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Groundviews

Author: Lakshman Gunasekara

Year
Month
Colombo, Human Rights, Peace and Conflict

The Civil War Through a Bishop’s Eyes

“The need for survival slings a gun on the shoulders of those who search for bread,” writes a Bishop of the Church of Ceylon. In this reflection on his being a witness…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 12/19/2024
Colombo, Foreign Relations, Politics and Governance

Sri Lanka and India’s Regional Dominance

When the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) was hosted by India a couple of months ago everybody sat up and took notice, especially those old enough to recall that once-revolutionary movement’s strident, even…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 05/30/202405/30/2024
Colombo, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance, Right to Information, Science and Technology

Fifth Estate: Paradoxes of Digital Power

World audiences remain riveted to phone, computer and television screens, shocked as we all are by the bloody carnality of the war in Palestine, the graphic horror gripping attention by its lurid…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 05/03/2024
Human Rights, International, justice, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Gaza: The Cruelty and Pain of Numbers

If a modern military combat involves a lot of high explosive such as large bombs and shells, the physical devastation of the area is profound. And the bigger the shell or bomb…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 04/24/202404/24/2024
Colombo, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance, Right to Information

Press Freedom in Cyber Civilization

Brief Generations of Sri Lankans have experienced many curfews and states of emergency and also experienced the bloody harm suffered by curfew violators. But successive insurgencies spanning all parts of the country…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 05/03/2023
#GoHomeGota, #GotaGoHome, Colombo, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Crisis Agenda for the Vox Populi and Fourth Estate

 People gasp for breath, eyes burning as the teargas canisters explode. Smashing bursts from police water cannon fling back protesters’ bodies from the serried metal barriers. Suddenly the roaring, massed, demonstrators melt…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 06/06/202206/06/2022
#GoHomeGota, #GotaGoHome, Colombo, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Waving the Lion Flag

The lion flag is waved for a historic first time on a mass scale in the Galle Face urban youth protest but the violent anti-protester attackers coming from Temple Trees also burnt…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 05/24/2022
Colombo, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

A Schizoid Political Culture

Attackers roaring obscenities, screams of victims, the thunk of metal poles on defenceless humans and the crack of smashed protester shelters all combined to almost drown out the Bhikkus’ serene chanting of…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 05/14/202205/14/2022
Colombo, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance

Swan Song of the Fourth Estate?

The ballads and chants still peal across the windswept Galle Face Green as the protests continue and Gota Go Gama (GGG) flamboyantly, angrily, uproariously flourishes on what was once the marine esplanade…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 05/03/2022
#GoHomeGota, Colombo, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Social Media Bares its Fangs

Will the regime fall? Will the Rajapaksas cave in? Will Gota actually give up? Or will there be a military coup to protect the regime? These and similar queries and speculations and…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 04/08/202204/18/2022
Pandemic, Politics and Governance

‘Making Hay’ While Under a Contagion Cloud

Cricket nationalists should blame COVID-19 for the repeated abject failure of our nation’s First Eleven. Why not? COVID-19 has been officially blamed for the economic crunch as well as for the population’s…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 07/02/202107/03/2021
Colombo, Politics and Governance

Violence in Heaven, as it is on Earth

Crucifixion of two men, but not to exact a torturous death. The assailants in Balagalla, Kandy, last Friday, wanted a bestial vengeance solely by inflicting the intense pain of actual to a…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 06/30/202106/30/2021
Colombo, Development, Economy, Politics and Governance

Managing Economic Inequity During and After COVID

When the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for economic sanctions against Sri Lanka, everyone over here sits up and takes notice. For the first time in years, the Government suddenly talks…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 06/29/2021
Colombo, Pandemic, Politics and Governance

Is COVID Only an Interlude in Cycles of Violence and Conflict?

The European Union threatening our precious garment exports to that rich market? As we sit at home stuck in front of various video screens while the curfews, so-called ‘travel restrictions’ and ‘lockdowns’,…

Lakshman Gunasekara Lakshman Gunasekara on 06/28/202106/28/2021

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