Pri's blog

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? ”   Can we talk about what Fidel Castro left behind?    A country with a HDI of 0.769 and ranked 67 th of all countries, with the trend towards this HDI increasing since 1990 and retaining the level over the last few years.  And this despite the US embargo.  And the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. And yes, a good education system and a good  health system – but also can we talk about Cuban medical internationalism that provides medical assistance  to countries in need? Somebody asked me was I advocating the  Cuban model because I thought it was good for everyone to be equally poor.  I must say I never even had a glimpse of poverty in the way I have seen it in many countries in Asia, Africa and other parts of Latin America in Cuba.  And so yes, since it is unlikely that th...

A post by Sue Desmond-Hellman , CEO at  the  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on LinkedIn that randomly found its way into  my inbox is titled "The latest weapon in the fight against disease might surprise you" - hence the title of this  blog. Desmond-Hellman makes the case for data as a resource  for turning the tide on a number of conditions.  Nothing  surprising there.  But it seems having spent much of her life as a clinical scientist, white coated (I assume) in medical laboratories she has had an amazing light bulb moment and realised that "non-medical data " can be  used "to complement medical research and  transform the lives of entire populations". And how did she come to this realisation? Because of, in her words, a "great example" that she got to  hear about in Cincinnati, Ohio in the good old USA.    What has happened there?   " By combining existing data  from a variety of  sources, a tea...

(post prompted by a recent article on Upali Wijewardene in roar.lk) Somewhere around April 1970, an awkward young woman, just turned seventeen, got into the terminal bus at Athens airport to board the TWA plane. She was on her way home after three months in the USA, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. She had been Sri Lanka’s delegate to the World Youth Forum, and had spent this time with other young people from 28 different countries and American host families in and around New York.  She was a little homesick, excited about returning home to her new boyfriend, and unconscious that the time away had transformed her into a much more politically aware, critical and independent  person with global friendships that were to last a life time!   On the bus, standing just ahead of her, she sees a young Sinhalese man with a backpack and address label that suggested he lived in her neighbourhood, in Thurstan Road.  With her new found confidence she accosts him, s...

The SDG slogan about people and the planet and the participation of the private sector in the development process cannot be realised while transnational corporations continue with ongoing atrocities against people and the planet. Who will hold them to account?  Check out two pieces of viewing/reading that I came across today... The first is Sofia Ashraf  challenging some of Unilever's biggest misleading statements about the company's mercury contamination of Kodaikanal, India.   and the second  is a Bureau of Investigative Journalism article about about Big Pharma and how its industrial waste is not just polluting the environment but also fuelling the rise of super bugs worldwide. https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2016/09/15/big-pharmas-industrial-waste-fuelling-rise-superbugs-worldwide/

Tehani's photo of the GPO Tehani Ariyaratne has posted this picture of the old GPO  which I am made to understand was one of the venues of this year's Colomboscope The GPO was an important part of my growing up years - when incredibly we managed to thrive despite having neither television (not  in Sri Lanka till after 1977) nor the internet.  We had what we proudly called our 'hobbies' - so stamp collecting was one of mine.  Reading, was another. Corresponding with penpals (equivalent of facebook friends or twitter followers, I guess) was a third. The GPO and its environs formed a pivotal part of my engagement with my 'hobbies'.  Frequently on a Sunday, my father would drive my sister and me to the Fort.  Often we would stop at the GPO because it was the only post office opened on a Sunday, and I would post my laboriously penned letters to my penpals.   The uncles (think they were always uncles) at the counter would weigh my epistle and...

Yours truly is following a course on International Human Rights that has just introduced to us  the concept of the Right to Development.   The South Centre has just put out its South Bulletin No 93 of August 16,2016  devoted to the panel discussion in June this year at the Human Rights Council to celebrate 30th Anniversary of the adoption of the Right to Development by the United Nations General Assembly Read with interest the presentation of Dr Mihir Kanade, Head of the Department of International La and Human Rights and Director of the Human Rights Centre on   Operationalising the Right to Development for Implementing the SDGs.   He describes the Right to Development as the Human Rights  avatar of the  SDGs, and makes 6 specific points on what operationalising the Right to Development would entail, summarised below using Dr Kanade's own words.... 1.  focusing not only on the outcomes which must result from the implementation of the 2030 ag...

Reflections from the moderator! Spent two days in Club Palm Bay Marawila , Sri Lanka facilitating a workshop with the above title organized by Southern Voice , ODI and CEPA .  Do not be fooled by the pictures on the hotel site – the weather was wet and gloomy, and while we were safe from the disasters of floods and landslides affecting the rest of Sri Lanka, there were tensions of flying into the storms, and travelling across flooded by-roads.  Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director of IPS and a speaker in the session on Mobilising Partnerships and Resources to achieve the SDGs, completed the last part of his journey to the venue in a boat! So the weather was a constant reminder to all of us of the importance of the SDGs –  and how vital it is to address the social and environmental aspects of development alongside the economic if we are to sustain people on this planet.  I have many take-aways from the two days, and I would like to share a few of...