It contributes the decline to a 15% reduction in paddy planted area due to the prolonged dry weather since the beginning of the season, especially in the main northern and eastern paddy producing regions.
Monthly Archives: June 2014
‘Proliferation of Micronarratives Assists the Logic of Counterinsurgency’
In the context of the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle, when a “micronarrative” discourse about gender, caste, region or other “special interest groups” claims autonomous status, “when it divorces itself from the primary contradiction between the Tamil nationalist metanarrative and the Sri Lankan state, it only ends up fracturing a resistance movement against genocide,” argues Karthick… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 18
by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 6, 2014 Part 17 In the previous chapter (Part 17), I reviewed MGR’s two volume autobiography. To this chapter, I received the following comment from my long standing friend Prof. Sundaram Gunasekaran of University of Wisconsin, Madison. His thoughts were as follows: “Very interesting, especially the story of his [MGR’s]… Read more »
It’s #Timetoact => William Hague
We think it is fantastic that William Hague is hosting the first ever Global Summit on Sexual Violence in London next week, but we are concerned that he does not seem to be taking sexual violence in Sri Lanka seriously.Hague’s Preventing Sexual Violence initiative consists of two parts. The first part consists of persuading countries…
Letters from Sri Lanka
by Anuk Arudpragasam, ‘The Caravan,’ India, May 1, 2014 SRI LANKAN MINISTRY OF DEFENCE / AFP PHOTO This image, released by the Sri Lankan government, claims to show an army soldier carrying a child near Mullivaikal during the final offensive against the Tigers in 2009. DRIVING NORTH along Sri Lanka’s newly relaid A9 highway last August,… Read more »
Text of CM Jayalalitha Memo to PM Modi
Text of the Memorandum presented by Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 3.6.2014 II. SRI LANKAN TAMIL ISSUE There are very strong sentiments amongst Tamils and in Tamil Nadu on a range of issues relating to India’s relations with the present regime in… Read more »
With the Rohingya in Myanmar
The Rohingya gave us the names of some Buddhists who they said had been leaders in slaughtering Muslims, and we visited one of these men they named. A 53-year-old farmer, he denied any involvement in the violence, but it was an awkward, tense conversation, partly because the Buddhists are angry at aid groups and journalists for (as they see it) siding with Muslims. Their narrative is that Muslim terrorists from Bangladesh are invading the country, overpopulating so as to marginalize the Buddhists, and then being coddled by foreigners.
UN Expert re Sri Lankans Migrating Abroad for Work
COLOMBO / GENEVA (27 May 2014) – “The Government of Sri Lanka must boost the efforts it has made in recent years in order to prevent exploitation and abuse of Sri Lankans migrating abroad for work, during the recruitment stage, while in service in the destination country, and upon return to the country,” the United… Read more »
Modi’s Play on Sri Lanka
My assessment is that political ideology will not play much of a role in deciding Modi’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka. The critical factor will be Modi’s policy towards US and China. If Modi wants to take India even closer to the US and be a part of the US ‘Pivot to Asia’ project then there is reason for Rajapaksa to be worried.