presented by Anusha Palpita … Aug 7, 2016
NOTE
- marathon runners running overnight brought a message … with “four of Ceylon’s champion athletes representing the four communities” completing this stage by handing the message to four young girls representing the four communities viz Tamil, Sinhalese, Burgher and Muslim
- The message was inscribed in Englsih, Sinhalese, Tamil and Arabic ….. YES, Arabic
A THOUGHT: who were the four “champion athletes”? were one or two part of the Ceylon squad at the London Olympics the previous year? was one Duncan White who fared so well?
Left to right: Edward Gray, Albert Perera, Duncan White, John De Saram, Mr. Perera (Team Manager), George Peiris, Leslie Handunge and Alex Obeysekere
Ceylon Olympic Team at the Olympic camp in Richmond Park, London ~ 13th June 1948
A DISMAL THOUGHT: …. what great expectations then! What a mess our overlapping genrations have made of the prospective opportunties?
A prominent athlete missing is the well known Summa Navaratnam called the Fastest Human in Asia .
EMAIL COMMENT from LAM Seneviratne in Colombo, 3 February 2025: “Hi Michael, ………….. The four “reputed” Athletes representing the four races were:
Oscar Wijesinghe
Lakshman Kadirgamar
Duncan White
Mohamed A.Sheriff
I was one of the 6.5 Million population of Ceylon at that time, at the Independence Hall area as an 11 year old Scout from Royal College, suffering in the sweltering heat. My reward was that I saw the Duke of Gloucester from a distance.
Lam
A DISMAL THOUGHT: …. what great expectations then! What a mess our overlapping genrations have made of the prospective opportunties?
The Ceylon Film unit’s early efforts were met with derision.- hoots from the gallery. Colombo in the 50’s was still in the grip of the culture cringe.
Controlling a uniformly educated population presented challenges, even dangers. The British educated only enough to serve their needs.
Colombo became the epicentre of Anglophilia. Jaffna was a happy accident stemming from the banishment of ‘do gooder’ American missionaries.
It was as if the Colombo elite inherited the Colonial baton. The rest of the country’s aspirations were utterly neglected and resentment festered.
Banda’s brand of Nationalism rode to their rescue and the unravelling never stopped.