Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera COLOMBO, Oct 28, 2010 (IPS) – There was a time when being a breadseller here in Colombo enabled Charmindha to have modest dreams. But the teenager from Sri Lanka’s rural south has been seeing his daily earnings slide in the last two months, and indications [...]
SRI LANKA: Widows Struggle to Put Life Back Together Again
October 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Adithya Alles COLOMBO, Oct 25, 2010 (IPS) – Having to take care of eight teenage children is not an easy task for 70-year-old Yamunadevi (not her real name). But these youngsters are her grandchildren, orphaned by Sri Lanka’s civil war of more than two decades. "I have [...]
Sri Lanka Challenges Post-War Human Rights Probe
October 14, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Oct 14, 2010 (IPS) – When Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris was at the United Nations last month, he challenged human rights groups to appear before a government-appointed ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ (LLRC) probing human rights violations during the [...]
SRI LANKA: Peace Dividend Perks Up Economy
October 12, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera COLOMBO, Oct 12, 2010 (IPS) – The Taj Samudra, the flagship property here of Taj Hotels India, sits on what is arguably the best location in Sri Lanka’s capital. Overlooking the Indian Ocean, it is the only five-star hotel in this city from which guests [...]
SRI LANKA: ‘Tigers’ Become Tourists
October 1, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera SIGIRIYA, Sri Lanka, Oct 1, 2010 (IPS) – The younger ones in the group tried to imitate the older boys, in their teens and early 20s, who wear the latest fashion promoted by Hindi and South Indian movie stars – faded denim jeans, tight T-shirts, [...]
SRI LANKA: Constitutional Change Undermines Political Checks
September 15, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS Amantha Perera COLOMBO, Sep 15 (IPS) – If Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appears unassailable after the September ratification of a constitutional amendment lifting a limit on presidential terms, blame the main opposition party. Or so say political observers who have denounced the absence of a strong opposition, [...]
Sri Lanka Shuns West, Finds Solace in Emerging Powers’ Arms
September 8, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera COLOMBO, Sep 8, 2010 (IPS) – The European Union’s decision to suspend trade preferences for Sri Lankan exports may have finally come into force, but the island nation is not budging an inch on any of the powerful bloc’s recommendations on its controversial human rights [...]
SRI LANKA: No Peace in Sight in Human-vs-Elephant War
August 4, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera – IPS/IFEJ* KONWEVA, Sri Lanka, Aug 4, 2010 (IPS) – Dusk creeps over Konweva like a black shroud slowly draping over the village. The edges of its paddy fields, where the agricultural plains meet the surrounding thick shrubs, are first to be blanketed in the [...]
SRI LANKA: War Over, But Women Wage Battle For Survival
July 26, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera VAHARAI, Sri Lanka, Jul 25, 2010 (IPS) – It was a typically hot, humid day in this eastern coastal village. The sun burned down from a cloudless sky, roasting the skin as an angry sea breeze swatted the faces of the few foolish enough to [...]
SRI LANKA: New Tremors, Old Nightmares
July 19, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera DUTCH BAR, Jul 19, 2010 (IPS) – Janoshini Maurasini shakes like a leaf each time the sea belches a thunderous roar. And the 29-year-old mother of two has good reason to be nervous: Maurasini only narrowly escaped with her life in the Indian Ocean tsunami [...]
