n important challenge for Café Europa today is to build a new bridge of encounter leading to Asia. That is why I would like to initiate the program “Café Europa: A Fly To Asia” with this text. The place where the “flying literary café” will be hosted this time is “The Asian Literary Journal”.
A summarised interpretation of the country’s ocean economy and marine habitat since the end of colonialism is as follows. To date, the use of the Indian Ocean has been limited to what it was used since antiquity, namely trading and fishing. Many natural riches on the oceanfront have been neglected while the communities that should have been reaping the benefits are stuck in a vicious financial cycle.
Sri Lankan politics is a thing of its own making. It is the unholy combination of good, bad, evil, and ugly. Machiavelli would have re-written “The Prince” had he had even a slight glimpse of Sri Lankan politics.
What is needed now would be to formulate long-term strategies to avoid such a crisis from happening again and to establish ironclad food security for the country. There are a few thoughts towards this end.
What is evident is that walauwas were the houses of the Kandyan chieftains and the Low Country mudaliars. In contrast, the average citizen’s home was known as a ‘pela’, ‘palpatha‘, ‘maduwa‘, ‘kutiya‘ or ‘geya‘. The home of the village chief, the native doctor, vidane arachchi, mudalali, and so on was the ‘gedara’.
The Asian Review 