Gus Mathews
This is a very incisive interview with Tamara Kunanayakam, a former ambassador to the UNHRC in Geneva. In a no-nonsense manner she unravels why the pursuit of Sri Lanka by the Western nations is taking place.
Category Archives: accountability
World Travellers and Sri Lanka: Mapping, Trading, Incursions, Et Cetera
KD Paranavitana, “Then they came in search of the finest island,” in http://www.lankanisle.lk/then-they-came-in-search-of-the-finest-island/ …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Sri Lanka has long been the dream island of many travelers from the West who engaged in intrepid voyages looking for treasures in the East. Good many of them were lured by the aroma of spices, particularly found in the island. Tales of the Arabians are fraught with the wonders of ‘Serendib’ and the mariners of the Persian Gulf have left a record of their delight in reaching the calm haven, the island of Sri Lanka.
Filed under accountability, arab regimes
KD Paranavitana’s Felicitation Volume: A Treasure Trove
Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, paintings, power politics, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
A Restrained but Reconciliatory Feast at St. Anthony’s in Kachchativu in 2021
The Jaffna Divisional Secretary informed the public, well in advance, that St. Anthony’s Feast in the Kachchativu island had been cancelled this year due to the Covid- 19 pandemic. The decision was well understood by devotees of both Sri Lanka and India.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, communal relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, pilgrimages, Rajapaksa regime, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
A Koala Next Door
The Belair National Park is 150 yards from our door and the man-made Playford Lake another 150 yard s away, Every now and then a koala can be seen in its environs, but amateur snaps do not reveal them at thier finest or best.
Bugger! It is a video not a snap! Whata bloody amateur!
So: turn to professionals
Filed under accountability, landscape wondrous, performance, photography
Sustaining Memory as a Central Facet of Transitional Justice
Gehan Gunatilleke: “The Right to Memory: The Forgotten Facet of Transitional Justice* with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting — Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979)
Introduction
Memory does not explicitly feature among the four pillars of transitional justice: truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence. Hence the precise role memory plays within a transitional justice process is often left to those negotiating the contours of the process. Memory is a vital ingredient in ascertaining the truth and in securing evidence to ensure justice for victims and survivors. Moreover, memorialisation of loss has a place in the symbolic initiatives owed to victims and survivors under the reparations pillar. Meanwhile, public memorials commemorating man-made tragedies contribute towards a society’s collective commitment to non-recurrence. Thus memory often becomes the lifeblood that preserves and binds the traditional pillars of transitional justice.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, European history, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Reflections on Arjuna’s Review of the 1996 World Cup Triumph
Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph …. https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/reflections-on-arjunas-review-of-the-1996-world-cup-triumph/
Arjuna Ranatunga’s timely recollections and assessments of Sri Lanka’s cricketing triumph at the Final of the 1996 World Cup at Lahore on March 1996 add up to a master class – balanced, wide-ranging, revelatory and judicious within the space limits of a news-item.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, Australian culture, australian media, communal relations, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, ethnicity, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, world events & processes
GoMicro at the Cutting Edge via Sivam & Jarrad
Sivam Krish and Jarrad Law in cooperation with Flinders University
“By combining our skills in engineering, product design and software development we have realized some exciting possibilities across many disciplines. It has taken us into new areas where we have found collaborators whom we enjoy working with, opening new doors and new possibilities that we now believe can transform with AI and Phone Microscopy” — is the opening gambit in thier web site.
Ilse Weber: Two Lullabies
Tony Donaldson
Apropos of your item on Jewish lyrics and compositions from the depths of misery in Nazi concentration camps, I convey herewith two lullabies by the composer Ilse Weber who was sent with her family to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942. She worked as a nurse in the camp, wrote poems and songs, and performed her songs accompanying herself on the guitar. Here are two songs – a quiet moving lullaby called Wiegala, and the song Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt (I wandered through Theresienstadt). It is said that she sang the song Wiegala while facing her death. She died in Auschwitz in 1944.
Songs and Music from Auschwitz and Other Concentration Camps
Meagan Flynn, in Washington Post, 17 April 2018, where the title runs thus: “How thousands of songs composed in concentration camps are finding new life”
Ilse Weber 1903-1944
Ilse Weber, a Jewish poet, was imprisoned at the concentration camp at Terezin in German-occupied Czechoslovakia when she wrote a song called “When I Was Lying Down in Terezin’s Children’s Clinic.” The song was about caring for sick children at the camp where Weber worked as a nurse. She had little-to-no medicine available. But she had her poetry and her music — some of which her husband managed to salvage by hiding the written verses in a garden shed after her death at Auschwitz in 1944.
Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, ethnicity, Fascism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Hitler, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, martyrdom, meditations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, World War II
