Vijay Nagaraj: Contributions to public discourse in many guises
Vijay Nagaraj, who passed away in a tragic car accident in August, was someone I interacted with for around six years. We didn’t meet regularly, yet when we did, we carried on…
Development
Colombo: The making of a world class city
‘Colombo – the making of a world class city’, a photography exhibition that interrogates and critiques post-war city making in Colombo opens this weekend at the Global Voices Summit 2017 at Trace…
“Human rights” for a divided society
To understand the process of indirect colonisation of the non-white countries in Asia and Africa is to work through the splitting of society in two. When overwhelming power came externally to crush…
The Budget and the Inequality Crisis
Gintota is a grim warning. The abyss is still with us. We remain a country where a private dispute can be interpreted as a religious issue and used to ignite a violent…
Conserving Yala: An Alternative Approach
Image courtesy Much has been written and said about Block One of Yala National Park and its over-visitation, causing disturbance and danger to wildlife, thus jeopardizing conservation. The latest decision to cap…
Unpaid Care Work: The Overlooked Barrier in Women’s Economic Empowerment
Photograph via video produced by Institute of Development Studies There is broad consensus that women’s empowerment underpins the success of the new 2030 Agenda for Development (also known as the Sustainable Development Goals).…
Counting What Counts in Development
NEW YORK – To most people, “development” is best measured by the quantity of change – like gains in average income, life expectancy, or years spent in school. The Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure…
We need to talk about that e-NIC project
“The national identity scheme represents the worst of government” said Theresa May, the then UK Home Minister. introducing a bill to scrap the national biometric ID scheme in the UK . “It…
STORYSPHERE: In Search of Work
As part of a series marking 150 years of tea production in Sri Lanka, used StorySphere, an immersive storytelling platform created by Google to showcase 360 degree imagery. Here, Principal Sivayoga of…
STORYSPHERE: The Daily Journey
As part of a series marking 150 years of tea production in Sri Lanka, used StorySphere, an immersive storytelling platform created by Google to showcase 360 degree imagery. Here, Vice Principal of…
The Rights of Tea
The tea’s words explode, hot water turns into red and gold. Pekoe picked on Nuwareliya slopes. burnt in kilns, sorted then for the nose of a dapper merchant in a silk suit…
STORYSPHERE: Education at Risk
As part of a series marking 150 years of tea production in Sri Lanka, used StorySphere, an immersive storytelling platform created by Google to showcase 360 degree imagery. Here, Vice Principal Thiruchelvam…
A Look Back with Fresh Hope
Photograph courtesy Introduction Many Sri Lankans trace the ethnic problem back to the movement for ‘Sinhala Only’ and the passage of the Official Language Act in 1956. In fact, the problemneeds to…
On religion, intolerance and economic prosperity
Photo by Dominic Sansoni Some moons back, in the course of a conversation with an overseas-based Sri Lankan academic who was then in Colombo on a short vacation, I was struck by…
Blue Sky Mining
“We are aware of the great difference in carbon dioxide that is emitted from biological sources and carbon dioxide emitted from fossil sources. One has sequestered rates measured in thousands of years…
