Travels in a Militarised Society – 7 – Cultural Iconography: Odel Present and Past
I enter Odel from the car park side with echoes of the student protest and the rubber bullets in my ears. I wet a hankie with my water bottle and wipe the…
Year: 2008
Travels in a Militarised Society 6 – Strolling along Ward Place, Colombo
It is 10th December 2007, Human Rights Day. I am taking a stroll along Ward Place from Boralla to Lipton Circus. To either side of me are new buildings that have been…
PRIVATISATION & LOYALTY IN THE WAR ON TERROR
A recent post by Indi on the correctness of allowing people with foreign interests to hold high military office got me thinking about the whole private military contract business. Coincidentally, I had…
Travels in a Militarised Society – 5
Again Boralla I do not remember how many times I crossed the Boralla Junction in my life but I do know that this relatively small area of less than two square kilometres…
The Island newspaper offers a novel insight into corruption in Sri Lanka
Mainstream journalism in Sri Lanka is not without its lighter side. The headline of newspaper today offers a refreshingly original take on corruption in Sri Lanka. Sadly, the same story on their…
THE CONTINUING VIOLATION OF THE SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENT: YET MORE UNCONVINCING EXCUSES
Rohan Edrisinha It is pertinent at this moment to examine why even now the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is not implemented. The media has reported that President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Opposition…
Public Perceptions: National Security and/or Human Rights
Bhavani Fonseka and Pradeep Peiris Introduction The global war against terrorism has lead to a situation where the use of force, pre-emptive strikes, display of military power are justified in the name…
The Attacks on Civil Society Organizations
Sumanasiri Liyanage Dr Pradeep Jeganathan’s dinner experience in Delhi with a French anthropologist reminded me a recent meeting I happened to have with a European high level diplomat in Sri Lanka. Referring…
Sri Lankan refugees in India: “Are we the ones to bear this shame, are they the sacrificeâ€
I remembered John Denver’s passionate song dedicated to the refugees called “Fallen leaves”, as I sat in the Chennai airport, trying to make sense of what I had seen and heard and…
Current situation in Jaffna, Sri Lanka: A resident speaks out
The current socio-economic, political and ground situation in Jaffna from a resident in the embattled region in the North of Sri Lanka as captured by Vikalpa Video. Also see Present situation in…
How to kill innocent women and children
It’s easy. You just lead them a little less. It’s an old joke, born in the Vietnam War, and first recorded by Michael Herr, though Kubrick made it famous with his portrait…
Bala Tampoe on war and the erosion of democratic governance in Sri Lanka
Well known and senior trade union leader Bala Tampoe speaks on the war in Sri Lanka and the state of governance in the South. He notes that even militarily defeating the LTTE…
Interview with Mano Ganeshan on abductions of Tamils in Colombo
Member of Parliament and Convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee, Mano Ganeshan, speaks about the rising abductions of Tamils in Colombo, Sri Lanka. For this interview in Sinhala, click here. For this…
GRIEVANCES OF AN IDP
Due to the civil war that erupted in the Trincomalee District between the LTTE and the Government forces, the families that had been living at Muthur and Sam poor areas had been…
A reponse to ETHNOS OR DEMOS? – QUESTIONING TAMIL NATIONALISM
Fashionable as any aspiring theoreticians, writer Publius with above article once again takes on a contemporary and important topic, yet with wider pseudo interpositions and an assumed role of political advisory. Following…