Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Sep 28, 2008	Sri Lanka's brain drain -- Redux
Last month I tried to estimate how much of Sri Lankan youth go overseas for studies . I found this Island article which puts a number on that estimation: Around 7,000 students go abroad for higher education annually but the Higher Education Ministry does not keep records or register students...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Sep 24, 2008	I, Society and Public Policy
Centre for Civil Society is organizing it's annual seminars on public policy , now called "I, Society and Public Policy" renamed from "Liberty & Society Seminars" starting in October in Delhi, Cochin, Bangalore and Pune. If you are between 18 - 25 with an interest in Public Policy, do...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Sep 11, 2008	For a Colombo Reform Process
Finally, there's some good news on the reform front : Sri Lanka has been rated the top South Asian reformer in an annual business regulation study by the World Bank group, with a new company law and credit information improvements boosting its scores. [ link ] That's according to the...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Sep 2, 2008	The Brain Drain
Last Wednesday, Anila Banradanike's column for FT focused on Sri Lanka's 'Brain Drain' particularly among urban youth. She complains, rightly, that there are no credible statistics available on how many people go abroad for studies. I agree, all I can say is it's quite a large and growing...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Jul 16, 2008	(un)free enterprise
Recently, Sri Lanka's government decided to impose severe restrictions on the use of mobile phones citing 'Security reasons'. Anything fly in Sri Lanka these days, if you say 'national security'. The regulation dictates that all Sri Lankans must carry a certificate confirming they...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Jul 13, 2008	What about legalizing hard drugs?
Prompted by my earlier post on legalizing marijuana , Jack Point thinks that a good way of tackling the problem of hard drugs, such as heroin is for government to give it away for free for addicts and encourage them to voluntary enroll themselves to treatment. I think that has some sense to it...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Jul 11, 2008	Legalizing Marijuana in Sri Lanka
I was recently reminded by a friend that Sri Lanka actually does have legal access medical Marijuana (Ganja) . The practitioners of traditional Ayurvedic medicine are allowed to carry 1kg (figure unconfirmed) amount of Ganja to be used for medicinal purposes. Unfortunately, the government...... [view]

Posted By:  BenWarner Posted On:  Jul 1, 2008	PolicyMap and Mapping Politics
We talked about PolicyMap last month , and so you've probably explored their site and checked to see what data they had on your community. Now PolicyMap has added something new -- presidential campaign political contributions. It's an interesting data set that's fun to explore for your...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Jun 27, 2008	Drew Carey on Free Trade
Drew Carey in another installment of his series at Reason.tv takes a swing at the U.S. protectionists' (Obama-types) fear mongering over NAFTA. Something that's rarely understood by protectionist all over the world is that the biggest source of "job losses" is technology, not...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Jun 12, 2008	Sri Lankan Petrol : Higher in than the U.S.
Seriously, have you ever wondered why the price of Petrol in Sri Lanka exceeds that of the United States? let's do the math, 1 Liters of Petrol in Sri Lanka costs about Rs.157 ( Ceylon Petroleum Corporation prices ) 1 gallon of Petrol (gasoline) in the U.S. costs about $4 ( average price...... [view]

Posted By:  deane034 Posted On:  Jun 12, 2008	Sri Lankan Petrol : Higher than the U.S.
Seriously, have you ever wondered why the price of Petrol in Sri Lanka exceeds that of the United States? let's do the math, 1 Liters of Petrol in Sri Lanka costs about Rs.157 ( Ceylon Petroleum Corporation prices ) 1 gallon of Petrol (gasoline) in the U.S. costs about $4 ( average price...... [view]

E-Consultation on Citizen Centred Policies & Services/Climate Change!
Submitted By:   DeepEndZen Author Name:  TakingITGlobal Published:  2008-06-20	Description:   In 2008, TakingITGlobal conducted 2 e-consultations for the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). Over 350 TIG members answered a series of thematic questions on public policy and climate change. This document is the report that was presented at the OECD International Workshop that was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia in late June 2008.   [view]

Lessons in Leadership: How young people change their communities and themselves
Submitted By:   jhelland Author Name:  Social Policy Research Associates for the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development Published:  0000-00-00	Description:   This brief report distills the key lessons and impacts of thoughtful youth involvement through civic activism.   [view]