Archive for the ‘Youth’

  • 17 Sep, 2010
  • 24 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Gender,
    Human Rights,
    Youth

USJP Students’ Union: Harassment and Gender Discrimination over clothing

Many believe that women in Sri Lanka are in a better place compared to its counterparts in South Asia. This is true up to a certain extent where women enjoy a high level of education, high life expectancy at birth (74 years) and access to economic opportunities. Sri Lanka elected the first ever female head of state and had since been governed by two female heads of state – namely Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. Yet women face gender related issues. Dominant among them is violence against women. Once President Chandrika Kumaratunga noted, “There’s a new problem – violence against women, social violence like rape, even rape of little children. Physical violence, (some) not heard of before, is on the increase”. Indeed as President Kumaratunga says, women face diverse forms of physical violence where some are unknown to many. Like the instance of female students in Sri Jayawardanapura University coming under physical and verbal harassment for wearing…

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Ramblings of an outsider in Jaffna – 1

I’ve moved to Jaffna on work. Everyone I know seems to think I’ve done something great and inspiring, to have moved here to help people. Firstly, I don’t think I’m better than anyone else for having moved here. I felt that being closer in “proximity” to issues that matter to me, would on some level bring me solace by means of contributing in some way to justice being served to a community that has long been deprived of it. So there really is nothing exceptional about my “move” as it were. My biggest fear when moving? Well, I guess it had to be the issue of, acceptance, or should I say, the lack of it. To be considered an “outsider” imposing on a way of a life I knew and understood very little of. Or worse yet, to be thought of as a “wannabe” trying to appease my guilt, clear my conscience or worse yet, do my bit of “charity”…

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  • 10 Feb, 2010
  • 9 Comments
  • Economy,
    Education,
    Youth

Unemployment: Where did it go wrong and what should be done?

The unemployment rate in Sri Lanka is not exceptional when compared with other countries in the world. In fact, it might seem relatively low. On a list of countries ranked in order of their rate of unemployment in the World Factbook produced by the US Central Intelligence Agency, Sri Lanka ranks 62nd with a comparatively low unemployment rate of 5.2%, a figure that concurs with that in the Central Bank report of 2008. However, for Kosala Perera (name changed) this is no comfort. After graduating from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura with a second upper in a Bachelor of Business Administration, Kosala enthusiastically embarked on finding a job that would pay back the loans he had taken from relatives in order to rent a room nearby to the university. “My village is in Anuradhapura but when I got the chance to come to the Sri Jayewardenepura University I knew I had to take it,” he said, “I knew that that…

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An Ode to a Bright Future

I hear the crack of a whip, you tell me it’s the sound of peace. I don’t believe you. Speak for yourself. Not for me. I heard them coming. They have no choice. I saw them cry. They have no choice. Shame on you. They have no choice. A picture speaks a thousand words, silence another- Silence. We have given up. Silenced. We have accepted defeat. Repost This Article

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Concerns of first time voters in the 2010 presidential elections

In the upcoming presidential election a new voter base will be in play. A generation of first time voters whose futures will depend on the winner of next month’s election, are faced with deciding which candidate has the right vision to take this country forward and more importantly the credibility that would ensure the implementation of that vision. Even with all the lofty rhetoric being spewed by the front runners, their past actions have left many unconvinced that either of them will set and abide by the necessary measures to bring about stability in the country. In a list of concerns that young voters feel need to be addressed, freedom of expression is front and center. This demographic, who were born into the age of the internet where ideas can be easily disseminated over a wide ranging audience, sees freedom of expression as a necessary tool to bring about unity and prosperity in the country. For Ameen Hashim (name changed)…

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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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