Sri Lanka’s southern port of Galle has become a hub in the fight against Somali pirates who threaten international merchant shipping, a report in a new magazine said. An increasing number of vessels are embarking and disembarking armed guards used for on board protection as they sail past Galle, located close to the main East-West shipping route 
across the Indian Ocean, Samuditha, a new magazine for entrepreneurs, reported. This opened up opportunities for companies providing supplies and services to shipping as well as ex-servicemen who make use of their combat experience to work as private security guards on merchant ships, it said. Continue reading
Author Archives: thuppahi
Rapprochement in South Africa: One pictorial illustration of a welcome process
Phangsio and Du Plessis celebrate the fall of a Kiwi wicket for South Africa —Pic courtesy of ESPNcricinfo
AP de Zoysa: Fascinating glimpses of a unique personality
Leelananda de Silva, reviewing Kumari Jayawardena’s biography of her father
For the common man, politics began only in 1931. In 1931, men and women over the age of 21 were given the right to vote for electing members to the new legislature – the State Council. 1931 should be seen as the year that liberated the common man from the oppression of centuries, whether it be under local authoritarian monarchies, Portuguese, Dutch or British rule. About this time, two new and distinct strands in politics and in intellectual life could also be discerned. A new class of English educated men was emerging, drawn from village backgrounds, of moderate affluence, Buddhist in religion, and imbued with Eastern and Western values. They were people like G.P. Malalasekara, Senerath Paranavithana, P. de S. Kularatne, Martin Wickramasinghe and many others of that ilk. Many of them came from the Southern seaboard. A.P. de Zoysa belonged to this category of intellectuals. Continue reading
A Meek People cannot inherit the Earth
Lilani Jayatilaka, in the Island 26 December 2012, where the title reads “The almost forgotten LLRC report and Sri Lankan psyche”
Some years ago while on a visit from abroad, my niece was entertained and perhaps a little shocked when she overheard comments broadcast over the loudspeaker from a nearby school. It was the day of their annual sports meet and a teacher, obviously short-tempered, screamed into the microphone at some hapless students, “Magay yakaawe aussande epaa”. When translated into English, “Don’t rouse the devil in me” it loses colour and pith but in its original Sinhala form, her words and tone of voice, packed quite a punch. Reading the newspapers today, I am reminded of the words of that teacher. It seems that it takes very little to raise the sleeping devil in the Sri Lankan psyche. Any hint of criticism directed at our fragile egos and we are ready and willing to take umbrage. Is this part of our Sri Lankan psyche? If so, it does us a disservice. Continue reading
BOB and GOTHA embrace cooperation on the high seas
I: “Visible links to terrorism by human smugglers” – Australian FM Sen. Bob Carr by Ranil Wijayapala
The visit of the Australian Foreign Minister, Senator Bob Carr, at a time Sri Lanka and Australia engaged in the massive task of controlling hundreds of boat people reaching Australia as illegal immigrants, provided a good forum for the two stakeholders to sit and discuss the matter at length, while laying a strong foundation to continue the relationship between the two countries as friendly nations in the future, Sri Lanka High Commissioner in Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe said. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, Australian culture, australian media, authoritarian regimes, economic processes, immigration, legal issues, life stories, people smugglers, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, Tamil migration, terrorism, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Reconciliation through trust and participation
Somapala Gunadheera, in The Island, 22/24 December 2012
Pare ca na vijananti
mayamettha yamamase
ye ca tattha vijananti
tato sammanti medhaga. …… (Antagonists do not realize that they must all die someday. The wise realize it and so end their quarrels.)
National reconciliation has attracted the attention of its stakeholders ever since Independence, though much headway has not been made in that direction up to now. Interest in the subject reached an unprecedented level with the physical unification of the country after the conquest of the LTTE. Much has been promised in the meantime but the ground situation does not appear to have improved that much. There is a vociferous debate on the level of reconciliation attained and the methods employed therefor. I do not wish to enter that fray. Naming and blaming begets emotion that can never be productive. What is proposed here is to look at the realities of the situation objectively and explore what could be done within current restraints, to bring the North and the South closer together, preventing the re -escalation of friction to unmanageable proportions. I look at the problem from first principles with no coloured spectacles on, in the background of my personal experience of working among Tamilians. Continue reading
Rainforest Ecolodge on edge of Sinharaja at Enselwatte
The Rainforest Eco-lodge, said to be a stunning chalet style lodge bordering the south-eastern side of the Sinharaja Rainforest, was launched this week providing an opportunity to the public to connect with the natural world and experience the forest habitat in all its glory. “Located on a 500-acre division of the Enselwatte Tea Estate, the lodge offers a spellbinding 360 degree view of the forest reserve, with the backdrop of the sounds of nature coming alive – be it the meandering of a stream, chirping of birds or the playful chattering of 
squirrels in the Continue reading
Filed under heritage, sri lankan society
Black and White. Reconciliation in Australia
Padraig Colman, courtesy of the Nation, 23 Dec 2012
In the Federal Parliament on 13 February 2008, PM Kevin Rudd delivered an official apology to the Stolen Generations. From 1909 to 1969, it was the official policy of the Australian Government to remove Indigenous children from their families. 100,000 children were taken from their families. The policy was similar to Nazi eugenics in that it was designed to “breed out” Indigenous people. Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were removed from their families on genuine welfare grounds, and some benefited from greater opportunities. However, stolen children were more likely to suffer from depression, have worse health and a shorter life span than other Indigenous people, and are more likely to be imprisoned than other Indigenous people. 50 percent of deaths investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were of Indigenous people who were removed from their families as children. Continue reading
