Features
Afghanistan without America at last, Sri Lanka under Emergency Rule again

by Rajan Philips
On September 1, the people of Afghanistan woke up for the first time in 44 years without a foreign power on their soil. Two days earlier the people of Sri Lanka found themselves under a “surreptitiously declared” (as it has been aptly called) Emergency Rule – yet again in more than 70 years after independence. I am not drawing any far fetched comparisons between the American withdrawal in Afghanistan and the imposition of emergency rule in Sri Lanka, except to make two points.
One, the imposition of emergency rule on August 30 under the pretext of dealing with the emerging food scarcity situation, is once again a reminder that governments and rulers have no qualms about restricting or putting on hold civil liberties in their countries for their own authoritarian reasons. They not necessarily require a foreign military or agency for it. I am not sure if one should be surprised or not by the government’s decision to impose emergency rule now after steadfastly rejecting calls for emergency measures last year during the first wave of Covid-19.
As many others have pointed out, the imposition of emergency rule as a food emergency measure is quite unnecessary and an obvious overreach. It could also be argued that the government has committed another characteristic blunder and done itself a huge disservice just weeks before its biannual tryst in Geneva. Professor GL Pieris (or PGLP, as he has been delightfully abbreviated) will have his work cut out in arguing his government’s case before UNHRC while the country has been placed under emergency rule by the selfsame government.
Second, there is a critical lesson for Sri Lanka from the experience of Afghanistan over the last 20 years. That experience is also the world’s most spectacular failure of a massive development initiative backed by an equally massive military deployment. Put another way, blind investments in infrastructure development do not automatically produce economic growth and social benefits. When misapplied, they can in fact turn out to be counterproductive. Equally, the efficiency and security benefits often predicated on military deployment are ultimately unsustainable. Either they disappear as soon as the military is withdrawn, or they will degenerate if the military overstays its initial purpose.
American Withdrawal
These failures have not been quite identified as inherent to the whole American project in Afghanistan. Rather, they have been noted mostly for their symptoms. Corruption was pervasive from top to bottom in the American-backed and now deposed Afghan government. Not to mention the profits and kickbacks that would obviously have figured in the network of public-private American contracts in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, which became an essential part of the Cheney-Rumsfeld military forays. Infrastructure investments were remarkable for their mis-allocation and inappropriateness. Palatial houses and buildings were constucted without roads, water supply, or power supply. Those who were close to power in Kabul benefited conspicuously, while the majority of the population outside Kabul were deprived equally conspicuously. The Afghan economy was virtually propped by the US dollar, and it is now estimated that since 2001, the US spent a total of $ 8 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan, or a third of US GDP.
There was nothing organic about the whole exercise and the vast majority of Afghans creatively responded by siding with both the government in Kabul and the Taliban in hinterland. The division of labour was made easy by kinship and extended family networks, and this is part of the reason for the swift collapse of the official army, who knew their Taliban kinsmen more than they knew the government in Kabul. In the end, the threat to women’s rights and freedoms under the Taliban was left to be the only justification for the American project and the main west-stream criticism of its abrupt termination.
Women’s rights were not the reason why Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prodded their Commander in Chief, President Bush, the younger, to invade first Afghanistan and then Iraq. On the morrow of the invasion of Afghanistan, First Lady Laura Bush, no less, touted women’s rights as justification for taking on the Taliban. In Iraq, there was no gender reason because under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi women were among the freest in the public realm in the Middle East. The private sphere might be a different story but that is so in many societies. Women were and are oppressed in Middle Eastern countries that are traditional allies of America. No one in Washington will think of invading Saudi Arabia to liberate its women. Admittedly, the Taliban went to barbaric extents in ruling Afghanistan after driving out the Soviet army. But who helped the Taliban to drive out the Soviets and seize power?
Historically, there have been significant improvements in women’s rights in Afghanistan from the 1950s, and gender equality was written into the 1964 constitution. After their incursion in 1978, the Soviets pushed hard on women’s equality to the point that the Taliban made it a mobilizing call to defend Islamic traditions against Soviet infidels. The US backed the Taliban to fight the Soviets, directly and through Pakistan, even giving US dollars to buy arms from China. So, it is rather rich for the Americans to claim that they went after the Taliban ten years later to restore women’s rights in Afghanistan. All of this is now water under the bridge.
The Taliban is now saying both publicly and in diplomatic channels that it will allow women and ethnic minorities to continue to work, that senior government positions will be filled on merit, but, however, “in the top posts, in the cabinet, there may not be women.” It will not be easy for the ‘new’ Taliban to house-arrest women as it did in its first coming. Women’s education and employment have risen to impressive levels, with nearly half of government jobs being filled by women. They cannot be easily dispensed with. Additionally, the western governments have considerable economic leverage over the Taliban, and they have made it quite clear that they will use it to hold the Taliban to its word. As well, while the Taliban will increasingly turn to Russia and China for countervailing support, neither country will likely countenance the oppression of women in the name, mistakenly of course, of Sharia law.
On Tuesday, August 31, as the Taliban celebrated the American military’s final flight out of Kabul, President Biden addressed the media and the country from his White House pulpit in Washington. While defiantly defending his pullout decision, the President also stressed that the “era of major military operations to remake other countries” has ended. Some have noted that no previous president has ever said such words before. But the statement in itself is not indicative of any significant change in direction. And after Trump, the world knows that America can become mercurial and unreliable without any warning after a mere electoral college vote count. While there is cross-party public support for not committing American troops to ground wars, Washington can always use other means, such as drones, to wage wars. It is not only the Taliban that has to live up to its word, but also the US government that has to demonstrate that after Afghanistan there could be a different America.
There was in fact a different diplomatic demonstration in Southeast Asia even as the US was airlifting itself out of Afghanistan. In late August, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Singapore and Vietnam capping off a flurry of visits by senior Biden Administration officials to ASEAN countries in recent months. Defense, digital trade and Covid-19, and not Afghanistan, figured prominently in the bilateral discussions in the two countries. In Vietnam, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc was effusive about the growing US-Vietnamese co-operation, which he said was “in line with the wishes of the peoples of the two countries, and the wish the late President Hồ Chí Minh had conveyed in his letter to US President Harry Truman 75 years ago.” Truman of course ignored the now famous letter and its plea for American support to end French colonial rule in Vietnam. America is now fully courting Vietnam while the EU and France are reconsidering their total reliability on the US for their security.
Emergency Rule
In Sri Lanka, the TNA is calling on the government “to present a solution” to the problems faced by the Tamil people in the North and East, and wants the US to be “the mediator that studies and approves these solutions.” That is a tall ask by any measure and it has come in the wake of dinner diplomacy by the outgoing US US Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz, that included TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran and the new Foreign Minister GL Pieris (PGLP) who apparently was directed to attend by his SLPP boss, Finance Minister and dual citizen Basil Rajapaksa. The TNA has been asking for an appointment with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa “to discuss their proposals with him prior to the UNHRC session.” Now they have been put on the spot to talk about the government’s decision to declare Emergency Rule.
When President Jayewardene imposed Emergency Rule exclusively on the Jaffna Peninsula in 1979, the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice & Equality (MIRJE) placed it in the context of Sri Lanka’s historical experience of emergency rule – imposed either to quell working class agitations or political protests. Before and after their 1977 landslide win, JRJ and his UNP severely criticized the prolonged emergency rule of the previous (United Front) government and vowed not to impose emergency rule again. The promise was broken first in Jaffna – ostensibly to “eliminate the menace of terrorism in all its forms,” and over time more inclusively in every part of the country. At the time the Public Security Ordinance No. 25 was enacted in 1947, fundamentally in response to the General Strike of that year, neither Sri Lanka’s first parliament nor anyone else would have foreseen the law becoming, 30 years later, a powerful weapon in the hands of a single individual, namely, an elected president.
Even under the presidential system, parliament retained the power to periodically review and endorse the continuation of emergency rule. The second Rajapaksa regime (2010-2014) managed to find ways to finesse around this requirement. One of the achievements of the one-term Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government was its success in avoiding the imposition of emergency rule. As well, the same government put an end to arbitrary arrests and detentions, and to kidnappings and disappearances outside the law’s radar. Emergency rule is back now, surreptitiously or not, and we know not how far its tentacles will be set to stretch during the remainder of this regime’s tenure. What we know is that emergency rule is not going to be of any help in either controlling Covid-19 or helping people to survive the current ordeal.
Features
The iconic Roger Federer: The Full Measure of a GOAT

There is an unending debate about the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) of the global sport of tennis. The debate is on, as to which one is the GOAT of the players of the “Big Three” era. Those three are Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. All three were very prominent figures in that period. Their intense rivalries pushed the sport to new heights and captivated millions of people in a global audience, thereby significantly increasing tennis’s popularity. However, of the three, Roger Federer was a rather central figure.
Federer’s list of tennis accolades is staggering, and his greatness is often reduced to headlines and statistics: 20 Grand Slam titles, including a record eight Wimbledon singles crowns, 103 Association of Tennis Professionals Tour Singles titles, and 237 consecutive weeks atop the world rankings. He is well-known for his fabulous all-court game, and he is one of only four players to have won a career Grand Slam on three different surfaces: hard, grass, and clay.
His career is marked by remarkable consistency, including reaching 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals and 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals. Federer’s game was often described as graceful, effortless, and artistic. His fluid movement, powerful forehand, and elegant one-handed backhand made him a joy to watch for fans worldwide. He redefined modern tennis with his blend of power and finesse. Yet for all that, beneath the elegance of his backhand and the sheen of trophies lies a deeper heritage; one that elevates him from tennis legend to a true Great Of All Time.
Federer views these achievements as milestones, not the destination. He has always emphasised relationships, gratitude, and giving back, values instilled by his South African mother, Lynette, and nurtured over a lifetime of turning success into service. His effortless finesse and mental fortitude created ballet on grass and clay; moments etched forever in sporting memory. But narrowing Federer’s story to courts and scores does him a disservice.
Federer’s South African heritage cultivated a profound connection to the continent. He holds dual Swiss and South African citizenship and has frequently returned to support earlychildhood education via the Roger Federer Foundation, impacting over two million children across Southern Africa. More than just funding, Federer has rolled up his sleeves, visiting rural schools, launching coaching clinics, and advocating for play-based learning. Philanthropy is woven into Federer’s identity just as deeply as tennis. As he once said, “greatness is not confined to silverware; it lives through the lives we touch“.
Among his lesser-known acts of compassion is one of the most profound. It was in 2005 when Federer was fast turning into a tennis sensation, that he found twin infant girls abandoned outside a health clinic during a charity trip to a remote village in South Africa. The man did not walk away. Moved by their vulnerability, he quietly ensured their care and education, funding their essentials through a foundation partner. He did this without fanfare or media attention, and no publicity followed.
Fast forward to July 11, 2025. At a gala event in Geneva celebrating Federer’s stellar career, two young women took to the stage. It was the same pair of South African twins, now in their early 20s, returning to honour the man who saved them.
The sisters spoke with composed gratitude: “We do not remember being abandoned as infants. But we remember being saved. And the man who saved us is sitting right here tonight.”
Then came their own act of generosity. They said, launching a scholarship fund under Roger Federer’s name, to support rural children, “It is dedicated to helping underprivileged children in rural areas gain access to sports and education, the very things Roger had given us. It is our turn to give back, just as Roger gave to us, without expecting anything in return.” A visibly emotional Federer was left speechless before he gathered himself and said in a shaky voice, “I thought I was just helping two lives.
I had no idea they would come back and inspire the world.” That moment, a twin act of kindness born and returned, was described as “grander than all the 20 Grand Slam titles… one of the most powerful moments in tennis history“. That evening rippled globally, it flew virally across social media, confirming that character can outrank championship counts.
Off the court, Federer’s family life is rich and intentional. Married since 2009 to former player Mirka Vavrinec, they have four children: twin daughters Myla Rose and Charlene Riva (born in 2009) and twin sons Leo and Lenny (born in 2014). Their household, brimming with two sets of twins, reflects unity, resilience, and love, values the Father and Mother Federer’s cherish.
If tennis is art, then Federer’s philanthropy is impact. His “Match for Africa” series: exhibition matches featuring Nadal, Murray, and Gates, has generated over 12 million US dollars to support education in Africa. Beyond big events, his foundation has supported earlychildhood programmes in six countries, deployed digital teaching tools and training tablets for educators, and engaged communities and governments to bolster preschool readiness. These are not just token gestures; they are sustained efforts that aim to change systems, not just headlines. He privately supports coaching and education in African villages: a lyrical service that mirrors his gameplay: smooth, reliable, and deeply invested.
In his understated way, Federer has consistently reinforced kindness and integrity. He funds an elderly couple every Australian Open; the parents of his first coach, late Peter Carter, covering flights, hospitality, and box seats, every year, since 2005. Federer has never forgotten the Carter family’s role in his life and career.
These gestures resonate because they are personal, respectful, and ongoing. They speak of a man who remembers where he came from, on and off the court, and who sees grand gestures in the small, consistent acts of humanity.
When discussing Federer as the GOAT, numbers will take you so far. But greatness also measures intangible things: compassion, humility, and legacy. What Federer did for those abandoned twins, and how they returned that grace, reveals more about his character than any gold trophy could. It is easy to point to “trophies won” as the final verdict. But Federer’s life story adds nuance: identity, empathy, and generosity, which truly elevate his accomplishments to a celestial level. His Wimbledon stamps, Swiss coins, and honorary degrees are symbols. The real trophy is the networks of lives he has touched: the rescued twins, African children on new educational pathways, and the families of those who supported him along the way.
Roger Federer’s journey from a junior champion to a record-breaking legend serves as a benchmark for aspiring tennis players and inspires millions around the world to aim for greatness while remaining grounded. In essence, his legacy celebrates not just a phenomenal tennis player but a true sporting icon who left an indelible mark on the game through his achievements, style, character, and humanitarian efforts.
In the court of moral measure, Federer is undisputed. His twin daughters and twin sons will grow up knowing that their father is more than a record-holder. He is a man defined by action. The twins in South Africa, now embroidering his legacy with their own generosity, complete a cycle: champions saved, and champions paid forward.
Yes, Roger Federer is the tennis GOAT. But he’s also the GOAT of genuine kindness, empathy, and impact. That, ultimately, is why the story of greatness cannot, and should not, be limited to statistics alone.
Role models are remembered, not just for what they win… but for the gratitude they inspire, the opportunities they create, and the kindness they live out.
The story of the South African abandoned twins was garnered from the News Arena Network – Geneva through News Arena India on 14th July 2025.
by Dr B. J. C. Perera ✍️
(Tennis Player)
Features
A book on iconic Sri Lankan poems

Lakdasa Wikkramasinha
(1941-1978) has been acknowledged as one of the finest Sri Lankan poets writing in English. The Sri Lankan born Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje says Wikkramasinha has written “some of the most permanent and iconic poems of this country”.
In a period spanning only thirteen years before his untimely death, Wikkramasinha published six collections of his English poems (and two collections of Sinhala poems as well).
Rage and Heartbreak fulfills the pressing need for a collection of critical writings on Wikkramasinha’s poetry. Essays authored by Gamini Haththotuwegama, Lilani Jayatilaka, Annemari de Silva, Nihal Fernando, Vihanga Perera, Madri Kalugala, Chandana Dissanayake, Nipuni Ranaweera, and George Braine are followed by Indrakanthi Perera’s brief memorial.
Most authors are practicing or retired academics, mainly in English literature. Some are published poets.
Rage and Heartbreak is published by Tambapanni Academic Press and priced at Rs. 3000/.
Vihanga Perera (Ph.D., Australian National University) is an academic and researcher working at the Department of English, University of Sri Jayawardenapura. He is also a poet and novelist, an arts critic, and editor of creative work. He is a recipient of the Gratiaen Prize and the State Literary Award.
George Braine (Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin) taught English in four countries before retiring from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was acquainted with Lakdasa Wikkramasinha in the 1970s.
Features
Babies made using three people’s DNA are born free of hereditary disease

Eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions, doctors say.
The method, pioneered by UK scientists, combines the egg and sperm from a mum and dad with a second egg from a donor woman.
The technique has been legal here for a decade but we now have the first proof it is leading to children born free of incurable mitochondrial disease.
These conditions are normally passed from mother to child, starving the body of energy.
This can cause severe disability and some babies die within days of being born. Couples know they are at risk if previous children, family members or the mother has been affected.
Children born through the three-person technique inherit most of their DNA, their genetic blueprint, from their parents, but also get a tiny amount, about 0.1%, from the second woman. This is a change that is passed down the generations.
None of the families who have been through the process are speaking publicly to protect their privacy, but have issued anonymous statements through the Newcastle Fertility Centre where the procedures took place.
“After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby,” said the mother of a baby girl. “We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we’re overwhelmed with gratitude.”
The mother of a baby boy added: “Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete. “The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude.”
Mitochondria are tiny structures inside nearly every one of our cells. They are the reason we breathe as they use oxygen to convert food into the form of energy our bodies use as fuel.
Defective mitochondria can leave the body with insufficient energy to keep the heart beating as well as causing brain damage, seizures, blindness, muscle weakness and organ failure.
About one in 5,000 babies are born with mitochondrial disease. The team in Newcastle anticipate there is demand for 20 to 30 babies born through the three-person method each year.
Some parents have faced the agony of having multiple children die from these diseases.
Mitochondria are passed down only from mother to child. So this pioneering fertility technique uses both parents and a woman who donates her healthy mitochondria.
The science was developed more than a decade ago at Newcastle University and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a specialist service opened within the NHS in 2017.

There was a case of epilepsy, which cleared up by itself and one child has an abnormal heart rhythm which is being successfully treated.
These are not thought to be connected to defective mitochondria. It is not known whether this is part of the known risks of IVF, something specific to the three-person method or something that has been detected only because the health of all babies born through this technique is monitored intensely.
Another key question hanging over the approach has been whether defective mitochondria would be transferred into the healthy embryo and what the consequences could be.
The results show that in five cases the diseased mitochondria were undetectable. In the other three, between 5% and 20% of mitochondria were defective in blood and urine samples.
This is below the 80% level thought to cause disease. It will take further work to understand why this occurred and if it can be prevented.

Prof Mary Herbert, from Newcastle University and Monash University, said: “The findings give grounds for optimism. However, research to better understand the limitations of mitochondrial donation technologies, will be essential to further improve treatment outcomes.”
The breakthrough gives hope to the Kitto family.
Kat’s youngest daughter Poppy, 14, has the disease. Her eldest Lily, 16, may pass it onto her children.
Poppy is in a wheelchair, is non-verbal and is fed through a tube.
“It’s impacted a huge part of her life,” says Kat, “we have a lovely time as she is, but there are the moments where you realize how devastating mitochondrial disease is”.

Despite decades of work there is still no cure for mitochondrial disease, but the chance to prevent it being passed on gives hope to Lily.
“It’s the future generations like myself, or my children, or my cousins, who can have that outlook of a normal life,” she says.
The UK not only developed the science of three-person babies, but it also became the first country in the world to introduce laws to allow their creation after a vote in Parliament in 2015.
There was controversy as mitochondria have DNA of their own, which controls how they function.
It means the children have inherited DNA from their parents and around 0.1% from the donor woman.
Any girls born through this technique would pass this onto their own children, so it is a permanent alteration of human genetic inheritance.
This was a step too far for some when the technology was debated, raising fears it would open the doors to genetically-modified “designer” babies.
Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, from Newcastle University, told me: “I think this is the only place in the world this could have happened, there’s been first class science to get us to where we are, there been legislation to allow it to move into clinical treatment, the NHS to help support it and now we’ve got eight children that seem to free of mitochondrial disease, what a wonderful result.”
Liz Curtis, the founder of the Lily Foundation charity said: “After years of waiting, we now know that eight babies have been born using this technique, all showing no signs of mito.
“For many affected families, it’s the first real hope of breaking the cycle of this inherited condition.”
[BBC]
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