Any satisfactory answer to this question must examine, and consider the root causes for this problem; however, the solution must be sensitive to the numerous complexities brought about by the conflict itself. In the case of Sri Lanka, it would be naive examine this problem from a purely pre-1983 perspective.

The fundamental cause for this conflict is the perception by one race that the other race was privileged; there was a general perception racial inequality was prevalent. How did this perception arise? The origins lie in the 19th Century; the American missionaries established a wide network of schools in the Jaffna peninsula that molded an educated, English speaking group of people. The British then tapped into this ready pool of resources …

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My mother in law, age 55 is from Kalliyaddy, Mannar, (an LTTE controlled area) came to live with her daughter, who is married to me in Sinnakarishal, Pesalai on 15.01.08. Kalliyady is in LTTE controlled area with around 500 families. Life there has been extremely difficult for her and during the latter stages even more difficult. It is mandatory that a member of a family join the LTTE in their struggle. However, my mother in law managed to get her daughter out of the LTTE controlled area and gave her in marriage to me. 

She was adamant that she will not give her other daughter to join the LTTE and thought it was best to flee Kalliyaddy with her 25 year …

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This video was filmed approximately two and half hours after the bomb exploded on a crowded bus at a bus-stop in Piliyandala, near Colombo, in Sri Lanka. There was a mobile phone ringing inside the bus.

(please note the date-stamp on the video should read 25th April, NOT 24th April)

The LTTE are being blamed for the bus explosion. Latest reports say that 24 people are dead and 40 wounded.

The quality of chutzpah has been described vividly as a boy who murders his parents and pleads with the judge for clemency on the basis of being an orphan. In the BBC interview aired April 16, 2008, the arguments of Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal aptly lived up to this vivid portrayal of chutzpah.

Media Analysis in Sri Lanka
To say that the Sri Lankan media analysis of this interview was mixed, is to put it mildly. “Nivard gets foxed by straight talk” announced the Sunday Leader on April 20. The Island editorial the next day, “Hard Talk and not so soft options”, made a contrary assertion. It not only praised the governor and the interview but went on …

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My interpretation of the present impasse in the politics of Sri Lanka, determined as it is by the competitive jostling-cum-conflicts between the three main ethnic groups (where “Muslim” is ‘ethnic’ by virtue of its relationship of opposition to “Sinhalese” and “Tamil” in the same sentence), leans towards an emphasis on how one should address present circumstances. Though I am a historian, I believe that delving into ancient history is of limited value for any exercise in rapprochement. Indeed, I would go further and insist that the circumstances of the immediate present, today in 2008, must mould any constitutional and economic arrangements seeking a modus vivendi. We cannot erase memories of the atrocities committed by all parties in the conflict that …

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Can we keep both the Farmer and the Housewife happy?
It is hardly a secret that the rapidly increasing price of rice has now become an unbearable burden for the masses, with both Colombo and its immediate suburbs and even paddy cultivating areas displaying this trend.

Many people feel the Government has hitherto been unable to arrest this trend, due to the political patronage enjoyed by these mill owners who are able to increase the price of rice arbitrarily.

The price of rice at the market place is in no way comparable to the Rs. 19/50 paid for a kilo of Naadu paddy and the Rs. 20/50 that is paid for a kilo of Samba paddy. Not only was that so, but …

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Short speech by Justice P N Bhagwati at the IIGEP’s final press conference, held this morning in Colombo.

Headphones recommended as the audio is weak.

Click on the following link to respond to the poll.

Compared to a year ago, how close is Sri Lanka to ending the war with the LTTE?

The Media’s responsibility in securing it’s own freedom

Despite my horror for cynicism, I find myself defeated into just that. While I would like to confine my ranting to discourses with my imaginary friend, reading Ruki’s post From the Tiger’s Den to an Open Prison and the comments made to it just tipped the scale on sanity. So I decided to put it out there in the hope that it will comfort the ailing and ail the comfortable.

Given the masterpieces one is fed via some media, one wonders if our media is mature enough to be free.

Take for example the following articles which appeared in the Sunday Observer over the past month.

1. Two articles Distorted images – Australian media coverage …
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New content notification on Groundviews is now available through Twitter. If you have no clue what that means, check out the video below. 

Twitter joins the Groundviews Facebook Fan page as a way through which content on the site is pushed to different audiences using Web 2.0 technologies. In addition to easily notifying those who don’t always want to come to this site to find what’s new and already use it to keep in touch with friends, Twitter gives me the freedom to add links to the websites and online articles – commentary that resonates with the writing here.

Follow Groundviews on Twitter today!

If we knew the government will put us in an open prison, we would not have come, it would have better to die in the Vanni” Man being held in Kallimoddai after fleeing Vanni to “cleared” areas

Last year, I had helped a boy from Killinochi who was arrested in Pettah and kept in inhumane conditions, worse than a caged animal, in Welikada Prison. Treatment that should not be given to even a convicted criminal, though in this case, the boy was a suspect, the basis for suspicion being him being a Tamil and coming from Killinochi. He had fled the Vanni, as he feared recruitment by the LTTE. But only to fall prey to Sri Lankan security forces and suffer …

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Image courtesy Mannar Diocese website

The sacred shrine of Madhu is being violated.

What right has the LTTE to encroach on the Pilgrim Reservation Area gazetted under the Pilgrimage Ordinance in 1982? The LTTE has violated International Conventions relating to War in entering the Church or its environs and converting it to  a battle zone. The International Community should condemn this action of the LTTE. Only cowards hide in places of worship because they are unable to face the enemy in the battlefield. The International Community must call upon the LTTE to forthwith vacate the Madhu Church Reservation Area or face international condemnation. They must remove all mortars and other military equipment from the Reservation Area.

As for …

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Rice, which is the staple food in Sri Lanka, has become the subject of a national issue today. Government appears to being in the dark as to how to tackle issues confronting rice in the context of a market economy. As it is well known, since independence, many successive governments through various public spending programmes, supported by foreign aid, developed the rice production sector with a vehement dedication with the aim of making Sri Lanka a rice self-sufficient country. However, neither producers nor consumers of rice appeared to have benefited to the best satisfaction due to various reasons.
There is a large number of small-sized rice producers scattered around the country. The smallness of their unit of …

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Our self esteem is central to our survival.  Yet, we do not value its importance as we face life’s challenges.  Self esteem, whether our own or others’, is strengthened or takes a beating, through the way people communicate with each other.  This communication is based on our power in relation to others.  So, the more hierarchical and controlling a system is, power is concentrated with a few people, chances are esteem of the people below is undermined.

What is good for people is also good for nations.   So, nation’s success also depends very much on its population’s collective self esteem, which is also called social esteem.

If we define esteem as the confidence in our right to be happy, feeling of being …

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“The cost of living is sky rocketing like the Kfir jets,” said an old man standing along the road side with great sigh. He was holding his loaf of bread tightly as though it was something precious. “Yes, soon will have to give up eating,” another old man standing next to him admitted. Now a days bread is the main food item in many families. We can simply estimate the rate of cost of living with the price increase of wheat flour and bread.  

Posing a question regarding the cost of living to a crowd in front of a grocery shop a man answers saying, “so many reporters and media people have visited us and asked the same question again …

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Image courtesy JVP website

Some priests in ascetic orders who indulge in carnal pleasures, though not very often, do get excommunicated. A prominent catholic priest of high rank in Europe who had allegedly abused a child some twenty years ago was disrobed recently, when the affected party unearthed that case. There are some Buddhist monks too who are not virtuous, but there is no effective mechanism to disrobe them. What happens often is that the person in question himself voluntarily quits the temple. Though they are frowned upon by society as Heeraluvas I esteem them for their courage and honesty in leaving a place where they don’t fit in anymore.

In a certain sense, Peoples …

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Groundviews is fully back online after an upgrade of its back-end content management system to the latest version of Wordpress. While the site looks and feels the same, improvements under the hood make it more secure, responsive and easier to use.

There are also several significant new features to the site:

• You now no longer have to register to write a comment. A combination of Akismet and the WP Captcha Free plug-in ensures that bots are kept at bay and legitimate comments make it through. I can attest that the combination has dramatically reduced comment spam. Still not 100% fool proof though – so if there’s a comment that doesn’t appear after 24 hours that you think is in line …
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The constitutional reform debate in Sri Lanka is in a particularly enervated state as we approach the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, with a government in power that displays that bizarre concoction of procrustean infantilism that so characterised the Jayewardene and Premadasa attitudes to constitutional government and democracy: its thinking juvenile, its methods menacing. This has, in turn, lent a degree of respectability to secessionism it would not otherwise enjoy in world opinion. In fact, the supremacist ethno-nationalism which is at the ideological core of this government, and the simple-minded and unreflective obstinacy with which its dictates are pursued, raises a question that is at the heart of the liberal theory on self-determination and secession, but which Sri Lankan liberals, …

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Peace talks in Sri Lanka are temporarily on hold. The Ceasfire Agreement of 2002 has crashed and burned and the Norwegians and the SLMM have bid a quick but reluctant goodbye. To all intents and purposes, the country has been left to descend into its own spiral of ruin as the parties engage themselves in all out war. The exclamations and interjections of the nationalists have won and peaceniks, media professionals and the members of the international community now live like fiddlers on a rather shaky roof.

The author does not want to use this paper to discuss the reasons for the failure of the peace talks. Instead she would like to take a quick look here at foreign mediation, specifically …

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Groundviews will be down tomorrow, 10th April, for a scheduled upgrade. The site should be up and running as normal by 11th April the latest, but we don’t really expect it to be inaccessible for anything more than a few hours at most.

For the geeks out there, we are upgrading our back-end content management system to the latest version of Wordpress (2.5), which strengthens security and adds some neat features to help authors publish their content more easily.

We’ve also disabled site registration – we hope temporarily. An unusual amount of bot accounts terminating with mail.ru or ukr.net (with IP’s unsurprisingly terminating in Russia) flooded the site recently and with a resulting increase in comment spam that became tedious to …

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