• Selective Justice - We should welcome Charles Taylor’s recent conviction by a UN War Crimes Tribunal. While president of Liberia, Taylor fomented violent uprisings in neighbouring countries with the aid of brutal militias in order to extend his regional influence. It was during his rule that the term “blood diamonds” was coined, referring to the lucrative stones from [...]
• Rescuing Creation-Talk - Two years ago the American molecular biologist-cum-venture capitalist Craig Venter and his research team made a spectacular breakthrough. After years of painstaking work, they assembled in the laboratory a complete DNA molecule, consisting of about one million nucleotides of a micro-organism, and then inserted the synthetic DNA molecules into cells of another micro-organism from which [...]
• Keeping Our Humanity - I found myself last week in the unusual position of defending in public the United States government. The latter was the prime mover behind a resolution by the UN Human Rights Council calling on the Sri Lankan government to improve its human rights record and launch a credible investigation into war crimes. Some members of [...]
• Global Politics: 1948 vs 1945 - One of the most moving letters I received in response to my last Blog post was from a retired professor of philosophy, now living in a small town in Texas. “I have never seen US politics in greater decline”, he laments, “and characterized as much by mere perversity as by obtuse partisanship and venality- and, [...]
• Nuclear déjà vu - The streets of Colombo have witnessed angry crowds protesting at the soaring fuel costs which have further crippled an economy already weakened by years of corruption and political mismanagement. Small countries like Sri Lanka are affected disproportionately by the economic sanctions against Iran imposed by the US and the EU. Iran is one of Sri [...]
• States of Terror - I once had an argument with an American atheist Jew who insisted that being a Jew was a matter of ethnicity and had nothing to do with “religion”. Later, I found that I had on my side Jonathan Sacks, perhaps the most articulate and winsome spokesperson for Judaism in today’s world. “Judaism is not an [...]
• Minds and Machines - Last February, the IBM supercomputer Watson won an exhibition game of the American TV show “Jeopardy” against two of its best contestants. This was a significant advance on Deep Blue, another IBM supercomputer, which had defeated the six-time world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. It was hailed in the popular media as heralding the [...]
• Mindless Science - The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was notorious among his contemporaries for his cynical view of human nature. Hobbes held that we always act out of self-interest. Once a friend observed him giving money to a beggar and asked Hobbes if what he had just done did not disprove his own theory of human motivation. [...]
• Micro-Credit Hype - I return to Ha-Joon Chang’s debunking 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism.  In one of his chapters, Chang argues that people in poor countries are generally more entrepreneurial than those in rich countries. Most citizens of rich countries work for a company, doing highly specialized jobs. As a result, they spend their working [...]
• The Biggest Threat? - The average human today lives longer, travels further, burns more carbon and eats more food than in any generation before us. The unsustainable consumption habits of Europe, the USA and Japan have been promoted worldwide and are now being emulated by hundreds of millions in China, India, Brazil and Indonesia. The carbon-fuelled, capital-intensive approach to [...]

• The Revealing Statue - Walking along the Galle road in Mt. Lavinia the other day I came upon the following statue (see picture on right). It was erected in 2004 in “appreciation of the working class”. On closer inspection we see that the name of the person unveiling the statue is written in larger font than the persons to [...]
• Throwing Stones at Ourselves - Sri Lankans everywhere were appalled at the video that came out last week. A mentally unstable man who was pelting stones at passers by was chased into the sea, beaten with poles and left to drown. The fact that it was done by policemen aided by members of the public only added to the [...]
• Transforming Silence - The recent islandwide power failure was awful wasn’t it? Getting up in the middle of the night in a bath of sweat I couldn’t help muttering about the decline in the state of the power and energy industry. Was it a strike or sabotage? Couldn’t they have planned their ‘action’ at a more convenient time? [...]
• The Challenging Journey - My wife and I realized a common dream recently – a long awaited visit to Jaffna. We went by plane as the bus service was functional only for Jaffna residents who travel to Colombo. What was actually a 1 hour flight became a 9 hour journey with the checking and being packed into buses at [...]
• Goal or Trust - Spiritual gurus seem to pop up everywhere these days. They promise a variety of blessings for their adherents. These include good health, financial security, success in business/studies and happiness in relationships. Their techniques range from meditation to positive thinking to harnessing the energy of mother earth. Many are attracted and some do receive the intended results that [...]
• Rolling back the Sea - Watching the pristine beauty of the Mt. Lavinia coastline, one cannot help being moved. Many are drawn to its natural beauty. It is not an uncommon sight to see men, women and children of all ages seated on the beach taking in the spectacle of the sunset and the myriad of colours. The tranquil scene brings [...]
• Integrating the Pizza - I had a craving for pizza the other day and called the hotline of one of the leading pizza distributors in Colombo. The operator was both helpful and courteous and enthusiastically promoted the latest range of pizzas and add-ons. Needing more information about them, I asked him about the characteristics of the pizzas and quickly [...]
• The Slavery of Contentment - Readers of the Daily Mirror newspaper last month (18th August) woke up to the headline news that Sri Lanka had topped the list among Asians (93%) “most satisfied with their lives”. At first glance this appears to be reason to celebrate, however, the irony of the situation was exemplified when comparing this story with the [...]

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