Did you too laugh, my brother?
Photo courtesy Tell me my brother in the North, Who is not allowed to weep today Tell me about the times when you laughed On your long road to defeat and subjugation…
Year: 2014
Engaging issues of caste – the forbidden subject
Image courtesy Wikipedia Caste is observed by the overwhelming majority of Sinhalese and Tamils but the subject remains virtually taboo in public discussions. If it is mentioned in public, it is often…
In conversation with Eshantha Peiris
Eshantha Peiris is currently a principal conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, co-director of the Old Joes Choir, and director of Contempo Choir, in addition to being the keyboardist of…
In conversation with Kalana Senaratne: Religiosity, politics and identity in Sri Lanka
Kalana Senaratne is a distinguished columnist and researcher. Readers of would be most familiar with his writing on the rise of militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka, though he has written consistently of…
The Colombo Port City Development Project
Paving paradise to put up a parking lot with a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot? In the words of Nobel laureate and economist, Amartya Sen, freedom is the…
Cartoon: Reconciliation Process
Click here for larger version. ### This article is part of a larger collection of articles and content commemorating five years after the end of war in Sri Lanka. An introduction to…
War, Peace and the Manufacturing of Rajapaksa Myths
Photo courtesy the Lankans in general are distressingly indifferent to the plight of the country’s most majestic mammal, the elephant. But an unaccustomed wave of public outrage ensued when a plan to…
OVERCOMING THE POST-WAR MALAISE: WHY SRI LANKA NEEDS A REFORM MINISTRY AND WHAT IT SHOULD DO
[Photo credit: The Empire Youth Annual, 1952] “For centuries the Sinhalese and the Tamils have lived together in peace and amity. We have been governed by their kings and they by ours…
In conversation with Gihan de Chickera: Cartoons, politics and theatre
Gihan de Chickera, who I’ve known since our halcyon days at S. Thomas’, is an actor, with experience in both stage and film productions, though perhaps even more loved and followed for…
Politics of Quotations: Concluding Rejoinder to Dayan Jayatilleka
Image courtesy RNW In this concluding rejoinder to my friend Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka I shall begin by what appears to me to be the core of our dispute, i.e. Dayan’s highly problematical…
Bringing Politics to the Stage: Observations on Post-War Political Theatre in Sri Lanka
Image courtesy Floating Space production of ‘My Other History‘ During the summer of 2010 I was tasked to assist a foreign post graduate student to conduct her research on Sri Lanka’s post war theatre.…
Celebrating 5 years of Post-War Conflict
Photography by DushiYanthini Kanagasabapathipillai Kiru is a soft spoken but hard-nosed activist from Jaffna. He and I both attended the opening ceremony of the recently concluded World Conference on Youth (WCY) in…
THE STATE AND WAR: THE POLITICS OF PHILOSOPHY
Photo by REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte, via Channel 4 Concluding rejoinder to Vangeesa Sumanasekara – Slavoj Zizek In the beginning was politics. Marx’s favourite figure in literature was Prometheus. The better known version of…
Understanding the National Question as a Pre-Democratic Problem: A Skeptical Note on the Southern Reform agenda
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via FT.com Five years after the end of the war, the Government has now started arguing that the war is not over. The Government doesn’t think the…
BRASSED OFF
PTI Photo, via In 2014, the year when Bollywood’s most popular ‘item’ song featured an Indo-Canadian porn star lip-syncing a song called ‘Baby Doll’, India elected a conservative Hindu chauvinist as its…
