Archive for English
May 5, 2008 at 3:52 pm · Categories: Colombo, සිංහල, தமிழ், English, Democracy, Media, Eastern Elections, Trincomalee | by Vikalpa Admin
Vikalpa has launched a new micro-site on Twitter with short reports generated by its citizen journalist network in the Eastern Province on election related violence and malpractices. Please visit our Eastern Elections 2008 site for the latest updates, that are also featured on Vikalpa (see column in the middle).
This is the first time in Sri Lanka that reports via SMS from citizens at the grassroots are being used to provide perspectives from the Eastern Province in the lead up to and on the day of the elections (10th May 2008).
While we cannot check the veracity of each SMS we receive in a timely manner, we hope and expect that citizens themselves will actively engage with reports posted …
April 9, 2008 at 6:47 pm · Categories: English | by Vikalpa Admin
Vikalpa will be down tomorrow, 10th April, for a scheduled upgrade. The site should be up and running as normal by 11th April the latest, but we don’t really expect it to be inaccessible for anything more than a few hours at most.
For the geeks out there, we are upgrading our back-end content management system to the latest version of Wordpress (2.5), which strengthens security and adds some neat features to help authors publish their content more easily.
January 9, 2008 at 9:04 am · Categories: Districts, Colombo, සිංහල, தமிழ், English, Media | by Vikalpa Admin
Vikalpa, Sri Lanka’s only citizen journalism initiative working primarily in Sinhala and Tamil, is pleased to announce the official launch of the Vikalpa YouTube video channel.
Our YouTube channel complements the text on this website and currently features over 50 short videos on human rights, peace, war, media freedom, gender and politics in Sri Lanka.
Videos on the Vikalpa YouTube channel have already generated hundreds of views, with a few generating views in the thousands. For example, a video (in Sinhala) on a human rights activist’s trip to and experiences in the embattled Jaffna peninsula in the North of Sri Lanka, viewed over 4,000 times, propelled the channel into #82 of the top 100 list …
January 4, 2008 at 10:00 am · Categories: Peace and reconciliation, Colombo, සිංහල, தமிழ், English, Democracy, Media, Human Rights, Human Security | by Vikalpa Admin
Vikalpa captured scenes from the assassinated UNP MP T. Maheswaran’s funeral held In Colombo on 3rd January 2008.
January 2, 2008 at 10:49 am · Categories: Peace and reconciliation, Colombo, English | by Vikalpa Admin
January 1, 2008 at 6:59 pm · Categories: Peace and reconciliation, සිංහල, English, Democracy, Jaffna | by Vikalpa Admin
I read, with great pain of mind, Ruki’s article on “Jaffna: Tears, Blood and Terror” posted on ‘Groundviews” on December 11, 2007. The comments on the article were no less moving. I agree with all that has been said.
It may appear ludicrous for someone to agree with all views that are diagonally opposite to one another ex facie. Let me explain.
The explanation may be acceptable to all or it may be detested by all. Nevertheless I must say what I have to say for I believe that it is only by putting our hearts and minds together, that our calamitous ethnic conflict can be laid to rest some day.
My basic assumption is that each view is justified in relation …
December 3, 2007 at 6:20 pm · Categories: Colombo, සිංහල, English, Governance | by Vikalpa Admin
What would be the stand likely to be taken by our Leader of the Opposition Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe in the event of a military putsch by the Army Commander Sarath Fonseka?
Political system was utterly corrupt, Sarath Fonseka would argue. Politicians had robbed the country, another stock argument in the justification of any military junta in the world. Furthermore, he would insist that there is no national problem as such but a problem of terrorism, which can only be defeated by military means, hence the current discourse on a political solution conveniently discarded.
Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth when Perves Musharraf, then the Army Commander of Pakistan deposed the popularly elected Navas Sherrif in 1999 on charges of corruption. Nevertheless, suspension …
November 24, 2007 at 11:13 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Democracy | by Vikalpa Admin
By Victor Ivan
The government of Mahinda Rajapakse stood for a triumphant war against the LTTE. It carried on a merciless war against the LTTE and was also able to effect a considerable change in the balance of power. The aim of the entire military project is to root out the LTTE.
The military project pursued by the government in the midst of the allegation leveled against it on waste, corruption and mismanagement was attractive to the ordinary people. The general opinion of the ordinary people was that, whatever faults the President and the government had, he was teaching the Tigers a good lesson.
In a war what the rebels look for is one weak gap from amongst several hundred gaps. From …
·
Next entries »
