Killing Elephants in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Killing elephants with shotguns is very inefficient. The clusters of tiny, iron pellets rarely kill such large animals instantly. Instead, pellets lodge in tissue and cartilage, causing wounds that ooze…
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Constitutional amendments: A blast from the past
Photo courtesy The current constitution of Sri Lanka is commonly referred to as the “JR Constitution” due to the nature of its inception. Its birth and enactment have a long and convoluted…
Academics, researchers & practitioners condemn the Government’s attempts to remove the Director General of the National Archives
23rd December 2019 Colombo, Sri Lanka TO: His Excellency Gotabaya Rajapaksa President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat, Galle Face Colombo 01 CC: Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa Minister of…
The work begins
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via Yahoo! News “If we lift the hideous rags of History, we find this: hierarchy versus equality and order versus liberty.” – Éric Vuillard (The Order Of…
In memoriam – My editor Lasantha Wickrematunge
Photo courtesy A not-so-young man walked into the room of Lasantha Wickrematunge two decades ago. The man had nothing but a recommendation from his own father when he asked Lasantha for a…
10 Years After the War: Violence in a Time of Peace
Although the war ended a decade ago, the ethno-political and social fractures from conflict endure. On no other day are they more apparent than on May 18. Often, what we see, read…
The Legacy of a Justice
Photo courtesy Justice Prasanna Jayawardene is no more. The immediate expressions of shock, grief and a deep sense of loss by those who knew him in person or by his reputation is…
Taking Stock for the New Year
Photo courtesy A tumultuous year has ended, and an uncertain future lies ahead. Democratic space is already closing around us, and it is critical for civil society to be clear-eyed about where…
On loss and bereavement
Photo courtesy ‘This is how we felt after the tsunami, stunned, bewildered.’ So many friends in Sri Lanka said this to me in days following the Easter Sunday suicide bombings this year.…
2019: A Recap
Photo courtesy The last year of this decade, 2019 is possibly a turning point in Sri Lankan history. When looking back on the year that passed, what looms above all else is…
After the pause… a Song: A Christmas Reflection
Photo courtesy The run-up to the birth of Jesus was punctuated with pauses. Mary’s pause After the Angel visited her, Mary could not say what she would have liked to have said.…
The Return
Photo courtesy the President’s Twitter account “As if our democracy was nothing but a short-lived dream,” says Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa in her new documentary dealing with the slow unravelling of democracy…
Where are we now? Reflections on the International Human Rights Day 2019
The focus of 2019’s International Human Rights Day is on a celebration of “the courage, clarity, and principle of women, men, and young people who are rising up peacefully to create greater…
The Ethno-Economics of Majoritarianism: Notes on Conflict and Gotabaya’s Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Tribune.lk In the aftermath of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election victory, a number of competing narratives have emerged offering differing explanations of how we arrived at this result. The prevailing liberal account,…
