Posts

Showing posts from May, 2014

Women in the local economy in post war Sri Lanka.

Image
(text of a talk given at the Soroptimist International 40th Anniversary celebration s) The idea of ‘post-war’  immediately conjures up  the situation in the North and the East where the overt  fighting was most severe, and where the war devastated the infrastructure, displaced communities and destroyed a way of life and living. But at the same time, I don’t think we should be  confining our label of ‘post-war’ to the north and east.  It’s my contention that ALL  of Sri Lanka is in a post-war situation;  the war has affected all of us – in the north and in the south – Tamils and Sinhalese, and all of our institutions and our governance systems, and even our own individual ways of thinking and behaving.  It has polarized communities.  The growing militarization and centralization of government, the encroachment of the military into commerce and other spheres, the disregard for lives and livelihoods of people with no voice – we can see this in Colombo, just as much as in Jaffna