9/11 and My Muslimness
I was sitting in my garden, gazing at the stars listening to my Walkman, which was the only thing to do back then as you ticked off the minutes until the regulated…
Year: 2014
The Story of Green Shoots of Hope behind Barbed-Wire Fence
A few weeks ago, in the town of Kilinochchi in the North of Sri Lanka, I visited a large factory. An exciting visit to Kilinochchi, because just six years ago, the likes…
Sunila Abeysekera Commemoration: Speech by Nimalka Fernando
State Responsibility to Protect Human Rights Defenders Sunila Abeysekera Commemoration, September 9th 2014 We as individual human rights activists, as well as the human rights community as a whole greatly miss Sunila today.…
INFOGRAPHIC: LLRC Implementation Statistics
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report, along with the National Action Plan to implement the recommendations of the LLRC (Action Plan), are the two key documents produced by the Government…
The Legacy of A New Woman in Our Generation: Sunila Abeysekara (1952-2013)
Photo courtesy ‘Her discourse, even when ‘theoretical’ or political, is never simple or linear or ‘objectivized’, universalized; she involves her story in history’. – Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement, The Newly Born Woman, 1986.…
Portraits of diversity from Myanmar vital for Sri Lanka
When the British administrator J.S. Furnivall coined the term “plural society” he was talking about colonial Burma to describe the extraordinary diversity of nationalities, ethnicities, races and religions that inhabited its cities.…
Urgency of paradigm shift in understanding ‘co-existence’
Image courtesy Gecko Sri Lanka blog Changing socio-political and economic scenarios, post war peace building needs in Sri Lanka and unleashing of anti-Muslim activities by Buddhist extremist groups have prompted discourses on…
Healing through humanisation: A reflection on Just Reconciliation
Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Campaign History concealed An acquaintance returned from a recent visit to Jaffna to announce it as one of the best holidays she had ever had. The hotels…
Comrade Bala Tampoe, the Legend Is No More!
Photography by Kannan Arunasalam, via i.am Meeting with comrade Bala Tampoe at the Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU) office in Colombo had been a tradition I looked forward to whenever I visited Sri…
CBK, Ven. Sobitha, the Uva Polls and the Presidential Stakes
Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images via The Republic Square The Uva provincial council elections campaign in the Badulla and Moneragala districts, are taking on an intensity that was missing even in the…
FAQ on the UN Human Rights Council Resolution (2014) on Sri Lanka
Image courtesy Rights Now A UN investigation into allegations of violations of human rights in Sri Lanka is about to commence. As an aid to public discussion, Friday Forum sets out below information to help the general…
Issues of Truth and Accountability: A Private Sector Perspective
Photo by Udhara de Silva The “Third Narrative” reviewed at the Colloquium presents an alternative narrative, of the events of the last stages of the war, and has been developed as a…
Colombo Development: A Highway to… a Very Hot Place?
Photo by the author The causes of global climate change are myriad, and not all of them are within our control, but driving down the brand spanking new airport highway the other…
Disappearances and the struggle for truth and justice
Photo courtesy Human Rights Solidarity 30th August is the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Tens of thousands have disappeared in Sri Lanka in last few decades[1]. On this day,…
Colombo International Film Festival: Six Days That Would Change Your World
It is possible that one may find my title to be exaggerated: this is not the first time that we are hearing the words ‘international film festival’ in a Sri Lankan context.…
