This column is bound to provoke the ire of that battery of “defenders of the realm” who have made it their business to attack anyone who even vaguely resembles a critic of the regime that gives them sustenance. No matter, as they used to say, “The dogs may bark, but the caravan proceeds.” But, that [...]
It seems like the media, all three elements of it – the blatantly sycophantic, those pretending “objectivity in reporting” and those critical of undemocratic practice – have filled their pages and the airwaves with a barrage of reporting and speculation about and analysis of the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva which would [...]
Being targeted for attack, denigration and perhaps worse, does provide some (unwanted) excitement in one’s life, I have discovered. On the “up” side of the equation, it must be admitted that it takes less effort to pull together the information that I require for this column each week! Having returned to the land of my [...]
I contributed a piece entitled “Then what?” to the now defunct Montage magazine’s December 15th, 2007- January 15th, 2008 issue which I am going to make the jumping off point for this week’s column. Despite having no pretensions to Cassandra status of any description either then or now, and the piece having been composed nearly [...]
Something on which I will bet dollars to donuts is that, while there are probably many readers who are familiar with the old English saying that is the title of this column, few are aware that there is a local equivalent which does not owe its origin to that venerable institution of centuries gone by [...]
From time to time, someone trots out an invidious comparison/contrast between Sri Lanka and the South Asian City State created and managed by Lee Kwan Yew and his successors. Let me, this Sunday, make a similar effort. Sri Lanka emerged out of World War II, with its foreign exchange coffers brimming with hard currency reserves [...]
The title of this week’s column is one that has been front and centre in my mind for a very long time and well you might say, “Given the Sri Lankan reality, absolutely no surprise there!” The “Houses” I refer to are the political parties and other entities that pretend to provide a voice for [...]
When the news of my being threatened with dire consequences for “writing against the President” reached them, several of my “I-told-you-so” friends did exactly that, told me that they had told me so and reiterated the advice they have been giving me without a break for a long time now: “Mind your own business, keep [...]
Nicholas D. Kristof, who is a regular contributor to the Op-Ed columns of the New York Times and a frequent visitor to North Korea over the past dozen years, had the following comment to make about the passing of Kim Jong-il and the paroxysms of grief with which the people of that country responded to [...]
It is that time of year when one is permitted to take a trip down memory lane to 2011. Just a few days ago, a friend sat me down and insisted that I had been remiss in not exploring and analyzing the fact that our government, which never tires of telling us poor plebes how [...]
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