Archive for October, 2012

Why Religious Intolerance Makes Me Mad

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Image courtesy The Nation I am writing this in response to the various articles / comments  promoting intolerance, people basing their arguments on stereotypes, and just things that I have experienced in the recent past.  You may not agree with all I have to say but I really needed to say this out loud. My name is Anisha, I am a liberal Muslim woman and more than anything a proud Sri Lankan. I support the Sri Lankan cricket team…always have and always will. I like Pakistan, I have an amazing friend that lives there although I have never been BUT I was born here, lived here my whole life and that makes me Sri Lankan to the core. So the idea that someone assumes that because of my religion I will support a country other than my own is laughable. I studied under the Sinhalese stream so my mother tongue is Sinhalese. I have friends from all ethnicities because I went…

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Restrictions and intimidation on journalists covering resettlement process in the Vanni

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From Lines Magazine “The Government should ensure the freedom of movement of media personnel in the North and East, as it would help in the exchange of information contributing to reconciliation” (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, recommendation 9.115-d) After more than 11 months of the LLRC report being handed over to the President, the above recommendation remains far from reality, despite the National Action Plan to Implement Recommendations of the LLRC reaffirming it by committing to identify and remove impediments to free movement of media personnel in the North and East. A few days ago, I accompanied a crew from a local TV station to the Mullativu district to do a story on the life of the last batches of people who left Menik Farm before its closure in late September 2012. First, our team met the Government Agent for Mullativu, who told us we could go and film the resettlement and relocation areas, and in fact, encouraged us to…

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Socialism?

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Photo courtesy socialistworld.net Over the past months there has been a debate in some newspapers regarding socialism and/or socialism vs. capitalism. It is a great thing to see happening, especially as the globalised economic downturn intensifies and is sure to be a long-lasting one. In this debate, however, it is sometimes hard to see what is exactly meant by the word ‘socialism.’ For example, many people term the policies of the Bandaranaike governments as socialist – because there was a tendency to have the government run certain industries, such as transportation, steel and insurance, or to have state welfare programmes. If such is the definition, then most European countries and even the United States would qualify as socialist on some ground or another. Others seem to define socialism as being what existed in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries: this involved a heavy state hand in not only industrial and agricultural production, but in controlling dissent and thought via…

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A-Z of Sri Lankan English: V is for vel festival

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A Hindu vel festival is better described in pictures than words. The photos here were taken a few years ago at the annual festival on Havelock Road, on a rainy August morning… ### A-Z of Sri Lankan English is“an all-new, occasional alphabetical dip“into the variety of English spoken in Sri Lanka, published exclusively on“Groundviews. The original A-Z of Sri Lankan English was published in the travelsrilanka magazine, and can be found here. Repost This Article

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In conversation with Shashi Tharoor: India, literature, politics and South Asia

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Having moderated a session with Shashi Tharoor earlier this year at the Galle Literary Festival, we met up again in Colombo last week to talk about the writer-politician’s new book, and his views on literature, politics, the freedom of expression and our region. Shashi Tharoor is a well known writer, speaker and politician. From Riot to Bookless in Baghdad, Shashi’s books, whether fiction or non-fiction, are fulfilling to read. In Galle we spoke about The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century, published first five years ago. He’s just published his latest, Pax Indica: India and the World of the Twenty-first Century, which at the time of writing, isn’t yet available in Sri Lanka. This placed me at a disadvantage in speaking about the book in detail, though we did start our conversation by going into what the tome addressed. We go on to talk about Shashi’s writing, and how he manages to do…

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A Review of Quotas in University Admissions

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Photo courtesy Vikalpa My good friend Somapala Gunadheera has made some thoughtful observations (The Island, 10 Sept 2012) on the problems of University admissions, and noted that in my “ Tamil Language Rights in Sri Lanka”( CPA, April 2012) I had not suggested ways and means of solving them. My analysis and suggestions were expressed in some publications way back in the 90s, and that is why I chose not to repeat them. But since my friend has raised the question, I will( belatedly) retrace some of what I had written then, supplemented with an outline of the historical back ground. Jaffna youth have traditionally depended on education for employment since other avenues have been lacking in comparison with other districts. Since Sinhala Only in 1956, Tamil speakers have had even more problems than previously in finding employment. They have responded with even greater focus on education and on acquiring superior academic and professional qualifications, especially in fields such as…

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“Nothing to call our own…” – The plight of the recently returned, resettled and landless IDPs in Sri Lanka’s North

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Photo by author Recently returned to Puthumathalan “As you drive past pile upon pile of corroding vehicles stacked one above the other, past pots, pans, sarees, slippers and plates (that once belonged to the people here), strewn all over the ground, and past the bullet and shrapnel splattered walls of homes ravaged by the war, on either side of the dusty, gravel roads of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), you cannot help but feel the deep sadness and hopelessness that pervades the air around us.” According to the government, Menik Farm has been closed and all it’s inmates resettled. Having visited some of the most recently resettled, this seems to be the case, except for the fact that many have been relocated and not allowed to their places of origin due to military occupation of their lands[1], whilst others who have been returned to their places of origin, have been left without proper shelter, income or basic infrastructure and resources, to fend for…

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FUTA and Free Education in Sri Lanka: Question of Social Justice and Democracy in an Oligarchy

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Photo courtesy Vikalpa The results of the so-called ‘mother’s examination’, or the year five scholarship examination of this year, have once again sturdily testified for the importance and significance of preservation and continuation of the free education system of this country. The two students who have achieved the first places hail from two divergently opposing social classes, but the duo being educated in the same, state sponsored, free education system. When the boy student from socially affluent strata, attending a high ranked school scored the highest marks, the girl student attending a low ranked, poorly facilitated rural school could produce the same result under more difficult conditions than the conditions the boy student had to face. Both of them have made their schools proud and won the hearts and mind of the people equally; but if it weren’t for the free education would the underprivileged rural student ever have got that opportunity to be equal among unequal? I have just…

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LONG READ | Beyond History, Against the Present: Preliminary Thoughts on Re-imagining ‘South Asia

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Original graphic from The Sunday Observer Keynote address delivered at the conference, ‘Connecting South Asia’ organized by the Theertha International Artists’ Collective and the Colombo Institute at the Post Graduate Institute of Archeology, Colombo, 28th September 2012. The speaker is Chair and Professor at Department of Sociology and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, South Asian University, New Delhi. In my mind, delivering a keynote address in a conference that has as its theme the stated objective of ‘connecting South Asia and dynamics of art and culture in the region’ poses significant challenges. This emanates from a number of anxieties: though we flippantly use the term South Asia and I work in an entity that calls itself South Asian University and numerous cartographic renditions of this supposed reality exists, I am not too sure what it means when situated in the context of the region’s past as well as its present. If I remember right, it is not by accident that…

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Menik Farm: The tragic end of a bitter saga, from detention to forced relocation

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“Why can’t the Army go to the jungles instead of taking our lands and sending us to jungles?” “When will we be allowed to re-start cultivation of our lands?” “When can we have access to the sea we were fishing before and will we get back the boats and fishing equipment we left behind in our village when we were displaced?” “Why is there a check point at the entrance to this place? “Why are there soldiers and intelligence officers all around us, why can’t we still have the freedom other people in this county have?” “Why are visitors not allowed to come and freely talk to us and take photos?” “Why have we been sent to another camp? What is different here from Menik Farm?” “Why didn’t the authorities clean up the jungles before they sent us here?” “When can we have a Kovil and Church?” These were some of the questions that people who had fallen victim to…

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Happiness Blues, Sri Lanka

I don’t know what to say, my friend, I have some blues that don’t seem right, too light and fancy free, happiness and all that putty you poke and pat, grinning silly, but love is the matter with me, I have plenty and I want to start sharing the bounty. How lucky can a man be, used to melancholy and raving at the Moon about family buried by the lagoon, who will catch the drift along with snowflakes in this far Northern and European town that tried to make peace back in the viper-ridden Vanni and failed; yet somehow, miraculously, cousins survived and are making their way out of the jungle, heads held high; and throughout the planet family is saying this effort to settle foundation stones of our piece of earth will continue until the end of time; so nobody should rest on laurels, or dream of bitter death, happiness has me up tonight, generous and lively. Are you…

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Comprehensive archive of tweets: 8 May to 1 October 2012

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Given that Groundviews is extremely active on Twitter, covering, inter alia, unique updates after eventful Presidential Elections, alerting and real time information curation during tsunami warnings and the international fallout over Twitter of media content published domestically, it’s been a real challenge to record our conversations and updates for posterity. This is especially important in a country that remains extremely censorious of any narrative that runs counter to or questions official propaganda and where mainstream media, though increasingly embracing new media, do not yet demonstrate any real understanding of how it can be used to further investigative journalism and holding accountable public institutions and officials. Over a year ago, we published Resource book for historians, researchers and media: A year of tweeting from Groundviews. At the time we used a web service called Tweetbook. Using the same service, we have created a PDF capturing all tweets published by Groundviews from 05/08/2012 till 10/01/2012. However, since Tweetbook’s data is locked into the PDF format,…

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Religious sensitivities, the Islamic world and the communication revolution

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Much hue and cry has been raised the world over the US made video titled “The Innocence of Islam”. In Sri Lanka too we have seen protests and numerous articles on the issue, most lambasting the USA. At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last week, many leaders from Muslim nations accused the West of hiding behind its defenses of freedom of speech and ignoring cultural sensitivities by allowing such video to be made. One’s faith is sacred to people, be they  Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus or Jews and it’s a matter which has to be dealt with respect and a lot of sensitivity. Hence making a film like the “Innocence of Islam” is only intended to provoke and get itself undue publicity, which it did thanks to all the violent protests held world over. All the uproar only made people who would never have heard of the “Innocence of Islam” watch it and pass it onto other. Let us…

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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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