(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Internet subscribers are estimated at 1 for every 100 people (in 2007), up from 0.2 in 2000, says a recent World Bank report.
The World Bank launched its Information and Communications for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact report in Colombo on Friday.
The World Bank points out that the penetration of broadband services contribute to economic growth.
"For every ten percentage point increase in the penetration of broadband services, there is a 1.3 percentage point increase in economic growth," said Tenzin Dolma Norbhu, a World Bank ICT policy specialist at the launch of the report.
The report estimates that fixed broadband subscribers made up 31.3 percent of total internet subscribers (in 2007), with international internet bandwidth at 118 bits/second/person.
(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka's state-owned department store chain Lak Sathosa and Coop City have emerged as a competitive market force.
Sri Lanka Minister of Trade, Marketing Development Cooperative and Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardhana says that the the turn over of the country wide chain of 132 Lak Sathosa branches last month was Rs. 765 million. He said that it will be increased to Rs. one billion by the end of the year.
The Ministry has planned to expand the Lak Sathosa department store network to 150 this year.
The neo-liberalist United National Party government that was in power since 2001 to 2004 had planned to sell out this department store chain to private sector. Minister Bandula Gunwardhana was in the cabinet that took the decision to Cooperative Wholesale Establishment. However, he later crossed over to the government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse and revived the network.
(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Today is the 82nd birthday of Sri Lanka's prominent Sinhala musician Wannakuwattawaduge Don Amaradeva. He was born on December 5, 1927 in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in a traditional craftsmen family as Wannakulawattawaduge Don Albert Perera and later adopted a Sinhala name instead of Western name.
As a vocalist and a music composer, he has created a number of masterpieces in Sinhala music. The most striking feature in his character is maintaining his personality as an artist that has not bent before the politicians for personal gains unlike his contemporary artists in Sri Lanka.
Amaradeva has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Philippine Ramon Magsaysay Award (2001), Indian Padma Sri Award and Sri Lankan "President's Award of Kala Keerthi" (1986) and Deshamanya Award (1998). He has also represented Sri Lanka in many forums including the UNESCO 1967 ManilaSymposium, and composed the melody for the Maldives national anthem, Gaumii salaam, at the request of British Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.
(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Addressing the annual prize giving ceremony of Sanghamitta College, a leading girls' school in Southern Province capital Galle, Sri Lanka President said that the future generation should determine to sort out the ill effects of the open economy and Western culture to defend themselves from them. He also said that certain persons behold the country based on foreign attitudes and added that the education system that aimed at producing locals that think like imperialists was accountable for this.
Sri Lanka President said that certain politicians are in the need of portray the nation as the world's worst country despite it has many good people that perform good deeds.He emphasized that there was no place like in heaven anywhere in the world and everybody has duty to work for a better society understanding the social differences and injustice.
The President has called for an early presidential to extend his term by eight more years trading the war victory this year. However, he is facing a sharp competition as his ex-Army Commander is contesting the presidential as the opposition common candidate. Government politicians argue that Fonseka is backed by Western states that want to topple Rajapakse regime.
The joint opposition candidate in the Sri Lankan Presidential election, Gen.Sarath Fonseka, is currently in India on a short visit.
Informed sources told Express that the General turned politician was on a religious pilgrimage. He reportedly went to Mumbai and might perhaps go to Bodh Gaya in Bihar..
As to whether he would make a dash to New Delhi for a pow wow with the Indian leaders is not known. He had however made a request to the Indian High Commissioner Ashok K.Kantha, for arrangements to meet Indian leaders in New Delhi.According to reports, Fonseka is expected back in the island on Friday.
Importance of India to Fonseka
Fonseka has been showing a tendency to reach out to India in many ways. His remarks that he was very close to the Indian military and that he loved everything Indian, were meant to curry favour with India, a country which the Sri Lankan opposition believes is tilted towards the Rajapaksas.
It is known that India has reservations about him given his extremist majoritarian (Sinhalese) nationalist views. But since becoming a candidate he has been singing a totally different tune, which must intriguiing New Delhi as much as it does people here in Sri Lanka.
An UNP source said that Fonseka was so worried about the denial of adequate security to him by the Rajapaksa government that he had gone to consult the Indian authorities on the security that he ought to have.
Fonseka was reportedly disturbed by the Attorney General’s uncompromising attitude in the Supreme Court when his petition on inadequate security came up for hearing. He was mollified only when the court set an early date for the Attorney General to come up with a formal assessment of the security requirement.
As for the Indian leaders, they would certainly like to open a line of communication with a top- of- the- line Presidential candidate put up by a major political party like United National Party (UNP). They would also like to hear him first hand on the devolution of power to the Tamils ,whether he was serious about his statement made in Sinhalese, that he was prepared to go beyond the Indian-inspired 13 th amendment in this regard, and whether he would indeed abolish the Excutive Presidency. Read More
(TIME, December 03, 2009) The camps were opened on a limited basis on Dec. 1, and Dharmeshwaran was among the 6,700 who left on the first day. He and his wife had been on the run from late 2007 until this April when they came to Menik Farm. They had two children along the way, the younger one born two months ago inside the camp. "I feel like I have been reborn," Dharmeswaran says. He is visibly relieved, but his freedom is not total. Those who leave the camps will have to return within the time period they indicated before going, and they must give details of where they are staying to camp administrators. Dharmeshwaran went to Vavuniya to find a temporary job. "I can earn some money when I get back," he says. The camps provide basic supplies, but "if we want to buy anything extra it is very expensive." Others had come out to seek medical treatment, locate relatives or meet family members in government run rehabilitation centres for former Tigers.
(December 03, Colombo - Lanka Polity) While Washington debates President Obama's Afghan surge, another country not so far away offers a glimpse of the importance, and benefits, of getting it right. No, we don't just mean Iraq. Look also to Sri Lanka.
That island nation is just starting to recover from a 26-year civil war, which the government in Colombo won in May when it crushed the last remnants of the neo-Marxist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Colombo's year-long military offensive against the Tiger terrorists was controversial abroad and costly in blood and treasure on both sides at home.
The most obvious green shoot is the presidential election due for January 26. President Mahinda Rajapaksa called the vote two years earlier than expected hoping to ride a wave of majority-Sinhalese nationalism back into office. Instead he's facing a surprise challenger in General Sarath Fonseka, the military commander who won the war.
Neither candidate is perfect by a long stretch, but the mere fact of competition could benefit ethnic minorities. With Mr. Rajapaksa and Gen. Fonseka splitting the Sinhalese vote, each candidate will need to court Tamils and Muslims.
This is creating political incentives to hasten resettlement of the upward of 250,000 Tamils displaced by fighting in the Northern Province earlier this year. Roughly half of those have already returned home from the refugee camps, according to the United Nations. The government this week finally allowed greater movement in and out of the camps for those who remain.
Meanwhile Tiger extremists no longer menace moderate Tamils, who used to face regular intimidation. Incentives are now better aligned on all sides to resolve longstanding, legitimate Tamil grievances, such as Sinhalese preferences in university places and exclusion of Tamils from the police.
Whether the January vote will be free and fair is an open question. But the country is closer to resolving its problems than at any time since the Tigers started fighting in 1983. Sri Lanka isn't exactly analogous to Afghanistan. But the island does demonstrate the benefits of defeating terrorists on the battlefield.
