The hunt for the missing
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via ### Arriving at the small house among banana trees we are greeted by the sounds of normality. The dog barks. Birds in a cage chirrup. But…
Year: 2014
The Search for a Political Solution Five Years after the War
Photo via Ministry of Mass Media and Information “The sovereignty of Sri Lanka is very much intact. And we want it to remain intact. We are Sri Lankans… And we don’t want…
Problems of success? Post-war Sri Lanka’s international challenges
Photo by Ishara S.KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images, via RightsNow Since the end of Sri Lanka’s thirty year-long war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the island is often evoked internationally in relation…
A systems approach based on a rights framework for the governance of Sri Lanka
Photo via FT.lk I read the article titled 05/09/2014) by Dayapala Thiranagama with interest. It looks at the construction of Sinhalese Buddhist supremacy model, strengths and weaknesses of RHP, and the weaknesses…
Ideological Cancers within the Sinhala Universe: Roadblocks in the Path of Reconciliation
Photo by REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte via Channel 4 Way back in the 1970s the manner in which Anagārika Dharmapāla conflated the concepts of “Ceylonese” and “Sinhalese” in one of his public exhortations (Guruge 1965)…
A South African effort at promoting reconciliation
General elections in South Africa concluded a few days ago and the results were a resounding reelection victory for the ruling African Nation Congress and the government of President Jacob Zuma. Twenty…
5 years after: Reflections as a mother, women and a citizen of Sri Lanka
Image by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP, via FT.com The moment I think of the war it takes me to 1995. Sri Lankans had very high expectations – a new government and a new…
Re-visiting the Rajapaksa Hegemonic Project
Photo by Pankaj Nangia/Bloomberg News, via The Japan Times The UPFA regime has accomplished an unprecedented hegemonic political power, consummated by landslide electoral victories: Presidential election, January 2010, Parliamentary Elections March 2010 and…
The failure of the media, civil society and the ‘moderates’
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via SC [FR] 97/2014 is a Fundamental Rights application currently pending before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. FH the Petitioner is an 11 year old Muslim girl…
Archive of #WCY2014MR: A youth focussed Twitter Q&A with the President
Image courtesy the President’s Twitter account On the occasion of the World Conference on Youth 2014, the President Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa announced over social media he would have, and not for…
Keep Off the Grass
Photo courtesy Pri’s blog Colombo has been blossoming under the keen watch of Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who, in his self-appointed role as Godfather, presides over a grand plan of urban beautification…
The unlawful arrest & deportation of a British tourist
Photo via BBC A close look at the series of illegal steps taken by law enforcement authorities Ms. Naomi Michelle Coleman, a British Tourist with wide travel experience in many Buddhist Countries…
A Brief History of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance from 2004 to 2014: Statistics and Real Politics
Image via Wikipedia By 2015 Sri Lanka will have experienced a decade of rule by the United Peoples Freedom Alliance UPFA government under President Mahinda Rajapakse. He ascended to the Presidency in…
Five Years Later
Photo by Ron Haviv The pearly island, flip in the sea before munching hot prawns near breakers on the beach; be careful with a camera, no point and shoot in sensitive…
Kasturi’s Progress
Photo by Vidu Gunaratna, AČK | Photography Kasturi was born in another century in what really was another country. It was called Ceylon, and the year, 1933. Two years earlier, exercising the…
