How News Headlines Make or Break the Public Mind
The front page main headline is the focal point of a newspaper that grabs the attention of news consumers. A main headline goes beyond merely describing the facts of a news story…
Colombo
Is There a Credible Political Alternative for Sri Lanka?
Why do Sri Lankan voters elect and re-elect corrupt and discredited politicians? This topic has been much talked about and commented on in newspapers and social media ever since Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in…
Public Awareness Key to Ending Gender Based Violence
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women I want to take a look at what progress has been made in raising our awareness as a community about the…
The Scourge of Intimate Partner Violence
Mala is a survivor of intimate partner violence. She kept it a secret until her husband passed away. After 25 years of daily abuse, she finally found the strength and courage to…
The Constitutional Roots of the Problem of Disappearances
There is a bagful of tricks that Sri Lankan governments have been using when it comes to the issue of revealing the truth and providing justice to the families of the disappeared.…
Boys Cry Too
Boys are often under represented or even ignored in the fight against child sexual exploitation due to the stereotyping of gender traits with males being considered strong and invulnerable and less likely…
Smashing Fertilizer Myths
About a decade ago, a statement by a medical doctor in the United States made overnight headlines. He was a popular television personality too. When he learned about the presence of arsenic…
PTA ++: Learning the Wrong International Lessons
In the name of counter-terrorism countries enact repressive laws that restrict human rights. They claim these laws will make us safer. Yet, contrary to claims of increasing national security, the tendency of…
The Growing Dangers of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
It was a horrifying and sickening case. A 15 year old child was groomed online and sexually abused by dozens of men including a local government politician, a Buddhist monk, a Navy…
Protecting Every Child in Sri Lanka
On November 20 every year, the world celebrates World Children’s Day; it is the same day on which the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) was established, leading the…
The Case for Acquittal – Justice or Impunity?
Since mid 2020, there has been a key feature emerging from the justice system in Sri Lanka – a trend that people with political affiliation have been either acquitted by courts, cleared…
Study Shows Civil War Caused Long Lasting Trauma in Birds
Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war left a lasting impression on humans and animals. For me, being part of this study gave me the opportunity to be the first person in my family…
A Gendered Analysis of Budget 2022
Every year in November the mainstream media is dedicated to economists for the analysis of the budget for the year. Because many of these analyses, which use a variety of technical terms,…
Budget 2022: What’s in Store?
The Minister of Finance and Treasury officials have been busy putting the final touches to the 2022 budget. Numerous organizations, associations, chambers, critics and cheer leaders are even busier organizing pre-budget and…
Going Organic in a Planned, Sustainable Way
The new fertilizer policy introduced by the government has attracted heavy criticism from all sections of society; it has also received attention from the intellectual community. There is a good response from…