In the past week, the name ‘Sakvithi’ has been causing ripples in Sri Lankan society and creating numerous news headlines — for all the wrong reasons.

Sakvithi Ranasinghe, a populist tutor of English turned millionaire businessman, has fled the country after duping thousands of unsuspecting people to deposit their life’s savings in his investment firm. Media reports have variously placed the number of victims between 1,500 and 4,000 — and some estimates place the total worth of his loot to be a whopping Rs. Nine billion (over USD 83.5 million).

Since it broke around September 21, the scandal has consumed a good deal of newspaper space and broadcast time. Editorialists and TV pundits have been having a field day, some simply …

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AJ Gunawardana and Lester James Peiris

September 2008 marks 10 years since the sudden death of Dr Ariyasena Jayasekera (A J) Gunawardana, an outstanding university teacher, writer/journalist, cinema personality and art critic. When he failed to regain consciousness from open heart surgery, at the relatively young age of 65, we lost a rare intellectual who had his feet firmly on the ground, and constantly built bridges linking media, culture and society.

AJ’s academic and professional accomplishments are well known and remembered. Having started as a journalist with Daily News, where he was a noted arts and culture correspondent in the 1960s, he went on to obtain a doctorate …

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Watching the current SAARC jamboree unfold over television news, my young daughter asked why none of the officials were smiling. The SAARC Secretary General, Dr. Sheel Khant Sharma, was always scowling. Others didn’t have smiles on their faces either, even insincere ones. They all looked stressed out, wearing glum, miserable faces.

I could only hazard a guess. Perhaps the assorted babus have too much to worry about, as they get through their very serious and grim business of fostering regional cooperation. On the other hand, after all these years of endless meetings and declarations, they might have forgotten the simple joys of smiling and enjoying each other’s company.

Make no mistake: SAARC is a good idea hijacked by unimaginative and pompous, unsmiling …

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One day a few years ago, I found my uncle in a really bad mood. Enjoying his retirement after long years as a senior civil servant, he was highly agitated about what I considered to be a perfectly harmless utility: the mobile phone.

“Everyone is carrying hand phones these days,” he complained. “The plumber, door-to-door salesmen — and even the paan kaaraya.”

What really irked my uncle was not so much what they were carrying as who was using the gadget. In his worldview, the mobile phone was a sophisticated technology tool not meant for the hoi polloi. (Especially when ‘respectable’ citizens like himself still didn’t own one.)

My arguments on social and economic benefits of enhanced access to telecom services didn’t convince …

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Consumer protection! It’s of those widely desired, critically needed yet rarely found practices in Sri Lanka. When it does happen, even falteringly, the practice is largely confined to everyday consumer goods, mainly food items - ranging from our staples rice and bread to essentials like coconut, sugar and milkfood. Throw in LP gas, pharmaceuticals, fish and chicken, and the mix is about complete.

Or is it? Surely, our consumer needs and wants stretch way beyond these basic items? In twenty-first century Sri Lanka, when service industries dominate over manufacturing, retail and cultivation, why aren’t we consumers paying enough attention to safeguarding our rights on the service fronts?

A few examples illustrate these big gaps:

•       The country’s electricity supply duopoly (CEB/LECO) introduced …
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13 February 2008, Colombo: Earlier this week, a leading Sri Lankan photojournalist was detained, questioned and released by police for taking photographs near a well-known Colombo school.

According to news reports, Associated Press (AP) photographer Gemunu Amarasinghe was apprehended by a group of parents who formed the school’s civil defence committee. They had handed him over to soldiers on duty near by, and he was briefly detained by the Narahenpita police.

It is not clear exactly why the experienced and credentialed photojournalist had to undergo this treatment. This might seem a minor incident in the context of highly dangerous conditions in which Sri Lankan journalists operate today. It was only a few days earlier that the World Association of Newspapers ranked …

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