Achievement 2008, Challenge 2009
Sri Lanka closes out its 60th year of Independence, though in the strictest sense it lasts till the beginning of next February when we celebrate our 61st Independence Day. It is a…
Author: Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Fidel’s Ethics of Violence
  Re-defining the terms of a moral ideal of rebel resistance: How to master revolutionary violence? questions the Sri Lankan academic Dayan Jayatilleka in his latest book. It is by practicing a…
Mahaveer 2008 and Mumbai Mayhem
It ain’t over till it’s over, or as the Americans put it, in a reference to the opera, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. The Mahaveera Day 2008 speech by…
Aren’t we all in this together?
The first film I was taken to – even before I began schooling– was an Elvis movie, so I welcome the news that the best performing single in the history of the…
Barack Obama: History’s High Note
History sometimes hits a high note, sweet and soaring, clean and clear, as if from Satchmo’s horn. The most intelligent, interesting and inspirational of contemporary political personalities is about to be the…
Sri Lankan Identity in a Time of Seige
Bob Dylan,  Though it may seem otherwise at first blush, the agitation in Tamil Nadu is not helping the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka. It is hardening majority opinion on the island…
The Politics of Winning in the Vanni
Fascists launch a final surge before they lose wars. The Kamikaze pilots were a last card against the US fleet. The Nazis developed the Tiger tank, launched the V-1 and V-2 rockets…
Defense and Devolution
Just as it did at the moment of decolonization and independence, the visible post-war moment provides a rare historic opportunity for nation building and the construction of national identity. We missed the…
TAMIL NADU, THE INDIAN MODEL AND DEVOLUTION
The devolution debate has been sharpened by the highly interesting and significant results of the public opinion poll recently conducted in Tamil Nadu, with regard to Sri Lanka’s ethnic issue and its…
A Year of Anniversaries – From Puran Appu to the Hartal
This is a year beaded as a necklace with anniversaries. Some are past us, some ahead. Some are international, the others national. Some are of heroism, others of tragedy and darkness. All…
WINNING THE WAR, WINNING THE PEACE
  – Barack Obama, Berlin, July 24  We must not settle for a draw in a game we can win and are winning. As we draw closer to victory, those who…