One of the most fundamental challenges of peacemaking and peacebuilding is confronting the past while building a just foundation for the future. Fighting impunity and pursuing peace are not incompatible objectives –…
Two months ago I sat for my first year final exams at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Last month’s edition of the showcased 3 pages of clothes from designer K.T Brown…
It was less than 200 years ago that the title of “orator” or “navalar” was bestowed on Kandar Arumukam Pillai, by the grateful inhabitants of South India. Leaving his native Jaffna for…
[Editors note: The author was married to Dr. Rajini Thiranagama (née Rajasingham), a Tamil human rights activist and feminist murdered in 1989 by the LTTE. She was one of the founding members of…
Lessons from China or Tunisia? Just few months ago, in response to a public outcry for more accountability and transparency in the use of public funds, the State Council, which is the…
Photo, courtesy JDS, is of Sri Lanka’s President reading the LLRC report on a ‘‘ at his official residence. Though not without flaws and lacuna, the long awaited LLRC report does not disappoint, and…
Photo credit For quite sometime, ever since the establishment of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the Government of Sri Lanka has been asking its critics not to pre-judge the work…
Photo credit Ada Derana Finally, the full report of the long awaited Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is in public domain, after it was presented in parliament on Friday (16 December,…
The official report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was tabled in Parliament today. The official government site the report is available at is, at the time of writing, charitably put,…
Aside from articles appearing last Sunday in the ran a story on how Bell Pottinger had written the President’s speech to the UN after the end of the war in 2009. The…
Image from by C.G. Uragoda and K.D. Paranavitana Being Poya with nothing much else to do, we strolled over to the newly restored and opened Old Dutch Hospital, which Colombo’s oldest building…
The statement by the Prime Minister that wheat flour imports should be banned is an irresponsible statement and must be retracted. While it may be his choice to consume only rice, or…
This was the first World AIDS Day I chose to ignore. The first World AIDS Day that I tried to boycott. Every year since I got into this business, December 1st has…
Front cover of . Click here for larger image. Put simply, by Sri Lankan Tamil artist T. Shanaathanan is, for us, one of 2011’s most compelling publications. It is art, but in…
