The Re-gathering
“ In 2009, Mahinda Rajapaksa conquered Sri Lanka. In 2010, he set out to conquer the world with an address to the Oxford Union. Although the visit was a private one, a…
Author: Tisaranee Gunasekara
Waiting for Frodo
J.R.R. Tolkien’s One Ring was an instrument of power and suppression, forged to subjugate the free people of Middle Earth. Yet, the first word-picture of the Ring begins by emphasising its seeming…
Open Sesame for War Criminals?
In the second decade of the 21st Century, genocide is being televised. , the channel promises Israeli audiences “exclusive content from Gaza” – gory videos of death and destruction visited on Palestinians…
A Magic Wand
The Grimm version is known wider but the Turkish one cuts deeper. In both tales, the boy goes in search of fear and finds a crown. In the Grimm version, fear comes…
Waiting for a Democratic Opposition
The point had been made often enough. Without a Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency, there wouldn’t have been an Anura Kumara Dissanayake presidency. For the NPP/JVP to go from 3 percent to 42 percent…
Cats That Won’t be Belled
“Wrath” is the opening word of . Wrath is a key driver of the upcoming presidential election. People are angry at political leaders for bankrupting the country. Hopefully, the anger is accompanied…
Kings in Waiting
The most iconic moment at Nelson Mandela’s star studded memorial service was a handshake. As US President Barack Obama ran up to the podium under a light drizzle, a CNN reporter was…
Political Storms, Imagined and Real
Two years ago, on July 20, 2022, the Sri Lankan parliament voted to elect a successor president to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The SLPP put its full weight behind Ranil Wickremesinghe; even a parliamentarian…
The War Against Words
Had writer V.V. Ganeshananthan lived in Jaffna instead of New York, she would have been summoned by Sri Lanka’s Counter Terrorism Investigative Division (CTID) and grilled for a couple of hours over…
Shades of an Undead Past
In Sri Lanka of 2024, kanji is a four letter word. During the long Eelam war, all sides committed horrendous atrocities. Sri Lankan forces, the LTTE and anti-Tiger Tamil groups all were…
From Absurdities to Atrocities, Again?
Voltaire (Letter to Fredrick the Great – 28.11.1770) Sri Lanka’s road to ruin was marked by miracles. The story, born in mystery, spread across the land at the speed of light. Luminous…
Gaza in End Times
Jonathan Glazer, director of The Zone of Interest (Oscar acceptance speech) The Pali Canon has the original tale but it’s the version in the commentaries we know. In both stories, she is…
Doorway 2024
The news barely made the news. Defence secretary (retired) General Kamal Gunaratne and Army Commander General Vikum Liyanage were ordered by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee to apologise to parliamentarian Chandima Weerakkody. Last…
Merchants of Faith
The Tripitaka is silent on the subject but the Buddha’s three visits to the isle of Lanka constitute an article of faith for most Sinhala-Buddhists. Kelaniya is believed to have been the…
A Politics of Conscience
On August 14, 2006 the Sri Lankan air force bombed an orphanage in Vallipunam killing 61 schoolgirls. The Rajapaksa administration insisted that the location was a LTTE training camp and the victims…