Sri Lanka

A Historical Appraisal of Jewish Presence in Sri Lanka

by Fiona Kumari Campbell

Draft 2007 Unpublished

In terms of religious proclivities hegemonic discourses present Sri Lanka as an Island populated by the four main... more In terms of religious proclivities hegemonic discourses present Sri Lanka as an Island populated by the four main world religions:  Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Judaism and the Jew is absent from official discourses to the extent that it is a commonly held belief that “there have never been any Jews in Sri Lanka”. Although somewhat erroneous and imprecise, the view articulated is that unlike India, there have not been any Jewish communities in Sri Lanka. This paper challenges that view by providing a preliminary historical foray into Jewish life in Sri Lanka. First is a discussion about the methods of research and climatic difficulties. The discussion moves onto consider the relationship between Jewish pogroms in the 1500s – 1700s and the conquest of the Ceylon by the Portuguese (1505 – 1656), Dutch (1656 – 1796) and finally the British (1796 – 1948). There is a brief consideration of the Jewish presence in Sri Lanka before the Portuguese conquest, shifting to a more nuanced articulation of Jewish relations under Portuguese and Dutch occupation.  The later part of the paper is concerned with identifying Jewish communal life under the British until Ceylonese independence in 1948.

Working Final Draft: HUB CONTAINER MARITIME COMMERCE THE RE-EMERGENCE OF THE INDIAN OCEAN AT GLOBAL LEVEL

by Jacques Coulardeau

Since the financial crisis in mid 2008 and the subsequent downturn in international maritime commerce in 2009, recovery is slow and will take more time than expected.

This crisis and the subsequent downturn did not change the trend that was developing before, viz. the emergence of Asia led by china first and India second, of Latin America led by Brazil and of Africa without a real leader apart from South Africa. In fact this crisis and the subsequent downturn increased the trend by bringing down the USA first and then Europe. In fact apart from these two western blocks only Russia really suffered for one year or so. The other emerging countries experienced a slowdown at worst. China itself is in fact encouraged toward relying on and encouraging its national market, moving toward a consumer’s society, national consumption becoming the real economic incentive, and yet to target Asia, Africa and Latin America on the international market. The recovery after 2009 for Asian exports is up 12% for Latin America, 18% for Africa and only 5% for Northern America and Europe.

In fact the emergence of Asia has changed the world and the crisis is amplifying the change. “In recent years intra-Asian liner shipping [container shipping] has become larger than Asia-US, Asia-Europe and trans-Atlantic liner volumes.”  The direct consequence is the shift from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to the Indian Ocean, with its 20% of global sea water and its 40% of global coast line. This Indian Ocean is becoming the very centre of this vast emerging area comprising China, India and the rest of Asia, eastern Africa and South Africa and the Middle East.

We are going to study this restructuring and repositioning of the Indian Ocean and Asia in the global commerce at the beginning of the 21st century. Very few people have a distinct idea of what is happening today, and for those who like plots we could say that the financial wizards who planned the 2008 crisis had not foreseen that it was going to backfire in their hands to the point of shifting the centre of global business from them to Asia, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

I will very fast look at the past up to 1433, and then at the colonization of the Indian Ocean and Asia by the... more I will very fast look at the past up to 1433, and then at the colonization of the Indian Ocean and Asia by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English and the French.

I will then consider the strategic position of the Indian Ocean and in that Indian Ocean the strategic position of Sri Lanka for maritime commerce.  That will bring China into the picture as a major investor and stakeholder in that maritime development.

Considering the main problems of this maritime commerce which are congested bottlenecks and security, I will try to understand the new means container freight commerce and information technology based on satellite surveillance can bring to these problematic questions. I will incidentally consider the various regional rivalries if not conflicts or potential conflicts that may disrupt this development.

That will bring me to the conclusive hypothesis that China has more stakes in the Indian Ocean than may seem at first, and most of these stakes are economic and only subsequently some are social. The result anyway is the re-emergence of the Indian Ocean as the global maritime centre of human development and commercial enterprise.

A Note on specimens of Gerada prevostiana (Colubridae: Serpentes) Collected from Sri Lanka

by Kanishka Ukuwela

University of Colombo Disability Rights Forum - Speech Notes 17 January 2012 (corrected)

by Fiona Kumari Campbell

These speech notes supplement the research report on this site containing a compendium of Sri Lankan disability law. These speech notes supplement the research report on this site containing a compendium of Sri Lankan disability law.

A Review of Disability Law and Legal Mobilisation in Sri Lanka

by Fiona Kumari Campbell

DRAFT 2

This chapter brings together a number of disability laws and disability related provisions in review. Due to the... more This chapter brings together a number of disability laws and disability related provisions in review. Due to the paucity of scholarly literature concerning disability law in Sri Lanka, this chapter is tailored to both the local Sri Lankan reader and well as international readers. As such the chapter is necessarily technical in parts so as to provide assistance to future legal researchers, attorneys, disability studies scholars and activists. Theoretical critiques have been kept to a minimum.  The development of law always occurs in the context of a country’s history, legal traditions, and of course contestations in local and international politics.
The chapter opens in Section 1 with a rendition of Sri Lanka’s disability profile. Section 2, provides the global backdrop to ‘geodisability knowledge’ in order to provide clarity about frameworks acting as drivers of change and accountability.  Shifting from the global to the local, Section 3 details law of country – those Constitutional structures of Sri Lanka and inherited legal traditions. These structures require critical appraisal as they ultimately govern the development of disability law, create rights and remedies for disabled people at the grassroots level and conversely provide different challenges to inducing change from other countries such as the USA, India or Australia where context and legal reasoning can be dissimilar. Section 4, Disability Law in Sri Lanka, takes up the bulk of the chapter and is an exhaustive overview of social policy structures, dedicated disability statutes, mental disability law, social insurance/security laws, injured employee legislation and future directions. In Section 5, the Chapter turns toward social change and activism in its review of approaches to legal mobilisation, freedom of information, locus standi and the use of the writ of quo warranto and the writ of habeas corpus particularly for mental disability issues.

Effectiveness of a community based health educational intervention in reducing unmet need for modern methods of family planning among ever married reproductive age women in the Kalutara district, Sri Lanka

by IJCRIMPH Journal

National integration: the state in search of community

by Swarna Rajagopalan

Environmental health risks and vulnerability in post-conflict regions

by Chad Briggs

Co-authored with Moneeza Walji and Lucy Anderson.

The importance of environmental factors during and after conflict has often not received adequate attention, and is of... more The importance of environmental factors during and after conflict has often not received adequate attention, and is of particular importance when assessing those groups most vulnerable to changing conditions. Postwar reconstruction and aid policies must take note of which groups are most susceptible to environmental health risks, and how the conflict itself often created new vulnerabilities through deliberate destruction of the natural and built environments. The environmental security and public health fields have a good deal to offer in understanding these dynamics, and must work more closely together in the future to identify potential vulnerabilities in advance of conflicts and disasters.

[Non-refereed Op-ed] Whose Arms Will Embrace You? The United States and the Beijing Consensus

by Amarnath Amarasingam

The United States is increasingly playing a game of subtle communication in the international arena. I suspect we had... more The United States is increasingly playing a game of subtle communication in the international arena. I suspect we had a passing glimpse of this at the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council, which gathered in Geneva last month. The question is: who is the United States talking to and what is it trying to say?

South Asia's Small States in World Politics

by Swarna Rajagopalan

Internal Unit Demarcation and National Identity: India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka

by Swarna Rajagopalan

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Volume 5:3-4, Fall and Winter 1999, pp.191-211. (Special journal issue reprinted as William Safran and Ramon Maiz, eds., Identity and Territorial Autonomy in Plural Societies, Frank Cass, London and Portland, Oregon, 2000.

Tobacco Smoking in Central Sri Lanka: An Ethnographic Study of Male Urban Young Adults

by garrett mehl

ROUGHING IT ONE NIGHT ON THE PIDURANGALA ROCK

by Jacques Coulardeau

Diyakapilla, Friday September 23, 2005.

Today is a normal day and nothing special should happen. I just get up at 6:20, get ready, have a cup of tea with milk but no sugar, a couple of small bananas, real midgets that I had never seen before, and I am ready for the trekking life of mine. I walk out onto the dirt road that has just been smoothened up because of the presence of some European representatives yesterday and I start to trace my way to Pidurangala, inprinting my footprints or rather soleprints in the dirt, in the dust, in the sand.

And that was the doing of my mind and my mind alone. Better keep that in mind. The blood on the feet, the burnt metal... more And that was the doing of my mind and my mind alone. Better keep that in mind. The blood on the feet, the burnt metal objects, the purring leopards, the storm and even this night on the top of the Rock of Pidurangala was nothing but the doing of my own mind once it was reunified with itself and in full control of itself and my self, and maybe my very own selfless. And this mind forbid me to be vain enough to think I have become as fearless as a bull, as noble and heroic as a lion, as wise and concentrated as a camel, as strong over my passions as the sharp-eyed eagle, as empty of any sensuous desire as an aharant in his aharantness, as powerful in my cleansing of my own mind as the purest phoenix flying to the sunshine to burn there in a big song of his and be reborn from his ashes.
My mind tells me that I can always caress such a dream but it is only a dream. I still have a long way to go and many rocks to climb to be all that.

Women on Board, Firm Financial Performance and Agency Costs

by Nirosha Hewa Wellalage

The Global Financial Crisis Impact on Ethnic Diversity of Sri Lanka Boards

by Nirosha Hewa Wellalage

Does CEO Duality is Really Matter? Evidence from an Emerging Market

by Nirosha Hewa Wellalage

Use of GIS in preparation of the National Physical Plan for Sri Lanka

by Yann Chemin

2001_ACRS_muthuwatta_chemin_chandrapala

by Yann Chemin

2002_ACRS_Abeykoon_Jayasekera_Ratnayake_Chemin

by Yann Chemin

2002_ACRS_Ratnayake_Abeykoon_Chemin

by Yann Chemin