Lankan Muslims in London and Political Myopia
AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via There was a protest that took place yesterday by a group of Sri Lankan Muslims in Britain outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in London mostly regarding the…
Year: 2014
THE WAR, PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS
Photo by EPA/M.A.PUSHPA KUMARA courtesy LA Times Response to Vangeesa Sumanasekara’s My literate young critic Vangeesa Sumanasekara, a serious student of philosophy, seems to say that the focus of his disputation with my essay…
Political settlement or regime change!
Photo by AFP, via SBS (Not exactly Francis Thompson) This essay is premised on an ill-omened reading of the Geneva tea-leaves. What be this ominous message I see floating in the cup?…
A new phase of mediation to get from post-war to post-conflict Sri Lanka
Image courtesy BBC Five years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka remains a post-war society that has yet to make the transition to a post-conflict society. While the violence has…
Arya Sinhala and the restoration of the Commons of Lanka
Submitted to as a response to Kalana Senaratne’s assertion that Buddhism does not have a means for contemporary political engagement, in The ‘Mad Monk’ Phenomenon: BBS as the underside of Sinhala-Buddhism. ### Being…
The lover of books and ecumenical Sri Lankan patriot: Ananda Chittambalam
Photo courtesy Foreign Correspondents Association Sri Lanka Way back in the 1980s when I was on research work in Sri Lankan and based at my sister’s place in Wellawatte I received a phone…
The Silly Idealist
Photography courtesy Dev Policy Blog Everyone called her a “Silly Idealist”. Some said it fondly, some with contempt, some with anger, and others even with disgust. But, she didn’t care. She truly…
Opened letter to His Majesty Mahinda Rajapakse the Lord of Sri Lanka and the Universe also
Dear Majesty, My name is Silva. The Silva. I am common man. Very common. So common I am always voting for your Majesty and Your Majesty’s government. However, please be notified that…
Five years on, where we are now: Reconciliation, the Rule of Law and governance
Photo by AP, via VOA News It is five years now after the defeat of the LTTE. As the Government then claimed it marked the end of terrorism and the beginning of…
Badiou’s Event and the defeat of the Tigers: A Brief Response to Dayan Jayatilleka
Photo by EPA/M.A.PUSHPA KUMARA courtesy LA Times What follows is a brief rejoinder to my friend, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, whose use of the philosophy of Alain Badiou, in his recently published article “Plato’s Cave…
Sri Lanka’s Quiet Heroes
Photo courtesy MSF Like many countries, Sri Lanka is a nation struggling with a lot of problems. The prevailing negative trends on the island are well-documented and irrefutable. People talk about national…
The Fragmented Republic: Reflections on the 1972 Constitution of Sri Lanka
Review of Welikala, Asanga, ed. 2 vols. Colombo: Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2012. 1-1038. ### “We seek your mandate to permit the members of Parliament you elect to function simultaneously as a…
Is reconciliation achievable without separation in Sri Lanka?
“The general population doesn’t know what is happening and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know” – Noam Chomsky Introduction In the article published in May 2010, I concluded: The emphasis…
THE MASTER: GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
Photo by YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images, via Huffington Post – From ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez the writer par excellence has died. He was born…
PLATO’S CAVE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN: ELITE FAILURE IN SRI LANKA
Photo by EPA/M.A.PUSHPA KUMARA courtesy LA Times ” Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebook 8 (1930-1932), 84. Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu (PiR Centre Press, April 28th 2014, Moscow) -Nic Pizzolatto, I I write…