Politics | Icaruswept

Whatever political thought I have left. Warning: may not be to your tastes.

Kandy, Riots and Sri Lanka’s Facebook Ban

Last week, anti-Muslim riots erupted in Kandy, leading to homes being burned down, a State of Emergency imposed on the country, and widespread fears that we would see a repeat of 2015’s Aluthgama incident. Initially, almost no action was taken by government forces. In light of this, I published on Facebook a six-stage request to Maithripala Sirisena (the President of Sri Lanka) and Ranil Wickramasinghe (the Prime Minister): 1. Declare the… Read More »Kandy, Riots and Sri Lanka’s Facebook Ban

Huntington’s Civilizations: A Classification

In 1993, Samuel Huntington wrote an article titled “The Clash of Civilizations”. In it, he expounded his theory that the world was basically divided into 9 civilizations – the Western, the Orthodox, the Islamic, and so on and so forth. He split these civilizations based not on economics but along racial and cultural lines, and explained that wars would happen where cultures clashed. It’s not the only classification, nor the… Read More »Huntington’s Civilizations: A Classification

Decriminalizing homosexuality in Sri Lanka: Problems

homosexual (hɒmə(ʊ)ˈsɛkʃʊəl,ˌhəʊmə(ʊ)ˈsɛkʃʊəl) So recently the government shut down yet another attempt to decriminalize homosexuality in Sri Lanka. To wit, the bill proposed that people should not be discriminated upon based on their gender, and the old farts panicked.  We got the usual excuse that this is a Buddhist country, and this was culturally inappropriate. This is, unfortunately, rational, if not perfectly logical. Consider the country that we live in: Short… Read More »Decriminalizing homosexuality in Sri Lanka: Problems

The Siege of Aleppo, #aleppo and Syria’s Anne Frank

The siege of Aleppo reads like a scene from The Lord of the Rings. Aleppo, the largest city in Syria has, since 2012, been a battle point between the rebels (the Free Syrian Army plus the Army of Conquest, as well as Al-Queda’s Syrian arm).  Some 31,000 people are estimated to have died. The government forces (and Russia) have been airstriking (is that a word) the shit out of rebel positions… Read More »The Siege of Aleppo, #aleppo and Syria’s Anne Frank