The year that dawns today will be a challenging one for Sri Lanka and indeed, the entire world. Sri Lanka’s biggest challenge in 2026 will be emerging from the ashes of Cyclone Ditwah, which battered almost the entire country at the end of November last year. But Sri Lanka has done it before – to cite just two recent examples, Sri Lanka emerged successfully from the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami and the 2020 Covid pandemic, even though thousands perished in