It was Valentine’s Day. While the rest of the world was celebrating love, and the number of umbrellas in Galle Face increased exponentially, Shavin was thoroughly disgusted just by the idea of love. He was tired of it. He walked into a restaurant, hoping to get rid of the depression at least by filling his stomach. Exactly a year ...
· |Myth-I: Ragging brings unity The claim that ragging brings unity is a patently false one since in almost all universities ragging is ethnic-based. A Sinhalese first-year student can only be ragged by Sinhalese seniors, a Tamil first-year student by Tamil seniors and so on. Moreover, ragging is faculty-based. Despite multiple attempts in many universities common ragging has been ...
Chapter 1: Three Men, Three Missions Inspector Sethu Raviraman had many regrets. Foremost, he regretted that he was a police officer. He had already drained three cups of plain tea, and smoked as many cigarettes, in his bid to make sense of the evidence that was in front of him. The process of assembling evidence had taken his finest men ...
I want freedom to move around without being interrogated in a language I don’t understand, without being asked for my ID, without being asked to unzip my bag and proudly display my underwear collection. I yearn to live free in the lands that my fathers have occupied for generations; I want the freedom to carry out my daily activities without ...
The person to whom the name ‘Tisaranee Gunasekara’ belongs to is officially Google-proof. This makes he/she the most mysterious political columnist writing on Sri Lanka. I have tried to google the name a couple of times. Google promptly gave me 222, 000 web results in 0.17 seconds, for the search query ‘who is Tisaranee Gunasekara?’ None of the top ...
“We must never sacrifice principles for expediency, much less to sacrifice them on behalf of otherwise voiceless victims. The call to speak for the voiceless is a rare privilege – and one that must be heeded with humility and diligence. The decision to forgive is one that only victims may make, and even then, not through a cynical bargain foisted on them by ...
“Prior to the arrival of Western powers in the 16th century, there were three kingdoms in the island of Ceylon, one of which in the North belonged to the Tamils. The Kandyan Kingdom in the central hills was the last to fall to the British in 1815. In 1833, the British unified the three kingdoms for administrative convenience and ...
This year promises to be an interesting one for Lankan Tamils. The future trajectory of Tamil politics will very much be determined by the events that take place this year. The on-going UNHRC sessions in Geneva and the proposed CHOGM make up the list of key international fixtures. Apart from this, the efforts of the TGTE to develop a Tamil ...
Northern Provincial Council Election and the Future of Lankan Tamil Politics (via http://www.groundviews.org) This year promises to be a decisive one for Lankan Tamils. Events that take place this year will considerably determine the future trajectory of Tamil politics. It is only a beginning where the end of the LTTE’s totalitarianism gives the Tamils opportunity to evaluate their nationalist ...
‘கஜேந்திரக்குமார் பொன்னம்பலத்தின் நண்பர்கள்’ என்ற பக்கத்தில் ஒரு பதிவைப் பார்த்தேன்: ஒரு கேள்வி; இரு பதில் என்ற தலைப்பில் ஆங்கில ஊடகங்களில் கேட்கப்பட்ட ஒரே கேள்விக்கு கஜேந்திரக்குமார் பொன்னம்பலமும், சுமந்திரனும் அளித்த முரணான பதில்கள் தொடர்பில் தான் இப் பதிவு (பார்க்க:https://www.facebook.com/guruparank/posts/10155712637880251…) இப்பதிவின் அடிப்படை நோக்கம், “ஆங்கில ஊடகங்களில் எவ்வாறு இவர்கள் தொழிற்படுகிறர்கள்” என்பதனைக் கொண்டு கஜேந்திரக்குமார் பொன்னம்பலம் தமிழ்த் தேசியவாதி; சுமந்திரன
| (A Personal Response to the quashing of the first anti BBS protest on Havelock Road by an ordinary citizen) via Groundviews This evening (Friday, April 12th 2013) around 7.15pm on Havelock Road in front of the Sambuddhatva Jayanthi Building adjoining Laurie’s Road, I was reminded anew that there is no freedom in our land. I am nearly 45 years old ...
Bullets For Water: Militarization Comes Home: Â By Tisaranee Gunasekara - âWe asked for water tanks; they sent army tanksâ -A woman resident of Weliveriya[i] (BBC â 3.8.2013) They had every reason to feel confident and safe, to expect consideration and justice. They were almost exclusively Sinhalese and predominantly Buddhist. They would have supported the military wholeheartedly (quite a few would ...
A cursory glance at the record of the organs of the education system – relevant ministries, the University Grants Commission, the Examinations Department etc. – over the past few years would suffice to understand how appalling the situation is. In 2008, GCE Ordinary Level students were made to redo Part II of the mathematics paper, because the first paper ...
I load my luggage on the back seat before finding a supposed-to-be-comfortable corner seat in the Mannar-Vavuniya bus. Lush green paddy fields, birds and bulls decorate either side of the A14 highway. The November climate and the beauty of nature combine to obliterate all my mental stress. I plug in my ear phones, close my eyes and take a deep ...
To all my Sinhalese friends, Most of you, I assume, are aware of the country’s present state of affairs. Much has happened in the space of three months, but I wish to focus your attention to matters concerning the minorities. Muslims are enduring one of the roughest patches of their history. Starting from Dambulla, there have been many mosque burning ...
| In this excellent paper Mahmood Mamdani traces the political roots of terrorism. The writer lucidly demonstrates that it is, in fact, USA’s Cold War and post-Cold War policy of nurturing terrorist groups to counter USSR that laid the foundations for Islamic terrorism of the 21st Century. “The link between Islam and terrorism became a central media concern following September 11, resulting ...
I was at a discussion at the ICES (International Centre for Ethnic Studies), Colombo, recently. The topic of discussion was the current anti-Muslim hate campaign. Right towards the end of the Q&A time, a well-built middle-aged man got up to ask a question. It turned out that the person was a member of the Bodu Bala Sena (roughly translated ...
