SELECTED COMMUNITY & TECH WRITING
VICE - COVID is Exposing How the Global Fashion Industry Values Workers
The response to a COVID outbreak at a factory in Sri Lanka owned by a supplier for brands like M&S, Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein and GAP has workers saying they’re being treated like cattle.
ATLAS OBSCURA - How Elephant Poop Becomes Fancy Paper in Sri Lanka
An elephant can defecate 16 times in one day—and its 200 pounds of dung can double as paper pulp.
ATLAS OBSCURA - The Indian Village Where Every Person’s Name is a Unique Song
“On a gloomy January day in the Indian village of Kongthong, not far from the border with Bangladesh, Shidiap Khongsti sings a soft, melodic tune. It sounds like a lullaby a mother would sing to a crying baby.”
THE GUARDIAN - Spice of life: how turmeric became the 'new gold' for Sri Lanka villagers
In Sri Lankan cuisine, a pinch of turmeric brings the gold colour to sodhi, the mildly spiced coconut soup eaten with the island’s carbohydrate-rich foods.
THE GUARDIAN - Sri Lankans face up to ‘unmeasurable cost’ of cargo ship disaster
Until last week Lucien Justin, the chair of the Jude Watta fisheries committee in Wattala, near Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, lived a simple life. He and his wife ate two meals a day, and their small community of 90 fishers regularly supported each other with food and money. “If we fish, money comes. If not, we are left hungry,” he said.
THE GUARDIAN - ‘Nurdles are everywhere’: how plastic pellets ravaged a Sri Lankan paradise
“On a gloomy January day in the Indian village of Kongthong, not far from the border with Bangladesh, Shidiap Khongsti sings a soft, melodic tune. It sounds like a lullaby a mother would sing to a crying baby.”
REST OF WORLD - 25% . The amount that tuk-tuk driver Nangahami Premawathi pays in commission to ride-hailing apps in Sri Lanka
Nangahami Premawathi is a 61-year-old single mother of three school-age children. She has been driving a tuk-tuk for PickMe, a Sri Lankan ride-hailing app, and for Uber, for four years. She also delivers food and packages.
In 2019, the latest year for which data is available, only 17,368 Sri Lankan women worked in the transportation and storage sector, compared to 497,102 men. Driving a vehicle, especially a tuk-tuk, is considered a “man’s job.”
In a 2019 study, 28% of the respondents said that families don’t allow women to drive; 21% thought being a driver wasn’t a suitable job for women; and 69% believed that it was unsafe for women to drive. But since PickMe and Uber entered the market in 2015, more women like Premawathi are driving tuk-tuks.
AL JAZEERA - Harvesting ‘true cinnamon’: The story of the Ceylon spice
It is 9am in the Carlton estate in Thihagoda, a small town about 160km (100 miles) south of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, and the July sun hides behind inky clouds. The air is thick and hot. Two men walk to the main estate building carrying piles of cinnamon branches. Inside, a group of women sit on the cement floor, chatting as they peel cinnamon.
THE VERGE - Sri Lanka’s Cannabis-Seekers Are Gathering On Facebook
One weekend about a year ago in Balangoda, a misty mountain town outside Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, Sanjana was supposed to meet a dealer she found on Thriloka Wijaya Pathra, a Facebook group for cannabis users in Sri Lanka. Like many strangers who had connected over Facebook, Sanjana had decided to buy a few joints of ganja (a local word for weed).
ADVENTURE - Meet the Sri Lankan women driving pink tuk-tuks in a man’s world
Tourism in Sri Lanka took a huge dip after the Easter Sunday bombings, but that hasn’t stopped these single mothers looking to the future. Zinara Rathnayake visits Think Pink Sri Lanka, an inspiring new initiative that’s putting women in the driver’s seat.
KIN FERTILITY - This women-run initiative wants to eradicate period poverty in Sri Lanka
Every morning, Kamila Jaleel heads to work after she drops her two kids at school. At her workplace in Kitulwatte, a locality in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital Colombo, she joins the production process of low-cost, biodegradable sanitary napkins manufactured by a social enterprise named Sinidu.
TENDERLY (MEDIUM) - The Three-Legged Elephant Who Can’t Live Without His Human Best Friend
At the Elephant Transit Home in Udawalwawe, Sri Lanka, most elephants receive short-term rehabilitation. For Namal, it’s home.