Gotabaya Rajapakse Archives

The Technopolitics of Dissent in Sri Lanka – By Shakthi De Silva Source:internationalaffairs.org.au Observers in Australia and elsewhere have covered Sri Lanka’s ongoing protests and accurately teased out the nuances of the situation. However, many underestimate how technology played a key role in instigating this organic social uprising. Web platforms and social media has revolutionised the politics of public dissent. They give new meaning to free expression and empower citizen journalism and activism to take a life of its own outside the traditional domains of private or state-influenced media. Information is now coproduced by people and shared on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and more. Representative democracies around the world are feeling the pinch as stories, pictures, and posts on corruption and political malpractice become viral sensations. In more ways than one, this has become a feature of the modern-day democratic techno-politic climate we live in. Nowhere is ...

The Alliance of Independent Professionals Source:Assessing Sri Lanka’s response to COVID-19 STATUS STATEMENT I: 20-03-2020 Sri Lanka’s Response to COVID-19 Health Sector Sri Lanka boasts one of the most robust public healthcare systems in the world, with free comprehensive primary, surgical and pharmaceutical care available to all citizens almost completely free of charge. Although there is a shortage of over 6,000 medical officers to meet international standards of doctors per capita, almost all villages have access to medical officers free of charge. Sri Lanka has proven to have one of the best medical systems in the world in the control of infectious disease, having avoided serious impact from the 2002 SARS outbreak and 2009 swine flu pandemics. Sri Lanka has well established private medical facilities, mainly in the cities. Most of the government specialist medical officers do also serve private establishments for a fee, while most other ordinary doctors ...