Archive for February, 2007

Circles of Violence: A Return to Sri Lanka

CIRCLES OF VIOLENCE : A Return to Sri Lanka is film that about which Sam got in first got in touch with me around two years ago. He filmed 3 – 4 times in the intervening years and I got to see the final product last night at Barefoot, along with around 150 – 200 others who were present at the screening. Perhaps more than the film, a preview of which I had seen earlier, I was interested to listen to those in the audience discuss Sri Lanka’s conflictual social, economic, political terrains through their own experience. Some, who had returned to Sri Lanka like Sam after spending many years abroad, others who had lived through it all, and many foreigners, working outside of Colombo with rural communities, expressed what they felt / saw were some of the causes of violent conflict, how it could be mitigated, and the manner in which education, language, identity, caste, class and other labels…

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Peace Counts

Bad news is good news: The notion that disaster and despair are more newsworthy than peace and harmony is widely known. Countries like Columbia, Israel, Northern Ireland and the Philippines have had their fair share of disaster and despair, but this is not what the Peace Counts project is focusing on. The photographic exhibition arrived in Colombo last week for the beginning of an international tour. Peace Counts portrays the work of people from all over the world who have successfully promoted peaceful co-existence in their community, often in unusual and creative ways. One of the images tells the story of how deadly gang warfare in Cape Town prisons has been drastically reduced as a result of a project encouraging inmates to engage in drama, song and dance together. Another depicts the improved relations between young Israeli and Palestinian women after participating in an initiative where they locked themselves into a room for three days to voice their opinions and…

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Students Missing In Jaffna

- More Information Added Feb 28 – Two students are missing in Vadamaradchi. P.Yaseetharan and K.Sivaruban, who are Uduppidy American Mission students, are missing since Sunday afternoon. Their parents have made a complaint at the Human Rights Commission Jaffna branch. Both of them went to private tuition by motorbike and so far they didn’t come back to their homes, their parents said. The information available is that 584 persons went missing in Jaffna last year. 158 persons under the security forces custody. There is no information about the other 416 persons. So far 62 people have surrendered at the Human Rights Commission Jaffna branch due to death threats. Another example is Subramaniam Ramachandran the Thinakkural and Valampuri newspaper Correspondent in Vadamaradchi who was kidnapped on the 14th of this month. So far he has not been released. Ramachandran is a good investigative journalist. He wrote some stories regarding the illegal soil business in Vadamaradchi with the help of forces. He…

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  • 25 Feb, 2007
  • 8 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Peace and Conflict

Thoughts on Chatroom, a play by Enda Walsh directed by Tracy Holsinger

Photo credit: Christian Northeast Chatroom, directed by Tracy Holsinger and produced by Mind Adventures Theatre Company, was a refreshing departure from banal productions that usually feature in Colombo. Dealing with suicide and online communication, the script by Enda Walsh, an Irish playwright, explores the understanding of and responses to depression, suicide and ultimately, human relationships of six teenagers brought together in Internet chat rooms. The deplorable and never to be repeated, I hope, projection of commercial advertisements before the commencement of the play aside, Chatroom was, as is to be expected from Tracy Holsinger, engaging theatre and personally, a deeply fulfilling return to her directorial style after 3 Star K at the Wendt in 2003, the last stage production of hers I saw before leaving Sri Lanka for a while. Having explored for the past couple of years the representation of suicides in the mainstream print media in Sri Lanka, I found the play to be a very interesting take…

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  • 24 Feb, 2007
  • 19 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Peace and Conflict

THE CRI DE COEUR OF A WOUNDED TIGER OR ‘TIGER IN THE NIGHT’?

The statement of the LTTE marking the unhappy 5th Anniversary of the CFA is a remarkable document. Admittedly, one has to get used to the slightly disconcerting effect of talon, tush and claw of the snarling Cholan tiger that leaps at you through a ring of bullets and rood of bayonets from the top of every page. But as necessarily a partisan account, it is rather a well-stated case. It seeks to give a comprehensive account of events of the past six years or so; engages international humanitarian law in its critique of the conduct of the government and the international community; reiterates central principles of process such as parity of status, balance of power, and international guarantees (and also, by sleight of hand, ‘authentic representative as opposed to ‘sole representative’); contains a succinct restatement of the historical dimensions of the Tamil struggle through peace to armed conflict; and indicates in outline the substantive parameters of a negotiated settlement acceptable…

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Isolation and International Relations

One of the warnings sounded by ex-minister Samaraweera was about the certainty of the international isolation of Sri Lanka if President Rajapaksa did not move to address the culture of impunity and the deterioration of human rights protection in Sri Lanka.  This too has the hallmarks of the Premadasa regime when populist authoritarianism was laced with nationalist bombast and insecure xenophobia.  The war against terrorism today will mark us out as a country with an abysmally poor human rights record as did the counter terror of that time.  The question though is at what cost and with what consequence in the world today. There is still a human rights resolution sponsored by the European Union pending at the Human Rights Council in Geneva; the Germans and British have flagged human rights and the peace process as benchmarks for new aid and development assistance flows and   US legislators have in writing both called for the appointment of a Special Envoy on…

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  • 20 Feb, 2007
  • 2 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

14 இணையத்தளங்கள்…

-நாரதர்- கடந்த ஒரு தசாப்தகாலத்திற்கு முற்பகுதியில் இலங்கையின் உள்நாட்டுப்போர் தீவிரமாக இருந்தபோது விடுதலைப்புலிகளுக்கு எதிராகவோ இராணுவத்திற்கு எதிராகவோ (அரசாங்கத்திற்கு) வாய்திறந்து தமது உண்மையான விமர்சனங்களையும் நடுநிலைமையான கருத்துக்களையும் தெரிவிக்கமுடியாமல் தினறின அப்போதைய ஊடகங்கள்.விசேடமாக தமிழ். ஆனால் நவீன ஊடகங்களின் வருகையினால் இந்நிலைமை தகர்த்தெறியப்பட்டுள்ளது.உதாரணமாக விடுதலைப்புலிகளின் செயற்பாடுகளை முன்பு விமர்சிக்கமுடியாததொரு சூழ்நிலையே காணப்பட்டது.அவ்வாறு செயற்பட்டால், ஊடகங்களின் வாய்கள் துப்பாக்கி முனையில் நிறுத்தப்பட்டு அவை வரலாற்று சான்றுகளாகியுள்ளன. இருந்த தமிழ் ஊடகங்களும் பெரும்பாலும் விடுதலைப்புலிகளுக்கு சார்பாகவே செயற்பட்டும் வந்துள்ளன. இணையத்தளங்கள், இணையத்தள வானொளிகள் மற்றும் இணையத்தள தொலைக்காட்சிகளின் வருகைகளினால்; ஒரு பக்க கருத்துக்கள் மாத்திரம் வெளியாகுவதனை தவிர இவற்றில் பலரது கருத்துக்களும் ஒலிக்கத் தொடங்கின. அவற்றில் ஒரு விளைவாகவே விடுதலைப்புலிகள் அமைப்பிலிருந்து விலகிச் சென்ற கருணாவிற்கு சார்பாக மட்டும் இன்று 14 இணையத்தளங்கள் கருத்துக்களை பிரசுரித்து வருகின்றன. இது ஒரு உதாரணம் மட்டுமே. உண்மையில் சைபரின் வருகையினால் ஏற்பட்ட விளைவுகள் தான் இவை.(நவீன ஊடகங்கள்).(இவை நன்மைக்கும் உபயோகப்படும் தீமைக்கும் உபயோகப்படும்)

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  • 20 Feb, 2007
  • 4 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

Groundviews upgrades: Daily email updates!

Supported by SimplyHeadlines, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Groundviews daily email update. Delivered straight into your Inbox, new content from Groundviews alongside news, analysis and features from The Economist Global Agenda and the BBC are packaged into a single email delivered daily to any email address. All free of charge of course. Click here for a preview. Subscribers can even customise their Groundviews updates to include other news and information sources once signed up. Details on signing up & subscribing here.

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Gender and Journalism

For the past three decades, journalism in Sri Lanka has been dominated by men, and as a career it has generally been discouraged amongst women. Things are changing and female journalists are now employed in nearly all newsrooms in print, broadcasting, as well as electronic and online media. Furthermore, the issues covered go far beyond food and fashion: Women are now taking an increasingly active role where issues such as education, conflict and human rights are concerned. However, the number of female journalists in high ranking, decision making posts is still alarmingly low. According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), even though women make up 40 per cent of Sri Lanka’s working journalists, they only make up 3 to 5 per cent of editors, heads of departments and directors. It was against this backdrop that the Sri Lanka Press Institute commended Hannah Ibrahim, Editor of the Sunday Standard and Champika Liyanarachchi, Editor of the Daily Mirror for being the…

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A Citizen’s Notes – Mangala Samaraweera’s battle

An article in Sinhala that examines the fate of Mangala Samaraweera – how he got where he is and the (significant) challenges facing him in the future. Download and read the full article here.

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Should We Fight Terror?

Terrorism is bad. OK. But how bad? And is it all bad? Or is it more like saying bacteria is bad — in other words, dependent on the situation? First we need to look at what terrorism really is. Yes, it is the intent to cause terror, but it’s actual definition is widely accepted to be the intention of military groups to cause terror amongst a civil populace. Occasionally the definition is modified to include state military action against an enemy populace (eg: the RAF aircrew were referred to by the Germans in WW2 as “Terrorfliger” or terror flyers). However, when looked at analytically, terrorism is merely a means to an end, a weapon in conflict; usually (but not invariably) employed by small groups against a vastly more powerful foe — as a last or only method of attack. Therefore, anyone faced with terrorism is seemingly justified in fighting it with all means at their disposal — from direct military…

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  • 17 Feb, 2007
  • 5 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Peace and Conflict

Orwellian leaders and big brothers

Shot this with my mobile, caught up in a massive traffic jam in Kirulapona. A dangerous & delicious irony here. “Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness…” from 1984.

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  • 15 Feb, 2007
  • 7 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

Exit strategies

As of February 2007 3,103 US Soldiers have been killed and, 23,279 others seriously wounded in Iraq. $505 billion of US taxpayers’ funds, including $70 billion for fiscal year 2007 have been spent or approved for spending and President Bush is expected to request another $100 billion in war-spending for 2007 and $140 billion for 2008, which will bring the cumulative total to well over $700 billion (http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm) According to CNN the Bush administration hopes to resettle about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to the United States this year. The war in Iraq has certainly taken a serious toll in US politics and life. So why did the US invade Iraq? Did they bargain for such a costly prolonged war? How would they plan their exit strategies? It would be too simplistic to pin point one reason or the other for the war in Iraq, rather it’s an amalgamation of reasons with some factors being manipulated to cover more pragmatic reasons. The…

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  • 14 Feb, 2007
  • 3 Comments
  • Colombo

Daily Propaganda

The Daily News is a state owned newspaper. What it publishes parrots and praises the party line and is usually taken with a grain of salt. Lately, however, it requires at least a kilo. The front page has a little box which for weeks has been attacking the Editor of the Sunday Leader personally, even alluding to potential tax investigations. This is chilling coming from a government entity to a private individual, whatever his editorial record. More recently, this unjournalistic box has taken to echoing the JHU in alluding to people and media that oppose the government as LTTE supporters. This ‘With Us or Against Us’ mentality is both inaccurate and injust, and it’s a shame that it’s being espoused so openly. This government has weakened media through it’s shut-down of CBNSat, re-establishment of monitoring/censorship boards and the firing of Rajpal at the Sunday Observer, but now it is quite bold in its corruption of journalism, in the vicious little…

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The Unraveling of Chinthanaya Alliances

The electoral alliances Mahinda Rajapaksa forged to win the presidency are unraveling faster than expected.  The relationship with the JHU  and the commitment to the unitary state apart, the key personalities associated with the Rajapaksa presidential campaign – Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Sooriyarachchi – having been sacked from their ministerial positions are now reportedly to join the throng of complainants to the Human Rights Commission on account of inadequate security. There are those who have an overpowering sense of de ja vu with regard to all of this – reminiscing about the Premadasa era and the creation of the DUNF. History repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce.  The President’s overarching consideration of regime consolidation seems to be threatened not so much on the battlefields of the north and east or by the claymore mines and “traitors” in society in general, but rather by erstwhile allies in his cabinet, in his own back yard. Nothing can be taken…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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