Free the People
We will not be distracted. The emotion rushes through us like a river enraged, if a river, or a fault line, the heating jet stream, if these can be given human volition,…
Human Rights
Widespread Condemnation for Detention of Protesters Under PTA
After a number of protestors were arrested in Colombo, three student activists have been detained under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) despite expressions of concern from the international community. Amid…
Tourism Guidance
Wait a minute Sanath. First congrats on your appointment as Tourism Ambassador. Now you say Sri Lanka is back and tourists can come. But will the Prevention of Terrorism Act apply…
Women in the Estate Sector Face Many Layers of Discrimination
Maatram Women played a significant part in the growth and stability of the plantation economy throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Women were brought along with men by the British…
The Right Queue
Poems are waiting in a queue. But that is alright. They are poems only, not people lining up for kerosene, or fish, or paper. or petrol. I write them in a…
What’s Left
We are tired, and we have cooking gas now, and fuel shipments have docked. So we will get back to the business of living and not worry anymore about the…
Free Joseph
Free Joseph Stalin. Let Father Jeewantha Peiris walk out of hiding in peace to attend to his parishioners. Let Mahanama Thero stop on the side of the road to counsel passers…
Legal System Damaged by Illegal Arrests and Detentions
Illegal arrests and illegal detentions do not only harm individuals – they also cause irreparable damage to the legal system as a whole. The recent wave of arrests of those who participated…
To Survive, Even Thrive
My country will survive corruption in parliament, arbitrary arrests ordered by the executive, bodies washing up at Galle Face, at the Beira Lake. My country will survive farmers shooting elephants…
Economic Crisis Badly Impacting Most Vulnerable
Families in Sri Lanka are fast adopting negative coping strategies to deal with the economic crisis. A recently concluded Rapid Needs Assessment by Save the Children revealed that families are resorting to…
D-Day for the Aragalaya
Mahatma Gandhi said that civil disobedience became a sacred duty when the state became lawless and corrupt. To the diehard protesters left at the diminished GotaGoGama, Gandhi’s words are at the heart…
Father Jeewantha Peiris: A Warrior for Truth and Justice
Rediff Ever since the aragalaya began in April this year, Father Jeewantha Peiris has been a familiar figure in the forefront of the protesters, easily identifiable by his flowing black hair and…
Aragalaya: For Everybody
This is not only about sitting on the verandah with a scotch and a pig in a blanket. This is not only about picking up the beat and dancing the…
Aragalaya: A State of Mind
Wijewardene We are taught to be modest, circumspect, wrapped under covers, demurring, scuttling away like mice. We are educated to be peons, servile class members, ambitions tempered, molded to fit the…
Stabilising Sri Lanka, Learning from July 1983
Arrests, amidst a wider crackdown on protesters in Sri Lanka, threaten progress in tackling the economic crisis. Although a show of repressive force may be intended in part to promote stability, in…