Archive for the ‘Issues’

A Tale of Two Countries

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Image from Niti Central “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way….” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Over the past year, one can be forgiven if one thought that in fact that there were two countries called Sri Lanka or at least two visions for a country called Sri Lanka.  Both have seemingly emerged out of the shadows of the end of the bloody 26 year old conflict when Sri Lanka faced a cross roads in terms of moving forward cleansed…

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Urban wetlands park plays host to Army tank

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Urban Development Authority (UDA) has seen fit to place a used army tank there for everyone to see. Every evening, as the park fills up, people clamour to get an up close look at the vehicle. While such objects naturally attract the attention of most people, it is surprising that the authorities have chosen to place this in a “child friendly” environment. In fact, the image of the people crowding a tank in a public place is not too dissimilar to those images seen of people in the West Bank in Palestine crowding around abandoned Israeli tanks (see attached photos). The only difference between the situations is Palestine is a war zone, the Urban Wetlands Park is exactly what the name suggests, a park. Officials have claimed that the tank was one that was used during the war and they wanted to give the public an opportunity to see it up close. As to why they chose to put it…

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Stratfor and Sri Lanka: An initial study of ‘The Global Intelligence Files’

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Groundviews and Wikileaks Groundviews has in the past published two key article based on content obtained through Wikileaks. Wikileaks on Sri Lanka: A breakdown and implications was the first article on the unprecedented release of US diplomatic cables, and published just hours after the tranche was made available on the now well known, and much attacked website. Groundviews was told some time ago that the US Embassy in Colombo used this article as a key resource in going through the tranche of material on Wikileaks as it pertained to Sri Lanka. From draft to official text: Wikileaks reveals the US response to the end of war in Sri Lanka was a more specific piece, that looked at the drafting process of official statements in general by the US Government and in particular, a statement by the US State Department dealing with one of the most important events on Sri Lanka in 2009. This article was tweeted by the official Wikileaks…

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Lady in Green

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I am travelling from Colombo to the United States. Who doesn’t like a change of pace? There will also be additional passport stamps. While I consider myself a pretty well-stamped man, one cannot be satisfied with past achievements… I absolutely love flying. I am looking forward to the reading and catching up on movies. I’ve wanted to see “Argo” for a while now. I’m also looking forward to the miles. Now that I’m Platinum, I get double miles whenever I fly. This is one sweet deal. It’ll be Colombo to Abu Dhabi to Chicago to elsewhere today. That’s how it goes if one’s flying from the island and not wanting to spend the big bucks. Colombo to Abu Dhabi came and went. Abu Dhabi to Chicago is about to begin. I’m making my way to the back of the cabin. I have just located my seat. “Hello,” I tell the woman seated in 43-A. I usually go out of my…

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A brief note on Buddhism, Ethnicity, and Peace

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A walk through the archeological and artistic ruins in the North central province is not complete without a stop by the Sandakada pahana (the moonstone) that gives an artistic depiction of the milestones one may go through while practicing the eightfold path. The outer ring of flames depict what we experience in the society – sense of insecurity, urge to become something else, paranoia, jealousy, hatred, etc., that are wrapped up in one word called suffering. The next ring of animals depicts the causes of these sufferings. The convoluted ring of vines below it illustrates the illusive and confused state of mind that underpins the first two layers. The next layer of swans represents a state of wisdom in the mind that allows one to separate the good from the bad. The next layer of orderly vines illustrates the state of mind in harmony with the world-giving rise to a sense of comfort. The final lotus refers to the ultimate…

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Who needs Halaal?

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When the big international fast food chains came to Sri Lanka they did not have halaal certification. However subsequently most of these chains went ‘halaal’. This had nothing to do with any ‘Islamist’ conspiracy to take-over Sri Lanka. It was a pure case of demand and supply and the pursuit of profit. The same applies to Islamic banking. There is nothing surprising about almost every player in the financial services market providing Islamic banking as bankers want to make money in as many ways as they can. So this whole brouhaha about ‘halaal’ really defies logic. The only reason why the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulema [ACJU] is a body of choice for it’s the only body that the Muslim consumers accept and find legitimate and in marketing – consumer is king. Therefore ‘Who needs ‘halaal’ certification? It’s certainly not the Muslim consumer but the businesses that crave for halaal recognition. I say this because there was a time before halaal…

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A former Ambassador speaks out: Interview with Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

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In his first interview for public television in Sri Lanka upon his return to the country after his stint as Ambassador to France and UNESCO in Paris, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka talked about a number of issues related to governance, foreign policy, devolution, the growing Islamophobia in the country, his work with youth and the critique that he is “a skilful, eloquent, erudite proponent… of the status quo”. We begin by exploring why he submits, in a recent article to the media, that Sri Lanka suffers from a ‘garrison State delusion‘. He notes that once the war was won, the administration’s stripes – both neo-conservative and ethno-populist – has led to a model of over-securitisation and quasi-occupation. Given what Dr. Jayatilleka sees as a catastrophic failure of foreign and strategic policy in Sri Lanka, he then looks at where the country could head into over 2013 and beyond, given failing, strained relationships with India and the United States, a seriously flawed…

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Civil Society Organisations Condemn Anti Muslim Rhetoric and Attacks in Sri Lanka

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Image taken from Protect the Buddhism – බුදු දහම ආරක්ෂාකරමු Facebook group. In recent months there has been an increased outpouring of virulent anti-Muslim sentiment by persons claiming to speak for all Sinhala Buddhists. Organized groups led by Buddhist monks have held public meetings, distributed pamphlets, and made press statements. Articles in mainstream Sinhala and English newspapers have propagated ethnic and religious hatred. In addition, there have been hate campaigns via SMS, email, and face book. The consequences of this rhetoric were most apparent in the Dambulla Mosque incident where a group led by a Buddhist Monk threatened the mosque with destructionon the 20th of April 2012. More recently there have been attacks against Muslim businesses. On 24th January this year, for instance, a “demonstration” in Kuliyapitiya was orchestrated; it seems, for the sole purpose of insulting and inciting a reaction from Muslims. The attacks on Muslims have been directed at everything: the certificationof food products as halal; the practice of hijab,…

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The Significance of Revolving Funds in the Rehabilitation of those Re-settled

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Image courtesy World Bank Most  those who have been  resettled or re-located  in the Wanni District of Sri Lanka  after the war  have found that they have to start life from scratch.  The re-settlement allowance of Rs.25,000 paid to each of these families was found to be hardly enough to do anything meaningful to make a start.  Most of the infrastructure   which   had  helped them to sustain themselves in their villages  before the war,  has been destroyed.  Roads, buildings, water tanks, canals and channels leading water to their cultivations  in their respective villages are in a state of disrepair. Consequently  re-starting life has been a challenging task  for these families.  Many of them  have lost their male members either during the war. Some  have been taken into custody or have disappeared thereafter.   The surviving women have to fend for themselves, their children and often their aged parents as well.   They  neither have resources, skills  nor the cash needed for them…

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Feminism bottom-up: Women’s Support Networks in the North and East

Before, during and after the three decade long conflict, women have played a major role in supporting their families, community support systems, and the economy. This video highlights the stories of women groups that set up successful support networks in the north before the war, through which they addressed various community and livelihood issues, as well as violence against women. During the war these networks disbanded, and many women lost network members and vital assets. In a post-war context, these women are going back to their villages and are starting from scratch again. As these women share their experiences pre, during and post war it also creates a discussion around what feminism really is?  The video reflects on successful grassroots activism and challenges the popular notion of feminism being western and top to bottom or elite.  It also highlights the obstacles these activists face due to various social norms and oppressive structures. Repost This Article

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“Building the base”: An interview with Sunila Abeysekara about post-war Sri Lanka

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Sunila, how do you look at Sri Lanka today?  There are different interpretations ranging from a constitutional dictatorship to clan- run ‘deep state’? And you have decades of human rights activism behind you; you have been to the Geneva Human Rights council for nearly a decade to campaign for rights in Sri Lanka, but today Geneva has become the “f word” in dominant political discourse in Sri Lanka? Why?  Indeed it is true to say that President Rajapaksa, his brothers and son and nephews, whatever you know, they constitute a block, a family block that actually controls the political and economic future of our country at this moment. So definitely it is not a democracy. Definitely what has happened in the past months have shown us that there is no rule of law and the constituent features of any democracy; the independence of judiciary, the freedom of the press, all these, do not exist in Sri Lanka. So, at least…

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A simple experiment to highlight ingrained racism in Sri Lanka

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When Etisalat dreams of a Sri Lanka where everyone is connected, it’s clearly thinking only of the Sinhalese. Why else would the company’s website feature, so prominently, a Lion to depict ‘everyone’ in Sri Lanka? In popular media, corporate marketing and government output, there are numerous other examples of a racism so deeply internalised and ingrained in Sri Lanka that even when flagged, it is dismissed as unimportant or at best, of marginal and passing interest. As we tweeted, @30streetstudio @etisalatsl It’s this that’s most worrying about #srilanka – ingrained racism, so normalised it is, to most, invisible. #lka — Groundviews (@groundviews) February 13, 2013   Another particularly revealing example from Government recently came in the form of the Police spokesperson’s comments over an ill-thought out and executed census of vehicular traffic coming into Colombo. As reported in Ceylon Today, the forms handed out to motorists in light vehicles were only in Sinhala, raising the ire of the Government’s own…

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ANTI-MUSLIM EXTREMISM & DILEMMAS OF DIVERSITY IN SRI LANKA

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Opening presentation at 2nd in Discussion series on Constitutional Reform organized by The Liberal Party) Having come out of the war, a war which I for one am glad the Sri Lankan State won, Sri Lanka as a State and a society had one of several directions in which it could go. Whilst being happy that the war ended with a certain outcome, we could have asked ourselves why we had the war in the first place. Why thirty years of conflict? What needs to be done to prevent such conflict? To the extent that that question had been asked, it seems to me that the answer –and I do not mean only within the Government but outside in civil society as well– has been that the way to prevent another cycle of conflict is to tighten up, to pre-empt, and to securitize. I am Realist enough to admit that, that in certain areas it is necessary to be more…

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The Sri Lankan President’s Twitter archive and Propaganda 2.0: New challenges for online dissent

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The President enters Twitter Last month, the President of Sri Lanka began tweeting officially as @PresRajapaksa. The account is already authenticated by Twitter. Though @PresRajapaksa’s profile notes that “tweets from the President are signed MR.” there is, to date, not a single tweet penned by the President himself. The launch of the account was instructive in how the regime is perceived online by voices not usually openly vocal about mainstream politics. Under the hashtag #PresidentTweets, dozens of voices on Twitter openly poked fun at the President’s entry to Twitter. The tweets, only a fraction of which are captured below, poked fun at the President’s closest political associates, his role in the impeachment of the Chief Justice, his violent, autocratic tendencies and the Rajapaksa family’s nepotism. An inauspicious start then to what objectively is a welcome development – the entry of the President to a medium that is now used by so many leading political figures around the world. For those…

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Sri Lanka’s National Plan of Action vis-à-vis Reconciliation

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Image courtesy Centre for Human Rights “Reconciliation requires changes of heart and spirit, as well as social and economic change. It requires symbolic as well as practical action” – Malcolm Fraser Once again Sri Lanka is in the thralls of yet another ethnic conundrum.  It would seem that Sri Lankans like to live dangerously, in the midst of controversy, conflict and violence.  Why else will we on the eve of the Human Rights Commission sessions coming up in March 2013 impeach our chief justice raising issues of the independence of the judiciary followed much too soon by sundry chauvinist organizations such as the Bodhi Bala Sena, Hela Sinhala Hiru mushrooming and being dialogued with at the highest political levels.  Even more disturbing is the police inaction in the face of communal agitation lending credence to theories of compliance at high political levels.  It is a tragedy that many of these organizations with offensive and objectionable agendas that create ethnic and…

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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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