The mosque near Town Hall. Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice op-ed in the Guardian. Money quote for me was ‘Individuals are undeniably real. Groups, on the other hand, are assertions of opinion’. If you go buy news reports Muslims or Jews or Sri Lankans or any number of groups ...
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and Kottu but also YAMU) but also in ...
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the Daily Mirror Life section, which is well worth a read. In other news, he also recently slapped a referee around in full public view at a rugby match. At least it seems that his elder ...
The current state of the old Nibras Bawa site. In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from Kottu. He also published some plagiarized stuff on Groundviews. He flamed out a bit ...
Photo of Salley in more connected days via BT Options The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service ...
Service at KFC Sunil G. Wijesinha has an interesting article in the Mirror about Sri Lankan service culture, or the lack thereof. He’s got some interesting stories from his times at the ETF and Dankotuwa Porcelain. Sri Lanka is strange because you can get excellent service at streetside kades or dodgy bars and then awful service at much more ...
Statue in Jaffna town. Buddhist mindfulness meditation has changed my life in many good ways. Basically if I don’t meditate in the morning I’m a grumpy and depressive ass. If I do, I’m less so. I’m also aware that this isn’t the point, that it’s not meant to be a crutch for this life but rather a way out, ...
At these middle class peace rallies I never know if 15 people are going to show up or what. I’m happy to say that the Rally For Unit this weekend saw about 500 people turn out. The rally was also well coordinated with the Police, MinDef, Municipal Council, everything. Unlike the farce outside BBS headquarters, this rally was a ...
I’ve been going to Electric Peacock since it started (three years ago) and it’s really grown. Last weekend’s show with Tinie Tempah and the New Young Pony Club was huge. A lot of people have doubted whether Sri Lanka could host international quality shows, you know, with the sea of people all rocking out. Well, we can. You can ...
A group of young people is holding a Rally For Unity today at 10:45 (AM) near Nelum Pokuna, on Green Path. I know the last rally was a bit poorly organized and too confrontational for being right in front of the BBS headquarters. This is more neutral and organized by a few young people I know. Can’t promise that ...
Demon scene from Mulkirigala, tho I think these demons are actually women. In December 2011 a group of men murdered a British national in Tangalle and assaulted his girlfriend. It wasn’t clear at the time whether she was raped or not, but she is now claiming that she was. Horrifically, after they’d killed her boyfriend and fractured her skull, ...
There was a broken-up protest outside the BBS headquarters yesterday, a racist, divisive group which seems to have police, military and government approval. I’m proud of the people that went and feel like a fool for actually forgetting. By the time I got calls they’d already broken the protest up. When I finally swung by it was just monks ...
The Bodu Bala Sena (racist Sinhalese force) is headquartered, under the protection of a powerful monk, in the Sri Sambuddha Jayanthi building at Thumulla Junction. While they go around threatening violence and harm to Muslims and other minorities in a very un-Buddhist way, no one has coherently protested against them. Until now. The Group Buddhist Questioning Bodu Bala Sena ...
There’s a lot of troubling stuff going on – racism, attacks on Muslim businesses, attacks on churches, presses, political meetings, etc. The main lesson Sinhalese nationalists seem to have learned from the war is that bluster and violence work and the main legacy is a fractured and corrupt formal opposition and a general resignation from many people who’ve resisted ...
From India to Sri Lanka, mobs are threatening violence and breaking laws, and getting placated with it. In Tamil Nadu mobs have been attacking and threatening Sri Lankan citizens and the state government responded by banning Sri Lankan cricketers from Chennai saying they couldn’t assure their physical safety. This flies in the face of all international and sportsmanlike norms, ...
Image via Pakistan’s Nation. Bodu Bala Sena is scary because it’s a racist force with a fair amount of support. But purely dismissing them as racist and dumb in unhelpful. The BBS is as much a movement within Sinhala Buddhism as much as it is against minorities. As such it involves caste, class, and actually addresses some important underlying ...
Not the best place for an airport. To quote Mili, Happy Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport Day. Seriously, the government has blanket state and non-state media with advertisements heralding the opening of a new airport in the rural south. They’re trying to buy buzz for a project which is too useless to generate it naturally. Nobody is talking about how ...
I had no idea what was happening here, but it happened. Jaffna, 2010. In our pre-history, there’s this idea that humans were great hunters. And we are, now. In his article ‘Why nearly every sport except long-distance running is fundamentally absurd‘ David Stipp makes the case that we evolved to outrun prey and tire them out, not to rapidly ...
Eating Red Snapper. Despite working on a foodie site YAMU, if I could find a way to eat less I would. Eating for pleasure is one thing, but eating cause you have to can be a chore. Hence it’s interesting to see that Rob Rhinehart has gone over a month without eating what we’d call food. He drinks a ...
Ranil during the Fonseka election. In case you were wondering, the UNP isn’t the opposition party in Sri Lanka any more, not in the sense of opposing anything. Ranil has proposed a MOU (memo of understanding) with the government to protect them from international condemnation. The UNP has also called for getting rid of the halal logo, in line ...
