Features

Trump, Biden Tied At 46% In National Polls Pathetic Choice For 2024 Presidency

Published

2 years ago

2023/09/10

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

Labor Day, Monday, September 4, marked the unofficial beginning of the US election season. The choice for the presidency in 2024 remains up in the air. Seventy five percent of Democrats polled don’t want Biden to run as their nominee, while 69% of Republicans don’t want Trump to be the Republican nominee.

The main objection, and probably the only one, against Biden, in spite of his outstanding performance so far during his first term, is his age. He will be 86 at the end of his second term. The main objection against Trump – one in at least 91 – is that he continues to be a threat to the nation’s democracy.

Nevertheless, both these candidates are currently prohibitive favorites of their respective Parties for the 2024 presidency. They are defined more by their weaknesses than by their strengths. What is most distressing – and mystifying – is that an incumbent president, having brought back sanity to a disgraced White House, cannot put any distance in the national polls between himself and his rival, a former twice impeached president, convicted of fraud and sexual assault, arrested and on bail on 91 felonies.

They are currently tied at 46% each. However, polls are “fragmentary snapshots of a moment in time” and can change rapidly as circumstances fluctuate.

This is the most pathetic choice for the presidency American voters have ever faced in its history. The one hope is that the whole political landscape will change in the next 14 months, and Americans will finally come to grips with the dangers they face to their very democracy with the election of either of these candidates.

Should Trump regain the White House, the guardrails protecting the nation’s democracy will be gone. Biden may not survive a second term, and Democrats may well be compelled to change horses in midstream.

America was not always like this. US presidents after WWII, Democratic and Republican, have been much like the curate’s eggs: some good and bad at the same time, others having distinct good and bad parts. But every single one of them, from Roosevelt to Biden, even Nixon, had always revered the sanctity of the Constitution, the inviolability of the Rule of Law and the dignity of the Oval Office.

Bar Trump, who has shamelessly violated these fundamental institutions of American democracy.

President Roosevelt guided the nation well on the path to social and economic justice with his New Deal after World War II, representing the beginnings of the social safety net in America. Progressive policies Republicans contemptuously decry today as “Commie” ideology. Social and economic benefits enjoyed by citizens of all other developed countries.

FDR was succeeded in on his death by President Truman, who in 1945 was faced with the most heartbreaking decision any president could face: to authorize the dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 6 and 9, 1945, killing an estimated 200,000 innocent civilians, men, women and children. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, officially ending a war in which 70 – 85 million people had perished. The alternative to this inhumane decision was to sacrifice millions more lives in the invasion of Japan, a nation which would not have surrendered under any other circumstance. Truman was considered to be one of the greatest presidents in US history.

Eisenhower continued with the New Deal programs, expanded social security, prioritized taxes where the wealthy paid taxes up to 90% which made for a thriving middle class. He played a major role in the construction of the nation’s highway network. Every Republican president who came after him pales by comparison.

Then came Kennedy, a war hero and the most charismatic president in the nation’s history who, with his charismatic style, soaring oratory and a beautiful wife, brought new glamor to the White House. His administration was renamed after Camelot, the mythical fifth century kingdom of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Kennedy is mainly remembered for his unflinching courage during the Cuban Missile Crisis, where he stared down Khrushchev to dismantle nuclear bases and weapons in Cuba; and for his determination to conquer space, when he famously said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”.

Kennedy was extremely popular with the ladies; his numerous extra marital affairs, notably with sex bomb Marilyn Monroe, were legendary. He is famously supposed to have told the British Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan in 1961, “if I didn’t slip the presidential sausage to a woman once every three days, I would get a splitting headache”. Poor MacMillan had probably not enjoyed any sausage action in years.

Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded to the presidency on Kennedy’s assassination. He presided over the enactment of the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Acts. But he was most unpopular for his role in escalating the Vietnam War, which prompted him not to seek re-election in 1968.

Richard Nixon won the Presidency in 1968 and 1972 in landslide victories. He counted many signal achievements during his presidency, bringing about the end of the Vietnam War and negotiating a détente with the Peoples Republic of China.

However, his presidency will always be held in disgrace because of Watergate, an attempt at a cover-up of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building and hotel in Washinton D.C. Compared to the felonies of sedition and espionage surrounding the contemptible Trump, Watergate was a mere bagatelle.

Nixon’s vice-president, Gerald Ford succeeded him on his resignation. Ford’s only “achievement” during his presidency was his pardon of Nixon for crimes committed during Watergate.

Ford was succeeded by Democrat Jimmy Carter. He championed human rights, bolstered Social Security, added nearly eight million jobs and sought to improve the environment. He helped to bring amity between Israel and Egypt with the historic Camp David Agreement of 1978. He also established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.

Carter was a fine president but a terrible politician. He was outmaneuvered by the Great Communicator, Reagan, after serving one term, in 1980.

Carter, deemed the greatest ex-president in history, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social welfare”.

Since 1984, Carter and his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, have been personally involved in building and renovating homes for the poor with Habitat for Humanity. At age 94, he is still actively engaged in the project, in spite of the sad fact that Rosalynn is suffering from dementia.

Reagan was a worse president than he was a mediocre Hollywood actor. His infamous trickle-down Reaganonomics, which cut the maximum tax rate of corporations and the wealthy from 65% to 40%, began the process of decimating a thriving middle class.

The two Republican presidencies of the Bushes, George H.W. and George W. served as disastrous bookends for a prosperous eight-year presidency of Bill Clinton (1992 – 2000).

The older Bush started the Gulf War against Iraq. The younger Bush tried to outdo daddy, and waged an illegal war against the same country, also doomed to failure, with enormous costs to lives, property and international reputation. Both left their presidencies in financial crises with massive budget deficits, to be rescued by their successors, Clinton and Obama, in 1992 and 2008, respectively.

Clinton’s two terms boasted of the longest economic expansion in American history, added 22 million new jobs, the largest expansion of education and college opportunities since the GI bill, among many other achievements. His administration ended in a budget surplus of $230 billion.

The charismatic Clinton also had a penchant for the ladies, though he was an altar boy compared to JFK. His presidency was marred by an affair with an intern, and was impeached for lying under oath for the consensual “crime” he was alleged to have committed with her. The case against him was “blown” away, as his crime did not fall within the dictionary definition of sexual intercourse.

The two-term administration of President Barack Obama extricated a nation on the brink of recession. In eight years, he transformed it to a prosperous country with 72 final weeks of continuous economic growth, well on the path to social and economic justice. A nation that adorned the mantle of the Leader of the Free World, winning international respect and admiration. Achieved in the face of Republican obstruction at every turn, without a whiff of political or personal scandal.

Four short years later, from 2016 to 2020, the USA became a different country. Trump’s America has lost the confidence of its allies as he consorted with its adversaries; sacrificed the threat of climate change at the altar of pollution and corporate profits; cost the avoidable deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans to the pandemic, in a cynical effort to safeguard the economy; employed unqualified family members to senior White House positions, which they used to steal the country blind; forsook the plight of the neediest for the benefit of billionaires and corporations; and, worst of all, rekindled racial and religious tensions simmering below the surface to the cusp of a second civil war.

For the first time in history, the nation’s budget deficit topped $ one trillion in 2020, at the end of Trump’s first and only term.President Biden, who defeated Trump by a landslide in 2020, has brought back a semblance of dignity to a White House which had been riddled with corruption, nepotism and a criminal repudiation of the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

There will be many twists and turns, for both Parties, before the November 2024 election. Biden did not run for the presidency in 2016, because of the grief after the death of his beloved son, Beau. Perhaps he could now take the honorable, save-face path to resignation because of the ongoing investigations and imminent indictment relating to gun charges and financial misconduct of his second son, Hunter, although there is no evidence of his own involvement. Take one for the team, as it were.

Such a resignation would open the door for younger, proven leaders like Vice President Harris, California Governor Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, to run for the Democratic nomination. Whoever wins, there will be a welcome breath of fresh air of young and vibrant leadership to the Party.

And the Republicans will be forced to field Trump, with all the legal baggage he is carrying, as their nominee. Should he be compelled to drop out by disqualification of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment or any other reason, up to and including imprisonment, they will have to find a suitable candidate at short notice, while the nation would probably be forced to cope with white supremacist violence that may erupt on the great big fall of Humpty Trumpty.

The 2024 presidential election will be one of the most momentous events in the nation’s history. Whatever the result, Trump has created a suspicion in one of the cornerstones of a democracy – the integrity of its electoral process. It is entirely possible that elections in the future may be decided not by the ballot but by the bullet.

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Features

More state support needed for marginalised communities

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/13

Thilina Walpola

A landslide in the Central Province

Message from Malaiyaha Tamil community to govt:

Insights from SSA Cyclone Ditwah Survey

When climate disasters strike, they don’t affect everyone equally. Marginalised communities typically face worse outcomes, and Cyclone Ditwah is no exception. Especially in a context where normalcy is far from “normal”, the idea of returning to normalcy or restoring a life of normalcy makes very little sense.

The island-wide survey (https://ssalanka.org/reports/) conducted by the Social Scientists’ Association (SSA), between early to mid-January on Cyclone Ditwah shows stark regional disparities in how satisfied or dissatisfied people were with the government’s response. While national satisfaction levels were relatively high in most provinces, the Central Province tells a different story.

Only 35.2% of Central Province residents reported that they were satisfied with early warning and evacuation measures, compared to 52.2% nationally. The gap continues across every measure: just 52.9% were satisfied with immediate rescue and emergency response, compared with the national figure of 74.6%. Satisfaction with relief distribution in the Central Province is 51.9% while the national figure stands at 73.1%. The figures for restoration of water, electricity, and roads are at a low 45.9% in the central province compared to the 70.9% in national figures. Similarly, the satisfaction level for recovery and rebuilding support is 48.7% in the Central Province, while the national figure is 67.0%.

A deeper analysis of the SSA data on public perceptions reveals something important: these lower satisfaction rates came primarily from the Malaiyaha Tamil population. Their experience differed not just from other provinces, but also from other ethnic groups living in the Central Province itself.

The Malaiyaha Tamil community’s vulnerability didn’t start with the cyclone. Their vulnerability is a historically and structurally pre-determined process of exclusion and marginalisation. Brought to Sri Lanka during British rule to work for the empire’s plantation economies, they have faced long-term economic exploitation and have repeatedly been denied access to state support and social welfare systems. Most estate residents still live in ‘line rooms’ and have no rights to the land they cultivate and live on. The community continues to be governed by an outdated estate management system that acts as a barrier to accessing public and municipal services such as road repair, water, electricity and other basic infrastructures available to other citizens.

As far as access to improved water sources is concerned, the Sri Lanka Demographic Health Survey (2016) shows that 57% of estate sector households don’t have access to improved water sources, while more than 90% of households in urban and rural areas do. With regard to the level of poverty, as the Department of Census and Statistics (2019) data reveals, the estate sector where most Malaiyaha Tamils live had a poverty headcount index of 33.8%; more than double the national rate of 14.3%. These statistics highlight key indicators of the systemic discrimination faced by the Malaiyaha Tamil community.

Some crucial observations from the SSA data collectors who enumerated responses from estate residents in the survey reveal the specific challenges faced by the Malaiyaha Tamils, particularly in their efforts to seek state support for compensation and reconstruction.

First, the Central Province experienced not just flooding but also the highest number of landslides in the island. As a result, some residents in the region lost entire homes, access roadways, and other basic infrastructures. The loss of lives, livelihoods and land was at a higher intensity compared to the provinces not located in the hills. Most importantly, the Malaiyaha Tamil community’s pre-existing grievances made them even more vulnerable and the government’s job of reparation and restitution more complex.

Early warnings hadn’t reached many areas. Some data collectors said they themselves never heard any warnings in estate areas, while others mentioned that early warnings were issued but didn’t reach some segments of the community. According to the resident data collectors, the police announcements reached only as far as the sections where they were able to drive their vehicles to, and there were many estate roads that were not motorable. When warnings did filter through to remote locations, they often came by word of mouth and information was distorted along the way. Once the disaster hit, things got worse: roads were blocked, electricity went out, mobile networks failed and people were cut off completely.

Emergency response was slow. Blocked roads meant people could not get to hospitals when they needed urgent care, including pregnant mothers. The difficult terrain and poor road conditions meant rescue teams took much longer to reach affected areas than in other regions.

Relief supplies didn’t reach everyone. The Grama Niladhari divisions in these areas are huge and hard to navigate, making it difficult for Grama Niladharis to reach all places as urgently as needed. Relief workers distributed supplies where vehicles could go, which meant accessible areas got help while remote communities were left out.

Some people didn’t even try to go to safety centres or evacuation shelters set up in local schools because the facilities there were already so poor. The perceptions of people who did go to safety centres, as shown in the provincial data, reveal that satisfaction was low compared to other affected regions of the country. Less than half were satisfied with space and facilities (42.1%) or security and protection (45.0%). Satisfaction was even lower for assistance with lost or damaged documentation (17.9%) and information and support for compensation applications (28.2%). Only 22.5% were satisfied with medical care and health services below most other affected regions.

Restoring services proved nearly impossible in some areas. Road access was the biggest problem. The condition of the roads was already poor even before the cyclone, and some still haven’t been cleared. Recovery is especially difficult because there’s no decent baseline infrastructure to restore, hence you can’t bring roads and other public facilities back to a “good” condition when they were never good, even before the disaster.

Water systems faced their own complications. Many households get water from natural sources or small community projects, and not the centralised state system. These sources are often in the middle of the disaster zone and therefore got contaminated during the floods and landslides.

Long-term recovery remains stalled. Without basic infrastructure, areas that are still hard to reach keep struggling to get the support they need for rebuilding.

Taken together, what do these testaments mean? Disaster response can’t be the same for everyone. The Malaiyaha Tamil community has been double marginalised because they were already living with structural inequalities such as poor infrastructure, geographic isolation, and inadequate services which have been exacerbated by Cyclone Ditwah. An effective and fair disaster response needs to account for these underlying vulnerabilities. It requires interventions tailored to the historical, economic, and infrastructural realities that marginalized communities face every day. On top of that, it highlights the importance of dealing with climate disasters, given the fact that vulnerable communities could face more devastating impacts compared to others.

(Shashik Silva is a researcher with the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka)

by Shashik Silva ✍️

Features

Crucial test for religious and ethnic harmony in Bangladesh

Published

3 days ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

A political protest that led to governmental change in Bangladesh mid last year. (photograph: imago)

Will the Bangladesh parliamentary election bring into being a government that will ensure ethnic and religious harmony in the country? This is the poser on the lips of peace-loving sections in Bangladesh and a principal concern of those outside who mean the country well.

The apprehensions are mainly on the part of religious and ethnic minorities. The parliamentary poll of February 12th is expected to bring into existence a government headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist oriented Jamaat-e-Islami party and this is where the rub is. If these parties win, will it be a case of Bangladesh sliding in the direction of a theocracy or a state where majoritarian chauvinism thrives?

Chief of the Jamaat, Shafiqur Rahman, who was interviewed by sections of the international media recently said that there is no need for minority groups in Bangladesh to have the above fears. He assured, essentially, that the state that will come into being will be equable and inclusive. May it be so, is likely to be the wish of those who cherish a tension-free Bangladesh.

The party that could have posed a challenge to the above parties, the Awami League Party of former Prime Minister Hasina Wased, is out of the running on account of a suspension that was imposed on it by the authorities and the mentioned majoritarian-oriented parties are expected to have it easy at the polls.

A positive that has emerged against the backdrop of the poll is that most ordinary people in Bangladesh, be they Muslim or Hindu, are for communal and religious harmony and it is hoped that this sentiment will strongly prevail, going ahead. Interestingly, most of them were of the view, when interviewed, that it was the politicians who sowed the seeds of discord in the country and this viewpoint is widely shared by publics all over the region in respect of the politicians of their countries.

Some sections of the Jamaat party were of the view that matters with regard to the orientation of governance are best left to the incoming parliament to decide on but such opinions will be cold comfort for minority groups. If the parliamentary majority comes to consist of hard line Islamists, for instance, there is nothing to prevent the country from going in for theocratic governance. Consequently, minority group fears over their safety and protection cannot be prevented from spreading.

Therefore, we come back to the question of just and fair governance and whether Bangladesh’s future rulers could ensure these essential conditions of democratic rule. The latter, it is hoped, will be sufficiently perceptive to ascertain that a Bangladesh rife with religious and ethnic tensions, and therefore unstable, would not be in the interests of Bangladesh and those of the region’s countries.

Unfortunately, politicians region-wide fall for the lure of ethnic, religious and linguistic chauvinism. This happens even in the case of politicians who claim to be democratic in orientation. This fate even befell Bangladesh’s Awami League Party, which claims to be democratic and socialist in general outlook.

We have it on the authority of Taslima Nasrin in her ground-breaking novel, ‘Lajja’, that the Awami Party was not of any substantial help to Bangladesh’s Hindus, for example, when violence was unleashed on them by sections of the majority community. In fact some elements in the Awami Party were found to be siding with the Hindus’ murderous persecutors. Such are the temptations of hard line majoritarianism.

In Sri Lanka’s past numerous have been the occasions when even self-professed Leftists and their parties have conveniently fallen in line with Southern nationalist groups with self-interest in mind. The present NPP government in Sri Lanka has been waxing lyrical about fostering national reconciliation and harmony but it is yet to prove its worthiness on this score in practice. The NPP government remains untested material.

As a first step towards national reconciliation it is hoped that Sri Lanka’s present rulers would learn the Tamil language and address the people of the North and East of the country in Tamil and not Sinhala, which most Tamil-speaking people do not understand. We earnestly await official language reforms which afford to Tamil the dignity it deserves.

An acid test awaits Bangladesh as well on the nation-building front. Not only must all forms of chauvinism be shunned by the incoming rulers but a secular, truly democratic Bangladesh awaits being licked into shape. All identity barriers among people need to be abolished and it is this process that is referred to as nation-building.

On the foreign policy frontier, a task of foremost importance for Bangladesh is the need to build bridges of amity with India. If pragmatism is to rule the roost in foreign policy formulation, Bangladesh would place priority to the overcoming of this challenge. The repatriation to Bangladesh of ex-Prime Minister Hasina could emerge as a steep hurdle to bilateral accord but sagacious diplomacy must be used by Bangladesh to get over the problem.

A reply to N.A. de S. Amaratunga

A response has been penned by N.A. de S. Amaratunga (please see p5 of ‘The Island’ of February 6th) to a previous column by me on ‘ India shaping-up as a Swing State’, published in this newspaper on January 29th , but I remain firmly convinced that India remains a foremost democracy and a Swing State in the making.

If the countries of South Asia are to effectively manage ‘murderous terrorism’, particularly of the separatist kind, then they would do well to adopt to the best of their ability a system of government that provides for power decentralization from the centre to the provinces or periphery, as the case may be. This system has stood India in good stead and ought to prove effective in all other states that have fears of disintegration.

Moreover, power decentralization ensures that all communities within a country enjoy some self-governing rights within an overall unitary governance framework. Such power-sharing is a hallmark of democratic governance.

Features

Celebrating Valentine’s Day …

Published

3 days ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating love, romance, and affection, and this is how some of our well-known personalities plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day – 14th February:

Merlina Fernando (Singer)

Yes, it’s a special day for lovers all over the world and it’s even more special to me because 14th February is the birthday of my husband Suresh, who’s the lead guitarist of my band Mission.

We have planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day and his Birthday together and it will be a wonderful night as always.

We will be having our fans and close friends, on that night, with their loved ones at Highso – City Max hotel Dubai, from 9.00 pm onwards.

Lorensz Francke (Elvis Tribute Artiste)

On Valentine’s Day I will be performing a live concert at a Wealthy Senior Home for Men and Women, and their families will be attending, as well.

I will be performing live with romantic, iconic love songs and my song list would include ‘Can’t Help falling in Love’, ‘Love Me Tender’, ‘Burning Love’, ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’, ‘The Wonder of You’ and ‘’It’s Now or Never’ to name a few.

To make Valentine’s Day extra special I will give the Home folks red satin scarfs.

Emma Shanaya (Singer)

I plan on spending the day of love with my girls, especially my best friend. I don’t have a romantic Valentine this year but I am thrilled to spend it with the girl that loves me through and through. I’ll be in Colombo and look forward to go to a cute cafe and spend some quality time with my childhood best friend Zulha.

JAYASRI

Emma-and-Maneeka

This Valentine’s Day the band JAYASRI we will be really busy; in the morning we will be landing in Sri Lanka, after our Oman Tour; then in the afternoon we are invited as Chief Guests at our Maris Stella College Sports Meet, Negombo, and late night we will be with LineOne band live in Karandeniya Open Air Down South. Everywhere we will be sharing LOVE with the mass crowds.

Kay Jay (Singer)

I will stay at home and cook a lovely meal for lunch, watch some movies, together with Sanjaya, and, maybe we go out for dinner and have a lovely time. Come to think of it, every day is Valentine’s Day for me with Sanjaya Alles.

Maneka Liyanage (Beauty Tips)

On this special day, I celebrate love by spending meaningful time with the people I cherish. I prepare food with love and share meals together, because food made with love brings hearts closer. I enjoy my leisure time with them — talking, laughing, sharing stories, understanding each other, and creating beautiful memories. My wish for this Valentine’s Day is a world without fighting — a world where we love one another like our own beloved, where we do not hurt others, even through a single word or action. Let us choose kindness, patience, and understanding in everything we do.

Janaka Palapathwala (Singer)

Janaka

Valentine’s Day should not be the only day we speak about love.

From the moment we are born into this world, we seek love, first through the very drop of our mother’s milk, then through the boundless care of our Mother and Father, and the embrace of family.

Love is everywhere. All living beings, even plants, respond in affection when they are loved.

As we grow, we learn to love, and to be loved. One day, that love inspires us to build a new family of our own.

Love has no beginning and no end. It flows through every stage of life, timeless, endless, and eternal.

Natasha Rathnayake (Singer)

We don’t have any special plans for Valentine’s Day. When you’ve been in love with the same person for over 25 years, you realise that love isn’t a performance reserved for one calendar date. My husband and I have never been big on public displays, or grand gestures, on 14th February. Our love is expressed quietly and consistently, in ordinary, uncelebrated moments.

With time, you learn that love isn’t about proving anything to the world or buying into a commercialised idea of romance—flowers that wilt, sweets that spike blood sugar, and gifts that impress briefly but add little real value. In today’s society, marketing often pushes the idea that love is proven by how much money you spend, and that buying things is treated as a sign of commitment.

Real love doesn’t need reminders or price tags. It lives in showing up every day, choosing each other on unromantic days, and nurturing the relationship intentionally and without an audience.

This isn’t a judgment on those who enjoy celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s simply a personal choice.

Melloney Dassanayake (Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2024)

I truly believe it’s beautiful to have a day specially dedicated to love. But, for me, Valentine’s Day goes far beyond romantic love alone. It celebrates every form of love we hold close to our hearts: the love for family, friends, and that one special person who makes life brighter. While 14th February gives us a moment to pause and celebrate, I always remind myself that love should never be limited to just one day. Every single day should feel like Valentine’s Day – constant reminder to the people we love that they are never alone, that they are valued, and that they matter.

I’m incredibly blessed because, for me, every day feels like Valentine’s Day. My special person makes sure of that through the smallest gestures, the quiet moments, and the simple reminders that love lives in the details. He shows me that it’s the little things that count, and that love doesn’t need grand stages to feel extraordinary. This Valentine’s Day, perfection would be something intimate and meaningful: a cozy picnic in our home garden, surrounded by nature, laughter, and warmth, followed by an abstract drawing session where we let our creativity flow freely. To me, that’s what love is – simple, soulful, expressive, and deeply personal. When love is real, every ordinary moment becomes magical.

Noshin De Silva (Actress)

Valentine’s Day is one of my favourite holidays! I love the décor, the hearts everywhere, the pinks and reds, heart-shaped chocolates, and roses all around. But honestly, I believe every day can be Valentine’s Day.

It doesn’t have to be just about romantic love. It’s a chance to celebrate love in all its forms with friends, family, or even by taking a little time for yourself.

Whether you’re spending the day with someone special or enjoying your own company, it’s a reminder to appreciate meaningful connections, show kindness, and lead with love every day.

And yes, I’m fully on theme this year with heart nail art and heart mehendi design!

Wishing everyone a very happy Valentine’s Day, but, remember, love yourself first, and don’t forget to treat yourself.

Sending my love to all of you.