Author Archives: thuppahi
Honouring Professor Ediriweera Sarachchandra
Miran Perera, in the Daily News, 16 August 2012
The 16th death anniversary of Prof Ediriweera Sarachchandra falls today, August 16, 2012. Professor Sarachchandra’s advent to our cultural scene occurred at a critical time of its development and it is very much similar to the socio-cultural background which prevailed at the time of Rabindranath Tagore’s emergence in India. A moment comes which comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment of Prof Sarachchandra’s death anniversary, we take the pledge of dedication to the service of Sri Lanka and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity. At the dawn of history, Sri Lanka started on her unending quest and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and grandeur of her success and her failures. Continue reading
Oluvil Harbour set for opening
Courtesy of the Daily News, 16 August 2012
The Oluvil Harbour will be commissioned by the end of this month, Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) sources said. Work on this harbour commenced in 2008 with funds from the Dutch government. The Danish government had provided 46 million euros for the harbour project. The harbour has been constructed as a twin harbour in a sea territory of 21 hectares in Akkaraipattu.
Around 600 fishing vessels can be anchored at the fisheries harbour. A cement factory and a fertiliser storage complex will also be constructed in the harbour premises in the future. Many investors have come forward to start several projects in the harbour area as well, sources said. SLPA sources said the Oluvil Harbour will add value to the fishing industry and bring export revenue to the country. The Oluvil Port will be the only port which will be a fisheries port in the country and create a hub for all international trawlers as a base to unload their fresh fish which will be processed for export for Japanese, Chinese and other Asian markets, they said.
Web Editor’s Comment: I passed this way in May 2010 and thought the growing hub would be important for Batti district. [alongside the bridging of seven rivers whihc has since connected batticaloa to Trinco]. In economic geography and political economy terms Oluvil will now be a “growth pole” or nodal development point — much like Hambantota, albeit ona smaller scale.
Swimming against the tide – Australia’s new asylum-seeker package
Michael Roberts, Courtesy of Groundviews, 15 August 2012**
Expert Panel –Pic by Alex Ellinghausen
Though launched with much fanfare and media acclaim, Australia’s new raft of proposals embodied in the Houston package to handle the surge in asylum-seekers is simply treading water and will get the country nowhere. The flow of migrants to Western countries by both legal and illegal paths has increased steadily over the years. The large pool of migrants then encourages kinfolk and friends to migrate through information, good-luck tales and remittances. Thus one has a snowballing process of increased migration.
Colour Pic from SMH
In brief, I assert that the main reason for the increased flow of illegal asylum-seekers is the impact of snowballing chain migration. It is an educated surmise on my part from anecdotal evidence from the Sri Lankan situation and my explorations of this topic in the recent past. Logically, this argument would apply to both the Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi migrant situations as well. Indeed, it is supported vividly by the opinions expressed in such a forthright manner today in The Australian by Ms Najeeba Wazefadost and Esmat Adine (25 yrs), both recent Hazara Afghan refugees who had secured entry earlier via Indonesia (Morton & Guest 2012). Continue reading
“Island of tears and fears” – says Hodge
Amanda Hodge, in The Australian, 15 August 2012
LIKE thousands of his countrymen, Palitha plunged deep into debt for a gruelling passage to a first-world job and the chance to buy land and a home for his family. A decade ago, a relatively paltry $2500 bought him a fake passport and a terrible 52-day boat journey from Sri Lanka’s west coast — not to Australia, but to Italy.”I went because of the economy. Everyone went to Italy then, but now Italy is closed so people go to Australia,” the 50-year-old Colombo-based driver tells The Australian.
Sivanesaraghan, left, with other failed asylum-seekers after their rescue by a French supertanker last month. Picture: Amanda Hodge Source: The Australian Continue reading
Filed under accountability, asylum-seekers, australian media, disparagement, historical interpretation, IDP camps, immigration, island economy, life stories, LTTE, people smugglers, politIcal discourse, propaganda, reconciliation, rehabilitation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, world events & processes
Oru Paanai or One Pot, reaches out to Sri Lanka and its north
Web Editor’s Preamble: there are numerous private organisations involved in welfare and philanthropy in Sri Lanka. Some have a reconciliation edge and seek to bring people of different communities together. Some reach across to the people of the north and east in response to the suffering and the underdevelopment that these regions experienced over the past 29 years. Through interaction with the old Thomian mohan Samarasinghe who lives in UK I was fortunate to gain the opportunity to visit Kalmunai and the east in May 2010 in the company of Jezima Ismail and her women’s empowerment NGO, known as the Muslim Women’s
Research and Action Forum (MWRAF). She hails from that region and we witnessed first-hand the activities that assist women to acquire income-earning skills. It was a pleasure to sit in a crowded lounge of a post-tsunami house and to watch Tamil women of mostly Christian background in Akkaraipattu display their sewing work (products for sale) as one aspect of this Muslim organisation’s endeavours.
I also gained some exposure to Mohan’s many welfare outreach endeavours in the course of our conversations, one in the east and several in other aprts of the island –all run from UK and involving regular visits to the island.
About the same time I came across Jeremy Liyanage, an old Trinitian mostly educated in Australia and was introduced to Diaspora Lanka. This effort will be featured soon; but one of its offshoots in sponsoring cricket in Mannar is now featured in http://cricketique.wordpress.com. It was this endeavour that led me to introduce Jeremy to some cricketing pals…. And so, in typical fashion, one thing led to another.
an Oru Paanai class under a tree
Or, rather, Jeremy met Skanda — Royalist, cricketer, cricket-administrator in years past and, above all, a Sri Lankan patriot of the moderate kind. And SO, I was led to Oru Paanai or One Pot, which is the brainchild of Drs. Dan Muthuvaloe and Nandhabalan in England. This reconciliation philanthropy is best introduced via Skanda’s private clarification to Jeremy, a Note from Dr. Dan Muthvaloe and some extracts from their official website. Continue reading
Nanda Godage, Envoy to Malaysia, recalled — an appalling act
From the New Straits Times, where the title is different: http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/sri-lanka-recalls-its-envoy-to-kl-1.124368
SRI Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia K. Godage has been recalled to Colombo after falling afoul of his External Affairs Ministry over a seemingly sympathetic ear to pro-Tamil Sri Lankan groups here. The 76-year-old veteran diplomat is expected to leave for home at the end of the month, just eight months after being called out of a 15-year retirement to be posted here. He has sent a strongly-worded letter of appeal to External Affairs Minister Prof G.L. Peiris, who is seen to be the prime mover behind his sacking by raising the matter with President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In his letter published on a blog called dbsjeyaraj.com, Godage said he “cannot quite believe it that you, of all people, had me ‘recalled’. Continue reading
Mohammed Farah STRIDES and STRIKES – for Muslims & for Multi-Culturalism in Britain … and the world
Michael Roberts, 12 August 2012
As Mohamed Farah was about to breast the tape as winner during the pulsating 5000-metres finish at the London Olympics, he gave thanks to Allah in Muslim fashion. Here then was a humble Somali Briton who had embraced his new country and gained from its openness, but one who remained attached to his heritage.
His victory was an unprecedented moment in world athletic history: no man had won the gruelling 10,000-metre and 5,000-metre races back to back at any Olympics. The momentous battle for victory over the last 150 metres of the 5,000 metres was a stirring moment in itself as IGuider of Morocco ran out of puff and faded but Gebremeskel of Ethiopia strode strong and looked set to overtake Mo farah who somehow found the reserves to maintain his loping stride and reach the tape a clear winner if two yards can be that. Continue reading
Rohan Gunaratna on people smuggling networks and migration impulses
Rohan Gunaratna in Q and A with Manjula Fernando, Sunday Observer, 12 August 2012
Q: You were the first to raise alarm bells of a secret ship loaded with hundreds of Lankan illegal immigrants heading to Canada from Thailand in 2009. After a couple of ships the flow of sea migrants to Canada stopped but Australia is facing a bigger issue now. Hundreds of people are arrested every month by the Sri Lankan Navy while trying to set sail. Nothing has proved successful so far in discouraging these perilous sea voyages. Why?
A: The LTTE operated MV Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea arrived in Canada with 76 and 492 Sri Lankans in 2009 and 2010. Launched from Thailand, both these ventures were organised by the LTTE leadership in Canada and the UK. The earned several million dollars from these two ventures. Since then the LTTE human smuggling networks operating out of Thailand have been disrupted by the Thai, Canadian and Australian authorities. The initial waves of human smuggling ventures were guided by the LTTE operatives in the West. Today, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan criminals are directing human smuggling ventures. With human smugglers charging Rs. 700,000 to Rs. 1.2 million, a boat with 50 passengers will generate US $ 500,000. Continue reading
Humanising International Relations amidst Realpolitik
Jayantha Dhanapala, in The Island, 7 August 2012 **
My subject has been given to me by the Fulbright Commission but I tweaked it by adding the bit about ‘Realpolitik’ because I do feel, as Chris Teal, the Chairman of the Fulbright Commission has told you, that the humanist aspect in international relations has gradually encroached upon realpolitik but the hard core of realpolitik remains there.
Let me begin by saying that 2012 appears to be the Year of Diamond Jubilees. We had the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen of England which has, of course, been highly publicised. We had the Diamond Jubilee of the University of Peradeniya where Tissa and I went to University and many of us have very nostalgic memories of that university and, of course, today we celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the Fulbright Commission in Sri Lanka. I have not been so academically gifted as to be a Fulbright grantee or recipient, but as a diplomatic representative of the Sri Lanka Government in Washington twice – as the First Secretary in the 70s and, subsequently, as an Ambassador in the 90s – I do recall the important role that the Fulbright Commission and Fulbright scholars, both Sri Lankan scholars in the U.S. and the U.S. scholars here, have played in enriching the U.S.–Sri Lanka relationship. Continue reading
