The Pivotal Moment and the Long Game
Frankl The US and Sri Lanka are in synchronized election cycles. Eight years ago I wrote an article called “US And Them” about certain correlations which were then observable. So much has…
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Cats That Won’t be Belled
“Wrath” is the opening word of . Wrath is a key driver of the upcoming presidential election. People are angry at political leaders for bankrupting the country. Hopefully, the anger is accompanied…
Time for Sri Lanka to Chart a New Course on Human Rights
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged Sri Lanka to break from the past and chart a new course. Addressing the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council…
The Search for the Disappeared: Struggle, Recovery, Resolve
As news of a mass grave breaks on television in a household in the North, its residents, a family of the disappeared, try to find ways of coping with this information. A…
The Need for Humanitarianism is Greater Than Ever
Former High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, said there were no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems because what they required were political solutions. When states and governments fail their citizens, endangering their…
Digital Partisans: Dissecting Facebook Sentiment Towards Wickremesinghe, Premadasa and Dissanayake
Last month, I studied over 4,000 tweets linked to the three main presidential candidates – Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW), Sajith Premedasa (SP), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) – in order to study how…
Criminalizing Sexual Harassment: Are We Doing Enough?
The law criminalizing sexual harassment could change very soon. A bill, which proposes to amend S. 345 of the Penal Code, has been gazetted. This is a welcome development. Yet amendments to…
Kings in Waiting
The most iconic moment at Nelson Mandela’s star studded memorial service was a handshake. As US President Barack Obama ran up to the podium under a light drizzle, a CNN reporter was…
A New Low In Bro Behaviour
Look up “schoolgirl” and “rape” and “Sri Lanka”. There are many stories which are posted by Google Search with those taglines. We have to refine the search for the most recent atrocity…
Culture vs. Human Rights: Decriminalisation of Same-Sex Relationships in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s attempts to build an inclusive society through legislative moves that could result in greater equality for the minority LGBTIQ community have been met with opposition by the country’s religious leaders.…
Tensions Rise Over Rights Violations as Elections Approach
The regime has declared its defiance of a Supreme Court order, increasing tensions over violations of democratic and broader human rights, as Sri Lanka prepares for elections. Those in charge have repeatedly…
Will the Real Wickremesinghe, Premadasa and Dissanayake Please Stand Up?
With the Presidential election slated for September 21, three leading candidates stand out: the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW), the leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa (SP) and the leader of the…
Meta-Real: Provoking Thought on Reconciliation, Healing and Change
Prof. Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s annual memorial exhibition to commemorate Black July is showing at the Saskia Fernando gallery. serves as a link between past and present, providing a reflective examination of Sri Lanka’s…
The Post Aragalaya Political Trajectory
This month marks the second anniversary since former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted in a mass uprising. The 2022 March to July mass protest wave was truly an extraordinary event in Sri…
Political Storms, Imagined and Real
Two years ago, on July 20, 2022, the Sri Lankan parliament voted to elect a successor president to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The SLPP put its full weight behind Ranil Wickremesinghe; even a parliamentarian…