Nelson Mandela’s Legacy to the World: Some Less Celebrated Aspects
Photograph courtesy National Geographic Give me that man That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him In my heart’s core Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2 The death of the moral…
International
CHOGM 2013: A lie well told
Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi, AFP/Getty Images via FT Photo Diary I imagine that beneath the cordial smiles and exchange of pleasantries there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth taking place at Temple…
Commonwealth & human rights principles in Sri Lanka, in the weeks before CHOGM
Photo by REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte, via Channel 4 News The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is due to start tomorrow. The last few weeks has seen series of violations of Human Rights and Commonwealth…
Gamani Corea: Champion of the Global South
Robert S McNamara, who was US Secretary of Defence under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, then served as President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981. Despite his contentious legacy in the…
A Guide to Colombo for CHOGM 2013
Image courtesy AP, via Potemkin City, with a difference: A Guide to Colombo for CHOGM 2013 Your Excellency, Distinguished Delegate, Dear Visitor, You may have heard of how General Potemkin primed Crimea…
Her Majesty’s Wealth
/ Photo provided by artist, with whom copyright resides The other day, my friend was hanging up this piece of art that he had just purchased from his artist friend Sue Kneebone….
Commonwealth must honour its own commitments
Photo courtesy The choice of Sri Lanka as a venue for CHOGM 2013 has always remained controversial. But now that most member countries have agreed to go ahead and participate in the…
Diaspora Diaries: Reflections of the filmmaker
[Editors note: Also read the related post ] Kannan Arunasalam is a documentary filmmaker and narrative journalist. He was born in Jaffna, grew up in London, and returned to Sri Lanka in…
‘Diaspora Diaries’: Exploring Connections and Interactions with Sri Lanka
[Editors note: Also read related post ] In recent years, the prevailing image of the Sri Lankan diaspora in the media has been dominated by Tamil community activists’ human rights campaign, calling…
The Al Jazeera interview with Mahinda Rajapaksa: Calling the bluff
The President’s recent and wide-ranging interview on Al Jazeera is interesting on a number of counts (download the episode in HD here). For starters, our President is clearly grossly uninformed or deliberately…
Launch of De Zoysa-Sivanayagam 2014 Fellowship in Global Journalism
Image courtesy Simon Fraser University On September 21, 2013, Sri Lankans Without Borders in partnership with launched the De Zoysa-Sivanayagam 2014 Fellowship in Digital Journalism. As noted on SLWB’s website, Lasantha Wickrematunge…
Lasantha Wickrematunge Memorial Lecture 2013: Presentations, photos and video
The Lasantha Wickrematunge Memorial Lecture held recently featured, as noted on the website of Sri Lankans Without Borders (SLWB) website, “…leading journalists from Canada and Sri Lanka [in] a panel discussion to…
What is an economic migrant?
The governments of Sri Lanka and Australia have recently reached an agreement over how to define the flow of undocumented migrants between these two countries. Both governments seem to agree on the…
Any lessons learnt from Navi Pillay’s visit?
Reading what appeared on state media, I got the impression that the ego of the Government, or at least that of the so called “independent” editors of state media has been challenged…
Democracy in the Deep State: Sri Lanka & Egypt
Photo via , REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany 3rd July 2013 is a dark day in the history of Egypt and indeed in the democratic world. It was the day the deep state in…
