Category Archives: charitable outreach

September 30, 2020 · 10:51 pm

From Galle Across Oceans: The Talented Joseph Family

An Introductory Note from Michael Roberts, 30 September 2020

This ramified tale begins with the wedding photograph sent to me my old playmate Adrienne Ranasinghe nee Conderlag displaying the elegant couple and entourage in front of the All Saints Church in the fort of Galle. This spark has set Joe Simpson, a Galle lover who taught at Richmond College for a while and is back in Canada now, off-and-running. He saw that the best man at the wedding was Louis Joseph and sent me an old article he had composed on the Joseph family. This essay is now adorning the Thuppahi web site as well.

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September 30, 2020 · 11:29 am

The Joseph Family of British Ceylon: Service to Mankind across the Oceans

Joe Simpson. reproducing his article in http://www.worldgenweb.org/lkawgw/sid.html

This dashing military-style portrait is of Sidney Percival Joseph (1873- 934) who was one of 15 children of Arthur Francis Joseph’s younger brother Eugene (1839-1915) and his wife, Georgiana Jemima (nee Ohlmus) (1848-1906). Sidney would thus have been a nephew of Arthur Francis Joseph (“AFJ”) and Eugenia, and a first cousin of Lawrence Joseph and his brothers. As the two cousins were almost exactly the same age, Sidney and Lawrence were probably childhood friends and remained so after Lawrence Joseph (later Joseph Lawrence) moved permanently to Scotland in the early 1890s.

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September 29, 2020 · 12:44 am

Dr RL Spittel: A Learned Man for the Väddās and the Wild

Richard Boyle. in Serendib, October 2013 where the title runs thus “Dr. R. L. Spittel: City Surgeon, Jungle Doctor, Wildlife Crusader”

In the late 1880s, a boy with the ambition to become a leading physician stood in a jungle clearing watching his surgeon-father perform an autopsy. From the undergrowth a member of the aboriginal people, the Veddahs, suddenly appeared. Their eyes met for one brief moment before the shy Veddah hastily withdrew. It was Richard Lionel Spittel’s first experience of a Veddah; an encounter that profoundly affected his life.

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September 25, 2020 · 1:53 pm

Sri Lankan Expressiveness: Warm Gratitude and Vicious Vituperation

Michael Roberts

I did not see the article that highlighted the manner in which the Tamil people of Vishvamadu feted and lamented the departure of the Sinhalese Military Commander of that arena, Ratnapriya Bandu, when it was originally placed in the public domain in late 2018. This striking presentation was the result of a combination between Shenali Waduge in Lanka and the SPUR organisation in Melbourne, an alliance that immediately indicates orientations laced with sentiments of a chauvinist Sinhala hue.

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September 20, 2020 · 3:02 pm

Scenic Sri Lanka –Stunning Journeys Aerial and Groundviews

ONE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDCMUCz1mOt6qfUbJg1H63-4atww&v=RevMG-PidNc&feature=emb_rel_end

Beautiful SRI LANKA – Travel World | 斯里兰卡國家之旅 4k

195,400 views
•Apr 2, 2019

Sri Lanka is an incredible Asian country. Let’s start from the capital Colombo and admire its amazing natural landscape and extraordinary cities from north to south, everyone will be shocked! This is the best destination for Sri Lanka travel guide and free travel, you can easily understand Sri Lanka and broaden your horizons. 斯里蘭卡是一個不可思議的亞洲國家。 我們從首都科倫坡開始，欣賞其令人驚嘆的自然景觀和從北到南的非凡城市，所有人都會為之震驚！ 這是斯里蘭卡旅游指南和自由旅行的最佳目的地，您可以輕鬆瞭解斯里蘭卡並開闊眼界。 ————————————— ♫Music By♫ AShamaluevMusic： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHsHR… Music Info: Motivational Uplifting – AShamaluevMusic. Music Link: https://youtu.be/obYRdW25gqA

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September 8, 2020 · 5:46 am

Outreach ECSAT: Aid for the Totally Impaired

Michael Roberts

There are children who cannot walk and are totally dependent on family and others. When such families are encased in poverty as working-class people, their lot is that much harder. ECSAT assists a few of these families in the locality of Galle Town. I joined Roshan and Kumari Kariyawasam on one of their outreach visits (with Roshan’s daughter Padani as company) one morning in August 2020.

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September 8, 2020 · 5:17 am

Introducing ECSAT and the World of Disabled People around Galle

Michael Roberts

 In late 2018 I met Roshan Samarawickrema at Flinders University via my daughter Maya who is a senior staff officer there. Roshan had arrived to further studies in Disability Teaching. Via the vagaries of the covid endemic both of us found ourselves in good old Lanka in the second quarter of the year. A visit to my home beat of Galle Fort[1] in July-August enabled me to explore and ‘experience’ the work of ECSAT at its HQ in the old “Serasinghe Walauwwa” building at Wackwella [albeit in covid circumstances whereby school attendance was drastically low]. My readings via picture and tale will follow. I begin here with Roshan’s introduction to ECSAT with due emphasis on the initial impetus provided by Catherine Liyanage (nee Mole become Macleod).[2] …. Michael Roberts

ECSAT staff in 2020

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September 8, 2020 · 5:13 am

Encountering and Experiencing ESCAT in August 2020

Michael Roberts

Apart from experiencing life in my old beats of Galle Fort when I sojourned there in late July-early August 2020, I took in the work at ECSAT. This was during an abnormal period when the handicapped personnel attending classes at the ECSAT centre in Wackwella, Galle, were miniscule because of the covid-pandemic and government regulations. My amateur photographs (some in other Thuppahi postings) will nevertheless provide readers with some sense of place, scale and personnel.

A teaching session (which happened to have as many teachers as students) displayed the practiced vigour and unison with which the teaching staff engaged the students with lessons via song. Elsewhere there were one-on-one teaching processes. I was particularly impressed by the totally engaged joy with which an autistic young man (a tinker by trade as I gathered) was pursuing his tasks at a table whenever I visited that arena.

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September 5, 2020 · 8:48 am

Treasures Big and Small around Galle Fort and Port

Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne,* in Island, 5 September 2020, where the title runs “From the tallest clock tower to smallest sand clock in Sri Lanka”

Galle is a fascinating place to work in. I was the Commander Southern Naval Area (Comsouth) from 3rd August 2008 to 10th August 2009. For me nothing was more refreshing than the early morning beach run on the world famous Unawatuna beach as well as the one-kilometer swim (before tourists invaded the beach).

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September 1, 2020 · 4:18 am

Jitto Arulampalam ‘s TBG Diagnostics at the Frontline inCovid TestKits

News Item in Ozlanka = http://www.ozlanka.com/2020/05/26/australias-tbg-diagnostics-headed-by-sl-entrepreneur-receives-ce-mark-for-covid-19-test-kits-looking-for-manufacturing-facility-in-sl/

TBG Diagnostics Limited (TDL), a global molecular diagnostics company, headed by Sri Lankan entrepreneur Jitto Arulampalam, announced that its subsidiary, TBG Biotechnology Corp, has received CE Mark approval for its COVID-19 Nucleic Acid and Antibody Rapid test kits.

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