Author Archives: thuppahi

About thuppahi

Sri Lankan and Australian nationality; student of Sri Lankan society and politics; sociology of cricket;
January 14, 2018 · 5:12 pm

Indo-Lanka Projects and Mangala’s Visit to new Delhi

Editor, News-in-Asia, 14 January 2017, where the title is Lankan Minister discusses implementation of Indian projects in meetings at New Delhi

Lankan Minister discusses implementation of Indian projects in meetings at New Delhi

New Delhi, January 14 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera on Saturday called on the Minister of External Affairs of India, Sushma Swaraj at the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan in New Delhi, and discussed issues relating to development cooperation between the two countries. Samaraweera also called on the Indian Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley and reviewed the present status of Indian aided projects in Sri Lanka. India would like Sri Lanka to speed up the implementation of the many projects which had been approved by the two sides.

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Filed under centre-periphery relations, foreign policy, governance, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, politIcal discourse, power politics, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, world events & processes

January 14, 2018 · 5:37 am

Revisiting the Story of the IDP Camps, 2009 et seq: ONE

Michael Roberts

As with Eelam War IV the Western media juggernaut, primed and fed by the extensive LTTE networks abroad, mounted an effective disinformation campaign on this topic. One illustration was when Jeremy Page of the BBC reported in June 2009 that 1400 persons were dying per week in the Manik Farm camps.

Coping with the influx of internal Tamil IDPS from late 2008 onwards was in fact a huge administrative and humanitarian problem with security implications. The task was faced by the Government of Sri Lanka and a collection of INGOS and NGOs with the support of monetary aid provided by the Western governments and UN agencies and with a Coordinating Committee chaired by Mahinda Samarasinghe keeping an eye on proceedings.

Annet Royce (standing) and Sewalanak Cooking team at Omanthai transit camp in mid-May 2009 preparing food packets for IDPS bussed in from war front on way to Manik Farm Camps Continue reading →

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January 12, 2018 · 12:05 pm

Rising! Rising! In Sydney. Vertical Families

Colin Lee, in The Indian Sun, 11 January 2018, with the title “The rise of the vertical families

A report by demography company McCrindle predicts that detached dwellings will be in the minority by 2024, citing trends over the past 25 years that show the share of detached homes in the major cities having fallen from 68% to 55%. Sydney’s once traditional standalone homes with a backyard will be outnumbered by apartments, townhouses and terrace houses within seven years—terrace /townhouses at 17%; detached houses at 34%, and apartments at 49%.

 Data shows that Sydney has a bigger proportion of apartments, terrace houses and townhouses than any other Australian state capital

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Filed under architects & architecture, Australian culture, australian media, economic processes, modernity & modernization, self-reflexivity, world events & processes

January 11, 2018 · 6:39 pm

Roundtable Investment Forum with Sovereign Wealth Funds in Colombo

Island Report, 11 January 2018

Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade opened a two day Roundtable Investment Forum with Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in Colombo yesterday under the patronage of the Prime Minister.

The Roundtable was an initiative by the minister following his visit to the Global Investment Forum in Dubai during November 2017 and is jointly hosted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Board of Investment. He met several of these Funds in Dubai and they were enthused by the potential of Sri Lanka as an investment destination. The fact that so many SWFs accepted the invitation to participate in the Roundtable at short notice was a validation of our nation’s value proposition and its increasing attractiveness due to the current economic policies under adoption, a press release said. Continue reading →

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Filed under accountability, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, modernity & modernization, performance, sri lankan society, world events & processes

January 11, 2018 · 6:25 pm

Media Faux Pas about Celebrity Mallika

DAWN Desk Report, 11 January 2018

Just how much can the media get wrong about the life of a celeb? According to Mallika Sherawat, just about everything. Yesterday, AFP reported that Mallika and her French husband Cyrille Auxenfans are being evicted from their apartment in a posh neighbourhood of Paris after having failed to pay its rent and other expenses, which now amount to a whopping 78,787 euros.

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January 7, 2018 · 5:00 am

Neville Weereratne passes Away after a Full Life

Vale in The Island, 7 January 2018

Neville Weereratne could be considered as a polymath; a person of wide knowledge or learning which included among other things literature, music, art and writing. It is in painting though that he is most known and revered.

Neville married Sybil Keyt on 6 June 1959.

  photo 2 by Dominic Sansoni

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January 5, 2018 · 5:18 pm

LTTE Financiers under Legal Gun in Switzerland … At Last!

News Item Times Online, 5 January 2018

Thirteen financiers accused of funnelling more than $15.3 million to the separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) will stand trial before a Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Monday, foreign media reported.  According to a report in Swissinfo the accused are from Switzerland, Germany and Sri Lanka. Some are former members of the World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC), which represented the LTTE in Switzerland until 2009, and include its founder, his deputy and the person in charge of finances. 

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Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, economic processes, Eelam, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, military expenditure, power politics, refugees, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

January 4, 2018 · 5:16 pm

Indian Aid is without Strings says Ambassador Sandhu

Editor, NewsInAsia, 4 January 2018, where the title runs  India’s only aim in Lanka is to cooperate and collaborate with it, says envoy Taranjit Singh Sandhu””

The Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, has said that India’s only agenda in Sri Lanka is to “cooperate and collaborate” with it, and that Indo-Lankan bilateral cooperation is all about “sharing and caring” and devoid of “caveats and riders”. Speaking here on Wednesday following the signing of an agreement by which Sri Lanka will purchase 209 state of the art ambulances with an Indian grant of US$ 15.02 million, the Indian envoy quoted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi  who said in July 2016 that India joins hands with its dear and near partner, Sri Lanka, to cooperate on projects, “based on Sri Lanka’s own choices and priorities for development.”

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Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, governance, Indian religions, island economy, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, suicide bombing, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

January 3, 2018 · 3:32 pm

Appreciating the Lake House Building

Ishara Jayawardane in conversation with Professor Manawadu, 3 Janaury 2018, where the title is

The physical presence of the Lake House building is enough to awaken a sense of awe in all those who behold it. The building commissioned by D.R. Wijewardena, is a white colossal monument that has dominated the landscape, housing some of the most revered newspapers in the world.

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January 3, 2018 · 1:58 pm

Celebrating DR Wijewardene and the DAILY NEWS

Lakdev Liyanagama, in Daily News, 3 January 2018, with the title A century’s fruition

The centenary that the Ceylon Daily News celebrates this year is also a hundred years where this newspaper, newspapers in Sri Lanka and indeed the media, in general, have metamorphosed several times over, serving different roles depending on the needs of the day.

“DR’–a classic photograph by Lionel Wendt

A hundred years ago, in 1917, the Ceylon Daily News was born when Don Richard Wijewardene (known as ‘DR’ to all), took ownership of The Ceylonese and re-christened it the Ceylon Daily News. Wijewardene was involved in the movement to gain Independence from Britain and was not shy to use his newspaper for that purpose. In that sense, the Ceylon Daily News had an enmeshed roe in the country’s politics from its very inception. Continue reading →

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Filed under cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power sharing, press freedom, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, world affairs