Asking the Future
Photograph courtesy ‘The Brother’s Grip‘, Global & Mail, by Ishara Kodikara, AFP ### The past is what Gotabaya Rajapaksa invokes when he tells us to vote for him. In his glitzy…
Year: 2019
“What is the Question?” The Matter of Surrendees and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Response
Meera Srinivasan, the Hindu correspondent in Sri Lanka, at the first press conference with Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked him what happened to the LTTE cadres and others who surrendered to the…
A Glimpse into the World of ‘Predatory’ Publishing
Image from ‘Academic publishing is broken. Here’s how to redesign it’, On 20th September 2019, I was invited to be part of a panel discussion on ‘Academic Publishing In India’ organized by…
Presidential Interference in Universities
Prof Sarath Chandrajeewa, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Visual and Performing Arts, has been removed from his post by the President of Sri Lanka. No explanation has been offered. In a…
Ranil’s Recalcitrance and Liberal License
Photo by Reuters, via South China Morning Post The term ‘Colombo liberal’ is one that’s almost always used as a pejorative. Elitist, out of touch, NGO-kaarayas and foreign agents are among the…
Is there a Gotabaya-wave? Can it be broken?
Image from “Sri Lanka: Reconciling and Rebuilding”: Framing the lies What would a Gotabaya Rajapaksa Presidency look like (Economist Intelligence Unit – 11.8.2019) Saviours need crises, not the average inflation-unemployment…
One Question, Two People, A Shared Pain
One question. I needed an answer to one question. Despite being used to meeting people and talking about difficult issues, it was not easy to ask this question. I had to make…
A Betrayal of Trust: On Gotabhaya’s Candidacy and Shavendra’s Promotion
The International Day of the Disappeared is on August 30, and I was in Mannar when a group of mothers were preparing to show their collective resistance at Omanthai in the North…
30 Years, and Still Waiting
Rain has turned the red earth roads of Kiula, Hungama in the Southern Province to mud and the skies are overcast. In the verandah of a bright pink house, five women –…
State Power and Street Theatre in Sri Lanka
In the 1970s and 1980s, Sri Lanka witnessed a marked conflict between the State’s enactment of power in relation to the control of public space, and street theatre’s appropriation of it. The…
Enter Homo Extremum?
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s maiden speech as the SLPP’s Presidential candidate was a masterpiece in banality. It didn’t contain a single memorable sentence or one inspiring idea. That absence was no accident. The speech…
Free Elephants
Where elephants go to die were departments of Spanish literature in remote Plains and Midwestern colleges. according to Jose Donoso. For me, these pictures of an emaciated, starved, older female, broken, tired,…
On Resilience and Bridging Division
The devastating attacks on Easter Sunday widened existing rifts between religious communities. There have been reports of attacks on Muslims and Christians, as well as of arbitrary arrests, and in some instances,…
On the Side of Justice
Why is it so difficult for the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU) to acknowledge 18 as the minimum age of marriage? What is interesting is that the Qur’an does not specify a…
Building Resilience: A Conversation On Security and Withstanding Political Turbulence
Almost four months after the Easter Sunday bombings, Sri Lanka continues to operate under a State of Emergency. National security has once again become a central topic. The Easter Sunday bombings revealed…