Archive for the ‘Districts’

It is time to decide on Sri Lanka’s university system

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The trade union action called by the Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA), has once again highlighted the crisis in our universities. Unfortunately it is the strikes, the clashes and the protests that bring the universities to the news headline, and not their silent contributions to educating the youth and equipping them with skills and competencies. The State universities in Sri Lanka need to be modernized and energized. Presumable to begin this the Government has proposed that new entrants be sent for three weeks training at a military academy.  It also says that the long standing salary demand of academics is non-negotiable.  Neither of these auger well for successful reforms which need to be derived by consultation with the relevant stakeholders. Lack of discussion and transparency can only be interpreted as the government having a narrow political agenda such as deliberate neglect of the State University system and the militarization of the country.  This in the background of increasing advent…

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Seminar on defeating terrorism: Sharing Sri Lanka’s experience

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Original image from AFP | The Sydney Morning Herald The Sri Lanka defense establishment is organizing a counter-insurgency seminar from the 31st of May to 2nd of June 2011. It has invited over 50 countries for the seminar with a stated objective of sharing the Sri Lankan experience of successful counter insurgency operation against the LTTE. At the same time there is a strong group of human rights activists who are advising against participation in this seminar and calling for a boycott. I beg to differ for a number of reasons, not least because boycotts and sanctions are probably the bluntest instruments. Firstly, it gives an opportunity for the military personnel form different countries to get an account of the various strategies and tactics used. While we may not agree with some of the strategies and tactics it is very likely that there were innovations – the LRRPs, planned recruitment and resource mobilization, effective use of para-military, the organizing and deployment…

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How will Delhi listen to Jayalalithaa calling Rajapaksa a ‘war criminal’?

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“Declare Rajapakse a war criminal: Jayalalithaa tells Centre” was a banner headline on 13 Friday in the “Indian Express”, following AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa’s march to victory, at the Tamil Nadu assembly elections concluded last week. No analyst expected the DMK-Congress alliance in TN to be so unmercifully smothered, at this elections. Never has the DMK fallen to third place in assembly elections ever before. Not even after MGR created the AIADMK in 1972 and turned himself into a political demigod in Tamil Nadu politics. Jayalalithaa and LTTE MGR’s brightest co-star for long with a continuing run of box office hits and a popular playback singer too, Jayalalithaa Jayaram though qualified herself to lead the AIADMK, over riding MGR’s wife Janaki, after MGR’s demise in 1987 December, wasn’t beyond MGR in popularity. Yes, she took total control of the party as its revolutionary “Thalaivi”, but was never expected to drub “Kalaignar” Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the veteran and maestro in political manipulation, the…

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  • 13 May, 2011
  • 4 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Environment

Humans vs. elephants: Sri Lanka’s tragic on-going conflict

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The Daily Mirror a few days ago noted that in a bid to ease the growing human-elephant conflict in the country, the Wildlife Conservation Department had undertaken moves to restrict the habitat of rogue elephants to a 2500 acre jungle area in Veheragala, Lunugamvehera and Horawapathana. Quoting the Wildlife Conservation Department’s Director General, Chandrawansa Pathiraja, the paper noted that rogue elephants from other areas would be trans-located to these locations, which will be bordered with electric fencing. Similar efforts, however, in the past have failed. Jayantha Jayewardene is the Managing Trustee of the Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust shared some thoughts on the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka on a televised interviewed. We begin our conversation by looking at precisely why there is a human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, looking at the issues over land use (framing) and demarcation (fencing and other means). Giving a detailed explanation of the nature and extent of the home range and the size of…

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ICTs, science fiction and disasters: A conversation with Nalaka Gunawardene

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I last spoke to Nalaka Gunawardene on public television in February 2009. Nalaka’s varied interests and experience is hard to pin down, but the issues he most often writes on are anchored to science and technology, including information and communications technologies (ICTs). Nalaka blogs and he tweets, which is rare among the guests I have on the programme. He is a regular contributor to Groundviews, a public speaker and frequent commentator on other old and new media fora, including the Sinhala language media. A lot had happened since we last spoke, from natural disasters (Pakistan floods, Japan earthquake) to the heightened use of social media around the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the Royal Wedding. Also between the time we last spoke, Assange spilt the beans on US diplomacy and more recently, local media created mass hysteria with a botched attempt at covering untested science. All of these are issues Nalaka’s written on. At the beginning of the interview,…

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From draft to official text: Wikileaks reveals the US response to the end of war in Sri Lanka

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The Norwegian newspaper Afterposten published on 7th May a cable from the Wikileaks tranche of US diplomatic cables (confidential briefings) dealing the US government’s response to the end of war in Sri Lanka. Wikileaks on Sri Lanka: A breakdown and implications was an in-depth account we exclusively published last year exploring the fallout of the so-called ‘Cablegate’ on issues related to Sri Lanka, read to date by well over 20,000. As a BBC news report flagging this latest cable on Sri Lanka notes, “The Sri Lankan government rejected a surrender offer by Tamil Tiger rebels at the end of the war, reports released through the Wikileaks website say. They say that Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa dismissed US pressure to allow a mediated surrender with the words “we’re beyond that now”. The leaked US cables suggest requests for the International Red Cross to go into the war zone were refused. Sri Lanka’s government has repeatedly denied all these accusations.” In light of…

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Opposition to the UN Panel report: Any method to this madness?

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There is obviously much confusion in official circles on what to do with the report of the panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to look into issues of accountability in Sri Lanka, which has flagged credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. As we flagged on our Twitter feed, the country’s foreign minister is himself confused over an appropriate response. Over the course of 24 hours, he first said that Sri Lanka would respond in detail, and then told mainstream media we would not. On May 10th, our foreign minister in the company of the President said that we would not respond to the report. In mid-April, before the UN officially published the report, government spokesmen said that a detailed response to the report would be made. Political parties like the TULF supported this stance. Mainstream media on May Day (1st May) reported that the government would in fact respond to the UN in the course of…

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Some Quick Reflections on the Legislative Process in Sri Lanka

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The author (centre) with Ambassdor Terry Miller, Director Center for International Trade and Economics and Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow Heritage Foundation and some guests at the talk delivered at the Heritage Foundation. ### I am on an American Airlines flight from Phoenix, Arizona to St Louis, Missouri having enjoyed the only break in the rigorous seven week Eisenhower Fellowship program at the Grand Canyon, America’s great natural wonder.  I came to Phoenix after a few rewarding days in Boston, rather Cambridge, having met with some of the most respected academics at MIT and Harvard on issues of public policy.  The ravioli lunch with five types of mushrooms and the long chat with perhaps the largest buyer of apparel from Sri Lanka was a treat even though out of my direct line of interest of the fellowship.  It was wonderful to hear Martin Trust say that Sri Lanka has some of the most ethical entrepreneurs and very high quality workers…

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Anti-UN sentiment in Jaffna: Fact or fiction?

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The Uthayan newspaper runs a revealing story on its website which suggests that on 8th May, the campaign to collect a million signatures against the UN Panel’s report basically forced people to sign up to the campaign. Groundviews has already covered this bizarre, mindless campaign when it started in Colombo, before in fact the UN Panel’s report was officially released! The story in the Uthayan reveals that bereft of any public support, the minister and his goons are now ostensibly forcing people to sign their names, and this too in the regions most affected by war. Much like the outrageously wasteful ‘record breaking’ kiri-bath (milk rice) made to celebrate the President’s second term in office, this continuing display of insensitivity and brutishness by members of government speaks volumes. As we noted in our story on the signature campaign, “This petition, and others that will invariably follow after the report’s official publication, is emblematic of Sri Lanka’s peculiar democracy, where highly…

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On Sinhalese Nationalists, Tamil Diaspora and the War Crimes Saga

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Photo from The Australian A couple of days ago I was watching a political talk show in the Derana TV Channel attended by prominent nationalists including Professor Nalin de Silva of the Sinhalatva School of thinking. One needs no special introduction to this nationalist ideologue cum academic. The focus of discussion was Report by the UN Experts Panel baptized by the government as the “Darusman Report”. I was curious when Nalin de Silva said something along following lines “There was no war in this country and whatever the pundits ( pandiyo) say this is not the Post War period. In fact this is pre-war period and there will be a real war within next six to seven months!” then came the thunderbolt if ever there was one as Nalin de Silva went on to explain that this report would be a preliminary towards a more damning report which would be taken as justification for NATO to do a Libya or…

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A-Z of Sri Lankan English: K is for kadé

I normally try to stay on the right side of the descriptive-prescriptive divide, but today I’ve got my prescriptive hat on. I deplore the habit of some writers, editors and publishers of employing French and German accents when rendering Sinhala and Tamil words in English. You might read about more important issues on Groundviews today, but this is my personal bugbear. The most common example is kadé with an acute accent, like café – cute, because a kade is sort of like a café I suppose, apart from the croissants and cappuccino. But unfortunately the é vowel in French is a different sound from the e in kade, so it doesn’t help. Why not just spell it kade? I have come across the acute accent being appropriated with the same function in words such as amudé, andé, dané, kondé, kalé, pin katé, haminé, hiramané, karadaré, and even twice in éllé… Ané deviyané! The late Nihal de Silva used the German…

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Sinhala and Tamil translations of UN Panel’s report on accountability

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Original image from TNL The official version of the report published by the panel constituted by the UN Secretary General to look into issues of accountability in Sri Lanka was released on 26th April 2011. It is highly unlikely the UN itself will produce Sinhala and Tamil translations of the report. Given the near complete absence of reporting in Sinhala media over the issues flagged in the UN Panel’s report, readers have only got to read commentary based on sections of the report, which is almost always virulently in opposition with very little reasoned debate. Groundviews through Vikalpa commissioned a translation of the Executive Summary of the official version of the report. We received another translation done by a third party today. We also received today a translation of the report into Tamil. We give below links to the three documents – two in Sinhala and one in Tamil. The translation into Sinhala published on Vikalpa can be read online…

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Proud of being a ‘half-caste’: Perceptions of Eurasians in Sri Lanka

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Although there were times when to be an Eurasian meant that one was generally looked down upon, considered ‘half caste’, Rosemarie is proud of her mixed heritage. At the time when she was growing up, Eurasians and Burghers saw themselves as being distinct and different from each other. Now, both communities are a rarity in Sri Lanka and frequently perceived as being outsiders, foreign. “Where are you from?” is a familiar refrain. For Rosemarie’s story and video, please click here. For Part 1 of Rosemarie’s story, click here. Produced by Menika van der Poorten for Moving Images. A trailer of A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka can be seen below, and all the videos on the Moving Images website.

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Osama Bin Laden and Sri Lanka’s WMD Moment

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Image courtesy stuff.co.nz The killing of Osama Bin Laden by chopper-borne US Special forces and Navy Seals is good news and a job well done by that country. Shortly after the attack on the Twin Towers the Sri Lankan papers carried a piece I wrote entitled ‘Why Osama Ain’t My Hero’, a full-on critique of terrorists masquerading as liberation fighters and an explanation of why defence of existing states, most especially democratic ones, against the former is perfectly compatible with the defence of the latter. My rejection of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda was on a continuum with my polemics and politics against Prabahakan and the LTTE, and earlier, the JVP’s savage second insurrection. It also stemmed from my understanding of Lenin’s and Ho Chi Minh’s rational use of violence even on a large scale, and the ethics of violence of Fidel, Che, and the Sandinistas. At stake are the ‘ethics and politics of violence’(the precise phrase is the…

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Training for University Entrants in Army Camps and at District Level

UoC

Photo from Wikipedia The Ministry of Higher Education has decided to make compulsory for all university entrants a 3-week training in army camps (supposedly because they are the only places that can accommodate all the entrants) and then give them 3 months of training in English and Information Technology (IT) at District level. While the intentions may be laudable, I wish to argue that the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. I hope Vice Chancellors and others in academic leadership will support me. I list the reasons for my opposition below. This measure will delay entrance to universities, causing both entrants and their parents much anxiety. Most if not all universities have orientation programs at which English, IT and other soft skills are taught. It is much better for students to be taught in their future academic environments rather than at district level, because a university environment is an academic one that creates a sense of seriousness of purpose. It must be…

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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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