anodynes for the optics – ‘the operation is a great success’, while the merchants and their chartered accountants declare their performances in glowing superlatives, extolling their ‘transparency’, ‘accountability’, ‘governance’, ‘sustainability’, ‘integrity’, ‘excellence’, ‘trust’ and ‘innovation’ (see ee Who’s Who, Tax Evasion Mafia Awards). Other less-publicized reports diagnose, ‘The patient is almost dead’!

     Wedagedera also exposes the pernicious role played by the so-called Credit Information Bureau (CRIB), whose ‘credit histories’ seek to entrap over 90% of low-income people (who have no steady formal income). CRIB is targeting mutual aid & women’s societies. Rather than elaborating on our own traditions of collective control, such as ‘a fistful of rice’, which she curiously limits to ‘more than 30 years’, Wedagedera upholds ‘the right of communities to collectively organise credit’ in the 2018 UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants & Others Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), & other UN declarations, which ‘recognise communal rights to land, seeds, & financial self-determination’. The UN itself needs some spinal instrument to ensure its right to determine its own fate, rather than being a toothless tool of the imperialist countries.

     Wedagedera exposes the real aim of the international financial institutions: to dismantle communal rights, which are ‘the last bastion of resilience against a predatory economic order’. There is a need to also link this to the overall impoverishment of the cultivator, the prevention of monetization and commercialization of harvests, and the consequent obstruction of rural industrialization and the role played by Anglo-American (US & Canadian) and European ‘development banks’ who are fronts for their industrial conglomerates, and hide behind ‘local’ finance companies that claim to be Sri Lankan.

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After pursuing a ship across 2 oceans and 10,000s of miles, the USA’s Indo-Pacific Command intercepted & boarded the Suezmax tanker Aquila II in the Indian Ocean by Sri Lanka on 9 February, unreported by media in Sri Lanka. The vessel was carrying ~700,000 barrels of crude oil from the Caribbean. The US has already seized 5 other tankers in 8 weeks. The stolen oil will be sold under a program the US has branded the ‘Great Energy Deal.’

     Last week, the US got a Panama court to snatch back Panama’s ports from their HK-owned operators: CK Hutchison has had a signed, paid-up contract for over28 years, a pact recently renewed. This eviction ruling comes after the US government declared they would send in armed troops to grab the Panama Canal (see ee Random Notes).

     This week, a US-linked medium reported that the Singapore government (within which Rockefeller’s Exxon is a major ‘influencer’) is calling for more control over the Malacca Straits. So is it only a matter of time before the US, with India wagging its tail behind, demands further control over Sri Lanka.

The‘Straits of Malacca & Singapore handle approximately

one-third of global traded goods & more than 80,000 vessel

transits annually, making them an unavoidable gateway

between the Indian Ocean & South China Sea.’

– ee Sovereignty, Singapore Calls for Global Action

as Shadow Fleet Pressures Strategic Straits

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The imperialist media is thus pushing ‘for the [further] militarization of the Quad states – US, Japan, Australia & India – against China & Russia in the Indian & Pacific Oceans, and the Straits of Malacca connecting them’. All of this perhaps leads up to what the new US ambassador to Sri Lanka Eric Meyer (pronounced ‘meeya’, like retail gangster Meyer Lansky) meant when he told their Senate in December 2025, ‘Sri Lanka’s strategic location makes it a focal point for US efforts to promote a free & open Indo-Pacific…’

     And so it has come to pass, though we know not for how long, scurrying about like pissu kumbi on hyper methamphetamines, the USA & its killer poodles (England, EU, Japan, et al) are casing the oceans, enacting their frenetic dance of death, by bombing defenceless fishing boats & pirating flagged ships. They claim they are hunting down drug dealers & ‘rogue’ oil tankers across the world, even as they are stealing oil from Venezuela & Iraq & Syria, denying oil to Cuba to strangle it, and threatening ‘oil-rich’ Iran with annihilation. We are being provided with free & expensive lessons in real time – ‘coming to you live’ – politricks.

     The English and their Indian merchant sects turned the Indian Ocean into a massive maritime route for the most lucrative commerce of the 19^th century: the English opium trade enforced on China by war. The USA now, seemingly ready to spark another more worldly & deadlier war, seeks to deny fuel to China, to thwart that East Asian country’s longer-term industrialization as well as obstruct Russia from selling oil, even while imposing more expensive US-sourced oil on our countries, seeking to stick their fingers on the triggers of gas pumps. As we have noted before, these policies do not emanate solely from the brow of any orange clown, but from the studious intent of the North Atlantic’s ruling capitalist classes, led by the such luminaries as Rockefeller’s Exxon corporation.  

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ee continues our perennial call for the modern (machine-making-machine) industrialization of our country. We reproduce an essay which goes to great lengths to show how & why manufacturing is the only way for Sri Lanka to transform its economy. However, the deadly (some may call it farcical) scenarios we witness today on the high seas, shows that it is not enough to elucidate the need for modern industrialization, but also expose who or what is preventing the obvious route our economy should take, and why & how they keep sabotaging these plans, and how we may overcome them?

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‘Services are not a derived activity any more, they are not add-ons

to agriculture & industry. They are the glue that binds them.’

– University of Peradeniya Senior Professor of Economics

OG Dayaratna-Banda (ee Economists, Prof Indraratna Oration)

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‘Why Developing Countries Can’t Skip Industrialization’ is the main ee Focus this week, by Jostein Hauge. The many dizzying panaceas prescribed, and the fleeting fashions paraded by economists on their academic and media catwalks, seek to bypass the fundamental need for manufacturing. Indeed, these economists in the merchant media are ‘hired gunmen’ or ‘hitmen’ of the merchant cabal. The good professor Dayaratne-Banda mentions the glue but dares not elaborate on the word ‘manufacture’, let alone highlight modern (machine-making-machine) industrial production. Like others, he instead promotes services, exports, etc., etc. Hauge however describes the unique qualities of manufacture (mechanization & chemical processing, ‘one product leading to another’, innovation) and lists the countries that have transformed themselves, especially China & Vietnam. Importantly, he counters the current fears spread by capitalists that automation automatically leads to job losses. He takes on bugaboos about China crowding out other countries’ industrialization. He also lists the decline experienced by those countries, which have been deindustrialized.

     Haugeis a Cambridge professor of development who sometimes loosely uses indicators like ‘growth’ and terms such as ‘development’ (a term created by Unilever as a polite euphemism for ‘colonial’) and ‘job creation’. ‘Growth’ for what? SBD de Silva would ask, and what kind of jobs? Hauge is also a big fan of ‘exports’ leading to innovation.

     We recall Marx’s emphasis that modern industrialization is not handicraft or manufacture (assembly) but machine making machines. Someone should tell Cambridge, andeven better, tell our Colombo professors & columnists (of the 5^th variety) that the overwhelming priority for imperialism is the prevention of industrialization. Which reminds that this week saw yet another chapter in the US drama being enacted in North Africa’s Libya, with the son of previously (2011) murdered Muammar Qaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi also being murdered. And here are his last words:

‘For the people whom you said they were martyred in 2011,

was it for this? Is it that we can’t dig a well in Sirte without the

permission of the Turks, the US Ambassador, English Ambassador,

& French Ambassador? Why didn’t you say that you wanted all

of this from the beginning without the 1,000s being killed &

the 500 billion that Libya wasted, and all this destruction resulting

in orphans and widows.’– Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi’s Last Message:

Another Tale of Imperialist Treason

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‘There is in capitalism an immanent tendency to stifle,

suffocate & push back the full realization of the

developmental potential of rival capitalisms.’

– SBD De Silva

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The mercenary preoccupations of ‘celebrated’ economists in the perpetual, daily & weekly news media can be understood more clearly by reading ee’s muse, SBD de Silva, and his 1982 classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. We continue Chapter 7, ‘Plantations & their Metropolitan Orientation’. He begins by pointing out that: ‘the dominance of merchant capital and the export-import bias were common to all countries of the periphery’. Merchant capital’s domination over absentee production capital enabled it to grab much of the surplus value from production, export & import in plantation economies, first implanted in Southern Europe & the Mediterranean, then the Americas (including the Caribbean) and Asia.

An official inquiry in Sri Lanka in 1923 reported that

the standard of food consumption among plantation

labour ‘compare [&] favourably with the jail diet’

‘With the plantations, the Europeans began to organize production overseas’, and this involved active underdevelopment of non-settler colonies, ensuring their clear divergence from the industrialized economies. Underdeveloped countries had to rely on more shipping, produce more valuable goods and consume more imported manufactures. Settler colonies, however, competed with England and produced their own substitutes, including modern technologies.

     Meanwhile, plantation economies, were forcibly turned into markets for manufactured goods, and this complemented the rise of industrial capitalism in Europe, which lived off the processing of raw materials from non-settler colonies. Plantations also precluded high wage levels, and higher productivity, and depended on their super-exploitation and oppression, reducing the incomes of all workers in the society. England also prevented the export of raw materials from their non-settler colonies to other countries to prevent development of local processing technologies, and thus increased political control. So much for free trade.

     Meanwhile, the purposeful ignorance of reality & history, leads to misuse of such terms as plantations & planters as symbols of status:

*

‘The plantation was not a feudal remnant but a highly rationalized system

of labor extraction. Enslaved people were measured, monitored, disciplined

& coerced with extraordinary precision. Output quotas, time discipline,

surveillance & punishment were not incidental features of slavery; they were

its operational logic. Long before the factory perfected these techniques

under the guise of free labor, the plantation had already demonstrated how

human beings could be transformed into units of productive capacity,

driven beyond endurance in the name of profit.’

(see ee Quotes)

*

Such deliberate ignorance leads to exaggerations of what English justice is all about. England, this week, announced, that it cutting off journalist access to English court records. English media are kept ignorant of most trials, and only certain trials are publicized (see ee Quotes, English Delay Justice). Court records are however one of the main ‘public’ sources of real data, as they can reveal information otherwise encrypted, disguised or concealed, especially when big thieves fight each other, the truth can emerge. There are therefore different categories of news, with most real news hidden away. ee News is largely a festeringgarbage dump of the weekly public news in English, mostly written about Sri Lanka – but it is also strewn with a few real jewels & some rare ‘found art’.

*

We recalled this week, certain key words such as ‘class’, ‘political organizations’, and political parties:

• Marx on Class – ‘In 18^th Brumaire (Sect VII) Marx gave this negative definition of a fully constituted class: ‘In so far as millions of families live under economic conditions of existence that separate their mode of life, their interests & their culture from those of the other classes, and put them in hostile opposition to the latter, they form a class. In so far as there is merely a local interconnection among these smallholding peasants, and the identity of their interests begets no community, no national bond, & no political organization among them, they do not form a class’.’ – Tom Bottommore, Dictionary of Marxist Thought, 1991

*

• In Class, for Class – ‘Economic conditions had in the first place transformed the mass of the people into workers. The domination of capital created the common situation & common interests of this class. Thus, this mass is already a class in relation to capital, but not yet a class for itself. In the struggle, of which we have only indicated a few phases, this mass unites and forms itself into a class for itself. The interests which it defends become class interests.’ – Karl Marx, Poverty of Philosophy, Ch2, Sect5

*

• Early English Class Organizations – ‘On March 27, 1846 [2 years before the English genocide in Sri Lanka – ee], the House of Commons voted to repeal the Corn Laws by a vote of 327 to 229. The repeal of the import duties on corn (meaning cereals including wheat, oats, barley) was one of the most significant economic events of the 19^th century… The Anti-Corn Law League was the most advanced political organization that England had ever seen… The League was administered from its headquarters in Newall’s Buildings in Manchester, where a large staff was separated into a number of departments – the League Council, a cashier’s office, a publication office, and an electoral office being the most important. The League’s activities were highly centralized. All but the most routine expenditures were authorized by a vote of the League Council. The League employed over 800 people in 1843 engaged solely in the publication & distribution of tracts. Also, numerous salaried lecturers were employed who addressed mass meetings. The League substantially subsidized a number of newspapers in order to assure favorable reporting & editorials. Most important were the League’s extensive electoral activities. The legal qualification for voting was simply the presence of a man’s name on the electoral register, reflecting the appropriate property-owning qualification. The League devoted enormous efforts & funds both to challenging the voting qualifications of protectionists and to padding the registers with the names of League members by purchasing qualification. In short, the League functioned as a highly efficient, well financed, & pragmatic political organization.’ – ‘Ideology, Interest Groups, & the Repeal of the Corn Laws’, Gary M Anderson & Robert D Tollison

*

• Marx Teaches Us to Value: When Thieves Fight – ‘The time just before the repeal of the Corn Laws threw new light on the condition of the agricultural laborers. On the one hand, it was to the interest of the middle-class agitators to prove how little the Corn Laws protected the actual producers of the corn. On the other hand, the industrial bourgeoisie foamed with sullen rage at the denunciations of the factory system by the landed aristocracy, at the pretended sympathy with the woes of the factory operatives, of those utterly corrupt, heartless & genteel loafers, and at their diplomatic zeal for factory legislation.

     It is an old English proverb that when thieves fall out, honest men come by their own, and, in fact, the noisy, passionate quarrel between the 2 fractions of the ruling class about the question, which of the 2 exploited the laborers the more shamefully, was on each hand the midwife of the truth. Earl Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, was commander-in-chief in the aristocratic, philanthropic, anti-factory campaign. He was, therefore, in 1845, a favorite subject in the revelations of the Morning Chronicle on the condition of the agricultural laborers. This journal, then the most important Liberal organ, sent special commissioners into the agricultural districts, who did not content themselves with mere general descriptions & statistics, but published the names both of the laboring families examined and of their landlords. The following list gives the wages paid in 3 villages in the neighborhood of Blanford, Wimbourne, and Poole. The villages are the property of Mr G. Bankes and of the Earl of Shaftesbury. It will be noted that, just like Bankes, this low church pope, this head of English pietists, pockets a great part of the miserable wages of the laborers under the pretext of house-rent.

     The repeal of the Corn Laws gave a marvelous impulse most extensive scale, new methods of stall-feeding, and of the artificial cultivation of green crops, introduction of mechanical manuring apparatus, new treatment of clay soils, increased use of numeral manures, employment of the steam-engine, and of all kinds of new machinery, more intensive cultivation generally, characterized this epoch. Mr Pusey, Chairman of the Royal Agricultural Society, declares that the (relative) expenses of farming have been reduced nearly one half by the introduction of new machinery.’ (Marx, Capital, Vol 1, Chapter 25)

*

_________

Contents:

US Threatens to Grab Malacca Straits – Is Sri Lanka Next?

Shenali D Waduge

While the world debates the dangerous outcomes of ‘digital education,’ in Sri Lanka a silent campaign is underway. Educationists, policymakers, and self-proclaimed experts—often in partnership with international agencies including the UN—are promoting a plan that will digitalize the learning of 4 million Sri Lankan children. But whose interests are truly being served? Are these so-called educationists genuinely safeguarding the nation’s future, or are they conduits for foreign agendas seeking to reshape the identity, culture, and values of Sri Lankan youth?

Evidence now confirms what society is experiencing. A 2026 scientific assessment presented to the U.S. Congress by neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath confirms something unprecedented in modern history: Gen Z is the first generation to perform worse cognitively and academically than their parents. This assessment was presented before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, based on cross-national longitudinal cognitive testing data covering over 80 countries, making it one of the most comprehensive global analyses of generational cognitive performance ever conducted.

According to Horvath’s testimony, Gen Z underperforms across:

• attention
• memory
• literacy
• numeracy
• executive function
• general IQ

His research across 80 countries shows a clear trend:

When digital technology becomes dominant in classrooms, cognitive performance declines”.

This mistake is exactly what Sri Lanka’s education ministry is proposing to do starting April 2026.

If Sri Lanka proceeds down this path, it risks institutionalizing the same cognitive decline now documented across Western education systems, repeating their mistakes instead of learning from their failures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd-_VDYit3U – Doctor Jared Cooney Horvath on How Screen Time Hurts Kids’ Cognitive Development. Sri Lanka’s education ministry must listen to this especially parents.

https://nypost.com/2026/02/07/us-news/gen-z-the-first-generation-officially-dubbed-dumber-than-the-last

The core cause:

• excessive screen exposure + technology-mediated learning replacing deep human-led learning.

This is not opinion.

This is neuroscience and global academic data.

THIS CONFIRMS A DEEPER CIVILIZATIONAL CRISIS

Gen Z is the first generation since standardized cognitive testing began in the 1800s to perform worse than their parents

Declines were recorded in:

• Attention
• Memory
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Executive function
• General IQ

The primary cause identified:

Overexposure to digital technology in education + algorithm-driven learning environments

This scientific finding perfectly aligns with what we are witnessing socially, psychologically, emotionally, and culturally:

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath: Even in schools, it doesn’t matter what the size of the screen is…and it doesn’t matter who bought it…All of these things are also going to hurt learning, which in turn are going to hurt our kids’ cognitive development.”

Full video here: https://www.c-span.org/program/senate…

This testimony directly challenges the global push especially by the UN to introduce digitize classrooms under the false promise of modernization.

The study of 80 nations shows, that early digital immersion weakens learning, memory consolidation, and impacts long-term intellectual development.

https://thefederalist.com/2026/02/13/gen-z-is-dumber-thanks-to-adults-saturating-their-lives-with-screens

For the first time in modern history, a generation is showing visible decline in:

They were born into:

• hyper-technology
• ideological overload
• identity crisis
• dopamine-driven digital ecosystems
• entitlement culture – right-oriented
• collapsing family authority & declining morals/values of young parents

The result is:

• anxiety
• depression
• identity confusion
• social anger
• protest addiction
• emotional fragility

This is civilizational failure, not generational failure.

WHAT THE ANCIENTS BUILT — AND WHY IT LASTED

Ancient civilizations across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe built societies on:

• duty before rights
• discipline before comfort
• wisdom before information
• family before state
• identity before ideology
• morality before law

They understood a fundamental truth:

• Strong individuals create strong families.
• Strong families create strong societies.
• Strong societies create lasting civilizations.

This truth is being systematically broken

They mastered:

• irrigation
• mathematics
• astronomy
• medicine
• governance
• architecture
• philosophy
• education

But not before they mastered the human mind.

They knew:

Civilization collapses not when technology fails,
but when character, discipline, and identity collapse.

These are qualities we see lacking in Gen Z today. It is no fault of theirs, it is because the educational system, university apparatus and even society has moved away from these value-based criteria.

Media and communication channels have much to shoulder blame.

They used their  power of reach to misinform – misguide and misdirect people.

WHAT WE HAVE TODAY — AND WHY IT IS FAILING

We have:

• Artificial Intelligence without human wisdom
• biotechnology
• infinite data
• instant communication

Yet we also have:

• record anxiety
• rising depression
• identity chaos
• collapsing family structures
• emotional immaturity
• ideological extremism

We built smart machines — but made weaker humans.

That is not progress.
That is civilizational imbalance.

TECHNOLOGY WITHOUT HUMANITY IS WORTHLESS

This is not an anti-technology argument — it is a pro-human argument.

Dr. Horvath’s research proves:

Technology does not elevate human intelligence.
When misused, it degrades cognitive development.

Technology was meant to:

• strengthen thinking
• deepen learning
• enhance relationships
• increase productivity

Instead, it:

• replaced thinking
• shortened attention spans
• rewired dopamine systems
• weakened memory
• replaced human interaction

Gen Z became the first generation raised inside algorithms.

Technology did not adapt to them.
Their brains adapted to technology.

This produced:

• shallow thinking
• emotional volatility
• impulse-driven behavior
• poor resilience
• fragile attention
• Inability to critically assess and analyse – often resulting in going with the flow/trend

Smart tech + weak humans = civilizational suicide.

History shows that civilizations collapse not from lack of innovation, but from erosion of human discipline, character, and moral coherence.

IDENTITY ENGINEERING: THE MOST DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT OF OUR AGE

For all of history, civilizations understood:

• Sex is biological.
• Gender expression is cultural.
• Identity is anchored in reality.

Today, global ideological movements seek to:

• blur biological sex
• destabilize natural identity
• normalize identity confusion
• replace biology with ideology

This is presented as freedom.

But psychologically, it creates:

• confusion
• anxiety
• instability
• emotional distress

Instead of teaching children:

You are complete as you are,

they are taught:

You must question your own biology.

This destabilizes the deepest foundation of mental health — identity certainty, feeling sense of belonging and they are led to paths that will destroy them – physically & psychologically.

No society can maintain psychological stability when it systematically teaches children to distrust their own biology.

CHILDHOOD MEDICALIZATION: WHEN ACTIVISM BECOMES INDUSTRY

Children naturally experience:

• emotional turbulence
• identity questioning
• body discomfort during puberty – hormonal changes
• psychological exploration

These phases were once guided by:

• parental wisdom
• patience
• maturity
• cultural stability

Today, ideology increasingly:

• labels confusion
• medicalizes development
• politicizes identity
• introduces irreversible interventions

This creates:

• lifelong medical dependency
• irreversible biological changes
• psychological regret
• emotional trauma

When pharmaceutical systems, surgical industries, media sensationalism, corporate branding, and ideological activism merge, children and childhood becomes a marketplace.

This is not compassion.
This is institutionalized recklessness – targeting the child.

Future generations will judge this era not by its technological achievements, but by how recklessly it experimented on children in the name of ideology and profit.

CLASSROOM IDEOLOGY: CSE & IDENTITY POLITICS IN EDUCATION

Schools once existed to teach:

• literacy
• logic
• discipline
• ethics
• critical thinking

Now, classrooms increasingly transmit:

• identity ideology
• sexual frameworks
• political activism
• emotional validation culture

This:

• confuses childhood development
• destabilizes identity formation
• weakens parental authority
• politicizes education

Education must build minds — not manufacture identities.

The role of education is intellectual empowerment, not psychological engineering.

The adults too are now targets.

DEI & CORPORATE IDEOLOGY: CONTROL THROUGH COMPLIANCE

DEI frameworks increasingly:

• enforce ideological conformity
• silence biological discussion
• punish dissent
• override scientific debate

This transforms:

• workplaces into ideological zones
• corporations into moral police
• society into psychological control systems

True inclusion respects:

• diversity of thought
• scientific inquiry
• open debate

Not ideological obedience.

A society that silences biological and scientific truth destroys its own capacity for rational governance.

THE DESTRUCTION OF FEMININITY & MASCULINITY

Masculinity built:

• courage
• leadership
• protection
• sacrifice
• resilience

Femininity built:

• emotional intelligence
• compassion
• nurturing
• stability
• moral grounding

Civilizations flourished because both worked together. Complimented each other. Today, it has been made fashionable to compete against each other.

Today, ideology:

• attacks masculinity – attempts to neutralize masculine traits
• destabilizes femininity – attempts to remove the softer side of the female
• encourages biological rejection
• reframes natural roles as oppression – attempts to relocate women out of the home.

This creates:

• confused boys
• insecure girls
• unstable families
• fragile societies

A civilization that erases sexual identity erases its own foundation.

When natural human complementarity is replaced by ideological conflict, family stability collapses, and social fragmentation accelerates.

FROM DUTY TO ENTITLEMENT: HOW CHARACTER COLLAPSED

Ancient societies taught:

• duty before rights
• responsibility before privilege
• restraint before freedom

Modern culture teaches:

• rights before duty
• entitlement before effort
• validation before discipline

This reversal produced:

• grievance culture
• protest addiction
• anger escalation
• street violence
• chronic dissatisfaction – always blaming others not shortcomings of oneself.

When people believe:

• Society owes me,

but never ask:

• What do I owe society? frustration becomes inevitable.

That frustration explodes into:

• protests
• riots
• confrontation
• destruction

WHY GEN Z IS PROTESTING MORE THAN ANY GENERATION

Because they were raised on:

• entitlement
• emotional indulgence
• ideological grievance
• instant gratification

Not on:

• resilience
• discipline
• responsibility
• effort

When expectations are infinite and responsibility is zero, anger becomes unavoidable.

The so-called youth-led” protests in Nepal, Bangladesh even Sri Lanka show how shortsighted their reactions are – destroying what the taxpayers eventually have to pay to rebuild, taking more loans, paying more interest when most of them don’t even have a job to take accountability themselves for the destruction they caused. Would any employer wish to employ reactionary-destructive youth?

Economic development requires stable, disciplined, accountable youth — not emotionally volatile ideological activists.

THE COLLAPSE OF FAMILY AUTHORITY

Parents once shaped children.

Now:

• social media shapes children
• influencers replace parents
• ideology replaces tradition
• algorithms replace wisdom
• Bills are being brought to punish the teachers and parents!

Family authority collapsed.
Children destabilized.
Social order weakened.

No civilization survives when the family collapses.

Every major civilizational collapse in history — Roman, Greek, Persian, Mayan — was preceded by family disintegration, moral erosion, and identity destabilization.

This is why pro-life must never be compromised.

WHY GEN Z FAILED WHERE THEIR PARENTS DID NOT

Not because Gen Z is weak —
but because their psychological environment was corrupted.

Their parents grew up with:

• discipline
• limits
• struggle
• responsibility

Gen Z grew up with:

• unlimited stimulation
• emotional overvalidation
• identity confusion
• ideological saturation

This destroyed:

• patience
• resilience
• emotional strength
• mental discipline

THE CIVILIZATIONAL RESET WE NEED

We must return to fundamentals.

Back to:

• duty before rights
• discipline before indulgence
• family before ideology
• biology before politics
• wisdom before information
• humanity before technology

This is not regression.
This is civilizational survival.

THE CORE CIVILIZATIONAL TRUTH

Technology cannot save a civilization that has lost its soul.
Ideology cannot replace biological reality.
Rights cannot replace responsibility.
Progress cannot erase wisdom.

Our ancestors built civilizations that lasted centuries.
We are building systems that may not survive decades.

Gen Z is not broken.

The civilization shaping them is.

And unless we restore:

• discipline
• identity clarity
• parental authority
• wisdom-based education
• moral grounding
• human-centered technology

we will not raise stronger generations —
we will accelerate civilizational collapse.

Before Sri Lanka entrusts its children to a digital classroom designed abroad, we must question the authority of those promoting it. Education is not merely about technology—it is about identity, history, heritage, values, and sovereignty. The push for digital education, disguised as progress, risks turning millions of young minds into passive recipients of foreign narratives. The politicians and so-called educationists championing this rollout must be held accountable: for every child, every lesson, every byte delivered under this scheme could reshape the soul of a nation into a generation severed from its roots, its culture, and its critical thinking, molding children into obedient consumers of globalized agendas rather than proud inheritors and defenders of Sri Lanka’s identity and heritage.

Shenali D Waduge

Shenali D Waduge

Since March 1997, Senaka Weeraratna has waged one of the most persistent, solitary intellectual justice campaigns in modern sport — appealing locally and internationally for recognition as the author of the ‘Player – Referral’ system, today globally known as the Decision Review System (DRS). It began with a letter to the ‘Australian’ (National Newspaper of Australia) dated March 25, 1997. First adopted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2008 as the Decision Review System (DRS), it replaced the “umpire’s decision is final” rule with a system allowing players to challenge on-field calls using technology.

For nearly three decades, his appeals crossed continents, institutions, cricket boards, editors, officials, and administrators. They were supported by documented evidence, first publication records, and formal submissions. Yet, despite the strength of the claim and the clarity of proof, institutional silence prevailed.

As a result, a revolutionary idea that transformed cricket adjudication forever — restoring fairness, accuracy, and justice — was allowed to circulate globally without its creator receiving an iota of rightful recognition or due compensation in the royalties.

This silence did not arise from absence of merit. It arose from institutional inertia, personal jealousy, and systemic resistance to acknowledging authorship outside traditional Western power centres. In South Asian terms, this can only be described as eersiyaawa” — envy-driven obstruction, a cultural malaise that prevents collective advancement by suppressing individual excellence.

As a result, a revolutionary idea that transformed cricket adjudication forever — restoring fairness, accuracy, and justice — was allowed to circulate globally without its creator receiving rightful recognition. Even umpires have failed to acknowledge its merit.

A lone struggle against institutional walls

Weeraratna’s campaign was extraordinary not only for its intellectual depth, but for its longevity and moral clarity. Alone, without institutional backing, he wrote to cricket boards, journalists, administrators, lawyers, international bodies, and governments. His writings appeared in leading international newspapers, and formal representations were submitted to Sri Lanka Cricket and the ICC.

Yet decision-makers remained unmoved. Sympathy replaced action. Praise replaced recognition. Polite acknowledgement replaced justice. Even 

This reveals a deeper problem: the inability of institutions to honour intellectual originality when it originates from outside entrenched power structures.

Why this moment is different — and urgent

Today, Senaka Weeraratna approaches 80 years of age.

The world of cricket, meanwhile, is undergoing a profound power shift:

·      South Asia now dominates global cricket revenues

·      Asian audiences drive broadcast markets

·      Asian teams define competitive standards

·      Asian players dominate performance metrics

Cricket’s economic, cultural, and moral centre of gravity has shifted East.

Yet intellectual recognition remains locked in old colonial hierarchies.

This contradiction can no longer be sustained.

From a Sri Lankan claim to a South Asian responsibility

This is no longer a private grievance or a national claim.

It is now a South Asian civilisational responsibility.

South Asia must spearhead this recognition because:

·      The innovation originated here

·      The beneficiaries are global

·      The denial reflects historical power imbalance

·      The silence enables continued intellectual marginalisation

To allow this injustice to persist is to accept a subordinate intellectual identity, where South Asian innovation is consumed but not credited.

Why recognition matters beyond One Man

This campaign is not about personal glorification.

It is about:

·      Restoring truth to cricket history

·      Correcting global intellectual records

·      Establishing ethical norms of authorship

·      Ensuring future Asian innovators are not erased

If Senaka Weeraratna’s authorship is denied despite documented evidence and international publication, what hope remains for the next South Asian innovator?

The DRS was not merely a technical adjustment.

It was a moral innovation — introducing justice, accountability, and transparency into a sport governed for over a century by unchallengeable authority.

This ethical architecture originated in Sri Lanka, from a legal mind trained in justice, fairness, and moral responsibility.

To deny that origin is to deny cricket’s own ethical foundation.

A Call to South Asian Leaders

This moment demands leadership.

Political leaders, cricket boards, legal communities, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals across India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Nepal must now jointly act.

They must:

·      Demand formal ICC recognition

·      Insist on historical correction

·      Mobilize public opinion

·      Restore intellectual justice

Time must not be allowed to become another instrument of denial.

History Still Awaits Correction

Almost three decades ago, one Sri Lankan gave cricket its most transformative innovation which is now used across all sports.

Today, almost three decades later, South Asia must give him what institutions denied — truth, recognition, and justice.

If South Asia cannot protect its own intellectual pioneers, it forfeits its moral right to global leadership in cricket.

The time for hesitation is over.

The time for collective action is now.

Shenali D Waduge

Submitted by: Sarath Obeysekera Chairman / Marine & Offshore Engineering Specialist EDB Advisory Board Member

Strategic Inclusion of Trincomalee Offshore Engineering & Marine Hub in the National Export Development Plan (2025–2029)

Submitted by:

Sarath Obeysekera

Chairman / Marine & Offshore Engineering Specialist

EDB Advisory Board Member

To:

Hon. Minister of Industries

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

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1. Purpose

This paper seeks to highlight a critical strategic omission in the draft National Export Development Plan (NEDP 2025–2029):

The absence of a clearly defined high-value offshore engineering and marine industrial development strategy centered in Trincomalee, specifically the proposed development of the Clappenburg area as an Offshore Engineering Hub.

This project has the potential to:

• Attract substantial Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
• Reverse brain drain
• Position Sri Lanka as an Indian Ocean offshore engineering center
• Generate high-value export earnings
• Support energy security and maritime industrialization

---

2. Strategic Gap in the NEDP

The NEDP identifies:

• Marine-based industries (including boatbuilding)
• Logistics and transshipment development
• Port-led industrial growth
• Knowledge-intensive exports
• FDI-linked export expansion

However, it does not explicitly address:

• Offshore oil & gas engineering services
• Offshore renewable energy fabrication
• FPSO conversion and repair
• Subsea engineering services
• Offshore rig repair and marine heavy engineering

While Sri Lanka Ports Authority and port expansion initiatives are mentioned, there is no targeted strategy to leverage Trincomalee’s natural deep-water advantage for high-value offshore engineering activities.

---

3. Why Trincomalee is Strategically Unique

3.1 Natural Deep-Water Advantage

Trincomalee Harbour is one of the finest natural deep-water harbours in the world. It offers:

• Deep draft suitable for offshore rigs and heavy marine structures
• Calm waters ideal for fabrication and floating dock operations
• Large available land bank for industrial estate development
• Strategic proximity to Bay of Bengal energy routes

Unlike Colombo, which is primarily a transshipment hub, Trincomalee can become a production-based maritime industrial cluster.

---

4. Proposed Development: Clappenburg Offshore Engineering Hub

The proposal submitted through the EDB Advisory Board recommends:

Development of Clappenburg Area as:

• Offshore fabrication yard
• Rig repair and refurbishment center
• Subsea structure manufacturing facility
• Offshore renewable (wind) foundation fabrication base
• LNG and marine energy service zone

This aligns directly with:

• NEDP Strategic Objective 1 (Logistics & Hub Operations)
• Strategic Objective 3 (Export-oriented FDI)
• Strategic Objective 6 (Skills & Innovation)

Yet it remains unrecognized as a national flagship project.

---

5. Economic Impact Potential

5.1 Foreign Direct Investment

High-value offshore engineering projects typically attract:

• USD 200–500 million initial FDI
• Technology transfer partnerships
• Global EPC contractor participation

Countries such as:

• Singapore
• Vietnam
• Malaysia

have leveraged offshore engineering to move from low-value manufacturing to high-value marine industrialization.

Sri Lanka can follow a similar pathway.

---

5.2 Brain Drain Reversal

Sri Lanka produces:

• Naval architects
• Marine engineers
• Welding technologists
• Offshore structural engineers
• NDT specialists

Many migrate due to lack of high-value domestic projects.

Establishing an offshore engineering hub would:

• Retain skilled engineers
• Create high-paying technical jobs
• Encourage diaspora return
• Strengthen NVQ and TVET marine specialization

---

5.3 Export Revenue

Offshore engineering services generate:

• Project-based USD inflows
• Long-term service contracts
• Regional Bay of Bengal energy support services

This aligns with NEDP’s goal of reaching USD 36 billion exports by 2030.

---

6. Geopolitical and Strategic Relevance

The Bay of Bengal is emerging as a major energy and maritime zone.

India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and ASEAN countries are expanding:

• Offshore gas exploration
• Floating LNG
• Offshore wind

Sri Lanka must strategically position Trincomalee before regional competitors dominate this niche.

Failure to act will leave Sri Lanka limited to low-margin transshipment activities.

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7. Policy Recommendations

1. Immediate Inclusion in NEDP

Explicitly identify:

Trincomalee Offshore Engineering & Marine Industrial Hub” as a flagship project.

2. Call for International RFP

Through EDB and BOI, issue a global RFP for:

• Strategic marine engineering partners
• Offshore yard developers
• Energy EPC firms

3. Establish Special Marine SEZ

Designate Clappenburg as:

• Marine & Offshore SEZ
• With tax and duty facilitation
• Simplified customs regime
• Fast-track approvals

4. Institutional Coordination

Create a Joint Task Force involving:

• Ministry of Industries
• EDB
• BOI
• SLPA
• Ministry of Energy

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8. Conclusion

The NEDP rightly emphasizes logistics, digital exports, and diversification. However, it underestimates Sri Lanka’s potential to move into high-value offshore engineering and marine heavy industry.

Developing Clappenburg in Trincomalee is not merely a regional development project.

Sri Lanka News

In February 2026, the Sri Lankan government officially withdrew its support for a campaign aimed at promoting the country as an inclusive destination for LGBTQ+ tourists. This reversal followed intense pressure from influential religious leaders, including senior Buddhist monks and the head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. 

The decision impacted the following areas:

• Policy Withdrawal: The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) rescinded a letter of support for a project proposed by the advocacy group Equal Ground, which sought to market the island as a safe and welcoming destination for diverse travellers.
• Religious Opposition: Prominent figures, such as Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and leaders of the three main Buddhist monastic chapters, argued that promoting such tourism undermined the nation’s moral and cultural heritage.
• Legal Context: The Attorney General confirmed the withdrawal during a court hearing for a writ petition filed by citizens who claimed the initiative was unconstitutional and encouraged “unethical” behaviour.
• Impact on Image: While tourism officials originally viewed the project as a way to diversify markets and boost foreign exchange, the government ultimately prioritised alignment with national traditional values. 

Would you like more details on the current safety advisories for travelers or information on Sri Lanka’s general tourism targets for 2026?

By Eng. Sarath Obeysekera

In 1984, I returned to Sri Lanka after working in Norway’s oil and gas industry, bringing with me experience in advanced welding technologies and offshore engineering. I joined the then state-controlled Colombo Dockyard PLC as a consulting engineer with one objective: to upgrade our industrial capability to international standards.

During that period, we introduced modern welding systems, supported hydropower projects, constructed oil storage tanks, and strengthened fabrication standards. In 1989, I was invited to head the Civil Engineering Corporation, where I further modernized operational systems.

When the Japanese took over Colombo Dockyard, I was reappointed as expatriate CEO. From 1994 to 2001, we elevated Sri Lanka’s shipbuilding technology to a new level before I returned to the UK and Norway to rejoin the oil and gas sector.

But my heart was always in Sri Lanka.

The Galle Harbour Opportunity That Slipped Away

In 2013, I returned to find Galle Harbour idling—an underutilized national asset with immense potential. I proposed developing a yacht building and repair yard. After obtaining Cabinet approval, a Saudi investor commenced development.

However, due to unforeseen religious concerns, the investor withdrew. Subsequently, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority cancelled our agreement and evicted us. A strategic maritime development initiative collapsed—not due to lack of vision or funding, but due to institutional rigidity.

More than 13 years later, Galle Harbour continues to idle.

Mutwal: A Shipyard Born, Then Abandoned

Determined not to give up, I shifted focus to Mutwal (Modera), reviving an idle shipyard with Malaysian investment under MTD Walkers. Thus was born Walkers Colombo Shipyard. We provided a USD 750,000 bond to SLPA and again sought to redevelop Galle.

The proposal was rejected. Years of effort were neutralized. During the economic depression, delayed lease payments led the Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation to terminate our lease. Today, the Mutwal yard is silent. Equipment rusts where opportunity once stood.

Trincomalee: Another Vision in Limbo

Later, I was appointed Advisor by the Export Development Board to develop Sri Lanka’s offshore industry. I identified Trincomalee as a strategic maritime and offshore hub. After extensive groundwork, a Cabinet paper was prepared and presented to the Committee of Development Ministers.

Months have passed. No decision.

Investors and professionals who bring international experience are left in a perpetual state of uncertainty.

The Real Crisis: Implementation Failure

Sri Lanka does not lack talent.

Sri Lanka does not lack strategic location.

Sri Lanka does not lack presidential vision.

What it lacks is coordinated execution.

Ministries operate in silos. Approvals move from pillar to post. Agencies such as YDA and CEA take years to grant permissions for initiatives that could generate employment, foreign direct investment (FDI), and technology transfer.

For the past two years, I have been attempting to establish an Advanced Welding Academy in Galle—a center that could transform vocational training and equip our youth with globally competitive skills in welding, fabrication, and offshore construction.

Yet, approvals remain pending.

A Call for Industrial Reform

If Sri Lanka is serious about attracting FDI and developing high-value industries, we must:

• Fast-track strategic industrial approvals.
• Protect investors who bring technology and global markets.
• Establish a single-window clearance system.
• Empower technically competent leadership within ministries.
• Recognize vocational training as a national priority.

Shipbuilding, offshore engineering, and advanced fabrication are not small industries. They are strategic national assets. Countries like Norway, Singapore, and South Korea built prosperity through maritime and industrial excellence.

Sri Lanka has the geography. It has the talent. What it lacks is decisive execution.

After four decades of contributing locally and internationally, I remain committed to building industrial capacity in my motherland. But frustration grows when national assets lie idle while investors and professionals are driven away.

It is time for Sri Lanka to decide:

Will we continue to let opportunity rust — or will we build the future?

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Rohan Abeygunawardena

• The Mother of All Cricket Rivalries in Asia”

After weeks of uncertainty, the first-round match between India and Pakistan of the 2026 T20 will be played today at Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

The match is among the most-watched sporting events in the world, attracting hundreds of millions of viewers globally. Past high-profile matches (such as ICC World Cup or T20 World Cup clashes) have also drawn over 300–400 million viewers worldwide, making this rivalry one of the most watched in cricket history. Consequently, it exceeds many other global sporting events.

There was political controversy and reports that Pakistan’s government initially instructed its team to boycott the match against India. This caused major uncertainty over whether the classic rivalry fixture would take place.

The controversy began when Bangladesh withdrew from the World Cup earlier, citing safety concerns about playing in India. Instead of addressing their concerns, the ICC replaced Bangladesh with Scotland. Pakistan’s government and cricket leadership believed this move was unfair. As a show of support and solidarity with Bangladesh, and accusing the ICC of double standards, Pakistan refused to play India.

Sri Lanka faced a similar situation when some countries refused or hesitated to tour Sri Lanka, citing security concerns during the 1996 Cricket World Cup. However, they were not removed from the tournament. The ICC sent an independent security delegation to Sri Lanka, conducted risk assessments of venues, hotels, and transportation routes, and consulted with local authorities and foreign security experts.

After several days of negotiations involving the ICC, PCB, Bangladesh Cricket Board, and government officials—including Sri Lanka’s—Pakistan reversed the boycott decision. The main reason for this change was ICC assurances that Bangladesh would face no penalties for withdrawing.

Additionally, Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, played a visible diplomatic role in encouraging Pakistan to reverse its boycott and play the India match in Colombo. It is reported that he personally called Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and urged him to reconsider Pakistan’s boycott decision, stressing the importance of the match going ahead. It is also reported that the Sri Lankan president has reminded the Pakistani prime minister that when Australia and the West Indies refused to travel to Colombo, citing security risks during the 1996 World Cup, the two arch-rivals, India and Pakistan, agreed to play an exhibition match in Colombo, affirming their trust in Sri Lanka and offering a lifeline to its tournament ambitions.

Pakistan then changed their stance and agreed to play the match, ensuring the fixture would proceed.

• When Pakistan Team Wanted To Pull Out Of First Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test Series

Pakistan’s first tour of Sri Lanka after Sri Lanka achieved Test status was in February 1986. The first test was at Asgiriya, where Sri Lanka lost by innings. Before the second test on March 14 at CCC, the President of the Board of Control, Gamini Dissanayake, was determined to secure a series victory. He called a meeting with officials and players to share his ambition.

The second test began at the CCC grounds. Pakistan was bowled out for 132 in the first innings, while Sri Lanka scored 273. In the second innings, Pakistan scored 172, and Sri Lanka needed only 33 runs to win. Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets.

Pakistan players, led by Imran Khan, were unhappy with many umpiring decisions. At the time, there was no neutral umpiring, and Sri Lankan umpires officiated. There was also no Decision Review System (DRS). After the second test, Pakistani players and the captain asked officials to cancel the series. The Pakistan manager contacted their Board of Control officials, who sent a senior official to discuss with Sri Lankan officials and diplomatically withdraw the team.

The Pakistani official first spoke with the vice president of the Board of Control for Cricket, Ian Pieris (former Sri Lanka cricketer and Cambridge blue), then with the president.

Nearly two hours of talks yielded no favourable outcome. Gamini Dissanayake then called President J.R. Jayewardene, briefed him on the situation, and JRJ, a cricket fan, invited them to his residence at Ward Place.”

JRJ listened to both sides and then quietly walked to his land phone and dialled. When someone answered, he said, Your Excellency, these 22 fools in flannels are trying to disrupt the good relations between our countries. Therefore, I am ordering the Pakistan team to stay and continue the game.”

The Pakistani president at the time, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, spoke to the Pakistan official over the phone. He assured President J.R. Jayewardene that they would continue the tour.

The third test was played at The Oval and resulted in a draw, marking Sri Lanka’s first series draw. Thus Sri Lanka drew a series for the first time after attaining test status.

Pakistan won the 5 match ODI series 2 – 0.

If J.R. Jayewardene were living today, he would have called the limited-over and T20 teams these twenty-two fools in multi-coloured pyjamas.”

• Sri Lankans Contribution to World of Cricket, on Field and Off the Field.

Sri Lankans have made significant contributions to the world of cricket. In the 1996 World Cup matches, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana transformed the first 15 overs from a survival phase” into a weapon with their ultra-aggressive opening batting.

Sri Lankan world cup winning Captain Arjuna Ranatunga, who challenged umpiring norms and player authority, helped create the world’s best spinner – the great Muttiah Muralitharan, who redefined what spin bowling could be. He is widely considered the greatest spinner of all time, holding the record for the most Test wickets (800) and 534 ODI wickets.

Off the field, the Sri Lankan fan contribution to cricket culture includes the famous high-energy brass band style Papare” music.

Most notably, Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratne proposed the concept of the Player Referral System (now commonly called the Decision Review System – DRS) in 1997. This system was introduced to review controversial decisions made by on-field umpires regarding whether the batsman was correctly dismissed.

Senaka Weeraratne, known as the father of UDRS or DRS, has yet to receive adequate recognition from the ICC. I appeal to all cricket fans to pressure the ICC to be fair and avoid any double standards.

Rohan Abeygunawardena

(Writer could be contacted on abeyrohan@gmail.com)

Hiru News

Michael Smith

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Billboard in front of the US Interest Section in Havana. Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0

Born in crisis, strengthened by rejection, Cuba once again faces economic asphyxiation by Washington, which is moving in for the kill after sixty-seven years of attacking the island.*

Since the triumph of their revolution in 1959, Cubans have infuriated U.S. leaders with their specialized genius in overcoming catastrophe, whether it take the form of a hurricane, flood, invasion, hijacking, chemical attack, biological attack, or economic warfare. 

In the same year, 1959 another geostrategic island in the Indian Ocean, Ceylon saw her first Socialist Prime Minister, S.W.R.D Bandaranaike assassinated in Operation Colombo as the Cold War escalated between the West and the de-colonizing Global South escalated against Leftists.

Between disasters, they eat, drink, dance, and make merry in Cuba.

Today with the second coming of Trump, the abduction of Nicolas Maduro, and the cutting off of Venezuelan oil to Havana, they face a very familiar ratcheting up of imperial sadism to make them beg for relief.
Bus stops stand empty and fewer cars and pedestrians circulate in the street. Lack of fuel is palpable, and many gas stations have shut down. Air Canada is suspending service to the island.

Families turn to wood and coal for cooking amidst the constant power outages. Emergency restrictions mandate a four-day work week, reduced transport between provinces, the closing of main tourist facilities, shorter school days, and reduced in-person attendance requirements at universities.
But somehow life flows on in Havana, and there’s plenty to do. Near the train station on the boardwalk, people fish. When night falls, neighborhoods fill with young people engaged in cultural projects, or playing soccer or basketball.

A 32-year-old Cuban woman named Yadira expressed a key part of the national psychology well to journalist Louis Hernandez Navarro recently in the Mexican daily La Jornada. Two years ago, she left the island hoping to reach the United States, leaving her nine-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son with their grandparents. She never made it to the U.S. and had to stay in Mexico City, working in a fish shop in the Nonoalco market. Now she’s back in Havana. 

However far from home I may be,” she says, there’s a little piece of me still in Cuba, and I don’t just mean my children . . ..  I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to my country. I don’t like politics, but what we are experiencing with Trump goes beyond politics. How come someone who isn’t even Cuban has to come and decide how we have to live?”

Navarro observes that those now counting on precipitating a regime change” by strangling the life of Cuba, forget how intimate the bonds with one’s native country are, how quickly even the apolitical like Yadira can be provoked into fierce resistance. It is a foolish but frequent forgetting.

He goes on to note that now is not the first time that the end of the Cuban revolution was said to be at hand. In 1991, Argentine journalist Andres Oppenheimer published the book, Castro’s Final Hour,” the product of a six-month stay in Cuba and five-hundred interviews with high officials and government opponents.

A contributor to the Miami Herald and CNN, Oppenheimer lives in the United States and enjoys close ties to the Cuban exile community in Miami. According to Navarro, the book describes what the author took to be the imminent collapse of Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution after three decades in power.

But the much yearned-for outcome quickly evaporated. Confident forecasts of the prompt and inevitable disintegration of the Cuban government, written as the Iron Curtain” was falling and the USSR vanishing, turned out to be a mirage. Promiscuously spread as a kind of Gospel in newspapers and on TV, the predictions remained unfulfilled. Fidel Castro stubbornly lived another 25 years, was succeeded in power by his brother Raul, who, in turn, was succeeded by Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Thirty-five years later, U.S. military aggression against Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro have revived the prophecy of impending doom for the Cuban revolution. The fantasy feeds on extrapolations from the importance that Chavismo” had for the survival of revolutionary politics on the island, leaping to easy conclusions that Communist rule will abruptly collapse.

It is certainly true that in Hugo Chavez’s time, up to a hundred thousand barrels of Venezuelan oil a day were distributed to Cuba, and after the economic siege against the Maduro government was imposed (2021-2025), the figure plummeted to thirty thousand barrels a day, a severe blow to the island’s economy. Today, Havana only has about 40,000 of the 100,000 daily barrels it needs, while implementation of its plan to promote renewable forms of energy so as to rely less on fossil fuels advances at a slower pace than the country’s growing needs.

To make matters worse, Trump has tightened the energy blockade, threatening to charge tariffs on countries daring to supply Cuba with fuel. This has profoundly negative consequences for public health, food, and, of course, daily life. Cubans were already suffering frequent power outages, as well as scarcity and deprivation on a scale not seen since the special period” of economic crisis after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, but now must withstand almost constant shut-downs. On many parts of the island outages last more than half the day.

But does that mean that the collapse of the Cuban government is imminent or that regime change” is about to occur?  Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga says absolutely not: This is an opportunity and a challenge that we have no doubt we will overcome. We are not going to collapse.”

Pointing to the determination of so many resisting Cubans and the social cohesion born of rejecting Trump’s crude interventionism, Navarro claims announcements of the end of the Cuban revolution are no more than a phantom born of the yearnings of Cuba-haters for redemption and of Trump to win votes for the upcoming mid-term elections.

In order to breathe life into the idea that regime change has legs, various news platforms in the Washington orbit have recently spread the message that Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the United States to request a serious dialogue, which, so it was said, represented a change of stance by the Cuban government towards the United States, provoked by Trump’s absurd January 29 declaration** proclaiming tiny Cuba a threat to the national security of the United States, and warning of retaliation

But in reality there was no change of stance, just the umpteenth invitation for dialogue and understanding to prevail between the two countries, on a base of equality and mutual respect, which Cuba has always insisted on.

From Cuba’s point of view, the latest phase of U.S. attacks on the island started with the extermination campaign in Gaza and the world paralysis that let it proceed, which encouraged delusions of omnipotence in Washington.

Now Donald Trump wants to impose hunger on Cubans to make them renounce socialism, which is not at all a new idea. Like his predecessors in the Oval Office, he doesn’t want there to be a base for anti-imperial politics anywhere in the world, much less just ninety miles away from the U.S.

Cuba, after all, once sent hundreds of thousands of its troops thousands of miles from home to humiliate white South Africa on the battlefield. Its withering advance in southwestern Angola and electrifying defeat of apartheid forces at Cuito Cuanavale featuring Cuban mastery of the skies were key events in bringing down the loathesome regime. Nelson Mandela said the Cuban victory at Cuito Cuanavale destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa . . . Cuito Cuanavale was the turning point for the liberation of our continent – and of my people – from the scourge of apartheid.” 

On his first trip outside Africa Mandela made a point of visiting Havana in July, 1991 to deliver a message of gratitude in person to the Cuban people: We come here with a sense of the great debt that is owed the Cuban people. What other country can point to a record of greater selflessness than Cuba has displayed in its relations to Africa?”

The U.S. defined Mandela as a terrorist until 2008, and regards Havana as a terrorist regime right now.

Madness. Meanwhile, on the ground in Cuba, against the wind and a rising reactionary tide, a proud and resilient people, survivors of a thousand betrayals and besieged by a vile blockade, defiantly survives.

Notes.

*This imperial arrogance dates as far back as Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to annex Cuba.

 ** Addressing Threats To The United States By The Government Of Cuba” www.whitehouse.gov

Sources

Luis Hernandez Navarro, Cuba: a society forged in crises: we have endured them all” La Jornada, February 7, 2026 (Spanish)

Gabriela Vera Lopes, A Solidarity That Takes Risks and Puts Our Bodies On The Line is Indispensable,” February 6, 2026, www.rebelion.org (Spanish) 

From blackouts to food shortages: How U.S. blockade is crippling life in Cuba,” Al Jazeera, February 8, 2026

Ignacio Ramonet & Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro – My Life (Scribner, 2006) pps. 316-25

Piero Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom – Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa 1976-1991, (University of North Carolina, 2013, pps. 519, 526

By Moiz Mustafa Courtesy Daily Mirror

Colombo, Feb. 14 (Daily Mirror) – In Sri Lanka, tea and coffee are not lifestyle accessories. They are part of who we are. The first cup at dawn steadies the morning. The mid-afternoon brew carries conversations across office tables and village verandas. The evening cup slows the day down. So when global headlines began declaring that two or three cups a day could lower the risk of dementia, it was never going to be ignored here.

The renewed attention comes from one of the largest long-term investigations into caffeine and brain health ever conducted. Researchers analysing data from 131,821 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study in the United States tracked volunteers for up to 43 years. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that people who regularly consumed caffeinated coffee or tea had a 15 to 20 per cent lower risk of developing dementia compared to those who rarely drank either beverage.

The numbers are striking. Participants who consumed the highest amounts of caffeinated coffee showed an 18 per cent lower dementia risk. Those who drank one to two cups of caffeinated tea daily also demonstrated a meaningful reduction in risk. The most consistent benefit appeared among individuals drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day or one to two cups of tea. Importantly, decaffeinated coffee showed no significant association with lower dementia risk, pointing to caffeine as a possible key factor.

Beyond diagnosis alone, habitual coffee drinkers in the study performed better on objective cognitive tests and reported less subjective cognitive decline over time. These details matter because dementia is not a single event but a gradual process that unfolds over years.

Another major body of evidence from the United Kingdom strengthens the conversation. Data from the UK Biobank, which followed more than 365,000 adults aged 50 to 74 for an average of 11 years, found that moderate tea and coffee consumption was associated with lower risks of dementia and stroke. Taken together, these large-scale cohort studies have pushed caffeine and cognitive health into the global spotlight.

Why Tea and Coffee may support brain health

Scientists believe the explanation lies in the chemistry of the cup. Tea and coffee contain polyphenols and antioxidants that may reduce inflammation and combat oxidative stress, both of which contribute to brain ageing. Caffeine itself has been linked to improved vascular function and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, a condition strongly associated with increased dementia risk.

Healthy blood vessels are essential for a healthy brain. When circulation is compromised, cognitive decline often follows. The possibility that moderate caffeine intake may support vascular health offers one biological pathway that could explain the observed associations.

However, it is crucial to be clear. These are observational studies. They show correlation, not proof of cause and effect. Researchers cannot say that drinking coffee or tea directly prevents dementia. Other lifestyle factors may influence the results. For example, individuals who avoid caffeine sometimes do so because of existing health issues such as hypertension, which itself increases dementia risk. Separating these variables completely is challenging.

Dementia in Sri Lanka: A growing concern

For Sri Lanka, the conversation is urgent. An estimated 200,000 Sri Lankans are currently living with dementia, and that number is expected to rise significantly as the population ages. Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders already account for thousands of deaths annually. Yet dementia often remains hidden behind closed doors, quietly managed by families who view memory loss as an inevitable part of ageing rather than a medical condition requiring structured care.

This is why the global research resonates locally. We are one of the world’s most recognised tea-producing nations. Tea is woven into our identity. Coffee culture is expanding rapidly in urban centres. But our context is unique. Sri Lankan tea is often strong, sweet and prepared with milk. Dietary patterns, genetics, healthcare access and lifestyle behaviours differ from the Western populations studied.

At present, Sri Lanka does not have large-scale national research specifically examining tea or coffee consumption and dementia risk within our own communities. That gap highlights the need for local scientific inquiry before drawing firm conclusions tailored to our population.

The Real takeaway for Sri Lankans

So should Sri Lankans start counting cups as a form of brain insurance? Not quite. The evidence suggests moderation is key. Two to three cups of caffeinated coffee or one to two cups of tea per day appears to be the range associated with lower dementia risk in international studies. More is not necessarily better. Excess caffeine can disrupt sleep and increase anxiety, both of which negatively affect cognitive health.

Brain protection does not come from a single habit. It comes from a pattern of living. Regular physical activity, quality sleep, controlling blood pressure and diabetes, maintaining social connections and keeping the mind intellectually active all play powerful roles in reducing dementia risk. A cup of tea shared with friends may support brain health not only because of its antioxidants, but because of the conversation and connection that accompany it.

The global research has not delivered a miracle cure. What it has delivered is a reminder. Everyday habits matter. Lifestyle choices accumulate over decades. And sometimes the rituals we cherish may carry benefits beyond comfort.

In Sri Lanka, the kettle will continue to boil. The real question is whether we use these moments to talk openly about dementia, support ageing parents with dignity, and invest in healthier futures. If a simple cup of tea or coffee sparks that awareness, then it may already be contributing more to brain health than any headline alone can capture.

For a clearer understanding of what the research really means, explore our concise 2-minute AI explainer. Click here

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RX2v8gzj5Ic%3Fsi%3DEuxAG11RgWlQjVGa

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) National Organizer and Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa, stated that a Presidential Commission should be appointed to investigate the ‘Aragalaya’ protest movement and the foreign funding it allegedly received.

He made these remarks while addressing the media at the SLPP party headquarters in Nelum Mawatha yesterday (13).

Expressing his views on this further, Namal Rajapaksa claimed:

Certain individuals sacrificed a life to achieve their own political objectives under the guise of the ‘Aragalaya’. A group of youth were sent to the gallows. Those who appeared on mainstream media giving advice and inciting people—urging them to take to the streets and attack while promising to take care of the consequences—are now in power, while those young people have ended up at the gallows.”

Shenali D Waduge

Why is it important to go back in time to understand the root causes of every country unable to rise from its colonial past? Why have these nations that have self-sustained themselves for centuries during times when there were no imports or exports, dollar transactions now crippled in debt? While modern conflicts preach about accountability & acknowledgment, there is little or no such by the very entities that engineered, institutionalized, politicized selective and privileged policies that constitute the symptoms behind most of today’s global conflicts. Without understanding this background, people are made to believe the Sinhalese & Tamils have been enemies. Sri Lanka’s civilization is far beyond the 443 years western colonials occupied the island or the over 200 years of South Indian invader rule.

1. Portuguese Period (1505–1658) – Malabars as Foreign Settlers

Portuguese chroniclers consistently labeled Tamil-speaking populations as Malabares”, migrants from South India, not indigenous.

Fernao de Queiroz (1687):

• The Chingalas are the natural inhabitants and ancient possessors of the island.”
• The Malabars are foreigners who came from the coast of India, settling principally in the northern parts.”
• The kingdom of Jaffnapatam was formed by Malabars who crossed over from the Coromandel coast.”

João Ribeiro (1685):

• The Chingalas are the true natives of the land.”
• The Malabars came from the Coromandel coast and settled in Jaffna.”

Key point: No Portuguese source ever recognizes Tamils as indigenous.

2. Dutch Period (1658–1796) – Consolidating Migrant Status

Philippus Baldaeus (1672):

• The Chingalese are the proper natives of the island.”
• The Malabars crossed over from the coast of India and established settlements in the north.”

Francois Valentyn (1726):

• The Sinhalese have inhabited the island from the most ancient times.”
• The Malabars are immigrants from South India who formed colonies in Jaffna.”

Dutch records confirm importation of thousands of Malabars, and explicitly did not recognize them as natives.

3. British Period (1796–1948) – Institutionalizing Artificial Identities

Robert Knox (1681):

• These people are the native inhabitants of the island.” (Sinhalese)

Captain Robert Percival (1803):

• The Malabars are foreign settlers, differing in every respect from the native inhabitants.”

Sir James Emerson Tennent (1859):

• The Sinhalese constitute the aboriginal population of the island.”
• The Malabars derive their origin from Southern India.”

Casie Chitty (1834):

• The Tamils of Ceylon are descendants of Malabars who migrated from Southern India.”

George Turnour (1837):

• The Sinhalese monarchy and civilization existed centuries before South Indian invasions.”

Creation of Ceylon Tamil” – 20th Century Administrative Rebranding

Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam (1901):

The term ‘Malabar’ gave the impression that they were foreigners.”

1911 Census (E.B. Denham, British Administration):

For the first time:

• Ceylon Tamils (localized identity)
• Indian Tamils (indentured laborers)

Before 1911, Tamils were Malabars, classified by occupation, caste, or origin, with no political or territorial identity.

After 1911, administrative labels → political identity → communal consciousness → territorial claims → separatist ideology.

British policies imported over 1 million Indian Tamils as plantation laborers, officially Indian Tamils,” temporary and stateless.

Questioning the Colonial Census – The Ceylon Tamil” Construct

Understanding how artificial ethnic identities were created requires examining the timeline of censuses in Ceylon and the emergence of Ceylon Tamil”.

1. Pre-1911 Censuses – No Ceylon Tamil” Category

Census Year	Classification of Tamils	Notes
1824	Malabars, Sinhalese, Moors, Europeans	Earliest British population survey; Tamils called Malabars, no political identity
1871	Low-country Sinhalese, Kandyan Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Malays, Europeans	First scientific census; Tamils grouped as a single category
1881	Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Europeans	Tamils not subdivided; identity based on language/caste, not political or territorial claim
1891	Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Europeans	No separate Ceylon Tamil” or territorial identity
1901	Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Europeans	Classification remained consistent; census purely descriptive

Observation: Until 1911, there was no administrative distinction between local Tamil settlers (Malabars) and other groups.

There was no Ceylon Tamil” identity, no political or territorial implication, only linguistic/caste-based categorization.

Census of 1911 – The Turning Point

Compiler: E. B. Denham, Census Superintendent

Publication: Census of Ceylon, 1911, Volume I – General Report (Government Press, Colombo, 1912)

Racial Classification Introduced for the First Time:

• Ceylon Tamils(local Tamil-speaking population)
• Indian Tamils(indentured plantation laborers from South India)

Significance: This was a completely new political-racial construct. Administrative convenience became a political identity, laying the foundation for communal consciousness, representation, and eventual territorial claims.

Questions Raised by the 1911 Census

1. Why did the British suddenly create Ceylon Tamil” in 1911?

• Previous censuses did not distinguish between Malabars and other Tamil-speaking populations.
• The label had no historical or indigenous basis.

2. Was this merely administrative, or intentionally political?

• Census categories are often neutral, but here the creation of a separate racial-political identityenabled later communal representation and territorial claims.

3. Impact on subsequent politics and separatism:

• This administrative act directly influenced the formation of:
• Federal Party (ITAK)
• TULF political platform
• Vaddukoddai Resolution
• LTTE separatist ideology

4. Historical legitimacy and public perception:

• Can a 20th-century colonial administrative categoryoverride centuries of historical, social, and cultural realities?
• How did the census reframe the narrativeof Sinhalese-Tamil relations, presenting artificial divisions as natural or historical?

Key Observations

Before 1911: Tamils were classified as Malabars — migrants from South India, not a politically or territorially distinct population.

1911 Census: Introduced Ceylon Tamil” for the first time — a politically engineered identity.

Consequence: Administrative convenience → political identity → communal mobilization → separatist ideology.

Takeaway: The very foundation of the Ceylon Tamil” identity used in later political movements originates in a single colonial census, not in historical continuity or indigenous ethnicity.

From Ceylon Tamil” to Separatist Politics: The Colonial Roots of Secessionist Demands

Step	Action	Outcome
1911 Census	Created Ceylon Tamil”	Admin → Political identity
1949 ITAK	Federal Party	Territorial claims
1976 TULF	Vaddukoddai Resolution	Sovereign Tamil Eelam claim
1987 Accord	Provincial autonomy	Partial political legitimacy
LTTE	Armed secession	Northern/Eastern provinces claimed
Diaspora	Global advocacy	International lobbying citing artificial identity

1. Artificial Identity: Ceylon Tamil” (1911 Census)

• Pre-1911: Tamils wereMalabars, migrants from South India; no political or territorial identity.
• 1911 Census:British created Ceylon Tamil” and Indian Tamil” as separate categories.
• Result: Administrative convenience →political identity → communal consciousness → territorial claim.

This act institutionalized division, setting the stage for ethnic mobilization.

2. ITAK & TULF – Political Consolidation of Identity

• Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK, 1949)– Federal Party
  • Directlybuilt upon the Ceylon Tamil” administrative identity.
  • Political goal:federal state for Ceylon Tamils.
• Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF, 1976)
  • Adopted ITAK’s platform.
  • Vaddukoddai Resolution (1976):

Called for a sovereign Tamil Eelam, claiming the northern and eastern provinces based on Tamil majority populations.

The Tamil-speaking people of the North and East have a right to self-determination and to establish a sovereign Tamil Eelam.” – Vaddukoddai Resolution, 1976

Observation: The legal/administrative recognition of Ceylon Tamils in 1911 was the first step in creating a population category that later justified claims for territorial self-determination.

3. Indo-Lanka Accord (1987) – State Recognition of Tamil Political Identity

• Accord wording emphasizedTamil-speaking population of the north and east” and provincial devolution.
• Intended as a compromise: provincial autonomy for areas dominated byCeylon Tamils.
• Consequence: Even limited devolutionrecognized a politically distinct Tamil entity, echoing the 1911 census’s artificial separation.

The Tamil-speaking population of the Northern and Eastern provinces shall have devolved powers, and their distinct identity shall be recognized.” – Indo-Lanka Accord, 1987

4. LTTE Demands – Militarization of Artificial Identity

• LTTE used theCeylon Tamil identity to claim:
  • Entirenorthern and eastern provinces as a Tamil homeland.
  • Exclusive rights based on ethnic majority,” ignoring historical Sinhalese presence.
• Territorial claims inVaddukoddai Resolution and later LTTE manifestos directly trace back to the recognition of Ceylon Tamils as a separate group.

Without the 1911 administrative identity, the ideological foundation for such territorial demands would have lacked legitimacy.

5. Diaspora Advocacy – Global Amplification

• Diaspora groups (Europe, North America, Australia) continue to:
  • Claim rights forCeylon Tamils
  • Lobby UN, EU, and human rights forums using thehistorical political identity of Ceylon Tamil”.
• Examples of demands:
  • Recognition of Tamil Eelam.
  • Autonomy or federal guarantees fornorthern and eastern provinces.
• International intervention citingCeylon Tamil oppression”, framing Sinhalese as the majority oppressor.

This demonstrates colonial administrative classification → local political identity → militant claims → global diaspora advocacy.

6. Summary – The Causal Chain

Step	Description	Effect
1911 Census	Creation of Ceylon Tamil” identity	Administrative identity → Political identity
ITAK (1949) & TULF (1976)	Federalist political platform	Territorial claims, Vaddukoddai Resolution
Indo-Lanka Accord (1987)	Limited devolution	State-level recognition of distinct political Tamil identity
LTTE (1980s–2009)	Armed separatist demands	Northern & Eastern provinces claimed as Tamil homeland
Diaspora Groups	International advocacy	Global lobbying, human rights campaigns

Diaspora Statements on Self‑Determination and Tamil Eelam

From a public Tamil diaspora press release calling for recognition of Tamil self‑determination and political solutions:

We Tamils have been fighting for over seventy years for self‑determination. We are a nation of people living in the merged North and East in the island of Ceylon. We have our right to determine our own destiny… successively suppressed… amounting to genocide.”
— Statement by Tamil diaspora advocacy groups, urging UN recognition, an internationally monitored referendum for people in northern/eastern provinces and their descendants, and recognition of Tamil territories not governed by Tamils.

The State of Tamil Eelam shall consist of the people of the Northern and Eastern provinces… and ensure full and equal rights of citizenship… Tamil shall be the language of the State…”

— Translated extracts from TULF political platform.

The North was under South Indian invader rule but that ruler never extended to present East.

Invader rule does not constitute ethnic homeland” and if invaders never ruled Eastern Province, how can this so-called Tamil Eelam include entire Eastern Province too.

The entire separatist and territorial movement, from ITAK/TULF to LTTE and diaspora activism, originates from a 20th-century colonial administrative act — the artificial categorization of Ceylon Tamil” in 1911.

International Law

• Territorial Integrity:UN Charter Article 2(4) prohibits secession without consent.
• Right to Self-Determination:Only applies to historically oppressed or indigenous people, not administrative constructs.
• Colonial Responsibility:Shows colonial census categories led to long-term conflicts.
• Diaspora / External Recognition:International recognition cannot override historical and legal realities.

Understanding these roots is essential to seeing through modern narratives of ancient ethnic enmity” and recognizing how colonial and neocolonial policies engineered divisions for administrative convenience and political control.

Shenali D Waduge

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

My wife and I recently arrived in Colombo from Singapore on a late-night flight. As dual citizens, I hold both a Sri Lankan passport and a British passport. As is my usual practice, I presented both passports to the immigration officer, since officers typically request to see them.

To my surprise, the officer stated that his system did not show that I was a dual citizen. He was holding my British passport and said, Your dual citizenship is not indicated, and you cannot enter.” I immediately informed him that I had also handed over my Sri Lankan passport, where my dual citizenship status is clearly mentioned.

He appeared hesitant to proceed with stamping the passports. My wife and I were already very tired due to a delayed UL flight and it was well past midnight. Despite my natural frustration in such situations, I remained calm and asked him what needed to be done. He responded that this was a system problem.”

I explained that I am a citizen of this country, holding a valid Sri Lankan passport, and that I have traveled in and out of Sri Lanka many times over the years without facing such an issue. This was the first time I encountered such difficulty.

Fortunately, the lady officer seated next to him, wearing a headscarf, intervened and advised him to allow us to enter. Eventually, he said he would enter into the system” that I am a dual citizen. I remarked that if there was a system requirement, immigration authorities should have updated such records 10–15 years ago, given that my dual citizenship is long-standing.

After some further processing, he finally stamped both passports and allowed us to enter.

This experience raises some questions:
• Why was a valid Sri Lankan passport not sufficient proof of citizenship?
• Why was dual citizenship information apparently missing from the system?
• Are dual citizens at risk of unnecessary inconvenience due to database gaps?
• Was this simply inexperience, or something else?

As senior citizens arriving late at night, we did not expect to face uncertainty about entry into our own country.

I sincerely hope the relevant authorities review such procedures to ensure that dual citizens are treated with clarity, efficiency, and respect.

I repatriated back for to my own motherland and getting my foreign pension in Sri Lanka and contributing to our national coffers I expect better treatment

—
Sarath Obeysekera

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Dr. David Oualaalou