Comparable Times, Contrasting Figures: India And China
By S. Sivathasan -January 28, 2014
S. Sivathasan
One cannot easily say how best to describe India and China. Two countries, nations both ancient and great, civilizations that have led the world or powers to dazzle the future and illumine the path to humanity. Their mission to the peoples of the world is certainly unmistakable.
However great the idealistic side is as a fount of the future, the material base has to be in place. The struggle in the last century was to capture the opportunity. The titanic effort to secure it engages much of the energies of the two nations now. Through sheer size and weight they are going to rank first and second in the world by 2050. But how close are they going to be? Unlikely to be anywhere near is what performance of the recent past suggests for an assessment of the future.
By what criteria one may ask. Through incontrovertible figures is what the writer would urge. To set a discussion moving, some helpful data are provided.
Sri Lanka: Literary Essays And Sketches
Capt Elmo Jayawardena
Sri Lanka: Literary Essays and
Sketches- By Prof Charles Sarvan - A review
Sri Lankan-created literature in the English language is limited. Of course the medium is not our mother tongue and the post- colonial years have steadily reduced the usage and decreased the numbers who read which has directly resulted in the downturn of the books published in English.
That is a clearly visible fact. It is also an accepted actuality that among the limited works that came through the publishers’ purgatory, there certainly were ‘good’ to ‘excellent’ books. Some could have easily stood on the same pedestal of fame of the renowned had they too been lucky in the winners’ lottery among the world’s literati.
But, it did not happen, sad and so true. Read More
