Photo courtesy of BBC The recent UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza from which the US, not surprisingly, abstained marks a crossroads in the history of Israel and the future of Palestine. The resolution was motivated, among other developments, by Israel’s massive military build up and its impending invasion of Rafah, a thin stretch of land ...
Photo courtesy of Xinhua In a landmark development in the pursuit of justice for the victims of the Mahara Prison riots, the Attorney General (AG), on behalf of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), informed the Court of Appeal that he was going to file indictments against the prison officers who were involved with the killings inside the Mahara Prison within ...
Photo by Ama Koralage People of Tamil descent raised on plantations have endured a long history of discrimination, exploitation and violence tracing back to the era of colonization. The younger generation, both men and women, expresses a preference for employment opportunities in urban areas or Middle Eastern countries as laborers rather than on plantations. Unfortunately this pursuit often results in ...
Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera The long lines at fuel stations have disappeared as have the frequent power outages; it’s almost as if the economic crisis is a thing of the past. For Colombo’s working class poor it is anything but. The last few years have brought upon crisis after crisis, leaving many families at breaking point struggling to put ...
Photo courtesy of CNBC “Whether the victims of October 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of dehumanisation, how do we resist?” Jonathan Glazer, director of The Zone of Interest (Oscar acceptance speech) The Pali Canon has the original tale but it’s the version in the commentaries we know. In both stories, she is Kisa ...
Photo courtesy of The Island The world is becoming less democratic and more autocratic (i.e. authoritarian). One of the best sources of information is the annual Democracy Report issued by the V-Dem Institute in Sweden. The Institute continuously measures the extent to which national governments are either democratic or authoritarian and the directions in which they are moving. Its 2024 ...
Photo courtesy of IPS Exploitation of women continues within patriarchal societies and marriages. Forced marriages is one of the more notorious examples; the most extreme version of this, is a form of modern day slavery. In 2017, the International Labour Organization (ILO) designated this in its statistics for the first time. Recent estimates indicate that 22 million people globally are ...
Photo courtesy of Onlanka The publishing of ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s memoirs, almost predictably titled The Conspiracy to oust me from the presidency, provide an opportunity to reevaluate those tumultuous events that did led to the fleeing abroad of the former president in 2022 and his resignation including the political discourse that arose from the aragalaya. The political discourse of ...
Photo courtesy of Hotel Mannar Mannar Island transcends the realm of a mere tourist destination. It’s a living tapestry woven with threads of breathtaking natural beauty, a profound historical heritage and a vibrant cultural diversity that has flourished for millennia. Yet amid the island’s serene shores and ancient whispers, a silent war brews – a battle between the promise of ...
Photo courtesy of DW “When the population of six cities and many villages is tortured daily in front of the whole world, and when those perpetrating these crimes are granted immunity, then we have to stop and speak up because new standards are being established as to what is permissible internationally.” Silvia Federici (Counterpunch, 12 March 2024). Magen David ...
Photo courtesy of NBC News Behind front doors of friends and compatriots in Port Au Prince, we listen to evening prayers and the silence of fear, and observe the strength of resistance against the bush’s rules, that the big cat eats the little one, and the woman is raped if she walks on the street alone, that there are no ...
Photo courtesy of The Bookseller V. V. Ganeshananthan, also known as Sugi, is the author of the novels Brotherless Night and Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post. She teaches at the University of Minnesota, where she is an associate professor of English. Born ...
Photo courtesy of Asia Images My previous article about the International Women’s Day emphasised the importance of working towards gender equality, which is essential for the world in its journey towards a reconciled and a fairer place. The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has only six more years to run. This means that in another half a decade every ...
Photo courtesy of e-ir The year 2024 is an election year in Sri Lanka with the president’s term of office ending on November 17, 2024 and accordingly the conduct of a presidential election constitutionally mandated upon the Election Commission between September and October this year. The ousting of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa through the mass protests of the aragalaya two ...
Photo courtesy of PARL Politicians, government officers, temple officials and business people are illegally acquiring hundreds of acres of forest land belonging to the Department of Forest Conservation in the Kataragama area and distributing them to their friends and relatives. These forest lands serve as water catchment forests and as habitats for wild elephants. In addition to forest land that ...
Photo courtesy of HuffPost The World Health Organization (WHO) is expressing concerns about the global community’s readiness for pathogen X, a highly contagious pathogen that could emerge in the future. Scientists predict a higher likelihood of its origin in tropical regions, placing Sri Lanka at considerable risk. The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the livelihoods of millions of workers across Sri Lanka. ...
Former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has released a book entitled “The Conspiracy to oust me from Presidency”. Also on the cover are the words “how internationally sponsored regime change made a mockery of democracy in Sri Lanka.” It is priced at least 10 times its print cost and is sold out. The book is in Sinhala and English although Tamil is ...
Photo courtesy of Daily Mail In North Gaza a food pallet is attached to a parachute that fails to open. Five people are crushed when it hurtles to earth. Besides burying the bodies, pallbearers open the (bloody) cans of fish. In Gonaives, Haití a publisher of poetry cannot print his new titles. The printer in Port-au-Prince is shut, the airport ...
Photo courtesy of CCRB Women working as tea pickers form the single largest segment of the plantation workforce in Sri Lanka, with little room to progress in their careers. Over the years women occupied in manual work have been resigned to difficult working conditions and limited prospects. They have been supervised, monitored, instructed and commanded by men. The tea industry ...
Photo courtesy of IOL This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate progress. Sri Lanka, like many nations, grapples with a confluence of crises driven by geopolitical conflicts, rising poverty levels and the escalating impact of climate change. Recognising the pivotal role of women in addressing these challenges, the UN underscores the urgent ...
