Abbi Kanthasamy

By Abbi Kanthasamy Stand on the bridge of a ship crossing the Strait of Malacca at night, and you will see the modern world moving past you. Oil tankers carrying Middle Eastern crude glide east toward China, Japan, and Korea. Container ships loaded with Asian exports head west toward the Indian Ocean and eventually the Suez Canal on their way to Europe. Somewhere between Singapore and Sumatra, nearly a third of the world’s maritime trade squeezes through a channel barely wide enough in places

By Abbi Kanthasamy The real winners of this war were not the Iranian people, not the Lebanese, not the Gulf Arabs, not the Americans, and certainly not the poor fools told to clap every time a missile takes off on television. The winners were the people who always win. The weapons manufacturers. The oil traders. The consultants in expensive suits using phrases like maritime de-risking and regional deterrence posture. The lobbyists. The think-tank parasites. The men who can turn blood into bil

By Abbi Kanthasamy Sri Lanka’s real strategic question is not whether it can become “the next Singapore” or a miniature Dubai. It is whether it can finally learn the harder lesson those two city-states teach: that financial centres are not created by tax gimmicks, real-estate spectacle, or patriotic rhetoric. They are built by states that become credible before they become glamorous. In 2026, that distinction is even more important than it was a generation ago. The old haven model—low tax, ligh