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by Meena Kandasamy (Meena Kandasamy, poet, writer, activist and translator, on the city, its people, sights and sounds) Give it to Chennai for chutzpah, for her courage to take on the world. For all the laidback calm, she launched the Home Rule League to overthrow the British, the Anti-Hindi Agitation to show New Delhi that [...]

KANNADA is ailing. It has speakers, of course—nearly 50m of them, mostly in southwestern India. It’s the official language of the state of Karnataka, where active film, television, and music industries broadcast Kannada voices to millions of people. Writers have written in Kannada for nearly 1,500 years, producing a body of literature that includes a [...]

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka On the 1st of August , Colombo based pro-government English daily “The Island” quoted a top UN official praising the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for ‘achieving excellent results in its Northern and Eastern rehabilitation and resettlement programme and post-conflict economic development drive’. In Kilivetti-June 2008-pic: Drs.Sarajevo Wrapping [...]

by Vishnuguptha “The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow When one looks at the messy situation the United National Party (UNP) finds itself in today, some political pundits ponder as to whether [...]

By Udaya Gammanpila The Western countries change their slogans quite often. In early 2009 their slogan was ‘declare a ceasefire!’ Thereafter, it turned to different slogans such as ‘Resettle IDPs,’ ‘Punish war criminals,’ ‘Stop abductions,’ ‘Disarm paramilitaries’ and ‘Establish Northern Provincial Council.’ The latest slogan of the Western community is ‘Speed up demilitarization of the [...]

On 14 August the feast of the Sillalai church was marked on a grand scale. Many Sillalaians from all over the island and abroad travelled to the village especially to take part in its celebrations. It was a time for reunions between those who had left the village and those who still lived there.

by Kishanie S. Fernando The Madhu festival is said to be like no other church feast in the island. The jungle seclusion and travelling distance only strengthens one’s faith. The camp atmosphere where everyone is called to prayer on blaring loudspeakers relaying morning and night payers, masses, litanies, rosaries and hymns in English, Sinhala and [...]

By Stuart Littlewood ‘People in public life are not always as clear as they should be about where the boundaries of acceptable conduct lie.’ – Nolan Committee. “Who will own Mitt Romney if he is elected?” asks Philip Giraldi after Romney’s trip to Israel to raise campaign funds. The Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1966, [...]

by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya If you want succeed in politics, you have to exude charisma. Voters tend to soft-pedal allegations of corruption made against such a politician. The iconic leader with charisma and charm is permitted to rule unchecked. Peasants and the common man are swayed by the oratory and the sheen emanating from his glowing [...]

R.Sampanthan Member of Parliament, Trincomalee district, Parliamentary Group Leader, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi. Hon. Speaker, Parliament, Jayewardanapura. Sir, I hereby give notice that I shall on Wednesday 22nd August 2012 at adjournment after question time, as a matter of urgent public importance as per the agreement reached at the Leaders’ Meeting move the following motion [...]

By Sanjayan Rajasingham University students have different opinions about the strike action by the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA). Some oppose it, and went to court to get lecturers back to work. Others have expressed support. However almost all are annoyed at the time lost. In writing this I do not intend to exhaustively [...]

by Col R Hariharan Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) leader M Karunanidhi seems to have quietly acquiesced to New Delhi’s pressure to shift the focus of his widely publicized “Eelam Tamils’ Rights Protection Conference” on August 12 from ‘Tamil Eelam’ to ‘Eelam Tamil.’ The exercise was more than semantics; except for two – Thol Thirumavalavan of [...]

By Salma Yusuf It has been said that since wars begin in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace must be constructed. Logically following from this has been the statement by Maria Montessori that ‘establishing a lasting peace is the work of [...]

By N Sathiya Moorthy If there is one thing about the recently-held TESO conference at Chennai, capital of the south Indian State of Tamil Nadu, that stake-holders and other protagonists from all sides, in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, have to understand, it is this. There is truth in the considered view that the understanding of [...]

by Ariyawansa Ranaweera One of the unpardonable and lasting damages the LTTE perpetrated on the body politic of Sir Lanka is the killing of Liberal intellectuals and moderate Political leaders across the language divide. It is not necessary to name the victims because, every public spirited person is aware of this dastardly act.

by Fr JC Pieris The other day General Sarath Fonseka (SF) declared that he would be guided in governance by the Buddhist Dasa Raja Dharmaya (DRD) not by Marxism, Capitalism or any other ism. We understood what he wanted to say though the isms and the Decalogues are different. There are two great popularly known [...]

By Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda Some people have made an argument that FUTA has exceeded the mandate of a trade union when it demands the government to allocate 6% of the GDP to education. This argument emanates from the position that trade unions have no business with government’s fiscal policy. According to the advocates of this [...]