EQUALITY, UNITY, AUTONOMY, DEMOCRACY
[Editors note: This article was originally published without the final two paragraphs due to an oversight by me in copying and pasting the text from the original Word document to WordPress post…
Year: 2012
A-Z of Sri Lankan English: T is for this thing
Original photo by Deshan Tennekoon What do you call something whose name you don’t know or can’t remember, or which you prefer to avoid naming for whatever reason? A whatsit or a…
Handling disasters: The man-made disaster of July 1983 (Part 1)
[Editors note: Part 2 of this essay can be read here.] Looking back at the July 1983 disaster, almost 30 years later, it would be natural to query how key policy issues…
Towards an Informed Water Vision: Part 2
Through the nation water quality has become a serious problem. The Nitrate and Nitrite pollution of the groundwater on the Kalpitiya peninsula, the eutrophication of the hydroelectric reservoirs during low flow, the…
Towards an Informed Water Vision: Part 1
The three basic substances of our biosphere, Air, Water and Soil share the characteristic that they are all dynamic and vary in quality and quantity from place to place on this planet….
Taking back our temples!
Image courtesy Global Abilities blog To visit a place of worship seems such a natural thing to do to the extent that we rarely consider it in terms of entitlements. Yet for…
The Oldest and the Greatest: A reflection on the Bradby Shield and what it stands for
Image courtesy Trinity College website History and tradition are great mentors. History assures us of who we are, and if we are brave enough, it can also teach us where we have…
American Foreign Policy and the HRC Resolution on Sri Lanka
Image courtesy Onlanka News The Obama administration did fight to get a seat on the Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2009; something that George W. Bush probably did not even contemplate. And,…
An Archive of Memories: Viewing War Footage Critically
Image courtesy Ron Haviv’s photo essay For many in Sri Lanka and around the globe, war is generic. Images of war victims are anonymous and nonspecific. If the caption on a photograph…
A new spate of web censorship in Sri Lanka?
Reports online suggest that Dialog Axiata and Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT),, are blocking access to a number of Tamil language websites reporting on Sri Lanka. In the morning we were asked whether…
Cast as Mother – A Reading: Audience Reviews
‘Cast as Mother’ – a dramatic reading of an upcoming play by Stages Theatre Group was held at the Lionel Wendt on May 24. Directed by Ruwanthie de Chickera, ‘ featured the…
INCREMENTAL SECESSIONISM: WHY DEVOLUTION MUSTN’T BE OPEN-ENDED
While everything is debatable, not everything is negotiable. Some things, a few things, simply must not be negotiable. The territorial unity and integrity of the Sri Lankan state, Sri Lanka as a…
Messing in the maze: A response to Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
As my friend Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka is probably aware, I rarely miss his articles. Sometimes I have been mildly shaken by his radical writing, but never quaked as I did having read…
International Widows’ Day Celebrations of 2012 in Nedunkerny
A group of war widows in the Nedunkerny region of the Wanni District celebrated the International Widows’ Day on 22nd June, 2012 at the conference hall of the Nedunkerny Pradesa Sabai. This…
Post-war Sri Lanka’s Thought Police: The Rehabilitation of Ex-Combatants and the Denigration of Tamil Identity: Part Two
[Editors note: Read Part 1 of this series here] As mentioned by TSA,[1]the government has prepared a lengthy, heading-less, and inappropriate questionnaire[2] (in poorly written and, at times, incoherent Tamil) which has…
