Archive for the ‘Youth’

Good English skills over a University education?

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Image courtesy Seven myths about English Education in Sri Lanka, by Ajith P. Perera It was not so long ago that the post-nominals B.A. (Calcutta) Failed was a sure route to employment in the administrative cadre of the  Government of India, in addition to being a matter of distinction in their own right. Even a decade ago, the university degree was perceived to be the key to the almighty white-collar job, and the stability, prestige and standard of living that were associated with it. Today that is no longer the case; with the decline of our university system and ever faster globalisation, command of the English language  is now the passport to success. It is not without good reason that the market chooses to prize sound linguistic skills in English over a university education. Employers find that candidates with a thorough knowledge of English are able to communicate more effectively; both with one another in multi-ethnic workplaces and with foreign parties, an increasing common occurrence. Tourism, logistics and…

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  • 19 Dec, 2011
  • 2 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Development,
    Post-War,
    Youth

Colombo night races: Racy development in post-war Sri Lanka

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Sri Lankan photographer Devaka Seneviratne has some of the best photos on the web on the recently concluded night races held in Colombo for the first time. While Facades of Development: Of Commonwealth Games and Drag Racing at Green Path by Darini Rajasingham Senanayake is a critical take on events like this, it appears that going by the numbers present and the media coverage of it, this was a rather popular and well-attended event. As one blogger recently put it “Both events [referring to the Electric Peacock Festival] are young people getting permits and stuff through the President’s sons, which is actually fine by me”. Such a wonderful, uncritical and simple model for post-war Sri Lanka’s democratic governance and equitable development. While we think this can and must be contested, the photos of the night races by Devaka give a sense of what to expect on the streets of Sri Lanka’s capital city in the years to come, and indeed, the…

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In conversation with Joshua Roman: Videos and photos

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Performing at the Lionel Wendt. Photo by Ruvin de Silva. TED Fellow and gifted cellist Joshua Roman was in Sri Lanka recently for his debut concert in Colombo. He also performed in Kandy. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma called him an “extraordinary young musician”. Those who came to listen to him play in Colombo and Kandy, accompanied by Eshantha Peiris on the piano, left richer for having experienced his music. As with Mandhira de Saram, Joshua started playing an instrument very young, at age three. Joshua speaks about his family’s influence on his music, and choice of instrument. We also talk about the cello he brought to Sri Lanka, which made in 1899, was perhaps the oldest western musical instrument to ever grace the stage at the Lionel Wendt and the venue in Kandy. Joshua speaks about his approach to music, and how though trained and obviously adept at playing classical music, he always tries to experiment and likes to play contemporary…

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(Inter)national Identity

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Up until just two years ago, I have only known a Sri Lanka at war. And it was possibly just over a decade ago when I came about to comprehending that we were in fact, at war with ourselves. Having recently just returned from yet another visit to my ‘island of birth’, I found it quite upsetting to witness for oneself a country more divided than ever before. The post-war optimism of the previous year seemed to have fizzled into a general state of discontent; divided between the fight for supremacy in national identity, and the undecidedness in satisfaction over the way the country is being run. More dispiriting (and within a much shorter time frame) than a two-decade-long civil war it appears, is an election deemed inconsequential and the loss of repute under global condescension. “Oh, what do you know about National identity?” I’ve been scorned at far too many a time whenever attempting to bring up the discourse….

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  • 7 Sep, 2011
  • 4 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Identity,
    International,
    Youth

Living with HIV in Sri Lanka: Reflections from ICAAP10 in Busan, Korea

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World AIDS Day, 2010, One Voice – SARYN We were in Busan, Korea last week, where S, a young man living with HIV, and I were presenting at the International Conference on AIDS in the Asia and Pacific on how the People Living with HIV Stigma Index had helped empower a local community that is marginalized and often forgotten in the response to HIV and AIDS in low prevalence countries like ours. In truth, I have begun to question if people living with HIV in Sri Lanka matter at all. Those who come forward are often poor; from rural communities that no longer want them (especially if their status is known) or from towns that are not large enough for them to be invisible in or hide in the shadows (especially if their status is known). Is their status known? Surely confidentiality is preserved in rural and provincial Sri Lanka? Nurses and ward staff and gardeners and cleaners are trained not to talk about…

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Post-war, is the Sri Lankan Army going on a rampage in the North?

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The Sri Lankan Army: Humane or heinous? Photo from Now Public [Editors note: Also read JAFFNA: BRUTAL ASSAULT OF CIVILIANS IN NAVANTHURAI and The attack on TNA Parliamentarians in Jaffna: A timeline of outrageous denials (Updated)] These days, the Sri Lankan Army appears to be somewhat bored. Despite increasing post-war forays into urban development, vegetable transportation and tourism – wonderfully captured in this cartoon – the Army appears to, unsurprisingly, seek more exciting peacetime pursuits. Fortunately, this appears to be quite easy in post-war Sri Lanka, where there are plenty of Tamils to expend excess testosterone on, who as an added bonus, are eternally grateful to the Army for eradicating terrorism and very unlikely to raise too much of a ruckus. A detailed report of the violence in Navanthurai was posted on this site a few days ago. Tamil media now report even more heinous violence from the North, framed by growing fear on the ground over the ‘grease devil’…

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Should Sri Lanka’s Youth Get Ready To Confront Armed Intervention Two Years After The War?

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Image from Radio Netherlands Worldwide The proposal (decision?) made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to repeal the Emergency Regulations (ER) was a hopeful one. It was a significant proposal (decision?) which marked a significant moment in Sri Lanka’s post-war history. One’s heart swelled with joy; the rain had ceased, it was bright and sunny, there was a rainbow somewhere in the distance too. But then, the real news strikes you: there is what is known as ‘The Emergency Consequential Provisional Bill’ which is to be presented to Parliament soon. Until then, new regulations have been introduced to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to legalize the continuation, for instance, of the High Security Zones (HSZ). The ER was repealed, but there were provisions which couldn’t be repealed too. So, the proposal (decision?) not to extend the ER was, in the end, not so problematic, not so praiseworthy, for there was a rush, unknown to many, to re-introduce some of those provisions…

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Chaos in Colombo: Mêlée over jobs indicates a serious economic problem in Sri Lanka?

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Anushka Wijesinha (who blogs here), a Research Economist at the Institute of Policy Studies, sent us these incredible photos and video of the chaos in Colombo today when thousands of Korean job seekers appeared for Korean exam applications at the Police Park down Havelock Road. Mainstream media reports a figure of 10,000, which going by the video and photos appear to be mostly young men. In a speech by Dr. Anura Ekanayake, outgoing CCC chairman and IPS Board member, he noted that of the 4.5% unemployment rate overall in Sri Lanka, 18.1% of youth (age 15-24) are unemployed and within this around 10.7% of those qualified with A/Ls are unemployed. Anushka observed that, Many were queuing from 5pm yesterday, which means they had spent the night on the pavements. By the time the centre closed at 11.15am (as was informed by the officials there to those gathered 3,500 applicants had been registered. There was at least 1,000 more in the…

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The Disillusionment of the Diaspora

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[Editors note: Also read Two years after war’s end in Sri Lanka: What can the Tamil and Sinhala diaspora do?] Indi’s post entitled “How Diaspora Can Overthrow The Government” set me off on a train of thought. Thought about the Sri Lankan diaspora, its role in Sri Lanka, both now and in the future. The first mental hurdle I encountered was that of the definition of the word “diaspora”. What exactly is the diaspora? I was once involved in a discussion here in London in which a Sri Lankan (as I saw her) lady objected to being classed as “diasporic”. Her reasoning was that the diaspora was actually people who had forcibly left their country, which was not her specific case, and she requested that the rest of us refer to her by some other label. Sadly I can’t remember what it was. But, up until that point, I’d considered the term diaspora to be a general reference to emigrants. Broad I know,…

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In conversation with Mandhira de Saram

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Madhira de Saram‘s website describes her as follows, After completing her primary education in Sri Lanka, she was awarded a music scholarship to North London Collegiate School where she completed her secondary education. She was also a Leverhulme Scholar at the Junior Royal Academy of Music where she performed both as a violinist and pianist, also taking classes in composition and conducting. Her violin teachers have included Igor Petrushevsky, Howard Davis and Levon Chillingirian. Mandhira graduated with first class honours from the University of Oxford with a high first in performance and was the winner of the Worcester College Arts Prize for the highest result in an arts subject. Here she was the leader of several orchestras and chamber groups including Ensemble Isis which specializes in contemporary music. She also held an Oxford Philomusica Orchestra Award. Working professionally as a freelance violinist, she appears frequently as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral violinist around the UK and abroad. In Sri Lanka…

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Programme to Develop Leadership Training and Positive Thinking: Perspective of a Participant

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Having participated in the “Leadership Training and Positive Skills Development Programme” I feel the need to give an account of my experience and views on the programme as there was much debate and disapproval among concerned parties regarding its necessity, its relevance and the manner of implementation of this programme. This is an attempt to give a first-hand account of what really took place during the three weeks of training, discuss if the course fulfilled its objective, and propose the way forward in conducting the programme for future batches of university students. Pre-Departure May 16 was chaotic. Rumor was that the Ministry of Education was sending out letters to local university entrants for the year 2011, asking them to report to one of some thirty army camps across the country, for a three week (military?) training course. “Naaah, they’ll never go through with it” was the general attitude we had at the beginning of May, following an announcement by the…

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Towards a Common Ground of Understanding: A response to “Aachcharya”

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Photo credit Sri Lanka Guardian Whether it be fleshing out Sangakkara’s “modern, pluralist worldview of unity in diversity”, the intersection of identity and race relations, the identity crises facing young generations of mixed parentage, or the vital facets of a Sri Lankan identity , the Groundviews contributors have done an exemplary job of critiquing the vision of a “Sri Lankan” identity no longer tied to caste, culture, ethnicity, language, or religion. While I would have liked to stay out of this conversation (for reasons outlined later) Aachcharya’s Back to Basics: The Need for an Honest Conversation About ‘Sri Lankanness’ and ‘Sri Lankan identity’, though cogently argued, unfortunately misrepresented my views. Aachcharya’s Misconceptions Aachcharya is inaccurate in his assertion that I believe that Sri Lankan identity is progressive and other identities are regressive. More precisely, I believe Sri Lankan identity should comprise of a primary multi-plural component that co-exists with important secondary components. For the sake of this article, lets call this the “soft…

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I AM… Identity crisis in Post-conflict Sri Lanka

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Photo by Ishara S.KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images “There are no more minorities” said the President after the defeat of the LTTE – a secessionist rebel group that waged a war against Sri Lanka in 2009. From now on, everyone is part of the majority. It was a nice feeling after decades of distinction between the communities in the island. I belong to one of the three recognized minorities of the island – the Burghers. A friend of mine noticed that we were the only ones not represented in the National Flag, I assumed that maybe we shared one strip in the flag with another community. This was not the least an issue for me. But with regards to the current conflict which the country went through I find this misrepresentation amusing. As a Sri Lankan of mixed ethnicity- Burgher after my dad and Sinhala, after my mother-  I had some great deal to figure out. Aged 13, I presented myself at an…

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Pecha Kucha: Celebrating creativity in Colombo

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Groundviews was invited to the press conference official launch of Pecha Kucha Colombo. It’s an interesting concept, more details of which can be read on its website here. Post-war Sri Lanka affords a space for this kind of event which was not present during the war, and this is something to be welcomed. As the website notes, “Pecha Kucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.” The first event (there will be four over the course of the…

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Exclusive: Syllabi and timetables from compulsory University ‘leadership’ training course

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Image from Virakesari Online Great controversy and concern surrounds the ‘leadership’ training programme designed by the Ministry of Defence for under graduate students, conducted in around 28 military installations around the country. As the Young Researchers Collective recently noted on Groundviews, “Although the government has stated that this will be a leadership training program rather than a military training program, it has conceded that the military will be involved in a number of aspects of the program. Students have also been informed that this training is “mandatory” for university entrance, though there now appears to be a great deal of confusion with regards to this provision as Government officials have issued a series of contradicting statements. These decisions have also been challenged by many students, rights groups, student unions, teachers’ unions and academics who have raised a number of concerns about the way in which this program has been conceived and implemented. This issue has also exacerbated a worsening crisis…

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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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