Madras Cafe: A timely interrogation
“There are events, facts from history” and according to the director Shoojit Sircar his film Madras Cafe (2013) is “fiction inspired from fact”.[1] And while the director claims that his film is…
“There are events, facts from history” and according to the director Shoojit Sircar his film Madras Cafe (2013) is “fiction inspired from fact”.[1] And while the director claims that his film is…
Image courtesy NAFSO The archiving of tweets documenting the violence in Weliweriya began after a reader, @apelankawe, asked us to do so. @groundviews any plans of archiving #weliweriya tweets? — Vidura (@Apelankawe)…
Introduction President Jayewardene did not like the word ‘colonisation’. Instead, he preferred the terms ‘land settlement’. But the Land Settlement Ordinance uses ‘settlement’ to mean a settlement on claims over ‘land’. Item…
The last part of the background note prepared for the first session of the Marga Institute’s panel discussion on ‘Long War, Cold Peace’ contained the conceptual framework which Dr Jayatilleka uses for…
Given the importance of the mission and the nature of the statement, is reproducing in full Navi Pillay’s opening remarks, delivered at a press briefing held earlier today in Colombo, Sri lanka.…
An introduction Prosterman in 1976 estimated that some 68 million people have perished from all forms of deliberate human violence from 1820 to 1970. Zimmerman in 2013 found that if the victims…
Image courtesy Sri Lanka Guardian “Now intolerance is the badge of the tribe and the scribe. A papier-mâché patriotism is the last refuge of a petrified elite that has lost its nerve,…
Image courtesy Thuppahi’s blog June 2013 saw violent clashes between small groups of Sri Lankans at cricket grounds around the UK. Although barely reported by the mainstream media, for members of Voices…
The following poem was read out to the Sri Lanka parliament by the Hon Lakshman Jayakody and appeared in the Hansard 1998. It was reprinted in the ‘Anthology of the Galle Literary…
In 2009 , the then Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights (hence disbanded) ‘sought to remedy’ the many deficiencies that exist in the current fundamental rights chapter of the 1978 constitution.…
Photo courtesy Ada Derana Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, a former military spokesman and decorated combat officer, assumed duties on the 1st of August 2013 as the 20th commander of the Sri Lanka Army. No…
Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images, via Asia Society Rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-militants or “terrorists” as they are more often termed, following the blanket approach that is being taken post 9/11, is…
Photo courtesy Four years after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, Hindu temples are being destroyed in the North, Muslim retail stores are being attacked in the South and Sinhala…
Photo courtesy Vikalpa’s photo set of the exhibition Leading Sri Lankan artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s most recent exhibition entitled Beautification makes parody of contemporary Sri Lanka by suggesting that peace is but a…
Photo courtesy Who deployed troops, clad in flak jackets (body armour) and armed with T-56 assault rifles to confront and disperse a crowd of protestors blocking a highway? Who was the ultimate…