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Archive for the ‘Colombo’

23 Mar, 2011
Gnana Moonesinghe
10 Comments
Colombo,
Diplomacy,
Features,
Foreign Relations,
Long Reads,
Peace and Conflict,
Politics and Governance,
Post-War

Small Country Diplomacy

Bosom buddies, Libya’s Qadaffi and Sri Lanka’s President, courtesy Sunday Times Of late there have been several critical comments levied against the manner in which Sri Lanka has conducted her diplomatic relations. Traditional alliances with the Western world have become somewhat stilted, new alliances have been forged, while fortunately the tempo of our relations with the SAARC countries, our regional neighbours, have remained stable. The shifts in the balance of power relations have created a certain amount of suspicion and hostility among the Western Powers. The entry of China, the bête noir of India, has also introduced heightened alertness, but not disharmony into the Indo- Lanka relations. Sri Lanka needs to fine tune her diplomatic skills as we are dependent on the West for much of our trade, financial aid and investments as much as we are on India, especially with the need to keep the regional balance. Some of the charged atmosphere in Sri Lanka’s international relations, have not…

21 Mar, 2011
Groundviews
11 Comments
18th Amendment,
Advocacy,
Colombo,
Development,
Human Rights,
Identity,
International Relations,
Peace and Conflict,
Politics and Governance,
Post-War,
Reconciliation,
War Crimes

In conversation with Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

Almost one year ago, Groundviews first featured an interview with Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu. At the time, just after the parliamentary elections leading from the decisive presidential election, the government was riding a wave of popular support. In the year that passed, from the reprehensible 18th Amendment and grotesque examples of the government’s wastefulness, democratic governance that instead of improvement and progress, shows decline and decrepitude. The recipient of the first Citizens Peace Award, Dr. Saravanamuttu (Sara), the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (the institutional base of this site), in this interview speaks about the enduring challenges facing democracy and human rights in Sri Lanka, nearly two years after the end of war. The conversation begins with an excerpt from Sara’s acceptance speech at the Citizens Peace Award, and a question as to why so very few listen to him in Sri Lanka today, and worse, care to know about that which he flags. Going beyond a simplistic championing of…

20 Mar, 2011
Groundviews
0 Comment
Colombo,
Media and Communications,
Media and Communications,
Peace and Conflict

Sri Lanka’s and South Asia’s first citizen journalism iPhone app

19 March 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka: Groundviews is proud to launch today Sri Lanka’s as well as South Asia’s first citizen journalism app for Apple’s iOS platform. The Groundviews app works on the iPod Touch, iPad and is optimised for the iPhone 4′s Retina display. “This inovative app enables those, particularly in the diaspora, to more easily access updated content published on the site” said Sanjana Hattotuwa, founding Editor of Groundviews. “Based on our experience in developing this app, we welcome inquiries to help develop similar iOS apps for other citizen journalism and mainstream media initiatives”. Apple has around 25% of the smartphone market in the US alone, and its mobile app store is the world’s largest with around 350,000 apps downloaded well over two billion times. The Groundviews app is free and allows a user to, Read all the latest updates to the site Read all the special editions, including the critically acclaimed End of War Special Edition Read…

19 Mar, 2011
Groundviews
2 Comments
Colombo,
Gender,
Human Rights,
Human Security,
Identity

Violence Against Women and Girls in Sri Lanka: No April Fools joke

Interviews published on this site with Kumudini Samuel, founder of Women and Media Collective and with Sunila Abeysekara, a leading human rights activist, addressed the prevalence of Gender Based Violence both during war and in post-war Sri Lanka, particularly in the North and East. Addressing the same vexed issue is a production slated for 1st April titled V Day – A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer: Writings to End Violence Against Women and Girls. Supported by the Forum Against Gender Based Violence in Sri Lanka, Groundviews caught up briefly with the director of this production, Hans Billimoria, to ask him why he chose this theme, what V-Day would be about, and why it was important to flag this issue in Sri Lanka. Listen to the podcast (~15 mins): here For a related contribution by Hans to , click on These Sri Lankan whores! Serve them right!

19 Mar, 2011
Dr. P. Saravanamuttu
30 Comments
18th Amendment,
Colombo,
Human Rights,
Peace and Conflict,
Politics and Governance,
Post-War,
Reconciliation

How Decent a Society are we?

Editors’ note: This article was first published in the Daily Mirror on the 18th of March 2011. Groundviews invites its readers for further discussion and debate. Avishai Margalit the Israeli philosopher wrote a treatise on the Decent Society from which I have quoted often. In it he defines a civilized society as one in which people do not humiliate each other and a decent society as one in which institutions do not humiliate people. My reason for frequently citing this is that throughout the yet to be resolved conflict in Sri Lanka and in parts of the country that were not direct theatres of armed conflict, issues of human dignity and decency abounded and yet do so be it on the basis of ethnicity, religion, class and dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy. Now as we are faced with the challenge of moving beyond the post-war to the post-conflict and with it an unprecedented opportunity to forge reconciliation and unity, Margalit’s…

Caste in Sri Lanka and India

There was an interesting work shop on ‘Conceptualizing Caste in Sri Lanka’ at the ICES on Tuesday 15th March 2011. It was noted that caste is a tabooed and under-researched subject in Sri Lanka, unlike in India, Nepal and elsewhere in South Asia. We tend to dismiss caste as insignificant and irrelevant, except perhaps in remote rural areas. In consequence, caste related problems are evaded and not addressed. It was noted by Prof. Tudor Silva that the British brought sanitary labourers from South India into selected Urban centres, and these then constituted the underclass of those towns, doubly despised on account of ethnicity and caste. Prof. Ranweera Banda, based on his research in Panama in Ampara district, found that the people of that locality were of mixed Sinhalese –Tamil origin at all social and caste levels. However, the social and caste elite opted to identify with the Sinhalese upper castes, embracing the appropriate cultural practices needed for such identification. This…

16 Mar, 2011
Banyan News Reporters
3 Comments
Colombo,
Fiction / Creative Writing,
Language,
Satire

New Festival to Promote Unity in Sri Lanka

16 March 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka: A press conference was held in Colombo earlier today to launch the latest fixture on Sri Lanka’s ever busier festival calendar. Organisers of The Boycott Festival issued a brief statement and then invited the press to enjoy the refreshments in the ballroom. The Boycott Festival will take place over five days, beginning today and ending after a lunch banquet on Sunday. A full list of objections may be obtained by emailing endorsement@boycott.com. In their statement the festival organisers said they were angry and upset with what has taken place and continues to take place in our country. They admitted that worn down by the last six – and also the last thirty – years, they could no longer muster enthusiasm for anything and would really prefer not to. They were tired, they said, and couldn’t face the journey to the festival site. They would not be attending. Director Karthika Peiris said ‘As ever, we…

15 Mar, 2011
Michael Meyler
2 Comments
A-Z of Sri Lankan English,
Colombo,
Language

A-Z of Sri Lankan English: J is for jobless

In the UK and the US, being jobless is simply another word for being unemployed, not having a job – especially in newspaper headlines. Here in Sri Lanka it has an additional meaning, especially in colloquial contexts, where it can also refer to being free, idle, having nothing to do, and by extension being a waster, a loafer, a useless person. Shyam Selvadurai uses the word in this sense in Funny Boy: “that servant boy was a real jobless character.” (page 134) Shehani Gomes turns it into a term of abuse in Learning to Fly: “I wouldn’t know you jobless freak!” (page 101). Elsewhere she describes an imaginary courtroom, “the few benches at the back full of unknown jobless gossips.” (page 122) Vihanga Perera takes characteristic liberties with the word in Stable Horses, talking about forwarded emails “from the joblesser quarter of acquaintances”. (page 87) The word loafer is also used rather differently in Sri Lankan English. It refers to…

14 Mar, 2011
S. Nelson
21 Comments
Colombo,
Peace and Conflict,
Politics and Governance,
Post-War

Harvard University rubbishes Sri Lanka newspaper’s allegations

Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG) asked a Sri Lankan newspaper for a retraction, as the newspaper carried a “severely distorted,” news article regards a panel discussion that had taken place at the School. A Sri Lankan newspaper, The Nation last Sunday in a front page story titled ‘LTTE threat to disrupt Harvard discussion on Lanka turns into damp squib’ carried an article detailing a panel discussion attended by Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN Palitha Kohona, and said a journalist who had been convicted for 20 years in Sri Lanka and is now a Nieman Fellow had attempted to block the event. The Kennedy School in a letter to the editor that it also carried on its website said that The Nation’s article “presented a severely distorted account” of the seminar and carried “a number of inaccurate claims about individuals associated with the event.” Ambassador Nicholas Burns, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and now professor of…

13 Mar, 2011
Asanga Welikala
16 Comments
Colombo,
Constitutional Reform,
Features,
Language,
Peace and Conflict,
Politics and Governance

SIRIMAVO: A REVIEW

Sirimavo: Honouring the world’s first woman Prime Minister, edited by Tissa Jayatilaka, is the commemorative volume published by the Bandaranaike Museum Committee to mark fifty years since Mrs. Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike’s first accession to power on 21st July 1960. If her place in the history books as the world’s first woman to lead a democratic government was an instance, in tragic circumstances, of greatness being thrust upon her, the essays and speeches in this volume attempt to show how she achieved greatness in her own right as the leader of a Third World democracy and international stateswoman. The substance of the essays and speeches certainly makes Sirimavo a desirable addition to any library shelf devoted to Sri Lankan politics and political history, but its stylish design and presentation makes it equally suitable for the coffee table. This is a book to which no disservice is done on being judged by its cover, and in this respect, the dust jacket…

The Storyteller of Public Science

Tambiaiah Sabaratnam (1932 – 2011) Veteran journalist Tambiaiah Sabaratnam, who has died aged 79, was a pathfinder and leading light in Sri Lankan science journalism for over a generation. Throughout his long association with the English and Tamil press, he advocated the pursuit of public science: tax-payer funded scientific research for the benefit of the people and economy. Having joined the Thinakaran newspaper in 1957 as a trainee journalist, he switched to the English media in the late 1970s and retired as Senior Deputy Editor of Daily News in 1997. His 40 years at Lake House — the country’s largest publishing house, nationalized in 1973 — spanned eight governments. In retirement, he remained active as a columnist, journalist trainer and author. He was a source of inspiration and encouragement to me during my early years in science journalism. Our paths crossed often in the late 1980s and early 1990s when he and I covered many of the same scientific events….

11 Mar, 2011
Groundviews
13 Comments
Colombo,
Diplomacy,
Features,
International Relations,
Peace and Conflict,
Politics and Governance,
Post-War

Speaking lies to power: Sri Lanka’s PM and the LTTE in India

India’s mistake was to take our Prime Minister seriously. Ours is to allow him to continue in office. Few in Sri Lanka care to know what is said in Parliament, and it is only when India vehemently denied the Prime Minister’s claim that there were LTTE training camps operating in India that most realised he had actually said it. The first media reports of the PM’s statement in Parliament noted that he had expressly said ” the LTTE has three training centers in Tamil Nadu and one is where the Tigers are being trained to assassinate VIPs” and that “intelligence information regarding this has been confirmed and warned that the Tigers may attempt to carry out small scale attacks in Sri Lanka as well.” Emphasis ours. The UNP questioned this assertion, noting that “this information regarding the LTTE being trained in Tamil Nadu seems to have been shared with the PM by the Defence Ministry in Colombo” and that “it…

The Wild Elephant Census in Sri Lanka

The proposed elephant census that is to be conducted in a few months’ time by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) has generated a lot of interest among the public. Obviously, it is not something that happens every day, and there is much discussion and interest being generated in the press, as well as in other discussion forums. An elephant census is not a simple activity. Many of us would perceive that an elephant census would involve a large number of people going around counting elephants physically. Although the elephant is a large animal, sightings can be quite difficult in many areas because of forest cover. Also by nature elephants are wary of humans and will retreat into denser habitat when approached. So, counting elephants and making a census, is a much more complex procedure. What is a Census? Understanding animal abundance, distribution and movement patterns is a very important aspect of wildlife management. Measuring abundance of animal populations essentially…

Women on Top: Sexuality and rights in Sri Lanka

Poster from Equal Ground The author delivered the speech below at the annual International Women’s Day celebration event organised by Equal Ground – WOMEN ON TOP. This event also marked the launch of the 2011 campaign: A woman loving another woman is also a woman. Respect her rights. The idea behind the commemoration of International Women’s Day 2011 by Equal Ground was to provide lesbian, bisexual and transgender women of Sri Lanka a space to voice their concerns and share their experiences. At the event, Ms. Sumika Perera spoke on the role of the women’s movement in Sri Lanka and its responsibility to the Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender women of this country who are still marginalised and shunned by society. In addition, Bhoomi shared her experience as a trans-woman in Sri Lanka. The audience comprised of women diplomats, activists, academics and businesswomen. I was asked to speak about what it is like for me as a straight woman to be…

9 Mar, 2011
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
164 Comments
Colombo,
International Relations,
Media and Communications,
Peace and Conflict,
Politics and Governance,
Politics and Governance

Maghreb: Mythicising Model, Misapplying Mode

Photo courtesy Vikalpa The conversation I had on Lankan trajectories and ‘declinist’ discourses in a Paris cafe on a Sunday with my friend and former colleague, Prof. Nira Wickramasingha, now holding the Chair of South Asian History at the University of Leiden, reminded me of a point she had made sharply in her slender book ‘History Writing’. Sri Lanka, she had remarked, was one of the few countries in which mainstream newspapers carried pieces on history by those without any credentials or formal training in the disciplines of history and historiography. This, she wrote, would never happen in India for instance, where any incursion into history in the quality press would have to be backed up with credentials in order to secure publication. What she said of history is just as true of politics. Sri Lankan newspapers and websites are replete with pieces that go beyond intellectually legitimate critical commentary to the pontifically prescriptive and hortatory — almost in inverse…

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Archive for the ‘Colombo’

Small Country Diplomacy

In conversation with Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

Sri Lanka’s and South Asia’s first citizen journalism iPhone app

Violence Against Women and Girls in Sri Lanka: No April Fools joke

How Decent a Society are we?

Caste in Sri Lanka and India

New Festival to Promote Unity in Sri Lanka

A-Z of Sri Lankan English: J is for jobless

Harvard University rubbishes Sri Lanka newspaper’s allegations

SIRIMAVO: A REVIEW

The Storyteller of Public Science

Speaking lies to power: Sri Lanka’s PM and the LTTE in India

The Wild Elephant Census in Sri Lanka

Women on Top: Sexuality and rights in Sri Lanka

Maghreb: Mythicising Model, Misapplying Mode

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