Features

THE END OF A CORPORATE GIANT

Published

4 years ago

2022/09/25

Thilina Walpola

THE STORY OF WALKER SONS & CO LTD

by HUGH KARUNANAYAKE

THE EARLY YEARS

The firm known as Walker Sons and Co was Ceylon’s major engineering firm for over 175 years. The founder of the firm, John Walker, was born on August 24, 1819 in Doune, Scotland, the seventh child of James Walker, a cobbler, and his wife Charistina (nee Strang). He attended school in Deanston and was thereafter apprenticed in the engineering shop of Deanston Cotton Mill operated by James Finlay and Co.

In 1842 he travelled to Ceylon to work as an engineer for Wilson, Ritchie and Co. which owned the Hulftsdorf Mills and which revolutionized coconut oil production through the invention patented by David Wilson. John Walker thereafter worked in a number of firms in Ceylon before returning to Scotland in 1854.In Scotland he met William Turner an engineer who he had known in Ceylon, and who encouraged him to return to Ceylon to work in Turner’s engineering business in Kandy.

Walker arrived in Ceylon in 1854 and established his own engineering firm John Walker and Co at Trincomalee Street in Kandy, manufacturing machinery for the country’s rapidly developing coffee industry. The invention of a disc pulping machine patented in 1860 saw machinery exports to other coffee producing countries like Java, Southern India, and Brazil.

In a letter written by John Walker to his brother William in Glasgow in circa 1856 he stated that the buildings owned by the nascent company may be valued at £400 sterling. “The motive power is the Malabar cooly, as we have not enough water for the blacksmiths troughs, and fuel is expensive! Our customers are 300 planters scattered over the Central Province. As a class I would call them good customers, but some are are very long in paying”. In 1854 William became the buying agent for his brother John, and they established themselves in Glasgow under the name Walker Brothers.

In 1862 William joined John as a partner and by 1870 the company had opened branches in Badulla, and Haldumulla, and by1873 branches in Dickoya and Dimbulla. In 1873 Walker founded a new company Walker and Greig to supply machinery to the new tea plantations. In 1880 the company manufactured the first tea rolling machine. Walker brothers based their headquarters in Kandy, and thrived during the coffee boom, but as early as in 1864 the company contemplated moving to Colombo and leased out premises which however were never occupied.

With the construction of the South West breakwater in the Colombo harbour, in the 1870s, shipping out of, and into Colombo was the favoured option. The Company first leased out the premises known as “the Corner” at the corner of York Street and Main Street in 1881 and it moved its headquarters and workshops there. The premises were later acquired by the Company and in later years during the twentieth century housed its head offices, and show rooms there, while the workshops including the foundry, and dockyard were constructed on 15 acres of land in Mutwal leased out from the government for 99 years in 1912.

At a dinner given in London by the Ceylon Association in London in honour of the then Governor designate of Ceylon Sir Hugh Clifford, G.C.M.G.,C.B.E., Mr JL Loudon Shand who presided gave an interesting review of the planting history of Ceylon, and in the course of his speech made the following remarks:

“There are many other things that we planters have to be thankful for among others, is the Engineering genius which has attended all our efforts in Ceylon. Wherever we have foremost in coffee, tea, and rubber it is in invention and in having the highest Engineering enterprise at our disposal, and I am glad to see here tonight, representatives of the firm of Messrs Walker Sons and Company, who have done so much for us in Ceylon”.

John Walker retired at the age of 60 after steering the company for over 30 years, but continued as head of Walker and Greig. Walker Sons was thereafter headed by his brother William who became Senior Partner. John Walker died in Scotland in 1888 and his son John came out to Ceylon to take over the running of the company. In 1891 the firm was incorporated as a limited liability company by the name Walker Sons and Company Ltd and registered on the London Stock Exchange

EXPANSION- NEW AGENCIES

Walker Sons and Co grew to be one of the earliest corporate giants in Sri Lanka, having dominated the country’s engineering sphere for almost two centuries. It was arguably the company which had the greatest impact on the economic development of Ceylon up to the 20^th Century. It was to play a dominant role in the transformation of the country’s economy from a peasant based one to a more export oriented plantation economy a process which was well in hand by the end of the 19^th Century.

The company prospered and expanded during the first half of the twentieth Century having being appointed as sole agents in Ceylon for much sought after British made engineering products and services. Those agencies included Austin Motor Vehicles, Otis elevators , Carrier air conditioning, Formica products, Lucas batteries and Crittall windows. The first passenger lift in Ceylon was installed by Walkers Sons in the Galle Face Hotel in 1911. Likewise the first electric fans in Ceylon were installed by Walkers in the Bristol Hotel in the 1890s. Among its engineering services were Power installation, Oil engines for tea and rubber factories, a foundry with capacity for castings up to 10 tons in weight, a machine shop served with a 15 ton electric travelling crane, a heavy machine shop with electrically driven overhead cranes, a blacksmith’s shop, and a machinery repair shop, all based in the Mutwal facility.

MOTOR ENGINEERING

Walkers have been associated with the growth and expansion of the automotive sector in Ceylon more than any other institution in the country. The first motor car was imported to Ceylon in 1902, and in the very same year Walkers imported its first motor car, the “Locomobile” Thereafter it held the agency for Austin cars, and lorries, which were predominant in the nations fleet of motor vehicles. It was also the agent for Lucas batteries. The company acquired a two acre property in Galle Road Kollupitiya to serve exclusively as a motor service centre. The branch in Kandy as well as other branches of the company in Talawakelle, Ratnapura, Bandarawela, and Galle also were equipped with motor repair and service facilities.

MARINE ENGINEERING

Sri Lanka being an island with many bays around its shores, some of which were used as harbours for a range of shipping craft, would have been an ideal location for a regional maritime service hub, but somehow only Walker Sons rose to the challenge. The graving dock constructed by the company together with the adjacent nine acres of land comprised the Colombo Iron Works, known popularly as CIW which became the nerve center for all of the company’s engineering enterprise. The slipway of the company with a cradle 120 ft long was suitable for repair and maintenance work of craft. The company owned two ships the Lady McCallum and Lady Blake which operated around the shores of Ceylon were both commissioned by Walkers.

During the early 20th Century. In September 1926, the company launched the oil barge ” Mahaweli” built and powered to suit special requirements. During the Second World War the firm repaired and refitted 167 major warships, 322 minor warships and 1,932 merchant vessels, including the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, cruiser HMS Cornwall, HMS Cumberland, HMS Devonshire, HMS Gloucester, HMS Kent, HMS Manchester HMS Liverpool, and cruise liners RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Mary.

BUILDINGS

The metropolis of Colombo had as its nucleus the Fort of Colombo first built by the Portuguese, further fortified by the Dutch and British till the fortifications were removed in the late 19 th century. The area encompassed by the Fort continued to serve as the centre for commercial activity in the island and the emerging banking and finance sector. The many departmental stores, hotels, restaurants, and banks all came into existence during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most of the buildings in the Fort are of unique Victorian design and architecture representing the lifestyles of a bygone era. Almost all the 19th/20 th Century buildings within the Fort were designed and constructed by Walkers.

Buildings constructed by Walkers during the late 19th century include; the Galle Face Hotel, Australia Building, the Victoria Building, the P& O Offices, the National Bank of India Ltd, the Kandy Post Office, Messrs Cargills Ltd, Whiteaway Laidlaw and Co, Millers Ltd, The Scots Kirk

During the first half of the 20th Century the company built the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Imperial Bank of India, National Bank of India, the McKinnon McKenzie block, the new Customs House, the Grand Stand Ceylon Turf Club, the new Observer office, the Times of Ceylon building, the YMCA building, the new hostel for YMCA, the Soldiers and Sailors Institute, the Elphinstone Theatre, Pettah Police Barracks, St Bridgets Convent, etc etc. It could be said without fear of contradiction, that most of the significant buildings in the Fort including the 16 storied Ceylinco Building built in 1957 were all constructed by Walkers.

STAFFING

During the 1950s when the company was at its peak, with its workshops in Colombo in full gear meeting the nation’s demand for engineering goods and services, it had a skilled and semi skilled labour force of about 4,000 workers in Colombo and in the Branch establishments. Office staff included some 50 covenanted staff (Senior Executives), 120 Junior Executives; clerical and other office staff of about 500., possibly the largest for any single company in the island. During the 1950s, the Chairman of the parent company in London was Mr Osborne Walker, while the Ceylon operations were controlled by Mr E A Badman.

Most of the Senior Executives were Britishers, but feeling the need for Ceylonisation after Independence was granted to the country in 1948,Mr Badman recruited Ceylonese with outstanding sporting records and a good secondary education as Executives. Most of them were men who were educated at Royal College in Colombo and included Vivian de Kretser who captained the Royal College cricket team in 1945, Mahes Rodrigo who captained the Royal cricket team in 1946, Ashroff Cader who Captained the Royal rugby fifteen in 1949, Lucien de Zoysa who played in the Royal cricket team in 1935/36, and C. Ivers Gunasekera who played cricket for Royal in 1937/36/39.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNES

While it is difficult to pinpoint the source of the decline of the company’s fortunes, given that the history of its finances are not available now, it may not be unreasonable to surmise that the rot began in the early 1960s when the first signs of exchange controls and import restrictions appeared. That, despite the fact that the previous decade saw unrestricted imports following the Korean boom which sent rubber and tea prices spiralling upwards. The country enjoyed the benefits of that boon as did Walkers, but it failed to conserve and consolidate thus exposing itself to future vulnerabilities in the foreign exchange sector.

Walkers was a company largely dependant on imports and import based production and the first restrictions on imports imposed in 1961 saw a total ban on car and other imports which were ‘bread and butter’ lines for the company. Another very significant factor especially when gradual relaxation of controls took place in later years, was the emergence of suppliers from non traditional sources into the national imports basket. Post 1960 imports saw a significant drop in imports from the traditional British suppliers, and a diversification of import sources.

Countries like Japan, Korea, and non British Europe began to assume dominant positions. This was true even in Great Britain, where the domestic market was flooded with imports from the emerging nations of the Far East with access to superior production technologies inspired from the USA. Walkers however, despite these pressures had a reasonable foothold in the estate engineering sector, and also rose up to the challenges by diversification into areas such as fibre glass boat production, and making inroads into the tourism and hospitality sectors.

To add another unexpected blow to the company’s fortunes, the Government of the day in 1971 chose to compulsorily acquire its Head Office buildings in Prince Street, Fort paying the company a meagre Rs 700,000 as compensation. The building was acquired to house the State Pharmaceutical Corporation whose necessity to be located within the Fort was a question that went a begging, but never answered. Matters were compounded by the departure of the last of the Walker family, AC (Johnny ) Walker who handed over the company to Mackwoods Ltd, who were appointed Managing Agents for the Company for a stipulated period.

The attempt to restore financial stability by Mackwoods by selling off some prime real estate of the company was met with some opposition by the work force. The work force went on strike for several months bringing on more financial burdens to the company. In the mid 1970s George Steuart and Co were appointed managing agents for Walkers for three years.. Its Directors Trevor Moy, Scott Direckze, and Trevor Rosemale-Cocq, were appointed working Directors, and the company reached a degree of stability. George Steuarts however declined the opportunity to renew the agreement for a further three years.

In 1978, a new government liberalised import export trading and the possibility of a reversal of fortunes were envisaged by foreign investors looking for healthy returns on investment. The Anglo-Indonesian Corporation part of the Sime Darby Group, headed by John Nightingale, and Charles Berry negotiated successfully with the Walker family who relinquished their controlling interest in the company.

In around 1980 the controlling interest of the company was purchased by the Indian conglomerate the Tata Group which nominated two working directors to manage the company. They both resided in the Hotel Oberoi from where they made their daily visits to the different operations of the company. Kapila Heavy Equipment purchased the company in 1990. In 2009 a Malaysian based company MTD Capital Berhad purchased the Company which now goes as MTD Walkers PLC

While the Company has relinquished its role as a strategic component of plantation development in sri Lanka, and also in its key position in marine engineering, it has since stabilised itself as a major construction company focussing on infrastructure development. It is the market leader in pile driving operations and continues to sustain and maintain the nearly two century old traditions of Walker Sons and Co.

To conclude, it may be appropriate to quote William Walker the Founding Partner of the firm when he visited Ceylon in 1886.” I desire as much to be your friend as your master. I think that the firm with which I have been connected for so long as its head has done good work for Ceylon. We have brought works to the island that were never brought before. We also have paid large amounts in wages every month to the Sinhalese and Tamil workmen. But we think we can go on a step further and do better.

‘’The first thing I will try to do for you will be to afford you medical aid in times of sickness. I wish also that some provision be made for anyone who meets with any accident or in case of protracted illness. The next thing I wish is that something be provided for our men when old age comes on and you are not able to work. If this is carried out, no old and steady worker in the Company’s service will ever have to apply to the Friend in Need Society. (“Ref: Pioneers of Ceylon, Life of William Walker.Bedford publishing Co, Bedford 1897)

The above shows that the founding partners of the firm were inspired to expand its activities but also showed benevolence to is workforce- a sure formula for success.

(The writer worked on the Covenanted staff of Walker Sons And Co as Market Research Manager for five years in the mid 1970s)

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Features

Beyond traditional jobs: Why Sri Lanka needs to facilitate the gig economy

Published

2 days ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

Image courtesy Oxford University

by Kapila Chinthaka Premarathne
Head of the Department of Agricultural Systems and a Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Economics at the Faculty of Agriculture,
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Beyond the Graduate Unemployment Number

Sri Lanka’s economic recovery has improved macroeconomic stability, but youth unemployment remains a significant labour-market concern. Around 43% of Sri Lankan youth aged 15–24 with postsecondary education are unemployed, the highest among the Asian economies compared in the IMF analysis, compared with about 36% in Bangladesh and 13.2% in Thailand. This reflects a problem of skills mismatches and the difficulty of connecting higher education with changing labour-market demand. The concern goes beyond unemployment itself. Sri Lanka has invested heavily in educating its younger population, yet the conventional labour market is not creating enough opportunities to convert these qualifications into income. Many young people possess degrees, technical knowledge and growing digital familiarity, but remain outside formal employment because suitable jobs may not exist in the right place, at the right time or under conditions compatible with their circumstances. This makes it necessary to think beyond traditional employment models and explore new ways of connecting Sri Lanka’s educated youth with economic opportunities.

This is where Sri Lanka needs to reconsider how it understands employment

Employment has traditionally been viewed through the employer–employee relationship, with qualifications leading to a formal job and regular salary. While this model remains important, digital platforms are creating new ways to generate income, allowing individuals to work for multiple clients across geographical boundaries without permanent employment. Sri Lanka therefore needs to look beyond simply creating conventional jobs and consider whether it is building the conditions for its educated population to participate in the growing global market for digital services.

The Opportunity of the Gig Economy

The gig economy extends far beyond ride-hailing and delivery services. Digital platforms increasingly connect skilled individuals with opportunities in software development, design, accounting, data analysis, digital marketing, translation, online education, research and consultancy. This is particularly relevant to Sri Lanka, where a highly educated population faces a relatively limited domestic market for specialised skills. Digital platforms can overcome geographical constraints by connecting Sri Lankan workers directly with international clients.

As highlighted in my previous LSE South Asia article on women and the gig economy, such work should not replace formal employment but can create additional income opportunities when supported by appropriate skills, digital infrastructure, training and institutional support. A skilled person in Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Batticaloa or Monaragala could potentially serve clients in London, Melbourne or Dubai without first relocating to Colombo. This makes the gig economy relevant not only to employment but also to Sri Lanka’s emerging digital services-export strategy.

A Digitally Familiar Generation

Sri Lanka’s younger generation is growing up with smartphones, social media, online learning, digital applications and digital financial services, giving them a level of digital familiarity that previous generations did not have. However, digital familiarity does not automatically translate into digital employability. The challenge is to transform everyday digital use into productive skills such as data analysis, artificial intelligence, software development, digital marketing, financial analysis and online professional services.

Sri Lanka therefore needs to move young people from being consumers of digital services to producers of digital value. Universities, vocational institutions and training providers can play an important role in converting existing digital familiarity into marketable skills that connect young people with both domestic and international opportunities. This is increasingly important as technological change and AI reshape labour markets and intensify the need for skills that match emerging forms of work.

The Gender Dimension

The gig economy may be particularly relevant to women, who often face barriers to conventional employment arising from childcare, eldercare, mobility, social expectations and rigid working arrangements. For mothers and women living outside major urban centres, fixed working hours and daily commuting can make formal employment difficult even when suitable jobs exist.

Digital gig work can provide greater flexibility, allowing women to undertake professional assignments from home or their communities and potentially serve international clients without relocating. As discussed in my earlier LSE South Asia article, this opportunity is most meaningful when supported by digital infrastructure, skills training, virtual work hubs, mentorship and appropriate institutional support. However, flexibility should expand women’s economic choices rather than simply add paid work to existing unpaid household responsibilities.

Pressure on Labour-Market Opportunity

The value of a job cannot be judged by salary alone, as commuting, working hours and household responsibilities can significantly affect its real economic value. Flexible digital work can potentially reduce some of these costs by allowing people to work from home or nearby digital hubs and participate in employment on a part-time or project basis. While gig work cannot solve all household pressures, a more flexible organisation of work can create additional employment opportunities while helping households manage their limited time and resources more effectively.

A Possible Third Option Between Unemployment and Migration

Sri Lanka’s migration and brain-drain concerns highlight the need to explore employment opportunities beyond the domestic labour market. While overseas migration will remain an important individual and economic choice, digital work can provide another pathway by allowing skilled Sri Lankans to serve international clients without physically leaving the country. Software developers, designers, analysts, researchers, translators and consultants can potentially earn from global markets while remaining in Sri Lanka. Digital gig work cannot eliminate migration or reverse brain drain, but it can create an additional option between domestic unemployment and physical migration—working for the world while remaining in Sri Lanka.

Recognising and Making Digital Work Reputable

A major institutional gap is that conventional systems are designed around salaried employment, while a freelancer may earn from multiple clients without a single employer or salary certificate. This can make legitimate digital workers difficult to recognise when they seek loans, leasing, insurance or business finance. Sri Lanka could address this through a voluntary digital-worker or independent-professional registration mechanism, providing a recognised economic identity based on qualifications, verified skills, platform activity and documented income, without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Such recognition should also make digital income bankable. Banks could assess verified platform earnings, bank transactions, contracts, invoices, tax records, savings and repayment history alongside conventional employment documents. A standardised digital income statement could further help workers demonstrate their financial capacity. The key shift is from asking “Who is your employer?” to asking “Can your income be verified and is it sufficiently stable?”. This would allow successful digital workers to build financial credibility and use their earnings to access credit, acquire assets and develop their own businesses.

Digital Payments Are Part of the Labour Market

Access to reliable international payment systems is essential if Sri Lankans are to participate effectively in the global digital economy. Recent developments in PayPal’s local banking arrangements, including its partnerships with Sampath Bank and Commercial Bank, indicate progress in this direction. However, the broader priority should be a regulated and efficient digital-payment ecosystem that allows workers to receive international earnings, transfer them to Sri Lankan bank accounts, document their income and meet relevant financial and tax requirements with minimal friction. International payment infrastructure is therefore not simply a technology issue; it is an essential component of Sri Lanka’s emerging services-export economy.

Building Infrastructure Outside Colombo

Digital familiarity alone is insufficient without reliable internet, electricity, computers, software and suitable working environments, particularly in rural and underserved areas. To ensure that the gig economy supports regional development rather than becoming another Colombo-centred opportunity, Sri Lanka could establish regional digital-work hubs through universities, vocational institutions, libraries and public-private partnerships. These hubs could provide connectivity, equipment, training, mentoring and assistance with platform registration and international payments. If graduates must migrate to Colombo simply to access such infrastructure, the geographical advantage of digital work is significantly reduced.

From Freelancer to Entrepreneur

Gig work should not be viewed as an end in itself. A person may begin with small online assignments, develop regular clients and professional credibility, and eventually establish a small digital enterprise. This creates a potential pathway from graduate to freelancer, professional service provider and entrepreneur, allowing individuals to create markets around their own skills rather than waiting for conventional vacancies. Universities can support this transition by teaching students not only subject knowledge but also portfolio development, market identification, client communication, digital platforms and contract management. A degree demonstrates educational attainment, while a professional portfolio demonstrates what a graduate can offer to the market.

Facilitation Must Be Matched by Protection

Promoting the gig economy without appropriate safeguards could simply transfer employment risks from institutions to individuals. Digital workers may face uncertain incomes, weak bargaining power and limited social protection. Sri Lanka should therefore facilitate digital work while also ensuring opportunities for independent workers to build savings, access insurance and participate in portable social-protection mechanisms. Flexibility should create greater economic choice without compromising long-term financial security, particularly for women.

A regional Example from India: Think Globally and act Locally

India provides a useful regional example of how the gig economy can be approached as a policy issue rather than simply as informal or temporary work. NITI Aayog has estimated the size and future employment potential of India’s gig and platform economy and has developed recommendations covering employment generation, skills, financial inclusion and social protection. More importantly, India has begun creating institutional mechanisms around these workers. Its e-Shram portal provides a national database of unorganised workers, including gig and platform workers, creating a recognised identity through which workers can potentially access employment, skills development and social-security services. India has also explored platform-led skills development through skill certificates, skill passports and on-the-job training, while NITI Aayog has proposed cash-flow-based lending models that could allow platform workers to demonstrate creditworthiness through their earnings rather than conventional employment or collateral.

Social protection has also entered the policy framework. India’s Code on Social Security, 2020 formally recognises gig and platform workers and provides a basis for schemes covering areas such as accident insurance, health, maternity, disability and old-age protection. India is still developing and refining these arrangements, and Sri Lanka need not replicate the Indian model.

However, the experience demonstrates an important policy lesson: the gig economy can be supported through a system that identifies workers, develops their skills, makes their income more visible to financial institutions and extends appropriate social protection. Sri Lanka could develop its own simpler framework suited to its smaller economy, beginning with recognising digital workers and building the institutional conditions that allow their skills and earnings to become part of the formal economy.

Rethinking Employment and the Next Opportunity

The 43 percent figure for educated young Sri Lankans should encourage a wider discussion about the changing nature of work. Sri Lanka will continue to need conventional employment through firms, industries, farms, professional organisations and public institutions, but the changing labour market also requires new opportunities to connect educated Sri Lankans with global digital markets. The gig economy can provide an additional pathway to increase female labour-force participation, reduce the pressure for migration and brain drain, and connect Sri Lankan skills with markets beyond geographical boundaries.

This does not require a complicated bureaucracy. It requires recognising legitimate digital workers, facilitating access to international platforms and payment systems, allowing verified digital income to support credit assessment, developing portable social protection, and strengthening digital infrastructure and skills beyond major urban centres. Better data on digital workers would also help policymakers develop evidence-based interventions.

The future of work is therefore not only about creating more jobs, but about creating more ways for Sri Lankans to work, earn and build livelihoods while continuing to live and contribute in Sri Lanka. The gig economy should be recognised as part of an emerging digital labour market and services-export economy, where workers can build professional identities, earn internationally, access finance and eventually develop their own enterprises.

Features

Are religions getting redundant in the modern world?

Published

2 days ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

We are living in an era of astonishingly rapid scientific advancement. From the time Apple launched the ‘iPhone’ in January 2007, the first targeting the mass market, smartphones have taken over the world, making them indispensable. According to the latest statistics, there are around 8.1 billion mobile phones with 7.4 billion active smartphones, for the world population of 8.25 billion. Except for a tiny minority of the very poor, most people have at least one smartphone.

We are now entering the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart robots. Recently, a ‘Chinese’ robot ran 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt! Though Alan Turing proposed the idea of ‘Thinking Machines’ way back in 1950, the real AI boom commenced with the release of the generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, by OpenAI in November 2020. Number of technology firms in the US as well as in China have joined the race, China catching up very fast, quite unexpectedly. There is a frenzy at the moment, raising expectations, as the imminent floating of these companies is likely to value the two leaders, OpenAI and Anthropic, trillion dollars each!

However, trouble is brewing in the AI field. On top of the concerns raised by environmentalists regarding the huge power drain by AI centres, there are recent reports of some AI models hacking independently into other systems, without human input. Worse still, a senior researcher at Anthropic, who has previously worked for OpenAI as well, resigned in early September on ethical grounds stating that the way the two companies are fast-tracking AI poses an existential threat to humanity. Surprisingly, instead of a rebuttal the head of Anthropic supported his view, soon joined by three more heads of leading AI developers. Whilst they agreed on slowing progress, President Trump has claimed that slowing is totally unnecessary as long as a super intelligent President like himself is at the helm! There does not seem to be an end to Trump’s grandiosity! He was joined by Tony Blair. In contrast, King Charles held a summit with representatives of all AI developers to find a way AI could be developed without a threat to humanity. That is how wise leaders act!

Less sophisticated AI tools are already in widespread use and installed in computers, laptops and smartphones. Some of us are using these automatically. However, the more advanced AI tools like ChatGPT can change even reality. For instance, AI can generate videos hardly distinguishable from real ones. What you enjoy watching on YouTube may be just the creations of AI! Some people use AI to write articles; only a few of them admit that they do so. Very soon we may be reading stories AI creates and listening to music, courtesy of AI. Technology seems to be fast becoming the new religion? Or, will the existential threat move us more towards religion?

Religion, perhaps, is as old as humanity itself; various belief systems evolving and disappearing coupled with the fortunes of the associated civilizations. Just like AI, religion is also a creation of the human mind which our ancestors did to explain many phenomena which appeared, at that time, to be supernatural. Starting with Animism, perceiving the divine in the natural world around, humans went on to Polytheism, believing in many gods like in Hinduism, culminating in the concept of Monotheism.

World’s oldest religion, Hinduism, still in wide practice, is devoid of a founder or a single text. The earliest scriptures, Rigveda, is considered to be around 3,500 years old but archaeologists have discovered symbols of importance to Hinduism as far back as 7,000 BCE. Though it is considered to be Polytheistic, it can be argued that it was the precursor of Monotheism, the concept of a creator God, as Brahma was the creator in the triad, Trimurti, Vishnu being the preserver and Shiva being the destroyer. It seems to be a sensible balancing act; create, destroy and repair with improvements.

It is pretty obvious that as science expands, the importance of religion contracts but it is hardly likely religions would be totally redundant. We have no choice as to which family we are born to and that invariably determines what your religion would be, if any. Religion is the first brainwashing a child encounters and most remain in the same faith, often trying to defend even the indefensible, but some change through conviction or conversion due to one of many reasons. Further, religious rituals have social values and religious practices often come to one’s solace at times of distress. Therefore, many will continue with the religion they were born to but with declining enthusiasm, at times. However, some religions seem to be facing problems like falling attendances in places of worship. With education and tech savviness expanding, one would expect the youth to be less enthusiastic about religion but the converse is true in some religions, some youth becoming very militant unfortunately.

While most religions make you subservient to a supernatural power, the Buddha was wise and bold enough to remove those shackles. He proclaimed that one’s destiny is in one’s own hands. However, many Buddhists appear to attach greater significance to rituals than to practising the Dhamma.

Buddhism as a religion may become less relevant as the frontiers of science expands but the Buddha Dhamma, especially Abhidhamma and Vipassana, would receive increasing recognition, the Buddha remaining an authority on consciousness and the mind.

Scientific progress should be for the betterment of society but AI developers are taking huge risks, taking massive loans threatening the world economy, for one aim: profit! Some do not seem to care even if their actions pose an existential threat to humanity.

Perhaps, if the Four Sublime Attitudes (Sathara Brahma Vihara) expounded by the Buddha; loving kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), empathetic joy (Muditha) and equanimity (Upekkha) are adopted as universal values, the world would become a safer place to live in, with or without AI.

Features

‘The Bullet that Missed’

Published

2 days ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

Tales of Mystery and Suspense 21

by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Another book that is part of a series, today—one that is fun without the brooding concentration on criminality in different forms that marks the Rebus novels. This one about the Thursday Murder Club, is a romp as its two predecessors were interspersed with deaths and what might be deaths.

The Bullet that Missed

begins with a meeting with the presenter of ‘South East Tonight’, a programme about the area, in which Coopers Chase is situated. The meeting is held because the club has decided to look into the murder of the producer’s assistant, Bethany Waites, whose car was found at the bottom of a cliff ten years ago. There was blood in it, but the body was never found.

Or, rather, the book begins with an account of Bethany Waites deciding, on the night she vanished, to meet someone in connection with a case of massive fraud that she had been investigating, after sending the producer, Mike Waghorn, a message that she had found new evidence though he had no idea what it was. The night she died, she sent him another message: “I don’t say this often enough, but thank you.”

CCTV cameras showed her leaving her place, but then the vehicle vanished, before being sighted near the cliff, with two people in it. Investigation of the fraud had led to the imprisonment of a woman, Heather Garbutt, though it proved impossible to pin anything on Jack Mason, the mastermind for whom she had worked.

The Club conducts investigations on several fronts, including through Connie Johnson, the drug dealer they had helped imprison in the earlier book. The psychiatrist Ibrahim, the most respectable member of the Club, interviews her in an attempt to get her to find out more from Heather, who is in the same prison as she. They also investigate the CCTV record of the night Bethany vanished, and deduce that she went to an apartment block and exited from its other side, and that is why she was not seen leaving the town. But some time had elapsed between her being seen in the town and then on the cliff.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been kidnapped, along with her husband, and taken to a house in Staffordshire, where she is told by a man called the Viking that she must kill a former KGB agent now in London, who has a profitable career in money laundering. The Viking tells her he will inform Viktor that she was responsible for stealing the diamonds, the story of which is told in the previous Murder Club Mystery, and Viktor will then kill her.

Elizabeth, who has an affair with Viktor, knows he will not kill her, but when the Viking says he will also send Viktor a picture of Joyce, she decides she must act, and goes to see Viktor, and fires when she gets him in the bathroom. But, of course, she fired into the ceiling, and Viktor is then taken to Coopers Chase, to stay with Joyce until they have dealt with the Viking. And Viktor then enjoys the camaraderie of the retirement home so much that he wonders whether he too should settle there.

Elizabeth does trace the Viking, or rather her husband does, for he has noticed rare books on the shelves in his library, and an antiquarian book dealer friend managed to find out who bought them. But before they could confront him, he comes to Coopers Chase, for he has seen the bullet hole in the bathroom of Viktor’s flat and realized he was fooled.

But he cannot bring himself to kill Joyce straight away, and she knocks him out with a drug in a cup of tea. When he meets Viktor, they both decide to fall in with the plans of the Club.

Before this, Heather has been found dead in her cell, with a note saying that ‘they’ were going to kill her, and only Connie could help. Before that she had admitted that she was frightened to name the man behind the fraud. Jack Mason said the same, after Ron had won his confidence. The Club had deduced by then that the body was buried in the garden of Heather’s house which Jack had bought, after she had been jailed, and digging reveals a gun and money, but no body. Jack tells them that the mastermind had said that Bethany was buried with a bullet with his DNA on it.

The Club is now working with the Chief Constable of Kent, Andrew Everton, who writes thrillers himself, but in the form of e-books. He is in search of a publisher, and delighted when Mike Waghorn puts him on his programme, as is Donna, who is substituted at the last minute for Chris.

The Club finds out whom Bethany visited in the apartment block—Mike’s assistant Pauline, who tells them later what she and Bethany had been doing. But this is after the man behind the fraud has been unmasked up in the house in Staffordshire, where he was trying to hire the Viking and Viktor to find the money that he had stashed away, using accounts that he could no longer trace. He has also confessed to murdering Bethany, hoping this will persuade the two money launderers to help him, but it turns out that he did not do this. Nor did he kill Heather, the incriminating note having been placed in her room by Connie, who decided that Heather’s suicide should be treated as murder so that the person who had been blackmailing her should be found out.

It was Jack Mason’s murder that was brought home to the crook. It turns out that Bethany, her appearance altered by Pauline, has vanished, to a new life in Dubai, where she has taken control of the missing millions. She has gone there because the threat, she received through the bullet she was looking at in the preamble, was to Mike and she wanted him out of danger.

Yet another whimsical conclusion to a whimsical book with enough loose ends left hanging for another sequel.