Category Archives: life stories

June 3, 2014 · 5:06 am

FIVE YEARS AFTER: Reviewing Sri Lanka after the end of War, May 2009-May 2014 … in Groundviews

SEE http://groundviews.org/category/issues/end-of-war/

Articles published in the Special Edition, in order of appearance,

First week

  1. Launch of Special Edition: The end of war in Sri Lanka, five years on, Sanjana Hattotuwa
  2. PLATO’S CAVE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN: ELITE FAILURE IN SRI LANKA, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
  3. Is reconciliation achievable without separation in Sri Lanka?, Lionel Bopage
  4. Sri Lanka’s Quiet Heroes, Gibson Bateman
  5. Badiou’s Event and the defeat of the Tigers: A Brief Response to Dayan Jayatilleka, Vangeesa Sumanasekara
  6. Five years on, where we are now: Reconciliation, the Rule of Law and governance, Ravindra
  7. Opened letter to His Majesty Mahinda Rajapakse the Lord of Sri Lanka and the Universe also (translated into Sinhala by Vikalpa here), The Silva
  8. The Silly Idealist, Marisa de Silva
  9. A new phase of mediation to get from post-war to post-conflict Sri Lanka, Jehan Perera
  10. Political settlement or regime change!, Kumar David
  11. THE WAR, PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
  12. Kasturi’s Progress, Nalaka Gunewardene
  13. Five Years Later, Indran Amirthanayagam
  14. A Brief History of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance from 2004 to 2014: Statistics and Real Politics, Khana
  15. Keep Off the Grass, Subha Wijesiriwardena
  16. The failure of the media, civil society and the ‘moderates’, Heejaz Hizbullah
  17. Re-visiting the Rajapaksa Hegemonic Project, Dayapala Thiranagama
  18. 5 years after: Reflections as a mother, women and a citizen of Sri Lanka, Visakha Dharmadasa

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Filed under centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, democratic measures, female empowerment, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, Muslims in Lanka, NGOs, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, power sharing, reconciliation, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, the imaginary and the real, TNA, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, violence of language, war crimes, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes

June 2, 2014 · 9:03 am

Ethnicity after Edward Said: Post-Orientalist Failures in comprehending the Kandyan Period of Lankan History

Michael Roberts, reprinting an article that appeared initially in Ethnic Studies Report, July 2001, pp. 69-98 and has also been presented in Roberts: Confrontations in Sri Lanka: Sinhalese, LTTE and Others, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2009

foucault Michel Foucault

 In the past two decades the writings on nationalism and ethnicity in the corridors of Western academia have been coloured by disenchantment with the excesses that have been attached to their expressions in most parts of the world. The responses are also informed by the decentred and anti-structuralist position popularised by Michel Foucault. The latter perspective encourages a view of society that highlights its disordered fragmentation. The spirit that directs such readings, nevertheless, remains within the time-honoured paradigm that has dominated Western intellectualism for centuries, that of secular rationalism. This has encouraged several writers on ethnic politics in the colonial and post-colonial eras to adopt a self-righteous position of political correctness and epistemological superiority.[1] Continue reading →

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June 2, 2014 · 3:40 am

The Idea of Justice and the Importance of Democracy: A Journey with Amartya Sen … for Sri Lanka

Nishan de Mel, a re-print of a review essay from Nethra [an ICES journal now defunct] … the book reviewed being The Idea of Justice, by Amartya Sen  (Allen Lane, 496 pp., £25.00)

Amartya-Sen 11The Bhagavad Gīta section of the Mahābhārata records a timeless debate between two epic heroes: the great warrior Arjuna and his Chariot driver – who is none other than Krishna. The occasion is the battle of Kurukshetra.

Arjuna does not doubt that their’s is the right cause, and that they will definitely win the battle. But he is concerned that so many people will die in the battle. He wonders if it might not be the lesser evil to concede rather than fight. Arjuna is disturbed that these deaths will also become his doing (as he leads the army), and he is also moved by the fact that many of those killed, on both sides, are persons with whom he has some affinitive connection. Krishna counters, and eventually prevails, with the certain conviction that justice is on their side and Arjuna must simply do his duty, no matter what the consequences. The epic is certainly a great tussle about the demands of right action and the concerns of justice. Continue reading →

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June 1, 2014 · 4:08 am

Talking Literature and the Gratiaen Award with Malinda Seneviratne

Courtesy of The Daily News, May 2014 …. Also see Asian Mirror video: Interview With Gratiaen Prize Winner Malinda Seneviratne

MALINGA SENEVIRATNEForty nine year old Malinda Seneviratne is the winner of this year’s most coveted award for creative writing [in Sri Lanka] – The Gratiaen Award. Down- to–earth, practical Malinda writes intense poems for pleasure. One of those collections of poems over the twelve months of 2013, published as The Edge has won this year’s Gratiaen Award (Rs200,000) for its outstanding literary attitude and sensitivity to human emotion. We had a quick chat with him.

Q: How does it feel to have at last won the Gratiaen Prize?

A: Winning any prize feels good. The Gratiaen is special because it is the most prestigious prize for creative writing in English in Sri Lanka. It is extra special to me, naturally, because I had been shortlisted on four other occasions. Continue reading →

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June 1, 2014 · 3:50 am

For Sri Lanka: follow Coomaraswamy and Kadirgamar and consolidate the Middle Ground in Sri Lanka

Raj Gonsalkorale & an Anonymous Tamil Moderate, courtesy of Asian Tribune

This article is about suggestions made by a moderate member of the Tamil Diaspora for a political solution in Sri Lanka. The person concerned is a professional and someone who loathes the extremist elements within the Diaspora as much as he loathes similar elements within the Sinhala community.

national unity convention april 2014  Pic from National Unity Convention, April 2014

He opines that extremism is contagious and breeds competition to outdo each other and develop contempt of each other, leaving moderates in a helpless situation to have their voices heard. He says that when political leaders on both sides do not show leadership to give voice to the moderates, they end up being held captive by the extremists and their lack of will and honest intention has led to the impasse that one continues to witnesses in Sri Lanka. In his words, he states he is a great believer that in the end “it is the intention (or that beautiful Sinhala word – ‘Chetanawa’) that counts. If that ‘Chetanawa’ is enforcing an exclusive Sinhala Buddhist identity, it is bound to fail, .not through the ‘betrayal’ / ‘conspiracy’ of the Tamil Diaspora or the famous ‘Batahira Kumanthranaya’, but as that is the natural order of things in this world.” Continue reading →

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May 31, 2014 · 2:25 pm

Inside Galle Fort in Recent Years

Photographs by Michael Roberts during visits to his old stamping ground

871144-111015-twam-galle-fort the lighthouse and mosque on the southern side Continue reading →

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May 31, 2014 · 2:15 pm

Galle Fort in British Times

Courtesy of the Australian National Gallery

Galle Fort rooftops-resized Fort ramparts 1890s-RESIZED

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May 31, 2014 · 12:52 pm

Products from the northern Tamil districts impress visitors at Colombo ‘fair’

Courtesy of the Daily News, May 2014

northern handicraftsA variety of products from the Northern Province made an eye catching display at the newly built market stalls at the Diyatha Uyana, close to the Diyawanna Lake in Kotte on Thursday. Products showcased by over 250 individuals representing various villages in the Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mulaithivu, Mannar and Vavuniya districts at the Diyatha Uyana premises were a major attraction among the local and foreign visitors. The government facilitated the opportunity with the financial and organising support of several organisations, including the USAID and Nucleus, to allow these producers to promote their products, and make commercially viable interactions. Continue reading →

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May 31, 2014 · 7:36 am

Ominous Facets of the Indian Elections: Modi and Beyond

RAJESHRajesh Venugopal, courtesy of http://groundviews.org/2014/05/23/brassed-off/ where the title is “Brassed Off. and where comments will be found.

In 2014, the year when Bollywood’s most popular ‘item’ song featured an Indo-Canadian porn star lip-syncing a song called ‘Baby Doll’, India elected a conservative Hindu chauvinist as its prime minister. Narendra Modi’s extraordinary ascent to power from humble party worker to a national icon of communal violence to hyper-efficient developmentalist leader is intriguing and revealing in itself, but let’s leave that aside for now.

The poll surveys and election data shows that the demographic most responsible for placing him in harm’s way came largely from young upper caste North Indian Hindus. Draw a line from Mangalore in the south-west to Darjeeling in the north-east – and with the exception of tiny pockets in Punjab and Kashmir, the saffron wave swept the vast majority of parliamentary seats to the north and west of that line. Continue reading →

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May 28, 2014 · 2:57 pm

About Ceylon: Arthur C. Clarke, Pablo Neruda & Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Jane Russell and Ruth Allaun**  … Foreword to their essay on Leonard Woolf

ARTHUR C CLARKE“When I’m in the Strand or 42nd Street, or at NASA Headquarters or the Beverley Hills Hotel, my surroundings are liable to give a sudden tremor and I see through the insubstantial fabric to the reality beneath…” These words by Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi writer, are quoted at the end of Roloff Beny’s photographic chronicle Island Ceylon. But where does Clark’s reality reside? He writes, “No other place is so convincing as Sri Lanka.” As he spent almost fifty years there, we are tempted to believe him. Continue reading →

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