The Urgent Need to Strengthen Child Protection Measures
Child sexual abuse and exploitation have been ongoing issues in Sri Lanka for many years and the numbers continue to rise each year. There were 11,187 cases of child abuse reported in…
Colombo
The Need for Economic Justice and Accountability
Sri Lanka awaited the IMF bailout package to find some breathing space so that it can provide basic needs of energy, medicine, food and essential inputs for agriculture, industry and services. Following…
Peddling the Government’s Narratives
As of now, Ranil Wickremesinghe has three points in his favour. First, there is the IMF deal, which his government is more or less using as a shield against criticism of the…
South Asia Faces a Volatile and Unpredictable Future: Amnesty International
The ruthless repression of dissent, the growing crisis of refugees, an unchecked climate crisis and double standards of the West on human rights violations were some of the issues facing South Asia…
When Repeal Is Not Reform: An Anti-Terrorism Act Worse Than The PTA
On March 17, the government published its proposed 97 page Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). The ATA is the latest attempt by governments to respond to domestic and international criticism over the last 40…
President Wickremesinghe Has His Moment
Latina For President Ranil Wickremesinghe, March has been an exceptionally good month. First China gave its assurance for his government’s debt restructuring plans. Then his school, Royal College, won its annual cricket…
Financial Firefighting: The IMF Bailout and its Conditions
Between 1965 and 2019 Sri Lanka has signed 16 agreements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), out of which seven were terminated early. As of March 20, Sri Lanka received a bailout…
Saving Forests with Corporate and Public Responsibility
We know this and we know that despite all of their expressed concerns and intentions that the policymakers have little thought of doing much to reverse this trend. Rather than bemoan this…
Sri Lanka’s Reform-Regress-Run to the IMF Crisis Cycle
Daniel Alphonsus Countries never learn from others’ mistakes, they only learn from their own. Sri Lanka is an exception: we don’t even learn from our folly. Apparently neither does the IMF. Sri…
The Hardships of the Forgotten Plantation Sector
The plantation sector is vividly different from other sectors and is yet to be shown empathy and true care. Female workers leave home for work by 7 am and come home by…
The Globalisation of Asian Cinema
Alfred Mahan, a historian, once proclaimed that whoever commands the Indian Ocean in the 21st century will have control over the world, and he also declared it to be the Asian Century.…
The (Geo)politics of a Bailout
China has backed Sri Lanka’s debt plan. To be more specific, as Bloomberg reported, it has “given assurances that it will support Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring.” This is a significant breakthrough and…
Blood Sport of a Man
at her school, it’s not only the muscular jock that makes rape sound like a shaggy-dog story it’s also the averagely built skinny man who camouflages in feminism flexing his wit,…
Teardrop on Fire: Exposing Gender Based Violence
For her documentary film Teardrop On Fire, Jessica Palden interviewed many people who have directly experienced domestic abuse and intimate partner violence in Sri Lanka. The footage for the film was generated…
Sister, Sister
We lock pinkies and swear oaths stronger and more fearsome than a man could dream for blood is our birthright so our ties are awash in it drenched in a secret…
