Dr. Rajani Thiranagama Commemoration on 20th and 21st September 2014
I was a public servant when Rajani was assassinated by an LTTE agent 25 years ago. I took private leave, travelled to Jaffna at my own expense and participated in the 31st…
Jaffna
INFOGRAPHIC: Military Presence in the North of Sri Lanka
Five years since the end of the war, a significant military presence still remains in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. This despite repeated assurances by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL)…
Review of Neville Jayaweera’s Jaffna: Exorcising the Past and Holding the Vision
Photo courtesy Thomas Berg Part I When I was asked by Marshell Fernando whether I would review the above, I readily agreed. Neville was several years senior to me in the Ceylon…
Post-War Development in Nepal and Sri Lanka: A Comparison
Image courtesy Wikipedia Introduction Both in Nepal and Sri Lanka the transition from war to durable peace has been painful and is ongoing and not devoid of pitfalls as has been the…
The Story of Green Shoots of Hope behind Barbed-Wire Fence
A few weeks ago, in the town of Kilinochchi in the North of Sri Lanka, I visited a large factory. An exciting visit to Kilinochchi, because just six years ago, the likes…
Healing through humanisation: A reflection on Just Reconciliation
Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Campaign History concealed An acquaintance returned from a recent visit to Jaffna to announce it as one of the best holidays she had ever had. The hotels…
Cycles of joy and pain: Ode to the Jaffna cyclist
Build and break Break and build Is this not A child’s world? Stamp your journey with mildness Stamp your journey with gentleness Tread with care Disturb nothing Inherit the earth By being…
Counter-Thuggery Doesn’t Pay
Out there, in the Northern parts of post-war Sri Lanka, anyone who cares to look will see a difficult situation prevailing. There live people who have not been re-settled in places they…
Did you too laugh, my brother?
Photo courtesy Tell me my brother in the North, Who is not allowed to weep today Tell me about the times when you laughed On your long road to defeat and subjugation…
In conversation with Kalana Senaratne: Religiosity, politics and identity in Sri Lanka
Kalana Senaratne is a distinguished columnist and researcher. Readers of would be most familiar with his writing on the rise of militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka, though he has written consistently of…
Celebrating 5 years of Post-War Conflict
Photography by DushiYanthini Kanagasabapathipillai Kiru is a soft spoken but hard-nosed activist from Jaffna. He and I both attended the opening ceremony of the recently concluded World Conference on Youth (WCY) in…
Understanding the National Question as a Pre-Democratic Problem: A Skeptical Note on the Southern Reform agenda
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via FT.com Five years after the end of the war, the Government has now started arguing that the war is not over. The Government doesn’t think the…
Writing on the Wall: A Sinhala Prayer in a Tamil Church
When I was walking near the Mulativu beach by around 5.30 this morning, I came across an abandoned Catholic Church. It was in a dilapidated condition. The Church seems to have been…
Life in the Open-Air Panopticon: Surveillance and the Social Isolation of Ex-LTTE Combatants in Sri Lanka
Image from SL Online News “You have to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness,…
The Five-Year Tongue Twisters
Photo courtesy ISHARA S.KODIKARA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, via The Global Mail [five times five things to try to say quickly] 1. The misters assisted in shelling these shells on the seashore war, The shells…
