Archive for the ‘Youth’

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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‘BE YOUNG AND SHUT UP!’: A COURSE IN CIVIC DISENGAGEMENT

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‘Sois Jeune et Tais Toi’ – Be Young and Shut Up, May 1968. Image from  Qwiki.   It is always intriguing to revisit the ideas of Paul Goodman; not exclusively for his writing on sexuality, film and politics, but also for his pertinacious desire to problematise key aspects of American society during the 1950s and 1960s. Goodman’s ideas on education were provocative and challenged ‘organised’ society by contesting what appeared to him as the distorted constitution of social order. The cant of anarchism is impractical and an idyllic fantasy, but some of Goodman’s ideas are highly persuasive. It would be appropriate to begin what is hopefully a laconic critique of the government’s leadership programme with a quote from an essay Goodman wrote to the New York Review of Books in 1969 titled, The Present Moment in Education; ‘there is an authentic demand for Young People’s Power, their right to take part in initiating and deciding the functions of society that concern…

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Perspectives and Commentary on the Leadership Training Programme for University Undergraduates

[Author's note: As you are probably aware the leadership training for undergraduates is now well under way in 28 military installations around the country. 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 in local universities as the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) are also in the midst of trade...

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The limits of the Mahinda Chintanaya: FTZ workers and Buddhist monks rise up against government

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Photo courtesy Vikalpa Protests in Katunayake Free Trade Zone: No police in sight has audio and video footage of the violent protests over the course of the week in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone. A 10 minute video of the protests on Thursday, after the Police killed 21 year old Free Trade Zone (FTZ) worker Roshan Chanaka, can be seen below. As Rasika Jayakody notes in an article dealing with Rohan’s killing, “Apart from this tragic death, this brutal police attack against Free Trade Zone workers left more than 200 people injured. On Monday evening, Ragama and Negombo hospitals were flooded with injured protesters. It is, undoubtedly, one of the brutal crackdowns in recent history. There are several video footages which clearly show the barbaric and inhuman manner that some police officers carried out attacks against unarmed protesters.” The withdrawal of the proposed pensions bill is a major embarrassment for the government. So embarrassing in fact that some reports suggest…

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Floating Spaces: Theatre and censorship in Sri Lanka

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Some of the best conversations featured on this site have been with those involved in the arts in Sri Lanka. Noted theatre personalities featured on Groundviews to date include Tracy Holsinger, Mohamed Adamaly and the iconic Iranganie Serasinghe. Jake Oorloff joins this august list, and as Co-Creative Director of Floating Space Theatre Company, his work has been reviewed and featured on Groundviews before. Gaza Monologues, produced for the first time in late 2010, was reviewed here and an interview with Jake and Ruhanie Perera, the co-founder of the Company, was featured here. A review of ‘My Other History’, their most recent production on post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka appears here. We ask Jake why a few years ago he started a new theatre company, when there were already quite a few established ones around, which then led into a discussion around Jake’s approach to theatre and acting. Jake explains what theatre is for him and what in general theatre is,…

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Finding the Middle Ground

Just over a week ago, a couple of my colleagues and I appeared on a prominent Canadian talk show discussing our attempts, as both individuals and organizing members of the Young Canadians’ Peace Dialogue on Sri Lanka hosted by the Mosaic Institute, to find a middle ground with respect to the relationship of the Canadian Diaspora to the internal politics in Sri Lanka. Joining us on the show was Craig Scott, a renowned professor on international humanitarian law and R. Cheran, a high-profile Tamil Canadian academic and journalist. Amongst both our friends and the wider Canadian community, the panel discussion has been acknowledged as an example of an exercise in ‘truth telling’ rather than ‘finger pointing.’  During the half-hour discussion, key points in relation to understanding the mentality of the Diaspora were raised such the role of ethnic affiliation in adopted sides and the emotional intensity felt in the Diaspora during the last stages in the war. Perhaps more importantly, participants also…

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Removing the Emperor’s Clothes

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Original image from Lanka Polity Universities, academics and university students have been hogging the limelight in the last several weeks in unprecedented ways. The Rajapakse regime’s systematic destruction of the higher education system in this country has run into a few impediments.  University academics from around the country have emerged from a partly self-induced exile and have finally started making themselves heard. On the other hand, the preposterous scheme of sending new entrants to the university for ‘leadership training’ to military camps has also provoked a series of protests. Whatever the outcome of the academics trade union action or the protests against the ‘leadership training’, higher education in our country will never be the same again.  We will be able to assess in a few months, if this will lead to a victory for higher education in Sri Lanka or the further strengthening of the totalitarian Rajapakse project. The stakes are huge. And the regime knows this, which is why…

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Reflecting on the End of the Sri Lankan Civil War: The Need for a New Conversation in the Global Sri Lankan Community

Although military hostilities in Sri Lanka ended two years ago, the dynamics of the conversation in the global Sri Lankan community continues to be influenced by the nations’ past conflicts. Decades of communal grievances and misunderstandings have seemingly scarred our grandparents’ and parents’ generations to voice visions of a brighter future. Much of the current dialogue in the leadership of our communities attempts to justify past military actions and policy decisions. One community of elders extols the virtues of a successful military campaign against terror, conducted with little limits. A second community of elders focuses on building a separate nation without seeking alternate means of serving the population they supposedly represent. The Need for a New Conversation Common to both approaches – largely exclusionary of each other – is a substantive discourse of what the future should look like. Absent from the argument of who committed war crimes and who are terrorists is a discussion of the daily challenges faced…

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Sinhala and Tamil New Year in Jaffna, Sri Lanka: Ground realities

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Sinhala & Tamil New Year when I was growing up was always a much-awaited annual event in our neighbourhood. We’d have card tournaments and badminton tournaments leading up to the “Big Day,” and when the day actually came, it was always a flurry of activity. People rushing all over the place, kids laughing, games being set up or organised and other activities. Having just experienced my second New Year in post-war Jaffna, with the State sponsored ‘celebrations’ being one of the few public events to be seen, yet again I find that the people still hold the same hopes and aspirations as they did last year, only more fervently now. Speaking to a few youth from diverse backgrounds in Jaffna, I was able to get a sense of their hopes, fears and expectations for the New Year. “Since the end of the war I’ve not celebrated any of our festivals. How can I celebrate when young people in the Vanni…

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‘Heal Lanka’ by Ras Ceylon

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A retweet this morning from Ras Ceylon alerted us to the fact that he was following our feed. We first read about Ras Ceylon on Sepia Mutiny, interviewed by the inimitable Tanzila Ahmed (aka Tazzy Star). Reading it, we were reminded of Brown Boogie Nation, a group that did an anti-war rap video years ago, which to our knowledge is the first to have been produced in Sri Lanka. Produced by Young Asia Television, ‘Lions and Tigers’ was aimed at youth but didn’t get too much of airtime outside of YATV’s own shows. The most popular music videos during the war were clearly directed at an audience outside the North and East, a trend that continues after the end of war. For example, the imagery, themes and expression used in ‘Sri Lanka Maatha’ sung by the extremely popular Sinhala pop duo Bathiya And Santhush stands in stark contrast to Lions and Tigers. The YouTube statistics tell their own story. There…

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JVP and the emerging crisis in Sri Lankan universities

[Editors note: See map of campus and university student related violence over 2010 alone here.] ‘Youth groups, not yet settled in established adulthood, are traditional locus of high spirits, riot and disorder, as even medieval university rectors knew, and revolutionary passions are more common at eighteen than at thirty five…Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes,1914-1991,London, 1994, p.299). The university has been the most dependable and organic reservoir of full time political as well as leading carders of the JVP throughout its history since its inception in the late the 1960s. With their youthful idealism, the JVP’s utopia of a ‘socialist state’ can be easily inculcated in their minds until the hard reality of their class character contributes to dissipate their determination and make a return to their normal life. The JVP profits from this short period of young people’s inexperienced and immature political journey and tries to make a political come back on their misery. The universities face an uncertain…

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Student Unrest in Universities

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Unhappy university students are marching in the Island of Brinka, and I met my good old friend Sivapuranam Thevaram at a pub in the ancient university city of Cowford to discuss this topic. Wannabe detectives on this forum please don’t rush to Google maps to find out where these places are. This is a story, so Cowford doesn’t exist. Brinka is not an island in the conventional sense. It is actually two, consisting of Briland to the north and Nkaland to the south. In the confused and mixed loyalties Thevaram carries in his mind, they merge into one, forming this island paradise. His loyalty is sometimes put to test, the Nkaland cricket team visiting Briland is one such occasion. Briland students are protesting against changes their government has proposed to the way universities are funded. Nkaland students also have some similar grievances. Marching Briland students rioted, damaging Tory party HQ; Nkaland students did the same to Ministry furniture. Let us…

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A turn for the worse? Undergraduate protests and unrest in Sri Lanka

View Student unrest in Sri Lanka in a larger map. Recent months in Sri Lanka have seen a dramatic increase in the number of protests involving thousands of university students, many of which have turned violent. An online poll by the Daily Mirror has, out of 795 votes to date, 79% agreeing that the involvement of university students in politics has far exceeded limits and needs to be curtailed. Some University lecturers have also found fault with themselves for the growing unrest. As leading regional media has noted, Like the Left in India, the Marxist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), or the People’s Liberation Front here has a strong student base in universities. Now, the government has accused it of trying to exploit that support – through the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) – to whip up a students’ unrest, a wave of which has engulfed six of the 15 major universities. Vice-chancellors were assaulted; students have fought among themselves; exams…

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The Media and the Future of Sri Lanka: Young Canadians’ Peace Dialogue on Sri Lanka

The co-editor of Groundviews Nigel Nugawela spoke recently at a progressive forum of young Canadian – Sri Lankans in Toronto on the role of media in post-war Sri Lanka, including the use of new media and ICTs. The discussion also featured, V.V. GANESHANANTHAN – Novelist (Love Marriage), Blogger and Journalist ARJUNA RANAWANA – News Manager, OMNI TV Alberta, Edmonton MARTIN REGG COHN – Deputy Editorial Page Editor, The Toronto Star Nigel’s presentation starts at around 38 minutes into the video. The event was part of a series of invitation-only events organised by the Mosaic Institute called “Peace Dialogue” for approximately 100 young, peace-focused members of the relevant sub-communities of Sri Lanka, all ages 18-30, presented in cooperation with the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre. Repost This Article

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Submission before Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) by Chandra Jayaratne

[Editors note: Chandra Jayaratne is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK, a former President of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and LMD Sri Lankan of the year 2001.] ### 1. Appreciation of Opportunity The eminent members of the Commission and its Secretary are thanked for extending, on their own accord, this opportunity to make submissions before the LLRC. These submissions draw on a wide canvass, strictly within the scope of the warrant of the LLRC and stress issues of concern and detail specific action recommendations for due consideration by the Commission. The LLRC is kindly requested to note that all submissions made herein are based on personal beliefs and commitments and does not represent views of any of the present or past affiliations and positions of leadership held in any private sector or civil society organizations. 2. The Immediate Correction of the Lost Opportunity The opportune…

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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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