Human-Elephant Conflict Continues Unchecked
There are less than 500,000 wild elephants in the world. These comprise of just three families, the African Bush (Savannah) Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant; all are classified…
Politics and Governance
Tracing Roots and Winning Rights: the March of the Malaiyaha Tamil Community
Two hundred years ago, the first groups of women and men were brought from southern India by the British colonial rulers to Sri Lanka to work in the hill country plantations. They…
Debt Restructuring, Austerity and the IMF: a Panacea or an Exacerbation? Part 2
Neo-liberalism is not a solution, but the principal cause of the problem. I would like to offer some personal insights here from my working life with regard to the manner a non…
An Alternate View of the People’s Struggle Through the Camera Lens
A short documentary film, The People’s Voice Is Louder, featuring the works of four lens-based practitioners from different parts of the country captures the energy, passion and desperation of the people’s uprising…
Debt Restructuring, Austerity and the IMF: a Panacea or an Exacerbation? Part 1
Post-independent Sri Lanka has suffered from recurrent economic crises; the more notable ones being in August 1953, in the late 1970s and most pertinently the current crisis that essentially bankrupted the country….
Sri Lanka’s Commission Addiction
The last few weeks have seen increased media coverage in a relation to a government proposal to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for Sri Lanka. At face value, this seems…
The Statue of Tara: It’s Time to Come Home
She stands tall at the heart of the British Museum’s South Asian exhibit. In all her gilded bronze glory, her eyes search passing spectators, although the jewels which once adorned them have…
Saving the Leopard from Slipping into Extinction
In 2021, the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPS), Sri Lanka’s oldest such organisation (the third in the world), with the aid of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), persuaded the government…
For Stability Rule of Law Needs to be Followed
Tharindu Uduwaragedera, a young journalist of good repute, was attending a meeting for the purpose of reporting when he was forcibly dragged out of a three wheeler, grabbed by his hair and…
Mullahs and Muslim MPs Masculinize MMDA
“… since the Prophet was a human being who, unlike God, is subject to mundane historical processes, his legacy cannot exist outside the context of human mediation and human authorial process. The…
Art as Catalyst: Commemorating Tragedy and Advocating Change
Art is a powerful medium of expression that is incorporated by activists and advocates across multiple cultures and spaces to commemorate and establish a sense of permanent memorialization of history. In Sri…
How to Remember and not to Remember July 1983
There is a quote attributed to Morgan Freeman, which basically states that the only way to stop racism is to stop talking about it. I am not sure where, when or why…
What Happened in 83 Wasn’t a Riot: It was Murder
In 1983, a series of bloody riots swept Sri Lanka, marking the start of the country’s 26 year brutal civil war. Intermittent unrest had been occurring since the late 1950s and state…
Polls Reveal Growing Voter Disillusionment with Established Parties
In the latest Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) polling in June 2023, support amongst likely voters for the NPP/JVP fell five points and for the SJB four points from May to…
Forty years On: Denial, Remembrance, Resistance and Hope
The horrific events of July 1983, when a wave of state organised arson and murder against Tamils left many dead, displaced or traumatised, shocked people in Sri Lanka and internationally. Many people…
