I REMEMBER: 19 May 2010
As we come together to commemorate the anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s long and bloody civil war, these are some of the things I remember: I remember hearing reports in…
Vavuniya
Film premiere: The Truth That Wasn’t There
I am always wary of write-ups by filmmakers of their films. Labours of love often elicit painful diatribes. The messy, malleable margins of Sri Lanka has long been an issue that many…
Confusing reportage over comments by the President: Propaganda or fact?
. The version on , published on 3 April, attributed contentious comments, outrageously derogatory towards the Tamil community, to the President in a rally held in Jaffna on 1st April. Two audio…
Parliamentary Elections, April 2010: An opportunity for voters in the North and East
I remember visiting Jaffna in 1997. Local government elections were due. Several leading political figures had been assassinated in the preceding years, some by the LTTE, others by anti-LTTE groups. In the…
Citizen’s Commission: Expulsion of the Northern Muslims by the LTTE in October 1990
Sri Lanka has been increasingly the scene of much ethnic violence. The Northern Muslims are the victims of the earliest large scale act of ethnic cleansing in our history. Close to 80,000…
The loud and clear message from the voter turnout and the voters in the North and East
I wrote on the 30th of December in a post to ) that the assertion that the Tamil people would be deciders in the Presidential election would be a myth. There was…
A review of The Travelling Circus
The late review is at an advantage, in that it is informed by the published critiques of others and subsequent responses online and in print. In this respect, watching Tracy Holsinger’s on…
The fate of Internally Detained Persons and the future of freedom and democracy
There is much controversy over the fate of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), whom I wish to refer as internally detained persons. In essence, this controversy revolves around the nature of the…
Manufacturing of a ‘Common Candidate’ and Our Collective Political (Un)Conscious
— Karl Marx — Paulo Freire As news of the upcoming election unfolds, I find myself considering the meaning of the notion the “common candidate” in general, and its application to General…
The Travelling Circus: A different take on IDPs in Sri Lanka
Interview with Tracy Holsinger from Centre for Policy Alternatives on Vimeo. recently spoke to Tracy Holsinger of Mind Adventures and Mike Masilamani (Masii) about the upcoming production of ‘The Travelling Circus’, devised…
180 days after end of war, the much anticipated return of IDPs: An eyewitness account
Last week a group of us got very rare access to some of the resettled areas in Mannar and Killinochchi. I also visited the different zones in Manik Farm (used to be…
Love Displaced
If I only knew you were all right or even just okay or less than all right but alive I could survive in this – this place where there are shops clinics…
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…
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…
Breaking news: Flooding and unrest again at Menik Farm?
Updates received by in the evening today from the field suggest that heavy rain, as it did in August, is again causing havoc in Menik Farm. We were able to confirm heavy…