Old Wine in New Bottles? The 2023 BRI Reset and Africa
President Xi’s l Jinping’s landmark speech at the 3rd Belt and Road (BRI) Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on October 18 grabbed the headlines in suggesting a vision for a reset…
International
Understanding Kissinger
For 30 years if not more, Henry Kissinger, who died this week aged 100, shaped the course of US foreign policy and in one sense defined global politics. A Nobel Prize Laureate…
Kill the Families
When I set off for Columbia University to become a foreign correspondent, to cover wars and peacemaking, famine, floods, murders, kidnappings, larceny on a global scale, I never imagined that…
“Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence”
The title of the article comes from a comment made by Donald Rumsfeld when he was US Defence Secretary for President George Bush and when they learnt that the UN Monitoring, Verification…
Indefinite Security Responsibility or Infinite Control Over Gaza?
“Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestine State should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy” (Benjamin Netanyahu…
Palestine and Israel, International Law and Sri Lanka’s Grim Experience
Recent events in the Middle East have left people throughout the world horrified, especially since so many of the injured and killed have been children. Those with widely varying backgrounds and beliefs…
A Single Story But With Differing Actors
In Israel/Palestine these are dark, terrible times with no obvious end in sight to the mounting bloodshed and destruction. It is also a time that gives rise to difficult but necessary conversations:…
Media Narratives, Hateful Rhetoric and the Gaza Genocide
“Mom, I’m fine.” Those were the final words of Wadea Al-Fayoume, the six-year-old Palestinian American who was fatally stabbed 26 times at his home in Plainfield Township, Illinois on October 14, 2023.…
The Cauldrons We Make
Jewish Currents is a US-based leftwing Jewish magazine. Soon after October 7 Hamas attack, its editor, Arielle Angel, a vocal proponent of Palestinian liberation, penned a letter to the readers. “I watched…
Sanitizing Israeli Horror and Demonizing Palestinian Resistance
Hamas’ coordinated rocket attack on Israel, which killed hundreds of Israeli citizens and brought a new Palestine-Israel War, is another chapter in the history and expansion of the Zionist settler state. To…
The Voice Referendum in Australia: Correcting Past Wrongs
Australia and Sri Lanka share a complex history of colonisation, which has deeply impacted their Indigenous populations. Both countries, members of the Commonwealth of Nations[i], grapple with the repercussions of their colonial…
Reflections on the Israel-Hamas War
Israel’s Western allies, the US in particular, believe that any investigation into Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip will “exacerbate tensions” and “undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution.” I…
Taking Care of Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Many Sri Lankans engage in protests for a variety of grievances but protests by refugees and asylum seekers, one of the most marginalized communities in Sri Lanka, are rare. From my memory,…
The British Monarchy Must Face Up to its Inglorious Past
Monarchy, dictatorship, authoritarianism and despotism, even of the benevolent kind and as a result of democratic elections, are an affront to people’s struggles over the millennia for sovereignty and freedom. However, I…
An Analysis of Freedom of Expression in Sri Lanka and Myanmar
Sri Lanka and Myanmar were both once colonized by the British and gained independence in the same year, 1948. That is not the only similarity these two countries share; both enjoy strong…
