Cultivating a Partnership Culture of Compassion
Image from As we lament the brutish culture that has taken root in our lovely paradise, it is interesting to delve deeper at the underlying physiology, norms and values that promote war…
Year: 2013
Forgetting Black July
Photo courtesy BBC I was born ten years after Black July. I am a Singhalese. A week or so ago, as the thirty-year anniversary approached, for curiosity’s sake, I did a small experiment….
CHOGM dictates moderation to the Rajapakse Administration
Photo courtesy Transcurrents / by Tony Ashby, AFP The Rajapakse Administration is gearing up to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) later this year, in November. Last weekend’s news papers carried an…
A moonlit walk
July 1983 was four years after I was born. Like many in my generation who were not directly affected by the events that took place, memories are hazy and disjointed. Black July…
The Story of a Sri Lankan Constant
Have you ever observed Physicists? They are usually searching for constants, and separating them from variable quantities aren’t they? You must have heard of Plank’s constant, gravitational constant, the speed of light…
Pursuit of Revenge is Not Path to Justice
Photo courtesy BBC In our favourite bar on the afternoon of the 21st this month, I was having a beer with my usual drinking partner, the Sri Lankan Tamil fellow, Sivapuranam Thevaram. “That…
Dayasiri causes confusion in the North West while Vigneswaren prepares to lead the North
Photo courtesy dbsjeyaraj.com Last week, Rajavarothiam Sambanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance pulled a political rabbit out of a proverbial hat, when long running rumors were confirmed that eminent jurist…
Nationhood and National Parks
Photo from tahira’s shenanigans National parks in Sri Lanka that traverse the lines of nature reserves are held in reverence in the Sri Lankan psyche. Ideas of nature reserves in Sri Lanka…
The Commanding Officer
Photo courtesy BBC I remember going over to the house of a friend and trying to save the house from attack and destruction. I remember our failure to achieve that hope. A…
The making of ‘The Brothers Shaikh’
When the journalist Peter Savodnik asked me to collaborate with him on making , I said no. I was scared. This was my home. I knew that if I crossed some invisible…
The perpetual conflict: Part 3
Photo via blackjuly.info The Politics of Identity It seems all too obvious that the regular cycles of violence that have emerged in our recent history since 1915 are distinctly communal in character….
Democracy in the Deep State: Sri Lanka & Egypt
Photo via , REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany 3rd July 2013 is a dark day in the history of Egypt and indeed in the democratic world. It was the day the deep state in…
The Dayasiri Detonation
Photo courtesy While I wish that Dayasiri Jayasekara had broken away from the UNP to form a new party rather than join the government, he has, I must admit, made a smart…
Understanding the Sinhala Buddhist doctrine of ‘Holding On’
“I do not say you can attain purity by views, traditions, morality or conventions, nor will you gain purity without these. But by using them for abandonment rather than as positions to…
The perpetual conflict: Part 2
Photo via blackjuly.info Fault-lines Perhaps it is a tragic coincidence of our time; or maybe it was inevitable given the passage of generations, that we are marking the thirty year anniversary of…