Gotta Go
It’s tumbling down, Man. You gotta know when you got to go, Gota. You don’t have the luxury of waiting for Mother India to take back her child from that…
Year: 2022
Refusing a Neoliberal Peace in The Incomplete Thombu
Today Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis since independence. In the coming months, people’s hardships will only worsen as more austerity is forced on them. The present crisis is a result…
March 31 Protests and Aftermath: Updates
The Protest Events of March 31 leading into the early hours of April 1, 2022 On March 31, a silent citizens protest that began at Jubilee Junction in Nugegoda burgeoned into a massive show…
Queueing for Death: The Systemic Extermination of Sri Lankans
The present economic failure in Sri Lanka is a long running trajectory. The term failure is used deliberately to account for the decades of failed political leadership that has hauled the country…
On Protests
In November 2019, 6.9 million Sri Lankans overestimated the intelligence, capacity and compassion of the Rajapaksa brothers. That mistaken assessment was the root cause of the tragedy we are living through today…
Amnesty International’s Damning Report of Human Rights in Sri Lanka
In its latest report The State Of The World’s Human Rights 2021/2022, Amnesty International gives a damning indictment of Sri Lanka’s human rights situation during 2021. Here is the report: The government…
Working Towards Acceptance and Recognition for the LGBTIQ Community
In a historic landmark decision, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) found that Sri Lanka’s criminalizing of same-sex sexual relations under section 365A of the Penal Code…
Building Resilience in Stressful Times
These are difficult times for many of us in Sri Lanka. After two years of a pandemic that disrupted nearly every aspect of daily living, we are now going through a serious…
Sri Lanka’s Crisis of Incompetence
I debated with myself whether Sri Lanka’s present state was a crisis of incompetence or a crisis of arrogance and settled on incompetence. You could have someone arrogant but competent; it’s not…
Finding the Crime in Reproductive Choice
International Women’s Month was heralded by the familiar sound of male decision making in Sri Lanka’s parliament. The agenda for International Women’s Day was the legalization of abortion in the instance of…
Who Will Punish the Perpetrators?
The images are stark and compelling. The STF men are stoic and menacing. They stand unmoving, machine guns clasped tightly to their chests, their faces obscured by motorcycle helmets. The women are…
The Ides of March: Protests, Discontent and Disconnects
The month of March has seen widespread discontent expressed by many Sri Lankans from all walks of life on new and old social, economic and political concerns leading to more than 100…
Preserving and Protecting the Hidden Resource of Groundwater
Each World Water Day brings with it a new theme and a new resurgence of interest, although momentary, in that most critical source of support for human lives and ecosystems – water….
Something Toxic this Way Comes
“Terror continuous dark terror against the fragile human land…” Zbigniew Herbert (To Marcus Aurelius) Had Sri Lanka a parliamentary system of governance, the Rajapaksas would have been out by now. Thanks to…
Averting the Looming Food Crisis
A food crisis is inevitable. Food prices are soaring; shortages in essential food items are creating long queues, affecting people’s ability to work and get on with productive lives; the foreign reserve…
