Archive for April, 2009

Dutugemunu in war should remain Dutugemunu in peace

The question posed by Groundviews, “What is the most important issue facing the peoples of Sri Lanka in a ‘post-LTTE’ context and how can the State address it?” is very complex. It is hard to answer it succinctly as requested. Besides ‘post LTTE’ is a debatable presumption and limiting the focus of addressing it to the State, appears to exclude the principal actors, the People, from the dramatis personae. Finding an issue in the singular is difficult in a scenario in which both political and economic issues are equally important. Be magnanimous The motive power behind the war against the LTTE was the ‘Dutugemunu’ frame of mind. I believe that the most productive response to the emerging situation is that the State that played Dutugemunu in war should remain Dutugemunu in peace. The Mahavansa records the magnanimity of King Dutugemunu to Elara whom he vanquished in battle. The honour accorded to Elara at his funeral and the royal decree forbidding…

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Einstein was a Refugee

Refugees are sometimes active have agency they Leave, Flee, Sneak Flow over boundary lines unchecked like rivers they Escape, Hide Cross territories they Flood places like unnatural disasters are associated with Asylum and Sanctuary they are A Problem An Issue Sometimes they have a voice if only passive they become Internally displaced (slightly more dignified) ordered out forced out asked to quit resettled relocated They come in all shapes sizes colours types Afghan, Kosovo, Vietnamese. Kashmiri Palestinian Sri Lankan Tamil Muslim Sinhalese environmental political etc etc etc etc If they are lucky they metamorphose into Returnees If they are really lucky they find their relatives If they get really very lucky they become famous. For more information, click here.

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The Nationalist Epidemic

Nationalism, a decisive force of the modern and international politics is one of the most ambiguous terms existing due to lack of and difficulty in forming a proper definition. This difficulty is mostly rendered by the general acceptance of nationalism being a political movement. As a political movement with its known flexibility, it has embraced a variety of positions, from claims on democracy to the defense of most extreme forms of authoritarianism. This has deepened the ambiguity of the term. In 1950s in Asia and in 60s in Africa, nationalism was seen as a feature of the anti-colonial struggle. Originally, nationalism was entirely a product of the political history of Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. In Europe, nationalism was an attempt to make the boundaries of the state and those of the nation coincide, a new way in which people came to understand politics. French cosmopolitanism was the new system against which early nationalists reacted. Sri Lanka…

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G- 20 and the World Economic Crisis

All appear bleak in the global economy as Group of 20 leaders gathered in London on Thursday, April 1, 2009. The financial crisis that began in last September has morphed into a severe global recession and it would turn into the worst downturn since the World War 2. OECD chief economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel observed that “the world economy is in the midst of its deepest and most synchronized recession in our lifetimes, caused by a global financial crisis and deepened by a collapse in world trade”. The World Bank forecasts contraction of 1.7 per cent in the global economy this year. According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy will contract this year by between 0.5 and 1 percent. Unemployment in OECD countries would hit 10 per cent this year as their economies would experience 4. 3 per cent shrink this year. The impact of the global crisis would be disastrous for poor countries. World Bank President Robert Zoellick…

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National flags and the symbolism of accomodating minorities

This is a reaction to Saman’s comment on the article The Needs of the Hour by Professor Michael Roberts. Saman says that Sri Lanka flag has accommodated minorities, and asks: “looking at other world flags, interesting to see how many countries have been so inclusive… (oh yes.. british, india, malaysia…???)” I will briefly explain about the British, Indian, and Malaysian flag issue he has raised to show that despite his implied criticism of these countries their national flags are more inclusive of minorities than Sri Lanka’s flag. The British National Flag The Union Flag, popularly known as the Union Jack, is the British national flag. The Union Flag symbolises the administrative union of the countries of the United Kingdom. It is made up of the individual Flags of three countries that are united under one Sovereign; i.e, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Wales was not a Kingdom at the time but a Principality. So it could not be included on…

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Where We Are and Where To?

“War is the highest form of struggle for resolving contradictions, when they have developed to a certain stage, between classes, nations, states, or political groups, and it has existed ever since the emergence of private property and of classes” said Mao . Thus, a civil war in Sri Lanka which is a capitalist economy with its strong feudal remnants is to preserve the class interests, privileges and benefits of the ruling elite. It could be argued that the recent political and cultural bashing of ‘the other’ in the Sri Lankan society commenced in a major way, following the signing of the ceasefire agreement (CFA) in 2002. The military and political weakening of the LTTE intensified in 2004 with Karuna Amman (Muralitharan) relieved or expelled from the LTTE, who was probably recruited by the pro-GoSL forces and RAW. By the end of 2005, the parties to the conflict were on the verge of an all out war against each other. Sinhala…

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The needs of the hour

Groundviews has raised a critical issue: “what is the most important issue facing the peoples of Sri Lanka in a ‘post-LTTE’ context and how can the State address it?” – an issue that I have, in a spirit of unwarranted optimism, converted from RED to BLUE. It may be possible to quarrel with Ahilan’s phrase, “Post-LTTE context.” The LTTE in the diaspora will still remain a player. The LTTE as guerrilla force will be weak in the immediate future and may lack even the capacities they possessed in 1983-86. But to press such points is to be pedantic. The LTTE as an armed group with de-facto state powers, and thereby the Sri Lankan Tamil goal of an independent state, is in tatters. It may be resurrected of course – if the government and Sinhala chauvinists impose Sinhalese settlers within the northern reaches and if they pursue other draconian Israeli-style programmes. So, with those caveats let me respond to the thrust…

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The Lethal, the Legal, the Legitimate: Frames of our future?

An IANS report from Puducherry, March 25 read as follows: ‘Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said he was not ‘particularly fond’ of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers because they killed his father Rajiv Gandhi. He told a press conference here: “The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is a terrorist group. I am not particularly fond of the LTTE myself. It killed my father.”…Gandhi, however, said that India was doing its best to protect Tamil civilians caught in the conflict between the LTTE and the military in Sri Lanka’s north. “We are trying to help the situation there”, he said.’ If only the offspring of the Sri Lankan political leaders and prominent personalities, Sinhala and Tamil, who were assassinated or targeted (and wounded) by the LTTE, had the integrity and guts of Rahul Gandhi and denounced the Tigers, either on one platform, or two (Sinhala/Tamil), or even singly, the endgame of the Sri Lankan armed conflict would not loom so…

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My vision for Our country

We have been conditioned by war for three decades, to accept violence as a means of resolving conflict. As heinous as the events that took place in July 1983 are, they do reflect at some level, that our society then was not ready to accept the deaths of 13 of “our own”. Thirty years on, we have been conditioned by a daily death toll, to accept even hundreds if not thousands of lives as a fair price to pay for the mere hope of a superficial peace. Our narrow and racist definition of ‘our own’ then, has led to catastrophic consequences. The resulting erosion of our moral conscience as a society undermines our ability today to engage in the post war reconstruction of our social fabric with the essential threads of justice and equality. Three decades (or more) of terrorism and state violence together with our limited understanding of history and lack of a vision for the future, has made…

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  • 1 Apr, 2009
  • 14 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Satire

Discovered: A sunken island, an Indian Ocean Atlantis?

Banyan News World Exclusive! Godavaya, Sri Lanka: 14 March 2009: Marine archaeologists have just discovered evidence of a large submerged landmass southeast of Sri Lanka. They believe it could be a legendary lost island closely linked to the culture and history of Sri Lankan people. The discovery was made by a team of Dutch and Sri Lankan scientists based on satellite maps and underwater sample extractions from the deep sea. Preliminary data need to be verified by a deep sea submersible expedition during 2009 – 2010, according to a member of the research team who did not want to be identified. The landmass is estimated to be between 450,000 and 475,000 square kilometres, which is about seven times the total land area of Sri Lanka. “This could well be the long lost island of Irisiyawa, which is euphemistically mentioned in our chronicles and hinted at in the writings of Greek historians,” said Dr Godwin Samarawickrama, a maritime historian at the…

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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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