The Problem of the People
Sri Lanka, unravelled and unravelling, is mesmerised by a new wonder: the Lotus Tower. When that monumental symbol of Rajapaksa folly was opened to the public last week, people thronged to pay…
Author: Tisaranee Gunasekara
Prelude to Elections
Most politicians have a questionable relationship with reality. The Rajapaksas operate in a reality that is all their own. Asked why brother Gotabaya fled the country, Mahinda Rajapaksa replied, “Who accuses him…
A Janus Moment
“A wandering fire at a terrible height – can it be a star shining like that? Osip Mandelstam (Poem 101) A walking path bordered by the sea and a bit of lawn…
Life after this Death?
“All that is solid melts into the air…” Marx and Engels (The Communist Manifesto) The socio-economic edifice that is Sri Lanka’s informal sector is collapsing. According to the 2020 Labour Force Survey,…
Comrade Q – An Incomplete Sketch
The caption was pure Qadri: piece of June 2020 might have been the first time it strayed into his public writing. But then, as he points out, appointing a taskforce to create…
Sri Lanka in the Chalk Circle
“Without gas, without kerosene oil, we can’t do anything. Last option what? Without food we are going to die. That will happen hundred percent.” Mohammad Shazly a part-time chauffer, Colombo (Reuters –…
The End?
“We must love one another or die,” wrote Auden in September 1, 1939 as the world slid into calamity. Gotagogama and the nationwide anti-Rajapaksa struggle it pioneered and symbolized seemed to be…
Dawn at Galle Face: Which Tomorrow?
“Beyond the barricade Is there a world you long to see?” Do you hear the people sing (Les Misérables) “I’m 89 years old,” the grandmotherly protestor holding a hand-drawn placard says. “For…
On Protests
In November 2019, 6.9 million Sri Lankans overestimated the intelligence, capacity and compassion of the Rajapaksa brothers. That mistaken assessment was the root cause of the tragedy we are living through today…
Something Toxic this Way Comes
“Terror continuous dark terror against the fragile human land…” Zbigniew Herbert (To Marcus Aurelius) Had Sri Lanka a parliamentary system of governance, the Rajapaksas would have been out by now. Thanks to…
National Community and International Community
“A crisis of this magnitude can lead to renewal or destruction…” Ariel Dorfman (The last September 11) Perhaps England’s Henry II did not quite say, “Will no one rid me of…
After Gotabaya, the Deluge?
“Slip slidin’ away, Slip slidin’ away…” Paul Simon No astrologer in Sri Lanka reached such dizzy heights as Sumanadasa Abeygunawardane. He predicted for the Rajapaksas the future they wanted and was rewarded with power…
Weaponising Buddhism: Will the Third Wave Be the Last?
Independent Sri Lanka experienced three waves of weaponsation of Buddhism. The first was when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike embraced the Buddhist Commission Report. D.S. Senanayake had refused, on Constitutional grounds, a request by the…
The Next Three Years
In Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, a god gets turned into a tortoise. Omnia is great god Om’s fief. Everyone worships him there, out of habit or in fear of his human…
The Two Year Crash Course
“We can only shake our heads at how all of us followed this lunatic…” A German general (quoted in Volker Ullrich’s Hitler – Downfall – 1939-45) The first seeds of America’s Afghan…