The New Disappeared
NEW YORK – From the military juntas that ruled Argentina and Chile in the 1970s and 1980s to Joseph Stalin’s iron-fisted regime in the Soviet Union, dictatorships have a long history of…
Year: 2018
Present at the Destruction
NEW YORK – At the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly this month, there was a widespread sense of foreboding among world leaders. The anxiety went beyond standard concerns about…
#FreeShahidulAlam: Tweets from the protest in Colombo
A protest was held on October 2nd 2018 in front of the Bangladesh High Commission in Colombo, asking for the release of Dr. Shahidul Alam, renowned photojournalist and activist imprisoned in Bangladesh…
#FreeShahidulAlam: On protests and press freedom
Shahidul Alam is no stranger to Sri Lanka. In January 2005, the renowned photojournalist and activist documented damage wrought by the tsunami. His blog titled ‘Boxing Day blues’ shows a letter sent…
Money Talks: some facts around the depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee
The Sri Lankan rupee has depreciated against the US dollar on several occasions this year first on June 11 and then on June 20, when its value stood at Rs. 161.17. Reports…
On Shifting Sands
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) doesn’t always get it right. In May 2018, it predicted that Nawaz Sharif’s party, PML-N, will win Pakistani elections scheduled for July. That was wrong. In April…
War Crimes in Sri Lanka: Stain or slander?
-Darshan Weerasekera[2] Whether or not the actions of the government and the guardians of the nation during the last stage of the civil war (2006-2009) were a stain on the country’s national…
Of Patriots and Traitors
Much has been said across various media over the years, and recently too, on the subject of ‘patriots’ and ‘traitors’. Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary (1755) defined a patriot as “one whose…
The Right to Know
“I’m not worried about them. I want to know what happened to the one that has gone missing.” 70 year old Yogaradhi says she cannot remember when her grandson, Alfred Thinu, went…
Sri Lanka Should Take Up the Challenge on LGBT Rights
The Indian Supreme Court’s landmark ruling sweeping a colonial-era law that criminalised same-sex sexual behavior into the dustbin of Indian history has made worldwide headlines. The credit must go, of course, first…
Jana Balaya Colombo – Lessons Learned
On September 5, Colombo was nearly empty even during the after-school rush hour. The reason was the Joint Opposition’s Jana Balaya rally, the location of which remained under wraps until the last…
A Litmus Test: The Debate on the 19th Amendment
On April 28, 2015, the 19th amendment to the Constitution was passed in Parliament, with a two-thirds majority. 212 MPs voted in favour of its passage, with just one MP at the…
Abortion – Where is Sri Lanka On The Spectrum?
“If you are not in favour of legal abortion, then you are in favour of illegal abortion” Prof. Arulkumaran On October 28, 2012, Savita Halappanavar, a young Indian dentist, died in Ireland…
On Capital Punishment
The diverse profusion of contributions on this subject reminds me of an apocryphal story of a man of Abrahamic faith (Christian/Muslim/Jewish), ship- wrecked on a land unknown to him. He kept wandering,…
Fragile Hope, Firm Resolve
A puff of wind shifts the piece of cardboard dangling from the tent. ‘541’ it reads. Over one year later, the tent housing the families of the disappeared in Vavuniya has become…
