ප්රඥාවන්ත ප්රවේශයක අවශ්යතාව
The recommendations of the panel of experts appointed by the UN Secretary-General may work as a factor damaging Sri Lanka’s progress, and the challenge arising from them may be as large as the one Prabhakaran posed and more complicated than that. It can still be settled to our advantage, or with the damage kept small, and doing that means changing the whole approach.
ගාන්ධි නූතන ශ්රී ලංකාවට කැඳවාගෙන ඒම (4)
The British took the Kandyan kingdom in 1815 not by battle but by a crafty programme, and Sir John D’Oyly admitted as much in a long conversation, describing the programme he had run and naming several of the natives who acted as its chief pawns. It succeeded because of the support the Kandyan chiefs gave, in the expectation that the power to rule under British authority would come to them.
ගාන්ධි නූතන ශ්රී ලංකාවට කැඳවා ගෙන ඒම (3)
Gandhi’s analysis of the crisis modern Sri Lanka faces and of the way to overcome it comes with his commentary on Sri Lankan history, and this instalment is his reading of the Portuguese and Dutch periods: the conversions, the Karava and Salagama communities, the Malays, and the taking of the Kandyan kingdom.
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.
ගාන්ධි නූතන ශ්රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා ගැනීම
Suppose Gandhi could be met, brought to Sri Lanka and asked to look into the country as it now is, and to give his guidance on the main problems it faces and how they should be settled. What analysis would he make of Sri Lanka, and what roads would he recommend to us for settling the first-rank problems we face as a country?
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.
සීසර්ගේ දේ සීසර්ටම දිය යුතුය
A member of the Tamil alliance charged in parliament that 200 of the 500 tractors India gave to farmers in the north had been handed to two state institutions. If that is true it is a wrong, and putting it right is the government’s responsibility. Resettlement and the projects planned for that region must be carried forward without a break, and life there brought back to normal quickly.
ආහාර අර්බුදයට මුහුණදීම
The heavy rain and the flooding it keeps producing have been destructive to the country’s food crops, and this is not a condition peculiar to Sri Lanka. 2011 has already been named a La Niña year, one in which heavy rainfall may do the world great damage, and China — the country with the world’s largest population — has been identified as facing a great drought.
ස්වභාවික ව්යසන යන්ගෙන් වන හානිය උග්ර කරන දේශපාලන සාධක
The damage done to the Northern, Eastern and North Central provinces by the flooding is enormous. Measured against the tsunami the loss of life is far smaller and the loss of property is larger: tanks destroyed wholly or in part, newly built and newly repaired highways damaged, and heavy losses to paddy and vegetable crops.