AN ARAB SPRING OR A BARACK OBAMA?
Image courtesy RFI While I see the need for constitutional reform, I do not see a need for a replacement of the Constitution. My stance remains that which I took during the…
Image courtesy RFI While I see the need for constitutional reform, I do not see a need for a replacement of the Constitution. My stance remains that which I took during the…
Image from Wall Street Journal The period that we have before us comprises the most motley mixture of crying contradictions: constitutionalists who conspire openly against the constitution; revolutionists who are confessedly constitutional;…
Ini Avan, Asoka Handagama’s latest film, in Tamil, has won international cinematic acclaim. And it is easy to see why. The film has interesting characters who within their confined destinies take some…
Image via Sri Lanka for 91 Days This Monday President Mahinda Rajapaksa will celebrate Independence Day in Trincomalee, under the theme . For weeks Trincomalee has been getting a facelift. Roads are being widened,…
Photo courtesy JDS So it looks like the US will bring another resolution on Sri Lanka at the next session of the UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva this March. Quite…
Image courtesy Centre for Human Rights The dominating narrative is dichotomous: at one end of the spectrum is the view that reconciliation has been achieved with the conclusion of the armed struggle and…
Image via Sri Lanka Brief So says the President’s Media Unit. We are a tad less sanguine. Even a cursory reading of the latest LLRC NAP Monitoring Report, updated on 2013.01.22, indicates significant gaps…
Image courtesy Colombo Gazette The Per Capita Income (PCI – average annual income per person) is derived by dividing the Gross National Product/Income (GNP/I) of a country by the total population of…
Colombo 2012 Mosquitoes, bites, blood, pain, even death. I take absolutely no precautions when it comes to Dengue fever, except that I try to surround myself with air conditioning whenever possible. I’ve…
Since 2005, in the month of January alone, the list of violent attacks on media personnel and journalists across Sri Lanka is mind-boggling. There is a very long yet still incomplete list…
Image via RNW The month of January is coming to an end and yet again it has been filled with a number of major attacks on media freedom in Sri Lanka. For…
Image from Neato Shop Many languages have singular and plural forms of the second person pronoun you, including Sinhala and Tamil. English doesn’t, except in certain dialects: yous or youse is heard…
Nihal Jayawickrama, LLB (Ceylon), PhD (London), was the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice from 1970-1977, having been admitted to the Bar as an Advocate of the Supreme Court in 1962.…
The Tamil factor is best viewed in terms of its impact on language, culture and social institutions in the country. It is more interesting and rewarding when seen in this perspective than…
“The Cardinal never even visited our church or spoke to our children. He came directly to the Navy Head Quarters for the meeting and left soon after. On my way to the…