Desire, Violence and Leadership
Image courtesy Canadian Lawyers Abroad’s Blog It is the human being that should be the primary concern of any development programme. After all, it is for the benefit of humanity that all development…
Colombo
CHOGM-2011: HOW DIPLOMATIC VICTORIES END IN DISGRACE
[Editors note: As noted by the author below, an example of the distressingly bad propaganda of the Sri Lankan Government, attributed in some websites to the Director General of the President’s Media…
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 of burning rubber recently. My cousin’s children had nightmares and could not…
Does the present regime encourage lawlessness & promote political thuggery?
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all…
Peace, Military and People: Are non-military engagements of the military valid?
Sri Lankan Army selling vegetables. Photo: Ministry of Defence – Sri Lanka War or internal armed conflict in the North and East was over; Emergency is no more; but still the military is…
Australia’s Tamil Eelam Lobby and CHOGM
Photo credit AFP via Haveeru Online Introduction The war on the battle field may be over, but the propaganda war is alive and well. The Australian news media, particularly the Sydney Morning…
A-Z of Sri Lankan English: M is for monitor lizard
Sunimal Fernando, speaking from the audience at my presentation on Sri Lankan English at the recent conference on Language and Social Cohesion (Colombo, 17-19 October), confirmed my own conclusion, that while the…
A Prima Facie Critique of The New Bill to Vest in the State Under performing Enterprises and Under Utilized Assets
Editors note: Hotel Developers (Lanka) Plc, a CSE listed company that owns the Colombo Hilton hotel was named in a controversial new bill, rushed through Parliament in secret, not unlike the outrageous…
Sri Lanka and the death of Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi was captured alive and killed thereafter. This is a fact that no one contests today. Even the killer himself accepted the responsibility in front of a mobile camera. Once any…
Reflections on Issues of Language in Sri Lanka: Power, Exclusion and Inclusion
Photo credit Dinuka Liyanawatte / Reuters, from Time magazine. Keynote address delivered on 17th October 2011 at ‘Language and Social Cohesion: 9th International Language and Development Conference, Colombo co-organized by the Ministry…
Bully Boys and Bully Girls
A few evenings ago, parents were invited to our son’s school which goes up to Grade 8 for a presentation on Bullying. Dr. Tina Daniel, Asst Professor of Psychology at Carleton University…
Prescient
When Lasantha wrote the editorial that predicted his imminent assassination he suggested the civil war would turn steadily uglier, then move inwards, as a lizard searching for its tail, insidious in the…
Progressive Politics & The Right Kind Of Left
Bharatha Premachandra’s wife and daughter Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra’s grieving daughter (and possible political successor) was probably not even born when several of us in the SLMP’s leading ranks rapidly disembarked at his…
National Reconciliation, Transitional Justice, Rights and Accountability in Sri Lanka
Image credit Steve Chao, via Al Jazeera Good Afternoon; Esteemed and Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen; Dear friends Thank you for inviting me to share with you my thoughts on reconciliation. I…
Titus Thotawatte: The Final Cut
Titus Thotawatte, 1929 – 2011 Emmanuel Titus de Silva, better known as Titus Thotawatte, was the finest editor in the six decades long history of the Lankan cinema. He was also a…
