Sep 24 (TM) There is a food crisis in the country, which is also fast becoming an environmental crisis. How might that be, one may ask, and that is because the more that land is utilised for agriculture (currently over 45.45% of land, which is equivalent to over more than 28,000 square kilometres, is utilised for agriculture [World Bank, 2018]), the less land there is for forests and animals. Changing laws that enable people to encroach into forest lands citing the food crisis leads to more more..

Sep 24 (CT) Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe was able to enter his name in the books of British history as he attended the Royal funeral, of Queen Elizabeth II, on an invitation from the British Govt last week. He was one of those VIPs of whose parents attended the Coronation of the Queen, that took place seven decades ago. Along with him, First Lady Prof. Maithree Wickremesinghe, Prez’s Private Secretary Sandra Perera, Prez’s Director of more..

Sep 24 (DM) Despite the worst socio-economic and political crisis since independence, Sri Lanka is still a beautiful island in the sun. As one of history’s best Afro-American popstars Harry Belafonte sings : “This is my island in the sun, where my people have toiled since time begun, I may sail on many a sea, her shores will always be home to me; oh, island in the sun, willed to me by my father’s hand, all my days I will sing in praise, of your forests, waters, your shining sand.” more..

Sep 24 (DM) The Dutch were a pre-eminent politico-economic and military power in Ceylon and South India in the 17th and 18th centuries, having driven out the Portuguese from the region’s lucrative spice trade. But the Dutch could not withstand the onslaught of the British and the French when the latter made their appearance in the latter part of the 18th century. By 1796-1798, Dutch power had collapsed in both Ceylon and South India. In 1796, Dutch surrendered their possessions more..

Sep 24 (CT) State Minister of Tourism Diana Gamage recently came under severe attack for her bold remarks on Sri Lanka lacking adequate night life for foreign tourists. Ceylon Today, in an interview with Gamage explored what she actually meant and her plans to boost country’s tourism industry. Q: Do you really think Sri Lanka still have untapped areas to be developed when it comes to the island’s tourism industry? more..

Sep 24 (CT) Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka in one his latest speeches addressed the essence of the Aragalaya directly. The rally was organized by a group of political activists; they presented the occasion as a mass rally against the suppression of the rights of the people and was held at the famous Hyde Park, Darley Road. Sarath Fonseka is relatively a novice to mass politics. His entry into politics as Prez Candidate in 2009 was observed by many a political pundit and more..

Sep 24 (Island) Govt politicians are behaving as if the media had done something far worse than the economic crimes they and their leaders have perpetrated against the nation. They are tearing into the media outfits that expose the untold suffering their govt has inflicted on the public by bankrupting the country. In Parliament, on Thursday, some govt worthies were beside themselves with rage over a story that a poor girl had recently brought some coconut kernel to school for lunch, and more..

Sep 24 (DM) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in her report on SL attributes the economic crisis the country is currently engulfed into what she called economic crimes committed by those responsible for running the country’s economy. SL has protested against the use of this term at the ongoing 51st regular session of the UNHRC. Addressing the council on Sep 13 – the same day the Acting UN Human Rights High Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif presented HC’s report on SL more..

Sep 24 (Island) September is the month when the UNHRC presents its latest Resolution on SL. It is reported that the latest version has graduated from violations of human rights and international humanitarian law to include violations of economic crimes. Whatever the scope of the Resolution, the dogged fact remains that every sovereign country is compelled to function within the provisions of its own Constitution, because it is the fundamental law as recognized by the Vienna Convention; more..

Sep 24 (CT) The women from the Veddah community have become certain microfinance businesses’ latest prey in the midst of the economic crisis that has affected every group in Sri Lanka. “I only know how to go into the jungle and hunt. Since I was a child, I have been practising for it. We will, however, place our signatures or thumb impressions to receive money from a well-groomed man carrying a brief case and documents more..

Sep 24 (Island) Two unbeaten teams, St. Joseph’s and Trinity will bank on some of the leading performers of the tournament for success when they clash for the title of the U-17 Division I cricket tournament at Surrey Village ground, Maggona today. The two teams have in their ranks a number of players who are among the leading batsmen and bowlers of this tournament. Their performances have helped the two teams remain unbeaten. St. Joseph’s, who have a slight edge over more..

Sep 24 (Island) OKLO Private Limited, a leading SL solutions provider for the Ceylon Tea e-Auction platform, recently added an all-new segment for factories in its SmartAuction platform. This new feature provides over 650 factories with the chance to value and grade teas within the system, printing final catalogues, real-time and post-sales reports, and viewing their tea variants being auctioned live. For the first time, a live auction participation option has been instigated for all stakeholders and more..

Sep 24 (DN) SL Army honoured the players who won the Asia Cup from Cricket and Netball recently. The member of SL’s Asia Cup winning cricket team Maheesh Theekshana was promoted by the SL Army at a reception held at the Commander’s office at Army headquarters last Tuesday to honour Army-groomed sportsmen and sportswomen who had shone in the field of international sports. Maheesh Theekshana the mystery spinner who was a Private in the Army was elevated to the rank of more..

Sep 24 (FT) Parliament Secretary-General Dhammika Dasanayake said the appointment of three secretaries to Ministries and an ambassador was approved by the Committee on High Posts of Parliament recently. Committee on High Posts of the Parliament has approved the appointment of Rodney Manoranjan Perera as the new SL Ambassador to Japan. Appointments of B.L.A.J. Dharmakeerthi as the Secretary to the Ministry of Plantation, P.H.C. Rathnayake as more..

Sep 24 (Island) Palali Int'l Airport had come to a standstill because of the high airport taxes, TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran said. “When the airport was opened, there were flights from Madras, then due to Covid all flights were suspended. Now, this has not resumed yet, and even when it resumes the cost of the airfare is prohibitive. Reason for that is that the airport taxes are so high that people will not be able to afford it” more..

Sep 24 (TM) SL Standards Institution (SLSI) is the national body for standards formulation and regulating SLS certification. SLSI stated that in understanding the importance of its role, the organisation has been hard at work to support and promote SMEs and entrepreneurialism in SL, with SMEs making up the backbone of the nation’s economy. Accordingly, SLSI has conducted a large number of awareness programmes, workshops, and training sessions for more than 1,000 SMEs more..

Sep 24 (FT) Value for Ceylon tea continues to soar with August recording the highest ever Free On Board (FOB) both in dollars and rupees. Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers said the FOB value of Rs. 1,951.82 in August 2022 records the highest ever in a calendar month, surpassing the previous best of Rs. 1,863.74 achieved in July. The FOB value has seen an increase of Rs. 1,034.62 compared to Rs. 917.20 of August 2021 and in USD terms a gain of 0.82. In the first eight months of 2022, more..

Sep 24 (GT) With a total of $968 million in loans in four months of 2022, India "has emerged as SL's largest bilateral lender, overtaking China in the process," ANI reported. SL has borrowed not only from China but despite this, Chinese loans have been specifically targeted by anti-China forces. Critics have accused China of what they call a debt trap, saying that the so-called debt trap diplomacy has become a cause of SL's economic crisis. more..

Sep 24 (FT) The Colombo stock market couldn’t extend its winning streak for the fourth consecutive week as it ended on a negative note. Following three weeks of gaining momentum, the indices closed lower with the ASPI declining 96.29 points (0.96%) and the S&P SL20 declining 34.31 points (1.06%) for the week. Average daily turnover of Rs. 4.23 billion. On Friday the indices ended the week on a flat note as retail and HNI investors opted to book profits at higher levels in heavyweight stocks more..

Sep 24 (ST) A project to provide students with opportunities to work part-time is being conducted by the Uni of Peradeniya, under the sponsorship of the university’s alumni. The programme allows students from all nine faculties of the country’s only residential university to engage in jobs within the university itself. Through this programme, they can gain additional income that can help them cope with the economic crisis and provide them with job experience. more..

Sep 24 (FT) Supreme Court yesterday issued notice on IGP C.D. Wickramaratne, and four other officers named as petitioners in a Fundamentals Right (FR) case to be present before court on the 16 November for noncompliance of an order given by it back in March this year. Subsequent to preliminary hearing of the FR application filed by Sub-Inspector Sugath Mendis, who was, at the time of his arrest, attached to the Embilipitiya police station, court granted the interim relief ordering more..

Sep 24 (TM) According to MTI Consulting, SL is facing a perfect storm, a concurrence of multiple socio-economic challenges that has dealt an unprecedented blow to the country. “This is also a great opportunity to dismantle incremental legacy strategies. In doing so, go ground zero and approach it as building an entirely new economic model,” said MTI Consulting CEO Hilmy Cader. Inspiration for this could be taken from Winston Churchill who said: “Never let a good crisis more..

Sep 24 (FT) Sri Lanka is likely to face another power crisis due to issues surrounding the procurement of coal quantities necessary to generate electricity in the next three months. Hours after Minister Bandula Gunawardena defended the already awarded coal tender citing lower prices, Minister Kanchana Wijesekera announced it was cancelled by the Cabinet Ministers at its meeting on Thursday. The decisions of the two Ministers more..

Sep 24 (DM) The oldest elephant in the Dehiwala Zoo named Bandula, died in the early hours of last morning. He was 78-years-old at the time of death. A spokesman for the zoo said the elephant had been handed over to the zoo in 1943 by wildlife conservators when it was a year old calf that roamed away from the herd. Then Director of the Zoo Major Obrey Weinman had taken steps to train the elephant for the elephant dancing show which is a main tourist attraction. more..

Sep 24 (AP) In an urgent press conference, Jaffna Uni Student union urged India’s help to Refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the current Session of the UNHRC. “India is not only a current Member of the UNHRC, it is also our powerful and important neighbor, as well as a Regional Super Power.” The current SL Resolution was drafted by the self appointed Core-Group on SL, which consists of UK, US, Canada, Germany, Montenegro, North Macedonia and more..

Sep 24 (Island) The country has lost several hundred thousand jobs to Covid-19. The impact of the agrochemical ban on agriculture, the mismanagement of the exchange rate, a highly accommodative monetary policy, and the use of foreign exchange reserves for debt repayment thwarted the country’s ability to recover from the initial shock of COVID-19, an ILO study titled, The labour market implications of Sri Lanka’s multiple crises, has revealed. more..

Sep 24 (DM) The govt never promised to offer chairmanship of the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) and Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) to the Opposition, SLPP General Secretary MP Sagara Kariywasam said. He said that the opposition is misleading the country claiming that the govt promised to appoint opposition MPs as heads of COPA and COPE. He said they stressed during the party leaders meeting that heads of COPA and COPE should be appointed more..

Sep 24 (FT) President Ranil Wickremesinghe in a letter to Mahanayake Theros expressed his gratitude for their contribution to conserving the electricity at religious shrines and the precedent it sets for society. In a special letter addressed to the Maha Nayaka Theros of Malwathu, Asgiri, Amarapuraand Ramanya Chapters, President explained the rationale for the increased electricity tariff rates. more..

Sep 24 (DM) The National Food Promotions Board received the Cabinet nod to import 25,000 MT of maize or alternative grains for the production of animal feed. The decision was made in an effort to address the current shortage of maize in the country that has been brought about by the foreign exchange issues. The proposal was put forward by Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, as recommended by the Animal Production and Health Department. more..

Sep 24 (DM) According to John Hopkins Uni economist Professor Steve Hanke’s data reports, SL has ranked third in the world in terms of the depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar, the foreign media reports. Zimbabwe holds the first position and the value of the Zimbabwean currency has depreciated by 73.33% compared to the US dollar. The value of the currency has depreciated by 57.65% and Cuba is on the second position on the list and SL is on the third more..

Sep 24 (PTI) Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday declared several key locations in Colombo, including Parliament, Supreme Court complex and the President's Secretariat among others, as high security zones, banning any kind of protest or agitation in premises near to it. The move, which are restrictions to those of during LTTE days that saw suicide explosions at such key locations, prevents even parking of cars in any of more..

Sep 25 (SO) During his recent official visit to the UK to attend the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe took the opportunity to meet the members of the Sri Lankan Diaspora living in the UK and some other European countries. This gathering included a large number of businessmen, professionals and investors of SL origin. The word Diaspora has rather unfortunately been usually associated with sections of the SL overseas Tamil community sympathetic to the LTTE. more..

Sep 25 (TM) The UN definition of victims is as follows: “Victims are persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss, or the substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws operative within the Member States, including those laws proscribing the criminal abuse of power.” If this is the case, then who is not a victim in Sri Lanka? more..

Sep 25 (CT) To ensure the safety and well-being of women and children in the country, interministerial collaboration is paramount, as the contribution of every ministry is important. A country’s development is determined by how women and children are treated, State Minister of Women and Child Affairs, Geetha Kumarasinghe said., She explained plans to address problems that affect women/children amid economic crisis. more..

Sep 25 (ST) The World Food Programme (WFP) has switched the warning light on food insecurity in Sri Lanka from amber to red. It says in its latest report issued this week that one-third of the population or 37% is food insecure and that as much as 74% is resorting to coping strategies such as relying on less preferred food, limiting portion size and reducing the number of meals. These statistics are not surprising. The media have been full of the coming events casting their shadows over a country more..

Sep 25 (ST) My dear King Charles, I thought I should write to you now as the dust has finally settled on the Queen’s funeral and you take over the royal duties of being King. It must have been a difficult few days for you because, even as you grieved for the loss of your mother, you had to do so publicly with the whole world watching you. I admit that I am also a little confused over what I should be writing to you about. On the one hand I feel I must condole with you for the loss of your mother. more..