Features

Some Vignettes of Italy

Published

1 year ago

2024/12/22

Thilina Walpola

Bracciano Lake, Trevignano

(Excerpted from Falling Leaves, an anthology of memoirs by LC Arulpragasam)

I need now to recount my sailing adventures, or shall we say, misadventures. Although I had never sailed before, I did not think twice before I shoved off on my own. On my first effort, with the wind at my back, I unfurled my sails in goose-wing style and was soon hurtling along at a whistling pace. I cannot describe the exhilaration of being one with the water and the wind, with the wind at my back and the gurgle of water in my wake. After about two hours, I reached the other side of the lake near Trevignano, just as the sun was setting.

It was quite an achievement and quite a view. So I sat in the boat, smoking a triumphant cigarette, while watching the beautiful sunset. It was only then that I realized that the wind that had helped me to cross the lake would now prevent me from returning. How I managed to return home– is the stuff of story books. It was a dark night – and I could not make out which was land and which was deeper water! I had to spend the night, partly in my boat and partly in the freezing water! Needless to say, I returned home only in the morning.

I had other sailing mishaps too. I had promised my daughter to take her to the airport in time to catch her flight. This was the first time that she was leaving home – to go to College far away in another continent: it as a big day for the family. I thought that there was time enough to go to the lake and return. At the lake, I could not resist the temptation of taking the boat out for a small spin on the lake. But I had not bargained with the prospect of capsizing! In the end, I just made it in time to catch the flight (fortunately the plane was a few minutes late), but not without raising the anxiety levels of my family, and especially of my daughter!

My happiest days in Italy were spent by this lake; and our most treasured memories are buried there. First, it cast a spell over me: even when we approached it over its surrounding hills: its sight alone overpowered me. Second, the surrounding villages, with their old cobbled streets and quaint houses takes us back to a long-gone age, bringing the past alive before our eyes. Here, we were able to enjoy the company of the old paisani of the village, the baker, the cobbler, the blacksmith, as well as the owners of the small trattorias by the water.

Thirdly and sadly, it was the only place where we spoke Italian, because we otherwise interacted only with FAO’s English-speaking families, whereas the lake gave us the chance to speak Italian. Fourthly, for the same reason, the only Italian friends we made in Italy were by virtue of our weekends spent there. Fifthly, I learned quite a bit about horticulture and viticulture through the fruit trees and vines that I planted, pruned and nurtured there with my own hands. Lastly, and most preciously, I have memories of the lake itself in all its moods: its calmness in the morning, its brisk (sailing) winds rising around noon, its tranquil sunsets and the lulling lap of its waves at night. In fact when I think of the lake, a great sense of calmness overcomes me, followed by an acute sense of loss, for that part of my life which I lost with it. It is what I miss most when I think of our 30 years in Italy.

Italian Greatness

We lived in Rome, Italy, for 30 years from 1966 to 1997. We bow in appreciation of its great people. The Italians have a long history of greatness, from Roman times through to the Renaissance and beyond.

Mussolini in his grandiose manner built a new city, just outside Rome. Among others, he built a monument to the Italian people in grand fascist style. On the façade of the building, he inscribed in bold letters a paean of praise to the greatness of the Italian people. It claimed that the Italian people were a people of writers, of painters, of sculptors, of thinkers, of navigators, of scientists, etc. When I first read it, I dismissed it as more of Mussolini’s bombast. But later, thinking about it, I realized that it was all true. Of writers there was Dante Alighieri; of painters, Rafael, da Vincil and many others; of sculptors, Michelangelo and Donatello; of navigators, Cristoforo Colombo and Amerigo Vespucci; of astronomers, Galileo; of scientists, da Vinci and Enrico Fermi, etc. This is a real tribute to the Italian people. As individuals, they are unmatched. It is only that their institutions do not work!

Colour Conscious?

As far back as Roman times, there was no colour bar. In Caesar’s time, the Romans were more worried about the length of Cleopatra’s nose rather than about her colour. Besides, some of the last Roman Emperors were from the Middle East. In the ‘sixties and ‘seventies the Italians did not share the colour restrictions that characterized the northern imperial powers, such as Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. This was because the Mediterranean countries shared the mixture of ethnicities and cultures of their region. While the northern European colonizers frowned on miscegenation, making it a dirty word, the southern European colonizers even encouraged it, as the Spanish did in Latin America.

In the early days (1970s), when I had capsized (my boat) in a lake near Rome, I made my way to the road, clad only in my swimsuit. Competing cars screeched to a halt in order to give me a ride: they did not seem to mind my colour. After I reached my own car, I sped home on the autostrada, clad only in my swimsuit, with no money or clothes since they were all at the bottom of the lake, leaving me with only my dark skin. When I came up to the payment booth in the autostrada, I had no money to pay the toll. The uniformed guards who manned the gate, seeing my plight, contributed their own money to let my car through the automated gates. My colour proved to be a plus factor, not a minus one.

It all changed with unbridled immigration. One has only to go to the Termini now, the main railway station in Rome, to see the number of migrants from all regions of the world, hanging around until they could find a job. An Italian colleague, who was a communist and very pro-immigration, got fed up when she was accosted at so many traffic lights (12 times each way, to the office and back) by immigrants offering to clean her car windscreen. After months of encouraging this, she cried ‘Basta’ (enough!). A dramatic increase in the number of coloured immigrants without employment had morphed into a ‘colour problem’.

After a time, some newspapers carried lurid stories associating immigrants with crime. This brings me to my own story. Much later (in the 1990s), when returning from a supermarket, I saw a little old lady returning from the same store, staggering under the weight of two heavy bags in each hand. Since I was walking in the same direction, I went up to the old lady and asked: “Signora, can I help you to carry those bags?” Even I was not ready for her reaction: “No, no”, she shrieked shrilly, physically recoiling, as if I were a thief! I made off hastily like a real thief, since everyone was looking at me as if I was one! This is what unchecked immigration can do: it can easily change another problem into a colour problem!

Argumentative

In 1967, when we had just arrived in Rome, we were trying to reach some place in town. Having gone through the warren of old streets in Rome, we were completely lost. So we drew up to an ‘island’ between tramlines. We asked two gentlemen who were waiting there, directions to the street that we were seeking. One said: go straight to the next traffic light and turn right. The other contradicted him, exclaiming, gesturing with his hands: ‘No, no: go straight and then turn left’. They went on arguing hotly whether we should turn left or right, while we looked on impatiently, with cars honking loudly behind us. In the end, we had to move on because of the wild honking. Looking back in the rear-view mirror, I found to my amusement and amazement that the two had moved from verbal argumentation to physical assault! All this in order to help a stranger!

I was also to witness their arguments in the 1970s and early 1980s. At that time, the Italians had no third-party insurance for their cars. When there was an accident, it mattered most who shouted the most, arguing loudly in order to prove that the other party was at fault and should pay for the repairs. Once, I saw a lady with an infant in her arms, rocking it violently to the rhythm of her shouting. As she got more worked up, she put the infant on the ground, so as to better use her hands in the argument! All the shouting matches ceased when third-party motor insurance was made compulsory by law! Their institutions had failed them: so they had to shout at each other!

How to Talk: My Hands were Tied, No?

Once when walking, I saw a woman talking in a public telephone on the pavement. The woman was holding the phone in one hand, with a large handbag hanging over her shoulder and cigarette in her mouth. Soon she started using her free hand, while continuing to puff wildly on the cigarette. Seeing that it was not enough, she put the phone under her chin, so as to gesticulate with both hands. Since her handbag was slipping from her shoulder, she threw it on the ground, and also threw away her cigarette, so that she could use both hands better. The spectacle of her doing all this, sticks in my mind’s eye, even after 40 years!

You may have heard this joke before; but I repeat it as a caricature of Italians speaking with their hands. Three Allied soldiers were captured by the Germans in WWII: one British, one French, and one Italian. Each was tortured to extract information on where the Allied formations were camped. First, the British soldier was severely tortured, so that despite his renowned stiff upper lip, he broke down and spilled the beans. Second, the French soldier was treated to the same, and after repeated torture, he too broke down and spilled the beans. The Italian soldier was severely tortured repeatedly, but he would not speak. When he returned to the prison, the British and French soldiers asked him how he could have withstood such torture without divulging any information. To which the Italian replied: “How to talk: my hands were tied, no?”

Bella Figura!

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was ‘the done thing’ for Italians to go to the beach in summer. Some families who could not afford it also went on borrowed money, while others only pretended to do so. The latter would tell their neighbours and people living down their street that they were going to the sea. They could be seen packing for the beach, even loading their beach-chairs on top of their cars. They would leave at 5 a.m., as advertised. They would then smartly drive to their mother-in-law’s house at the other end of town, where they would lie low for the duration of their fabulous trip to the sea. At the appointed time they would return, full of stories of their fantastic time at the beach, cutting indeed a bella figura! (This happened in the 1960s. I do not think that it is happening now).

Italian Drivers

The Italians are the most skilled drivers in the world, flashing their headlights to signal that they are going through, avoiding accidents by a hair’s-breadth. However, this almost caused the death of my friend Reggie Arnolda, who was working in Rome at that time (about 1975). Reggie was driving his Peugot 404 Station-Wagon on a main avenue in Rome with many traffic lights. As he came to a traffic light, it was turning from amber to red. Naturally, Reggie came to a complete stop. The Italian driver just behind him, assuming that Reggie would speed through the traffic light, as Italians did in those days, stamped on his accelerator to speed through the light. This resulted in a big crash, with Reggie’s station wagon accordioning, so that the back number plate coming to rest on his neck. One inch more – and Reggie would be dead!

After many years in Italy, I too came to drive like the Italians – just in order to survive! Once, when my wife was driving, we came to a traffic light where the light was turning from amber to red. I shouted excitedly to her to speed through. But she came to a complete stop, with Italian horns blaring, throwing the whole piazza into confusion! I asked her reproachfully, why she didn’t shoot through the red light. She replied, “but the light was red, no?” She added with irrefutable logic: “Then what should I do when the light turns green?” I was stumped!

Cloak and Dagger!

One night, my wife and I were walking from the opera with an Italian couple. The man was an old-world Italian gentleman, who when introduced to a lady would bring his heels together, bow and kiss her hand. We were walking in the shadow of the ancient buildings of Rome, while cars and scooters were zipping past us. While my Italian friend was walking ahead with my wife, I noticed that he was walking on the inner side of the street, leaving my wife on the outer side, unprotected from the roaring traffic. Finally, my curiosity overcame me and I asked him why he was not following the usual practice of walking on the outer side of the lady.

He explained that he was following the practice of old Italy. When assassins or robbers wanted to attack someone, they hid in the shadows of the old buildings. So the gallant gentlemen of yore guarded their fair ladies by walking on the inner side, nearer the dark buildings, rather than on the outer side. My friend was just following the practice of old Italy.

Immigrant Tales

It is interesting to note the different levels and types of migration from poor countries to the more developed. Qualified professionals, like doctors, engineers and accountants migrated to English-speaking countries (like England, Australia and the USA) because they were already proficient in the language for jobs in their own professions. On the other hand, unskilled workers were prepared to go to any country (France, Germany or Italy), because knowledge of the language was not required for unskilled work. This was the reason for the great migration of unskilled youth to Italy. Sociological studies also show that the first migrants to unknown shores tend to be the adventurers or ‘ne’er-do-wells’, since persons with stable jobs would not risk a leap into the unknown.

My first story is in regard to an unattached man, who got a job as a domestic ‘do-all’ in a single-member family. In order to impress his family and friends back home, he sent a photo of himself. But first, he pulled his employer’s TV set, his employer’s music console and all the telephones in the house around his employer’s bed, to show how important he had become. He then wore his employer’s posh shirt and got into his employer’s posh bed. Then, while appearing to speak importantly on the phone, he had his friend take a photo. When the photo was sent home and did the rounds in the village, every young man was jumping to go to Italy!

In the ‘eighties and ‘nineties, middlemen had got into the act. The cost of getting into Italy had grown significantly. Migrants had to mortgage or sell their properties to pay the middlemen, while bearing all the risk and cost of failure themselves. One story sums it all. Three families decided to take the risk. They mortgaged/sold their properties so as to pay the middleman upfront. They were then taken to Hambantota, where the boat (probably a fishing trawler) was awaiting them. They embarked with much trepidation, because they knew that they had burned their boats back home.

After traveling for about seven days at sea, one night the captain showed them the lights of Italy. It was night when the boat reached the shore. When telling them to disembark, he warned them to hide in the bushes till daybreak. They should then walk cautiously in twos and threes into the nearby town. They followed his instructions to the letter. At dawn, they cautiously entered the town: only to find that they were back in Hambantota in Sri Lanka, the place where they had embarked! You can imagine their chagrin and dismay – to find that they were not in Italy but back in Sri Lanka! They had been literally taken for a ride! They now had to return to their villages – to face humiliation, indebtedness and despair.

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Features

Ethnic-related problems need solutions now

Published

7 hours ago

2026/01/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

President Dissanayake in Jaffna

In the space of 15 months, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has visited the North of the country more than any other president or prime minister. These were not flying visits either. The president most recent visit to Jaffna last week was on the occasion of Thai Pongal to celebrate the harvest and the dawning of a new season. During the two days he spent in Jaffna, the president launched the national housing project, announced plans to renovate Palaly Airport, to expedite operations at the Kankesanthurai Port, and pledged once again that racism would have no place in the country.

There is no doubt that the president’s consistent presence in the north has had a reassuring effect. His public rejection of racism and his willingness to engage openly with ethnic and religious minorities have helped secure his acceptance as a national leader rather than a communal one. In the fifteen months since he won the presidential election, there have been no inter community clashes of any significance. In a country with a long history of communal tension, this relative calm is not accidental. It reflects a conscious political choice to lower the racial temperature rather than inflame it.

But preventing new problems is only part of the task of governing. While the government under President Dissanayake has taken responsibility for ensuring that anti-minority actions are not permitted on its watch, it has yet to take comparable responsibility for resolving long standing ethnic and political problems inherited from previous governments. These problems may appear manageable because they have existed for years, even decades. Yet their persistence does not make them innocuous. Beneath the surface, they continue to weaken trust in the state and erode confidence in its ability to deliver justice.

Core Principle

A core principle of governance is responsibility for outcomes, not just intentions. Governments do not begin with a clean slate. Governments do not get to choose only the problems they like. They inherit the state in full, with all its unresolved disputes, injustices and problemmatic legacies. To argue that these are someone else’s past mistakes is politically convenient but institutionally dangerous. Unresolved problems have a habit of resurfacing at the most inconvenient moments, often when a government is trying to push through reforms or stabilise the economy.

This reality was underlined in Geneva last week when concerns were raised once again about allegations of sexual abuse that occurred during the war, affecting both men and women who were taken into government custody. Any sense that this issue had faded from international attention was dispelled by the release of a report by the Office of the Human Rights High Commissioner titled “Sri Lanka: Report on conflict related sexual violence”, dated 13.01.26. Such reports do not emerge in a vacuum. They are shaped by the absence of credible domestic processes that investigate allegations, establish accountability and offer redress. They also shape international perceptions, influence diplomatic relationships and affect access to cooperation and support.

Other unresolved problems from the past continue to fester. These include the continued detention of Tamil prisoners under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, in some cases for many years without conclusion, the failure to return civilian owned land taken over by the military during the war, and the fate of thousands of missing persons whose families still seek answers. These are not marginal issues even when they are not at the centre stage. They affect real lives and entire communities. Their cumulative effect is corrosive, undermining efforts to restore normalcy and rebuild confidence in public institutions.

Equal Rights

Another area where delay will prove costly is the resettlement of Malaiyaha Tamil communities affected by the recent cyclone in the central hills, which was the worst affected region in the country. Even as President Dissanayake celebrated Thai Pongal in Jaffna to the appreciation of the people there, Malaiyaha Tamils engaged in peaceful campaigns to bring attention to their unresolved problems. In Colombo at the Liberty Roundabout, a number of them gathered to symbolically celebrate Thai Pongal while also bringing national attention to the issues of their community, in particular the problem of displacement after the cyclone.

The impact of the cyclone, and the likelihood of future ones under conditions of climate change, make it necessary for the displaced Malaiyaha Tamils to be found new places of residence. This is also an opportunity to tackle the problem of their landlessness in a comprehensive manner and make up for decades if not two centuries of inequity.

Planning for relocation and secure housing is good governance. This needs to be done soon. Climate related disasters do not respect political timetables. They punish delay and indecision. A government that prides itself on system change cannot respond to such challenges with temporary fixes.

The government appears concerned that finding new places for the Malaiyaha Tamil people to be resettled will lead to land being taken away from plantation companies which are said to be already struggling for survival. Due to the economic crisis the country has faced since it went bankrupt in 2022, the government has been deferential to the needs of company owners who are receiving most favoured treatment. As a result, the government is contemplating solutions such as high rise apartments and townhouse style housing to minimise the use of land.

Such solutions cannot substitute for a comprehensive strategy that includes consultations with the affected population and addresses their safety, livelihoods and community stability.

Lose Trust

Most of those who voted for the government at the last elections did so in the hope that it would bring about system change. They did not vote for the government to reinforce the same patterns that the old system represented. At its core, system change means rebalancing priorities. It means recognising that economic efficiency without social justice is a short-term gain with long-term costs. It means understanding that unresolved ethnic grievances, unaddressed wartime abuses and unequal responses to disaster will eventually undermine any development programme, no matter how well designed. Governance that postpones difficult decisions may buy time, but lose trust.

The coming year will therefore be decisive. The government must show that its commitment to non racism and inclusion extends beyond conflict prevention to conflict resolution. Addressing conflict related abuses, concluding long standing detentions, returning land, accounting for the missing and securing dignified resettlement for displaced communities are not distractions from the government programme. They are central to it. A government committed to genuine change must address the problems it inherited, or run the risk of being overwhelmed when those problems finally demand settlement.

by Jehan Perera

Features

Education. Reform. Disaster: A Critical Pedagogical Approach

Published

7 hours ago

2026/01/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

PM Amarasuriya

This Kuppi writing aims to engage critically with the current discussion on the reform initiative “Transforming General Education in Sri Lanka 2025,” focusing on institutional and structural changes, including the integration of a digitally driven model alongside curriculum development, teacher training, and assessment reforms. By engaging with these proposed institutional and structural changes through the parameters of the division and recognition of labour, welfare and distribution systems, and lived ground realities, the article develops a critical perspective on the current reform discourse. By examining both the historical context and the present moment, the article argues that these institutional and structural changes attempt to align education with a neoliberal agenda aimed at enhancing the global corporate sector by producing “skilled” labour. This agenda is further evaluated through the pedagogical approach of socialist feminist scholarship. While the reforms aim to produce a ‘skilled workforce with financial literacy,’ this writing raises a critical question: whose labour will be exploited to achieve this goal? Why and What Reform to Education

In exploring why, the government of Sri Lanka seeks to introduce reforms to the current education system, the Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Vocational Education, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, revealed in a recent interview on 15 January 2026 on News First Sri Lanka that such reforms are a pressing necessity. According to the philosophical tradition of education reform, curriculum revision and prevailing learning and teaching structures are expected every eight years; however, Sri Lanka has not undertaken such revisions for the past ten years. The renewal of education is therefore necessary, as the current system produces structural issues, including inequality in access to quality education and the need to create labour suited to the modern world. Citing her words, the reforms aim to create “intelligent, civil-minded citizens” in order to build a country where people live in a civilised manner, work happily, uphold democratic principles, and live dignified lives.

Interpreting her narrative, I claim that the reform is intended to produce, shape, and develop a workforce for the neoliberal economy, now centralised around artificial intelligence and machine learning. My socialist feminist perspective explains this further, referring to Rosa Luxemburg’s reading on reforms for social transformation. As Luxemburg notes, although the final goal of reform is to transform the existing order into a better and more advanced system: The question remains: does this new order truly serve the working class? In the case of education, the reform aims to transform children into “intelligent, civil-minded citizens.” Yet, will the neoliberal economy they enter, and the advanced technological industries that shape it, truly provide them a better life, when these industries primarily seek surplus profit?

History suggests otherwise. Sri Lanka has repeatedly remained at the primary manufacturing level within neoliberal industries. The ready-made garment industry, part of the global corporate fashion system, provides evidence: it exploited both manufacturing labourers and brand representatives during structural economic changes in the 1980s. The same pattern now threatens to repeat in the artificial intelligence sector, raising concerns about who truly benefits from these education reforms

That historical material supports the claim that the primary manufacturing labour for the artificial intelligence industry will similarly come from these workers, who are now being trained as skilled employees who follow the system rather than question it. This context can be theorised through Luxemburg’s claim that critical thinking training becomes a privileged instrument, alienating the working class from such training, an approach that neoliberalism prefers to adopt in the global South.

Institutional and Structural Gaps

Though the government aims to address the institutional and structural gaps, I claim that these gaps will instead widen due to the deeply rooted system of uneven distribution in the country. While agreeing to establish smart classrooms, the critical query is the absence of a wide technological welfare system across the country. From electricity to smart equipment, resources remain inadequate, and the government lags behind in taking prompt initiative to meet these requirements.

This issue is not only about the unavailability of human and material infrastructure, but also about the absence of a plan to restore smart normalcy after natural disasters, particularly the resumption of smart network connections. Access to smart learning platforms, such as the internet, for schoolchildren is a high-risk factor that requires not only the monitoring of classroom teachers but also the involvement of the state. The state needs to be vigilant of abuses and disinformation present in the smart-learning space, an area in which Sri Lanka is still lagging. This concern is not only about the safety of children but also about the safety of women. For example, the recent case of abusive image production via Elon Musk’s AI chatbox, X, highlights the urgent need for a legal framework in Sri Lanka.

Considering its geographical location, Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, the frequency in which they occur, increasing, owing to climate change. Ditwah is a recent example, where villages were buried alive by landslides, rivers overflowed, and families were displaced, losing homes that they had built over their lifetimes. The critical question, then, is: despite the government’s promise to integrate climate change into the curriculum, how can something still ‘in the air ‘with climate adaptation plans yet to be fully established, be effectively incorporated into schools?

Looking at the demographic map of the country, the expansion of the elderly population, the dependent category, requires attention. Considering the physical and psychological conditions of this group, fostering “intelligent, civic-minded” citizens necessitates understanding the elderly not as a charity case but as a human group deserving dignity. This reflects a critical reading of the reform content: what, indeed, is to be taught? This critical aspect further links with the next section of reflective of ground reality.

Reflective Narrative of Ground Reality

Despite the government asserting that the “teacher” is central to this reform, critical engagement requires examining how their labour is recognised. In Sri Lanka, teachers’ work has long been tied to social recognition, both utilised and exploited, Teachers receive low salaries while handling multiple roles: teaching, class management, sectional duties, and disciplinary responsibilities.

At present, a total teaching load is around 35 periods a week, with 28 periods spent in classroom teaching. The reform adds continuous assessments, portfolio work, projects, curriculum preparation, peer coordination, and e-knowledge, to the teacher’s responsibilities. These are undeclared forms of labour, meaning that the government assigns no economic value to them; yet teachers perform these tasks as part of a long-standing culture. When this culture is unpacked, the gendered nature of this undeclared labour becomes clear. It is gendered because the majority of schoolteachers are women, and their unpaid roles remain unrecognised. It is worth citing some empirical narratives to illustrate this point:

“When there was an extra-school event, like walks, prize-giving, or new openings, I stayed after school to design some dancing and practice with the students. I would never get paid for that extra time,” a female dance teacher in the Western Province shared.

I cite this single empirical account, and I am certain that many teachers have similar stories to share.

Where the curriculum is concerned, schoolteachers struggle to complete each lesson as planned due to time constraints and poor infrastructure. As explained by a teacher in the Central Province:

“It is difficult to have a reliable internet connection. Therefore, I use the hotspot on my phone so the children can access the learning material.”

Using their own phones and data for classroom activities is not part of a teacher’s official duties, but a culture has developed around the teaching role that makes such decisions necessary. Such activities related to labour risks further exploitation under the reform if the state remains silent in providing the necessary infrastructure.

Considering that women form the majority of the teaching profession, none of the reforms so far have taken women’s health issues seriously. These issues could be exacerbated by the extra stress arising from multiple job roles. Many female teachers particularly those with young children, those in peri- or post-menopause stages of their life, or those with conditions like endometriosis may experience aggravated health problems due to work-related stress intensified by the reform. This raises a critical question: what role does the state play in addressing these issues?

In Conclusion

The following suggestions are put forward:

First and foremost, the government should clearly declare the fundamental plan of the reform, highlighting why, what, when, and how it will be implemented. This plan should be grounded in the realities of the classroom, focusing on being child-centred and teacher-focused.

Technological welfare interventions are necessary, alongside a legal framework to ensure the safety and security of accessing the smart, information-centred world. Furthermore, teachers’ labour should be formally recognised and assigned economic value. Currently, under neoliberal logic, teachers are often left to navigate these challenges on their own, as if the choice is between survival or collapse.

Aruni Samarakoon teaches at the Department of Public Policy, University of Ruhuna

Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.

By Aruni Samarakoon

Features

Smartphones and lyrics stands…

Published

7 hours ago

2026/01/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

Diliup Gabadamudalige: Artistes can stay at home and hire their avatar for concerts, movies, etc.

Diliup Gabadamudalige is, indeed, a maestro where music is concerned, and this is what he had to say, referring to our Seen ‘N’ Heard in The Island of 6th January, 2026, and I totally agree with his comments.

Diliup: “AI avatars will take over these concerts. It will take some time, but it surely will happen in the near future. Artistes can stay at home and hire their avatar for concerts, movies, etc. Lyrics and dance moves, even gymnastics can be pre-trained”.

Yes, and that would certainly be unsettling as those without talent will make use of AI to deceive the public.

Right now at most events you get the stage crowded with lyrics stands and, to make matters even worse, some of the artistes depend on the smartphone to put over a song – checking out the lyrics, on the smartphone, every few seconds!

In the good ole days, artistes relied on their talent, stage presence, and memorisation skills to dominate the stage.

They would rehearse till they knew the lyrics by heart and focus on connecting with the audience.

Smartphones and lyrics stands: A common sight these days

The ability of the artiste to keep the audience entertained, from start to finish, makes a live performance unforgettable That’s the magic of a great show!

When an artiste’s energy is contagious, and they’re clearly having a blast, the audience feeds off it and gets taken on an exciting ride. It’s like the whole crowd is vibing on the same frequency.

Singing with feeling, on stage, creates this electric connection with the audience, but it can’t be done with a smartphone in one hand and lyrics stands lined up on the stage.

AI’s gonna shake things up in the music scene, for sure – might replace some roles, like session musicians or sound designers – but human talent will still shine!

AI can assist, but it’s tough to replicate human emotion, experience, and soul in music.

In the modern world, I guess artistes will need to blend old-school vibes with new tech but certainly not with smartphones and lyrics stands!