Rajiva Wijesinha

“ Do our cosy Sri Lankan commentators, in calling us names, realize that the Sri Lankan armed forces are not like that, that the Sri Lankan Peace Secretariat does not glorify war and suicide cadres? Do they recognize that unless terrorism is dealt with firmly, more and more families will have to sacrifice one member and then two to such practices? ”

“ In a more modern world, she said, people realized that they could themselves benefit from the success of others, that many situations were potentially win-win ones, where by helping others rather than holding them back you could also do well yourself. ”

“ The zero sum mentality, she said, was one that assumed that, if someone benefited from something, then someone else had to lose. Therefore we tended to be excessively competitive, not just to advance ourselves, but to hold others back, on the grounds that if they went forward we would ourselves go back. ”