by Karthick Ram Manoharan, ‘Outlook India,’ February 5, 2018 The torture of incarcerated Tamils was not a betrayal of the Sri Lankan state’s Sinhala-Buddhist ideal, but that ideal being taken to its logical conclusion, writes Karthick Ram Manoharan. Excerpts from his afterword to Sri Lankan Tamil novelist Kuna Kaviyalahan’s ‘The Poisoned Dream’. Kuna Kaviyalahan’s The Poisoned… Read more »
Yearly Archives: 2018
Tales Of Lankan Tamil Diaspora
Narrated With Poignancy And Hilarity by Sreevalsan Thiyyadi, ‘Outlook India,’ January 28, 2018 It was on this date nine years ago that immigrant Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada intensified protest against a “genocide” of their community in the Northern Province of the island-nation. Appadurai Muttulingam’s stories take a kaleidoscopic view on their everyday lives—and beyond… Read more »
War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka
After the End by Rachel Seoighe, Palgrave Studies in Compromise After Conflict, Palgrave MacMillan, Dec. 5, 2017 Abstract This book begins from a critical account of the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, tracing themes of nationalism, discourse and conflict memory through this period of immense violence and into its aftermath. Using these… Read more »
Caged Independence
by Thamil Ananthavinayagan, ‘Sri Lanka Guardian,’ Colombo, February 4, 2018 Introduction ( February 4, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The cherished Maya Angelou wrote once in her famous poem ‘Caged Bird’: [T]he caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for… Read more »
Diaspora Joint Letter on Independence Day
Tamil Diaspora Joint Letter on Sri Lanka Independence Day 2018 February 3, 2018 Honorable Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland Dear High Commissioner, Tamil Diaspora Organizations call for action on the eve of Sri Lanka’s… Read more »
Remembering A. Sivanandan (1923–2018)
We Are Here Because You Were With Us by Virou Srilangarajah, ‘Ceasefire,’ UK, February 4, 2018 That he was still alive at the time, though in comparative retirement, makes that neglect even sadder.” So wrote Ambalavaner Sivanandan in 1980, commenting on the lack of acknowledgement by black political movements of the 1960s in the United States of the… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 42
Importance of Voice and Inspiration of Raja Sandow by Sachi Sri Kantha, Feb. 4, 2018 Part 41 Importance of Voice Nearby, I provide a question and answer item that appeared in the Thuglak weekly (around 1980 I guess, when MGR was Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister), edited by drama-movie actor and humorist Cho Ramaswamy (1934-2016). For… Read more »
Inscribing the Victor’s Land
Nationalistic authorship in Sri Lanka’s post-war Northeast by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Conflict, Security & Development,’ Vol. 16, 2016, Issue 5 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14678802.2016.1219507?scroll=top&needAccess=true Abstract This article examines the nationalistic authorship of space in Sri Lanka’s post-conflict Northeast as part of the state’s nation-building strategy and as a continuation of a post-colonial process of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalistic revival. Exploring issues… Read more »
Nationalistic Authorship and Resistance in Northeastern Sri Lanka
by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Society and Culture in South Asia’ 2(1) 1–30, 2016 Nationalist Authorship Resistance in NE Sri Lanka 2016 Abstract Post-war Sri Lanka is defined by the logic of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, glorification and expansion of the military, and the exponential growth of state-corporate economic projects. This article examines the performative politics of the state in mass… Read more »
Discourses of Victimization in Sri Lanka’s Civil War
Collective Memory, Legitimacy and Agency by Rachel Seoghe, ‘Social and Legal Studies,’ UK, January 8, 2016 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0964663915614097 Abstract This article explores the availability of discourses of victimhood to political actors who aim to justify violence and mass atrocity in the name of those victims. Arguing that the label of the ‘victim’ is equally available for… Read more »
Navy Officer in Charge of Dumping Dead Bodies at Sea Arrested
by Ramanan Weerasingham, Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe, January 31, 2018 Probing the abduction of Tamil youth in the capital city of Colombo and its suburbs during the height of the war, Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested yet another Navy intelligence officer charging him of being in-charge of dumping dead… Read more »
HRW: Repeal Draconian Security Law
Failure to Meet Pledges on Accountability, Counterterrorism Reforms by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 29, 2018 HRW PTA report Jan 2018 The Sri Lankan government has failed to fulfill its pledges to abolish the abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). For decades, the PTA has been used to arbitrarily detain suspects for months and… Read more »
HRW: One Step Forward, Two Back
Government Delays Implementing Rights Pledges to UN by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 18, 2018 (New York) – The Sri Lankan government stalled on its key pledges to provide justice for conflict-related violations and strengthen human rights protections, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2018. The government took some steps in 2017 to reduce… Read more »
Buddhist Dominance
by Floriyan Janson, January 11, 2018 https://youtu.be/5jBSS3U2SVA
‘King Poet’ Kannadasan at 90
Random Thoughts (part 2) by Sachi Sri Kantha, January 17, 2018 Part 1 In this part, I focus on Kannadasan’s productivity: both of, physical and intellectual variety. On physical productivity, Kannadasan had a total of 15 children, from three wives, married in sequence in 1950, 1951 and 1976. Kannadasan’s first wife’s name was Ponnama, from… Read more »
Sivanandan: When Memory Forgets a Giant
by David Renwick, ‘Red Pepper,’ UK, January 6, 2018 Daniel Renwick calls for the whole movement to discover and remember the vital work of A. Sivanandan, who died this week Ambalavaner Sivanandan (Siva) was not en vogue during my life. For activists and anti-racist campaigners of previous generations of the black struggle, though, Siva was a giant. His presence… Read more »
Ambalavaner Sivanandan (1923-2018)
An anti-racist fighter from Ceylon by Virou Srilangarajah, ‘Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka,’ January 17, 2018 “There is nothing, nothing, so horrendous as communal war, ethnic war. Overnight your friend becomes your enemy, every look of your neighbour is laden with threat, every passer-by is an informant. You walk the streets on tiptoe, casting nervous… Read more »
Rajinikanth’s Aimless and Empty Political Gamble
by M.K. Eelaventhan, January 17, 2018 Member of Parliament of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. Former Member of Parliament, Sri Lanka Rajiniikanth born in Karnataka State, India on December 12, 1950 and named as Sivaji Rao Gaekaward by his parents with Marathi as his mother tongue is a popular screen hero in Tamil Nadu with… Read more »
More on Yan Oya
Genocidal ‘development’ abetted by global partners seeks to wedge North-East by TamilNet, May 4, 2017 The occupying Colombo is trying to seize lands in the Tamil-speaking Kuchchave’li division of Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province to construct housing schemes for Sinhala settlers who have been moved out of their lands that were taken over by… Read more »
2007: A Proposal to Make Toppigala Victory Sustainable
Development of water resources in the Eastern province by G.T. Dharmasena, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, July 19, 2007 Former Director General of Irrigation and presently the Consultant to the United Nation’s Office for Project Services(UNOPS) At a moment the focus of all peace loving people of the country, irrespective of political divisions ,religions and races is… Read more »