When Worlds Collide #106: Probing Roots of Violence for Sustainable Peace

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today broadsheet newspaper on 9 May 2014

Knotted gun sculpture at UN Headquarters in New York, made by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd – Photo by Dhara Gunawardene, 2011

“Then to the rolling Heav’n itself I cried,
Asking, ‘What Lamp had Destiny to guide
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?’
And – ‘A blind understanding!’ Heav’n replied.

– Omar Khayyam, in Rubaiyat

Some memories are etched in our minds forever. I remember exactly how and where I first heard this verse — at a science lecture theatre at University of Colombo in December 1986.

As an eager young journalist, I was covering the annual sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS). One presidential address was given by Dr Carlo Fonseka, professor of physiology, rationalist and well known debunker of fire walkers, astrologers…