Featured image courtesy dbsjeyaraj.com This June marks four years since Aluthgama and three months since Kandy. The perpetrators of Aluthgama were never prosecuted. Some perpetrators of Kandy are under arrest, though not…
The last twelve months, since World Press Freedom day 2017, has not been a good year for freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. The war ravaged North bore the brunt of repression,…
The email from Groundviews asking me to contribute to this series came on the same day that President Sirisena decided that a law prohibiting women from being involved in manufacturing, selling or…
I have never been more honoured to be a Sri Lankan woman than I am today. You might find that ironic. In the last 365 days alone, we’ve seen too much evidence…
Gintota is a grim warning. The abyss is still with us. We remain a country where a private dispute can be interpreted as a religious issue and used to ignite a violent…
Public screening of Satyajit Maitipe’s film was launched on 14th February 2015 seven years after its production. This was the first time I watched this film. I think it presents some aspects…
Introduction In the West, International Women’s Day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN…
Photo by Anushka Wijesinha, 2011, via IPS Since the end of war in May 2009, the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has sought to forge a new overarching Sri Lanka identity…
Image from The Anti-Torture Initiative There is an alarming trend in the Sri Lankan security forces operation, of arresting the family members of suspects and keeping them as hostages in detention camps.…
Photo courtesy The Hindustan Times/AP A society or state that demonstrates repeated violent convulsions over a fairly prolonged period such as decades does so because of a deep underlying problem. In the…
Image courtesy New York Times, Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters The new Pope has been hailed as someone known for his simple life style, identification and sympathy to the poor, proclaiming “how I wish for…
Photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP, courtesy Christian Science Monitor Implicit in Mitt Romney’s claim that President Obama won the election with “gifts” to people of color, women, and youth is the idea that…
Image courtesy The lady in front of me in the queue put a packet of condoms on the counter and we both could see the cashier’s eyes flicker over her left hand,…
Name and shame the whores that act in pornographic films online. Their seedy grainy stuck-between-teeth pictures plastered across newspapers will be the deterrent for other whores who have the same idea. Designate…
I feel that there is a pressing need to rise to the defense of Buddhism. This is because Buddhism is being degraded and exploited as a reactionary political ideology by a grade…
