Why I stand by our cartoon

Header

Updated, 16 September, 6.30pm: It was brought to the attention of Groundviews some hours ago that despite what Mr. Jayasuriya notes below (coupled with the fact that as we flag at the end of this article, the cartoon had been deleted less than a day after it was published from the online version of the newspaper), the newspaper ran this apology in today’s edition, Click here for online version. ### The LAKBIMAnEWS cartoon on Sunday seemed to have ruffled some feathers. Going by the tweets that were critical of the cartoon, I noticed some card-carrying activists of the anti- Sri Lankan lobby, who may have mistaken LAKBIMAnEWS for one of the Sri Lankan government mouthpieces – which LAKBIMAnEWS is not – and decided to make avail of this opportunity to go for another round of Sri Lanka bashing. That is a sad miscalculation on their part, and they would have known better, if they had happened to go through the…

Continue reading »
  • 10 Sep, 2012
  • 73 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Features,
    Peace and Conflict

A tasteless cartoon, Twitter and Indo-Sri Lanka relations (Updated)

Header

UPDATE, 1600hrs, Colombo: Despite the acting editor of Lakbima noting via Twitter the following, #The lakbima cartoon is a matter of artistic expression and therefore of freedom of expression. #lakbimacartoon — Ranga Jayasuriya (@RangaJayasuriya) September 9, 2012   as of 1600hrs, the cartoon is no longer displayed on the newspaper’s website. Where the cartoon was, there is now a large white space. See the link below for the original image and page. Also, Women and Media Collective, one of Sri Lanka’s leading women’s rights groups, has protested against and condemned the cartoon, noting inter alia that, The cartoon violates all ethical principles of journalism and media expression not only in Sri Lanka but globally. There is an accepted form of visual journalism in commenting on current social, economic, cultural and political issues within and between countries. In this cartoon, however, the newspaper has allowed for gross sexism and crudity to override any form of civility in journalistic communication. WMC urges…

Continue reading »

The Z-score imbroglio: Towards a fair and simple solution

670619474al2

Image courtesy Tharunaya I will assume in this article the general acceptance of two principles of fairness with regard to university admission. Fairness principle 1: That, apart from any affirmative action criteria used, admission should be based on merit rankings. Fairness principle 2: That affirmative action criteria and the merit ranking scheme should not be arbitrary, but must follow fixed transparent principles or past precedence. It is possible to show that the current solutions being debated to the Z-score imbroglio fails to meet these principles. An explanation and solution is given in the twenty numbered paragraphs below. 1. The G.C.E A’level exams: in 2011 were administered under two syllabi. One set of students sat papers set according to the new syllabus; another set (presumed to be repeaters) according to the old syllabus. 2. Admission to university: is based on a national merit ranking of all students who sit the exams, and a long standing affirmative action criterion which creates quotas…

Continue reading »

Provincial Council Election: Real-time updates

82027d123e17d4dd910754888ca7e6d1_XL

@mhmhisham is turning out the best updates on Twitter. #PCelectionsLK and #ep2012 are key hashtags aggregating all the tweets on the September 2012 Provincial Council elections. See below for aggregation and real time updates. Tweets about “#PCelectionsLK “ Tweets by @mhmhisham Tweets about “#ep2012″ Repost This Article

Continue reading »

Youth in Sri Lanka need a chance

Screen Shot 2012-09-08 at 7.13.33 PM

Photo courtesy Beyond Borders The Sri Lankan government shut down state universities on the 23rd of August in a bid to prevent an “Academic Spring”, rising amidst calls for 6% of GDP to be spent on Education. Other countries in the region spend between 3-6% of GDP on education. Academics have been on strike, exam papers remain unmarked and student’s have no indication of the trajectory of this stalemate; effectively leaving them in limbo. For Sri-Lanka this is not good news, because in the past we have seen both the ignition of the ethnic conflict and the JVP insurrections stemming from Universities. It is therefore a hotbed; but for what? These students are either being fed with crazy ideals, of terrorism or nationalism or as in the present case, their right to a competitive education and opportunity. Since 2005, Government spending on Education has been reduced from 2.9% of GDP to 1.9%, whilst in the meantime Sri-lanka has secured infrastructure…

Continue reading »

In Memoriam: Tilak Jayaratne

Screen Shot 2012-09-08 at 12.26.36 AM

Tilak’s journey in search of people’s media, from the Sunday Times Tilak Jayaratne, veteran broadcaster and media advocate, passed away on September 6, after a long illness bravely borne.  All those who knew Tilak, and who encountered him in the many different orbits that he inhabited, will recall the intensity which he worked, and the creative passion with which he interrogated the potential of mass communication, and ‘alternative’ media, long before these became  fields of study and academic discourse. He was deeply committed to the principle of people’s ownership and participation in both the production and consumption of media and communication and to the end of his days he worked actively to encourage those involved in the media industry to pay more attention to this aspect of communication. I first got to know Tilak during the years he worked in the technical section of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and a part of the trade union movement. At that time,…

Continue reading »

Muslims and the Eastern Provincial Council Elections in Sri Lanka: Kingmakers or Pawns?

timthumb.php

Photo via Colombo Telegraph As the campaigning for the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) election concludes, there are only a few absolute certainties as to the outcome – most notably that there will be no outright winner.  Given the electoral system, the results of recent elections, the demography in the East and the general voting pattern along communal lines, it is more or less clear that neither the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) nor a possible Tamil National Alliance (TNA) –United National Party (UNP) combine will have a simple majority. In such a context it will be the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) which is contesting independently that will hold the balance of power. The strategic value of the Muslim vote is all too evident, not solely due to the SLMC having been the key focus of pre-nomination lobbying, but also that other political parties and alliances are attempting to shore up their Muslim votes. Once more, the Eastern Muslim polity,…

Continue reading »

In conversation with Chandraguptha Thenuwara: Art, politics and education in Sri Lanka

Screen Shot 2012-09-04 at 11.12.44 AM

Chandragupta Thenuwara is one of Sri Lanka’s best known artists. As noted online, he is the director of the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts in Colombo, a not-for-profit art school which he founded in 1993 as an independent alternative to state-run art institutions, with the aim of teaching young and marginalied artists the basic tenets of fine art practice under the instruction of practicing artists. In this programme we start by discussing the enduring ethnic divides and identity politics in Sri Lanka through the frame of Thenuwara’s son, and his naming. We use this as an entry point a discussion about the artist’s own identity and how it developed, growing up as he did in the East of Sri Lanka, having being born in the South and after his studies, returning to live in Colombo. Thenuwara’s speaks about his father’s early influence in becoming an artist, and how even from a very modest household, he always had the opportunity to…

Continue reading »
  • 3 Sep, 2012
  • 1 Comment
  • Colombo,
    Development,
    Environment

Manel Tampoe: Perceptive Chronicler of Sri Lanka’s DDT Generation

One of the earliest photos of Manel Tampoe around age 15

One of the earliest photos of Manel Tampoe, around age 15 Manel Tampoe, school teacher turned journalist and environmentalist, was a force to reckon with – but she didn’t look the part. Beneath her soft spoken and demure personality, she harboured a keen intellect, steely resolve and a strong sense of justice that lasted for all her 85 years. Those who underestimated Manel soon discovered their mistake, similar to what happened with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Such comparisons go only so far: unlike the fictional detective, Manel raised a family, travelled the world, wrote a book, and left her mark in at least three fields: education, journalism and environmental activism. Born in 1927, Iranganie Manel Tampoe (nee Goonesekera) graduated from the University of Ceylon with an honours degree in English shortly after Ceylon gained political independence in 1948. The first two decades of her working life was mostly devoted to teaching English at leading schools — Visakha Vidyalaya (her Alma…

Continue reading »

Facing an Uncertain Future: A ‘non-suba anagathayak’

Screen Shot 2012-09-02 at 7.45.47 AM

Photo courtesy Bindaas Madhavi While the so-called ‘rulers’ prance about in their hubris, ignoring the global events that will also affect us, there is very serious concern that ‘We Are ‘Entering A Long-Term And Politically Dangerous Food Crisis’ . The author of the study suggests that, ‘we are five years into a severe global food crisis that is very unlikely to go away. It will threaten poor countries with increased malnutrition and starvation and even collapse. Resource squabbles and waves of food-induced migration will threaten global stability and global growth. This threat is badly underestimated by almost everybody and all institutions with the possible exception of some military establishments.’ Many reasons are given as to why such a crisis will occur, but two factors identified by this study must be considered in all ‘development’ projects that are being touted as ‘progress’ in Sri Lanka. To do less will tantamount to a betrayal of the nation. (1) There will be increased weather…

Continue reading »

A disappearance every five days in post-war Sri Lanka

IMAGE-212

Photo courtesy WSWS On 21st at 2.31pm, August 2012, 32 year old Vasanthamala sent a sms from her mobile to her relatives saying she had been taken by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Vavuniya. Around 8pm the same night, she made short phone calls to her mother and father, and said she was alright. When her parents had tried to find out where she was calling from, the call had been cut off and has been switched off thereafter, to date as her parents are still unable to get through to her. When her father tried to complain to the Vavuniya Police, they had refused to accept the complaint stating that she must have eloped with a man. The complaint was only accepted once her father visited the Police station the following day along with his wife. Prior to the arrest, on the 19th of August, some persons claiming to be from the CID, had called Vasanthamala’s mother and…

Continue reading »

The Disappeared in Sri Lanka

2007_SriLanka_Hands

Photo from HRW A speech made today at a Vigil to Remember the Disappeared in Sri Lanka on The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, held from 5-6pm at the State Library of Victoria premises in Melbourne, Australia. I am honoured to have been asked to speak at this Vigil, to Remember the Disappeared in Sri Lanka on this important occasion, of The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Sri Lanka is party to diverse declarations and conventions of the United Nations on human rights. Therefore, the main responsibility of protecting peoples’ rights lies with the government of the day. Today’s vigil calls upon the government of Sri Lanka to release the names of those individuals, who surrendered to the government forces during the last phase of the armed conflict in 2009. This Vigil also demands the government of Sri Lanka to put an end to the practice of enforced disappearances. These disappearances can be categorised…

Continue reading »

Open letter to Mark Davis, presenter of SBS Dateline on ‘Sri Lanka’s New Wave’

Screen Shot 2012-08-29 at 6.54.39 AM

[Editors note: Watch SBS Dateline's Sri Lanka's New Wave, broadcast first in Australia on 28 August 2012, here.] Dear Mark, I am intensely troubled by the tenor of your report on Sri Lankan Tamil refugees on today’s Dateline. The picture you painted of the country doesn’t accord with any of the accounts I’ve heard, nor with well documented reports by international and local sources (eg. the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Diocese of Jaffna, Sri Lanka report). The government’s refusal to implement the findings of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the reception of the subsequent U.N Resolution alone should tell you something about the triumphalism and arrogance with which the state approaches the process of rebuilding. The program of Sinhalisation and militant Buddhism now underway in Sri Lanka (including recent attacks on a Mosque) were not even mentioned, nor was the corruption within the ruling family and the sense of impunity with which it operates, as…

Continue reading »

A Child of Apollo Salutes His First Hero: Remembering Neil Armstrong

Apollo 11 bootprint

Apollo 11 bootprint When Neil Armstrong took that first ’small step’ on to the Moon, at 10.56 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 20 July 1969, a quarter of humanity — following it live on radio or TV — collectively held their breath. In the next moment, our various divides disappeared…at least for a brief while. As Arthur C. Clarke – who covered the Moon landing for CBS network – later summed up, it was “one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquillity. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined.” History was not only made that day; it was also witnessed, instantaneously, by an estimated 600 million people on TV. Another few dozen millions worldwide tracked mission progress on short wave radio. In contrast, only a handful of local people – including a solitary amateur…

Continue reading »

Rural entrepreneurship in post-war Sri Lanka: Jobs for youth and ICTs

Screen Shot 2012-08-27 at 11.37.32 PM

Her day job aside, Sandya Salgado is a Director of the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunity and approached Groundviews recently to talk with us about the organisation’s model for rural entrepreneurship in particular, and the prospects for BPO writ large in post-war Sri Lanka. In this brief conversation, we first talk about FARO’s BPO model which supports rural entrepreneurship through ownership of shares in the BPOs set up in Mahavilachchiya, Seenigama and Uduvil, in Jaffna. Sandya’s point is much broader than FARO – she speaks of the need to nurture business intelligence amongst Sri Lanka’s rural youth, and encourage a culture where they become shareholders in the companies they create. We talk about the challenges facing the BPO industry in Sri Lanka including the shortage of skills, as well as English language impediments. Sandya talks about the advantages of developing entrepreneurship amongst the rural youth, and flags an interesting trend, that more women seem to opt to stay in rural…

Continue reading »
Page 19 of 172« First...10...1718192021...304050...Last »

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!"

cezarneaga.eu