5 years after: Reflections as a mother, women and a citizen of Sri Lanka
Image by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP, via FT.com The moment I think of the war it takes me to 1995. Sri Lankans had very high expectations – a new government and a new…
Post-War
Re-visiting the Rajapaksa Hegemonic Project
Photo by Pankaj Nangia/Bloomberg News, via The Japan Times The UPFA regime has accomplished an unprecedented hegemonic political power, consummated by landslide electoral victories: Presidential election, January 2010, Parliamentary Elections March 2010 and…
The failure of the media, civil society and the ‘moderates’
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via SC [FR] 97/2014 is a Fundamental Rights application currently pending before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. FH the Petitioner is an 11 year old Muslim girl…
Keep Off the Grass
Photo courtesy Pri’s blog Colombo has been blossoming under the keen watch of Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who, in his self-appointed role as Godfather, presides over a grand plan of urban beautification…
A Brief History of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance from 2004 to 2014: Statistics and Real Politics
Image via Wikipedia By 2015 Sri Lanka will have experienced a decade of rule by the United Peoples Freedom Alliance UPFA government under President Mahinda Rajapakse. He ascended to the Presidency in…
Five Years Later
Photo by Ron Haviv The pearly island, flip in the sea before munching hot prawns near breakers on the beach; be careful with a camera, no point and shoot in sensitive…
Kasturi’s Progress
Photo by Vidu Gunaratna, AČK | Photography Kasturi was born in another century in what really was another country. It was called Ceylon, and the year, 1933. Two years earlier, exercising the…
THE WAR, PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS
Photo by EPA/M.A.PUSHPA KUMARA courtesy LA Times Response to Vangeesa Sumanasekara’s My literate young critic Vangeesa Sumanasekara, a serious student of philosophy, seems to say that the focus of his disputation with my essay…
Political settlement or regime change!
Photo by AFP, via SBS (Not exactly Francis Thompson) This essay is premised on an ill-omened reading of the Geneva tea-leaves. What be this ominous message I see floating in the cup?…
A new phase of mediation to get from post-war to post-conflict Sri Lanka
Image courtesy BBC Five years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka remains a post-war society that has yet to make the transition to a post-conflict society. While the violence has…
The Silly Idealist
Photography courtesy Dev Policy Blog Everyone called her a “Silly Idealist”. Some said it fondly, some with contempt, some with anger, and others even with disgust. But, she didn’t care. She truly…
Opened letter to His Majesty Mahinda Rajapakse the Lord of Sri Lanka and the Universe also
Dear Majesty, My name is Silva. The Silva. I am common man. Very common. So common I am always voting for your Majesty and Your Majesty’s government. However, please be notified that…
Five years on, where we are now: Reconciliation, the Rule of Law and governance
Photo by AP, via VOA News It is five years now after the defeat of the LTTE. As the Government then claimed it marked the end of terrorism and the beginning of…
Badiou’s Event and the defeat of the Tigers: A Brief Response to Dayan Jayatilleka
Photo by EPA/M.A.PUSHPA KUMARA courtesy LA Times What follows is a brief rejoinder to my friend, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, whose use of the philosophy of Alain Badiou, in his recently published article “Plato’s Cave…
Sri Lanka’s Quiet Heroes
Photo courtesy MSF Like many countries, Sri Lanka is a nation struggling with a lot of problems. The prevailing negative trends on the island are well-documented and irrefutable. People talk about national…
