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Groundviews

Author: Sajeeva Samaranayake

Year
Month
Development, Human Rights, Issues, Politics and Governance

“Human rights” for a divided society

To understand the process of indirect colonisation of the non-white countries in Asia and Africa is to work through the splitting of society in two. When overwhelming power came externally to crush…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 12/01/201712/01/2017
Human Rights, Issues, Peace and Conflict, Transitional Justice

Standing up to the Age of Emotions

Featured image of Paris attack memorial courtesy  Norway July 23, 2011 A 32-year-old Norwegian suspect has been arrested after at least 87 people were killed in two attacks in Norway courtesy Colombo,…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 11/16/201511/16/2015
Colombo, Human Rights, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

William Blake, Buddhism and Human Rights – value of praxis over ideology

[William Blake 1757-1827 demonstrated through his art and poetry how opposite views were actually relative and dependent on each other and that they were reconcilable once we overcame the mental trap of…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 09/25/201409/25/2014
Jaffna, Poetry

Cycles of joy and pain: Ode to the Jaffna cyclist

Build and break Break and build Is this not A child’s world? Stamp your journey with mildness Stamp your journey with gentleness Tread with care Disturb nothing Inherit the earth By being…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 08/05/2014
Colombo, Human Rights, Identity, Long Reads

Freedom and bondage: Lankans, then and now

Introduction There is a need to question the adequacy and suitability of current conceptions of both ‘human rights’ and ‘secularism’ to meet the challenges of unbridled majoritarianism, which seems perfectly at home…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 04/01/201404/07/2014
Colombo, Identity, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Religion and faith

Reception of Buddhism in Lanka: An entanglement with worldly sovereignty?

Image courtesy [Constitutional amendments at Anuradhapura were signified by the erection of a new stupa; or as in the case of King Kasyapa, by moving the capital to another place. The ideological…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 02/10/2014
Colombo, Identity, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Politics and Governance, Post-War

Sinhalese and their fear of freedom

Anagarika Dharmapala, A.E. Goonesinha and C.W.W. Kannangara, three of the radical champions of the early 20th century who were ‘managed’ by the conservative leaders who eventually negotiated ‘freedom’ from the British. With…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 01/31/201401/26/2014
Colombo, Politics and Governance, Religion and faith

Understanding the Sinhala Buddhist doctrine of ‘Holding On’

“I do not say you can attain purity by views, traditions, morality or conventions, nor will you gain purity without these. But by using them for abandonment rather than as positions to…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 07/25/201307/25/2013
Colombo, Religion and faith

Beyond collective egos: Our relational grounds of belonging and faith

While racial hatred burns, with fires so ably lit by the ignorant on both sides of Palk Straits, there is another source of energy – hidden from view but none the less…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 04/24/201304/24/2013
Colombo, Identity, Religion and faith

The Sinhalese…

[The triple gem of Anuradhapura; Abhayagiriya facing north and its synthesis of Theravada and Mahayana represents the spiritual values of balance and integration; Ruvanweliseya in the western corner symbolizes caution, orthodoxy and…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 03/16/201303/15/2013
Anuradhapura, Politics and Governance, Polonnaruwa

Nalanda Sahayogaya

Image from Wikimedia Commons Grappling and struggling With this constructed reality Where everyone wants to succeed But so few do Why don’t we try and forge Our own reality? I find it…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 03/02/201303/02/2013
Anuradhapura, Colombo, Politics and Governance, Polonnaruwa

Is the history of Sri Lanka a tale of two civilisations?

[Parakramabahu (1153-1186) holds the yoke of sovereignty which has only been upheld since by military power and force, rather than by the consent of the people] [Today, the easy co-existence of opposites…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 02/08/2013
Colombo, Human Rights, Politics and Governance

Child Abuse: A Time for Deconstruction and Engagement

The politics of child abuse is no different from the politics of human rights, women’s rights etc, etc. I use the word politics in the sense of labels we use to divide…

Sajeeva Samaranayake Sajeeva Samaranayake on 08/11/201208/10/2012

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