Archive for December, 2007

Identity in Jaffna and Jewish Badge in Germany

Tamil residents in Jaffna are reportedly being forced to carry a special document of identification issued by security forces, in addition to the national identity card provided by the Emigration and Immigration Department. In other words, these Tamils have been ignominiously reduced, in the eyes of government authorities, to the status of non-nationals of their own country. Not only that, in order to get this security clearance, as reported in a weekend newspaper, one is obliged to disclose his/her political affiliations too. About 20 years ago, the visa application form of the USA in their Paris diplomatic mission contained a rather impolite question like this: “Have you ever been a member of a political party affiliated with Marxism?” It is possible that the USA has a right to pore over all outsiders wishing to enter their territory, though it may be queried as to its political correctness in a world where one’s right to hold any political opinion is inalienably…

Continue reading »

I/NGOs: Mea Culpa… Your Culpa… or Our Culpa?

Shanaka Amarasinghe Nearly three years have passed since the devastation of Boxing Day 2004. Those three years should have sufficed for grief to transform into resolve, for shock to become measured response and for altruism to become tangible benefit. It is impossible to quantify, despite the diverse and often varied reports available, how much has been done, and by whom. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile considering the societal impact that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), and the good and/or evil that has been precipitated by their presence. The aftermath of the tsunami saw a global outpouring of shock and dollars. The amount of tourists and expatriates affected in the South Asian region saw the world unite in its reaction to one of the worst natural disasters in mankind’s history. South Asia, and specifically Sri Lanka was flooded with aid from various donors. Well meaning individuals sacrificed their beer money and larger organisations mobilised their vast resources – both…

Continue reading »

A Romance with Rights

Mario Gomez reflects on the work of Sri Lankan human rights activist Sunila Abeysekera. Ms Abeysekera was recently honoured by Human Rights Watch with the Human Rights Defender Award for 2007. He was speaking at a ‘Celebration off Human Rights Defenders’ to honour both Ms Abeysekera and Rajan Hoole and Kopalasingham Sritharan of the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) who were recently awarded the Martin Ennals 2007 Award for Human Rights Defenders. The celebration was organised by Inform, the Law & Society Trust and the Rights Now Collective for Democracy on 6th December 2007. Photo credit: Tim Hetherington, 2007 from HRW website This afternoon we are gathered to celebrate and pay tribute to two Sri Lankan human rights defenders: one a fearless group that has exposed human rights violations mainly in relation to the conflict, and secondly, to an equally fearless woman who has played many roles in her campaign of human rights for all. We are also gathered…

Continue reading »
  • 11 Dec, 2007
  • 10 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

Western baloney on “human rights”

The following article, which is a commentary on HLD Mahindapala’s speech given recently at the BMICH, arrived in my inbox earlier today. It was sent to be by someone who had received it from someone else. Googling the title suggests the commentary was originally produced by a Janaka Perera  and published at the Lanka Herald. I normally wouldn’t cut and paste such a text – but I feel the commentary below raises some interesting issues, some of which we may be familiar with, but worth revisiting and reconsidering again. Western baloney on ‘human rights’ Written by Janaka Perera Saturday, 01 December 2007 In a scathing attack on Western double standards on human rights, veteran Journalist and Editorial Adviser Asian Tribune, H.L.D. Mahindapala last week accused Western Powers of pulling the wool over the eyes of the world on human rights. He charged them with jettisoning their HR proclamations as an when the necessity arose for them to defend their nations,…

Continue reading »

Jaffna: Tears, blood and terror

Few weeks before I went to Jaffna, Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council had visited Jaffna and captured the powerful testimony of one airline passenger saying “the only thing we can do is cry”. After my own visit to Jaffna, I wonder whether all I, other people in the rest of the country and the world can do is cry with people of Jaffna. Or whether some even care to cry. I remember that Jehan finished his article saying that people in Jaffna don’t want to be shut off or be forgotten. But my impression was that the government seemed to be intent on just that – shutting off people in Jaffna from rest of Sri Lanka and the world. I had spent fair amount of my youth traveling to various countries, including “hot spots”, taking hundreds of flights – and been through some arduous visa and immigration procedures. But no procedure was as frustrating as this. I spent…

Continue reading »

Making Racism FUN for Kids

The Sunday Times (Wijeya Newspapers) has a children’s section titled FUNDAY. The December 9th FUNDAY carried a continuing series from the Mahavamsa titled The Defeat of the Cholas. The article has some choice bits of FUN storytelling such as: “the Sinhala soldiers fought bravely. Most of the Chola soldiers died in the fighting and the rest fled.” No children’s story is complete without lots of FUN images and this story doesn’t disappoint: three beautiful illustrations of soldiers killing each other. The soldiers in red sarongs seem to be getting the upper hand on the soldiers in blue sarongs (who seem to have duskier complexions)—one guy is even getting speared in the back (a Chola getting what he deserves?). For those of you who may not know, the Cholas were a Tamil Dynasty that ruled Southern India and also annexed parts of Sri Lanka (I’m not going to say which parts—take a wild guess). One other point, the Mahavamsa has been…

Continue reading »

TMVP Protest In Batticaloa Today

The TMVP is organizing a big protest at the Weber stadium in Batticaloa today. According to the Pillayan-led TMVP, it is against LTTE atrocities in the East and the TNA. The TMVP also wants solutions to problems faced by people being resettled in the East, for example in terms of lack of jobs, all of which will go into a signed letter to be delivered to the President. TMVP Spokesman Azad Moulana says they expect 25,000 people from three regions of the east to voice their protest and gather at the stadium, which is scheduled to start at 9.30am. They may also try to bring together Karuna supporters to show their support for the above cause whether voluntarily or by some degree of force. The Karuna-Pillayan struggle is unfolding quite rapidly, as readers are no doubt aware, and the latest I have gathered, which I thought I would put down here, is that Karuna cadres are restricted to Ampara, while…

Continue reading »

Concerns over Cattle Population

In 1982 the cattle population in Sri Lanka had been 6.7 million, Athuraliye Rathana Thero has said while participating in budget debate in the Parliament. Out of this, normal cattle had constituted 1.3-million while the rest were buffaloes. But by 2000, this cattle population had decreased by 114000, Thero had sadly pointed out. It is not clear whether his sadness is caused because the cattle population is being dwindled as an economic resource or because he is upholding the cattle’s right to life as a supreme principle. As he is a Buddhist monk, drawing on the Bhuddist tradition and going by the spiritual values of Bhuddism, we can safely presume that it was his pure compassion for animal life that had inspired him in bringing this matter up in the Parliament. If that is the case, we would further expect him to stand up for the cause of other animals’ rights as well, like cocks, pigs, sheep, fish etc, for…

Continue reading »
  • 7 Dec, 2007
  • 0 Comment
  • Colombo,
    Media and Communications

The murder of the Brigadier’s wife and her child – A media critique in Sinhala

බ්රිගේඩියර් ගේ බිරිද ඝාතනය කිරීම හා ඇගේ දරුවා උවිදු කුරුකුලසූරීය ඊයෙයි අදයි සිංහල පත්තර බැලූවම පේන දෙයක් තමයි ලංකාවේ මාධ්යවේදීන්ට ළමා අයිතිවාසිකම් හා මාධ්ය භාවිතාව පිළිබද පුඵල් දැනුමක් නෑ කියන එක. මාකොළ දී බ්රිගේඩියර්වරයෙකුගේ බිරි`ද ඝාතනය කිරීම පිළිබ`ද සිද්ධියේ මහේස්ත්රාත් වාර්තාව ලංකාදීප ,දිවයින හා ලක්බිම පුවත් පත් වල පලවී තිබුණා. ඒ හැම වාර්තාවකටම අනුව පොලීසියෙන් පවසන්නේ මෙය මිනීමැරුමක් බවයි. මීනීමැරුමට සැකපිට තවමත් රිමාන්ඞ් භාරයේ පසුවන්නේ බ්රිගේඩියර්වරයා. පෙරේදා මහේස්ත්රාත් පරීක්ෂණයේදී ඒ අවස්ථාවේ නිවසේ සිටි බිරි`දගේ සහෝදරයාගෙනුයි, බ්රිගේඩියර්වරයාගේ 15 හැවිරිදි පුතා ගෙනුයි කට උත්තර අරන් තිබ්බා. මේ පත්තර ඔක්කොම අර කට උත්තර අකුරක් නෑර පලකරලා අර දරුවගේ නම,වයස ඔක්කොමත් එක්ක! අද දිවයින පත්තරෙත් ඒවාගේම සිද්ධියක් වාර්තාවෙලා ‘‘ස්වාමි පුරුෂයාගේ ඝාතනයට සම්බන්ධ නඩුවට සාක්ෂි නොදෙන්නැයි දියණියට බලපෑම් කළ මව රක්ෂිතයට’’ කියලා ඒ වාර්තාවේ තියෙනවා. මේ මිනීමැරුම සිදුවෙලා තියෙන්නේ 2001දී. ඒදා ඒ දියණියගේ වයස අවුරුදු 13යි. අද 18යි. ඒ දියණියගෙත් නම ඔක්කොම දාලා. මේවා ළමයි ගැන වාර්ථා කරන විට ළමයාගේ සුබසිද්ධිය පිළිබදව ජනමාධ්ය තැකීමක් නොකරන බවට හොදම සාක්ෂි. මම මේ වැරද්ද මාධ්යවේදීන් කිහිප දෙනෙක් එක්ක…

Continue reading »
  • 6 Dec, 2007
  • 12 Comments
  • IDPs and Refugees,
    Mannar,
    Peace and Conflict

Civilian cost of a humanitarian operation: miseries of liberated peoples of Musali and Naanatan divisions in Mannar waiting to go home

“We were not poor, we had our own house, we earned a reasonable income to feed ourselves and our children, but now, we have been forced to be poor and depend on others to feed our children and ourselves, and have no place to stay, our village is occupied by the Sri Lankan armed forces” was the comment of one women who was amongst the thousands forced to vacate their homes and livelihoods by Sri Lankan armed forces in their quest to seek control of land. When I visited Mannar with some friends and colleagues more than a month after yet another “humanitarian operation” by Sri Lankan armed forces, this time in Mannar, it became clear that civilians remains the only causality, with at least 12 having being killed and 1 disappeared. From what we heard from displaced people and church leaders, it was clear that militants associated with the LTTE had left long before government forces advanced, and the…

Continue reading »
  • 5 Dec, 2007
  • 9 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Media and Communications,
    Peace and Conflict

Groundviews Wins 2007 Award of Excellence in New Communications from Society for New Communications Research

5th December 2007, Colombo, Sri Lanka: Groundviews, Sri Lanka’s first citizens journalism website (http://www.groundviews.lk), is pleased to announce that it is a recipient of a 2007 Award of Excellence in the Nonprofit division of the Society for New Communications Research Awards program. The Society honors innovative individuals, corporations, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and media outlets that are pioneering the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities, virtual worlds and collaborative technologies in the areas of media, marketing, public relations, advertising, entertainment, education, politics and social initiatives. The award winners were announced at the Society’s awards gala at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston, Mass on December 5th, 2007. Launched in December 2006, Groundviews features an unparalleled range and depth of ideas, opinions and analyses on humanitarian issues, media freedom, human rights, peace, democratic governance and constitutional reform. The site now attracts close to 700 page views a day from Sri Lanka and abroad. “Groundviews exemplifies the mission of this…

Continue reading »

The reality of living in a “Separate State”

Many Sri Lankans spent a peaceful Sunday at home. A typical lazy Sri Lankan Sunday spent lounging after a sumptuous lunch and browsing through the newspapers in a vain attempt to delay the oncoming week. I was one such Sri Lankan. Going out was too much of a hassle with all the security concerns. The detailed recounting of the recent twin bomb blasts checked all enthusiasm of having a rocking Sunday. You can imagine my surprise on calling a friend and having her quietly ask me how come there was no action taken to stop the mass arrests. What arrests? I had browsed through all the usual Sunday newspapers and even stayed home the previous night and caught the news bulletin, but there was no word of any arrests. And surely if something worth knowing about was going on I’d have got a news alert on my mobile phone? I hurriedly covered my shame at being caught out of the…

Continue reading »
Page 2 of 212

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!"

cezarneaga.eu
canakkale canakkale canakkale balik tutma search canakkale vergi mevzuati bagimsiz denetim vergi mevzuati ozurlu engelliler