Let the local discussion be your lodestar
Image via Having been in the Washington D.C. area for a fair amount of time and having read a few of the really good contributions to the most recent series, I got…
Groundviews at 10
Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Mission Impossible?
Photograph courtesy During the past few years much has been spoken and written about the need for reconciliation between the different communities in Sri Lanka. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)…
Human Rights Day, Transitional Justice and the Reform Agenda in Sri Lanka: What Next?
10th December marks international human rights day. While we should respect, promote and protect human rights regardless of a special day, 10th December ideally should be when we revisit and reflect on…
Lankan Muslims, Extremist Monks & a Feverish Government
Photo via Al Jazeera As turns ten, Sri Lankan Muslims are at a crossroads. The last ten years were predominantly about tensions between Sinhalese and Tamils, Muslims seem to now be the…
Democratising Majority Rule
Sri Lanka has been exposed to veiled despotic and corrupt rule for some time. The malady persisted through the last regime and the people joined hands, two years back hopefully, to usher…
Personal/Political
Photo courtesy Abdul Halik Azeez In September 2013, I lost my mother. 8 months after that, in May 2014, I lost my brother. They were significant people, in more ways than one. There…
Ten Years: Remembering the Past, Planning for the Future
Photograph courtesy Joanna Eckersley 2006: The Seeding Year Sri Lanka entered 2006 on the cusp between a failed peace process and a looming war. The year began with a murder. The killing…
Yahapalanaya in Sri Lanka: Remains of the Day
(’good governance’) regime. President Sirisena is doing it with a little loyalty to the constituencies that enabled him to win the presidential election in January 2015. He has been going after the…
Is it time Sri Lanka sheds its religious identity?
Sri Lanka is on the cusp of history, in several months it will be presenting to the people its third constitution in the space of four decades. Abolition of the Executive Presidency,…
On Groundviews, 10 Years Old
Photography by Seshanka Samarajiwa / The Picture Press, courtesy 30 Years Ago Groundviews offers a look from the bottom up, at the boot pressing you into earth, a shallow grave carved out by a…
Ten Years: On populism and counterfeit democracy
Ten years surviving a tempestuous period of contemporary Sri Lankan political, economic and social change, as an English language electronic platform introducing the most modern forms of communication is surely an accomplishment…
Editorial: Groundviews at 10
I often say I have two children. My son, born in December 2006. And , launched in November of the same year. The first post on the site went up on the…
