ජපාන ඛේදවාචකයෙන් ඉගෙන ගැනීම
The great disaster in Japan cannot but affect the world economy and, to a greater or lesser degree, Sri Lanka’s. What Ivan draws from it is a set of duties at home: protect what forest is left, since felling is a way a few businessmen make large money under political patronage, and stop treating that as the state’s business alone.
ගාන්ධි නූතන ශ්රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා ගැනීම (II)
It was Gandhi who showed the world that spiritual strength joined to popular power can be turned into an undefeated motive force working for the progress, the justice and the liberation of ordinary people, free of self-interest, malice and hatred. Einstein said at his death that a powerful following can be won not only by political cunning but by the example of a disciplined and exalted human conduct.
සංවර්ධනය හා ජනමාධ්යවේදීන්ගේ සමාජ වගකීම
By development Ivan means progress in any field — a country’s as a whole, or the economy, politics, health, transport, education, science, the environment, the spiritual — and what he wants to talk about is what a journalist’s part in that process should be. Seven sections follow, from Warren Buffett to the development of Colombo.
අරාබි විප්ලවය හා ජපාන ඛේදවාචකය
Before Japan the world’s attention was on the Arab world and the risings against its autocratic rulers. Beginning in Tunisia they spread to Egypt and other Arab countries, peaceful everywhere except Libya, where the movement took an armed form — and the thing that gave the young generation the political knowledge and drew them together was Facebook.
මහජන සෞඛ්ය සේවා-ශක්තිය හා සීමාසහිතකම්
Public health has always interested Ivan, and what made him write this was not that interest but a personal reason: a blood test done for an illness of his wife’s, an ESR eight times the normal level, and the run of investigations the doctors had to send her through to find out why. The article is what he saw of the service from the inside, set out in four parts.
ඒකාධිපති පාලකයන්ට එරෙහිව අරාබි ලෝකයෙන් හමන සුළි සුළඟ
What will the large-scale risings against the autocratic rulers of the Muslim world — beginning in Tunisia, passing through Egypt and into North Africa and the Middle East — do to that world and then to the whole world? What is the social background of those struggles, and what are their main characteristics?
විදේශ රැකියා හා මැලේසියාව
Foreign employment is one of the country’s main sources of income: it is the chief earner of foreign exchange, it lightens the weight of unemployment, and it is one of the main things easing rural poverty. Ivan asks for a policy that treats the recruitment agents as people who do the economy real service, and for a shift from sending housemaids to sending trained workers.
වෙනස් වෙමින් තිබෙන අධ්යාපනය
Amid heated argument the shape of education is changing and being changed. Serious changes are visible in higher and vocational education; at school level Ivan can see no such change yet, and the national education commission’s proposals for what school education needs are still proposals.
පොල්, කුකුළු මස් හා බිත්තර ආනයනය
Importing coconuts as a remedy for the shortage can be called a good and useful act; importing chicken and eggs to control their price cannot. From there the article turns to the spread of monkeys and wild boar, to animal husbandry and religious belief, and to a decision Ivan calls genuinely revolutionary — making vocational education compulsory for those who fail their O levels.
රටට වෙනස්කම් අවශ්යද?
Given how rotten the political system and state administration had become, Ivan writes, winning the separatist war should be counted a miracle — the armed forces and police included people working for the LTTE for money, which shows how far the institutions had decayed. The question now is whether to go forward with that rot or reform it. Every important part is corroded: legislature, executive, electoral system, courts, public service, public services, media. The President has accepted change is needed but has set out no philosophy beyond the voting system and cabinet size, and it is unclear whether he means to win two-thirds by agreement with the opposition or by buying its members across. Ivan lists what remains unresolved — the executive presidency, a German-style mixed electoral system, the constitutional council killed after the 17th Amendment, judicial power used oppressively, customs revenue of which perhaps a quarter reaches the treasury, and education adrift.