Archive for the ‘Diaspora’

A Wobbly Bridge (Or Is It A Footpath?) From The Tamil Diaspora

For a long time I didn’t think of myself as being a part of the Tamil Diaspora. I had this vague feeling that I was going to go back home some day.  Even when it was pretty obvious that I was not going back, I still didn’t want to identify myself as a member of the Diaspora.  For me, acknowledging that I was a part of the Diaspora meant closing the door on my life in Colombo.  Forever.  After this past year, I am humbled and grateful to be able to call myself a part of the Diaspora (and furious, sad, and horrified, like much of the Tamil Diaspora, by the plight of Tamil citizens callously sacrificed to the Sri Lankan State’s all-out war against the LTTE).  Still, it has not been easy to find my place in this amorphous and evolving Diaspora and to figure out my relationship to Sri Lanka from within it. Until now, it seemed to…

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Lazy Academics and a Diaspora Without Direction

The recent Amnesty International sponsored forum “Sri Lanka: Human Rights Issues and Media Representation” held last week in Melbourne was a missed opportunity. The forum could have signposted the strategies needed to pressure the Australian Government to do more to improve human rights and freedom of expression issues, and to bring the Sri Lankan Government to account on its horrific human rights record. Instead, the forum ended up painting an ‘us versus them’ picture and pitting the Tamil diaspora against its Sinhala counterpart.  This could have been avoided if the presenters were more mature and more informed about the situation in Sri Lanka. The majority of the people in the room were from the Tamil diaspora, who along with others concerned about human rights and equality, were probably expecting some guidance from ‘expert’ presenters on how to respond not only to what was happening in Sri Lanka, but also the meanness of the Australian Government. Damien Kingsbury focused his talk…

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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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