Sri Lanka, Jan. 9 -- By Jekhan Aruliah
I was listening to a very eloquent speaker on YouTube. He commented, as our public speakers often do, that we in Sri Lanka are a blessed nation. Blessed with abundant natural assets, our forests and beaches etc, and copious human talents. And yet this blessed nation is chronically poor and in 2022 became bankrupt.
This reminded me of the famous Aesop Fable, the story of the Hare and the Tortoise. The Hare, blessed with speed, lost a running race to the tortoise, blessed with attitude. The Hare, highly impressed by himself self-congratulating for his natural talents, went to sleep on the racetrack. Like the hare, the blessed Sri Lankan economy dozes. Our sleepwalking state is illustrated by statements...