In most of the country, there is still a considerable amount of freedom for political parties and civic organizations to work with the people, to create awareness amongst them and to mobilize them on issues as befits a functioning democracy.
Conspiracy against government
The government’s recent decision to question the director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation […]

“….developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy……to get people to love their servitude. This is the, it seems to me, the ultimate in malevolent revolutions” — Aldous Huxley (The Ultimate Revolution)
When MR went to Uganda
During his recent Uganda tour, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was reportedly enchanted by the servile conduct of the […]

Breast cancer is often triggered by external factors, so perhaps the best prevention is a healthy world.
There has been much recognition of Angelina Jolie’s public revelation that she has had a prophylactic double mastectomy and reconstructive
surgery to avoid breast cancer. She says that although the decision was hard, she made the right choice for herself; […]

We as judges of this land must take the lead from our departed friend and colleague, that no bullets of any calibre, knives of any depth, clubs of any weight, shall ever deter us from taking the exalted and well traversed path to do justice for all those who come before us.’ – Rohini Perera […]

Saudi Arabia is the perfect example of what can happen to a country, even in our own time, when a ruling clan combine religion with politics to perpetuate itself in power.
“The BBS will take immediate steps to form a ‘Cane Force’ against those who act in a manner insulting to Buddhism during the Wesak season”. Rev. […]

G.L Peiris and the unit of devolution
Prof G.H. Peiris in his latest response (‘The Case against the Thirteenth Amendment’, The Island Midweek Review, May 22-23, 2013) to my article in The Island of 15th May 2013, argues that the distribution of ethnicity renders the district rather than the province the more suitable unit of devolution […]

“To change masters is not to be free” – Jose Marti (eddosrios.org )
The photograph is iconic; Alavi Moulana, 83 years old and an SLFP veteran of 52 years, bending down and kissing the hand of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
That picture is revelatory of the current Lankan reality at multiple levels. It shows what citizens have to do […]

CandleAid
I didn’t need a map to get there. Elmo had helpfully sent a Google Earth graphic together with the invitation. The location was St Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, just off the road down which my maternal grandparents had lived. Captain Elmo Jayawardena, aviator, master mentor of pilots, award winning writer, is Moratuwa’s Hemingway or more accurately, […]

“Never will tyrants freely consent to the extirpation of servitude….” – Thomas Raynal
Of all the spectres the Rajapaksas fear, Oppositional-unity would arguably be the most terrifying.
The Rajapaksas began getting jittery when it became evident that the May 15th demonstration against the electricity hike would be supported
by both the UNP and the JVP. The usual bag of […]

The acquisition of about 7000 acres of land in the Jaffna peninsula has become a major issue that impacts upon the post-war reconciliation
process. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission recommended the release back to their owners of private lands taken over for military purposes during the war. This was also the position taken by President […]