A Single Story But With Differing Actors
In Israel/Palestine these are dark, terrible times with no obvious end in sight to the mounting bloodshed and destruction. It is also a time that gives rise to difficult but necessary conversations:…
Colombo
Northern Muslims’ Right to Return – Whose Responsibility?
Thirty three years have passed since the eviction of northern Muslims. In October 1990, some 75,000 to 100,000 Muslims in the Northern Province, about five percent of the province’s total population, were…
Re-inventing the Idea of University: Response to Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda Part 2
Middle class consciousness, non-involvement in politics The middle class consciousness of graduates who were able to climb the social ladder (we call it social mobility in sociology) was shaped by the modernist…
Re-inventing the Idea of University: Response to Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda Part 1
A recent article published on Groundviews by Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda titled Re-inventing the idea of University: Some Reflections and Proposals deserves wider attention. Given the fact that the university education sector has…
Media Narratives, Hateful Rhetoric and the Gaza Genocide
“Mom, I’m fine.” Those were the final words of Wadea Al-Fayoume, the six-year-old Palestinian American who was fatally stabbed 26 times at his home in Plainfield Township, Illinois on October 14, 2023.…
Kanesh Thabendran: Remembering the Past and Uncovering the Truth
For most of his life, 35 year old artist Kanesh Thabendran has lived in a war zone where every day was a struggle for survival amid exploding bombs and falling artillery shells.…
Nation Building is Possible with Full Implementation of 13th Amendment Part 5
One of the arguments raised against devolving police powers to provincial councils is that while a Cabinet Minister is in charge of the central police force, police units in each province controlled…
The Cauldrons We Make
Jewish Currents is a US-based leftwing Jewish magazine. Soon after October 7 Hamas attack, its editor, Arielle Angel, a vocal proponent of Palestinian liberation, penned a letter to the readers. “I watched…
IMF: Strengthening the Social Safety Net is Critical
The IMF has reached a staff-level agreement after conducting the first review of Sri Lanka’s extended fund facility arrangement. The release of the second tranche of the facility now awaits a decision…
Drones in National Parks: For Whose Benefit?
For many years the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) has been criticised for its lack of intent in upholding the principles of conservation. There are times, however, when the DWC does act…
The Tragedy and Power of a Single Story
I am sick and tired of people not taking a stand on Palestine because they fear it is a “complex” issue; they don’t know enough of the history, they are neither Israeli…
From the River to the Sea: Sri Lanka and Palestine
Sri Lankans are overwhelmingly standing with Palestine and with much of the Global South, which voted for a recent UN resolution, introduced by Russia, condemning Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip. There…
Sanitizing Israeli Horror and Demonizing Palestinian Resistance
Hamas’ coordinated rocket attack on Israel, which killed hundreds of Israeli citizens and brought a new Palestine-Israel War, is another chapter in the history and expansion of the Zionist settler state. To…
What Can We Learn from Sri Lanka’s Debt Default?
At Independence in 1948, Sri Lanka was second to Japan on most socio-economic indicators and ahead of South Korea on per capita income in 1960; it has since slipped behind most Asian…
Nation Building is Possible with Full Implementation of 13th Amendment Part 4
Thirty five years after its enactment, full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the constitution remains as controversial as it was at the beginning. The amendment faced opposition from both the South…