Pri's blog

While one group of Colombo’s bold and beautiful gathered at the Lakshman Kadirigamar Institute for International  Relations and Strategic Studies to listen to a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair,  protected by riot squads of Police who looked like they would welcome some excitement after almost an year of inaction, another section of Colombo’s bold and beautiful met at the Balmoral Room of the Kingsbury Hotel to celebrate the life of an important Sri Lankan, Deshamanya Vidyajothi  Ray Wijewardene , and to present The Ray  Award for Innovation 2015.  Just before both those events, yet another group, this time a group of Colombo’s intellectuals were at the Institute of Ethnic Studies (ICES) listening to Kumari Jayawardene, Farzana Haniffa, Ahilan Kadirgamar and Vijay Nagaraj  with Harini Amarasuriya moderating,  reflect on the past ethnic and religious riots, the impact it had on the individual and the collective, and speak abo...

Here are what some would call 'irrational’  and possibly heretical  initial thoughts, after listening to President Sirisena’s interview on Rupavahini last night, and considering aspects of  the 100 day mini budget.     President Sirisena has called for a change in the ‘political culture’ of Sri Lanka. But unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an equally strident call for a change in attitude about what constitutes well being for Sri Lankans, and what we need to do to ensure a more sustainable Sri Lanka.  For those of us working on sustainable development it is obvious that the current levels of consumption and the mantra of unbridled economic growth cannot continue in Sri Lanka (or in the world).   Ravi Karunanayaka’s ‘Robin Hood’  mini budget speech,  laudable because it is catering for the lower income citizens  of Sri Lanka, has a disturbing statement  “ in order to encourage low income families to purcha...

Written by a  female member of the CGC [1] An article in the Colombo Telegraph provides an interesting account of a seasoned campaigner’s interactions about the forthcoming Presidential elections with Colombo’s businessmen and  what he also calls the ‘Cinnamon Garden Crowd’ especially the women.  He finds that these Colombo society women have not taken the trouble to register themselves as voters and that the businessmen are unabashedly supporting  Mahinda Rajapakse’s re-election.   Over Christmas I too have had an overdose of interactions with a section of the ‘Cinnamon Garden Crowd’ – women and men, doctors, lawyers and professionals  mainly – interactions that were more than slightly annoying on three counts.  The first is their unconditional support to the Common Candidate Project based mainly on their blind faith in the goodness of Ranil Wickremesinghe (undoubtedly a member of their crowd) and his ability to deliver good governan...

Busy with family and Christmas, but trying also to keep up with the run up to the January 8th Presidential Election, not least because it is likely to be the most decisive of our times.   Watch this speech from Jeevanie Kariyawasam - gave me some hope, not just hope for a change of regime, but hope that there is some fire in the next generation! Post by Jeevanee Kariyawasam .