SWRD and The Poisoned Well Of Nationalism
I was introduced to the existence of a publicly shared negative attitude towards S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike for the first time at a book launch in Colombo several years ago. The author had decided…
Author: Devika Brendon
Emergence vs Emergency
Many people in the international community are now waking up to the realization that Sri Lanka is experiencing an unprecedented phenomenon. And unfortunately, due to the media’s predilection for sensational news, the…
Princes Do But Play Us
I have been thinking for the last few weeks how similar the current political situation in Sri Lanka is to a domestic violence situation where the victim takes some time to face…
The Caged Birds Of Paradise
Being a woman in Sri Lanka in 2022 is a challenging experience. Gender in a patriarchal society whose hetero normative values are entrenched is intensely complicated by the complex fragility of South…
Natalie Soysa – A Fierce and Inspiring Activist
Natalie Soysa lived an intensely creative life. She was a writer, a journalist, a photographer and activist and she understood early in her life what many people take decades to fully realise…
Vaccine Politics
Public health crises by definition are not going to grant much personal choice to individuals. It’s been 18 months now since the inception of the coronavirus pandemic and there’s just enough data…
Playing Catch Up: Sri Lanka’s MeToo Movement
Sri Lanka’s MeToo Movement is currently being described by Al Jazeera, The Hindu and The Independent as ‘delayed’ or ‘belated’, with stories of harassment, abuse and violation of women in professional spheres…
Taking Up the Challenge of Women’s Empowerment
In the past several years, we can see that a remarkable change has been occurring in Sri Lanka. A society which is disproportionally dominated by male voices and perspectives, has seen and…
Cancel Culture and What It Empowers
A brilliant friend of mine at university was upset one day because someone had vandalized her final exam results on the printout the University had pinned up on the board. She had…
What Death Can Teach Us
The title for this article is taken from the motto above the doorway to the morgue. The Latin words translate as “This is a place where Death has much to teach those…
US And Them
The United States and Sri Lanka both call themselves democratic societies. Like most of the rest of the world, we have had the U.S.A. held up to us as a model of…