Category: Opinion
‘s Cussed Stock Exchange
By Dinesh Anthony Perera Sri Lanka’s only stock exchange in a bid to show activity recently obtained some good publicity. Due to a concerning lack of recent progress, things the stock exchange will achieve in the future were highlighted[1]. Also mentioned were trips abroad by senior staff[2] and the logic that things are so bad that […]
Opinion: Is GDP the ideal metric of the future?
By Taamara de Silva In an age of stark contradictions, a world where the exclusive one percent enjoy access to an abundance of wealth and resources but also a world where a billion people scarcely have enough to eat, limited access to health and education. While the economic progress of the elitist countries is thus […]
Opinion: “Banking is necessary; banks are not” – Bill Gates
By Taamara de Silva To those who say that Apple did not kill the music industry, being forced to buy the entire music album did, Amazon did not kill retailers, long queues at the local store did, AirBnb didn’t kill the hotel industry, limited availability of hotel rooms did, Uber didn’t kill the taxi business, […]
‘s Moolai Cooperative Hospital
By Jekhan Aruliah In the North-West corner of the Jaffna Peninsula close to the causeway to Karainagar Island is the small village of Moolai. It is a patch of land connecting the causeway to Karainagar with its famous Casuarina Beach, and Vaddukoddai with its famous school Jaffna College. Moolai would have been quite unknown but […]
Opinion: My new year’s wish – a final rest to “ghosts” of years past!
By Chrishmal Warnasuriya G’day from down-under: Our customary few lines that usually accompany my New Year’s wish-list this time comes from the land of Skippy the Kangaroo and boxing day MCG cricket (sans the sand-paper of course); hence the slight delay in reaching you, my apologies! Our extensive travels and the chance to look at things […]
Jaffna to New York’s Wall Street and back to Jaffna
By Jekhan Aruliah Back in the day Raj Janan’s father was a successful industrialist in Jaffna, owning at various times an aluminium factory, a knitwear factory, a private hospital and a newspaper. Janan’s childhood was disrupted by the JVP insurrection in 1971 when he was 11 years old.One consequence of which was the family was […]
Opinion: Revolution 4.0 – An intriguing case of the man and machine
By Taamara de Silva “The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril.” – Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum We sway on the cusp of a technological revolution that will forever reconstruct the very fabric […]
Opinion: Give Ranil a break and allow him space to put Sri Lanka back together
December 17, 2018 (LBO) – Remember where we have been. In the moments after October 26th, and the days immediately following, Sri Lanka reached all time lowpoints in its constitutional democracy.Hunkered down in his official residence (Temple Trees), illegally deposed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, his parliamentary group, and party supporters engaged in gallows humour in […]
Dr. Ravi Perumalpillai, Oxford Surgeon who became a Jaffna Farmer
By Jekhan Aruliah I write this piece as my appreciation of a Diasporan who came back to Jaffna and made a difference, sowing economic and medical seeds in the North. A friend who passed away in Colombo on 9th December 2018, and whose ashes were scattered in Jaffna four days later. I first met Ravi […]
‘s development priorities needed
What is Next for Middle-Income Asia and Sri Lanka? By Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja* Decades of sustained economic growth have left the Asia Pacific with few lower-income countries. Absolute poverty levels are and will continue to keep falling. This is cause for celebration. But it also requires a new partnership between countries and development institutions to […]
Entrepreneurs in Jaffna? Take a look in Ammachi!
By Jekhan Aruliah Soon after I moved to Jaffna in 2015 I heard rumours of this fantastic food court run by war widows. Friends driving North from Colombo said they found it somewhere on the A9 near Killinochchi in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. It was a year before I actually got round to visiting the […]
Smuggled Cigarettes: A challenge to Govt.’s revenue and health objectives
(RIU) –Sri Lanka is one of the first middle-income countries to adopt a strong tobacco control policy. The country ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and made early progress with a ban on enclosed public place smoking, graphic health warnings, ban on sales to persons under 21 and a ban on sponsorship, supported by […]