lankatraveltime

New laws to save Bhikkus: welcome sign The proposal to introduce new laws to punish those who abuse the sacred yellow robe is a welcome sign and it is also the need of the hour as certain persons have been using it for material gains, though it is business, politics or practices of occult. No genuine bhikku would resist this move as it would not affect true bhikkus.  After all, the power of these laws to be vested in senior members of the Bhikku Sasana and, there are no instances where laymen involved in discharging the law. As laymen, we see the bhikku society is engaged in various consumerist and materialistic affairs which is causing disappointment. So much so that I am compelled to find out the background of a bhikku beforehand if I am to greet him by kneeling down before the monk.  I guess many laymen have this suspicion and for a layman to have such thought would affect his religious feelings. Therefore to purify the Sasana, the new laws will definitely be helpful.

බ්ලොග් සටහන් සිංහලෙන්  

Estonian digital revolution: e-citizenship for all Last week Estonia invited anyone, anywhere, to become an e-citizen of the Estonian digital society, open a bank account in Estonia, or start a business. By the end of the year, anyone with an internet connection will be able to live their financial life in Estonia, all without being physically present. E-residency is a first step towards a world where a person’s online identity matters just as much as their offline identity. “This is the beginning of the erosion of the classic nation state hegemony,” John Clippinger, a digital identity researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told New Scientist. The e-estonia.com website has the details. E-residency gives secure access to Estonia’s digital services via a smart card that can be used from anywhere in the world, and an opportunity to give digital signatures in an electronic environment. Such digital identification and signing is legally

Watalappan and Amaraweera dreams  Former minister of Disaster Management, though he could not manage any disaster, threatened on a television that he can topple the government. The known fact about Mahinda Amaraweera is his servitude to his former boss Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers. This is the man who said that he has exploited enough for a few generations and his stomach was already full, and what he wanted more is Watalappan (some desserts). So he urged people to vote his boss to power to feed his greedy stomach with some watalappan and warned the voters not to bring the opposition to power as they could exploit public property in a manner worse than that of his clan did for the last 20 years. It is true that UPFA still has the majority in parliament. But he should know that there is a tug of war between UPFA coalitions and its main party SLFP. Therefore, SLFP cannot topple a government of its own unless its coalitions push it to do so. The other important ma

China needs not to worry about political change in Sri Lanka  This is a misleading article. The writer, either does not know the true facts behind the Chinese backed infrastructure development in Sri Lanka or he is worried about China becoming unpopular among ordinary Sri Lankans as China directly worked with a single family, and allowing them to rob out of Chinese funds working here. The ordinary people are compelled to pay this debt for generations to come. However, China should not worry about the defeat of one family - Rajapaksa. China can renegotiate with the new incumbent instead and continue their business and other investment because Sri Lankans well understand the economic potential of China. At the same time, the new administration will not be stooge to the West as Rajapaksa propagandists tried to convince the voters during recent election. Therefore, this sort of articles, written without sufficient research, would further disappoint Sri Lankans. They, the cosmopolitan m

Another climate change conference started yesterday here in Doha. It has been given full ceremonial look by Qatar and the Qatar who took over the chairman's seat declared that this was a golden opportunity for the people to protect the planet earth. Well we all appreciate Qatar's initiatives, and support its efforts therefore urge the high carbon producing nations especially the most industrialized nations to take the lead. When the Copenhagen summit was held in 2009, I was in Brunei, and in that small country with about 300000 people, we journalists took special interest, reported and wrote opinions on the developments of the conference. Brunei with a small population and small in size,I appreciate its ruler's commitment to protect the country's forests. Its main revenue comes from petroleum but the country contribute its share towards carbon cutting effort. If a country reserves over 70% of its land cover for forests, it should be a genuine model of protector