Sri Lanka Goes to the IMF
Sri Lanka has taken the (rather delayed) initiative to seek International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid and assistance to cure the economic crisis. Before I delve into what the IMF conditionalities and its…
Districts
The Tea is Cold: Cinema as Social Responsibility
A young man from Colombo, Randika, travels to Jaffna on an assignment to find out how the war has affected people there. At first he is more interested in sharing photographs on…
Bodily Harm: Abortion and the Rights of Women in Sri Lanka
The title of this article is taken from a collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood who has attained celebrity cult status recently due to her dystopic novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which…
Good Governance, Bad Governance and No Governance
Good governance means a system of governance that ensures economic efficiency guaranteeing economic stability throughout a nation. This economic efficiency can only be brought about by the observance of transparency, accountability and…
Looking for a Way Out of the Abyss
Our country has collapsed. Government spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena announced that fuel supply has come to a standstill and fuel will be available only for essential services. These is no one to blame,…
Arrests and Intimidation of Protesters Undermine Human Rights
The arrest of several protestors calling for Sri Lanka’s president and his associates to step down amid the ongoing economic crisis, has drawn attention to the grave human rights situation which persists…
Bringing Justice and Relief to Torture Victims
That Sri Lanka is a country where torture is rife has been well documented by several international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and…
Wild Politics and Brutal Policing
Police brutality is very much a normal part of the abnormal way of life that exists in Sri Lanka just as attacks by wild elephants have become an usual part of life…
Elections Are the Only Way Forward
Verité Research The young Sri Lankan cricket team has done the impossible and beaten the powerful Australian cricket team several times in the shorter formats of the game, giving Sri Lankans some…
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,…
Dissent Art Comes Into its Own
There is a lot of blood; faces grotesquely distorted, hands dripping red, bared fangs and dismembered body parts. Disgraceful alliances are mocked, leaders are lampooned and ridiculed and suffering and repression are…
Yogarasa Kanagaranjani’s Journey for Justice
“March 25, 2009. I remember that day very well. How can I forget it? That was the day I saw my son for the last time. That was the day I last…
Ananthy Sasitharan: One Woman’s Relentless Quest for Justice
Thousands of women across Sri Lanka are searching for missing their husbands, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. The long and tragic history of enforced disappearances goes back to the first JVP insurrection…
Can the Aragalaya Be Sustained? What Does the Future Hold?
From a small, localised protest that began in the outskirts of Colombo, the aragalaya, or struggle, has flourished into a small village named GotaGoGama (GGG) complete with a library, first aid centre,…
Hiding the Sins of the Elite
Therein lies the rub. At the heart of most of the crises that have beset the nation of Sri Lanka is a corrupt, inequitable and underdeveloped economic structure of colonial origin. Attention…
