Sri Lankan-born, Harvard-educated Professor Antony Anghie has been conferred the prestigious Manley O. Hudson Medal by the American Society of International Law (ASIL) for his exceptional contributions to scholarship and achievement in international law. Taking to Twitter, Ambassador of the United States to Sri Lanka Julie Chung congratulated Prof. Anghie on his accomplishment. “Lawyers and ...

Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, attended, by invitation, the Economic Dialogue Series held in Berlin under the theme “Inflation Kills Democracy: Fiscal Rationality as the basis of Functioning Communities” on 21 November 2023. This event was organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany. Governor Weerasinghe presented Sri […]

Second death anniversary by Tisaranee Gunasekara “Who has known the ocean.” Rachel Carson (Undersea) Weddings require invitations. Funerals are open spaces. None are barred; anyone can turn up, even sworn enemies. Lankan politicians make use of this openness as a political tool, thus only so far as they remain in active politics. Sirisena Cooray never […]

In Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) classes, teachers give their students a list of words for them to find the odd one out. Then they have to explain why they thought it to be odd. It’s an exciting game because teachers include more than one word that may be interpreted as odd in […]

COPE Chairman Prof. Ranjith Bandara has said that his son Kanishka Bandara holds the position of coordinating secretary to the COPE Chairman and as such the latter had been allowed to attend the official functions of the COPE. When contacted for comments on social media reports going viral on Kanishka Bandara attending a COPE meeting […]

The convocation of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, Colombo, (BCIS) for 2023, held at the BMICH on November 10, provided many a thought-provoking ‘take-away’ for the International Relations (IR) student and analyst. The principal dignitaries at the momentous event did considerable justice to current developments in the IR field and thereby rendered the convocation […]

* Lankan universities have been running with no more than 60 percent of the cadre of teachers approved for them and now perhaps less. * Upper secondary schools are run with no teachers for mathematics, physics and information technology. * University teachers are emigrating in droves, driven away into uncertain lives in other countries. *In […]

Monday 13rd November, 2023 Anyone’s death diminishes us. However, with apologies to Donne, we are diminished beyond measure when the veterans of the fourth estate depart. On Saturday (11), former editor of The Island Gamini Weerakoon crossed the Great Divide. His funeral took place yesterday. Our readers may recall the pivotal role he played in […]

By Uditha Devapriya One of Sri Lanka’s most distinguished yet underrated economists, S. B. D. de Silva died five years ago, on June 15. His magnum opus, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, remains as underrated and under-read – one could say unread – as he. First published by Routledge in 1982, The Political Economy of […]

There was a pall of silence over who accompanied our President to the Big Apple for the Big Meeting of the United Nations. Hence our curiosity was roused, minds scratched around for news. Cassandra WhatsApped a good friend of hers now living in California and asked her whether she knew who accompanied our Prez. We […]

Piyumi Ranadewa is a Research Assistant working on migration and urbanisation policy research at IPS. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture, specialising in Agriculture Economics and Business (First Class) from Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, graduating with Dean’s Honours. She also holds a Master

Dr Mary Srikanthi Handy was the daughter of the famous Dr George Rajanayagam Handy who was the pioneer cardiologist of Sri Lanka and the founder president of the Sri Lanka Heart Association. She was born in 1935 and is the eldest child and only daughter of Dr. George and Mrs. Kanmanie Handy. Even as a […]

by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka The sum and substance of Rajan Philips’ counter-critique of my critique is that I seem uninterested in reform, especially political reform, and most especially the abolition of the executive presidency or the same thing deferred, i.e., ensuring that this upcoming election is the last presidential election we shall have. (Political Reforms: […]

By Dr Laksiri Fernando President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe is undoubtedly a capable person compared to many other former Presidents in the country. Chandrika Kumaratunga could have been better, but the circumstances of the war prevented her achieving many of the socio-economic targets. In terms of modernizing the country, J. R. Jayewardene played a […]