The Colombo People
Colombo is the bus drivers. The waiter who serves your tea. The hawkers in Pettah. The man peering out at the world from behind a shop window, waiting for customers who will never come.
Colombo is the bus drivers. The waiter who serves your tea. The hawkers in Pettah. The man peering out at the world from behind a shop window, waiting for customers who will never come.
On the 31st of March, a cordon of Sri Lankan Police – in full riot gear, truncheons and shields at the ready – stood on one corner of the Kollupitiya junction. One of them carried a gun that rained tear gas cartridges on the road ahead. In front of them was a short stretch of Galle Road, empty save for one young monk with a stick in his hands and… Read More »Why Did They March? (Galle Road | March | 2015)
Yesterday, I was invited to go on a (guided) tour of the much-discussed Colombo Port City. I, along with a small crowd of twitterati, were taken to look at what’s already built, ask questions, take photos and cross-examine the management of CHEC Port City Colombo Private Limited, the people doing the actual construction. When I told my friends that I’d be at the Port City in the morning, the first thing… Read More »This is the Colombo Port City?
Someone wanted me to write about Colombo, so I did. I discovered this post many weeks later, when both that someone and I had forgotten this ever happened. Anyway, here goes. Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka, is a pretty small city. In fact, seen from above, it’s not so much a city as thirteen different towns stuck together, neatly numbered: they spread out from Colombo Forts (aka Colombo… Read More »This is Colombo: I Am But A Stranger Here..
I’m sitting in one of the biggest sessions of today’s event: a joint discussion on the draft of the Declaration. Between the hundreds of delegates and the various discussions, organizations and agendas involved, they’ve hammered out a set of drafts which will eventually become the Colombo Declaration. This draft, right now, is in its 3rd revision – a 16-page document riddled with suggested amendments from countries all over the globe.… Read More »Liveblog from #WCY2014: Declaring Colombo – a work in progress