Sri Lanka’s Pandemic of Sexual Violence
The recent sexual assault of tourists in Mirissa has made headlines but the only unusual aspect of the incident was that it received substantial media attention: Sri Lanka has a national pandemic…
Year: 2018
A Superiority Complex: Why the Government Needs to Communicate with the People
The government has a superiority complex. Let me elaborate. Within the last few weeks, the Government of Sri Lanka has managed to host tourism and promotional events and business interactions in Japan,…
Iranaitheevu: a community reclaims their island home from the Navy
On the morning of April 23, 2018, about 300 people from the Iranaitheevu twin islands decided to sail there in about 40 boats. They have been displaced since 1992, and the Navy…
Weaponising 280 characters: What 200,000 tweets and 4,000 bots tell us about state of Twitter in Sri Lanka
In light of a recent spike in suspicious activity on Twitter in Sri Lanka, is pleased to publish a detailed report co-authored by Senior Researcher, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sanjana Hattotuwa and…
Why the Office on Missing Persons Must Think Outside the Box
One of the greatest challenges facing Sri Lanka today is to restore its image in the realm of human rights. There’s not a day that goes by without the media highlighting war…
Iranaitheevu; a year of continuous protests to regain Navy-occupied land
After the election of the new government in 2015, the people of Iranaitheevu, forcibly displaced since 1992, finally thought they would be able to return home. Yet a flurry of letters and…
“Her. Him. The Other” – Exposing Political Realities and Eroding Human Values
We stand today with our collective consciousness bruised almost beyond repair. We feel devastated by the chaos, anarchy and culture of impunity. As someone recently said, the beast rides again. What is…
Facebook responds to open letter from Sri Lankan civil society
A day after our open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook representatives from Delhi, India, on his behalf, responded. The email is reproduced below in full. It is worth noting at the outset…
RTI Reveals Lanka E News Blocked On Order from President’s Office
In December 2017, received a list of 13 websites that had been blocked from 2015 onwards by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), via a Right to Information request. The documentation uncovered the…
An insufficient appetite for a Rajapaksa return
The outcome of last week’s failed no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has established a few political ground realities. Firstly, it was a massive overreach by the Joint Opposition (JO), which…
Open letter to Facebook: Implement Your Own Community Standards
10 April 2018 Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dear Mark, In solidarity with and support of a letter signed by leading civil society organisations from Myanmar addressed to you recently, we, the undersigned,…
Muslims In Sri Lanka: A new strategy for engagement
Scores of Muslim mosques, homes and businesses were destroyed as mobs ran amok for three days in Kandy. Thousands of Muslims are disillusioned and uncertain about their safety and security for the…
The Story of a Man who Built Five Cinemas: Combating the Culture of Poverty
The story of Veerappa Alagoo and his family is also that of one the most disadvantaged and discriminated against among the major communities of this island. Alagoo’s story relates to a minor…
UNP & SLFP: Transition Blues, Part 1
Photo courtesy Amidst so many stories about the ever-exciting twists and turns in the crisis of our government, we seem to ignore so many other significant political questions. One such question is:…
Beyond No Confidence Motion, Is Sanity Possible?
Photo courtesy Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha (Alawaka Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya, Sutta Pitakaya) restarted the writing-life of Nobel laureate Jose Saramago. The semi-autobiographical novel uses the trials and travails of a single family…
