In my view, there are reporters and there are journalists. Reporters do exactly that. They report. But journalists on the other hand, should not be mere instruments of describing, but should be the activists who are working for change through their role as advocates.

Journalists are blessed with something that most advocates have to look for: an audience that listens to them. Whilst advocates in the traditional sense have to fight to reach their target audience, journalists have a daily dose of communication that can be delivered right to the doorstep of the public at large.

That gives them an edge to call for change. The captive audience can be fed not lies, but the needed parts of truth. There is a …

continue reading

Photo by Chandragupta Amarasinghe

ONE
What happened in mid-1983 and in the last week of July 1983 was obscene, a monumental atrocity, a disaster for Sri Lanka. In a context marked by the push for self-determination by the principal forces representing the Sri Lankan Tamils and an armed underground insurgency involving restive youth in the extreme north, government functionaries and elements of the ordinary populace took it upon themselves to unleash punitive attacks on Tamils living in the Sinhala-majority areas in the south. In both the towns and in several parts of the supposedly idyllic countryside Tamils were killed, assailed, maimed, terrorized and forced to flee or hide.

It was not an ethnic …

continue reading

July usually passes me by without too much notice, beyond the vague worry that there might be a Tiger attack on Colombo, and a few flashbacks to that weekend in 1983. But this time it’s been a bit different. I’ve found myself reliving that day a lot more this year. It isn’t the fact that this is the 25th anniversary of the carnage which most people see as the starting point of our war, though that has been the focus of a lot of attention. What did it was a phone call a couple of weeks ago.

My mobile rang with an unfamiliar number, and an equally unidentifiable male voice asked for me. When I confirmed that it was indeed yours …

continue reading

Tamil National Alliance MP Mr. R. Sampanthan speaks of the anti-Tamil riots of July 1983.

Speaking of the “terrible experience for all Tamil people in Sri Lanka” he says that the riot was “premeditated pogrom… largely believed to be with the support of very influential forces within the then government”. He notes that there were Sinhalese friends who helped Tamil friends in distress and says that the riots were a “determined effort by some forces within the majority community with the support of the government to teach the Tamil people a lesson.”

Mr. Sampanthan ends by stating that only a political solution, not violence, will bring about an end to the conflict. …

continue reading

AFLAME - Remembering Black July, 1983

What is a poem
to a man hiding
in the cellar
of his neighbor’s house,

breathing the way
his hostess spices
lentils and mutton,
while son and daughter

keep quiet,
not one word
allowed
in the mother tongue,

and wife strokes
her neck,
the golden wings
of her thali,

and across the lane
a mob, ruffians,
tontons macoutes,
lynch squad, a few

holy men, politicians
in white vershtis,
light rage
and sew pestilence

in summer fires
that turn houses
to foundation stones
and stoke residents

out to shelter
at  neighbors,
St. Peter’s College,
the police station

near Bambalapitya Flats,
before three days
voyage on a ship
hungry to Kankesanthurai

where soldiers
have been swinging
cricket bats
and teenage boys

have stopped
playing cricket,
disappeared,
coerced

into resistance:
this war, these
flames burning
every day since,

and even before,
50 years ago,
1958, when mobs
first enforced

what was deemed
the people’s will.
by unleashing
latent and dark

social energies,
microbes that murder,
that insist on power
as well as alms,

that circulate
in the body politic
and …

continue reading

This morning, I woke up to the news that the LTTE had declared an unilateral ceasefire during the SAARC conference. Of course, war is not a sport - but their declaration must be causing a slight dilemma for the Sri Lankan Military. Here’s an extract from the LTTE’s press release that was said to have originated from LTTE’s Political Office in the Vanni during the early hours  of this morning:

As a sign of this goodwill, our movement is glad to inform that it will observe a unilateral ceasefire that is devoid of military actions during the period of the SAARC conference from 26th July to 4th August and give our cooperation for the success of the conference. At the same …

continue reading

25 years after Black July, the term “National Security” is used to thwart lot of things. V from the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ said “I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of the everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition”.

At least he had that. We don’t.

We can’t nikang sit, walk around at night, carry our CDMA phones, visit TamilNet, buy remote controlled toys, visit Galle Face Greens, nikang stand, wear full-face helmets, fix crash-guards to our SUVs, take photos, talk about cessation of violence and a host of other things because they might supposedly impede upon the national security and the sovereignty of the country.

The country the (proud) Sinhalese stole from the native …

continue reading

My Belly is White - මගේ බඩවත සුදුය දුටු සැනින් ඒත්තු නොයන මාතෘකාවක්.

ඒත් පිටු 927 ක් පුරා දිවයන කතාවක්. පසුගිය සඳුදා දොරට වැඩි මෙම කෘතිය ලියා ඇත්තේ ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පරිපාලන සේවයේ කීර්තිමත් පරිපාලන නිලධාරියෙකු වූ හිටපු ආක්‍ෂක ලේකම් ඔස්ටින් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මෙය ගැටුම් නිරාකරණ සාහිත්‍යයට අලූතින් එකතු කිරීමකි. අනෙක් අතින් වසර දෙකක්වත් නොපැවති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ රෙජීමය තුළ සිදුවූ සාම කි‍්‍රයාවලිය දෙස නව මානයකින් බැලීමට කරන ලද උත්සාහයකි. මීට පෙර මෙම සාම කි‍්‍රයාවලිය පිලිබඳ විෂය අරභයා ලියවී ඇත්තේ කෘති දෙකකි. එනම් ජෝන් ගුණරත්න විසින් ලියන ලද ආණ්ඩුවේ සාම මහලේකම් කාර්යාලය විසින් ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද සාම කි‍්‍රයාවලිය පිළිබඳ දින වකවානු හා යම් යම් විස්තර අඩංගු .රෙදප එයැ ිැජදබා රදඅ, කෘතියයි. කෘතියකි. අනෙක …

continue reading

An interesting advertisement by a tour operator caught my eye in a daily paper last week. It said “Get away during the SAARC summit” as a part of an advertisement promoting overseas holidays costing between Rs. 38,000 to Rs. 70,000 to get away from the country or more aptly the city between July 23rd to August 3rd, the scheduled days for the ministerial as well as Heads of State summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). The idea that people must get away from the country or more aptly form the city of Colombo has been prompted by the extreme security measures that the Government is planning to put in place as its hosts eight Heads of …

continue reading

Anoma Rajakaruna shares her photos of people in black and white. Anoma has captured many expressions and many environments. Every photograph speaks differently. As a film-maker, photographer and poet ,Anoma has well captured the many moods of men, women and children around the Island. The exhibition is divided as My story, her story, his story and their stories comprising 34 photographs.

Anoma Rajakaruna’s exhibition of photographs was inaugurated on July 16th 2008 at Alliance Francaise in Colombo by the Ambassador for France in Sri Lanka and Maldives Michel Lummaux. The exhibition will remain open to the public from July 18th-24th  2008 , and the exhibition will be held at Alliance Francaise …

continue reading