Pri's blog

In the 7th Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Lecture delivered by Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapakse you can hear him say quite clearly that there should be "more green on the sides of the streets" of Colombo.  In that case WHY would he transform Gregory's Road, one of Colombo's greenest,  into a horrendously paved area? 

Robert Chambers gave a public lecture at the Hector Kobekkaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute last evening, organised by Mallika Samaranayake and IPID.  I was invited to provide a 'felicitation' address in a felicitation ceremony that  preceded Robert Chambers' lecture on the above subject, and included talks by Mallika, Professor Madduma Bandara and Professor Hiran Dias.  Below you will find the full text of my felicitation speech -but before that some random gleanings from Chambers' talk! Definition:  ERR - Egocentric Reminiscence Ratio - increases with age and with alcohol consumption, is higher in men than in women Quotation from Doctor Zeuss - "Adults are obsolete children"   Qualitative methodologies have the 'rigour of democratic interaction'. Quotation from Gandhi - " We must become the change we wish to see" and now, my 'felicitation address': It is a very great privileg...

I won't be surprised if I win a prize for the worst blogger in the world.. I don't seem to be able to do it regularly....only when I get really angry about something.. or highly amused...well right now I am really angry about this news item in today's Daily Mirror, reproduced here from the online version Paba leaves hospital Monday, 21 February 2011 00:00 By Yohan Perera and Supun Dias Popular Actress and member of parliament Upkesha Swarnamali (better known as Paba0 who had been undergoing treatment at Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital was discharged last morning, hospital sources said.  Swarnamali had been hospitalised with facial injuries following a family dispute. Her face was swollen around one eye and she had a black eye. Police said that the dispute was gradually being resolved, and the parties were expected to reach a settlement. Her husband Mahesh Chaminda Walawegamage was asked to come and make a statement at the Mirihana police sta...

An article in the Economist lists the richest self-made women in the world, many of whom are from China.  Thought it interesting to share, especially also the comment by the Economist that Over half of the women in the top 20 are of Chinese origin, perhaps because of a communist ethos of gender equality, perhaps because previous generations of Chinese left so little wealth to be inherited. Check it out

In an interview with Diane Silva in today's Daily Mirror,  Vasudeva Nanayakkara, the former Leftist firebrand that as an undergraduate I would brave a crowded Arts Theatre to listen to, says I take the 18th Amendment in its totality and in its entirety and therefore I cannot give the positive features and the negative features separately because the terms are all interwoven into one whole. Therefore my position is that I disapprove of the 18th Amendment in substance. He explains that he voted for the 18th Amendment  in Parliament because the political strategy of his Democratic Left Alliance was to continue its engagement with the UPFA and that that meant that we had to vote along with the Government while stating our position very clearly.... I am a member of one of the constituent parties of the alliance, and therefore if we had not voted in line with the Government, it would have been incongruous, conflicting, incompatible and impractical. Incongruous, conflictin...

My counterpart at the Institute of Policy Studies, Saman Kelegama was quoted in the media last week as seeing the 18th Amendment as a move to create much needed political stability. ‘Stability is what we have been looking for, if you look at the experience of China, political stability counted a lot in China (for its development) and it was the same in the three East Asian (Tiger) countries (Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore)’ he was quoted as saying  in the Sunday Leader .   The paper adds that   Kelegama   thinks that the   time and effort taken for ‘political coalition management’ could be used to ‘concentrate more fully on economic management.’    I am certain that ‘political stability’ at any cost is not what I would advocate for, but let’s concede Saman’s point for a moment.   I am assuming then, that this government, with all the power it now has, will now be able to push through changes that were previo...

Daily Mirror, Tuesday, June 15, 2010 The NGO Secretariat which was previously operated under the Social Services Ministry and thereafter the Internal Affairs Ministry now comes under the purview of the Defence Ministry, following the new Parliament taking office. “The NGO Secretariat is now under the Ministry of Defence, and the Defence Ministry will be working with them,” Media Centre for National Security Director Laxman Hullugalle told the Daily Mirror. He reiterated that this was by no means a measure taken to monitor NGOs but a simple change in administration. Earlier the Passport office, the Immigration and Emigration Department and the NGO Secretariat were under the purview of the Ministry of Internal Affairs headed by the then Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka.