Archive for October, 2010

A-Z of Sri Lankan English: F is for for

Before reading on, try this short test. Which of the following sentences do you consider to be grammatically correct? 1. They have over a thousand visitors for a month. 2. They get angry for the slightest thing. 3. Can you give this for Mohan? 4. We couldn’t sleep for the racket. 5. That was my third bath for the day. 6. I woke for the sound of the alarm. 7. He gave me a book for my birthday. 8. This area floods even for the slightest rain. 9. The A level exam has been put off for June. 10. They ripen quickly for the sun. Despite being couched in prescriptive terms (“grammatically correct”), there is no clearcut answer to the exercise. The sentences focus on the use of the preposition for. You will probably agree that no. 7 is correct, and that no. 3 is wrong (it should be: Can you give this to Mohan?). The others might cause more…

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The Media and the Future of Sri Lanka: Young Canadians’ Peace Dialogue on Sri Lanka

The co-editor of Groundviews Nigel Nugawela spoke recently at a progressive forum of young Canadian – Sri Lankans in Toronto on the role of media in post-war Sri Lanka, including the use of new media and ICTs. The discussion also featured, V.V. GANESHANANTHAN – Novelist (Love Marriage), Blogger and Journalist ARJUNA RANAWANA – News Manager, OMNI TV Alberta, Edmonton MARTIN REGG COHN – Deputy Editorial Page Editor, The Toronto Star Nigel’s presentation starts at around 38 minutes into the video. The event was part of a series of invitation-only events organised by the Mosaic Institute called “Peace Dialogue” for approximately 100 young, peace-focused members of the relevant sub-communities of Sri Lanka, all ages 18-30, presented in cooperation with the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre. Repost This Article

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Parallel Governments: Living between terror and counter terror in northern Lanka (1982-2009)

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Authors note: Article derived from paper first presented at the conference, Globalizing Religions and Cultures in the Asia Pacific, University of Adelaide, 1–5 December 2008 and developed version published in Journal of Asian and African Studies. Download this paper as a PDF here. Introduction It was Thomas Hobbes (1651) who first pointed out that behind the veneer of states is the spectre of vio­lence and threat of terror that is used to control and rule the subject populations; for example, through the police or, increasingly in the modern ‘security states’, through intelligence agencies and other covert operations. When this control and rule is challenged, comes under question or is weakened, the covert violence becomes more overt, manifesting as techniques of terror. When the power to rule is contested by other parties, they may vie for control, loyalty and legitimacy through terror and counter terror tactics on the populace. The ongoing ethnic war in Lanka was a good example of the…

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From WikiLeaks to WikiLanka: War Is Definitely Savage Though “Accusations” Differ

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The latest WikiLeaks “dump” of around 400,000 US classified war reports on Iraq from 2003 to 2009, the biggest “war leaks” ever in US history, reveals how inhuman and savage the war is, never mind who conducts it and where. A few months ago in July this year, WikiLeaks’ first dump of over 90,000 US classified reports on the Afghan war, also revealed the insanity in waging war. With this second enormously huge “leak”, obviously, there is all round condemnation by the US administration, the US defence and intelligence agencies. Britain can not avoid tagging along with such condemnations, being openly accused of violations in Iraq, through these same “leaks”. The core message in all these “Super Power” condemnations of these “leaks” is pretty much the same. “A threat to national security and to their collaborators and partners in war”. That hyped “national security” is not that of Iraqis and the Afghans, but of the US, the Britain, NATO member…

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Securing Media Freedom in National Security States

“Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.” Benjamin Franklin. “Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.” Marx As Sri Lanka transforms from a welfare into a “national security state,” we are witnessing the worst suppression of media freedom since the time of our independence. Nearly thirty journalists have been forced to abandon their work in the face of unrelenting harassment, or imprisoned, tortured, exiled, or killed. Those media personnel who, in the face of this attack, have responded by inventing creative ways to maintain the freedom of the press, deserve our respect for continuing to operate under tremendous risks and constraints. These stalwarts require our immediate assistance if we are to secure our media freedom and ensure that Sri Lanka be a place for meaningful citizen- and social-journalistic praxis. We must undergo a paradigm shift in the way we approach media freedoms: our efforts must stretch beyond the legal reforms that democratize…

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The Cost of Defying Political Authority

Reams have been written on the two main topics widely discussed in Sri Lanka today. One is the fate of the army commander who chose to defy the authority of the Rajapakse brothers and the other is the 18th amendment that was passed with a large majority in parliament (161 for and 17 against) on September 8, 2010. It gives the president absolute power. In an article published on the 43rd death anniversary of Che Guevera (October 9th) the writer says Che was not an anarchist but he wanted a strong handed moral government. He felt compelled to obey moral laws; finally sacrificing even his life in the struggle as in the Greek tragedy “Antigone”. “Antigone’s revolt stemmed not from a rejection of authority, but on the contrary from obedience to a moral law, than to an arbitrary edict. Antigone lost her life trying to protect human rights which are really moral rights while defying political authority. Sarath Fonseka is…

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Political Satire in Sri Lanka: When Making Fun is No Laughing Matter

Book cover - Wimalege Colama

Review of Wimalege Colama (Wimale’s Column), a collection of satirical columns by Wimalanath Weeraratne Sinhala; 232 pp; Author publication; September 2010 Political satire is nothing new: it has been around for as long as organised government trying to keep the wielders of power in check. Over the centuries, it has manifested in many oral, literary or theatrical traditions, some of it more enduring — such as Gulliver’s Travels and Animal Farm. And for over a century, political cartoonists have also been doing it with such brilliant economy of words. Together, these two groups probably inspire more nightmares in tyrants than anyone or anything else. Today, political satire has also emerged as a genre on the airwaves and in cyberspace, and partly compensates for the worldwide decline in serious and investigative journalism. Many mainstream media outlets have become too submissive and subservient to political and corporate powers. Those who still have the guts often lack the resources and staff to pursue…

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  • 19 Oct, 2010
  • 4 Comments
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo

Interview with Vajira, Sri Lanka’s Prima Ballerina Assoluta

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Vajira is now 78. In just over half an hour and recorded at the Chitrasena and Vajira Dance School, Vajira looks back at her life and recalls how she began to dance, what dance means to her, what’s changed from when the time she was an active dancer, her legacy alongside that of Chitrasena’s, what and who inspired her, the changes she brought about to traditional Kandyan dancing and the future of the Dance School in the hands of her children and grand-children. Allowing Vajira to speak at length and interrupting as little as I could, for those who love dance (and love to dance), this is a record of a lifetime dedicated to its perfection. Repost This Article

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  • 19 Oct, 2010
  • 42 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Peace and Conflict,
    Post-War,
    Reconciliation,
    Vavuniya

Reconciliation through ‘Rehabilitation’ & ‘Reintegration’ of Ex-LTTE members in Sri Lanka: Separating Fact from Fiction

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Photo courtesy Northern Provincial Council ‘They should learn that there is a better world beyond waging war’- Gotabaya Rajapakse[1] Once in a while you may have seen local media reports about persons referred to as former combatants or members of the LTTE. These reports were probably either based entirely on content sourced from a state official or written by apparatchiks. Or you might have read one of several interviews given by the Commissioner-General of Rehabilitation (CGR), the self-styled patriarch/paternal figure Brigadier Ranasinghe. If you are an ardent follower of the reports, musings and creative pieces on the Ministry of Defence (MOD) website, you might have noted regular updates on the progress of the rehabilitation programme of supposed ex-combatants along with colourful descriptions of the ways in which the programme is laying the foundation for reconciliation and a united (and of course unitary) Sri Lanka. On the other hand, international human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the…

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Why women in politics always matters: A conversation with Chulani Kodikara

Chulani Kodikara has written five articles for Groundviews, three on the topic of women in mainstream politics in Sri Lanka. Revealingly, they are comparatively three of the most under-read articles on this site. Women are not willing to go back to pre-war status quo, a compelling essay written for the special edition on the end of war, has at the time of writing only generated around 450 pageviews, abysmal in comparison to the tens of thousands who read and engaged with other articles in this special edition. This marked lack of interest in and awareness of a vital issue provided the backdrop for a recent conversation with Chulani on the issue of women’s representation in Sri Lankan mainstream politics. Fundamentally, the issue is marginal to mainstream political parties and of peripheral interest at best to most voters – female and male. In an important essay, Chulani notes that “the main obstacle to equal political representation of women in political institutions…

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Allergy to analysis and historical amnesia in Sri Lanka

The trouble with Sri Lankan political and civil society is that everyone’s an amateur psychologist. Instead of listening to or reading what someone says and treating it on its merits, the name of the game is to speculate on what motivated him. What’s s/he after? Who is he with now? Thus it is that gossip substitutes for analysis. The upshot of  the personalised normative reactions of Sri Lankan society, i.e. reacting to who is saying it rather than what is said, deprives us of learning anything of value that the writer or speaker may have to offer. So, it goes something like this. If one asserts that Sri Lankan democracy is not dead, and the country is neither totalitarian nor a dictatorship but that Sri Lankan democracy has always been unevenly developing and subject to contractions and expansions, the automatic response is that the writer or exponent of this view is attempting to whitewash Rajapakse rule. But again, what if…

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A Brief Commentary and Table on the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill 2010

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By Bhavani Fonseka, Supipi Jayawardena and Mirak Raheem October 2010 The Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill) proposes a series of changes to the laws relating to the election of local authorities (LA) that include Municipal Councils, Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas. A principal change proposed in the Bill is the introduction of a mixed system of First Past the Post (FPP) and Proportional Representation (PR). The Bill reintroduces the ward system, whereby a LA is divided into a number of electoral units. Each ward elects one member, unless in the case of a multi-member ward. The number elected under the PR system is not fixed. A maximum of 30% of the number of members elected under FPP of a LA will be appointed under PR. The Bill has several salient features including strengthening the processes for counting and polling in order to ensure the integrity of an election. Although positive measures are noted, there are serious concerns with…

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Rally calling for the immediate release Sarath Fonseka: Video and photos

The JVP organised a massive rally in Colombo on 11 October calling for the release of Sarath Fonseka from prison. Eye-witness accounts suggest over 3,000 people were part of this rally in the heart of Colombo, which took place in front of the prison where Sarath Fonseka is incarcerated. No violence was recorded. Mainstream print and electronic media coverage of this rally was abysmal in Sri Lanka, suggesting a very high degree of self-censorship on this issue, driven by fear of hate and harm directed against journalists perceived by government to be partial to Sarath Fonseka. Photos courtesy Vikalpa. Video courtesy Vikalpa’s YouTube channel. View JVP rally to release Sarath Fonseka in a larger map Repost This Article

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Dementia in Sri Lanka: A conversation with Tami Tamitegama

Tami Tamitegama is the President of the Lanka Alzheimer’s Foundation. Dementia is a global and growing problem, and when juxtaposed with Sri Lanka’s ageing population, places demands on our healthcare system the country is ill-placed to meet, and hasn’t even planned for. This conversation was recorded a few days after World Alzheimer’s Day and touches on the social and health dimensions of dementia and the mindset change necessary to tackle it. Tami also talks in depth about active ageing, and how the aged can and must be fully active members of society. The WHO defines active ageing as the “continuing participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic affairs, not just the ability to be physically active or to participate in the labour force.” Repost This Article

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LLRC: Submission by Manik de Silva, President of the Editors Guild

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Manik de Silva is the most senior and longest-serving Editor of an English newspaper in Sri Lanka. Presently the Editor of the Sunday Island, Manik was also a former Editor of the Daily News and is currently the President of the Editors Guild. Manik’s testimony to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on 13th September 2010 covers, inter alia, the nature of media censorship during the war, the deliberate targeting of independent journalists by both the Government and the LTTE, the problems arising from the lack of access to war zones by independent media and views on the media and the ceasefire agreement in general. This recording is best listened with headphones and is around 47 minutes long. Unsurprisingly, no State media in Sri Lanka gave any coverage to Manik’s condemnation of the war time censorship of media, or references to the retribution journalists faced if they reported in a manner perceived to be ‘unhelpful’ by the military. For…

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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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