Opinion

‘The Paths I’ve Travelled’

Published

2 years ago

2024/01/26

Thilina Walpola

Author: Sriyantha Senaratne

Reviewed by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Sriyantha Senaratne who has done much of my legal work in recent years is a delightful character, and deeply moral man. His social commitment was also apparent in his eloquent reminiscences in a book about the Student Christian Movement, where he celebrated the contribution of my uncle Lakshman, who was Chaplain when Sriyantha was a student at Peradeniya.

He is also devoted to the arts, and one of the joys of visiting him in his office is the strains of opera that fill the room. But just how varied are not just his interests but also his accomplishments only came home to me when last year he published an autobiography that made for riveting reading.

Entitled ‘The Paths I’ve Travelled’ after the poem by Robert Frost about making choices in the journey through life, it covers a host of experiences of very different sorts. After a short but moving account of a village childhood, he moves to Trinity, and his love for the place illuminates the memoirs, though for good reasons he describes he did not accept an offer to take on the Principalship in the nineties.

That was one of the many surprising things I gathered from the book, along with the reason for him being called Simon, which had long puzzled me. It was because as a schoolboy he had been devoted to the Saint stories of Leslie Charteris, so he was given the name Simon, for the Saint’s name was Simon Templar.

I had thought Simon had always been a lawyer, and that was indeed the profession he started life in, having decided not to go into the Civil Service as his parents had hoped, in the footsteps of his uncle. To my surprise the revered administrator and intellectual, Godfrey Gunatilleke was the brother of his father, who took on that surname when by error he was described at university as not Gunatillekege Senaratne but rather Senaratnege Gunatilleke.

Apart from his years as a lawyer, in three different firms, he also worked in the travel trade, where both at Walkers Tours and then at Gemini he engaged in influential innovations. Oddly enough my life unknowingly crossed his nearly half a century ago, when I was asked by Chloe de Soya, with whom he worked in both travel incarnations, to write some blurbs for the new hotel concept they had developed.

Before that interlude, having worked as a lawyer with Julius and Creasy, he describes a year in America as a Rotary Scholar, when he proved an admirable ambassador for the country. That long chapter is followed by a longer one, which is basically about his marriage. His description of family life is almost lyrical, and the personality of his wife Anthea lights up the book there and thereafter. She too has produced her memoirs, launched on the same day as his, but these are confined to her childhood so there is no overlap, except with regard to their first meeting and his romantic pursuit of her.

In the course of the book, Simon notes lessons he learnt from his mentors, one from a Trinity Principal about the need to cherish a family, another from his first boss about the human dimension to the work of a lawyer. Both these words of wisdom pertained to the importance of human relations, and the narrative makes clear how he followed the advice he received, which is shown to have produced enormous contentment.

But there were disappointments, which he does not avoid recording, though he moves swiftly so that we are barely conscious of what must have been anguish. That indeed only comes across at length in his account of disappointment as a boy at not being put into the House he had wanted, a disappointment that he coped with though characteristically he did not hesitate to express it.

Disappointment is passed over swiftly later, though never glossed over, as when he was punished for his year of leave to go to America by a senior partner at Julius and Creasy who assigned him to an area which brought him no satisfaction. Fortunately for him, and for the travel trade, that led him to seek other outlets for his talents, and he moved to Walkers and then, when a change of management proved restrictive, to his own business which he called Gemini Tours. His energy soon led that firm to be in the forefront of the travel trade.

Adversity brought out impressive initiative throughout his career. So too, when after having returned to the law, to work at the firm of D L & F de Saram, he was practically forced out, for reasons that do not reflect well on some of its partners, he set up on his own. He called his new firm Simon Associates, and found for its office in perhaps the most enviable of settings for legal practice, the beautiful old Galle Face Court flats.

That is where I met him, and a team of delightful youngsters he works with. That they appreciate his leadership was apparent from the pictures of the celebration they put on for his 75th birthday. Those are amongst the wealth of pictorial depictions of high points in Simon’s life, and also routine pleasures, family gatherings, holidays in exotic destinations, newspaper cuttings of high points in his career.

Simon’s good nature shines through the book, though as when he was a schoolboy, he makes critical points gently but tellingly. He does this about the shabby treatment he received from his second law firm, and also about the takeover by Christopher Ondaatje of Forbes & Walker, which he assisted in, as to which he was told later by his friend Adrian Zecha of the Aman Group that ‘they are not investors, they are paper shufflers’.

But it was mainly good Simon achieved, as shown by his determination when he headed the National Council of the YMCA and was determined to visit branches in Jaffna though it was the war period when travel was difficult. But he persevered as he did in much else, and the satisfaction he brought to those who had felt isolated is typical of a man who has in his quiet way brought satisfaction to so many.

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Opinion

Missing 52%: Why Women are absent from Pettah’s business landscape

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/23

Thilina Walpola

Pettah

Walking through Pettah market in Colombo, I have noticed something both obvious and troubling. Shop after shop sells bags, shoes, electronics, even sarees, and yet all shops are owned and run by men. Even businesses catering exclusively to women, like jewelry stores and bridal boutiques, have men behind the counter. This is not just my observation but it’s a reality where most Sri Lankans have observed as normal. What makes this observation more important is when we examine the demographics where women population constitute approximately 52% of Sri Lanka’s population, but their representation as business owners remains significantly low. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2023 report, Sri Lanka’s Total Early Stage Entrepreneurial Activity rate for women is just 8.2%, compared to 14.7% for men.

Despite of being the majority, women are clearly underrepresented in the entrepreneurial aspect. This mismatch between population size and economic participation create a question that why aren’t more women starting ventures? The answer is not about capability or intelligence. Rather, it’s deeply in social and cultural barriers that have been shaping women’s mindsets for generations. From childhood, many Sri Lankan girls are raised to believe that their primary role is as homemakers.

In families, schools, and even universities, the message has been same or slightly different, woman’s success is measured by how well she manages a household, not by her ability to generate income or lead a business. Financial independence is rarely taught as essential for women the way it has been for men. Over time, this messaging gets internalised. Many women grew up without ever being encouraged to think seriously about ownership, leadership, or earning their own money. These cultural influences eventually manifest as psychological barriers as well.

Years of conditioning have led many skilled women to develop what researchers call “imposter syndrome”, a persistent fear of failure and feel that they don’t deserve success kind of feeling. Even when they have the right skills and resources, self-doubt holds them back. They question whether they can run a business independently or not. Whether they will be taken seriously, whether they are making the right choice. This does not mean that women should leave their families or reject traditional roles. But lack of thinking in a confident way and make bold decisions has real consequences. Many talented women either never start a business or limit themselves to small, informal ventures that barely survive. This is not about men versus women. It’s about the economic cost of underutilising 52% of the population. If our country is genuinely serious about sustainable growth. we must build an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem through confidence building programs, better finance access to women, and a long term societal mindset shift. Until a young girl walking through Pettah can see herself as a future shop owner rather than just a customer, we will continue to waste our country’s greatest untapped resource.

Harinivasini Hariharasarma
Department of Entrepreneurship
University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Opinion

Molten Salt Reactors

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/23

Thilina Walpola

Some essential points made to indicate its future in Power Generation

The hard facts are that:

1) Coal supplies cannot last for more than 70- 100 years more at most, with the price rising as demand exceeds supply.

2) Reactor grade Uranium is in short supply, also with the price rising. The cost is comparable to burning platinum as a fuel.

3) 440 standard Uranium reactors around the world are 25-30 years old – coming to the end of their working life and need to be replaced.

4) Climate Change is increasingly making itself felt and forecasts can only be for continuing deterioration due to existing levels of CO2 being continuously added to the atmosphere. It is important to mention the more serious problems associated with the release of methane gases – a more harmful gas than CO2 – arising from several sources.

5) Air pollution (ash, chemicals, etc.) of the atmosphere by coal-fired plants is highly dangerous for human health and should be eliminated for very good health reasons. Pollution created by India travels to Sri Lankans by the NE monsoon causing widespread lung irritations and Chinese pollution travels all around the world and affects everybody.

6) Many (thousands) of new sources of electric power generation need to be built to meet increasing demand. But the waste Plutonium 239 (the Satan Stuff) material has also to be moved around each country by lorry with police escort at each stage, as it is recovered, stored, processed and formed into blocks for long term storage. The problem of security of transport for Plutonium at each stage to prevent theft becomes an impossible nightmare.

The positive strengths to Thorium Power generation are:

1) Thorium is quite abundant on the planet – 100 times more than Uranium 238, therefore supplies will last thousands of years.

2) Cleaning or refining the Thorium is not a difficult process.

3) It is not highly radioactive having a very slow rate of isotope decay. There is little danger from radiation poisoning. It can be safely stored in the open, unaffected by rain. It is not harmful when ingested.

4) The processes involved with power generation are quite different and are a lot less complex.

5) Power units can be quite small, the size of a modern detached house. One of these can be located close to each town, thus eliminating high voltage cross-country transmission lines with their huge power losses (up to 20%).

6) Thorium is ‘fertile’ not fissile: therefore, the energy cycle has to be kick-started by a source of Neutrons, e.g., fissile material, to get it started. It is definitely not as dangerous as Uranium.

7) It is “Fail – Safe”. It has walk-away safety. If the reactor overheats, cooled drain plugs unfreeze and the liquid drains away to storage tanks below. There can be no “Chernobyl/ Fukoshima” type disasters.

8) It is not a pressurized system; it works at atmospheric pressure.

9) As long as reactor temperatures are kept around 600 oC there are little effects of corrosion in the Hastalloy metal tanks, vessels and pipe work. China, it appears, has overcome the corrosion problem at high temperatures.

10) At no stage in the whole chain of operations is there an opportunity for material to be stolen and converted and used as a weapon. The waste products have a half- life of 300 years, not the millions of years for Plutonium.

11) Production of MEDICAL ISOTOPE Bismuth 213 is available to be isolated and used to fight cancer. The nastiest cancers canbe cured with this Bismuth 213 as Targetted Alpha therapy.

12) A hydrogen generation unit can be added.

This information obtained from following YouTube film clips:

1) The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor – what Fusion wanted to be…

2) An unbiased look at Molten Salt Reactors

3) LFTR Chemical Processing by Kirk Sorensen

Thorium! The Way Ahead!

Priyantha Hettige

Opinion

Foreign degrees and UGC

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/23

Thilina Walpola

There are three key issues regarding foreign degrees:

Recognition: Is the awarding university recognized by our UGC?

Authenticity: Is the degree genuine or bogus?

Quality: Is it a standard, credible qualification?

1. The Recognition Issue (UGC Role)

The UGC addresses the first issue. If a foreign university is listed in the Commonwealth Universities Yearbook or the International Handbook of Universities, the UGC issues a letter confirming that the university is recognized. However, it is crucial to understand that a recognized university does not automatically imply that every degree it issues is recognized.

2. The Authenticity Issue (Employer Role)

The second issue rests with the employer. It is the employer’s responsibility to send a copy of the foreign degree to the issuing university to get it authenticated. This is a straightforward verification process.

3. The Quality Assurance Gap

The third issue

—the standard and quality of the degree—has become a matter for no one. The UGC only certifies whether a foreign university is recognized; they do not assess the quality of the degree itself.

This creates a serious loophole. For example:

Does a one-year “top-up” degree meet standard criteria?

Is a degree obtained completely online considered equivalent?

Should we recognize institutions with weak invigilation, allowing students to cheat?

What about curricula that are heavy on “notional hours” but light on functional, practical knowledge?

What if the medium of instruction is English, but the graduates have no functional English proficiency?

Members of the UGC need to seriously rethink this approach. A rubber-stamp certification of a foreign university is insufficient. The current system ignores the need for strict quality assurance. When looking at the origins of some of these foreign institutions (Campuchia, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Sudan..) the intentions behind these “academic” offerings become very clear. Quality assurance is urgently needed. Foreign universities offering substandard degrees can be delisted.

M. A. Kaleel Mohammed
757@gmail.com
( Retired President of a National College of Education)