If you don’t mind my asking, what is your race?
At my local hospital (in the UK) this morning, a nurse asked: “If you don’t mind my asking, what is your race?” Not the sort of everyday question, so I was taken…
Jaffna
General Sarath Fonseka and politics
Sage words indeed from General Sarath Fonseka. Now that the euphoria of winning the war against the LTTE is over, our minds must turn to the complex issues facing the country, such…
Understanding horror
I’ve tried to understand this war, and failed. It’s made me feel rather stupid – this inability to wrap my head around 30 years of horror, why it all started and who…
Needed: An Agenda for Reform on Groundviews
Whilst it is not clear as to whether we would be voting in both the presidential and general elections on the same day, it is clear that we will be voting in…
The Liquidation of the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam (LTTE): Lessons Paid In Blood!
Introduction: The killing of the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Velupillai Pirapaharan, has brought an end to a stage in the development of the Tamil National Liberation Struggle….
Lessons in Leadership
[Authors note: Edited text of a speech at the Jaffna Hindu College Old Boys Association (UK) Social Event: (31 October 2009)] Thank you very much for inviting me as Chief Guest. This…
The Politics of Diaspora Dissidence: A response to Dayapala Thiranagama
– UTHR (J), 18th Sept, 2009 I did not expect the Rajani commemoration to be a posthumous Nuremburg Trial for Velupillai Prabhakaran, as Dayapala Thiranagama seems to suggest ((London). Though Dayapala now…
Rajani commemoration: An absence of actuality
The evening was good but perhaps Rajani deserved a bit better. She always told it like it was, named things by their name, confronted reality frontally. That quintessential spirit of Rajani, her…
Crossing over to the other side of a unitary state
Part 3 The refurbished metal “Queen of Jaffna” gracefully strode up to the platform in Medawachchiya by 10.30 am – the time I usually start to begin to consider the prospect of…
Unshed Tears
Baby Elephants- dearly beloved elders were killed before their tender eyes Baby Elephants-arms, legs, teeth shriveled with the pain of the bullet Baby Elephants- loose wrinkled skin hangs off starving, haunted frames…
Sri Lanka: Vanquished Tiger, Roaring Lion
The stakes of life and death, hope and despair, peace and conflict are now higher than they were when the war was declared “over”. The Tiger was declared dead, and the Lion…
Confessions
Stop this struggle He pleads Of his comrades A revolutionary leader Broken in pain In State Custody They set me on the wrong path He blames, pointing to his friends A young…
Unpacking the Truth in Sri Lanka
In recent weeks there has been some talk about a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) as something that will allow Sri Lanka to come to terms with its troubled past and move…
Some Reflections on North-East Development in Sri Lanka
(The author is formerly of the Ceylon Civil Service and Retired Senior Professional of the Asian Development Bank.) Recent developments, including the statements made by President Rajapakse and his brother Basil Rajapakse,…
Heeding the voices of the North
The results of the elections to the Jaffna Municipality and Vavuniya Urban Council are an instructive measure of the distance to be traveled for peace, reconciliation and national unity. In both cases…