Michael Roberts
SYDNEY to ADELAIDE: Having been informed on Thursday night that I had no Covid and would receive CLEARANCE I proceeded to pack and on FRIDAY the 1st October confirmed my ticket booking to Adelaide that afternoon on JETSTAR [an airline which permitted extra luggage].
Michael Roberts
Preamble: I flew to Sydney in Australia on Sri Lankan Airlines UL 606 leaving Katunayake at 17.00 o’clock on Wednesday 16th September. The airport was depressingly empty. Only about 35 passengers were on the flight –undoubtedly due to Australian restrictions. Two were Aussie women and the rest looked dinky-die Sri Lankan.
Filed under accountability, coronavirus, cultural transmission, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
in DailyFT, 11 September 2020, with this title “Muslim prime movers in Parliament”
Muslims of Sri Lanka, after more than a millennium of integrated and peaceful coexistence, have become a hated, or to put it mildly, highly-suspected minority at least in the perception of ultra-Sinhala Buddhist supremacists, led by Bodu Bala Sena and a coterie such movements supported by influential political monks.
“It is a strange irony that it is from the hated Muslim community that a Minister of Justice has been picked before the election, brought to the Parliament through the back door and entrusted amidst opposition with the task of amending the Constitution to empower and disempower the President and Prime Minister respectively and simultaneously, all in the name of easing the path for developmen.” Continue reading
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Alan Gardner interviews Isa Guha, 29 August 2020 …………. ………. https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/29764563/isa-guha-there-young-girl-boy-there-see-tv-feel-do-similar
Having taken on the role of lead presenter for the BBC’s return to televised cricket coverage this summer, Isa Guha has spent the majority of the last two months in bio-secure environments, helping to bring England’s behind-closed-doors internationals to those following at home on TV and radio. Ahead of Sunday’s second men’s T20I between England and Pakistan, the first live game free-to-air on the BBC for 21 years, Guha discusses life in the bubble, her status as a role model and hopes for the women’s game in the UK.
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.
Shehan Sumanasekara, in Aviation Voice, 3 August 2020, with this title “June –July MRIA has Handled More Than 50 International Flight Movements”
Once tagged as the World’s Emptiest Airport; MRIA within months has been turned around with many passenger movements. Four years ago, a news article published in the Forbes magazine titled ‘The Story Behind the World’s Emptiest International Airport’ (May 28, 2016), elaborated how Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) was constructed and failed to position its self strategically. However, under His Excellency, the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s vision: ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’, and the government’s policy to develop international airports in Sri Lanka, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited under the able guidance of Major General (Rtd.) G. A. Chandrasiri developed its short, medium and long term strategies to promote the airport said Director (Operations) Mr. Shehan Sumanasekara Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd.
Kalani Kumarasinghe, in Daily Mirror, 9 July 2020, where the title is “Change? Let’s start from the Cabinet”
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Andrew Taylor & Tammy Mills, in Sydney Morning Herald, 11 July 2020, with this title
Australians living overseas have criticised the Morrison government’s decision to make it harder to return home, while forcing people to pay for two weeks in quarantine has been labelled as “almost cruel”.
Matthew Spence worked in the aviation industry in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, until he was made redundant on June 30. Mr Spence said flights from Malaysia to Sydney were sparse, and he was booked on the first available flight on July 18. “I am concerned that the intake cut will result in flight cancellations, further adding to the stress of Aussies trying to return,” Mr Spence said. “If you are an Australian citizen you have the expectation that you can always return home when you need to.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison ordered airlines to slash the number of flights and available seats to Australia from Monday to reduce the number of international arrivals in a bid to relieve pressure on hotel quarantine.
Michael Roberts
The covid pandemic has, as we know, decimated the travel and tourist trade since March all over the world. Hardly any foreign tourists have visited Sri Lanka since then and Bandaranaike Airport has hosted only a few airline arrivals and departures (e.g. Qatar Air) — other than SL Airlines’ mercy flights. In this arid climate John Keells are to be complimented on opening its premier line Trinco Blu hotel at Nilaveli to tourists from 26th June 2020. While such top-drawer hotels as Palm Beach Resort and Jungle Beach remain under lock and key in this stretch of coast, Trinco Blu and Anilana have opened their doors.
thuppahi
