Image courtesy Business Today The Presidential Spokesman and International Media Unit (i.e. @AnuradhaKHerath) announced on 14th June something that’s never happened before in Sri Lankan politics – a Q&A with Lalith Weeratunga, the President’s Secretary over Twitter, slated for 18th June, from 2.30pm to 4pm. A live search of #askLW is embedded below to follow in real time the ...
The following is an interview with Professor Sasanka Perera of the South Asian University conducted by Mr. Ranjit Perera of the Social Scientists Association of Sri Lanka via Skype on 18th August 2012. Ranjit Perera: Cyberspace and virtual reality are intertwined in the context of today’s communication technology; this came to my mind while conducting this interview. Any thoughts ...
Photograph by the author In the corner of my room, there’s a large air-tight plastic bag I open once a year, and occasionally glance at with mixed emotions. It contains, carefully folded, all the newspapers I could buy on 19th May 2009. Those who tried to buy a newspaper on this day may recall how difficult it was. Almost all the leading daily newspapers, ...
Gihan de Chickera, who I’ve known since our halcyon days at S. Thomas’, is an actor, with experience in both stage and film productions, though perhaps even more loved and followed for his political cartoons, published in the Daily Mirror. Gihan is humble about his work to a point of fault and dare I say, for someone not unaccustomed ...
Every 26th[1] and 27th of November since the end of the war (2009), we hear of people in the North not being able to moan their dead, not being able to carry out peaceful assemblies, not being able to partake in religious festivals or observances in public or at home, and every year it falls on deaf ears. Also ...
Original photo published in The Nation Hirunika Premachandra is either one confused woman or one shrewd woman. One moment she is unleashing her wrath on MP Duminda Silva, the chief suspect in the fatal shooting which led to the death of her father Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra. The next moment she is on an election platform of the ruling United ...
Photo courtesy JDS The decision of the Sri Lankan government to lift the Emergency Regulations (ER) is received in good faith by many. For example, the International Community has expressed its pleasure and satisfaction. The Indian minister of external affairs, S.M. Krishna welcomed the move as an “effective step leading to genuine national reconciliation in the country” (The Hindu, August ...
Photo via Japan Times, AP Photo/Sanka Gayashan “We must remember they got their majority vote from Eelam…” Mahinda Rajapaksa[i] During election season, the UPFA tried to win enough Sinhala votes by inciting minority phobia – and failed. Post-defeat, what the severely-truncated UPFA continues to beat this racist tom-tom, in the hope of making a quick comeback. Ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa led the ...
Priyanthi Fernando is the Executive Director, Centre for Poverty Analysis, an independent, Sri Lankan think-tank promoting a better understanding of poverty related development issue based in Colombo. We begin our conversation about the nature of poverty in post-war Sri Lanka, and how significant and growing regional disparities are often glossed over by progress at national level indicators. We then ...
Wars are terrible things. They kill people, destroy their property and livelihoods. They also destroy people’s souls. Horrendous atrocities are committed against the defenceless, often in the name of the highest ideals, and often by men – and nowadays also women – who have rarely shown deliberate cruelty towards their fellow human beings or even animals before they donned ...
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via FT.com Five years after the end of the war, the Government has now started arguing that the war is not over. The Government doesn’t think the LTTE is finished. Even US and India seem to think that sections of the Tamil Diaspora are raising funds for a possible regroup (or this might be ...
Photo by AP, via Occupy.com The issue of sex work emerging as a recognizable profession in Sri Lanka is trending. This is evidenced by the materials appearing in the media and the recent post in Groundviews titled Is Sex Work, work? Recent statement by Dr.Nimalka Fernando in the Ceylon Today advocating legalizing prostitution by alleging health officials’ revelation that nearly ...
Photo courtesy BBC The outcome of the United States Presidential elections is too close to call. Yet, three presidential debates reinforced the perception among informed voters that Mitt Romney is both a weak and most unpredictable candidate. He does not grasp the complexities of the economy—a failing he obscures by refusing to be clear about his policies. His continual ...
Image by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP, via FT.com The moment I think of the war it takes me to 1995. Sri Lankans had very high expectations – a new government and a new President with a lot of promise to end the war. People in the South, North, East and West were so hopeful to see the day the war ...
Photo from Wired At almost two years of age I attempted to write my own story, when I ran out of words I tried to draw. It wasn’t a worthless effort however because as I was always told “It’s the thought that counts.” At the age of four on Mothers’ Day I tried to make waffles with my older ...
Image from Colombo Telegraph Around 5pm on 17 October 2013, within the Jaffna municipality, one of our friends (a male youth resident of Jaffna) came to our home (a few friends were gathered there) looking very disturbed. We were surprised to see him again, as he was with us since afternoon and had just left a little while ago. ...
(Opening presentation at 2nd in Discussion series on Constitutional Reform organized by The Liberal Party) Having come out of the war, a war which I for one am glad the Sri Lankan State won, Sri Lanka as a State and a society had one of several directions in which it could go. Whilst being happy that the war ended ...
Photo by Natalie Soysa, for Groundviews In August this year, Groundviews will launch a compelling collection of content to commemorate 30 years since Black July. The content will feature original podcasts, photography and writing on a dedicated website. Building from the critically acclaimed Moving Images two years ago, Groundviews brought together leading documentary filmmakers, photographers, activists, theorists and designers, ...
Keep the memories alive July 1983 was a turning point for many Sri Lankan Tamils to leave the motherland, and seek refuge in various countries including India, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, and so on. Tamils who have either lost their family members or properties during the 1983 July pogrom, ...
Photo by author Authors: Marisa de Silva & Sr. Nichola Emmanuel Recently returned to Puthumathalan “As you drive past pile upon pile of corroding vehicles stacked one above the other, past pots, pans, sarees, slippers and plates (that once belonged to the people here), strewn all over the ground, and past the bullet and shrapnel splattered walls of homes ...
