Having moderated a session with Shashi Tharoor earlier this year at the Galle Literary Festival, we met up again in Colombo last week to talk about the writer-politician’s new book, and his…
Original graphic from In my mind, delivering a keynote address in a conference that has as its theme the stated objective of ‘connecting South Asia and dynamics of art and culture in…
Updated, 16 September, 6.30pm: It was brought to the attention of some hours ago that despite what Mr. Jayasuriya notes below (coupled with the fact that as we flag at the end…
[Editors note: Watch SBS Dateline’s Sri Lanka’s New Wave, broadcast first in Australia on 28 August 2012, here.] Dear Mark, I am intensely troubled by the tenor of your report on Sri Lankan…
When Neil Armstrong took that first ’small step’ on to the Moon, at 10.56 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 20 July 1969, a quarter of humanity — following it live on…
From 2003, Lakshman Kadirgamar addressing a press conference with the Mahinda Rajapaksa (before he was President) and Sarath Amunugama are also seen. Photo via Tamilnet.com Ever since his brutal assassination in 2005,…
Photo courtesy Sydney Morning Herald Though launched with much fanfare and media acclaim, Australia’s new raft of proposals embodied in the Houston package to handle the surge in asylum-seekers is simply treading…
Google has just released an interesting visualisation of the global small arms and ammunitions trade (works best in Google Chrome). For those with older browsers, a screencast of the visualisation can be…
Photo courtesy Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images More than ten years ago the smuggling of people out of Sri Lanka by boat was thriving. While Australia is currently the preferred destination of these smuggled migrants,…
On 2nd July, the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) organised a panel discussion on preventing human smuggling and trafficking. The event was as much a forum to discuss the incredible increase in,…
Image courtesy Onlanka News The Obama administration did fight to get a seat on the Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2009; something that George W. Bush probably did not even contemplate. And,…
Reports online suggest that Dialog Axiata and Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT),, are blocking access to a number of Tamil language websites reporting on Sri Lanka. In the morning we were asked whether…
Environmental activist Hemantha Withanage talks to Nalaka Gunawardene in Rio de Janeiro In early June, a group of 50 Lankan civil society organisations (CSOs) active on environment, development and human rights, issued…
Image courtesy ITV News DBS Jeyaraj[1] DBS Jeyaraj is not a representative of the Tamil diaspora that has set out to wage war against the government of Sri Lanka. He is a…
Photo courtesy Vikalpa The outcome in Geneva last year (March 2011) of the voting on Sri Lanka’s conduct of the war and related human rights record was very clearly in favour of…
