Monthly Archives: June 2024

Notes on Reaching 70 Not Out – Part 5

A Zest for Writing by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 25, 2024 Generativity in Three Countries The word ‘generativity’ is defined as ‘the desire to care for and contribute to further generations; desire to leave a legacy’. [International Encyclopedia of Psychology, vol.1, Frank Magill (ed), 1996]. Normal humans, of both sexes, possess this desire. That’s why… Read more »

UNHRC 56: Sri Lanka Core Group Statement

Delivered by the UK’s Human Rights Ambassador, Rita French, Geneva, June 19, 2024 Thank you Mr President, This statement is by the Sri Lanka Core Group comprising Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States. High Commissioner, Thank you for your recent report on accountability for enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka… Read more »

Review: ‘Brotherless Night’

‘Brotherless Night,’ an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize by National Public Radio, Washington, DC, May 13, 2024 Audio at V.V. Ganeshananthan’s ‘Brotherless Night’  The writer V. V. Ganeshananthan has won this year’s Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, for her novel Brotherless Night. This is the second year of the prize, which… Read more »

Review: ‘Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens’

‘Trojan horse’ novel tackling colonisation and war wins Miles Franklin Award by Jason Steger, The Sydney Morning Post, July 25, 2023 Shankari Chandran has pulled a fast one. Her novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens has the sort of title and cover that suggest readers are in for a gentle read about the funny old residents of… Read more »

TRG Calls for Action and Accountability Following UNHRC Report

on Sri Lanka’s Enforced Disappearances by Tamil Rights Group, Markham, Canada, June 25, 2024 Markham, Canada – Over fifteen years following the end of Sri Lanka’s Genocidal war against Eelam Tamils, families of the forcibly disappeared are still searching for answers about the whereabouts of their loved ones. The recent UN Human Rights Office report released on… Read more »

Assessing Shortcomings in the State Dept.’s Foreign Assistance Grants Process

Money is Policy by U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight & Accountability, Washington, DC, June 4, 2024 Money is Policy: Assessing Shortcomings in the State Department’s Foreign Assistance Grants Process Statement of Robert A. Destro, Former Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and Special… Read more »

Australian Company’s Multibillion Sandmining Project Mired in Mannar Protests

by Mimi Alphonsus and S. Rubatheesan, The Sunday Times, Colombo, June 16, 2024 Protests hinder progress towards mining licence Residents allege large-scale land robberies involving brokers working for company  Environmentalists fear existential threats such as soil losing fertility and contamination of water sources  Company representative downplays impacts of the project on people’s livelihood  For over… Read more »

M.K. Eelventhan – Appreciation; Part 2

by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 22, 2024 Part 1 Eelaventhan as an Author Having been in public life for nearly six decades, most Tamils in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu do recognize Eelaventhan as a persuasive bilingual speaker, in the oratorical traditions of Dravidian leaders Anna (1909-1969) and Nedunchezhian (1920-2000). But Eelaventhan’s skills as a… Read more »

Israel and the Leahy Law

by Charles O. (Cob) Blaha, JustSecurity, June 10, 2024 [It has been something of a mystery why the US military has been able to cooperate with the Sri Lankan military despite the Sri Lankan’s war crimes and worse since the US supposedly has laws requiring rigorous vetting before such cooperation.  The article perhaps has some… Read more »

Review: Displacement among Sri Lankan Tamil Migrants

by Giorgia Donà, International Migration Review, Vol. 57, Issue 3, September 2023, pages 869-1321 Chattoraj Diotima. 2022. Displacement among Sri Lankan Tamil Migrants: The Diasporic Search for Home in the Aftermath of War. Singapore: Springer Nature. 180 pp., Hardcover, 120 USD. SpringerLink Forced displacement has resulted in the loss of homes for millions of people across the… Read more »

Reflecting on Sri Lanka in the Shadow of Palestine

A Hierarchy of Grief and the Politics of Mourning by Tania Perera & Asha L. Abeyasekera, Polity.lk, Colombo, May 20, 2024 On 18 May, Sri Lanka marked the 15th anniversary of the end of war. In 2009, many Sinhala people in the South took to the streets to spontaneously celebrate what they imagined as a… Read more »

Ranil’s Election Fright & The TNA’s Election Strategy

by Rajan Philips, Colombo Telegraph, June 8, 2024 It is tempting to ask if Ranil Wickremesinghe can electorally survive the referendum fast one that he got his cop-turned politico Party Secretary to pull on his behalf. Will Mr. Wickremesinghe even contest? Might his effervescent mind think of another pre-election ploy? Such as a special referendum to consult… Read more »

M.K. Eelavethan Dies In Canada Aged 90

by DBS Jeyaraj, Nakkeran, Canada, May 4, 2024 Colombo, May 3: The protracted struggle by Sri Lankan Tamils to achieve justice and equality in the Island has brought into prominence several colourful and controversial personalities. Among such persons was a Tamil Nationalist political activist who adopted the nom de plume“Eelaventhan”meaning King of Eelam. Eelaventhan whose… Read more »

M.K. Eelaventhan (1932-2024) – An Appreciation

Part 1 by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 14, 2024 I was saddened to hear the death of M.K. Eelaventhan, at the age of 91 on April 28, 2024 in Canada. Born on Sept 14, 1932, he was 20 years older than me. I became acquainted with him in 1976 (see below, my diary entries, from… Read more »

Tussle Over Giving Lankan Tamils Devolution

Of power under the 13th. Amendment By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham, NewsIn.Asia, Colombo, June 13, 2024 Colombo, June 13:  Many amendments have been brought to the Sri Lankan constitution in more than four and a half decades which were detrimental to democratic governance. But there has been no major controversy about them. But the 13th Amendment (13… Read more »

$29 Trillion Debt

That’s how much debt emerging nations are facing A decades-long crisis is getting worse, and now dozens of nations are spending more on interest payments than on health care or education. by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, June 14, 2024 The Vatican’s meeting on the global debt crisis last week was not quite as celebrity-studded as… Read more »

Tribunal: ‘Horrified’ by Plight of SL’s Plantation Workers

Their wages remain far below the living wage required in the context of Sri Lanka’s current costs of living, following hyperinflation during the crisis, a recent study found  by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, June 12, 2024 An international tribunal of former judges from the region said it was “horrified by the stark realities” of… Read more »