FT VIEWLiving the faith
Vesak is a time to revisit and refocus on the core of Buddhism. It is also the time to see how Buddhist principles of truth, peace, honesty and kindness can be promoted in the country.
Fix food sectors
Wasted food is a crime in any country, but it is particularly puerile in a developing country with Sri Lanka’s statistics on malnutrition. For a country that suffers no significant food shortages and provides extensive and free maternal and child health services, it is rather paradoxical that malnutrition affects nearly one-third of children and one quarter of women.
Sri Lanka’s history under threat
Several lies do not make a truth. The events that transpired in Nochchiyagama are disturbing for several reasons and serve as yet another reminder of the breakdown of law and order in Sri Lanka.
Predominant among these concerns is of course the fact that the whole incident smells of a massive cover up. No matter what the Police may say or do during the next few days, it will be difficult to convince the public that their explanation for the events that transpired is true and accurate.
Inequality on the rise
May Day fever has left the air but many issues that could cause labour unrest remain unresolved in Sri Lanka. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), income inequality in Sri Lanka has grown significantly and is only behind China.
The May Day show
Sri Lanka’s May Day celebrations have long been hijacked by politicians and as with almost everything that falls into their hands, it has become twisted and meaningless entertainment.
Distinctive red CTB buses flocked to Colombo on Tuesday carrying thousands of supporters for the Government, which pulled out all the stops to hold the biggest possible rally at Town Hall. People in bright blue T-shirts emblazoned with their village names and preferred politicians thronged streets and blocked up traffic and crucial nerve centres while employees who had to work, despite the day being ostensibly in their honour, were reduced to waiting endlessly inside sweltering busses.
Meaningful May Day
MAY Day is for the workers. Therefore it is the best time to take into account the hardships as well as duties that are the birth right, so to speak, of every worker.
The light of hope!
VESAK is the festival of light. Yet this year it seems that the lights will have to be dimmed to reflect the reduced lustre of the country’s economy.
As the Power and Energy Ministry organisers raffle draws for people who save electricity during the upcoming religious season there are many other efforts happening behind the scenes to lighten the country’s dimming signs of prosperity.
Food for fertiliser
The news that reduced prices has resulted in thousands of vegetables being used to make fertiliser because traders did not purchase them at the Dambulla Economic Centre is shocking. The idea that such massive wastage can happen in a country with so many poor people unable to even have three square meals is disturbing, to say the least.
Mervyn mania
THE Sri Lankan ruling party is famous for turning a blind eye to issues it does not want to deal with, which is perhaps why it stumbles from blunder to blunder concerning Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva.
For many seasons Silva had been batting away without any issues, but as the offences piled up, fellow politicians in his own party banded against him and handed over a file containing a myriad of his transgressions to the party leadership.
Much ado about nothing
Few statements can sum up the recent Indian Parliamentary delegation visit better than the famous quote from the bard. When the dust had settled from the flurry of meetings and statements from both sides, it really did seem as though the whole event was “much ado about nothing”.
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