Archive for the ‘Culture’

‘Women’s Issues’: Shooting the messenger

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Image courtesy ICRW ‘Are we not raped every day when we walk down the street and are leered at ? Are we not raped when we are treated as sex objects, denied our rights, oppressed in so many ways ?’ Archives of Manushi, written by Sohaila (1983) Sri Lanka reminds one of one’s gender. To be female in a public bus is to be visually harassed (or more) and to be reminded of the persistent failures of the establishment to address those issues which are truly important. Organisations such as Sri Lanka Unites have attempted to shine a light on this issue with their Show You Care campaign. Yet, public harassment deserves attention on a larger, central government scale in a manner which considers multiple regions. This lack of personal safety is yet another reminder of the stark inequality in this nation. The lives of bus-folk are worlds apart from those at the other end of the spectrum. The normalisation of cat-calling, hooting and…

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Memes and the Art of Majority Placation in Sri Lanka

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The thing about Social Media is that it gives people a shot at engineering their identities without much effort. A simple ‘like’ or ‘share’ of a particular picture can easily give the impression of an aware and concerned citizen, and so the proliferation of such images in such a politically-charged climate is not surprising. This picture, posted on the Sri Lankan Memes Facebook Page, is a fascinating example of minority damage control. Given the anti-Muslim sentiment simmering around the country right now, this picture ostensibly has one aim; the appeasement and placation of the moderate Sinhalese majority. Consider first the choice of platform – Sri Lankan Memes, the place where the Colombo elite (for the most part) choose to humorously highlight the passions, characteristics and quirks that make us ‘Sri Lankan’, while bashing the Indian Cricket Team (apparently another important part of our identity). Posting this picture here is an attempt to remind people that Muslims are Sri Lankan too….

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Ini Avan: Hauntingly beautiful but…

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Ini Avan, Asoka Handagama’s latest film, in Tamil, has won international cinematic acclaim. And it is easy to see why. The film has interesting characters who within their confined destinies take some unpredictable turns and moves at a compelling and deliberate pace through carefully designed frames with strong aesthetic appeal that are also revisited, like recurring motifs, to telling effect. The camera-craft is sophisticated and the casting and acting impressive. The tale itself, involving different narratives—built mainly around an ex-LTTE fighter struggling to rebuild his social life and livelihood, a young woman whose love for the former comes up against barriers of caste prejudice and forced marriage, and an enigmatic middle-aged woman battling against the odds to provide for her family —is powerful and complex in its own way. While drawing attention to the internal contradictions within post-war Tamil society, the narratives do not necessarily follow predictable trajectories. Ini Avan is beautiful but at the same time leaves behind some…

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Unearthed: Architecture, text, theatre and dance

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Unearthed is a new production by Floating Space in collaboration with Sally E. Dean, and in concept and design promises a rather unusual and unique performance. Planned for the 1st and 2nd of December in a residence just outside Colombo, Unearthed brings together a cast of theatre and movement practitioners to create a site-specific performance. To unpack the production, and flesh out how it came about, Groundviews sat down with Ruhanie Perera, the Artistic Director of Floating Space, at the location the performance will take place in just under a week. We begin with Ruhanie giving an overview of the production, who refers to the successful Kickstarter campaign (a first for any theatre group in Sri Lanka) to generate funding for the production. Ruhanie notes elsewhere that, “Unearthed draws on the idea of lies, secrets and silence which will work as a thematic expression in the work – or even elements of the work. We’re also working with the idea of how to create a…

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In conversation with Shashi Tharoor: India, literature, politics and South Asia

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Having moderated a session with Shashi Tharoor earlier this year at the Galle Literary Festival, we met up again in Colombo last week to talk about the writer-politician’s new book, and his views on literature, politics, the freedom of expression and our region. Shashi Tharoor is a well known writer, speaker and politician. From Riot to Bookless in Baghdad, Shashi’s books, whether fiction or non-fiction, are fulfilling to read. In Galle we spoke about The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century, published first five years ago. He’s just published his latest, Pax Indica: India and the World of the Twenty-first Century, which at the time of writing, isn’t yet available in Sri Lanka. This placed me at a disadvantage in speaking about the book in detail, though we did start our conversation by going into what the tome addressed. We go on to talk about Shashi’s writing, and how he manages to do…

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Religious sensitivities, the Islamic world and the communication revolution

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Much hue and cry has been raised the world over the US made video titled “The Innocence of Islam”. In Sri Lanka too we have seen protests and numerous articles on the issue, most lambasting the USA. At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last week, many leaders from Muslim nations accused the West of hiding behind its defenses of freedom of speech and ignoring cultural sensitivities by allowing such video to be made. One’s faith is sacred to people, be they  Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus or Jews and it’s a matter which has to be dealt with respect and a lot of sensitivity. Hence making a film like the “Innocence of Islam” is only intended to provoke and get itself undue publicity, which it did thanks to all the violent protests held world over. All the uproar only made people who would never have heard of the “Innocence of Islam” watch it and pass it onto other. Let us…

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“Inventors are like artists – we must celebrate and nurture them!”

Deepal Sooriyaarachchi, photo courtesy Business Today

Nalaka Gunawardene in conversation with Deepal Sooriyaarachchi, Commissioner, Sri Lanka Inventors Commission For over two decades, Deepal Sooriyaarachchi made a name for himself as an innovative Chartered Marketer and Management Development Consultant. While holding top executive positions in leading companies, he also excelled as a corporate trainer and author on entrepreneurship, especially in Sinhala language. He has been a pioneer in taking business knowledge to the grassroots, nurturing a culture of enterprise. In mid 2011, he was appointed as Commissioner (chair) of Sri Lanka Inventors Commission (SLIC), the state agency dedicated to promoting innovation and supporting inventors. One year into this appointment, and on the eve of the first major national exhibition of inventions, Deepal spoke to science writer Nalaka Gunawardene, who has been chronicling innovation in print and broadcast media for many years. Nalaka currently hosts a biweekly show on innovation on Sri Lanka’s national TV broadcaster, Rupavahini. Nalaka: What are the main objectives of Sahasak Nimawum (“A Thousand…

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Video on Mediated: Hard data on Sri Lanka, through art

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Mediated is an art project that essentially seeks to create greater awareness around and engagement with aspects of post-war Sri Lanka’s ideational, constitutional, economic, social and religious challenges. Four individuals – a researcher, an economist, a constitutional theorist and an award winning novelist – were invited to give submissions that were anchored to issues vital to a greater and deeper social and political understanding of Sri Lanka today. Four artists were invited to engage with this primary resource material and interpret it so that it through what they produced, attention was focused on the inconvenient, critical engagement expanded and public apathy challenged. The Gallery is open daily from 18:00 – 20:00 and the exhibition closes on 15 September 2012. Young Asia Television was present to cover the opening of Mediated. This segment is from their Connections programme of 10 September 2012, which can be viewed here. Mediated – Opening Night from Centre for Policy Alternatives on Vimeo. Repost This Article

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In Memoriam: Tilak Jayaratne

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Tilak’s journey in search of people’s media, from the Sunday Times Tilak Jayaratne, veteran broadcaster and media advocate, passed away on September 6, after a long illness bravely borne.  All those who knew Tilak, and who encountered him in the many different orbits that he inhabited, will recall the intensity which he worked, and the creative passion with which he interrogated the potential of mass communication, and ‘alternative’ media, long before these became  fields of study and academic discourse. He was deeply committed to the principle of people’s ownership and participation in both the production and consumption of media and communication and to the end of his days he worked actively to encourage those involved in the media industry to pay more attention to this aspect of communication. I first got to know Tilak during the years he worked in the technical section of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and a part of the trade union movement. At that time,…

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In conversation with Chandraguptha Thenuwara: Art, politics and education in Sri Lanka

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Chandragupta Thenuwara is one of Sri Lanka’s best known artists. As noted online, he is the director of the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts in Colombo, a not-for-profit art school which he founded in 1993 as an independent alternative to state-run art institutions, with the aim of teaching young and marginalied artists the basic tenets of fine art practice under the instruction of practicing artists. In this programme we start by discussing the enduring ethnic divides and identity politics in Sri Lanka through the frame of Thenuwara’s son, and his naming. We use this as an entry point a discussion about the artist’s own identity and how it developed, growing up as he did in the East of Sri Lanka, having being born in the South and after his studies, returning to live in Colombo. Thenuwara’s speaks about his father’s early influence in becoming an artist, and how even from a very modest household, he always had the opportunity to…

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Mediated: Portraying hard data on Sri Lanka through art

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Mediated, an exhibition around a new aesthetic that seeks to communicate constitutional theory, hard data from economics and social polling and writing on religious identity through compelling art, runs till the 15th of September at the Saskia Fernando Art Gallery. As noted on the exhibition’s website, four individuals – a researcher, an economist, a constitutional theorist and an award winning novelist – were invited to give submissions that were anchored to issues vital to a greater and deeper social and political understanding of Sri Lanka today. Four artists were invited to engage with this primary resource material and interpret it so that it through what they produced, attention was focused on the inconvenient, critical engagement expanded and public apathy challenged. Read Asanga Welikala’s background note in full here, around power-sharing in pre-British Sri Lanka as a viable model for devolution of power post-war. See Sunela Jayewardene’s architectural sketch on it here and the final set of drawings here. Read Ameena Hussein’s text here, focussing on…

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Feeding cats on a public road risks arrest in Sri Lanka

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My husband and I have established a cat café at the back of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel where we have been feeding the cats every day for the last seven years. A cat café is basically an area where cats are fed at a regular time each day. Usually a cat café is set up at a hotel, school or other public place where cats would otherwise be attracted by a steady supply of food and become a public nuisance and, in countries like Sri Lanka which still has endemic rabies, a health hazard. Feeding them away from areas where people congregate while at the same time sterilizing and vaccinating them removes the nuisance and public health risk and allows cats and humans to coexist peacefully. We feed eight cats at the cat café and have sterilized all but one of the females and vaccinated all but that one particularly timid female. Over this last school holiday period we have…

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The end of the music?

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Photo by Sagara Lakmal De Mel At a time of general cultural degeneration and falling standards, one bright spot in our firmament is the classical music scene, both Western and eastern. Due to the presence of some very good teachers all over the island, bright new talents in piano, violin, guitar, flute, drums, tabla and other instruments are emerging. Evidence of this emerging talent is the annual Sri Lanka Festival of Music, Dance and Speech held in Colombo each year, organised by the International Institute of Music, Speech and Drama. The 15th anniversary of this event was celebrated on the 8th of July at the spanking new Nelum Pokuna Auditorium. Sad to say, the event fell far below expectations. Disturbingly, it showcased how seeking political patronage for personal gain can be disastrous to our hard-gained standards in quality music. It’s said that eight hundred thousand rupees was paid to Nelum Pokuna as hiring charges. From where did this money come from?…

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Obliteration of Road Painting Commemorating Neelan Tiruchelvam on Kynsey Road (with photos)

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Following the assassination of Neelan Tiruchelvam by the LTTE on 29 July 1999, in a spontaneous outpouring of grief and loss, friends and people with whom he worked, including from the institutions he founded, remembered and honoured him by painting peace and floral motifs and the quote ‘Secure the Sanctity of Life’ in Tamil, Sinhala and English on the surface of the road where his life was snuffed out. This initiative called for the celebration of life and sought to counter violence and disregard for humanity. It reiterated the sanctity of life, a principle forming the core of Dr. Tiruchelvam’s parliamentary speech on the death penalty. Beginning at the site of his assassination, this initiative later spread to other parts of Colombo where bomb blasts and assassinations had taken place. Over the last 13 years, twice a year on Neelan’s birth and death anniversaries, the road painting has been repeated at the Kynsey Road-Kynsey Terrace junction. On 27 July the painting was once…

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  • 13 Mar, 2012
  • 0 Comment
  • Colombo,
    Culture,
    Language

Culture & culture: 14 March to 19 March

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Dinner review Jack Tree, Park Rd., Col 5 Gray cement all around, dark green trim (to emulate a Jak tree no doubt), with red elements reflected in the staff uniforms, combined with screened off seating, give it a retro rather than modern look as far away from an imagined Thailand as you can get. Service on an avg. Monday is quick and efficient. The fresh juices: Mango, Passion Fruit, Ambarella & Lime are equally delicious – tangy and not over-sweet. The Pandung leaf chicken starter is moist and flavorsome while the trio of Mushrooms is indistinguish-ably disguised in deep-fried batter. Ginger fish is lightly battered & redolent with ginger, Eggplant w/Tofu – firm & tasty, the Kankun crisp & crunchy while not being drowned in sauce. Chicken in green curry sauce was disappointing, as it arrived with a thick, coconut cream gravy without enough green! The sizzling cuttlefish while tender and delectable, hid in a plate of veg, making me…

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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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