Archive for April, 2011

Government MP Rajiva Wijesinha clarifies allegation against Groundviews

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Rajiva Wijesinha, MP, in his column published in the Sunday Observer today, expressly notes that, “I have now had an opportunity to read through what is supposed to be the Report of the Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to advise him on what were termed accountability issued. The report has been leaked by the indefatigable Sanjana Hattotuwa, who does however note that he cannot confirm if this is the actual text. He adds that the UN has regretted the leak.” Surprised that Mr. Wijesinha seemingly did not know the location where the UN Panel’s report was published and attributed the leak to this site’s founding Editor, he was asked to furnish any hard evidence to support his allegation and if there was none, to publish a full retraction and apology in the media. An email with Mr. Wijesinha on this score is published here verbatim with his knowledge. April 17, 2011 9:00:39 AM Dear Sanjana Thanks, I am…

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Sharing a common god: The Sivasubramaniam Kovil in Slave Island

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Munisekar has always been devout. From the age of nine, he began working at the Sivasubramaniam Kovil of Slave Island – the place of worship closest to where he lived with his parents. Every day after school, Munisekar would go to the Kovil to work and study there. In a few years however he stopped going to school altogether and turned to his faith full time. Now, 33 years later, he is the longest serving and most senior temple assistant at the Kovil. Over the years, Munisekar has seen the Kovil transform itself from a basic shrine when he first joined, to what it is today – an awe-inspiring place of worship, every last inch of its pyramidal exterior elaborately decorated over with numberless statues of Hindu gods. Of these, the Kovil most often attracts worshippers of the powerful deity known as Murugan or Karthikeya to Hindus and Katharagama Deviyo to Buddhists. Read more about Munisekar and see his video…

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The stupid modern “Man” and his hushed “conscience”

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Over 4 years ago, on a short visit to the US, I was introduced to an Elementary – Teacher in a public school in Brooklyn, at a private party. The adjective for this American was “White” and that distanced him from the Brooklyn majority. What is important here is not that, though. But wait. That may have some relevance to his ignorance. Why not ? He did not know there is a country called “Sri Lanka” now, and that it was “Ceylon” at the time he was born, in the early 60′s. It thus served no purpose to ask this American about Colonel Henry Steel Olcott.* Michael Moore called this ignorant, modern ‘white’ generation, “Stupid White Men”. And they are, or they have to be. This generation and those before and after them, are those who elect the man or may be a woman next time, to sit in the Oval Office, at the White House. They elected and re-elected…

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The education of a Muslim girl: Snapshots of Fatheema

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15-year-old Fatheema Sulaika has lofty plans for her future. Study hard, become a psychologist, do her bit for mankind and hope that her example inspires oppressed women the world over. Needless to say, encountering such vibrant ambition down one of Slave Island’s drearier streets was rather unexpected. A tall, lithe and uncommonly beautiful girl, Fatheema Sulaika – or Sulaika as her family likes to call her – was shy at first, self-consciously stifling smiles at the camera and shooting glances at the overprotective gaggle of female relatives who were always close at hand, craning over each other’s shoulders to see what it was about their young family member that we were so interested in. Read Fatheema’s story in full and watch her video here. Produced by Sharni Jayawardena and Tarika Wickremeratne, as part of Walkabout: Slave Island. Watch the trailer to this series below, and visit the Moving Images website for more stunning content on Sri Lanka.

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The leaked UN war crimes report: Key points and context

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The Island newspaper published today sections of what appears to be a large excerpt from the report of the UN Panel of Experts looking into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka. Inner City Press followed up with a report suggesting that the text was authentic, and that the UN deeply regretted the leak to the mainstream media. It also noted that the UN would publish the report in full next week, along with a response from the Sri Lankan government. Groundviews flags below some highlights of this damning report, and places it alongside some other news article for context. Follow our tweets on this breaking story here. Our Facebook fan page will also carry highlights, and features discussions amongst the 6,000+ people already on it. Some key highlights from the leaked report as published in The Island: “In stark contrast, the Panel found credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious…

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Refuge for Colonel Gadaffi in Island Paradise?

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16 April 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka has in its history occasionally served as a refuge for persecuted personalities but it may have its most controversial refugee yet. Colonel Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi has reportedly secured an understanding with the Government to Sri Lanka to secure refuge in the country in the eventuality that he has to flee his native Libya. Sources from within the government confirmed that the offer was made to the Colonel in a telephone call recently following a number of losses by forces loyal to Colonel Gadaffi. Our source clearly stated that the Sri Lankan Government stands firmly with the Government of Colonel Gadaffi and condemns the international intervention of the West, and will ensure its support to ensuring the stability of the Libyan Government. The offer of a refuge has only been offered as a “mark of friendship” between the two leaders confirmed the government source. President Mahinda Rajapakse and Colonel Gadaffi are known to have a…

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The ‘dobis’ in Colombo: Unseen people, used by most

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In a locality where washing lines heavy with colour light up even the most mundane landscape, Navam Mawatha’s laundry seems a nucleus of sorts. Surrounded by banks and plush office spaces, the old laundry, sitting on prime real estate, remains virtually unchanged since its creation in the 1920s. It consists of two sturdy rows of stone basins for washing and a field strapped with washing lines, all surrounded by a boundary of small numbered rooms which, at that time, used to be occupied by close to 200 dobis, Sri Lanka’s own caste of washer-men. But as little as the laundry itself has changed, the environment around it and within it, has. We encountered W. Siripala – or Dharmadasa, as he preferred to be called – in one of the small rooms, as he was ironing a batch of clothes one afternoon. The apparatus he used – although shaped like the modern iron – held within it burning shells of coconut instead…

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Hotel Nippon: An icon of Colombo

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Originally from Ragama, Chandrika Serasinghe believes it was her destiny to end up working at the Nippon Hotel – a place whose unusual façade always had a pull on her whenever she passed by it in her younger days, but that she now thinks of as her second home. The Nippon Hotel is one of Slave Island’s oldest and most well known landmarks and its salmon pink exterior has always been its signature feature. Still, with its old-fashioned salons and parlours, it has retained a kind of elegance through the years, despite its unusual colour. Today though, it is being repainted a much more conventional white – yet another reminder of Slave Island’s dynamic nature. Read her full story and watch the video here. Produced by Sharni Jayawardena and Tarika Wickremeratne, as part of Walkabout: Slave Island. Watch the trailer to this series below, and visit the Moving Images website for more stunning content on Sri Lanka.

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In conversation with Nelum Gamage: Does anyone give a damn about corruption?

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Nelum Gamage, a Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka, was an erstwhile Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), established in 1994 to direct the institution of prosecutions for offences under the Bribery Act and the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, No. 1 of 1975. She is also Director/Consultant at the Legal Aid Commission at the Ministry of Justice. The conversation began by asking Nelum why even with so much of information on corruption in the public domain, people still didn’t really give a damn about combatting it. Nelum makes the points that even with this information, there is still a lot of ignorance about systemic corruption and that until it impacts one personally, people don’t really take any action against it. We talk about private industry in Sri Lanka and its participation in corrupt practices, in spite of public claims of accountability and good corporate governance. Nelum addresses the point on whether…

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ACCOUNTABILITY, RECONCILIATION, DEMOCRACY

Photo credit: Eranga Jayawardena / AP, taken from Christian Science Monitor At a recent seminar at the Acadamie DiplomatiqueInternationale in Paris, a team from the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), on a Paris-London visit, presented on ‘Developments in the Arab World and the Impact on Asia: an Asian Perspective’. I attended eagerly, not only because of the subject’s salience but because these were my recent colleagues and friends. The team’s presentation differentiated the domestically driven developments, most importantly but not exclusively in Tunisia and Egypt, from external military intervention in Libya’s armed civil conflict or civil war. Prof Tan Tai Yong, the Vice Provost of the National University of Singapore (with which Yale has just signed a deal to establish a liberal arts college) and Executive Director of the Institute pointed out that while Asian opinion agreed that the intentional killing of unarmed civilian protestors de-legitimised any regime and constituted a new ‘red line’ for the international…

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Is it worth the wait for international support after the UN Secretary General’s report?

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Photo courtesy Inner City Press Finally, yes finally, one big phase of the game came to a close with just a whimper. Now, its the next phase of the game. On 12 April, just before the South (wouldn’t know how the Hindu Tamils in the North would celebrate new year) gathers into their culturally colourful Sinhala New Year on 14th April, the UN Panel of Advisers on the Sri Lankan conflict (?) handed over their report to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. Very little is officially said about, it being made public, but, a copy was immediately despatched to President Rajapaksa. Ban’s media spokesperson said, its just “courtesy”. A very curt news release in the UN news web says, the UN SG “will study the report carefully and will determine his next steps in the coming days.” What went into this report writing and how, is now history. Yet that would give an indication to what would finally turn out…

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‘Heal Lanka’ by Ras Ceylon

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A retweet this morning from Ras Ceylon alerted us to the fact that he was following our feed. We first read about Ras Ceylon on Sepia Mutiny, interviewed by the inimitable Tanzila Ahmed (aka Tazzy Star). Reading it, we were reminded of Brown Boogie Nation, a group that did an anti-war rap video years ago, which to our knowledge is the first to have been produced in Sri Lanka. Produced by Young Asia Television, ‘Lions and Tigers’ was aimed at youth but didn’t get too much of airtime outside of YATV’s own shows. The most popular music videos during the war were clearly directed at an audience outside the North and East, a trend that continues after the end of war. For example, the imagery, themes and expression used in ‘Sri Lanka Maatha’ sung by the extremely popular Sinhala pop duo Bathiya And Santhush stands in stark contrast to Lions and Tigers. The YouTube statistics tell their own story. There…

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A review of (Un)making Time: ‘My Other History’ and ‘Rondo’

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Image from ‘Rondo’ Image from ‘My Other History’ “We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue… And then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.” George Orwell, In Front of Your Nose In early 2011, Tracy Holsinger of Mind Adventures Theatre Company and Jake Oorloff of Floating Space Theatre Company were awarded a grant from the Sunethra Bandaranaike Trust to interrogate, through theatre, the idea and theme of reconciliation. The resulting plays were staged in April under the title (Un)making Time and featured two compelling productions – ‘Rondo’ directed by Tracy Holsinger and Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke and ‘My Other History’, written and directed by Jake Oorloff. Though bound by a…

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Cricket, Lima

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In the mist that blows over the field at Lima Cricket near the Pacific, moist, cool air lets the wicket breathe and the crack of bat on ball sing like a memory of toffee I recall, outside the tuck shop, the day Josephians played St. Peter’s in the wet air off Beira Lake and all the boys, let off early from class, rang the ropes with cheers: St Joseph’s victory, St. Peter’s parippu; now forty years later, accused still of immaturity, I have dressed in whites, a sun hat, am padded up and ready to go out again into the middle to knock four fours and a couple of sixers in half a dozen balls, to save the side from infamy.

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A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka

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A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka is a personal look at some of the last remaining ‘Eurasians’, and part of the Moving Images commissioned and supported by Groundviews. Produced by Menika van der Poorten these narrated photo essays document a community few Sri Lankans truly know about or remember today, or care to. Seven compelling and rare narrated photo essays of this community, shot in high-definition (HD), are now featured on Moving Images. Anne Williams Paul Samarasinghe Cynthia Emersley Cynthia Emersley meets the ‘Burghers’ P U Liyanage on local history Malcolm Grey on paddy cultivation Malcolm Grey on his grandmother

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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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