Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe
Federation of University Teachers’ Association
Dear Secretary FUTA,
I refer to TV reports of 21st May 2013 and newspaper reports of 22nd May 2013 in the private and state media alleging that I conducted lectures when FUTA/UKTA had called on its membership to participate in a one-day general strike.
I am writing to state for the record that I did not carry out any lectures on the 21st instance; nor did I discharge any administrative work as the Head of the Department of English or as the Director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Kelaniya.
While I consider it a futile exercise to respond to these blatantly false, politically motivated reports aimed at denigrating my character each time they are carried in the media, I would like to assure FUTA/UKTA that I unequivocally support FUTA/UKTA trade union action as my legal right.
I would be most grateful if you would please apprise the FUTA/UKTA membership of these facts.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Professor Maithree Wickramasinghe
Head – Department of English
Director – Centre for Gender Studies
University of Kelaniya
23rd May 2013
padraigcolman / May 23, 2013
Were you at the CEPA Symposium on Re-imagining Development?
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Sulare Fernando / May 24, 2013
Yes, she was there. She even conducted an inspiring lecture and Q&A session with the participants.
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Manesh Rajakaruna / May 24, 2013
Sulare
So what? Are you going to supress or corner her. Get matured.
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JULAMPITIYE AMARAYA / May 24, 2013
Why this hallabaaloo.
She goes and do her own ways and Hubby do as he like as usual.
This the house, that saya
you scrach your own back, and i will do my own.
DON’T WORRY, mind your OWN BUSSUNESS MY HUBBY.
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Sarinda / May 24, 2013
Oh oh what EMPTY self-righteous moral indignation about political victimization from Ms Maitree!
This babe is a superb con artist..
playing deaf and dumb to Ranil’s dictatorship that is ruining the UNP and Lanka, living the good life on our tax rupees, STRIKE BREAKING and being oh so “holier than thou”!
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Muliyawaikkal / May 24, 2013
Politics at universities? Only in SL.
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John / May 24, 2013
She is careful enough not to say, she did not report for work at Uni, i.e., she had come for work so, in fact she had not participated in token strike,
Might not have had any admin work since all the staff were on strike & no lectures since students were on strike.
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Sunanda / May 24, 2013
MW has been playing double game – living nice life on tax payer money and acting pious and politically correct – always wearing white!
She should ask her UNP dictator Hubby to get out of the UNP and let the younger generation take over to have an opposition to Rajapassa!
If personal is political as feminist says, POLITICAL IS PERSONAL also! Maithee stop playing games – running with hare, hunting with the hound! and pretending to be a victim…
She in Italy last December on state and Lankan tax payer’s money, while the CJ Shiranee Bandaraniyake was impeached and Ranil turning the blind eye at Rajapassa’s destruction of the Lankan Judiciary. MW is a JOKE and thinks people do not see through!
A example of the Colombo NGOs, like Nimalka- in bed with Rajapassa’s vasu and sprouts Tamil human rights in Geneva. HYPOCRITES ALL THE WAY!
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Ceylon MOOR / May 24, 2013
Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe, is a high class lady with a solid background unlike some haggards pretending as that they are well educated (with bogus qualifications) elite women. Prof Maithree doesnt have to live on others mercy. She wasnt a show off. Its a pity that she isnt the first lady but she will be soon.
Everything RW does is for a reason within his limits. He would never do anything to break the law. Thats his character. I personally dont like RW’s over gentlemanly behaviour because the regime is taking full advantage out of it. But we cannot change the man. It would be better if RW adopt some tough stance now to chase off this regime fast along with some traitors within the party too.
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Dodo / May 24, 2013
Maitree please ask hubby dear to resign and stop being the dictator who is destroying the UNP and covertly supporting Rajapassa and destroying Lanka because there is no opposition to Rajapassa today.
Ranil has lost too many elections and is a disgrace and Maitree the political is personal after all!
You cannot be so holy and tread the high ground since the Colombo political culture to which you both belong is rotten to the core..
Please stop being a hypocrite. take a stand. Ask Ranil to do the right thing and quit being a dictator in the UNP and hand over to the next generation..
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Sama / May 25, 2013
So, do you want Rajapakshes to speed up becoming Gaddafis, sending RW home. Just read what he has stated whenever he does. Those statements contain more democratic facts than those of Rajapakshes. Needless to say that Rajapakshes govern the country today – we have numerous examples before us – no matter people would criticise them, they have been despotic. Anyway, you and the ilk would never grasp it – that is the reason why we the masses suffer in the country today.
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Sama / May 25, 2013
Ranil or nobody can make wonders so long studpid folks stay blind and deaf. Ball is on the side of people.
They have brainwashed the average donating them bath packets. Average would even be ready to sell their mothers today for bath packets. Country have already fallen on to the hands of criminals. It is not the fault of RW, but of people.
IF PEOPLE ARE WISE ENOUGH – NOTHING COULD GO WRONG. OURS ARE A NATION THAT MAJOTARION ARE JUST STUPID AND GULLIBLE TOO. THEY BELIEVE ALL WHAT IDIOTS KEEP PASSING TO THEM. RW IS MADE EVIL BY THE STATE MEDIA REPEATING THAT RW WOULD HAND OVER THE COUNTRY TO TAMILS. NO ANY LANKEN WOULD GIVE IT TO ANY OTHER FOLKS..HE HAS POINTED OUT NOT ONCE MANY A TIMES, THAT EQUALITY SHOULD BE RESPECTED BE THEM TAMILS, MUSLIMS OR ANY OTHERS. BUT RAJAPAKSHES RHETORIC DECEIVING POOR MASSES, TRYING TO STAY IN POWER MAKE THE SITUATION EVEN WORST.
GIVE US ANY GOOD EXAMPLE WHERE RAJAPAKSHES WENT RIGHT SINCE WAR IS OVER
GIVE US ANY GOOD EXAMPLE WHERE HE SAID HE HAS IMPLEMENTED A LOT FROM LLRC ALREAY.. AND WHAT ARE THEY .. IF THEY HAVE ?
GIVE US ANY GOOD EXAMPLES WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN FREE AND FAIR BE IT WITH CRIME INVESTIGATIONS OR ENFORCEMENT OF RULE OF LAW IN THE VERY RECENTY PAST ?
WHY ARE THEY LAGGED WITH IMPLEMENTATIONS OF WHATEVER AMDS .. OR PROPER CRIME INVESTIGATIONS… ? WHY ?
CAN ANYONE WHO OPENLY HAIL THEIR PRINICIPLE ADD PLEASE ANY CONSTRUCTIVE ARGUMENTS WHAT THE UNEDUCATED BUNCH STAY INDIFFERENT WHILE THE SECURITY OF GENERAL PUBLIC IS BECOMIGN BURNING ISSUES FOR SOME… IN THE COUNTRY TODAY ? WHY DO THEY PAY TOTAL IGNORANCE WITH CRIME INVESTIGATIONS IN HIKKADUWA AREA ?
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Toots / May 24, 2013
Quite right -she went and clocked in at work on the day of the strike. – a strike breaker’s action. and now she’s acting all holy and the “victim”!
Oh la la life goes on in Colombo7/3!
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Jack and Jill / May 24, 2013
Quit playing games Maithree! and get your husband to quit too. What a disgrace!
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Pin bath / May 25, 2013
The fact that you had to “deny” means there was something!
Going to work on a strike day and not working is exactly like wanting to “eat the cake and have it too”. Isn’t it madam?
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dirty seththu / May 23, 2013
What harm in conducting lectures Maithree Akka…………….
Afterall, you are not married to FUTA.
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Evolve / May 23, 2013
Looks like both she and her husband support MahaRaja. Gee I’m not surprised.
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Manesh Rajakaruna / May 24, 2013
Evolve
If Maithree supports any political party what is wrong with that? Would you like to have a democratic society? Can people have choices?
By the way you sound like a one of the JVP loosers. Like your name try to evelove and accept the difference please.
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Amarasiri / May 23, 2013
Dear Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe,
“I refer to TV reports of 21st May 2013 and newspaper reports of 22nd May 2013 in the private and state media alleging that I conducted lectures when FUTA/UKTA had called on its membership to participate in a one-day general strike.”
“I am writing to state for the record that I did not carry out any lectures on the 21st instance;….”
You are truly a hero, a True Patriot. ALL Sri Lankans, especially All Women of Sri Lanka should be proud of you for pointing out the character assassination carried out for purely political reasons. People have a right to point out when the grievances and corruption and the slanders and lies perpetuated in the state media, and planted by their shills in the media.
Some are so blatant, it is a disgrace.
Example. Udayan Newspaper Fire and the Announce by the Director of Media information Laksman Hulugalla, and the blatant lies about the fire.
Maithree we ALL believe you.
If somebody does not believe you, then that person is a paid agent usually called a shill.
A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps a person or organization without disclosing he has a close relationship with the person or organization.
“Shill” typically refers to someone who purposely gives onlookers the impression he is an enthusiastic independent customer of a seller (or marketer of ideas) for whom he is secretly working. The person or group who hires the shill is using crowd psychology, to encourage other onlookers or audience members to purchase the goods or services (or accept the ideas being marketed). Shills are often employed by professional marketing campaigns. “Plant” and “stooge” more commonly refer to any person who is secretly in league with another person or organization while pretending to be neutral or actually a part of the organization he is planted in, such as a magician’s audience, a political party, or an intelligence organization (see double agent).
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Amarasiri / May 23, 2013
We all know why the Regime, the Mara Shills targeted you out of thousands. Because you are married to Ranil Wickramasighe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitree_Wickramasinghe
Going by the lies perpertuated by the Laksman Hulugall on the Udayan newspaper fire, the Asaeth Salle affair and the very effective strike of May 21st, by the people of Lanka, these shills are exposed more.
I have more respect for Myth believers. At least they are Honest Myth believers.
These shills,….Mara shills, Mafioso shills
Awadiyaaaw! Awadiyaaaw! Awadiyaaaw!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
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Dude / May 24, 2013
Hey Amare! Are you in love with MW?!
Stop prating rubbish and face facts – this babe is a con artist and hypocrite FEMINIST who is having a good ride..!
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Leela Perera / May 23, 2013
The professionalism of the newspaper Daily News is as low as the intelligence and morals of its [Edited out] editor. If this newspaper can descend as low as this to denigrate and defame the wife of the Leader of the Opposition who plays no role in the country’s politics but is a respected academic, what else cannot it do? Ever since the Lake House Group was nationalised in the early 1970s, the ‘newspapers’ that have come out of the ‘House on the Beira’ have been of a consistently low quality. They have been reduced to mere propaganda sheets of the government in office at any given time. But, even allowing for this fact, the depths of depravity that these newspapers reflect today are shocking. it is about time that President Rajapaksa realised that offering shaving knives to chimpanzees (rilavunta delipihi deema) can be a dangerous pastime. There has at least to be a shred of credibility to be found in a national newspaper for even the most gullible reader to take its contents half seriously. Going by the low quality of the newspaper under its present ‘editor-in-chief’( it is difficult to spot him unless one looks down), the government is in danger of losing even its faithful readership! Since Rajeeva Wijesingha and Dayan Jayatileke are jobless at present, perhaps the President might be able to offer one of them the job of editor of the Daily News.
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Amarasiri / May 23, 2013
Dear Leela Perera.
“it is about time that President Rajapaksa realised that offering shaving knives to chimpanzees (rilavunta delipihi deema) can be a dangerous pastime. “
I strongly object to this above statement, because our Primate cousins, Chimpanzees and Monkeys have better morals and ethics than the Daily News Newspaper and the Masters they serve.
The proof is given below.
Capuchin monkeys reject unequal pay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKhAd0Tyny0
Published on Dec 15, 2012
Frans de Waal shows us a task he gave Capuchin monkeys to see if they responded to a sense of fairness.
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Rooster / May 23, 2013
Leela PERERA?.
Married to Perera da?
Then Sumane Ko?
Congrats though Lee Pots fame!
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padraigcolman / May 24, 2013
Or perhaps they could run for president themselves!
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dirty seththu / May 23, 2013
Ammata Siri….. Amarasiri, what is the position you aim ?
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Amarasiri / May 23, 2013
Dirty sethutu
My position? Read my posts. I am formulating my 10 Commandments. Can add more, up to 95 theses.
1. Expose Myths of Religion
2. Expose Myths of History
3. Expose Lies and Blatant lies
4. Expose Shills and Slanderers
5. Expose Blood suckers and leeches
6. Expose Ponzi Schemers in all fields
7. Expose Double standards
8. Expose inhumanity
9. Expose the lackeys of the West.
10. Expose the Western lackeys and schemers
I have 85 more to add. Thinking about them. Do you want to add yours?
http://www.biblestudytools.com/history/creeds-confessions/luther-95-theses.html
Amarasiri
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Capricon / May 23, 2013
Expose the myth why he left his married bed
Expose the myth about the five visions
Expose the myth about this country being Sinhala owned?
Expose the myth about Dutu Gemunu fighting Elara. He back stabbed or throttled Elara.
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Piranha / May 23, 2013
I expected you to say “missionary”
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Amarasiri / May 24, 2013
Blatantly False, Politically Motivated Reports Aimed At Denigrating My Character
May 23, 2013 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion | Posted by: COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH
By Maithree Wickramasinghe –
Here is the Original Daily News Slander
http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/05/22/pol002.asp
Hubby on strike; Maihtri at work
Prof. Maithri Wickremesinghe, wife of Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe reported for duty as usual at the Kelaniya University despite the so called ‘island-wide’ strike called by certain trade unions and organizations led by the UNP, JVP and TNA against the Government.
She arrived at the university in her motor-car at around 9.30 a.m, the usual commencement time and began lectures at the English Department of the Social Science and Humanties Faculty.
Apart from university duties, she holds a director post at the Centre for Gender Studies. It is reported that, she also attended to her duties at the Centre after her university work despite the ongoing strike organized by her husband, political parties and Trade Union groups.
The most significant fact is that she had attended to all her duties when members of the Federation of University Lecturers Association (FUTA) had announced that they would support the strike and would not be working. But Prof. Maithri Wickremesinghe had ignored all their calls and attended to her duties as usual.
Her husband and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had urged the public all through the week to refrain from going to work and to take to street to be part of their strike. Her decision means she had defied her husband’s request and attended to her official duties as usual as if there was no such call to strike made by her husband.
The University students commended the decision of Prof. Maithri Wickremesinghe as she came forward to help students without being a part of the unsuccessful strike.
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JimSofty / May 23, 2013
Looks like that FUTA/UKTA are dictatorships and not democratic at all.
I thought those educated people act democratically.
Other wise, if one individual wanted to what he or she wanted and if it did not abide by the way that FUTA/UKTA wanted why it is wrong ?
Looks like those people are also just dictators or “the old boys club” who think that every one should listen to them. Other wise, the rebels become outcasts.
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Aney Apochchi! / May 25, 2013
Jim Softy:
What’s your next stop? Editor in chief of the Daily Noose? You certainly display the buru-pandankaraya attributes as qualifications for the job!
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tasil samarasinha / May 23, 2013
do not worry about what these buffaloes say.to thine own self be true.we believe you
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Katmai / May 23, 2013
Do you know what went through my mind when I saw the name of the author on this posting? Well, it was not about the strike or FUTA or Universities or anything like that.
I thought to myself, hah, look, RW chose a highly qualified academic as his life partner while MR chose to go for the “beauty queen” and now …
Well, the way those two chose to run the country also have correlations to that partner choice, don’t you think? However, as can be expected, most Sri Lankans like the glitz and the glamor of the moment, so they picked the guy who is the bigger show off. I wonder what the Sri Lankans will say when their “loan beauty” starts putting on some pounds some years later. Will they start physically abusing their “loan beauty”? Can you even abuse a “loan beauty”? Sri Lankans will surely find out!!!
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Amarasiri / May 24, 2013
The reason for Daily News to lie:
Opposition march draws unprecedented crowds; reaches Fort defying obstruction ; govt. hooligans flee
(Lanka-e-News-16.May.2012, 11.00PM) An unprecedented mammoth crowd over ten thousand in number participated in the protest march staged against the electricity tariff hikes introduced by the despotic regime which gave the already abysmally suffering people a most rude shock. The MaRa’s Medamulana ( mahajanaya mulakarana) government lackeys , stooges and pimps who assembled to disrupt the march ,witnessing these milling crowds realized that defeat is seething with fury and staring in the face of their government , were forced to retreat.
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paski / May 24, 2013
She was there and she reported for work. see the first two comments from respectable people — identified — not anonymous mud slingers. Who is the blatant lair here? My – three. It doesn’t surprise me with this lot of hypocrites and vermin
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Bedrock Barney / May 24, 2013
Exactly! You and your spouse are principled and proper people.
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Joyhn Sinna / May 24, 2013
Jim Softly………… FUTA is certainly led by a dictator Nimal Devasiri who inherited arrogance of the Roman Empire through the cassoack he wore.
One can be educated but what emerge is what was inculcated.
Its not an “old boys club BUT an Roman Boys Club”.
Quote “who think that every one should listen to them. Other wise, the rebels become outcasts.
This is the Roman Catholic Church doctrine that is in practic.
JUST BELIEVE – REST IS GLORIUS MYSTERY. Thats Nimal Devasiri the king maker……….
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K.A Sumanasekera / May 24, 2013
Industrial Strikes are organized by unions to protect their workers from exploitation and increase their minimum wage levels.
And these workers haven’t seen inside of a Secondary College let alone the august halls of esteemed learning and achievement.
What are these Uni Dons doing on the poor low wage earners turf?.
Professors are the cream of the crop among Dons.
And a fair few rungs ahead of the rest.
Especially a Professor of English is a rare commodity and revered position as tfar as the great majority of the inhabitants who happen to be Sinhala Buddhists are tconcerned.
They yearn to see at least their children learn to read and write at least a few woeds of this languange.
This Professor trying to be apologetic to Union riff rafs for teaching her students while the rest were shouting sloagans is beyond compreshension.
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Peace Lover / May 24, 2013
Leela ( K A Sumanasekera) your calling workers are un-educated chaps,which is not nice as they keep ur nation running remember that its SL housemaids who earn the most for the economy too
they might not be english speaking like you and me but they are on higher pedestal than people who cheat others (eg LEE POTTER SCAM!)
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කඩප්පුලියා / May 24, 2013
Finally all are known that she is professional acedamic,not like gold smugling house wife at Royal palace.
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Bob / May 24, 2013
Yeah. But this wont be considered as facts for those stupid folks that only see rice packets distributed by them.
It is the lanken society that brought us to this appalling levels, not only the regime.
Now when reading news, they dont have common views about any issues in that coaliation. So, days are numbers, we have no other choice than just waiting, until the same fate would be the case with MR. … deyyo help us soon. :(
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Sunanada / May 24, 2013
GET REAL! MW reported for work. She broke the strike. End of Story. Facts speak for themselves.
MW has been playing a double game – living nice life on tax payer money and acting pious and politically correct – always wearing white!
She should ask her UNP dictator Hubby to get out of the UNP and let the younger generation take over to have an opposition to Rajapassa!
If personal is political as feminists says, POLITICAL IS PERSONAL also! Maithee stop playing games – running with hare, hunting with the hound! and pretending to be a victim…
She in Italy last December on state and Lankan tax payer’s money, while the CJ Shiranee Bandaraniyake was impeached and Ranil turning the blind eye at Rajapassa’s destruction of the Lankan Judiciary. MW is a JOKE and thinks people do not see through!
A example of the Colombo NGOs, like Nimalka- in bed with Rajapassa’s vasu and sprouts Tamil human rights in Geneva. HYPOCRITES ALL THE WAY!
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කඩප්පුලියා / May 24, 2013
Could you please name the younger once.
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bganendra / May 24, 2013
Thank you for your response. Well done
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RogerFrancis / May 25, 2013
There is no need to attack a smart, articulate Oxford educated professional. Most Sri Lankans will accept the fact that the state of English education in Sri Lanka is abysmal and reduced to “nhot phot, K-A-T cat” type of Singlish now. All the top English teachers have retired, died or migrated. She is a cut above the rest when it comes to English education.
However, everyone knows what her agenda was from her days at Pera. She was a militantly against her current token Husband’s regime which brutalized and murdered thousands. At that time when she was a student she would have been the last person to be married off to an intellectual like Ranil. But it is a marriage of convenience and is fair. Afterall, a lot of Sri Lankans hide behind marriage because Sri Lanka is such a hypocritical society when it comes to homosexual relations between consulting adults. Society is so hypocritical and so judgmental like backward Muslim and Christian nations. so people have no choice but to be married in an ethereal manner for the greater good of society.
In countries such as the US or UK this area of studies called “gender studies” is a dubious field which really argues a lot for lesbian studies and such and also talks about discriminiation in the work place. However predominantly Gender Studies is a western based program based on promoting lesbianism. Nothing wrong witn being a lesbian or a homosexual and being married at the same time but reality is that it is not a real serious area of study and does not lead to real employment opportunities in a developing nation like Sri Lanka.
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RogerFrancis / May 25, 2013
What is wrong with Ranil taking the lady he is married to Italy at State Tax payer expense? He is the leader of opposition and is entitled to the same privileges and perks as the PM. She is really a smart educated woman who just happens to be married to a person who is very different.
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RogerFrancis / May 25, 2013
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study and academic field devoted to gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis. This field includes women’s studies (concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics), men’s studies, and LGBT studies.[1] Sometimes, gender studies is offered together with study of sexuality. These disciplines study gender and sexuality in the fields of literature, language, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, cinema, media studies, human development, law, and medicine.[2] It also analyzes race, ethnicity, location, nationality, and disability.[3][4]
Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”.[5] This view proposes that in gender studies, the term “gender” should be used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities, not to the state of being male or female in its entirety.[6] However, this view is not held by all gender theorists. Other areas[which?] of gender study closely examine the role that the biological states of being male or female (anatomical, physiological, and genetical explanations of male and female body parts, structure and nature of functions of body organs, genetic carriers etc.) have on social constructs of gender. Specifically, in what way gender roles are defined by biology and how they are defined by cultural trends. The field emerged from a number of different areas: the sociology of the 1950s and later (see Sociology of gender); the theories of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan; and the work of feminists such as Judith Butler.
Gender is an important area of study in many disciplines, such as literary theory, drama studies, film theory, performance theory, contemporary art history, anthropology, sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis. These disciplines sometimes differ in their approaches to how and why they study gender. For instance in anthropology, sociology and psychology, gender is often studied as a practice, whereas in cultural studies representations of gender are more often examined. In politics, gender can be viewed as a foundational discourse that political actors employ in order to position themselves on a variety of issues.[7] Gender studies is also a discipline in itself: an interdisciplinary area of study that incorporates methods and approaches from a wide range of disciplines.[8]
Each field came to regard “gender” as a practice, sometimes referred to as something that is performative.[9] Feminist theory of psychoanalysis, articulated mainly by Julia Kristeva[10] (the “semiotic” and “abjection”) and Bracha Ettinger[11] (the feminine-prematernal-maternal matrixial Eros of borderlinking and com-passion,[12] “matrixial trans-subjectivity” and the “primal mother-phantasies”), and informed both by Freud, Lacan and the Object relations theory, is very influential in gender studies.
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Darlin de Silva / May 25, 2013
Gender study – [Edited out]
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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bganendra / May 25, 2013
How is it that sirasa tv didnt get this news.
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kris / June 6, 2013
Married Ranil W to help him to become president, if RW is not married then people will not vote him for president unless SL parliament approve same sex marriage
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