LESTER’S films seen through LESTER’S LENSES

A 94th birthday tribute to the maestro:

In the world of International Aesthetic Cinema we have one Lankan film maker who has withstood for several decades as an established world class Asian cinema innovator. He is, as we all know, Dr. Lester James Peries. Along with Satyajit Ray of Bangla in India and Akira Kurusowa of Tokyo, Japan and also of the same place Ozu,

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Using NGOs to coerce NATIONS

Non-Western nations have long known that non-governmental organizations, ostensibly set up to provide humanitarian services to citizens in their respective countries, such as against Police or other public authorities, fighting poverty or environmental degradation, are funded by foreign regimes to serve their agendas. They are in that sense a tool of coercive diplomacy, or war by other means.

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Strengthening institutions and organizational capacity:

ABSURDITY OF CONSULTATIVE Committees in Parliament

I wrote last week about the need to amend the Standing Orders of Parliament so that they provide clear-cut guidelines about how Parliament should proceed. This is particularly important with regard to Consultative Committees, which now do very little of consequence.

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