Archive for the ‘Identity’

Not In Our Name: Against religious extremism in Sri Lanka

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A week ago, a violent a mob of about 2,000 Sinhalese, including a group of Buddhist monks led by the Mahanayaka of the Rangiri Dambulu chapter Inamaluwe Sumangala thero, stormed and vandalised a mosque in Dambulla. The mosque was declared an illegal structure, but it is unclear how this far this is accurate. The shameful behaviour and expression employed by the Mahanayaka of the Rangiri Dambulu chapter Inamaluwe Sumangala thero, along with the monks he led and the crowd of thugs is not remotely associated with or reflective of the philosophy of the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, or the way in which a Buddhist monk is supposed to behave and speak. Many online have already expressed their dismay and deep concern over the actions of a few, placing Sri Lanka in the media spotlight again for all the wrong reasons. We have a choice, but time is running out. Speak up. Sign up to this online statement and…

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Dambulla Mosque attack: Is there a hidden hand?

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Image courtesy BBC The storming of the Dambulla Mosque on Friday the 20th April and chasing away of the Muslim worshippers attending Friday prayers by a mob led by Buddhist priests is epoch making in modern Sri Lankan history. The majority of the people of all communities are shocked and incensed by the way Buddhist priests lead this violent and destructive mob against the Dambulla Mosque. According to authorities this mosque has been in existence since 1964 and built with the support of the people of the area and the Viharadhipathy, the Chief Incumbent of the historic Dambulla Rajamahavihara. Deplorably the pretext used by the mob led by the Monk is that this mosque is built on sacred land. This casts aspersion upon the goodwill of the people and the then Chief Incumbent of the Dambulla Rajamavihara as lesser Buddhists than the latter to permit the Muslim countrymen to worship in the place they domicile/work.  This raises several questions about…

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Protecting the Enigmatic Blue Whales of Sri Lanka: In Conversation with Asha de Vos

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The largest animal on the planet, the blue whale, is found in Sri Lankan waters. Unusually, the blue whales off our coast do not to migrate to polar waters for feeding – a characteristic of other populations. We do not yet know why. In this interview, we talk about additional qualities that make them unique and interesting while highlighting the need for a scientific understanding of the population in order to manage and protect them into the future. In light of current and growing human encroachment in our oceans, Sri Lankan marine biologist Asha de Vos makes a strong case that the time is now. Asha’s Sri Lanka’s second TED Fellow (and the second TED Fellow to be featured on this site). She was awarded a Zonta Woman of Achievement award in 2011 and has coordinated and implemented projects related to marine and coastal resources in Sri Lanka in collaboration with donors and partners. As a marine biologist she has…

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V-Day: Writings to end violence against women and girls

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The Sri Lankan government’s denial of things extends well beyond allegations of war crimes. Earlier this year, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the US, Jaliya Wickramasuriya “Rapes, this and that not taking any place in Sri Lanka”. Writing about this daft and peculiar statement, Roel Raymond noted, I don’t understand this. I don’t understand why our diplomats and politicians continue to bristle defensively, refusing to accept fault, scrambling to cover the massive chip on their collective shoulders. How hard can it be to admit one is wrong? How very different would it have been if Ambassador Wickramasuriya had said ‘Yes this is a problem, but we as a nation are committed to ending it’? On 1st April last year, The Grassrooted Trust led the global V-Day celebration in Colombo at the Barefoot Gallery with a production of ‘A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writings to End Violence Against Women & Girls’, a groundbreaking collection of monologues by world-renowned…

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changeABLE cohesion: Dance and disability

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Groundviews caught up with Gustavo Fijalkow, one of two (the other being Gerda König) responsible for the concept behind ‘changeABLE cohesion‘, a contemporary dance performance that will kick off the Colombo International Theater Festival on 26th March. changeABLE cohesion features six dancers, two women and four men, three with and three without physical disabilities. In the interview, we ask Gustavo as to why the Theatre Festival decided to go with a production such as this for opening night, and obviously, details of the production and what the audience could expect to see and take away. More broadly, and interestingly, we speak on disability and the differently abled in performance – how their interaction is framed by the performance space and tradition, but also redefines both. Gustavo, a trained dancer for over 20 years, speaks of his frustration with traditional dance companies and their auditions process, and how markedly different DIN A 13 tanzcompany, one of the few mixed-abled dance companies…

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Sexist doctors: Speak up, talk about it

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Image courtesy Women’s Views on News The lady in front of me in the queue put a packet of condoms on the counter and we both could see the cashier’s eyes flicker over her left hand, obviously checking if she was married. Not seeing one, he looked at her and smirked. I watched her look at him straight in the eye and I’m sure we both almost wished he would say something. I know I wanted to give his judgmental mind a lecture he would never forget. Watching this reminded me of a story I had been told a few years ago by a friend who was intent on spreading the word about a gynaecologist in Colombo who had put a colleague of hers through an extremely humiliating experience. Let’s call her M. So M had gone to see this gynaecologist regarding an issue she was having and during the routine questioning at the beginning she had given her basic…

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Of Symbols, Identity and Sovereignty: The Sri Lankan flag and us

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A discussion. I thought of him as the speaker of the flag He said We Sinhalese are the people of the lion.  Our flag represents us. Every point every line has a meaning.  Look at the color of the flag it is red and yellow. Yellow is symbolic of wisdom and derives from the color of the Buddha’s robe.  The Buddha, when he attained enlightenment wrapped himself in a cloth that covered the bodies of the dead.  The bodies in those days may have been bathed in saffron, which was used as a disinfectant. The saffron dye stained the cloth that the Buddha wore and it became yellow.  The color yellow became indentified with the Buddha and his wisdom, which encompasses both life and death… And so yellow became the color of wisdom. While red became the color of life. Red for our lifeblood, our energy, our anger, our hate, our passion, our love, our revolutions, our desires, He said…

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Women’s Day 2012: Concerns, challenges and opportunities from Sri Lanka

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For years, Groundviews has featured content that probes gender from a Sri Lankan perspective. For Women’s Day 2012 we have created a Bundlr bundle of over 35 of the most compelling submissions. The content covers a range of issues, from the outrageous denial of the existence of rape by Sri Lanka’s witless Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya, to the every day violence and abuse faced by women even in Colombo. The articles cover Sri Lanka’s horrible track record of women’s representation in politics and parliament, how vulnerable they are after nearly three decades of war, their role and relevance in reconciliation post-war, how in fact this integral role in reconciliation was marginalised by the LLRC process, how they see themselves and how society perceive them have changed on account of the war, and how innovative ideas to raise public awareness on violence against women can make a difference. One of the most compelling submissions on gender, and indeed, one…

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Forging a Culture of Mutual Tolerance among Sri Lankans: A Path to Reconciliation?

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Photo courtesy Reuters Alertnet “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist” – Friedrich Nietzsche I recently learned that intervening in favor of a “[...] modernist, inclusive Sri Lankan nation that transcends narrow, parochial ethno-cultural identities” (cf. Asanga Welikela’s recent intervention) may unfortunately present you as a Jacobin; especially if you happen to be educated in France; which is apparently by essence revolutionary. One can only imagine my Great Terror after reading such a comment. I still wonder whether Welikela’s approach would have been different had I not been a Sorbonne/Sciences Po educated Sri Lankan. By focusing on the question of “sub-state nations” and by his dismissive position towards secularism, Asanka Welikela’s argumentation displaces my “original position” which has primarily to do with a culture of mutual tolerance and the emergence of Tomorrow’s Sri Lankan, that is to say  “[...] the one who builds…

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JAYATISSA, JEYARAJ AND JACOBINISM: DEBATING ‘SRI LANKAN-NESS’ IN POST-WAR SRI LANKA

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Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Guardian Much is being written nowadays about post-war Sri Lankan identity and the challenges of unity in diversity, among which are well-meaning interventions extolling the virtues of building a modernist, inclusive Sri Lankan nation that transcends narrow, parochial ethno-cultural identities. Given the fact that we completely and calamitously muffed the first opportunity to do so at the postcolonial historical moment, and fought a thirty-year ethnic conflict as a result, it ought to be strange that we should once again be resorting to this grand idea with such alacrity. That it is trotted out so uncritically and so often by patently well-intentioned, politically moderate and open-minded people – from the authors of the LLRC report to many political commentators and citizen journalists – demonstrates not only the pervasiveness of this idea in our political imagination but also the limits of that imagination. One such intervention is the recent article by Kamaya Jayatissa, in which a fervent argument…

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A Search for Identity: Tomorrow’s Sri Lankan!

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Few are those who believe in the existence of what I would like to call a post-war Sri Lankan identity. Indeed, most of us will identify themselves according to their ethnicity, some according to their religion, beliefs and aspirations and some according to their country of birth. Yet, the fact is that we do not belong to just one category or another. We are different from each other and at the same time we carry diversity within ourselves. Each of us is a unique combination of various identifications that are not equally significant to us. So how does one define the schizophrenic notion of identity? In a sociological sense, one could say that identity defines who we are and who we want to be. It also defines where we come from and where we go to. Yet, identity is not necessarily something we inherit or something inherent to us. It does not axiomatically combine shared values, beliefs or concerns. To…

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A Road to Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Will We Take It?

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Photo courtesy REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte Despite the many limitations and criticisms levied at the final report of the LLRC, it must be recognized that in the presentation, the report reached a level of professionalism, objectivity and breadth in scope, within the relatively short period of time mandated to the Commission. The much talked about Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa was not without its critiques. Many felt that the TRC was “weighted in favour of the perpetrators of abuse.” The ‘highest – profile of these objections’ was filed by the family of prominent anti – apartheid activist Steve Biko who was killed by the secret police and whose story was featured in the  film ‘Cry Freedom.’ The family felt the TRC “was a vehicle for political expediency” which denied them their ‘right to justice’.  Opposing amnesty for his killers, they brought legal action against TRC as unconstitutional.  There will be no report that will be free of criticism or be able…

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HEY MAN!

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Photo courtesy Reuters Hey, MAN! Yup you. Got a minute? Because I would like to talk to you. Yup, to you. Because you whistled out a love song in my honour from your guard-post on Bauddhaloka Mawatha as I was hopping out of a tuk-tuk to get into work this morning. You were on duty. You and I are not in love. And you can’t hold a tune if your life depended on it. And so I am curious as to why you did it. Did the tune spring out from your lips and into your pants and give you the rise that eluded you earlier this morning? Did it score you points with your chums at the post? Did it make you feel good? Strong?  Manly? Did it make you feel like a MAN? Are you curious about how it made me feel? Well it didn’t make me feel too good to be honest. I felt small. I felt…

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Violence Against Women: This is my story

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Two months ago I sat for my first year final exams at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Last month’s edition of the Hi Magazine showcased 3 pages of clothes from designer K.T Brown – modelled by me. And in December, I will be on Art TV – as a contestant for the Super Model of Asia Pacific 2011. I suffer from no grandiose illusions about myself. I am no super model. I am extremely uncomfortable in front of the camera and at age 26 have only just begun studying for my degree. Yet, every one of these steps is a huge achievement for me, for just over three years ago I was trapped in an abusive marriage. It was a marriage  that wore down every shred of confidence I ever owned – confidence I have struggled to take control of and own ever since. It has never been easy for me to speak of what took place during those…

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Why not sing Kolaveri Di in Jaffna Tamil?

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It was less than 200 years ago that the title of “orator” or “navalar” was bestowed on Kandar Arumukam Pillai, by the grateful inhabitants of South India. Leaving his native Jaffna for a time, he had spearheaded a renaissance of the Tamil language and culture in South India preaching, printing and endowing educational institutions. Thus began a long history of Jaffna Tamil involvement in the renaissance of Tamil. Thamotharampillai, Winslow and Kanagasabai Pillai are but a few whose contribution to the Tamil renaissance that rushed through South India and Jaffna.[1] Jaffna’s isolation from Sanskritic influence and its commitment to education has meant that it considers itself culturally superior to the natives of Tamil Nadu, it considers it language and culture purer and closer that of that Sangam ideal. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the blast of the trumpet against the now infamous “Kolaveri” song should be so strong in Jaffna. The day before yesterday SJ Stalin released a…

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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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