Archive for the ‘Colombo’

Nurturing Public Trust in Times of Crisis: Reflections on April 11 Tsunami Warning

This is only a game, no one can create Earthquakes! Photo from Pacific Tsunami Museum, Jan 2007

Five years ago, on a visit to the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo, Hawaii, I played an interesting simulation game: setting off an undersea earthquake and deciding whether or not to issue a tsunami warning to the many countries in and around the Pacific. The volunteer-run museum, based in ‘the tsunami capital of the world’, engages visitors on the science, history and sociology of tsunamis. The exhibits are mostly mechanical or use basic electronic displays, but the messages are carefully thought out. The game allowed me to imagine being Director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC), a US government scientific facility in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, where geophysicists monitor seismic activity round the clock. When the magnitude exceeds 7.5, its epicentre is located and a tsunami watch is set up. Then, combining the seismic, sea level and historical data, PTWC decides if it should be upped to a warning. The museum game allows players to choose one of three locations…

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Delivering on the LLRC Recommendations

Sri Lanka Civil War

Immediately after the Resolution on SL was adopted in Geneva a month ago, US Secretary of State issued a short media release that said the US believes, the resolution “encourages the Government of Sri Lanka to continue on the path toward reconciliation” and for the second time said, “….. and I look forward to discussing future actions with Foreign Minister Peiris soon.” The first time in January this year, was ignored by Minister Peiris. This time he is ready to meet Madam Clinton with the “Action Plan” drawn for the implementation of the LLRC Recommendations, with no public statements made. That gives an indication as to how the Rajapaksa regime tries to handle the most important national issue. The Rajapaksa regime believes it can continue to play “opposite doubles” on the same issue. It believes it could say a loud and noisy “NO” to the Sri Lankan citizens here using all the media and publicity stunts possible, while saying “YES”…

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Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Post-Geneva Irrationality

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Photo courtesy ISHARA S.KODIKARA, AFP/Getty Images via Chicago Tribune News One can understand to a certain extent the angst of some Sri Lankans over the injury caused to national pride by the ‘Geneva Resolution’ of March 2012. One can also understand the sense of frustration of certain others who hold the view that the Resolution does not go far enough to hold Sri Lanka’s feet closer to the fire. The effort of the present essay is to look for a way in between the two  above  points of view and explore a means by which Sri Lanka could salvage something from the wreck before all of us Sri Lankans go down. A brief look backwards to understand the way forward might be useful and helpful. So let us begin by doing so. If one avoids the pitfall of blind political loyalty or jingoism in surveying the mood of our country both in the run up to and after the Resolution No…

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The questions unanswered by Ass. Sec. Robert Blake: Mapping US engagement in and concerns over Sri Lanka (UPDATED)

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Image courtesy Colombo Page From around 5pm to 5.30pm today, Ass. Sec. Blake took questions from those on Twitter in South and Central Asia. Ass. Sec. Blake is the Assistant Secretary, South And Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka. South and Central Asia is a large swathe of physical as well as ideological terrain. Fearful that Sri Lanka would be forgotten in the deluge of tweets under the hashtag #AskSCA, we published a story on Groundviews flagging our own questions, and what at the time were a few other questions to Ass. Sec. Blake posed by others on Twitter. The session didn’t see Ass. Sec. Blake answer many questions. It started by his office noting that, https://twitter.com/state_sca/status/192565222714777600 This was followed by a few tweets on Nepal, and a congratulatory tweet on the new US Ambassador in New Delhi. The first tweet responded to was on the Maldives, followed by one US foreign…

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Ask Ass. Sec. Robert Blake a question on Sri Lanka over Twitter

mahinda-oblake

Image courtesy Colombo Page Robert Blake is the Assistant Secretary, South And Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka. The man likes cricket and our own Murali, and given his current portfolio, is a key figure in US-Sri Lanka relations post-war. He is currently taking questions on Twitter on US relations with South Asia. https://twitter.com/usembsl/status/192098700833726465 Through the hashtag #AskSCA, there are already a number of questions from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but very few from Sri Lanka. We have posed four, based on the US Senate’s Committee On Foreign Relations report on Sri Lanka (SRI LANKA: RECHARTING U.S. STRATEGY AFTER THE WAR), published in December 2009, which has a number of important recommendations we’ve not heard about since. https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192447985777520643 https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192447995483140096 https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192448006493192193 https://twitter.com/groundviews/status/192448015359934465 In addition to ours, @Apelankawe and @thrishantha have posed some interesting questions. https://twitter.com/thrishantha/status/190067440342933506 https://twitter.com/apelankawe/status/191882256841846786 https://twitter.com/apelankawe/status/191883208256790531 Till now, not a single mainstream media Twitter account in Sri Lanka, or even full time…

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A View from the Left Bank

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Image courtesy JDS Each generation brings its own collective formation and experience to the Left project. Each historical period produces its own Left or mutates the existing Left. An abiding failing of older leftists is to fall prey to two opposite responses to a newly emergent left, or a left born of different experiences at a different time. The older generation of leftists, be they activists or academics, cadres or commentators tend either to hail the new left as a proxy for their fantasies, or wag a finger at them for falling short of their (nostalgically recollected) standards and ideals. Both stances–idealisation or condemnation, romance or remonstrance– reflect the generation gap. Neither stance is realistic or helpful. The Sri Lankan Left consists of three players, listed here not in any order of importance: the old left within the ruling coalition, the JVP, the breakaway FSP (and sundry leftists grouped around it in the Jana Aragala Vyaparaya). This categorisation must not…

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Sri Lanka’s Census 2012: What should have been asked? What could have been done better?

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Conducting a census is an important activity for any country as the data gathered from it would serve as the foundation for policies, development related activities and future planning of not only government institutions but also non state actors such as academics, development and aid agencies. The idea behind collecting feedback on the 2012 Census in Sri Lanka is to identify the positive and negative aspects of the census, and to encourage discussion on how it can be improved without merely identifying the faults. This year’s census was held after 30 years and covered the entire island. The importance of this census and the data it gathered is obvious to us all. Feedback on Census 2012 was launched in late March. Some initial feedback from people who shared their comments via the site and also via email follow. Enumeration stage – Enumerators for the Census 2012 underwent a training whereby they were briefed on the questions in the data collection…

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A Vision for Our Nation

Siri Pada

Photo by the author There is a vision of our land that has persisted over three millennia and is ingrained in the heart and soul of every citizen. A vision of a land, resplendent, beautiful, safe from violence, disease and famine and a land where the tolerant and compassionate philosophy of the Buddha guides human interaction. But today, the ecomomic and political winds from without and within, seek to blow us further and further from this course. The future for our children develops into the proportions of a nightmare. We have brought mindless violence upon ourselves and upon the very land itself. From the top of Siri Pada to the coast in the four directions the nation grows increasingly barren. The rivers run our precious topsoil to the sea. The cities and industries turn the very air we breathe into poison. The cancer that has been released on the country as ‘mindless progress’ now visits our homes as cancers, emphysema,…

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Arthur C Clarke’s World of 2012: Insights from his Titanic Novel

The novel, a vision and the imagineer

The year was 1989. Margaret Thatcher and George Bush, Snr., were in office. Mikhail Gorbachev was slowly but surely dismantling the Soviet Union. The infamous Iron Curtain was crumbling under pressure from ‘people power’ across Eastern Europe. On the technology front, Personal Computers (PCs) had entered the market only a few years earlier: they were still gadgets in offices than homes. Mobile (cellular) phone services were just rolling out. The Internet was available only to privileged academics and military personnel. Its graphical interface – the World Wide Web – was not even invented. In that year, sitting at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka and using WordStar software on his Kaypro 2000 laptop (remember them, anyone?), Arthur C Clarke wrote a new science fiction novel. It was his own way of exorcising something that had haunted him for decades: the mighty ship Titanic. As he reflected many years later, “I was born five years after the biggest maritime disaster the…

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Whose Arms Will Embrace You? The United States and the Beijing Consensus

China's President Hu shakes hands with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sanya

China’s President Hu Jintao shakes hands with Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sanya, Hainan province, April 10, 2008. Image by Reuters, courtesy Transcurrents. The United States is increasingly playing a game of subtle communication in the international arena. I suspect we had a passing glimpse of this at the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council, which gathered in Geneva last month. The question is: who is the United States talking to and what is it trying to say? There has been much discussion about President Obama’s “Return to Asia” strategy, arising out of a 2009 speech during which he declared that as an Asia Pacific nation, the United States will seek to be more involved in the issues affecting the region. There has been an equally vibrant discussion in policy and scholarly circles about the so-called Beijing Consensus, a term used to describe the Chinese government’s embrace of capitalism, while remaining autocratic. It is to these nations who have…

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Restoring Government in Sri Lanka

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Image courtesy Transcurrents If Sri Lanka is fast becoming a pariah state in the eyes of the world, it has nothing to do with the recent UNHRC Resolution. The writing has long been on the wall. As a nation, we are ruled by a group of men who seem to have nothing but contempt for the rule of law, let alone for truth in the public sphere. Violence and threats of violence against critics, the suppression of media freedom, extra-judicial killings, misplaced economic priorities and corruption on a scale that made even previous governments look clean, have become the order of the day. The minimal definition of government has to do with the rule of law: namely, that as a people we should be governed not by arbitrary fiat but by a system of laws to which the law-makers and law-enforcers themselves are accountable. The opposite of government is sovereign will, where the King/President decides what is “good for the…

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Latest victims of a heinous trend: Abduction of political activists Premakumar Gunaratnam and Dimuthu Attygalle

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Political activists and leaders of the People’s Struggle Movement in Sri Lanka, Mr. Premakumar Gunaratnam[1] and Ms. Dimithu Attygalle[2] disappeared on 6th April 2012.  Prior to their disappearance both activists had been preparing for the first convention of the Frontline Socialist Party, a party formed by a dissident group from the opposition party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP – meaning People’s Liberation FRont). FSP party members had received credible information that both activists were under intense Government surveillance, shortly before their disappearance. There is currently no information regarding their fate or whereabouts. Mr. Gunaratnam was a key leader of the People’s Struggle Movement (PSM) and Ms. Attygalle was the Secretary for Women’s and International affairs of the organization, which was a forerunner to the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP). Mr. Gunaratnam had been  instrumental in forming the FSP which was due to be launched officially on 9th April 2012 and he was expected to be appointed as its head.  The PSM has…

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  • 6 Apr, 2012
  • 0 Comment
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo

Between The Artist and Hugo: Nostalgia for what cinema is really about

hugo

Two of last years’ biggest films are about film; so as cinema as we know it is undergoing a radical and rapid transition – film to digital to 3D to CGI – are we now becoming momentarily nostalgic? Are we feeling slightly panicky for what we are about to leave behind, leaping forth into the great unknown abyss that technology offers, possibility upon possibility for wonderment and stimulation? In Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film in 3D, Hugo, George Méliés, an ageing erstwhile illusionist turned film-maker (played by Ben Kingsley), says about cinema, ‘If you ever wonder where your dreams come from, look around: this is where they’re made.’ And truly, films have captured our imaginations – our wildest imaginations – since the beginning. We love the movies because they are about stories, and stories are important to us. Stories are an important medium; through which we document history, teach lessons we feel are significant, pass on knowledge and reflect on what…

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Horrible rise of disappearances in post-war Sri Lanka continues unabated

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Image from Transcurrents [Editors note: Also read New wave of abductions and dead bodies in Sri Lanka] Twenty nine disappearances (including an attempted abduction) have been reported in Sri Lankan media between February and March 2012. There have been fifteen in March and fourteen in February. This brings the total number of disappearances reported in the last six months to fifty six. Nineteen cases were reported while the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council were in progress in Geneva from the 27th of February to the 23rd of March 2012. Out of the twenty nine disappearances in February-March 2012, sixteen of the twenty nine (16/29) appear to have occurred in the Colombo district while eight have been reported from the Northern Province (8/29). Five of those reported from the North are said to be ex-LTTE cadres who had been detained, released from detainment and then abducted. There are also three from the indigenous Wannilaye Aetto (Veddah) community. Amongst the…

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Immigration Anxiety and Ruminations on Thought Police

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I have always loved international travel, but I have always hated the “immigration” process, except for the part where I get my passport stamped. I realize what I have just written is not entirely rational since it’s hard to have foreign travel without “immigration,” but people are not always rational. Even when doing nothing wrong, a profound sense of anxiety and apprehension wash over me as I hand my passport to an immigration official. After all, that person is the only thing standing between me and a foreign country—where I can be exposed to new thoughts, practices, mores, traditions and more. Immigration officials stand between me and learning, humility or adventure, matters I do not take lightly. This is why I was especially nervous about applying for a tourist visa using Sri Lanka’s Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system. While not hugely important, I have said and done things that certain State officials in Sri Lanka might not appreciate. The last…

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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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