Personal page and articles by Darini
Facades of Development: Of Commonwealth Games and Drag Racing at Green Path
We woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of screeching tires, booming exhausts and the smell...
Continue reading »Notes on Possibilities after the UN Report: Including Nationalism and ‘The Geopolitics of Emotion’
Photo courtesy Deborah Philip It was my sense after May 18, 2009 when the LTTE was defeated that Sri Lanka...
Continue reading »Lanka @ 63: The ‘military business model’ of post-war economic development
On 4 February, Sri Lanka celebrated its 63rd birthday. After nearly three decades of armed conflict, it is now one...
Continue reading »Fighting Windmills? Diaspora and Militarism in Post-Conflict Lanka
“Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did...
Continue reading »After the Elections: Demilitarize Development for Sustainable Peace
“Counter-terrorism is terrorism’s best ally.” –Joseba Zulaika in “Terrorism: The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy” (2009) On April 12, 2010 the majority of...
Continue reading »Post-conflict Transition and Aid Effectiveness: Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka – Part 2
[Editors note: Read Part 1 of this article here.] Economic and Governance Challenges in Post-conflict Areas The Rajapakse government is...
Continue reading »Post-conflict Transition and Aid Effectiveness: Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka – Part 1
In the heydays of the Non-Aligned Movement Sri Lanka’s politicians and diplomats wielded an influence disproportionate to the county’s size...
Continue reading »De-militarizing Democracy and Governance in Sri Lanka: From National Security to Human Security
Sri Lanka was once a ‘model democracy’ with a welfare state and social indicators that were the envy of the...
Continue reading »The Aid Game and the Politics of Humanitarianism
The US government, which wields considerable influence at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has sought to delay Sri Lanka’s USD...
Continue reading »India, Sri Lanka and the Minority Question
Spontaneous street parties broke out, fireworks crackled in the air and strangers offered flowers to soldiers to celebrate the news...
Continue reading »The ethics and politics of war zone writing
On 24 April 2005 Dharmaratnam Sivaram, (‘Taraki’) editorial board member of the website Tamilnet, was found shot dead from gunshot...
Continue reading »To Win the War and Lose the Peace: Beyond Sri Lanka’s ‘War on Terror’
It looks like one of the more winnable conflicts in an age of the global ‘war on terror’. The Sri...
Continue reading »




