Category Archives: charitable outreach

Surviving the Tsunami at Arugam Bay

Ani Naqvi, in The Telegraph, 26 December 2022, where the title runs asI was almost killed in the Boxing Day tsunami – and it gave me a reason to live” …. After being swept up in the tsunami of 2004, I battled survivor’s guilt and flashbacks to find new purpose” 

In 2004, my world was literally turned upside down. I was working as a journalist, had left a job at the BBC several years earlier, and was struggling with depression. The end of the year was looming, England was cold and dark, and I felt more than ever that I needed to get away.

So I booked myself a flight and headed for Sri Lanka, touching down – in a summer dress and peacock-blue flip-flops – on Christmas Eve, the warm air of the island enveloping me as I stepped out into a cacophony of taxi drivers jostling for my attention. Hot, busy and full of life, Sri Lanka is a place that overwhelms your senses. It was just what I needed.

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Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, nature's wonders, NGOs, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, world events & processes

Confronting Transgender Issues in Sri Lanka

Michael Patrick O’Leary, in The Island, 12 March 2023, where the title reads  “Time to Think Part One”

Transgender Issues in Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka’s first president, JR Jayewardene, famously boasted that the newly-created executive presidency gave him the power, “to do anything, except make a man a woman, or a woman a man”. Today, there is much conflict in many countries about making a man a woman or a woman a man. The issue recently contributed to the downfall of Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who had seemed unassailable. In Ireland, the government is under attack because the Equalities Minister, Roderic O’Gorman, has been siphoning money off to trans activist groups that had been earmarked for the Traveller and Roma communities, migrant integration and redress for children who had been abused by the state and the church. There are some who believe that if a man says he is woman – “self-identifies” as a woman – then he is, indeed, a woman. Wishing makes it so. Those who dispute this are labeled “transphobic” and are brutally attacked in the trans wars. JK Rowling has been vilified simply for saying a man cannot be a woman.

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Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, gender norms, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, world events & processes

Australia’s Policy towards Sri Lankan Refugee Migrants after the Civil War

Judith Betts & Claire Higgins: The Sri Lankan Civil War and Australia’s Migration Policy Response: A Historical Case Study with Contemporary Implications”  …. an article pubd on 16th May 2017 …. see https://doi.org/10.1002/app5.181 **

Abstract: Sri Lanka’s civil war lasted almost 26 years and cost tens of thousands of lives. Since the end of the war in 2009, several thousand asylum seekers from Sri Lanka have sought protection in Australia, but both Labor and Liberal/National Coalition governments have taken a restrictive approach to their arrival and have expressed support for the Sri Lankan government. This article explores Australia’s response to the protection needs of Sri Lankans during an earlier era, at the outbreak of the war in 1983, when a Labor government processed Tamils ‘in-country’ under Australia’s Special Humanitarian Program.

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Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, authoritarian regimes, charitable outreach, demography, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, Eelam, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, refugees, rehabilitation, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, transport and communications, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes

For Sri Lanka: February Newsletter from eLanka

eLanka Newsletter 8 February 2023 …. presented here by Thuppahi because eLanka is a patriotic cause located in Australia working for the island and all its peoples in their considerable variety.  eLanka also offers to deliver gift packs to residents or insitituions and charities in the island….. visit Elanka … newsletter@elanka.com.au>

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ECSAT’s Charitable Work with Disabled Children Secures Awards in 2022

The Annual Report for 2022 presented by ECSAT  ... with some of the photographs attached to this report & highlighting emphasis imposed by The  Editor, Thuppahi

An Award in 2022: The Programme Director Roshan Samarawickrama is seen receiving the award on behalf of ECSAT for The Best Skill Development Centre for Children with Disabilities in Sri Lanka from the State Minister of Primary Health Care Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle. After 16 years ECSAT received this recognition which added great value to the reputation of the organisation.

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Mack & Tessa’s Glorious Cinematic Pictures of Sri Lanka Today

Two Weeks in Sri Lanka | A Recent Cinematic Travel Video: 

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Volaare! Road Trains across Storm Waters in the Kimberley, West Australia

Paul Garvey, in The Australian Newpaper, 11 January 2023, where the title is “Road trains navigate inland sea to deliver vital supplies”

Extraordinary steps are being taken to ensure food and medical supplies make it into the communities cut off by floodwaters across Western Australia’s Kimberley region. Road trains have been photographed seemingly being driven over water as they made their way towards Broome with crucial food supplies.

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Filed under Australian culture, australian media, charitable outreach, economic processes, landscape wondrous, life stories, nature's wonders, performance, photography, self-reflexivity, transport and communications, world events & processes

St. Joseph’s College in Colombo: Its Early History

Following up on Till the Mountains Disappear, Dr. Srilal Fernando (Melbourne) and Avishka Mario Seneviratne have authored a new book Fruits of Virtue: An Early History of St. Joseph’s College.

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Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes

Striking Win by the Adelaide Strikers

Michael Roberts

I was privileged to witness a striking win by the ADELAIDE STRIKERS at Adelaide Oval on the 5th of January 2023, where the Australian world witnessed the highest ever run chase in its BBL history. The Hobart Hurricanes had batted first and muscled a massive total: all of 229 runs. When the 19th over commenced with Nathan Ellis given the ball, The Strikers needed 25 more runs then and at the 20th with Faheem Ashraf given the ball they needed 11 runs to tie and 12 to win.   

 

 

Matthew Short Celebrates winning hit

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Filed under accountability, Australian culture, australian media, charitable outreach, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, life stories, performance, photography, travelogue, unusual people

A Royal-Thomian Cricket Match Remembered Not Only for the Cricket

Hugh Karunanayake

                                               “Oft in the stilly night

                                                Ere slumber’s chains has bound me

                                                Fond memory brings the light

                                                Of other days around me

                                               The smiles, the tears,

                                               Of boyhood years”  

The Royal Thomian match of 1951 will for long be remembered for its nail-biting finish, and for the manner in which the Royal College team led by skipper T. Vairavanathan  extracted a victory from the jaws of defeat. It will certainly occupy a top position in the history of the series, the second oldest school cricket encounter in the world, (the first game being played in 1880).

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