Photo courtesy of Colombo Urban Lab Low income settlements in Colombo experienced greater food insecurity even before the pandemic with 72% of households being food insecure[1]. Women in low income households in Colombo were more likely to be underweight and overweight[2], with higher instances of blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and anaemia when compared to their rural counterparts. Low dietary ...
Photo courtesy of Human Rights Watch Counterterrorism and protecting human rights has been a long standing dichotomy on a global scale. The same fate was experienced in the Sri Lankan context with the civil war and internal insurrections. Among all counterterrorism measures, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Temporary Provisions) (PTA) of No. 48 of 1979 has been the most debated. ...
Photo courtesy of ABC News The civil war ended on this day in 2009 Sri Lanka is grappling with its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948. But amid this serious economic situation, Tamils on the island and around there world are going to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the civil war’s end on May 18, a war that ...
Photo courtesy of Indran Amirthanayagam Guy Amirthanayagam (October 23, 1927- May 17, 2003) My father would have enjoyed my new enterprise, writing the sonnet free of the common shackles of obligatory rhyme but standing still in the glorious frame of fourteen lines. He was a modernist, fan of Eliot, Frost and Yeats. He loved to say let us go then you ...
Photo courtesy of Inthusan Pararajasingam “Unknown Pains”, five short stories by peace builder Anojitha Sivaskaran describe events from her experience of the last phase of the war in May 2009, written in an attempt to create collective emotional healing and to promote dialogue and awareness on peace and unity among divided communities. Anojitha was 14 when the war ended. Unsalted Porridge “Where ...
Photo courtesy of Daily FT At a small grocery store, an elderly man pointed at a particular packet of biscuits and asked what the price was – it was Rs.70. The man asked if there were biscuits for Rs.50 in the store and the cashier responded, “Everything we have is above Rs.60”. Inflation rates and the cost of living have ...
Photo courtesy of Nazly Ahmed I was introduced to the existence of a publicly shared negative attitude towards S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike for the first time at a book launch in Colombo several years ago. The author had decided to present the themes and style of her book through the dramatization of certain scenes from it. One of these scenes portrayed S.W.R.D. ...
Photo courtesy of Kumanan Kanapathippillai May 18, 2009. The end of the war. Of the many horrific visuals of the end of the war the one that is etched in my memory is of people crossing the Mullaivaikkal bridge. At the time it was not possible to watch it without crying. Even now, it is difficult to watch without feeling ...
Photo courtesy of The Herald Bulletin My favourite politician, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, tweeted a few days ago on her preferred course of action for the way out of the present mess we find ourselves in. “Ok, let’s talk stability,” Dr. Harini tweeted and then listed what she would like to see unfold on the political front. She started with (a) ...
Photo courtesy of SCMP “Country is facing one of the most difficult and challenging economic, political and socially decisive times in its history…Government has erred by banning use of chemical fertilizer and not going for a program with IMF earlier.” These are not my words; they are the sentiments echoing at GotaGoGama but spoken by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa when addressing ...
Photo courtesy of Roel Raymond A few days ago, a Buddhist monk and two Christian priests were beaten up opposite the official residence of the prime minister of the country. They were among more than 30 peaceful protestors attacked by governing party goons. These same Christain priests had just days before washed and kissed the feet of a representative group ...
Attackers roaring obscenities, screams of victims, the thunk of metal poles on defenceless humans and the crack of smashed protester shelters all combined to almost drown out the Bhikkus’ serene chanting of pirith emanating from loudspeakers within Temple Trees, the official residence of the prime minister of our Democratic Socialist Republic. To those being beaten up on the street right ...
Photo courtesy of The Indian Expresss The president of Sri Lanka, sensing the serious frustration of the electorate at non-performance, sacks his prime minister and swears in another prime minister. The former prime minister was reinstated but even lost his own parliamentary seat at the subsequent elections one year on. No, not President Gotabaya Rajapaksa but President Maithripala Sirisena, who ...
Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his first interview as the new prime minister, said he would protect the GotaGoGama site while Army Commander Shavendra Silva said that if the protesters were not violent they could stay. The Rajapaksa government had tried its level best to dismantle GotaGoGama. They used various strategies; their last one backfired to the extent that they had to ...
Photo courtesy of Indian Express The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) calling the IGP and the Army Commander for questioning about the failure to prevent the attack on peaceful demonstrators on May 9 is an important and significant move. DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon, who is alleged have contributed to the attacks, has also been called by the HRCSL. It ...
Photo courtesy of The Morning The Permanent People’s Tribunal in The Hague (Netherlands) has commenced hearings into murder of journalist and editor Lasantha Wickrematunge based on an indictment presented by a coalition of international press freedom organizations. The hearing is focusing on the overall context of crimes against journalists and impunity in Sri Lanka. Forty four names of journalists and ...
Photo courtesy of The Times of India May 9, 2022 will be remembered as one of the darkest days in post war Sri Lankan history. The country, already teetering on the brink of economic collapse due to incomprehensible levels of mismanagement, corruption, incompetence and impunity at the highest levels of government, was driven to violence instigated by mobs brought down ...
Photo courtesy of Ada Derana Today the People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Journalists in the Hague will commence hearing evidence in the assassination of my father Lasantha Wickrematunge. The indictment alleges the Sri Lankan government’s complicity in the crime and has invited the government to exercise its right of defence during the hearing. The tribunal does not have the ...
Photo courtesy of Dhananjaya Samarakoon (Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has since resigned) Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown requires urgent remedial measures and the political impasse created by a president and his administration, which both refuse to either take responsibility or credibly effect corrective policy measures, has placed Sri Lanka in the position of a terminally sick patient who isn’t being taken ...
Photo courtesy of BBC Until Monday afternoon, the protests at Galle Face Green were overwhelmingly peaceful. Even when demonstrators stormed into the outer precincts of the Presidential Secretariat, it was to engage in symbolic resistance epitomised most unforgettably by Charitha Attalage’s holographic renditions. At first targeting the removal of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family, the Gotagogama movement engaged with ...
