In conversation with Thaji Dias
The gifted Thaji Dias is the Principal Dancer of the Chithrasena Dance Company. We begin our conversation, unsurprisingly, by getting Thaji to recall her first memories of dance, given the family and…
Identity
Vulnerable Guests: A Reflection on social hospitality
The Government’s decision to arbitrarily deport Pakistani refugee-asylum seekers is unacceptable and wrong. Local stress Asylum seekers usually leave their home countries due to fear or deprivation, or both. The Pakistanis on…
Liking violence: A study of hate speech on Facebook in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Brief The Centre for Policy Alternatives, the institutional anchor of , released today a report co-authored by Shilpa Samaratunge and I on hate speech online, looking at Facebook…
The Legacy of A New Woman in Our Generation: Sunila Abeysekara (1952-2013)
Photo courtesy ‘Her discourse, even when ‘theoretical’ or political, is never simple or linear or ‘objectivized’, universalized; she involves her story in history’. – Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement, The Newly Born Woman, 1986….
That which shall not be named
Photo by AFP/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI via On the 19th of July 2014, my cook hands me a police form to fill. It is one of those usual forms that we were inundated with…
SITA MAMI
Photo by La Shawn Pagan via NYC Views and News They had to postpone the funeral by a couple of days. The children wanted to pay their last respects. Flights had to…
“Where are the Sri Lankan Female Scientists?” A Case of Democratizing Science
Photo by Reuters, courtesy International Business Times In recent decades, many researchers, education specialists and policy advocates have paid increasing attention to the issue of gender bias in science. While several successful…
The Riots of June 2014 and Pogrom of July 1983
Photo by Thyagi Ruwanpathirana It is unlikely that there is anyone living who remembers the anti -Muslim riots of 1915. In any case, apart from the fact that most of the victims…
The aftermath: Aluthgama two weeks on
Two weeks have passed since violence broke out in Aluthgama and Beruwala on the 15th June- a day that will go down in the history books of Sri Lanka as nothing short…
IS THE BBS THE BOSS?
Photo courtesy There are scarier things, worse things, than Black July ’83. Aluthgama signaled the possibility of such things. The sequence of events, the lethal violence, the horror of Aluthgama were reminiscent…
The Limits of Tolerance
Photo courtesy There is a limit to tolerance, and this is it. In its short history as an independent republic, Sri Lanka has seen more bloodshed than seems fair. Many of our…
REALIST MODERNISM IN AN AGE OF KULTURKAMPF: A Review of Long War, Cold Peace by Dayan Jayatilleka
Image from YouTube video Dr Dayan Jayatilleka’s book, , now in its second revised edition of 2014, is one of the few book-length attempts by a Sri Lankan scholar to make sense…
Engaging issues of caste – the forbidden subject
Image courtesy Wikipedia Caste is observed by the overwhelming majority of Sinhalese and Tamils but the subject remains virtually taboo in public discussions. If it is mentioned in public, it is often…
OVERCOMING THE POST-WAR MALAISE: WHY SRI LANKA NEEDS A REFORM MINISTRY AND WHAT IT SHOULD DO
[Photo credit: The Empire Youth Annual, 1952] “For centuries the Sinhalese and the Tamils have lived together in peace and amity. We have been governed by their kings and they by ours…
Sari
Photo by Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai 2009 When Sidath’s mum wore her wedding sari, she would tell her children, ‘the lotus would fully open.’ The large lotus was noticeable because its bright red sequins,…
