Photo from Balendran Jeyakumari was arrested with her then 12 year old daughter in March 2014 on charges she possessed two stolen mine detectors. Lugged in remand prison for almost a year,…
Photo courtesy @dumindaxsb How Coke is undermining the media and Good Governance in Sri Lanka Almost all major mainstream media outlets in Sri Lanka are now owned, or partially owned by individuals representing…
What role (if any) did social media play in the recently concluded Parliamentary (General) Election on 17 August 2015? Many are asking this question – and coming up with different answers. That…
Photo EPA/M.A.PUSHPA KUMARA via Upon discovering I had been chosen as a short-term observer for the parliamentary election, it felt like Christmas had come early. Dallas to Doha to Colombo. And then on…
Image courtesy Killer Coke On August 17th 2015, the Coca Cola factory in Sri Lanka leaked diesel fuel into the Kelani River, polluting the water supply for millions of Sri Lankans living…
The word ‘Robot’ to signify a self-aware machine with the capacity to destroy humans was first coined in 1920 by the Czech playwright Karel Capek in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots (RUR)…
Photos courtesy @dogsinsrilanka This is a story about a dog lover called Uncle Nihal. He puts all his time into feeding the street dogs who live just outside Colombo. He wakes up…
We like to admit that we’ve moved past that and are moving forward but conflict scars a nation in ways that can’t always be healed. Our places are beautiful – sea, lagoon,…
Curated by Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives and Editor of – an exhibition featuring Sri Lankan art and work from the Artraker “Art of Peace” series, theatre and…
Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Water Board, via On 17th August 2015, local authorities discovered a leakage of diesel into the Kelani river, the source of drinking water for millions of Sri Lankans….
Image courtesy Bloomberg Sri Lanka has been a ‘banana republic,’ for quite some time, and clearly so throughout the oligarchy of the Rajapaksas. Formally, a banana republic is “a small country that is…
It was with deep sadness that I learnt Shanthi Sachithanandan had passed away yesterday. In emails and face to face conversations spanning many years, I remember an individual who was, at her core, deeply…
Photograph by REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte, via On what criteria should we vote in elections? Should it based on the issues closest to our own, irrespective of likely consequences? Or should it be strategic, designed…
Photo via Al Jazeera Notwithstanding his rise to ultimate power as a politician in this country, Mahinda Rajapaksa retains the mindset of an uneducated peasant , in this instance from Giruwapattuwa. Despite…
Branching from a walking tour of Slave Island conducted at Colomboscope 2015, the following article is a collection of ideas and stories shared over the festival backed by a personal interest…
