Being the hotbed of trouble in the correct direction is a must

Sri Lanka’s state-owned universities have always been hotbeds of trouble. Troubles are good for universities if they are in the right direction. Universities are knowledge-makers and knowledge-making comes from troubling the existing knowledge. If there is a problem or trouble out there, university academics together with students go on ‘troubling the trouble’. In that manner, they find solutions to the problem at hand. That is how the world has heard of the leaders in the trade like MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford or Cambridge. They trouble the trouble and come up with new inventions that add to their good track record and also serve the mankind at large.

A recently-formed coalition of trade unions, student unions, progressive intellectuals, social organisations and activists has criticised the Sri Lanka government for its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Sri Lankan cabinet, on Wednesday, granted approval to set up an independent institution in the island nation which would investigate aircraft accidents.

US Marines embarked on the USS New Orleans joined experts from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to exchange best practices on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief during two days of workshops and seminars with the Sri Lanka Navy in Colombo.

In the wake of Sri Lankan university students’ allegations of financial misappropriation and irregularities against the management of Mahapola Scholarship Trust Fund and demand of increasing the Mahapola bursary, NatWealth Securities Ltd (NWSL), a unit of National Wealth Corporation (NWCL), managers of the fund, is alleged to have been running at a loss under the present management.