Author: ssalanka

Demonstration held in front of the National War Heroes’ Monument by the National Collective of War Heroes (Jathika Ranawiru Ekamuthuwa), several other civil society organisations, and Members of Parliament of the Joint Opposition, on 12 August 2016. Photo Credit: Nisal Baduge[i] The 2022 budget has allocated Rs. 300 million to “compensate the disappearances of people during different eras owing to various reasons”… Continue reading The Office on Missing Persons post-2020: Who and What is it for? Chulani Kodikara

The year of 1977 has become a highly charged symbol for understanding the current crisis. After the transition from a “closed” to an “open” economy, many now claim that Sri Lanka is moving backwards. But we must be clear on what is responsible for the ongoing breakdown. Over the decades since Sri Lanka began liberalising… Continue reading Debating the Transition from a Closed to an Open Economy – Devaka Gunawardena

The ways in which countries from the global North to the global South have politically managed the unprecedented public health emergency situation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has both national and global dimensions, have given rise to much anxiety among democratic communities across the world. In fact, these anxieties came to be expressed… Continue reading ‘Executive Authoritarianism’ as Sri Lanka’s New Political Normal since COVID-19* – Jayadeva Uyangoda

Source The plantation economy took root in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) with the onset of British colonialism in the 19th century. The British government in Ceylon took measures to provide the necessary fiscal incentives and initiate changes in the base structure in favour of commercialisation, with a view to promoting a minimal state and capitalist… Continue reading Tea Smallholders in Sri Lanka’s Organic Fertiliser Crisis – Kaushini Dammalage

Delete Nothing is a trilingual platform that aims to document technology-related gender-based violence (GBV) in Sri Lanka, particularly—but not limited to—the experiences of girls, women, and queer and trans people. It also attempts to break down what technology-related violence looks like; ways of dealing with such violence including and beyond the law; and connect survivors… Continue reading Making ‘Delete Nothing’: Making a Feminist Internet – Zainab Ibrahim and Sachini Perera

“Here is the City Paranoiac. All these long centuries, growing over the country-side? like an intelligent creature. An actor, a fantastic mimic. Pointsman! Counterfeiting all the correct forces? the eco-nomic, the demo-graphic? oh yes even the ran-dom…” Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow I built Colombo in a dream. Clean streets, spotless floors, spotless walls, and well-dressed… Continue reading World Class City – Abdul Halik Azeez