A-Z of Sri Lankan English: J is for jobless
In the UK and the US, being jobless is simply another word for being unemployed, not having a job – especially in newspaper headlines. Here in Sri Lanka it has an additional…
Language
SIRIMAVO: A REVIEW
, edited by Tissa Jayatilaka, is the commemorative volume published by the Bandaranaike Museum Committee to mark fifty years since Mrs. Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike’s first accession to power on 21st July…
Long Form journalism: An invitation to contribute
As many regular readers and commentators on this site know, in January aims to provide a platform for serious, vibrant essayists to publish their writing. Interestingly, long form journalism is going through…
GLF: A space for activists?
A playground for Colombo’s “artsy fartsy?” A personal initiative by G. Dobbs (Founder) to increase the per capita income of G. Dobbs? A promotional tactic to draw tourists to our fair land?…
On Relative Rights
A short fall in human rights suggests a failure in the harvest, perhaps a missing plank in the slide, and some will go flying, others hungry, while you add ridiculous to describe…
Shyam Selvadurai: Literature, identity, politics and the Galle Literary Festival
Shyam Selvadurai was born in 1965. His book was as much about class and ethnicity as sexual identities, and though Shyam has repeatedly noted that it was not autobiographical, the fiction is…
A-Z of Sri Lankan English: H is for had
I recently listened to someone telling a story in the course of an informal conversation. The speaker was a Sri Lankan whose first language is English, and the story involved a group…
Top 20 posts on Sri Lanka over 2010
Featuring satire, poetry, photography and video to critical commentary and analysis, covered major political events and processes in Sri Lanka over 2010. The site’s comprehensive coverage of the first commemoration of the end…
Governance, Rights and Reconciliation: The National Anthem and Other Disturbing News from Sri Lanka
Original photo from The headline story of the was to be maintained. At a time when the principal challenge facing the country is to move beyond a post –war situation to a…
O country, Thy National Anthem…
It was reported lately that an interesting issue came up at a recent cabinet meeting, namely, the National Anthem of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. It was also reported that…
Is the Tamil version of our national anthem a joke?
Recent media coverage in Sri Lanka has focussed on the confusion over the ban of the Tamil version of Sri Lanka’s national anthem. In media reports that need to be read in…
A-Z of Sri Lankan English: G is for gode
Mahinda Rajapaksa makes no bones about his goday origins“ (Daily News 12/02/2010) The basic meaning of the Sinhala word gode (or goday) is rural, of the land, of the village, conjuring up…
A-Z of Sri Lankan English: F is for for
Before reading on, try this short test. Which of the following sentences do you consider to be grammatically correct? 1. They have over a thousand visitors for a month. 2. They get…
Political Satire in Sri Lanka: When Making Fun is No Laughing Matter
Review of a collection of satirical columns by Wimalanath Weeraratne Sinhala; 232 pp; Author publication; September 2010 Political satire is nothing new: it has been around for as long as organised government…
A-Z of Sri Lankan English: E is for Eelamist
The word Eelamist (as adjective or noun) refers to a person or organisation which supports the Tamil separatist cause in Sri Lanka. Like certain other -ist words (Zionist, Islamist, Loyalist), the word…