The results of the U.S. presidential election this week are more an overwhelming rejection of the way the United States has been run in the recent past, particularly during the Bush administration, than merely a victory for Barack Obama.
A group calling itself the Mahason Battalion has sent threats to the registrars of Colombo courts and a number of human rights lawyers, saying anyone who represents ‘terrorists’ or ‘suspected terrorists’ in court will face death.
Constant reports of widespread thieving are circulating in Sri Lanka, particularly around suburban town centers. This has gone so far as to affect even the dressing habits of women travelling in buses or three-wheeled vehicles. It has been customary for women to wear gold chains or other valuables, but this habit is changing due to the widespread snatching of such items from commuters. Now women are wearing artificial bangles, and thousands have tales to tell of their unfortunate experiences with thieves. Yet police inquiries are rare, and not even a handful of such cases have been resolved...
A Dutch journalist, Jon Bottis, learned a lesson about Sri Lankan policing when he made a complaint about the theft of his personal belongings from his apartment in the holiday town of Hikkaduwa recently. One policeman called him outside the station and asked him whether he needed a woman to have sex with. Having arrived in the country with a view to do a travel story to promote Sri Lanka, he would have learned the lesson that what is important for the promotion of a country is the degree of its respect for human rights and the rule of law more than anything else. There may be tourists who...