Author Archives: thuppahi
The Savoy Cinema in Our Rocking Days
Courtesy of Rex Kellar
Savoy was owned by a man named CV De Silva, who is said to have started life providing entertainment for overseas troops stationed here during World War II. It took its name from the more famous Savoy cinema of London.
Interpreting Sigiriya: Confronting Gananath Obeyesekere’s Distortions
Raja De Silva commenting on Gananāth Obēyesēkere: The Buddha in Srī Lankā. Histories and Stories. London: Routledge. 2019 336 pp.
The author [GO], an eminent anthropologist, has rejected the evidence (archaeological and literary) that I depended on in my interpretation (de Silva, Raja 2002., 155 pp) of the meaning of Sīgiriya and its paintings: that the site was a monastic complex and the paintings were representations of the goddess Tara. He has criticized my thesis (1) by resorting to assertions, several untrue and the rest of no merit and (2) by asking rhetorical questions. He has mentioned without criticism the interpretation of Sīgiriya by Siri Gunasinghe (SG) (2008), his friendly colleague of the Peradeniya University.
Arise Madame Norah Roberts, 1907-2002
Michael Roberts
In following up on my article clarifying the context of a Letter sent by my sister Norah Roberts in April 1995, I am saying “Mea Culpa, Norah, I did not realise what a repository of knowledge on Sri Lankan society you were during your lifetime. Neither did I recognise your commitment to this land and its people.”
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits
Fortitude: Murali’s Fight to stay on the Field
Andrew Fidel Fernando. in Cricket Monthly within ESPNcricinfo, 11 August 2020, where the title runs “Growing up with Murali,”
Ten years after he retired, a reflection on what Muttiah Muralitharan has meant – and means – to a nation
Before I watched an umpire no-ball Muttiah Muralitharan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, I had no idea that cricket mattered.
Security personnel and spectators look on next to a giant cutout of Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan erected on a 17th century Dutch-built fortress during the third day of the first test cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Galle, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, July 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Filed under accountability, atrocities, Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, discrimination, disparagement, ethnicity, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, world events & processes
The Mahadevan Sisters and The Conviviality of Galle Fort
Tiffany Tang, year date unclear, …. posted at https://i-discoverasia.com/meet-two-interesting-locals-in-galle-fort/ … with this title “Meet Two Intersting Locals in Galle“
“Galle is a town of colour, texture and sensation totally unlike anywhere else in Sri Lanka. It is exotic, bursting with the scent of spices and salty winds, and vaguely familiar like a whimsical medieval European down unexpectedly deposited in the tropics” – from a visitor’s travel journal in the 1980s. He stumbled upon this charming, ramshackle town shortly after it had been inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List. Now, almost 30 years down the road, many of the old crumbling mansions have been renovated into boutique hotels, but the cobblestone streets with pastel-coloured houses are still as picturesque as a street can possibly get.
A President One Could Die With … in Portugal
Ryan Fahey for MailOnLine, 17 August 2020
- Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, 71, swam out to rescue the two stranded women
- The Portuguese president was in the Algarve for 2 days in a bid to boost tourism
- Footage shows the head of state, who underwent minor heart surgery last year, swimming out to help assist the pair whose canoe had capsized
National Joint Committee warns Ali Sabry
The National Joint Committee (NJC) wishes to convey its best wishes to his Excellency the President, and his Government elected with an overwhelming majority, in Parliament. We have utmost confidence that the Government would fulfill its pledge to remove numerous constitutional provisions introduced to the Constitution through many amendments that has plagued the structure of this state. It was reported in a lead news report that the Minister of Justice Hon. Ali Sabry is drafting the amendment he intends tabling before Parliament in mid-September, the contents of which we are unaware.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, devolution, electoral structures, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, power sharing, propaganda, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Richard Koenigsberg’s Succinct Summary of the Law of Sacrifice
Richard Koenigsberg: “The Proof of the Pudding is in the Dying”
- The desire to die and kill–in war, genocide, revolution and terrorism–grows out of attachment to an ideology conceived as absolute
- Dying and killing are undertaken with the purpose of validating an ideology (“proof of the pudding”).
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, heritage, historical interpretation, Hitler, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, meditations, nationalism, power politics, prabhakaran, religious nationalism, self-reflexivity, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry, Zen at war
