Features

Going to the Fair

Published

3 years ago

2022/09/23

By Uditha Devapriya

Now in its 23rd year, the Colombo International Book Fair has become something of a social event. One doesn’t go there merely to buy books; one goes there to see it. It was the same, I felt, at Gotagogama: one went there not only to shout, to scream, to vent one’s anger and rage, but also to be a part of it. One particularly didactic newspaper editorial put it years ago that the choice at the Fair was between reading books and eating noodles. This was, a false dichotomy, however: one can read, and yet also eat. That was the point of Gotagogama too: one could go there to protest, and to have fun. What’s the harm in doing both?

I half-thought there wouldn’t be crowds this year. I was wrong. When I predicted a low turnout this time, a friend of mine suggested the very opposite. I retorted, pointing out that with an economic crisis hanging over everyone, no one would be in a mood to go out. “But that,” my friend replied, “is exactly why they will go to the Fair. They have been crushed so badly, deprived of many things they took for granted, that the Fair will seem like a return to normalcy for them.” COVID-19 had almost pre-empted the event in 2020 and prevented it in 2021. The crisis this year had pushed people into a different world. In that sense, my friend pointed out, the Fair would be a welcome distraction.

Sri Lankans are noticeably finicky about books. Some like to read, some like to make others think they read, and some don’t read and make it a point of pride to say they don’t. I have seen and interacted with all three kinds of people at the Fair. The pleasures of walking to a bookstall, in other words, lie beyond buying or even going through books. There is a distinct pleasure in saying that you have been there. This is the biggest such event – though hardly the only one – where every local publisher gets together. It’s a virtual kaleidoscope, and for even those who don’t read it’s carnivalesque, much like Gotagogama. The pleasure, in other words, is in the total package, not in the immediate objective of buying a book

If going to the Fair is one point of pride, buying as many books as one can and condemning them to the dust of bookshelves is another. I have accumulated many books over the last five or so years, and there are still many I haven’t read. It’s not just the big discounts that compel one to go on a spending spree here, however. It’s also the fear that you won’t get another opportunity to buy so many books again. The Fair, after all, is a social event, and social events are those you devote your free time to. A “visit” to a bookshop, on the other hand, requires you to make time, and besides, you don’t enjoy the same level of freedom. That is why we are less relaxed when at a Kade than we are when at a Pola.

There has been justifiable criticism about the side-events at the Book Fair. Some, like the Kavi Mandapaya, are of course ancillary to the event’s literary ambitions. Others are not. Yet such criticism misses the point. Simply put, people wouldn’t go to the Fair if these events were not there, and the publishers wouldn’t get their worth. This point came to me when I looked at the price of the admission: at Rs 20, it hasn’t changed from what it was three, four years ago. Publishers are desperate for buyers, and the only way to keep the buyers coming back is by including as many distractions as they can.

The Colombo Book Fair is hardly the only such event that indulges in these distractions. Edward Jayakody’s anthem for the Fair, written by Bandara Eheliyagoda and constantly played everywhere, reminds you that you came here to buy books and read them. But to denounce those who gravitate to other pursuits is to forget that, in the 16th century, the Frankfurt Book Fair (the oldest of them all) included diversions like musical contests, roper dancers, drinking bouts, even gambling and prostitution. Eheliyagoda’s lyrics sound a tad hagiographic at times, celebrating the event’s worth, but consider that, in 1574, the scholar Henri Estienne composed a Latin panegyric on the Frankfurt Fair. Colombo is far away from Frankfurt, yet these events can, and do, bring different cultures together.

Not unlike in Frankfurt or Leipzig, the Colombo Book Fair coincides with a major literary awards ceremony, the Swarna Pusthaka. As such a not insignificant crowd comes here to grab autographed and discounted copies of the nominated titles. On my way out two years ago, I came across a group of teenage girls, most probably undergraduates, debating over who had won and been nominated and in what categories. Given the linguistic bent of these awards, one can argue that the Fair targets a middle-class and Sinhala readership, though I concur that such generalisations are crass. Still, it’s the Sinhala books that sell like hotcakes, followed by the Tamil and, much more meagrely, the English.

Over the years there have been complaints that publishers market the same books, the same genres, the same themes. These are valid criticisms, and they can be made even of the Big Bad Wolf. But publishers cater to demand, and the demand is overwhelmingly for titles and genres which sell big. Teenage romances will always occupy a top seat, as they do at the Big Bad Wolf. Translations of this bestseller or that will also attract crowds: the student next to me, for instance, was hunting one stall after another for translations of Dan Brown, which he claimed to dote on like a prayer. There are other genres, like biography, which we like to go for. Sri Lankans love to read about great people, even if they dislike the cults which grow around them: translations of “personal memoirs”, for instance, sell big.

This is not to say that English books don’t sell at all. Yet even here, it’s the same titles and genres that readers go and lap up. Apart from Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, and comic books, not to mention biographies and autobiographies, there isn’t much of an audience for English here. Nevertheless, the big bookshops make it a point to include more serious and scholarly works at their stalls: Sarasavi this year, for instance, had not just Penguin Classics, but also Routledge, including one particularly unlikely title, Henri Lefebvre’s Napoleon. Perhaps it’s a symbol of how badly such books sell, but I saw only single copies of them. Surprisingly for a time of crisis, they were rather cheap: Lefebvre’s book was only Rs 1,250. Perhaps it was an old and unsold copy, a leftover from last year that fetched the old price.

My preferences tend to diverge from what passes for trends here. I always go for the less patronised publishers. Two years ago, for instance, I found a goldmine in the Archaeology Department stall. They were selling Paranavitana’s magnificent Inscriptions of Ceylon for Rs 500: so cheap for such a monumental work. Visidunu Prakashakayo sold The Handbook of the Ceylon National Congress, which records every session and speech from that historically significant association, for Rs 775; this year they had Paranavitana’s The Art of the Ancient Sinhalese for Rs 1,500. Progress Publishers sells Marx and Engels, and Luxembourg and Leon Trotsky, for less than Rs 500 too: two years ago, when I made my way there, they greeted or rather “garlanded” me with posters of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

All this is in addition to the small bookstalls, the second-hand bookshops, which sell bigger treasures for much less. The fact that Sri Lanka is not as much a reading society as it should be and the fact that Sri Lankans prefer glossy, expensively decorated books to the cheaper variety are, I think, intimately linked. That is why they don’t buy serious titles and why they don’t realise that there are much better deals at the smaller stalls. That is also why, when Sarasavi and Vijitha Yapa organised discounted, second book sales at various places in and around Colombo years ago, not many bothered to come over and check out what they had in store. Vijitha Yapa organised a second hand sale next to its Thurstan Road branch, which began in March and was supposed to end in April. But given that not many have come in, at least not as much as Vijitha Yapa hoped for, that sale is still open.

Brian Moeran has contended that book fairs are “tournaments of value” removed from the routine of everyday life. While agreeing with him, I would suggest that the fair in Colombo is a microcosm of the economics of book buying in Sri Lanka. It is not a tournament of value, but rather a reflection of what they like to read and what they like to buy. It is a social event, to be sure, but hardly removed from their preferences, desires, and habits.

In many ways the Colombo Book Fair is not as elitist as Fairs elsewhere may be. It brings people together and tries to incorporate as many preferences as it can. There’s room in it for everyone, even if, in the cacophony of popular opinion, it leaves little space for some. Year after year, I find myself an outsider here. But there is a point, while I am with friends, eating noodles, and basically having fun, when I feel like a part of something. It’s the same feeling I got on July 12 – when I spent a day, and passed a night, at Gotagogama. The Fair in Colombo, in that sense, is a less a tournament of value than a leveller of taste.

The writer is an international relations analyst, researcher, and columnist who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com

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Features

Ranking public services with AI — A roadmap to reviving institutions like SriLankan Airlines

Published

2 days ago

2026/03/13

Thilina Walpola

Efficacy measures an organisation’s capacity to achieve its mission and intended outcomes under planned or optimal conditions. It differs from efficiency, which focuses on achieving objectives with minimal resources, and effectiveness, which evaluates results in real-world conditions. Today, modern AI tools, using publicly available data, enable objective assessment of the efficacy of Sri Lanka’s government institutions.

Among key public bodies, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka emerges as the most efficacious, outperforming the Department of Inland Revenue, Sri Lanka Customs, the Election Commission, and Parliament. In the financial and regulatory sector, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) ranks highest, ahead of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Utilities Commission, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, the Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the Sri Lanka Standards Institution.

Among state-owned enterprises, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) leads in efficacy, followed by Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank. Other institutions assessed included the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Ceylon Electricity Board, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, and the Sri Lanka Transport Board. At the lower end of the spectrum were Lanka Sathosa and Sri Lankan Airlines, highlighting a critical challenge for the national economy.

Sri Lankan Airlines, consistently ranked at the bottom, has long been a financial drain. Despite successive governments’ reform attempts, sustainable solutions remain elusive.

Globally, the most profitable airlines operate as highly integrated, technology-enabled ecosystems rather than as fragmented departments. Operations, finance, fleet management, route planning, engineering, marketing, and customer service are closely coordinated, sharing real-time data to maximise efficiency, safety, and profitability.

The challenge for Sri Lankan Airlines is structural. Its operations are fragmented, overly hierarchical, and poorly aligned. Simply replacing the CEO or senior leadership will not address these deep-seated weaknesses. What the airline needs is a cohesive, integrated organisational ecosystem that leverages technology for cross-functional planning and real-time decision-making.

The government must urgently consider restructuring Sri Lankan Airlines to encourage:

=Joint planning across operational divisions

=Data-driven, evidence-based decision-making

=Continuous cross-functional consultation

=Collaborative strategic decisions on route rationalisation, fleet renewal, partnerships, and cost management, rather than exclusive top-down mandates

Sustainable reform requires systemic change. Without modernised organisational structures, stronger accountability, and aligned incentives across divisions, financial recovery will remain out of reach. An integrated, performance-oriented model offers the most realistic path to operational efficiency and long-term viability.

Reforming loss-making institutions like Sri Lankan Airlines is not merely a matter of leadership change — it is a structural overhaul essential to ensuring these entities contribute productively to the national economy rather than remain perpetual burdens.

By Chula Goonasekera – Citizen Analyst

Features

Why Pi Day?

Published

2 days ago

2026/03/13

Thilina Walpola

International Day of Mathematics falls tomorrow

The approximate value of Pi (π) is 3.14 in mathematics. Therefore, the day 14 March is celebrated as the Pi Day. In 2019, UNESCO proclaimed 14 March as the International Day of Mathematics.

Ancient Babylonians and Egyptians figured out that the circumference of a circle is slightly more than three times its diameter. But they could not come up with an exact value for this ratio although they knew that it is a constant. This constant was later named as π which is a letter in the Greek alphabet.

Archimedes

It was the Greek mathematician Archimedes (250 BC) who was able to find an upper bound and a lower bound for this constant. He drew a circle of diameter one unit and drew hexagons inside and outside the circle such that the sides of each hexagon touch the sides of the circle. In mathematics the circle passing through all vertices of a polygon is called a ‘circumcircle’ and the largest circle that fits inside a polygon tangent to all its sides is called an ‘incircle’. The total length of the smaller hexagon then becomes the lower bound of π and the length of the hexagon outside the circle is the upper bound. He realised that by increasing the number of sides of the polygon can make the bounds get closer to the value of Pi and increased the number of sides to 12,24,48 and 60. He argued that by increasing the number of sides will ultimately result in obtaining the original circle, thereby laying the foundation for the theory of limits. He ended up with the lower bound as 22/7 and the upper bound 223/71. He could not continue his research as his hometown Syracuse was invaded by Romans and was killed by one of the soldiers. His last words were ‘do not disturb my circles’, perhaps a reference to his continuing efforts to find the value of π to a greater accuracy.

Archimedes can be considered as the father of geometry. His contributions revolutionised geometry and his methods anticipated integral calculus. He invented the pulley and the hydraulic screw for drawing water from a well. He also discovered the law of hydrostatics. He formulated the law of levers which states that a smaller weight placed farther from a pivot can balance a much heavier weight closer to it. He famously said “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the earth”.

Mathematicians have found many expressions for π as a sum of infinite series that converge to its value. One such famous series is the Leibniz Series found in 1674 by the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, which is given below.

π = 4 ( 1 – 1/3 + 1/5 – 1/7 + 1/9 – ………….)

The Indian mathematical genius Ramanujan came up with a magnificent formula in 1910. The short form of the formula is as follows.

π = 9801/(1103 √8)

For practical applications an approximation is sufficient. Even NASA uses only the approximation 3.141592653589793 for its interplanetary navigation calculations.

It is not just an interesting and curious number. It is used for calculations in navigation, encryption, space exploration, video game development and even in medicine. As π is fundamental to spherical geometry, it is at the heart of positioning systems in GPS navigations. It also contributes significantly to cybersecurity. As it is an irrational number it is an excellent foundation for generating randomness required in encryption and securing communications. In the medical field, it helps to calculate blood flow rates and pressure differentials. In diagnostic tools such as CT scans and MRI, pi is an important component in mathematical algorithms and signal processing techniques.

This elegant, never-ending number demonstrates how mathematics transforms into practical applications that shape our world. The possibilities of what it can do are infinite as the number itself. It has become a symbol of beauty and complexity in mathematics. “It matters little who first arrives at an idea, rather what is significant is how far that idea can go.” said Sophie Germain.

Mathematics fans are intrigued by this irrational number and attempt to calculate it as far as they can. In March 2022, Emma Haruka Iwao of Japan calculated it to 100 trillion decimal places in Google Cloud. It had taken 157 days. The Guinness World Record for reciting the number from memory is held by Rajveer Meena of India for 70000 decimal places over 10 hours.

Happy Pi Day!

The author is a senior examiner of the International Baccalaureate in the UK and an educational consultant at the Overseas School of Colombo.

by R N A de Silva

Features

Sheer rise of Realpolitik making the world see the brink

Published

3 days ago

2026/03/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

A combined US-Israel attack on Iran.(BBC)

The recent humanly costly torpedoing of an Iranian naval vessel in Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone by a US submarine has raised a number of issues of great importance to international political discourse and law that call for elucidation. It is best that enlightened commentary is brought to bear in such discussions because at present misleading and uninformed speculation on questions arising from the incident are being aired by particularly jingoistic politicians of Sri Lanka’s South which could prove deleterious.

As matters stand, there seems to be no credible evidence that the Indian state was aware of the impending torpedoing of the Iranian vessel but these acerbic-tongued politicians of Sri Lanka’s South would have the local public believe that the tragedy was triggered with India’s connivance. Likewise, India is accused of ‘embroiling’ Sri Lanka in the incident on account of seemingly having prior knowledge of it and not warning Sri Lanka about the impending disaster.

It is plain that a process is once again afoot to raise anti-India hysteria in Sri Lanka. An obligation is cast on the Sri Lankan government to ensure that incendiary speculation of the above kind is defeated and India-Sri Lanka relations are prevented from being in any way harmed. Proactive measures are needed by the Sri Lankan government and well meaning quarters to ensure that public discourse in such matters have a factual and rational basis. ‘Knowledge gaps’ could prove hazardous.

Meanwhile, there could be no doubt that Sri Lanka’s sovereignty was violated by the US because the sinking of the Iranian vessel took place in Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone. While there is no international decrying of the incident, and this is to be regretted, Sri Lanka’s helplessness and small player status would enable the US to ‘get away with it’.

Could anything be done by the international community to hold the US to account over the act of lawlessness in question? None is the answer at present. This is because in the current ‘Global Disorder’ major powers could commit the gravest international irregularities with impunity. As the threadbare cliché declares, ‘Might is Right’….. or so it seems.

Unfortunately, the UN could only merely verbally denounce any violations of International Law by the world’s foremost powers. It cannot use countervailing force against violators of the law, for example, on account of the divided nature of the UN Security Council, whose permanent members have shown incapability of seeing eye-to-eye on grave matters relating to International Law and order over the decades.

The foregoing considerations could force the conclusion on uncritical sections that Political Realism or Realpolitik has won out in the end. A basic premise of the school of thought known as Political Realism is that power or force wielded by states and international actors determine the shape, direction and substance of international relations. This school stands in marked contrast to political idealists who essentially proclaim that moral norms and values determine the nature of local and international politics.

While, British political scientist Thomas Hobbes, for instance, was a proponent of Political Realism, political idealism has its roots in the teachings of Socrates, Plato and latterly Friedrich Hegel of Germany, to name just few such notables.

On the face of it, therefore, there is no getting way from the conclusion that coercive force is the deciding factor in international politics. If this were not so, US President Donald Trump in collaboration with Israeli Rightist Premier Benjamin Natanyahu could not have wielded the ‘big stick’, so to speak, on Iran, killed its Supreme Head of State, terrorized the Iranian public and gone ‘scot-free’. That is, currently, the US’ impunity seems to be limitless.

Moreover, the evidence is that the Western bloc is reuniting in the face of Iran’s threats to stymie the flow of oil from West Asia to the rest of the world. The recent G7 summit witnessed a coming together of the foremost powers of the global North to ensure that the West does not suffer grave negative consequences from any future blocking of western oil supplies.

Meanwhile, Israel is having a ‘free run’ of the Middle East, so to speak, picking out perceived adversarial powers, such as Lebanon, and militarily neutralizing them; once again with impunity. On the other hand, Iran has been bringing under assault, with no questions asked, Gulf states that are seen as allying with the US and Israel. West Asia is facing a compounded crisis and International Law seems to be helplessly silent.

Wittingly or unwittingly, matters at the heart of International Law and peace are being obfuscated by some pro-Trump administration commentators meanwhile. For example, retired US Navy Captain Brent Sadler has cited Article 51 of the UN Charter, which provides for the right to self or collective self-defence of UN member states in the face of armed attacks, as justifying the US sinking of the Iranian vessel (See page 2 of The Island of March 10, 2026). But the Article makes it clear that such measures could be resorted to by UN members only ‘ if an armed attack occurs’ against them and under no other circumstances. But no such thing happened in the incident in question and the US acted under a sheer threat perception.

Clearly, the US has violated the Article through its action and has once again demonstrated its tendency to arbitrarily use military might. The general drift of Sadler’s thinking is that in the face of pressing national priorities, obligations of a state under International Law could be side-stepped. This is a sure recipe for international anarchy because in such a policy environment states could pursue their national interests, irrespective of their merits, disregarding in the process their obligations towards the international community.

Moreover, Article 51 repeatedly reiterates the authority of the UN Security Council and the obligation of those states that act in self-defence to report to the Council and be guided by it. Sadler, therefore, could be said to have cited the Article very selectively, whereas, right along member states’ commitments to the UNSC are stressed.

However, it is beyond doubt that international anarchy has strengthened its grip over the world. While the US set destabilizing precedents after the crumbling of the Cold War that paved the way for the current anarchic situation, Russia further aggravated these degenerative trends through its invasion of Ukraine. Stepping back from anarchy has thus emerged as the prime challenge for the world community.