Archive for the ‘Development’

The questions unanswered by Ass. Sec. Robert Blake: Mapping US engagement in and concerns over Sri Lanka (UPDATED)

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Image courtesy Colombo Page From around 5pm to 5.30pm today, Ass. Sec. Blake took questions from those on Twitter in South and Central Asia. Ass. Sec. Blake is the Assistant Secretary, South And Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka. South and Central Asia is a large swathe of physical as well as ideological terrain. Fearful that Sri Lanka would be forgotten in the deluge of tweets under the hashtag #AskSCA, we published a story on Groundviews flagging our own questions, and what at the time were a few other questions to Ass. Sec. Blake posed by others on Twitter. The session didn’t see Ass. Sec. Blake answer many questions. It started by his office noting that, https://twitter.com/state_sca/status/192565222714777600 This was followed by a few tweets on Nepal, and a congratulatory tweet on the new US Ambassador in New Delhi. The first tweet responded to was on the Maldives, followed by one US foreign…

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Sri Lanka’s Census 2012: What should have been asked? What could have been done better?

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Conducting a census is an important activity for any country as the data gathered from it would serve as the foundation for policies, development related activities and future planning of not only government institutions but also non state actors such as academics, development and aid agencies. The idea behind collecting feedback on the 2012 Census in Sri Lanka is to identify the positive and negative aspects of the census, and to encourage discussion on how it can be improved without merely identifying the faults. This year’s census was held after 30 years and covered the entire island. The importance of this census and the data it gathered is obvious to us all. Feedback on Census 2012 was launched in late March. Some initial feedback from people who shared their comments via the site and also via email follow. Enumeration stage – Enumerators for the Census 2012 underwent a training whereby they were briefed on the questions in the data collection…

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A Vision for Our Nation

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Photo by the author There is a vision of our land that has persisted over three millennia and is ingrained in the heart and soul of every citizen. A vision of a land, resplendent, beautiful, safe from violence, disease and famine and a land where the tolerant and compassionate philosophy of the Buddha guides human interaction. But today, the ecomomic and political winds from without and within, seek to blow us further and further from this course. The future for our children develops into the proportions of a nightmare. We have brought mindless violence upon ourselves and upon the very land itself. From the top of Siri Pada to the coast in the four directions the nation grows increasingly barren. The rivers run our precious topsoil to the sea. The cities and industries turn the very air we breathe into poison. The cancer that has been released on the country as ‘mindless progress’ now visits our homes as cancers, emphysema,…

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  • 14 Apr, 2012
  • 0 Comment
  • Development,
    Diaspora,
    Jaffna,
    Post-War

Co-operatives: A better option to channel relief to war victims in Sri Lanka

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Photo courtesy  Sampath Wijenayake It is no secret that many members of the Tamil diaspora are actively involved in helping the victims of the war in Sri Lanka in some way or the other.  There are those who send assistance direct to known or identified victims. There are others who respond to calls from various organisations for funds to help them.  Such organisations are now available in abundance both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. However, only a few of such organisations would be able to render accounts to benefactors on how much they have collected and what amounts have been spent to provide relief and even on what kind of relief or assistance  have provided using their funds.   Occasionally we hear about  organisations that collected monies and  duped gullible sympathisers.   In any case in  most instances the victims are mere receivers of assistance and have no say whatsoever in  deciding the nature, the extent and the kind of assistance they…

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  • 3 Apr, 2012
  • 9 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Development,
    Environment

Oil, Coal, Gas and Carbon: Fundamental Truths From Indigenous Peoples

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Indigenous people know the reality of fossil energy.   The Shuar peoples of Amazonian Ecuador, under whose territories lie huge reserves of oil. Unlike those eager to find oil in their territories, have rejected exploration, they do not want to get rich on selling oil.  They have a saying “Oil’ represents the sprits of a long dead world, that we use to satisfy our greed for power and sacrifice and our children in return.” (CESR 1996).  Here lies a truth that cannot be escaped when looking at climate change.  But in this statement there also lies wisdom, a truth, which if appreciated will clarify the actions needed to address the spectre of climate change. Their wisdom is that, they are aware of the difference between the spirits of the living world and the dead.  They know that, asking for power from the spirits of the dead world has a great price, often they seeking the lives of our own children. What…

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Fishing in Turbulent Waters

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Introduction Newly initiated development projects in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in post-war Sri Lanka are expected to open new avenues towards ethnic reconciliation, as proclaimed not only by government media but also by the mainstream development scholarship. However, this popular perception about opening up new avenues for reconciliation through development seems to foreclose certain barriers and obstructions existing within the so called development highway itself, especially with regard to ethnic minorities. To understand the possible political and other forms of repercussion of the currently existing development-community encounter, one should turn one’s ears not only to the subject-agents of the development discourse but also to those who are subjected to the development industry, considering the fact that the subalterns also are involved in creating meanings (or counter-articulate the dominant discourse, as Laclauian discourse analysts would suggest) in their own way. This piece explores the ways in which the local communities in the Northern fishing villages receive the messages enunciated by…

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Sri Lanka’s massive power and energy crisis: No easy answers, no immediate relief for consumers

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Asoka Abeygunawardana, is the Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Energy Forum and an Adviser to the Minister of Power & Energy. Asoka’s articles on the Energy Forum website clearly outline the challenges facing power generation and energy policies in Sri Lanka today, the result of many years of ill-advised strategic planning, investment and delays in infrastructure construction. Asoka talks about Sri Lanka’s overwhelming dependence on oil based power generation, and referring to it as a ‘severe crisis’ notes that there isn’t a quick and easy fix for this. Speaking about the transition from a primarily hydro-electric based power generation to what is now a non-renewable fuels (oil, coal) based power generation, Asoka notes that this is not an energy mix Sri Lanka can sustain in the years to come. With the Meteorological Department forecasting that 2012 will be drier than 2011, the power generation over the course of this year will get much worse before it gets better. And…

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Thank you, Madam Navi Pillai

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Photo courtesy JDS Thank you madam, for being the voice for the voiceless. The poverty stricken, wounded, displaced and marginalized Muslim and Tamil victims of the brutal thirty year war in our country have been forced into submission by the ruthless and racist Rajapakse regime which has gained a stranglehold over power through a deliberate and well planned conspiracy which was plotted out with impunity and arrogance to deny its citizens of democracy and justice. The regime is firmly entrenched through constitutional amendments passed in stealth and haste despite objections raised by an educated few for extended public debate and discussion warranted of significant changes. The Sinhala majority have also been hoodwinked with the glorification of the war and masking of human rights violations through the regime’s uniting call for patriotism against international conspirators who wish to destroy the country’s onward path to progress – which no one dares question why? The truth is that only a few have the…

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The Loss of Identity: Development and Agriculture

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The ecological impact of increasing energy input into a system has been well documented.  In any ecosystem an increase in the flow of energy tends to organize and simplify that ecosystem, with the destruction of many homeostatic mechanisms of the original system.  The loss of the traditional, rice production systems and its simplification, being an example.  Further, diversity is now being realized as being important to sustainability.  In agriculture, studies of insect communities have shown that pest outbreaks are characteristic of systems with lowered species diversity. An increase in the input of energy to an ecosystem often provides a useful measure by which ecosystem modification can be addressed.  Thus in a heavily energy dependent agricultural system, the natural or biological system has been dispensed with and an artificial environment has been created to allow high levels of production.  While it can be argued that such a system of production is sustainable as long as the inputs are provided, it raises…

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Can Sri Lanka propose a New Growth Paradigm?

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The discussion on ‘ Economic Development’ as a national goal, must demonstrate a perspective strongly rooted in modern science.  However, the goals of today suggest that our appreciation of the scientific method of evaluation is a little short. Nevertheless, it is hoped that Sri Lanka’s contribution at the Rio + 20  and at other international conventions thatdiscuss the common future of mankind can propose something innovative rather than the mediocre dribble of the past. Having been party to these processes, the probability of a repetition of past mediocrity is great. Thus in the interest of the profile of this nation and in the interest of a benign future for our children, the following reasoning is advanced. One hopes that the Sri Lankan delegates to the various international conventions this year will raise the need to ‘value photosynthetic biomass’ at all plenary sessions as a national contribution. Life on Earth learnt how to maintain gas and material flows, optimum for the…

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Climate Change, Food Security & Virtual Water an Asymmetric Threat to Sri Lanka

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Image courtesy Mercy Corps Today, in an integrated and inter-dependent world, Sri Lanka does not have the leverage to reverse climate change but mitigate and adapt. Climate change is caused mostly by human actions which began with the industrialised West and followed suit by emerging economies exacerbating this. Some consider climate change to be a negative result of human efforts for development whilst others consider it as irresponsible efforts for profit making at the cost of the planet. Wherever the argument lies, Climate Change is real and an effective response is very urgent. Human development is a necessity irrespective of one’s bearing towards the West or East.  The economic & development planners and the political leadership should seriously consider the sustainability of the society, region, country and then the world to achieve development that satisfies human needs without tipping the ecological balance that supports us. Overriding market capitalism that drives on the seats of global power today is an obstacle…

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Accountability and Universal Values in Development

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Photo courtesy World Bank “If a tree falls in a forest and lands on a politician, even if you can’t hear the tree or the screams, I’ll bet you’d at least hear the applause.” Paul Tindale Something is of universal value if it has the same value or worth for all, or almost all, people. This claim could mean two importantly different things. First, it could be that something has a universal value when everybody finds it valuable. This was Isaiah Berlin‘s understanding of the term. According to Berlin, “…universal values are values that a great many human beings in the vast majority of places and situations, at almost all times, do in fact hold in common, whether consciously and explicitly or as expressed in their behavior…”. If such were the case, it would seem logical that ‘a benign quality of life’ would constitute a most fundamental universal value.  From there arises the various issues of fertility, pleasure, or democracy…

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Longing and belonging series: Diaspora shorts

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Editors note: Groundviews is very pleased to host the web premiere of Longing and belonging series: Diaspora shorts by Kannan Arunasalam. We’ve featured Kannan’s visually stunning and compelling work before in Koothu, kerosene and paper: portraits of resilience, part of the Moving Images series commissioned by Groundviews. Over the coming week we’ll progressively upload Kannan’s short videos, so check back often. Finally, if you have a good broadband connection, we highly recommend that in the trailer below, you turn on HD and view it full screen. Please see From London to Jaffna for the first time, The science of planning in Jaffna and Returning lives, rebuilding limbs. ### August in Sri Lanka is a month of religious festivals in the north and also a chance for the diaspora to return and reconnect with their homeland. What better time I thought than to try and meet members of the diaspora returning to visit Sri Lanka. My own journey started six years…

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Killing us slowly

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When we ask the question, who uses pesticides?  Followed by the question who promotes pesticides? It is relatively simple to see who gains and who looses by the promotion and use of these poisons. In Sri Lanka the farmers are asked to indulge in prophylactic spraying i.e. spraying in advance of any pest appearance. Such practices have to be held responsible for a sinister malaise that affects almost everyone; the malaise of Pesticide Accumulation. Pesticide Accumulation refers to the tendency of some biocides and heavy metals used in these biocides to concentrate along the food chain. The biocide residues that are diluted as they are washed by rainfall are slowly taken up by simple plants, which are eaten by small animals, which are in turn eaten by larger animals. The toxin concentrating more and more as it rises in the food chain.  This is particularly evident in aquatic systems, so producing or consuming fish from areas that have a large…

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Review of ‘Right of Way: A journey of resettlement’

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I was delighted when asked to review Right of Way: A journey of resettlement by Sharni Jayawardena and published by the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). Sharni’s skill in photography is enviable, and was the co-creator of Walkabout: Slave Island, supported by Groundviews. At the time of review, the publication was not in the public domain, and given what I had seen of Sharni’s previous work, I expected it to be a largely photographic record, in a coffee table book format, of the human displacement that occurred as a result of the E01, Sri Lanka’s first highway. And yet the book features few photos. 72 pages long, the book has just 8 photos included in it. I’ll come back to why I think this makes for a less compelling way of grappling with what the book sets out to do. Thousands, since E01 opened late last year, have taken the highway to Galle from Kottawa. The focus when on the…

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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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